[lug] Important Linux News

[D. Stimits]

Chip Atkinson wrote:
> 
> It's not just cleaning -- they are actually blowing the lines
> out!
> 
> Prior to the dot com implosion, most of the existing nodes in the
> internet were connected either to servers or work stations, thus properly
> terminating these nodes.  However, now that many of the companies have
> cratered, these nodes are simply left disconnected.  With no employees to
> notify the network service providers, and often nobody at the providers
> to receive these notifications, the nodes are simply left dangling.
> 
> The data flowing over the internet is transmitted by electrical
> or optical impulses or waves traveling over wires or glass fibers.
> Anyone familiar with wave propagation knows that a sudden change in the
> transmission properties of a media will cause reflection of the signal.
> These reflections travel backwards down the line, interfering with the
> transmitted signals.  Sometimes they cancel, sometimes they reinforce.
> Nature being what it is, these cancellations and reinforcements are
> rarely complete.  The result is what is commonly known as "hidden bits"
> or "extra bits", collectively known as busted bits.  During normal
> operation of the internet there are always a few of these busted bits
> that fly around.  However, these are taken care of ICMP, the Internet
> Cleaning Message Protocol.  These packets are sent around to all machines
> on the internet and utter IP's own rendition of "Bring out your dead",
> whereupon the busted bits are collected by the NIC driver and are sent
> back in the payload area of the ICMP packet.  As the number of these
> packets traversing the internet is rather limited, the busted
> bits have recently accumulated more rapidly than they can be removed.
> 
> The FCC, in an effort to restore the internet to proper working order,
> has now begun proceedings to purge the internet.  They will be shutting
> it down 4/1/02, 23:59:00, and will use high powered net blowers to clean
> out these busted bits.  Officials recommend that all machines running
> Windows be powered down and have their network cables removed.  A global
> email will be broadcast by the FCC that will give instructions on when
> and how to power up the machines and connect them back to the network.
> 
> For additional details, see
> http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachomatch/FCC-01-384A1.txt

This is all wrong, the real concern is the lead in the solder and pipes
used in the old days of the Internet. All lead-based solder is being
replaced with silver based where solder can't be avoided, and optical
fiber substituted in other cases. Purging all of the dust and packets
would probably cause the whole USA to end up as a super fund cleanup
site.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com