Conference 7.286::digital

    How about offering to place links to other companies on the first page,
    for a fee of several $100k per week/month whatever, and how about an ad
    campaign along the lines of "Digital knows best where everything is on
    the WEB"
    
    btw 
    before this note gets moved under ALTA VISTA, IMHO this is about making
    money and ALTA VISTA just happens to help - so please don't move it!

   I think this is a little bit of a Catch-22. Until users are made aware of 
   the powerful features and "benefits" of Alta Vista why should they pay for 
   searches when there are so many other search engines ? I believe LYCOS is 
   undertaking conversion to TurboLaser and Alphas - do/will they charge ?
 
   At this stage in the WWW development I think the notion of charging for use 
   would deter users. However the provision of advertising space on this server 
   with SO MANY hits per day taking place must be an extremely attractive draw 
   for potential custom - and much more likely to be acceptable, though I do 
   get annoyed sometimes with badly implemented ads adding to the 
   access/transfer times when I have a slow link to a web page....
 
   Apart from this side of money-making we should cobtinue to capitalise on the 
   publicity angle and use it as a revenue-generating reference.
 
   Rog

    
    a customer of mine is looking at using Lycos or Altavista to help them
    do research, to support investment banking decisions. At the moment,
    they get it free (and I enjoy the 'marketing' benefits of both being
    (or soon to be) Alpha driven).
    
    So *they* make money out of Altavista/Lycos indirectly.

    IMO, the only way to "make" money out of AltaVista is to shamelessly
    exploit the service, and the 2.4 million hits a day, by vigourously
    promoting Digital and Digital's products. We aren't doing that.
    
    Laurie.

    I propose the following strategy for Alta Vista:
    
    Design it as a two tiered search engine.  Tier one, the "free" tier
    provides unlimited access.  The only hitch is that it carries
    advertising...from Digital or whomever.  If you want your free info,
    you get to read Digital's sales pitch.
    
    Tier two, the "premium" tier offers the search engine without ads, and
    is a fee based service.  To get premium service, a user has to
    register, with electronic billing and all that.  The fee structure
    should be very low to encourage use...maybe NYNEX's directory
    assistance paradigm is appropriate, with a fixed number of free
    searches per month, and a nominal fee after that...say $0.10 per
    search.
    
    The key to this structure is that the fee based engine has to be
    superior to the free engine.  Fee based queries are given priority,
    access the fastest machines, disks, lines, etc.  This, plus the lack of
    advertising GIF's and messages should encourage people to sign up.
    
    What does Digital get out of this?  Probably enough revenue to cover
    costs and a premier, up to date mailing and contact list to sell to. 
    This list can be farmed by "frequent flyer" programs, contests, etc. 
    It represents a superior opportunity to use this new medium to push
    brand awareness in a noisy marketplace.
    
    Comments?
    
    gc
    

While I too think Altavista is 'way cool', I also think that the only real thing
differentiating it from LYCOS is the size of the database as well as speed.  
This is nothing somebody else can't do too if they want to.  I think we may be
jumping the gun a bit to think this is ready to be a product.  Once someone 
starts selling web search products, others who think they may have a slightly
better one will start jumping into the market.

I'd much rather see us operate in 'netscape' mode a lot longer.  Make it free,
enhance the hell out of it along the way based on user feedback and continue to
capture mindshare.  It then becomes a huge disincentive for anyone else to
compete with us, especially if theirs costs $$$.  It you think about it for
awhile, one of the reasons we were able to compete with LYCOS was because they
didn't really have anything to differentiate themselves.

Only when we're at the point where we have a year or more lead on any possible
competition would I then consider doing something with is as a product.

-mark

  The true opportunity for cash from AltaVista comes from the marketing data 
  that can be derived from each hit. My name is currently on tons of mailing 
  lists for having purchased items.  What if my name and email address were
  *instantly* communicated (sold) to any direct marketing agency based on an
  implied interest in a subject...

    ie.  I'm looking for information on hourglass shaped skis.

         Two seconds later, I get email from a manufacturer of said skis.
            (they paid big bucks to Digital for the INFORMATION)

         Two seconds later, I get email from three competing local 
	 distributors of said skis.
            (each paid big bucks to Digital for the INFORMATION)


  We maintain the FREE service to the world.  We SELL the information that
  only Digital can generate.

  I'm surprised that no one else has suggested this in the day and age of
  data warehousing....  

  BTW - I hate the idea of my name being SOLD to anyone, but if that's the
  price I had to pay for information and I understood that consequence up
  front it'd be my decision.

  Regards,
  db
              

What you suggest is one of the fastest ways to get Digital flamed all
up and down the Internet for net abuse.

Fortunately today's WWWeb browsers only provide the name of the site
(which is often the proxy server, not the originating node) when
you access a WWWeb site.

The day it becomes possible for WWWeb browsers to (without my permission)
give out my email address is the day I stop surfing.

I'm already getting about three or four unsolicited email advertisements
a week just because I have my own WWWeb page; I don't need to provide the
marketeers another data source.

/john

    re .8: I totally agree... I already get enough junk email, probably
    usually based on adresses extracted from Usenet (though I very rarely
    write anything there, and nowadays I consider twice before I do).
    
    

How about selling me a position in the list?  If someone does a search on
"skis" - i'd like the pointer to my company's homepage to be first on the list.

    
    re. .8,.9
    
    John,
    
    The important wording is "without my permission".  The last paragraph
    of my suggestion is simply "give us permission; that's the price of 
    information these days".
    
    I agree COMPLETELY with your statements, but this type of direct 
    marketing is exactly where the WWW is heading today.  We have proven
    the technology exists to generate the data.  That data is worth an
    unbelieveable amount of money.  That idea will be implemented - if
    not by Digital, then by some other opportunist.  If Digital charges
    any money for the service and another service provider allows access
    for free (albeit with the caveat that the data is released) I believe
    most netheads would bite the bullet, use the free service and implement
    an email filter (similar to call blocking) on their account.  
    
    Am I in left field?
    
    Regards,
    db

    re .11:
    
    �most netheads would bite the bullet, use the free service and implement
    �an email filter (similar to call blocking) on their account.  
    
    I think you just denied the usefulness of the service yourself... :-)
    

    
    re .12
    
     
    Not really....   we can write and sell the filter, too.  
    
    Kinda' like creating a virus and inventing the immunization
    concurrently.
    
    Later,
    db

   Charging seems (IMNSHO) short-sighted when we have one of the best
   spots to advertise our own products and services -- anywhere on the
   Internet -- is literally under Digital's direct control.

   (Sure, Alta Vista is fast and sure it's got a big database, but I can
   do pretty well with Lycos -- for free.  If we start charging for Alta
   Vista searches, we will see the hit rate drop through the floor...)

   Technically-oriented (and low-key) advertisements for Digital, for
   Digital products (such as Alta Vista), for Digital partners, and
   for Alpha would be a far more Internet-traditional use for this site
   and for our "investment".

   E-mail `spamming' based on web-hits _will_ get us flammed, and it could
   easily result in a `melt-down' of Digital's Internet access and Internet
   gateways.  This is _not_ goodness, and this _has_ happened to sites
   where folks have tried to force-fit traditional marketing models and
   marketing schemes into/onto the Internet.

re: .14

I totally agree.  Doing anything that will cause less people to use
Alta Vista, or that would make us bad netizens, such as charging and/or
selling names and addresses is BAD.  As far as advertising is concerned,
I agree that we should advertise (subtly) only our own products and services.
Imagine surfing to the Alta Vista page and seeing an ad for HP, IBM, Sun,
etc.  The less initiated might even be a bit confused and actually think
that the site was developed by the advertiser, even if we keep the Digital
logo on the page.

The following is a quote from Investor's Business Daily, repeated in an
article on Alta Vista in the latest Digital Today, that seems appropriate
(used without permission):

	"Other directories support themselves by selling ads.  But those
	who surf to Digital's site find themselves in the midst of one
	very large - if subtle - ad just for Digital products.  That sort
	of PR would be hard to match at any price."

Which brings us to the real question that needs to be asked when determining
whether we should charge or sell advertising space - what is the cost to
maintain Alta Vista?  If the cost is comparable to traditional advertising
then let's pay for it with our advertising budget (I guess this may be too
simplistic, but I think that this is the right idea.)

IMO of course,

- Mark

    I stand by what I said; charging for it is a non-starter, but we should
    and could be using it to really push Digital and Digital's products.
    
    Laurie.

I agree with previous remarks about it not being ready for fee based access.
Let us establish ourselves as *the* search engine. The benefit to us is that
many people using the internet will be reminded about Digital each time they
connect. And let us not pollute Alta Vista with ads from other companies,
please. 

>Per

    Recently there was a communique/press release around the outstanding
    success of Alta Vista.  I can't remember which executive it was at
    Digital, but he was quoted as saying Alta Vista was free "for now", and
    that they were looking at selling advertising space on the page.  
    
    I agree with all the previous comments around charging users for this
    service, but also believe that selling advertising time, if you will,
    is a valid endeavor the company should pursue.
    
    Chuck

>    ...but also believe that selling advertising time, if you will,
>    is a valid endeavor the company should pursue.

   Sun or HP would have long ago had their own advertising copy up and
   visible -- configuration details, hit-rates, hardware and software,
   etc -- were the AltaVista site theirs.  Visible where users can see
   it, and where newspaper and magazine "screen shots" will show "DIGITAL"
   and "Alpha".

   Selling space to somebody else before we even get _our_ own ads posted
   and up to speed would seem to waste the "newness" of the site...

   Imagine adding a third `database' to the existing AltaVista databases
   (WWW and newsgroups) to allow searches of Digital literature, solutions,
   catalogs, dealer listings, and products.  (Heck, _we_ could use that
   capability ourselves!)

   We've got a gold mine here, and we can and should use it to plug Digital
   and Digital's products first and foremost...

    
    I think .14 and .15 are right on the money (pun applicable)
    
    My first instinctive thought was "What a great irony, the 
    Company historically noted for its attitude towrds advertising
    could potentially make a fortune as an advertising company 
    with this technology.."  But, a much more 'class' approach 
    would indeed be to use it for tasteful advertising of our own 
    products.  (I don't much care for the thought of seeing HP there)
    
    The implication for Digital & Partner relations and business 
    opportunities is very attractive.
    
    Hopefully anyone in a position to decide will keep this service
    free - understanding that there *is* tremendous indirect 
    revenue generation from it.  (How much do we spend on ads
    with a smaller audience?)
    
    					/steve 
    
    

    My original proposal for a two-tiered service assumes that you can make
    a clear differentiation from a very good service, as exists today, and
    a GREAT service, that can be built.  People will pay for advanced,
    powerful search capabilities...look at lexus/nexus and others (I know,
    they're old...etc.).
    
    Give away a free service that has advertising from either Digital's or
    paid for advertising, AND provide a fee for use service that is clearly
    superior.  With the fee based service you will get a mailing list...NOT
    for spamming, but for farming (plant a spam, up grows Miss Piggy).
    
    The list will indlude people who:
    	1. Are willing to pay for information
    	2. Are web aware, and
    	3. Whatever else we can establish through the signin process and
    	   use patterns.
    
    This seems like a Win-Win (oh I hate that kind of talk).  The only
    downside is that no one will sign up for the fee-based service, and
    then you slide back to selling ad space to recover your costs.
    
    What's to lose?
    
    gc

    re: .8
    
    Actually, some browsers (for example, Lynx) _do_ pass along your e-mail
    address if you've set one in the browser (that's the voluntary part).
    Any CGI script can pick it up.
    
    -Tom

    I also disagree with charging a fee for services on Altavista.  A great
    idea/hook for new partners would be to offer a spot for a fixed period
    of time on the Altavista site.  This could be an additional benefit on
    top of all the other things we provide to our partners.  We could also
    offer free advertising to business partners as part of a marketing
    promotion.  Any and all advertising should of course be short, sweet,
    and to the point.
    
    It is nice to be in the position of debating the relative merits of
    what to do with such a successful product.  I suspect were the envy of
    many in the industry.  Do we have anyone in the company that really
    knows how to leverage off of such a runaway success?  It has been a 
    while since we have really captured the imagination of the public at 
    large.

    
    I think that we can profit more from kudos than actually charging
    for the service.
    
    Like everyone I think we should put our adverts, current promotions on
    the page and like :-1 I like the idea of being able to put resellers
    adverts on their too (it might make more companies want to be
    resellers).
    
    I wonder if we could set up a search subscription service.  It's just
    like a search but runs regularly (once a week/month), any new URL's
    that come up (or even newsgroup items) would be mailed to you.
    
    I believe that alta-vista does not pick up on documents contents, only
    html+newsgroups.  Our group has developed a WWW to ALL-IN-1 interface to
    allow access to *WORLD shared drawers, it's be real nice if it could
    actually index on the contents of the documents (I know this gets into the
    horrible world of document conversion).
    
    Just trying to think of improvements.
    
    Mike

Re .-1, "...alta-vista does not pick up on documents contents": and if the
document is a file pointed to by a pointer in another Web document?

___Pete

    ... then, as it normally does, the Alta Vista "superspider" follows
    that pointer to that document, indexes ITS contents, follows ITS links,
    and so on...  
    

    Don't worry about advertizing, don't worry about the money,
    Because of all the slow downs in the middle of the day we should be
    putting another couple 8400 on the net to service the request 
    (can you say memory-channel;-)
    
    We have something here that no other company can do (for as cheap as
    we do it) that type of advertizing is priceless and is something 
    we should payfor just to show in concrete terms that we are able
    to do something that SUN, HP, and IBM can't cheaply do;-)  I'd even
    document the price of the system in addition to the hardware on 
    the system.  How many hundreds of Suns would it take to service
    1 million, 2 million or more searches, querys and lookups? How many
    IBM mainframes at 2 million a whack would it take to replace
    Altavista...   Let those companies explain that if their iron is 
    so good, so fast why aren't they doing a faster better cheaper
    Altavista!
    
    All of my customers have been told about Altavista, all of my customers
    have used altavista... And Everyone who's seen it are impressed by 
    Altavista.
    
    Let's not ruin a great thing by figuring out how to make it a 
    profit center... Digital Marketing should fund this and pay to
    maintain it... It's the best thing Digital's had in years...
    
    JMHO
    
    John Wisniewski
    
    
    Don't worry about making money off it... worry about making and keeping
    it the best on the Internet.  That type of marketing is beyond price
    outhere in the field right now...  

    Make money on it by selling it.  Wouldn't you like to use Altavista on
    all of our Notes conferences, our documentation, your mail?
    
                                            August G. Reinig

    Speaking as an Internet-illiterate, I would like to be able to use
    something like Altavista in VTX, which has to be one the most
    difficult databases in which to locate a specific bit of info, period.
    
    And since I have to plow through thousands of notes in
    LJSRV2::INTERNET_TOOLS before I find start up info for dummies, I guess
    a NOTES search would be nice, too! -:)
    
    M.
    

    On a note that may be related - there was reference in, I believe
    Business Week, that someone at Digital had developed an effective
    mechanism for micro-transaction management - in other words a
    low-overhead mechanism for internet enabled billing in situations where
    the transaction fee was a fraction of a cent.  The point they were
    making was that no one transaction was that significant, and that it
    wouldn't be worth diverting or ripping off such transactions, but if
    every hit against Alta Vista was generating .1 cent per search, there
    would be 2K a day flowing in.
    
    Does anyone have any info on this technique (I couldn't find reference
    to it using Alta Vista ;>)   ?   Whether relevant in the discussion of
    Alta Vista, it looks like an interesting notion.
    
    bonj

STARS ( http://aztech.cxo.dec.com:1999/stars ) can search Notes conferences of
your choice.  COMET searches lots of conferences, too.

Paul

    For a complete list, check out 
    
    http://src-www.pa.dec.com/cgi-bin/dwi?Millicent
                                   

I was thinking the other day that the technology behind Alta Vista
would be very useful for searching the huge telephone number databases
that one can get on CDs these days. The search functions that come
with them usually bite.

Pete

    re .28
    
    just back from my customer (see .3). Maybe I can sell them their *own*
    complete Altavista system... they are certainly interested..
    
    Questions:
    
    1) How long does Alty take to 'crawl' the whole web ? [maybe we don't
    know yet..]. Context= how 'out of date' could any page get to be before
    Alty next crawls over it.. ?
    
    2) Any mechanism for knowing if something (web page) I looked at, say 2
    days ago is changed (without having to go there again first).
    
    
    Jeez... you would not believe the buzz this has created..
    
    AW

    
    Alta-vista reminded me of an idea I had sometime ago but didn't have
    the chance to develop it.
    
    I called it the 'Question and Answer Server'
    If you had a problem you enter a question into the application.  It
    would search for answers and give the best fit answer to you.  If you 
    did not like the answer or it didn't find anything it would ask the
    question to real people who have a profile which includes keywords so that
    certain people are asked certain questions depending upon what the
    question is and what the keywords are in the profile
    e.g. ALL-IN-1 installation etc.
    
    If a reply is received and the person who asks the question accepts it
    i.e. they consider it correct then the question and answer are stored
    in the database so next time the real person doesn't need to get asked
    again.
    
    Just a thought.
    
    Mike
    

    re .27
    
    The previous string on Alta Vista has my thoughts from a Corp.
    Advertising perspective - and I agree with .27.
    
    Keep this as a showcase and give people the easy opportunity to 'drill
    down' on specific DIGITAL offerings on the Internet - right now we
    drill down on large Alpha Servers only.
    
    Now that it is SOOOOOO hot - it has critical mass and must continue to
    fulfill the Alpha performance promise. So we cannot let it lock users
    out.  As a matter of fact, the SBU has a new Internet ALphaServer 1000
    ad specifically making fun of other company's "server busy" messages.
    
    Bill
    
    

re:.31

>STARS ( http://aztech.cxo.dec.com:1999/stars ) can search Notes conferences of
>your choice.  COMET searches lots of conferences, too.

COMET can also search STARS as well as Notes, CHAMP, and News.  I've only
used it to search Notes, myself, but it's a wonderful tool for that.
The URL is: 

	http://www-comet.alf.dec.com:8034/

-Hal

    RE: COMET - is there a way to search for phrases?
    
    Greg.

Re: .35

>    I called it the 'Question and Answer Server'

Actually, I suspect much more vast sums could be made if this
service was also available under a 1-900 number (or a 1-800
with credit card).  Any person could call and either get the
information "The final superbowl score is...", or get a pointer
to where to get more information.

The vast majority of people aren't even willing to go to the
library to do research, so even just having reference books online
would be of great interest.  Also look at the number of people
who call directory assistance rather then look in the phone book.

IMHO, this type of thing would be a much better spin-off business,
not something that would be part of Digital.

For a SF basis of this theme, read "Ora:Cle" by Kevin O'Donnell,
which is about a person who answers such questions.
There's another short SF story I can't remember too.

-Wilson

    G'day,
     What would happen if someone put up a "Info for sale" shingle,
    connected to the net with a high speed link, and when customers came
    along, did a search, printed out the relevant results and charged them
    a fee for doing it?
    
    derek 

        People already do that. They are called consultants, employees
        etc. but there must be VALUE ADDED. For years there have been
        services that will 'find' information for you. Boeing had a
        service that indexed all publications in the 70's and you paid by
        the search. There was Westlaw (a law database) that you paid to
        search. But all of these had VALUE ADDED. 
        
        Some people would pay a fee today to have a search done for them
        but not a lot and not without added value. 
        
        By Added Value I mean that AltaVista would have to do more than
        dump a url that had the search word in it. What is the context, is
        there more information. Is the first thing listed the most
        relevant? What about timeliness of the information? Has it been
        looked at, does it still exist? 
        
        Look at 'Search Magellan' at http://www.mckinley.com/ for a more
        value added search engine than what AltaVista is today.
        

    Altavista is indeed the best search engine of them all. I wonder why
    it's not listed on Microsofts page for "Internet Searches" ?	
    
    They do reference Infoseek,Lycos,Magellan,Yahoo ...
    
    / H�kan Widman / Digital Sweden
    

    
    Re .42:
    
    Maybe they're still mad at us for changing Bill Gates' "DEC" references
    to "Digital"?
    

    Actually, it'd be great if Microsoft employed Alta Vista to index their
    very own Knowledge Base. 
    
    Greg.

WebTrack (http://www.webtrack.com) tracks web advertising, and they
recently released their first study of who is spending and making
money advertising on the web.  Netscape received the most revenue
with $1.7M in the last quarter of 1995, followed by other sites such
as Lycos, Infoseek and Yahoo.  So we now know the potential revenue
of advertising, and I'd guess that revenue of this magnitude would
pay for the maintenance of Alta Vista and probably make us some
profit, but the question still remains whether we should pollute
Alta Vista with other companies ads or use it as our own showcase
(my opinion is still the latter).

- Mark

    Before anyone else coins the phrase...
    
    	Let's charge x nano-dollars per bit. 
    
	Anyone care to work out the potential revenue from Netscape adding
    this "feature" in 2.n?
    
    Adam, GEO
    
    
    

    From the Wall Street Journal Interactive....
    
                                   June 6, 1996
    
    
                Yahoo! Links Up With Digital
                For Web-Searching
                Technology
    
                SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Yahoo! Inc. is joining
                forces with Digital Equipment Corp. to
                search the World Wide Web.
    
                Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, agreed to
                incorporate Digital's popular AltaVista
                search technology as part of Yahoo's
                service, a heavily used Web site that
                serves up referrals to other sites and
                services on the Internet. Financial terms
                weren't disclosed, but Yahoo senior vice
                president Jeff Mallett said the two
                companies will share advertising revenue.
    
                The agreement, announced late
                Wednesday, should help Yahoo respond to
                competition in one of the Internet's hottest
                markets. Yahoo made its reputation by
                compiling a directory of referrals created
                by its staff. But the company faces fierce
                competition from rivals that specialize in
                developing search "engines," which are
                software systems that can quickly search
                the entire Web according to key words.
    
                For Digital, based in Maynard, Mass., the
                deal could allow the company to generate
                new revenue from AltaVista, which has so
                far been a free service without advertising.
                Yahoo will have exclusive rights to sell
                targeted advertising based on AltaVista
                searches, Mr. Mallett said. That means, for
                example, that a consumer who searches
                for the word "laptop" might see an ad from
                a portable computer maker that had paid
                Yahoo for the ad placement.
    
                AltaVista will be the recommended search
                engine on Yahoo's site, but users still will be
                able to use other search engines if they
                choose, Mr. Mallett said.

    Last Tuesday, I believe 11 June 1996, my wife and I were driving to Las
    Vegas for vacation.  I believe I was outside of Barstow, no man's land,
    when we heard an advertisement on the radio for AltaVista.  I was
    pretty surprised.  It was the first time I heard this.  I guess we're
    starting to advertise some of our products.
    
    	Regards,

    In this month's NetGuide, immediately inside the front cover, there's a
    great two-page color ad for Alta Vista as an intranet product.  
    
    And reading the articles in the magazine I noticed that Alta Vista is
    being mentioned constantly as the de facto search engine.
    
    Amazing.....
    
    Gita

    August Issue of Car & Driver has an article on driving the web.  There
    is a section at the begining on search engines where they try to play 
    "stump the net" by doing searches on European race drivers from the
    30's, dead marques and specific car names etc. Alta Visa came through
    every time much to schagrim of a bunch of crotchy old gearheads... 
    
      Nice going folks...

    From PCWEEK February 17, 1997, p. 142
    Spencer F. Katt: Rumor Central
    
    At the end of column 1, the following words appear:
    
    "Speaking of the Redmondians, could they be searching for another
    search technology?  Spencer hears that Digital is trying to put a price
    on its Alta Vista group, and Microsoft might be thinking of making an
    offer."
    
    If they mean that we'd sell the controlling interest in the Alta Vista
    spin-off, then I guess it might make sense.  We still own controlling
    interest, don't we?

	Gee, that would make sense. Take every business unit that is either
very good in the technology side, makes money, or both.... and sell them. 



Glen

>    "Speaking of the Redmondians, could they be searching for another
>    search technology?  Spencer hears that Digital is trying to put a price
>    on its Alta Vista group, and Microsoft might be thinking of making an
>    offer."
    
But the "Alta Vista group" is a LOT more than just a search engine - it 
includes our Directories/X.500 group for instance.

grahame

    >> But the "Alta Vista group" is a LOT more than just a search engine - it 
    >> includes our Directories/X.500 group for instance.
    
    "All the more reason for me to EAT YOU UP said the wolf....."
    
    Seriously - What the Redmondians know about enterprise directory 
    and X.500 could be transmitted on the Easynet link to Muleshoe, Texas in
    uncompressed form in a couple of microseconds.  
    
    I know nothing of these rumors but the fact that an AV acquisition
    deal would include other technology like X.500 could only be considered 
    by the acquirer as icing on the cake (and very rich icing at that).
    
    /Chris/

    >and X.500 could be transmitted on the Easynet link to Muleshoe, Texas
    >in uncompressed form in a couple of microseconds.
    
    Well gosh dang, y'all! Send it on down here! ;-)
    
    Harry (the Texan)