NANOG rating: useful content nil (flame, style tip, no latin, likely will provoke angry response and private email alleging hypocrisy and a gentle note from Uncle Bill the AUP enforcer) Nathan Stratton <nathan@netrail.net> writes:

Ok, how much larger is BBN compared to NetRail???

The point, I believe, is that despite BBN being much bigger than NetRail, I do not see its executives or staff going on and on and on about how wonderful it is and how awful everyone else is in comparison. Moreover, despite the fact that there are some enormously talented people at BBN -- some of them are as startlingly young as you, Nathan -- I have never seen any of them try so hard as you to impress others, or to be seen as the only competent engineer anywhere. There is no doubt that you run a network of some size and are obviously pretty bright, but I think that if you managed to tone down a bit -- and I say this as one of the bigger loud-mouthed assholes on this list -- people might respect your accomplishments a bit more for what they are, rather than what you often merely seem to claim them to be. In particular, I would suggest that you recognize that the people you've mocked in the past are neither stupid nor inhuman. Maybe you can learn what it feels like to be berated in public for things beyond your control when you really are doing your best, and as a result do that a little less frequently.

Well Sean, you can sit back and soon eat your words.

My words are often very tasty, and never in need of additional salt or spice, so if, indeed, you change and become someone pleasant to deal with in technical arenas and someone I'd consider useful, I would sooner eat my comments than Metcalfe's. (His writing style is very bland, punctuated by things like his "gigaoutage" neologisms, which distract from the blandness much in the manner as finding a large piece of kielbasa in one's bowl of lentil soup).

and so far we lost only 1 customer due to this outage. Why, because we provide a services that is better then most providers out there.

Oh, well, on the other hand, if you're determined to stick to your guns, I get a chuckle out of thinking how cool it would be to be so incredibly good at what I do that even major fuckups wouldn't matter to customers.

P.S. We have also learned not be be dependent on Worldcom. We will soon buy our DS3s from 3 fibers carriers, and not just 1.

Precisely! Exactly why nobody has only one credit card. Sean.