Very interesting explanation, thank you.
Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
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Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#42“BGP is literally the glue of the Internet” - I think you’ll find BGP is figuratively the glue of the Internet ;)
Merriam-Webster "Ask the Editor": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_VHZq_7eU
Also worth watching, "The History of English in 10 Minutes": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rexKqvgPVuA
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is basically correct. BGP is weird. The addresses for one of Google's many datacenters were routed incorrectly for packets coming from some subset of IP space. Unless Google is running active ping tests to that subset of IP space, the way they would normally detect it is for someone to call and complain. In this case, the author decided to take a shortcut and call the owner of the "problem peer" directly.
Although only a vanishingly small percentage of Google users can call and complain. Blog or tweet or post to HN and hope Matt Cutts sees it and notifies the right team, maybe.
>Blog or tweet or post to HN and hope Matt Cutts sees it and notifies the right team, maybe.
It seems that's more or less the quasi-official support channel even for paid services from Google.
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
You do realise there's more than one meaning for "glue" these days, presumably (including "something that binds together")?
There's also more than meaning for "literally" these days.
With two inflection points in the phraseology, you can literally reverse your glue.
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#45“BGP is literally the glue of the Internet” - I think you’ll find BGP is figuratively the glue of the Internet ;)
Obligatory The Oatmeal reference:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#46“BGP is literally the glue of the Internet” - I think you’ll find BGP is figuratively the glue of the Internet ;)
Merriam-Webster "Ask the Editor": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_VHZq_7eU Also worth watching, "The History of English in 10 Minutes": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rexKqvgPVuA
I think it would be a stretch to suggest that the use of "literally" here was for the sake of hyperbole. It seems pretty clear that it's intended as an analogy.
Interesting videos though, didn't realize I'd stepped on another unexploded grammar mine from The War. I really should know better at this stage.
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#47“BGP is literally the glue of the Internet” - I think you’ll find BGP is figuratively the glue of the Internet ;)
I'm in this camp. To me, 'literally' has only one meaning. If it doesn't, the word loses all utility. He could say 'is essentially the glue', I suppose.
You are outdated to the extent that you would have been behind the times in the 1680s where the word was already being used to mean 'what follows must be taken in the strongest admissible sense'.
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also more than meaning for "literally" these days.
That only makes it more likely that what was said has a semantically correct meaning though (or is that what you meant?).
He meant that there is literally only one definition for literally. Any other use of the word cuts away at its meaning (like what happened in that context).
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
cellphones ?
There's a trend to use VoIP on cellphones too (see LTE). So in the future this will not help at all.
Even with LTE/VoLTE, the voice packets are usually contained within the telco private network, that just happen to be IP based, with private interconnections to the other telcos.
At some point we might see most of the VoIP being transported across the internet as well, but that'll be the far future.
Re: Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
#50And nothing will change. At least not until someone does this with malicious intent - script kiddie A knocks out big site, or a censoring state decides that it should block a free speech site from the entire Internet.
Evil routing has been employed a whole bunch of times going back decades, most visibly a couple of years ago when IIRC Iran (?) started advertising bad routes for a bunch of big sites, including Google
I can't find much information about Iran advertising bad routed, but China did: http://bgpmon.net/?p=282