Mercury

[solderpunk]

On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 05:13:59PM +0000, Phil Leblanc wrote:
 
> I think this is the best summary of the overall project direction. I
> quoted just a bit but maybe the whole paragraph could find its way in
> the Gemini FAQ or in a Gemini "vision" document. I _did_ read as much
> as I could before posting but didn't see this orientation as clearly
> stated.elsewhere.

I've never stated it that way before. :)  My own understanding of these
things clarifies over time in response to other people's ideas about the
direction things should take.  For which I am grateful!

> Please note that my initial post was just a question: "Is this Mercury
> concept still alive and are members of the community interested in
> it?"
> 
> I _did not_ suggest to "throw out TLS" and made it clear in the
> following discussion that my "gripe" (if I may say!) was not with TLS
> but with _mandatory_ TLS.

Duly noted!  I guess my reply was, implicitly, addressed at various
folks who expressed disapproval of the TLS idea at various times.
 
> Maybe the whole discussion got side-tracked by my SUV analogy.  It was
> mostly intended as a joke.
> I then made the mistake of answering too seriously to your "please
> disambiguate" question. I am sorry for that.

No need!
 
> BTW I loved your "vegans carrying loads of USB keys on their bikes".
> Good one! :-)

I'm not even sure I was joking!  If we genuinely want to minimise
"Environmental Damage Units" per byte transferred per metre per second,
where EDU is a vague all-encompassing measure which incorporates CO2
emissions, consumption of non-renewable resources, etc., I don't doubt
that there are certain combinations of payload size and distance where
"bikenet" is actually quite competitive, especially if you replace the
USB keys with 1TB hard drives.  A plant-based diet would undeniably
help decrease the EDU total, but it may not even be necessary to
outcompete higher tech solutions.  It gets even better if you consider
that the bike is a general-purpose tool which could also transport food,
medicine, etc. at the same time...

> I didn't know that. I guess this is why I asked on the mailing list. I
> do understand now that it is a touchy subject. I am sorry for the
> noise.

No need to apologise, really!

Cheers,
Solderpunk