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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday May 30 2015, @01:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the watch-out-for-the-spaceballs dept.

Boffins [Scientists] that want to see Internet protocols extend to outer space – the so-called “Interplanetary Internet” – need to prove they're offering something useful, according to one of the father-figures of the Earth-bound Internet.

Vint Cerf, who has taken an interest in beyond-Earth applications for the Internet protocol stack since the 1990s, told last week's InterPlanetary Networking SIG (IPNSIG) meeting that to get beyond a mere curiosity, the SIG needs to be useful.

“Our challenge, to the extent that we're interested in serious expansion of communications capability for space exploration, is to demonstrate its utility,” Cerf told the gathering.

“It's not that anyone thinks that you should just build this interplanetary thing and hope that somebody uses it,” he added.

One possibility, for example, is that spacecraft that support these kinds of protocols could, having fulfilled their primary mission, have a longer economically-useful life if they can then become nodes in the interplanetary backbone.

And there's no doubt that there'll be a lot more data being flung around in space: last year, for example, the success of NASA's LADEE broadband experiment showed that free space optics could cook along at hundreds of megabits a second without an atmosphere to get in the way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/27/interplanetary_network_sig/

IPNSIG presentations and videos: http://ipnsig.org/2015/05/26/speaker-presentation-materials-2015/


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by martyb on Saturday May 30 2015, @06:13PM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 30 2015, @06:13PM (#190165) Journal

    Disclaimer: I am an editor, but did not edit this particular story.

    Boffins (Scientists) that...

    Why not "Boffins (Nerds)"? Or better yet, just "Scientists" without the pejorative. I pretty much ignore anything written by anyone who refers to scientists as "boffins" or any other diminutive.

    The linked story: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/27/interplanetary_network_sig/ [theregister.co.uk] starts with:

    Boffins that want to see Internet protocols extend to outer space – the so-called “Interplanetary Internet” – need to prove they're offering something useful, according to one of the father-figures of the Earth-bound Internet.

    This is a direct quote from the original story where, presumably, the editor added a parenthetical to explain the term to non-British readers (El Reg is based out of England.) According to these definitions, it is a form of British slang:

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin [wikipedia.org]:

      A boffin is British slang for a scientist, engineer, or other person engaged in technical or scientific work. The original World War II conception of war-winning researchers means that the term tends to have more positive connotations than related terms like egghead, nerd, or geek.

    • http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boffin [merriam-webster.com]:

      chiefly British

      : a scientific expert; especially : one involved in technological research

    • http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/boffin [oxforddictionaries.com]:

      1 A person engaged in scientific or technical research

      1.1 A person with knowledge or a skill considered to be complex or arcane

    • And again from the Oxford Dictionary, it has these synonyms [oxforddictionaries.com]:

      British informal: they wore the white coats of the back-room boffin
      expert, specialist, authority, genius, mastermind;
      scientist, technician, researcher, inventor
      informal: egghead, brains, Einstein, whizz, wizard, alpha geek
      British informal: brainbox, clever clogs
      North American informal: maven, rocket scientist, brainiac

    That is an admittedly informal term, but I do not perceive it to be a pejorative, at least not to the extent that I see 'nerd' or 'geek' being used. I personally perceive 'boffin' to be a bit of a portmanteau of 'bafflingly' 'intelligent'.

    Lastly, I've met many a 'scientist' who I would in no way consider to be a 'boffin' -- much like I've met many a person who can write code that I'd be hard-pressed to call a programmer.

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
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  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday May 31 2015, @05:44AM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Sunday May 31 2015, @05:44AM (#190332) Journal

    Odd. The only time I've ever seen it was when I was periodically glancing through El Reg, and I got the wrong impression thanks to the way headlines are worded:

    "Boffins have devised TERMINATOR-style LIQUID METAL — for an antenna"
    "ROBOQUAFF! Boffins build smooth robot arm to lift a pint of beer"
    "SLOPPY STELLAR CANNIBAL star is a NASTY 1, astroboffins squeal"

    I wasn't reading the linked articles (I was there more for the tech & medical pieces), so my interpretation was that "boffins" referred to lawmakers, politicians, pointy-haired management or at best some sub-par kind of scientist nobody can take seriously.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:23AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:23AM (#190344) Journal

    It is good practice to

    • mark direct quotes as direct quotes, instead of copy/pasting as if it were your own words
    • Add editorial remarks in square brackets in order to make the reader aware that the bracketed stuff is not part of the direct quote
    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:25AM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:25AM (#190364) Journal
      We have been using the blockquote to mark out quotations from the original source since the site started. The clue is in the name. The link to the original article is just below the quotation. Single sentences can use " ..quotation..", anything larger requires a blockquote.
    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:05PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:05PM (#190414) Journal

      Add editorial remarks in square brackets in order to make the reader aware that the bracketed stuff is not part of the direct quote

      Oops! "(Scientists)" has been changed to "[Scientists]" — thanks for holding us to the highest standards.

      Heh. I think I just replied to a grammar boffin!

      =)

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.