From: tip@lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.dan-quayle
Subject: How to defend your school  (Was Re: meyerj responds to allegations)
Date: 11 Dec 92 18:35:23 GMT
Distribution: world, na, usa
Organization: University of Arizona UNIX Users Group

Dear Mr Lurie, Mr Meyer, et allegheniensis

	Some of you have felt hard pressed to defend your school from what
you felt were attacks on your alma mater's honor.  Using opening lines
such as "you are a moron", or bragging about how great _you_ are ("I turned
down a Noble prize to come here") do not really do the trick.   The following
letter that I received in e-mail did a much better job.  I have
"sanitized" the letter since I am re-posting it without asking for the 
original posters permission (I am being lazy).   However, I would advise you 
to find people like this, and use them as role models.

	Calm letters of explanation are so much more convincing than flames.
I think one of the best demonstrations of how effective calm, concise
demonstrations are compared to flaming was shown during the enquiry
into the Shuttle Disaster.    The rep from Morton Thiokol was being a real 
jerk, flaming everybody who dared to question the choice of material for
the O rings.   R. Feynmann calmly took a sample of the O ring material,
held it in his glass of ice water, and then snapped it between his fingers.
Q.E.D.

Having said all of this, I tend to agree with those people who say "enough is
enough".  While this newsgroup is dedicated to lampooning buffoonery,
and I have appreciated your efforts to povide us with grist for the mill,
the importance of the buffoonery of two freshmen pales in comparison with the
much less common spectacle of a VP of the USA making a boob of himself.
Thus, as a courtesy to the readers of this group, this shall comprise
my last post on this topic.

Tom Perigrin

-----------

Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 22:39:25 EST
From: XXXXXX@alleg.edu
Subject: An Apology from another Alleghenian

Dear all from Alt.fan.dan-quayle

While avoiding a paper for one of my required classes, I
stopped by to visit a.f.d-q and could not believe that
this was still going on after all this time.  This "little
prank" has gone _way_ past where it should have.  I don't
expect that I can repair all of the damage done, but if
nothing else I hope to amuse at least some of you.

First of all, Allegheny is a very competitive school, and
the honor code is a very strict and powerful part of the
college.  The problem that we are having right now is that
in the last few years the computing ability of the campus
has mushroomed.  Even last year my Comp Sci class was using
IBM PCs that were about 8 years old.  Now we have gone
totally to NeXT 2.2, and we will be upgrading to 3.1 by next
fall.  We have many applications that make using the NeXT
and things like newsgrazer and FTP much easier. 

Unfortunately the power of these computers is much
greater than the normal user needs, and those with
nothing better to do (and I think you have been
unfortunate enough to meet some of these fellows) have
plenty of opportunity to abuse the system. The problem
is that he did not change his account password from the default 
until someone had broken in and abused his account. The other one,
who you all know and loathe, is quite a character.  His friend 
is his NeXT, and he can be whoever he wants behind his veil of 
anonymous power.  In real life you would probably never hear him 
say a word, but put a keyboard in front of him and.... well we
have seen what can happen.  Both of them have
a terrible syndrome we have been trying to cure without
success -- it is called freshmenitis.  It seems to be caused
by having an awful lot to say, having this feeling that
everything that comes from one's mouth is true, and
having very little ability to think clearly and
rationally.  We are looking for a cure, but as for now we are
restricted to trying to wait them out, they usually
outgrow it in the end.


Aaron (our system administrator) is a great guy who has
come on recently to a new system and faced more than anyone
would believe if I told you.  Everyone is doing the best
they can, but 4 years ago ACCS (Allegheny Community
Computing Services) was almost non-existent.  It built
itself up very quickly and very well, but this year we (I
work with them in the labs, helping users and trying to
crack down on abuse) had out budget slashed in over 50%. 

After such a rapid growth, it was difficult for us to be cut
back to severely.

I don't expect anyone to read this and go "Oh, gee, silly
me, now I see that Allegheny is not all that bad."  I live in
the real world and I know the type of damage that is done by
something like this.  In fact, I was the one who reported
this to ACCS when it first happened.  All I would like is for
everyone to realize that the few loud voices you hear do
not speak for the rest of the students, faculty, or
administration at Allegheny.  Yes, what has happened
reflects on the school, and we are doing too much good to
have it be overshadowed by a few fools with nothing better
to do than annoy you.  There are people who come out of
Allegheny with a fantastic education, and there are
people who find their way out by the skin of their teeth. 	I
would be happy to receive email from anyone wishing to
discuss this further.  Anyone who would like to know more
(or anything) about Allegheny can feel free to contact
me.  I am not going to plan on posting to your group because
even if (and I am not sure of this) we have the "right" to be
there, we are intruders.  I have spoken to the Aaron
already about the Allegheny students who have been
annoying your group, and I expect he will contact them and
hopefully set them straight.

Thank you for your time and I hope this (Annoying
Alleghenians interference) ends very soon.
Newsgroups: alt.fan.dan-quayle