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Now that the ntp mailing list is being gatewayed to USENET, it makes it possible for life to imitate art, in the following way.

Back when USENET was young, and had only a thousand or so nodes, there was constant bickering on it about what it was good for and what it was appropriate to use it for. People were constantly ridiculing others' usage habits.

One habit that came under constant and vicious ridicule was the habit of using the net to ask questions whose answer was available in any library. In the early days, there was a group called "net.general," whose description said, "topics of general interest." net.general was full of questions like "what is the capital of Idaho?" or "can anybody out there tell me what city the American Embassy in Belgium is located in?" or "What is the weather like in Peru at this time of year?"

At one point, sometime in 1984, Peter Honeyman posted a note to net.general that said, "Does anybody know what time it is?" [Ed: Note--many people responded, "does anybody really care, oh no."]

This was pure Honeyman, dry and vicious, and it stopped the foolish questions in net.general for at least two weeks.

But now, in fact, there is a newsgroup for posting such questions....

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