• Moore's and Metcalf's laws are multiplicative
• Generates the phenomena called "Internet years"

References

• Bellcore. NetSizer. Java applet with real-time statistical sampling of Internet hosts coming online.
• Rutkowski, Tony. Internet Trends. General Magic, 1997.
• Where did the Internet year come from and why is it equal to a dog year? (Or why do Internet programmers live like dogs?)

          Answer: Moore's and Metcalf's Laws
• Moore's law says chip density doubles every 18 months. Current hardware evolution is doubling the horsepower on your laptop each year. Over n years, the computing power on your desktop increases by 2 to the n power.
• Metcalf's law says that computer power increases by the square of the number of nodes on the network. Nodes on the Internet have doubled in 1995, 1996, and 1997, so the Internet compounds Moore's law for a net compute power increase of 2 to the 3n power.
• In one year Moore's law doubles your compute power but with Metcalf's law increment, you get 8 times the compute power each year. One human year is about equal to 8 dog years, if dogs lived as long as humans. This is why developers working in Internet companies live like dogs.