From mbaer at cs.tu-berlin.de Wed Dec 8 03:16:04 2010 From: mbaer at cs.tu-berlin.de (=?ISO-8859-15?Q?Matthias_B=E4rwolff?=) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:16:04 +0100 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) Message-ID: <4CFF68F4.9020005@cs.tu-berlin.de> Dear all, it is my pleasure to announce the release of my PhD thesis on "End-to-end arguments in the Internet" as a self-published book on CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028). Of course there is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too (http://www.b?rwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html). This is also an apt opportunity to thank all you folks for the feedback on many of my questions here on this list over the last two years. So without further ado, I'll let you go. If you have any feedback or questions about the book, just send me an email. Matthias P.S.: Some further asides for the not-too-hurried reader. The thesis is basically split into three big parts: - Part 1 reviews the genesis of the end-to-end arguments as a design principle of sorts, going back to early 1960s contributions by Paul Baran and running all the way to more timely elaborations of the merit of minimality of common shared spanning layers. I have not given too prominent a consideration to the notion of net neutrality; some footnotes go into that (tracing the notion to a 1999 Saltzer note, and, slightly more adventurously, to early 1970s Pouzin papers), but I have not given it a section of its own. - Part 2 then discusses the evolution the end-to-end arguments as a functions of actual networking (as opposed to theoretical reasoning) from the Arpanet to the Internet, along with aside notes about Alohanet, Ethernet, etc. The contribution of this part is somewhat less tractable than that of Part 1. At the very least, it brings a whole lot of instructive and somewhat novel data points to the table -- e.g. elaborating the inner structure of the Arpanet; the eventual "frazzling" of the Arpanet edges (VDH interface, TIPs, etc.); and the history of Arpanet raw messages as a somewhat direct predecessor to the later IP protocol. - Part 3 wraps up the thesis by adding some looser discussion about the merit, useful scope, limitations, and proper articulation of the end-to-end arguments. It somewhat defeats a two-sentence summary (and is also strictly speaking off-topic for this list) so go and read it for yourself. In all, the core of the thesis runs 160 pages; plus 277 pages of endnotes; plus 89 pages of literature; plus prelims and tables (toc, tof); plus, last but not least, a really cool index of interesting asides. While all of this jazz makes the most sense in the PDF version which features all conceivable hyperlinks forth and back; the links may also easily be followed manually (even from the endnotes and literature back to the main text). While the PDF is free, the book is $25, has a neat cover, and is available on CreateSpace as of now; it will also hit Amazon.com at around new year's eve, and eventually it will be on the international Amazon sites some time next January. Being the author, I can order copies of the book for some $12 and have them shipped to any US address of my choosing; so if you think that there is a good reason for you to have me get the book to you in some sort of out-of-band mutual deal, drop me an email. -- Matthias B?rwolff www.b?rwolff.de From richard at bennett.com Wed Dec 8 11:18:16 2010 From: richard at bennett.com (Richard Bennett) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:18:16 -0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4CFF68F4.9020005@cs.tu-berlin.de> References: <4CFF68F4.9020005@cs.tu-berlin.de> Message-ID: <4CFFD9F8.2030100@bennett.com> I take it the book isn't available in any of the e-book formats. Pity. RB On 12/8/2010 3:16 AM, Matthias B?rwolff wrote: > Dear all, > > it is my pleasure to announce the release of my PhD thesis on > "End-to-end arguments in the Internet" as a self-published book on > CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028). Of course there > is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too > (http://www.b?rwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html). > > This is also an apt opportunity to thank all you folks for the feedback > on many of my questions here on this list over the last two years. So > without further ado, I'll let you go. If you have any feedback or > questions about the book, just send me an email. > > Matthias > > > P.S.: Some further asides for the not-too-hurried reader. The thesis is > basically split into three big parts: > > - Part 1 reviews the genesis of the end-to-end arguments as a design > principle of sorts, going back to early 1960s contributions by Paul > Baran and running all the way to more timely elaborations of the merit > of minimality of common shared spanning layers. I have not given too > prominent a consideration to the notion of net neutrality; some > footnotes go into that (tracing the notion to a 1999 Saltzer note, and, > slightly more adventurously, to early 1970s Pouzin papers), but I have > not given it a section of its own. > > - Part 2 then discusses the evolution the end-to-end arguments as a > functions of actual networking (as opposed to theoretical reasoning) > from the Arpanet to the Internet, along with aside notes about Alohanet, > Ethernet, etc. The contribution of this part is somewhat less tractable > than that of Part 1. At the very least, it brings a whole lot of > instructive and somewhat novel data points to the table -- e.g. > elaborating the inner structure of the Arpanet; the eventual "frazzling" > of the Arpanet edges (VDH interface, TIPs, etc.); and the history of > Arpanet raw messages as a somewhat direct predecessor to the later IP > protocol. > > - Part 3 wraps up the thesis by adding some looser discussion about the > merit, useful scope, limitations, and proper articulation of the > end-to-end arguments. It somewhat defeats a two-sentence summary (and is > also strictly speaking off-topic for this list) so go and read it for > yourself. > > In all, the core of the thesis runs 160 pages; plus 277 pages of > endnotes; plus 89 pages of literature; plus prelims and tables (toc, > tof); plus, last but not least, a really cool index of interesting > asides. While all of this jazz makes the most sense in the PDF version > which features all conceivable hyperlinks forth and back; the links may > also easily be followed manually (even from the endnotes and literature > back to the main text). > > While the PDF is free, the book is $25, has a neat cover, and is > available on CreateSpace as of now; it will also hit Amazon.com at > around new year's eve, and eventually it will be on the international > Amazon sites some time next January. Being the author, I can order > copies of the book for some $12 and have them shipped to any US address > of my choosing; so if you think that there is a good reason for you to > have me get the book to you in some sort of out-of-band mutual deal, > drop me an email. > > -- Richard Bennett From johnl at iecc.com Wed Dec 8 18:14:18 2010 From: johnl at iecc.com (John Levine) Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:14:18 -0000 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4CFFD9F8.2030100@bennett.com> Message-ID: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> In article <4CFFD9F8.2030100 at bennett.com> you write: >I take it the book isn't available in any of the e-book formats. Pity. What's wrong with PDF? >> CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028). Of course there >> is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too >> (http://www.b?rwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html). R's, John From richard at bennett.com Wed Dec 8 18:23:17 2010 From: richard at bennett.com (Richard Bennett) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:23:17 -0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> Message-ID: <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> PDF sucks on the iPad and Kindle. On 12/8/2010 6:14 PM, John Levine wrote: > In article<4CFFD9F8.2030100 at bennett.com> you write: >> I take it the book isn't available in any of the e-book formats. Pity. > What's wrong with PDF? > >>> CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028). Of course there >>> is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too >>> (http://www.b?rwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html). > R's, > John -- Richard Bennett From adrian at creative.net.au Wed Dec 8 18:48:49 2010 From: adrian at creative.net.au (Adrian Chadd) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 10:48:49 +0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> Message-ID: <20101209024849.GB11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> .. really? There's a once-open-source-now-owned-by-amazon book reader that a friend of mine uses on her ipad, that acts as a library manager -and- does format conversions from "stuff" into an internally useful representation. This does include pdf. I can't recall the name of it though. I just know it's out there. I'll see if I can find it and email it to the list. Adrian On Wed, Dec 08, 2010, Richard Bennett wrote: > PDF sucks on the iPad and Kindle. > > On 12/8/2010 6:14 PM, John Levine wrote: > >In article<4CFFD9F8.2030100 at bennett.com> you write: > >>I take it the book isn't available in any of the e-book formats. Pity. > >What's wrong with PDF? > > > >>>CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028). Of course there > >>>is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too > >>>(http://www.b???rwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html). > >R's, > >John > > -- > Richard Bennett -- - Xenion - http://www.xenion.com.au/ - VPS Hosting - Commercial Squid Support - - $24/pm+GST entry-level VPSes w/ capped bandwidth charges available in WA - From adrian at creative.net.au Wed Dec 8 19:21:05 2010 From: adrian at creative.net.au (Adrian Chadd) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 11:21:05 +0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> Message-ID: <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> On Wed, Dec 08, 2010, Richard Bennett wrote: > PDF sucks on the iPad and Kindle. >From my friend: "Stanza for reading on the iPad and Calibre on the desktop." It apparently reads pdf documents as ebooks fine. Adrian From richard at bennett.com Wed Dec 8 21:02:54 2010 From: richard at bennett.com (Richard Bennett) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:02:54 -0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> Message-ID: <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> Stanza (and my favorite iPad PDF reader, Good Reader) won't reflow the text at a larger size the way you can do with a epub book, you can only zoom each page. It's really not the same thing as using an e-reader with an epub book at all. As with many things in this world, "works fine" is in the eye of the beholder, and my eyeglasses are in the shop at at the moment because of Skype. RB On 12/8/2010 7:21 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote: > On Wed, Dec 08, 2010, Richard Bennett wrote: >> PDF sucks on the iPad and Kindle. > From my friend: > > "Stanza for reading on the iPad and Calibre on the desktop." > > It apparently reads pdf documents as ebooks fine. > > > Adrian -- Richard Bennett From larrysheldon at cox.net Thu Dec 9 06:31:12 2010 From: larrysheldon at cox.net (Larry Sheldon) Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:31:12 -0600 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> Message-ID: <4D00E830.8020709@cox.net> On 12/8/2010 11:02 PM, Richard Bennett wrote: > As with many things in this world, "works fine" is in the eye of the > beholder, and my eyeglasses are in the shop at at the moment because of > Skype. Probably Off Topic (Off Topic squared?), but I'm having trouble working out how "Skype" relates to "eyeglasses are in the shop". -- Superfluity does not vitiate California Civil Code quote-#3537 http://lwolt.wordpress.com/ http://tinyurl.com/269dspw 1 From kent at songbird.com Thu Dec 9 09:39:42 2010 From: kent at songbird.com (Kent Crispin) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 09:39:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> Message-ID: <33508.75.25.158.242.1291916382.squirrel@ancient-warrior.net> On Wed, December 8, 2010 21:02, Richard Bennett wrote: > Stanza (and my favorite iPad PDF reader, Good Reader) won't reflow the > text at a larger size the way you can do with a epub book, you can only > zoom each page. It's really not the same thing as using an e-reader with > an epub book at all. Calibre will convert pdf to epub, but in my experience it's hit and miss whether the result is usable. Things seem to work best when the pdf has no images, and doesn't have multiple columns. A pdf -> epub converter that worked would be really nice...so many technical papers and books are available only in pdf. Kent From richard at bennett.com Thu Dec 9 12:56:48 2010 From: richard at bennett.com (Richard Bennett) Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:56:48 -0800 Subject: [ih] Making sense of the end-to-end arguments (or at least trying to) In-Reply-To: <4D00E830.8020709@cox.net> References: <20101209021418.45685.qmail@joyce.lan> <4D003D95.9090501@bennett.com> <20101209032105.GC11037@skywalker.creative.net.au> <4D0062FE.4020504@bennett.com> <4D00E830.8020709@cox.net> Message-ID: <4D014290.2000803@bennett.com> Heh heh, somebody took the bait. People who use video Skype tend to get a lot of glare on the eyeglasses unless they've got very diffuse lighting and anti-reflective coating on the eyeglasses. On 12/9/2010 6:31 AM, Larry Sheldon wrote: > On 12/8/2010 11:02 PM, Richard Bennett wrote: > >> As with many things in this world, "works fine" is in the eye of the >> beholder, and my eyeglasses are in the shop at at the moment because of >> Skype. > > Probably Off Topic (Off Topic squared?), but I'm having trouble > working out how "Skype" relates to "eyeglasses are in the shop". > -- Richard Bennett