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 THE WHOOSH ADVENTURES;
  Exploring The Internet
   Whoosh entry 2,000. 1994.8.28
     by Tamar Atri Raine
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   I got in my Whoosh chariot two nights ago, and went to
 Belgium and then to Finland. Today, August 28, 1994, I got in my
 Whoosh and went to Moscow, Russia, where I learned that Lenin's body
 has been carefully embalmed and locked into a glass case in an air
 conditioned room where people may view this controversial historical
 figure. Considering the difficulties I have endured in trying to call
 my husband while he was in Moscow on business, I was amazed that I
 got through on the first try, and I remained on-line, viewing
 photographs and paintings without a single disconnect!

   Then from Moscow, my Whoosh took me to Paris, France, where I
 visited the world famous art museum called The Louver. I got to study
 a few works of art by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and
 a few other famous painters. I learned that Paris is a tiny town,
 only 6 miles long on any side. I got to view the Eiffel Tower, and
 then Whoosh took me to see the river Seine. It has been a most
 educational day, and I will go back to learn more interesting things,
 and see and hear more interesting things on another day.

   I must say, that although I didn't get  "museum feet" I did
 get a fried "museum brain", and had to stop looking at art. For once
 there was no difficulty in getting the French guard to open the
 rampway into this notoriously inaccessible Museum. I got inside my
 Whoosh chariot, and I Whooshed over to Belgium to see if I could
 locate my cousin Marc who is a neuropsycharitrist, but alas Whoosh
 ran into an error cloud, and we had to go home. But that's no
 problem, there's no hotel bill, no luggage to pack, no Pooch to put
 in a cage, no waiters or bellhops to tip, no inaccessible doors to
 struggle through, no airline delays, no airsickness, and no snoring
 neighbor to the left. Here I am, back in Oakland, California, all
 in the blink of an eye!

   What, you ask is a Whoosh? Well, a Whoosh is the sound my modem
 makes when it first makes a connection to another modem.  For those
 of you who are not familiar with computer communications, this has
 been possible to do for many years now. Services like CompuServe,
 Genie, and America On Line, all have only one location, with many
 phone lines that people can call locally so they do not have to run
 up huge phone bills. So people in Atlanta, Georgia, and people in
 San Francisco, California for instance, both calling their local
 numbers with their home or work computers may dial into CompuServe,
 for instance, which is a group of machines in Ohio, and talk (type)
 to each other using the chat function on CompuServe.

   The thing that is different about the Internet - or what
 Vice President Gore has termed the Information Superhighway, is the
 Internet is a group of computers that are scattered throughout the
 world. I tell my modem to dial a local computer server in Alameda,
 Ca, which then connects me to Netcom's main server in Silicon Valley,
 and they have a computer that enables me to access the Internet. The
 Internet is not just one set of machines in one place, and this is
 what is so COOL about it -- it is many thousands of computer servers
 in many places around the world. So, it's not like all this wonderful
 data is centrally located -- when you point and click your mouse at a
 map of Africa for instance, you are actually being sent to Africa
 through many different relays.

   Somehow, through phone lines, and transatlantic magic, these
 many thousands of computer server sites all interconnect with each
 other, forming if you will, a web. In fact, this world wide system is
 called the World Wide Web. I am beginning to feel that the Internet
 is the last barrier we humans will break down, for space knows no
 boundaries. It will, I suspect, be the one thing that will bring us
 all together as a unified people, transcending racial, religious, and
 geographical barriers.

   I like to picture the wonderful Whoosh sound as a tiny atom
 that is Whooshing me through time and space, very much like I have
 experienced in meditation at times -- being inside a ball of blue
 light and tumbling through timelessness. I think of the Whoosh as
 piercing through phone lines, going through computer servers, all in
 a matter of minutes, very much like the Starship Enterprise speeds
 through the galaxies, or even that movie 20,000 leagues under the
 sea, where everything had to be compressed.

   The person I love is a technician. As a child he secretly
 listened to Radio Moscow -- he was an Admiral's son, and God forbid
 anybody should find him listening to the "enemy". He has long believed
 in the freedom of the airwaves, and as such was involved with the
 three year struggle against Cable TV. He always tries to convince
 people to get a satellite dish in their back yard so they can choose
 their own shows to watch. Slowly but surely Cable TV is winning, and
 we had better all take note, because if we don't, there soon won't be
 air time for voices of a different drummer, voices of dissent.

   Already, many of America's television corporations, even PBS,
 are catering to Cable's desires. If we don't watch out, our freedom
 of speech will be withered away. A good example of this problem
 with the mass media catering to Cable or the Government is the case
 of Bobby Hatcher, an American Indian who is being held in a North
 Carolina jail without trial -- he is one of an estimated 100 US
 prisoners who are regarded as political prisoners by many other
 countries in the world. How did I hear about Bobby Hatcher? I read
 an article in one of the newsgroups on the Internet. There are
 thousands of news groups on the Internet. The newsgroups are actually
 referred to as USENET groups.

   Some of the newsgroups I read are; alt.tinnitius, where people
 who have Tinnitus, a ringing of the ears, go to offer support to each
 other by posting messages to each other, suggesting ways to quiet the
 sounds we hear in our ears. (alt. refers to unmoderated groups that
 anybody can set up on the USENET)

   Another one I want to join is the Amnesty International group,
 which I have supported for many years. I just recently decided that
 AI work would be the one cause I dedicate my time to work for, since
 I have a way of accessing their Urgent Action group on-line. I like
 to write letters, and I have a fax inside my computer. Amnesty
 International is using modern technology to pressure governments to
 treat prisoners fairly, and to release immediately, those who have
 been arrested for speaking out against their governments, or just
 arrested and jailed for their religious beliefs, to stop cruel
 corporal punishment in the form of physical, sexual, and emotional
 torture.

   I learned of the latest Joan Baez concert in Santa Cruz, by
 scrolling through messages in the group called ba.music. (Bay Area)
 Although I found this in a list of up-coming concerts that somebody
 had uploaded to a local non-profit BBS (Bulletin Board System), I
 could just as easily have found the article on the USENET area also
 called ba.music.

   The four examples I have listed here are but a few of the 6,000
 newsgroups that can be found on the Internet, and the list is growing
 rapidly every week!

   I met the man I love on-line, so we both have a special fondness
 for the Whoosh sound. As a speech impaired person, I have been able
 to transcend barriers both physical and psychological when chatting
 with people on-line. I am able to communicate fully, on-line, and
 just as quickly as most able bodied people.

   Off line, or in person, it is always a struggle for me to speak
 -- it is hard work for me, but again, most times most people can
 understand me -- if they just take the time -- to listen. Perhaps
 one day soon you will read my novella titled THE DREAM GIRL and
 THE TECHNICIAN. In the meantime, I will continue to globe trot with
 my little Whoosh, making my way around the Internet, and around the
 world via the World Wide Web. CIAO on line!

                                {DREAM}

 Copyright 1995 Tamar Atri Raine, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Atri is a writer and computer artist living in Oakland, California.
 She has cerebral palsy, which makes it hard for her to speak, but she
 types nearly as fast as people who hunt 'n peck, so she's found great
 freedom in using a modem since 1986. She also has Fibromyalgia and
 Myofasciitis Pain Syndrome, caused by an inherited metabolic disease
 that causes a sleep disorder that interferes with how the body
 repairs damage. She writes about disability, spirituality, & politics.
 She lives with a neat guy, and a cute little dog, Sugar. Atri loves
 chocolate, cheese blintzes, and potato pancakes.
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