It's Friday... I have been considering a suitable measure for IP latency. Inspired by the knowledge that at least one network protocol uses micro-fortnights as a unit (RFC 995), I respectfully offer the following modest proposal for consideration. We typically measure latency in msec, which is just so mundane and last millennium. Given that the speed of light is a constant, we can easily map between time and distance with the simple formula d=ct. Since our proposed new unit is purely nominal, we will use the speed of light in vacuo. In this post-modern world, why not use a tried and true, human centered measure. I like the cubit. It has stood the test of time, plus it has the word 'bit' in it. Now, typical values of latency produce a number of cubits that is rather large, so for most networks we will need to scale up the the mega-cubit (Mcubit). Those of us firmly wedded to powers of two may prefer the IEC standard nomenclature for powers of two prefixes of MiCubit (pronounced mebicubit). Which leads to the observation that the current distance from my workstation to Xtra is 3.47Mcubits, Cisco is 23Mcubits away, www.theregister.com is 34Mcubits away, and I am only 0.45 mebicubits from Paradise. Draw what comfort you may from this. -- Michael Newbery IP Architect TelstraClear Limited - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog