[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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