I just made my first e-cash transaction. Using, SLIP and Netscape, I webbed to HotWired to uy a sneak preview of Bruce Sterling's Prague story to appear in the Jan issue for 0.50 cyberbucks. At the same time, I ran the e-cash client (for Windows) from DigiCash. It has a beautiful interface - just a few little icons visible on the screen; it went to the back, asked me for my password to open my account, found out what my balance was, and asked me whether I wanted to withdraw $10 from the total of $100. I said yes. Meanwhile I asked HotWired to send me the Sterling piece. Unfortunately it was too quick - it came in on port (something) before the e-cash client had filled my wallet; I tried again at HotWired, by which time the e-cash status showed $10. My cyberwallet made a nice clanging sound, asked me whether I wanted to pay "Wired Ecash Shop" $0.50, and whether I wanted to set a payment policy. I'm so smart - I told the client to automatically pay "Wired Ecash Shop" if it asked for less than $2 up to 10 times. Ouch! Now I can't go back up my Web trail! When I went one step back at HotWired, for some reason it ran the e-cash 'charge?' URL, and so 'clang' went my wallet and automatically deducted another 50c! Oops. Oh well, the whole experience was worth a whole cyberdollar. I also 'bought' Chaum's SciAm article, and got the reasonable lengthy list of shops. Then I noticed it was 4 in the morning... Rishab "We know everything about you that we need to know" - Coleta Brueck, IRS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "In between the breaths is rishab@dxm.ernet.in the space where we live" rishab@arbornet.org - Lawrence Durrell Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA