It seems, though, that it’s his saying “tubes” and “a series of tubes” that’s provoking most of the derision. But network nerds the world over regularly refer to the availability of bandwidth in terms of fat or narrow pipes, which is essentially the same imagery. Odd.
To which I reply:
Imagery is fine but the esteemed senator seemed to really believe that the internet(s) is a modern-day pneumatic tube system, where there are real blockages and other artifacts of the physical world. The idea of packet switching and the reliability that is at the heart of the internet’s core protocols seem not to be understood. The pipes used by net nerds are metaphorical, yes, but I think most of them understand that.
I can accept that some of these people are out of their depth with anything more complex than a TV remote, but surely they can be briefed a little more completely/cluefully?
and
What’s somewhat ironic about this is that the canonical books on TCP/IP internetworking are known as “the Stevens books”: their author was “W. Richard Stevens.” Shame Ted’s staff didn’t know that.