On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 2:09 PM, Deepa Mohan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:11 AM, Venkat Mangudi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
>
>> Thaths wrote:
>> > On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 5:39 PM, Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> J. Andrew Rogers wrote, [on 11/18/2008 6:59 AM]:
>> >>
>> >>>> What's ICMP?

> Here, all of you indulging in JH (Jargon Humour) that I can't get...I can
> hear the groans and the cackles, and I am not going to google up ICMP, still
> waiting.

ICMP is "Internet Control Message Protocol" which, broadly speaking,
is used to report errors, respond to errors, for diagnostics, or for
routing in an IP network. Given that the original query was about
determining gender from an IP address, ICMP is arguably the most
likely protocol one would use to determine gender from an IP address -
if you assume the IP address isn't sufficient in and of itself to
determine gender.

Naively one might assume that gender was a layer one issue, or perhaps
a layer two MAC issue (but definitely NOT an LLC issue!) but my
citation of gender as a social construct would argue against an
essentialist defintion of gender, and so preclude a layer one based
determination of gender. ICMP is a layer three protocol, for what it's
worth.

Clear?

-- Charles

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