cesimpson

Earlier this week I wrote about the fax machine and how it took more than 100 years from invention to the ubiquitous office appliance we know today. While it might seem, without really understanding the history, that the first guy to buy a fax machine was particularly risky - in fact it was not a risky move at all. The first big players were corporations who looked upon the fax as long-distance communication infrastructure, invested, and charged others to use it.

The Apache Webserver

Another example of a piece of long-distance communication infrastructure is, of course, the internet. And with it, comes web servers - the most popular of which is the Apache http server. The Apache HTTP Server Project was started by eight guys who, each realizing the benefits of combining their efforts to minimize double-work, banded together to plan releases for the http server now known as Apache.

One might ask, how or why did these fellas hook up? How did they decide to contribute to the project (instead of simply writing their own)? And then, once it was built, what made the Apache server so much more popular than its competition?

It turns out, the initial Apache server was a simple addition of a few patches, by eight guys, to the most popular web server at the time, NCSA HTTPd. The Apache project didn’t (at least initially) create something new, but instead built upon the huge success of an already existing product.

This still doesn’t answer our questions, though. It simply pushes our questions back one more generation. Why was NCSA HTTPd so successful, and why did the developers decide it was in their best interest to share the code rather than keep it only for themselves.

The NCSA stands for National Center for Supercomputing Applications is a private/public partnership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is largely funded with federal and state funds. The NCSA was responsible for Telnet, one of the first graphical web browsers and, of course, the web server NCSA HTTPd we’ve been discussing. Because of the public/private nature of the partnership, and because of the significant public funding, everything the NCSA produced is available to the public for “free”. (Free = paid for with tax dollars).

That is the reason the NCSA HTTPd server was open source in the first place, and, because of the free (like speech and like beer) nature of the product, it was a huge success. It was on the back of that giant that the Apache HTTPd Project built its success.

So, one other way to convince a group of people to act in a way that may not seem initially beneficial to any one individual would be to convince a bureaucrat to get behind the effort and fund it with tax dollars.

Wednesday Workout

Wednesday, as my grandmother would say, “was a doozy”. It started out cool and dry with a slight breeze. It ended in a serious thunderstorm downpour.

Warm Up

10x High Steps

10x Butt Kicks

10x Walking Lunges

10x Scapular Push Ups

10x (ea. leg) 1-leg Glute Bridge

10x Spiderman Walk

Those Burpees Suck (a variation)

400m Run

10x KB Swing @ 24kg KB

20x KB Snatch @ 24kg KB

30x 3-stair hop

40x Push Up

50x Sit Ups (feet anchored w/ KB)

60x Burpee

10x KB Swing

400m Run

The Finale

400m Lunge

The rain started, just barely, as we began our lunges - the very lightest of sprinkles from the sky. The rain became a real “rain” about 1/3 finished, and became a serious thunderstorm downpour with about 100m to go.

My ass is still sore today.

Today

Bench Press & Chin Ups

5x Press @ 110#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

5x Press @ 135#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

5x Press @ 160#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

5x Press @ 180#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

10x Press @ 205#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

Squats

5x Squat @ 155#

5x Squat @ 190#

5x Squat @ 225#

5x Squat @ 260#

9x Squat @ 295#

5x Assistance Exercises

10x Squat @ 185#

5x Chin Ups @ BW

10x Weighted Dips @ BW+50#