Re: net access

>On Thu, 2 Feb 1995, carr0023@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>I am without question behind the idea of a much broader accessibility for
>anyone to have access to the internet.  As an architect, I am working on a
>private project that incorporates this concern. I was wondering,
>inasumuch as this is the design list, if anyone out there
>has further ideas about how that might be implimented please chip in. And
>forgive me if that what the HUD thread has been about, i have been
>skipping it for fear of more dreadful beaureacratic nit-pikin.
>

Well, libraries, of course.  Libraries are already doing it.  As for
specfics of net integration into a particular project--that depends on the
client program (network designers call them specifications or specs).
Would you please talk a bit more about your project?

I'm going to digress & comment on interior design for computer working
rooms.  This is usually handled horribly (too much & misdirected lighting,
dangerous equipment working heights, & so on.)  I highly, highly, recommend
the Bell Labs guidelines on the matter.  Here's the citation for the latest
edition, straight from their Web server:

>Video Display Terminals (VDT) Handbook
>  Select Code: 350-049.    Pages: 102   Issue: 1983   Issue date: 910426
>
>
>
>Item Prices (Subject to change)
>   PAPER COPY   $42.55
>This is a regularly stocked item. It will usually ship within 48 hours.
>
>This AT&T Bell Laboratories guideline is "must" reading for people who
>    work with VDT's or who are interested in the human factors of
>    VDT-workstation design. This handbook guides the selection, installation,
>    and use of new VDT's and VDT-related furniture. It also specifies the
>    physical design of offices in which VDT's are used whether the offices are
>    new or are to be remodeled. A general understanding of problems
>    encountered in office environment design, especially those offices in
>    which VDT's are significant office equipment items, is promoted.
>
>For up-to-the-minute information on pricing or stock call   1 800 432-6600

My (1985) edition is covers furniture design, VDT design, office
illumination, and general environmental characteristics.  Because of its
age my edition doesn't talk about mice or small computers and discusses
design consideration for displays which aren't of interest to most
designers; it is otherwise excellent.

In belated answer to your comments on networks socially--we are already
committed to wiring the country; it's being done now.  The model is akin to
building city streets.  Really, any group who wants, and can afford the
electric and telephone bills, can have inexpensive text access to the
Net--there are literal tons of old IBM-pc's that are perfectly adequate
text-only terminals.  In another five years the current generation of
systems will be scrap and anyone who wants will be able to have graphics.
So really all that's needed to get the poor on-line are some rather modest
subsidies; not much more than life-line telephone service now provides.
Even those may turn out to be unecessary.


Randolph Fritz
Software engineer, network expert, and architecture student
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx
Mountain View, California, USA