RFC 1121 (rfc1121) - Page 2 of 6

Act one - the poems

RFC 1121                  Act One - The Poems             September 1989


                              ODE TO A QUEUE
                                    by
                             Leonard Kleinrock

                   In the 20 years of funding
                   Many fields has DARPA led.
                   But the finest thing that they did bring
                   Was the analytic thread.

                   By that I mean they nurtured
                   Quantitative research tools.
                   And they always felt for all their gelt
                   They got principles and rules.

                   Indeed a wealth of knowledge
                   Was uncovered and was new.
                   And the common thread with which we led
                   Was the analytic queue!

                   Now a queue may have one server.
                   If there's more, they form a team.
                   Its dearest wish is just to fish
                   In a quiet Poisson stream.

                   If you want to model networks
                   Or a complex data flow
                   A queue's the key to help you see
                   All the things you need to know.

                   So the next time you feel lonely
                   And wonder what to do,
                   You'll soon feel fine if you join the line
                   Of an analytic queue!


                           THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
                                    by
                             Leonard Kleinrock

                   The past is prologue so they say.
                   So Scene 1 was played today.
                   It set the stage to point the way
                   To high speed nets on Friday.

                   And old slow IMP, a costly link,
                   Codes to fix the lines that stink,
                   Ideas born in tanks that think,
                   Tomorrow's distance sure to shrink.



Postel & Kleinrock & Cerf & Boehm