Page 14 The Battalion Monday, March 27,1989
LIFE
Computer program lets
people talk with others
from around the world
By Thomas Boylan
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
It’s late at night, and a com
puter user is bored, wanting
someone to talk to. With his com
puter, he can — and so can just
about anyone else with a modem.
The citizen’s band radio of the
1990s is here, and it’s called Re
lay.
Chris Barnes, Texas A&M’s
user service coordinator, uses the
CB analogy. He says it was Relay
that got him interested in com
puters.
“Originally I was a pre-vet ma
jor, and I was sitting in my first
programming class, and someone
next to me was on Relay,” he said.
“I said, ‘Wow! That’s neat!’ ”
Relay is a program and a sys
tem of computers that allows peo
ple all over the vyorld to talk to
one another, or rather, type to
one another. Hackers and com
puter enthusiasts can spend
months or years conversing, be
coming good friends, yet never
meet face to face. All it takes to
get into the system is a computer,
a modem (a device that allows
computers to “talk” to one an
other) and paid tuition.
Each A&M student pays a $10
computer access fee with tuition,
and that fee goes to services
which can put students in contact
with enormous amounts of com
puter information.
Using Relay, a computer user
types a message, and that mes
sage goes from a central system
out to many users, as in a broad
cast. Like CB radio. Relay has
many channels, some of which
have been (unofficially) comman
deered for specific topit;§.,
But what’s R^lay for?
“Most students use it to play
with,” Barnes said. “The topics
are generally pretty light.”
Describing the system, he said:
“Relay is more or less a program.
Originally it was a type of pro
gram. When it was legitimized,
the Relays had to talk to one an
other, so everyone has to use the
same program.”
It wasn’t always legal to talk on
a Relay, however. Barnes began
using it in the fall of 1984, “when
it was still not legitimate,” he said.
In the past, Relay simply was not
considered a legitmate use for a
computer. It tended to be, and
still is, a place to play and to dis
cuss the weather, boy- and girlf
riends and computers.
But all the people talking
bogged the computer system,
Barnes said.
BitNet
The entire Relay system uses
what is known as BitNet to com
municate. BitNet is an interna
tional network of computers al
lowing all the computers to talk to
one another. All the computers
have a Relay program and a cen
ter that receives and re-broad
casts the messages over BitNet’s
lines. Those lines connect the us
ers to an international netw ork.
Unlike Relay, BitNet never had
a problem with legitimacy.
“BitNet was always legal,” Bar
nes said. “A good analogy would
be that BitNet is like the Postal
Service. Relay would be a chain
letter using the Postal Service —
one thing uses the other for ac
cess.”
Barnes said BitNet came into
being around 1981, when the
first BitNet link was made. Relays
first were made in late 1983 to
1984, he said.
BitNet was started with a com
puter link between Yale and City
University in New York.
The system only recently has
included the Southwest, and it
still has not reached into some
parts of the Northwest.
“BitNet started up in the
Northeast, and it’s still growing
quite a bit,” Barnes said. “In the
first year there were 500 nodes
(computer systems). They grew
really fast right off the bat, and
they’re still growing relatively
fast, but it’s not like it was the first
year.”
Relay and its Uses
It did not take long for Relay to
gain popularity.
“Right now there are about
2500 computer systems on Bit-
Net, and everyone who has an ac
count on any one of those systems
could be on Relay at any given
time,” Barnes said. “There are
around 10,000 accounts at A&M
alone.”
Not every system has that
many accounts, but some around
the nation have more.
At A&M, use of Relay is re
stricted to after 5 p.m., when all
of the major University computer
users have gone home for the
day. Special privileges are nec
essary to use Relay during the
day, but they are not entirely un
available.
Relay does offer legitimate,
academic use;s during the day. It
isn’t a system just; ,for play apd.re
laxation.
Barnes described a scenario:
“Say you’ve got several people
who are in physics. You’ve got a
couple of people here at A&M, a
couple at Rice, and a couple at
Cornell, and they want to discuss
a topic together. Instead of decid
ing to fly somewhere to meet or
to have a telephone conference,
they have a Relay conference.”
Because travel is expensive and
time-consuming, Relay provides
distinct advantages over having
teleconferences.
“In a telephone conversation,
you can only have one person
speaking at a time, otherwise no
one makes any sense,” Barnes
said. “With Relay you can have
five or six messages being typed
at the same time, and each mes
sage has a name with it. You can
follow a thread of conversation
and you can refer back to what
people said afterward. It leaves
you a record.”
Each message enters every
other person’s computer as a line
of text with a name at the begin
ning. Several people can discuss
different topics simultaneously,
and the discussers simply ignore
those lines that are not relevant to
them.
But physicists are not the only
ones w'ho can use Relay during
the day. Using Relay is a way for
university faculty to communicate
informally.
During the middle of the day,
Barnes received a message from a
friend who works at Rice Univer
sity. The message simply noted
that his friend was at home and
See Relay/Page 16
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‘Rain Man’ clear Oscar favorite;
other winners still anybody’s guess
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ameri
ca’s film industry honors its own at
the 61st Academy Aw'ards on
Wednesday night, and it’s likely that
“Rain Man” will make a big splash.
Leading the field w'ith eight nomi
nations, the cross-country odyssey of
two vastly different brothers appears
to be the favorite to capture the best
picture Oscar, with Dustin Hoffman
the front-runner for best actor and
Barry Levinson for best director.
“Rain Man” has the double advan
tage of being generally (but not
unanimously) praised by the critics
and embraced by the public ($122
million gross in 80 days).
The other major categories look
as unpredictable as a horse race.
Critics’ awards have been scat
tered over a wide field, providing no
hint as to favorites.
The uncertainty of the outcome
should add excitement to Wednes
day night’s telecast, in contrast to last
year’s no-surprise awards. The event
returns to the Shrine Auditorium
despite the wave of protest over traf
fic gridlock and poor sound a year
ago. The Los Angeles police and the
sound engineers have promised to
do better.
The Academy also seems resolved
to restore glamour to the Oscar pre
sentations. Producer Allan Carr (“La
Cage aux Folles”) will stage the
awards “like a Broadway show,” with
Marvin Hamlisch providing the
downbeat in the orchestra pit.
After 17 years of directing the
awards, Marty Pasetta has been re
placed by Jeff Margolis, who has at
tracted good ratings w ith the Ameri
can Music Awards show.
The Oscarcast will have no emcee.
Instead, a bevy of “couples, compan
ions, costars and compadres” will
present the awards. Among them:
Demi Moore and Bruce Willis; Mel
anie Griffth and Don Johnson; Kim
Novak and James Stewart; Sammy
Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines; Goldie
Hawn and Kurt Russell; Farrah
Faw'cett and Ryan O’Neal; Bo Derek
and Dudley Moore; Kiefer and Don
ald Sutherland.
The nominees for best picture —
“The Accidental Tourist,” “Danger
ous Liaisons,” “Mississippi Burning,”
“Rain Man,” “Working Girl” — offer
a wide range of subject matter. But
they have one thing in common: All
were released last December.
That fact has brought renewed
claims that movies released earlier in
the year have less chance of winning
Hollyw'ood’s big prize.
History seems to bear that out.
Since 1934, when films became eligi
ble on a calendar-year basis, 18 De
cember releases have won as best
picture. The tally: November, 9; Oc
tober, 5; September, 4; August, 3;
July, 3.
Only 11 movies released in the
first six months of the year have
been picked as the best.
By Shane Hall
REVIEWER
Unless you’ve been on an ex
tended visit to Outer Mongolia,
you no doubt know that it’s Aca
demy Awards time. The awards,
recognizing what the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
considers the greatest film
achievements of 1988, will be
broadcast Wednesday at 8 p.m.
on ABC.
The adage “everyone’s a critic”
is probably more true around this
time of year than any other. Not
everybody agrees with the nomi
nees or winners. Hence, there are
several other groups making
their own picks for the best in
Interestingly, the only January re
lease to take the top prize was the
classic “Casablanca,” first seen in Los
Angeles on Jan. 2, 1943. (For Oscar
eligibility, a film must play at least
one week in an L.A. theater.)
Academy president Richard Kahn
offers an explanation: “T he major
serious films are traditionally re
leased in the last three months of the
year,” he said. “Summer is now re
served for lighthearted, escapist en
tertainment. That’s the way movies
are dealt out to the public.
“That doesn’t mean that movies
released earlier in the year don’t
have a chance as best picture.
“ ‘The Godfather’ came out in
March. ‘Annie Half was an April re
lease.” But 1 1 of the last 17 best-pic
ture winners were released in No
vember or December.
Publicist Booker McClay said.
movies.
The National Board of Review
and the Los Angeles Critics’ Cir
cle are only two examples. What
follows are the picks and prefer
ences of yet another group, the
Battalion Board of Critics.
We will concentrate on six ma
jor awards: best picture, best ac
tor, best actress, best supporting
actor and actress and best direc
tor.
Best Picture.
“Rain Man,” the story of two
brothers, one of them an autistic
savant, is the picture to beat at
this year’s awards. It is distin
guished by many emotional mo
ments and a superb performance
by Dustin Hoffman. Look for
“Rain Man” to win this award and
several others.
“There’s no question that ayear-en;
release enhances the possibility ol
Oscars.”
McClay has conducted campaigns
for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
“Out of Africa” and this year’s “Go
rillas in the Mist” for Universal Pi;
tin es.
“At the end of the year,
Academy voters may have 30 pi
lures to see,” McClay said. “Theyan
much more likely to be attractedit
the new movies than to returnu
those they have seen early in tl*
year.
"It’s hard to generate interesti;
movies that were released eight o:
nine months earlier. You haven
book a theater on the west side,*
the film is available to Acadenr
members.
“Meanwhile the new releases art
attracting all the excitement."
My preference, however, is for
Alan Parker’s controversial "Mis
sissippi Burning,” an intense
drama set in the civil rights
movement of the mid-1960s.
Best Actor.
Expect Dustin Hoffman to win
this one. His role as Raymond
Babbit, a middle-aged autistic sa
vant, shows tremendous depth.
Hoffman is thoroughly deserving
of the Oscar, which, if he wins,
w ill be his second.
As much as I liked Hoffman in
“Rain Man,” I’m a bit more par
tial to Gene Hackman, who in
“Mississippi Burning" (Are you
beginning to detect a pattern
here?) gave his best performance
in years.
See Oscars/Page 15
Make your bets now on the Batt’s Oscar picks
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