On 02-05-11 8:29 PM, Fred Baker wrote:
On Feb 5, 2011, at 6:11 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:
On 2/5/2011 6:43 AM, Fred Baker wrote:
On Feb 4, 2011, at 9:49 PM, Hayden Katzenellenbogen wrote:
Not sure if it has been said already but wasn't one of the key point for the creation of the internet to create and infrastructure that would survive in the case of all out war and massive destruction. (strategic nuclear strikes)
Urban legend, although widely believed. Someone probably made the observation.
Maybe not quite an UL...
<http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html>
On the average, The Rand Corp is extremely careful about what it publishes, yet here it is, repeating the claim.
But Len Kleinrock adamantly disputes it.
Back in the '70s, I always heard "survive hostile battlefield conditions" and never heard anyone talk about comms survival of a nuclear event, but I wasn't in any interesting conversations, such as in front of funding agencies...
To survive an EMP, electronics needs some fancy circuitry. I've never worked with a bit of equipment that had it. It would therefore have to have been through path redundancy.
For more specifics from Paul Baran himself, you may read his interview with Stewart Brand. Lots of good stuff circa late 50s - early 60s. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/baran_pr.html one fun excerpt, re: asking the phone co to build a packet switch: ---- SB: How seriously did AT&T look at the proposal? PB: The response was most interesting. The story I tell is of the time I went over to AT&T headquarters - one of many, many times - and there's a group of old graybeards. I start describing how this works. One stops me and says, "Wait a minute, son. Are you trying to tell us that you open the switch up in the middle of the conversation?" I say, "Yes." His eyeballs roll as he looks at his associates and shakes his head. We just weren't on the same wavelength. ---- Paul's memory is backed up by his meticulous records. I worked at Com21 1997-2K and heard similar recounts from Paul over Com21 BBQ lunches at the company's Tasman site. I wished for a while he'd write a history but came to understand he's always been a doer not a historian. Cheers, - Michael