Yo! Charles:
Wednesday May 07 1997 00:25, Charles Hunter wrote to Bill Cheek:
 BC>> Your comparison may seem pertinent, but there is a huge difference
 BC>> between the analogy and the reality.  One, I don't see the small
 BC>> newspapers folding.  right here in San Diego, a city of 2-million,
 BC>> we have a number of community newspapers......very successful, too.
 BC>> Two, these are commercial enterprises where "might is right" in
 BC>> terms of market forces. I'll buy your analogy in terms of
 BC>> agribusiness that has eaten up most of the nation's farmers.
 CH> The issue is whether or not the newspapers you refer to serve the
 CH> purpose of informing the public on a large scale.  There are a lot of
Geezus, man, how can a SMALL newspaper inform the public on a LARGE scale? 
Small items do small things.  When push comes to shove, small things can get 
eaten up by big things.
Anyway.....no one is going to close Fido down and send it to the showers.  
It's just withering on the vine and will die an inexhorable, slow 
death.....due to free market forces...aka...the "will of the people".
 BC>> But it's cheaper, per loaf of bread, to plant and harvest 10,000
 BC>> acres at a whack than a hundred.
 CH> No question that economics enters the picture; but from a liberty
 CH> viewpoint I think those independent bbs' and nets like fidonet are just
 CH> as important in allowing everyone to communicate and share information.
Important?  Well, perhaps...but not "just as".  Is a horse & buggy "just as" 
important as a semi-truck?  Hardly, even though the nag and carriage 
certainly have their place.  Sort of.  Trouble is.....you don't see 'em 
anymore, anywhere, except maybe down in the sticks; in Pennsylvania; and 
maybe in some Third World countries.  Maybe.  Likewise with 3-holers and last 
year's corncobs and Rears & Sawbuck catalogs.
 CH> The internet only requires that one plug be pulled.
You gotta be kidding?  The Internet was developed by the DoD to be impervious 
to even handfuls of plugs being yanked at the same time.  It's FidoNet where 
if one plug is pulled, a whole region can suffer an information blackout.  
The Internet is a whole different animal.  The Internet is a composite of 
many nets and multitudes of connections.  If one doesn't work, the next one 
will.
Where have you been getting your information and do you have Internet 
connectivity?
Bill Cheek | bcheek@san.rr.com
Windows 95 Juggernaut Team | Microsoft MVP
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