[9793] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Open Letter: LA Data Highways
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fred Baker)
Fri Jan 21 13:50:43 1994
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 10:47:55 -0800
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: fbaker@acc.com (Fred Baker)
I'm writing from Santa Barbara, where we (horror of horrors!) lost power
for a few hours, and then started watching the misinformation on TV. It was
real fun listening to the scientists at CalTech say "we know that one of
these three faults that we have known about for a long time is the one that
did it, we're trying to figure out which of them it is" and then listening
to the news anchor say "the fault that broke was unknown to scientists
until it did in LA."
They reported the aftershocks correctly; we saw the seismometer wiggle on
the boob tube, then watched the house do the same motion...
BTW, all californians to NOT live in a permanent state of dread about the
San Andreas fault. I think the east coast news commentators do, though. I
grew up in Cleveland and have lived in Toronto and St. Paul; I know a
little about cold, which this last week has killed three times as many
people as the LA quake. I've suffered through tornados, etc. I'll take
earthquakes, thank you.
At 10:52 AM 1/21/94 -0600, Larry Walker wrote:
>Much like the half-joking, half-serious suggestions during the Vietnam war
>that we simply "declare victory and go home," the Administration can simply
>declare the LA Data Highway program to be in effect: All employees contact
>their sys admins and ask what software/modems/phone-numbers they should
>start using.
I think that this has a lot of merit, but it's also a tad too clean. The
kid at MacDonald's emails you a hamburger? The mechanic FTP's your car to
his garage? This is only going to work for white collar workers, and a
subset of them at that.
>It seems a shame to let this opportunity pass untapped, not just for its
>promotional value, but for tangible benefits of relieving a quick 10-20% of
>the pressure from the jury-rigged freeway system. Surely reducing the
>predicted 6-hour commutes to a "mere" 5 hours would be a major boon to the
>remaining hundreds of thousands still forced to make the drive. With an
>estimated 20-25% of US homes containing PCs of some type, a corporate
>program of overnight-expressing modems and software to distant employees
>could lop the peak off transit congestion by the time the freeways even
>reopen.
The issue is not whether they have a PC, but whether they can use it
ENTIRELY to do their work.
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"In sound wisdom there are two sides"
Zophar, Job 11:6
