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THE MAD BAD VIRTUAL WORLD
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Topic 435 THE MAD BAD VIRTUAL WORLD ! V1 2 responses
peg:visionary cyberculture zone 12:04 AM Aug 25, 1994
THE MAD BAD VIRTUAL WORLD ! V.1 August 1994
This is an introductory eclectic collection of material gathered from
various sources online which generally fall under a theme I'm pursuing
at present, namely: THE MAD BAD VIRTUAL WORLD.
If anyone has similar types of clips I'd like to see them.
Factual bytes are preferred but that is not an essential criteria for
inclusion in future issues. This is NOT an attempt to counteract the
"Information SuperHype", but is just an amusing, and hopefully
thought provoking, avenue along the SuperHypeWay.
I have no idea when i may get to post another collection...
guess that depends on what comes down the line in the near future.
Topics i'm on the look out for include...
- virtual reality
- various uses of networking
- new technology (and its ill effects)
- specs n stats
- amusing anecdotes
- comments on the included clips are welcome too
- Net Junkie Blues - tell me your interface sob stories!
Enjoy ;-/
- Michael Ney - Send clips to: <vrx@geko.com.au>
or: <visionary@peg.apc.org>
______________________________________________________________
THE MAD BAD VIRTUAL WORLD. V1. Aug 94
VIRTUAL OFFICES CAN CREATE REAL PROBLEMS
As companies take advantage of new technologies to move workers into
"virtual offices," they're running into some very real problems,
including low morale and employee burnout. An office in the home means
that there is no clearly defined end to the workday, and one Compaq
vice president worries about getting her staff to stop sending faxes
in the middle of the night. "People are now thinking and working on
the job 12 to 18 hours a day," she says. Employees who are forced into
telecommuting also sometimes feel taken advantage of. "Everybody feels
that having an office in their home is kind of a sacrifice for the
company," says a manufacturer service rep. (Wall Street Journal 8/17/94)
VIRTUAL DISTRACTIONS
Dentists are using Virtual Vision Rx goggles to divert patients'
attention while in the chair. The goggles come with headphones, and
are hooked up to a tuner and VCR so patients can watch relaxing videos
and listen to music. One dentist notes he hasn't had to sedate as many
patients since he started using the goggles: "It takes patients to a
different place. You leave the room and your mouth stays there."
Some patients prefer the combination of a computer-generated space graphics
video and nitrous oxide: "It's kind of like a mild trip for them."
(Miami Herald 8/18/94 C1)
LOST IN CYBERSPACE IV (Dan Kennedy)
...But even though the people who take part in these online
discussions are sometimes called a "virtual community," cyberspace can
be a lonely place. Embark on an electronic cruise, and you find a lot
of alienated people sitting at home in darkened rooms before glowing
screens, pouring out their frustrations and their prejudices without
ever having to face the victims of their wrath.
(Originally published in The Boston Phoenix (May 7, 1993), this
portion was extracted from the Utne Reader, Jan/Feb 1994 issue, p.104-105)
* Bounce of the Week *
Every now and then you get a sign that lets you know that creativity
is not dead, even among those who write mailer error messages.
This message was one of those signs. It's not often that something on
the Internet bounces because the recipient's machine isn't a typewriter.
[ACE] From TidBITS#240/22-Aug-94
421 rex.re.uokhsc.edu.tcpld... Deferred: Not a typewriter
550 david@REX.RE.UOKHSC.EDU... Host unknown: Not a typewriter
___
ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
A quick look at the world of online services and email:
<>There's a population boom in cyberspace - by the end of this year,
nearly four million U.S. households will have signed on with one of
the Big Three online services - America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy.
NOTE ALSO:
WIRELESS FORECAST > The number of cellular subscribers was 16 million
in 1993 and is expected to increase to 33 million by 1998. Paging
subscribers numbered 19 million in 1993, growing to 37 million by
1998. In mobile radio-dispatch, there were 1.5 million subscribers in
1993, expected to reach 5.2 million by 1998. (Washington Post 8/22/94 p.29)
<>A survey of 301 companies by Macworld Magazine showed that 78.4% of
the firms do not spy on employee e-mail or search their electronic
files. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) has drafted legislation requiring that
companies tell their workers that their e-mail might be monitored.
NOTE: You can now reach Privacy Rights Clearinghouse directly at
gopher.acusd.edu. Menu item 4, USD Campus-Wide Information System.
CITIZEN DATABASE - The Commission for Immigration Reform has
recommended a national computer database containing the names of every
citizen or legal alien with a Social Security number or a green card.
Prospective employers could then check the database to verify job
applicants' information. The proposal has bipartisan support in US
Congress, but has alarmed many privacy experts. (Information Week
8/22/94 p.20)
<>CEOs and other VIPs are suffering from e-mail overload, and some are
requesting to be contacted by more conventional methods, because they
no longer attempt to handle their e-mail backlog. "E-mail is a
powerful tool to promote communication and flatten hierarchies. But
what nobody wants to admit is that people in an organization have
different amounts of power and status. And that those who are better
off want to restore a degree of isolation," says Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute's Langdon Winner. And it's not just the top dogs
that are overwhelmed - the chairman of Computer Associates shuts down
the company's e-mail system five hours a day so that everyone can get
their real work done.
<>Voice mail isn't much better...
the Eastern Management Group has calculated that 11,900,000,000
messages were left on voice mailboxes last year.
<>With all this electronic communication going on, you'd think
maybe we're getting closer to the paperless office. Keep dreaming.
Figures from the American Forest & Paper Association indicate that
the tonnage, since 1983, of annual shipments of U.S. office paper,
has gone up 51%.
From: Bits and Bytes Online v2 #5 <jaymachado@delphi.com>
To: "Bits N Bytes Distribution List" <bits-n-bytes@acad1.dana.edu>
___
WILL INTERNET BE PARADISE LOST?
Author James Fallows predicts that as the Internet expands,
"something will have to give: either the government will stop paying, or
politicians will notice that the government is paying and will impose
controls, like those imposed by school boards on textbook content or
by the FCC on radio and TV broadcasts. The Internet's low-visibility
era of subsidized innocence will end, and the network will become as
complicated as anything else." (Atlantic Monthly, July 94, p.34)
COMPUTER THREAT SHUTS DOWN MAIL LISTS
Many Internet mailing lists that use Majordomo software were shut down
for a few days this month following an alert issued by the Computer
Emergency Response Team. CERT recommends replacing the 1.91 version of
Majordomo with 1.92, which is available at: ftp.greatcircle.com.
Then go to the directory/pub/majordomo and retrieve a file called
majordomo1.92.tar.z. (Chronicle of Higher Education 6/22/94 A21)
PLUGGED IN TO YOUR COMPUTER
Concern over repetitive stress injuries has spawned new approaches to
diagnosis and treatment. One answer is electromyography, which
involves attaching electrodes to the surface of the skin to monitor
muscle activity. Apple Computer, Ford Motor Co. and L.L. Bean all are
using this technology to analyze employee movements and help process
workers' compensation claims. (Investor's Business Daily 8/23/94 A3)
DESTROY THE INTERNET
Welcome to alt.destroy.the.internet! It's the Usenet group whose
ultimate goal is nothing less than the destruction of the Internet,
that menace to society whose very existence threatens the lives of
countless millions of people... or at least countless millions of dollars.
___
HACKERS!
Our Internet provider got wiped out by a hacker(s),
and all the dedicated slip account information was deleted.
They have been really slow on putting us back online.
(senders id withheld)
___
FEELING SUICIDAL?
The Samaritans, a worldwide network of trained volunteers who are
willing to talk with anyone who is suicidal or despairing, now has
an Internet address, jo@samaritans.org. To contact them through an
indirect mail forwarder that will protect your anonymity, use
samaritans@anon.penet.fi.
___
NET JUNKIE BLUES
User-friendly admin messages are found everywhere online, such as...
Due to continued network upgrades, the network will be unavailable for
short periods over the coming week.
NOTE - Please read items 1 and 2 in the Main Net Menu before accessing
Internet services.
Once your connection is established, you can terminate the session at
any time, by pressing "Control" and "]" together, then entering
"quit".
If no connection is established, the site you are trying to access may
be out of service. Press Control-C to stop trying ...
You have new mail messages.
> Mail:
Reading folder: incoming...387 messages
There are more than 25 messages in your incoming folder.
It is to your advantage to keep the folder small.
You should consider using the 'd' command to delete
some messages. Type ? for more help.
> ?
Sorry, no help available due to network upgrades.
> bye
0 pages worth of free mail storage left; see (h)elp command.
Elapsed Time: 721 Minutes
CLR DTE 000
ath
ERR
(Note: the numbers in "Net Junkie Blues" have been exxagggerrated to
increase the humour factor... but I know you get the drift :-)
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.. Virtual Realm Xchange \\ M i c h a e l N e y
.. _____________________ \\
.. PO Box 566 Milsons Pt
.. CD-ROM Authoring NSW 2061 Australia
.. Computer Graphics Tel. +61-2-692-8168
.. Network Consultancy Mobile. 0414-414-700
.. Sound Design Fax. +61-2-660-1269
.. Photography Email. vrx@geko.com.au
............................visionary@peg.apc.org
-eof-