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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."

50 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 re-Verse · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Redundant - parents post isn't redundant. I'd score it at least a +4 (a mix of funny and insightful). I mean, it makes total sense. You'd expect the first RFC to quite clearly lay out a concept of how an RFC will work.

      I'm probably burning karma with this post but i think its completely unfair that that post got knocked down.

    2. 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. Re:Strange by cethiesus · · Score: 4, Informative
      --


      "Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
  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
    1. Re:Too late by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Is it too late to raise comments now?

      It's never too late, but your comments may not draw much serious attention.

      I'm curious which model of Teletype they were using, back in 1969. My father still has a few Model 14 and I first used 33's on a visit to a corporate sponsor of my Explorer Post. I always did like the font from the Model 43, I used to run off most of my library copies of code on them for the easy to read font.

      Ah the smell of printer ribbon ink in the spring...

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It seems odd to me that Un*x time starts 1/1/70, but the opperating system was in development before that date. Which raises the question, what did they use for a base before 1970?

    2. 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,
    3. Re:April 7th, 1969 by neodymium · · Score: 2, Interesting

      isn't that why some older OS treat time() as signed int ?

    4. 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.
    5. Re:April 7th, 1969 by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Heh..this type of thing is actually pretty true. I remember when we first got cable tv (little redneck town at the top of a mountain). The 'information channel' (you know, the one that now uses windoze, likely used amiga in the past to show communitity bulletins and weather and such) was a camera inside of a cylinder. Within the cylinder, they had mounted a thermometer, barometer, and community notices in large type on paper. The camera would slowly revolve to show everything. Didn't really seem weird back then, but kind of funny now in retrospect (seeing as computers WERE around back then and I believe they were being used for those channels...guess they were still to expensive or the local cable co was just not that informed).

  7. Hrmmm... by SeaDour · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  8. Wow, creation story of the internet by ResQuad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading that RFC is like reading the creation story of the internet, you can see where some of the things they come up with wayyyyy back then, have moved now. Normally I am not much for reading RFC's, but thats really intresting, if for nothing else to see how far we have gone in just 35 years.

    1. Re:Wow, creation story of the internet by Jugalator · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Indeed :-)

      How about this one:
      RFC 799 - Internet name domains (September 1981)

      "In the long run, it will not be practicable for every internet
      host to include all internet hosts in its name-address tables."

      :-)

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    2. Re:Wow, creation story of the internet by 4of12 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      An important one.

      IMHO, probably one of the most important and most well-known is RFC 822.

      Even though HTTP is used even more than SMTP these days it wasn't always so. I kept hearing no end of RFC 822, the Dcc field, etc. in the old days.

      From a history of the Internet perspective I have to wonder when it was that port 80 traffic overtook port 25.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
  9. 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

  10. 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.

  11. 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.
  12. Re:Happy bday! by ash*embers · · Score: 2, Funny

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

  13. ...and IBM/360 is 40 today by Jayfar · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's in the book. You could look it up (or google).

  14. 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

  15. 'Lincoln Wand' = stylus? by wodelltech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The RFC includes an itneresting statment about 'user input from keyboard, Lincoln Wand, etc.'. It appears that a Lincoln Wand is what we now call a stylus...

    http://www.packet.cc/files/lincoln-wand.html

    --
    Your monitor is staring at you.
  16. More on RFCs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you don't know what an RFC is, then here is what you need to know.

  17. Interesting note at the end by stox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "SRI is currently modifying their on-line retrieval system which will be the major software component on the Network Documentation Center so that it can be operated with model 35 teletypes. The control of the teletypes will be written in DEL. All sites will write DEL compilers and use NLS through the DEL program."

    It may be hard to imagine, but back then CRT terminals were a rare beast. Most machine interaction was done via Teletype, punch cards, and line printers.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  18. 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
  19. Re:Question from the ignorant. by swschrad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Connected Internet was operated by committee of the users. engineering details were worked out through the mechanism of issuance of RFCs (request for comment) and comments thereto for the filer and /or committee. the IETF (internet engineering task force) was the body that governed the RFC process, and it just sorta grew out of some chats by the detail wizards working on the Arpanet at the time.

    what we have now is not necessarily The Connected Internet as it was known and loved in the 80s and early 90s. but it should remain as such, controlled by the users, not a bunch of pinheaded goddamned government know-nothings pushing alternate agendas.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  20. Sure RFC 1's 35... by Intocabile · · Score: 5, Funny

    but he still lives in his parents basement.

  21. amazing linked to article by satsuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    hey, now if all 'linked from front page of slashdot' posts were like this, no one would care if they got slashdotted.

    3 or os images and 5K of text, hell, even my little p200 'what the hell, it can run linux' can handle that.

    This isn't really related to the post, but I find it very interesting the fact that in almost all things, the simplest answers are usually correct.

    1. Built HTML that is simple enough to be read by lynx and you'll have a very readable, universally accessable, highly portable and translatable site.

    2. Built a simple system of relaying packets with some transport validation mechanism (TCP) and it will take over the world.

    of course could you imagine if we had to deal with bridged IPX or LAT based networks .. or even netbeui

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

    Request for Contraception?

  23. Now that's a small network by iamnotaclown · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the RFC:
    The header is 16 bits and contains the following information:

    Destination 5 bits
    Link 8 bits
    Trace 1 bit
    Spare 2 bits

    The destination is the numerical code for the HOST to which the message should be sent.
    5 bits for destination means a maximum of 32 hosts. And I bet they thought that was overkill at the time. :-)
  24. 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
  25. 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?

  26. 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

  27. RFC1543 by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read RFC1543

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  28. teletype models by John_Sauter · · Score: 3, Informative
    We used Model 33's and Model 35's. These used 7-bit ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) rather than the 5-bit Baudot used by the Model 28. The low cost of the Model 33 made ASCII the standard character set for non-IBM computers of the time, and hence for the Internet.

    The Model 33 and Model 35 were upper case only; the lower case Model 37 came later.
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

  29. 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

  30. Oldest RFC by JackAsh · · Score: 2, Informative

    This may be odd, but a quick jaunt through the archive shows that RFC4 seems to predate it by a few days: it was born on March 24th vs. RFC1's April 7th...

    -Jack Ash

  31. 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!

  32. 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!
  33. Re:Question from the ignorant. by globalar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You can tell that open collaboration and communication are at the heart of the Internet, going back to its design. Look at the titling of core documents - "Request for Comment." Even on /., the nature of an article is requesting for comments and further analysis. Because of this legacy, where humans once networked computers, computers network humans.

    This process stands today because it works - not perfectly, but we all benefit from the paradigm. It is our responsibility as members (and some of us professionals) in the Internet community to ensure that the spirit of the RFC never leaves. We should not deny the principles which brought us here - openness, communication, collaboration. Let's not forget the future - open source software, free speech, distributed control, and better S:N.

    We would be wise to always request for the comments of our peers. It's gotten us this far.

  34. RFC 2555 - 30 years of RFC's by FePe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Read RFC 2555. It gives an interesting view of inside of the RFC world. It's written by some of the key people that invented and have made RFC's what they are today.

    --
    "Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy
  35. RFC 4 is older by stesch · · Score: 2, Funny
    0004 Network timetable. E.B. Shapiro. Mar-24-1969.
    (Format: TXT=5933 bytes) (Status: UNKNOWN)