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Happy 35th birthday, RFC 1!

An anonymous reader writes "On April 7th, 1969, the first ever RFC was published, describing the networking technology behind the then-nascent ARPAnet. In the intervening 35 years, networking technology has come a long way, but it brings perspective to the modern Internet to reflect on how it all began."

29 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. First RFC ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ok, I surely failed but it's funny :)

  2. Strange by ThatTallGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd have thought the first RFC would have been defining the structure of RFC's. :)

    1. Re:Strange by Frymaster · · Score: 4, Funny
      I'm probably burning karma with this post but i think its completely unfair that that post got knocked down.

      i think you're confusing the subject of this story with the lesser-known RFK.

      request for karma

  3. Too late by jolyonr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it too late to raise comments now?

    --


    Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
  4. I have a very important question. by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do we get cake?

    1. Re:I have a very important question. by daeley · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nina: "Now DrEldarion, don't be greedy, let's pass it along and make sure everyone gets a piece."

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    2. Re:I have a very important question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Isn't that what RFC means - Request for Cake? MMM RFC.

    3. Re:I have a very important question. by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Funny

      The ratio of people to cake is too big...

  5. How old was it when YOU first got on the net? by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was 19 when I finally got a dialup connection to a server with a shell account. I know my life could have been spent more wisely...had I only been connected sooner.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:How old was it when YOU first got on the net? by stephenisu · · Score: 2, Funny

      2400 baud you mean? 9600? :)

      ah, the good ol' days...

      --
      Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
  6. April 7th, 1969 by pen · · Score: 5, Funny
    April 7th, 1969... Isn't that before the beginning of time()?

    1. Re:April 7th, 1969 by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


      what did they use for a base before 1970?

      A black and white camera looking at a sundial in the Berkeley campus.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:April 7th, 1969 by belloc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Which raises the question, what did they use for a base before 1970?

      Well, back then, all their base weren't belong to...^H^H^H^H

      Well, there were no bases to belong to...us...back^H^H^H^H

      In the '60s, all their bases were belong to them...^H^H^H^H

      Oh, forget it. I'll never be 'Slashdot funny'.

      Belloc

      --
      I got more rhymes than Jamaica got Mangoes.
  7. Hrmmm... by SeaDour · · Score: 5, Funny

    Somehow, I get the feeling Al Gore will not be invited to its birthday party.

  8. Yet Another Dup... Come on, Slashdot by ReadParse · · Score: 4, Funny

    This was posted 5 years ago. It has a birthday every year, folks :)

    RP

  9. And I'm still using it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I see no reason to upgrade to RFC 2, just useless bloat I say. RFC1's worked great for 35 years, and it'll work great for another 35.

  10. If Steve Crocker had been a *real* programmer... by kclittle · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... he'd have called it RFC 0! :-)

    --
    Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
  11. Re:Happy bday! by ash*embers · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wasn't even a fetus by then. Just a mere RFC between my 'rents.

  12. And some great RFCs followed... by piquadratCH · · Score: 2, Funny

    This one is my favourite:

    RFC 1149: A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers

  13. Re:If Steve Crocker had been a *real* programmer.. by jpetts · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... he'd have called it RFC 0!

    But 0! (zero factorial) is equal to 1, so what's your problem?

    If you meant RFC0, I'm working on that right now, and it will be published in 1967 as soon as I can get this flux capacitor to work...

    --
    Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
  14. Sure RFC 1's 35... by Intocabile · · Score: 5, Funny

    but he still lives in his parents basement.

  15. Re:Happy bday! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Request for Contraception?

  16. Don't Read It! by nightsweat · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've just patented the RFC process. You owe me a dollar.

    --

    the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
  17. Re:What If? by Patrik_AKA_RedX · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, at least trolls would be send to bed by their mothers when they do their thing.
    Just imagine what a "First Post" thread would look:

    - Fris Psot! (by Johny the Troll)
    - Johny, I told you a million time not to annoy the nice people on Slashdot. Now go do you're homework!. (by Johny's Mother)
    - oh mom, I'll do it after dinner.
    - Now listen here young man, you'll do as you're told or do I have to send your father an e-mail?

  18. prefirst by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, RFC 0 is the meta RFC. Unfortunately, documentation of the 0-based numbering scheme ("see RFC 0"), that has become so popular with computers and their geeks since the 1960s, wasn't submitted to the RFC-editor for years, well after RFC 10. By then, the RFC-editor was forced to reject it, as RFCs document actual implementations, and are merely Requests For Comments from other users of the system, not design documents. The vast preponderance of RFCs had been written (so it seemed - they'd almost completely debugged ARPANet) by RFC 10's era, so it would have been a cruel irony to finish the series merely revising the counting base to recognize the "zeroth" RFC, which indicates that RFCs start at "0".

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  19. Well, they left out the first COMMENT submitted... by SmurfButcher+Bob · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... in response that RFC.

    Lemme get my super-omniscient-archive up and running... oh yes, here it is. Comment #1, in reply to RFC1. Dated 11 seconds after RFC1 was issued:

    "It'll never work."

    Oddly, Comment #2, which was received within seconds of comment #1, was a cryptic

    "Woot! First Comment!"

    And th rest, as they say, is history.

    --

    help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am

  20. Summary of RFC1... by Mignon · · Score: 2, Funny
    For those too lazy to check it out themselves, I've provided the following summary of RFC1, translated to modern, Slashdot-ese:

    First RFC! W00t!

  21. Re:author ? by Brandybuck · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was Al Gore! Just ask him...

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  22. RFC 4 is older by stesch · · Score: 2, Funny
    0004 Network timetable. E.B. Shapiro. Mar-24-1969.
    (Format: TXT=5933 bytes) (Status: UNKNOWN)