This is it. The original pioneers of the net are starting to leave us. I hope we can take care of their baby as well as they did.
Inventor of NTP protocol that keeps time on billions of devices dies at age 85
Submitted 9 months ago by Blxter@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 9 months ago
db2@lemmy.world 9 months ago
We’re already fucking it up. Facebook and Xitter exist.
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 9 months ago
Not fucking it up, it’s already fucked up. The internet is a dumpster fire.
Bogasse@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
On a more positive note, Facebook and XFormerlyKnowAsTwitter are not essential parts of the internet. You can choose to not use or care about them. It is much harder to not use NTP, and it’s great that it is an open and comprehensible standard 👌
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 9 months ago
We didn’t. It has become a stinking pile of layers not even organizations worth hundreds of millions can put together anymore.
4am@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Those corporations are the ones who push for those layers to make it feel harder for you to do your own thing.
Fucking ignore them.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 9 months ago
noughtnaut@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Very. And he was going blind, too. I read a marvellous interview with him not too long ago, I’ll see if I can find it.
Aevironis@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Wow! What an interesting read about someone I’ve never heard of, but whose work has impacted daily life in so many ways. Its amazing how many systems rely on accurately telling time and the intricate solution that NTP is.
BudgieMania@kbin.social 9 months ago
To paraphrase Churchill "Never was so much owed by so many to a single man", NTP has been a critical aspect of XXIth century, from making highly complex clusterized systems work reliably to saving you the pain of adjusting the clock in your smartphone. If you have used a single electronic device for a millisecond you owe the man some thanks.
RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
XXIst
I’ve been seeing this on Lemmy lately, why are people going to roman numerals? Do we hate Arabic now? It’s not saving keystrokes unless I’m crazy?
BudgieMania@kbin.social 9 months ago
in certain parts of the world they really ingrained in us that roman numerals are the proper way to do it and it's very hard to shake off, apologies
obinice@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I guess…it was his time
Veedem@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I wasn’t aware of him until now and, given the impact of his work on the world, that seems like a real failure in my part.
BudgieMania@kbin.social 9 months ago
Nah, not so much a failure on your part as a failure on the part of a society that elects to glorify people that "move ball good" or "say line funny" over the people that have built the pillars without which our modern society literally would not exist in the same manner.
OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Network time protocol protocol
cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 9 months ago
ATM machine
russjr08@bitforged.space 9 months ago
PIN number
anarchy79@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Network time protocol, man.
pantyhosewimp@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
And could we please all remember the age of these folks and people like Vint Cerf when some fool drags out that old canard about old people not understanding new technology. No, only lazy or stupid old people don’t understand technology they didn’t grow up with. There’s just lots of them. And unless you are open minded and put in the effort, then you could end up fitting the stereotype because many of us are not as smart as we think
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 9 months ago
No, only lazy or stupid old people don’t understand technology they didn’t grow up with.
In fairness, plenty of young lazy and stupid people also don’t understand technology they did grow up with.
Consumerism breeds sloth.
Kings and Queens of convenience who know no lack, will never learn to hack.
anarchy79@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That was beautiful, man.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 9 months ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
On Thursday, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf announced that Dr. David L. Mills, the inventor of Network Time Protocol (NTP), died peacefully at age 85 on January 17, 2024.
The announcement came in a post on the Internet Society mailing list after Cerf was informed of David’s death by Mills’ daughter, Leigh.
In a digital environment where computers and servers are located all over the world, each with its own internal clock, there’s a significant need for a standardized and accurate timekeeping system.
In the 1970s, during his tenure at COMSAT and involvement with ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet), Mills first identified the need for synchronized time across computer networks.
As detailed in an excellent 2022 New Yorker profile by Nate Hopper, Mills faced significant challenges in maintaining and evolving the protocol, especially as the Internet grew in scale and complexity.
His work highlighted the often under-appreciated role of key open source software developers (a topic explored quite well in a 2020 xkcd comic).
The original article contains 471 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 9 months ago
His time has come.
jaybone@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Non Token Puntable.
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Epoch is the only time that matters.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Wtf is this headline? When this guy dies you put the GMT he died at in hours, minutes, seconds. Not “85”. Respect.
tychosmoose@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Better to represent it as a 64-bit unsigned fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0000 UT on 1 January 1900. It’s how he would have wanted it.
geogle@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Not 1970?
Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 9 months ago
ArsTechina is not what it once was sadly. Still one of the better news sites but that would have been something you would have seen 10 years ago
1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
And to think we want to abolish leap seconds because they are ‘too hard’.