Re: foreign upstarts dare to use their own languages [was: Re: black hat .cn networks]
On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 11:29:23AM -0700, Scott Francis wrote:
On Thu, May 10, 2001 at 12:26:00AM +0800, Adrian Chadd exclaimed:
The internet has a bunch of technical standards which we loosely agree to. There's no law stating "thou shalt speak English if connected via BGP4 to thy internet".
And are _any_ of those technical standards written in a language other than English? Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
ISO is not an acronym http://www.iso.ch/infoe/intro.htm Many people will have noticed a seeming lack of correspondence between the official title when used in full, International Organization for Standardization, and the short form, ISO. Shouldn't the acronym be "IOS"? Yes, if it were an acronym which it is not. In fact, "ISO" is a word, derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal", which is the root of the prefix "iso-" that occurs in a host of terms, such as "isometric" (of equal measure or dimensions) and "isonomy" (equality of laws, or of people before the law). From "equal" to "standard", the line of thinking that led to the choice of "ISO" as the name of the organization is easy to follow. In addition, the name ISO is used around the world to denote the organization, thus avoiding the plethora of acronyms resulting from the translation of "International Organization for Standardization" into the different national languages of members, e.g. IOS in English, OIN in French (from Organisation internationale de normalisation). Whatever the country, the short form of the Organization's name is always ISO. Sounds revisionist but I'll buy it. As for CCITT, well, what do you expect. They can't even get phone numbers in a common presentation form. :/ -- Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/ Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/
On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 02:37:48PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote:
Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
The most prominent one is RIPE ... Arnold
On Thu, May 10, 2001 at 12:52:11AM +0200, Arnold Nipper wrote:
On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 02:37:48PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote:
Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
The most prominent one is RIPE ...
Reseaux IP Europeenne, only without the typos. French indeed. Greetz, Peter.
Date: 9 May 2001 14:37:48 -0700 From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
And just what does ISO stand for? Actually, ISO is not a real acronym. It's a synthetic TLA because the French demanded that the official acronym reflect the French name of the body (ala CCITT) while the English got annoyed that EVERY international body has to have the official name in French and refused. The compromise (Henry Clay would have been proud) was to use three letters that appear in the name in both French and English in an order that did not reflect either the French or English name. R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634
participants (5)
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Arnold Nipper -
Eric A. Hall -
Kevin Oberman -
Peter van Dijk -
Sean Donelan