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Happy 35th birthday, RFC 1!

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-thats-an-anniversary dept.

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."

26 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. 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

      --

      2 1337 4 u!

    3. Re:Strange by cethiesus · · Score: 4, Informative

      RFC2223 - Instructions to RFC Authors

      RFC 0825 - Request for comments on Requests For Comments

      --


      "Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
  2. Too late by jolyonr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it too late to raise comments now?

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    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
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. Hrmmm... by SeaDour · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  6. 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.

    --
    snowulf.com
  7. 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

  8. 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.

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

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

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

  11. '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.
  12. 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.

  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. Re:I have a very important question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

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

  16. 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?
  17. Sure RFC 1's 35... by Intocabile · · Score: 5, Funny

    but he still lives in his parents basement.

  18. 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. :-)
  19. RFC1543 by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read RFC1543

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    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  20. 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.

    --

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