Text 7476, 58 rader
Skriven 2010-05-01 18:19:04 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 7462 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Connectability
======================
Replying to a message of Robert Bashe to Bob Ackley:

 RB> Bob Ackley wrote to Michiel van der Vlist on Friday April 30
 RB> 2010 at 19:26:

 BA>> Not having an Internet connection means I never have to
 BA>> worry about government spying on what I'm doing, or about
 BA>> various kinds of malware infecting my equipment. They
 BA>> cannot connect through a cable that isn't there.

 RB> A minimum of caution achieves the same. You're cutting off
 RB> your nose to spite your face. I'm positively paranoid about
 RB> malware and computer spying - and still manage to keep my
 RB> system clean without cutting myself off from the rest of
 RB> the world.

The difference between us is that you need the Internet to function and I
don't.

If I absolutely *have* to get something from the Internet I can go up to the
Emerson
library on Tuesday or Thursday mornings and use their machines.  If it won't
wait
I can go to the Red Oak library, which is open six days a week, and use their 
computers.

I do not have, or want, or need, the ability to click on URLs posted here and
elsewhare in Fidonet.

I could - if money were no object - put in a satellite link, installation is
about
US$700 and the monthly vigorish is about $100.  Of course, that includes
television -
which. aside from mental masturbation in various waiting rooms,I haven't
watched
in thirty years.  It simply isn't cost effective.

In the event that Qwest pulls the plug on the copper wire I'll obviously drop
out of
Fidonet.  I do have a cellular phone - a prepaid one; it lives in my pocket,
turned off,
until I need to make a call.  It's a telephone, it doesn't take pictures and
doesn't surf
the Internet or do email.  Tracfone (the provider) sells update cards in
convenience
stores, usually some flavor of 60 minutes/60 days.  60 minutes or 60 days costs
about
US$20 - Qwest charges at least $55/month for the landlines - each, so when they
pull
the plug on the copper I'll be spending $115 less every month, I can live with
that.  I *always* run out of days before I run out of minutes; the minutes
accumulate, though,
and at one time I had over 400 minutes in the bank - then I lost the d*mn
phone,
had to get another one (<US$15) and start over <sigh>.

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)