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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!Glacier!reid
From: reid@Glacier.FUN (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: The TRUTH about .UUCP
Message-ID: <12347@Glacier.FUN>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 22:36:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: Glacier.12347
Posted: Sun Sep 29 22:36:14 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 00:33:37 EDT
References: <593@down.FUN> <10476@ucbvax.ARPA> <12317@Glacier.FUN> <10490@ucbvax.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University, Computer Systems Lab
Lines: 47

In article <10490@ucbvax.ARPA> jordan@ucbvax.BOGUS (Jordan Hayes) writes:
>    Honeyman and his troops (yes, this now includes you, Mr. Reid)
>    are too far into the problem to ...
>		[meow, woof, growl, etc.]
>    	"Lead, follow, or get the hell out of my way"

I've already sent Peter a letter asking for my first paycheck; I sent him my
caps lock key as proof of identity.

Luckily most statements of the form ``it won't work'' end up being true in
Computer Science, especially where big systems are involved. I'm therefore
not quaking in fear of your proving me wrong. However, given that it's not
going to work, I would derive much more satisfaction in seeing that its
proponents ultimately understand why it didn't work. I therefore intend to
archive this whole conversation, and bring it up maybe 5 years from now in a
time capsule, for some yuks. I really wish somebody had videotaped Peter
Denning's speech at the 1981 SOSP conference at which he predicted that the
Intel 432 would revolutionize computers as we knew them. We could show it at
the 1985 SOSP conference for amusement.

It is completely impossible to achieve homogeneity, such as that required by
domain schemes, without central authority. It's hard to imagine a more basic
principle of distributed systems engineering. If the world were perfect and
you were king, you could make the .UUCP domain work, but the world isn't
perfect and you aren't king, and you are not going to succeed at making it
work.

I assert and predict that the first successful domain-based addressing
scheme for UUCP-like mail will come about because a commercial company
(perhaps AT&T) offers the transport service for a fee, and regulates the
addresses as part of their business. MCI Mail, however bogus it might be, is
a step in the right direction.

In summary:
	* Basic principle of distributed system engineering: 
	  Domains will not work without central authority
	* Basic principle of modern life:
	  Central authority will only come as part of a larger service
	  that is valuable enough that people will be willing to pay for it.
	* Lemma:
	  All communal ventures in the history of the modern world have
	  ultimately failed, as judged by the world outside those ventures.
	  uucp mail is fundamentally a communal venture (except inside AT&T
	  where Gary Murakami holds it together).
-- 
	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid
	Stanford	reid@SU-Glacier.FUN


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