Re: WorldNIC

["Jay R. Ashworth" <jra () scfn thpl lib fl us>]

On Tue, Jun 09, 1998 at 12:34:56PM -0700, Michael Dillon wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>
> > How does providing different top level domains for different categories
> > of organizations "violate the laws of physics", Michael?
>
> It tries to confine objects to a single state whereas physics teaches that
> the universe cannot be so neatly sliced and diced.

Taxonomy isn't a physical science, is it?

> Of course, I could have simply asked the question that needs to be asked,
> namely: why would anyone want a name to include a category anyway?

Because people in different categories want "the same name".  It's a
convenient divisor.  DNS names are actually _addresses_, and can't be
expected to map one to one with names in the large; this is an attempt
to soften the impact of that problem.

But you already knew that, no?

> Your name, Jay Ashworth, gives no clue as to your education, your
> training, your profession, your age, your race, your height. Why should an
> Internet domain name be any different? The DNS needs to be hierarchical so
> that a query can trace a path from the root of the DNS to find the IP
> address belonging to a name. But why should the branches in the hierarchy
> mean anything in particular in any given human language?

Because that's the way people _think_?  If I'm looking for the Coca
Cola Drinkers Club, it's obvious to someone who knows what the tags
_are_ that that will be at cocacola.org, not cocacola.com, Coke's
lawyers notwithstanding.

>                                                          Some people would
> like to restrict .com to COMMON usage, .org to ORGASMIC providers and .net
> to CLEAN content (net is French for clean), but I personally don't give a
> damn and prefer a more diverse and chaotic system of naming.

I know you made those up out of thin air, but still..

If you want a real answer as to how this should be done, ask a
librarian.  And the fact that that's my recommendation should say
something all by itself.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra () baylink com
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