nanog mailing list archives
RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net
From: "Daniel Golding" <dgolding () sockeye com>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:03:49 -0500
Interestingly, this revolving photo op with the A root name server has been going on for several years. To those who are not very technical, there is something uniquely reassuring about the idea that the internet has a "center" or a "brain". It is difficult to say why, but I speculate that the idea that the internet is easier to cripple or destroy helps government officials sleep at night, because it maintains the illusion of control. Distributed systems are much harder to control, and are disconcerting to those who's task is control of systems rather than their perpetuation. - Daniel Golding
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu]On Behalf Of Sean Donelan Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:03 AM To: nanog () merit edu Subject: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net I don't whether to laugh or cry. Its just a computer. http://www.washtech.com/news/netarch/13672-1.html If you destroyed the copy of the US Constitution in the National Archives in Washington DC, would that mean the end of the US Government? If someone broke into NARA and scribbled a new amendment on the tail of the parchment, would the US Government be bound to follow what ever he wrote on the Constitution? No, of course not. The Root Zone files aren't unique historical documents, and there is nothing special about the copy on a.root-servers.net. If a tornado blew through Verisign's offices tomorrow, would it mean the end of the Internet? No. If someone corrupted Verisign's files, would that mean we have to follow the bogus records? No, we'd clean them up. Or more likely, the other operators would rollback their zone files to the previous known good copy. Would it disrupt our operations. Yes. Would it be irrecoverable? No. The root files are important business records, and I expect the custodian to take reasonable precautions appropriate for their value. Do I expect to see machine-gun nests outside Verisign's office? No. a.root-servers.net is just a piece of hardware. If it was destroyed, we've got more. http://www.sms800.com/ http://www.dtc.org/
Current thread:
- Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Sean Donelan (Nov 13)
- Re: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Christopher A. Woodfield (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Daniel Golding (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Deepak Jain (Nov 14)
- Re: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net bmanning (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Deepak Jain (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Sean Donelan (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Deepak Jain (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Sean Donelan (Nov 14)
- RE: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net Patrick Greenwell (Nov 14)
- Re: Photo Op: You too can have your picture taken with a.root-servers.net/rff reply Richard Forno (Nov 15)