Re: Draft for Review: Namespaces II, postmodernism

Rohit Khare (rohit@uci.edu)
Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:37:50 -0700


> > Injectivity, for example, creates scarcity
>
>Interesting point. The marginal utility of registering a potentially
>unnecessary domain is usually quite small (except to poachers and other
>speculators), but the failure to register one (to hedge) can be quite high.
>When will we see 'rational' secondary markets, with futures and
>options and its
>own Black-Scholes model, or are we past that?

no more than there is in phone numbers -- technically, the switching
costs are so high, friction prevents the market from developing.
Drugs.com went for $823,456...

> > by weakening our names to function as locators.
>
>This is confusing. Do you mean 'by weakening our names, allowing them to act
>as locators'? I'm not sure I grasp the point of the entire
>paragraph, in fact.

Hmm. Thanks. I meant the difference in brittleness between 'doofus'
and 'third door on the right'; or the difference between human names
and numbers. Technically, I'd liken it to 'currying', partially
evaluating the resolution function. (No, not after the food, it's a
logician's last name).

> > The product token is a completely malleable, private name which is
>> nonetheless structured by a slash and useful for logging purposes
>> ('technographic' data, as the jargon goes).
>
>Not clear which 'product token' you mean.

Sorry. Formatting: Apache/1.3.6 is in bold.

> > extract minutia
>
>Did you mean to use the singular? As in 'extract some minutia'? Or minutiae?
>Just being pedantic, as is my wont.

a perfectly self-referential error! two bonus points...

> > maintained by Adobe
>
>Isn't this just substituting Adobe for Microsoft (however desirable that may
>be)? Does Adobe do Digital Unix (not that anyone does, now)?

Doh! and the very point of this is multilaterality -- PPDs can come
from manufacturers, Adobe, IS, etc.

> > miles of private highway outside UCI hog up the planet-wide domain name
>> tollroad.com?
>
>Indeed.

Yep. Every time I think I'm just bonkers on the namespace issue, I
drive off campus and my convictions are refreshed!

(and no, not by the CHP, grumble... )

Rohit