Re: [Fwd: Kremen VS Arin Antitrust Lawsuit - Anyone have feedback?]

["D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy () druid net>]

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:38:49 -0700
Clay Fiske <clay () bloomcounty org> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2006 at 12:17:59PM -0400, D'Arcy J.M. Cain wrote:
> > I reiterate, no one knows me by my IP address.  The software (DNS) they
> > use may and some people may need to make a change but the world in
> > general does not need to know that.  That's the whole point of DNS.
>
> Let me adjust that for you:

No thanks.

> ----
> I reiterate, no one knows me by my phone number.  The phone book they
> use may and some people may need to make a change but the world in
> general does not need to know that.  That's the whole point of the
> phone book.
> ----

I know many of my friends phone numbers by heart.  I also know many
businesses by their phone number.  There is a popular pizza chain here
that uses their phone number in their jingle.  Just last night I
noticed a vet across the street from a bar I was in who's phone number
was 481-PETS.  I would have no need to look that up in any book.

There are many cases when we have to look up numbers but numbers is
what we need in the end to phone someone.  This is a weakness, one that
the architects of the Internet fixed by introducing domains.  Domains
are what we have to remember, store in our rolodexes and look up in
Internet "phone books."

> > My point is that my friends and aquaintences may remember my number or
> > have it in their Rolodex but no one has to remember my IP address and
> > very few ever have to even deal with it at all and those that do,
> > only for a moment.
>
> Some people may know your phone number off the top of their heads, but
> most will have to look it up. The main difference I see is that there
> is a dynamic system for looking up IP addresses, so changes are easier

If we know the domain which is the thing that users are required to
remember.  I deal with a music store called Long & McQuade here in
Toronto.  The first few times I wanted to check out their web site
I looked them up in the phone book (a.k.a. "Google") but eventually I
learned to remember Long-McQuade.com.  I still can't remember their
phone number.  I generally go to the web site to get it.
 
> to propagate. The Rolodex is the equivalent of a hosts file. The phone
> book roughly equates to mailing out a zone file periodically. Calling
> 411 is probably about as close to DNS as the phone system gets.

No, calling 411 is closer to hitting Google.  I don't call 411 to get
the BTN or circuit number.

> We have phone numbers so the network knows where to send the call, not
> because they are convenient for people to remember.

The phone number system doesn't scale well.  Too late to fix it now.

> > OK, my real point is that phone numbers are not like IP addresses.  You
> > may find a dark corner that exhibits some similarity but the basic
> > analogy is flawed.
>
> They may not be identical, but I think the analogy works well.  In both
> cases the numeric address is used to route to a destination device. In
> both cases, we have a reference system to resolve a name to said address.

I'm beginning to think I am feeding the troll here.  I am sure that
99.9% of the people on this list understand that phone numbers are more
analogous to domains than to IP addresses.  Yes, it's a flawed analogy
but less flawed than the other.

I think I am done with this particular "my analogy is bigger than your
analogy" war.  Oops.  Did I just make another analogy?  :-)

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy () druid net>         |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
+1 416 425 1212     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.