What's that hurtling down the Bifröst? Node-based network fun with Yggdrasil 0.4

Version 0.4 of the Yggdrasil networking platform is imminent, bringing with it improved performance and routing. Currently at the Release Candidate stage, version 0.4 is quite a different beast to its predecessor. This means that a configuration backup would be a good idea since v0.4 nodes will not peer with v0.3 nodes. "We …

[Anonymous Coward]

Prior usage

I distinctly remember the name 'Yggdrasil' appearing in Computer output back when I was programming in Fortran with punch cards in 1975.

[Tom 7]

Re: Prior usage

I ran Yggdrasil Linux on my PC in 1992 IIRC

[Dave559]

Re: Prior usage

I'm glad I'm not the only person whose first thought [1], when reading the headline, was, "Wow, has someone decided to dust off a venerable old Linux distro and start developing it again…?"!

[1] I mean, apart from the Norse gods, of course…

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Prior usage

It's the tree that the Norse Gods live in or something. Seriously. Seriously ish.

[Jamesit]

Re: Prior usage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil

"Yggdrasil (from Old Norse Yggdrasill), in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil_Linux/GNU/X

"Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X, or LGX (pronounced igg-drah-sill), is a discontinued early Linux distribution developed by Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated, a company founded by Adam J. Richter in Berkeley, California."

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Prior usage

None of this really explains what Yggdrasil was doing in 1975. I think being bothered by a squirrel is one mythological answer.

[jake]

Re: Prior usage

After 1975 it might have been one version or another of ADVENT (later Colossal Cave/Adventure). People added all kinds of site-specific bits to it over the years. 1975 would have been a trifle early for these modifications, though ... perhaps the AC OA mis-remembered the exact year?

_{A hollow voice says "plugh".}

[jake]

One wonders ...

... what Adam Richter's lawyers have to say about using that name in this context.

[Dan 55]

Re: One wonders ...

Unless their claim goes back to the -1st Century and they're gods, there's not much they can do is there?

[jake]

Re: One wonders ...

It's all in the context. The landsharks could claim that Adam was selling a networking solution under that name (which is true), and thus they are infringing on his trademark.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: One wonders ...

Unless their claim goes back to the -1st Century and they're gods

When someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

[ponga]

The rainbow bridge is Bifrost: no umlauts, however 'Nordic' it might seem to anglophones.

Besides, in the context of networking, surely you should be talking about the squirrel Ratatosk, eternally (or at least until the axe-time, knife-time, split-shields time of Ragnarök) bearing insults back and forth between the dragon Nidhögg at the roots of the world tree, and the nameless eagle perching at its top!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bifrost

"The rainbow bridge is Bifrost"

OMGs, is there such a thing as an actual "rainbow bridge"?

I've had the misfortune to see the term used in a horribly twee, cloying and childish way far too many times (ie, more than zero) in conversations among bereaved pet owners who love their pets just a bit too much (no, not like that, you sickos), and it always makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little. It's a bit disconcerting to discover that it's a real, well, real mythological, thing…

I guess a bit more ethereal and breezy and slightly rain-sodden, and less like an over-saturated tripping-out high-energy-pop funeral service conducted by My Little Ponies than had crossed my mind, however…

[Torben Mogensen]

What's with the Ös?

It may seem a bit metal to add random umlauts over Os (I blame Motörhead). But in Nordic languages it does, in fact, change the pronunciation, unlike in English, where an umlaut indicates vowels being pronounced separately rather than as a diphthong (as in naïve). Bifrost and Ragnarok definitely have O sounds, not Ö sounds.

[jake]

Re: What's with the Ös?

Sometimes called "röck döts". First used in the popular music world by the Krautrock band "Amon Düül II" in 1969 ... In 1970, at roughly the same time, Blue Öyster Cult named itself, and Black Sabbath released a single[1] variation of the song "Paranoid" renamed "Paranoïd", leading into what has become known today as "the Metal unlaut".

God, I'm getting old ...

[1] For the kiddies in the audience, a "single" was a form of analog RAM, a disc roughly 7" across, made of vinyl, (usually) spinning at 45 RPM, (usually) featuring one song per side. The music was recorded as a continuous spiral grove, called a track, which was followed by a needle that transformed bumps in the track into an electrical signal, which when amplified and sent to speaker(s) produced the sound that kids called "music" and parents called "noise".

[Dave559]

Re: What's with the Ös?

I guess that "Paranoïd" is sort of legit, if you read the letter as i-diaeresis rather than i-umlaut, where the diaeresis dots indicate that the vowel should be pronounced separately from the preceding vowel (rather than lengthening the pronunciation of the vowel), such as in words like naïve or Citroën. It's probably a bit of a tenuous pronunciation in this case, however.

[GrumpenKraut]

Re: What's with the Ös?

Upvote for mentioning Amon Düül

[Arthur the cat]

Re: What's with the Ös?

in English, where an umlaut indicates vowels being pronounced separately rather than as a diphthong

It's not an umlaut, it's a diaeresis.

And speaking of which, when did we stop using one for the name Zoe? It was definitely Zoë when I was young.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: What's with the Ös?

when did we stop using one for the name Zoe?

When typing things on English keyboards became common. (OK, that's just an evidence-free guess.)

On a conventional US QWERTY mechanical typewriter, a diaeresis¹ could be added manually with a pen, or you could overtype a lower-case o with a double-quote, which wasn't a great solution but generally got the idea across. But it was an extra step.

As people started using email, and then SMS, typing ö on English keyboards became at least a bit of a chore, and often beyond the user's capabilities, or even the software's. So people dropped it.

Also, it's true that the diaeresis was used less often in US typography than in the UK. I remember plenty of novels I read as a child that would use a diaeresis in words such as coöperate if they were printed in the UK, but not if they were printed in the US.

But, hey, by all means continue to use Zoë if it pleases you.

¹Often "dieresis" in the US, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: What's with the Ös?

When typing things on English keyboards became common. (OK, that's just an evidence-free guess.)

It certainly fits the time line.