evil america

So having managed through Data Communications and Networking I’ve started yet another course which is Web-centric Development. My new professor is from Mexico.

He started the course talking about standards and their importance. As an example he cited a fire in Baltimore in the 1970s that could’ve been contained had the fire hydrants been compatible with the standards of hoses. Apparently the mayor of Baltimore decided to upgrade fire hydrants to a “better” system that unfortunately turned out to be incompatible with hoses of neighboring districts that were called upon to help put out the fire.

He then moved on to the next example. This time of Katrina. Apparently the United States government’s website for Katrina aid could only be used by Internet Explorer 7, preventing a substantial percentage of the victims from using the aid site.

Yes I was indeed starting to see how important standards are. I was also starting to sense a certain bias perhaps?

He began his third example. This time it was of the European Union.

Phew.

Apparently they take video streams of their important meetings and post them online using a format made available through an [wait for it] American company. He then posed the question of why the European Union would allow their video stream to only be viewed through patented technology belonging to an American company[yes he actually said “American company” and not Microsoft]. Despite being free now, what prevents Microsoft from learning about this and starting to charge for the use of their technology?

Right.

So in order to show how important standards are he decides to randomly use the examples of overzealous Americans who’s fascination with more recent technology lead to uncontrollable fire destruction, an government (that happens to be American) that only helps its citizens that are up to date on the latest web browser, and the entire content of the EU’s video streaming held hostage by a greedy company which also happens to be American and stated explicitly so.

I mean these examples do illustrate the importance of standardization. They just also happen to show that America is kind of a bumbling idiot/dick.

Just a coincidence? Je ne sais pas.