Just curious: who is paying for this forum? How do you know it's not just an information gathering machine?

-- Spidey (senses@tingling.com), January 26, 1999

Answers

Click on "About" at the top, all your questions will be answered there.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 26, 1999.

Okay, but who pays for it? Ed Yourdon? A generous soul is he. Bandwidth ain't free.

-- Spidey (senses@tingling.com), January 26, 1999.

Yes, the gallant Sir Edward of Your-done-for pays for it.

Unless you'd rather somebody else pay for it......or pay for it yorself.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 26, 1999.

While Ed may be kicking in some money given the traffic on this forum, it is hosted by Phil Greenspun, a well-heeled programmer from MIT who provides forums like this to anyone for free. Check it out at http://photo.net/philg/ser vices.html.

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), January 26, 1999.

"just an information gathering machine?"

Just?

If I learn something new, something that helps me think and feel my way more clearly, is this "just" an information gathering machine?

"Tell the truth, and tell it fast."

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (Wilmington, NC) (critt@critt.com), January 26, 1999.

Sorry, asleep at the switch this morning (tough battle with hobgoblin last night). Should have questioned whether this is merely another 'intelligence' gathering mechanism. The internet has been called the greatest intelligence-gathering instrument ever available to government. It started, of course, as DARPANET, a network of the Defense Advanced Research Projects folks. Everyone knows that all traffic is scrutinized by NSA, keyword searches performed, everything stored, probably at Ft. Meade. After hangin' on the wall reading this stuff, I just started wondering. Of course, I have no problem with webs.

-- Spidey (senses@tingling.com), January 26, 1999.

Spidey, go troll someplace else with your idiotic assertions. Just because the gov. started the internet doesn't mean they're owning it now.

The internet is accessible by anyone, gov. and citizens alike, as long as the perticular data/server you want to access is not password protected or encrypted.

So yes, if the gov. is interested in our discussions, they'll gather the info. So what? Maybe they are, and maybe they are learning something valuable from it. I keep wishing.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 26, 1999.

Sorry, Chris, but I think you are inappropriately hard on Spidey, here. Doesn't seem like he's trolling to me. NSA DOES monitor Internet traffic along with telephone, checks certain keywords, etc. Not a big deal 99.999999999% of the time. We do, after all, live in a national security state. And many people here on the board are concerned that Y2K is gonna be an excuse to make it worse...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), January 26, 1999.

Great question Spidey.

More important if you needed, and we must assume someone does, a touchstone on what a segment of the community is thinking and doing.

This NG has to be the greatest source of Y2K prep info on the planet. Prep for the little ppl and prep for the bigger ppl.

It is also certainly a basis for social research into uses of the internet.

Have you agreed to such uses? I doubt it.

Publish here with care, not everyone is as altruistic as E Y.

-- Integrator (watching @thewatchers.org), January 26, 1999.

Sorry pshannon, it's just that my nerves are stretched thin with Milne lately and they recoil at a sneeze.

There, I've changed my signature and address, see if the dudes at NSA can decrypt it ;-)

-- Sirhc (ystaC@dnop.moc), January 26, 1999.

That's why _I'm_ not posting anything to this thread. Oops!

-- (Bond, James Bond@HMSS.gov), January 27, 1999.