What I am reading: How Ethernet Was Invented

Recently, I've been trying to learn more about networking. For the past few days, I've been specifically interested in learning about ethernet. In the process of researching I came across How Ethernet Was Inveted written by the inventor of ethernet himeself: Bob Metcalfe.

This artilce was published by IEEE in there Annals series. I suppose these are a series of articles whose content is retellings of various important points in computing history.

I enjoyed this article in particular because of its informal and narrative form. Bob tells the story of inventing ethernet 3 times with help from others. But the article spends more of it's time talking about the circumstances aound the creation of ethernet.

Bob describes about his expeiences working with and using ARPANET in his early career. He tells about when he first came across ALOHAnet, the networking technology from the hawaiian islands that inspired ethernet, and how that changed his thinking about networking between machines. He descirbes how the idea of ethernet and LANs in general evolved alongside the new personal computers that were just starting to come onto the market.

The article is also quite humorous and personal. Metcalfe shares many interperonal moments throughout the whole process. He describes crashing on peoples couches, working late into the nigh with other, avoiding the fascism of the analog electrics department at xerox. There was a lot that made me laugh in this piece.

While pieces like these don't go into every nitty gritty detail, I feel like these more narritive oriented stories of technology are some of my favorite pieces. They provide a sort of narrative arch that you can fit the specific technological details into. It's one thing to know that ethernet was an evolution of ALOHAnet, its another to know that Metcalfe learned about ALOHAnet while he was jetlagged and couldn't fall asleep on his friend's couch. The former is a technical detail, the latter is a funny story I won't forget.