[ntp:questions] outlyer / falseticker

Harlan Stenn stenn at ntp.org
Thu Mar 7 19:27:03 UTC 2013


folkert writes:
> > > Why is a clock decided to be a falseticker/outlyer?
> > 
> > It's 0300 where I am and I'm about to fall asleep.
> > See ntp_proto.c, and look for "falseticker" and "SEL_SANE".
> 
> Ok.
> 
> While reading through the source, I encountered a lot of unusual
> comments:
>          * Initially, we populate the island with all the rifraff peers
> 
> rifraff?

Unacceptable quality.

>          * that happen to be lying around. Those with seriously
>          * defective clocks are immediately booted off the island. Then,
>          * the falsetickers are culled and put to sea. The truechimers
> 
> culled and put to sea?

Selected and removed.

>          * remaining are subject to repeated rounds where the most
>          * unpopular at each round is kicked off. When the population
>          * has dwindled to sys_minclock, the survivors split a million
>          * bucks and collectively crank the chimes.
> 
> split a million bucks?

selected as the winners.

>          * candidates, the Albanians have won the Byzantine wars and
>          * correct synchronization is not possible.
> 
> byzantine wars?

The Byzantine General problem - if you want to protect against N cases
of "insanity" you have to have at least 2N+1 choices to select from.
That way the "sane" sources will always be able to "out vote" the insane
sources.

> I would like to suggest to use language without any ambiguity.
> Yes, it is probably more fun for the developer this way, but for others,
> especially the ones who are not native English speakers, these texts are
> confusing. For example "the survivors split a million bucks": is it
> supposed to be funny or does it have a special meaning?

It's "Millsspeak".  See http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/david.html, the
2nd paragraph.

H


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