Steven M. Bellovin

cs.columbia.edu/~smb

Popular posts: 5
Total points: 664
HN comments: 246
Rank: #3,693 personal

Visit cs.columbia.edu/~smb → On Hacker News Jun 2015 – Nov 2019

Security & Privacy 3 Networking & Internet 2 Infrastructure & DevOps 2 History & Retro Computing 2 Society, Policy & Culture 1

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Usenet, authentication, and engineering: early design decisions for Usenet

2018170 points54 comments History & Retro Computing details

A Twitter thread on trolls brought up mention of trolls on Usenet . The reason they were so hard to deal with, even then, has some lessons for today; besides, the history is interesting. (Aside: this is, I think, the first longish thing I’ve ever written about any of the early design decisions for Usenet. I should…

The Early History of Usenet, Part I: The Technological Setting

2019123 points39 comments History & Retro Computing details

Usenet—Netnews—was conceived almost exactly 40 years ago this month. To understand where it came from and why certain decisions were made the way they were, it’s important to understand the technological constraints of the time.