6 ms·

Vint Cerf helped create the Internet on the back of an envelope

97 points by jkuria 4y ago

signalToNose 4y ago
We missed an opportunity when we didn’t call it “cerfing the net”
xiphias2 4y ago
I loved reading about creating simple protocols that fit on a napkin in ,, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet''. I feel the same way of nostr right now as a decentralized alternative to Twitter. It's super simple and there's nothing to take away from the basic protocol: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/01.md https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/01.md I think it's time to get back to developing these kind of simple protocols that incentivize a healthy competition between clients and servers (and maybe other participants).
- medellin 4y ago
  Not sure if it’s your intention but this reads like a paid ad
29athrowaway 4y ago
[deleted]
- andsoitis 4y ago
  You’re thinking of Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
  - 29athrowaway 4y ago
    Yes, I am an idiot. I always confuse those two.
    - rektide 4y ago
      Some semi-helpful-ish reference, https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b086lz/tim_bernerslee_and_vint_cerf_wearing_funny_shirts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b086lz/tim_be...
jvanderbot 4y ago
I had the pleasure of meeting Vint at a workshop at Caltech. He was crazy smart, jumped right in, took notes for our group, and wowed us with stories of the early days over dinner. He was working with delay tolerant routing and contact graph routing for Google Loon at the time, I believe. As always, it's nice to see a funny, capable, and humble person on the other side of the legend.
- dannylandau 4y ago
  He is still involved in the Loon spin-off start-up --https://www.aalyria.com/#people https://www.aalyria.com/#people I know a few people working there. The tech is very futuristic.
  - sph 4y ago
    That's a website very light on details — what are they building?
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Line-of-sight free space (so not in a fiber) high speed networks using lasers.
    - O__________O 4y ago
      First press release listed on the page the OP’s linked to has more information: https://breakingdefense.com/2022/10/aalyria-envisions-communications-revolution-for-earth-the-moon-and-beyond/ https://breakingdefense.com/2022/10/aalyria-envisions-commun... More information on Joint All-Domain Command and Control is linked below. It’s basically a network of all the US military’s networks managed by AI: - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_All-Domain_Command_and_Control https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_All-Domain_Command_and_Cont... - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Artificial_Intelligence_Center https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Artificial_Intelligence_Cen...
neonate 4y ago
https://archive.ph/k1j4H https://archive.ph/k1j4H
wozniacki 4y ago
Also this could use some mentioning Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifying original protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.[1] 1.1 Claude Shannon 1.2 Vannevar Bush 1.3 J. C. R. Licklider 1.4 Paul Baran 1.5 Donald Davies 1.6 Charles M. Herzfeld 1.7 Bob Taylor 1.8 Larry Roberts 1.9 Leonard Kleinrock 1.10 Bob Kahn 1.11 Douglas Engelbart 1.12 Elizabeth Feinler 1.13 Louis Pouzin 1.14 John Klensin 1.15 Vint Cerf 1.16 Yogen Dalal 1.17 Peter Kirstein 1.18 Steve Crocker 1.19 Jon Postel 1.20 Joyce K. Reynolds 1.21 Danny Cohen 1.22 David J. Farber 1.23 Paul Mockapetris 1.24 David Clark 1.25 Susan Estrada 1.26 Dave Mills 1.27 Radia Perlman 1.28 Dennis M. Jennings 1.29 Steve Wolff 1.30 Sally Floyd 1.31 Van Jacobson 1.32 Ted Nelson 1.33 Tim Berners-Lee 1.34 Robert Cailliau 1.35 Nicola Pellow 1.36 Mark P. McCahill 1.37 Marc Andreessen 1.38 Eric Bina [1] List of Internet pioneers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_pioneers
- ironmagma 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - sriram_malhar 4y ago
    This meme needs to die. Quoting from: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/799/708 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/799/70... > 1988: NSF sponsors a series of workshops at Harvard on the commercialization and privatization of the Internet. > 1988: Kahn et al. write a paper "Towards a National Research Network." According to the Brief History, "This report was influential on then Senator Al Gore, and ushered in high speed networks that laid the networking foundation for the future information superhighway." Gore was making speeches on the senate floor. In 1986, he said in a speech that is on the congressional record: > America's highways transport people and materials across the country. Federal freeways connect with state highways which connect in turn with county roads and city streets. To transport data and ideas, we will need a telecommunications highway connecting users coast to coast, state to state, city to city. The study required in this amendment will identify the problems and opportunities the nation will face in establishing that highway.
AlbertCory 4y ago
Vint is one of the gentlemen of our profession. It's really an honor to have met him.
asim 4y ago
Vint Cerf was turning 40 the year the internet was born. That's a reminder to us folks that some of your greatest accomplishments could be achieved post 40. Silicon Valley bias is towards 20 somethings changing the world. That was not the case with these deeply rooted technologies. Some of it takes time and experience with tons of R&D over multiple decades to get to the real working solution, often rebuilding the same thing over and over.
- 28304283409234 4y ago
  Yes, but how many sprints is that? And what T-Shirt size estimate? /s
  - booleandilemma 4y ago
    I think we'll need a spike.
khaledh 4y ago
If you want the visionary behind the Internet, it was J.C.R. Licklider. He envisioned an "Intergalactic Computer Network" in the early 1960s. He galvanized the effort to start it, but wasn't the one to execute on it. The one to kickstart the effort was Larry Roberts, Lick's successor at the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO). It was Wesley Clark who suggested the use of a separate computer to do the packet switching for the network (as opposed to letting the host computer do it), the so called "Interface Message Processor", the equivalent of routers in today's Internet. In 1969 The ARPAnet was born with only two nodes, and from there started growing in the early 70s. The network protocol at the time was called NCP (Network Control Protocol), which handled both network layer and transport layer functionality. Vint Cerf and Bob Khan developed the "Transmission Control Program", which still did both layers, but later, towards the late 70s, revised it by separating the two into "Transmission Control Protocol" and "Internet Protocol", aka TCP/IP. The ARPAnet finally switched from NCP to TCP/IP on Jan 1, 1983, the so called birth of the Internet.

97 points by jkuria 4y ago

We missed an opportunity when we didn’t call it “cerfing the net”

I loved reading about creating simple protocols that fit on a napkin in ,, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet''. I feel the same way of nostr right now as a decentralized alternative to Twitter. It's super simple and there's nothing to take away from the basic protocol: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/01.md https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/01.md I think it's time to get back to developing these kind of simple protocols that incentivize a healthy competition between clients and servers (and maybe other participants).

medellin 4y ago
Not sure if it’s your intention but this reads like a paid ad

29athrowaway 4y ago

[deleted]

andsoitis 4y ago
You’re thinking of Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
- 29athrowaway 4y ago
  Yes, I am an idiot. I always confuse those two.
  - rektide 4y ago
    Some semi-helpful-ish reference, https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b086lz/tim_bernerslee_and_vint_cerf_wearing_funny_shirts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b086lz/tim_be...

jvanderbot 4y ago

I had the pleasure of meeting Vint at a workshop at Caltech. He was crazy smart, jumped right in, took notes for our group, and wowed us with stories of the early days over dinner. He was working with delay tolerant routing and contact graph routing for Google Loon at the time, I believe. As always, it's nice to see a funny, capable, and humble person on the other side of the legend.

dannylandau 4y ago
He is still involved in the Loon spin-off start-up --https://www.aalyria.com/#people https://www.aalyria.com/#people I know a few people working there. The tech is very futuristic.
- sph 4y ago
  That's a website very light on details — what are they building?
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Line-of-sight free space (so not in a fiber) high speed networks using lasers.
  - O__________O 4y ago
    First press release listed on the page the OP’s linked to has more information: https://breakingdefense.com/2022/10/aalyria-envisions-communications-revolution-for-earth-the-moon-and-beyond/ https://breakingdefense.com/2022/10/aalyria-envisions-commun... More information on Joint All-Domain Command and Control is linked below. It’s basically a network of all the US military’s networks managed by AI: - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_All-Domain_Command_and_Control https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_All-Domain_Command_and_Cont... - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Artificial_Intelligence_Center https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Artificial_Intelligence_Cen...

neonate 4y ago

https://archive.ph/k1j4H https://archive.ph/k1j4H

wozniacki 4y ago

Also this could use some mentioning Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifying original protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.[1] 1.1 Claude Shannon 1.2 Vannevar Bush 1.3 J. C. R. Licklider 1.4 Paul Baran 1.5 Donald Davies 1.6 Charles M. Herzfeld 1.7 Bob Taylor 1.8 Larry Roberts 1.9 Leonard Kleinrock 1.10 Bob Kahn 1.11 Douglas Engelbart 1.12 Elizabeth Feinler 1.13 Louis Pouzin 1.14 John Klensin 1.15 Vint Cerf 1.16 Yogen Dalal 1.17 Peter Kirstein 1.18 Steve Crocker 1.19 Jon Postel 1.20 Joyce K. Reynolds 1.21 Danny Cohen 1.22 David J. Farber 1.23 Paul Mockapetris 1.24 David Clark 1.25 Susan Estrada 1.26 Dave Mills 1.27 Radia Perlman 1.28 Dennis M. Jennings 1.29 Steve Wolff 1.30 Sally Floyd 1.31 Van Jacobson 1.32 Ted Nelson 1.33 Tim Berners-Lee 1.34 Robert Cailliau 1.35 Nicola Pellow 1.36 Mark P. McCahill 1.37 Marc Andreessen 1.38 Eric Bina [1] List of Internet pioneers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_pioneers

ironmagma 4y ago
[flagged]
- sriram_malhar 4y ago
  This meme needs to die. Quoting from: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/799/708 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/799/70... > 1988: NSF sponsors a series of workshops at Harvard on the commercialization and privatization of the Internet. > 1988: Kahn et al. write a paper "Towards a National Research Network." According to the Brief History, "This report was influential on then Senator Al Gore, and ushered in high speed networks that laid the networking foundation for the future information superhighway." Gore was making speeches on the senate floor. In 1986, he said in a speech that is on the congressional record: > America's highways transport people and materials across the country. Federal freeways connect with state highways which connect in turn with county roads and city streets. To transport data and ideas, we will need a telecommunications highway connecting users coast to coast, state to state, city to city. The study required in this amendment will identify the problems and opportunities the nation will face in establishing that highway.

AlbertCory 4y ago

Vint is one of the gentlemen of our profession. It's really an honor to have met him.

asim 4y ago

Vint Cerf was turning 40 the year the internet was born. That's a reminder to us folks that some of your greatest accomplishments could be achieved post 40. Silicon Valley bias is towards 20 somethings changing the world. That was not the case with these deeply rooted technologies. Some of it takes time and experience with tons of R&D over multiple decades to get to the real working solution, often rebuilding the same thing over and over.

28304283409234 4y ago
Yes, but how many sprints is that? And what T-Shirt size estimate? /s
- booleandilemma 4y ago
  I think we'll need a spike.

khaledh 4y ago

If you want the visionary behind the Internet, it was J.C.R. Licklider. He envisioned an "Intergalactic Computer Network" in the early 1960s. He galvanized the effort to start it, but wasn't the one to execute on it. The one to kickstart the effort was Larry Roberts, Lick's successor at the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO). It was Wesley Clark who suggested the use of a separate computer to do the packet switching for the network (as opposed to letting the host computer do it), the so called "Interface Message Processor", the equivalent of routers in today's Internet. In 1969 The ARPAnet was born with only two nodes, and from there started growing in the early 70s. The network protocol at the time was called NCP (Network Control Protocol), which handled both network layer and transport layer functionality. Vint Cerf and Bob Khan developed the "Transmission Control Program", which still did both layers, but later, towards the late 70s, revised it by separating the two into "Transmission Control Protocol" and "Internet Protocol", aka TCP/IP. The ARPAnet finally switched from NCP to TCP/IP on Jan 1, 1983, the so called birth of the Internet.