Reports from the Electronic Frontier:
Online, Offline, On the Road
Tom Maddox

As I pointed out in one of these columns more than a year ago, the 
geography of the electronic frontier differs from mundane geography --  
in several important ways.  I said, "What is important in network 
connections is not the geographical proximity of two or more machines 
but the ways --  they connect.  If I have a very fast and continuous 
connection to a computer three thousand or more miles away, then we 
are very "close" to one --  another; if I have a slow and intermittent 
connection to one in my neighborhood, --  we are very 'far'." 

This is true as far as it goes, but I neglected  to point out that when we 
travel, geography changes.  My fast local connection  becomes a fast 
long distance connection or becomes very difficult to access because of 
the vagaries of equipment and systems as I travel from place to place.

This summer I drove from Oakland, California across the midwest, up 
into Canada past Toronto,  to Montreal; then down to Maine; to the 
Jersey Shore; to Virginia; to Austin, Texas; to San Diego; to Oakland once 
more; and up to Olympia, Washington: a trip of more than ten thousand 
highway miles.  During this time I experienced the unstable nature of the 
geography of cyberspace in several ways, most of them irritating.  

Fortunately for my well-being, my adventures and misadventures in 
attempting to stay online were only matters of low comedy and 
inconvenience.  I was not a Corporate Pod Seeking Contact with the 
Mothership, and I did not have to get or send the latest sales data from 
local nerve gas accounts.  I was merely on the road, driving farther and 
longer than makes good sense, as Americans are  wont to do, and 
trying to stay online as I was doing it.  This is just as  well because I came 
to feel that with regard to cyberspace, wilderness can  be found 
anywhere, and the traveler is always in immediate danger of dropping off 
the map.

I had my new Mac Powerbook, my Supra high-speed modem,  and 
appropriate cables:  I figured I was moderately well prepared to stay  in 
touch while traveling.  True, I did not have a techie's or nerd's connection 
kit, containing items such as alligator clips and wire strippers, but as I 
say, my remaining online was a matter of convenience, not necessity, 
and I thought I could forfeit a few opportunities to  do so if inappropriate 
plugs or wiring were the issue.  And experience proved  me right.  Lack 
of a plug was almost never the problem.  Everything else was.

Let's start with simple things.  Always buy an external modem:   this is 
advice I have heard for years, and it has seemed, by and large, sensible.  
An external modem can be hooked and unhooked easily and  so serve 
different machines, even different kinds of machines, so you  can use it 
for your MSDOS computer at work and your Mac at home, and soon.   
And an external modem does not take up one of the often scarce slots 
in your computer.  

However--

An external modem usually must be plugged  in to an electrical outlet, 
and in my experience this summer, this can  be, oh, a problem.  To put 
the matter shortly, necessary outlets are typically either fully occupied by 
nests of plugs or located in grotesquely inconvenient places, such as 
behind the center of the headboard of  a king-size bed that has been 
bolted to the floor of the motel room.   

As a result, I sometimes found myself attempting feats appropriate to a 
simultaneous combination of stevedore and contortionist as I attempted  
to plug in my modem. And while I see the probable spiritual benefit of  
acting out scenes from The Nutty Professor, I don't really enjoy doing so 
after  at the end of a day on the road, a time when I am typically 
physically  stiff and mentally deficient.  However, I believe my wife 
appreciated my end-of-day antics, if only as testimony, were it needed, 
that prolonged involvement with this technology can make you act 
stupid.

Hence my  first bit of advice to the traveler who wants to stay online:  
when you travel, if you can, use an internal modem.

My second bit of advice, also  from knowledge acquired painfully:  bring 
the modem manual with you.  If you  travel, you almost certainly will be 
required to employ odd commands and codes,  and unless you're either 
extremely knowledgeable or experienced, you almost certainly will not 
know them.  I know this because I mistakenly stuck  the modem manual 
in a box which was promptly shipped out of town and put into storage, 
and so during my trip I was reminded regularly of how  handy it would be 
to know my modem's commands.

To take a simple case, assume you are in a motel where you have 
plugged in your modem and your computer, and you are ready to get 
online, and you discover that the following,common conditions obtain.  
You must,typically, dial a long string of numbers: perhaps an 8 and 0 to 
connect to a long-distance  line, then the number you'recalling, then 
(more on this in a moment) your credit card number; all with 
appropriate pauses inserted to allow switching  to take place.  So, at a 
minimum, you need to know how to dial an arbitrary string of numbers 
and how to insert pauses into it. 

Simply dialing long-distance to your service at the motel's rates will be 
very expensive, but you can also make a telephone credit card call--that 
is, you can  use anAT&T, GTE, Sprint, or other calling card tomake a 
relatively cheap connection.  Thus my next hint:  be willing to endure the 
trail-and-error process of sending the sequence ofletters, numbers, and 
pauses necessary tomake a credit card connection.  Subsidiary hint:  
have as many calling cards as you can,and bring them all with you.  I 
have found that possession of an alternate long distance card can 
greatly reduce the difficulty of dialing out from a particular system.  
Again let me emphasize that you almost certainly will find that using your 
own card saves you money, as motels and hotels typically charge the 
most outrageous  rates for doing otherwise.

Returning to your modem manual, you will also  find it handy if you need 
to adjust to other conditions.  For instance,  the simplest command 
used by Hayes compatible modems--which is overwhelmingly the 
standard thesedays--is "ATDT," which gets the modem's ttention  and 
tells it to dial a number by tone dialing.  So, whatever program you  
useto dial up an online service typically issues a command such as:

ATDT 555-5555

However, in some places or on some phones,this will get  you nowhere 
because that system or line does not employ tone dialing;  it uses pulse 
dialing, and your "ATDT" command will get you nowhere.   So, depending 
on your software and how you use it, you have to change the  type of 
dialing to pulse, or you have to use the command string "ATDP."  

All this is very well.  However, even given that you have plugged things in 
properly and issued what should be the appropriate strings of 
commands, you still may not be able to connect.  

For instance, very early in  the trip we stayed at the Little America Hotel 
in Salt Lake City--call  it a hotel or a a motel, but in fact it is a major sub-
metropolis staffed by efficient and smiling staff--as my wife remarked, 
they all appear  to be members of the Osmond Family.  It offered a 
startling array of kitschy conveniences:  including televisions big and 
bright enough to use  in sports bars and remote control devices that 
could control tvs, vcrs, and, apparently, the Space Shuttle.  

I thought, here there'll be no problem. Sure enough, I discovered that the 
phone was connected to one of two conveniently located plugs, next to a 
power outlet, and so I cheerfully  got ready go log on. 

Alas, nothing worked.  After about half an hour  of increasingly random 
attempts to solve the non-connection problem,  I called the front desk 
and asked why.  Oddly, someone knew something  about it--I say oddly 
because this was the only time on the trip that any human being at any 
hotel or motel greeted the word "modem" with signs of recognition.  

The person did not know exactly why a modem wouldn't  work but knew 
it definitely wouldn't.  (I imagine that Little America has a digital phone 
system for its rooms, by the way, and that is what confounds modems, 
but I wouldn't swear to it.)  There were special rooms, I was  told, 
available on request and at an increased rate, where modems could  be 
used. Alternatively, I was invited to come to the office (in the "Tower")  
and use one of their phone lines.  So I ended up phoning in a Locus 
column  from the inner sanctum of Little America with my Powerbook 
on my knees. 

At  some other stops, nothing worked. The phone system didn't function 
as advertised, and no one could explain why or suggest alternative 
measures.  The locals perhaps even used one or more computers to 
take reservations, but they appeared startled at the notion that 
someone  had a computer and modem in their room and wanted to call 
out using these devices.  Anecdotally, I'll just note that there was a 
strong correlation between badness of food and difficulty of getting 
online (though to be fair I should note that there is almost as strong a 
correlation between badness of food and traveling across the United 
States).

And at yet another stop, I found myself sending myself a fax--that is, from 
my motel room to the motel office--because I didn't have a printer with 
me and needed hard copy.

So, my next hint for the  would-be online traveler:  stay loose.  Line noise, 
primitive phone systems,  phones that emit ghastly noises at random 
(this in Ashland, Oregon, by the  way, which surprised me given that 
Ashland is Turistaville to the Max): somedays you can't get there from 
here.  But often you can.  Arm yourself with modems and cables (the 
longer the better, by the way),modem and software manuals, and, if you 
wish,alligator clips and diagonal pliers, and youcan, with a little 
knowledge and much more patience actually  get online most days.A 
Few Events From the Road, 

Advertisements for  Myself Department: we took the Deep South route 
returning west in order to get to Austin, Texas, a city that has 
considerable credentials with regard to cyberspace:  for some years 
Armadillocon, held there during October,  has been theunofficial 
cyberpunk convention; the SteveJackson Games cause celebre took 
place there;it is home to various computer hardware and software 
companies (and MCC, Inc., the United States' answer to  the Japanese 
"Fifth Generation Project") and the only extant local chapter  of the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation.

However, we went there to see theCapital City Playhouse's adaptation of 
my short story "Snake Eyes," which has had a much longer shelf life than 
I would have imagined due  to its inclusion in the Mirrorshades 
anthology.  The adaptation is perhaps  of more than narcissistic interest, 
given that the staging involved a considerable amount of computer 
graphics including even interactive graphics. 

The interactive technology evolved as a kind of onstage videogame, used 
at raves for instance, that allows full-body play without the need for 
special controls.  The"player's" image is captured  by a videocamera and 
superimposed on the onscreen images.  There were  a few glitches 
during early performances of the play, but overall I was amazed  at the 
smoothness of the interaction between a complex technology and a  live 
art form.  

Other than the interactive system, the play also used  some very nice 
graphic images,both still and animated.  At its best moments, the effect 
of the play was something like that of a live Laurie Anderson 
concert,which I consider high praise. 

(I should note that the play was scheduled to run from July 28 to August 
28,so by the time you  read this, the play will have closed.)

On a related note, when we returned to the Bay Area, I found that a type 
of upscale video game arcade had  opened in Walnut Creek that 
employed technology similar to that in the adaptation of "Snake Eyes" in 
that it attempts to bridge the gap between mere  game and virtual 
reality. 

Called Virtual World, the place is in fact an ambitious effort to create a 
new--or at least slightly different--market: highbandwidth videogames 
that you play in realtime against others;  games that also have a fairly 
extensive science fictional wrapping. In this case, I think the creators, 
whoever they are, should footnote Philip  Jose Farmer,because they use 
the notion of a lateVictorian alternate reality where Alexander Graham 
Bell and Nikola Tesla created a"Virtual Geographic League" to the end 
of"discovering and exploring other dimensions, or virtual worlds."  
(There's even a portraitof Sir Richard Burton,  Farmer's favorite 
explorer, hanging in the "Explorer's Lounge."

There's big  money behind this and other, similar efforts.  Disney money 
is involved,in  the person of Roy E. Disney, Jr., son of Walt, and other, 
soon to be virtually real enterprises are due from heavy players such as 
Spectrum Holobyte, which plans a series of centers on the "Star Trek" 
model, among other things.

I don't want to make these games sound too enticing.   The Virtual 
World arcade is selling at least as much sizzle as steak,  at least at this 
point:  virtual reality it isn't.  In fact, you sit in a little cockpit much like 
those found in race car games in ordinary video arcades, where you 
have a plethora of controls, screens, and readouts. According  to 
testimony given by staff and players, you can master the more complex 
controls and associated data outputs only through prolonged  use at $7 
a shot.  

Nonetheless, I have no doubt that we are witnessing the  very early 
stages of the Next Big Thing in electronic entertainment, and  I would 
bet that if you didn't like videogames, you'll really hate what's  coming 
next. However, if you liked these earlier manifestations, you'll love 
pseudo-vr games.


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