On Fri, 28 Jul 1995, Hans-Werner Braun wrote:
I have an idea. Lets create a .ssn domain. Better yet, lets assume everything plain numeric is an SSN. As you all know, Vixie's SSN is 123-45-6789. Consider that address to be a middle level. At the bottom you need something that maps it to where, e.g., he can find his email. When he wants to hang out in his hotel in Costa Rica tomorrow, he may have to remap 123456789, so things can be found wherever he really wants them. Probably a host on the hotel's HIPPI switch. Point is, at the identifier-to-location mapping, things have to be flexible enough to easily and quickly be updated. Kind of like cellular auto-roaming. May be he can even use his cellular phone to beacon around where he is *really* located, so the mapper finds him, and so he may not have to do much explicitly.
Yuckk! Why put all the intelligence in the central system. Look at the Internet, dumb routers and packet switches flipping data bits all over the place with all the intelligence in the hosts at the periphery. Paul has a mail server at vixie.sf.ca.us that receives his mail and if he really needed access remotely, he can just run a POP server there and pick it up anywhere there is a net connection. Or if he cares about where the mail lands, he can have vixie.sf.ca.us forward all his mail via UUCP and then poll via TCP/IP or modem from wherever he happens to be located.
May mean you have to give machines social security numbers as well, as you may have to address more generic resources (humans are just one instantiation) before too long.
IPv6 will save us all. We can address each cell in our bodies and have enough addresses left over for the light switches. Every child will receive their IPv6 allocation at birth. Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-542-4130 http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com