28 Aug
2019
28 Aug
'19
11:45 p.m.
On 8/28/2019 10:24 AM, Larry McVoy wrote:
The great Mike Padlipski said "do you want
protocols that look nice or
protocols that work nice?" in his fantastic book Elements of Networking
Style [*].
I liked the book enough that I tracked down a phone number for Mike,
I think he was at UCLA or somewhere in LA but I might be wrong (the
number I have is 310-670-4288 which is a LA area code), and called him
and thanked him for the book. We ended up becoming friendly with each
other and chatted from time to time about networking stuff. I miss that
guy, he was great.
I'm an average system person who's has had the great fortune to have
worked with many world-class people. My first real job was at Ford
Aerospace in 1978. They were an early commercial user of Unix (PWB in
their case). John Nagle had the desk next to me. Mike Padlipski was also
in the group. I never knew exactly what Mike did, given that he seemed
to spend most of his time smoking and reading the N. Y. Times. But,
other great people in the group said that Mike was a networking
protocol expert. I guess he was.
Mike didn't really converse. Instead, he expounded at great length.
He was quite a character.
[*] The book is available here for $20. Worth it.
I have a copy I'd like to sell. It's the 1985 printing. I'll
also sell my copy for $20 + shipping (local pickup in the
Berkeley area is welcome). Contact me off list if you're
interested.
Jon