From: ddt@lsd.com
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 94 21:08:28 PST
Subject: No Subject
Message-ID: <ab1408a50002100376b5@[192.187.167.52]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


X-PGP Key ID: 4AAF00E5
X-PGP Fprint: 30D81F3484E6A83F 6EC8D7F0CAB3D265
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 21:08:19 -0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: ddt@lsd.com (Dave Del Torto)
Subject: Re: calling all cpunks on netcom

At 11:46 am 12/13/94, Shrieks wrote:

>Just floating a trial balloon. Are you tired of the high traffic on
>the cypherpunks list

Well, yes, it does get a BIT junked-up at times (mea culpa).

>and having to wade through a ton of mail every
>day? Any of you folks approaching your 5M limit from archiving too
>many messages?

No, I don't rely on Netcom to store it for me, I POP back it to my home
machine and fill the nooks and crannies on my HD before I archive it all to
big, monthly searchable text files (which lay compressed at the botton of
another drive hanging off my home ether). But that's just me: when I first
subscribed in 92 from Budapest (gaak! telecom hell!), I had a very funky
and expensive connection and it was a "nagy" pain in the ass. Of course,
the volume back then wasn't quite as... "intense."

>Well, I am and I don't really want to start paying for the extra memory.

I'm sympathetic to that: if there's a better way to do it, I'm all eyes.

>I was wondering if it might be worth petitioning the netcom sysadmins
>to start up a local newsgroup (eg. netcom.cpunks) [elided]

As far as trial balloons float, it's not a horrible one, BUT: while I
applaud the intent, the method sorta suc-er-(let's see... #10 on Engineer's
New Terminology list...from October's FUN10 list ... ah here we go: "WE
WILL LOOK INTO IT"(1). Besides the feasibility problems that Timothy
mentioned (Netcom bonking files after a while), I'm just convinced that
getting Netcom to do somthing this _complex_ would be *UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE*.
I mean, they don't return phone calls, they don't answer support mail
(well, almost never), and it took them three-and-a-half-months (yes, you
read that correctly) to find the 2 minutes to set up an anon ftp directory
for one of my clients (still no explanation for that, btw). Not to mention
that certain dept managers there have a tendency to "work around the
truth." Now, you tell ME that they can handle something like a local ng (no
smirking, now!). Hell, they can't handle the quotidian business they HAVE
much less something "technical." Uh, flame off. Yikes. Sorry 'bout that,
lads. It's just that I can think of other things I'd prefer to RAM up my
butt than more Netcom hassles. Wait a minnit: isn't this alt.netcom.sucks?
Oh dear, I wanted the room down the hall. Excuse me.

Also, did someone (Tim?) mention that Netcom filters all our packets to the
NSA? I'd like to know how anyone could ping that out, but maybe it might be
a good idea all the same if we just try to set up our own box overseas. If
it could give us a bit more security/fewer intrusions, I'd send the
Hack-Tik boys (fer example) in A'dam some fraction of my pathetic bank
account to get it up (in the red light district, perhaps, wouldn't _that_
be appropriate?), and/or maybe someone who shall remain nameless with the
initials JG might be overcome by philanthropism (yet again) and help us put
an old unused box online "somewhere". I'm just thrashing here, but maybe
there's kernel of a worthwhile idea here (all puns intended, always). What
about Arthur Abraham? Arthur?

>Another alternative might be to set up something along the lines of
>discuss at mit [elided]

This might be viable, but sick puppy that I am, I LIKE getting all this
mail dumped on my machine from Eric's remailer. I kind of understand Tim's
point: with the files local, I can browse/search at will at greater speeds,
etc. And ruthless deletion is the only way to survive the onslaught. Of
course, this all means I can never go on vacation unless I unsub for the
duration, or else I DO get those dorky "your mailbox is full" msgs from
you-know-who.  s i g h

>Just a thought. Pheedback?

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-oops, sorry, forgot to turn my radio down.

   dave

[1] Which means: "Forget it! We have enough problems right now."
____________________________________________________________________
 "I'm quite confident about the Republicans salvaging the Economy:
  heck, look what a swell job they're doing down in Orange County!"