Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!uwm.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!kline From: kline@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charley Kline) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: NetFind and its Internet load Message-ID: <1991May7.145936.3492@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 7 May 91 14:59:36 GMT References: <1991May2.180737.29852@csn.org> <1991May6.173923.174@colorado.edu> Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Lines: 33 emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: > Stick an X.500 system at yourdomain.org with > a big pile of user names in it, make it so finger@yourdomain.org does > the right thing, and for large institutions like UIUC, UMich, MIT you > have a larger problem solved than trying to chase pointers through a > domain hierarchy. Granted, the information is somewhat more stale and > less likely to be exactly true; but I think it's arguable that > zero-knowlege searches are looking more for a pointer to information > than an exact match. (e.g. finger vielmetti@umich.edu and you'll get > something, but you might have to chase it down a bit to find out from > a human that I've moved recently.) Since you mentioned UIUC... We're not an X.500 shop here, but we do have a campus-wide "white pages" service which users can update themselves, and it has an interface to sendmail as well as finger. You can find me with "finger 'charley kline'@uiuc.edu", and you can send mail to people's full names, as in "mail stacy-forsythe@uiuc.edu". People who move can change their own entries, so information is never out of date as long as the person cares enough to keep their information up to date. I think the point is that organizational white-pages databases are already in great supply. I wonder if the "Semantically Cognizant White Pages Service" understands the semantics of the various ones in use. If so, it would make the search for people that much less intensive. ________________________________________________________________________ Charley Kline, KB9FFK, PP-ASEL c-kline@uiuc.edu University of Illinois Computing Services Packet: kb9ffk@w9yh 1304 W. Springfield Ave, Urbana IL 61801 (217) 333-3339