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From: lamaster@pioneer.arpa (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.misc
Subject: Re: OSI-model software
Message-ID: <1726@ames.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jun-87 19:00:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.1726
Posted: Tue Jun  9 19:00:57 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jun-87 04:55:18 EDT
References: <223@diab.UUCP> <233@idacrd.UUCP> <526@alliant.UUCP> <19265@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <492@houxa.UUCP> <2923@pyramid.UUCP>
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Reply-To: lamaster@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster)
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In article <2923@pyramid.UUCP> sas@pyramid.UUCP (Scott Schoenthal) writes:


(Paraphrase: "ISO offers the following:")

>	
>	(3)	A suite of protocols not developed by the "bomb-crazed"
>		American military.  Not that I want to bring politics
>		into the picture but, like it or not, we're talking
>		*international* standards.  The Europeans are very
>		sensitive about the protocols which run over the
>		PTT networks.  Anyone whose gone through the ordeal of

This "argument" I thought was a joke, at first.  "You have got to be kidding."
The sad truth is that I have actually heard ISO proponents use it.  Did you
know that modern canning was invented for Napoleon's army (to invade other
countries, where supplies and logistics were a problem) and was used primarily
for military food supplies for its first sixty years or so?  So I guess we
shuldn't use canned food.  If there are any pacifists reading this, I might
suggest that "swords into plowshares" might be a better approach.  Use the
protocols for peaceful purposes.  My sources tell me that, unfortunately,
"they" are much more worried about "uncontrolled" traffic which flows outside
"their" networks.  It is just hard to talk about this "problem" in public, so
other arguments must be used.  Sounds like material for talk.politics to me.
Add a healthy dose of "Not invented here" (NOBODY has a monopoly on NIH), plus
some unscrupulous computer vendors ("We have ISO, see, seven layers") and you
have a mess for the technical grunts to straighten out.  Too bad; it didn't
have to be this way.


  Hugh LaMaster, m/s 233-9,  UUCP {seismo,topaz,lll-crg,ucbvax}!
  NASA Ames Research Center                ames!pioneer!lamaster
  Moffett Field, CA 94035    ARPA lamaster@ames-pioneer.arpa
  Phone:  (415)694-6117      ARPA lamaster@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov

"In order to promise genuine progress, the acronym RISC should stand 
for REGULAR (not reduced) instruction set computer." - Wirth

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