User:Laurier Rochon/readingnotes/galloway1/

Alexander Galloway > Physical Media (Introduction)

Notes & quotes

In his introductory text, Galloway lauds the virtues of distributed networks over centralized and decentralized networks. In a semi-abstract, semi-technical exposé, he dissects the functing of the different layers of what we now know as the modern internet. Offering different examples to illustrate the complex operatinos required to pass data over from the hardware to a screen, he is somewhat successful in demonstrating the 'rhyzome-like' quality of the network, which makes it bulletproof against centralized, focused attacks.

1. Distribution = not horizontal, not vertical, rather it is an algorithm
2. Centralized = main node passing down commands/orders down the stack
3. Decentralized = many centralized nodes together
4. Distributed = broad network of autonomous agents. The shift occuring from global to local applications can be compared to the move from linear programming to object-oriented programming. This is a result of the process of postmodernization.
5. Analogy of the rhyzome - some points : it connects to any other point, it is composed of dimensions and not units (?), it has short-term memory and no central automation.
6. Bottom-top layers of the Internet : Link layer [Local Network Protocol] (hardware) > Internet layer [Internet Protocol & ICMP] (movement of data from a place to another) > Transport layer [TCP, UDP] (data traveling arrives correctly) > Application layer [Telnet, FTP, clients] (holds the actual data)
7. 'The ultimate goal of the Internet protocols is totality.'
8. TCP 3-way handshake = A -- synchronyze? --> B | B -- Acknowledge & Synchronyze? --> A | A -- Acknowledge --> B
9. 'A system of robustness is achieved by following a general principle : Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others'.
10. IP = like the engine of the car - it has no knowledge of when to speed up, stop, etc. It cannot see light colors or other indications. IP is responsible for fragmenting the data into packets, and routing it.
11. Once data is fragmented, it hops through the system from server to server. (traceroute on BASH!)
12. Header = necessary for refragmenting the packets
13. DNS = Domain Name System. Responsible for translating Internet addresses from names to numbers
14. DNS used to be hosted on one single computer text file (HOSTS.TXT) in Menlo Park (Cali.) until 1984
15. DNS works like an inverted tree. Ex : .root > domain extension > domain (main) name > subdomain
16. 'Protocol is based on a contradition between two opposing machinic technologies : One radically distributes control into autonomous locales (TCP/IP) and the other focuses control into rigidly defined hierarchies (DNS).'
17. 'DNS is the most heroic of human projects; it is the actual construction of a single, exhaustive index for all things'
18. 'Protocological analysis must focus on the possible and the impossible, not a demystification of some inner meaning or 'rational kernel