reid@Glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (01/08/85)
Last night I was the after-dinner speaker to a group of 100 people at a local (Silicon Valley) church; my assigned topic was something along the lines of how computers are going to change life. I forget exactly what they wanted me to talk about. What I did talk about was computer mail, bboards, netnews, plans for stargate, etc. At the beginning of the talk I wanted to know who my audience was, so I asked a few questions. Question 1 was "how many of you work in the computer industry?" About 80 raised their hands. Question 2 was "how many of you have a home computer?" About 90 raised their hands. Question 3 was "how many of you know what Usenet is?" One person raised his hand. Somehow we collectively nurture this fantasy that Usenet is ubiquitous and universal, yet in this reasonably random sample of computer professionals, only 1% had even HEARD of it. Something to think about. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA
lmm@panda.UUCP (Linda M. McInnis) (01/10/85)
I think your point is well taken but don't you think that it's appropriate to think about natural growth of phenomena? Let's face it, ten to fifteen years ago, how many people had computers at home?? I did (more correctly my boyfriend did) but we were the only people in a hacker group of about 100. It was a Northstar kit (How many people remember those??). Also, Usenet doesn't cost the "average" user anything. It costs his/her company/client. If everyone used Usenet, it would have to be financially supported by each user. It grows in leaps and bounds and seems to grow gracefully that way. ( I know sys administrators are gagging in the background). For the "average" user, it does work and works well. (I'm the average user, I assume.) Networks are still a mystery to "normal" people. The reason many of us are excited about Usenet is that it enables us to work at home a great deal (especially in cold weather) and in locations we like (my husband and I are hoping to move to Maine soon) and yet continue to be in close communication with the computing community. When a technical question comes up that I can't answer, Usenet provides an invaluable resource of non-threatening advice. Yes, there are pompous flamers but, in general, I've received a lot of support from Usenet people. Let's face it, by using Usenet, I was able to send my resume and cover letter from Boston to the west coast in about 2-3 hours. Federal Express can't top that!! I'm braced now....bring on the flamers! -- ********************************************* Linda M. McInnis USENET: genrad!teddy!lmm "I used to be disgusted, now I'm just amused." Elvis Costello "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco..." David Byrne *********************************************
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (01/12/85)
Or maybe ONLY A FEW of us go to church! :-)
"Ahr, there be heathin' dyvils in that thar air-conditioned room..."
"I must say, you look *maahvelus*."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPAeugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (01/15/85)
I fully appreciate Brian's posting of the ubiquitousness of the net.
I also appreciate the posting repeating that few people even know about
networks. It turns out that I was just invited to visit China.
It also turns out that the professor who invited me has 1) never heard of
the Usenet [he is a CS professor, but I will not mention his name
or institution], 2) has had poor experiences using networks [he owns
four personal computers C-64 class machines and uses IBMs at work],
3) when he heard about some of my work, he asked me to speak about
positive experience on networks to the Chinese.
My exposure to networks was something of a fluke. It included playing
chess on DEC-10s at MIT from an IBM on the early ARPAnet to Xerox Altos
multicasting Star Trek over Ethernet at Caltech.
I think it is difficult for people to keep up with all the developments
happening in computers, so it doesn't surprise me that people don't
know about the net. I went with my girlfriend to a job fair where one
vendor had a PC running a paint program. The vendor said I was the first
person he had seen all day [out of thousands] who knew what a paint program
was [this was before MacPaint came out]. I'm giving a low level talk
about the ARPAnet on Thursday to some users unfamiliar with networks
[physicists].
Anyway, I hope talking about Unix in China won't violate any AT&T agreements
(since they can't sell Unix there). This might mean more exposure about
this net. I'm not certain I can make it to China, nor I am certain what
I will talk about, but networks are something the trip leader is
interested.
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
{hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,vortex}!ames!aurora!eugene
emiya@ames-vmsb.ARPA
p.s. what all of you are doing are doing with the net is fantastic.
Long live chaos!mark@tove.UUCP (Mark Weiser) (01/15/85)
In article <763@ames.UUCP> eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) writes: >Anyway, I hope talking about Unix in China won't violate any AT&T agreements >(since they can't sell Unix there). Actually, I believe that the PRC has ordered several 3B20's with System V for delivery in the next few weeks. At least I hope so--I am supposed to be teaching compiler writing on these machines at Peking University come June. -- Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@maryland Phone: +1-301-454-7817 CSNet: mark@umcp-cs UUCP: {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
peterb@pbear.UUCP (01/16/85)
Brian, you might have also asked the questions "How many of you know/use UNIX* systems" and "How many of you sent mail to other machines" Just from the statistics, usenet really resided on UNIX* systems. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T.
bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery (the tame hacker on the North Coast)) (01/20/85)
One aside... I just got use of a Pixel 68000 system with their new operating
system (4.1BSD, minus job control (sigh)). The installation documents
for "Pixel Unix 2.1" (I think that's what they call it) mention Usenet
in a number of places; and there is a fully configured news system that
comes with the new OS. (Their old OS was Unisoft System III.) Unfortunately,
I don't expect Computer Warehouse to join the net...
--bsa
--
Brandon Allbery @ decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa (..ncoast!tdi1!bsa business)
6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio 44131 +1 216 524 1416 (or what have you)
Who said you had to be (a) a poor programmer or (b) a security hazard
to be a hacker?