The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/a_m/jauc3.txt

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  THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING / Published Periodically
  ======================================================================
  ISSN 1074-3111           Volume One, Issue Three        April 30, 1994
  ======================================================================

      Editor-in-Chief:         Scott Davis      ([e-mail])
      Technology Editor:       Max Mednick      ([e-mail])
      Consipracy Editor:       Gordon Fagan     ([e-mail])
      Network Security:        George Phillips  ([e-mail])

      ** ftp site: etext.archive.umich.edu    /pub/Zines/JAUC

      U.S. Mail:
      The Journal Of American Underground Computing
      10111 N. Lamar #25
      Austin, Texas 78753-3601

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 IMPORTANT ADDRESSES -
 ============================================================================
 To Subscribe to "TJOAUC", send mail to:              [e-mail]
 All questions/comments about this publication to:    [e-mail]
 Send all articles/info that you want published to:   [e-mail]
 Commercial Registration for Profitable Media:        [e-mail]
 ============================================================================

 "The underground press serves as the only effective counter to a growing
 power, and more sophisticated techniques used by establishment mass media
 to falsify, misrepresent, misquote, rule out of consideration as a priori
 ridiculous, or simply ignore and blot out of existence: data, books,
 discoveries that they consider prejudicial to establishment interest..."

 (William S. Burroughs and Daniel Odier, "The Job", Viking, New York, 1989)

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 Contents Copyright (C) 1994 The Journal Of American Underground Computing
 and/or the author of the articles presented herein. All rights reserved.
 Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission
 of the Editor-In-Chief and/or the author of the article. This publication
 is made available periodically to the amateur computer hobbyist free of
 charge.  Any commercial usage (electronic or otherwise) is strictly
 prohibited without prior consent of the Editor, and is in violation of
 applicable US Copyright laws. To subscribe, send email to [e-mail]

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 DISCLAIMER AND NOTICE TO DISTRIBUTORS -

 NOTE: This electronic publication is to be distributed free of charge
 without modifications to anyone who wishes to have a copy. Under NO
 circumstances is any issue of this publication, in part or in whole,
 to be sold for money or services, nor is it to be packaged with other
 computer software, including, but not limited to CD Rom disks, without
 the express written or verbal consent of the author and/or editor.
 To obtain permission to distribute this publication under any of the
 certain circumstances stated above, please contact the editor at one of
 the addresses above. If you have intentions of publishing this journal
 in any of the ways described above, or you are in doubt about whether or
 not your intentions conflict with the restrictions, please contact the
 editor. FOR A COPY OF THE REGISTRATION FORM, MAIL - [e-mail]
 This publication is provided without charge to anyone who wants it.
 This includes, but is not limited to lawyers, government officials,
 cops, feds, hackers, social deviants, and computer hobbyists. If anyone
 asks for a copy, please provide them with one, or mail the subscription
 list so that you may be added.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

     THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING - Volume 1, Issue 3

                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1)   Visa Establishes International Consortium...      NewsWire
  2)   Cyberspace Cowboy                                 Maureen Harrington
  3)   A Message From The Vice President                 Al Gore
  4)   Legion Of Doom T-Shirts                           Chris Goggans
  5)   Computers Tnd The Second Amendment                Carl Guderian
  6)   How To Survive The First Year Of Law School..     Mike Godwin
  7)   Notes From Cyberspace - 2nd Edition               Readers
  8)   Editorial Of The Month [A Humorous Diddy]         Marco Landin
  9)   Whitehouse Electronic Publications FAQ            Stanton McCandlish
  10)  Redefining The Modem User                         Ed Cavazos
  11)  Texas ISDN - Request For Comments                 Public Util. Comm.
  12)  Test Scores, Funny, But Makes You Wonder          Anonymous
  13)  An Interview With Tom Jennings                    Jon Lebkowsky

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                 J.R. "Bob" Dobbs - The Ultimage SubGenius
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 THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING - April 30,1994 ISSN 1074-3111
 ============================================================================

 EDITOR'S NOTES:

 FREE-NET: I had intended to do some kind of informative article on
 the Free-Net systems around the world for this issue. In my attempts to
 get information, I mailed about 60 individuals/groups requesting information
 on their organization. I contacted persons in several countries as well as
 many, many people here in the states. ...and low and behold, only 2 people
 responded offering information. Half did not reply at all, and the other
 half (minus the two brave souls mentioned above) replied saying that they
 had not developed an organization, had no info, no volunteers, etc...
 Go figure...(Is Free-Net the Vapor-Ware of the 90's??)

 PUBLISHING:  Our original publishing schedule has gone to hell-in-a-handbasket
 to say the least. We will probably release 2 or 3 times per quarter.

 Order some Legion Of Doom T-Shirts!

 Share this issue with all of the little boys and girls that you know who
 have an e-mail address.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                VISA ESTABLISHES INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR
                     ELECTRONIC PURSE SPECIFICATIONS

 /PRNEWSWIRE (C)opyright 1994

  SAN FRANCISCO, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa today formed an international
 consortium of market leaders in the consumer payments industry to develop
 common specifications for a new way to pay -- an "Electronic Purse," a card
 with a micro chip that can be used instead of cash and coins for everything
 from vending machines to public transportation.

  The Electronic Purse would consist of a micro-chip embedded in a credit
 card, debit card, or stand alone card to store value electronically.
 The card would replace cash and coins for small-ticket purchases (less than
 U.S. $10), such as gasoline stations, pay phones, road/bridge tolls, video
 games, school cafeterias, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and
 cash lanes at supermarkets. Cardholders can "reload" the micro-chip and
 control the amount of value stored in the card's memory.  The Electronic
 Purse provides cardholders with the security and convenience of carrying
 less cash and coins, eliminating the need for exact change.  Many
 participants in this worldwide effort are currently pilot testing electronic
 purse products, additional pilots are expected in late 1995.

  Joining forces with Visa to develop international technical specifications
 for the Electronic Purse are: Banksys; Electronic Payment Services, Inc.,
 (EPS); Financial Information Systems Center, (FISC); Groupement des Cartes
 Bancaires, (CB); NationsBank Corporation; Sociedad Espanola de Medios de
 Pago, (SEMP); Sociedade Interbancaria de Servicos, S.A., (SIBS); and
 Wachovia Corporation.  To ensure worldwide representation, limited additional
 payment systems that have invested energies in open-market electronic purse
 projects, will be invited to join.  In addition, Visa will form a parallel
 group with technology companies to ensure the specifications support low-cost,
 efficient production of necessary equipment.

  "The goal of our combined efforts is to lead the market into the next
 frontier of payment processing -- the automation of cash and coins," said Ed
 Jensen, president and chief executive officer, Visa International. "The
 highly complementary capabilities of the participating companies will allow
 us to address issues for all aspects of smart card-based electronic purse
 solutions, including the cards themselves, point-of-sale systems, networks
 and back-end interchange and settlement systems."

  This announcement reflects Visa's commitment to providing superior,
 convenient payment services to its member financial institutions who serve
 consumers and merchants around the globe.  The consortium was formed in
 response to member requests that Visa take the lead in facilitating the
 addition of an electronic purse to existing credit and debit cards, as well
 as the introduction of a stand alone card.  Visa will leverage its global
 brand presence by teaming up with strategic partners to develop common
 standards.

  "The most critical step in making this concept a global market reality is
 the definition of open standards that can be shared among all participants,"
 said Wesley Tallman, president, Visa Products and Information Services.
 "Recognizing that important domestic electronic purse developments are
 underway, the consortium will leverage the expertise of all participants.
 Group 'knowledge sharing,' especially with our European participants that
 have made significant advancements in the chip card arena, will facilitate
 the development of a specification that is relevant to markets worldwide."
 The technological specifications will govern the standards needed to
 establish an infrastructure that supports electronic purse payments.

  The worldwide market for automating cash transactions remains virtually
 untapped.  According to the Bank for International Settlement, consumer cash
 transactions in the U.S. alone exceed 300 billion per year.  By contrast,
 bank-facilitated consumer transactions, such as credit and debit cards,
 checks, and wire transfers total only 60 billion per year.  As these figures
 indicate, there is a vast market potential for automating cash transactions.
 "EPS has been investing significant resources to develop smart card solutions
 since 1991," stated David Van Lear, chairman and chief executive officer of
 Electronic Payment Services, Inc.  "Combining the resources of these industry
 leaders will accelerate market acceptance."

  Just as the standard operating environments have fueled the growth of the
 personal computer industry, the specifications that emerge from this
 collective effort will provide the essential framework to ensure
 compatibility, reduce development time and cost, and open up the market for
 others.

 International payment system participants included in this cooperative
 effort are:

 Banksys -- based in Brussels, Belgium, is a leading European specialist in
 electronic funds transfer (EFT) and payment security. Banksys operates the
 automated teller machine (ATM) and point-of-sale (POS) network on behalf of
 all card issuing banks in Belgium.  Besides Belgium, 10 other countries are
 equipped with the Banksys system. Banksys is entrusted with the development
 of the Belgian Electronic Purse project, with pilot testing expected to begin
 in December 1994.

 Electronic Payment Services, Inc.(EPS) -- based in Wilmington, Del., is the
 leading electronic funds transfer company in the United States with an annual
 transaction volume of 1.7 billion.  EPS is the holding company for BUYPASS
 Corporation and MONEY ACCESS SERVICE INC., operator of the MAC(R) network.

 Financial Information Systems Center (FISC) -- based in Taipei, Taiwan, is a
 government organization that supports electronic purse initiatives in that
 country.  Through its members, FISC has issued 80 thousand integrated circuit
 cards and has installed more than one thousand point-of-sale systems with
 integrated circuit card readers.

 Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (CB) -- based in Paris, is the country's
 payment cards organization that has succeeded in launching the world's
 largest integrated circuit card program, with more than 22 million cards in
 circulation generating 2.2 billion transactions per year.

 NationsBank Corporation -- headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is the third
 largest banking company in the United States with approximately $158 billion
 in assets, more than 1,900 retail banking centers in nine states and the
 District of Columbia, and consumer offices in 33 states. NationsBank is a
 financial services company providing products and services nationally and
 internationally to individuals, businesses, corporations, institutional
 investors and government agencies.

 Sociedad Espanola de Medios de Pago (SEMP) -- based in Madrid, SEMP is a
 sister company of Visa Espana, a group member of Visa banks in Spain.  SEMP
 operates Sermepa, the card processing company of Visa Espana.

 Sociedade Interbancaria de Servicos, S.A., (SIBS) -- based in Lisbon,
 Portugal, is the country's leading bank payments company which provides
 electronic clearing services and operates the national Multibanco ATM and
 EFT/POS networks.  As an extension to its service offerings, SIBS, is
 introducing the Multibanco Electronic Purse, (MEP).

 Visa International -- headquartered in the United States, is the world's
 leading consumer payments system with more than 333 million cards issued,
 more than 11 million acceptance locations, and the largest global ATM
 network.

 Wachovia Corporation -- with dual headquarters in Atlanta, and
 Winston-Salem, N.C., is one of the United States' leading debit card issuers
 and provides credit card services to three million cardholders nationwide.

 /NOTE TO EDITORS:  In December 1993 Visa International, MasterCard
 International and Europay announced an agreement to form a joint working
 group to develop a common set of technical specifications for the
 integration of microprocessor chips in payment cards -- commonly known  as
 "Integrated Circuit," "Chip," and "Smart" cards.  The electronic currency
 specifications referenced in this release will enable the  electronic purse
 application to be added to the integrated circuit  cards./

   /CONTACT:  Albert Coscia of Visa, 415-432-2039/

 03/28 VISA TECHNOLOGY GROUP SUPPORTS ELECTRONIC PURSE SPECIFICATIONS

  SAN FRANCISCO, /PRNewswire/ -- Visa today announced the formation
 of a technology group of international manufacturers to support the
 adaptation of specifications for a variety of technologies that will
 facilitate the issuance and acceptance of the "Electronic Purse" -- a payment
 card that stores value electronically and is designed to replace cash and
 coins for a wide range of low-value (under U.S. $10) consumer payments.

   The technology group will work with Visa who recently formed an
 international consortium of payment systems that will develop common
 specifications for Electronic Purse programs.  Because plans are underway
 for the card to be used globally in a variety of venues -- including,
 gas/petrol stations, grocery stores, convenience stores, fast food
 restaurants, school cafeterias, and for such routine items as telephone calls
 from pay phones, road/bridge tolls and video games -- a number of
 technologies required to support card acceptance in global markets will be
 examined by the group.

   The first suppliers to join the international technology group are
 VeriFone, Inc., the leading global provider of point-of-sale transaction
 systems, and Gemplus, SCA, the world's leading manufacturer of smart cards.  VeriFone and
 Gemplus have formed a joint venture, called VeriGem, to pursue electronic
 purse opportunities.  To ensure worldwide representation, additional
 technology leaders who have invested energies in electronic purse
 applications will be invited to join the group.

   In addition to acceptance technologies, "loading" systems that enable
 cardholders to restore currency value into the micro chip will also be
 analyzed.  Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are expected to play an important
 role in loading value into the electronic purse. Future loading methods, such
 as specialized devices located at merchant locations or in the home, will
 also be explored.  Operating both the largest international consumer payment
 network, VisaNet, and the world's largest ATM network puts Visa in a unique
 position to lead this global effort.

   "As with all emerging technologies, consultation with suppliers responsible
 for physically implementing the technology is critical to ensuring the
 viability of the product design," said Wesley Tallman, president, Visa
 Products and Information Services. "As market leaders in the payment systems
 field, all of those who have joined us in this initiative are truly partners
 in paving this 'express lane' of the electronic payment superhighway."

   Tallman emphasized that the technology group will be charged with ensuring
 that the specifications developed by the consortium support low-cost,
 efficient production of necessary systems and equipment.
 This group approach has been a key tool in support of Visa's product and
 market development efforts.  In December 1992, Visa formed a manufacturer's
 group to support development efforts for security specifications of
 integrated circuits on payment cards. Still active today, this group lends
 critical on-going support and expertise to Visa's chip card efforts.
 Participants in this international group include: Bull, CPS (France);
 Gemplus, (France); Giesecke and Devrient (Germany); Schlumberger Industries
 (France); and Toshiba Corporation (Japan).  Visa expects and welcomes the
 participation of these and other technology partners in the electronic purse
 effort.

   Hatim Tyabji, chairman, president and chief executive officer of VeriFone,
 agreed with the need for a supplier's group that would lend systems expertise
 to this effort.  "Establishing worldwde specifications is the essential first
 step in the global standardization of the electronic purse, uniting all
 industry participants on a common playing field with a common set of rules.
 The endorsement and support of the electronic purse by Visa, its member banks
 and leading worldwide payment systems send a strong message to the industry
 -- the electronic purse is no longer merely a possibility, but a real market
 direction," said Tyabji.

   "With their high storage capacity, programmability and increasing
 affordability, smart cards are now poised to move beyond specialized
 applications and become a truly universal payment medium," said Dr. Marc
 Lassus, president and chief executive officer of Gemplus.  "We share the
 consortium's vision of the electronic purse, and are excited about helping
 to bring speed, reliability and efficiency of smart card-based electronic
 cash to markets around the globe."

   Visa International, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is the
 world's leading consumer payments system with more than 333 million cards
 issued, more than 11 million acceptance locations, and the largest global
 ATM network.

  VeriFone, Inc., based in Redwood City, California, is a leading global
 provider of Transaction Automation solutions used to deliver payment
 processing and other transaction services to various retail market segments,
 as well as the healthcare and government benefits market.  The company has
 more than 30 facilities located throughout Asia, Europe and the United States.
 To date, VeriFone has shipped more than 3.4 million Transaction Automation
 systems, which have been installed in more than 70 countries.  Net revenues
 in 1993 were U.S. $258.9 million.

   Gemplus Card International, based in Gemenos, France, is the leading
 worldwide manufacturer of smart cards.  Gemplus' cards are used for secure
 transactions in public and cellular telephone, banking, pay TV,
 transportation, healthcare and defense applications.  The company has three
 manufacturing facilities: two near Marseilles, France, and one near
 Stuttgart, Germany.  Current Gemplus production exceeds 14 million cards
 per month.  The company has direct sales offices in 12 countries and a
 distribution network covering an additional 50 countries worldwide.  The
 company's 1993 revenues were U.S. $130 million.

   NOTE:  Gemplus is a registered trademark of Gemplus Card International.
 VeriFone is a registered trademark of VeriFone, Inc. Visa is a registered
 trademark of Visa International, Inc.

     /NOTE TO EDITORS:  On March 22, 1994, Visa announced the formation of an
 international consortium to develop worldwide technical specifications for
 the Electronic Purse.  The supplier's group discussed in this release is a
 complementary effort, serving Visa  in a consultative or advisory capacity.

   /CONTACT:  Albert Coscia of Visa, 415-432-2039/

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                         CYBERSPACE COWBOY

     John Perry Barlow rides the range on the electronic frontier

 By Maureen Harrington

 PINEDALE WY-  John Perry Barlow isn't exactly your average
 computer big shot.  Burly and bearded, prone to an eccentric mix
 of gaudy cowboy shirts and Italian leather jackets, he's a far
 cry from a pencil neck geek with a pocket protector and a Mensa
 membership.  His interest in technology tends less to megabytes
 than toward souping up the V-8 in his pickup.

 But neither is he cut out for a corporate dance card.  Barlow's
 sarcasm would get him tossed out of most boardrooms.

 Despite his unusual resume'- lyricist for the Grateful Dead,
 former Students for a Democratic Society organizer with an
 impeccable Republican pedigree, and failed Wyoming cattle rancher
 with the heart of an environmentalist- Barlow, 46, found a niche
 in computers. Accidentally.

 He's an outlaw at heart who lost his home on the range and found
 another.  Barlow intends to keep the electronic frontier free of
 rustlers, ruffians and the strong and long arm of the feds.  Just
 as he fought to keep the West free of polluters, developers and
 the strong and long arm of the law.

 The computer community has its first cultural historian, critic
 and social activist.  Barlow has set out to watchdog the goings
 on in cyberspace- the intangible place between the computer key
 board and the dots that appear on the computer screen.

 He's become, by dint of his megaverbal skills and nontechnical
 point of view, the cowboy conscience of the computer culture.
 He's regarded by computer CEO's, journalists who follow the
 industry and the wildcatters who swoop through systems as the man
 to ask about the future of technology.

 Barlow not only writes and speaks about the future that is racing
 down the information highway, he puts his talent where his mouth
 is: he helped found the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in
 1991, along with Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3, the best-
 selling spreadsheet software in the world and with an assist from
 Steve Wozniak, Apple computer's onetime whiz kid.

 Kapor and Barlow started the foundation to protect the right to
 privacy in cyberspace.  They had both been visited by federal
 agents looking for the second-story men of the computer industry-
 hackers.  They became alarmed.

 The tale of Kapor and Barlow's friendship has become one of the
 first cyberspace legends.

 "I was sitting here in Pindale, enjoying this new found world on
 my computer, when an FBI agent shows up asking me what I might be
 doing on it," said Barlow.

 At the time, Barlow was unaware of a growing government concern
 about what they considered computer crimes of the most heinous
 nature.

 "A nice guy, but he was expert in cattle rustling, not in high-
 tech crime," recalled Barlow.  "I tried to explain it to him, but
 he didn't really understand computers.  He went on back to the
 office."

 Barlow got on the techies' horn- the WELL, a computer bulletin
 board- and alerted users all over the country to what happened.
 In Connecticut, at about the same time, Kapor also  had been
 visited by the feds.  Like Barlow, Kapor was concerned about
 government invasion in this newly forming world.

 He and Barlow got together via computers, naturally.  Later
 Kapor, on the way to the West Coast from his home on the East
 Coast, dropped into Wyoming in his private jet to talk with
 Barlow.

 As Barlow tells it, "Here we are two very different guys- one
 from Long Island, who has been a leader in this field for years
 and me, a small town Wyoming rancher who just figured out how to
 turn these things on.  I felt like I'd known Mitch all my life."

 In a few hours at a kitchen table in Wyoming, the two men
 conceived the first civil rights group for high-tech's new age.

 EFF, now headquartered in Washington, D.C., raises money for
 lobbying and provides funds for the defense of so-called
 "computer criminals."  Their first projects were helping with the
 legal defense of hackers who the founders don't think deserved
 such harsh treatment by the feds.

 "Oh, hell, these were kids mostly," said Barlow.  "Just fooling
 around.  They were being treated like major criminals.  This
 hacking is a lot like boys going out to abandoned buildings and
 looking around.  Yeah, the property owners don't like it, but
 it's part of a boy's life as far as I can tell."

 Barlow and Kapor have been bitterly criticized for their support
 of what many in corporate America- the software and telephone
 companies, in particular- say are serious criminals.

 Barlow takes that into consideration: "Crimes should be
 prosecuted.  There are some real bad things being done on these
 machines.  But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be watching
 out for misuse of  (government) power and helping to protect the
 innocent.  We're into educating people about this stuff, as much
 as anything."
                          -----------

 Barlow doesn't fit, by nature or training, into either the
 techno-wonk category or the big money elite that has developed
 around the technology.  Nonetheless, both factions of the
 computer culture listen to him.

 He's preaching the sermon of change, from his high-tech pulpit:
 the computer bulletin board.  Barlow can be read on The WELL (one
 of the first and largest bulletin boards) as well as in the op-ed
 pages of the New York Times and the slick computer-lifestyle
 magazines, Wired and Mondo 2000.

 He's been profiled in the New York Times and quoted as an expert
 on the computer culture in scores of newspapers and
 newsmagazines.  Remarkably, Barlow had never used a computer
 until four years ago.  He caught on fast.

 "Oh, Jesus," he said, rolling his eyes, impatient with ordinary
 definitions of jobs.  "I'm a techno-crank.  I've got all kinds of
 hats on and most of them don't fit exactly.  But let's just say I
 came into computers late, but I was able to see fairly quickly
 some of the possibilities and problems of this new reality.

 "I got my first computer to do some of the accounting work for
 the ranch (The Bar Cross, outside Pinedale), in the late '80's.
 I discovered that you could talk to people on it.  I got
 fascinated."

 "Fascinated," for most of us, constitutes a hobby.

 For Barlow, fascination turned into a new career.  Caught in the
 double bind of rising taxes and expenses and lower prices for
 cattle, Barlow had to sell the Bar Cross, which had been in the
 family for three generations.  Just as that part of his life was
 ending, he was catapulted into cyberspace.  And his future.

 Barlow is one of the few nontechnoids who has caught the
 attention of the citizenry of cyberspace.  In fact, he was the
 first to co-opt the word "cyberspace" from sci-fi novelist
 William Gibson and use it in everyday language.

 According to Bruce Sterling, a journalist, novelist and
 accomplished chronicler of computer culture, "Barlow saw that the
 world of electronic communications, now made visible through the
 computer screen, could no longer be regarded as just a tangle of
 high-tech wiring.  Instead it had become a place, cyberspace,
 which demanded a new set of metaphors, a new set of rules and
 behaviors."

 Sitting in his mothers home in Pinedale, wearing a short kimono
 over jeans and boots, Barlow had been on the phone, fax and modem
 all morning.  Mim Barlow, from whom he inherited his
 conversational skills, was decked out in bright red lipstick and
 matching rhinestone earrings.

 She has no problem, pointing out that although her son "was a
 brilliant child- quite interesting to raise- I thought for sure
 he was doomed.

 "His father and grandfather were alcoholics, and he was going
 down the same road."

 Barlow no longer drinks.

 "Hell, he was headed for juvenile delinquency," said Mim Barlow.
 "No question.

 "We got him out of town.  Sent him to Fountain Valley, a prep
 school outside of Colorado Springs.  Best thing that ever
 happened to this town."

 The best thing that happened to her son, too, he freely admitted:

 "I'm forever in debt to that school.  It saved me.  I hope my
 three girls will be able to go there, if I can afford it."

 (Barlow is divorced from his wife Elaine, who remains in Pinedale
 with their three children.  Barlow commutes between Wyoming and
 New York City.  He serves on the board of Fountain Valley.)

 Barlow met his fate at prep school: Bob Weir, a co-founder of the
 Grateful Dead and life-long friend.  Barlow has been writing for
 the Grateful Dead since 1970, including the lyrics for "Hell In a
 Bucket," "Picasso Moon," and "I need a Miracle."  The royalties
 kept the family ranch afloat for years and pay Barlow's bills
 now.

 "There's a resurgence in interest in the band and I'm actually
 picking up the pace a little," said Barlow.

 "You know I saw Bobby Weir last year," interjected Barlow's
 eighty something mother.  "He didn't look so good.

 "This one," she nodded at her son like he's a questionable head
 of beef, "looks better."

 Barlow shot his mother a look of mild disgust.  "Hell, Ma, Bob's
 had a *life*.  It shows, that's all."

 Barlow has had quite a life, too.

 After graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he was
 swept into the counterculture.  He went to India.  Rode
 motorcycles around Europe and was in and out of Haight-Ashbury.
 He wandered back to the United States, in the early '70's, and
 was headed to Hollywood for a job, when he stopped at the family
 ranch on the way to Glamourville.  He didn't get out of Wyoming.

 "The ranch was in a mess.  My dad had been sick.  We were in
 debt.  I found something I could put my hand to.  I was a hippie
 that was running cattle and trying to keep the land.  I got
 married and had kids."

 Along the way, true to his deep Republican roots, he became an
 activist.  Two generations of Barlows were in the Wyoming Senate.
 John Perry may have gotten there too, but he narrowly missed
 winning a Senate seat in 1987 running as a Republican.

 Instead, he became involved in the small town life.  He set out
 to protect that way of life by becoming an environmentalist-
 rancher, which is considered a bit of an oxymoron in the West.
 But environmentalism is, in Barlow's estimation, "inevitable.
 You've got to conserve the land."

 The loss of his land still rankles.  Driving through the Bar
 Cross acreage, now owned, as many ranches around Pinedale are, by
 a wealthy "weekend rancher," Barlow tightens up a little:  "I did
 the best I could.  I just couldn't make a go of it."

 Barlow sold his land at, "about break-even."

 He's been living mostly in New York for the past several years,
 writing for various magazines and becoming more and more famous
 on the electronic grapevine.  He travels constantly and is as
 provocative a speaker as he is writer.  While his income is still
 largely from royalties, he's commanding more attention and fees
 as a speaker.  He's spoken in China to a scientific congress and
 has been asked to help explain the future of information to the
 CIA.

 Barlow doesn't find that such an odd task for a social activist:
 "Like so many organizations, the CIA is waking up to the fact
 that they know nothing about this technology.  And, they are
 realizing that if they don't know about the revolution in
 information, they will be left behind.

 "People who don't accept this change are going to be left behind.
 What we once thought of as power and wealth is changing.  Who's
 in charge is changing."

 Barlow's business card may say it all:  There are nine phone,
 fax, modem, and beeper numbers.  Under his name, his title reads,
 "cognitive dissident."

 In a new book, "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the
 Electronic Frontier" (Bantam $23), Sterling calls Barlow, "a
 computer networker of truly stellar brilliance.  He has a poet's
 gift of concise, colorful phrasing.  He also has a journalist's
 shrewdness, an off-the-wall, self deprecating wit and a
 phenomenal wealth of simple personal charm."

 Sterling adds that Barlow is "a gifted critic...who coins the
 catchphrases and the terms of debate that become the common
 currency of the period."

 John Perry Barlow has become the poet laureate of technologies
 new age.

 He's the hackers' hero- patrolling the borders of the newly
 discovered frontiers of technology.  If anyone is going to
 explain the social, legal and personal implications of all the
 megachange coming down the high-tech pike, it's Barlow.

 As he has written in the latest edition of Wired:  "In the little
 hick town I come from, they don't give you much credit for just
 having ideas.  You are judged by what you make of them."

 Using that criterion, Barlow may just have a future in
 cyberspace.

 *** Maureen Harrington is a Denver Post staff writer. ***

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                    A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT
                        ON NETWORK ACCESS REFORM

 By Al Gore ([e-mail])

 Greetings.  I'll leave it to others to carry on the important work
 former president Clinton started in health care reform after discovering
 that 37 million Americans have no health insurance.

 Now that Clinton has magnanimously stepped down, rather than embroil the
 US in lengthy Whitewater hearings, and I'm president, I plan to make it
 my top priority to deal with a really serious problem.  As horrifying
 and unthinkable as it is in this day and age, 212 million Americans
 don't have network access.

 The current network situation is an intolerable and inefficient
 hodgepodge of private, university, and government access providers.
 People in different parts of the country pay different amounts for
 network access.  Different providers give different levels of service.
 There's no excuse for this.  Access to the net -- *equal* access to the
 net -- is a fundamental human right.

 Tipper and I have developed a program which will guarantee equal access
 to the information superhighway to all Americans, tall or poor, rich or
 thin, white or non-smokers.

 All access to the net will be through one's employer.  Employers will
 deal only with large centralized network access providers.  There will
 be only one provider in each area of the country, cutting down on
 wasteful duplication.  All providers will be heavily regulated, and
 will be required to offer the exact same services for the exact same
 prices.  All employers will be required to participate, and to pay the
 full costs.

 Unemployed people's access will be paid for by the government.  This
 is not expected to require any tax increase.  At least, not a very large
 tax increase.  At least, not before the next election.

 Since individuals will not be charged for the services, some may be
 tempted to abuse the privilege.  Especially because many newsgroups are
 known to be highly addictive.  To prevent this, newsgroup access will be
 available only by prescription.

 For instance, if someone wants access to alt.sex, they would schedule
 an appointment with their Primary Network Consultant.  In a few weeks,
 when the appointment comes up, they'd come in at 8 am and get to speak
 briefly with their Consultant at some time that day or evening.  The
 Consultant would refer them to a sex consulatant or other specialist,
 as appropriate.  After a few weeks, they'd have a similar appointment
 with the specialist, who would then prescribe alt.sex or some other
 newsgroup as appropriate.  They would take the prescription to their
 Network Access Provider to get the prescribed newsgroup added to their
 .newsrc.  To prevent fraud and corruption, all prescriptions will be
 carefully tracked by the government in large databases, closely secured
 against everyone who doesn't have the carefully guarded top secret
 phone number for modem access (202-456-1414).  Also, all prescriptions
 automatically expire after 30 days.  They can be renewed only after
 another appointment with one's Primary Network Consultant and the
 specialist he refers one to.

 FTP, IRC, Gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web, Archie, telnet, rlogin, finger,
 and e-mail, may also be made available by prescription, if they are
 approved by the Federal Data Administration (FDA).  For reasons of
 public safety, network services and newsgroups not approved by the
 FDA will be strictly banned.  Anyone caught owning, using, producing,
 providing, or advocating unapproved services, mailing lists, or
 newsgroups, will be subject to zero tolerance -- everything they
 own will be forfeited to the government, without a trial.

 Also, anyone who rents an apartment or gives a job to a suspected
 network abuser will be subject to zero tolerance.  Of course, this
 being a free country, nobody will actually be sent to prison without
 a fair trial.  Since nobody who's accused will be able to afford an
 attorney, the government will provide them with an attorney of our
 choice without charge.  And anyone guilty of three offenses will serve
 a mandatory life sentence without parole.

 Similarly with anyone who writes, posesses, distributes, manufactures,
 sells, uses, posts, backs up, saves, promulgates, perpetrates, forwards,
 or laughs at, a spoof that makes official government policies or
 proposals look ridiculous.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                        LEGION OF DOOM T-SHIRTS!!

 By Chris Goggans <[e-mail]>

 After a complete sellout at HoHo Con 1993 in Austin, TX this past
 December, the official Legion of Doom t-shirts are available
 once again.  Join the net luminaries world-wide in owning one of
 these amazing shirts.  Impress members of the opposite sex, increase
 your IQ, annoy system administrators, get raided by the government and
 lose your wardrobe!

 Can a t-shirt really do all this?  Of course it can!

------------

 "THE HACKER WAR  --  LOD vs MOD"

 This t-shirt chronicles the infamous "Hacker War" between rival
 groups The Legion of Doom and  The Masters of Destruction.  The front
 of the shirt displays a flight map of the various battle-sites
 hit by MOD and tracked by LOD.  The back of the shirt
 has a detailed timeline of the key dates in the conflict, and
 a rather ironic quote from an MOD member.

 (For a limited time, the original is back!)

 "LEGION OF DOOM  --  INTERNET WORLD TOUR"

 The front of this classic shirt displays "Legion of Doom Internet World
 Tour" as well as a sword and telephone intersecting the planet
 earth, skull-and-crossbones style.  The back displays the
 words "Hacking for Jesus" as well as a substantial list of "tour-stops"
 (internet sites) and a quote from Aleister Crowley.

 All t-shirts are sized XL, and are 100% cotton.

 Cost is $15.00 (US) per shirt.  International orders add $5.00 per shirt for
 postage.

 Send checks or money orders.  Please, no credit cards, even if
 it's really your card.


  Name:       __________________________________________________

  Address:    __________________________________________________

  City, State, Zip:   __________________________________________


  I want ____ "Hacker War" shirt(s)

  I want ____ "Internet World Tour" shirt(s)

  Enclosed is $______ for the total cost.


     Mail to:   Chris Goggans
                603 W. 13th #1A-278
                Austin, TX 78701

  These T-shirts are sold only as a novelty items, and are in no way
  attempting to glorify computer crime.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

            Computers and the Second Amendment: An Opening Volley

 By Carl Guderian ([e-mail])

     A friend and I were talking the other night about needing to defend
 oneself against one's own government. He was talking about guns; I was
 talking about encryption. We were talking about the same thing. I read a lot
 of debates in which the arguments for restricting computing are strikingly
 similar to those for gun control. Am I the only one who sees the parallels?
 It's certainly forced me to take another look at the gun issue.

     The last few years have given us all an appreciation for the
 Constitution, or what's left of it. Most of the action in the personal
 computer user community is centered around the First Amendment, particularly
 the rights to free expression and peaceable assembly. We've also had our
 noses rubbed in official disregard for the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth
 Amendments. All of this has been (and is still being) discussed elsewhere.
 Tonight's topic is the Second Amendment, the people's right to keep and bear
 arms (a well regulated militia being essential to the security of a free
 state), in relation to personal computers and private networks.

      Until recently, I didn't give much thought to the gun issue, since I
 don't own a gun and probably won't be getting one anytime soon. Unless I
 move to Arizona, I can't pack heat everywhere I go, so I probably won't
 have a shooting iron handy when I really need it to shoo away a mugger if I
 run into one. The best way for me to win such an encounter is to prevent it
 from ever taking place. According to Sun Tzu, a battle is won or lost
 before it is ever fought. I don't hide out in the suburbs, but I don't
 stroll down Main at midnight with my wallet hanging around my neck, either.
 Weapons are better than nakedness, but wits are better than
 both. The existence of priests and businessmen proves it. So much for that.

     Freedom of computing, it now turns out, has a lot in common with the
 citizen's right to own a gun. Both rights are being attacked in a similar
 manner.

     Proponents of restrictions love to wave a bogeyman in our faces to get
 us to blindly go along with their hastily cooked-up bills. George Hennard
 helped a bill restricting "assault" weapons get more attention than it
 deserved. Likewise, Sen. Joe Biden touts Senate Bill 266 as protection from
 crazed hackers who might trigger World War III or, worse, steal corporate
 secrets and sell them to the Japanese. And let's not forget the drug
 kingpins who might keep their communications secret from the Law. As a law-
 abiding citizen, you've got nothing to hide so this doesn't affect you
 <grin>.

     S.B. 266 essentially mandates a government backdoor into any encryption
 scheme marketed for public use. Secrecy becomes the exclusive domain of the
 government and its partners, such as corporations doing work of vital
 military or economic importance. The rest of us have to endure possible
 casual surveillance or be proscribed for daring to keep secrets from Uncle
 Sam.

     Not just no, but No, Goddammit! Privacy is scarce enough as it is.
 Every day my file gets passed around the federal and corporate nets like a
 cheerleader at a frat party. Cheap, widespread encryption is one of the few
 physical methods available for enforcing privacy, just as in the private
 ownership of guns kept the government honest in the past. Encryption is a
 window blind pulled down in the face of the hotel dick.

     "A well-regulated militia necessary to the security of a free State,
 the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

     Historically, citizen ownership of guns has been useful for repelling
 invaders, enforcing Manifest Destiny, and keeping central government from
 getting too many ideas about control. There have been some problems in the
 past. The Whiskey Rebellion, Shays' Rebellion, and Quantrill's Raiders spring
 to mind, but no one has seriously considered disposing of the Second
 Amendment.  The last real invasion was in 1815 and we've killed off most of
 the Indians, so what does that leave?

     Guns in the house are no match for a government determined to do you
 ill (though they may slow down a death squad). That's probably why
 Republicans can lust for control over everyone else yet fight gun control.
 Even the Tuff-On-Crime bill making it's way through the pipeline has no real
 provision for gun control (it may, however, okay warrantless searches made
 in "good faith" and further weaken habeas corpus). Republicans know as well
 as anyone else that guns are small potatoes when someone else has all the
 money and information.

     Rights, even those guaranteed by the Constitution, are really
 guaranteed only to the extent that they are hard for a government to
 violate. Early Americans were either well-armed or westward bo
 und, qualities needed in citizens opening a new frontier. However, the 1900
 census found America with no more frontiers; there was no more West to go to.
 The previous census, in 1890, was the first automated census, using punched
 Hollerith cards to perform a ten-year job in six weeks. For the first time,
 the government could use machines to track its citizens' movements. Control
 began where the frontier ended. Modern American history has been a running
 battle between individual rights and government control.

     Cheap, widely available data encryption is one of two new developments
 that are tipping the scales in the citizen's favor. Explosive growth of
 computer network use (the number of Internet users grew by 90% last year) is
 the other, enabling small groups to get the political jump on big ones by
 getting vital information over the wire quickly to just about anyone who
 needs it. Data encryption enforces privacy by keeping your e-mail from
 prying eyes. It represents the first physical
 means of keeping the Fed's nose out of your private business.

      It's too bad encryption is not widely used outside of businesses.
 Because so few people use encryption, agencies such as the NSA have an easy
 job of spying on American citizens. I'm not giving away any secrets, but
 here is how I would do it. Though it's theoretically possible to parse
 every phone conversation and data transmission, doing so is a waste of
 resources.  Profiling and other tools tell an agency which 10% of the

 population is the real threat (90% of the threat comes from 10% of the
 population).  Encryption used by other than corporations and government
 agencies is considered suspect and bears cracking by agency supercomputers.
 Fortunately for the NSA, unofficial secure traffic is not very large.
 However, this could change if, say , companies marketed secure
 communications as an alternative to the postal system (Feds can't open your
 e-mail, but you can't fax drugs eitherDlife is full of tradeoffs), or

 Americans started using encryption as a matter of course just because it's
 s imply none of the government's damned business what a private citizen
 does if he or she is not the subject of an actual criminal investigation
 (instead of a fishing expedition). Either or both of these developments
 would severely tax the government's ability to casually spy on its own
 people. It might even force the Feds to wonder if it's really worth it.
 Maybe.

     A problem with encryption is that there are very few good schemes out
 there.  The DES algorithm is best known, but it was created by the NSA. No
 comment. The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman) algorithm is superior to DES, but
 MIT owns it and licenses cost money (DES is free). There is supposed to be
 a freeware package based on or comparable to RSA, but it could also be NSA
 suckerware.  It's easy to get paranoid about this. A bigger problem with
 encryption is that most Americans don't value privacy enough to make the
 extra effort to secure their communications.

      The government may or may not be systematically running small networks
 and bbs's out of business by busting them right and left. That's open to
 debate.  The No Such Agency is almost certainly tapping their lines,
 though. In the short term, it would be stupid not to. That is its job. In
 the long run, though, this speeds the collapse of the Republic by dangerously
 concentrating power.

     Power tends to accumulate. The more power one group has, the more it
 can get. Eventually, one group gets too much of it and spends most of its
 time securing it at the expense of others, whether it needs to or not
 (eventually it needs to). The firs t impulse of one of the other groups is
 to usurp the power from the first group, all with the highest of motives, of
 course. This leads to exactly the same problems. The only way to prevent an
 endless succession of power grabs is to disperse power as widely as
 possible, among people interested in limiting it for everyone. This is where
 checks and balances come in. "All power to the people (soviets)" is a
 disastrous substitute, as (thankfully) other people learned in 1798 and
 1917. All of this is explained at length and more clearly in On Power: Its
 Nature and the History of its Growth, by Bertrand de Jouvenel (Viking Press,
 New York, 1949).  The book is long out of print, but it's well worth your
 while to check it out and photocopy it somewhere. Other good references
 include Democracy in America (1835) and The Old Regime and the
 French Revolution (1856), both written by Alexis de Tocqueville. You can find
 those at a used bookstore.

     Theory aside, it can be shown that a people completely dependent on
 their government for security lose their ability to come to that
 government's aid in times of external danger. At that time, the people
 further drain those resources by requiring protection from themselves. The
 less capable a people become, the more fearful they get, eventually voting
 in a police state. Hitler was elected.

     Computer users face similar dangers. Additionally, economics play a
 large role. A person with a computer is a nearly self-sufficient engine of
 wealth.  Economic competition is constant. Denial of personal rights to
 privacy of information removes the individual's ability to protect an idea
 before bringing it to the market. Computer users are thus unable to create.
 All they can do is consume or, at best, labor for someone else.
 Entrepreneurs and small business owners, both key agents of pr
 ogress , are effectively locked out. A nation of employees economically
 dependent on bosses is an economic nonstarter. Freedom of  computer use and
 the right to privacy are thus essential to the economic security of a free
 state.

     The kind of power bestowed by guns, personal computers and absolute
 data privacy implies a need for a personal sense of responsibility. Both
 viruses and encryption programs are far easier to make and distribute than
 plastic Glock-11 automatic pistols. Some sort of regulation is required.
 This is where the "well-regulated militia" part of the Second Amendment
 comes in and this is the most difficult part of the issue.

      My definition of a "well-regulated militia" falls somewhere between
 the NRA and the National Guard. If there were an NRA for computer network
 users I'd probably be in it. I think the stakes are higher with computers
 than they are with guns. I want to see more people with computers and
 modems, to ensure the widest possible dispersal of computing power. For
 this to work, all users should be made aware of the power and
 responsibility of owning a computer ("Only a madman would give a loaded
 revolver to an idiot"DFredric Brown). If there are kids in the house, they
 must be taught to respect guns and computers as early as possible. In a
 well-defended, well-connected house, one can live without fear. Only then
 can a citizen look past the distracting horrorshows put on by the
 politicians and pundits to hide the real issues. Who will see to it that
 responsibilities accompany rights?  Part of the answer, believe it or not
 comes from the government. Laws already exist to cover most serious crimes
 committed with a computer.

     Where the law is insufficient, professional/lobbying groups such as the
 Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Computer Professionals for Social
 Responsibility, and the Association for Computing Machinery are helping to
 draw up new laws to deal with new kinds of crimes. It's early in the game,
 but the above organizations seem to be working for fairness.

     For the control addicts in government, this may not be enough. Tough.
 Computer user organizations are working hard to approach government the way
 we all were taught to do it in high school civics, and they seem to be
 making it work. Can the EFF, CPSR, or the ACM control hackers? Of course
 not.  That's what the law is for (demographics suggest that the rapid growth
 of network use will not be accompanied by an equally rapid rise in hacking
 incidents. The hacking scene is maturing with the rest of the population.
 Most hacker heroes are born-again capitalists who might make even better
 role models as long as they don't forget where they came from).

     Computer user groups educate while seeking to disperse power, which the
 NRA also does to some extent. The EFF especially tries to reach out to
 potential allies by demystifying computer technology for nonusers and even
 the cops.  Let's face itDthe nervous man with the gun is not going to go
 away, so we might as well try to calm him down a little.

     Finally, computer network users have their talents to use as
 negotiating chips. A government that refuses to respect their rights will
 lose their economic cooperation. The network-based economy makes an Atlas
 Shrugged-style withdrawal very feasible. The government will have its
 illusion of control while computer users work ordinary jobs while
 moonlighting in the Netherlands and piling up ones and zeroes (Swiss francs)
 in Brunei, all in the comfort of one's suburban home. The result will be an
 Italian-style economyDlackluster on the surface and lively underground.
 Germany lost the A-bomb by chasing out a half-dozen geniuses in the
 Thirties. If America wants to be a player in the global economic contest, it
 needs to treat its citizens with respect.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

               HOW TO SURVIVE THE FIRST YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL
                       AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

 by Mike Godwin ([e-mail])

 (Copyright 1988,1992. This article may be freely distributed on any
 computer forum, including commercial online services. To reproduce it
 in print or in any other non-computer medium, please seek permission
 from the author.)

 You went to a decent college, you scored well on your Law School
 Admission Test, and you ranked in the top 10 percent of your class.  So,
 now that you're here at The University of Texas School of Law, you can
 look forward to an unbroken string of acadernic successes, right?

 Not so fast. No matter how easy you found undergraduate school to be,
 law school is a different story. And the sooner you learn that, the
 better your chances of coming out of the law-school game a winner.

 First, disabuse yourself of any notions about your natural academic
 superiority. Sure, you're good, but so is everyone else in your class.
 And since everyone is graded against everyone else on a curve, the
 chances are nine out of 10 that you'll be in the bottom 90 percent of
 your class, regardless of your undergraduate performance.

 This means that law-school success doesn't come merely from knowing the
 law; you have to know it better than most of your peers.  So you can't
 be complacent.

 If you start heeding the following hints early in your first semester,
 they'll improve your chances of hot job offers...and maybe even an
 editorship on the law review.

 Class Participation

 If you saw the movie "The Paper Chase" (and odds are that you did, or
 you wouldn't be here), you probably know that large classes in law
 school normally are run by "the Socratic method."  Rather than
 lecturing, the professor will assign some reading for the day and
 conduct the class by asking students questions about the material.

 Watching the movie, you probably got the impression that the best
 law students are those who are eager and able to answer the
 professor's questions.  Don't be fooled.  Glibness and self-possession
 in class are only roughly correlated to exam performance, and your
 grades are based almost entirely on final exams, not on your
 quickness in the classroom.  Because the finals are graded
 anonymously, the professor won't even be able to link your
 classroom participation with the exam.

 It's far wiser to spend your time mastering the principles behind
 each case you read rather than memorizing its facts.  If you try the
 latter tactic, your brain will be too muddled with facts at exam time
 to allow you to apply the law.  Don't worry about the inevitable
 instances in which a professor tries to embarass you for knowing
 less than he does.  (I refer to the professor as "he" because almost all
 UT law professors are male.  Most are white, too).  You can get your
 revenge by earning an honors grade in the course.

 Class Preparation

 Keep up with the assigned reading.  Onerous though the reading may
 be, it's easier to keep up than to catch up.  And reading the cases for
 the day will enable you to answer most of the questions any
 professor tries to throw at you.

 If for some reason you do get behind on the reading, however, don't
 panic.  This happens to some of the best law students.  Attend class
 anyway, even if you haven't read that day's class materials.  The
 professor's Socratic questions will clue you in to the issues he expects
 you to know for the exam.

 Professors

 Some law professors are frightening; others are charming.
 Ultimately, however, their personalities don't matter very much.
 Whether he likes you or not, each professor will grade your exam
 according to the curve.  There's no such thing as an "easy" law course,
 although you may find some lectures more tolerable than oothers.  If
 the material is easy for you, it may well be easy for everybody, so the
 curve can get you anyway.

 While some law professors make a pretense of keeping office hours,
 most of them don't really want to see you outside the classroom, a
 milieu they prefer because that's where they have all the control.
 Any question you want to ask a professor probably can be answered
 by a "hornbook" (legal treatise) anyway, and library is full of
 hornbooks.

 Don't expect too much sympathy from your professors.  After all, law
 school is a game they've *won.*  They may have some sort of abstract
 pity for the poor contracts student who's agonizing over Sec. 2-207 of
 the Uniform Commercial Code, but under no cirumstances will you be able to
 persuade them to change your grade.

 Briefing your cases

 The rule here is "Condense, condense, condense." Nothing's more
 pathetic than the law nerd whose brief is longer than the case
 excerpt in the casebook. Remember this rule: Each case has one or
 two main ideas. Find them, and you'll have what you need to know
 for the exam.

 And good, *brief* briefs can be easily incorporated in your study
 outline.

 Some professors like to ask tricky questions about the fact pattern of
 a case during the lecture, but don't write these details down.

 Instead, make notes in the margin or highlight key facts of your
 casebook. If you've read the case, you should be able to remember
 the facts long enough to get through the class period. And if the
 professor stresses a particular type of fact pattern in the lecture,
 he's signalling to you a possible exam issue. Note the issue, not the
 facts of the particular case.

 Buying study aids

 Basically, there are two types of study aids you can buy for first-
 year courses: commercial outlines and hornbooks. A commercial
 outline is a prepackaged, detailed skeleton of the material you
 need to know for a particular course. There are several brands of
 outlines, and each has something to recommend it. The Legalines
 outlines track particular casebooks, while the Emanuel Law Outlines
 and Gilbert Law Summaries are more general, although they will
 include many of the cases in your casebook.

 You may find it best to buy Legalines outlines for each of your
 courses except contracts. (The UT professors who wrote the contracts
 casebook designed it in a way that makes it difficult to produce a
 commercial outline for it.) Then you can supplement the Legalines
 with general-purpose outlines like Emanuel's and Gilbert's for
 courses you're having trouble with. Be aware that occasionally the case
 summaries and discussions in the commercial outlines are *mistaken*--
 let your professor and your classmates supplement your take on a given
 case or issue.

 Some students buy "hornbooks" for particular
 subjects, but for a first-year student the treatises often go into too
 much unnecessary detail. Theyre also very expensive, and in general
 it's best not to buy them; but you may want to make an exception for
 contracts, which many students find a particularly subtle and
 difficult branch of law. The Calamari and Perillo hornbook is good for
 general contract law, while the White and Summers hornbook is
 necessary for a thorough understanding of the parts of your
 contracts course that deal with the Uniform Commercial Code. You
 may also want to consult UT Professor Charles Alan Wright's treatise
 on the law of federal courts for your civil-procedure class.
 Finally, if you signed up early for a bar-review course (believe it
 or not, some people do this during their first year), some bar-review
 courses will allow you to "check out" their reviews of black-letter
 law.

 Study Groups

 Try to get into one. When you find a likely group, make sure that
 most of the people in the group are dedicated enough to stick with it.
 Discussing difficult ideas with other law students is a good way of
 making sure you understand them. In general, study groups work
 best with about five people, with each person concentrating on one of
 the five first-year courses you'll be taking each semester. If you
 have a choice about which course to concentrate on, choose the
 course you think you'll find most difficult; your responsibility to
 your friends in the study group will give you an added incentive to
 master that material.

 Computers

 Buy a computer--you can purchase them at near-wholesale cost at
 the Texas Union MicroCenter on 21st Street. Only if you own a
 computer will you be able to produce and edit a legible course outline
 in a hurry.  You'll need two types of software:  a good word
 processing program to help you with the briefs and memos you have
 to produce for your legal research and writing seminar, and an
 outline program to produce the course outlines you'll need for exams.
 (Some word processors include outlining capability--in general, those
 word processors are not as good at outlining as programs designed for just
 that purpose.)

 If you buy a Macintosh, the outlining software of choice is MORE; if you
 own an IBM PC, buy Thinktank or Grandview.. Both products are available
 at local computer stores.

 Exam-taking strategy

 Your heart's beating rapidly, your palms are sweaty, and your mind is a
 blank.  Yes, you're taking your first law-school exam. How on earth do
 you handle those exam questions?

 The first thing to remember is that all law-exam questions are more or
 less alike. Each describes an invented and often quite complex situation
 that, had it occurred in real life, would probably generate one or more
 lawsuits. Following the fact situation is usually a question or
 instruction such as "Describe the potential legal claims and liabilities
 of each party."

 Your best strategy, when you outline your answer, is to pretend you're
 the lawyer for each party in turn.  Pretending to be Smith's lawyer,
 quickly list all the legal principles from your course outline that
 could advance Smith's case against Jones. Now play the part of Jones'
 lawyer how would you answer each of these legal arguments or claims? What
 counterclaims could you use against Smith? What will Smith say in
 response to your responses? What other parties in the fact situation
 could sue or be sued? And so on.

 Inevitably, you'll see some obvious legal issues in the fact pattern.
 You have to deal with them, of course, but don't make the fatal mistake
 of assuming that by handling the obvious or major issues you've written
 a good exam answer. After all, your peers probably share your gift for
 seeing the obvious.

 So, how do you make sure you catch the subtle issues as well as the
 straightforward ones? When you're preparing for the exam, condense your
 outline into a checklist of one- or two-word shorthand expressions for
 legal principles.  Memorize the checklist, and recite it in your head
 each time you pretend to be the attorney for one of the parties. (Better
 yet--write it down on your scratch paper at the beginning of your exam
 as soon as you're allowed to start writing, before you even read the
 first question.  The checklist will remind you of issues you'd otherwise
 overlook.

 Practice Exams

 Besides creating a legal-issues outline, the best way to prepare for
 exams is to take practice exams.  Almost all professors keep their old
 exams on file in the lbirary.  After you've done the bulk of your study
 outlines, photocopy your professors' exams from the last couple of
 years.  Then sit down with a friend and practice outlining exams answers
 based on the old questions.  Don't bother writing a full exam answer!
 Time yourself, and give yourself about as much time to outline each
 answer as you would during a real exam.  YOu should budget about a third
 of the time you're given to answer an essay question for outlining your
 answer (e.g., 20 minutes for a 60-minute question).

 After each question, compare your outlined answer with your friend's.
 He or she will have seen some points you missed, and vice versa.  This
 pinpoints issues you may tend to overlook during the real exam.

 Other matters

 Four of your first-year law courses -- contracts, torts, civil procedure,
 and property -- will last your entire first year. You'll also take two
 semester-long courses: criminal law in the fall and constitutional law
 in the spring.

 Thus, if you have to concentrate on any particular exam during winter
 midterms, concentrate on criminal law; that's the only exam you'll take
 in your first semester that counts as a grade for an entire course.
 Conversely, the exam for the three-hour constitutional-law course in the
 spring will count less toward your average than the exams for your
 year-long courses, which are each worth five or six hours' credit.

 Don't get too competitive.  It's the friends you make during your first
 few months as a law student who'll help you get through the year.  Don't
 be deluded into thinking that other students are the enemy; they're not.
 It's the system you've got to beat, and you can do it with the right
 attitude.  A vicious competitive streak, however, tends to undermine
 your karma in the long run.

 Finally, try to enjoy yourself.  The law really can be fun to learn if
 you let yourself relax.  Most people who make it through the first year
 look back at it as a time of rapid intellectual growth and the building
 of mental discipline.  Don't regard law school as just the
 stepping-stone to a career.  A law-school education has value in itself
 -- it will teach you a lot about what makes our society tick.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                           NOTES FROM CYBERSPACE
                               2nd Edition

 Notes From Cyberspace will be a feature of every issue of this publication.
 They are little tidbits, notes, comments, etc... from people like you.
 If you have any comments, we certainly encourage you to send them in.
 ([e-mail])

 ============================================================================

 NOTES FROM CYBERSPACE - ARTICLE 1
 By Rodney Perkins
 Subject: THEY ARE OUT TO GET YOU!  A piece of POST-LOGIC.

 Is that tuna fish I smell? No, its the CONSPIRACY. As avid readers of this
 magazine probably already know, the conspiracy has tried to use its poison
 tentacles to steal eggs from our snake pit. For now, our eggs are safe. One
 day, however, they might try it again. We will be there, knife in hand,
 ready to chop off their offending appendages. Yes, they will probably try
 to squirt their government ink in our eyes but we will continue to fight
 with the weapons given to us by (insert savior here).   We must take a stand
 against the pervasive eye of the conspiracy's octopi (yes, it rhymes). You
 must ask yourself "What can I do to help stop this reign of tyranny from
 the unseens and the who-whats-its?" You must continue to fight against the
 shickelgrubers, the boot boys and the LOGIC-WEAVERS! You must never fall
 for LOGIC, you must always use POST-LOGIC (real men always think in POST-
 LOGIC). Confusion and ambiguity are the weapons in this war. Turn their
 MEDIASPEAK, GOOBLEDYGOOK and BAFFLEGAB against them! Weave great webs of
 Orwellian nightmare language!  Master the art of circular logic! When they
 ask you what you believe, tell them "I believe what you believe. Just don't
 practice it".   Are you confused yet? Good! You get "it"!

 ===========================

 NOTES FROM CYBERSPACE - ARTICLE 2
 By John Logan ([e-mail])
 Subject: ON THE SUBJECT OF GOVERNMENT...

 Welcome to a new age!  Yes this is a world where technology has hit an all
 time high. It seems there is no other way to go but up.  Funny, that
 includes taxes, cost of living, and trouble in government. Yes, this is the
 day and age that we are subjected to, by our wonderful president Mr. William
 Jefferson Clinton, successor to the New World Order...  Most Americans are
 probably still wondering "Just what is this 'New World Order?'" Well, lets
 talk about that:

 The New World Order is a product of the Trilateral Committee, made up of the
 World's key leaders. In this form of government, the entire world will be
 broken up into 3 'Nation States':  Europe, The Asias, and The Americas.
 The worlds decisions will be made by the 'elected' presidents of each nation
 state. The entire world will be on a common market with a universal currency.
 I'm sure we have all heard of - the 'credit.' Yes for years we have been
 getting oriented to this system, whether in movies, or by our banking system.
 Well, in the near future, there will be very few private banks, we will
 store our credits (for a small fee) in the World Bank.  We will be forced to
 carry around credit chips that, when inserted into a machine, will access
 our account number, list what is to be purchased, and the price.  Forget
 about tax evasion!! It will all be AUTOMATICALLY DEDUCTED from out accounts.
 Yes, the new government will be a cross between Capitalism and Communism.
 They will know our every move. Business owners will still be allowed to keep
 their businesses but they will have to pay exorbitant taxes. State security
 will be at an all time high. There will be no middle class.  Citizens will
 be either very rich or very poor. The machine has already started.  Our
 wonderful government does not want a car on the road that is over 10 years
 old. A bill has already been passed limiting parts for the cars that fit in
 this 'danger zone.'  It is now impossible to get manufacturer parts for
 these cars. If you have a problem, you must use after-market parts and hope
 that it fits specifications. Todays cars are built to last 10 years or less.
 Its a sad thing that more people do not understand what is coming down the
 proverbial 'road.' The governing machine is going to run right over the
 common people like a steam roller. People won't even know what happened.
 Take a look around!  The New World Order is not nearly as wonderful as our
 government would like us to think. Don't worry, it won't be long and we won't
 have to worry about what they want us to think. They will soon control that
 too! WE HAVE BEEN WARNED.  NOW ITS TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

 =============================

 NOTES FROM CYBERSPACE - ARTICLE 3
 By Dan Wilson
 Subject: Fight the Power!

 As I sit here writing this, I can't help wondering what the hell is going on.
 Why is it that every time a group a people find some new freedom or form of
 expression, the government steps in to suffocate it?  Just look at the
 National Endowment for the Arts controversy or the PMRC. Why must a small
 group of paranoid people try to force their fears down all of our throats?
 I must admit that when these things first began happening, I just sat by
 thinking to myself that it was a crock of sh*t without doing anything about
 it. It didn't strike close enough to home for me to get involved.  Recently,
 however, there's been a series of events that have struck close to home and
 have forced me to take action. The events to which I'm referring are none
 other than the government's recent attempts at bringing the computer world
 to justice (as they define it, of course).

 It's really disturbing to hear about the methods the feds used to crack down
 on "dangerous" users. Unsigned search warrants have been used to gain entry
 to homes where all sorts of equipment, computer related or not, was
 confiscated while no charges were specified. There have also been cases of
 holding guns to children's heads while a raid was going on.  What kind of
 gestapo tactics are these?  Have these guys never heard of the Bill of
 Rights? This isn't the America I was told about as a kid; it sounds a
 helluva lot more like those "evil" communist countries that I was taught to
 hate. The only logical conclusion that can be drawn here is that the
 government is very afraid. Why else would they dedicate so much effort to
 something they know so little about?  These guys don't have a clue as to
 what's going on out here in cyberspace.  That's the source of the problem.
 Here we sit with these marvelous machines in front of us. Touch a few keys
 and any information that we want to exchange can be sent anywhere in minutes.
 This must seem like a pretty major threat to a government that so often
 relies on misinformation and cover-ups in order to scam the public into
 believing what it wants them to believe. We can't be controlled like the
 media bozos who drone bullsh*t through the idiot box at us.  We can't be
 censored like the newspaper or the radio.  In fact, this is probably the
 truest form of information exchange we have available today.  That alone is
 worth fighting for.

 It could also be that they are afraid of a society where people are judged
 solely on their thoughts and ideas.  We have no style whores here. Race,
 creed, color and religion are insignificant and pointless in cyberspace;
 they serve no purpose.  There can be no discrimination, there can only be
 disagreement with someone's opinions.  To me, this is pretty close to a
 perfect society.  It is refreshing to judged on what I think and how I
 express myself rather than by the color of my skin or the origin of my
 birth. In a society like this, the government cannot play people off
 against one another. They have no ground on which to stand.  Perhaps it's
 this lack of footing that makes them nervous.  Whatever it is, it's got them
 thinking that they need to     put a stop to it and "bring it under control".
 We are a far too dangerous force for them to just ignore.  This fact should
 be remembered and taken advantage of, information is the key!  Less than an
 hour ago, I posted issue number six of this magazine on Internet along with
 messages urging others to read it.  In a matter of minutes it was all over
 the world.  Maybe this will draw others into the fold, maybe not.
 Regardless, it'll force them to think and maybe to take action themselves.


 @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@

 NOTES FROM CYBERSPACE - ARTICLE 4
 By Anonymous Attorney
 Subject: POCKET LAW...Quick Reference Card

 Hey, copy this down and keep it in your wallet for those situations where
 you might be suppressed by the power-hungry infidels of humanity.

 My lawyer has instructed me not to talk to anyone about my case or anything
 else, and not to answer any questions or reply to accusations. On advice of
 counsel and on the ground of my rights under the State and Federal
 Constitutions, I shall talk to no one in the absence of counsel. I shall
 not give any consents or make any waivers of my legal rights. Any request
 for information or for consent to conduct searches, papers, property,
 or effects should be addressed to my lawyer. I request that my lawyer
 be notified and allowed to be present if any identification, confrontations,
 tests, examinations, or investigations of any sort are conducted in my case,
 and I do not consent to any such identification, confrontations, tests,
 examinations, or investigations.

 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                          EDITORIAL OF THE MONTH

 By Marco Landin

                [This article is fiction/humor]
        (Excerpt from INdigest, Feb 1994, Interview with
        the Elusive and Unintelligible Mfactor)

    INd:  In your most recent book, "I Don't Want My Children To Grow Up
 Around Those Filthy UNIX", you seemed to display a sense of farce that isn't
 too commonly seen amongst the Great Internet Poets of the Apocalypse.  Tell
 us, why do you see the 21st century as the Golden Age of Lunacy?

    Mf:  [wearing pajamas and Mickey Mouse ears]  Well, it's like this.  In
 the early 80's we perfected the concept of an international communications
 database.  It was populated solely by research personnel.  MIT grads,
 military, Elvis.  Purely serious study going on.  Then, in the late 80's and
 mid-90's, there was a practical applications boom, where savvy businessfolk
 rolled up their sleeves and sank their elbows into the datastream.  Now, as
 we near the End Times, we find that the greatest structure ever created by
 man -the Internet- is being vacated by its corporate and research personnel
 and a whole buttload of social misfits and weirdos are moving in by the
 droves.  Look at me for instance.  No, you better not.  Wanna jawbreaker?

   INd:  No, thank you.  Are you saying that the new computer literacy is
 making this once rich and fertile forest of intellect and commerce into a
 vast mental wasteland where the only thing that stirs is an occasional,
 barbed, tumbleweed of a pun based on bathroom jokes?

   Mf:  Well, yes, and I'm thankful for it!  I mean, have you SEEN what
 happens to the human body when the brain is used too much?  Glasses,
 unsocial behavior, a goofy voice, and insatiable masturbatory compulsions
 become the trademark of the computer genius.  Why if I had to choose between
 looks and brains,  I'd sure as hell pick looks, cause looks can get you
 brains, and the corollary is not as true.  I feel very lucky to have both.

   INd:  In the book, you mention a few extreme cases of individuals who have
 no business on UNIX and who yet not only live in it, they can't do without
 it.

   Mf:  Indeed, there seem to be many odd cases.  Take for example Cherry,
 the erotic dancer from Norway who has an Internet Address.  She works out 36
 hours a day, dances every night, goes out with friends, HAS FRIENDS!!!  And
 yet she still finds time to moderate a newsgroup, cherry.pop.tart, I mean,
 how does she do that?  Then there's the Internet node for the Eskimo Len
 Terrorist With Teret's Syndrome Association.  What does THAT have to do with
 worldwide communications?  Then of course, there's the newsgroup
 alt.binaries.pictures.bestiality.  Need more be said???  The freaks are
 moving in as the contractors and architects move out.  Isn't it beautiful?

   INd:  What's your plan in life, Mr. Mfactor?

   Mf:  In this day and age, making plans is dangerous.  That's why I have
        several.

   INd: Please, share with us your most visionary.

   Mf:  Moving to Norway and finding Cherry.  Soon.  Like NOW.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

          WHITE HOUSE ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS AND PUBLIC ACCESS EMAIL
                          FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 By Stanton McCandlish ([e-mail])

                         Updated April 2, 1994
                           Table Of Contents

  I.   Searching and Retrieving White House documents.
          -  [e-mail]
          -  WAIS
          -  GOPHER
          -  FedWorld BBS

  II.  Signing up for Daily Electronic Publications.
          A.  Widely Available Sources.
          B.  Notes on Widely Available Sources.
          C.  Direct Email Distribution.
          D.  Email Summary Service.

  III. Sending Email to the White House.
          -  Internet Direct

  IV.  Sending Email to Congress
          -  Internet Direct

  V.   Submitting Updates to the FAQs.


  I.  HOW DO I SEARCH AND RETRIEVE WHITE HOUSE ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS?

  The White House is pleased to announce the establishment of an Internet
  address for retrieving White House publications.  We have set up an
  Almanac server to process requests by email.  To receive instructions on
  using this server, send a message to:

          [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          send info

  Various additional sites are archiving the press releases as distributed.
  What follows is an incomplete list of some of the sites containing the
  documents that have been released to date.  This FAQ will be updated to
  reflect new sites as they become known.

           SITE                   DIRECTORY

  1. SUNSITE.UNC.EDU      pub/academic/political-science/whitehouse-papers
  2. FTP.CCO.CALTECH.EDU        /PUB/BJMCCALL
  3. FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU
  4. CPSR.ORG                   /CPSR/CLINTON
  5. FedWorld Online System     703-321-8020  8-N-1  or:
                                Telnet fedworld.doc.gov
  6. GOPHER.TAMU.EDU            11/.dir/president.dir


  Notes:  The following are notes on how to log in and get
          information from the above sites.

  1.      Office for Information Technology at the University of
          North Carolina maintains the full collection of White
          House electronic releases available for search with WAIS and
          also accessible via Gopher and FTP.
  1.a     WAIS
          (:source
          :version 3
          :database-name "/home3/wais/White-House-Papers" :ip-
                  address "152.2.22.81"
          :ip-name "sunsite.unc.edu"
          :tcp-port 210
          :cost 0.00
          :cost-unit :free
          :maintainer "[e-mail]"

          :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5 on
          Feb 27 15:16:16 1993 by [e-mail] These are the
          White House Press Briefings and other postings dealing with
          William Jefferson Clinton and Albert Gore as well as members
          of the President's Cabinet and the first lady Hillary Rodham
          Clinton, Chelsea, Socks and others in Washington DC. Dee Dee
          Meyers and George Stephanopoulos.  Other good words:
          United States of America, Bill Al Tipper Democrats USA
          US These files are also available via anonymous ftp
          from sunsite.unc.edu The files of type filename used in
          the index were:
          /home3/ftp/pub/academic/political-science/whitehouse-
           papers/1993 ")

          Folks without WAIS clients or gophers that act as WAIS
          clients may telnet to sunsite.unc.edu and login as swais
          to access this information via WAIS.

  1.b     GOPHER is a distributed menu system for information access on the
          Internet developed at the University of Minnesota. gophers are
          client-server implementations and various gopher clients are
          available for nearly any computing platform.  You may now use
          gopher clients to access the White House Papers and other
          political information on SunSITE.unc.edu's new gopher server.
          You may also add links from your local gopher server to
          SunSITE for access to the White House Papers.

          For gopher server keepers and adventurous clients to access
          SunSITE you need only know that we use the standard gopher
          port 70 and that our internet address is SunSITE.unc.edu
          (152.2.22.81). Point there and you'll see the references to
          the Politics areas.

          For folks without gopher clients can telnet to sunsite.unc.edu
          to try out gopher access. You need to have access to internet
          telnet and:

                          telnet sunsite.unc.edu
                          login: gopher
          The rest is very straight forward. Browsing options end with a
          directory mark (/), searching options end with an question mark
          (?).
          There's plenty of on-line help available.

  2.      No special instructions.

  3.      The CLINTON@MARIST log files which contain all the official
          administration releases distributed through the MIT servers
          are available via anonymous FTP. These logs contain in
          addition to the official releases, the posts that comprise the
          ongoing discussion conducted by the list subscribers.
          To obtain the logs:
          FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU - the logs are in the CLINTON directory
          and are named CLINTON LOG9208 thru CLINTON LOGyymm where yymm
          stands for the current year and month. Problems should be
          directed to my attention: [e-mail] or
          [e-mail].
          Posted by Lee Sakkas - owner, CLINTON@MARIST

  4.      Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is
          providing all Clinton documents on technology and privacy
          at the CPSR Internet Library, available via
          FTP/WAIS/Gopher at cpsr.org /cpsr/clinton (and in other
          folders as relevant). For email access, send a message
          with the word "help" at the 1st line of text to
          [e-mail].

  5.      The FedWorld Computer System, operated by the National Technical
          Information Service, archives White House papers in a
          traditional BBS type file library.  Connect to FedWorld by
          calling [phone].  No parity, eight data bits and one stop
          bit (N-8-1).  FedWorld accommodates baud speeds of up to 9,600.
          It is also possible to Telnet to FedWorld at FedWorld.doc.gov.
          White House papers are located in the W-House library of files.
          To access this library from the main FedWorld menu,
          enter <f s w-house>.  Files are named with the first four digits
          being the release month and day (e.g. 0323XXX.txt).  Some
          standard abbreviations after the date include:

                  rem - Remarks by the President
                  pc  - Press Conference transcript
                  pr  - Press Release
                  AM  - AM Press Briefing
                  PM  - PM Press Briefing
                  sch - The President's public schedule
                  spch- Text of major speeches.

          These files are saved in ASCII format.  Files can be viewed
          online by requesting to download a file and then selecting
          (L)ist as the download protocol.   This will display the file a
          screen at a time.  White House papers are kept in the above
          format for up to two months.  Papers more than two months old
          are compressed using Pkzip into a single file that contains all
          of the files for that month (e.g.  0193.zip contains all papers
          released during January 1993).  In addition to White Documents,
          FedWorld also provides a gateway to more than 100 government
          funded BBSs and computer systems.

  6.      Texas A&M University GOPHER Server makes available White House
          press releases and other documents.  This archive includes
          information from 1992 until the present time and is updated
          as new documents are released.  Gopher users can reach the
          Texas A&M server by choosing it from their local server's list
          of other gophers, or by pointing their gopher clients to
          GOPHER.TAMU.EDU.

          After connecting to the A&M server, take the following path to
          reach the White House menus:

          "Browse Information by Subject" -->
          "Political Science"  -->
                  "Information from the White House"

          Gopher maintainers and other intrepid souls are welcome to point
          directly to the A&M White House archive.  The server is
          GOPHER.TAMU.EDU and the path is 11/.dir/president.dir.


  II.  HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS BY THE WHITE HOUSE?

  The White House Communications office is distributing press releases
  over an experimental system developed during the campaign at the MIT
  Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

  You can obtain copies of all the press releases from a wide variety of
  on-line services or discussion groups devoted to either national
  politics in general or President Clinton in particular.  These are
  listed in sections I and II.

  Section IIc explains how you can sign up to receive press releases
  directly from the experimental MIT system by using an automated email
  server.  The present system was not designed to handle high levels of
  message traffic. A more powerful system will become available in due
  course, and in the meantime, it would be appreciated if you used this
  service sparingly.  One appropriate current use is secondary
  redistribution and archiving. If you use it, you will be carried forward
  when the more powerful system that replaces it.


  IIa. WIDELY AVAILABLE SOURCES

  1.  On USENET/NETNEWS, electronic publications are found on a variety
      of groups:

          Direct Distribution

                  alt.politics.clinton
                  alt.politics.org.misc
                  alt.politics.reform
                  alt.politics.usa.misc
                  alt.news-media
                  alt.activism
                  talk.politics.misc

          Indirect Distribution

                  misc.activism.progressive
                  cmu.soc.politics
                  assocs.clinton-gore-92

  2.  On CompuServe: GO WHITEHOUSE
  3.  On America Online: keyword WHITEHOUSE or THE WHITEHOUSE or CLINTON
  4.  On The WELL: type whitehouse
  5.  On MCI: type VIEW WHITE HOUSE
  6.  On Fidonet: See Echomail WHITEHOUSE
  7.  On Peacenet or Econet: See pol.govinfo.usa.
  8.  On The Meta Network: Go Whitehouse
  9.  On GEnie: Type WHITEHOUSE or WHRT,  or MOVE 1600
  10. On CompuServe, see the Democratic Forum: Go Democrats

  IIb. NOTES ON WIDELY AVAILABLE SOURCES

  2.      CompuServe's White House Forum (GO WHITEHOUSE) is devoted to
          discussion of the Clinton administration's policies and
          activities. The forum's library consists of news releases and
          twice daily media briefings from the White House Office of Media
          Affairs. CompuServe members can exchange information and
          opinions with each other in the 17 sections in the forum's
          message area. The message board spans a broad range of topics,
          including international and United Nations activities, defense,
          health care, the economy and the deficit, housing and
          urban development, the environment, and education and national
          service.

  3.      On America Online, the posts are sent to the White House Forum,
          located in the News & Finance Department of the service or
          accessible via keywords: "white house" or "clinton".  The White
          House Forum on America Online contains the press releases from
          the White House, divided into the categories "Appointments",
          "Budget", "Congress", "Education", "Economy", "Foreign Policy",
          "Health Care", "Housing", "Labor", "Law and Order", "Meetings &
          Speeches", "Proclamations", "Technology", and "Vice President".
          The area features a message board so you can discuss the
          releases with other AOL members, a searchable database for easy
          retrieval of releases that interest you, a Library for longer
          releases from the White House, and a library that members can
          upload files of interest for other members.

  4.      MCI Mail users access daily information on the  administration's
          programs provided by the White House through MCI Mail bulletin
          boards.  The available boards are: WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC, WHITE
          HOUSE FOREIGN, WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL, WHITE HOUSE SPEECHES and
          WHITE HOUSE NEWS.  A listing of these boards can also be
          obtained by simply typing VIEW WHITE HOUSE at the COMMAND
          prompt.

  5.      On The Meta Network, material is posted in the White house
          conference and is accessible via keywords (matching on document
          titles and subject categories) as well as full text search.
          Discussions on specific initiatives take place in special
          interest forums, e.g.  health, technology, and reinventing
          government.

  9.      GEnie's White House RoundTable has been established to
          distribute and discuss the official press releases and files
          relating to the White House and the Clinton Administration. The
          files library holds all of the press releases on the official
          mailing list, and the Bulletin Board has Categories set up with
          topics relating to all aspects of the Administration and
          Executive Branch of government.  Letters to the White House can
          be entered easily online with a menu option on the WHITEHOUSE
          page.

  10.     CompuServe's Democratic Forum (GO DEMOCRATS) is the Democratic
          Party's online information service covering the activities of
          the Clinton administration. The sysops of the Democratic Forum
          work for the Democratic National Committee, and are directly
          involved in managing the forum and responding to online
          questions. The Democratic Forum provides access to documents
          from the White House Office of Media Affairs, with vigorous
          discussion and debate in the message sections about the impact
          of the Clinton Administration's policies and proposals. The
          Democratic Forum also holds a regular weekly online conference
          with special guests on current topics.


  IIc. DIRECT EMAIL DISTRIBUTION

  If you don't have access to the these accounts or if you would prefer to
  receive the releases via email, then this section details how to
  sign up for this service.  The server is not set up to answer email
  letters, comments or requests for specific information.  To reach this
  MIT server, send email:

                  To: [e-mail]
                  Subject: Help

  The server works by reading the subject line of the incoming message and
  taking whatever action that line calls for. If you want to sign up to
  automatically receive press releases, then your subject line would begin
  with the word RECEIVE.  You can then specify what kind of information
  you are interested in receiving. The categories of information are:

  ECONOMY
                  Get releases related to the economy such as budget
                  news, technology policy review, etc.

  FOREIGN
                  Get releases related to foreign policy such as
                  statements on Bosnian airdrop, Haitian refugee status,
                  etc.

  HEALTH          Get releases related to health care policy, without
                  receiving any other social issues.  Use this instead
                  of social.

  SOCIAL
                  Get releases related to social issues like National
                  Service (Student Loan) program, abortion, welfare
                  reform, etc.

  SPEECHES
                  All speeches made by the President and important
                  speeches made by other Administration officials.

  NEWS
                  Transcripts of press conferences released by the White
                  House Communications office, as well as the
                  President's remarks in photo ops and other Q&A
                  sessions.

  ALL             All of the above

  So, if you wanted to sign up to get releases related to the economy
  your email message would look like this:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: RECEIVE ECONOMY

  When you send a signup message to the clinton-info server, it sends you
  back a status message letting you know what distribution streams you are
  signed up for. If you ever want to check on what groups you are signed
  up for send the following message:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: STATUS

  *****You can stop receiving email releases by sending a REMOVE message
  to the clinton-info server. The word REMOVE would be followed by
  whatever distribution stream you wanted to drop. If you wanted to stop
  receiving message about the ECONOMY then your mail would look like this:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: REMOVE ECONOMY

  You could substitute SOCIAL, FOREIGN, HEALTH, SPEECHES, NEWS or ALL for
  ECONOMY in the above message and you would be dropped from that
  distribution list. If you send the subject line REMOVE ALL, then you
  will be taken off the email distribution system all together and will
  not receive further releases of any kind.

  You can also ask for help from the automated server.  Send an email
  query as follows:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: HELP

  The server will respond by sending you a detailed form that will guide
  you through the process of signing up for the various distribution
  streams.  As you will quickly discover, there is a automatic form
  processing interface that parallel the quick and easy subject line
  commands discussed here. More detailed help is available by sending an
  email query as follows:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: Please Help!

  Finally, if you want to search and retrieve documents, but you do not
  have access to the retrieval methods discussed in section II, you can do
  this via email through the MIT server. You can obtain the WAIS query
  form by sending an email query as follows:

          To: [e-mail]
          Subject: WAIS

  Once you have identified the documents that you want, be careful not
  to request them all at once, because you may be sent a message
  containing all the documents and this message may be too big for some
  mail delivery systems between the email server and you.

  D. EMAIL SUMMARY SERVICE

  The Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a
  daily summary of White House electronic publications.

  1. Subscriptions

  To subscribe to the USDA Extension Service White House Summary service,
  send a message to:

          [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          subscribe wh-summary

  To Unsubscribe from the USDA Extension Service White House Summary
  service, send a message to:

          [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          unsubscribe wh-summary

  2. Document Retrieval

  To request a specific document from the daily summaries, send a message
  to:

          [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          send white-house #####
          (where ##### is the request number for the document)

  3. Document Search

  A user-friendly search facility is also available to search the
  white-house documents archived at ESUSDA.GOV. To search, send a message
  to:

          [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          search white-house keyword1 keyword2

  4. Catalogue of Summaries and Documents

  Back issues and the catalog of the summaries or the documents contained
  at ESUSDA.GOV can also be retrieved through our almanac server. To get
  the summary catalog, send a message

          To:   [e-mail]

  In the body of the message, type:

          send wh-summary catalog

  5. Further Information

  If you have any questions about Almanac, please contact:

          [e-mail]

  III.  HOW DO I SEND EMAIL TO THE WHITE HOUSE?

  We are pleased to introduce this new form of communication with the
  White House for the first time in history.  As we work to reinvent
  government and streamline our processes, this electronic mail project
  will help put us on the leading edge of progress.  Please remember,
  though, this project is still very much under construction.  The Office
  of Correspondence is currently working on defining what this system
  will do, as well as addressing equipment and staffing needs.

  When you send a message to the White House you will receive an immediate
  acknowledgment that your message has been received.  This is the only
  electronic response you will receive at this stage of development; if
  you include your street address in your message, you may receive a
  response by U.S. Mail.  Please be assured that every electronic mail
  message received is read and analyzed by staff.  Your concerns, your
  praise, your suggestions, and your ideas are carefully recorded and
  reported to the President and Vice President weekly.

  You can send email to the following addresses:

  Internet Direct:        [e-mail]
                          [e-mail]


  IV.  HOW DO I SEND EMAIL TO CONGRESS?

  The House and the Senate are conducting electronic communications
  projects.  You can access Congressional information via the protocols
  listed below. For additional information, please contact the offices of
  your Representative or Senators.


  Site            Protocol        Host/connection

  House

                  Email           [e-mail]
                  Gopher          Gopher.House.GOV
                                  [URL: "Gopher://Gopher.House.GOV/11"]

  Senate

                  Gopher          Gopher.Senate.GOV
                                  [URL: "Gopher://Gopher.Senate.GOV/11"]
                  FTP             FTP.Senate.GOV

  Library of Congress

                  Gopher          Marvel.LOC.GOV
                                  [URL: "Gopher://Marvel.LOC.GOV/11"]
                  FTP             seq1.LOC.GOV
                  Telnet          LOCIS.LOC.GOV



  Please note that these are not connected in any way to any White House
  online projects, so if you have any problems with Congressional systems,
  you will need to contact their system administrators for assistance.

  V.  HOW DO I SUBMIT UPDATES FOR THIS FAQ?

  Please send corrections, deletion and additions to this FAQ to:

                  [e-mail]

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


                       REDEFINING THE MODEM USER:
     HOW THE MEDIA TOOK TWO PERFECTLY HARMLESS WORDS AND RUINED THEM

 By Ed Cavazos

     Computer telecommunication hobbyists always seem to find themselves
 being labeled by the media in ways which help spread fear and
 misunderstanding.  For some reason, there is no term in the vernacular to
 describe someone who uses their computer and modem not as a tool to
 perpetrate illegal activities, but as an electronic link to the world.
 Whenever one comes along, it gets used in a way which always implies
 illicit behavior.


             "Hacker": From Computer Guru to Computer Terrorist

     The word "hacker" is already lost.  When Stephen Levy's 1984 book
 "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" was published, the word was
 used in a way that was devoid of the negative associations prevalent today.

 In fact, the blurb on the back cover of the paperback described hackers as:

          "Spellbound explorers totally committed to
           experimenting with the infinite new possibilities
           of the computer.."

 And Levy himself (in the Preface) described his subjects as "those computer
 programmers and designers who regard computing as the most important thing
 in the world."  Levy was concerned that some were using the term as a
 derogatory one to describe someone who wrote bad code. This innocent
 definition of the word could be traced back to the days when MIT Model
 Railroad enthusiasts were described that way.

     But those days are gone.  Listen to what the National Law Journal
 (September 16, 1991) noticed:

     "...there is a widespread public perception that so-called
     computer hackers get their kicks out of breaking into top-secret
     government computer systems and wreaking havoc with destructive
     programs called computer viruses."

 And Katie Hafner a computer crime journalist was quoted in Waldensoftware's
 Computer Newslink,( Autumn 1991, Vol. 6, Issue 1) as remarking:

     "With the release of the movie "War Games" in 1983, in which a
     teenager almost triggers World War III from his little home
     computer, the definition of hacker changed overnight. Suddenly,
     hacker took on a very negative connotation. Now it's defined in
     Webster's as somebody who tries to break into computers."

 The media has helped turn what was at one time considered a complimentary
 term into something that connotes violence, illegality and destruction.
 To be called a hacker today is an accusation.  Through misuse, the media is
 warping the word even further.  When Geraldo Rivera interviewed Craig
 Neidorf for his television show "Now it Can Be Told" he referred to Craig
 (an electronic publisher) as "The Mad Hacker."  Geraldo's loose usage of
 the term ignores the fact that Craig was never accused of breaking into a
 system, or gaining illegal access anywhere.


             Cyberpunk: From Science Fiction to Sensationalism

     When William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and other science fiction writers
 began writing a new type of science fiction in the 1980's, critics searched
 for a way to describe it.  They settled (to the disappointment of some of
 the very writers they were describing) on "Cyberpunk."  The term still
 refers to a genre of science fiction. "Science fiction with an attitude,"
 is how the April 20, 1990 Washington Post described it. At the stretches of
 its usage, it describes a new world view which is composed of a collage of
 computers and information, of countercultural electronic expression.

     But, as happened before, the media decided that definition wasn't good
 enough.  When Katie Hafner and John Markoff decided to write a book on
 computer crime, they stole the term for their cover. "Cyberpunk: Outlaws
 and Hackers on the Computer Frontier" was the result. Now, all of a sudden,
 Cyberpunk doesn't refer to a sci-fi or cultural movement, it refers to a
 cynical hacker.  When asked to describe a "typical Cyberpunk" Hafner
 explains:

     "They are typically alienated suburban teenage boys who find an
     alternative world in computers. Pengo, who we wrote about in the book,
     is a pretty good example. He lives in Berlin and dresses in black.
     Then again, who in Berlin doesn't? But he was almost a caricature of
     himself. He smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. When he worked at his
     computer, he had his headphones on all the time listening to
     synthesized music. He started hacking when he was fifteen and by
     seventeen he started spying for the KGB by hacking over the networks."
     (Waldensoftware's Computer Newslink, August 1991)

     Even William Gibson, Cyberpunk's founding father, who wrote of
 cyberspace and a new society noticed it. "I've been credited of inspiring a
 whole new generation of techno-delinquents," he remarks in the February 19,
 1989 Boston Globe.  If only we could hear Gibson's reaction two years
 later, when the term which once described his writing style is now being
 used to describe computer criminals.

     The word "Cyberpunk" had a real mystique to it.  To turn it into a
 term to describe the "alienated suburban teenage boy" is to ruin some of
 that feel.  Moreover, it serves to confuse and concern a public which is
 already paranoid and somewhat hysterical about anybody who admits to using
 a computer and modem for long periods of time.  Responsible journalists
 should shy away from sensationalistic tactics like misusing an already well
 defined term like this.


                          The Need for A New Word

     What is needed is new terminology.   There are a myriad of totally
 legal and legitimate uses for modems and personal computers.  People do
 everything online from perusing library card catalogs to meeting their
 perfect romantic match.  On BBS's there are livid discussions of issues
 ranging from politics to religion -- from art to science. And online
 services like Prodigy and Compuserve are watching their user base swell
 annually.  Soon, perhaps the media will accept a word that describes a
 person interested in communicating electronically without implying illegal
 activity.  "Hacker" and "Cyberpunk" are ruined. "Modem Enthusiast" sounds
 too much like a term fresh from the pages of Reader's Digest.  Hopefully,
 someone will provide us with a new term which truly describes the millions
 of modem users who "live, play and thrive" in cyberspace.  Until that time,
 we can only sit and watch as the mainstream media stumbles along trying to
 understand and describe a phenomenon one gets the feeling it knows very
 little about.

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                    PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS
       REQUESTS COMMENTS ON INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)

 The Public Utility Commission of Texas (the Commission) has
 established a project (Project No. 12756) to examine Integrated
 Services Digital Network (ISDN) issues.  The Commission seeks comments
 from interested parties in response to the following questions.  If
 your answers would differ depending upon time-frame considerations,
 please provide answers for each time-frame.  Parties are requested to
 organize their comments to address the specific questions asked in the
 order asked and are encouraged to include an executive summary
 emphasizing the main points of their comments to each question.

 Comments (13 paper copies) should contain a reference to Project No.
 12756 and should be submitted to John M. Renfrow, Secretary of the
 Commission, Public Utility Commission of Texas, 7800 Shoal Creek
 Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78757, no later than April 30, 1994.

 Informal comments may be sent to Ms. Pam Whittington at the Commission
 via e-mail addressed to:

          [e-mail]

 Or you may call her at [phone].

 1. To which local exchange carriers (LECs) should a rule on ISDN
 apply?  Why?

 2. Should ISDN-based services be considered to be a replacement of or
 successor for "plain old telephone service"?  Why?

 3. Should all Texas customers and customer classes have access to
 ISDN?  Why?  If not, why not?  What policies should be adopted by the
 Commission regarding customer access to ISDN?  Why?

 4. What are the policies which the Commission should adopt regarding
 the determination of costs and the pricing of ISDN and ISDN-based
 services?  Explain why. Provide detailed cost information for each
 position if available.

 5. Should the manner in which ISDN is deployed affect the price?  How?

 6. Should the Commission grant regulatory incentives, penalties, or
 flexibility in exchange for a LEC's provision of ISDN?  Why?  If yes,
 describe the incentives, penalties, or flexibility.

 7. Does the Commission have jurisdiction to compel the provision of
 ISDN?  Why?  Explain the legal basis for your position.

 8. Should the LECs be required to provide ISDN services in a manner
 that is conducive to competition in the provision of ISDN?  Why?  If
 so, how?

 9. What policies should the Commission adopt regarding the deployment
 of ISDN?  Should the Commission directly mandate deployment, require
 deployment to be driven by customer demand, or require deployment in
 some other manner?  Why?  Describe in detail how.

 10. Describe in detail how these policies regarding deployment should
 be implemented and enforced.

 11. If customer driven demand deployment was ordered by the Commission,
 should the trigger for deployment be thirty customer requests for ISDN
 per central office?  Why?  If not, why not, and provide evidence to
 support your position.  If thirty requests is not the appropriate
 number, explain what is.

 12. Should LEC compliance with deployment requirements be monitored on
 a periodic basis by the Commission?  If so, explain in detail how and
 why.

 13. What are the appropriate time frames for completion of deployment
 of ISDN in a LEC's service territory and in the entire state respectively?
 Why?

 14. What are the technological options of the LECs with respect to the
 system upgrades necessary to deploy ISDN within their service areas?
 Explain in detail how the costs should be determined and reported to
 the Commission.

 15. Are there any other policies, aspects, technical characteristics,
 costs, or obstacles (e.g. switch architecture, software, or SS7)
 regarding deployment that the Commission should consider?  If yes,
 list and describe each and explain why.  Provide detailed cost
 information for each item if available.

 16. What policies regarding ISDN standards should be adopted by the
 Commission?  Why?

 17. To what standards (e.g. National ISDN, ITU-T standards, etc.)
 should the Commission require ISDN be deployed and provided?  Why?

 18. What specific service capabilities (e.g. bearer services,
 teleservices, supplementary services, etc.) should be required to be
 provided to customers?  Why?

 19. How should the policies regarding ISDN be implemented by the
 Commission?  Why?  If tariff filings were required, what should they
 contain?  Why?

 20. What end-user applications (e.g. telemedicine, distance learning,
 telecommuting, and video conferencing) using ISDN are available?  Will
 these applications be available using technology other than ISDN?
 Should the Commission consider this in its rulemaking?  Why?

 21. Does Texas need ISDN to compete with other states?  Why?

 22. Would the widespread availability of ISDN have a beneficial impact
 (e.g., through telecommuting, video conferencing, etc.) on Texas'
 compliance with the Clean Air Act?  Explain how.

 23. Are there any other aspects or characteristics of providing ISDN
 that should be considered by the Commission?  If yes, describe each
 and explain why.

 Parties interested in providing additional comments are welcome to do
 so.  The Commission also welcomes data and documentation supporting
 the parties' comments.  General Counsel and staff will review the
 comments and use them in preparing a recommendation to the Commission.

 Comments (13 paper copies) should contain a reference to Project No.
 12756 and should be submitted to John M. Renfrow, Secretary of the
 Commission, Public Utility Commission of Texas, 7800 Shoal Creek
 Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78757, by April 30, 1994.

 Informal comments may be sent to Ms. Pam Whittington at the Commission
 via e-mail addressed to:

          [e-mail]

 Or you may call her at  [phone].

 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                                  EXAM PAPERS

 [Editor's Note: These are supposed to be actual answers from the tests of
 some students. There were no indications as to which grade-level they were
 in...but just between me and you, I hope that they weren't college kids.
 If so, ...I weep for the future.]

  ACTUAL EXCERPTS FROM STUDENT EXAM PAPERS:

- Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the organ of the species.
- Benjamin Franklin produced electricity by rubbing cats backwards
- The theory of evolution was greatly objected to because it made man think.
- Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes, and caterpillars.
- The dodo is a bird that is almost decent by now.
- To remove air from a flask, fill it with water, tip the water out, and
  put the cork in quick before the air can get back in.
- The process of turning steam back into water again is called conversation.
- A magnet is something you find crawling over a dead cat.
- The Earth makes one resolution every 24 hours.
- The cuckoo bird does not lay his own eggs.
- To prevent conception when having intercourse, the male wears a
  condominium.
- To collect fumes of sulfur, hold a deacon over a flame in a test tube.
- Parallel lines never meet, unless you bend one or both of them.
- Algebraical symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking
  about.
- Geometry teaches us to bisex angles.
- A circle is a line which meets its other end without ending.
- The pistol of a flower is its only protection against insects.
- The moon is a planet just like the Earth, only it is even deader.
- Artificial insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of
  the bull.
- An example of animal breeding is the farmer who mated a bull that gave a
  great deal of milk with a bull with good meat.
- We believe that the reptiles came from the amphibians by spontaneous
- generation and the study of rocks.
- English sparrows and starlings eat the farmers grain and soil his corpse.
- By self-pollination, the farmer may get a flock of long-haired sheep.
- If conditions are not favorable, bacteria go into a period of adolescence.
- Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them
  perspire.
- Vegetative propagation is the process by which one individual manufactures
  another individual by accident.
- A super-saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold.
- A triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees is called an obscene
  triangle.
- Blood flows down one leg and up the other.
- A person should take a bath once in the summer, and not quite so often in
  the winter.
- The hookworm larvae enters the human body through the soul.
- When you haven't got enough iodine in your blood you get a glacier.
- It is a well-known fact that a deceased body harms the mind.
- Humans are more intelligent than beasts because human branes have more
  convulsions.
- For fainting:  rub the person's chest, or if a lady, rub her arm above the
  hand, instead.
- For fractures:  to see if the limb is broken, wiggle it gently back and
  forth.
- For a dog bite:  put the dog away for several days.  If he has not
  recovered, then kill it.
- For a nosebleed:  put the nose much lower than the body.
- For drowning:  climb on top of the person and move up and down to make
  artificial perspiration.
- To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the nose.
- For head colds:  use an agonizer to spray the nose until it drops into
  your throat.
- For snakebites:  bleed the wound and rape the victim in a blanket for shock.
- For asphixiation:  apply artificial respiration until the patient is dead.
- Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is affirmative or
  negative.
- Bar magnets have north and south poles, horseshoe magnets have east and west
  poles.
- When water freezes you can walk on it.  That is what Christ did long ago in
  wintertime.
- When you smell an odorless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide.

 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                      Interview with Tom Jennings
                     by Jon Lebkowsky, [e-mail]
                       reprinted with permission

     Originally published in Fringe Ware Review #1, ISSN 1069-5656.
         Copyright (c)1993 by the author.  All rights reserved.
              For more details, contact: [e-mail]

 Our FWI prez recently had a chance to chat with Tom Jennings, who commented
 afterwards: "Think you can mention somewhere that I'm a fag anarcho nerd
 troublemaker/activist? It is important, and to me as well. It always gets
 buried. Lots of people like to know, especially scared people with no
 images of people who are gay and reasonably functional in some way." Tis
 our pleasure to honor Tom, whose work has been so brilliant and so far out
 on the Fringe, that when the US gov't precluded computer technology exports
 during the Cold War, they basically forgot/ignored a certain fag anarcho
 nerd from the Bay Area... As a result, Tom's FidoNet now provides the basis
 for computer networking in Eastern Europe, former USSR and most of the
 Third World, as well as a extraordinary conduit throughout the rest of the
 world.

 Tom: This people tracking stuff... what little I know of it sounds very
 creepy. I don't want a box that reports where the hell I am all the time,
 when I walk in the room, it can tell some local machine I'm there. It's
 none of anyone's goddamn business. It's the corporate culture invasion on
 real life, like the top 1% who make all the money, and think everyone's
 gonna live like them.

 Jon: Well, if you're living in an ivory tower, after you live there for a
 while, you start to think, not that it's YOUR environment, but it's THE
 environment.

 T: Yeah, it is reality, but it's a local one. Everyone they know is like
 that... well, they don't know everybody.

 J: In a conversation I had the other day with Allucquere Rosanne Stone, she
 talked about ubiquitous computing, that computers or computing will be
 invisible, it will be so omnipresent...

 T: That's what Alan Kay pointed out years ago, that when technology gets
 done right, you don't even see it. When you walk in a room, your hand
 flicks a switch... how much thought do you give to that stupid light
 switch? Hopefully very little. The light comes on, and... Telephones are
 getting close to that.

 J: Even better, there's some rooms you walk into and the light switches on
 automatically, because there's motion detectors.

 T: Yeah.


 Anarchy In The A-C-K

 J: Tell me about FidoNet. As I said, I'm sorta ignorant on the subject...

 T: I have a weird point of view on it, of course, having designed it...
 February or March of '94 will be it's tenth year. It is a network, a
 collection of bulletin boards. It is a loose confederation, and it is
 completely and thoroughly and utterly decentralized. There is literally no
 top. Most of it's members have a narrow view of it because they have this
 particular reality filter on all the time from living amongst hierarchy
 addicts. But FidoNet's most basic element is a bulletin board. What FidoNet
 is, is a set of protocols that lets the bulletin boards communicate.
 FidoNet started as a bunch of bulletin boards, running my Fido software.
 FidoNet was added later, to allow point-to-point email between Fido boards.

 J: Did you start with just a single BBS?

 T: It started with my system. I was writing software for Phoenix Software,
 which is now Phoenix Technologies. I was their first employee. I did all
 their portable MS-DOS stuff prior to the ROM BIOS they did, which was
 partly based on my previous work with "portable" MS-DOS... we were doing
 MS-DOS installations in three days, and charging exorbitant sums... and
 delivering really good stuff, people got their money's worth, and got it
 damn fast! We had it down to an art of just totally portable stuff. So I
 had this portable attitude toward hardware, and wrote a bulletin board sort
 of based on it.

 FidoNet is more importantly a social mechanism. It was pretty obvious from
 the start that it was going to be a social monster, almost more so than a
 technical thing. And it had to do with the original environment of bulletin
 boards, which were around for quite a while by the time I got around to
 doing Fido. Every bulletin board was completely different, run by some
 cantankerous person who ran their board the way that they saw fit, period.
 So FidoNet had to fit in that environment.

 J: A very anarchic environment.

 T: Yes, explicitly anarchic. Most people just ran them for their own
 reasons, and they were just separated by large distances of time and space,
 so they remained locally oriented. I just ran across old interviews and old
 documentation from '83 - '84, and we were saying it then. It was just...
 people didn't hear it, it just went in one ear and out the other. They
 think 'Oh, anarchism, that means throwing rocks at the cops!' Well
 sometimes, I suppose, but that's mostly a cop's definition of it.


 The Revolution Will Be Packetized

 J: The sense of the bomb throwing anarchist, I guess, is sort of in the
 sense of political disorder...

 T: ...which was a specific event in the 20's in San Francisco having to do
 with union labor busts. And blackmail... this guy Tom Mooney, a bomb was
 planted and blame arranged to fall on Tom Mooney, tossing his ass in jail,
 putting the blame squarely on the anarchists.

 J: Anarchy has this sorta bad connotation, but anarchy itself is not unlike
 what so many seem to want to embrace now. I think the libertarian
 philosophy is fairly anarchic, and you find it widespread throughout the
 net. It's basically a hands-off philosophy.

 T: I think people often take it too seriously, like various anarchist camps
 that have more rules than not. I consider it a personal philosophy, not a
 political thing at all. It has nothing to do with party-type politics.

 J: If it becomes overtly political, it ceases to be anarchy...

 T: Yeah, more or less, and I don't really care about what's considered
 politics per se, it's personal interaction, how I treat other people and
 how they treat me, and my relations to other people, it's anarchism... I
 always call it Paul Goodman style, which is the principle that people work
 together better if they're cooperating than if they're coerced. Very
 simple, nothing to do with goddamn party politics. It has to do with how
 you treat people that you have to work with. And that's what FidoNet was
 based on, very explicitly. It was sort of laid over the top of a lot of
 Fido bulletin boards, and let them talk to each other in a straightforward
 point-to-point manner.


 Just How Big Is It?

 J: Was it just Fido boards?

 T: Just Fido at the time, because it required a fairly low-level of
 restructuring of the innards, message bases and stuff. And Fido is a pretty
 good bulletin board, has been for years, though now it's definitely old
 fashioned. I haven't done a revision to Fido for over two years.

 J: Are you thinking about doing that?

 T: No, I'm thinking about dropping it. <laughter> I've thought about it,
 and it's over. So FidoNet started up in spring of '84 with two systems, me
 and my friend John Madill and within four months there were twenty or
 fifty... by the end of the year, it was approaching 100 by the next
 February, in nine months. It started growing really fast. And every single
 one was run by somebody for their own reasons in their own manner for their
 own purposes, so FidoNet had to accommodate this. And this is nothing
 unusual, in one sense. All computer networks are essentially run this way.
 The Internet is. There's no central Internet authority where you go to get
 a system in Internet, you just put it online, and find people to help you,
 register with the NIC [Network Information Center] which is just a
 convention for handling names.

 J: Sort of ideally cooperative.

 T: Yeah, it's quite cooperative, and you don't really get kicked out unless
 you technically screw up, or do something massively illegal or glaringly
 obvious. Most likely technical, like don't answer mail for a long time.
 Most electronic things are like that. It didn't start to take off until
 Echomail came by, which was done by this guy named Jeff Rush in Dallas as a
 way to talk among Dallas sysops about organizing pizza parties. It's a
 fully distributed, redundant database using FidoNet netmail to transport
 the records in the distributed database. It's functionally equivalent to
 Usenet, they gate back and forth very easily.

 J: Can you link FidoNet very easily to Internet or UUCP Mail?

 T: There's gateways between [FidoNet and UUCP] operating. You can just set
 up the UFGate package... [FidoNet and the Internet] they have totally
 different paradigms. IP, the Internet stuff, is fully connected all the
 time. When you want to connect to a system in Finland, you just rub packets
 with them and they come back in generally under a second. FidoNet is all
 store and forward, offline processing...

 J: How big is it now?

 T: Just short of 20,000 systems.

 J: Wow, that's a lot...

 T: It's doubled in a year... I think more than doubled in a year. It's been
 doubling every year for a long time <laughs>.


 QQBEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCKQQ

 J: There's a lot of discussion today of encryption schemes, are you
 involved in that?

 T: Actually, yeah, I use it routinely.

 J: Using PGP?

 T: Yeah. FidoNet was pretty intentionally involved in getting PGP
 ubiquitous the first time around... an intentional, conscious quick-dump of
 about 10,000 copies in a week, starting on a Monday, just to be sure that
 it was unstoppable, and it spread very quickly. Now there's all kinds of
 arguments over whether it's legal, or whether it's going to incriminate me
 to use PGP, and the traffic into the network itself...

 J: It wouldn't be a criminal issue...

 T: People believe all kinds of crazy nonsense.

 J: Somebody has a patent on the algorithm, is that it?

 T: Yeah, and some people are afraid that if they send or pass encrypted
 data, that the police will bust into the house and steal the computer, all
 this kind of stuff... FidoNet sprung up fully-formed out of seeming nowhere
 into the rest of the computer world. Most people on the Internet have
 access to it through schools or industry. They went to school, then they
 got a job, and they grew up with maintained Internet connectivity... they
 were brought up into the sort of Internet-hood.

 J: I think that's changing a bit...

 T: Oh, it is changing, it will continue to change, and someday it will be
 incomprehensible that it was this way, but as of today, it's sort of how it
 is. FidoNet did not come from that direction at all. It came from... the
 usual white guys who could afford a computer :-), but in the best tradition
 of radio and astronomy, they were at least amateurs, it's truly an amateur
 network. It is not professional, as in "profession"... "professional" is
 frequently used to mean legitimate, as opposed to amateur...

 J: You mean "hobbyist?"

 T: Yeah, amateur as a word became disparaging, but we mean it actually in
 the older sense, like the radio amateur sense. We don't do it for money,
 it's done for the sake of itself. So for the most part, FidoNet members
 never had that traditional kind of connectivity, and also didn't have the
 corporate culture, and didn't have the computer network culture, so it
 basically formed in the dark, on its own.


 550 Flavors of Culture

 J: Speaking of the word "culture," do you find that within the FidoNet
 universe, there's a particular set of cultural predilections? Does there
 tend to be a general kind of group or community that uses FidoNet?

 T: Well, it's like any of those things, it's really subjective. But, yeah,
 there do seem to be, in my travels on Internet and FidoNet, distinct
 flavors. One is not better than the other, I can tell you that, culturally
 speaking. The Internet people say, "Oh, but the flame level on FidoNet is
 so awful." Bullshit. The flame level on the Internet is just as high. It's
 in loftier language, five line signatures, and all that kind of crap... but
 I'm sorry, it's not any better, it's just different. What it is, is less
 alien to them, more comfortable... and vice-versa from the FidoNet side.
 It's more comfortable, it's more familiar, the language used and the
 acronyms and the smiley faces, all of that junk.

 There is a FidoNet flavor, through the usual sociological things. The
 people who originally populated it defined this vague common set, and
 people who come onto it self-select ("Oh, I like that!") and join it, and
 then enhance it, or they're sort of neutral and they come in and they just
 absorb it because... you know, you start hanging out with people, and you
 pick up their manner of speaking. And there are people, of course, who are
 utterly opposed to this, and want to make it professional and some just
 don't care, and live in a corner of it.

 But yeah, there are things in common, and I have a hard time putting my
 finger on what they are. It is fiercely independent, utterly, fiercely
 independent. It is viciously anti-commercialization. It has a long history
 of some nasty politics, some really enlightened politics, and I think in a
 lot of ways they have more pragmatic view, and a better view Q better
 meaning more functional in today's world Q than people who haven't had to
 pay their own phone bills.

 J: Some people argue that you can't have strictly online community, and
 others believe that you can. Some feel that there has to be some kind of
 face-to-face interaction. In the Internet there has not been as much of
 that until it began to become more broadly accessible to regular people...

 T: The Internet is still completely and thoroughly inaccessible... I'm
 sorry, it is simply not accessible. You have to have a large amount of
 hardware or an intimate relationship with someone who does, like you have
 to go to school or something. Otherwise you're paying money... and there
 are people who fall through the cracks...

 J: How about public access Internet?

 T: Yeah, but if there's more than 100 terminals in the U.S. that any
 average person could walk up to and figure out how to use in less than a
 week, I would be surprised. It still takes huge amounts of specialized
 knowledge.

 J: But the technical side is fairly dense...

 T: Oh, yeah... I've been an SWTP, CP/M, DOS hacker and hardware hacker for
 fifteen fucking years, twenty years, and UNIX is so intimidating,
 arbitrarily difficult to use... a lot of the users have this macho attitude
 that "Well, you should have to plow through it, I did." The whole
 priesthood nonsense. It's stupid. And the argument whether online culture
 is possible or not, that ain't where it's gonna get decided. It either gets
 made or it doesn't. I think there are online communities. The people who
 are doing it aren't asking themselves, "Are we an online community?"
 They're just going about their business. They're not tangible enough to
 really get documented except in hindsight, you look back and say "Oh, yeah,
 those people are" or "No, they really weren't, when push came to shove,
 they didn't stay together."

 J: At EFF-Austin we've been a little more self-conscious about it, we've
 actually been trying to do some community-building, to try to structure an
 online community in Austin where we'd have some force to get things done,
 various projects. One of the things we're doing that other EFF-related
 groups haven't been doing is arts projects, and in doing those things, in
 talking to some of the people who are interested in doing that, I realized
 that there are a lot of writers and artists who are hungry to get online.
 They know it's there, they'd like to be using it, but they can't get access
 to it because they can't, unless they stumble into it, find a system
 that'll give them an account. It's kind of like what you were saying about
 barriers... but I wonder if, in the FidoNet world, you find writers and
 artists using FidoNet to share information and to form arts communities?

 T: Well, there's a lot more less-technical people involved, because you can
 put a $300 system together, line cord to phone jack. That just means that
 the entry level is a lot lower. And it's functional as hell! I mean, So
 what if it's slow? 5 seconds or 100 milliseconds, what's the difference to
 most people?


 All Look Completely Different

 J: The link, the network, is strictly for email? Or do you have some other
 stuff, file transfer... ?

 T: Oh, there's lots of file transfer stuff. In some ways it's a lot more
 sophisticated than the FTP stuff from the user's point of view. There's
 this thing called the SDN, the Software Distribution Network, which looks
 like a conference for files, where the objects are not messages, but files.
 And they're stored in a redundant manner, some locally concentrated, some
 far away and scattered. It's kind of nebulous, like most network things
 are. They do monthly announcements of new files, and most of it's
 shareware, or free. You can do things like file attach (send with a
 message), and file requests (file fetch via message).

 FidoNet doesn't have the problem that a lot of older networks have, with
 seven bit channels and all that crap. We have eight bit channels with 32
 bit CRCs. We do run into the alien system problems... ASCII character sets
 vs. the cyrillic alphabets and all that kinda stuff. Those problems are
 about as chaotic as they are anywhere else.

 J: How about remote login?

 T: No... the systems in FidoNet are radically different. There's Radio
 Shack color computers, there's CP/M machines, Apple IIs, giant DOS
 machines, giant LANs of UNIX boxes, all running common protocols in a far
 broader hardware base than most, even UNIX boxes. There's no unified
 operating system, there's a set of protocols, there's 40 or 50 different
 mailers, and FidoNet interfaces in bulletin boards, and they all look
 completely different. So it's at a much higher level of abstraction than
 the FidoNet gets defined at. I bet a lot of the Internet, some huge
 proportion, is UNIX...

 J: You certainly need some kind of standard to be interoperable to the
 extent that the Internet is, don't you?

 T: No, where the real compatibility is is the TCP/IP layer, and that's rock
 solid, and that's the thing in common. All the rlogin, telnet, and ftp
 stuff partly user paradigm, rather than just a set of protocols. It's well,
 and fine, and wonderful, and I love it, but it does put a real crimp on
 style.

 [Ed Cavazos, almost-attorney and vice-prez of EFF-Austin, shows up and
 settles in to listen. The conversation continues.]

  The Color Of Money

 T: A lot of FidoNet is so radically different, you can't get people to
 either hear it or understand what's going on, because it's NOT like any of
 the others, and it was intentionally not made like the others, and some of
 the really basic principles that seem random are intentional... they're in
 writing, and have been in writing for seven years. The strictly American
 anarchist principles that it's based on are written into the policy
 documents.

 We actually had in '85, '86, '87 an attempted takeover by a corporation
 that was formed from within, it was like a cancer that became a giant boil
 on the surface, called IFNA, the International FidoNet Association, that
 was sort of a good idea, or a potentially good idea, when we started it at
 the 200 node level. By the time it got around to being implemented, at 500
 nodes, the world had utterly changed. With 200 people, you can run it like
 a club. It was 90% U.S., 90% white guys with computers, and at the 500 node
 level, it was about 20% European and definitely, obviously growing. It
 hopped the puddle, with systems appearing in South America, scattered, but
 you know how that goes... when you get one, then you get two, and then
 four, and they start to grow.

 We were very naive, and I was right in the middle of it. Some of us learned
 quickly, this isn't going to work! But this corporation grew, and became a
 501(c)(3), and like all of those things, they get power-hungry, and they
 get grabby of territory, and we had to fight it off, and it was fought off
 by the constituents of the network... and it was killed off. They had
 gained control of the copyright and the trademarks, and they were fought
 off. The network, instead of dying, like everyone predicted, thrived.

 J: So how did this fight go?

 T: It was fought by lawyers and proxy votes and all the usual crap, in a
 goddamn hotel in San Jose, was the final straw...

 J: Were you a part of this corporation at all?

 T: Well, a bunch of us started it... at first, we were brainstorming what
 we could do... deals on modems, some obvious stuff. And we'd have a
 spokesperson from FidoNet who'd attend the EMA meetings once a year and
 represent bulletin board operators and FidoNet members in electronic
 privacy things and the technical trade stuff and the obvious things. And
 those are still lacking, we still need them. But it was established really
 early that everyone not only retains control of their system, but they're
 expected to do their part to run it, because there is no one else to run
 it. And as simple as it sounds, it's a really radical act to get that
 across, so that people don't just sit on their butts. And of course, the
 usual 10% does the work, and 90% sits on their butts, but that's fine, too.


 Double Plus Plus Good

 T: FidoNet's a little odd, unlike the Internet, which has a domain name
 system... you say "Connect to toad.com," it says, ".com, okay, over there,
 toad... here's the address," and you go after it. FidoNet has what appears
 to be a centralized database that every system in the net has, a copy of
 this at the moment 2 megabyte long ASCII database, with 20,000 records in
 it. And it's updated every week, it contains the full physical and logical
 information about the entire network... phone number, system name,
 restrictions on use, protocols supported, some ASCII text, like system
 name, and city, all that kind of junk. It contains the hierarchical
 addressing scheme of the network, and it contains a lot of redundancy.

 J: Given that there's no central authority, who maintains this database?

 T: A local autonomous unit in FidoNet... First... the terminology in
 FidoNet is point-node-net-zone. Points aren't really part of FidoNet,
 they're a peculiar thing... a node is the basic unit, it is a bulletin
 board or a mail-only site, generally a phone number with a modem on it. A
 net is a cluster of Fidos, a cluster of nodes, like San Francisco has Net
 125, SFBay Net, 75-80 systems. A node in a net is the basic social
 organizational unit. It was designed to be small enough to comprehend in
 regular old terms, like we all know and love, clubs and that kind of
 group... when they get too big they tend to fragment into pieces, which
 become autonomous units, then nets are collected into the real-life
 geography of continents.

 The North American phone system is alien to the Western European ones, and
 they have lots of mutually-alien phone systems. The North Americans tend to
 be a lot less political... Zone 1 encompasses Mexico, U.S., and Canada, and
 nobody ever batted an eye over it. It's like, "Oh, okay, that makes sense."
 In Europe, they're fiercely defensive of the political boundaries, and it's
 really silly. Local autonomy was the critical thing to make it work,
 because who's going to allow somebody in New Jersey to dictate how they're
 going to run their system? There'd be no way to exert any kind of control,
 and once you start getting into control wars, you spend all your time doing
 that.

 So the way the node list is made is that every net fragment makes its own
 chunk of the node list, which is a very straightforward task, even though
 it ends up being work. They're passed up through regional coordinators who
 take these fragments, and everybody gets a copy of everybody else's weekly
 list, and each of them compiles a giant list, then they do a difference,
 this week from last week, and mail out that difference back down the tree.
 So if you chopped off half the network and smashed it flat, it would
 regenerate itself. It's a balance of terror, that's what it is. It's a
 genuine balance of terror in responsibility and power. What you get for
 that redundancy is that no one can cut you out of the network, no one can
 declare that you can't communicate.

 In the UUCP world none of this happens because the social environment is
 much more substantial... universities, Hewlett Packard... Your neighbors,
 in theory, can cut you off, and you disappear, no one knows about you, if
 you're eliminated from the bang path, no one can talk to you, and that's
 it, you don't exist, it's as simple as that.

 In FidoNet, and this has happened recently in England... a bunch of
 religious fundamentalists by just hammering away gained control of large
 chunks of the FidoNet in the U.K., and they started having fits... "Why,
 there's perverts on this board, and we're not gonna have 'em in FidoNet!"
 <laughter> And they clipped them out of the goddamn list, they removed the
 entries from the U.K. list. You sort of noticed they disappeared, but those
 people can still communicate, they can mail you their fragment,
 hand-generated if necessary, and all the node list processors let you
 incorporate private lists, and you can reply back, just like that. No one
 can be cut out of the network.

 If you start thinking about it, you realize that there are a number of good
 and bad side effects from this. Like, if you have some real asshole
 troublemaker, there's nothing you can do about it. Like, unless somebody
 comes in and pulls out a gun or something, it's kinda hard to get someone
 kicked out of a more or less public place... well, [here in] the hotel
 would be relatively easy, but out in the street, you've just gotta live
 with your neighbors. And the same is true in the FidoNet. You have to learn
 to live with your neighbors, and vice versa. The flaming assholes have to
 learn how to behave well enough to not be utterly censured. Which is what
 generally happens to them... people just ignore them.

 There was one guy, he was another fundamentalist Christian nut case. He was
 amusing, actually. He was a "true Bible" believer, this was called
 pre-rapture, or something or other, some pre-rapture network... he was
 persecuted by all sides, and he loved it. He was mailing everybody this
 gibberish, pages and pages of gibberish. And there's programs that just
 filter out mail, and you say, I don't wanna see mail from this address...

 J: A bozofilter.

 T: Yeah, basically, it's a bozofilter, we've had 'em for a long time. And
 there's also another one that's called bounce... whenever you get anything
 from this guy, bounce it back. It appends a bit of text that says "This
 message is refused at site so-and-so, have it back," which IRRITATES
 people! But it just works out that people, even the crazy ones are social
 organisms. We don't really like to be disliked too widely, we like to have
 an audience, if nothing else. So that's the underpinnings...

 FidoNet has been very flexible technically. When technological changes or
 opportunities come by, within a year half the net supports them. In about
 '85 U.S.JRobotics very smartly discovered bulletin boards, and they
 realized the way it works is, even though there's a relatively small number
 of bulletin board sysops, if you're bulletin board caller, who do you look
 to to see what hardware to buy? The sysop. And they ask, "What kind of
 modem do you have... oh, it must be pretty good if you use it," because
 when it's bad, they mouth off to hundreds of people about it.

 So USR basically courted the FidoNet, and said "What do you want to see in
 a modem?" The first modem they did this with was the Courier 2400, which
 was 600 bucks new at the time, or 700 bucks. They offered a 50% off deal,
 down to about 300 or 400 dollars, which was a bargain, relatively speaking.
 We wanted true flow control, and a symmetrical modem with basic AT command
 set, and they did it. It was an instant success. And then they did the HST,
 much to most of the industry's annoyance, they did this kludgey proprietary
 asymmetrical protocol 9600 one way, 300 baud the other way... they came to
 us again, and we worked out more handshake stuff, and started changing
 protocols on our side.

 FidoNet was originally based on xmodem, which is amazingly similar to
 X.25's packet ack, like Kermit, only much more efficient than Kermit, and
 very much like UUCP-G, only it's not windowed... block ack block ack block
 ack... it's fine at 2400 baud and below, above 2400 baud it was not good.
 We had asymmetrical modems that collapsed. So there had been another
 protocol called Wazoo around, and it instantly became hot, because it did
 protocol negotiation when you started a session, and it could pick ZMODEM
 [trademark Chuck Forseberg], which is fully-windowed, screaming fast, you
 can run it ackless. You could work the hell out of an HST in ways that
 other protocols couldn't. Internet protocols and UUCP-G were just useless,
 in other words, the modem was useless for existing protocols. So FidoNet's
 historically been very flexible, technology-wise.

 McLuhanites: Myopy, My Opium

 Ed: Are you familiar with John Quarterman? Have you seen his maps of
 FidoNet?

 T: No, I haven't seen his maps of FidoNet. [Quarterman did show 'em off
 later in the conference.] I talk to him occasionally, I republished one of
 his articles in FidoNews a while ago... FidoNews is a weird phenomenon in
 itself... a 20,000 circulation weekly newsletter in its tenth year. It sort
 of goes unacknowledged... FidoNet has a giant credibility problem, because
 it sprang forth fully-formed 'way outside all traditional computer things,
 and because it works on PCs and Radio Shack Color Computers (which actually
 turns out to be a nice processor, it runs OS9 on a 6809... you can run
 multiusers on a $99 packaged machine). It's really some amazing software.

 FidoNews was designed in '84 in the first year as the meta-net, to discuss
 the net itself, to discuss the social end of the net. In the first issue
 was a retired Air Force colonel or something, whining about the military
 retirement process, and people instantly said, "This is supposed to be a
 technical newsletter, this is FidoNet..." and I said, "No, bullshit, it's
 not. I'm tired of just this techie crap. Do you talk on the phone about
 your telephone all the time? 'Gee, I've got a great new phone, it's got all
 these pushbuttons...' and you get bored very quickly. It's like radio
 amateurs talking about their goddamn antennas." Who wants to put up with
 that stuff?

 J: We've been talking about that a lot. There's three or four magazines
 devoted to online cultures, cultures of the Matrix, that focus on the
 Internet a lot. Wired is one, Mondo in a real different way, and
 bOING-bOING, of course, in a REAL different way. And we realized that a lot
 of the articles are preoccupied with the carrier, with the technology for
 carrying messages, and not so much with the messages themselves or the
 cultures themselves, the sorts of cultures that are evolving.

 T: Yeah, they forget that what we're making is a goddamn conduit; it's a
 medium, it's not content! A content comes with it, because they're brand
 new mediums, they fail a lot, and they need to be developed... all software
 sucks, and all hardware sucks, so you end up talking about it a lot, but
 yeah, that's not the point.

 J: What's really more fascinating is what's at either end of the conduit...

 T: Yeah, the telephone proved that. It's actually a way to convey social
 information, emotion, that's why telephones worked, you can talk over them.
 How many ways can you say "No" with a keyboard? Not very many. 25 or 50 if
 you're incredibly ingenious. Smiley faces and uppercase... All the cultural
 information is stripped. And a lot of it has simply been access. Those at
 the gates determine who comes in. If you own the $5,000 PC...

 J: Is that what brings you here [to the fourth conference on Computers,
 Freedom, and Privacy), access issues?

 T: Yeah, that's why I'm always skeptical of large-scale networks. While I'm
 on the Internet, I don't have any pretensions of being... "Why, the world
 is connected!" No, one percent of one percent is connected, barely, and the
 tools really suck. Through no fault of the authors, they're incredible
 works, the foundation to a world. But they're hardly accessible to everyone
 in the world.

 J: I had to buy my access to the Internet, at first. The WELL...

 T: Mine I get because I'm managing a small IP cooperative, and I get it
 sort of as a perk to my $400 to $500 salary for what is essentially a
 full-time job.

 J: Actually, I've been able to pick up other accounts since, but the only
 way that I could have got in in the first place was by buying access,
 because I'm not really very technical. My interests are more
 sociopolitical, I guess...

 T: I don't really have any serious problems with the way things exist. For
 better or worse, that's the way that all complicated things have been
 developed in our little Western history timeline. It takes resources and
 effort and energy, and they do spread out, eventually. And they get defined
 along the way, they definitely have basic cultural assumptions glued into
 them at the very base.

 J: It allows a more distributed way of organizing and doing things...

 T: We'll see if it's ever as good as the telephone is. It doesn't get much
 better than the telephone, when you think about its position in society.
 Like Bruce said in his Hacker Crackdown, you notice them when you don't
 have one, they're so ubiquitous, they're like light switches. You don't
 think of a telephone, it's not an exciting object.

 J: I can remember when there was a single phone in the house, and it was a
 big deal to have a second phone, which was usually on the same line. And
 now I have three phone lines, and one is a dedicated data line. I don't
 think I know many people who don't have at least two or three phones in
 their house.

 T: I'm down to two, and I consider that rarefied... I only need two lines
 now, after having six at one point, all these bulletin boards and data
 lines, now it's like, oh, a voice line, and a data line...

 J: I prefer asynchronous text swapping, but I'm not sure why, maybe a
 personal idiosyncrasy. It seems funny to me, because Matisse Enzer, the
 support guy on the WELL... when we're having a problem, and we can't quite
 figure out how to communicate about it, he always says, "Well look, why
 don't I call you up, and we'll talk about it." And I always say, "No, wait,
 I don't wanna talk, I just wanna text!" <laughter>

  -----
 Originally published in Fringe Ware Review #1, ISSN 1069-5656.
 Copyright (c)1993 by the author.  All rights reserved.
 For more details, contact: [e-mail]

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