26 Jul
2016
26 Jul
'16
7:07 p.m.
I have a possibly-invented memory that the CS
department at Edinburgh (and
probably others) ended up being called DCS because cs is a valid top-level
domain, and so the horrid sendmail magic which worked out whether addresses
needed to be turned around (and, I suppose, knew all the TLDs -- it
certainly had a huge table of things) would get confused by uk.ac.ed.cs and
send things to Czechoslovakia (as then was).
No, that's a genuine memory, though I don't remember whether it was just a
worry or whether things actually got lost. Electrical Engineering (aka "ee")
was another similarly affected. I still have books on my shelf with a
sticker in them with my coloured-book "cs" address listed.
--
gdmr(a)uk.ac.ed.cs, then gdmr(a)uk.ac.ed.dcs then gdmr(a)dcs.ed.ac.uk (which
still works), then eventually gdmr(a)inf.ed.ac.uk.
George D M Ross MSc PhD CEng MBCS CITP, University of Edinburgh,
School of Informatics, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH8 9AB
Mail: gdmr(a)inf.ed.ac.uk Voice: 0131 650 5147 Fax: 0131 650 6899
PGP: 1024D/AD758CC5 B91E D430 1E0D 5883 EF6A 426C B676 5C2B AD75 8CC5
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.