“Just as it's possible to write a TCP/IP protocol stack in some utterly inappropriate programming language like ML or Visual Basic, so, too, it's possible to implement TCP/IP over carrier pigeons, or paper tape, or daemons summoned from the vasty deep.”

—  Charles Stross , The Laundry Files

Jennifer morgue (2007)
The Laundry Files

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Just as it's possible to write a TCP/IP protocol stack in some utterly inappropriate programming language like ML or Vi…" by Charles Stross?
Charles Stross photo
Charles Stross 211
British science fiction writer and blogger 1964

Related quotes

Charles Stross photo

“Most of what we get up to in the Laundry is symbolic computation intended to evoke decidedly nonsymbolic consequences. But that’s not all there is to…well, any sufficiently alien technology is indistinguishable from magic, so let’s call it that, all right? You can do magic by computation, but you can also do computation by magic. The law of similarity attracts unwelcome attention from other proximate universes, other domains where the laws of nature worked out differently. Meanwhile, the law of contagion spreads stuff around. Just as it’s possible to write a TCP/IP protocol stack in some utterly inappropriate programming language like ML or Visual Basic, so, too, it’s possible to implement TCP/IP over carrier pigeons, or paper tape, or daemons summoned from the vasty deep.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Jennifer Morgue (2006), Chapter 12, “Power Breakfast” (p. 254)

Jon Postel photo

“TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.”

Jon Postel RFC 793: Transmission Control Protocol

The "Robustness Principle", RFC 793 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0793.txt, Transmission Control Protocol, entire text of section 2.10 (September 1981).

Merlin Mann photo

“Thing is: the internet’s made of IP addresses, opinions, and assholes. It’s what’s there. That’s the basic equipment.”

Merlin Mann (1966) American blogger

KungFu Grippe http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/273685587/indefensible-i-dont-know-how-anybody-with-a
Websites, The KungFu Grippe Tumblr website

“Fragmentation is like classful addressing -- an interesting early architectural error that shows how much experimentation was going on while IP was being designed.”

Paul Vixie (1963) American internet pioneer

NANOG mailing list http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2000-06/msg00351.html (2000)

Cassandra Clare photo

“Help? Of course we can help,' Malcolm said, turning around to face them. 'You need to get a message through? There's always carrier kittens.'
'You mean pigeons,' said Bat. 'Carrier pigeons.'
Malcolm shook his head. 'Carrier kittens. They're so cute, no one can deny them. Fix your mouse problem, too.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Bat Velasquez and Malcolm Fade, pg. 403
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Peter Greenaway photo

“Later this device of mirror and mirror-carriers will be developed and many changes rung from its possibilities.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

Prospero's Books

Ward Cunningham photo

“So today, let's write a program simply. But let's also realize that tomorrow, we're going to make it more complex, because tomorrow it's going to do more. So we'll take that simplicity and we'll lose some of it. But tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow's program is as simple as possible for tomorrow's needs. Hopefully we'll preserve simplicity as the program grows.”

Ward Cunningham (1949) American computer programmer who developed the first wiki

A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work

Elia M. Ramollah photo

“Write and bulletin your thoughts on paper so it would be like bulletins in your brain too.”

Elia M. Ramollah (1973) founder and leader of the El Yasin Community

The Great Master of Thought (Amen- Vol.3), Observing management

Donald A. Norman photo

“Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.”

Donald A. Norman book The Design of Everyday Things

Source: The Design of Everyday Things (1988, 2002), Ch. 6, p. 180.

“There is a gap between industry and academia. Industry views academia as publication-focused: self-centered, lacking innovation, unaware of IP. Academia views industry as money-focused: driven by the bottom-line, innovating too quickly, product-focused. I would like to see more input from industry and emphasis on understanding 'innovation' to close this gap.”

Stephen F Bush

Stephen F. Bush, Director - Standardization Programs Development http://www.comsoc.org/blog/voice-new-ieee-comsoc-leadership-team Voices from the IEEE ComSoc Leadership Team

Related topics