Vint Cerf on Internet Challenges

chamilto0516 writes "Phil Windley, a nationally recognized expert in using information technology, drove up to the Univ. of Utah recently hear this years Organick Lecture by Vint Cerf, one of the inventors of the Internet. In his notes, Vint talks about, 'Where is the Science in CS?' He also goes on to talk about real potential trouble spots with the Internet, but there is a bit on Interplanetary Internet (IPN). Apparently, the flow control mechanism of TCP doesn't work well when the latency goes to 40 minutes."

Comments

Software Quality

[nokiator]

It is rather amazing that there appears to be a consensus among industry experts that there has not been any improvement in code quality over the past 30 years or so despite the development of a vast number of new tools and languages. It is true that the size and scope of the average application has grown by leaps and bounds. But most likely, the primary contributing factor to these kind of quality problems is the prevalent time-to-market pressuer in the software industry which is typically coupled with severe underestimation of time and resources required for projects.

Even if CS came up with a scientific solution to improve code quality, it would be an interesting exercise to see if the industry will be willing to absorb the costs associated with such a solution. Especially in an environment where end customers are well-trained to accept and deal with software quality issues.

Re:What?

[The boojum]

Note the key phrase "one of" in the story.

I actually attended this lecture yesterday and Vinton disclaimed the "father of the internet" moniker, saying that he co-designed the original TCP/IP protocol but that he and Bob Kahn and that that work was largely based on the ARPANET design which was in turn based on packet radio, etc. So yes, the man himself said he was just one of a long list contributors.

He did joke though that his son once asked if he was the "brother of the Internet".

He also commented that one of the properties of the system that he was quite happy with was the ease with which others could contribute at any level of the system, including building new application layer protocols on top of the basic protocols without going and needing to go and get permission from someone. People can just go out and write new protocols and build the apps to use them. (e.g. Bit Torrent) He said he thought that the Internet is largely where it is today because of that openness to the contributions of thousands of people.