Chicago) to help fix the economy, they would recommend “ free market ” policies that resemble in some ways the libertarian economic ethos of some aspects of Silicon Valley culture, where cutting-edge information networks are now hatched.
- The biological metaphor is important for a diverse range of social-theoretical perspectives. These range from Emile Durkheim ’ s cultural integration, to Fascist nationalist organicism, to Edward O. Wilson ’ s sociobiology, to Talcott Parsons ’ s structural-functionalism and Niklas Luhmann ’ s systems theory to Donna Haraway ’ s cyborg feminism and Giorgio Agamben ’ s biopolitics, and so on.
- See T-Engine Forum, http://www.t-engine.org/; TRONweb, http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/ itron.html; “ Japan ’ s Homegrown Operating System TRON Competes for the Info-Appliance Market, ” Trends in Japan, May 22, 2003, http://web-japan.org/trends/science/sci030522.html.
- Jan Krikke, “ The Most Popular Operating System in the World, ” Linux Insider, October 3,
2003, http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/31855.html.
- “ Asking the Project Leader: Where’s TRON Headed in the Future? ” 1996, http://tronweb .super-nova.co.jp/sakamurainterview\_tw42.html. Images of TRON diagrams can be found most easily on Wikipedia, but are also on this book ’ s companion website, thestack.org. See http:// tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/tronlogo.html; http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/homepage.html; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRON\_Project.
- As discussed, the four-layer TCP/IP “ won, ” but for purposes of explication, the open systems interconnection (OSI) seven-layer model provides a more detailed profile. As indicated, the OSI model is a standardized subdivision of component zones and functions of information networks into logical discrete layers, each of which provides specific “ services ” to the layer just beneath in the stack and receives services from the layer just above it. In this, it is a classic tiered stack architecture, both as a functional distributed machine and its abstract model, and worth some detail. At the base of the OSI stack is the physical layer of copper wire, electronic switches, antennas, or other hardware. Above this in the OSI model is the data-link layer, which transmits information directly between two networked entities and corrects for errors at the physical layer level. The Ethernet port and cable on your computer are examples. The network layer addresses individual senders and receivers of messages. Your IP address is a network layer protocol, as is the border gateway protocol. One level above this, the transport layer polices byte traffic, flow, and reliability and delivers it safe to the right application process. For example, TCP (transmission control protocol) is used for HTTP. Above this, the session layer manages the opening and closing sessions between end user applications and keeping different data streams in proper sync. The presentation layer above is responsible for translating information between the application layer above it, the one you and I interact with most directly, and the session layer and other network layers below. The renderings of ASCII text or XML data into and from binary strings are examples. That application layer contains a multitude of protocols, interfaces, and application programming interfaces that allow end users, you and me, to query and access network resources as if they were part of our local system. “ Above ” these “ base ” seven layers are individual operating systems — applications like browsers, image editors, word processors, and so forth that, to the extent that each is pulling information from the network beneath it and pushing information toward it, are themselves interfaces with and into the strata of network depths, and as visual, imagistic interfaces, they are diagrams of what these networks do.
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