one-to-many messaging

[Ian Batten]

On 17 Apr 2008, at 16:25, Tom Thomson wrote:
>> BT at the time swore blind that ``ethernet didn't work''
>
> Might this have been the product of two factors?
> (a) proximity or Martlesham Heath to Cambridge, influence of Needham  
> and
> Hooper and other ring men
> (b) Martlesham's desire to own the whole stack (part of the pan- 
> European
> CCITT approach that gave us those amazing pieces of junk, ECMA (later
> ISO) Transport classes 0 and 1)

The argument, as I recall, was that ethernet didn't offer guaranteed,  
or even bounded, delivery times.  That this barely matters on a duplex  
network with two stations active, the most normal case domestically,  
and can be solved with trivial amounts of buffering, didn't appear to  
calm them.  There was also some fantastical tail about how badly made  
ethernet cables could compromise FM radio reception, which seemed  
something of a reach.

ian