
Editorial - Potholes on the Information Highway
by Dave Bealer

The Clinton regime has offered the so-called Information Super-
highway as the solution to all of mankind's problems.  They may not
say it in so many words, but that's the implication.  "The
information superhighway will allow everyone to enjoy totally equal 
social and economic success through technology.  No one will ever be
poor, hungry, or sick again."  Right. 

The Pollyannas neglect the fact that real life always finds a way to
intrude into cyberspace.  Telephone and electric lines are downed by
storms and accidents; people still get hungry, tired, and are subject
to all the usual human needs and urges; routers are damaged by earth-
quakes.  

That's right, the Northridge, CA. earthquake caused an Internet
router to go offline for nearly a month.  This proves that more than
physical freeway overpasses can be collapsed by natural disasters.
While Los Angelenos searched for alternate routes around the wrecked
highways, commercial Internet customers in the U.S., including the
RAH support site, were unable to send Internet e-mail to certain
addresses in Europe.  Because of this outage, some of RAH's Internet
subscribers didn't receive the February issue until the middle of the
month. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to equate the magnitude of these
incidents.  Several people died in the freeway collapses.  Hundreds
of thousands more are facing a year or more of torturous detours and
nightmarish traffic jams while the roads are rebuilt.  OTOH, a few
humor magazines didn't get delivered on time because some router was
down.  Big deal, right?

Late delivery of RAH is not that big a deal (except, possibly, to the
subscribers involved), but that router carries much more that a few
humor files.  We're talking *commercial* Internet customers here.
The RAH support site counts as one because we get our UUCP feed from
a commercial Internet host system.  It's unlikely that any ClarkNet
subscriber was seriously affected by this outage.  But what about the
companies that depend on Internet e-mail to conduct their business?

As mentioned last month, the commercialization of the Internet is a
touchy subject for many people.  The truth is that the Internet has
been, is, and will be commercialized.  It's inevitable.  What's not
inevitable is the level of commercialization that will take place.
It would be nice to think that we won't see advertising on every
World Wide Web screen one day like they have on Prodigy.

Conversely, the use of e-mail and online news/information delivery to
make firms more efficient and competitive is a *good* thing.  The
Internet gives scientists and technicians from around the world the
opportunity to work together to solve tough problems, such as curing
diseases and finding alternate energy sources (like the much-maligned
cold fusion).  Not all these people work for universities.

Given these realities, it seems inexcusable that a critical Internet
router was left unrepaired for nearly a month.  Reports indicate that
the router had not been destroyed or severely damaged, but was down
waiting for a part.  Unless the part had to be imported from Pluto,
this isn't good enough.

No lives were lost because of this outage, but given the way online
technology is developing, it isn't too big a logical leap to imagine
human lives actually depending on e-mail or other online technologies
some day.  For instance, crucial medical information could be delayed
during a future outage with disastrous results. 
                             - - -
On a ironic note, the day after the Northridge quake I noticed an ad
for a book entitled, _Earthquake Prepared: Securing Your Home,
Protecting Your Family_ by Joel Leach.  The book was published by
Studio 4 Productions, P.O. Box 280400, Northridge, CA. 91328-0400.
Looks like Studio 4 got a chance to demonstrate the effectiveness of
the book using their own offices.
                             - - -
The READROOM.TOC edition of this issue has reverted back to the old
readroom format.  The departmental style doesn't make much sense for
a magazine this small.  All the feedback I received about the new
format was negative.

