----- Transcript of session follows ----- 550 toad.com (TCP)... 550 Host unknown 554 cypherpunks@toad.com... 550 Host unknown (Valid name but no data [address]) ----- Unsent message follows ----- Received: by access.digex.net id AA01895 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for cypherpunks@toad.com); Wed, 11 Aug 1993 07:58:38 -0400 Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 07:58:38 -0400 From: Peter Wayner <pcw> There is a bit of funny satire in the New Yorker this week. (This is the Aug 16th issue with the funny Bruce McCall painting of a Zeppelin park and the stories about AIDS and the Muppets.) It's aimed at the proposed "V" chip that would allow parents to protect their children from televised violence by shutting off the "violence" mode of the television. The central broadcasters would be required to include a signal saying, "Hey, we're going to be busting some heads in this show. Turn yourself off if the owners don't want you showing violent things." Given that we're talking alot about Big Bubba chips like this, I'll grab a few excerpts: "Sorry. I have a brand-new daughter and I'm already aware of the grim reality: technologically speaking it's us against them-- us the parents, against them, the kids. My kid, Gabrielle, is only five weeks old, and somehow she has already learned how to manipulate the signal from her baby monitor so as to jam my microwave and VCR when she's cranky." "Her mother and I have just hired a pediatric counter-insurgency expert from the Rand Corporation to assist us in eavesdropping on and, if necessary, interdicting some of the electronic conversation that our daughter is involved in." The piece is uneven in spots and given to a few dull jokes, but I thought I would send a blip across your radar screen. -Peter