[ale] FTP files

[Jay Lozier]

On 01/23/2013 10:51 AM, Mike Harrison wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Jan 2013, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
>> I remember the old days when uucp was the way to go.   Also with the 
>> cu command you had ~get and ~put options.
>
> Oh dear.. memories of UUCP. Once upon a time I built custom email 
> gateways for CC:mail to UUCP and lots of other strange variations of 
> UUCP to old non standardized pre-internet email systems.
>
> At $work, we doing a lot of work with "smart grid" integration, which 
> does a lot of store and forward file transfers, meters to collectors 
> to communictions engines to.. databases.. and back down the chain as 
> well. Every vendor seems to be re-inventing their own variation of 
> what we would consider UUCP, without standards to bind the vendors 
> together.
> It's frustrating, especially when the 20-something engineer at the 
> metering company thinks he has invented store and forward 
> communications...
>
> I often think studying the history of technology is as important as
> the future of technology.
Like why keyboard layouts still use the QWERTY layout has to do with 
mechanical typewriters keeping common key pairs from jamming (or least 
that is the story I have always heard). Too many people learned to type 
on a QWERTY typewriter that it is easier to keep the layout than to 
change to another.
>
> Spikey Haired Kid:
> Why do all these fixed length text files have to be so narrow with 
> multiple lines and line format indicators?
>
> Geezer:
> The data format originated on punch cards.
>
> Kid:
> What's a punch card?
Ouch, I remember them. How about punched tape?

-- 
Jay Lozier
jslozier at gmail.com