Re: domain name resolution is not as clear-cut a problem as one might think

[Kenneth Forbus <forbus@p.cs.uiuc.edu>]

I just never turn on mail services of any kind on our Symbolics machines.
I've seen zmail addicts accumulate megabytes of mail, while suffering
through enormous losses when it crashes.  We keep our machines busy enough
hacking AI programs to waste their time doing what some stupid unix box
can do.  Lookit, the terminal program works quite well.  If you really
cannot get up and walk to another console for mail (or have it arranged
within swivel-chair distance), then use the terminal program to get to some
boring, vanilla computer for which mail is about the most sophisticated thing
you can do.

Symbolics will never win by competing head to head with stock hardware
vendors on "infrastructure" computing.  Their forte is providing a vast
number of lisp cycles with an excellent environment.  They could make the
best mailer in the world and it wouldn't make much of a difference if they
don't stay head of SUN and others in the raw performance of their lisp on
large problems.

If I want to flame Symbolics, it will be because they seem to be ignoring
high-performance needs in favor of whizbang windows and operating-systems
stuff that I can do with commodity computers.