NEWDOM: Re: offtopic for NANOG - do not read (really ISC)

Sun Apr 27 04:05:48 UTC 1997

Oh man, oh man, oh man.  This is like a shooting gallery.  I can't stop myself.

Forgive me, all.

> Paul Vixie has stated on the NANOG list that NSI
> pays for his equipment. 

I stated that NSI provided the hardware for F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET, which has
about 2% of the computrons in my network.

>                           Paul is part of the Internet
> Software Consortium (ISC) <http://www.ispc.org>

Correction, Paul is the Technical Director of the Internet Software 
Consortium, whose web page is actually <URL:http://www.isc.org/>.

> an IRS approved 501(c) company that accepts
> donations so that Paul can write software that
> supports the domain name system.

Paul hasn't written any domain name software in a while.  I prepared most
of the code that's being released as BIND 8.1, but other people actually
do the work.

> Their web site says they have a $700,000/year budget.

ISC's web page states that UUNET's old nonprofit once gave us $700K, which
we made to last for three years.  We're currently out of money.  I'm
funding BIND and INN out of my own pocket, and work on DHCP has currently
stopped.  Donations would be most welcome.  I could even find a way to use
$700K/yr if we were sure we were going to get it, but right now if ISC had
$700K we would assume that it had to last for several years.

The fully loaded cost (payroll taxes, insurance, benefits) of a California
senior software engineer with 12+ years of experience (as each of ISC's
programmers are) runs from $90K to $120K per year.  If I had my druthers
we'd put 1.5 people on BIND, 2 people on INN, and 0.5 people on DHCP.  Do
the math.  And note that the secretariat (Internet Multicasting Services)
has an overhead rate of 0% (zero percent), and the contract administrator
(Vixie Laboratories) has an overhead rate of 0% (zero percent).  My salary
as Technical Director is, for 1997 at least, $0 (zero dollars).

> According to the IRS, you can get full-disclosure
> on all of this.

Yes.  And you have it, above.

> Apparently, the ISC endorses the IAHC according
> to the ITU's web site. NSI of course does not endorse
> the IAHC.

You betcha.

> Paul Vixie also has a for-profit company. It gets
> a little confusing which activities are which. 

You betcha.

>                                                 It is
> not surprising that people have trouble figuring out
> which hat these people where from one moment
> to the next.

I have trouble myself.  I wish I could bill somebody for reading NANOG, for
instance.  But then I wouldn't be able to procmail Karl out of existence,
so maybe it's better off as a volunteer activity.