Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!brahms!weemba
From: weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: bizarre religions
Message-ID: <12150@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 00:01:40 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12150
Posted: Tue Mar  4 00:01:40 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 04:08:45 EST
References: <8603032118.AA09438@s1-b.arpa>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: weemba@brahms.UUCP (Matthew P. Wiener)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 29
Keywords: apologies to all
Summary: mea culpa

In article <8603032118.AA09438@s1-b.arpa> lcc.jbrown@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU (Jordan Brown) writes:
>ten, twenty, maybe thirty lines would have been funny.  400 wasn't.  It
>wasn't even accurate - 400 lines x 15 per line x about 25
>years/generation is only 150k years, not 200k.  You also left out the
>"grand".  I calculate that our site probably spent five minutes
>receiving that wonderful message, at a cost of probably 25 cents.  Now
>multiply that by the THOUSANDS of sites on usenet, not all with local
>connections.  Not bad, you just made AT&T several hundred dollars.

I wish to extend my apologies to the entire network.  I have received
megabytes of fan mail, overflowing my quota severely.  Most of it was
remarkably polite.  I suspect a lot more of it was bounced: if you really
want to send me <rude phrase> repeated 8000 times, roll a die and wait
that many days, to reduce clashes and give me a daily chance to clear out
my busted quota.

In my (pitiful) defense, I am disturbed by people talking about 200000 and
2000000 and 200000000 years of the future as though they were tomorrow, and
am frightened by appeals to totalitarianism.  I, and I suspect most of the
network, do not believe in straightforward linear extrapolations.  I find
it questionable even whether we will still be flesh and blood humans 20000+
years from now.  Adding zeroes here and there is NOT a trivial operation.
The difference between saying great**8000 and what I did (sorry again) was
to emphasize the need for care and thought.  But most of you clearly don't
need help from me in that department.

And the first ten sites that send me a SSAE get their quarter back.  :-)

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720