From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V3 #37 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Monday, February 9 1998 Volume 03 : Number 037 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: The lurker who came in from the cold ["D'Arcy Jerome Salzmann" ] Alloy: The lurker who came in.. ["Stephen M. Tilson" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 11:47:19 -0500 From: "D'Arcy Jerome Salzmann" Subject: Alloy: The lurker who came in from the cold Just a small note of thanks to Miles and the LeftCoast Shirt Co. for the excellent work on the shirts. I went to pick up my mail yesterday afternoon and lo, a package from Cali. The photo on the front, having not recognized it earlier, is identical to that on the back of a "For Promotional Use Only. Not For Sale" TMDR album I have called Wireless Wonders. Was there ever a discussion about this graphic in Alloy? I can't recall but I'll bet it's one of the stock Thomas images floating around. In any event, this six track EP was put out on Harvest, which means I must have bought it in the US, as Thomas is on Capitol in Canada. Some marketing copywriter got a little carried away noting "A twist of a knob, a flick of a switch...dials illuminate, currents pulse, meters jump to life...Adventure now with Thomas Dolby into new realms of sound and thought. Discover the mysterious allure of science shot through with modern myth. Feel the techno-thrills and experience the myriad of new wonders of the Golden Age of Wireless." Thankfully I didn't read the prose on the back before I bought the record. In any event, thank you for the gesture of trust with sending the shirt. I'm off to the bank Monday for a US money order and I'll have the cheque in the post on Tuesday. Cheers, otto in cold but sunny (for the first time in months) TO ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 12:18:08 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Misc In article <3.0.3.32.19980207101056.006f6554@pop.prism.gatech.edu>, you wrote: >However, I have one question for Melissa -- how do you deal with all the >static and other odd distortions when the Internet is busy? I mean, I have >a cable modem (don't hate me, everyone!), ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ Hey! I was one of the beta testers for the cable modem. It was great while it lasted, but I just can't swing $66 a month for it. It's got some serious problems, or at least did in the early days. You had 500Mbaud of bandwidth, but that bandwidth is divided amoungst you and about 100 other people. When nobody is online, the modem whizzes by like crazy, but when a large number of the other people on you connection are online things get really bogged down. I think they've decreased the number of people sharing the bandwidth when they went commercial, but you're still sharing. Bell is working on a system that should be available soon. It uses your phone line, is transpearant to voice line usuage, and is more than 3 times the speed of the cable-wave. What's best is that all that bandwidth is yours alone. My brother-in-law is an engineer at bell so I'm hoping I can get in on beta testing this system (if it's going to be beta tested in my area). And speaking of cable... I only subscribe to the utmost basic of cable services, and only because in my geographical location (blocked by a big rock escarpment) normal TV broadcasts are blocked out. Right now they just finished a free preview of a whole whack of specialty channels in hopes of getting us to subscribe to them. But I'm not going to, I just don't like the idea of paying to get channels that show commercials. The odd thing is, it costs the cable companies more money not to have us connected to these extra services than it does to connect us because the signals come to your house anyways. If you don't subscribe, then they have to attach a filter to your line. So I can't figure out why they're trying to get us to pay for the extra services when it's cheaper just to give them to us. I also don't know why these special channels would want subscribers when they'd make more in revinues by having a larger audience. I don't know if it's the same in the states, but in Canada, the cable companies are practically a monopoly (Roger's Cable pretty much owns it all) and they're pretty much out to screw their customers as much as possible. CRACKERS (Reamed from hell!!!!) - -- Accordionist - Wethifl Musician - Atari 2600 Collector | /\/\ *NEW CrAB URL* http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html ***| \^^/ Bira Bira Devotee - FES Member - Samurai Pizza Cats Fan| =\/= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 15:46:28 -0500 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: The lurker who came in.. D'Arcy Salzmann wrote: > Just a small note of thanks to Miles and the LeftCoast = > Shirt(works) Thank you for the wonderful acknowledgement, D'Arcy! It is such a joy to= = receive these messages of appreciation as the shirts filter in. Here's to Alloy, and may your shirt last a very long time! Cheers, /\/\iles ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 15:46:29 -0500 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: Cable broadcast prices Crackers wrote: Here in California it costs about a buck a day for some 50 TV channels an= d = also includes access to a couple dozen FM-radio stations. How does that = compare to your service? Just curious, /\/\iles ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 15:31:33 -0800 From: Turquoise Dolphin Subject: Re: Alloy: The lurker who came in.. Stephen M. Tilson wrote: > > D'Arcy Salzmann wrote: > > > Just a small note of thanks to Miles and the LeftCoast > > Shirt(works) > > Thank you for the wonderful acknowledgement, D'Arcy! It is such a joy to > receive these messages of appreciation as the shirts filter in. his glass> Here's to Alloy, and may your shirt last a very long time! > > Cheers, > /\/\iles Here's another shirt-kudo then. Eclipse sent me a shirt as a present, and it's -great-. It has everyone on the little UWA campus down here going "Who in the heck is Thomas Dolby?" ;) - - Turq. - - The University Of West Alabama, Land Where Time Stood Still. ;) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 18:41:50 EST From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Alloy: Re: Allez oop << >Surprisingly enough, the most gracious Mr. Dolby does not think I'm nuts after >all (though he is perhaps in a very small minority..!) > How can we assess your mental state if you don't tell us what the offending item said? I think it's rather unfair of you to tease us in this way. Slarvibarglhee (Inquisitive from hell) >> I would never intentionally tease you Slarvi. I only mentioned it again to give closure to my previous statement & let you know it ended well after all, in spite of my worries. As far as what was actually said, it was really just a mere matter of personal concern on my part which is now resolved, my dear inquisitive Slarv! Robin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 00:18:52 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Cable broadcast prices In article <199802081547_MC2-326F-FEC5@compuserve.com>, you wrote: >Crackers wrote: > > > >Here in California it costs about a buck a day for some 50 TV channels and >also includes access to a couple dozen FM-radio stations. How does that >compare to your service? ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ Well, I think my basic service (no specialty channels) is around $20 a month. The next package is an extra $20 on top of that for an extra dozen channels, and then the next package is around $10 a month. This brings the total up to around 50 channels for around $50. I just found out something interesting today. It looks like Roger's cable may soon be no more. They figured if they bought up all the cable companies they'd be able to dominate the market and charge whatever they wanted. So they used their profits from their Cantel cell phone monopoly to fund the buyouts of every cable company they could get. But they went too far too fast and when competition came to the cell phone market they got screwed big time! Woohoo!! Another corporate monopoly bites the dust! CRACKERS (Burn baby burn from hell!!!) - -- Accordionist - Wethifl Musician - Atari 2600 Collector | /\/\ *NEW CrAB URL* http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html ***| \^^/ Bira Bira Devotee - FES Member - Samurai Pizza Cats Fan| =\/= ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V3 #37 **************************