Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!uunet!bu.edu!wang!elf!lee From: lee@wang.com (lee) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Georgia Tech's Restriction on Internet Access Message-ID: Date: 12 Mar 91 18:49:47 GMT References: <23808@hydra.gatech.EDU> <52892@cornell.UUCP> <23887@hydra.gatech.EDU> <52929@cornell.UUCP> Sender: news@wang.com (USENET News) Distribution: na Organization: Wang Laboratories, Inc. Lines: 40 In-Reply-To: wayner@kama.cs.cornell.edu's message of 8 Mar 91 20:10:46 GMT As someone who hasn't been an undergrad for 25 years, I'd like to comment on this business of "faculty and staff" access to the Internet. (1) It's primarily a RESEARCH network, yet "postdocs" at Georgia Tech are apparently not to be routinely granted full access without "staff" authorization. The administration, "of course", gets unquestioned access. (2) It's secondarily an EDUCATIONAL network, yet it's considered important for political reasons (I remember something about congressional approval) to prevent those being "educated" (largely undergraduates) from having full access. (3) Porno GIF files are popular at commercial Internet and Usenet sites, too. Some of our best programmers collect them. They do take too much disk space. The solution is to determine how much public disk space will be allowed to an individual, and discipline those who can't give a very good reason for using an outrageous amount more. I can still remember being an undergrad at Harvard in the early '60s, where despite the many-thousand-dollar "surety bond" of tuition, we were not permitted to check out books from Widener, the math library, the music library, etc., for even a single day (and even books that hadn't been read for generations) without specific faculty authorization each time. I shelved books in Widener for spending money, and still remember how the administration's lackeys would make sure that we were out of the stacks when our jobs were done (presumably to prevent our reading unauthorized material). At 46 years old, and 20 years beyond any contact with the procedures of universities, I still boil at the thought, and still refuse to contribute to the college fund. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lee Story (lee@wang.com) Wang Laboratories, Inc. (Boston and New Hampshire AMC, and Merrimack Valley Paddlers) ------------------------------------------------------------------------