Re: Randomly-assigned TLDs

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>]

Paul Ezra Kautz writes:
> Actually, random TLDs such as N3G or ABDD or whatever aren't all that
> bad.  They totally solve one of the biggest problems facing DNS today:
> its use as a directory.

A directory is one thing. A mnemonic device is another. It is much
easier to remember "my email address is perry@piermont.com" than it is
to remember "my email address is 4392340.354@s534q.n4g".

I (literally) give my email address to people at bars without
expecting that they should need to write it down, and usually people
can remember it. Although the DNS should not be a directory,
intentionally making it hard for people to remember addresses is not
something I personally like.

I'm not fond of solutions that lead to un-memorizable domain names.

> But one would probably want something a bit more mnemonic.  Well, if
> so, we could use the same system meteorologists use to name tropical
> storms -- just arbitrary personal names.  IBM.BOB.  SPRINGER.IVANA.
> INTERNIC.KRZT.  Whatever, just so long as it's meaningless.

Meaningless eliminates mnemonic properties. It is always far easier to
remember meaningful things. I personally prefer that things remain
memorable.

Perry
PS speaking for myself and not for the IAHC