120 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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The Old Dirt Road
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It twisted in and out of small clearings and thick forest.
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Gnarled trees stood like guardians all around the old path in vain
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attempt to hide what lie ahead. The traveler was not worried though,
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he knew that somewhere up ahead was his goal. He had been searching
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for years it seemed, trying to find this one prize so that he could
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finally rest, and recuperate for the next journey. Misleading commoners
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had cost him hours of travel; even discouraged, he continued on, holding
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the one sacred thing in his mind. Soon, he would have it and be able to
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go on journey's that until now he could only imagine. Continuing on,
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his patience payed off. He had finally found what he had been searching
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for all day. With a sigh of relief, he grabbed the ever sacred item.
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$get anonymous.ftp.list
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If you have waded through internet recently, the above paragraph
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probably hit home with you. It used to be that getting on the net
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and surfing through all the unknown sites was a blast, always something
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new to you and your friends, always new files unseen in the BBS community.
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As time passed, things got worse. More and more of the cool FTP sites
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went down or no longer allowed anonymous FTP. Over the months, transfers
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got slower and slower until finally you found yourself up at three
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in the morning, transfering a file at a little over 9600 baud between
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two major college sites.
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What happened? Why did things get so bad? Why are there more
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and more private sites, more lag, more confusion? Why is there so
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much hype surrounding the internet in the news? Why can you walk into
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computer stores or bookstores and see twenty books on Internet made
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for begginers. "Internet for Dummies" and "Idiot's Guide to Internet".
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Excuse me, but I thought the net was originally designed for the
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science community and colleges to trade information, and for research
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of any kind to be completed without leaving your home or local library.
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From what I understood, the net was to remain commercial free
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and relatively free of large businesses. These days, every third site
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you hear or read about is a .com site though. Great, another commercial
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site. Why does NBC or MTV need to be on the net? There primary way
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of communications is through TV, not computer networks. Why is it I can
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mail Adam Curry or Billy Idol, but I can't mail my senators or someone
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else of some slight importance? Of course, I can mail the president now,
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but he doesn't read the mail. It is all screened for him no doubt, and
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I would imagine that 90% or more of it doesn't ever get read by him.
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Things are different now. For the low price of $22.50 you can
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establish an account, and receive 3 hours of access to internet! Each
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additional minute is .54 cents and each meg downloaded is $1.28 plus
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tax. Every commercial service like Prodigy, Delphi, Compuserve, etc
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offer internet access as a major feature. Since thousands and
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thousands of people sign up for that, is there any wonder where all
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the lag comes from? The people on those services are usually not
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very computer litterate, and they are bogging down the net looking for
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the latest .gifs or whatnot.
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The fact that you would have to pay for such a service is
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bullshit. Those companies are making money off giving people access
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to college computers and research labs' computers, which they did
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not pay for. Seems that is abusing the priveledge a little, and causing
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legitimate researches too much hassle.
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With all the advertising you see regarding the net, and all
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the politicians promising 'information superhighways' in the future,
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more and more people are signing up for services. Fact is, the net
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is the furthest thing from a superhighway. A winding dirt road blocked
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by trees, pits, and guards seems more appropriate. With the current
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growth of people, and lack of growth of new computers hooking into the
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net, seems like that road will wear out sooner than repair itself and
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rebuild into a highway of any sort.
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With phone companies limiting what they release in technology,
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they hinder the very basic thing the net needs to survive, repair, and
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grow. Pacific Bell sits on ISDN technology while the rest of the world
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tries to cram everything they can on existing technology in hopes
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of creating this so called 'information superhighway'. Deregulation
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of the phone companies didn't work like anyone thought though, and
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instead just created a virtual monopoly on certain phone services.
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As John C. Dvorak says in one mag "...has been a lot of confusion,
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a booming Internet, and an even more booming business in books
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about the Internet. If the Internet is the information superhighway,
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then we're all in trouble. By allowing every Tim, Dick, and Harry
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access, the Internet will become the central clearinghouse for hate
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groups, neo-Nazis, Communist wanna-bes, sick cults, spies, and
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kiddie-porn activists. It's not close to being out of control. It
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IS out of control. But golly, information should be free, so I guess
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it's okay, huh?"
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Welp. That is about right. How many 'alt.' newsgroups are there?
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How many topics are covered? Do we really NEED a newsgroup for
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'alt.sex.masturbate.cheesegrater'? How 'bout all the mail lists? Enough
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to publish a whole book of how to get into contact with them and add
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yourself to various mail lists that are almost as pointless as the
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thousands of newsgroups.
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Anyway, since we can't get the technology we need for a better
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highway, and over 1,000,000 people sign up for internet services a month,
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I don't think it will get much better. In fact, I think it will get
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much much worse...
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Damanstian
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the DisordeR of my mind.
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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= Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, etc etc... =
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= Internet : lamb@sun1.coe.ttu.edu WWIVnet : 123@3314 =
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= VMB : 303.763.6377 Or On One Of The Boards Below... =
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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= Ionic Destruction 215.722.0570 Wulf's Den 303.699.WULF =
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= E.L.F. (NUP) 314.272.3426 Entropy 318.625.9666 =
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= Dungeon Sys. Inc. 410.263.2258 Celestial Woodlands 409.764.2843 =
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= Plan 9 716.881.3663 Logikal Nonsence 717.XXX.XXXX =
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= Purple Hell 806.791.0747 Club Baby Seal 817.429.4636 =
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= PuRe EViL (NUP) 905.XXX.XXXX The Keg 914.234.9674 =
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