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Kobe earthquake etc -- tubed #0.7
``` [I've enclosed tubed 0.7, prefaced by a note from its editor about subscription information and the like.]
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:02:28 -0500
From: Edward Vielmetti
[...]
Please list a contact address for subscriptions as subscribe@tubed.com instead of emv@msen.com so that I can track incoming requests a wee bit better.
There is also one correction to be made - the TOPTEN subscription info should be To: listserv@clark.net
SUBSCRIBE TOPTEN Your Name
--Ed
Edward Vielmetti / emv@msen.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 23:50 EST From: emv@garnet.msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) Subject: tubed #0.7 - Kobe earthquake
This is issue 0.7 of tubed, the 6th in 1995, the first in 10 days or so. Ann Arbor weather has been pretty much one of each - unseasonably mild, bitter cold, foggy, rainy, and sunny. Snow expected next.
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Kobe earthquake
I spent the better part of tonight putting together a web page full of links to on-line information about the Kobe earthquake, which hit with a magnitude of 7.2 on 16 Jan 1995. The page at http://www.msen.com/~emv/kobe.html includes links to several other sources of information, including a server at Nara, Japan (45 km east of the epicenter) with detailed information in Japanese, and in Stanford, California, home of the maintainer of the "frequently asked questions" document for the Usenet newsgroup "soc.culture.japan". In amongst the collection is seismic traces, pictures pulled from Japanese TV, and personal accounts of the tragedy.
Several other folks around the world are tracking the same information, including Shimpei Yamashita at Stanford California, Harald Kucharek in Karlsruhe Germany, and several groups in Japan.
It would appear that Kobe U is still off the Internet, but the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies is back on line (albeit on a slow link), so that once the immediate emergencies are taken care of there will be some local contact sites for detailed information from the city.
News reports are coming from the area, though transportation is still crippled with rail and bullet train lines affected. The New York Times morning edition had big pictures of smoke and crumpled highways in Kobe; several of the online news sources also have pictures and wire service stories. Japan's NTT telephone company reports (on http://www.ntt.jp/ in Japanese) calling into the entire region is still difficult.
Several Internet networks went quickly into action once news started to move. Earliest traffic (and, I suspect, most of the useful detailed content) went via e-mail with personal correspondence using the nets in some cases where phone lines were hard to use. The IRC chat lines in #report and (later) #kobe relayed traffic and pointers to Web servers. As in the Northridge quake a year ago, the long-standing seismic monitoring networks automatically captured and made available details of the quake for online viewers, since those monitoring instruments are connected directly to Internet servers.
Public access to the Internet in Japan is limited due to high local phone rates and strict regulation. Unlike the Northridge quake which saw a variety of privately owned computer systems and long distance telephone networks in the L.A. area withstand at least some of the quake's toll, there is a much less well developed public Internet infrastructure in Japan, and as such no "Kobe Internet Public Access" in someone's spare bedroom to relay news. Academic and large company internal networks (e.g. Sony, NTT) have housed most of the publicly available news to date. There are reports from the Shima Media Network via privately owned facilities (Eccosys and PSI Japan's "Interramp" service) that take unofficial viewpoints. One IRC commentator was connected in via the Netcom service.
The Arpanet was built initially to withstand Cold War fears of nuclear devastation; as has happened during other disasters it is not only the physical network which gets strained, but also the network of people trying to make sense of the situation and to communicate useful information to each other and to the public (thus contributing to news and not to noise). Add to that the terrible physical toll of those working directly to aid the hurt...
The web page listed above has (or will have) links to relief agencies and direct appeals for assistance; future editions of tubed will include pointers as seems appropriate. Several people in their area are relaying messages to people who can't get phone calls through, follow the web pages to find those or contact me directly in a pinch.
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Patented pictures
Public discussion traffic has died down considerably regarding the Unisys GIF patents, waiting for developers to cast their lot to decide which of several competing graphics formats to support and for users to slowly work out the process of updating their software to match.
Several Web browsers are now supporting JPEG format for inline pictures, should site developers choose to eliminate GIFs from their site entirely. With Netscape holding about 60% of the market for browsers last week, it would seem that enforced changes to only a relatively few sites would motivate a lot of folks to grab a software update. Compuserve, for its part, is working to develop an open specification for GIF24 (n.b. not "GIF95" as in previous issues) which will support lossless compression for 24-bit images (full color, as opposed to the 8 bit images that GIF supports).
Prodigy has a new web browser just deployed (I haven't seen it - anyone?) which should lead to a batch of new users looking at web pages for the first time, as well as a new crop of bugs and compatibility questions that pop up every time someone puts out new client or server software deployed to any sort of mass population.
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Network money
This is a new section to slide in details about online commerce and various systems for using the network to move money, goods, and other items of value.
In patent news, Checkfree (Columbus, OH) and Intuit are fighting about a patent for online checking (per the NY Times). I'm looking for a sensible summary of this on line.
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E-mail and the unexpected power of interaction
I now have a copy of Laci Babai's paper (thanks to Paula Shanks at Math Reviews, and to the author who e-mailed a postscript version).
A quote from it for consideration: E-mail is there, for better or for worse. There is no way to slow it down. The question is, what to mail, whom to send it to. Maybe the longer the list, the better. Science is likely to benefit from wider communication.
As a separate perspective, "Arguments for Eliminiation of the Information Age", in an article published in the Detroit anarchist journal The Fifth Estate, 'bi Sunfrog' writes: E-mail itself is not a primary source of misery in our fragmented lives; rather it is acutely sympomatic of general social trends of accelerated technology coupled with depreciation of sensual reality and the deterioration of communities.
I don't think the Fifth Estate article is as good as it is long (6 p tabloid, way too big to key in) but it does have enough to it to deserve another look.
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Job opportunities
This is going to be short (time pressures make it difficult to do a full include of all possible text for each position), so in brief:
California: Cygnus Support, sysadmin and test engineer spots Washington DC area: Legislate, online support intern jobs Michigan: Mike O'Connor (mjo@dojo.mi.org) has a lead on HP jobs (systems and database) in S.E. Michigan via a recruiter based in Cleveland, contact him directly StorageTek in Ann Arbor has ca. 8 open positions for work on mass storage software, contact David Bloom or Joe McConnell (dcb@msen.com, mccon@msen.com) for details Connecticut: Mecklerweb is hiring for online jobs, including HTML, systems, and editorial; they don't appear to be paying relocation fees Japan: Shima Media Network advertises for tech support (systems admin) plus news and editorial experience on their web server, presumed that working knowlege of Japanese is necessary, location Tokyo
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Telegraph
Paul Haas and his hot tub got a mention in a Time Magazine story about devices hooked up to the Internet. http://hamjudo.com/ ; the Time online site it http://www.timeinc.com/ ("Pathfinder").
Jeff Mackie-Mason at the U of Michigan is teaching a course on Information Networks Policy (IPPS 744), see his syllabus and reading list and links on http://ippsweb.ipps.lsa.umich.edu/ipps744/syll.html
Donna Hoffman at Vanderbilt has a paper on marketing on the Internet, see it at http://colette.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu .
Should you dare to traverse it, Wood-Charles Associates has published an issue of the Vulgar Gourmet (The magazine of twisted living) at http://www.msen.com/~mccon featuring an account of several culinary adventures.
Aaron Barnhart reports the return of the Top Ten list server for David Letterman fans, send mail to "listserv@clark.net" with the message "SUBSCRIBE TOPTEN" to get your daily fix.
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Recipes
Report from Switzerland is that the basil-tomato pasta recipe was used to feed some friends, to good end.
I'd like to run a recipe or two featuring garlic the next time I get a chance, please send your favorites. To start it off, here's a very simple recommendation: use "Black Bean Garlic Sauce" (one version from Lee Kum Kee is available in Asian groceries here) in your favorite stir-fry recipe.
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Ann Arbor restaurant update
A group went to visit the Old German restaurant for a working lunch and to see the old place before it closes (to be replaced by the long-awaited Grizzly Peak brewpub, which has new investors from Traverse City and which has abandoned ideas to rennovate the Cracked Crab). A hearty meal was had by all. Chicken pie was a big honest slab of casserole; stuffed noodle soup was most of a meal, and the cold meat loaf had a carrot center. Afterwards the diners with the most flexible work habits scheduled naps.
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Copyright
I didn't like the tone of the previous copyright message, so here's what replaces it.
Copyright 1995 Edward Vielmetti. Any portion may be reprinted as long as the author is notified (emv@msen.com) and as long as this copyright notice stays attached. Back issues will be available via some network document delivery system (e.g. First Virtual) on the Internet, contact for details. Subscriptions are available if you don't want to miss an issue. ```
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