From: jones@cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Seeking attribution for quote Date: 23 Nov 1999 14:51:41 GMT Organization: The University of Iowa Lines: 10 Message-ID: <81e9lt$klo$1@flood.weeg.uiowa.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!diablo2!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!intermedia!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!uunet!ffx.uu.net!news.uiowa.edu!not-for-mail Someone once said something like: "The problem with standards is that we have so to choose from." Who said it first? I've got to write a user's manual on how to cable something to the RS232 port on my widget, and this seems the right quote to introduce that section. Doug Jones jones@cs.uiowa.edu ###### From: bhahn@spam-spam.go-away.com (Brendan Hahn) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Seeking attribution for quote Message-ID: References: <81e9lt$klo$1@flood.weeg.uiowa.edu> Organization: Transoft Corp Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit Reply-To: bhahn@transoft.mangle.net (unmangle address to reply) X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.4.0 Lines: 15 Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:40:11 -0800 NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.180.87.35 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: nuq-read.news.verio.net 943385730 205.180.87.35 (Tue, 23 Nov 1999 19:35:30 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 19:35:30 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!news.new-york.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!nuq-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!nuq-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!bhahn jones@cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) wrote: >Someone once said something like: > > "The problem with standards is that we have so to choose from." > >Who said it first? Andrew Tanenbaum, in his textbook "Computer Networks", wrote: "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from. Furthermore, if you do not like any of them, you can just wait for next year's model." It's on page 254 of the second edition, in the section "The Data link Layer in Public Networks", where he's introducing the SDLC/HDLC/ADCCP/LAP/LAPB family of protocols. bhahn@transoft.mangle.net <-- unmangle to reply ###### From: Robert Pluim Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Seeking attribution for quote Date: 23 Nov 1999 17:05:16 +0100 Organization: is a symptom of a sick mind Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: <81e9lt$klo$1@flood.weeg.uiowa.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.251.166.30 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.070095 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.95) XEmacs/21.2 (Yoko) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.icl.net!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!easynet-uk!easynet.net!btnet-feed2!btnet!zharh00t.europe.nortel.com!not-for-mail jones@cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes: > Someone once said something like: > > "The problem with standards is that we have so to choose from." > > Who said it first? I've got to write a user's manual on how to cable > something to the RS232 port on my widget, and this seems the right > quote to introduce that section. > > Doug Jones > jones@cs.uiowa.edu I remember it as: "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. If you don't like the current ones, you just wait for a while and some new ones come along" -- Andy Tanenbaum, probably in the foreword to one of his networking books. Robert -- The above are my opinions, and my opinions only. ###### From: Eric Fischer Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Seeking attribution for quote Date: 23 Nov 1999 17:33:04 GMT Organization: EnterAct Corp Turbo-Elite News Server Lines: 16 Message-ID: <81ej4g$6a1$1@eve.enteract.com> References: <81e9lt$klo$1@flood.weeg.uiowa.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.229.143.40 X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999) Originator: enf@enteract.com (Eric Fischer) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!diablo2!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.enteract.com!news.enteract.com!not-for-mail Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879 wrote: > Someone once said something like: > > "The problem with standards is that we have so to choose from." > > Who said it first? Rob Pike and Ken Thompson quote Andy Tannenbaum as having said, "That's the nice thing about standards -- there's so many to choose from," but without a specific citation, in their 1993 Usenix paper, "Hello World." It's on the web at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/doc/utf.html eric ###### Sender: marc@dumbcat.snafu.org Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Seeking attribution for quote References: <81e9lt$klo$1@flood.weeg.uiowa.edu> From: Marco S Hyman Date: 23 Nov 1999 12:58:52 -0800 Message-ID: Organization: S.N.A.F.U. (www.snafu.org) X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Lines: 10 NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.54.48.242 X-Trace: nntp1.ba.best.com 943390732 231 marc@206.54.48.242 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-x.support.nl!newsfeed.tli.de!windy.ip.versatel.net!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!news2.best.com!news3.best.com!nntp1.ba.best.com!not-for-mail jones@cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes: > Someone once said something like: > > "The problem with standards is that we have so to choose from." Tanenbaum in Computer Networks, I think... looking... hmmm, can't find the quote -- perhaps I'm wrong. // marc