HOWTO to shut down the Internet

I've located the master switch. Oh, the temptation.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Wait. If THAT’S the Internet, then what’s THIS?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_jTSUK5d2qM/Tk17NwOEVDI/AAAAAAAAALI/fZ0_5yMDcBw/s1600/internet.jpg
- Hugoku
  
  I guess it has been moved from Big Ben.
  - http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
    
    That’s the Australian internet. Note how the ‘on’ switch is upside down.
- niktemadur
  
  History Eraser Button?
  On second thought it surely is red, but shiny, jolly or candy-like it sure ain’t.
t8t

I worked at a large corporation over a decade ago. Nervous about Internet connectivity, managers demanded that there should be an easily accessed off switch, in case something bad happened. Clever infrastructure developers put a link on a webpage to do just that.

Not long after, the crawler for the intranet search engine pushed the button and shut off the Internet in the middle of a business day.
Navin_Johnson

You know a toggle switch is important when you’ve got to flip up the cool “guard” to access it. I’d prefer it be red though.
- nettdata
  
  But black is somehow more ominous. I’d be way more inclined to push the shiny red button or flip the shiny red switch.
http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

Didn’t you used to be able to delete the internet by dragging it to the recycle bin?
- http://www.facebook.com/ccllyyddee.bbaaiinn Ccllyyddee Bbaaiinn
  
  And then Secure Empty the trash.
Nadreck

Personally I’d find this to be much more tempting than the History Eraser Button.
- niktemadur
  
  Yeah, that’s what happens when I type on impulse, you got here first with the HRB, sorry.
http://gruffguano.wordpress.com/ Gruff Guano

Make a backup before you shut it down. I’m not re-typing Wikipedia again.
- Andrew Singleton
  
  Well at the very least Retyping Wiki would mean maybe we can get rid of some of the annoying edit wars.
  
  And pre-emptivly ban all those idiots that keep reverting Earth’s entry to ‘mostly harmless’.
yragentman

I always like bat switches where down = on.
doniphon

If you are really going to shut it down, could you please wait until my semi-nude image of Captain Janeway finishes downloading? Tehnk you.
- Labbit
  
  Lace: the final brassiere!
Nash Rambler

Don’t listen to temptation! It probably sounds like Walter Peck, and will end with all the internet ghosts shooting through the roof and terrorizing the city! Trust me, no one wants that. . .
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

whoa
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679549499 Michael Birch

Do it!
thudson

This Internet switch must remain on at all times: http://www.flickr.com/photos/osr/5397560971/
- Øyvind
  
  Is this the RIAA-proposed internet control console? I noticed it had a music button too, and that it was turned all the way down.
Purplecat

So what happened when you flipped the switch? Come on, no normal human could resist that.

Actually, that makes sense. Save money on a Voight-Kampff machine- just have a switch on it with an enticingly ambiguous label.
Ipo

I have a switch here just like that.
I’ll try it out now and tell y’all what ha
Erin W

I don’t see the red flashing light…
jnordb

PLEASE, keep Joe Lieberman away from that thing…
Roy Trumbull

In San Francisco the fire dept. requires a main disconnect near the entrance to a computer room (think big stuff). We had such a disconnect for a room where everything was to move but not right away. A temporary occupant posted a nicely lettered sign under the switch. It said “Earth Rotation Control”.
Joe Abbey

As I landed in IND, I discovered that the internet must only be on for normal operation.

The flight attendant laughed so hard when I explained to her that I took this picture while deplaning because the internet was in this box.

She did not laugh.
http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

Leave it on, but turn down the porn a little.