At 1:26 PM -0400 7/31/00, Richard J. Sexton wrote: > >It's also worth noting that virtually every other major Internet > >service has been swamped by unexpected load. Predicting load, and > >engineering for it without prior experience in that particular kind (and > >popularity) of service is just plain hard. > > > > --Steve Bellovin > >You really think so Steve? The Porsche mailing lists have 34,000 subscribers >and it seems to me the notion of inviting the world to vote on how the >Interent will be run (especially in light of all the "outreach" talk >that's bandied about) will have a much greater auduience than >a bunch of Porche owners. Anticipating 5000 users just weems wacky; >if it were me I'd may sure it could work for a million with >a contingency plan in place if/whe it exceeded that. Regardless of whether predicting load is difficult or not, this was something that was a part of the contract from the beginning. Government contractors generally must abide by the terms of their contract, even if it is difficult. That is a part of the risk of doing business. Poor planning is rarely an excuse.
