[ih] Paul Baran documents

[Elizabeth Feinler]

On Mar 28, 2011, at 12:00 PM, internet-history-request at postel.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Paul Baran (Guy Almes)
>   2. Re: Paul Baran (Nigel Roberts)
>   3. Untold tales. .. (Nigel Roberts)
>   4. Re: Paul Baran (Noel Chiappa)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:18:27 -0500
> From: Guy Almes <galmes at tamu.edu>
> Subject: [ih] Paul Baran
> To: internet-history at postel.org
> Message-ID: <4D9098B3.6090903 at tamu.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed

If you can find the exact references for these Rand documents, you can request them under the freedom of information act from government document services (used to be NTIS under the Dept. of Commerce.  I'm not sure if that is still the name of the agency.)

I too am saddened by Paul's passing.  He was a kind, soft spoken man, always a gentleman, and a brilliant mind.

I was also sad to hear that Mike Padlipsky (MAP) is no longer with us.  He was a long-time network friend, always let me know when I did something inelegant on the net,  had an amusing sense of humor, and a wonderful grasp of the English language.  I remember way back when someone at the Range Measurement Lab. sent out a military directive telling every host on the internet to send RML paper copies of all the software on their machines.  This was a meaningless pursuit that pushed everyone's buttons.  MAP wrote a letter that was a classic.  He was then at MIT Multics, a  site that probably had more software than anyone else at the time.  The letter estimated the amount of software, how many reams of paper would be needed to print it, the man hours required, the size of a truck that might be needed, and how much it would cost.  It asked to which project it should be charged, and where at RML the requestor would like to have the results delivered (or words to that effect.)  Needless to say, that ended the request for paper software once and for all.  If anyone has a copy of that letter, please post it to the group.  It was a gem.

I can still hear Mike saying things like...."You could make a case for....well maybe a six-pack...."

Farewell to two old network friends.

Jake  


> 
>   A friend made me aware, this morning, of the death of Paul Baran (cf. 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/technology/28baran.html>).  There 
> were many interesting aspects of the NYT obituary.
>   One was this sentence: "He quickly developed an interest in the 
> survivability of communications systems in the event of a nuclear 
> attack, and spent the next several years at RAND working on a series of 
> 13 papers ? two of them classified ? under contract to the Air Force, 
> titled, 'On Distributed Communications.' "
>   Does anyone know if those classified papers might be declassified, if 
> only to allow scholars to more fully assess Paul's contributions?
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:34:40 +0100
> From: "Nigel Roberts" <nigel at channelisles.net>
> Subject: Re: [ih] Paul Baran
> To: internet-history at postel.org
> Message-ID: <4D909C80.9020901 at channelisles.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> 
> Folks:
> 
> I wonder if I can enlist the collective wisdom of the members of this list.
> 
> A friend of mine is working on a project -- to document the 'Untold 
> Stories of the Creation of the Internet'. The idea is not to write a 
> complete history, but to paint a picture of some of the more interesting 
> and amusing stories of the last 30-40 years.
> 
> She and I'd be grateful for any and all leads in this area ..
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:35:01 +0100
> From: "Nigel Roberts" <nigel at channelisles.net>
> Subject: [ih] Untold tales. ..
> To: internet-history at postel.org
> Message-ID: <4D909C95.4020908 at channelisles.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> 
> Folks:
> 
> I wonder if I can enlist the collective wisdom of the members of this list.
> 
> A friend of mine is working on a project -- to document the 'Untold 
> Stories of the Creation of the Internet'. The idea is not to write a 
> complete history, but to paint a picture of some of the more interesting 
> and amusing stories of the last 30-40 years.
> 
> She and I'd be grateful for any and all leads in this area ..
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:26:58 -0400 (EDT)
> From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
> Subject: Re: [ih] Paul Baran
> To: internet-history at postel.org
> Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu
> Message-ID: <20110328152658.0E04718C0BD at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
> 
>    From: Guy Almes <galmes at tamu.edu>
> 
>> Does anyone know if those classified papers might be declassified,
>> if only to allow scholars to more fully assess Paul's contributions?
> 
> I don't know if they have ever been declassified - the RAND site about
> this work:
> 
>  http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran-list.html
> 
> doesn't contain them.
> 
> However, Baran himself said (in his oral history interview with CBI, pg.
> 25) that they "did not add much to the discussion", so I'm not sure we'd
> learn much from them.
> 
> One covered "Weak spots and Patches", and it contained a couple of bugs
> found by readers of the 11-volume set, and fixes for those issues. The
> other concerned cryptography, which is obviously not central to the work.
> 
> 
> A giant has left us.
> 
> 	Noel
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
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> End of internet-history Digest, Vol 51, Issue 11
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