Re: [idn] impacted systems investigation

["James Seng/Personal" <James@Seng.cc>]

Bruce,

Once again, you are bringing up issues which have been discussed before.
I would appreciate new comers go thru our archives before repeating
arguments which we have done.

The short answer to you on Base64 is that Base64 is good for data
transfer but not so good when comes to computer processing.

-James Seng

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Thomson" <bthomson@fm-net.ne.jp>
To: "Harald Alvestrand" <Harald@Alvestrand.no>; <idn@ops.ietf.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: [idn] impacted systems investigation


> > what protocol extension were you proposing to make sure those
Japanese
> > domain names did not leave the country through Sendmail?
> >
> > For better or worse, we only have one Internet.
> >
>
> I researched this issue a bit more, and found that RFC1342 allows
> the "From:" field of an e-mail to be UTF-8, and that 8-bit-incapable
> mail gateways can still be used by using base-64 encoding on
> this field, the same as is currently used when the sender's name
> is in an 8-bit codeset such as Japanese. So actually, the problem
> is not sendmail at all, it is in the recipient's mail software only.
> If he doesn't have the latest version, and has no idea who sent the
> e-mail, he won't be able to reply.
>
> It is important to consider this issue it its total context. It is
difficult
> to
> work in a foreign language if you are not in the particular country,
and
> idns are just one small aspect of this.
>
> To work in Japanese, I first need to have Japanese Windows. Yes,
> I know you can install language packs, as the guy sitting next to me
> does. But basically he is just playing around and can't really use his
> system in the language.
>
> Next, you need a Japanese printer. Japanese Office, Pagemaker,
> Illustrator, Power Point, or whatever. Take the plunge, do it all
> in that language, and suddenly it all comes together into something
> quite nice.
>
> I have also been in the position of trying to use Japanese while in
> the U.S. An excruciating experience, I must say. I am missing just
> too many pieces of what I need to make it work right. People
> send me documents that have Japanese fonts I am missing. My
> printer isn't really up to spec, etc.
>
> So, my hat is off to those hardy Japanese ex-pats who run in
> a Japanese environment overseas, because I realize what they
> had to do to get that far, and what they have to put up with if
> they have a half-way environment.
>
> Either way, I think these guys can cope with idn e-mail without
> any help from us. They will either choose not to use idns in e-mail,
> or they will get the apps they need to make it work.
>
> Please remember that although we all may be "one Internet", a
> lot of "out-of-band" agreements are needed to inter-operate.
> Lawyers commonly use WordPerfect, and that may work well
> for their in-house communications, but if I can't read that file
> format, they will be wasting time if they send me such a thing.
> No protocol can prevent this, just common sense.
>
> Bruce
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Harald Alvestrand" <Harald@Alvestrand.no>
> To: "Bruce Thomson" <bthomson@fm-net.ne.jp>; <idn@ops.ietf.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 11:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [idn] impacted systems investigation
>
>
> > At 15:03 09/03/2001 +0900, Bruce Thomson wrote:
> > >Sendmail was also discussed as the source of possible problems.
> > >This problem can be eliminated by suggesting that idns not
> > >be used in e-mail communications except within the
> > >intended country. (see my previous post.)
> >
> > ouch.
> > a random selection of 974 self-declared Japanese that I just happen
to
> have
> > lying around gives:
> >
> > - 784 .jp addresses
> > - 80 .com addresses
> > - 15 .net addresses
> > - 5 .org addresses
> > - 3 .mil addresses
> > - 2 .br adresses
> >
> > the same set gives for the .jp addresses
> >
> > - 784 in Japan
> > - 5 in the US
> > - 4 in Korea
> > - 3 in China
> > - 2 in Thailand
> >
> > and so on.
> >
> > what protocol extension were you proposing to make sure those
Japanese
> > domain names did not leave the country through Sendmail?
> >
> > For better or worse, we only have one Internet.
> >
> > --
> > Harald Tveit Alvestrand, alvestrand@cisco.com
> > +47 41 44 29 94
> > Personal email: Harald@Alvestrand.no
> >
> >
> >
>
>