Re: Req for examples Re: [GZG] [OFFICIAL] GZG SUMMER SALE OFFERS!

--- Doug Evans <devans@nebraska.edu> wrote:

> Strike that: make that www.gtns.net. Isn't .net
> Micro$oft's wave of the
> future?
> 
> The_Beast
> 

The biggest

As Paul Boutin said in 1989 in response to the
question "What do you think will be the biggest
problem in computing in the 90s?" - "There are only
17,000 three-letter acronyms." (Actually 17576, but
close enough)

This is a case of reuse of a TLA.

The .net in the email address is unrelated to
microsofts' '.Net' offering. It dates back to the
olden days of the Internet when one could tell a great
deal about a site by the top level domain in which it
resided (.com, .edu, .mil, etc).

Prior to a change in the mid to late 1990s (I forget
the exact year), there were very strict rules about
where a given domain could be assigned. Some of those
rules still exist, but a few were either eliminated or
greatly relaxed :

.edu = schools. At one time accredited
colleges/universities only, now just about any
post-high school educational facility. Even such
things a truckdriving 'academy' qualify. Technically,
even a high-school (heck even a pre-school) quailfies
now, but those generally end up in the national
heirarchies (for publicly funded schools) or in .com
for the privately funded ones.
.com = general businesses. Now, just about everything
under the sun ends up here.
.org = non-profit organizations. Originally, it pretty
much had to be a group to whom donations were tax
deductable under the laws of the USA. Now it
essentially anyone whose prefered name wasn't
available as a .com.
.net = network backbone providers. The big boys who
provide the big pipes to everyone else. Now, it is
little more than a 3rd choice after you couldn't get a
.com or .org.

"My precious sense of honor
Just a shield of rusty wire,
I stand against the chaos
and the cross of holy fire' - N. Peart

		
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