Spoiler alert. The Technology This Week below is going to observe the loss of Dr. David L. Mills. Dr. Mills died at the age of 85 at his home in Newark, Delaware. Who the heck is Dr. Mills, you might ask. Some here at JitterWorks asked the same question. But not one of our founders. We’ll talk about that.

We don’t often dedicate an entire blog to an individual in the computer industry. In fact, we’ve only done it once before in 62 blogs. You may remember the Amazing Grace Murray Hopper. If you haven’t read that blog we encourage you to do so.

Let’s talk a little bit about protocols. TCP/IP is the protocol that has been the backbone of the Internet for decades. While other layers have evolved, the underlying technology has been solid since the eighties. One of our co-founders worked on the TCP/IP protocol when it was in its infancy.

Dr. Mills earned the nickname “Father Time” when he invented the Network Time Protocol (NTP). This technology allowed the clocks on all connected computers to synchronize. Can you imagine the importance of such a protocol?

When Vint Cerf – also an Internet pioneer and genius in the field – announced the passing of Dr. Mills, he wrote “[Mills] was such an iconic element of the early Internet.” There’s no doubt that Cerf was right on the mark with this statement.

The NTP technology that is still in place decades later is crucial to all kinds of Internet related procedures. Data accuracy – think of every single piece of data that travels over the Internet that needs an accurate time and date stamp. Imagine network security without a definitive, accurate and synchronized time keeping system.

Can you see why we might dedicate a blog to this man? It’s important to mention that Dr. Mills was born with glaucoma and was visually impaired for his entire life. It didn’t stop him from receiving a PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1971.

And it didn’t stop him from receiving countless awards and accolades for his achievements and contributions to the development of the Internet. While we are very impressed with the amazing accomplishments of Grace Murray Hopper, it’s a good time for Dr. Mills to get his props as well.

We write a lot about the network performance assessments we do here at JitterWorks. We often include graphs and charts to demonstrate the way we track and trend the different key network metrics that allow us to assess a particular network. Can you imagine how difficult that would be with a synchronized time keeping system? Thank you Dr. Mills.