From: fmayhar@altair.mpd.tandem.com (Frank Mayhar)
Newsgroups: austin.public-net
Subject: Re: Let's do it NOW
Keywords: public net austin free
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:14:36 GMT
Reply-To: fmayhar@mpd.tandem.com
Distribution: austin
Organization: Tandem Computers (MPD) Austin, TX

Disclaimer:  I'm not a principal here, I'm just an interested party who has
offered technical expertise, and who was at the meeting on Saturday.  Any facts
I offer should be taken with a grain of salt, unless Chris or one of the other
principals confirms it.

I don't know where Chris (alias Max Cray) is, but he was supposed to have
posted a summary of Saturday's meeting, as well as a summary of what went on at
Martin Brothers afterward.

It's my understanding that there are two major things that will be happening
this week.  The first is that Chris will attempt to finalize things with Dell. 
Dell apparently wants to offer us an Internet (IP) connection, floor space in
their computer center, and as many dialup lines as we need.  I don't know the
speed of their connection, and understand that all of this is still very up in
the air.  At any rate, Chris will be contacting them this week to confirm their
offer, and to find out what we need to do to accept it.  (Like, incorporate, or
whatever.)

That leaves us needing a system to connect to Dell's IP link, and modems to use
those phone lines.  Cactus has been offered one or several Sparcs, from what I
understand, and if that comes off, we will probably be able to use one of
those.  This is supposed to be looked into this week by Bob, whose last name I
didn't make a note of, and forgot.  (Sorry, Bob.)  He's a member of Cactus,
apparently, and is in on the deal.

The final piece of the puzzle, at least at this stage, is modems.  These will
have to be donated or bought, and no decision had been reached on Saturday. 
Someone chimed in and said that they had a spare modem that they would be
willing to donate, so maybe we have one to start with.

Once we get the system and the connection, I volunteered to configure things
so that they all work.  I also suggest that we go ahead and apply for an IP
address range and a domain name.  The latter means that we need to decide what
the organization's name is, asap.

Finally, the real principals, the doers, are to meet at Chris' house on
Saturday.  Chris will post an official announcement of this soon, but, please,
if you are just curious or just want to kibitz, although you are welcome to do
so at other times, this will be a working meeting, not so much of a planning or
organizational meeting, as I understand it.

Those are the "facts" as I remember them.  Chris, et al, please confirm or deny
them.  Thanks.

Now for opinions.  I agree with Jay, let's do it NOW!  The important thing at
this point is to not get too greedy, nor should our plans be very grandiose. 
Our proximate goal, IMHO, should be to get a system connected to the Internet,
with at least one modem connected to a dialup line.  That would give us an
existing system, and something to build on.  Plus, if prospective supporters
want to know what we've done so far, we'll have something concrete to show them.

There were some fairly grandious ideas expressed, including one to use existing
cable television channels to provide the downlink to subscribers.  These are
probably good ideas, too, but let's wait a year or two before committing
ourselves to something that has no existing hardware or software support.  We
need good, simple, easy goals, that we can achieve quickly, and that build
upon each other.  I think what I've written above meets that criterion.  Now
all we have to do is DO IT!

Thoughtful, informed comments appreciated.  Flames to /dev/null, please.
Chris, please correct any factual errors I've made.  Thanks.
-- 
Frank Mayhar  fmayhar@mpd.tandem.com
              Tandem Computers, Inc.  Micro Products Division
              14231 Tandem Blvd., Austin, TX  78728    Phone:  (512) 244-8969