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From: bob@kahala.hig.hawaii.edu (Bob Cunningham)
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Subject: Re: U. of Hawaii uucp mail & Usenet news cutoff
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Date: 7 Feb 90 23:32:11 GMT
References: <303@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <1990Feb7.012458.14811@aqdata.uucp> <2116.25cff8b7@mccall.uucp> <1990Feb7.183622.11065@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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Reply-To: bob@kahala.soest.hawaii.edu (Bob Cunningham)
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As a followup, it appears that no local systems were completely cut off
from their Usenet news feeds or uucp mail (except that routes through
the uhccux machine are no longer operational).  There were and still
are other routes.  The UH Computer Center probably wasn't even the
primary news feed, just a handy one.

Some additional background (to the best of my knowledge; I still don't
know the complete details myself):  the UH computing center had a
moritorium in effect on new uucp connections (for a variety of reasons,
one for sure was that they felt it was taking a bit too much time and
effort to keep things working right); I understand that some
disgruntled person outside of the University community who wanted a
uucp link appealed to their state legislator, something along the lines
of "hey, why not me too?"  The upshot was a legislative inquiry that
asked what this was all about, why the University was doing this sort
of stuff, and--by the way--what was the official University policy on
all this anyways...

Suffice it to say there's never been a formal policy (though internally
at UH there's been considerable internal debate about what such a
policy should or shouldn't be), and that some UH officials became
concerned enough (note that the University's budget is currently under
review by the state legislature) to trigger the cutoff.

Bob Cunningham
School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology, University of Hawaii
bob@kahala.soest.hawaii.edu