human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (09/08/84)
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator) <Human-Nets-Request@Rutgers>
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 7 Sep 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 49
Today's Topics:
Query - BBoard/Database Pointers,
Computers and the Law - Tapping lines to halt software smuggling
Chess - Should we have it? &
Algebraic -> Descriptive Notation Algorithm?
Information - MIT Communications Forum
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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 84 14:37:02 edt
From: gvax.kevin@Cornell.ARPA (Kevin Karplus)
To: laws@sri-ai
Subject: message for ai and human-nets lists
This message is being sent for an acquaintance who does not have
access to a network. Please do NOT reply to me but to
Bob Parks
(607)257-7895
I'm not certain of the address, but I think it's
Political Science Dept
Elmira College
Elmira, NY (zip-code?)
He is looking for assitance in setting up a bulletin board/database
system (for political scientists) using microcomputers. Anyone who
has good ideas or pointers to good ideas on what such a system should
include or how it should be implemented should talk to him. I don't
know exactly what the system is supposed to do, nor how much money
that have to set it up, but they may be able to pay for some
consulting help.
I assume (from the discussions I've seen) that someone reading the ai
or human-nets newsgroups will have the information he needs.
Thanks,
Kevin Karplus
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Date: Wed, 5 Sep 84 08:56:04 edt
From: chris@maryland (Chris Torek)
Subject: Re: U.S. may tap lines to halt software smuggling by phone
Oh good grief!
I'll bet the Reagan administration has never heard of USENET. (For
those of you who haven't, it's a network that is somewhat similar to
ARPAnet, except that it (a) isn't high speed; (b) isn't centrally
administered, and (c) isn't really all that well defined anyway.
However, it has links into Europe and Australia and Korea -- all sorts
of places.) Among lots of other stuff, software is broadcast over
this net.
Let me make a few medium-range predictions:
- WORLDNET will happen, eventually.
- There will be lots of effort to stop it on the part of those who
have vested interests in the current situation, especially
governments.
- The nature of computer networking (simultaneous broadcast and
point-to-point communications) will have as dramatic an effect on
society as the printing press.
Just think: if you have a worldwide network and want to start some
subversive activity, just broadcast two messages. The first contains
instructions (or code) for decrypting the second; the second is the
subversive message. You can't catch the second by keyword search
because it doesn't have any keywords until it's decrypted. (The
encryption can be as simple as a Caesar cipher.)
Here's another thing to think about. Right now, we can't discuss and
vote on ordinary happenings because the information and votes can't
happen fast enough. That's why we (the U.S.) have a representative
democracy for a government; we're (theoretically) paying these guys to
do what we would have done. Now stick in a high-speed computer
network. Voila! We *can* discuss and vote on the issue! [Not that
we *would*, just that we *can*.]
Naturally there are problems with these, but what I'm saying is that
*things are going to change*, providing we don't blow ourselves to
smithereens first. It won't happen instantly and it probably won't be
painless either, but that's the way I see it. Trying to ``put a lid''
on software going out of the country is going to be expensive, and
won't succeed, though it will have an effect. The question now is,
``is the effect worth the cost?'' Personally, I doubt it.
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Date: 24 Aug 84 13:41:20 PDT (Fri)
Cc: mclure@sri-prism
Subject: Chess in Human-Nets
From: Martin D. Katz <katz@uci-750a>
Maybe the chess "Delphi" should be its own mailing list?
I don't think that Human-Nets is a good forum.
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Date: 26 August 1984 06:17-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE @ MIT-MC>
Subject: number-cruncher vs. humans: 9th move
To: mclure @ SRI-PRISM
Cc: ailist @ SRI-AI
query: is there a program that can convert from the algebraic
notation to descriptive notation? I learned P-K4 and like that,
and there is no possibility that I will ever have an intuitive
feel for cxd4 and the like. Can it be converted for those of us
who are algebraic cripples?
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Date: Fri, 7 Sep 84 09:22 EDT
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Communications Forum
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA, *bboard@MIT-MC.ARPA
MIT COMMUNICATIONS FORUM
National Media Policymaking
September 20, 1984 4-6 p.m.
Marlar Lounge, E37-252, 70 Vassar St., MIT
speakers:
Jeremy Tunstall, City University of London
Jack Lyle, Boston University
Rapidly developing mass media technologies have ended a relatively
stable, "classical" era of national and international policy.
Familiar concerns about cultural integrity are now mixed with
desire to participate in advanced technologies as a matter of
economic policy. The policymaking process has attracted many
newly interested parties and engendered much debate, sometimes
between government agencies.
Professor Tunstall has undertaken a study focusing on the policy
making process in the United States, Britain, and France, and the
prospective effect on the relationships between the United States
and the countries of Western Europe.
******
Multichannel MDS: Wireless Cable?
October 4, 1984 4-6 p.m.
Bush Room, Bldg 10-105, MIT
speakers:
Howard Klotz, Contemporary Communications
Peter Lemieux, Information Architects/ MIT
A new band of television has been created which may provide for as
many as 28 different television channels. The FCC has reassigned
eight channels in the ITFS band to MDS and is permitting the leasing
of "excess capacity" on ITFS channels to commercial users. In effect,
This service has been termed Multi channel MDS (or MMDS) and is seen
as potential competition for cable television. MMDS would be free
from local regulation and would not have to carry broadcast signals.
To be successful, however, it may require creative arrangements
between commercial entrepreneurs and nonprofit educational
institutions.
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End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
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