David Mills, the internet’s ‘father time,’ dies at 85 He invented the Network Time Protocol, a bedrock technology relied on by the entire modern internet

Beyond Network Time Protocol, Dr. Mills contributed to key parts of the original internet structure. His “fuzzball” software was used to run the first internet routers. The name was a Mills invention, too, because he saw them as helpful little critters, Cerf said.

It was just one example of what computer scientists came to call “Millsspeak.” Trustworthy clocks were called “truechimers,” while unreliable ones were “falsetickers.” A computer that overwhelmed an NTP hub with too many requests was quieted with a “kiss-o’-death packet.”

“It is an open secret among my correspondents that I on occasion do twitch the English language in mail messages and published works,” Dr. Mills wrote on his personal website. “If you read my papers or my mail, you know my resonances. If not, you can calibrate my naughtimeter from children’s books, outhouse walls and old English slang.”*