Re: Making the picons database distributed

Daniel Glazman (Daniel.Glazman@der.edf.fr)
Tue, 08 Sep 1998 09:30:54 +0100

T.J.A. Thurman wrote:
>
> Just an idea I was turning over and wondered what people thought...
>
> It could be worthwhile to store (parts of) the picons DB in some
> distributed format.

The opportunity and feasability of this idea has already been discussed
in 1992. I remember that some of us (including myself) faced a barrage
fire from the IETF saying :

we will never accept that because 1) faces are ugly b) it will
slow down MUAs c) it will considerably increase traffic d) do
you really think I want to see the face of the neird who sent
me a mail yesterday ?-)

points a and d are just stupid. I have been using my own faces-enabled MUA
during 5 years and nothing is more visual than a face or a logo.

points b and c are a real concern.

I have developed in 1991, as part of the Meuf package, a daemon based on
the finger daemon able to answer a picon to a request on a given port.

A call issued by a MUA, on user's request, is for me an implementable
solution. An automatic retrieval of faces for all incoming messages
is IMHO a bandwidth murder.

</Daniel>