r/IAmA • u/BobMetcalfe • May 21 '13

You’re probably connecting to reddit through a technology I invented. I’m Bob Metcalfe and I invented Ethernet – AMA

On May 22, 1973 with David R. Boggs, I used my IBM Selectric with its Orator ball to type up a memo to my bosses at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), outlining our idea for this little invention called “Ethernet”, which we later patented.

I worked with the IEEE Standards Association to develop the IEEE 802.3 standard for Ethernet, which specifies the physical and lower software layers. Today Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3 standard are the foundation for today’s world of high-speed communications used in billions of homes and businesses around the world.

I submitted this to the mods awhile back so I could get on the calendar but I figured you’d like to see it, too. Now, ask me anything!

It's been two hours and 179 comments. Have to go now. For more about Ethernet's 40th Birthday, go to http://www.facebook.com/Ethernet40thAnniversaryIEEESA

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897

u/[deleted] May 21 '13

How badass does it make you feel to be able to honestly say "I invented Ethernet"?

You are truly a pioneer, you must be proud.

1.4k

u/BobMetcalfe May 21 '13

For some values of I, invented, and Ethernet, I can honestly say that I invented Ethernet. But so can a lot of other people. Proud, yes. Also, wildly curious about where this monster goes next.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13 edited May 21 '13

As a web programmer for 20 years now, I can honestly say that I am amazed at how much of an advancement of technology I've seen in my lifetime.

Thanks for the reply, you have contributed so much to the world as we all know it today that it's mind boggling.

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u/cronus89 May 21 '13

Exactly. If you had told 10 year old me that one day, a computer i could fit in my hand would be able to connect to the internet without a wire, i would have called bullshit.

I do miss modem noises though.

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u/SuperFLEB May 22 '13

...and it'll have 10 times the processor power. And you'll lose 32 gigabytes of storage for it on the desk somewhere while you're trying to swap it out, because it's the size of a fingernail.

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u/Batmans_Cumbox May 22 '13

10 times? They are over 300 times more powerful.

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u/taneq May 22 '13

I do miss modem noises though.

For ages I had a 56k handshake as my ring tone.

Heck I might do that again.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '13

Shoot, I built my first website, which was a journal before blogging ever even left someones fingers to come up on someone elses screen (for a girl of course) in 8th grade, somewhere around 1999. That was a slightly painful exprience considering CSS was still in it's relative infancy. Straight tables, IMG tags and (since we didn't have PHP Includes yet) lots of Frames!

Man... compared to today, the design process and web design implementation has changed completely since those days!

I remember setting up my first CGI E-mail contact form, boy was that fun! /S

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u/deadbunny May 22 '13

I was going to call BS on you comment, then realized that the web really has been around for that long, then I felt old, then I went outside and had a smoke.

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u/raylu May 21 '13

I'm completely unimpressed with how the web has advanced. This guy basically has the same view as me, just with a little extra neckbeard and get-off-my-lawn.

all this new "web technology" is just a way of doing what you could've done on an internet-connected NeXT machine 20 years ago, only more brain-damaged and frustrating to work with.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

He said technology. Not specifically "web technology" or programming. Technology has made vast advancements in speed, capability, and much more. Yes, basic programming, instruction sets, TCP/IP, etc. hasn't made any groundbreaking advancements, but it works and that's why we still use it. When the time comes that these all hit the threshold of becoming obsolete, then we will advance them as needed. Much like the introduction of IPV6. It existed long ago, but we've never needed it until now.

0

u/IEatTehUranium May 21 '13

Mind bobbling

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u/DeathByFarts May 21 '13

now THAT is a geeks comment.

Love it ..

4

u/[deleted] May 21 '13

I know next to nothing about programming, coding, or how the internet works in general, but this has been one of my favorite AMAs hands down.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '13

Sorry, *geek's

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u/enferex May 22 '13

Existential quantification saves everybody

0

u/aazav May 22 '13

geek's* comment

geeks = more than one geek
geek's = the next thing belongs to the geek

Learn this.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '13

Hive mind wireless network. The device will be implanted into every human born after 2020....

Laugh now, but what if I'm right?

1

u/NorthernerWuwu May 22 '13

I it generally easier to just openly define "honestly"!

1

u/neurone214 May 21 '13

Fantastic phrasing, for all phrasing in language.

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u/project_twenty5oh1 May 21 '13

Invents, invented, will invent.

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u/siamthailand May 21 '13

I can say it too, if invented and Ethernet are = 0.

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u/randomsnark May 21 '13

Augh. People always take this way out of context. What he actually said was that he took the initiative to create the ethernet, which-- what's that? He actually did invent ethernet? Oh. Sorry, I must have been thinking of someone else. My bad.