From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 94 11:10:35 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Internet Shopping Network big league ripoff
Message-ID: <199411251909.LAA25918@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I just checked in to the internet shopping network - AAAaaargh

Disk drive prices over twice the going rate.

Fax modem prices over four times the going rate!

And for the vast privilege of being permitted to 
shop there you have to make a signed membership
application by snail mail or fax.

Meanwhile Chaums Emoney remains totally disconnected
with real money or real goods.  Among the bankers,
his name is mud.  And despite his pious talk about
privacy he seems committed to a many-to-few 
transaction system.

A many to few transaction system will not 
protect privacy, no matter how secure and
excellent the protocols.

Of course, it took 25 years for the internet to 
grow from a research project to a major social
and political force, so perhaps I am a little
impatient.  I eagerly await Bill Gates plans.

The long and the short:  You still cannot do
transactions on the internet.  It is still
vaporware.


-- 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we        James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.            jamesd@netcom.com