[tlug] Proprietary "Standard"s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (was Re: Sony: Proprietary Jailkeeper)

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

"Stephen J. Turnbull" wrote:

> They're squabbling over whose proprietary system will
> become the standard.

That's standard practice for making standards here. 

Something new will happen. half a dozen companies will do 
it half a dozen ways, then say they want a standard. 
The committee is formed of those players and none of them 
can give up their way of doing things (because it's "better"), 
so the committee makes a standard that says that all six 
ways are standard, and that they'll review it later. 
Twenty years later, when only one player is left standing, 
the standard is revised to drop the others, although it 
hardly matters. 

Maybe it's one of those things where the grass seems 
greener on the other side. 

> Not for the profits, mind you, but to be "right".

NIH lives! 

> I don't think Japanese organizations are going to truly be ready to
> produce open systems for a couple of decades.

I recently read that Mozilla/Firefox adoption in Japan had 
been stuck around 5% for a couple years. That would seem to 
corroborate your point. 

> Fred Brooks said ... T/O

letter/letter stuff seems very common in East Asia, 
and the combinations used in East Asia are often unknown in the states. 
The closest I got was: 

   http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=T/O&p=dict

What did you mean by "T/O"?