USENIX Board Studies UUCP

[Robert P. Warnock]

In article <SPENCER.89Dec13124514 at spline.eecs.umich.edu> spencer at eecs.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) writes:
>You should all read the Viewpoint column in this month's CACM.  John
>McCarthy writes "Networks considered harmful for electronic mail".  He
>pushes development of a standard that will compete with FAX, where you
>can send mail to "any" telephone number, without pre-arrangement with
>the receiving party.  Otherwise, he feels, e-mail will never "make
>it", since FAX is just easier.
>
>Quote: "E-mail could work the same way at similar costs [as FAX,
>projected to be $200/machine by 2010, and present in 50% of all homes
>(yes, something like 30 MILLION installations)], but because of a
>mistake by DARPA about 20 years ago, i.e., making a special-purpose,
>special-politics ARPANET network the main vehicle for e-mail, it was
>combined with other network uses that require higher bandwidth and
>packet switching.  Another mistake was UUCP.  It uses the telephone
>network, but three features inherited from its use within Bell
>Telephone Laboratories made its widespread adoption a blunder."
>
>Read it yourself if you want to know why.  And factor his points into
>the "future of UUCP", if you can.
>
>
>--
>=Spencer (spencer at eecs.umich.edu)