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一個逝去的精神依然在激勵著我們
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於2011-11-16 22:58:01翻譯 | 已有19人瀏覽 | 有0人評論
在公司創始人在9.11事件中被殺後，公司的業務受到了傷害。Akamai已經滑落到失敗的邊緣。它還剩下的隻有丹尼爾•列文的技術和對未來的預見。
Tags:科技 | 9.11 | Akamai | CDN
第一次嚐試翻譯，很多地方都翻譯的很拙劣，煩請斧正，謝謝！
After its founder was killed on Sept. 11 and its business damaged in the aftermath, Akamai slid to the edge of failure. What it still had were Daniel Lewin’s technology and vision.
在公司創始人在9.11事件中被殺後，公司的業務受到了傷害。Akamai已經滑落到失敗的邊緣。它還剩下的隻有丹尼爾•列文的技術和對未來的預見。
September 04, 2011|By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff
2011年9月4日 作者：Hiawatha Bray， 環球員工
Akamai has recovered from the tumultuous days of September 2001, and now delivers 15 to 30 percent of the worlds Web traffic.
Akamai已經從2001年九月那個混亂的日子裏恢複過來了，現在正承載著15%到30%的全球網絡通信。
At about 9 a.m. on what would be a very bad day, Paul Sagan, then president of Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, was on the phone with a company attorney who had just been in touch with cofounder Daniel Lewin.
在那個糟糕的日子的上午9點左右，來自劍橋大學、即將接任Akamai科技公司總裁的保羅•薩甘正在和一個律師通話，這個律師剛剛和公司創始人之一的丹尼爾•列文接觸過。
Lewin, 31, who had invented technology to help the Internet handle huge amounts of traffic, was flying to Los Angeles to drum up new business, which the company desperately needed. Akamai’s stock was trading at about $3 a share, a sliver of its peak of $328 in 1999, at the height of the Internet bubble.
31歲的列文曾經發明過一種技術來幫助互聯網控製巨大的網絡通信，當時他正飛往洛杉磯去組織公司迫切需要的新業務。當時Akamai的股票大約是三美元一股，而在1999年互聯網泡沫的的高峰時期曾達到328美元。
As Sagan and the lawyer chatted, another Akamai employee called on Sagan’s second line. He had been watching the “Today’’ show and saw that a jumbo jet had slammed into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. American Airlines Flight 11. Lewin’s flight.
就在薩甘和律師聊天的時候，一個Akamai的雇員通過另一條線路呼叫薩甘。他剛剛收看“今日”節目的時候看到巨大的噴氣式飛機撞擊紐約世貿中心北塔。那是美國航空公司的11號航班。列文的航班。
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For a moment, Sagan hoped Lewin had decided to fly a little later in the day. “The airlines would just let you change planes back then,’’ he recalled. But the lawyer said Lewin had called from the plane, hanging up only when a flight attendant ordered him to switch off his phone.
曾有片刻，薩甘希望列文決定乘坐的是當天晚些時候的航班。“有時候航空公司會讓你更換航班。”他回憶。但是律師說列文在飛機上給他打過電話，直到一個空乘人員命令他關掉電話，他才掛掉電話。
“So we knew shortly after 9 a.m.,’’ said Sagan. “There was no hope that he was not on that plane.’’
“於是我們在九點之後不久就知道了。”薩甘說，“現在已經不能指望他不在那架飛機上了。”
Daniel Lewin was dead, and nobody knew whether his company would survive.
丹尼爾•列文死了，沒有人知道他的公司能否活下來。
Yet Akamai’s most tragic day would also prove its most important. On that day, and in the days that followed, the world turned to the Internet for information as never before. Web traffic for Akamai’s global network of clients, including major news media sites, surged by a factor of five.
盡管如此，Akamai在這個最悲劇的一天同樣證明了它的重要性。在那天，和接下來的日子裏，世界變得從未如此依賴於互聯網來獲取資訊。包括主要新聞媒體網站在內的Akamai全球網絡客戶端的網絡通信在五個因素的刺激下急劇上升。
Lewin’s technology managed the spike handily; websites that otherwise might have crashed under the strain continued to offer details about loved ones, rescue efforts, and what went so terribly wrong. “It worked,’’ said George Conrades, Akamai’s chief executive at the time. “It really was designed well.’’
列文的技術處理網絡通信高峰得心應手；網站在有可能會崩潰的壓力下繼續提供有關親人、救援成果和情況不斷變糟的詳細信息。“它仍在工作。”Akamai當時的首席執行官喬治•康瑞德說，“它真的設計的非常棒。”
On Sept. 11, 2001, in Akamai’s control room, engineers and technicians worked furiously to direct the crush of Web traffic to every spare server. There was no time to grieve. But then and in the decade since, the thoughts of Akamai employees rarely strayed from Lewin and his technology, and what both had made possible.
在2001年9月11日，Akamai的控製室裏，工程師和技術員拚命的引導網絡通信到每台備用的服務器上。沒有時間傷心。但是在接下來的十年中 Akamai的員工們一刻也沒有忘記列文、他所研發的技術以及他們所帶來的發展可能。
“The end result is that you and I, without knowing Akamai is involved, get to see our content, and we get it fast, and it comes through clear,’’ said Brian Partridge, vice president of research at the research firm Yankee Group in Boston. “Akamai has had a behind-the-scenes role in the incredible development of the Internet.’’
“最後的結果是，你我都在不知道Akamai涉及此事的情況下，看到了我們的想要看到的網頁內容，並且我們以更快的速度得到了它，而它的獲取路徑變得更加清晰。”在波士頓揚基集團研究中心的研究副總裁 布賴恩•帕特裏奇說，“Akamai在以令人難以置信的速度發展的互聯網中扮演了一個幕後角色。”
In 1996, when Daniel Lewin, a former Israeli commando with a bachelor’s degree from Technion, Israel’s famed scientific university, began his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, computer scientists already knew the Internet would do a lousy job of managing big spikes in traffic. Companies could prepare only by buying vast numbers of extra servers that would be idle most of the time, a big waste of money.
在 1996年，當前以色列突擊隊員丹尼爾•列文帶著以色列著名科技大學——以色列技術研究所的學士學位開始了在麻省理工學院的學習時，計算機科學家已經知道互聯網在網絡通訊高峰時的管理工作將會很糟糕。企業隻能靠購買大量的多餘的服務器來做準備，而這些服務器在大多數時候都會閑著，這是一筆巨大的浪費。
Lewin was already hungry for a challenge like that. “Danny had the kind of mind that comes and says, ‘Well, this is a big problem. Why shouldn’t there be a solution?’ ’’ recalled his MIT professor and Akamai cofounder, Tom Leighton. “And sure enough, he figured out a solution.’’
列文對於這樣的挑戰已經迫不及待了。“丹尼爾是那種會過來說‘好啊，如果有個問題，為什麽沒不來個解決方案呢’的人。”他在麻省理工學院的教授、Akamai的創始人之一湯姆•萊頓回憶說，“可以確信的是，他想到了解決方案。”
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The Internet needed a better way to instantly locate vast amounts of quickly changing data stored on computers all over the world, and send it to anybody, anywhere. What Lewin and Leighton invented was a mathematical scheme called “consistent hashing’’ that radically sped up the process. Just as important, the system could “scale’’- meaning it would work even as many more people used it. It made possible the advanced Internet services we use today.
互聯網需要一種更好的方式來即時定位儲存在全世界電腦中的大量快速改變的數據，並發送給任何地點的任何人。列文和萊頓發明的是一種被稱作“一致性哈希”的數學規劃，這可以從根本上提高進程的速度。同樣重要的是，這個係統可以“擴展”——這表示不管有多人在使用，它都能正常工作。它使我們今天使用的先進的互聯網服務變為現實。
Lewin’s innovation allows millions of users to watch streaming video simultaneously, for example, and keeps news websites online during global crises as viewers rush for the latest information.
列文的創新使得上百萬的用戶得以同時觀看流媒體，並保持新聞站點在出現全球危機的時候在線以提供讀者需要的最新信息。
At MIT, Lewin stood out. He was a gym rat, a fanatical weight lifter who had once been Mr. Teenage Israel. “He was 180 degrees from the computer nerd you might imagine,’’ said his friend Marco Greenberg. “I remember this 16-year-old squatting 375 pounds.’’
列文在麻省理工學院就已經脫穎而出。他是一個健身房的常客，一個狂熱的舉重運動員，曾一度被評為以色列先生。“他和你想象中的學計算機的書呆子完全是180度相反”，他的朋友馬可波羅•格林伯格說，“我還記得他十六歲的時候375磅的樣子。”
Born in Denver, Lewin was deeply unhappy with his parents’ decision to move the family to Israel when he was 14. “He was brought to Israel kicking and screaming,’’ Greenberg said.
列文出生在在丹佛，他對在他十四歲的時候父母把家搬到以色列的決定很不高興。“他又踢又叫的被帶到了以色列。”格林伯格說。
But he changed. Lewin’s brother Michael credits his mandatory service in the Israeli military. Lewin volunteered for the toughest, most dangerous branch of the service: the Sayeret Matkal, specialists in antiterrorist operations. He became “much more focused in achieving his goals,’’ said Michael, a financial services entrepreneur who lives in Israel. “When he came out, he was a man.’’
但是他改變了。列文的兄弟邁克爾把這歸功於強製服兵役。列文自願服務於最艱難、最危險的部門：總參偵察營，反恐行動中的專家。他變得“更關注於他達成他的目標”，一個住在以色列的金融服務業企業家邁克爾說，“當他回來的時候，他成為了一個真正的男人。”
Akamai’s Sagan recalls an executives-vs.-employees paintball bout, where Lewin’s military training made him unbeatable. But when he saw that Sagan couldn’t keep up, “he literally picked me up like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder and carried me around,’’ Sagan said. “Literally, like I was nothing.’’
Akamai的薩甘回憶起在一場高管對員工的彩彈射擊比賽上，列文的軍事訓練讓他變得無可匹敵。當他看到薩甘無法跟上的時候，“他就如字麵上所說的，像一包土豆一樣撿把我抗在了肩上。”薩甘說，“如字麵上所說的，好像我不存在一樣。”
Shortly after 8:14 a.m., onboard Flight 11, two flight attendants called American Airlines and said that hijackers had stabbed two other flight attendants and a passenger.
上午8點14分後不久，11號航班上的兩名空乘人員呼叫美國航空公司，匯報說有劫機者已經刺傷了另兩名空乘人員和一名乘客。
The terrorists breached the cockpit somehow, and the one trained to fly a jet, Mohamed Atta, moved to take control of the plane. And it may be at that point that Lewin tried to stop the hijacking, according to the government commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
恐怖分子們不知是如何破壞了駕駛室，其中一名受過駕駛噴氣飛機訓練的名叫默罕默德•阿塔的恐怖分子去接管飛機的控製。根據美國政府委員會對9.11襲擊的調查，可能就是在這個時候列文試圖阻止劫機。
He had the training for it, but he never had a chance. One of the terrorists was seated behind Lewin and stabbed him, possibly in the throat. Lewin was one of the first of many to die on Sept. 11.
他受過這方麵的訓練，不過從沒有機會嚐試。一個坐在他後邊的恐怖分子刺傷了他，很可能是刺在喉部。列文可能是9.11眾多死難者中的第一個。
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There were four airliners hijacked that day; two of them, Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, left from Logan International Airport. At 8:46 that morning, Atta flew Flight 11 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
在那天有四架航班被劫持，其中的兩條，11號航班和聯合航空公司的175號航班，從洛根國際機場離開。在上午八點四十六分，阿塔駕駛著11號航班撞向世貿大樓北塔。
Lewin’s loss was even more difficult for Akamai because on the day he died, there was record demand for the Internet as the world went online to follow news of the attacks. At their monitors in the company’s network information center in Cambridge, Akamai technicians, in shock from the loss of their revered colleague, watched as hits on their customers’ websites surged beyond anything they’d seen before.
列文的殞命對Akamai而言是雪上加霜，因為在他死的那天互聯網產生了創紀錄的需求，全世界都趕著上網尋找關於襲擊的新聞。在劍橋網絡信息中心的顯示器前，Akamai的技術員們為令人崇敬的同事的殞命而震驚，眼睜睜的看著他們客戶的網站點擊率上升超過了他們所曾見過的任何一次。
Sagan knew he had to take command. “I had been a TV producer in my past life,’’ he said, “so I was used to high-pressure deadline situations, where you just totally focus on making all these little decisions in front of you.’’
薩甘知道他已經接過了指揮權。“我過去曾經做過電視製片人。”他說，“所以我已經習慣了高壓期限的環境，這種環境下你隻是完全的關注做出你擺在你麵前的這些小決定。”
He quickly addressed the company’s technicians and engineers. “Whatever you do, keep your eye focused on the network,’’ he told them, “because traffic’s going to go crazy.’’
薩甘迅速的對公司裏的技術員和工程師進行了一次演講。“不管你做什麽，讓你的眼睛集中在網絡上。”他對他們說，“因為擁堵將會變得更加瘋狂。”
Then Sagan gave one more instruction: Lewin would insist the company rise to the occasion. Do what he would do.
接下來薩甘做出了更多的指示：列文在這種時候會堅持為公司挺身而出。去做他所做的。
And they did. “Sort of through the fog and the shock,’’ said Sagan, “we just worked feverishly to run the business.’’
他們這麽做了。“摸索著通過了迷霧和震蕩。”薩甘說，“我們隻是狂熱的工作來經營業務。”
Don Marks, an Akamai engineer, spent Sept. 11 reconfiguring servers to build capacity on websites for organizations like the Red Cross and American Airlines. “All of these guys’ websites were getting completely overloaded,’’ Marks said. “It was only at the end of the day when I had a chance to breathe.’’
Akamai的工程師丹•馬克思耗費了9月11日一天重新配置服務器，以提供紅十字會和美國航空公司這樣的組織建立網站的能力。“這些網站全都超載了。”馬克思說，“一直到這一天結束我才有機會歇口氣。”
Although Akamai made it through the day, the company’s financial problems were about to get worse.
盡管Akamai堅持過了那天，但是公司的財務問題仍在變得更糟。
The Internet bubble that had floated Akamai through its founding in 1998 and its initial public offering the following year had burst. The dot-com businesses that spent millions with the company were going bust. Akamai tried to reinvent itself as an Internet services supplier to the Fortune 500 - big, stable companies that pay their bills. Akamai needed to “start adding real new customers before all the other ones went away, and we ran out of money,’’ Sagan said.
讓Akamai從1998年成立到次年首次公開募股不斷上浮的互聯網泡沫破裂了。網絡行業那些花費了上百萬的公司即將破產。Akamai嚐試將自己重塑成網絡服務提供者，為財富五百強名單上那些穩定的大公司服務。Akamai需要“在花光所有的錢、員工和投資者都離開之前找到真正的新顧客。”薩甘說。
The Sept. 11 attacks further depressed the US economy, eating into Akamai’s revenues. Investors lost confidence in the company, fearing that the loss of Lewin was irreparable. “Everyone then wrote us off completely,’’ Sagan said.
9.11恐怖襲擊事件進一步削弱了美國經濟，蠶食著Akamai的收入。投資者擔心列文的殞命是無法彌補的，進而對Akamai公司失去了信心。 “緊接著每個人都跑來徹底的銷賬。”薩甘說。
Executives started citing a metric they called “quarters to live’’: how many more quarters could Akamai stay in business? The company laid off 250 workers about a month after the terrorist attacks, driving its head count down to 900. A year later, Akamai’s stock had fallen to 56 cents a share, and it cut another 145 jobs.
管理層開始使用一個被稱作“季度生活”的度量標準：Akamai的業務還能維持多少個季度？公司在恐怖襲擊之後的大約一個月時間裏裁員了250名工人，總人數下降到900。一年後，Akamai的股票已經下跌了56美分每股，而它又削減了145個工作崗位。
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“We had to make just horrendous choices,’’ said Sagan.
“我們不得不做出一個可怕的決定。”薩甘說。
But the survivors were determined. Akamai’s Internet-boosting technology was too good of an idea to give up on. Just as important, it was Lewin’s idea. “We stayed out of stubbornness and pride at that point,’’ said Sagan. “We owed him an enormous debt for trying to be a hero. And so that’s why we all hung around.’’
但是幸存者下定了決心。Akamai的網速提高技術作為一個被放棄的想法實在是太好了。同樣重要的是，這是列文的想法。“我們在這一點上都沒有固執和虛榮。”薩根說，“在成為一個英雄這一點上我們都欠他一個巨大的債務，所以這就是為什麽我們都掛著他的肖像。”
Lewin had left behind one more gift for Akamai, a new product he helped develop called EdgeSuite, which powered websites that were “dynamic.’’ Early Web pages were static; like a printed page, they were assembled beforehand, and everybody who clicked on them saw the same thing. Dynamic websites are put together on the spot. Click on a dynamic news site, and it will pull together a custom page from different stories, images, and ads, that changes the next time you click.
列文給Akamai留下了不止一件禮物，他參與開發的一個叫EdgeSuite的新產品給網站提供了“動態”的能力。再起的網頁都是靜態的，就像是一頁打印出來的書，都是事前組合好的，每個人點擊上的時候看到的都是一樣的東西。動態網站是把網頁都放在一起，當你點擊動態新聞網站的時候，頁麵會變成一個由不同的故事、圖片和廣告組成的自定義頁麵，當你再次點擊的時候又會發生新的改變。
EdgeSuite was a winner. Akamai picked up clients like retailer Target Corp. and computer maker Apple Inc., which in 2003 adopted it for the immensely popular iTunes online music store. In 2004, Akamai posted its first annual profit, and it’s been profitable every year since.
EdgeSuite是一個成功的產品。Akamai收回了一些客戶，如零售商塔吉特公司和在2003年為極受歡迎的iTunes在線音樂商店使用它的電腦製造商蘋果公司。在2004年，Akamai公布了它的首份年度盈利報告，從那開始它每年都盈利。
Akamai survived because of Lewin’s vision for the Internet, one he laid out in the company’s earliest days: Its technology would speed up Web pages, deliver streaming video, accelerate applications, and change the Internet as people knew it, and for good.
Akamai能存活下來得益於列文早期在公司奠定的對互聯網的預測：Akamai的技術能夠提高網頁、流媒體的速度，為應用程序加速，改變我們所知的那個互聯網，將它變得更好。
The shame is that Lewin never lived to see that last goal realized. But everyone at Akamai believes his example made it possible to build the Internet we know today - dynamic, fluid, packed with video and images, and reaching every corner of the earth.
遺憾的是列文沒能活著看到最後的目標變為現實。但Akamai的每一個人都相信是他的榜樣將互聯網變成了我們今天看到的樣子——動態、流動、由視頻和圖像組成的包，到達地球的每一個角落。
In the decade since Lewin’s death, Akamai has not forgotten him. His portrait, painted by the mother of an employee, hangs in the lobby of Akamai’s headquarters at 8 Cambridge Center. There’s also a plaque listing every winner of an annual award named for Lewin, and presented to employees who demonstrate his motivation and spirit - who have shown, as the award states, “the ability to move mountains.’’
在列文死去之後的十年裏，Akamai從沒有遺忘過他，由一位雇員的母親繪製的肖像就懸掛在位於劍橋中心八號Akamai總部的前廳裏。每一個獲得了以列文的名字命名的年度獎的人的名字都被列在一個名牌上，這個獎被頒發給那些展示了其行動力，並擁有獎杯上所聲明的、列文一樣“移山的能力”的精神的雇員。
Marks, the engineer, was among four winners this year. So was Parimal Pandya, a global sales service executive based in Bangalore, India.
工程師馬克思是這個獎今年的四個得主之一。在印位於度班加羅爾總部的全球銷售服務執行官帕瑞瑪•潘迪亞也名列其中。
“I met so many people who wanted to make Akamai successful for Danny,’’ said Pandya, who never met Lewin. “No challenge was too big for anybody to take on.’’
“我遇到過很多想要為了丹尼讓Akamai取得成功的人。”從沒有見過列文的潘迪亞說，“對於一個勇於擔當的人來說，沒有任何無法戰勝的挑戰。”
There’s a conference room at the headquarters that has the word “obstreperous’’ - one of Lewin’s favorites; it means loud and stubborn - painted on the wall, complete with definition. Another Lewinism, describing someone who did a really good job, is now the name of the online portal for Akamai’s salespeople: Titan.
在Akamai的總部有一個可以用“喧囂”來形容的會議室，而這正是列文最喜歡的，在牆上寫著它的定義：響亮和固執。另一個充滿列文色彩是Akamai銷售人員的在線門戶網站的名字“泰坦”，這個詞被用來形容某人的工作完成的非常好。
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A block away, near the MIT computer labs where Lewin and Leighton worked out their early algorithms, the intersection of Main and Vassar streets was named Danny Lewin Square in 2002, to mark the first anniversary of the attacks. That day, a tree was planted in a grassy area outside Akamai’s offices. It’s flourishing now, and there, the company marks each anniversary of Lewin’s death with a memorial service.
在一個街區之遙的麻省理工學院計算機實驗室裏，列文和萊頓製定了其早期的算法。離實驗室不願的緬因街和瓦薩街的交叉路口在2002年被命名為丹尼•列文廣場，以紀念9.11襲擊一周年。在命名那天，一棵樹被種在了Akamai辦公室外的草地上。這棵樹茁壯成長的樹記錄著每年Akamai公司為紀念列文而舉行的儀式。
Akamai is now under pressure again, though not nearly as severely as in 2001. Rivals have begun to match the capability of its core products, driving prices and profit margins lower. The company’s stock has declined by more than 50 percent since the start of this year.
盡管不如2001年那次嚴重，Akamai現在又麵臨壓力了。競爭對手們已經開始獲得與其核心產品相匹敵的能力，這降低了價格和利潤率。自今年年初以來，該公司的股票已經下降了50％以上。
But there are new opportunities, as well: Akamai is bringing its customers into cloud computing, mobile computing, data security, and the delivery of HD video. And with 95,000 servers in 72 countries, and 2,200 employees, the company delivers 15 to 30 percent of all Web traffic worldwide.
不過，還有新的機會：Akamai正在幫助它的客戶引入雲計算、移動計算、數據安全和高清視頻傳輸業務。憑借72個國家的95000服務器，2,200名員工，Akamai的傳輸服務承載了全球15％到30％的網頁流量。
When he died, Lewin left Akamai a legacy of strength. “Danny changed the lives of countless people,“ said Greenberg, his friend. ”He made a lot of people rich. In every way.“
當列文死的時候，他給Akamai留下了一份強大的遺產。“丹尼改變了無數人的生活。”格林伯格說，“他讓很多人變得富有。通過各種方式。”
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
可以通過bray@globe.com聯係到HiawathaBray 。
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於2011-11-16 22:58:01翻譯 | 已有19人瀏覽 | 有0人評論
在公司創始人在9.11事件中被殺後，公司的業務受到了傷害。Akamai已經滑落到失敗的邊緣。它還剩下的隻有丹尼爾•列文的技術和對未來的預見。
Tags:科技 | 9.11 | Akamai | CDN
第一次嚐試翻譯，很多地方都翻譯的很拙劣，煩請斧正，謝謝！
After its founder was killed on Sept. 11 and its business damaged in the aftermath, Akamai slid to the edge of failure. What it still had were Daniel Lewin’s technology and vision.
在公司創始人在9.11事件中被殺後，公司的業務受到了傷害。Akamai已經滑落到失敗的邊緣。它還剩下的隻有丹尼爾•列文的技術和對未來的預見。
September 04, 2011|By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff
2011年9月4日 作者：Hiawatha Bray， 環球員工
Akamai has recovered from the tumultuous days of September 2001, and now delivers 15 to 30 percent of the worlds Web traffic.
Akamai已經從2001年九月那個混亂的日子裏恢複過來了，現在正承載著15%到30%的全球網絡通信。
At about 9 a.m. on what would be a very bad day, Paul Sagan, then president of Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, was on the phone with a company attorney who had just been in touch with cofounder Daniel Lewin.
在那個糟糕的日子的上午9點左右，來自劍橋大學、即將接任Akamai科技公司總裁的保羅•薩甘正在和一個律師通話，這個律師剛剛和公司創始人之一的丹尼爾•列文接觸過。
Lewin, 31, who had invented technology to help the Internet handle huge amounts of traffic, was flying to Los Angeles to drum up new business, which the company desperately needed. Akamai’s stock was trading at about $3 a share, a sliver of its peak of $328 in 1999, at the height of the Internet bubble.
31歲的列文曾經發明過一種技術來幫助互聯網控製巨大的網絡通信，當時他正飛往洛杉磯去組織公司迫切需要的新業務。當時Akamai的股票大約是三美元一股，而在1999年互聯網泡沫的的高峰時期曾達到328美元。
As Sagan and the lawyer chatted, another Akamai employee called on Sagan’s second line. He had been watching the “Today’’ show and saw that a jumbo jet had slammed into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. American Airlines Flight 11. Lewin’s flight.
就在薩甘和律師聊天的時候，一個Akamai的雇員通過另一條線路呼叫薩甘。他剛剛收看“今日”節目的時候看到巨大的噴氣式飛機撞擊紐約世貿中心北塔。那是美國航空公司的11號航班。列文的航班。
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For a moment, Sagan hoped Lewin had decided to fly a little later in the day. “The airlines would just let you change planes back then,’’ he recalled. But the lawyer said Lewin had called from the plane, hanging up only when a flight attendant ordered him to switch off his phone.
曾有片刻，薩甘希望列文決定乘坐的是當天晚些時候的航班。“有時候航空公司會讓你更換航班。”他回憶。但是律師說列文在飛機上給他打過電話，直到一個空乘人員命令他關掉電話，他才掛掉電話。
“So we knew shortly after 9 a.m.,’’ said Sagan. “There was no hope that he was not on that plane.’’
“於是我們在九點之後不久就知道了。”薩甘說，“現在已經不能指望他不在那架飛機上了。”
Daniel Lewin was dead, and nobody knew whether his company would survive.
丹尼爾•列文死了，沒有人知道他的公司能否活下來。
Yet Akamai’s most tragic day would also prove its most important. On that day, and in the days that followed, the world turned to the Internet for information as never before. Web traffic for Akamai’s global network of clients, including major news media sites, surged by a factor of five.
盡管如此，Akamai在這個最悲劇的一天同樣證明了它的重要性。在那天，和接下來的日子裏，世界變得從未如此依賴於互聯網來獲取資訊。包括主要新聞媒體網站在內的Akamai全球網絡客戶端的網絡通信在五個因素的刺激下急劇上升。
Lewin’s technology managed the spike handily; websites that otherwise might have crashed under the strain continued to offer details about loved ones, rescue efforts, and what went so terribly wrong. “It worked,’’ said George Conrades, Akamai’s chief executive at the time. “It really was designed well.’’
列文的技術處理網絡通信高峰得心應手；網站在有可能會崩潰的壓力下繼續提供有關親人、救援成果和情況不斷變糟的詳細信息。“它仍在工作。”Akamai當時的首席執行官喬治•康瑞德說，“它真的設計的非常棒。”
On Sept. 11, 2001, in Akamai’s control room, engineers and technicians worked furiously to direct the crush of Web traffic to every spare server. There was no time to grieve. But then and in the decade since, the thoughts of Akamai employees rarely strayed from Lewin and his technology, and what both had made possible.
在2001年9月11日，Akamai的控製室裏，工程師和技術員拚命的引導網絡通信到每台備用的服務器上。沒有時間傷心。但是在接下來的十年中 Akamai的員工們一刻也沒有忘記列文、他所研發的技術以及他們所帶來的發展可能。
“The end result is that you and I, without knowing Akamai is involved, get to see our content, and we get it fast, and it comes through clear,’’ said Brian Partridge, vice president of research at the research firm Yankee Group in Boston. “Akamai has had a behind-the-scenes role in the incredible development of the Internet.’’
“最後的結果是，你我都在不知道Akamai涉及此事的情況下，看到了我們的想要看到的網頁內容，並且我們以更快的速度得到了它，而它的獲取路徑變得更加清晰。”在波士頓揚基集團研究中心的研究副總裁 布賴恩•帕特裏奇說，“Akamai在以令人難以置信的速度發展的互聯網中扮演了一個幕後角色。”
In 1996, when Daniel Lewin, a former Israeli commando with a bachelor’s degree from Technion, Israel’s famed scientific university, began his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, computer scientists already knew the Internet would do a lousy job of managing big spikes in traffic. Companies could prepare only by buying vast numbers of extra servers that would be idle most of the time, a big waste of money.
在 1996年，當前以色列突擊隊員丹尼爾•列文帶著以色列著名科技大學——以色列技術研究所的學士學位開始了在麻省理工學院的學習時，計算機科學家已經知道互聯網在網絡通訊高峰時的管理工作將會很糟糕。企業隻能靠購買大量的多餘的服務器來做準備，而這些服務器在大多數時候都會閑著，這是一筆巨大的浪費。
Lewin was already hungry for a challenge like that. “Danny had the kind of mind that comes and says, ‘Well, this is a big problem. Why shouldn’t there be a solution?’ ’’ recalled his MIT professor and Akamai cofounder, Tom Leighton. “And sure enough, he figured out a solution.’’
列文對於這樣的挑戰已經迫不及待了。“丹尼爾是那種會過來說‘好啊，如果有個問題，為什麽沒不來個解決方案呢’的人。”他在麻省理工學院的教授、Akamai的創始人之一湯姆•萊頓回憶說，“可以確信的是，他想到了解決方案。”
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The Internet needed a better way to instantly locate vast amounts of quickly changing data stored on computers all over the world, and send it to anybody, anywhere. What Lewin and Leighton invented was a mathematical scheme called “consistent hashing’’ that radically sped up the process. Just as important, the system could “scale’’- meaning it would work even as many more people used it. It made possible the advanced Internet services we use today.
互聯網需要一種更好的方式來即時定位儲存在全世界電腦中的大量快速改變的數據，並發送給任何地點的任何人。列文和萊頓發明的是一種被稱作“一致性哈希”的數學規劃，這可以從根本上提高進程的速度。同樣重要的是，這個係統可以“擴展”——這表示不管有多人在使用，它都能正常工作。它使我們今天使用的先進的互聯網服務變為現實。
Lewin’s innovation allows millions of users to watch streaming video simultaneously, for example, and keeps news websites online during global crises as viewers rush for the latest information.
列文的創新使得上百萬的用戶得以同時觀看流媒體，並保持新聞站點在出現全球危機的時候在線以提供讀者需要的最新信息。
At MIT, Lewin stood out. He was a gym rat, a fanatical weight lifter who had once been Mr. Teenage Israel. “He was 180 degrees from the computer nerd you might imagine,’’ said his friend Marco Greenberg. “I remember this 16-year-old squatting 375 pounds.’’
列文在麻省理工學院就已經脫穎而出。他是一個健身房的常客，一個狂熱的舉重運動員，曾一度被評為以色列先生。“他和你想象中的學計算機的書呆子完全是180度相反”，他的朋友馬可波羅•格林伯格說，“我還記得他十六歲的時候375磅的樣子。”
Born in Denver, Lewin was deeply unhappy with his parents’ decision to move the family to Israel when he was 14. “He was brought to Israel kicking and screaming,’’ Greenberg said.
列文出生在在丹佛，他對在他十四歲的時候父母把家搬到以色列的決定很不高興。“他又踢又叫的被帶到了以色列。”格林伯格說。
But he changed. Lewin’s brother Michael credits his mandatory service in the Israeli military. Lewin volunteered for the toughest, most dangerous branch of the service: the Sayeret Matkal, specialists in antiterrorist operations. He became “much more focused in achieving his goals,’’ said Michael, a financial services entrepreneur who lives in Israel. “When he came out, he was a man.’’
但是他改變了。列文的兄弟邁克爾把這歸功於強製服兵役。列文自願服務於最艱難、最危險的部門：總參偵察營，反恐行動中的專家。他變得“更關注於他達成他的目標”，一個住在以色列的金融服務業企業家邁克爾說，“當他回來的時候，他成為了一個真正的男人。”
Akamai’s Sagan recalls an executives-vs.-employees paintball bout, where Lewin’s military training made him unbeatable. But when he saw that Sagan couldn’t keep up, “he literally picked me up like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder and carried me around,’’ Sagan said. “Literally, like I was nothing.’’
Akamai的薩甘回憶起在一場高管對員工的彩彈射擊比賽上，列文的軍事訓練讓他變得無可匹敵。當他看到薩甘無法跟上的時候，“他就如字麵上所說的，像一包土豆一樣撿把我抗在了肩上。”薩甘說，“如字麵上所說的，好像我不存在一樣。”
Shortly after 8:14 a.m., onboard Flight 11, two flight attendants called American Airlines and said that hijackers had stabbed two other flight attendants and a passenger.
上午8點14分後不久，11號航班上的兩名空乘人員呼叫美國航空公司，匯報說有劫機者已經刺傷了另兩名空乘人員和一名乘客。
The terrorists breached the cockpit somehow, and the one trained to fly a jet, Mohamed Atta, moved to take control of the plane. And it may be at that point that Lewin tried to stop the hijacking, according to the government commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
恐怖分子們不知是如何破壞了駕駛室，其中一名受過駕駛噴氣飛機訓練的名叫默罕默德•阿塔的恐怖分子去接管飛機的控製。根據美國政府委員會對9.11襲擊的調查，可能就是在這個時候列文試圖阻止劫機。
He had the training for it, but he never had a chance. One of the terrorists was seated behind Lewin and stabbed him, possibly in the throat. Lewin was one of the first of many to die on Sept. 11.
他受過這方麵的訓練，不過從沒有機會嚐試。一個坐在他後邊的恐怖分子刺傷了他，很可能是刺在喉部。列文可能是9.11眾多死難者中的第一個。
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There were four airliners hijacked that day; two of them, Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, left from Logan International Airport. At 8:46 that morning, Atta flew Flight 11 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
在那天有四架航班被劫持，其中的兩條，11號航班和聯合航空公司的175號航班，從洛根國際機場離開。在上午八點四十六分，阿塔駕駛著11號航班撞向世貿大樓北塔。
Lewin’s loss was even more difficult for Akamai because on the day he died, there was record demand for the Internet as the world went online to follow news of the attacks. At their monitors in the company’s network information center in Cambridge, Akamai technicians, in shock from the loss of their revered colleague, watched as hits on their customers’ websites surged beyond anything they’d seen before.
列文的殞命對Akamai而言是雪上加霜，因為在他死的那天互聯網產生了創紀錄的需求，全世界都趕著上網尋找關於襲擊的新聞。在劍橋網絡信息中心的顯示器前，Akamai的技術員們為令人崇敬的同事的殞命而震驚，眼睜睜的看著他們客戶的網站點擊率上升超過了他們所曾見過的任何一次。
Sagan knew he had to take command. “I had been a TV producer in my past life,’’ he said, “so I was used to high-pressure deadline situations, where you just totally focus on making all these little decisions in front of you.’’
薩甘知道他已經接過了指揮權。“我過去曾經做過電視製片人。”他說，“所以我已經習慣了高壓期限的環境，這種環境下你隻是完全的關注做出你擺在你麵前的這些小決定。”
He quickly addressed the company’s technicians and engineers. “Whatever you do, keep your eye focused on the network,’’ he told them, “because traffic’s going to go crazy.’’
薩甘迅速的對公司裏的技術員和工程師進行了一次演講。“不管你做什麽，讓你的眼睛集中在網絡上。”他對他們說，“因為擁堵將會變得更加瘋狂。”
Then Sagan gave one more instruction: Lewin would insist the company rise to the occasion. Do what he would do.
接下來薩甘做出了更多的指示：列文在這種時候會堅持為公司挺身而出。去做他所做的。
And they did. “Sort of through the fog and the shock,’’ said Sagan, “we just worked feverishly to run the business.’’
他們這麽做了。“摸索著通過了迷霧和震蕩。”薩甘說，“我們隻是狂熱的工作來經營業務。”
Don Marks, an Akamai engineer, spent Sept. 11 reconfiguring servers to build capacity on websites for organizations like the Red Cross and American Airlines. “All of these guys’ websites were getting completely overloaded,’’ Marks said. “It was only at the end of the day when I had a chance to breathe.’’
Akamai的工程師丹•馬克思耗費了9月11日一天重新配置服務器，以提供紅十字會和美國航空公司這樣的組織建立網站的能力。“這些網站全都超載了。”馬克思說，“一直到這一天結束我才有機會歇口氣。”
Although Akamai made it through the day, the company’s financial problems were about to get worse.
盡管Akamai堅持過了那天，但是公司的財務問題仍在變得更糟。
The Internet bubble that had floated Akamai through its founding in 1998 and its initial public offering the following year had burst. The dot-com businesses that spent millions with the company were going bust. Akamai tried to reinvent itself as an Internet services supplier to the Fortune 500 - big, stable companies that pay their bills. Akamai needed to “start adding real new customers before all the other ones went away, and we ran out of money,’’ Sagan said.
讓Akamai從1998年成立到次年首次公開募股不斷上浮的互聯網泡沫破裂了。網絡行業那些花費了上百萬的公司即將破產。Akamai嚐試將自己重塑成網絡服務提供者，為財富五百強名單上那些穩定的大公司服務。Akamai需要“在花光所有的錢、員工和投資者都離開之前找到真正的新顧客。”薩甘說。
The Sept. 11 attacks further depressed the US economy, eating into Akamai’s revenues. Investors lost confidence in the company, fearing that the loss of Lewin was irreparable. “Everyone then wrote us off completely,’’ Sagan said.
9.11恐怖襲擊事件進一步削弱了美國經濟，蠶食著Akamai的收入。投資者擔心列文的殞命是無法彌補的，進而對Akamai公司失去了信心。 “緊接著每個人都跑來徹底的銷賬。”薩甘說。
Executives started citing a metric they called “quarters to live’’: how many more quarters could Akamai stay in business? The company laid off 250 workers about a month after the terrorist attacks, driving its head count down to 900. A year later, Akamai’s stock had fallen to 56 cents a share, and it cut another 145 jobs.
管理層開始使用一個被稱作“季度生活”的度量標準：Akamai的業務還能維持多少個季度？公司在恐怖襲擊之後的大約一個月時間裏裁員了250名工人，總人數下降到900。一年後，Akamai的股票已經下跌了56美分每股，而它又削減了145個工作崗位。
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“We had to make just horrendous choices,’’ said Sagan.
“我們不得不做出一個可怕的決定。”薩甘說。
But the survivors were determined. Akamai’s Internet-boosting technology was too good of an idea to give up on. Just as important, it was Lewin’s idea. “We stayed out of stubbornness and pride at that point,’’ said Sagan. “We owed him an enormous debt for trying to be a hero. And so that’s why we all hung around.’’
但是幸存者下定了決心。Akamai的網速提高技術作為一個被放棄的想法實在是太好了。同樣重要的是，這是列文的想法。“我們在這一點上都沒有固執和虛榮。”薩根說，“在成為一個英雄這一點上我們都欠他一個巨大的債務，所以這就是為什麽我們都掛著他的肖像。”
Lewin had left behind one more gift for Akamai, a new product he helped develop called EdgeSuite, which powered websites that were “dynamic.’’ Early Web pages were static; like a printed page, they were assembled beforehand, and everybody who clicked on them saw the same thing. Dynamic websites are put together on the spot. Click on a dynamic news site, and it will pull together a custom page from different stories, images, and ads, that changes the next time you click.
列文給Akamai留下了不止一件禮物，他參與開發的一個叫EdgeSuite的新產品給網站提供了“動態”的能力。再起的網頁都是靜態的，就像是一頁打印出來的書，都是事前組合好的，每個人點擊上的時候看到的都是一樣的東西。動態網站是把網頁都放在一起，當你點擊動態新聞網站的時候，頁麵會變成一個由不同的故事、圖片和廣告組成的自定義頁麵，當你再次點擊的時候又會發生新的改變。
EdgeSuite was a winner. Akamai picked up clients like retailer Target Corp. and computer maker Apple Inc., which in 2003 adopted it for the immensely popular iTunes online music store. In 2004, Akamai posted its first annual profit, and it’s been profitable every year since.
EdgeSuite是一個成功的產品。Akamai收回了一些客戶，如零售商塔吉特公司和在2003年為極受歡迎的iTunes在線音樂商店使用它的電腦製造商蘋果公司。在2004年，Akamai公布了它的首份年度盈利報告，從那開始它每年都盈利。
Akamai survived because of Lewin’s vision for the Internet, one he laid out in the company’s earliest days: Its technology would speed up Web pages, deliver streaming video, accelerate applications, and change the Internet as people knew it, and for good.
Akamai能存活下來得益於列文早期在公司奠定的對互聯網的預測：Akamai的技術能夠提高網頁、流媒體的速度，為應用程序加速，改變我們所知的那個互聯網，將它變得更好。
The shame is that Lewin never lived to see that last goal realized. But everyone at Akamai believes his example made it possible to build the Internet we know today - dynamic, fluid, packed with video and images, and reaching every corner of the earth.
遺憾的是列文沒能活著看到最後的目標變為現實。但Akamai的每一個人都相信是他的榜樣將互聯網變成了我們今天看到的樣子——動態、流動、由視頻和圖像組成的包，到達地球的每一個角落。
In the decade since Lewin’s death, Akamai has not forgotten him. His portrait, painted by the mother of an employee, hangs in the lobby of Akamai’s headquarters at 8 Cambridge Center. There’s also a plaque listing every winner of an annual award named for Lewin, and presented to employees who demonstrate his motivation and spirit - who have shown, as the award states, “the ability to move mountains.’’
在列文死去之後的十年裏，Akamai從沒有遺忘過他，由一位雇員的母親繪製的肖像就懸掛在位於劍橋中心八號Akamai總部的前廳裏。每一個獲得了以列文的名字命名的年度獎的人的名字都被列在一個名牌上，這個獎被頒發給那些展示了其行動力，並擁有獎杯上所聲明的、列文一樣“移山的能力”的精神的雇員。
Marks, the engineer, was among four winners this year. So was Parimal Pandya, a global sales service executive based in Bangalore, India.
工程師馬克思是這個獎今年的四個得主之一。在印位於度班加羅爾總部的全球銷售服務執行官帕瑞瑪•潘迪亞也名列其中。
“I met so many people who wanted to make Akamai successful for Danny,’’ said Pandya, who never met Lewin. “No challenge was too big for anybody to take on.’’
“我遇到過很多想要為了丹尼讓Akamai取得成功的人。”從沒有見過列文的潘迪亞說，“對於一個勇於擔當的人來說，沒有任何無法戰勝的挑戰。”
There’s a conference room at the headquarters that has the word “obstreperous’’ - one of Lewin’s favorites; it means loud and stubborn - painted on the wall, complete with definition. Another Lewinism, describing someone who did a really good job, is now the name of the online portal for Akamai’s salespeople: Titan.
在Akamai的總部有一個可以用“喧囂”來形容的會議室，而這正是列文最喜歡的，在牆上寫著它的定義：響亮和固執。另一個充滿列文色彩是Akamai銷售人員的在線門戶網站的名字“泰坦”，這個詞被用來形容某人的工作完成的非常好。
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A block away, near the MIT computer labs where Lewin and Leighton worked out their early algorithms, the intersection of Main and Vassar streets was named Danny Lewin Square in 2002, to mark the first anniversary of the attacks. That day, a tree was planted in a grassy area outside Akamai’s offices. It’s flourishing now, and there, the company marks each anniversary of Lewin’s death with a memorial service.
在一個街區之遙的麻省理工學院計算機實驗室裏，列文和萊頓製定了其早期的算法。離實驗室不願的緬因街和瓦薩街的交叉路口在2002年被命名為丹尼•列文廣場，以紀念9.11襲擊一周年。在命名那天，一棵樹被種在了Akamai辦公室外的草地上。這棵樹茁壯成長的樹記錄著每年Akamai公司為紀念列文而舉行的儀式。
Akamai is now under pressure again, though not nearly as severely as in 2001. Rivals have begun to match the capability of its core products, driving prices and profit margins lower. The company’s stock has declined by more than 50 percent since the start of this year.
盡管不如2001年那次嚴重，Akamai現在又麵臨壓力了。競爭對手們已經開始獲得與其核心產品相匹敵的能力，這降低了價格和利潤率。自今年年初以來，該公司的股票已經下降了50％以上。
But there are new opportunities, as well: Akamai is bringing its customers into cloud computing, mobile computing, data security, and the delivery of HD video. And with 95,000 servers in 72 countries, and 2,200 employees, the company delivers 15 to 30 percent of all Web traffic worldwide.
不過，還有新的機會：Akamai正在幫助它的客戶引入雲計算、移動計算、數據安全和高清視頻傳輸業務。憑借72個國家的95000服務器，2,200名員工，Akamai的傳輸服務承載了全球15％到30％的網頁流量。
When he died, Lewin left Akamai a legacy of strength. “Danny changed the lives of countless people,“ said Greenberg, his friend. ”He made a lot of people rich. In every way.“
當列文死的時候，他給Akamai留下了一份強大的遺產。“丹尼改變了無數人的生活。”格林伯格說，“他讓很多人變得富有。通過各種方式。”
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
可以通過bray@globe.com聯係到HiawathaBray 。
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