[ih] Dave Mills has passed away

[Jack Haverty]

> I am accumulating Dave Mills stories here:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XU6Fn5rFeJLO4mIBSa9e8V8BIDwafI0Lvlmi4gQwcmE/edit?usp=sharing

For your Mills Compendium:

--------------------------------------------------

In the infancy of The Internet during the early 1980s, Dave was my 
friend and colleague.  He was always curious, competent, innovative, 
informative, and playful - for example, I learned from Dave that the 
popular PING tool was actually an acronym: Packet InterNet Groper. 
Internet meetings and mailing list debates were fun when Dave was involved.

Dave was also my nemesis.   As the explorer and tinkerer scientist, Dave 
was always trying out new ideas for his potent army of Fuzzies - the 
small computers he was seeding around the Internet.  At the time, my 
task from Arpa was to "make the core Internet run as a reliable 
service".   Tinkering and Reliability do not mix well.

Dave was the Scientist of the Internet.   At Internet meetings, Dave 
would report on his latest Fuzzy Adventures.   I can paraphrase his 
reports as "I tickled the Internet with a Fuzzy stick and it turned 
pink!"  My reaction was always "Don't do that!!"

Few people probably realize one of Dave's crucial contributions to 
Internet technology - the concept of "Autonomous Systems", which 
survives today, 40 years later.  Dave didn't invent it, but he caused 
it.  The antics of his Fuzzies forced Eric Rosen and I to create 
Autonomous Systems and EGP as a "firewall" mechanism to keep the 
Internet "core" safe from the marauding Fuzzies and their occasional 
collateral damage.

Scientists yearn to measure things.  Engineers just want to make it 
work.  In the 1980s, the scientist part of Dave needed to measure time 
on the Internet and there was no way to do that.   So he created one, 
quite elegant and unbelievably accurate.   Then his Engineering persona 
made it work.

The Internet will never forget Dave.  As the Internet evolves into the 
Internet of Things, and billions of devices continue to appear, they 
will all know what time it is, thanks to Dave.

Dave is still here, all over The Internet.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 665 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://elists.isoc.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20240119/ecbb519e/attachment.asc>