Excerpts from internet.ietf-822: 15-Apr-92 Re: Implications of MIME fo..
Einar Stefferud(_at_)nma(_dot_)com (1338)
Suppose the US Postal Service (or The Royal Mail) descided that
the bulk of paper was too great in some random package, and converted it
to microfiche for its own convenience! And suppose it was the Dead Sea
Scolls!
Again, this is a phony argument in the absence of an alternative. What
if the previous behavior of the postal service was to throw away such
large packages? That means that the new behavior is an improvement --
in the old behavior, you threw the Dead Sea Scrolls into a landfill. In
the new behavior, you at least copy them to microfiche before composting
them. Personally, I think that's an improvement, however distasteful.
Jim Morris offers some real words of wisdom for times like these: "The
Best is the Enemy of the Good." It would be a real shame to shoot down
a scheme that is a substantial improvement on today's reality in the
name of something that's even better, but might not really get
implemented in the sites that need it most. -- Nathaniel