The Internet Revealed - A film about IXPs v2.0: now available

Wed Feb 10 23:30:59 UTC 2010

On Feb 10, 2010, at 11:50 AM, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Feb 2010, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> 
>> Agree to disagree is right.  The film is called "The Internet Revealed: _A_film_about_IXPs_".  You find it strange that the film would actually focus on IXPs.  I find it strange that you couldn't figure this out before clicking play.
> 
> If it would have said "The internet revealed - an advertisement for IXPs" I might have been expecting the thing I got.

It's a matter of degree, right?

>> However, I do believe you should know how the Internet works.  And if you honestly believe packets in a single stream cannot travel over different paths, you clearly do not.  And before you come back with BS about "normal operation" or such, realize your statement was far more "factually incorrect" than what the video said about private interconnects.
> 
> I'm saying they don't normally do so, as one might believe when looking at the movie. Any core router ECMP algorithm that sprays L4 sessions like that will cause re-ordering which is bad, mkay.

Yes, flow switching is common, but it is by no means guaranteed.  Lots of people do per-packet across LAG bundles.  The Internet topology changes do not wait until all TCP sessions are complete.  Not everyone does flow switching.  Etc.

Which all means, as I said in my last sentence above, that you are doing exactly what you accuse them of doing - only worse.  Your "facts" are not facts, the most you can accuse this video of is not explaining things fully.

I guess the only question left is: What are you advertising?

> But I'll shut up after this, I'm obviously not jaded enough like you other people to just swallow this as "advertisement". I expected a correct factual way of describing how the Internet works including IXPs, not an IXP advertisement. My expectations were obviously wrong from the response I'm seeing.

I wouldn't call you "jaded" when you do what you accuse others of doing.

And to be clear, you got "a correct factual way of describing how the Internet works including IXPs".  It may not have been complete, but if you honestly expected a complete description of the Internet in a film of /any/ length ... well, words fail me.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick