The Spring as a whole and pointers to other topics

Perhaps this topic will be a place to respond to all the email queries about "why is this free?" and "what can I do to help?" and other questions along a similar thread. The Spring is building some contract websites. One that is currently under construction is http://www.childrenstory.com I am billing a customer for this website. The revenue will go to replace a badly needed hard drive for one of our servers, make upgrades, and pay our kindly bandwidth provider. So, those of you with website contruction skills, this is something very specific and concrete you can do to help support the Spring and keep it going. You can help build this site, which is going to have a Real Audio server and will provide children with stories in written and spoken form. You can help directly by writing html code (I'll give you access) or you can just make suggestions. I'm going to open a new conference called 'projects' and this will be one of the first topics and we can carry a discussion of how to build and improve this site there. Another website under construction to look at would be: http://www.tvpc.com Let me know!

A pointer to a new conference: poetry. It just started this morning. I sent out a few invitations. If you have that poem hidden away in the bottom of that sock drawer, type it out and post it. Any poets or poetry lovers here?

Hey Terry, you can link to or kipe my HTML-ization of George MacDonald's The Light Princess, at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh/lprincss.html

Oh, HC - do you have any more MacDonald up your electronic sleeve?

I also converted The Day Boy and the Night Girl (The Romance of Photogen and Nycteris) to HTML, but that was for the CCEL people, and it's on their web-site (you can find it through the CMU on-line books page, or I think there might be a lin k to it at the end of the text of the Light Princess).

Who are CCEL? [something] Children's Electronic Literature, perhaps? Do you happen to have a link handy for CMU on-line books?

"Christian Classics Ethereal Library", I think... I'm too lazy to look up the CMU on-line books URL right now, but there's a link to it from the Jane Austen info page at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh/janeinfo.html

I looked at the Jane Austen info page and it's terrific. I got into reading some of Jane Austen's works and I'll be coming back for more visits. What I'd like to do is set up a team of folks who have shell access to this site and who are able to work in various websites of their own and on the projects that I'm developing to help support this conferencing system. Has anyone visited the projects conference yet? I'm on Microsoft Netmeeting all day today so if anyone wants to "talk" please drop by. I'm on the uls1.microsoft.com server. You need to have NetMeeting software, which is free from Microsofts site.

Poor mixu! He's posting all alone in the books conference about his favorite books and putting out a mystery quote for folks to guess. Is anyone up to giving him a bit of company in the 'books' conference? http://www.spring.com/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/books/all/

Check out the interesting comments on community in topic 4 of the community conference and respond, if you care to.

Terry, are you sure that you mean topic 4? That is the same (linked) topic as the "ramble" topic (with a different topic number) here. We don't have to "go there" to see it.

Ooops, no it is the last topic added I believe. What other conferences on the Spring have folks here in Austen been visiting? Any suggestions for new topics elsewhere on the Spring?

It's topic 5 in community actually.

If you want to read some very eloquent stuff: Topic 14 of 14 [music]: Players you have met Response 21 of 21: drymartini (drymartini) * Thu, Dec 26, 1996 (21:27) * 3 lines One of my all-time favorite interviews. Carlos Montoya, playing for a college crowd at Alfred, NY. Small, very dapper guy in this elegant tux, with a white hanky in his breat pocket, folded just so.... [much more]

We have got permission from ronks@well.com to reprint his celebrated tech news comments, starting today. Here's a sample: Scientific American has an interesting article in its January 1997 issue about developments in fiber-optic bandwidth and their implications for the telephone industry. Companies including AT&T, Fujitsu, and Nippon T&T have already used a single optical fiber to transmit data over "many kilometers" in excess of a trillion bits per second. NEC has gone them one better by using wave division multiplexing to create multiple channels transmitting at different wavelengths; with WDM they sent 132 channels, each carrying 20 billion bits per second, over a single optical fiber. While these "hero experiments" are not yet ready for commercial deployment, they seem to demonstrate big changes in store: glass cable is much cheaper than copper, and WDM is said to eliminate both the need for expensive boosters along the path to clean up the signals periodically and for a separate laser on each channel. As the cost of providing humungous bandwidth plummets, the phone companies' revenue and even their monopoly status could be in jeopardy. A rogue spokesman at British Telecom says technology will make "bandwidth free and distance irrelevant." The director of H-P's labs says phone companies will become digital utilities something like the water or the power company, and an independent analyst estimates "telephone service should cost about three cents a month." Check out topic 2 in techbusiness.

The Spring was down for the past hour. I apologize to Myretta, Henry and others that may have been trying to access it. I'm going through the log and emailing folks that have tried to access it and letting them know that it's back up. I messed it up this morning trying to reconfigure and restart the logs. If you're interested in the technical details of what I did you can read the sordid details in the web conference. Sorry folks, I'm not happy about being down for an hour this morning.

That is OK Terry it is working fine now.

Thanks Terry, happy new year 1997 (it's 1997 already here in Singapore)

On a cheerier note, Paul McCartney is now Sir Paul McCartney And you can read all the details in the new Sir Paul McCartney topic in the music conference. Please do my a favor. Do a search on Paul McCartney and find a neat website about Paul McCartney, then email the webmaster or whatever email address is listed on their website and ask them to please put a link on their page to our Paul McCartney discussion group. Tell them this is the link to add: http://www.spring.com/yapp-bin/public/read/music/16 Let's see if we can honor Paul in this way! Thanks.

I'm encouraging folks to do this same kind of thing all over the Spring. If you have a favorite topic, do a search for websites about it and then email the person in charge there to put in a link to the Spring. Just copy the link from your browser window and sub the word public for the word restricted. (test it) Beep beep beep beep yeeeahhh!

The Spring was down for the past hour. I apologize to Myretta, Henry and others that may have been trying to access it No apology necessary Terry. Been there, done that. All's well, they say, that ends well.

Terry -- thanks for getting things back together so quickly. I did try to get on this am, and kept getting called an "Unprivileged User"!! I was afraid it was something wrong w/ my system, and I am much relieved to see that all is again well. Have a Happy!

We're back. And I just got back from installing another server on our network. So we even have more ooooomph now.

The austen conference is featured today on the Spring's front page. Along with a revision of the whole page. Take a trip through the past in the archives. The new golf site is my sisters (she lives in the SF Bay area).

The restaurants conference has a much bigger menu of topics and a place to talk about the best restaurant in your town and the best restaurant in the world. Any ideas?

Amy, this has started up just recently -- http://www.islandmm.com/islandmm/cgi-bin/bbs.pl?action=bbs&mbaction=msgs&item=alice

Amy, this has started up just recently -- http://www.islandmm.com/islandmm/cgi-bin/bbs.pl?action=bbs&mbaction=msgs&item=alice

That board looks familiar.

That board looks familiar. Indeed.

You'll find the rest of this poem in the poetry conference. This is just a taste. Flowing Like Spring Waters Tonight is the night, my dear friend. The feeling has ripened inside for months... Every time you and I were together Laughing, chatting, and rambling endlessly much more in the poetry conference --------->

There's a new conference called 'unix' and I posted quite a few things in the Internet and Web conferences. You'll find out about the seven new domains that are going to be on the Internet. This will shake things up for sure. Maybe we should get austen.art? Or eeyieeyi.io? Or spring.firm? Things are going to get very interesting. You have to read the whole thing.

What are you watching on tv right now? That's a new topic in the tv conference. Have fun with this one.

In the sports conference, news of a womens' sports site that has been months in the making. Topic 39 on sports web sites ------------ go there -------------->

Like figure skating on ice? Then you'll like the new figure skating topic in sports which has all the latest schedules of ice skating events on tv. And there is a packers joke there too.

Very Highly Recommended dept: Gerard Van der Leun, boswell@well.com, has an excellent cookbook recipe for a successful virtual community in the virtual community conference. http://www.spring.com/yapp-bin/public/read/vc/12

Two new Michigan virtual communities are the subject of new topics in the vc or virtual community conference: grex and m-net.

I am trying to get an alternative medicine topic off the ground in the health conference. Even if you don't take vitamins and think acupuncture is a bunch of hooey, check it out and say so.

I'd like to point out some topics getting activity in the travel conference: 16 15 dive travel with Divine Spark 17 3 India 18 4 Micronesia and the Pacific region 19 3 Fiji There is a fascinating tale of travel to India and some comments from some islanders themselves in topics 18 and 19. Have you traveled any places that we could start a new topic about?

How about Germany, where I'm from? (Specifically Swabia)

Swabia?

Swabia?

uh huh. that would be the southern country where i'm from. the city is Stuttgart. Hi wer!

Sure start a topic!

I put some procative posts in the Internet conference today in a new topic. Something called Cyberwar: The Information Revolution and Warfare. It turns out, for the last half century, the US has been intercepting and decrypting the top secret documents of most of the world's governments. It's topic 22.

Cool! What will we Yanks think up next?! :-)

Hmm...just occured to me that this topic and "What's hot on the Spring?" rather overlap with each other. Perhaps one or the other should be frozen?

thumbs down on that, it would leave us one less place to babble, and we can't have that now, can we?

dunno, wer, maybe we can talk the higher powers into creating a conference just for babbling-we'd never have to leave!!

Good idea Mike, which one should I freeze. Anyone object?

I don't know, but definitely kill 16 and 19.

In music, topic 44 is Van Morrison - the Man with news of an upcoming Van and Dylan tour. About time to pay some tribute to Van Morrison. Gotta get me that Astral Weeks CD.

Done deal on killing the redundant topics, this is now spring pointer to other topic world headquarters.

wait, what was 16 and 19?? terry, didja catch my hint for a blabbing conference? *grin*

they were just doubles, Wolf...

I got the hint, I'll hold hearings for more comment.

thanks *smile*

What's hot, hot, hot. News. There's now a whole news conference. Go there and find out stuff you should know (maybe), talk about your Spring anniversary, discuss spam, enter your offsite email address if you care to do so, request favors, talk about springeurs who have hit the big time or made the news, pat yourself on the back, and find out about places to go and things to do.

In the media conference, bet you didn't know we had one, there's a new topic on the Drudge Report. My friend Judith Lewis of the LA Weekly is just down the streeet from Matt Drudge and has been known to pay him a visit every so often. Go to media and get in on this drudgery.

And also something about our homeboys. Guess where?

Let's rewind to June 22, 1995 and pick up where we left off. Nike was there. So was Gena. GenX is back!!!!!! Here's the scoop: 1 4 genx conference bidness 2 1 genXer intros 3 0 drugs 4 1 sex or . . . 5 1 Embarassing Things I Did in the '80s 6 1 First jobs from hell and beyond ... and a total of 64 topics to come Melissa Marie, I still love you.

The Spring's original topic list from 1995: http://www.spring.com:/~dbii/forum/confs/confs.html

Some very good thoughts on the CFP conference in the last topic in our cfp conference: From: Lorrie Faith Cranor [For the past five years I have written a Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference report (see the archive at=20 http://www.research.att.com/~lorrie/pubs/cfp.html). This year, turned the job over to Danielle Gallo, an undergraduate student who has been working with me. Feel free to forward this report. -- Lorrie Cranor] Danielle Gallo's CFP98 Conference Report Computers, Freedom and Privacy '98 was held February 18-20 at the Austin, Texas Hyatt Regency Hotel. Although there have been eight in total, this is the first CFP I attended. The program featured daily single-track sessions, lunch breakout sessions, and several concurrent tutorials. . . . contines with her extensive observations. A good read! Recommended.

Letter to me and Mike: Sounds like a good trade to me. I am doing a CGI project for the Exploratorium in San Francisco on a volunteer basis and that is why I need the test space. I don't have years of experience doing this, but there are some prewritten CGI libraries available that allow a developer to write a CGI script that will put up the HTML form and collect the data. At this point I would have to say that I could probably write the part that put up the HTML and collected the data. So, in that regard, let me take a stab at what I think you might mean. Name: Email: What you do in real life: Favorite sites on the web: Other interests, and miscellaneous biographical information: Other or different fields that you have in mind: A couple of areas that I am going to have to do some research on, or get ideas about: If there are variables that I can access for the visitor's email address, or am I going to have to make them enter it by hand. How to link the information I collect to the visitor's alias. Maybe the people at the Well would be willing to part with some secrets in that regard. Anyway, I think it would be fun to be involved in writing the CGI script for this, and if the library I mentioned is loaded, or could be loaded, on the server, I don't think it would be too much work to get to the point of having the form displayed and collecting the information. Let me know what fields and other form elements you think should be in there. I will follow up with some questions for Terry. Regards, Bill

Allie McBeal, a new topic in the tv confernce (and also 'babes'). See, there's this tv show called Ally McBeal. And it features three *hot babes*. That little bit of sexual subconscious out of the way, let me say it's a very funny show. It's a great show, I'll go even further. It's about a law firm. And Allie's ex lover just happens to be a member of the firm and he's married to a gal that has a jaw and blonde hair that Allie doesn't have. Billy, the ex lover of Allie, has mixed emotions And Allie has become friends with Billy's wife. We're talking age ranges of 25-28 here, folks. My theory is that this is a guy type show, and that women will find it embarassing. I don't think it will end up on the feminist top ten listing of tv shows, maybe the bottom ten. The women are too cute and too bimboish at times. And the women aren't the aggressive, free wheeling Marcia Clark types, they're quite timid usually. But how can you not like a show whose lead actress is *** Calista Flockhart *** That name just does it for me. I would love to have a girlfriend like her just so I could introduce her to people. Uh, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, *Calista Flockhart*. Dream, dream. I'll have more to say about Allie McBeal. It's my favorite tv show. I hope others will join me in this quaint little discussion.

Jordan's up to bat, does that mean Lewinsky's in the on deck circle. Politics, in the topic on the Clinton Presidency. Hey, it's great to see the new conferences, news and genx, off to such a roaring start! I have a lot more surprises in store in both conferences in the way of stome startling new topics. Stay tuned.

There's an *awesome* array of new material in the cfp conference. Warning, this is heady stuff, the legal and moral consequences of today's cyberspace mileau and the implications for our future freedom, privacy and lives are freely discussed. It's a stretch to get past the gate, but the effort may be worth your time. Danielle's observations are far reaching and comprehensive in her roundup of the confernce. Danielle Gallo, on CFP98. j cfp.

The most underutilized, ready for prime time conference on the Spring that has potential for future stardom: cultures Hear me now, or hear me later. Pump it up!

Yes, dad.

Dad!!!

Is there something you want to share with us, Terry??

You mean I haven't been forthcoming, autumn?

ok, terry (aka wer's dad)..... Hi Autumn!

Heya, Wolfie, havin' a good weekend? :-) Mine has been soooo relaxing....

not really, kinda stressin', been working on my site and trying to figure out what the deal is with this browser....... got the baby girl's ears pierced yesterday, she did soooo good. the part she can't handle is the cleaning and turning the posts, but today it is going much better and she's doing it for herself. am very proud of her. the whole thing was her decision, told her she didn't have to if she didn't want to, but she was gung ho!

Good coverage by Gary Chapman of the Bruce Sterling speech in the cfp conference. j cfp

My older daughter came to me yesterday asking for pierced ears for her birthday (she'll be 6). Her dad said age 15, I said 10, so it'll probably be next year! How old is your little girl?

4, she'll be 5 next month (didn't we have that conversation before?) didn't get mine done til i was 16 cuz the big d said heck no. we let her think about it for a while and i carefully explained the whole thing, my big thing was letting her make up her own mind, you know?

yeah, but mine also wants to be bald (she literally cries about wanting to have her head shaved), black (which I can do nothing about) and handicapped (which I'm tempted to do something about--just kidding!) So giving her too much control is definitely o ut of the question. Oh, she also wants me to get a job so she can go to day care (just tear out my heart, I tell her!)

Babe of the week in babes. I know, we pale next to drool.

what is this an invite? Autumn, my daughter hasn't gone that far yet! she wants me to tell my boss i'm not coming back so i can be with her! (she's mama's for sure)

New topics in the news conference: Asteroid! WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's not time to panic, but Earthlings need to keep an eye on a mile-wide asteroid that will zip very close to the Earth in 30 years and could even smash into the planet, causing widespread destruction, astronomers say. Is it time to book that flight to Mars or is this a bunch of hype? Discuss among yourselves in the news conference topic called Asteroid!

That will be the year 2028 in case you need to mark your calendars. It will be 1:30 on a Thursday morning. October 26, 2028. Thursday. 1:30 am. Got that? Did you have anything planned for that day?

wait.....do dayrunners plan that far in advance? (anyway, it's gonna be a near miss by about 600,000 miles)

I was very concerned about this when I saw it on the news. As a student of geophysics, and the science of major collisions, if this thing hits it's going to be The Big One. For the religious ones amongst you (including me), it's time to get your on your knees =)

hey, it's going to MISS US......

Maybe. It will be four months till they have accurate calculations. But even if was aimed dead center at Manhattan, they'd turn it into a media circus and attach rockets to it and turn it into a theme park and steer it into a different orbit. And the commercials would dwarf what it costs to put an ad on the superbowl.

I wondering Terry what did you mean you pale next to drool? I'm chewing my nails waiting for the day my son will be born. So please you guys don't scare me so that I start chewing my fingers... O.K. thanks, drool

I meant drool the conference!!! ha!

A certain Gerard van der Leun, boswell, shows up doubting the Spring will make it, and giving it poor grades. He posts in the Spring's most infrequently utilized Internet conference.

A photography topic is now in the art conference. I talk about some findings I got re: 3d photography.

terry, theres a confrencecalled drool? really? How do I get there from here? I am sorry if I offended you or anything. drool, the person

There's a link to it from our main http://www.spring.net page. Wow, just getting used to that dot net!

I will be giving a live talk via realaudio at http://www.spring.net today and call ins will be accepted (512.303.4000), it will be a live internet "talk show".

Rush Limbaugh has come out in favor of legalization of marijuana. Full details in the Rush Room topic in the radio conference. This is not a joke, he did come out in favor of legalization. It happened March 12 10:40 am pst. Three times!

wasn't limbaugh one of the bastards that so unmercifully tormented clinton's first surgeon-general (forget her name) for basically saying that we should consider decriminalization of some drugs?

I'll guess Jocelyn Elders, if we're talking about the "pro-decriminalization/pro-masturbation" surgeon general.

what elders (thank you) said was that it (decriminalization) was an issue that merited discussion... she's in good company with that view... re: masturbation, don't think it really means a tinker's damn what her opinion is, one way or the other... (and regardless of one's view, really must ask one's self where republicans would be, without it?...(especially rush)... they're certainly repressed enough, as it is)...

(hi autumn)

Just mentioned that, because she'll forever be remembered for her ideas on masturbation rather than decriminalization...

We'll be going live with our talk show again in an hour.

Right here on the Spring we had an event that shocked even the hoary old WELL. Sunday, we all went live and really "met" one another for the first time, I only wish I had pumped it up more on the spring. Next Sunday we'll do it again. It was a gas, gas, gas. See Mikes topic 26 in this conference. What should we call this? Sunday Night Live on the Spring?

About the canabis thing out of the 265 chemicals in tobbaco I think 80 of them cause cancer. out of the 18 chemicals in pot none are known too cause cancer... also a hemp plant produces forty percent more wood products than the trees being cut down now. I wouldn't mind being able to smoke my coffee table occasionally. hahahah DROOL,

*smile*

Yeah, cannabis is great apart from the mind-threatening hallucinations and permanent psychological disturbances (e.g. Schizophrenia)

Wow, that explains a lot....

aha!

Where in the world did you hear that pot causes schizt. I know that it can stunt your emotional growth if you start at a young age. I think you've been watching to many of those old anti-pot movies. Did you know thatthe gov. did a test were they gave a mentally disturb man some L.S.D and twelve hours later {when he came down} he was no longer clasified as mentally disturbed. If you ever get to the library of congress you should look up these facts. Knowlege Is Power. {or at least understanding..} I do not condone the use of L.S.D. {at least not the street stuff, never know whats in that crap} Remember the gov. has all of the best drugs. And clinton did inhale... And probly still does. Drool

read it in a newspaper article, quoting some recent research at a UK university. I'll look it up again and post it for you

this is an extract, since the article is about 500 words -- BEGIN QUOTE "We do not yet know enough about its causes to say how schizophrenia can be prevented, but one specific factor is important: drug use." SANE continues by pointing out that cannabis can cause ahllucinations and paranoid delusions similar to those found in schizophrenia. The psychotic effects induced by these drugs do not always clear up readily, and there is some evidence that they may tr igger a prolonged schizophrenic illness. In addition, such drugs can cause a relapse in an established illness. Most doctors have harrowing stories of psychotic breakdown after a young person has been exposed to cannabis. Detailed research is scant, although a study of the role of cannabis in precipitating schizophrenia in Swedish men who had undertaken national s ervice seemed tod demonstrate a clear link. It is usually considered unlikely that smoking cannabis could be a primary cause of schizophrenia, but likely that it could be a factor in the condition's development in those who are unfortunate enough to have a genetic susceptibility. ... Apart from its intoxicating effects and any persistent damage to the psyche, cannabis may also cause acute anxiety or a panic reaction, particularly if the plant has been bred to give a high yield of cannabinoids, a type of cannabis referred to as "skunk" . Panic attacks may be treated with benzodiazepines, acute psychotic reactions with neuroleptic drugs. Smoking cannabis mixed with tobacco combines the delterious effects of both plants on the air passages. The ill effects of cannabis are not confied to the brain and lungs. it also causes impotence in men, reduces the sperm count and alters the reproductive hormonal systems. babies born to cannabis-smoking mothers are smaller than average, and feed and set tle less well. -- END QUOTE Dr Thomas Stuttaford, The Times (Tuesday, 17 March, 1998)

Helen Huth died crossing the bridge over the river in Cape Girardeau Missouri. She was a college student. I loved her and I loved her poems. I got a batch of her poetry in the mail today from Merle Busch, who is trying to dig up some more of her work, about 150 poems, which we are praying are not lost forever. What a loss for the world, that she died so young and didn't get to keep writing these poems and that we only have a few scraps from her prolific output. Reading these today, tears came to my eyes, and I had to go for a long walk in the woods.

A few of the ones I got are posted in the poetry conference. In a topic called Helen Huths poems.

forgive me Paul, I do not know of the woman you speak... but I will wander over to 'poetry' and see what I can discover.

I think you will discover some magic.

Today at 1:55 is the start of Spring! We should have an online cyberparty! It's also this Spring's anniversary.

Yee-haw!!!

WooWoo!

Our fourth anniversary, since we officially went live on the web on the exact beginning of Spring four years ago. And this is the tenth anniversary of the Spring as an organization which started on this date in 1988. We'll be live on the web at 1:55 pm today CST if anyone wants to call in or post something (I'll read it aloud via our realaudio server).

boing, boing--happy spring!

A new topic, number 260 has been started to discuss the potential for bring the show "My Solitary Elegance" to Austin. from Karen Hannum (sunflower@well.com): A friend of mine from England is bringing her show on Jane Austen, "My Solitary Elegance", to the US for a very limited run. It has enjoyed a great deal of success in England and Scotland including being featured on BBC2. It will be performed in San Franciso from October 2nd-5th at the Jane Austen Society of North America AGM. She has some open dates from the 6th through the 8th and would be interested in filling these bookings. Perhaps at a college or some other venue. If anyone is interested - please contact me at and I can put you in touch with her. Thank you...

Oh, I didn't mention that this topic is in the austen conference. I plan on attending the international Jane Austen conference in SF and promote the Spring's austen conference. Also, I've registered the name austen.com

Good Will Hunting. Titantic. New topics in the movies conference. Have you seen these? Comment in movies!

If you drop in tonight or later on, come by and comment on this years Oscars in topic 29. Hot. Now.

mikeg, Well without getting long winded you did say the sickness was potentialy pre-exsisting sickness,. If pot was not illegal people would not get peranoid and annxious. as for impotence, I have aa very high sperm count and am expecting a strong and healthy baby boy to arrive any day. as for sexual drive well three times a day doesn't sound like a {decreased sex drive} as you so said. If you take a trip to Amterdam, you would see that somking hemp,pot,skunk,red hair sinns.,ganja, the bomb, bolo rolo,canabis,canaboid,the huch-cauw,a blunt, or canabis sativa, mota, purple, blue, green, or gold haired marajajuana, is not so detrimental to a persons health as you might be lead to beleive by the Ronald Regan, Nancy Drew (just say noer's} people. theend drool...

Funny, I always pictured Nancy Drew for a "Mary Jane" girl....

I think I saw that movie...

purty graphics! The visuals almost make up for the ridiculously slow pace through a browser.

You at home, or a different setup at school?

at home. and now I'm at home again, up at a ridiculously early hour, suffering from a bad case of insomnia. *sigh*

Did you drink too much caffeine. I'm in California up at a ridiculously early hour cause I'm still on Austintime. I'm out here because my mom's condition is pretty serious. Lung cancer from years of smoking. She's having an opertion and some chemo treatmetns this week.

good luck, Paul. To you and your mom. Sounds like nasty stuff, I'll be thinking good thoughts. No, not too much caffeine. Rain. It rains so rarely in Colorado through the winter that when it starts up in Spring it's always too loud for me to sleep. Snow is very quiet coming down *smile* I wasn't up for too long. The whirr of the computer soon lulled me back to sleep.

I love the sound of rain when I don't have to get up and go out in it. Lying in my bed at about 5am, the weather lashing against the glass, is one of my favourite times. And, moving back on topic, the new community I'm involved in developing, Farrawae, seems to have accelerated from an absolute stop to a snail's pace, which means things are happening! You can check out the website (I encourage you to do so - get a feel for what we're doing!), and then drop into the Farrawae conference to catch up on what's been going on!

My best wishes, also, Terry...

My big news: SPRING BREAK!!! starts now! all the kiddos are on busses and I'm hankering for a magarita!

I'm in Walnut Creek with my son watchin' the Final Four and taking care of mom. Party on Stace. Where ya goin for break?

terry, very sorry about the family illness, i understand now why you have been scarce. hope everything goes well

Thanks orange. Mom is doing well. And I'm tripping around with my kid in SF and Santa Rosa and trying to hook up with some old friends like fig@well.com

And we're back. We're having problems with the domain change. Please email terry@spring.net if you notice that our system is down. And I'll get it back up and running Sorry for the downtime folks!

Or call 512.303.4000. Either way. Please let me know if you can't get in! Terry

Spring Break plans have changed a few times... first it was going to be Washington DC for a long weekend of museums, Ethiopian food, skating along the Potomac, etc. But since this is Cherry Blossom time, tickets were cost prohibitive. Then it was going to be four days of primitive camping in Fruita Wednesday - Sunday. Then it was going to be three days of primitve camping in Arches Nat. Park and Moab Sat - Tues. (Brandon's business travel keeps f***ing everything up!) BUt NOW it will be Stacey tagging along to Savannah GA w/ B on a consulting job and B taking an extra few days to play around in the garden of good and evil! I'm excited. And Saturday we biked thru Denver in search of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." BTW excellent book!

Terry, I too am sorry to hear about your mother's health problems. I'm sure it means a lot to her to have you there. Thanks again for helping me out last night. Enjoy the time you're having with your mom and son.

I'm in SF, and having a good time, the system seems to be having a few glitches every now and then but I emailed our system admin, jeff@www.spring.net about them. I just fixed the date. I notice we're having our year 2000 problem again. Yesterday we went and visited Brian Zisk (San Franziskgo website) in SF, and then met in a little bistro in Mill Valley with Cliff Figallo, who just got a conference hosting job with Salon. And then out to dinner at a great Thai place in Santa Rosa. Mom is doing well. And Shey is still beating the pants off me on the basketball court, it's hard to compete against 6'5" of muscle. I hope I can keep this system together with band aids till I get back, sorry for any downtime! The domain name change from spring.com to spring.net will fully take place in the next few days, so please remember our new address is http://www.spring.net

Or alternatively, it's always: http://206.97.234.70 In case our name server has fits.

Like this morning?

In the vc.6 topic (Virtual Communities) are details of Vassilios Koronakis (vassilio@well.com) affair with Stacy Horn. Some pretty juicy insider stuff about the doyenne of ECHO by one of its most controversial members. Sizzzling tale... j vc and read topic 6

Myretta emailed me a while ago and said we were down. So I just rebooted the server. Sorry folks, I been out doin' nonvirtual stuff today. In the event you notice you can't get in, please email jeff@spring.net and terry@spring.net And one of us will get things moving again. Wish I had heard about this sooner! I started a coupla new topics in genx. Check 'em out!

Sorry, Terry, I thought it was down cause you was grep-ing...

What me grep?

Well, I had heard that was the plan...

terry sorry about helen and your mom, hope she's doing well. live talks? oh my, not sure if i'm ready for that, everyone thinks i'm a kid when i answer the phone or answer the door-uh, is your mom there? *giggle* please post whenever you plan to have another one *smile*

Wanted. Person to drive my Buick Regal (30,000 miles on it) from the SF Bay area to Austin, Texas. I'll pay $200 and put you up for a week in Austin free and wine and dine you. Serious about this. I need to get this car out here.

So tempted... so tempted...

What else would it take, Stace?

I have several semi-serious inquiries so far but nothing solid. The car is in Walnut Creek, CA at my moms place. If you could do this Stacey, that would be great!

would you fly me out to SF, too? :-)

Nice try.

Hey Terry, why don't you get that author whose doing book signings in SF and Austin to do it? :-)

Autumn! What a knack for putting things together!

Here's a pointer to talk about the NBC miniseries that showed the other night: Merlin Find a discussion in topic 17 in 'babes' and in the tv conference.

(and just ignore anything I might say in either one... apparently I am tired past the point of my usual inabiliy to post coherently...)

Just regroup William and take another run at it, because you seem to have some insight and perception in this area of Arthurian legend (surpassing that of your knowledge of babe-onomics).

really?????

Surprised, Stacey?????

Gary Chapman asked me a question and a favor. You have probably heard about the shooting of Texas Monthly writer Jan Reid down in Mexico City last week. Jan is in the hospital in Houston now, recovering. (Jan is a friend of Garys.) A bunch of people in Austin are putting together a fundraiser for him at the Driskill Hotel on May 9th. Jan can't be there, obviously, because he'll still be in the Rehab Hospital in Houston. Gary was wondering is if I knew how we might get a live video feed over the net to Jan from the Driskill. They're going to check to see if there's a fast net connection in the hospital itself, but Gary'd like to investigate how he'd handle his end at the gig. So I'm volunteering and looking for someone to assist me, someone with a good on camera presence to interview folks.

yes WER. Surprised (and ticklish!)

Back on the tickle contest thing again, are we?

In topic 8 in the art conference, Lenadams Dorris vegas@well.com Enigma is the focus of discussion, visit her website and comment. Lenadams: Hello, everyone...I've been pretty absent lately, mostly because my cafe, the Enigma, has been so terribly busy. We're up to 14 employees now! We were honored to again win in the 1998 Best of Las Vegas Awards, this time for "Best Art Scene." Many of you have stopped by to visit when in Las Vegas, which is wonderful. You may be interested to know that we are about to celebrate our fifth anniversary, with ten days of art, music and spoken word events. I redesigned our web site to bring it all up to date, and included an ongoing scrapbook of pictures of the Enigma and its people and things, if you want to get a better idea of what we look like. Some of you will remember that on our third birthday in 1996, a lot of WELLbeings sent postcards to help us celebrate our grand re-opening after renovations. While many of those cards are still around, many have been lost to time and careless coffee drinkers. If any of you are into it, we'd love to get a bunch of new cards from all over the world (in the scrapbook you can see some of the cards pasted to the front of the coffee counter...) People love seeing all the cards, and we love hearing from our far-flung friends. If you want to send postcards, our address is: Enigma Garden Cafe (or just "Enigma") 918 South Fourth Street Las Vegas, NV 89101 Thanks everyone...even when I am not online so much, you are my extended family who has helped keep me going all these years. Smooch!

In the media conference, linked to the news conference: Item 30 entered Sat, May 2, 1998 (08:58) by Paul Terry Walhus (terry) Live from LA, it's suicide on the freeway! They just has a live broadcast of a freeway suicide in LA, with closeup shots of someones head being blow off as they popped off a shotgun. We are at the point where everyone must know everything that's going on as it happens. Both a new low in journalism and a taste of the future.

euwwww

Riette is on a roll in philosophy. She's got the scoop on truth, wisdom and even started up a new topic. Glad to see Riette jumping in to this little known backwater of the Spring.

Riette has taken philoslophy by storm. I think she's a night person!

New topic in travel: England.

wooo hoooo.....i'm pilin' in there!

Windows Conference: Texas vs. Microsoft (AG wants to raise campaign funds and keep job. Bolt from sky tells him he is barking up wrong tree.) Texas Puts Off Action Against Microsoft (05/12/98; 8:58 p.m. ET) By Kora McNaughton, TechWeb Pressure from Texas-based licensees of Microsoft Windows has given pause to that state's attorney general, Dan Morales, who was expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft later this week. In a statement issued Tuesday, Morales said, "Before contemplating any legal action against Microsoft, I feel it is prudent and wise to personally hear the concerns of our Texas-based companies." Morales will meet with the Companies over the next few weeks. Morales said his office has received letters from several Texas computer executives worried that a lawsuit against Microsoft would "negatively impact" their companies and the state as a whole. Morales' postponement of any action is an additional boost for Microsoft, which won an important victory against the Justice Department Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled that Internet Explorer may be bundled with Windows 98. Expectations have been building that several state attorneys general and the Justice Department were readying broad antitrust complaints against Microsoft, but Morales' statement indicates such lawsuits may not happen for weeks, if at all.

The tv conference: 5 19 Seinfeld Tomorrow night, Thursday, is the Last Seinfeld. Some folks are watching jsut for the commercials. The show about nothing is no longer. Just re-runs for here on out. The cast is going to be on the Tonight Show.

Daniel Cardenas wrote: The Justice Conference will focus on topics of criminal justice. Sample top ics could be Death Penalty v. Life, rehabilitation v. punishment, juvenile justice, women in prison, ethnic makeup of jails and prisons. Also could talk about serial killers, famous prisoners now in prison, current prison cases, laws, crime, statistics, studies, etc.. It could go into Native American law, white collar crime v. blue collar, constitutional law. My plan for getting conversation going, is to talk to friends of mine to signing up, also, since I am new, I havent participated in any conversat ions yet. Through those conversations, I could steer people to the Justice conference. So, now there is a 'justice' conference. j justice

Austin's still "smokin'". Literally. A surreal pall hangs over us as smoke blows in from Mexican fires out of control. Check out topic 28 in the austin conference or topic 7 in the environment conference (they're crosslinked). air Austin The Mexican government procrastinates and the US Governement does a "study" while Austinites choke.

I hope Riette sticks around, I look forward every day to reading her cool insights in the philosophy conference. New in the spirit conference, a topic on the Sufi Order and Sufi dancing.

you mean like the Kavadi(sp?)?

Guess who's back? Howard Fredrics! Great!

Jim Moss aka Leplep Le Plep is doing his fair share in Philosophy, also, things are getting quite interesting in there... and, this in from Wolf (and edited, a little, of course...): Hi Wer!! Dude, thanks for writing me. It's good to hear from familiar folks. You can write here all the time, I do have regular access to it. As for the Spring, I do that when I'm not working and won't be on it as often as before for the time being. It's very very hot here, but it's not too bad. Drink lots of water and stay cool. Got up to 120 the other day, whew! But it's a dry heat *laugh*. Talk later, Elke :) mswolf68@hotmail.com

oh, yeah, and I updated the GenX Storybook annex page at http://www.spring.net/~spew/chap1.html

I've just opened a new topic in Spirit, which I would like to link to Philosophy -"Why Christianity is not Religious"

But, Christianity is WAY to religious...

sorry, I seemed to have lost an o while camping... how are we gonna go about this semantic wrestling match, Mike? see you there...

Terry has moved into his new casa, and won't be back on here full time until his ISDN line gets installed somewhere around the 4th or 5th of June...(I think, however, he is sneaking around here tonight)

Yup, dialin' in. My isdn line goes in on the 4th. I'll be havin' another pool party soon. I'm sittin' here with my notebook by poolside, with the tv cranked up on the music awards. Swimmin' rockin' out and lurkin' the Spring a bit.

News conference. Obits. Phil Hartman of SNL fame. Shot dead, possibly by his wife who killed herself.

I'm sorry I haven't been around much. It's Early Finals time here at Sussex again, which means that I'm studying like crazy (just as I should be now...) I will be around occassionally, but not much. However, after June 25 I will be back, with the trauma of 14 examinations over!!!

So, that's where you've been all this time - I was beginning to worry; thought you got run over by a car or something. I didn't know you were English; I just love England and Scotland - I go there at least once or twice a year. It is just so beautiful with the rolling landscapes, quaint little towns, and the people are incredibly nice. I even married one of them! Anyway, I hope your exams will be going well, and hope you'll be back more often after that.

Good luck on your finals, Mike!

14 examinations?!?! how many classes are you taking?

excuse me, I'm butting in for a second, the GenX Storybook pages can now be found at http://www.spring.net/~spew/genxstory/chap1.html http://www.spring.net/~spew/genxstory/chap2.html come by and read 'em, puh-leeeze! now, back to our regularly scheduled conversation...

The index page is up for the GenX Storybook...it's at http://www.spring.net/~spew/genxstory/indeX.html it's kinda graphic intesive, let me know what ya'll think...

Thoroughly Modern Jane This conference is for fiction using Jane Austen characters in non-Regency settings. Fiction based on Jane Austen and set in her period is at The Republic of Pemberley Your host is Carolyn http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/browse/modjane/all This has been in the works for a while, and the time was ripe to announce it. Credit is due to Amy and Myretta, the wonder workers from the Republic of Pemberly, a board that was incubated right here on the Spring.

The announcement is at: http://www.pemberley.com/pemb/admin/fiction/webbbs/boi.html and there is a little discussion on the help board at: http://www.pemberley.com/pemb/admin/help/index.html

and if anyone has noticed, there has been more modjane-ing than firthing lately, so there's already plenty o' stuff to read...

The austen.com domain name expired. And I renewed it with the help of a couple of donations.