"I took a course in speed reading and was able to read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It's about Russia." - Woody Allen ====================================================================== BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS ONLINE EDITION: B B I T S B B Y Y T E S =THE ELECTRONIC BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS =NEWSLETTER FOR B B I T S B B Y T E S =HIGH-TECH BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS =DUMPSTER DIVERS ====================================================================== Volume 1, Number 12 (October 10, 1993) ====================================================================== CONTENTS: = The World at Your Fingertips -|- Microchip Wars = Free Faxing Service -|- Virtual Nations = Don't Believe the Hype: -|- Software for Good Health = Two Oversold Technologies -|- The Virtual Community = Telecommuting Benefits Business -|- Internet 101 = AND MORE..... = ====================================================================== The World at Your Fingertips Gross and/or rapid changes in quantity can make for equally discontinuous changes in the quality of a phenomenon, when "emergent behaviors" kick in. When you can transfer the Library of Congress from one place to another in under a minute, the very notion of what it means to have a place called the Library of Congress changes. As it goes digital, that place in Washington, D.C., is virtualizing. I can already get the Library of Congress catalog from my desktop. When I can download the source text itself to my desktop, my sense of where that information resides changes. It's at the other end of my modem line, along with the rest of the Net, which means it is more or less on my desktop. (Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community, p. 79. See B&B Bookshelf for more information) ====================================================================== That's a Nice Macro You Wrote. Too Bad Lotus Now Owns It. "What set me off is the recent ruling in the Lotus-Borland lawsuit that found Quattro Pro's macro key reader a violation of Lotus' intellectual property rights because it allows Quattro Pro to execute 1-2-3 macros. That ruling finally brought home to me the underlying nature of these lawsuits. The party whose intellectual property rights are being violated here is not a software vendor at all, but the user -- you and me." "Think about it. You, as a user of 1-2-3, may have developed a number of macros over the years for your organization that are part of the way you do business. They're your macros, your intellectual property, not Lotus'. The Lotus position (if you'll pardon the expression) is that if you decide another spreadsheet program offers you something that 1-2-3 doesn't, you shouldn't be able to run those macros on it. You must rewrite them to run on the new program." . . . "Yet a user's ability to work more quickly with the familiar slash commands is due again to your efforts, not Lotus'. Nothing was terribly innovative about the slash command interface over many other programs that existed when 1-2-3's was introduced; WordStar had already proven the basic concept. What made 1-2-3's command interface worth cloning was the skill 1-2-3 users had developed with it over the years. Shouldn't that be considered the user's intellectual property, too?" . . . "So what do we do about it? It's clear that the patent and copyright laws are a complete anachronism for this industry. Waiting for inspired legislation to clear up the mess is a pipe dream. And, judging by this latest ruling, hoping for precedent-setting wisdom in the interpretation of the laws is probably just as futile." "The only time you get to be judge and jury of these vendors is when you buy products, so it might be wise to take a company's track record on these issues into account at that time. It's probably not relevant now to worry about Lotus' behavior when buying your next spreadsheet, as they've already lost a lot of their leadership position there. But what about Notes? How much of your company's energies should be put into a development environment whose publisher, on precedent at least, will try to keep it closed? It would be an interesting question to put to your Lotus sales representative." (Excerpts from an editorial in Infoworld by Ed Foster (8/23/93, p.45) ====================================================================== Chip Wars What we now call platforms won't matter much in the future. When PC horsepower becomes virtually unlimited, specific operating environments won't matter; all that power will allow us to emulate any operating system and still get speedy results. We will, at long last, focus on the applications and tools that can help us do our jobs. We won't have to settle for a computing environment that offers the best compromise. You've probably seen the Power PC ads. The focus has been on the relatively low cost of the new MPC601 processor, the first product of the IBM-Apple-Motorola alliance. The price is impressive: roughly half the cost of Intel's Pentium chip with better overall performance, according to benchmarks I've seen. So you get the muscle of a Pentium at the price of a 486DX. And this is the least powerful of the Power PC family. ... But this is just the beginning. Companies such as Insignia Solutions will provide Windows emulation on the Power PC, and IBM is said to be working on an 80X86 emulator as well. Apple, as part of the Power PC consortium, will offer Macintosh emulation. In fact systems based on the Power PC will give users the choice of character-based Unix, OSF Motif, Windows 3.1, and the Macintosh Finder as interface choices, with the ability to switch from one to the other and to exchange data among these environments. ... Still, we started with the notion that there was a business advantage to desktop system environment transparency, not just the option to play Stupid Computer Tricks. That advantage will come with the ability to select the best tools for the job, regardless of underlying operating systems. That will mean additional user training and technical support-but it's beginning to look like it will be worth the effort. (Excerpted from "Fast Chips: The Great Equalizers" by Richard Dalton. Information Week, 8/2/93, p. 51) ====================================================================== Don't Believe the Hype I: Whither Wireless Computing? Cutting all these cords and cables is exciting, but it isn't inevitable. The truth about wireless computing is that it isn't going to pan out. Simply put, there aren't enough megahertz to go around out there in our increasingly polluted electromagnetic ether. It is an ecologically unsound waste of energy to broadcast bits in all directions when they need to be received in only one. The ether is too scarce to be wasted on nonbroadcast communications, and it won't be. . . . Need more reasons why wireless won't become widespread? There are the privacy challenges of wide-area data broadcasting, which you'll encounter as you demonstrate that you care. What about standards for wireless computer networking, which will settle down right after ISDN, HDTV, PCMCIA, and ATM are resolved. Consider governments around the world reallocating spectrum for use by wireless computer networks, which they will right after whale hunting is stopped. And there are the health risks of prolonged exposure to increasing levels of higher frequency electromagnetic radiations, which I hope are nil. And finally, what about the vast amounts of money needed for building wireless networking infrastructure, which will be raised right after The Deficit is eliminated? . . . Is it any wonder then, that the TV industry, which has relied on broadcast radio for most of its history, is in a full-swing switch to cable? Increasingly we will switch data via fiber networks instead of broadcasting it via radio. And in case you're not upset yet, there's this angle: If half the world's problems are caused by having too many people, the other half are caused by all of us wanting to move around so much -- from home to work, from work to our customer's work, from our picturesque hometowns to identical airports, hotels, and tourist traps around the world. So let's just wire up our homes and stay there. (Excerpted from "Wireless computing will flop -- permanently" by Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld 8/16/93, p. 48) ====================================================================== NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: +COLOR WORD PROCESSOR. In Japan, NEC will release a dedicated word processor that comes equipped with both a color LCD screen and a color printer. The device has a supertwist nematic (STN) color display with a resolution of 640 x 400 pixels. The printer uses a four color ribbon, so users will be able to print documents in full color. The machine includes programs for doing illustrations and graphics, as well as regular word processing. A proprietary color scanner is also available. (SOURCE: Newsbytes, 9/30/93) +EMPLOYMENT DATABASE. Forty leading U.S. corporations have formed a nonprofit employer association to develop and manage a national public-access database on Internet for recruiting, outplacement, career assistance, and communications. The database includes job listings and full-text resume files with online keyword search to assist both employers and individuals seeking employment. For info: contact occ-info@mail.msen.com. (SOURCE: EDUPAGE) +WABI INTERFACE. Sun Microsystems recently announced the final version of its Windows Application Binary Interface. WABI will allow Unix systems from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Novell and Sun to run Windows applications on their systems. (SOURCE: Computerworld 9/20/93, p. 16) +FREE FAXING. Chaos Corner (see administrivia section) reports that Internet Fax services are being set up to provide the capability to send free faxes to certain areas. People wanting to sign up to provide the service can limit the area that they serve to just the local community. For a current list of the areas served, send electronic mail to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org and write to tpc-faq@town.hall.org for more information. (SOURCE: Chaos Corner V03 N06 8 October 1993) +HEALTH INFO ON DISK. Pixel Perfect Software Co. has released a floppy disk that helps them diagnose their ailments at home, and gives detailed information and a video on complex surgical procedures. The program, which has been under development for five years, provides diagnoses through an interactive process, and explains treatment for over 600 diseases and 150 injuries. A multimedia version is planned for next year. (ACCESS: Pixel Perfect Software: 407/779-0310) (SOURCE: Miami Herald 10/5/93 B2, EDUPAGE) +MOVIES FOR BUTTON-PUSHERS. The months ahead will bring video games with characters played by live actors. For example, Sylvester Stallone spent two days filming special footage that will be combined with computer graphics in a video game due in the spring. (SOURCE: New York Times 10/3/93 Section 2 p. 1, EDUPAGE) ====================================================================== Don't Believe the Hype II: Desktop Video Teleconferencing Another emerging technology that may not be ready for prime time is desktop video conferencing. Ron Wilson, writing in OEM magazine, says the technology promises a lot: all users need to do is drop in some video cards and a little new software. But the reality is that desktop computers can't handle the task, Ethernet networks can't handle the data rates, and capable servers don't yet exist. (SOURCE: Ron Wilson, "The Other Video Conferencing," OEM Magazine, October 1993, quoted in Information Week) ====================================================================== Object Orientation Q: What about programmer retraining in object technology? Doesn't that present a fairly steep learning curve for most IS organizations? A: It's very analogous to the time when people programmed in Assembly language. They had to then learn Fortran or Cobol as a higher level language, and there's definitely training involved. But once you go through that, the productivity increase is tremendous. It takes a while to 'get it' with object oriented programming [OOP]. You can take someone from the procedural world and teach them OOP, but the first programs they write will still look and feel procedural in style. Yon won't get the benefits of the higher level language until you make the mind shift. Q: Is there a simple way to envision that mind shift? A: Imagine that you're cooking a cake. You can make It from scratch, from a recipe, by assembling a list of ingredients and following the directions step by step. That's procedural programming. In the object-oriented world, you don't think about cooking as a sequence of steps. You think about it as a package of cake mix, a cup of water, a bowl and an oven. It seems to be pretty obvious what you do with those elements. (from an interview with Guy "Bud" Tribble, VP of end user software at SunSoft, Inc., which appeared in Computerworld, 8/11/93, p.48) ====================================================================== Virtual Nations "In two years, there will be more network users than residents of any state in the United States. In five years there will be more network users than citizens of any single country except India or China. What will happen when McLuhan's global village becomes one of the largest countries in the world? Using two-way communications, not broadcast? And crossing boundaries of space, time, and politics?" (John Quartermain, "How Big is the Matrix," Matrix News 2, no. 2, quoted in The Virtual Community (see B&B Bookshelf) ====================================================================== ACCESS: Internet 101 The Internet has reached a crucial juncture in its 20 year history. It is experiencing an amazing spurt of growth, estimated at 10% monthly -- when you have an estimated 5-10 million users worldwide, a 10% monthly growth rate seves up some dizzying numbers. The pressure is increasingly on to turn the internet over to be managed by the private sector. To some degree this is already happening. Whereas previously the internet has been a medium for researchers, scientists, and academicians, nowadays the business segment of the internet is the fastest growing one. Not everyone is thrilled with this state of affairs, but the facts are stubborn things, and these new users (I guess I'm one of them) are not going away. Business and private citizens in growing numbers are realizing the benefits of being able to tie into a network that enables them to communicate with people around the world and to tap into huge amounts of online information and resources. But it's not exactly easy to navigate these waters: the Internet is not a unified whole, but an amazing patchwork quilt of networks that have agreed on a set of standards that (under ideal circumstances) allow everyone to talk to everyone else. Finding a given piece of information in this vast sea of possibility is more of an art than a science. Tools do exist to help find and retrieve a given document or program, and more are being developed and refined. You might have heard of some of them: archie, gopher, veronica, WAIS (Wide Area Information Search), WWW (World Wide Web), USENET, IRC, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and telnet. But for someone just starting out it can all seem a little intimidating. Fortunately, there is help available. There has been an explosion of beginner's books on the internet recently -- all part of the newfound interest in the online world and interactive media. I was ready to print a list of these books, but when I went to the bookstore, I found half a dozen titles have been added in recent months; clearly a little more research is in order. In the meantime, here is a list of three *online* text files aimed at the beginner. Internet access information is provided (I used archie to get this info) and also availability on the commercial online services when I had this info. Additionally, these files should be available on local BBS systems. They are presented more or less in order of increasing amount of detail, though all will put you on the road to information overload and cybernetic bliss via the mother of all networks, the Internet. ***** The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet (Adam Gaffin) The newest of the three texts, this one comes from the folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that is trying to insure that the net remains safe for truth, liberty, and the American way. Contact them at 202/347-5400 for more information. This guide is for folks with little or no experience with network communications. A print version is forthcoming. Here's a partial table of contents: Chapter 1: Setting up/getting connected/jacking in. A. List of public-access sites. Chapter 2: E-mail. A. Smileys. B. Seven Unix commands you can't live without. C. E-mail to other networks Chapter 3: Usenet I -- the Global watering hole. Chapter 4: Usenet II A. Flame, blather and spew and the First Amendment. B. rn commands. C. nn commands. D. Usenet hints. E. Cross posting F. The brain-tumor boy and the modem tax. G. The Big Sig. H. Killfiles. I. Usenet history. Chapter 5: Mailing lists and Bitnet. Chapter 6: Telnet A. Telnet sites. B. Telnet BBSs. C. Finger. D. Finding someone on the Net. Chapter 7: FTP A. The keyboard cabal. B. FTP sites. Chapter 8: Gophers, WAISs and the World-Wide Web Chapter 9: Advanced E-mail. Chapter 10: News of the world. Chapter 11: IRC, MUDs and other things that are more fun than they sound. Chapter 12: Education and the Net. Conclusion: The end? Appendix A: Lingo =ACCESS: If you have access to Gopher, the guide is available from the EFF gopherspace. Or do an anonymous FTP to ftp.eff.org, and download big-dummys-guide.txt from the pub/EFF/papers directory. It is available on America Online (along with B&B) in their telecom and text files section as bigdummy.zip, and on Delphi in the internet SIG's resource database, also as bigdummy.zip. ***** Zen and the Art of the Internet (Brendan P. Kehoe) The first edition of Zen etc., is available in print (Prentice Hall, 1993), and is a readable introduction to internet basics. A little more detail than Big Dummy. Contents include: Chapter 1: Network Basics (Domains, Internet numbers, the networks, the physical connection) Chapter 2: Electronic Mail (email addresses, anatomy of a mail header, bounced mail, sending and receiving mail) Chapter 3: Anonymous FTP (FTP Etiquette, basic commands, those '.Z' files, using archie) Chapter 4: Usenet News (What Usenet is, the diversity of Usenet, what Usenet is not, history of Usenet, hierarchies, newsgroups, how Usenet works, Usenet "Netiquette", quality of postings, frequently asked questions (FAQs) Chapter 5: Telnet (Using Telnet, publicly accessible libraries, Internet Services List, HYTELNET, The Cleveland Freenet, directories, databases and other resources) Chapter 6: Various Tools (Finger, ping, talk, the WHOIS database) Chapter 7: Commercial Services (Electronic journals, commercial databases, Clarinet News) Chapter 8: Things You'll Hear About (The Internet worm, Coke machines on the Internet, The Cuckoo's Egg, Organizations, text projects, advances in networking) Chapter 9: Finding Out More (Internet Resource Guide, the MaasInfo package, requests for comments (RFCs) Conclusion Appendix A: Getting to Other Networks Appendix B: Retrieving Files via Email Appendix C: Newsgroup Creation Appendix D: Items Available for FTP Appendix E: Country Codes Glossary, Bibliography, Index =ACCESS: This one is widely available on the Internet, I will list a few FTP sites. Look for zen10.zip at the following sites: Host: wuarchive.wustl.edu Location: /mirrors/msdos/books Host: nic.funet.fi Location: /pub/msdos/magazines/books Location: /pub/msdos/SIMTEL20-mirror/books Host: rigel.acs.oakland.edu Location: /pub/misc/books Host: src.doc.ic.ac.uk Location: /literary/collections/project_gutenberg/etext92 Host: sunsite.unc.edu Location: /pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext92 Host: uceng.uc.edu Location: /pub/wuarchive/mirrors/misc/books Host: csus.edu Location: /pub/banyan/other Host: swdsrv.edvz.univie.ac.at Location: /pc/dos/books Host: tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de Location: /pub/rz.archiv/simtel/msdos/books On America Online, the file is available in the telecom and text files download library as zen10.zip. ***** The Online World (Odd de Presno) The Online Deals with the practical aspects of using the rapidly growing global online information resource. The book is an outline of what you can get from the online resource. It gives access information for a large number of specific online offerings ranging from entertainment and the bizarre to databases and special services for professionals and organizations. Emphasis is on major international offerings available through services and networks like the Internet, BITNET, CompuServe, Echo, FidoNet, Usenet, Dialcom, Dow Jones/News Retrieval, MCI, NewsNet and UUCP. The Online World is for anybody interested in knowing a bit more about our current "Global Village." While not being a textbook on data communications, it contains much information to help novices get started. Note that the Online World is shareware, and the author requests that you become a registered reader. Your contribution will support further research and development of the text. Contents include: PREFACE 1. Going online will make me rich, right? 2. The online world (The structure and content of the online offerings. About BBS systems, discussion lists, conferencing systems, online data bases, packet data services, and network services like FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, Internet, and others.) 3. How to use online services 4. Hobbies, games, and fun 5. Home, education, and work (Tips for house owners, for those more concerned about money, about education and the exchange of knowledge, electronic conferences. Building a personal network. Job hunting by modem, and about working from home.) 6. Your personal healthnet (About support for diseases like AIDS, cancer, and kidney diseases. Forums for people with physical or mental disabilities, like hearing impairments, learning disabilities, vision impairment, mobility problems. 7. Electronic mail, telex, and fax (How to communicate globally at a ridiculously low cost, with notes about how to address your global electronic mail.) 8. Free expert assistance 9. Your electronic daily news (Read national and global news before getting it through the traditional media. Get those interesting background facts. Read special interest news that the media never bother to print.) 10. Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay (Notes about searching data bases. How to locate interesting books and articles.) 11. Getting an edge over your competitor (Using the networks to manage projects. Monitor competitors, prospects, suppliers, markets, technologies, and trends.) Marketing and sales by modem. 12. Practical tips (How to get more out of the time spent online.) 13. Cheaper and better communications (Using packet data services or competing data transport services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet, Internet, PC Pursuit, and others. 14. Keep what you find. (Build your local personal data base. Strategies for locating interesting information. What separates good from bad information.) 15. You pay little for a lot! (How to figure out costs.) 16. Automatic communication (Get a lead on your competitors. Avoid duplication of effort. Reduce costs. Reduce boring repetitive work. No need to remember all the "tricks" of communications anymore.) 17. Gazing into the future. (Thoughts about things to come.) Appendices: 1. List of selected online services 2. How to get started (About your personal computer, modem and communications program.) 3. Your first online trip (Getting started. Typical pitfalls and simple solutions. Down- and uploading.) 4. Explanation of some frequently used terms 5. Books and articles for further reading 6. International standard country codes 7. About the author 8. How to register =ACCESS: Anonymous FTP to oak.oakland.edu, the file is online11.zip, and it is located in the pub/msdos/info directory. It is also avail- able in Compuserve's IBM Communications Forum, Library 5, as online.zip, or possibly online11.zip. The book can be retrieved by email from LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU (U.S.A.) by sending the command /PDGET pd:online11.zip . Use the same command to get it from TRICKLE@SEARN.BITNET (Sweden), TRICKLE@DB0FUB11.BITNET (Germany), TRICKLE@FRMOP11.BITNET (France), TRICKLE@AWIWUW11.BITNET (Austria), TRICKLE@UNALCOL.BITNET (Colombia), TRICKLE@IMIPOLI.BITNET (Italy). ====================================================================== In Brief... LOVE AT FIRST BYTE. We value computers for the ways they make us efficient and improve our productivity. Yet we truly love them for the ways they undermine productivity -- games, bulletin boards, etc. -- and for the way they excite that part of us that craves new possessions. They exercise one of our basic human needs: the compulsion to figure something out, to make it work. (James Fallows, "Hard Drives," Los Angeles Times Magazine 9/12/93, p. 26, quoted in Information Week 9/20/93) TELECOMMUTERS MORE PRODUCTIVE. American Express reports that home- based workers handle 26 percent more calls than office workers, resulting in a 46 percent average increase in revenue from travel bookings. AmEx, which began looking into telecommuting for employees two years ago, expects to have 10 percent of its telephone order- entry employees working from home. (SOURCE: Fortune Autumn/93 p.28, EDUPAGE) ====================================================================== Bits and Bytes Bookshelf: The Virtual Community (Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier) by Howard Rheingold [Addison Wesley, 1993. 325 pp. $22.95] - As I mentioned above, there are now a slew of books on internet basics. Without going into specifics, I will say a lot of them look quite similar. No surprise here -- they all get their basic materials from the internet itself. But here comes Howard Rheingold (author of Virtual Reality) to show us the next step. Once you're out there, and have mastered the basic navigation skills, the human element begins to manifest itself. You'll begin to come in (virtual) contact with certain individuals again and again in your wanderings, people who share your interests and inclinations. Email will be exchanged, networks of contacts will begin to form, and friendships will begin to bloom in the electronic landscape of cyberspace. The Virtual Community focusses on the human side of computer mediated communications (CMC). It shows us the power of networked mind, with stories that show us people online exchanging everything from technical assistance to political opinions to moral support in times of trouble. There are stories of the network springing into action and getting things done faster than any other communications medium could accomplish. This is a power that has barely been tapped, and it wouldn't surprise me if it might not make some politicians a wee bit nervous. The role of networks as virtual watering holes, places for like-minded (and not so like-minded) people to get together and exchange views is explored, as are the prospects for online democracy, and the future of the internet and the online world of commercial access providers and BBSs. Also explored are the darker possibilities of all this, the dangers arising "once we are all wired into the net, and all our transactions -- commercial, politcal, personal -- are electronically mediated and recorded. "When Big Brother arrives," warns Rheingold, "he may come in the form of a grocery clerk." (from the dust jacket) Mr. Rheingold has written an important book, and an immensely readable and enjoyable one. I for one am having a hard time putting it down, mesmerized as I am by the possibilities of life in cyberspace, a vast region whose outlines I am only now starting to discover. ====================================================================== "But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses." - Bruce Leverett, "Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers" ====================================================================== ### ADMINISTRIVIA ### THANKS to everyone who wrote in to support B&B. Rest assured that I am committed (and perhaps ought to be committed) to putting out B&B for the foreseeable future. What do I need a social life for anyway? SORRY about the long mail headers, sports fans. I need to get on a listserver. Any suggestions as to how I go about that? While I'm on the subject, a note to new subscribers: BE PATIENT! As I am a human listserver, I don't send out an acknowledgement (or back issues), but you will receive the next scheduled issue. Another aspect of human listserverhood: If your address bounces, I will attempt to contact you once. If that fails, I remove your name from the list. I realize that there are lots of variables involved here, but life's too short. IN THE FUTURE...The next issue is due out 10/20/93, but I will probably let that date slide a bit. Major programming effort at work. My head may explode, and I don't mean that in the good sense. The theme of issue #13 will be (cue the organ music) The Dark Side. Issue 13, Halloween right around the corner, it seems quite the thing to do. Any thoughts or suggestions as to the dark underside of the technologies we all know and love? CHAOS CORNER is an occasional e-zine of various and sundry tidbits of internet information. Free subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available by sending electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. ACCESS. B&B is available for downloading on America Online in their telecom files area, and in Compuserve's telecom forum library. Delphi access is forthright, and forthcoming. Could be here for all I know.. INTERNET ANONYMOUS FTP SITES: ftp.dana.edu in /periodic directory INTERNET GOPHER ACCESS. - gopher.law.cornell.edu in the Discussions and Listserv archives/ Teknoids directory - gopher.dana.edu in the Electronic Journals directory If anyone else is archiving B&B, I would appreciate knowing about it. Include specifics and I will add you to this list. If B&B is being distributed via mailing lists, I would appreciate being informed about it so I can estimate how many people are reading B&B. Thanks! ====================================================================== BITS AND BYTES ONLINE, an electronic newsletter for text-based life- forms, is published three dozen times a year, on the 1st, 10th, and 20th of each month. E-mail Subscriptions are available at no cost from slakmaster@aol.com. Put "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject header and your email address in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject header and your email address in the body. Send correspondence to jmachado@pacs.pha.pa.us. *This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons* ====================================================================== Jay Machado = (Copyright 1993 Jay Machado) *unaltered* = 1529 Dogwood Drive = ELECTRONIC distribution of this file for = Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 = non-profit purposes is encouraged. = ph (eve) 609/795-0998 = The editor is solely responsible for the = ======================== editorial content. Opinions expressed are = ======================== subject to change. You figure it out. = =============== End of Bits and Bytes Online V1, #12 =================