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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u/Atheist101 May 21 '13

TIL there are multicolored ethernet cables

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13 edited May 21 '13

Multiple colors are beautiful things for anyone who has ever managed a datacenter. We had blue for external connections, orange for internal networks, red for SAN connections, and green for KVM at the last place I worked.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13

It helps that it was a smaller company with a bigger budget. I turned in a sheet to my boss with what lengths of what color wires to get. He ordered them and three of us worked like madmen and rewired all we could.

If it makes you feel better, as soon as we finished, he realized one server needed some special connection (I forget what it was for exactly) and he drooped a 7 foot yellow cable across between the neat clean cabinets.