[ntpwg] KoD 'backoff' BCP/direction

[Danny Mayer]

Rob Seaman wrote:
> 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?  :-)
> 

Well, people like you working in astronomy need the accuracy otherwise 
your telescopes will miss their targets. It's not clear that the 
auditors will have a clue in the first place.

> 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
> 

They may know what they need but they have no clue about how to get it.
> 
> 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.
> 

Almost no auditor needs the kind of accurate timekeeping that NTP 
provides. While it's true that they make lots of money, they do it on 
the dime of the people that they are auditing.

>> 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!

XML has nothing to do with managing messages.

Danny

> Rob Seaman
> National Optical Astronomy Observatory