Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

15 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. 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,
  3. Hrmmm... by SeaDour · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  4. 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
  5. 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.
  6. ...and IBM/360 is 40 today by Jayfar · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  7. 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
  8. 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.

  9. 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
  10. Re:I have a very important question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

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

  12. Sure RFC 1's 35... by Intocabile · · Score: 5, Funny

    but he still lives in his parents basement.

  13. 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. :-)