On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 06:51:20AM -0800, Pat Pleate wrote: > I find that when one has to flame another, it's time > to leave a group like this. > Why do persons have to be so rude to call another a > degrading name? ..........Stuff deleted >>I'm using Firefox and Thunderbird because they are both so simple, >>stupid - just like good applications should be - no unnecessary GUI >>config or unrelated functionality (a calendar in my mailer???) that gets >>in the way. Pat - no "person' was being called a name here. The "stupid" was referring to the programs "Firefox" and "Thunderbird" and in the way it was used it was actually praising the software, not insulting it. For example see this paper: RISE OF THE STUPID NETWORK "The Rise of the Stupid Network was originally written during a single long weekend in May 1997 by David S. Isenberg while he was an employee of AT&T Labs Research. It was officially released onto the Internet by AT&T in June 1997. " Mr. Isenberg (or Dr.?) is referring to IP based networks, like the internet, as being "stupid". He is referring to the fact that generally speaking all data which flows over the network is treated the same. The "network" is too "stupid" to do anything special for any particular type of data. He concludes (roughly) that this is where the power of the Internet comes from. Being stupid, (or better named "transparent") is a "good thing". (TM) To read this well written and easily understood seminal paper please see: http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/stupidnet.html It will give you an excellent background on why "Stupid is Good" -- Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
