by Ethan Johnson
April 10, 2006
Oil prices rose again today, which means I'll soon be thinking about how good I had it when gas was $2.75 a gallon. Yes, I know that gas prices are higher elsewhere nationally if not globally, but I admit to being spoiled by low prices at the pump. Despite being a fungible commodity (ya'd think), it's becoming clear that oil prices aren't going back to $19 USD per barrel ever again, or it won't be until after 2008, hint hint.
The rumors about the now confirmed rise in oil prices got me thinking about Linux, the idea of Linux, and what other areas of my life it might be applied to. I don't mean in geeky terms of what electronic thingy I can use with Linux. First, some background:
Linux is a computer operating system (like Microsoft Windows™, for instance) that shares its source code will all comers, which means that anyone and everyone can hack together a Linux-based operating system to suit their needs or wants. Some versions of Linux are geared towards business use, while others are focused on multimedia, gaming, or just generic desktop environments. As a result, some are for sale, and others are totally free. In short, you can always get Linux somehow, and if you're geeky enough, you can make your own if nobody else's interpretation works for you. Even better, if new programs are released as part of one version of Linux, it is usually possible to load them into whatever version you are using without any fuss. Try that with Windows and Mac programs on each other's native OS.
At root, Linux puts the "fun" in "fungible".
I bring this up because using Linux means not caring what sort of hoo-hah Microsoft and Apple engage in, because it doesn't apply to me. Raise your prices all you want, trade out microprocessors, drop support for whatever version of your OS, I don't care. I'm more into pragmatism than style.
And it is that pragmatism that leads me to wonder how else I can apply the fungibility of Linux to other areas of my life. If it can be done, I would like to apply it to two things: Commercial energy, and telecommunications/internet.
In this utopian fantasy-land, our house would be completely "off the grid". Considering where we live, that can't completely happen, depending on what is being lumped into "the grid". For example, we will always be reliant on the city for water and sewer services. A personal well and septic tank is not an option. But after an annoying 3-hour power outage this weekend, my mental gears started turning and I thought about how great it would have been to not be affected by the outage whatsoever. Solar could provide that alternative, although our homeowners' association is pretty conservative and probably has some rule against it, because it saves you, the homeowner, money.
Internet and telecom is the other hurdle. There are complaints about the phone companies conspiring to take away "net neutrality" and charge all sorts of fees for different access speeds and so forth across the internet. In other words, fundamentally misunderstanding the thing that they helped build in the first place.
My solution, if it can be called that, is community wi-fi. Not municipal, because that doesn't do away with the net neutrality issue, and not everyone can take advantage of municipal wi-fi. That would be great if we all were packed up like sardines in major cities and didn't live anywhere else. Satellite internet is a possibility as well but it is expensive, and doesn't jive with the "Linuxed" approach I am considering.
No, in this new model, hardware makers win and ISPs lose. In a nutshell, we connect hardware in such a way as to do an electronic version of "hands across America" and network ourselves. For us, by us, no regulations ever, ISPs don't make any money, and people can focus on the use of the Community Internet instead of getting jacked for ISP costs left and right.
Unfortunately, Hands Across America didn't quite work when it happened, because 3,000 miles is a lot to bridge together in 5-foot increments. Wi-Fi covers a wider area than 5 feet, but there are rural expanses where it's just not practical. Which means bridging East and West would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
A more modest idea would be a more localized community network. In urban and suburban areas, it might be possible to use Wi-Fi and cabled networking to create an overlay network that is independent of the commercial internet. The purpose of this network would have to be mulled over as the commercial internet pretty much works as is, but I like the idea of this community intranet where local news and alerts can be shared without being beholden to the phone companies and so forth. I'll have to think this over some more.
Anyway, the fact is that it is easy to get complacent with the status quo and complain when prices rise or laws get proposed and passed that favor various industries and screw everyone else. I believe that we are living in a time where we have been handed the tools to re-shape the world and reduce or remove the stranglehold on different markets that we previously had no choice but to accept.
It is a popular political refrain to urge the reduction of dependence on "foreign oil", which is a crock. Oil is fungible, so to target a specific region (such as the Middle East) to cut out of the loop is wholly unrealistic so long as oil is still being consumed. How about NO dependence on ANY oil? That's what I'm talking about. But how can we get there? <EM>
