?End of Internet as we know it

[Michael Holloway]

In article <1993Jun2.165551.21612 at news.arc.nasa.gov> chimento at ursa.arc.nasa.gov (Thomas Chimento) writes:
>
>Cant someone please give me for free what I want and make someone else pay
>for it? Afterall, I'm special. I'm poor. I only have a University position
>that pays more than most jobs in the country. Whine, whine, whine.

All true, but the fact remains that if SUNY wasn't able to afford to give 
people free accounts I would have no access at all.  Paying for a service
is not an option for a grad student here.

>If the service remains good, or as they claim, improves. If the charges are
>not high, as they claim, then the expansion of the Internet to all schools, 
>hospitals and libraries is a timely improvement. Fight to keep the system
>growing and the costs reasonable, but stop being so selfserving and selfish.

But improves it in what way is the question?  The services I see being talked 
about are things that have little or nothing to do with biomed research 
communication.  How much of an increase in price would be reasonable?  2-3 
fold?  That would be enough to shoot this place down.  Selfserving?  Well,
yes but I'm anxious to see what some of the technically knowledgable readers
have to say about this.  If the cost of using the backbone becomes too much
maybe there is an alternative.  Is Bitnet still out there?  What are the 
relative costs of using it?

Mike