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Lawrence Roberts, Who Helped Design Internet's Precursor, Dies at 81 (nytimes.com)
In late 1966, a 29-year-old computer scientist drew a series of abstract figures on tracing paper and a quadrille pad. Some resembled a game of cat's cradle; others looked like heavenly constellations; still others like dress patterns. Those curious drawings were the earliest topological maps of what we now know as the internet. The doodler, Lawrence G. Roberts, died on Dec. 26 at his home in Redwood City, Calif. He was 81.
The New York Times: The cause was a heart attack, said his son Pasha. As a manager at the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA, Dr. Roberts designed much of the Arpanet -- the internet's precursor -- and oversaw its implementation in 1969. Dr. Roberts called upon a circle of colleagues who shared his interest in computer networking for help in creating the technical underpinnings of the Arpanet, integrating and refining many ideas for how data should flow. Dr. Roberts was considered the decisive force behind packet switching, the technology that breaks data into discrete bundles that are then sent along various paths around a network and reassembled at their destination. He decided to use packet switching as the underlying technology of the Arpanet; it remains central to the function of the internet.
And it was Dr. Roberts's decision to build a network that distributed control of the network across multiple computers. Distributed networking remains another foundation of today's internet. Dr. Roberts's interest in computer networking began when he was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1960s. He paid close attention to the work of his longtime colleague, Leonard Kleinrock, who had done research on theoretical aspects of computer networks, analyzing the problem of data flow. Dr. Roberts also followed the ideas of J.C.R. Licklider, a prominent psychologist and predecessor of Dr. Roberts's at ARPA, who envisioned what he called an "intergalactic computer network."
And it was Dr. Roberts's decision to build a network that distributed control of the network across multiple computers. Distributed networking remains another foundation of today's internet. Dr. Roberts's interest in computer networking began when he was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1960s. He paid close attention to the work of his longtime colleague, Leonard Kleinrock, who had done research on theoretical aspects of computer networks, analyzing the problem of data flow. Dr. Roberts also followed the ideas of J.C.R. Licklider, a prominent psychologist and predecessor of Dr. Roberts's at ARPA, who envisioned what he called an "intergalactic computer network."
And Indians shit it up.
With the benevolent creators of the internet dieing off, the future looks bleak and in the hands of orwelian corporations.
JUST another ruse by the NWO!
As any fule kno, it was Al Gore what invented teh interwebs.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
so let's kill this internet thing once and for all. I know your wit me.
And fuck the whole thing up.
The internet, is a evolution of arpnet(yes there are also other parts). Nuclear war and the desire for a network able to sustain incredible damage and reroute information for command and control, is how we got here.
War is bad, military hawks are the satans of the left wing liberal software youth. Dr. Roberts's was a critical part of the history and design of the internet.
Imagine how todays politically correct intellegencia at google who bitch about doing any military work would have even had jobs.
Dr. Roberts is evil for these libtards and they do not even know it.
I apologize for linking this great mans death to current political tom foolery.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
A heart attack! So scary! :)
Just because a few selfish board-members rammed one of their agents into the FCC, it does mean that one of humanity's greatest inventions has to be corrupted and sold to the highest bidder.
Fight to save the internet!
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
AIDS actually
He had a number of complications. It is difficult to assign just one cause. There are so many candidates
NSFWnet was Gore's one-time boss, Bill Clinton.
He should've set his ttl higher...
His heartbeat hit a lag spike and dropped out. No carrier.
We should've listened to Ted Stevens -- the arteries of the internet are too clogged.
I'll see myself out.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
After he saw what people did with it....
to 4ave regular A relatively
The article says "Dr. Roberts was considered the decisive force behind packet switching", which is misleading - packet switching was already used in a commercial service in the UK at the time discussed. He was perhaps the decisive force behind using packet switching in ARPANET. The wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is informative.
I was a Telecommunications Specialist in the military (AF) Autodin system from 1975 to 1979. It was a worldwide military packet switching message system using Philco-Ford computers and microwave and tropospheric scatter communications links as well as undersea cables back to the states. We had one satellite dish at RAF Croughton England at that time. I could actually see the packet communications on an O-scope and read the attempts of cryptographic equipment to synchronize. The "procs" were big cabinets and generated a lot of heat. We had two for fail-over and they used drum memory. All model T - ish, but it worked. It got the job done. I had approximately 150 to 200 circuits to monitor and keep up. Some of those circuits had Colonels in deep bunkers at the other end. It always amused me as a two-striper to have a Colonel call me up to troubleshoot his circuit outage. Of course, I'd have to order him around a bit to accomplish that. I could see both the black and red sides of a message and that, of course, is a severe no no in encryption. We had a very high level of Top Secret clearance as a result. The point is that there was a full-blown, worldwide military packet switching network in place and working when I joined the Air Force in 1975. Amazingly short time from conception to implementation - unless the story is more complex than we hear.
P.S. It used a programming language that sounded like "shall-A." I wasn't a programmer, so I'm not exactly sure what it was. We had a captain programmer who only rarely interacted with us- usually when I screwed up what he was doing by my habit of pushing the circuit alarm button repeatedly to get a fault report absent mindedly as I thought about the problem. He had programmed the computer locally to recycle the computer when the button was pushed rather than have us call each time to operations on the phone (in the next room) to recycle the computer manually. But for some reason he failed to tell us what he was doing. Understandable because enlisted ran the Switching center. He was the only officer and we never saw him. I think he was afraid of us. (laughs)
Does anyone know what "shall-A" may have been?
E Proelio Veritas.