This is way off topic, but since everyone seems to be enjoying the
chatter I'll pop up once.
Clive Hohberger says:
>The history of the use of "1" in the US is interesting.
>[history of 1 as prefix vs. 1 as country code deleted]
Do you have any documentation about the original purpose of the 1? My
belief is that it really was a command, not a trojan country code.
Otherwise, why do I have to dial something special in the US to dial
any other country? It's not even 1!
>Also: Keep in mind that "http://" is also an escape sequence. My web
>address is not "http://www.zebra.com" it is "www.zebra.com"
No, emphatically no. Your "web address" is a URL, and to be well
formed an absolute URL must include a protocol designator in the
front. This actually matters - your home page could just as well be
https://www.zebra.com/, or ftp://www.zebra.com/, or even
gopher://www.zebra.com/.
Eliding the http:// is a shorthand that some web browsers happen to
support. Netscape even goes further - you can just ask it to open
"zebra" and will assume you mean http://www.zebra.com/ (in a rather
US-centric way).
Namespaces are hard, and they are important. The real solution for all
of this is URNs, but that's a whole 'nother complicated discussion.
nelson@media.mit.edu
. . . . . . . . http://www.media.mit.edu/~nelson/
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