BC> I don't understand how
 BC> you can not need it.
 RW> PLEASE explain to me WHY THE HELL we NEED the internet???
 RW> I'm DYING to know.
 RW> We've survived a good many years WITHOUT the internet, before it 
 RW> became the "in" thing...so I'm curious as to why we 
 RW> NEED it.
 
   I suppose no one *needs* it...no one really *needs* Fidonet, or even a 
telephone. It's just harder to do certain things (like discuss scanners with 
total strangers around the country/world) without them.
 
   I never saw it as an either/or question, either. I have Internet 
connections through Delphi (frankglover@delphi.com), I can reach Fidonet 
through this and seveal other local BBS systems, one of the local boards is a 
GTnet node as well. I use *all* of these (as well as books, tv, newspapers, 
conventions, hamfests [KA2WQA]) to pursue my various interests. *All* of 
these are tools to that end, and I'll use all of them, as long as they exist.
 
   But the Internet is certainly one of the more powerful of those tools. You 
don't *need* it, but you may (or may not) find that, like many other things, 
you *want* it....
 
 
   With the invention of the telephone, one businessman scoffed at its 
utility, with the comment; "We have plenty of messenger boys." Now the 
telephone is almost a necessity. (And though they've evolved to couriers 
zipping through metropolitan streets on mountain bikes, we even still have 
`messenger boys.' By this, I mean the Internet has surpassed, but will not 
make Fidonet and BBSs extinct.)
 
   Me, I'm only sorry I can't be more active on packet radio than I am.
  
   Frank
 
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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