[ih] sad news: Peter Kirstein

[Vint Cerf]

thanks for this reminiscence - I am sharing with Peter's family whom we
will see on Saturday.

vint


On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 5:11 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Peter was, IMHO, possibly the most important driving force behind
> getting the fledgling Internet to actually work!   Peter (and his group)
> was the only "real" User of the Internet back in 1981.   Or at least the
> most memorable to me.
>
> Summer/Fall 1981 was when Vint added an "Internet" task to my group's
> contract at BBN, with the assignment to make the Internet work reliably
> as a 24x7 communications service, just like we had been doing for the
> ARPANET for a decade.  The Internet then was just a handful or so of
> "gateways" (now called "routers") interconnecting networks.
>
> Most "Internet traffic" then actually moved across the ARPANET, which
> was not only reliable but also rarely did nasty things like dropping IP
> datagrams, reordering them, and otherwise mangling datagram flows.  The
> neonatal TCP implementations, running over the ARPANET, didn't have much
> real work to do in moving users' data.   The ARPANET did most of the
> heavy lifting for them.
>
> However, Peter and the UCL group were actually trying to use an Internet
> path which involved at least 2 resource-starved gateways and several
> networks of different speeds, delays, etc.   Unlike most users, the
> Internet was supporting Peter's group's everyday activities, not just
> occasional network experiments.  And they really used it.  And they
> exposed lots of problems.
>
> Being on the EU side of the Atlantic, they always had a 5 hour or so
> headstart on us every day.  So there were often problems, waiting for
> BBN to "fix the Internet" every morning - especially after it became
> known that BBN was tasked to make the Internet work as a 24x7 reliable
> service.
>
> IMHO, that pressure from real users with real problems was a key driver
> to all the things we had to do to get the Internet out of the "research
> lab" to come online as a reliable communications service.
>
> Peter made (us make) the Internet work...
>
> /Jack Haverty
>
>
>
> On 1/8/20 8:09 PM, Vint Cerf via Internet-history wrote:
> > Looking at this from a different perspective, we had Peter in our midst
> and
> > contributing heavily to networking successes and spread from about 1967
> > when I first met him while at UCLA. That's over half a century. What a
> > gift! His work is still evident and his story of collaboration
> undiminished
> > by his departure from our midst. Yes, another giant has left us, but his
> > work remains to remind us of what we can do when we work together. None
> of
> > that is gone though we shall not see him again in this world.
> >
> > I am glad to have called him "friend" for many, many years.
> > vint
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 9:27 PM Bob Hinden via Internet-history <
> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>> On Jan 8, 2020, at 11:38 AM, Toerless Eckert via Internet-history <
> >> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>> On Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 08:26:00AM +1300, Brian E Carpenter via
> >> Internet-history wrote:
> >>>> This is really bad news. And don't forget his team's true pioneering
> in
> >> video-conferencing over the Internet too.
> >>> Indeed
> >> Yes, very sad news indeed.  Sigh...
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >>> All MICE and friends will miss him dearly, and keep fond memories.
> >>>
> >>> Toerless
> >>>
> >>>> Regards
> >>>>   Brian Carpenter
> >>>>
> >>>> On 09-Jan-20 06:17, Vint Cerf via Internet-history wrote:
> >>>>> I am sorry to relay the sad news that Peter Kirstein passed away this
> >>>>> morning (London time). He was a key implementer and promoter of
> >> networking,
> >>>>> participating in both the ARPANET and Internet developments as well
> as
> >> the
> >>>>> UK Coloured Book and Open Systems Interconnection protocols.
> >>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_T._Kirstein
> >>>>>
> >>>>> vint cerf
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>> --
> >>> ---
> >>> tte at cs.fau.de
> >>> --
> >>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >> --
> >> Internet-history mailing list
> >> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>
> >
> --
> Internet-history mailing list
> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>


-- 
New postal address:
Google
1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
Reston, VA 20190