From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail-03-ewr.dyndns.com (mxout-205-ewr.mailhop.org [216.146.33.205]) by lists.bufferbloat.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DA5F2E0182 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2011 07:42:49 -0800 (PST) Received: from scan-02-ewr.mailhop.org (scan-02-ewr.local [10.0.141.224]) by mail-03-ewr.dyndns.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9961178B3A2 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2011 15:42:47 +0000 (UTC) X-Spam-Score: 0.0 () X-Mail-Handler: MailHop by DynDNS X-Originating-IP: 71.162.243.5 Received: from snark.thyrsus.com (static-71-162-243-5.phlapa.fios.verizon.net [71.162.243.5]) by mail-03-ewr.dyndns.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 67EEC78A601 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2011 15:42:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (Postfix, from userid 23) id 64AF720C22E; Sun, 6 Feb 2011 10:42:36 -0500 (EST) From: Eric Raymond To: bloat@lists.bufferbloat.net Message-Id: <20110206154236.64AF720C22E@snark.thyrsus.com> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 10:42:36 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Bloat] Letter to CACM? X-BeenThere: bloat@lists.bufferbloat.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: General list for discussing Bufferbloat List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:42:49 -0000 Last night I had dinner with Drs. David and Paula Matuszek, two rather distinguished CS academics who happen to be old and close friends of mine. (They have occasionally joked about putting a brass plaque in their living room, which back in 1996 was the very first place the ideas that became the theory of open source were spoken outside of my skull.) Dave and Paula had just about the reaction you'd expect to my explanation of bufferbloat - initial bogglement followed by oh-shit followed by "how did we possibly manage to miss this?" Elapsed time from boggle to full comprehension was less than 5 minutes. This is encouraging. Yes, they're exceptionally bright, and yes, I'm exceptionally capable at doing this kind of exposition; still, it's a good sign that they got it so fast. They had a useful suggestion. They think we ought to ship the overview as a letter to CACM. "Everybody gets that," they pointed out. Yeah, I can see it. Getty, J., Raymond, E.S., Taht, D. "Packet Loss Considered Helpful" OK, I kid about the title. I'd have to strip out some of the babytalk about road networks, but I could do that in a hot minute. Once we get the overview content final. Should I put this shipping to CACM my to-do list for when the overview is done? Jim, especially looking for your judgment; you'd be the obvious designee for lead author even if the alphabetical order didn't fall that way. -- Eric S. Raymond