Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 20 Oct 1998 00:22:52 -0400 | From | Marty Leisner <> | Subject | Jonathan Postel Is Dead at 55; Helped Start and Run Internet |
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http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/biztech/articles/18postel.html
This appeared in today NY Times...
I thinks its a sign of the times how much space they gave (I wonder how many of the Times readers knew who Jon Postel was...)
-- marty leisner@rochester.rr.com The Feynman problem solving Algorithm 1) Write down the problem 2) Think real hard 3) Write down the answer Murray Gell-mann in the NY Times<html> <head> <title>Jonathan Postel Is Dead at 55; Helped Start and Run Internet</title> <meta name="slug" content="BC-OBIT-POSTEL-NYT"> <meta name="date" content="19981017"> <meta name="length" content="0644"> <meta name="byline" content="By KATIE HAFNER"> <meta name="headline" content="Jonathan Postel Is Dead at 55; Helped Start and Run Internet"> </head> <NYT_HEADER version="1.0" type="main"> <body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <td align=left valign=top width=60><br></td> <td align=left valign=top width=480> <NYT_BANNER version="1.0" type="index">
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</NYT_HEADER> <BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE> <NYT_DATE version="1.0" type=" "> <!--ELEMENT DATE--> <H5>October 18, 1998</H5><br>
</NYT_DATE> <NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" "> <!--ELEMENT HEADLINE--> <H2>Jonathan Postel Is Dead at 55; Helped Start and Run Internet</H2>
</NYT_HEADLINE> <NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" "> <!--ELEMENT BYLINE--> <h5>By KATIE HAFNER</h5>
</NYT_BYLINE> <p> <p> <img src="http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/j.gif" align=left alt=J>onathan B. Postel, who played a pivotal role in creating and administering the Internet, died of complications after undergoing heart surgery on Friday in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, his brother Thomas Postel said Saturday. He was 55 and lived in Los Angeles. <p> <p> <NYT_INLINEIMAGE version="1.0" type="main"> <table align=right border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=2 width=160> <tr><td rowspan=2 width=10><br></td><td align=right> <img src="18postel.1.jpg" width=150 height=210><br> <font size=-2> Chris Pizzello </font></td></tr><p> <tr><td align=left><font size=-1> Jonathan B. Postel </font><hr size=1></td></tr></table> <!-- @ --> </NYT_INLINEIMAGE> Postel, a computer scientist at the <a href=#1>Information Sciences Institute</a>, a branch of the University of Southern California in Marina del Rey, Calif., was a creator of the Internet's address system. For 30 years, he handled the administrative end of Internet addresses under the auspices of the <a href=#1>Internet Assigned Numbers Authority</a>, or IANA, a federally financed entity. <p>
"Jon's greatest achievement was operating IANA," said Stephen Crocker, a colleague of Postel's. "It is a very central piece of the infrastructure. As mundane and as simple as it seemed, he set policies that made it very easy for the network to grow. He minimized bureaucratic delay and at the same time kept silly and nonsensical things to a minimum." <p> Postel began his work on computer networking in the late 1960s, while a graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was one of a small group of computer scientists who created the Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet. At UCLA in 1969, Postel assisted in the installation of the Arpanet's first communications switch, which routes network traffic. <p> For nearly 30 years, Postel also served as editor of the <a href=#1>Request for Comments</a> series, or RFCs, technical notes that began with the earliest days of the Arpanet and continued into the Internet. Though intended to be informal, RFCs often laid the foundation for technical standards governing the Internet's operation. Nearly 2,500 RFCs have been produced. <p> As part of the effort to hand administration of the Internet over to an international private corporation, this month Postel delivered to the government a proposal to transform the IANA into a nonprofit corporation, with broad representation from the commercial and academic sectors. <p> The proposed organization has been incorporated and has an interim board of directors. Pending final approval from the Department of Commerce, the new entity is prepared to take up its responsibility, said Vinton Cerf, chairman of the <a href=#1>Internet Society</a>, a professional membership society to which Postel also belonged. <p> <table align=right border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <td width=10><br></td> <td valign=top width=140> <hr size=1> <font size=-1> <b>Related Articles</b><br> <a href="/library/tech/98/10/biztech/articles/05domain.html">Planning the Internet's Final Privatization</a><br> (October 5, 1998) <p><a href="/library/tech/98/06/biztech/articles/29net.html">Internet Citizens Debate How to Form Online Union</a><br>(June 29, 1998) <hr size=1></font> </table> <!-- @ --> Postel was known for his steadiness, as well as for the influence he wielded with colleagues at meetings of professional organizations. During heated technical debates, once Postel weighed in, the matter was soon resolved. <p> As testament to Postel's control over the highest levels of the Internet, in conducting a test of the Internet's reliability this year, he rerouted the Internet's directory service to alternate locations. Although there was no disruption of the Internet's operation, the incident attracted widespread attention. Postel said he was conducting an experiment to demonstrate the network's backup capability. <p> Explaining the action, Crocker said, "I think he was exercising his legitimate responsibility to make sure the network worked as advertised." <p> In 1966, Postel graduated from UCLA, where he also obtained a master's degree in engineering in 1968 and a doctorate in computer science in 1974. <p> In addition to the Internet Society, where he served as a trustee, Postel was a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. <p> In addition to his brother Thomas, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., Postel is survived by his his companion, Susan Gould, also of Los Angeles; mother, Lois Postel, of Sherman Oaks; another brother, Russell Postel, of Sebastopol, Calif.; and a sister, Margie Bradshaw, of Paisley, Scotland. <p> <p> <p><a name=1></a><hr size=1><b>Related Sites</b><br> <font size=-1>Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability. When you have finished visiting any of these sites, you will be able to return to this page by clicking on your Web browser's "Back" button or icon until this page reappears.</font><p><ul>
<p><li><a href="http://www.isi.edu/~postel/">Jon Postel's Home Page</a> <p><li><a href="http://www.iana.org">Internet Assigned Numbers Authority</a> <p><li><a href="http://www.isi.edu/">Information Sciences Institute</a> <p><li><a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/">Request for Comments</a> <p><li><a href="http://www.isoc.org/">Internet Society</a>
</ul>
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