260 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
260 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 93 16:35:02 PST
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Reply-To: <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>
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Return-Path: <cocot@osc.versant.com>
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Message-ID: <surfpunk-0073@SURFPUNK.Technical.Journal>
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Content-Type: text/plain
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From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (ohel nyy zl qernzf va gur pbyq-pbyq tebhaq)
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To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
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Subject: [surfpunk-0073] REVIEW: _Black Ice_
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# Please subscribe me to your newsletter. My 8 year
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# old daughter likes to show it to her classmates.
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# Phil <neal@stat.washington.edu>
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Here's a SURFPUNK submission on _Black Ice_ and an excerpt from the WELL
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that its author mailed around. strick
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________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
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Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 17:49:02 CST
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From: matthew john baggott <bagg@midway.uchicago.edu>
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To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com
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Subject: _Blackice_ magazine
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I recently ran across the first issue of a new cyber-zine called
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_Black Ice_. I thought I'd pass my impressions on to the surfpunks.
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Since I usually adopt a stodgy-old-hacker persona, I tend to react badly to
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hacker/cyber media. They always disappoint me with their concern for fashion
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rather than technical (empowering) how-to information and perpectives on the
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larger "important" issues. Yup, I'm a dyed-in-wool _mondo 2000_ hater.
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Given half the chance, I'll rant at length about how "out of it" and
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disappointing _mondo_ is. I was able to stomache them back when they were
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_High Frontiers_, a psychedelic _emigre_-wannabe, but I've found them less
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and less palatable as they've glossed up.
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And if I might allow myself another short digression: I noticed an article on
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dumpster diving in a major SF newspaper some weeks ago. It was in the
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style/fashion section and focused on people who get perfectly usable goods
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by looking through the dumpters of malls. I didn't know whether to
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laugh or cry about this article. Members of the computer/telecommunications
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underground (as well as detectives and law-enforcement types) have long used
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dumpster diving as a technique for getting information. Given my background,
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I saw two elements at play in this article: (1) transformation of
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hacker techniques into part of the consumerist 'spectacle' (no longer
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does one 'go trashing' for information, now it is an alternative method
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of consumerism); and (2) trashing as the logical outcome of the Reagan/Bush
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upward distribution of wealth. In a way, those are sad things, but on the
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other hand, seeing dumpster diving represented as the latest hip thing is also
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incredibly funny.
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This sort of tragicomic expansion of a once anarchic subculture was in
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the back of my mind when I looked at _Black Ice_ (how's that for a
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seque?). However, I was happily surprised to see Black Ice's
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introductory editorial say "Spurred on by sheer boredom with what's available
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on the high street newsstands, overdosing on media incest and rampant egos in
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the industry -- a band of writers, graphic designers and photographers have
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conspired to make something we really want to read and enjoy and I hope you
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do to (sic)." They continued: "We've been working on it as a concept for
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over a year, motivated in part by Mondo 2000s (sic) decline in editorial
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content." Bingo! I had obviously stumbled upon kindred spirits. I bought
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the zine and went home to read it.
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It had two pages of ads (out of 67, not counting the front cover). Not as
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good as no ads, but not offensive. The rest of the zine was broken down
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like this:
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p 2-4 'ACCESS: News and Products.' Decent short blurbs about upcoming and
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new things. Minimum of hype. Comparable to what one might find in a
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computer magazine, but with coverage including communications technologies,
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robotics, etc.
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p 6-11 'HIGH RESOLUTION MEDIA: The Kids Gloves Come Off for a Look at
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International Media, Film and Television in News and Reviews.' Included
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an article on Godzilla with contact info for the Church of Godzilla
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and a filmography; an favorable review of Blue Man Group's performance art/
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theatre piece 'Tubes;' a nice essay on why _The Lawnmower Man_ was so
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terrible and the nature of modern cinema; a short description of _Ren &
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Stimpy_ (which Europeans have apparently not yet seen); an interactive
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European television series called _Piazza Virtuale_ in which users were
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invited to participate using picturephones, faxes, computers, etc; a
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short review of Shinya Tsukamoto's _Tetsuo_; a pan of DC comics' _Hacker
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Files_; and a short, unfavorable review of the Beyond Cyberpunk hyperstack.
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p 12-19, 54-57 'W INDUSTRIES: Interview with Jon Waldern the Man Behind the
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World's First VR Arcade Games.' An ok interview, much of it concerning
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JW's career as a VR engineer. Since I'm not a VR fetishist, I wasn't
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too interested.
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p 20-25 'ARTIFICIAL WORLDS: Home Based VR Systems on the Horizon? Virtual
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Reality News and a Review of New Yorks first VR Exhibition.' Mostly short
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blurbs. Shrug.
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p 26-31 'GENERATION X: Feeling out of Place? Sick of the Sixties? The Lost
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Urban Tribe Behind the 'Grunge' Movement And How They Might Change The
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World.' Based on something which appeared in _i-D_ magazine, mostly
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about Douglas Copeland (author of the book _Gen X_) and his perspective.
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It's a relatively thoughtful piece which gains points for quoting Hakim Bey,
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but who really cares about people watching and what they're calling us?
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A waste of space, IMHO.
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p. 32-33 'JAPANESE JUNK FOOD: Cute, Weird and Sometimes Inedible -- Black Ice
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Takes a Trip to the Local sweet Shop.' I liked this article, although you
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wouldn't want this type of thing to dominate an ostensibly cutting edge
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zine. But if you're going to have cultural reporting, why not focus on
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the things the people never notice or talk about?
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p. 35-39 'STELARC: Interview with the Man who Gets Intimate with Technology
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and Does It In Public.' One of my friends had this guy as an art teacher in
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grade school in Japan. That amuses me to no end. I think that Fakir
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Musefar's take on Stelarc (that Stelarc doesn't/didn't do his suspensions
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long enough to experience ASCs and that this is too bad) has some validity.
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Nonetheless, Stelarc does have some interesting things to say.
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p. 40-45 'BUSTING THE SIMULACRUM: MOVIES AND DRUGS: Opiates for the Masses
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or Harmless Escapism?" An interesting essay which asks whether movie
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going represents the first mass experimentation with mind altering drugs.
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IMHO that is a fairly stupid question, since by the article's standards earlier
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theater should also be included. However, the essay goes on to raise some
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interesting points about how cinema portrays drugs and the relationship
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between cinema and war. I felt this article ended too quickly.
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p. 46-57 'BUZZ INTERVIEW: with the Duo who Created One of Television's
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Most Avant Garde Magazine Styled News Programs." Yawn. Too many pages.
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p. 58-60 'SYSTEMCRASH: Is Barry Manalow In Your Computer? News and Reviews
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about Computers Going Wrong." Nice short newsblurbs about hackers,
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big brother, and telecom. Some of this is from _2600_ magazine. I consider
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this sort of coverage to be a good sign since it shows where the editors'
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heads are.
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p. 61 'SPACE THE FINAL RIP-OFF: Sampled TV Comic Strip.' Not particularly
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interesting ST:TNG-derived comic strip.
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p. 62-63 'ARCHIVE: New and Old Books, Videos worth Chasing down.'
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Capsule reviews of products function to say 'this is neat, check it
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out.' Therefore, they're only useful if they have things of which you've
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never heard. This particular feature scored 1 'I should get that' out
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of 16 products for me, but then again they are in England, so they
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may be slower in getting books like _Technoculture_. One gripe I have
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with this section is that all the products but one (Chick comics) seemed
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like slick, professional jobs. Europe must have its share of wonderful
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fringe-culture zines and products. Why not mention some?
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p. 64 'HOW TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB: Home DIY Project.' Intended to be a
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joke. Another waste of space. Either give a serious description of the
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project or put something useful here. There are so many great projects
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that they could tell us about (like 'how to build a pirate radio
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transmitter') that it really annoys me to see them waste space with a
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stupid reprint.
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And that's the first issue. _BI_ can be contacted at PO Box 1069,
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Brighton BN2 4YT UK. They don't give an e-mail address.
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--Matt, bagg@midway.uchicago.edu
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________________________________________________________________________
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From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
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Subject: From the WELL
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To: eniac
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Date: Fri, 26 Feb 93 15:07:06 EST
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Topic 409: Cyberpunk on the cover of TIME Magazine
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#381: Mike Godwin (mnemonic) Fri, Feb 26, '93 (08:52) 46 lines
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I was just talking about the differences between traditional print
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media and computer communications last night at a meeting of the
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Northern New England Unix Users Group. I wasn't talking about
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market share or audience size so much as about the difference in the
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dynamic. Here's a relevant excerpt from my recent article in INDEX ON
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CENSORSHIP:
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---
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This reliance on the printed word is, of course, something that the
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computer-based services share with traditional print media. But they
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differ from print media--and from broadcast media--in two very important
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ways. First, the means of communication are cheap enough for almost
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everyone to gain access: a desktop computer and a modem can be purchased
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now for a few hundred dollars (still another way in which the new medium
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is far more democratic than its predecessors).
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The second difference follows from the first: while traditional print
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and broadcast media rely on a "one-to-many" model, computer-based
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communications of the new sort are "many-to-many." A newspaper is a
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typical "one-to-many" system: information gathering and reporting is
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supervised by hierarchy of editors and other management personnel who
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control the flow of copy and make numerous editorial judgments about what
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information to include or discard. Information tends to go in one
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direction only: from the editors to the readers.
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Computer information services, in contrast, are "many-to-many"
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systems--in general, they rely on little or no hierarchical editing
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function. Instead, these services are a colloquy of different voices with
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different styles, with information flowing in multiple directions at once.
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The "filtering" function performed by newspaper editors is left to the
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readers, who are also contributors. The very distinction between "reader"
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and "reporter" is blurred.
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This may sound like anarchy, but in practice it's more like a town-hall
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meeting, albeit one in which everyone has a chance to speak, no one is
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shouted down, and everyone has time to develop and explain her ideas. Some
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systems, like Compuserve, rely on moderators to keep conferences on track,
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but their role is less that of the editor, who may make line-by-line
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changes of a writer's copy, than that of a discussion leader. At their
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best, these online conferences manifest a give-and-take that surpasses
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even that of face-to-face discussions. When we're face-to-face, the
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intimacy of physical proximity tends to be offset by inevitable starts,
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stops, and hesitations of oral conversation, and by the distractions of
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physical presence. Online, we each have the chance to write paragraphs
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rather than sentences--to develop arguments rather than interject
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comments.
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________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
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The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
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originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
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California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states,
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spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither.
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________________________________________________________________________
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Send postings to <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>, subscription requests
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to <surfpunk-request@osc.versant.com>. MIME encouraged.
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Xanalogical archive access soon. SURFPUNK, the final ripoff.
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________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
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From: eugene@jimmy.public.su (Eugene SKEPNER)
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Newsgroups: alt.emusic,alt.rock-n-roll,rec.music.country.western,
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rec.music.misc,rec.music.gaffa,rec.music.bluenote
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Subject: TWaits ( TWaites ? )
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Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 15:27:50 +0200
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Distribution: world
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Message-ID: <ABM7ZXhaJH@jimmy.public.su>
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Hi friends,
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we here in Russia not only know where is screen and where is keyboard, but
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listening Tom Waits also. But catching not all the words. As well as some
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Americans we've found here, according to our tests. I'm interested in two
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texts especially - "In The Morning I'll Be Gone" & "Cold, Cold Ground".
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Does anybody have a copy? - I'll be grateful. Please, PLEASE don't send me
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a full songbook - I'm scored both for outgoing and incoming traffic (so
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don't score me for my language at least), though I'll appreciate someone
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indicating me where on the net can I find it. Sorry if I've knocked a
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wrong door/newsgroup - would you please lead me to appropriate one? - and
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don't bury all my dreams in the cold-cold ground.
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Mike.
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