In 2003, “ether” might have referred to “Ethernet”, wired networking.

Rot might have referred to decay or a rotation cipher, like ROT13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13

I think here they are essentially random like “I hope no one else uses Correct Battery Horse Staple for their globally unique ID”.

https://xkcd.com/936/

wondering the same, maybe simple word play on ethernet.. who knows what floats about in the brain of a developer! naming vars is hard dangerous work in my experience!

This is the real question.

How can the ether rot? Is it not eternal?