RE: [TCLUG:8245] FidoNet

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

>it.  (Actually, the first electronic contact info I can recall seeing on an
>album was for "Bongos, Bass and Bob" [featuring locals Mr. Elk & Mr. Seal,
>plus Penn Jillette] which had a BBS # on the sleeve.)
        cool. Mr.Elk & Mr.Seal sounded pretty cool on the one radio show I
heard of them. Never heard much about them after that, tho.

>	As far as a "backup plan" goes, probably not.  It's a fine soluton to the
>problem of creating an extremely-high-latency network, based around
>technologies like 2400 baud modems and 286 PCs (which would, I think,
>sufficiently explain its popularity in Russia), but it's not significantly
>less monitorable or legislatable than the Internet (and any Internet
>legislation is likely to include language broad enough to include everything
>from Internet2 to smoke signals.)  
        legislable, yes; monitorable, less likely. (since it could just be a
telephone call to someone's house, they'd have to monitor the phone system,
looking for a data connection to someone who wasn't running an ISP). 
        Yes, i'm being paranoid. 

>Besides, while the average civil servant
>probably doesn't know the difference between IRC and M&Ms, you may be
>assured that there are some pretty bright and well-informed folks working
>for the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc.
        that much is true. 

>	'Course, if you're looking for security through obscurity, there's always
>Gopher...
        there's something to be said for that. :)

<political rant>
what worries me about the whole censorship buisness, is that gov't has long
since stopped being a servant and _gestalt_ of the people; and become a
self-justifying entity. it now takes itself (and it's power) for granted;
and seeks to entrench itself in it's current position of 'taking care of
you', whether you want to be taken care of in that fashion or not.
</political rant>

Carl Soderstrom
System Administrator	307 Brighton Ave. 
Minnesota DHIA		Buffalo, MN	
carls@agritech.com	(612) 682-1091