My InfoWorld Column About NANOG

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
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Dear NANOG List,

Thanks for your critiques of my NANOG meeting critique column in InfoWorld.

Below is a copy of a draft (before editing) of the offending column, just
in case some of you have been reading only one another's critiques instead
of the column itself. Of course I stand by it.

Some of you guys/gals are very good at ad hominem attacks. Flaming is
alive and well on the Internet. Tisk tisk. But then I asked for it.
Anyway, the attention is flattering. Thank you.

A few of you missed one point at least. I am NOT suggesting that any of
YOU start wearing suits, especially if you find them uncomfortable, or that
they make a statement you are not willing to make -- none of that, no --
good engineers are too valuable to overdress. I am suggesting that more of
the kind of people who ALREADY wear suits should start paying attention to
the important work NANOG is attempting and start attending your meetings so
they can pitch in on the non-engineering aspects of operating the Internet.
Is that clearer now?

By the way, there are reports from two days ago that 400,000 people lost
their Internet access for 13 hours. Sounds like an outage approaching
"collapse." Was that just a Netcom thing that NANOG has no interest in?
Netcom is not talking very much about what happened. Any clues/facts out
there? Were any NAPs involved?

/Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld

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Dear NANOG List,

Thanks for your critiques of my NANOG meeting critique column in InfoWorld.

[...]

Some of you guys/gals are very good at ad hominem attacks. Flaming is
alive and well on the Internet. Tisk tisk. But then I asked for it.
Anyway, the attention is flattering. Thank you.

Not quite...logic doesn't often lend itself to applications in politics.
Statements made about you in reference to the opinions you presented were
made as attempts to explain WHY you held these opinions. Some of the
explanations make an awful lot of sense, IMHO, but they are only
conjecture. If you'd like to enlighten us with regard to your reasoning
(without resorting to lofty goals of truth and a happier
{Internet|planet}), I, for one, would gladly listen. I think it's far
more probable, however, that you'll rank my questions with the rest that
have been posed here...unworthy of a response.

// Matt Zimmerman Chief of System Management NetRail, Inc.
// mdz@netrail.net sales@netrail.net
// (703) 524-4800 [voice] (703) 524-4802 [data] (703) 534-5033 [fax]

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Let's blow this into proportion, shall we? Current, somewhat
overhyped, estimates say there are 60M Internet users worldwide.
400k is some 0.67% of that. Cut the hype in half if you want, and
make that 1.3% instead. I say, some collapse.

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So, Mr. Metcalfe:

Is it the case that anyone who disagrees with you is a flamer?

Tisk tisk....

DT