At 11:09 AM 1/28/98 +0000, you wrote:
>There is a generation that came of age in the 60's that just cannot abide
>business and profit. So any kind of advertising message, even though it
>causes them no inconvenience whatsoever, is intolerable. Very often this
>attitude is evinced by academics who eschew profit but are quite happy to
>take money as long as it is tax money taken from the people.

True.  And to quote Ann Landers, these folks need to "wake up and smell the
coffee".  There are just as many of us of the same age who feel the
opposite.  Business is the American way of business.  You don't have to
LIKE it, but there are lots of things that lots of us don't like.

I've lived/worked on college campuses since 1960 in eight different states
of the USA, but that hasn't "turned me into anti-business freak" like some.
 I'm well aware of this being the old, hardline, traditional attitude of
folks like those who proclaim "the net is free" and "software wants to be
free" and all that crappola.  But again, the coffee is perking and they
might as well get with the program.  I don't allow blatant commercial
advertising on my lists, either, whether they're hobby lists or
techie/professional lists.  But is my sig advertising?  Why or why not?
Explain your answers in carefully reasoned arguments, taking no more than
500 words.  Be sure your handwriting is readable. You have one hour to
finish this exam.

>If we are concerned about bandwidth and want to filter something, let's
>find a way to filter out the copious repetition of the messages being
>replied to for those who are incapable of doing it themselves.

Then write some code to preprocess the stuff going to your listserv.  There
are surely a number of ways of doing so without excessive difficulty if
you're working on a U**x bos, and several with XEDIT or other tools if
you're still on VM.

cheers

cyclops



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Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
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