[ntpwg] KoD 'backoff' BCP/direction

[Rob Seaman]

Oh - why not?

On Jun 1, 2008, at 7:50 AM, TS Glassey wrote:

> I think the biggest problem we are running into is that NTP is a  
> utility that has become critical for proper operations of systems  
> meaning that its now more important to Auditors than to the  
> Physicists who designed the idea of NTP.

And are physicists or auditors more important to the rest of us?  :-)

Less snarkily, requirements may derive from either economic or  
scientific use cases, but system design is about engineering.

> The problem is that Auditor's need something much different than  
> what you folks are arguing about


So NTP is something that doesn't address the needs of your community.   
Which begs the question:  Why don't the auditors pay somebody to build  
a system that does?  They certainly have more money than the  
physicists.  Kind of embarrassing really if the auditors are failing  
to account for the proper value of timekeeping.

> But before anyone here starts making proclamations as to what NTP  
> needs you need to establish the viewpoint perspective of the person  
> uttering that commentary since if its not from an Auditor - it  
> should ONLY be about the precision of the time data moved about a  
> network.

Sounds like a proclamation to me :-)

> I would use XML messaging too to insure that the messages can be  
> properly managed as well.

Snort!

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory