Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!noao!nud!mcdchg!heiby
From: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: A counter-example for those who would eliminate PC binaries (long)
Message-ID: <10617@mcdchg.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jul 88 15:06:03 GMT
References: <264@octopus.UUCP> <3302@s.cc.purdue.edu> <172@xochitl.UUCP>
Reply-To: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer, Schaumburg, IL
Lines: 40

Matt Armstrong (bonzo@xochitl.UUCP) writes:
> But, contrary to popular belief, there ARE people who
> have net access but no modem. You want to leave these people in the dark? Why
> not FTP from Simtel-20? Contrary to popular belief, there are UUCP nodes that
> don't have access to the Internet. Like us.  You want to leave us in the dark?

I guess Matt's succeeded in getting me pretty confused.  If you don't have
a modem and you aren't on the Internet, how are you getting your Usenet feed?
Maybe Matt is talking about sites where the local administration has put
restrictions on who can access the modems and/or the Internet link.  Maybe the
local administration has a good reason for doing so.  I don't know.

Even if this kind of thing is wide-spread, which I doubt, I have little
sympathy for those who whine about the net being their only avenue for PD
or Share software.  For one thing, there are user groups for sharing software.
If there isn't one in your area, or you're too busy to go to the meetings,
there are pseudo-national user groups that will mail you floppies for about
$6 a piece.  There are also for-profit firms that will do the same sort of
thing.  I just spent about 30 seconds flipping through the back of my 6/88
Byte magazine and found that Jameco is selling an internal PC modem (300/1200)
for $69.95 and ONLINE Store has a USRobotics 300/1200/2400 for $139 (not
internal?).  Then, there's Compu Com Corporation, advertising an IBM Internal
300/1200/2400 modem for $109 with 30 day money-back guarantee and 2 year
warranty.  Doesn't seem to me like there is a shortage of cheap modems out
there!  Looks to me like you can buy a modem for less money than a commercial
spreadsheet and word processor would cost.

Poor struggling college students out there?  A group of ten skips lunch 2-3
days and all chip in the money they've saved to buy a modem that they share.
At the end of the school year, they auction off the modem among themselves
or sell it via a sign in the hallway near the Computer Science and Engineering
areas, then buy a pizza with the proceeds.

I have downloaded quite a bit of MS-DOS binaries from the net.  It has been
convenient for me to do so.  Am I going to whine when the group goes away?
NO!  I will still be able to get the software I want/need.  So will everybody
else.
-- 
Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP	Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix
"Failure is one of the basic Freedoms!" The Doctor (in Robots of Death)