Packet-switching becomes middle-aged

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Forty years ago today, Donald Davies of the National Physical Laboratory gave the first public presentation of his idea for a packet-switched network. The strange thing is that he and Paul Baran of RAND independently came up with the concept. Baran got to it earlier but mothballed the idea because of AT&T’s hostility. So when Bob Taylor’s ARPA-funded researchers began working on the design of the ARPAnet they knew nothing about Baran’s earlier work, and only learned about it from Donald Davies. The full story, if you’re interested, is told in my book.

I was privileged to know Donald towards the end of his life — he was the External Assessor for the Open University course You, your computer and the Net which Martin Weller, Gary Alexander and I created in the late 1990s. He was exquisitely polite, modest, reserved and ferociously clever. In the last year of his life, just for amusement, he wrote a simulator (in Visual Basic, if you please) of the German Enigma machine which Bletchley Park cracked during World War 2.

Internet memes

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Michael has found a timeline of memes. Hooray! Now, instead of having to embark on long explanations to sceptical interrogators, I can simply point them to it.

What’s a meme? Wikipedia says the term “denotes any learned feeling, thought or behavior. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a sociological ‘culture’ in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus”.

I prefer to say that a meme is an infectious idea.

On this day…

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… in 1963, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater. It was one of JFK’s great achievements.

Clou…,er, Dell computing

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According to The Register,

Dell is attempting to trademark the tech industry’s favourite buzzword – “cloud computing”.

The Round Rock, Texas firm is trying to gain control of the ubiquitous term according to a document filed on the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website.

Dell’s application has already reached the so-called “notice of allowance” stage, whereby a company is granted “written notification from the USPTO that a specific mark has survived the opposition period… and has consequently been allowed for registration”.

In other words, Dell has very quietly pushed its trademarking application past the phase where opponents of its move can have any say in the process.

But that doesn’t mean Dell now owns the term “cloud computing”, which, according to a quick search on Google News has been used nearly 3,500 times in the past week alone. The USPTO notes: “Receiving a notice of allowance is another step on the way to registration.”

“Cloud computing” is basically a catch-all term used widely among CEOs – from Ballmer to Jobs and everyone inbetween – who are increasingly preoccupied with pushing their products and services online; or, as they prefer it, up into the cloud. So if Dell successfully snatches the trademark, its usage could be somewhat curtailed.

Microsoft goes into drinks business

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From BBC NEWS…

Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft’s older programs.

It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.

It is seen as Microsoft’s answer to rivals’ use of “virtualisation” as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing…

Hmmm… Some people think that midori is a “beautiful green color liqueur with refreshing and fruity taste of melon” which “can be used to mix a wide range of juices, spirits”.