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Comment by move-on-by

2 years ago

I’ve recently gotten very into NTP with GPS and PPS as a fun personal project. Just a couple weeks ago I was reading about him on Wikipedia and I could relate to this quote (as no one else I’ve talked to about PPS has shown any interest):

> he enjoyed working on synchronized time because no one else was working on it, giving him his own "little fief"

Debian recently switched to NTPSec, and I was happy to see how familiar their website style was to the main NTP site. In the FAQ I found:

> [Q] Why do these web pages look so 1990s

> [A] Because that simple look is good for people with visual impairments, and as a tribute to Dr. David Mills, the original architect of NTP who is himself visually impaired. Dr. Mills has very particular ideas about Web visuals, and this site is carefully styled to resemble his NTP documentation pages.

I’ve never had an opportunity to meet him, but he has certainly made a positive impact on my life. Rest in peace Dr. Mills.

13 comments

move-on-by

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geerlingguy  2 years ago

Same here, getting into PTP, you end up studying a lot about timing on computers, and Dr. Mills is one of the main players in building up modern timing foundations! RIP, and thanks for all your contributions!

  • icehawk  2 years ago

    He really was. I remember encountering him on comp.protocols.time.ntp two decades ago and the breath of knowledge he had on computers keeping time was astounding, both at the time, and now that I look back at it.

stormdennis  2 years ago

here's that page

https://www.ntpsec.org/FAQ.html

  • digging  2 years ago

    I understand (and endorse) simplicity of design, but that page doesn't even have a link back to the home page. They've gone too far past accessibility into creating a less-accessible page...

    • wizzwizz4  2 years ago

      Note well: all accessibility decisions are trade-offs. Do you need a link to the home page if you have a perfectly-good address bar? Some people do; for others, it's a nuisance. If someone with particular accessibility needs has designed a website, and diverged from usual practices, I tend to assume they had a reason for it. (That isn't to say I'll naïvely copy it. Usually I'll ask, but that's no longer possible in this case.) Imo, they should have a link (either <a> or <link>) with rel="up", so the browser's Up button works.

    • notyourwork  2 years ago

      I think you miss the point. This page was linked to you from somewhere. “Home” in that context is back where you came from, I.e. the back button. Finding this page could have come from anywhere and sites don’t have to have pages keep you in their domain. That’s not how the web used to work. Nowadays everyone has their own “site” and it’s a much different eco system from decades ago.

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