Zevon Song of the Week #3
haro...@yahoo.ca
Networking
Before I discuss the song, here are a few facts from the wonderful,
wild, and wacky world of I.T.:
- Bit is a term coined from "binary digit".
- A bit can have a value of 0 or 1 in the binary system, which has only
two numbers (0-1) just as our decimal system has ten numbers (0-9). The
hexadecimal system has 16 digits, 0-9 and letters A-F, and is a more
compact way of expressing binary.
- There are 8 bits in a byte (a term invented to describe 8 bits).
- Dell has taken a hit recently on the stock market. There seems to be
no room for profits anymore in computer hardware.
- The current units of measure for RAM (your PC's volatile memory) and
hard drive space are nanoseconds (billionths of a second) and gigabytes
(billions of bytes) respectively. There are very few other fields of
endeavour, if any, that have such a vast scope of measurement. Pretty
soon we'll all have PCs measuring in the trillionths and trillions -
picoseconds for RAM, terabytes for hard drives.
- The addressing scheme for the Internet is based on a 32-bit TCP/IP
address expressed as four decimal octets, e.g. 164.15.23.134. Even
though this scheme has a theoretical capacity of a few billion
addresses, for various reasons we have long run out of available ones
and are awaiting IP Version 6, which will quadruple the address space
to 128 bits, enough to assign an address to every grain of sand on the
planet (and then some). Unfortunately, an IP address in the new version
will look something like this: A1-00-56-B7-55-04-F5-78. Enjoy!
- Programmers are different from ordinary human beings. I was once a
programmer. HTH.
- The Internet has been around for a long time, since the '60s. It
began life as a bunch of networked mainframes in the U.S. designed to
provide fault tolerance in case of an attack from the Soviet Union.
Both mainframes and the Soviets are pretty much history today. The
so-called world wide web (WWW) came about in the early '90s, and is
generally credited to the vision of a Brit named Tim Berners-Lee, who
is now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
- The big app that drove the PC's growth in the early '80s was the
spreadsheet. The first popular spreadsheet in business was VisiCalc -
it was a pig.
- Microsoft was a small company with a few employees and might have
stayed that way if IBM had any vision. By 1980, though, Big Blue had
grown fat and complacent, and its leaders thought personal computers
were a quaint idea that would go nowhere. So instead of writing its own
operating system for the IBM PC, IBM let Gates and company do it
(Microsoft actually bought another company's OS and modified it), and
also allowed him to do it on a per-PC sold basis (his idea) instead of
a flat fee. The rest is history. Gates had the vision and reaped the
rewards.
- In the late '80s, Microsoft Office was just starting out. The best
selling apps were WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and dBase. Microsoft's
Office product achieved dominance by combining all the apps into a
single product with the same interface. I still miss WP 5.1, however.
- With today's browsers, you can access any .com site by simply typing
the desired name, e.g., Microsoft, and then pressing the Ctrl and Enter
keys at the same time. For example, typing in warrenzevon in the
browser's address line and then pressing Ctrl and Enter will generate
http://www.warrenzevon.com. This won't work for other suffixes, e.g.
.org.
- Pornography is the biggest money-maker on the Web.
- Computer games have driven advances in chip speed and video graphic
card quality.
- When I was in high school, typing class was for aspiring secretaries
and non-academic males who wanted to spend a lot of time with aspiring
secretaries. Although I was definitely in the latter group, I did not
take the class. Today, all kids take typing class. I'm a two-finger
typist but with practice have worked up to 50 words a minute or so.
- ACronyms, which everyone hates except those few who understand them,
are as prominent in the I.T. field as perhaps any other. Sometimes,
they can lead to a hearty knee-slapper - take PCMCIA, the term for a
laptop expansion card (today known as a PC card); it's sometimes
explained as People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.
- I often face issues on my home machines that require all my training
and experience to solve. I sometimes wonder how ordinary folks, i.e.,
you guys, figure it out. Perhaps you call your friendly help desk
technician in Bangalore.
- Why did I write all this stuff? BIFFLI - Because I felt like it.
NOTTZS - Now on to the Zevon song.
Networking was co-written by Warren and a fellow named Stefan Arngrim,
about whom I know nothing. I'm going to assume that Mr. Arngrim wrote
the lyrics and Warren the music, although I could be wrong about that.
One thing I can attest is that the song is technologically astute. It's
clever, in a good way.
Along with Run Straight Down and the title track, Networking is a
technically-oriented song designed to fit the cyberpunk concept Warren
had in mind for the Transverse City album (he was rumoured to have been
influenced by science fiction writer William Gibson). Some of the
references in Networking seem a little dated now, e.g., the BASIC
language (an acronym for
Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, which I programmed
with in the late '70s but is virtually dead today).
Am I the only one who hears "upload you" and "download me" and imputes
some sly Zevonian sexual innuendos at work?
You gotta love Warren just for having the guts to pose for the cover of
TC with that hair. Wild, man.
An acoustic demo of Networking was added as a bonus track to the
reissue of TC a few years ago. I prefer the original studio version,
with Waddy on guitar, Benmont Tench (great name) on organ, Warren on
keyboard, Howie Epstein on banjo and mandolin, Jorge on bass, and
Richie Hayward on drums. Jorge also sang harmony. The best Zevon IMO is
Warren backed by musicians of this caliber.
Networking is another upbeat Zevon composition, guaranteed to raise
your mood if you allow it to. It's funny, the beat is catchy, and
Warren sings it with gusto. The song installs with ease.
Paul Herzberg
haro...@yahoo.ca says...
> Zevon Song of the Week #3
>
> Networking
> references in Networking seem a little dated now, e.g., the BASIC
> language (an acronym for
> Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, which I programmed
> with in the late '70s but is virtually dead today).
If only that were true... I'm still using Visual Basic in a professional
environment today.
> Am I the only one who hears "upload you" and "download me" and imputes
> some sly Zevonian sexual innuendos at work?
I don't know about sly but definitely sexual. Especially as he talks
about being installed with ease and being user-friendly before that.
Computer digression: Bill Gates, of all people, is attributed with
saying:
"Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more
user-friendly... Their best approach, so far, has been to take all the
old brochures, and stamp the words user-friendly on the cover."
> Networking is another upbeat Zevon composition, guaranteed to raise
> your mood if you allow it to. It's funny, the beat is catchy, and
> Warren sings it with gusto. The song installs with ease.
I like this song, but part of me wonders if it's just because I was a
computer science student when I first heard it and I'm not sure if it
doesn't slip into being slightly too clever for it's own good. It also
seems just a little bit throw-away for Zevon, but then again I do like
some of his frothier stuff and it's always good to have a song where the
humour isn't so dark.
BTW A Google shows Stefan Arngrim to be an actor with muscial interests
http://www.actordatabase.com/stefanarngrim/
Cheers
Paul Herzberg
Valerie Brock
> technically-oriented song designed to fit the cyberpunk concept Warren
> had in mind for the Transverse City album (he was rumoured to have been
> influenced by science fiction writer William Gibson).
Not just a rumor. I am certain that I read in an interview that TC was
influenced by Necromancer.
Sandy S
"Valerie Brock" <valeri...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:0h7ag.63877$Fs1....@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Not just a rumor. I am certain that I read in an interview that TC was
> influenced by Necromancer.
>
Close, but it's Neuromancer. Once upon a time I worked at a book store but I
did actually read it, too ;-)
Sandy S
<haro...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1147672207.0...@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Zevon Song of the Week #3
>
> Networking
> - A bit can have a value of 0 or 1 in the binary system, which has only
> two numbers (0-1) just as our decimal system has ten numbers (0-9). The
> hexadecimal system has 16 digits, 0-9 and letters A-F, and is a more
> compact way of expressing binary.
> - There are 8 bits in a byte (a term invented to describe 8 bits).
What, no octal? I learned that all for nothing???
Howard Roseman
>
There's no such thing. Learning is always good, except sometimes when you
learn the truth about things. That's often more pain than it's worth.
Octal never really caught on. Control Data used it on their mainframes 30
years ago but IBM and all the other manufacturers used hex.
Doug
Augustus S. Owlsley
Doug
Jim R
>
> Networking
>
>
>
I also like the aspect of social networking and enjoy the intro where you
can hear everyone talking in the background; particularly since it
immediately follows a song where he sings that he don't need no one.
Great song.
Jim
d...@nospam.com
Great book. We should be there in about 20 years.
Howard Roseman
> can hear everyone talking in the background; particularly since it
> immediately follows a song where he sings that he don't need no one.
>
> Great song.
>
> Jim
>
Thanks for mentioning that. My geek side got so intoxicated I forgot all
about the song's other aspect.
The thing about Networking and Splendid isolation is that, unlike the love
gone wrong songs, it's hard to figure out what Warren's point of view is. He
disappears into the songs.
RattInnaCage
news:vtdag.166871$P01.48474@pd7tw3no:
I do believe that ENIAC, EDSAC, EDVAC, (just got to love those
old Acronyms)and of course Great Britains Goliath all were
Octal based, but base 8 gave way to base 16 about the time that
wire wrapped core gave way to transistors.
ANd while we're at it, how do you feel about the big mainframe
EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) vs ASCII
(American National Standard Code for Information Interchange)
brou-ha-ha . **NOW** we're talking Geek baby!
d...@nospam.com
Always a pain in ass to convert from EBCDIC to a PC format. Long live
RS6000 or whatever IBM calls it now. I am no longer in IT, thank god.
For those that miss octal, just count with your fingers (no thumbs).
cc
>Zevon Song of the Week #3
>
>Networking
>
I love how he introduces this song on one of the boots from the tour with
Timothy B. Schmidt--was that '88, a year or so before the album's release?
He tells the crowd, maybe in Milwaukee, that they cut a version of this
next, brand-new song over at Paisley Park. He pseudo-casually intones the
name of Prince's studio... name-dropping is such a network-y thing to do.
But he's so ironic about it, just an LA thing. It's sort of like how he
would introduce "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" with a sly reference to
springsteen.
Doug
"networking" being an especially obnoxious word expressing
socializing as something just now invented by Yuppie Scum.
Of those of you who miss Octal, I have good word that there are
still native Texan Ocelots living in a condo near Brownsville.
Of course, they don't socialize much with Osama bin Laden as his'
condo is up in Port Aransas.
Doug
Howard Roseman
> EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) vs ASCII
> (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange)
> brou-ha-ha . **NOW** we're talking Geek baby!
Those coding systems exclude languages with more than 256 characters, such
as Chinese. It's Unicode now, baby!