In which I have reason to sound like Master Po

This landed in my mailbox yesterday. I reproduce it verbatim except for the sender’s name.

> Dear authors of the RFC 3092,

>

> I am writing this email on behalf of your Request For Comment “Etymology of

> ‘Foo’.” We are currently learning about the internet organizations that set

> the standards of the internet and our teacher tasked us with finding an RFC

> that was humorous. Me and my two friends have found the “Etymology of

> ‘Foo'” and have found it to be almost as ridiculous as the RFC about

> infinite monkeys; however, we then became quite curious as to why you wrote

> this. Obviously, it is wrote for humor as not everything in life can be

> serious, but did your manager task you to write this? Are you a part of an

> organization in charge of writing humorous RFC’s? Are you getting paid to

> write those? If so, where do you work, and how may we apply? Any comments

> on these inquiries would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

>

> Sincerely,

>

> XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, confused Networking student

I felt as though this seriously demanded a ha-ha-only-serious answer – and next thing you know I was channeling Master Po from the old Kung Fu TV series. Reply follows…

Don may have his own answer, but I have one you may find helpful.

There is a long tradition of writing parody RFCs on April 1st. No

manager tasks us to write these; they arise as a form of folk art

among Internet hackers. I think my personal favorite is still RFC1149

"A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers"

from 1 April 1990, universally considered a classic of the joke-RFC

form.

As to why we write these...ah, grasshopper, that is not for us to

explain but for you to experience. If and when you achieve the

hacker-nature, you will understand.

Sadly, odds are Confused Networking Student is too young to get the “grasshopper” reference. (Unless Kung Fu is still in reruns out there, which I wouldn’t know because I basically gave up on TV decades ago.) One hopes the Zen-master schtick will be recognizable anyway.