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I n f o r m a t i o n, C o m m u n i c a t i o n, S u p p l y
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------------- E l e c t r o Z i n e ------------------------------
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********************************************************************************
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Established in 1993 by Deva Winblood
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Information Communication Supply 3/20/95 Vol.2: Issue 5-1
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Email To: ORG_ZINE@WSC.COLORADO.EDU
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S T A F F : Email: ICS Positions:
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============== ============ ==============
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Steven Peterson STU000012255 Managing Editor, Writer
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Russel Hutchinson c/o org_zine Writer, Subscriptions
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David Trosty STU000037486 Writer, Poetry Editor
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George Sibley FAC_SIBLEY Editing, Faculty Supervisor
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Others TBA All addresses @WSC.COLORADO.EDU
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_________________________________________
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/=========================================\
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| "Art helps us accept the human condition; |
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| technology changes it." |
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\ - D.B. Smith /
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\***************************************/
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_____________________________________________________________________________
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/ \
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| ICS is an Electrozine distributed by students of Western State |
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| College in Gunnison, Colorado. We are here to gather information about |
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| topics that are important to all of us as human beings. If you would like |
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| to send in a submission, please type it into an ASCII format and email it |
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| to us. We operate on the assumption that if you mail us something you |
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| want it to be published. We will do our best to make sure it is |
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| distributed and will always inform you when or if it is used. |
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\_____________________________________________________________________________/
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REDISTRIBUTION: If any part of this issue is copied or used elsewhere
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you must give credit to the author and indicate that the information
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came from ICS Electrozine ORG_ZINE@WSC.COLORADO.EDU.
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DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the
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views of the editors of ICS. Contributors to ICS assume all responsibilities
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for ensuring that articles/submissions are not violating copyright laws and
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protections.
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|\__________________________________________________/|
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| \ / |
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| \ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S / |
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| / \ |
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| /________________________________________________\ |
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|/ \|
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| Included in the table of contents are some |
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| generic symbols to help you in making a decision |
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| as to whether an article or story may express |
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| ideas or use language that may be offensive. |
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| S = Sexual Content AL = Adult Language |
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| V = Violence O = Opinions |
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|____________________________________________________|
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|------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| 1) First Word -=- By Steven Peterson: The return of St. Mike. |
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| 2) WorldNet Tour Guide -=- By Staff: Veronica Gopher Searches-- |
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| A beginner's guide to usage and commands, with addresses. |
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| 3) Thoughts of the KNYGHT -=- By Jason Manczur: Poem. |
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| 4) Dirt -=- By David Trosty: Short story. An Odd little tale |
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| which explores the seamier aspects of a lawyer's life in |
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| the city. Not for the overly sensitive [AL, S]. |
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|------------------------------------------------------------------|
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|------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| 5) Pebble -=- By David Trosty: Poetry. |
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| 6) Cleansing the Channels: Censorship in CyberSpace -=- |
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| By Steven Peterson: Commentary on the "Communications |
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| Decency Act of 1995." [O] |
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| 7) Flam, Baby, Flam -=- By David Trosty: Jazz/Scat/Poetry. |
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| 8) ACCEPT->>> DELETE FORM1040 *.*;*.* -=- By Steven Peterson: |
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| Part one of a short story; action-adventure. [AL] |
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| 9) Last Word -=- Earthy Day Thoughts from the Editor. |
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|------------------------------------------------------------------|
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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*-----------------*
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| First Word \
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| By Steven Peterson \
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*----------------------*
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He's Back ...
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The King of Kinesthetic Calculus,
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The Sultan Of Swish, Michael Jordan.
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And despite the hype, the glorification, and the media over-kill,
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I'm stoked. I haven't really watched an NBA game since he "retired", and
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I've missed watching him perform his tongue-waving antics.
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Not the game itself, you understand, but the raw display of kinesthetic
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genius Jordan brings with him to every game. I have many fond memories, not
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of watching the games, but of the inspiration I felt after the games. During
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the first season the Bulls made it to the playoffs (91), I was working in a
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ski factory, using my mind and body to manipulate metal and machinery, shaping
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tips and basically in motion at all times. Watching Jordan at night always
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seemed to inspire me to greater efficiency the next day; he was a supreme
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example of mind united with body, performing the intricate internal calculus
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required to win NBA championships.
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Howard Gardner, a psychologist and writer of note, claims that there are
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seven basic areas of intelligence: bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-
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personal, linguistic, logical-mathematic, musical and spatial. Open displays
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of any of these intelligences, honed to perfection, never fails to inspire me.
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Without the almost religious level of worship the networks people desire,
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I believe we should cherish and respect all of these varied human talents.
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Even when the gods have a bad day ... Jordan wasn't terribly impressive
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his first day back: 7 for 28 from the field, 19 points, and a handful of
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steals, rebounds and assists. A little rusty--most of his shots were just
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a bit off--but still, a few flashes of grace, of genius in motion.
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It's good to have him back ...
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Anyway, enjoy the rest of the 'Zine. Think I'll go dribble for a while.
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-Ed.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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_________________________________________________
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/ W o r l d N e t \
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\____________ Tour Guide ____________/
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\_______________________/
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| *VERONICA* |
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| -- GOPHER -- |
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\ *SEARCHES* /
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\---------------/
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WorldNet Tour Guide is a feature which appears in ICS from time to time.
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The Guide consists of articles designed to help you in using the WorldNet to
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the fullest potential. These articles will range from tutorials on aspects of
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the 'Net (programs) to reviews of places and stuff we find out on the WorldNet
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(content). Why? Because together we know more than any one of us can know.
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If you would like to write a file or document to appear in this section,
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please do so. Send your final copy (in ASCII format) to:
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ORG_ZINE@WSC.COLORADO.EDU
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-------
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This time around, we're going to explore VERONICA, a "very easy rodent-
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oriented net-wide index of computerized archives"; it's also one of the better
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ways of searching GopherSpace for information on a specific topic. The concept
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behind this gopher indexing and retrieval system is pretty basic: you enter a
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set of query word and/or commands at a prompt, and the program scans a list of
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the directories of 5,000+ gopher sites for menu items which match what you
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have entered. The results are presented as a normal gopher menu; choose and
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download as you would with any other gopher menu.
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Although veronica does NOT do full-text searches, it does also allow
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you to define your search in order to: a) bring back specific types of files,
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or b) just point you to the right directory. Currently, most of the VERONICA
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servers are searching a database which contains over 10 million items--
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using the right keywords and commands is essential for efficient, productive
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use of this search engine.
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------
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Where to Log In: generally speaking, to the nearest gopher site which
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offers a VERONICA option on the menu (radiate your web...). Regardless of
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where you are, here are a couple of sites which DO offer this option:
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gopher.oss.net 70 --choose #2, InfoPro Resources/, then scroll to
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last page of the menu, number 49.
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gopher veronica.scs.unr.edu 70 --choose #12, "Search ... using
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Veronica" from the root directory.
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When you choose Veronica, you may be presented with a host of pre-defined
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search options. Most sites offer two pre-defined search types:
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> Search GopherSpace by keywords in Titles> <?
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This option will find ALL TYPES of resources whose titles contain the
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search words you have entered. The resources may be of any Gopher data
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TYPE (e.g. ascii documents, gopher directories, binary files, etc.).
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If you are not given any options, this is the likely default setting.
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> Search Gopher DIRECTORIES ONLY for keywords in Titles> <?
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This search will find only Gopher DIRECTORIES whose titles contain the
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search words you've entered. This search can be very handy for those
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broad search terms or when you're only after the location of major
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holdings of information which relate to your query. After veronica
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finishes its search of gopher directories, you can open any of them
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just by choosing the listing from the result menu.
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> Simplified Veronica: Find Gopher MENUS only> <?
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OR
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> Simplified Veronica: Find Gopher FILES> <?
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This search will use a pre-defined set of variables to perform a quick,
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scan of several sites. It's very useful if you're time on-line is limited,
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and, it's good way to judge traffic on the servers (if they're all busy,
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you will be presented with a message to that effect).
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To use any of these options, choose it from the menu and enter your query
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words when the "Index word(s) to search for:" _ prompt appears.
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------
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E N T E R I N G A Q U E R Y
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When you select a query type, your gopher client may or may not present
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a dialog box (in any case, the prompt will appear onscreen in some fashion).
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Enter your query words separated by spaces:
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e.g. Index word(s) to search for: electronic magazines (enter or Return)
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The search is NOT case-sensitive and you may get better results by
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entering a multi-word query rather than a single word. Multiple word queries
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will find only those items whose titles contain ALL of the specified words.
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For instance, "electronic" will find a zillion items; but "electronic
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magazines" will find a manageable number of items. Be as specific as you can.
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It also helps to be imaginative. Think about how gophers are organized and
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files are named; the information you want may not be found under "Estimated
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Prophet", but under the more general heading of "lyrics". The process is
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analogous to using the yellow pages in a phone book--you don't look under
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"cars", you look under "automobiles"; picking up the vocabulary is half the
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battle. Multiple-word queries don't require that the words be adjacent in the
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title, nor that they appear in any particular order. So, "magazines electronic"
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will locate the same items as "electronic magazines".
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------
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*DEFAULTS, WILDCARDS, AND COMMANDS*
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D E F A U L T S
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Default maximum items and the "-m" option: by default, most veronica
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servers will present only the first 200 items which match a query. You can
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request any number of items by including the "-mX" command phrase in your
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query. X is the number of items you wish. If X is omitted ( "-m" ), there
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is no limit to the number of items delivered.
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EXAMPLE:
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Index word(s) to search for: "women" will provide 200 items.
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"women -m1000" will provide 1000 items.
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"women -m" will provide all matching items.
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You may find a message at the end of your veronica results menu
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which indicates that more items are available, e.g. "There are 424 more
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items matching your query". If you are not satisfied with the first 200
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items you received, you can resubmit the query, requesting the rest of the
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available files with the "-m" option.
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Note: some veronica servers will provide more than 200 items by default.
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------
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W I L D C A R D S E A R C H E S
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An asterisk ("*") at the TRAILING END of a query word will match anything.
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Use it with restraint, and only as a limited form of a wildcard search--or you
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risk tying up your terminal and the server for a long, boring time. The (*)
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asterisk character may be used ONLY at the end of words; the search will fail
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if a "*" is placed within a word or at the beginning of a word. Search words
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incorporating a wildcard must be at least two characters long. Shorter words
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will be ignored.
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EXAMPLE:
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Index word(s) to search for: electronic mag*
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------
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C O M M A N D S
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In order to find resources of a "type", you can use the "-t" flag to
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find resources of (only) a specified gopher type. To specify the type(s) of
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interest, add the "-tX" option phrase to your query. X is the number of the
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type from the following list Official gopher types, from the "Gopher Protocol
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Document":
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0 -- Text File
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1 -- Directory
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2 -- CSO name server
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4 -- Mac HQX file.
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5 -- PC binary
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7 -- Full Text Index (Gopher menu)
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8 -- Telnet Session
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9 -- Binary File
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s -- Sound
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e -- Event (not in 2.06)
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I -- Image (other than GIF)
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M -- MIME multipart/mixed message
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T -- TN3270 Session
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c -- Calendar (not in 2.06)
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g -- GIF image
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h -- HTML, HyperText Markup Language
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The -t flag may appear anywhere in the search specification.
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EXAMPLE:
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"electronic magazines -t1"
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"-t1 electronic magazines"
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Either of these search phrases will find resources with the words
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"electronic" and "magazines" in the title. All the resources will be gopher
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DIRECTORY items (type 1).
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Note: There must NOT be any spaces between the -t and the type specifier.
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You may specify several types in the query. DO NOT use separate -t
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options to do this; put all the types together (with no spaces) after the -t.
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DO NOT cluster more than one option behind a single hyphen; instead, use a
|
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separate hyphen for each separate option.
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EXAMPLE:
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Index word(s) to search for: hubble -tg1 -m400
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This example requests 400 items containing the word "hubble", and
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specifies that we want only items whose type is "directory" and "gif".
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EXAMPLE:
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"-tg1 mac" returns a menu of directories containing GIF image files with
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the word "mac" in titles.
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------
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S U M M A R Y O F O P T I O N S
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-t limit the search to items of specified data type(s).
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-m specify maximum number of items to find.
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-l create a file of links for the discovered resources. The file
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will be displayed as the first item on the veronica results menu.
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You can then retrieve that file and include the links in menus
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which you may be building. Not all veronica servers support the
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"-l" option.
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To use these options, simply include them in the search query.
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They should work with any gopher client. You can put options before the
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query words, after the query words, or even between query words.
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S E A R C H E X A M P L E S:
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> Search on the word "internet". This will return a menu list of (at most) 200
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records that have the word internet in the title field.
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Just type-
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internet
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> Search on the word "internet", but specify 500 items instead of the default.
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Just type-
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internet -m500
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or
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-m500 internet
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> Search for the words "electronic" and "magazine". This returns a menu list
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of (at most) 200 records that have _BOTH_ "electronic" and "magazine".
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Just type-
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electronic and magazine
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> Search for the keywords "electronic" or "magazine", specifying directories
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only. This will return a menu list of resources that have _EITHER_ electronic
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or magazine, and which are GOPHER DIRECTORY entries.
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Just type-
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electronic or magazine -t1
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or
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-t1 magazine or electronic
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Examples for wild cards/word stemming:
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> The metacharacter "*" matches anything at the TRAILING END of a search word.
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Just type-
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electro* (will search for all titles with the
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word electronic, electrozine, ...)
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electro* or mag* (will search for all titles with the
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word electronic, electrozine, ..., _OR_
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magazines, magic, magnets, ...)
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Examples for the operator "NOT":
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> To use the operator "NOT" in a query:
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Just type-
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electronic not magazine (will search for all titles with
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the word electronic _BUT NOT_ the word magazine)
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electronic magazine not ics (will search for electronic magazine
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titles with the words electronic _AND_ magazine _BUT NOT_ ics.
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Remember, there is an implied _AND_ between any two search words)
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SourceFile: HOW TO COMPOSE VERONICA QUERIES - June 23, 1994: Steven Foster.
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gopher://veronica.scs.unr.edu:70/00/veronica/how-to-query-veronica
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=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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Thoughts of the KNYGHT
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How can I eat the fish of anonymity
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And drink the wine of fame?
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Why does my life-line end,
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Then begin again?
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Who reads the walls
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In the women's restroom?
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When can a lemming
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Create a sonic boom?
|
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What do the undead see
|
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When they look at me?
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Where do books
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Go to be free?
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|
KNYGHT
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|
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From: Jason Manczur SMTP%"MANCZURJI@mscd.edu" 16-MAR-1995
|
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|
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|
|
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
|
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|
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/--------\
|
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| Dirt | >>>> By David Trosty
|
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\--------/
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|
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[Adult Language, Sexual Content]
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When I step into the shadows, my bangs get pasted like
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papier-mache to my forehead. Pelted by cold rain and the pale glow of
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the streetlights, I light up a damp cigarette. As I walk down the trash-
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strewn alley, the click of my heels reverberates down the brick lined
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corridor; the echoes are toying with my ears, mixed in with a gentle
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plinking of raindrops on the old, tin trashcans. The reflections of the
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streetlights break into a million fragments when I splash through the
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shallow puddles.
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I can smell my leather trenchcoat as the rain percolates through
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it, releasing its essence. My wingtips squeak with wetness with each
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assertive step that I take. The city is strangely deserted tonight.
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When I turn out onto the street my senses are bombarded by the flow of
|
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traffic and the sounds of people talking amongst themselves. The lights
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of the bars and restaurants are surrounded by peculiar glowing halos,
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like I'm in some kind of shabbily produced movie.
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|
The rain picks up and I head into a bar: not the one that I was
|
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looking for, but because of the weather, I have little choice. It is dark.
|
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Too dark to make out faces at first, but soon I can see the people, the
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snarling troubled people. Wolfen-men looking for vulnerable women to prey
|
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upon, and twisted women looking to be taken advantage of. An especially
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drunk woman comes up to greet me.
|
|
"Hey there, want a drink?"
|
|
Boy is she wasted. "Umm, sure. Scotch, on the rocks." I sit down.
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My arms stick to the bar from the tack of spilled beer.
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"Here you go, handsome. You look rich. What are you, a doctor or
|
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something?"
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"No, a lawyer."
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"I like that. What do you like?"
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I nervously take a gulp of my drink, as she runs her fingers gently
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down my chest.
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"I like to have a few drinks after work."
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"Oh, is that all. Don't you like women?"
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"Of course I do."
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"What do you think about sex with strangers?" The odd woman purred.
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I chew on my ice.
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"Look lady, all I'm trying to do is catch a little buzz after work,
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so why don't you hit on someone else?"
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"Because I like you, I think you're sexy. Your indifference
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turns me on."
|
|
This woman leans closer to me, trying to whisper in my ear.
|
|
Her fetid breath reeks of booze and cigarettes.
|
|
"You can fuck me if you want. You can fuck me hard. You can beat
|
|
me too. I like it rough like that. You can treat me any way that you want,
|
|
rich lawyer."
|
|
"What!? Lady you need some help."
|
|
"The only help I need is between your legs."
|
|
Without warning her hand is in my lap. I can feel her fingers
|
|
searching for my belt buckle."
|
|
"Get off me, crazy bitch!"
|
|
I push her aside onto her ass, and I grab my coat.
|
|
"You goddamm prick! Of all the guys in this bar I pick you to screw,
|
|
you ungrateful bastard!"
|
|
I rush into the rain, pushing and shoving my way through the
|
|
crowds of faceless people. Blindfolded, pathetic people groping in the dark,
|
|
struggling to find any distraction they can, no matter how self-destructive
|
|
and twisted it is. I've lived in L.A. for six months and I've yet to meet
|
|
a single person with their head screwed on straight.
|
|
This sure ain't the midwest ...
|
|
|
|
The rain, the dirty acidic rain bleeds out of my hair and into my eyes.
|
|
My eyes burn, and I like it. It makes me realize that everything in this city
|
|
is contaminated: the air, the street, the buildings, and the people. If I stay
|
|
here, I know that soon I will be contaminated as well.
|
|
I jog across the street dodging traffic, oblivious to the puddles of
|
|
filthy water, trying to hail a cab. Something is choking me. It's my tie.
|
|
I throw it off, and into a pile of trash. A cab soon stops for the rich-
|
|
looking lawyer from the midwest.
|
|
"Hey, mister, where to?"
|
|
"First, 501 Hemlock Street, I'll only take a minute, than the airport."
|
|
"O.K., mac."
|
|
The cab is warm and dry. It's like a sanctuary, keeping the filthy and
|
|
decrepit city away from me.
|
|
"What'cha doin', goin' away on business?"
|
|
"No, I'm going back home, to Kansas."
|
|
"Oh yeah, my cousin ..."
|
|
The cabbie is talking, but I don't hear a thing that he's saying.
|
|
I'm thinking about home and how nice it's going to be to move back into my
|
|
parent's house and be taken care of. I do miss mommie so very much.
|
|
I hope that my room is still the same, waiting for me ...
|
|
|
|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|
|
Information Communication Supply 4/19/95 Vol.2: Issue 5-2
|
|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|
|
|
|
Pebble
|
|
|
|
Round,
|
|
smooth,
|
|
tiny.
|
|
Staring at me
|
|
blankly.
|
|
Beady eyes
|
|
worn
|
|
by the soles
|
|
of the shoes
|
|
that walk upon them.
|
|
|
|
When I feel important
|
|
I gaze down
|
|
at my feet
|
|
and realize
|
|
that the pebbles
|
|
I stand on
|
|
are holding me up.
|
|
|
|
- David Trosty, 1995.
|
|
|
|
<+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+>
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cleansing the Channels: Censorship in Cyberspace
|
|
|
|
By Steven Peterson
|
|
|
|
With the advent of every new communications medium, a culture must
|
|
resolve a familiar set of problems related to the flow of information in
|
|
the "agora," or public marketplace: Who will enforce community standards for
|
|
content? How will we hold individuals accountable for their statements and
|
|
claims? How do we balance the right to free expression with the right to
|
|
universal access?
|
|
|
|
In the case of the Internet, a worldwide medium of computer-mediated
|
|
communication (or CMC), many people in our culture have expressed concern
|
|
about the growing amount of socially unacceptable material available in
|
|
the electronic agora of cyberspace: televised reports of children down-
|
|
loading sexually explicit, fraudulent, and harmful data (such as detailed
|
|
plans for the home-manufacture of bombs) has prompted parents, police, and
|
|
other guardians of taste, morality, and public safety to begin an attempt
|
|
to impose various control mechanisms on this new medium of communication.
|
|
|
|
The problem of enforcing community standards for content, or "data
|
|
control" in this case, invariably arises when people who relate to themselves,
|
|
Aothers, or the world inauthentically employ any device or mechanism for public
|
|
expression. In the world of CMC, technology creates a "virtual stage" where
|
|
users can take advantage of the medium in order to assume created personas;
|
|
in many cases, the sexually explicit, fraudulent, and/or harmful data posted on
|
|
the Internet is generated by individuals who are engaged in extended fantasies
|
|
or systematic delusions from which they imaginatively express perverse, or
|
|
inauthentic relationships between: the libido and the conscious self, the
|
|
self and other users, and between the self and the world in the case of List-
|
|
Servs, bulletin board systems (BBSs), and discussion groups.
|
|
|
|
The problem, "harmful" or obscene data, affects people in our society
|
|
by threatening the viability of this new medium in terms of universal access--
|
|
the educative potential of free, instant access to information will be lost to
|
|
our children if we cannot allow them to "surf the Net" out of moral concern.
|
|
Unlike television, radio, and other print mediums there is presently little,
|
|
if any, government control over the content of data flowing in "packets" across
|
|
the network: reactionary opinions on the subject feature plans to impose fines
|
|
and penalties for posting "obscene, lewd, or indecent" messages and graphic
|
|
files on the 'Net; meanwhile, libertarian groups are staunchly opposing all
|
|
plans to restrict or censor the vast domain of the Internet.
|
|
|
|
The fact that every individual user has the "means of production" on
|
|
his or her desktop introduces a different aspect to the age-old debate over
|
|
control of a public communications medium: any attempt to centrally control
|
|
content would require monitoring over 20 million users (or "producers") on
|
|
a daily basis--in essence, the technology has outstripped our capacity to
|
|
enforce any "standards" using conventional, existing mechanisms. Adding to
|
|
the confusion is the nebulous nature of cyberspace; there are no real spatial
|
|
or temporal boundaries as we know them in this international conduit for data
|
|
exchange. Given the potential for free, rapid exchange between *all* users
|
|
(no matter their geographical position), the chance of arriving at any
|
|
specific, shared "global community standard" is remote; and even if it were
|
|
possible, there is no real way to enforce any set of standards or practices
|
|
across the actual boundaries of self-governing nations.
|
|
|
|
Despite these difficulties, groups of individuals in America are
|
|
instigating efforts to impose various mechanisms of control. Specifically,
|
|
Senator Exon (D-Neb) and Senator Gorton (R-Wash.) recently introduced a
|
|
bill known as the "Communications Decency Act of 1995"; if passed into law,
|
|
this act would require the federal government to monitor Email, BBSs, and
|
|
all other forms of digital data sent via modem over PC networks for "obscene,
|
|
lewd, etc., comments and proposals." Individual users who are caught sending
|
|
or posting "obscene" material by the government would be fined (up to $100,000)
|
|
and/or sentenced to serve up to two years in jail.
|
|
|
|
In fact, the large companies which run large BBSs (e.g. CompuServe and
|
|
Prodigy) have already lobbied to have themselves exempted from prosecution
|
|
under the Act; therefore, the bill will be aimed exclusively at the individual
|
|
user, and the U.S. taxpayer will foot the bill for the small army of censors
|
|
required to monitor the overwhelming flood of data exchanged on a daily
|
|
basis via computer networks.
|
|
|
|
This Act, which is pending approval by the U.S. Senate, would offer
|
|
the advantage of placing some form of control over content, effectively
|
|
"sanitizing" the 'Net and theoretically making cyberspace safe for our
|
|
children's tender minds. This Act, if passed into law, would also present
|
|
serious disadvantages: it would abrogate our Constitutional rights to free
|
|
speech, and seriously compromise our alleged freedom from unreasonable
|
|
search and seizure-that is, if it could even be enforced given the scale
|
|
of the Internet (the latest estimates posit 30 million+ users worldwide).
|
|
|
|
The congressional effort to resolve this problem has resulted in
|
|
various groups committed to free-expression offering alternative perspectives
|
|
and what are perhaps more realistic approaches to solving the problem of
|
|
"obscene" data. Groups such as the "Voter's Telecommunication Watch" and
|
|
the "Electronic Frontier Foundation" have posted the full text of the Act,
|
|
along with analyses and response from "experts" in the CMC community in
|
|
order to facilitate an informed debate on the issue.
|
|
|
|
Generally speaking, these libertarian groups are more interested in
|
|
revealing the complex nature of the problem than in offering a substitute
|
|
plan for surveillance and enforcement. Most of them point out that the only
|
|
real control parents can have over what material is available to their child-
|
|
ren is that which they impose on their own; ultimately, this Act faces the
|
|
same fate of all efforts to legislate morality--it is doomed to fail.
|
|
|
|
The libertarian position on this problem essentially advocates no
|
|
action on the part of our government to forestall the descent of the medium
|
|
to the lowest common denominator of human behavior and experience. To its
|
|
advantage, this plan of non-action would preserve our Constitutional rights
|
|
and would foster the rapid growth of the medium (using the unassailable logic
|
|
that any attempt to monitor the systems would result in a toxic amount of
|
|
entropy entering the processes of CMC--the 'Net would seize as government
|
|
officials attempt to monitor millions of data-packets). To its disadvantage,
|
|
the libertarian plan would leave what is arguably the largest medium for
|
|
communication ever known to man wide open to the depredations of the perverse
|
|
and inauthentic among us. The clear, clean access to information offered by
|
|
the medium that these organizations prize and are attempting to protect could
|
|
well be threatened by an unending stream of psycho-social and sexual effluvium
|
|
which could easily clog the channels opened by CMC--in which case, the
|
|
libertarian objections to censorship could backfire.
|
|
|
|
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview a local BBS system
|
|
operator, Clayton Dukes, who has found a different solution to the problem
|
|
of access while maintaining an "Adult BBS" in Florida: he required all users
|
|
to enter the information on their Driver's license, which he would check
|
|
against DMV records before he would allow anyone access to his board.
|
|
Although the plan was hardly foolproof, Dukes found it a viable method for
|
|
allaying the fears of his local community (his plan may have also kept him
|
|
from being prosecuted under city and county statutes). Dukes' plan offers
|
|
the advantage of lifting any restrictions on content at the expense of
|
|
universal access--in the case of a small BBS, the cost is acceptable.
|
|
The primary disadvantages of his plan are that it places too much
|
|
responsibility on the system operator (who must bear the burden of checking
|
|
everybody's info without the benefit of actually seeing the photo or the
|
|
person), and ultimately, it can be compromised by any kid with a computer,
|
|
time on his hands, and access to his father's wallet.
|
|
|
|
Personally, I can't support the congressional plan--it tries to use
|
|
obsolete methods to impose a non-rational amount of control over self-
|
|
expression on a scale never before attempted. Imagine the cost of our FCC,
|
|
which monitors radio and television broad-casting, if it were suddenly held
|
|
responsible for policing ten or fifteen million new "stations" and you begin
|
|
to grasp the enormity of the situation, and the potential cost to taxpayers
|
|
for what would most likely be a task worthy of Sisyphus. On the other hand,
|
|
some measures need to be taken to insure the relative clarity and consistency
|
|
of information on a given site--a policy of non-action may prove equally
|
|
destructive to the medium.
|
|
|
|
Obviously, there is no simple, pat solution to the dilemma, so
|
|
I won't venture one; however, I do have a tentative suggestion: invoke the
|
|
weight of peer-pressure to require some form of public-key encryption for
|
|
all "adult" sites on the 'Net (i.e. use PGP, a widely available freeware
|
|
program, to scramble images and files on BBSs--a variation on Dukes'
|
|
technique which would provide a partial solution).
|
|
|
|
This idea would serve to limit the total amount of objectionable material
|
|
freely available without infringing too heavily of freedom of expression or
|
|
requiring the government to invest time and money attempting the impossible.
|
|
|
|
The ideal solution, however, may be in every household: parents can
|
|
easily control access to the net by password-protecting their machines and
|
|
monitoring their children's activities to the extent which is necessary. All
|
|
modern PCs can easily be configured to require passwords for any operation,
|
|
or you can simply "lock out" the modem software (see your manual or just ask
|
|
your local computer "guru" how-to)--it's free, and better yet, it places the
|
|
issue where it belongs: in the home.
|
|
|
|
In my humble way, I will become engaged in the solutions I've described.
|
|
At an individual level, I often serve as "guru" for friends and acquaintances;
|
|
therefore, I can teach people how to regain control of their computers from
|
|
precocious children. At a cultural level, I intend to offer this essay to
|
|
members of Congress, the White House, and the general public via email in
|
|
hopes that it will encourage further dialogue and thought on this important
|
|
issue.
|
|
|
|
Our new "agora" is at stake ... and I, for one, am *not* willing to
|
|
cede control of it to half-baked zealots OR degenerate sleaze-mongers.
|
|
|
|
Together, we can arrive at a solution, and together we must, or we
|
|
face losing control of the technology and finding ourselves in its service,
|
|
rabidly reading each other's email in the Ministry of Truth and reporting to
|
|
Big Brother.
|
|
|
|
(c) Copyright 1995 by Steven Peterson
|
|
--------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
For Additional Reading:
|
|
|
|
* gopher panix.com 70 --cd Voter's Telecom/Exon
|
|
|
|
* ftp ftp.eff.org --cd eff/Legislation: many files, variously listed
|
|
under h.r.1004, s.b.314 and s.b.652.
|
|
|
|
--cd pub/CuD: Computer Underground Digest (7.13)
|
|
|
|
* Congressional Weekly --most recent issues. Note: the "Comm. Decency Act"
|
|
was recently subsumed under Senate Bill 652; see Commerce Committee.
|
|
|
|
* PC, Wired, MacWorld, Internet World, Reason, and other mainstream
|
|
magazines: see Feb - current 1995 issues for commentary and industrial,
|
|
legal and "expert" perspectives.
|
|
|
|
[-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flam, Baby, Flam
|
|
|
|
Hey now brother do you know what I mean,
|
|
I tell you flam, baby, flam is on the scene.
|
|
|
|
Can you hear it now, cutting through the night?
|
|
That flam-bam-baby beat is out of sight.
|
|
|
|
Flam comes from the city where jazz was born,
|
|
and blows through the country, a flam-bam ke-zam storm.
|
|
|
|
Hey bop, don't stop the be-bop-- yeah!
|
|
Can you feel it, it's in you, let me show you where.
|
|
|
|
Hap-dat, cool cat, that's it baby-- right there.
|
|
|
|
--David Trosty, 1995.
|
|
|
|
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
|
|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|
|
|
|
ACCESS->>> DELETE FORM1040 *.*;*.*
|
|
|
|
By Steven Peterson
|
|
|
|
Special Treasury Agent Tom Rider glanced back at his partner in
|
|
the dim dormitory hallway, braced himself, and gave the metal door a heavy,
|
|
awkward kick ...
|
|
"FREEZE!" he bellowed, rushing in through the doorway.
|
|
Rider and Agent Crenshaw, his partner, leveled their drawn weapons
|
|
at two half-dressed college students sitting on their beds, stunned expressions
|
|
on their faces. Rider glanced around and noted the contents of the room: dirty
|
|
laundry piled in the corners, posters of Michael Jordan on the walls, mountain
|
|
bikes tucked away behind the bathroom door, empty beer bottles strewn to one
|
|
side of the crowded room, and a prize stack of old pizza boxes on the desk--
|
|
no machines, no disks, no manuals--something felt wrong ...
|
|
"Got him, Crenshaw?" Rider asked as he reached for his 'cuffs and
|
|
cautiously moved toward the youth sitting near the window.
|
|
"Yeah ... I got him."
|
|
"Relax, boys, and this can go easy."
|
|
The stunned boys offered no resistance as Rider and Crenshaw hand-
|
|
cuffed them, then sat them down on one of the beds.
|
|
Rider pulled out his ID, flashed it, and put it away.
|
|
"My name is Special Agent Rider, my partner here is Crenshaw--we're
|
|
with the Treasury Department ... now, which one of you is Brian Fuchs?"
|
|
"That would be me, sir," an unsteady response from the larger of the
|
|
two boys. A subtle note of fearsweat began to pierce the dormroom funk.
|
|
"Tell me, Brian, when was the last time you logged on to your account
|
|
on the school computer?" Rider leaned in toward the boy, pressing whatever
|
|
advantage he could gain from intimidation.
|
|
"Uh, I tried to figure out my email a couple weeks ago, if that's
|
|
what you mean."
|
|
Crenshaw snorted in response, turning around and looking out the
|
|
window; Rider looked down and continued his interrogation.
|
|
"What do you use to write your papers, Brian?"
|
|
"A Macintosh--they're easier."
|
|
"Have you ever taken a computer class?" The edge had left his voice.
|
|
"Uh, no."
|
|
To the other boy, "how about you?"
|
|
"You kiddin' ... I'm a Rec major, I ask *him* for help. Why?"
|
|
Rider ignored his question and shifted his gaze.
|
|
"Brian, have you ever heard of `NiteHack' or `TRSNET'?"
|
|
"Uh, no."
|
|
"Wait here for a minute, boys, we'll be right back."
|
|
Rider and Crenshaw ducked back out to the hallway, leaving the door
|
|
partially open. "Christ," Crenshaw began, "NiteHack's been kiting access--
|
|
neither one of them kids knows enough to log-goddam-out, let alone crack a
|
|
digital switch or write code. This is a waste of time; he could be anywhere.
|
|
Let's go find that lab assistant."
|
|
|
|
* * *
|
|
|
|
They only knew him by his handle, "NiteHack". A lone crackpot, a
|
|
brilliant crackpot--somehow, he had managed to reprogram the switches outside
|
|
of Ogden to route all data-traffic over TRSNET through his own switchboard.
|
|
Once he had the passwords, he launched his little sub-routine. Before anyone
|
|
had even suspected anything was wrong, NiteHack had encrypted terabytes of
|
|
"secure data" and had left the Internal Revenue Service scrambling to explain
|
|
how all their files, and millions of other financial files around the world,
|
|
had been turned to electronic gibberish.
|
|
Mechanically, it shouldn't have been possible; it was the human factor.
|
|
Sloppy housekeeping, slips of paper with the crucial data floating around:
|
|
it was bound to happen. When the Service launched the "Electronic Return
|
|
Verification" datasearches, people began to resent it. The new search-
|
|
engines crawl through billions of files accessible over TRSNET, returning
|
|
with a composite portrait all neatly laid out in legally admissible form:
|
|
loopholes and trapdoors through the revised codes were rendered non-existent.
|
|
Or irrelevant, unless you wanted to play with the piranha on the black market.
|
|
Rider had been assigned to the case a little late in the game; the
|
|
whiz kids in Utah thought they could crack the code, or at least perform
|
|
enough backup to restore functions before incoming files would be threatened.
|
|
Sure, the system *could* be backed up from scratch, and Rider's search wouldn't
|
|
matter, if the Service had the luxury of calling "time-out" for about, say,
|
|
five years (according to the whizkids, anyway). After tracking Nitehack's
|
|
brief "ransom note" down a merry trail of anonymous remailers, Rider and
|
|
Crenshaw find themselves in a grungy college computer lab, questioning the
|
|
work-study student who serves as monitor ...
|
|
"Have you noticed anyone unusual hanging around the lab?"
|
|
"Well, sir, I try not to look too closely--people are pretty self-
|
|
conscious in here as it is, tryin' to write their papers and all."
|
|
"How about somebody switching terminals, you know, bouncing around?"
|
|
"Well, once an hour I do a head count ... but unless somebody comes
|
|
up and asks me for help, I don't really notice. Hmm, there's a lot of modem
|
|
traffic lately, have you checked into that?"
|
|
"Yes," Rider replied, "but we're looking for someone who most likely
|
|
shoulder-surfed some passwords; or, he might have kited accounts that weren't
|
|
logged out. Think, now ... anybody?"
|
|
"Sorry, sir ... but I'll keep my eyes open."
|
|
"Yeah, thanks, just tell your boss, he has our number."
|
|
Crenshaw emerged from the storage closet and joined Rider on his way
|
|
out of the lab; the indifferent students returned to their typing, and the lab
|
|
monitor went back to her pointing and clicking.
|
|
Numbers numbers numbers. NiteHack was using them; and in his ransom
|
|
note, he seemed to have one in mind: $184,642. It was his bounty, his price
|
|
for the encryption key. The figure was absurd--it had to be the sum total of
|
|
a lifetime's taxes. But who's, that was the question. Ironically, the only
|
|
way to get a match on the dollar figure required the use of the very files
|
|
Nitehack had hashed; he had them where he wanted them, and it was a miracle
|
|
that the media hadn't caught wind. Rider's cell-phone rang as he climbed
|
|
in his car...
|
|
"Rider."
|
|
"Agent Rider, progress report."
|
|
"Yessir. We're pretty sure the perp is not a student--the labs
|
|
here are wide open; he must be using stolen accounts, fake IDs on the BBSs,
|
|
mirrors, anonymous remailers, you name it--it's a mess. We've questioned the
|
|
lab monitors and sys_ops: nothing."
|
|
"We figured on that. Keep searching ... we're pretty sure he's in
|
|
the area. The shrinks say he's probably 28-56, works a day job, a loner--
|
|
the usual complement of anti-social tendencies."
|
|
"Gee, thanks, boss. Anything else?"
|
|
"Get him, Rider ... even if we pay him off, there's no guarantee
|
|
that he'll cough up that key."
|
|
Rider folded up his phone and looked at Crenshaw:
|
|
"Well, they've ruled out left-handed nuns with astigmatism down at the
|
|
home office--otherwise, we're right back where we started from."
|
|
Rider's phone beeped again; he pulled it out and listened:
|
|
"Incoming data transfer, prepare for download," the message repeated
|
|
itself waiting for the return signal. Rider gave Crenshaw a nod toward the
|
|
laptop on the seat and booted it up; Crenshaw pulled out an adaptor from the
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glove compartment and connected it. After a moment, they both craned to read
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the message on the small, greenish screen:
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Tune In Next Time (ICS 2-6) For The Thrilling Conclusion ....
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
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+-----------+
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| Last Word \
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+---------------+
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500,000 sheets of paper, 1.5 million lines of code, and one lone,
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daring reader in Egypt. I plan to use all the three figures next Saturday
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|
when the staff of ICS mans a table at the local Earth Day celebration.
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Our theme (or excuse for shameless self-promotion) will focus on
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|
"Paperless Publication and the Future of our Forests"; hence the figures.
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|
Over the course of the last two years, we estimate that it would have
|
|
required at least a half-million sheets of paper to send all of our
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|
subscribers actual hard-copies of our 'Zine. Wow. That's a lotta trees.
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|
The 1.5 million lines of code refers to the latest version of Word-
|
|
Perfect for Windows--that's three times what is required to run the
|
|
Space Shuttle while it's in flight. Wow. That's a lotta machine Power.
|
|
Our lone, daring subscriber in Egypt (not a place well known for
|
|
its intellectual freedom of late) has become almost larger than life
|
|
in my mind since I received the terse subscription request a few months
|
|
ago. I don't know his or her name, or anything about this reader; yet ...
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|
the medium, the means, and the motion of electrons across cyberspace
|
|
has forged this loose (but conscious) tie between me and my unknown brother
|
|
or sister. Beyond all differences of faith, philosophy, and "life-styles"
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|
we are inevitably here, *on this planet*, and (alone but) together, we just
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|
may find a way to live with the Earth, instead of just living on it.
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|
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|
Live Well.
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-Ed.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ICS would like to hear from you. We accept flames, comments,
|
|
submissions, editorials, corrections, and just about anything else
|
|
you wish to send us. We will use things sent to us when we think
|
|
they would be appropriate for the issue coming out. So, if you send
|
|
us something that you DO NOT want us to use in the electrozine,
|
|
please put the words NOT FOR PUBLICATION in the subject-line of the
|
|
mail you send. You can protect your material by sending a copy to
|
|
yourself through the snail-mail and leaving the envelope unopened.
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|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
BACK ISSUES: Back Issues of ICS can be FTPed from ETEXT.ARCHIVE.UMICH.EDU
|
|
They are in the directory /pub/Zines/ICS.
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|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ICSICSICSICSICSIC/ I C S \ICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSIC
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ICSICSICSICSICS/ ElectroZine \ICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICS
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\ / An Electronic Magazine from
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|
\ / Western State College
|
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\ / Gunnison, Colorado.
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\ / ORG_ZINE@WSC.COLORADO.EDU
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\/ '*'
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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