Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!snorkelwacker!bu.edu!heddaya From: heddaya@burds.cs.bu.edu (Abdelsalam Heddaya) Newsgroups: comp.sys.isis Subject: Re: "What does ISIS stand for?" Message-ID: Date: 25 May 90 15:23:18 GMT References: <40477@cornell.UUCP> Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Distribution: comp Organization: Computer Science Dept., Boston Univ. Lines: 22 In-reply-to: ken@gvax.cs.cornell.edu's message of 29 Apr 90 18:35:03 GMT In article <40477@cornell.UUCP> ken@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Ken Birman) writes: > ... Rejuvenated, Osiris decended to rule the Underworld. He and > Isis later had a child, Anubis, who decisively conquered Seth. The child was actually Horus, depicted as a falcon, and recognized as a sun god (there were other sun gods, e.g., Ra). > We liked the image of Isis picking up the pieces after a > catastrophic failure and getting things running again, and so we > named our system after this story. Interestingly, I know of at least two projects that are called Seth. The first (by Azer Bestavros of Harvard) built a VLSI chip that implemented Rabin's Information Dispersal Algorithm providing fault-tolerant *and secure* replicated storage of files. The second project (by Abdelsalam Helal of Purdue) experimented with various replication algorithms. This points to the dual roles of Seth and Isis; one tearing Osiris apart, and the other putting him back together again.