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This document is a translation of the page in memory of René Cougnenc I stumbled upon while being furious about dictionaries. I feel it is worth sharing with the non-french-speaking Geminispace as some things here will resonate with widespread sentiments.
Specifically I love this damn quote:
Sometimes I'm thankful that the butter slicer has never been reused by software engineers. Perhaps it would have stopped being compatible between butters.
My english is far from perfect. All corrections are welcome! Now for the translation.
Linux, Usenet and some others owe him much. René had translated Welch and Kirch books on Linux and managed the renux BBS a long time before Internet went mainstream. He always firmly defended Usenet against cyber-blockheads and he did it with humor and vigor (it's an euphemism) — Stéphane Bortzmeyer
Those who got lured by the term "multimedia" that we read about anything and everything consider, when witnessing the slow reception of bad quality images or sounds that would shame old 78s, that this unaffordable technological debauchery is absolutely worse than the first black and white TV.
The problem is to know what to tell them: we all know that access to a worldwide computer network is going to be a revolution, but how to make people who do not yet feel the need for it realise this, even though we do not currently have the appropriate applications, for the simple reason that while the network is not available everywhere we have no idea what will actually be done with it.
How to explain them that what is fantastic is to connect remote computers together, but that it is not a spectacular operation by itself. How to explain them that a computer is not always a big convoluted box with a confusing keyboard, but that they can be found everywhere: microprocessors animating devices of all sorts, that could communicate together.
And if the message get through, then how to explain them that when a fresh middle manager, while having breakfast, will connect to his office network then to his secondary residence boiler, he could possibly not be spied on in a "computer file" by Big Brother. That will be much harder :)
They imagine that Internet are the services that we all use now, they do not understand that it's solely the communication network. And my concierge watching the news, I can picture her face; especially with the readers that us love :-)
Of course, this is all very young; people have not assimilated and exploited the phone, then fax, in 24 hours. Give to them the possibility of the Net and let the imagination of developers and users do the rest. The services presently available are fast, efficient and essential to many of us, but they have been built for the people who created this network, so they stick mostly to scientific domains. If the Net opens up, creativity will work in many other domains.
The best would be for the network to be transparent, natural, invisible for the common dummy. Just like he does not think about the vast EDF grid (TN: France electrical grid) when he turns the light on: electrification had, in its time, been confronted to a lot of relunctance as well.
The whole problem will be to content everyone, with connections sufficiently reliable so that the dude firing up xterm to work remotely won't burst in rage when Marcel Dugenou (TN: dummy name) will send his holiday videos to his aunt in Romorantin. For now, the servers are enjoying the calm; there may even be other dedicated networks, not only one big Internet. But that would be great if they could communicate using a tried and tested technology rather than a stupid proprietary protocol… but there… I'm kinda pessimistic :-)
Here in Antony for quite some time now, cable passes in front of my door, and I regularly throw out salesman trying to make me subscribe to this TV wonder.
Yesterday as I was leaving, I find myself face to face with this salesman who was about to ring. Hard to explain that I was absent. I tell him I'm in a hurry but that I agree to see him the next day, only if he can tell me that, yes or no, they planned IP connectivity to the Internet with their stuff. This is what I need, not TV.
— Of course Sir, downloads, games and everything!
I try not to laugh because I'm in a rush, and we plan a meeting today, Thursday, when he will explain me all that and how much it costs.
The guy comes an hour late. NaĂŻve, I think it's probably because my request is still unusual and he had to gather documentation and papers differing from the CMYK shit praising cable TV.
The interview showed me that he knew almost nothing about what I asked and did not prepare anything. He was nice but obviously oblivious to the subject.
He promised me the earth though, honestly, without delays nor quotes: "everything is planned Sir, this will be available but nothing is started yet". But he told me that it already works as an experiment in Paris, that people are very satisfied and that it won't be too expensive: establishing connection will be free and a modem will be available for rent.
He promised me Internet, I made him say that it was actually Internet, direct full IP, no filters, the true Internet, and that yes they will a local news server, will route C class networks for whoever wants them, etc: he was in fact answering "yes" at every question. Obviously, he did not understand much and had been tricked into believing all that.
But if he did not prepared anything, I, while waiting for him, had prepared my file :-)) So I show him a few prints of Usenet News articles on the subject contradicting everything he just assured me. I had to explain that it came from the "Internet network" and that it was "readable on the entire planet", because he acknowledged for sure that this paper did not look like a fax :-))
You should have seen his face and the long silence that followed when he was reading the articles. Very, very, very embarrassed. Told me "that's not what they tell us at work". "That's weird". (And me to myself that indeed it is weird. He looked sincere).
Followed a short, less commercial conversation. I hit a nerve :-)
Then, after assuring me that when it will be ready, "it won't be like that" because he clearly understood that I won't take his pseudo-network if it is like that, the salesman came back to life and it's been terrific:
Installation was currently free due to a promotion. He goes at length to certify me that Internet, even though nothing is planned yet, would almost surely be available in a year and that I can still profit from the promotion: I save 1800F on installation, only cable TV subscription to pay, quite cheap, I can enjoy TV in the meantime and as soon as Internet is available, bam, I'm connected.
Me: television? with what TV set?
The dude starts looking around the place and realises that I do not have one, nor want one, nor pay TV usage fees. I only want Internet through his cable, as promised.
I hit a second nerve, harder :-)
He thus decides to leave and promised me to keep me informed. He took my address on the paper I gave him (I always prepare a print due to my name, incomprehensible for some).
On it was my name and my electronic address. I told him what it is, he did not seem to understand because he left while saying "I'll send you a fax then".
Quick, we have to put a Fax extension to Sendmail, I'm waiting for news about cable Internet :-))
The problem, as far as I can see, it's that at the beginning HTML was fantastic, very simple and efficient and could be employed by everyone to share structured documents.
Millions of people use it (used it) to send structured documents, whether worldwide or locally. (I have tons of docs locally, SGML transcoded to HTML and it often is more practical than the "man" command). These documentations can be viewed, used, on all kinds of devices.
It's not hard to understand that a same structured document can appear differently depending on whether it is shown on X Window, Videotex or in periodicals print style, right???
It is a very adequate tool and it's unlikely to disappear. Bless the CERN for this.
But it looks like the infamous NetScape and its evolution is pushing to make it a Rube Goldberg machine, cross-breed of the minitel, PostScript and color TV.
What a shame that in IT, everytime something is simple and works correctly we absolutely have to make it way more complex and create incompatibilities :-(
Sometimes I'm thankful that the butter slicer has never been reused by software engineers. Perhaps it would have stopped being compatible between butters.
What I say is that it won't be the same at all, and in that case they better shit a DTD or whatever on top, instead of breaking a nice tool…
Some day, people who did not understand shit attempted to reinvent color PostScript with that (TN: the Web), which has absolutely nothing to do with this, but money, "Internet" trend and vanity came, and there it is, everything's broken.
Now that the debate happened, all I can say is that I saw a lot of nice things die during my life because "society" tried to seize it, legalise it, regulate it, "for their own good". That's all. It's gonna happen to Usenet and Internet and it's a shame. Sadly it's inevitable; rambling on humanity, its genius and stupidity would take us way too far, and I clearly don't have the required intellectual abilities :-)
When it will happen, as many others I will go back on the road, once again exploring another fascinating field that I have no idea about yet, before right-minded society comes there as well, to make us happy in spite of ourselves, refusing to understand that we lived it, that everything's fine, we don't need anything.
Unless until then a cancer, cirrhosis or bad pedestrian crossing gets me, to conclude this full life that I had a good laugh to live. Others lived through that before me, so I can predict how it will happen: while a group of friends will have a feast in my memory, laughing and remembering the good times, many others will lament and find in me qualities I never had, and will feel sorry. No need to say which side I prefer :-)
Please do not restart a stupid argument which ended a while ago in a single group, by willingly cross-posting in two others and changing the title to click-bait.
Please do not drown me in mail, except if, all back from holidays, you have time to lose: my machine will be down starting from September the 10th, forever inaccessible.
Anyway: leave me alone, if you can! Keep on arguing together if that diverts you: I'm too stupid to play that game, for sure :-)
Leave dumbasses alone. Do not try to colonise them. Thanks for them.
