Re: RFC 1123 and SMTP

[Paul Mockapetris <[e-mail]>]

> 
> 
> 
> John,
> 
> Thanks for supplying your usual combination of grace and
> precision in answering these questions.
> 
> I say, "People who don't send Date: or From: fields are BOZOS!"
> 
> Bob
> 

This of course brings to mind the question of the use of the term
"BOZO" in technical specifications.

At a certain government meeting, I said:

	"If we do both X and Y, we look like BOZOs"

The particular choice of X and Y don't really matter here, but this
was a joint UK/US activity, so there was a question about whether BOZO
is a US-centric way of looking at things.  While we never reached
worldwide closure, BOZO is understood in both the GB and UK context.

The meeting continued after I left, and someone raised the question of
whether my statement was equivalent to saying

	"I won't do both X and Y"

A split decision followed!  So the point of this story is that if you
want people who are BOZOs to do something, calling them BOZOs won't
work, they will want to do it anyway.

paul

P.S. Sorry, it is late on Friday here...