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########## | Volume I August 24,1991 Number 10 | ########## | | ### | EFFECTOR ONLINE | ####### | eff.org | ####### | | ### | | ########## | The Electronic Newsletter of | ########## | The Electronic Frontier Foundation | | 155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 | ########## | Phone:(617)864-0665 FAX:(617)864-0866 | ########## | | ### | Staff: | ####### | Gerard Van der Leun (van@eff.org) | ####### | Mike Godwin (mnemonic@eff.org) | ### | Mitchell Kapor (mkapor@eff.org) | ### | Managing Editors: | ### |Chris Davis (ckd@eff.org), Helen Rose (hrose@eff.org)| | | ########## | Reproduction of Effector Online via all | ########## | electronic media is encouraged.. | ### | To reproduce signed articles individually | ####### | please contact the authors for their express | ####### | permission. | ### | | ### | | ### | | effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired change. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- STEVE JACKSON GAMES UPDATE: THE GOVERNMENT FILES ITS RESPONSE This week, after several delays, the EFF has at last received the government's response to the Steve Jackson Games lawsuit. Our attorneys are going over these documents carefully and we'll have more detailed comment on them soon. Sharon Beckman, of Silverglate and Good, one of the leading attorneys in the case said: "In general, this response contains no surprises for us. Indeed, it confirms that events in this case transpired very much as we thought that they did. We continue to have a very strong case. In addition, it becomes clearer as we go forward that the Steve Jackson Games case will be a watershed piece of litigation when it comes to extending constitutional guarantees to this medium." -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- OTHER ITEMS IN THIS ISSUE: WHY THE BELLSOUTH E911 DOCUMENT COST $79,000 TO PRODUCE THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTING AND VALUES HOW EFF MEMBERSHIPS ARE PUT TO WORK COMPUTERS & PRIVACY: EXCERPTS & STATISTICS FROM A GOVERNMENT REPORT WHO PAYS FOR FTP? THE MAVEN WRITING TO LEN ROSE THE WORST USER INTERFACE IN KNOWN SPACE HOW MANY PEOPLE READ THE EFF GROUPS? -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- IN OVER THEIR HEADS --OR-- WHY THE 911 DOCUMENT COST $79,449 TO PRODUCE AT BELLSOUTH Over the months since it first came to light, many have wondered how BellSouth could spend the immense amount of money that it claimed it spent on producing the brochure known as the E911 document. Now it can be told! The following is BellSouth's actual estimate of its production costs as sent to Bill Cook in January of 1990. We were amazed that the company felt it necessary to add in the entire cost of a major computer system, printer and software. [Text of letter from K. Megahee to Bill Cook] BellSouth 1155 Peachtree Street. N E Atlanta, Georgia 30367 -6000 January 10, 1990 Bill Cook - Assistant United States Attorney United States Attorney's Office Chicago, Illinois Dear Mr. Cook: Per your request, I have attached a breakdown of the costs associated with the production of the BellSouth Standard Practice (BSP) numbered 660-225-104SV. That practice is BellSouth Proprietary Information and is not for disclosure outside BellSouth. Should you require more information or clarification, please contact my office at XXX-XXX-XXXX. FAX: XXX-XXX-XXXX Sincerely, Kimberly Megahee Staff Manager - Security, Southern Bell [Handwritten total] 17,099 37,850 24,500 ------ 79,449 [Attachment to letter itemizing expenses] DOCUMENTATION MANAGEMENT 1. Technical Writer To Write/Research Document -200 hrs x 35 = $7,000 (Contract Writer) -200 hrs x 31 = $6,200 (Paygrade 3 Project Mgr) 2. Formatting/Typing Time -Typing WS14 = 1 week = $721.00 -Formatting WS 14 = 1 week = $721.00 -Formatting Graphics WS16 = 1 week = $742.00 3. Editing Time -PG2 = 2 days x $24.46 = $367 4. Order Labels (Cost) = $5.00 5. Prepare Purchase Order -Blue Number Practice WS14 x 1 hr = $18.00 -Type PO WS10 x 1 hr = $17.00 -Get Signature (PG2 x 1 hr = $25.00) (PG3 x lhr = $31.00) (PG5 x 1 hr = $38.00) 6. Printing and Mailing Costs Printing= $313.00 Mailing WS10 x 50 hrs = $858.00 (Minimum of 50 locations/ 1 hr per location/ 115 copies 7. Place Document on Index -PG2 x 1 hr = $25.00 -WS14 x 1 hr = $18.00 Total Costs for involvement = $17,099. HARDWARE EXPENSES VT220 $850 Vaxstation II $31,000 Printer $6,000 Maintenance 10% of costs SOFTWARE EXPENSES Interleaf Software $22,000 VMS Software $2,500 Software Maintenance 10% of costs [End of Document] -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTING AND VALUES A Report by Brad Templeton via ClariNet (REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR) NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1991 AUG 20 (NB) -- The first National Conference on Computing and Values concluded last week on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University and was proclaimed a big success by its organizers. The NCCV attracted a multi-disciplinary audience, with attendees and luminaries from the fields of philosophy, computer security, privacy, law, academia and general computing. Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow, founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, described the EFF and updated the audience on their recent efforts to educate lawmakers on how to apply the law to the new world of electronic networking. The EFF has been instrumental in curbing what its members see as serious civil rights violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials who over-react to the danger of alleged computer criminals. Gary Chapman, founding Executive Director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility spoke on "The 21st Century Project," CPSR's new venture to deal with the technology related social problems they expect us to encounter as we enter the next century. Joseph Weizenbaum received the first award for Leadership and Excellence in Human Values and Computing. Accepting the award he addressed the conference about the necessity of technical professionals considering the consequences of their efforts. Richard Stallman, ideological leader of the Free Software Foundation (GNU Project) and League for Programming Freedom spoke and contributed to a lively panel of the nature of intellectual property. Stallman believes that all software should be free of copying and use restrictions. Another panelist, Helen Nissenbaum of Princeton, suggested the less drastic step of changing copyright law to permit "casual copying" (the non-commercial copying of originals for family and friends). Discussions on privacy issues ranged over the spectrum. Those examining the impact of computers on privacy had to grapple with fundamental issues such as the very nature of privacy before coming to conclusions about it. Richard Wright of the U. of Omaha proposed that individuals be granted ownership and control over the data about them, allowing them to charge royalties on its use, or block undesired use. Others feared such complex legislative changes, decrying what they viewed as a growing trend to say "there ought to be a law" when there is no need for one. Speculation is that there will be a division between the two main "computers and values" societies, with CPSR pushing for privacy protection legislation and EFF objecting to excessive government regulation of how computers may be used. Other addresses and panels covered Computer Security and Crime, Academia, and equal access to computers for the handicapped and the disadvantaged. "Equity" advocates warned that software designers are unaware that they are designing software and computer systems to be of interest primarily to "young, white, able-bodied men." Computers need to be made more accessible not just through funding and special tools to aid the handicapped, but through changes in their fundamental design, panelists argued. Providing more computers for a school often does little more than provide those already keen on computers with more toys, according to one panelist. The conference consisted both of panels and papers and six special working groups. Each morning conference attendees gathered in their six groups to debate particular issues of interest. Each group prepared a report delivered at the close of the conference with recommendations for the center for research into computing and values at SCSU and for the National Science Foundation, which helped fund the conference. Other speakers and panelists included former ACM President and CACM editor Peter Denning, and computer security expert Dorothy Denning, who spoke on the Hacker Ethic. Gene Spafford of Purdue University chaired the security panel and Peter Neumann, editor of the ACM RISKS forum gave the security address. Conference organizer Walter Maner of Bowling Green State University expressed great pleasure at the success of the conference and the large variety of material it addressed. Attendance was low, at around 200 participants, however this met Maner's expectations for an August conference. Plans are already under consideration for another conference in the future, though no date has been set. Maner can be contacted as maner@andy.bgsu.edu or at 419-372-2337. (Brad Templeton/19910820) For futher information on ClariNet write to info@clarinet.com or phone 1-800-USE-NETS. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- How Your EFF Memberships and Donations Are Put to Work Now that we have become a membership organization, we'd like to outline for you the ways in which your money is used to advance the cause of free and open online communications. Essential Litigation: Memberships help with the costs of litigation in key cases such as the Steve Jackson Case, and others. Washington office: In order to better track and participate in legislation of critical interest to this new medium, we are beginning a Washington, D.C. branch of the EFF. As we learned last year with the events that led to the rewriting of Senate Bill 266, a strong Washington presence is necessary if we are to make sure that legislators have the input that only an informed and committed organization can provide. It is much better to have wise and fair laws from the outset than to try and correct bad laws through litigation later. The Open Road Project: This is the EFF's major initiative for 1992 and beyond. We see The Open Road Project as a broadly based plan encompassing both the social and technical realms of networking; an armature for the design and creation of a National Public Network. The goals of the Open Road are to ensure equal and fair network access to all, along with technological tools that make the NPN easy to use, and affordable. The EFF Node on the Internet: We have worked hard to make eff.org an important part of the Internet by providing access to our central files via ftp, an open forum for a wide range of view on the Usenet group eff.talk, and a home for other worthy newsgroups whose interests and commitments compliment ours, such as the Computers and Academic Freedom group. We will be expanding our online capability significantly in the last quarter of 1991 and on into 1992. To this end we have been creating an offline library of our extensive archives. This process is almost completed. The next step will be to move these files online via scanning technology. As you might expect this is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task, but an important one. Other activities on the system involve the creation and expansion of our email capabilities and the effort to bring all of our online text into WAIS for use across the Internet. WAIS is a powerful, though still experimental, information retrieval service that allows full-text searches of large document archives. We are also adding new online publications in various subject areas. Education: In addition to these projects, there are the numerous conferences that EFF staff and representative attend as commentators or main speakers; the costs associated with the publication of EFFECTOR, EFFector Online, and numerous brochures and flyers. As we have seen time and again, much of the trouble associated with online communications comes from ignorance or simple misunderstanding. One of the most effective programs of the past year has been the attendance of EFF staff members at various law enforcement conferences and conventions. That kind of simple, face-to-face work has proven to be one of the most helpful activities we can perform. Add to all the above the overhead at the main office and dozens of other activities from the marvelous to the mundane. and you have a snapshot of the way in which we try to make every penny of your membership or donation advance the goals of the EFF. Our aim is to keep the organizational overhead low so that the largest possible portion of your donation can go towards the goals of the EFF and our current and new programs. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- Feedback to EFFector #9 From: ccastmg@prism.gatech.EDU (Michael G. Goldsman) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: EFFector Online 1.09 In Effector Online #9 the editors write: > WE WUZ HACKED! > >As Monty Python has wisely noted, "NOBODY expects the Spanish >Inquisition!" In like manner, nobody expects people to crack their >system in quite the way that they *are* cracked. After all, if you >knew about an unlocked door in your system, you'd lock it. Right? As >soon as you could get around to it, of course.... > >"User 'mycroft' was logged on kropotkin.gnu.ai.mit.edu at the >time, and admits entering the machine, but denies 2, 3, 4, and 5." What,you fail to mention is the fact that the EFF then secured the services of the Secret Service who confiscated every computer at MIT along with every disk, manual, and power-outlet they could find. MIT, I believe has issued a request aimed at getting their equipment back, but as of yet, the Secret Service has declined citing "National Security Interests." A Secret Service spokesman was quoted as saying "MIT operates a huge network of computer criminals who are intent on bringing our free country to its knees. Their Techno-Terrorism cannot be tolerated!!! The EFF will be representing MIT in their case. -Mike -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- "[I]f I `send' you a message I do not lose it myself but retain it in memory or in a duplicate copy. We have then shared it. Consequently, it is true to say that messages, unlike commodities, are not required to be lost to the `sender' when he communicates them to another. Indeed, the word `sender' is a misnomer; strictly, he cannot send messages as he can send goods or commodities, he must always share them ....Messages do not have the nature of commodities and cannot be property." -- Colin Cherry, THE AGE OF ACCESS, Published by Croom Helm,London, 1985 -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- Who Pays for FTP? From: netspec@zeus.unomaha.edu (Dan Kenny, Network Specialist/ U of N-Omaha) In a previous article, tld@cosmos.bae.bellcore.com (Terry Davidson) writes: "One question: I've asked this before, and have received no response. Who pays for ftp? Some uploads/downloads can take a *VERY* large amount of time; and this has to cost someone some hard cash - but who? Is the login used to send bills to the company from where the call originated (some ftp may be anonymous, but modern UNIX systems darned well get the info anyway, including the actual line/port/phone of the originating machine). I'd like answers to these questions, simply because (1) I have approximately 5 MB of shareware (DOS) utilities to upload to an ftp site for propagation, and (2) there are some GIF files out on the ftp sites I would like to ftp in. Whether or not I actually do this depends on how ftp is billed. Terry, FTP (the file transfer protocol), NNTP (the protocol for the news service you are reading), TELNET (the remote login protocol), SMTP (the mail protocol you receive Internet mail through), and other protocol services in the TCP/IP specification are made available to you courtesy of the educational system in America. Individual colleges, military sites, organizations and commercial sites wire up their machines as a campus network. These networks join a consortium of regional networks (like MIDnet for the Midwest colleges, MILnet for the military, etc) for a fee and if they are an educational institution, also receive subsidization on the cost of connecting their campus networks to the regional network through the National Science Foundation. Additionally, the NSF foots the bill for the long-haul national network connecting the regional networks in one giant internetwork. This long-haul network is built upon the work of the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPAnet) in the 1970's and 1980's. These resources are provided to the average Internet user virtually for free, and are done so in the spirit of research and cooperation. Not everyone in the world ascribes to the philosophy of the "bottom-line" business mentality, and they recognize the value of open access to educational resources in the quest for enhancing communication between educators, researchers, students, businesses, organizations, and the community. So to answer your question, we all pay - just like we all pay for open and public access to the nation's highways, the open and public access to community libraries, the open and public access to secondary schools, and the open and public access to the state universities. Individual sites on the Internet make services and resources available (like disk space for anonymous FTP or the ARCHIE database service) out of the spirit of this cooperation and belief that the greater benefit of increased communication outweighs the per-unit-cost of a megabyte of disk storage or a packet of network bandwidth. Usenet news feeds are traditionally provided as a courtesy between educational institutions in this spirit also. If you believe your 5 megs of utilities have educational value, by all means upload them to an appropriate FTP site. If you believe that files you find on an anonymous FTP will enhance your education, download them. Realize that the mere act of communicating with someone on the Internet and exploring available services has educational value. Speaking as a student majoring in one of those science/technical and engineering fields (Computer Science) that people keep worrying about due to growing lack of interest from our youth, I can assure you that the educational benefit I have received through the cooperation of the Internet community has been tremendous. Innovation is not dead in America, at least not yet. We just need to properly recognize the value of long-term investment and commitment to cooperation (whether that be in basic research & development, educating ourselves, or in laying fiber to every household like Japan is doing), regardless of short-term cost (or lack of profit). Remember the technological fallout from the Apollo Moon program? We -all- foot the bill for it, and we -all- (consumers, industry, education, military, and our general competitiveness in the world) benefited from the cooperation and technology-sharing of that national project. Think of the Internet in the same fashion. I do. Just my opinions, Dan Kenny, Network Specialist : University of Nebraska-Omaha netspec@zeus.unomaha.edu -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- We Know What You Are Doing and We Know Where You Live From: spaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) Subject: Re: where do I find out my Longitude and Latitude? In article <3048@maserati.qsp.UUCP> scotts@qsp.COM (Scott Simpers) writes: "Why do you want your position that accurately for UUCP registration? " Why, so the net.police can target the missiles if your site posts any articles that: 1) offer anything for sale 2) tell the string joke, or Paddy O'Furniture jokes 3) suggests new groups dealing with aquaria 4) request postcards be sent to Craig Shergold 5) predict the death of the net 6) threaten to disclose the plans of the secret backbone cabal that really control the Usenet Provide elevation and room number, too -- the net.police just got a great deal on a bunch of smart weapons. -- Gene Spafford -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- COMPUTERS & PRIVACY -- EXCERPTS & STATISTICS FROM A GOVERNMENT REPORT From:(allen h. lutins) I just got an interesting report, "Computers & Privacy: How the Government Obtains, Verifies, Uses, and Protects Personal Data" {GAO/IMTEC-90-70BR, Aug. 1990} available free from the U.S. General Accounting Office {P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; (202)275-6241}. Among the tidbits revealed, the report notes: "(N)ew applications have made it easier for agencies to access, share, and process information and to carry out their missions effectively and efficiently. However, they have also increased opportunities for inappropriate or unauthorized use of personal information and have made it more difficult to oversee agencies' information management practices and to safeguard individuals' rights." {p. 7} "AGENCIES CONDUCT COMPUTER PROFILING TO IDENTIFY BEHAVIORS OF INTEREST -- Computer profiling involves using inductive logic to determine the characteristics of individuals most likely to engage in behaviors or interest -- for example, illegal activities...Computer profiling raises privacy and constitutional concerns because individuals may be singled out for scrutiny or different treatment... "Thirty seven agencies [of the 178 who responded to a GAO inquiry] reported that they conducted computer profiling...In developing profiles, agencies use social security, health, educational, financial, tax, law enforcement, property, and housing and public assistance information." {p. 32} "Agencies use profiles for many purposes, including program analyses, planning, investigation, screening, scientific research, and surveillance. Two examples of agencies' computer profiling descriptions are the Social Security Administration's profiles on people most likely to have unreported changes in income, resources, and/or living arrangements; and the U.S. Secret Service's profiles of individuals most likely to commit aggressive action against a public figure." {p. 33} Of 910 computer systems at 178 federal agencies: o 16 agencies reported using profiling for occupational and/or regulatory purposes o 12 agencies reported using profiling for "investigations" o 10 agencies reported using profiling for "screening" o 6 agencies reported using profiling for law enforcement purposes o 2 agencies reported using profiling for surveillance o Law enforcement records were used for profiling on 81 systems o Credit history was used for profiling on 58 systems o Information on 15 systems was made available to state agencies for surveillance purposes o Information on 13 systems was made available to local agencies for surveillance purposes o Information on 3 systems was made available to the "private sector" for surveillance purposes o 13 systems had no operational controls to protect against alteration and unauthorized access o Security measures and training were not available for personnel working on 65 systems o Incidents of unauthorized access or exceeding authorized access to personal information were reported six agencies; eight agencies did not know whether there were security breaches o Breaches of security numbered 13 in 1988; there were 21 such incidents in 1989 -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- The Maven Once upon a weekend weary, while I pondered, beat and bleary, Over many a faintly printed hexadecimal dump of core -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some Source user chatting, chatting of some Mavenlore. "Just a power glitch," I muttered, "printing out an underscore -- Just a glitch and nothing more." Ah, distinctly I remember that old Teletype ASR, And the paper tape dispenser left its chad upon the floor. Eagerly I thought, "Tomorrow, maybe I will go and borrow From my friend an Apple micro -- micro with a monitor -- So that I can chat at leisure, and then throw away my paper -- Lying all across the floor. And the repetitious tapping which had nearly caught me napping Woke me -- and convinced me that it could not be an underscore; Appearances can be deceiving, so I sat there, still believing; "My terminal must be receiving more express mail from the Source -- That's it -- my terminal's receiving new express mail from the Source; Posted mail and nothing more." But my curiosity grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, I stood up and crossed the room to see what waited there in store. Sticking up from the terminal were three inches or so of paper; Carefully my trembling hand tore off the scrap, and then I swore -- "What is this?", I cried in anger -- here I threw it to the floor; Blankness there and nothing more. Deep into its workings peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, What could cause the thing to stutter, dropping twenty lines or more? But the ribbon was unbroken, and the "HERE IS" gave no token, I thought the Teletype was broken, so I typed the number "4"! This I typed, and then the modem echoed back the number "4" -- Merely this and nothing more. Back then to my work returning, with my temper slowly burning, Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before. "Surely," said I, "surely that is just another RESET message; With my luck, there's probably expensive data to restore!" -- As it chattered, still I sat there, trying to complete my chore. "'Tis the Source and nothing more." Such a simple program, really -- just to fill 1K of memory With the Fibonacci series, but when it reached 144, It had failed to set the high bit -- suddenly, I thought I had it! But, just as I found the bug, my train of thought derailed once more -- And the Teletype's loud bell rang, then it sat just like before -- Rang, and sat, and nothing more. Suddenly, I couldn't stand it -- Just as if someone had planned it, Now the paper, like a bandit, rolled its way across the floor! As I put it back, I spied two words: CHAT TCX122 -- Which I knew must be the Maven, chatting from the Eastern shore. Presently the terminal received and printed one word more -- Quoth the Maven, "#4?" Such a message I was having difficulty understanding, For his letters little meaning -- little relevancy bore; Though I must admit believing that no living human being Ever could remember seeing evidence of Mavenlore -- Tell me now, what kind of Maven of the saintly days of yore Could have written "#4?" But the Maven, waiting for me to reply, transmitted only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther then he ventured; silently the Teletype purred -- Till I scarcely more than murmured: "Stars and garters, what a bore!" -- Whereupon the terminal abruptly started with a roar; Then it typed out, "#4?!" Startled at the stillness broken by reply so tersely spoken "Doubtless," said I, "what we have here could not be a line error. Failure to communicate, perhaps -- it's late and getting later -- But I've never seen a greater unsolved mystery to explore." Then I knew I'd never rest until I solved his semaphore ... "Who am I, the Prisoner?" But the Maven didn't answer; no more data did he transfer, So I wheeled my Herman Miller office chair across the floor; Then upon the plastic sinking, I betook myself to linking Logic unto logic, thinking what this ominous bard of yore -- What this unknown, unseen, unsung, unrepentant bard of yore Meant in typing "#4?!" This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the dour and cryptic Maven now whose words I puzzled o'er; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the seat back's plastic lining that the lamp-light fluoresced o'er, But whose flattened plastic lining with the lamp fluorescing o'er Shall compress, ah, little more! All at once my thoughts grew clearer -- as if looking in a mirror, Now at last I understood where I had sent the number 4! "Look," I typed, "I was just testing -- did you think that I was jesting? Why was it so interesting that I typed the number 4? Did you think that you were chatting to some foolish sophomore?" Quoth the Maven, "... #4?" "Maven!" said I, "Great defender! Venerable comprehender! Whether you began this chat, or were a victim of error, Mystified, and yet undaunted, by this quandary confronted," -- (Could my terminal be haunted?) -- "tell me truly, I implore -- Can you understand my message? -- tell me, tell me, I implore!" Quoth the Maven, "#4!" "Maven!" said I, "Great pretender! Ancient Jewish moneylender! By the Source that now connects us -- by the holy Oath you swore -- Tell me in your obscure wisdom if, within your distant modem, You receive my words unbroken by backspace or underscore -- Tell me why my Teletype prints nothing but the number 4!" Quoth the Maven, "#4?" "Be that word our sign of parting,bard or friend!"I typed,upstarting "Get back to your aimless chatter and obnoxious Mavenlore! Leave no token of your intent -- send no message that you repent! Leave my terminal quiescent! -- Quit the chat hereinbefore! Type control-P (or escape), and quit this chat forevermore!" Quoth the Maven, "#4..." And the Maven, notwithstanding,still is chatting,still is chatting Over my misunderstanding of his cryptic "#4?"; And I calmly pull the cover and remove a certain lever From the 33ASR, which I never shall restore; And a certain ASCII number that lies broken on the floor Shall be printed -- nevermore! (with no apologies whatsoever to anyone) .the Dragon -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- HOW TO WRITE TO LEN ROSE I recently spoke with Len Rose. He asked that I post his address for anyone who would care to write: LEN ROSE, FPC 27154-037, Seymour Johnson AFB, Caller Box 8004, PMB 187 Goldsboro, NC, 27531-5000 Michael Kosmin root@lsicom2.UUCP -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE WORST USER INTERFACE IN KNOWN SPACE From: smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) mathew@mantis.co.uk (Industrial Poet) writes: >There's something I've been meaning to ask. Has anyone ever made a >concerted effort to develop the *worst* user-interface? I think I saw a manual describing The Worst User Interface once in a previous job. I think it's called "TACFIRE" and it's a computer based system the Army uses (or used to use) for fire control in artillery batallions. You're faced with about 16 lines of text, each at least 60 characters long. This display is filled with dozens of little mnemonics, each followed by a colon and then a (usually numeric) value. The displayed data represents various things like where a target is, who's shooting at it, what you need to do to shoot at it yourself, ammo inventory, ammo to use, amount of powder to use, etc, etc, etc. Different users of different kinds (observers, planners, gun crews, etc) would be able to modify different fields according to their role and situation; the results were all sent to some central site and then used to update other screens. The system is decades old, so it's "evolved" into something that borders on unusable. An ex artillery officer told me that they hated to let well trained TACFIRE people go on extended vacations (more than a week or so) because they'd forget how to make it work by the time they got back. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- How Many People Read the EFF Groups? From: reid@decwrl.DEC.COM (Brian Reid) Newsgroups: news.lists Subject: USENET Readership report for Jun 91 This is [not] the full set of data from the USENET readership report for Jun 91. Explanations of the figures are in a companion posting [in news.lists]. +-- Estimated total number of people who read the group, worldwide. | +-- Actual number of readers in sampled population | | +-- Propagation: how many sites receive this group at all | | | +-- Recent traffic (messages per month) | | | | +-- Recent traffic (kilobytes per month) | | | | | +-- Crossposting percentage | | | | | | +-- Cost ratio: $US/month/reader | | | | | | | +-- Share: % of newsrders | | | | | | | | who read this group. V V V V V V V V 331 24000 390 79% 448 968.9 5% 0.04 1.5% comp.org.eff.talk 615 12000 195 77% 2 26.2 100% 0.00 0.7% comp.org.eff.news 691 9400 153 46% 169 376.3 1% 0.03 0.6% alt.comp.acad-freedom .talk -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- NOTES FROM THE SUN The final version of "Building the Open Road: The NREN as a Testbed for the National Public Network" by Mitchell Kapor is available by anonymous ftp from eff.org as pub/docs/open.road. We are also working on an FTP service that will allow file transfer via email. More on this soon. In other news, this September's Scientific American is devoted almost entirely to computer-based communications. Among many wonderful articles is Mitchell Kapor's "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace." This is an issue worth reading from cover to cover We are trying to get a large number of copies to give to our members. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION In order to continue the work already begun and to expand our efforts and activities into other realms of the electronic frontier, we need the financial support of individuals and organizations. If you support our goals and our work, you can show that support by becoming a member now. Members receive our quarterly newsletter, EFFECTOR, our bi-weekly electronic newsletter, EFFector Online (if you have an electronic address that can be reached through the Net), and special releases and other notices on our activities. But because we believe that support should be freely given, you can receive these things even if you do not elect to become a member. Your membership/donation is fully tax deductible. Our memberships are $20.00 per year for students, $40.00 per year for regular members. You may, of course, donate more if you wish. Our privacy policy: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will never, under any circumstances, sell any part of its membership list. We will, from time to time, share this list with other non-profit organizations whose work we determine to be in line with our goals. But with us, member privacy is the default. This means that you must actively grant us permission to share your name with other groups. 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