If I have been able to see further than others, It is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. - Sir Isaac Newton

It's not that this is some startling revelation... but I think we should step back and think about how we got where we are sometimes. When I hit "Post Changes", how many millions of person-hours will I benefit from?

(If you know enough to consider the question, draw the "technology tree" sometime that has everything necessary to create a web browser and a network to use it on. Don't forget the routers, the concept of a Turing machine, compilers, hardware, time to learn how to optimize the hardware, AND gates, OR gates, XOR gates, pipelines, caching, hard drives, RAM, fiber optics, modems/network, protocols, standarization, display technology, the science behind all of this stuff, input technology, time to test the technology, the list just goes on.

My guess would be that the web-page view would be at least an order of magnitude greater, if not two or three. A bold claim, and I can't back it up. But who knows?

Wrong. The egalitarianism rests on no such assumption, it results from the empowerment of everybody with a voice that anyone can hear.

The Wired Word: (a là array) "The egalitarianism of the Internet is appealing, but it rests on an untenable assumption: not merely that all of us are created equal, but that all of us are equally meritorious and interesting. Thus we have news Web sites in which the opinions of readers are solicited ("What's Your View?") and displayed in a format that gives equal weight to the informed and the ignorant; at last count Washingtonpost.

Now... back to my Mozart...

And I can't resist... "Metallica's Lars Ulrich said in a statement, '[It's] sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is.'" Nah, I think 'commodity' sounds about right.

It's been a trend this past two weeks; hold the network providers responsible for content.

BetaNews - Metallica Sues Napster, Universities, Fans: (another hit for "array"... I like this article better then the mainstream outlets) "This will be the first time a band has directly filed suit against Napster, and the first time universities have been sued for allowing students to trade MP3s. The case will set a precedent for what legal action can be taken against the spread of digital music. "