From the web page http://www.samizdat.com/news25.html

INTERNET-ON-A-DISK #25, September 1998

The newsletter of electronic texts and Internet trends.


This issue and all other issues are available at our Web site,
http://www.samizdat.com, which is hosted by Acunet, in Marlboro,
MA, providers of dial-up Internet access, Web hosting, Web
design, and Cyberbazaars (a low-cost Internet commerce service).


Permission is granted to freely distribute this newsletter in
electronic form for non-commercial use. All other rights
reserved. Parts of this are being collected in a book entitled
The Social Web by Richard Seltzer.

If you would like to "talk" directly with Richard, connect to
http://www.web-net.org/ and click on Richard Seltzer's Chat:
Business on the World Wide Web, on Thursdays from noon to 1 PM
(US Eastern Daylight Time, GMT -4)

Send your comments, letters to the editor, and related articles
to [log in to unmask] For information on who we are check
http://www.samizdat.com/who.html

To access other issues, go to http://www.samizdat.com/#ioad. The
full text of all issues is available for free, with hypertext
links to the sites referenced. (Please keep in mind that URLs
frequently change. We will attempt to update the information in
this on-line edition, but don't expect perfection.)

We believe in the importance of freely sharing information on
the Internet, but do not have the time or the inclination to
deal with all the hassles of maintaining a massive mailing list.
If you would like to receive entire issues in email form, the
cost to be added to the distribution list is $10. That's a
one-time charge, not a subscription fee. You are free to forward
those messages to whoever you like. For details on the how and
why of this policy, check http://www.samizdat.com/plan.html.


Table of Contents

Web notes --
  * Automatic email updates to AltaVista queries (from
    TracerLock)
  * Reverse telephone lookup (from Anywho)
  * Changes to Advanced Search at AltaVista

Portable electronic book readers -- by John Mark Ockerbloom

Recommended plug-ins and utilities -- by Tracy Marks

New electronic texts -- from the Gutenberg Project, from The
Internet Public Library Online Texts Collection

Off-the-wall ideas
  * "Cultural citizenship" -- an alternative form of government
    made possible by the Internet -- by Richard Seltzer
    * Reply from Alfred C. Thompson

  * Castro, baseball, and a possible end to political conflict
    with Cuba -- by Richard Seltzer
  * Baseball -- time for a rule change: from intentional walk to
    "home walk" -- by Richard Seltzer
  * Why Clinton might resign -- by Richard Seltzer

Letters to the Editor
  * Marketing the book vs. marketing the author -- from Brett
    Hart
  * Asking for advice re: do-it-yourself Web hosting by cable
    modem -- from "martin--the birdscaper" and from Eric Eldred
  * Advice regarding anti-hate pledge -- from Denise Rogers


Web notes

Service provides automatic email updates of your AltaVista
queries (when you want to be alerted of new developments)

TracerLock http://www.peacefire.org/tracerlock/

TracerLock can monitor the AltaVista search engine for you and
notify you by e-mail when a new instance of a search term is
found. After registering (for free), you enter the queries you
are interesting in tracking -- using the format for Advanced
Search (Boolean) at AltaVista. All the features of AltaVista
queries apply, such as searching for a phrase by putting it in
parentheses.

For instance, you could set up

link:yourdomainname AND NOT host:yourdomainname

e.g., link:samizdat.com AND NOT host:samizdat.com

to find new Web pages that have hyperlinks to pages at your
site.

You also can set up newsgroup searches. Since newsgroup items
are only archived for 2-4 weeks at AltaVista, it would be very
helpful to get alerts about new items there that match an
on-going interest of yours. For instance, you could set up

from:ford.com AND newsgroups:comp AND productname

to find new items posted in computer-related newsgroups by
people who work at Ford and that mention your "productname."

NB -- when I signed up, the server or connection was very slow.
Be patient. It's worth the wait.

(Thanks to Bruce Spencer at Cobb/Ziff-Davis for the pointer to
this one.)

Reverse telephone look up (enter the number and get the name and
address)

Anywho (from AT&T Labs) http://www.anywho.com

This directory service includes white and yellow page telephone
listings (including toll-free numbers), as well as email
addresses and URLs. Purportedly, they have over 90 million
consumer and over 10 million business listings. If you are
searching for a business, you get all relevant info about them
in a single listing. You also can click to get a map generated
on the fly, with driving directions (from MapsOnUs).

But the feature I find most useful is the reverse telephone
lookup. I tried my own home phone number, then clicked on the
address and got a list of the names, addresses, and phone
numbers of everyone on my street. I've lived here for 21 years
and there are neighbors I've bumped into off and on for years,
without knowing their names (when you've said "hello" to someone
for years, it's a bit embarrassing to ask them what their name
is...) Now I can finally put names to those faces (and can even
phone them if I like).

Changes to Advanced Search at AltaVista (possible source of
confusion)

AltaVista http://www.altavista.digital.com

In the recent redesign of the Advanced Search page at AltaVista,
they swapped the positions of the query and ranking boxes, and
changed their labels. If you were a regular user of this
service, you might well have been confused by the changed and
wondered why you were getting bizarre search results.

What had been known as the "query box" is now the "boolean
expression" box (the box on the bottom), and the "ranking box"
is the one on top. So, for instance, to get recipes when you
don't know anything about cooking, enter

recipe

in the Boolean box. And in the box at the top of the page, enter
the list of everything you happen to have in the refrigerator.

For more detail, check my on-line tutorial on how to get the
most out of AltaVista, starting at
http://www.samizdat.com/script/title.htm


Portable electronic book readers

by John Mark Ockerbloom [log in to unmask] (moderator of
the Book People mailing list, admin. and unsubscribe address:
[log in to unmask])

(reporting on Digital Libraries '98, an annual conference
sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery)

I finally got to try one of those portable electronic book
readers. These devices have been discussed (and hyped) in the
press for a while ... and are often promoted as the future of
books, though none of them have taken off in the market yet.

If the device I tried (a research prototype from Fuji Xerox labs
called XLibris, and not a consumer product) is typical of what's
being offered, there's still some way to go before these things
will have general appeal. But the prototype I tried also had
some unexpectedly appealing features, and I might be inclined to
get one if I needed to carry a lot of information in a portable
package.

The device was about the size of aa large notepad. It displayed
a portrait-oriented page of about 8 1/2 by 11 inches, and came
with a special pen. The pages in the demonstration were image
scans of journal articles. Both the pad and the pen were
untethered. The display was color, and backlit. You could tilt
it to some extent and still read it, though if you went more
than about 20-30 degrees off center, the display became hard to
read. The text itself was fairly easy to read and skim in its
regular typeface, though the resolution wasn't quite up to the
smaller type used for footnotes and captions.

The pen was used to turn pages (by pointing to a "dog-eared
corner" icon whose thickness varied depending on how many pages
were "behind" the one you were looking at. Another prototype
(which I didn't get to try myself) had what I thought was a
better page-turning design; you could squeeze the corners of the
pad to turn a page, or if you kept squeezing, "riffle" though
the book pages as if you were flipping through a book's pages
rapidly; a nice touch. I'm not sure my device would have been
quite up to that, as there was a small but noticeable delay in
turning pages.

The pen could also be used for highlighting and freeform
annotations in various colors. The device would save these
annotations, and could also, if you entered a special mode,
suggest other pages and documents in its internal library that
were related to the words and phrases you highlighted or
underlined. (Basically, it did a similarity search on the
words.) You'd see a small version of the other page suggested,
and could hit it with the pen to bring up that page and article.
The new page could then highlight the related material. (I
suspect that this feature was the main innovation the prototype
was designed to investigate.) With other pen touches, you could
browse the overall "library" stored in the pad, visit other
documents, and also keep (and navigate through) a record of what
you'd read and highlighted.

The interface was a bit more modal than it needed to be (that
is, you had to remember what mode buttons you'd hit, and
performance got a bit sluggish or unexpected if you left certain
modes on longer than intended.) Some of the "modes" could have
naturally been made part of the pen itself. For example, it
would be useful to just flip over the pen to use the "eraser",
and perhaps click on levers on the pen (like the ones used in
4-color pens) to select different annotation and highlighting
colors, instead of having to click on the displayed toolbar to
use these features.

Still, if the device has high enough capacity, I could see it as
being very useful when you needed to have large amounts of
documentation around. Right now at work I'm working on setting
up some servers in a machine room to be usable remotely, and am
having to lug around about a foot and a half worth of large
computer manuals. It would be very useful to be able to just
carry around a pad like this, and be able to annotate the
documentation, and follow cross-links to related material.
Likewise, I could see it very useful for doctors to have a
medical library and journal they could carry around while
visiting patients, so they could consult studies on strange
symptoms as they discovered them. Other professionals working
with large amounts of knowledge could also find such a pad and
library useful.

The page image format, now used for some on-line books, has some
disadvantages of being large and expensive to store and transmit
(unless one uses a low resolution that makes it less useful).
This may change now that there are new image compression
algorithms coming out that are optimized for reading book pages
over the Net.

I saw a demo of one of them (DjVu from At&T Labs) and was rather
impressed. From what I could tell, the technology uses two-stage
compression, foreground/background differentiation, feature
detection, and progressive loading, to get page images that are
5-10 times smaller than comparable GIF or JPEG images, and which
can be viewed very quickly over a download connection, since the
text and the other main features people of the page load first.
(Further loading just sharpens the detail on the fonts and the
graphics, but the text seems to become legible very fast.) The
plug-in for the format also allows images to be panned and
zoomed to minute detail. There's a web site for DjVu at
http://djvu.research.att.com/ .


Recommended Plug-ins and Utilities

by Tracy Marks [log in to unmask]

(from a message sent to Nettrain August 31, 1998 and posted at
http://www.webwinds.com/classes/plugins.htm

copyright 1998 by Tracy Marks and reposted here with permission
of the author

(Recommendations here are W95 and Netscape4-based.)

In regard to programs I use and recommend to my Internet
students...

The programs that I believe are essential are:

a) an antivirus program, preferably one of the following:
  * Norton http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
  * McAffee http://www.mcafee.com/
  * Dr.Solomon'shttp://www.drsolomon.com/index_new.cfm
  * Thunderbyte http://www.thunderbyte.com/

b) a zip and unzip program program (WinZip recommended
http://www.winzip.com/tucows/ )

I find these extremely useful for most Net surfers:

a) Adobe Acrobat reader
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

b) PowerPoint viewer if you don't have PowerPoint
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/index.htm#downloads

c) Quick View Plus http://www.inso.com/qvp/index.htm

(All three reachable on Netcape Navigator for the pc via Help,
About Plugins or at: http://home.netscape.com/plugins/index.html
)

d) a quickie image viewer (ACDSee recommended -
http://www.acdsystems.com/ or
http://www.acdvictoria.com/pages/index.html

e) a bookmark manager program (Compass recommended -
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/way/5500/compass.html

Note: Many people also like PowerMarks:
http://www.kaylon.com/power.html

f) a separate-from-browser email program (Eudora Lite and Eudora
Pro recommended http://www.eudora.com ) Also a web-based email
account such as Netscape's webmail at
http://webmail.netscape.com/ or a separate email address to use
with newsgroups (Mailbank recommended -
http://www.mailbank.com/)

These are enjoyable multimedia extras:

a) Crescendo for enhanced midi online
http://www.liveupdate.com/crescendo.html

b) Real Audio and Video Player http://www.real.com/

c) Quick Time for Windows (video)
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

(All three available at Netscape's plugin site)

d) An enhanced Midi player (Wingroove recommended -
http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hiroki/english/ review at
http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/
info.html?fcode=000RQ7

For more midi and Crescendo recommendations and music files, see
my midi and Crescendo links at
http://www.webwinds.com/friends/midi.htm

And other Internet browsing and communication extras:

a) ICQ for instant communications http://www.mirabilis.com/

b) for active newsgroup readers, a newsreader such as Gravity
(previously Anawave, now MicroPlanet - downloadable at:
http://www.microplanet.com/ and reviewed at:
http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Newsreader/ss04.html

c) an offline browser (Teleport Pro
http://www.tenmax.com/pro.html )

For Windows 95:

In regard to additional freeware and shareware that is not
Internet-related, but very useful for W95, I personally rely on:
  * Microsoft's TWEAK UI for getting rid of Microsoft desktop
    icons http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm
  * EZDESK for keeping my desktop icons where I want them
    http://www.windweaver.com/w95tips7.htm#desktop, or search
    here: http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/download/index.html
  * IDA for viewing my free hard drive space from the toolbar
    http://www.systeam.dk/index.htm
  * MULTILAUNCH for multiple file associations in W95 (an
    invaluable, hard-to-find tool, only available by searching
    here: http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/download/index.html
  * EZ-SPLIT for transferring large files to floppy disks (also
    available at zdnet's pcmag software:
    http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/download/index.html )
  * NOTESPAD for an enhanced and html-friendly Notepad (I regard
    Notespad as essential for html text editing...)
    ftp://ftp.realtime.net/vendors/newbie.net/NotesPad/
    ntspad32.zip

For more info and downloads on several of the above programs,
see also my W95 tips: http://www.windweaver.com/w95tips.htm

Frankly, I warn students against installing too many plugins, as
they slow down one's computer. I also most highly recommend
Tucows http://www.tucows.com/us.html, Stroud
http://www.stroud.com, Dave Central http://davecentral.com/ and
Zdnet hotfiles http://www.hotfiles.com for freeware and
shareware because of their xcellent reviews, although Winfiles
http://www.winfiles.com also has An outstanding collection.
Zdnet's PC Magazine software library at
http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/download/swlib.html also
continually posts reviews and recommendations of the best
Internet as well as Windows 95 shareware.

Tracy Marks [log in to unmask], Windweaver Web Training and Design,
Arlington, Massachusetts, http://www.windweaver.com/ Internet
training and web design for individuals, schools, businesses and
nonprofit organizations. Internet Search Bookstore
http://www.windweaver.com/booksrch.htm, Webwinds Web Cameras
http://www.webwinds.com/, Webcards: Annotated Guide
http://www.webwinds.com/cards/cards.htm, Figure skating photos
http://www.webwinds.com/skating/skating.htm


New electronic texts

Etexts recently made available over the Internet

from the Gutenberg Project
ftp://ftp.prairienet.org/pub/providers/gutenberg/etext98/
http://promo.net/pg/

(Adding dozens of new ones every month, Gutenberg has already
made over 1500 etexts available for free over the Internet.
These include classic works of literature and history, as well
as out-of-print and little-known works by great authors. If you
can, connect by ftp, rather than the Web, to get the most recent
ones. Here's a list of those recently added, alphabetized by
author. The file name is useful for fetching the text from the
ftp site. Many of these are also available on diskette from
PLEASE COPY THIS DISK for those who cannot get them themselves.
For the current catalog, check
http://www.samizdat.com/catalog.html or send your email request
to [log in to unmask])

Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, et. al. (cndrl10.txt)

Horatio Alger, Jr. -- Frank's Campaign/Farm & Camp (frcmp10.txt)

Hans Christian Andersen -- Fairy Tales (hcaft10.txt)

J.J. Astor -- A Journey in Other Worlds (ajiow10.txt)

Honore de Balzac --
  * The Lily of the Valley (tlotv10.txt)
  * A Distinguished Provincial at Paris (adpap10.txt)
  * The Marriage Contract (mrgct10.txt)
  * A Passion in the Desert (apitd10.txt)
  * Adieu (adieu10.txt)
  * The Hidden Masterpiece (hmstp10.txt)
  * Modeste Mignon (mdmgn10.txt)
  * A Daughter of Eve (doeve10.txt)

Joel Benton -- The Life of Phineas T. Barnum (ptbnm10.txt)

James Boswell -- Life of Johnson (ljnsn10.txt)

E.S. Brooks --
  * Historic Girls (hgrls10.txt)
  * True Story of Christopher Columbus (ttscc10.txt)

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton -- Last Days of Pompeii
(tldop10.txt)

Frances Hodgson Burnett -- A Lady of Quality (ladyq10.txt)

Edward Carpenter -- Pagan & Christian Creeds (pchrc10.txt)

David N. Carvalho -- Forty Centuries of Ink (40cnk10.txt)

J. Storer Clausen -- Count Bunker (cbnkr10.txt)

Wilkie Collins --
  * A Rogue's Life (rgslf10.txt)
  * The Black Robe (blkrb10.txt)
  * Man and Wife (mandw10.txt)

Hilda Conkling -- Poems By a Little Girl (pbalg10.txt)

Richard Harding Davis -- Lion and the Unicorn (liuni10.txt)

Alexandre Dumas (fils) -- Camille [La Dame aux Camilias]
(cmlle10.txt)

Theron Q. Dumont -- The Power of Concentration (prcon10.txt)

T.S. Eliot -- Poems (tsepm10.txt)

Edna Ferber -- Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed (dwnhr10.txt)

John Fiske -- The Unseen World and Other Essays (nswoe10.txt)

Louis Ginzberg --
  * The Legends of the Jews, Volume 1 (1lotj10.txt)
  * The Legends of the Jews, Volume 2 (2lotj10.txt)

R.B. Cunninghame Graham -- A Vanished Arcadia (vajip10.txt)

Hale -- The Life of Columbus, [in his own words] (tlocc10.txt)

Julian Hawthorne -- The Golden Fleece (gldfl10.txt)

Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Most Interesting Stories of All Nations
(misan10.txt)

William Ernest Henley -- Poems (pmweh10.txt)

O. Henry --
  * Options (optns10.txt)
  * Whirligigs (whrlg10.txt)

Thomas Hughes -- Tom Brown's School Days (tbssd10.txt)

Ibanez -- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (4hrsm10.txt)

Andrew Lang
  * (translator) -- Aucassin and Nicolete (aucnc10.txt)
  * Letters to Dead Authors (letda10.txt)
  * A Monk of Fife (mnkff10.txt)
  * Essays in Little (esltt10.txt)

Maurice LeBlanc -- The Crystal Stopper (cstpr10.txt)

Jack London -- Smoke Bellew (smkbl10.txt)

John Lord --
  * Beacon Lights of History, volume 3, part 1 (31blh10.txt)
  * Beacon Lights of History, volume 3, part 2 (32blh10.txt)

Martin Luther -- Commentary on Galatians (mlglt10.txt)

Christopher Marlowe --
  * Massacre at Paris (msprs10.txt)
  * Tamburlaine the Great Part 2 (tmbn210.txt)

Cleland Boyd McAfee -- Study of the King James Bible
(sokjv10.txt)

Charles Morris (editor) -- The San Francisco Calamity
(sfclm10.txt)

H.H. Munro ("Saki") -- The Toys of Peace (toypc10.txt)

Abraham Myerson -- The Foundations of Personality (prsty10.txt)

William Osler -- The Evolution of Modern Medicine (teomm10.txt)

Eden Phillpotts -- The Grey Room (gryrm10.txt)

Plato (translated by Benjamin Jowett) --
  * Laches (lachs10.txt)
  * Charmides (crmds10.txt)
  * Lysis (lysis10.txt)
  * Timaeus (tmeus10.txt)
  * Critias (criti10.txt)
  * The Republic (repub11.txt)
  * Euthydemus (uthyd10.txt)
  * Symposium (sympo10.txt)
  * Protagoras (prtgs10.txt)
  * Cratylus (crtls10.txt)

Howard Pyle -- Men of Iron (femen10.txt)

Mary Roberts Rinehart --
  * The Breaking Point (brkpt10.txt)
  * The Amazing Interlude (mzgnt10.txt)

Ernest Savage -- Old English Libraries (nglbs10.txt)

Sir Walter Scott -- Kenilworth (knlwt10.txt)

George Bernard Shaw -- Perfect Wagnerite, Commentary the Ring
(sring10.txt)

Upton Sinclair -- The Profits of Religion (prfrl10.txt)

Chester K. Steele -- The Golf Course Mystery (glfms10.txt)

James Stephens -- The Clock of Gold (crkgd10.txt)

Robert Louis Stevenson and L. Osbourne --
  * The Wrong Box (wrngb10.txt)
  * The Ebb-Tide (ebtid10.txt)

D.O. Stewart -- A Parody Outline of History (apooh10.txt)

J. M. Synge -- In Shadow of the Glen (sglen10.txt)

Booth Tarkington -- Seventeen (svntn10.txt)

Henry van Dyke --
  * Little Rivers (ltrvs10.txt)
  * The Blue Flower (blflr10.txt)

Kate Douglas Wiggin -- A Cathedral Courtship (cthrc10.txt)

Mary Wilkins --
  * Stories Of The Supernatural (sotsn10.txt)
  * The Wind in the Rose-Bush (sotsn10.txt)

Woods -- How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers (httbf10.zip)

The Internet Public Library Online Texts Collection
http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/

A joint project of the Internet Public Library and the Michigan
Humanities Text Initiative, the "Online Texts Collection
contains over 7700 titles that can be browsed by author, by
title, or by Dewey Subject Classification." The do not store any
texts locally, but rather catalog texts elsewhere on the
Internet, making it easy for you to search for what you want and
linking directly to the texts themselves. (It was a pleasant
surprise to search for "Seltzer" and see all of my own books and
stories, from, included in the catalog, complete with Dewey
classification, and with links to my site
http://www.samizdat.com ).


Off-the-wall ideas

"Cultural citizenship" -- an alternative form of government made
possible by the Internet

by Richard Seltzer, [log in to unmask]

We have grown accustomed to thinking of the U.S. as a "melting
pot," with people from many different cultural backgrounds. But
the same is true of many other countries around the world. Hence
many people feel a dissociation between their cultural identity
and the political entity that rules the geographic area where
they happen to live. At the very least, this dissociation can
lead to feelings of isolation, of being out-siders, of not
belonging. Where cultural minorities are large enough, it can
lead to political unrest, rebellion, and civil war.

The Internet makes it theoretically possible for people with a
common cultural background to communicate with and bond with one
another, regardless of where they may happen to live. We will
increasingly find ourselves with two intertwined identities --
the bonds (social and economic) that arise from where we happen
to be physically located and the bonds that arise from cultural
background and belief and conviction and on-line interaction.
And now that Internet usage is spreading broadly -- reaching all
countries, and increasingly becoming available to the many,
rather than just the elite few -- perhaps it is time to consider
the opportunities this opens, not just for increasing mutual
understanding, and building virtual culture-based communities,
but also for changing our basic concepts of what constitutes a
government and what it's role should be.

One possibility would be to recognize a "cultural citizenship"
in addition to today's "geographic citizenship". I was born in
the United States and live here and pay taxes here and vote
here. But I may feel I have a cultural identity that is German
or Irish or Scottish or Italian. Someone who lives in Israel may
feel cultural allegiance to Judaism or to the Arabic world.

For a moment, forget the current geo-political landscape, and
consider the possibilities. Say each individual in the world had
the opportunity to declare his or her "cultural citizenship."
Say that then some part of taxes collected from this individual
went to support an organizational entity devoted to that
culture/background, and that individual had the right to vote to
determine the leadership and direction of that cultural entity.
Then in a country with many cultures, no single culture would be
the "winner" and all the others "losers" or "minorities."
Everyone, regardless of where they live, would belong to the
culture of their choice and have a say in the preservation of
its past/traditions and the direction of its future development.

This virtual, cultural citizenship need not be limited to
national or religious or other pre-existing "cultures." People
should be able to belong to whatever cultural entities they
wish, including newly created ones, based on any common
interest. And "cultural citizenship" need not be
"all-or-nothing." Someone could, for example choose to be 60%
German, 20% Turkish, 10% Argentinian, 10% Mormon Church... In
that case, the taxes and the voting rights would be similarly
divided -- e.g., 60% of that person's cultural tax going to
support the German culture and 60% of that person's cultural
vote going to that entity.

The infrastructure and the habits of behavior supported by the
Internet make this bizarre notion possible. Would it be
desirable? How might it work? And how might we get from here to
there? I'd be very interested in hearing your reactions.
[log in to unmask]

Reply from Alfred C. Thompson II <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.tiac.net/users/act2/

I like the idea of cultural citizenship in many ways. The
Internet does facilitate this sort of concept. I tend to think
of myself as a resident of both New Hampshire and of Cyberspace
for example. I see a number of problems with your concept. Many
of them revolve around taxes.

For New Hampshire people, such as myself, taxes are a most
important issue. Through my involvement in public schools, as an
elected official, I have become painfully familiar with many
emotions and issues around taxation. I believe that many of
these issues go far beyond the narrow bound of this little
state.

Problem number one is the American notion of separation of
church and state. While many nations do use tax money to support
churches, Americans have an almost pathological objection to
this. And it's not just that they don't want their money going
to churches or that they don't want taxes going to other
people's churches. They don't want to see anyone's tax money go
to anyone's churches. So you'll never see Americans agreeing to
the inclusion of religious affiliations getting tax money.

I also see worldwide an objection to governments helping collect
taxes for groups that some people do not support. There are
probably enough people who have enough of an objection to enough
groups that this will never fly. Now you can argue logic, but
*every group* gets money, until you are blue in the face.
Rational arguments and taxes are about as useless as rational
arguments and religion. And I say this as one who supports
taxes, religion and rational arguments. Reality is reality.

For the notion of taxes to work in this global system they must
be voluntary. No government is going to use its force to collect
for other entities. They spend enough resources collecting for
themselves. Voluntary taxes do work. Else churches in most of
the world would fold. They require that members have a strong
belief in the mission of the organization. And that the money
raised supports that mission.

The Internet can be used to support more global organizations.
However the idea of citizenship implies more than just common
affiliation and financial support for an organization.
Citizenship implies duty, rights and privileges.

Duty includes financial support (paying of taxes), adherence to
laws, and, in many states, contribution of time and effort
(military or other public service.) This much you've started to
cover in your essay. But what of rights and privileges?

For a state, rights and privileges includes such things as are
stated in the American Bill of Rights. Due process of law,
freedom to contribute to the process of government and to
benefit for the system. Privileges include the protection of the
government from enemies (internal and external.) It is from
these rights and privileges that citizenship aquires its value.
In fact, one can (and often must) pay taxes without getting the
benefits of citizenship.

From what I've seen, American citizenship is moderately
difficult to acquire. The US requires several years of residence
and the passing of a test. There are countries where citizenship
may be purchased. I read the other day that one country in
Africa sells citizenship for $5,000. Other countries require
years of residence and official acceptance by the government.
Rules for acquiring membership in cultural citizenship groups
must be clearly defined and probably non-trivial for them to be
accepted.

The rights and privileges must also be clear. And they must be
supported. I'm not sure what they will be or how supported. But
it is something to think about.

Castro, baseball, and a possible end to political conflict with
Cuba

by Richard Seltzer [log in to unmask]

Perhaps Major League Baseball could help put an end to tensions
between the U.S. and Cuba. Baseball is extremely popular in
Cuba, and Castro himself used to be a quality player with pro
potential before he became a revolutionary and then dictator.

Consider the possibilities if Major League Baseball were to
(gratis, for the good of world peace) offer Castro personal
ownership of a major league franchise for Havana. The sole
condition would be that he retire from politics. This would in
one swift stroke
  * give Castro a way to step down, gracefully, without losing
    face,
  * give Congress and the President an excuse to re-establish
    normal relations, without losing face,
  * create a firm basis for quickly opening commerce between
    Cuba and the US (with all the multiple business contacts and
    opportunities related to the games, the news coverage, the
    television rights, the stadium, the travel, the
    visitors/tourists, etc.), and
  * provide a common ground for understanding between the
    American people and the Cuban people, through their
    enthusiasm for baseball.

Such a move could not only reduce political tensions, but could
also be the first step toward establishment of a Carribean or
Latin American League, which could have equal status with the
American and National Leagues, and have inter-league play with
the American and National Leagues, and participate in the World
Series.

Baseball -- time for a rule change: from intentional walk to
"home walk"

by Richard Seltzer [log in to unmask]

When sluggers like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa come to the
plate, we want to see action. But, under the current rules,
opposing managers often call for an intentional walk when they
come to the plate. It's only logical -- you take the bat out of
the slugger's hands at the minimal cost of putting the guy on
first base.

A simple change in the rules could have interesting
implications, and add some additional excitement to the game. As
it is now, the choice of an intentional walk is entirely in the
hands of the team in the field. Why not give the batter a chance
to decline?

In other words, when you have four balls, you can walk to first;
but you can also decline the walk, and continue to bat, keeping
whatever strikes you may have. If you then get eight balls
(before getting three strikes), you again can walk if you choose
-- but this time you would go to second base, instead of first;
or you can opt again to continue to bat. At twelve balls, you
can choose to go all the way to third. And at sixteen balls, you
get a "home walk."

That small rule change could lead to some interesting and
difficult choices for both the pitcher and the batter, a lot
fewer intentional walks, and more action. (If you know anybody
who involved in rule changes for Major League Baseball, please
forward this to them. :-)

Why Clinton might resign

by Richard Seltzer, [log in to unmask]

Bill Clinton seems determined to hold onto the presidency to the
bitter end, relying on his continued popularity to avoid
impeachment. As long as economic prosperity continues, the
public will remain generally apathetic regarding his mistakes --
avidly following in the media the tale of his troubles and the
continuing revelations of his misdeeds, but with the same kind
of not-really-caring distance as they follow soap operas.
Basically, Clinton's personal problems are no surprise to
anyone, even though the lurid details are shocking. And very few
people perceive that it is important to their own personal
well-being that Clinton be removed for office. (He has not yet
become a scapegoat for public ills. There are no public ills, at
the present time, for him to be a scapegoat for.)

But there is one compelling reason why he might very well
resign.

It is a certainty that if Clinton were to suddenly, unexpectedly
resign, the stock market would drop precipitously. It might
rebound the next day, or even that same afternoon, but the
immediate effect would be a certain drop in the Dow of hundreds
of points. Hence, Clinton has in his hands a virtually sure-fire
way to make a fortune over night, initiating stock transactions
based on his fore-knowledge of his own decision. There would be
nothing "illegal" about this action, for he would have no
"insider-knowledge" regarding any company. Rather, he would be
taking advantage of the fact that his decision would affect the
entire market. And he could thereby leave office as a "winner,"
with enough wealth to ease the pain of political disaster.


Letters to the Editor

Marketing the book vs. marketing the author

From: Brett Hart <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 02 Sep
1998 21:39:22 -0400

As a writer hopeful, I read with interest your article on using
the internet to distribute writing to a wide audience --
initially for free, with the hopes of a publishing contract
later -- and agree with your analysis on the current reluctance
of publishers to submit potentially profitable work on so open a
forum. However, I would like to add that until publishers either
take such an initiative (or, better still, peruse the 'net for
examples of worthy talent), aspiring writers such as I will be
in a frustrating situation.

I, like other fellow hopefuls, have to maintain a full-time job
(fortunately for me, one that does allow some use of my writing
ability) in order to make ends meet. This, naturally, consumes
the majority of my daily energy which could otherwise be spent
in writing on a scale which could be publicized across the
internet. However, if I were to reduce my working hours and
divert some of that energy to undertake such an endeavor, the
lack of compensation for my efforts (as you described in your
article) would leave me financially desparate.

Until some means is discovered for allowing piece-rate writing
on the internet by hitherto unknown authors (the same concept
that was applied with great success by newspapers in the early
history of American journalism), a lot of talent (including
mine, if I may be so bold) will be stifled before it has a
chance to be seen.

Any advice or comments you have would be appreciated. Again, I
enjoyed your article.

Reply from Richard Seltzer, [log in to unmask]

Posting on the Internet is part of the writing process, rather
than separate from it. That is how I get feedback, which helps
me better understand the impact of what I have written, and
helps me edit and improve, it also brings interesting comments
that help stimulate me to think in new directions. (It's a lot
easier, less time-consuming, and more valuable than begging
friends to read my work.)

And publishers/editors, etc. do, increasingly, use the Internet
to search for new material.
  * my fantasy The Lizard of Oz was found by Ebooks Multimedia,
    an outfit in San Francisco that makes interactive CD ROMs
    for kids. I now have a contract with them (but they'll have
    to raise some funds to actually go ahead with it)
  * my play Amythos was found by a small theater company in
    Spokane, WA, that wants to produce it (I should get about
    $295 royalties for their performances)
  * my translation of two books about Ethiopia from the Russian
    was found by a professor/historian in Addis Ababa, and
    thanks to his enthusiasm, they will be published next year
    by Red Sea Press.

No, I'm not going to get rich from such "successes". But works
that otherwise would simply gather dust are likely to reach
audiences beyond the Internet, and gradually I'm building a name
for myself as a writer.

I couldn't ask for anything more.

Asking for advice re: cable modems

From: martin--the birdscaper <[log in to unmask]> Date:
Thu, 6 Aug 1998 10:29:30 -0700 (PDT)

I do believe your article that cable modems will be the trend
later on as everyone wants to be a publisher and put his family
or himself on the web. I've recently talked with mediaone--cable
company here in jacksonville florida and once a customer
subscribes to mediaone cable service (TV & INTERNET), then
mediaone automatically becomes the ISP of that customer. A
direct connection & a speed of 1.5mbps or greater will make a
desktop become a webserver. In fact, honestly, I've been
contacting DELL or DIGITAL for a CPU which will house both as my
personal desktop and webserver. Now, may I ask your opinion on
this. I want to buy a web server (compaq, if you may
recommend)and at the same time a graphics workstation. Please.
tell me the specs and hardware that will be enough to run a
webserver. won't my desktop files be invaded by someone
accessing my web site? Aren't my personal files at risk since I
have my webserver and personal desktop in one CPU casing? if you
can give me a dream machine, then be it. I'll appreciate your
response. thank you very much.

martin

Reply from Richard Seltzer, [log in to unmask]

I suggest that you check the responses to that article, at
http://www.samizdat.com/news24.html#summary and #cable t #cable,
you'll find messages from several people who are doing this
today. I suggest that you contact them directly and get their
advice. From their experience, they might be able to save you
headaches and money. (e.g., they all seem to be running Linux).
Once you have sorted out the issues and determined the right
questions to ask your cable company to make sure you won't be
pounding your head against a wall, (some of them today just
don't get it, and deliberately make it difficult, if not
impossible to do your own Web server from home), then you can
shop for hardware. (And naturally, I think Compaq would be a
good choice :-)

Reply from: Eric Eldred <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 07 Sep
1998 10:40:46 +0000

I know it is tempting to get the most powerful machine you can
afford. Nowadays a K6-300MHz box is very inexpensive, and what
I'd recommend.

However, you don't actually need that much power for a web
server. Instead of an ultrafast CPU, you should get plenty of
RAM (64MB minimum, which means your motherboard and BIOS need to
support it all--not every MB will go above 64MB) and as much L2
cache as you can get. Web servers don't tax the CPU as much as
they do RAM and sometimes random disk access.

I run my web server on a Cyrix P166 (actually 133MHz) box I put
together myself, with 64MB RAM and 512KB cache. I use Linux
(RedHat 5.0) with some patches for the GNU compiler for Cyrix,
and Apache for the web server.

You should be aware that my cable company does not officially
support Linux. When they install the cable modem they require
one of these OSs: Windows 95 or 98 or NT, or Macintosh. Also,
the Network Interface Card (NIC) used at installation must be
retained because its MAC address is used by the modem software
(if you change the card you can have the cable company readdress
the modem, with some delay).

So what I (and many others) do is set up a Windows machine with
the NIC so the cable modem can be installed. If you want to run
a web server from Win95/98 you can use the Personal Web Server
free from Microsoft -- available with Internet Explorer 4--or
pay lots of money to run Microsoft's Internet Server from
Windows NT. I used PWS for a while, but it lacks the control
facilities and logging available with Apache's free web server
(which, BTW, should be available on Windows NT soon as well as
Linux and others). There are also some other shareware Windows
web servers and firewall systems.

The cable installers will remind you to turn off Windows file
and print sharing so others will not be able to get at your
files.

Then, when your system is stable, you can add a Linux box for
the web server, or convert the Windows box to Linux and use just
it. Linux adds quite a bit more security and power--Linux and
Apache have more than half of the web server market now, and
your neighborhood ISP might just be running that too. Just move
the NIC over to the Linux box.

If you want to have a Linux web server and also a Windows or
Apple PC connected continously to the Internet via the cable
modem, you can set up the Linux server as a firewall (software
comes with Linux, configuration help available from other users)
and put in a second NIC. Then, with a cheap network hub and a
third NIC in the Windows box you can set up a little network.
Your files are quite safe on the Windows PCs behind the
firewall, yet you can access the web or other machines on the
internet outside the firewall, from any machine on the network.

(I don't really need the network. I use the Linux box with
Netscape to read mail and UseNet and surf the web. I use a Win95
machine with a scanner to OCR books, then I can move then to the
web server with a ZIP disk as well as the network.)

So maybe it would be wise to hang on to those old
computers--they are useful for such tasks as web servers--and
learn to set up a home network. This permits other family
members to access at the same time as you, and the web server
can be ticking away serving files at the same time to users all
over the world!

It is true that Mediaone does not officially "support" Linux or
a home network, but as long as you have elementary security
settings and don't cause problems for others they will tolerate
you or even recognize that it is okay. You will need to get
support from other Linux/Apache/Mediaone users if you have
problems. All this is not intended for novices, as even
networking experts have problems from time to time.

I might mention that I used to have my web site on TIAC.
However, bandwidth charges of about 3GB a month were costing me
a total of almost $200 a month. This was a strong motivation to
move to my home web server and drop the second phone line.

I could have set up a permanent telephone connection to TIAC and
run my web server from home, but it would have cost much more
than the cable modem and provide even less bandwidth.

I live too far from the Central Office for DSL to work here.

(At last count, I had users from at least 85 countries, with
about 150MB of files. You can see for yourself what the cable
modem response time is.... I don't claim that all cable modems
work this way, but it would be a pity to sit around arguing when
it is simple enough to just do it--let the market decide!)

"Eric" Eric Eldred Eldritch Press http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/

Advice regarding anti-hate pledge

From: Denise Rogers <[log in to unmask]> Date: August 14, 1998

Hi, I was reading excerpts from your book about how to publicize
your web site. I really, really could use your help. I am the
executive director of a peace and justice organization called

Montana Hate Free Zone based in Bozeman, Montana. We have
launched an anti-hate, non violence pledge on the internet. Our
goal is 1 million people world wide renouncing hatred and
violence. This is a global effort. But I find it hard to get the
word out. I am literally sending info like this one to groups
and individuals one at a time. There has got to be a more
effective way. We believe what we are doing is important. So I
won't give up. Our web page is http://www.gomontana.com/hatefree
on the bottom of the page there is the number 1,000,000. Click
on the number and the pledge will appear.

We are an all volunteer organization so funds are limited. If
you have any ideas or suggestions please let us know. Thank you
very much for sharing so generously your knowledge on the
internet.

Rev. Denise Rogers Executive Director

Reply from Richard Seltzer, [log in to unmask]

In the old days, email would have been the most effective
method. But spam has so muddied the waters that most people
delete messages that don't seem directly addressed to them as
individuals.

As opposed to mass mailings, I'd suggest sending personal notes
to individuals, and asking them to send personal notes to a few
of their friends, asking them to send personal notes to a few of
theirs... Then if your message has merit and strikes a chord,
the word should spread on its own.


Published by B&R Samizdat Express, PO Box 161, West Roxbury, MA
02132. [log in to unmask]

----------
End of Document




VICUG-L ARCHIVES     http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html