Re: [xanadu] flecks ?????

[____Textpert Alert____ <ianf@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 00-09-02 17:40 -0400 sez Jack Seay:

> "Flecks" is a shorter word than "nanobucks". Snapier, too. 
> Maybe he's onto something. I think it is marketable. Better 
> than beanz or flooz.

  Yeah, but what about its etymology, where did it come from?
  [btw. latest attempt at a viable net.currency is "Mojo",
  clearly a slang word, see http://www.mojonation.net/ ]


> But really, Paypal is hardly a transparent payment system for 
> reading large numbers of copyrighted materials. And where are 
> the transclusions and versioning? I'm betting on Xanadu for 
> the long run, especially for digital material.

  Nolo contendere to first sentence. As for the second:
  nowhere and probably staying that way. Don't bet on the
  third, it's a beautiful, logick idea, but crippled by its
  requirement of a proprietary network. The experience of
  past ten years' chaotic, multifaceted, multithreaded,
  multistandard and, most important, _multiplayer_ WWW
  development tells us all that the Xanadu was a beautiful
  dream, too perfect and singularly integrated for its
  own good.

  Xanadu had its moment _before_ the emergence of the WWW,
  and for a while, after being acquired by AutoDesk, Inc.
  in 1990?, it looked like it had a shot at it. But it
  never realized that potential, and now it's long past
  its sell-by date. Maybe, in a couple decades, when the
  Internet is truly global and mature, the enfiladas have
  been ironed out, and a new digital-access paradigm shift
  is approaching, maybe then... but not otherwise.


__Ian