Corruption of LOL

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6169488.ece

There are so many things wrong with this “research,” it’s hard to know where to start.

The short version: this is not true, not in the slightest. The so-called “experts” who wrote this are misinformed (read: stupid) to the point of it becoming comedic.

If you’re not so technically inclined as to understand why this is not at all true, or even possible for that matter, I’ll try to explain:

First off, there is not one internet that just feeds us everything that we see on our computers. The internet is more of a concept of a bunch of computers and servers all linked together so as to be accessible remotely. “Bandwidth” refers to how much and how fast data can be sent from one computer to another. This bandwidth therefore varies from place to place. Billy Joe out in the middle of nowhere might not have as much bandwidth available to him as his cousin living in the heart of Manhattan—it simply depends on what your ISP decides to offer to you and its other customers in your area. If course then there is also the bandwidth from the actual server to your ISP, and anyone else in between, but that’s all water under the bridge.

Essentially what the article states is that data-intensive websites such as Youtube will suck up all the bandwidth of the internet. The only problem with that idea is that there is not a single pool of bandwidth that everybody draws from. It is all mostly independent. If Youtube is overused, Youtube will become slower until it is upgraded. If your neighborhood’s bandwidth is overused, your neighborhood will become slower until it is upgraded. However, if Youtube is overused, but your neighborhood is not, then just about every other website on the internet will still function as usual for you—100% unaffected.

The simple fact is that the entire internet will never be affected by anything all at the same time (with the possible exception of complete nuclear annihilation).