🚀 go-pugleaf

In <8906301903.AA19116@turing.cs.rpi.edu> vastolak@TURING.CS.RPI.EDU (Ken
Vastola) writes:
> ISO actually develops standards for wine-tasting glasses, too!

	Much as I think what ISO is doing the the communications protocol
arena is silly and a rampant case of NIH, I don't think Ken's dig at ISO
for standardizing wine-tasting glasses is justified.  What's wrong with
standard wine-tasting glasses?  Wine is a big industry, and certainly
comparative testing of various wines is an important part of that industry.
Does it not make sense to standardize whatever you can of that process?  I
know essentially zilch about wines, but let's assume Burgundys taste best
in a short wide glass and Zinfandels in a tall narrow one.  Does it not
make sense for wine tasters around the world to use an ISO Q.19 glass for
Burgundy and an ISO Q.21 glass for Zinfandel when they do their taste
tests?  Or would you rather they just rummage around for whatever they
happen to have on hand and then have one claim that the other used the
wrong glass and thus biased his test?

	Lots of things in life are standardized besides computers.  Motor
oil, screw threads, printers inks, baseballs, lumber, and a zillion other
things.  In virtually ever case where there is no standard for comparison,
chaos reigns.  Why not wine-tasting glasses?
-- 
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"