Re: [Bloat] First draft of complete "Bufferbloat And You" enclosed.

[richard <richard@pacdat.net>]

Having been one of the commercial internet pioneers here in Canada, I've
spent a lot of time dealing with the end users.

I like to write, and one of the things I try to do is explain computer
problems to my dumb relatives, customers, friends etc.

I like your vehicle analogy but I think today's network-using public can
relate better to a real-world situation in the internet so I've put
together my own article on the problem. I'd already started the article
last week and finally got to finish it today.
http://digital-rag.com/article.php/Buffer-Bloat-Packet-Loss

It could have some more technical terms (latency for example) added to
it but I limited it to the concept of window and ACK for now.

It takes the content of a recent ad from a local ISP and talks about
what is actually going on "under the hood"

richard


On Sat, 2011-02-05 at 08:23 -0500, Eric Raymond wrote:
> I consider this draft coverage-complete for the basic introduction I was
> aiming at.  Suggestions from dtaht5 and jg have been incorporated where
> appropriate. Critique and correct, but try not to make it longer. I'm a
> bit unhappy about the length and may actually try to cut it.
> 
> You will note that the description of network failure modes is
> somewhat broader than in jg's talk.  So is the section on why QoS
> fails to address the problem.  This is me putting on my
> system-architect head and doing original analysis; if you think I have
> misunderstood the premises or reasoned about them incorrectly, tell
> me.
> 
> Please fix typos and outright grammatical errors. If you think you have spotted
> a higher-level usage problem or awkwardness, check with me before changing it.
> What you think is technically erroneous may be expressive voice.
> 
> Explanation: Style is the contrast between expectation and surprise.
> Poets writing metric poetry learn to introduce small breaks in
> scansion in order to induce tension-and-release cycles at a higher
> level that will hold the reader's interest.  The corresponding prose
> trick is to bend usage rules or change the register of the writing
> slightly away from what the reader unconsciously expects.  If you try
> to "fix" these you will probably be stepping on an intended effect.
> So check first.
> 
> (I will also observe that unless you are already an unusually skilled
> writer, you should *not* try to replicate this technique; the risk of
> sounding affected or just teeth-jarringly bad is high.  As Penn &
> Teller puts it, "These stunts are being performed by trained,
> *professional* idiots.")
> 
> Future directions: unless somebody stops me, I'm going to reorganize
> what wiki docs there are around this thing.  The basic idea is to make this
> the page new visitors naturally land on *first*, with embedded 
> hotlinks to the more specialized stuff.
> 
> Explanation: Outlines and bulleted lists of stuff are deadly.  They're
> great for reference, but they scream "too much; don't read" to people
> first trying to wrap their heads around a topic.  Narrative
> introductions with hotlinks are both less threatening and more
> effective. The main reason they're not used more is that most people
> find them quite hard to write. I don't.
> 
> If I decide I need to cut the length, I'll push some subsections down
> to linked subpages.
> 
> I haven't learned Textile yet.  I'll probably get to that this weekend.
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-- 
Richard C. Pitt                 Pacific Data Capture
rcpitt@pacdat.net               604-644-9265
http://digital-rag.com          www.pacdat.net
PGP Fingerprint: FCEF 167D 151B 64C4 3333  57F0 4F18 AF98 9F59 DD73