Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!mtunx!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!constance.rutgers.edu!webber
From: webber@constance.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber)
Newsgroups: news.stargate
Subject: Re: questions on stargate
Message-ID: <Jun.3.15.23.52.1988.19607@constance.rutgers.edu>
Date: 3 Jun 88 19:23:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: constanc.Jun.3.15.23.52.1988.19607
References: <5892@cup.portal.com> <8663@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <145@perle.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 42

In article <145@perle.UUCP>, kevin@perle.UUCP (Kevin Pickard) writes:
> In article <8663@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Lou Major) writes:
> >
> > 
> >Could someone mail me a concise description of what stargate is?
> >Thank you.
> > 
> >major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
> 
> How about posting it so that everyone who is similarily curious will
> also get the answer?

Ok.  Stargate is the Usenet-level networking side of the
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac proposal.  The idea is that all of these
eniacs running tcp/ip would be connected in a star network with a
cray2 in the center to handle the archiving.  Any person who wanted to
get news would then only need to submit a small deck of punched cards
to their nearest eniac indicating what topics they wanted to read and
then out would come another stack of cards containing the contents of
those messages in compressed bcd codes.  It turns out that now that
the federal government has stopped using eniacs for nuclear defense
(happened right after the sages were decommisioned in 83 or so), there
are alot of spare eniacs in out of the way locations around the
country.

Originally the proposal was to use magnetic tapes or optical disks,
but it turned out that now that no one uses punch cards any more there
are literally warehouses full of them where you can just drive up and
take as many as you want -- it is bigger than the great cheese
giveaway the federal government was running a few years ago.  The
other neat thing about punch cards is that you don't need to be able
to see them in order to read them -- all you need do is run your hands
over them (there is even a nice notch in the top to make sure you are
holding it right).  This way you can read news while sitting in on a
boring lecture or while listening to your boss explain how things were
when he was in your job.  Unfortunately we can't keep too much
documentation about the system online as it is important that the bean
counters never catch on.  So, a while back an elaborate story about
news transfer via satellites was cooked up and I will leave it to
someone else to explain how that goes.

----- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)