Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring • Hacker News Board

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#31

Post by fragmede » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:18 AM UTC

aooao wrote: post #27

I wonder if he would have designed TCP/IP differently if he'd had the chance to have a second go of it. Maybe having multiple streams within a single connection, like QUIC does, would have been a better choice. Also being able to demarcate message boundaries within the protocol itself, perhaps, instead of it being a simple byte stream.

The computers of today are vastly more capable than the computers of the day when he came up with TCP/IP so if he were to have a second chance, knowing what he knows now, we'd have to calibrate it against the fact that computers in the 1970s simply weren't as capable as the beasts we have today.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#32

Post by djtriptych » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:21 AM UTC

hah. I was an intern at Google in 2005 when he was hired and remember the wave of reverence that went through Mountain View. Salute to a legend!

It’s like two lifetimes in tech years. I remember that summer Google Earth was launched, we were a year removed from the Gmail launch, and I worked on shipping the first Summer of Code.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#33

Post by khurs » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:21 AM UTC

pwdisswordfishq wrote: post #8

> a relatively good career What's that for?

It's written down so no body language.

The video probably shows a wide smile whilst saying it.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#34

Post by djtriptych » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:23 AM UTC

tomhow wrote: post #17

roschdal wrote: post #15

[flagged]

Please don’t post snarky or low-substance comments on HN. As another commenter has pointed out, Vint Cerf himself credits Gore as playing a significant role in enabling the Internet’s emergence. He didn’t claim to have “invented” it.

I took it as a... joke...

Can we post jokes?? Everyone knows Al Gore didn't sit around in an SV garage inventing the internet.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#35

Post by uwagar » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:26 AM UTC

raychis wrote: post #14

Thought this was about Tim Berners-Lee, he is the only father I know.

he the mother

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#36

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:37 AM UTC

nubinetwork wrote: post #23

The dude is in his 80s, he should have been allowed to retire decades ago.

I was forced to retire, at 55. Good ol’ SV ageism at work. Wasn’t happy about it -at all, but I’m fortunate, in having the means to do so.

That was almost nine years ago, and I actually increased my development work, with the caveat that no one pays me to do it, anymore.

Probably one of the best things that ever happened to me, but I didn’t think so, at the time.

I wish him luck.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#37

Post by greyface- » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:41 AM UTC

aooao wrote: post #27

I wonder if he would have designed TCP/IP differently if he'd had the chance to have a second go of it. Maybe having multiple streams within a single connection, like QUIC does, would have been a better choice. Also being able to demarcate message boundaries within the protocol itself, perhaps, instead of it being a simple byte stream.

> if he'd had the chance to have a second go of it

In a sense, he did. Take a look at RFC 4838.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#38

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:44 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #28

chips_not_fries wrote: post #3

A genuine innovator No matter what you think of Google

Google can't tarnish Vint Cerf. There are lots of brilliant people at Google who do no evil. The fact that the company makes evil decisions about the direction of the web, privacy, and performs blatantly monopolistic actions does not outweigh the good things people at Google have done. At least not yet. You can hate the company but love the brilliant work the engineers have done. The same can be said of lots of compa…

Wasn’t the first time, for him, but he has managed to keep his name in the clear.

He worked for MCI/Worldcomm, before Google. Bernie Ebbers went to jail, for that.

Ahh… the good ol’ days, when we actually jailed scumbag billionaires, instead of voting massive pay bumps…

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#39

Post by tosti » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:44 AM UTC

tomhow wrote: post #17

roschdal wrote: post #15

[flagged]

Please don’t post snarky or low-substance comments on HN. As another commenter has pointed out, Vint Cerf himself credits Gore as playing a significant role in enabling the Internet’s emergence. He didn’t claim to have “invented” it.

You can just hide things you don't like, or y'know, live and let live.

Re: Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet”, is retiring

#40

Post by Vaslo » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:48 AM UTC

tomhow wrote: post #17

roschdal wrote: post #15

[flagged]

Please don’t post snarky or low-substance comments on HN. As another commenter has pointed out, Vint Cerf himself credits Gore as playing a significant role in enabling the Internet’s emergence. He didn’t claim to have “invented” it.

[flagged]