36 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
36 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
In which I have reason to sound like Master Po
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<p>This landed in my mailbox yesterday. I reproduce it verbatim except for the sender’s name.</p>
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<p>> Dear authors of the RFC 3092,<br />
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><br />
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> I am writing this email on behalf of your Request For Comment “Etymology of<br />
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> ‘Foo’.” We are currently learning about the internet organizations that set<br />
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> the standards of the internet and our teacher tasked us with finding an RFC<br />
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> that was humorous. Me and my two friends have found the “Etymology of<br />
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> ‘Foo'” and have found it to be almost as ridiculous as the RFC about<br />
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> infinite monkeys; however, we then became quite curious as to why you wrote<br />
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> this. Obviously, it is wrote for humor as not everything in life can be<br />
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> serious, but did your manager task you to write this? Are you a part of an<br />
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> organization in charge of writing humorous RFC’s? Are you getting paid to<br />
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> write those? If so, where do you work, and how may we apply? Any comments<br />
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> on these inquiries would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.<br />
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><br />
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> Sincerely,<br />
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><br />
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> XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, confused Networking student</p>
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<p>I felt as though this seriously demanded a ha-ha-only-serious answer – and next thing you know I was channeling Master Po from the old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_%28TV_series%29"><cite>Kung Fu</cite> TV series</a>. Reply follows… </p>
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<p><span id="more-6331"></span></p>
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<p><tt><br />
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Don may have his own answer, but I have one you may find helpful.</p>
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<p>There is a long tradition of writing parody RFCs on April 1st. No<br />
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manager tasks us to write these; they arise as a form of folk art<br />
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among Internet hackers. I think my personal favorite is still RFC1149<br />
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"A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers"<br />
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from 1 April 1990, universally considered a classic of the joke-RFC<br />
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form.</p>
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<p>As to why we write these...ah, grasshopper, that is not for us to<br />
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explain but for you to experience. If and when you achieve the<br />
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hacker-nature, you will understand.<br />
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</tt></p>
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<p>Sadly, odds are Confused Networking Student is too young to get the “grasshopper” reference. (Unless <cite>Kung Fu</cite> is still in reruns out there, which I wouldn’t know because I basically gave up on TV decades ago.) One hopes the Zen-master schtick will be recognizable anyway.</p>
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<p>Update: There is relevant <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_J4TRYxpmU">compilation from the show</a> on YouTube.</p>
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