Newsgroup: it.comp.reti.ip-admin
Titolo: A moment for very important person - Mort Postel has died

Quando si e' l'autore del RFC 45 "New protocol is coming." (1970), si puo'
veramente dire di esserci stati sin dall' inizio.
Quando si e' l'unico autore del RFC 791 "IP: Internet Protocol", si puo'
veramente dire di aver scritto lo RFC piu' importante.
Sto parlando di una leggenda: Jon Postel, il creatore di IP.
Purtroppo si e' spento ieri a soli 55 anni.
Un attimo di raccoglimento mi sembra doveroso.
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Internet pioneer Jon Postel dies after heart surgery
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (October 18, 1998 12:26 p.m. EDT 
http://www.nandotimes.com
)
--
Jon Postel, the Internet pioneer who wielded enormous influence managing
technical details of the global computer network, has died of
complications from heart surgery in Los Angeles,
friends in Washington said Saturday.
He was 55.
Postel, considered by the Clinton administration to be a crucial player
in the future of the Internet, died Friday night while recovering from
surgery to replace a leaking heart valve, said Vint Cerf, a senior vice
president for MCI
Worldcom Inc. who worked closely with Postel.
The death also was announced Saturday at an Internet conference in
Barcelona, said Bill Semich, the president of .nu domain, another
Internet company.
Postel's death comes at a critical juncture for the Internet, with the
federal government in the midst of largely turning over management of
the worldwide network to a non-profit group that Postel helped organize.
Though Postel worked behind the scenes and was hardly known outside
high-tech circles, his role as director of the Internet Assigned
NumbersAuthority
 allowed the Internet to match unique numerical addresses for computers
on the global network with its millions of Web addresses, such as
www.ap.org
.
So powerful was Postel that The Economist once dubbed him "god" of the
Internet.
"Jon was a very private person and didn't seek the limelight at all,"
said Cerf, who attended high school with Postel in California. "He preferred
to exercise his stewardship role in a very quiet but competent way."
"Being famous never drove Jon," agreed another longtime friend, David
Farber, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "He had
tremendous influence,people respected his intellect."
Earlier this year, Postel drew sharp criticism but demonstrated his
influence when he redirected half the Internet's 12
directory-information computers to his own system.
 He told federal officials afterward he was running a test to
see how smoothly such a transition could be made.
A researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park, which
controls one of those computers, told The Washington Post: "If Jon asks us
to
point somewhere else, we'll do it. He is the authority here."
Cerf said Postel underwent a heart-valve replacement in 1991, but the
replacement value started to leak about 10 days ago. He was quickly
hospitalized for surgery and was recovering when he died suddenly.
"One minute he was alert and laughing about a joke, and the next minute
hewas gone," Cerf said. "It was very fast."
Postel, who was unmarried with no children, was intensely private. When
a recent trade publication profiled him and told him readers were
interested in his personal life, he answered: "If we tell them, they won't
be interested
anymore."
Cerf said Postel is survived by a brother, Mort Postel, who lives in Los
Angeles with his wife.
Buon Lavoro a tutti

point somewhere else, we'll do it. He is the authority here."
A cosa si riferiscono?  Parlano dei root nameserver?
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Marco Coletti
Network Admin, Webmaster, Tuttologo :)
PGP public key:
http://keys.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&exact=on&search=0x96A79061
Fingerprint: 9F E5 80 61 F6 9F 05 2D  EA 53 6F 2D 82 8B C7 C2
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