Simplicity is Under-rated

Consider this. A letter that never gets replied to, a phone call with only one person talking, the carrier pigeon that only delivers messages but doesn't have it in his job description to bring home a response... how frustrating for the sender! Well, good news readers, File Transfer Protocol is here.

I like FTP's arrogance. It doesn't deliver it's information per se, it's more self assured, it knows it is "the best example of how the Internet enables files to be sent to and from clients". You want to find something, you come to me.. A little like Morgan Freemans character "Red" in Shawshank Redemption, "I'm the guy who knows how to get things." Yes, we can send AND recieve things, just so long as you know where to look, and who to ask.

I apologise for going off on a tangent here, but the above was saved as a draft yesterday and things have changed a bit.

It's 3:30am, my 3 year son is asleep next to me cuddling his Hot Wheels case (his choice of cuddle toy) with 40+ cars inside when he rolls over and the case hits the floor. His cars are scattered all over the place, and the sound of a 40 car pile up on my bedroom floor has me jumping out of bed before I have properly woken up. I'm so startled, that at 3:45am, when the hazmat team has cleared up the carnage of the crash, and I am climbing back into bed with the case once again fully stocked and I can't get back to sleep.

I know this Internet thing has gotten into my head, because as I lay there in the dark, eyes closed, my thoughts drift to Telnet and FTP. I remember something I had read weeks earlier with regard to Telnet, FTP and an email system being the first Internet uses. Is it really that obvious I wonder. Is it that simple? I have been thinking of so many angles with which to approach this idea of "concepts", and it now (at 4am) feels like I have been trying too hard.

Perhaps I have made a mountain out of a molehill. Is it really as simple as Telnet was invented because it performs the function of contacting other terminals and passing on information? Followed by FTP, which was concieved because of the need to retrieve files, allowing a "two-way street"? The email application, which was very popular, was to allow the professors and military to be able to talk to one another about their work... This was a lightbulb moment for me. I'm not sure if its correct, but it absolutely laid to rest some confusing thoughts I have had recently when thinking about Module 1. With that sorted (in my mind), I fell into a deep sleep... only to be woken at 5:30am by Master 3 who was now, upon waking, playing car races on the bed.