Tim May writes:

...

At the risk of stating the obvious, I think it is precisely schemes like this that Denning was referring to. These are what she wants to target.

and Ed Carp replies:

My apologies - I guess I wasn't clear. Waht I meant was, does she honestly think that people *won't* do what I suggested, just because there are laws >forbidding it? If she does, she is surely living in a dreamworld.

An engineer was attending a convention, and after a hard day of conventioneering, returned to his hotel room and feel asleep. About 3 AM, he woke up and smelled smoke, and realized there was a fire in his room! He immediately leaped out of bed, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and let loose at the base of the flames. After 30 seconds of spraying, the fire went out. The engineer went back to sleep. A couple of months later, a physicist attended a physics convention at the same hotel, and coincidentally was given the same room. One night during the convention, the physicist awoke and found the room on fire! The physicist grabbed a notepad and calculator from the bedside table, and made some calculations. He then picked up the fire extinguisher, and made a quick squirt at a point a few feet from the flames. The fire immediately went out, and the physicist went back to sleep. A couple of months after that, a mathematician attended a mathematics convention at the same hotel, and sure enough, was given the same hotel room. After spending the day in seminars, the mathematician returned to her hotel room and went promptly to sleep. Some time later, she awoke to find the hotel room on fire! She quickly grabbed a notepad from the bedside table, made some calculations, said, "There is a solution in principle", went back to sleep and burned to death. -- Steve sneal@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone who believes in the intelligence, efficiency, and integrity of any government anywhere really, REALLY needs to get out more often. ----------------------------------------------------------------------