Writings and Musings

Bob Frankston (bio)

Welcome to my writings.

If you want the recent essays check out the sidebar on the left or, better, go to Further Readings for a curated list of essays.

Other essays are listed in chronological order and then by category. The main essays are in larger letters and minor documents (such as messages posted on discussion sites) are indented and in smaller letters. The documents themselves are located on this site (www.Frankston.com) and as well as external sites.

Note that I'm currently writing shorter transient posts on Facebook as "Bob Frankston". I'm gathering links here.

You can send me Email. Note this unique address is only valid for the next few days.

The best way to link to a document is as http://rmf.vc/keyword.

By default only the most recent posts are shown, to see:
• Recent By Date Posts from the last few months
• Columns Columns written in 1998-1999 -- blogging before blogs. Look here for my more recent columns.
• All All posts -- hundreds

Writings and Updates by Date

Some of the recent entries are also listed on the sidebar. Secondary items such as postings on other mailing lists are indented. Note that the year shown is the year the essay was updated. An essay written in 1979 might be listed under 2009 if it was updated recently.

History of SIPB - Student Information Processing Board at MIT 31-Dec-2001 PDF
RE: FCC lifts ban on technology-specific area codes 16-Dec-2001
Telecommuters must pay extra for cable VPNs [v2] 14-Dec-2001
Cables: Anyone home? 29-Nov-2001
Fox TV: The scapegoat channel 24-Nov-2001
Forward into the past: "securing the phone system" 24-Nov-2001
More on : Dead Education Dots becoming Porn sites 12-Nov-2001
Techies vs. Telcos 01-Nov-2001
Beyond Telecom 30-Oct-2001 We have a communications infrastructure that based on the assumption that telephony and television are fundamental services. The Internet has demonstrated that they are both applications built upon packet-based connectivity. The marketplace has been unable to make this transition because we are locked into a complex regulatory structure defined by regulation.
RE: ICANN's new role: It's about keeping people from being killed by terrorist plots hatched over the net says Mike Roberts 28-Oct-2001
Four very useful notes between Bob Frankston and Vint Cerf re the message – ICANN's new role: It's about keeping people from being killed by terrorist plots hatched over the net says Mike Roberts 28-Oct-2001
Interesting news source – Pravda 23-Oct-2001
"Brain fingerprinting" 02-Oct-2001
Zimmerman and others being blamed for 9/11 and A simple observation about encryption 22-Sep-2001
Resilience! 13-Sep-2001
Re: FORMER FCC CHAIRMAN TELLS HOW OPTICAL COMPANIES CAN WEATHER THE ECONOMIC SLUMP 15-Aug-2001
DDoS – The new kiddies 13-Aug-2001
RE: re Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates? 08-Aug-2001
The IBM PC at 20 and beyond. 03-Aug-2001 Written as part of the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC. How the PC has been a source of innovation and why it will continue to be a place to experiment and not just another appliance.
DNS - Safe Haven 02-Aug-2001 This is a proposal to address issues that threaten to entangle the infrastructure of the Internet with political and policy issues. Updated
RE: Interesting Article in the 26 July LA Times on the Mismatch of Business and the Internet 01-Aug-2001
Re: [ "fun" to read djf] Gibson stops 13-year-old DOS `terrorist,' but says W2K and XP will fail and fall 01-Jun-2001
Bluetooth risks airline safety? 16-May-2001
re Baby Bells Told To Expand High-speed Internet Service 12-May-2001
[IP] more on Stopping spam isn't as easy as you might hope 03-May-2001
The Internet is Not Television 02-May-2001 An extended letter to the editors of Wired Magazine in response to a May 2001 cover story which demonized the Internet simply because it doesn't make sense to those whose vision of the world is limited to television as we know it.
The Prerogatives of Innovation 15-Mar-2001 The Personal Computer and the Internet have given us wonderful opportunity to innovate and change the world. Yet there still seems to be a condescending attitude that drives companies to continue to design lame products and services that deny the value of innovation. These efforts are sadly misguided -- they promise simplicity and deliver only frustration.
Bob Frankston
Copyright 1997-2018