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Grex > Coop8 > #73: Cyberspace Communications, Inc., Finances through 5/31/96 |  |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications, Inc., Finances through 5/31/96
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Jun 7 04:02 UTC 1996 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc.
finances through May 31st, 1996.
Beginning Balance $3,294.98
Credits $309.00 Member Contributions
$28.00 Auction proceeds
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$337.00
Debits ($25.00) Dungeon Rent
($83.00) Electricity
($20.00) Innovative Concepts phone line
($375.00) Phone bill (Estimated)
($5.39) Bank service charge
($6.03) Keys to the dungeon
($295.00) Reimbursement to gregc for Sun 4 stuff
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($809.42)
Ending Balance $2,822.56
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$2,762.56 General fund
$60.00 UPS fund
We had a pretty bad month in May, as you can see. That's partly because gregc
asked to be reimbursed for some expenses related to the Sun 4 when it was
housed at his house. But even so, we were well short of covering our
expenses.
Grex's phone bill this month totalled $1,681.98 this month. Really, that's
what the bill said. Staff made a lot of calls to 900 numbers, and well, it
got a little out of hand.
Just kidding. Actually, what seems to have happened is that Ameritech crossed
one of our new lines with someone else's and the result was that we got
charged for a whole slew of things, the most expensive of which were the 900
calls. It's amazing how fast those things add up. After a lot of work by
STeve, the situation seems to have been straightened out (thanks STeve!), but
I had to estimate what the actual bill would be; I guessed $375. That's
probably on the high side, but we do have to pay $84 for installation of the
new lines, so it definitely *should* be higher than our normal bill.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in May:
aruba, bentley, bruin, carey, coyote, danr, fuzzball, kiwibird, misha,
msmith, n8rxs, paladin, pfc, shepherd, sunflwr, and timdole.
Dues are still only $6/month or $60/year. Send cash, checks, or money orders
(payable to Cyberspace Communications) to:
Cyberspace Communications, Inc.
P.O. Box 4432
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432
If you pay by cash or money order, *PLEASE* include a photocopy of some form
of ID. I can't add you to the membership roll unless I see some ID. If you
pay by personal check, that's good enough.
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| 106 responses total. |
kerouac
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response 1 of 106:
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Jun 7 16:53 UTC 1996 |
why is a photo so important? I really think the validation policy needs
to be reconsidered. There are potential members who decline to join simply
BECAUSE of the validation requirement. Grex doesnt need to be big
brother, with detailed files on every user. We get enough of that in
every day life. Some people are simply more guarded about their privacy
than others, and if they wish to become members anonymously, I dont see
why they shouldnt be allowed to do so.
But I guess staff needs a few bones to give to the fbi watchdogs when
they come knocking.
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draven
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response 2 of 106:
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Jun 7 17:15 UTC 1996 |
Or other Internet sites if a few trouble makers come over through here.
It's better than explaining you have absolutely no idea who's using
telnet on your site.
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selena
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response 3 of 106:
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Jun 7 17:28 UTC 1996 |
Well, moneyt's no problem here- I could give upwards of fifty a month.
But I won't, thanks to the Validation policy.
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ajax
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response 4 of 106:
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Jun 7 18:43 UTC 1996 |
Richard, to my knowledge, Selena is the only person to cite that policy as
a reason to not contribute to Grex. Photos are unimportant; just a personal
check is sufficient. Members gain two main tangible benefits: voting and
telnetting. For telnetting, it's good to have ID, and for voting, it is
alleged to be legally required.
Selena, if Grex made a new membership class, without voting or telnetting
benefits, would you consider supporting Grex to that extent? I assume you
don't need outbound telnet capabilities, and you can understand the reason
for voting accountability.
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steve
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response 5 of 106:
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Jun 7 19:10 UTC 1996 |
The photo ID is repellant.
Repellant from the slime who would otherwise use us for
various natsy things. Pardon me if you've heard me say this
before--but the number of people who come on to Grex looking
for a convienant place to telnet from (to help cover tracks)
is just incredible.
What do you think of idea of people who run newuser and give
no data of any sort, who then try telnet *within seconds* of
getting logged in? ...And then try all the other commonly used
programs (FTP, whois, ping, ...). These people aren't just seeing
what we have available, they're trying to use something that is
increasingly rare on the net: an open system. I'm now entirely
used to seeing various bits and pieces of various telnet source
code, that verious people bring over in the attempt to get around
the kernel blocks here. The boring bring over SunOS 4.1.something
telnet code. One person brought over an entire set of diagnostic
tools to see what was going on. Once I wrote him(her?) to let
them know what was going on, they did an "rm *" and disappeared...
We're as open as we can be, without hurting oursevles. Our
trust of the basic goodness of people has, by and large worked
out quite well. But there are those who are not so good, and
those people are a problem. Right now, we allow unverified access
to email here. Thats been a problem, every once in a while. Not
too often, but every once in a while we find that someone has
abused us in some way. We deal with it, and go on. Forunately,
*most* forunately email is just about the least damaging thing
that can be abused here. A nastygram from some twit is much less
harmful than a three hour telnet session destroying someones
files.
The US GAO (Government Accounting Office) recently came out
with some rather staggering statistics, which said that *most
of the sytems that the government has could be damaged*. Let
me say this another way: most of the systems owned by the US
government that have been attacked have been successfully
breached. The estimates of the number of breaches that have
remained undectecded range from 10% to 90%.
The simple fact of the matter is that the Internet has brough
everyone together in a way that has never happened before. One
of the undesireable artifacts of the net is that the people with
less than good intentions are just as close to you as those who
are good. Keeping people from being able to use Grex for many
evil things really helps us.
Richard's comment about bones given to the FBI is an
inaccurate as it is insulting. Grex has never been contacted
by the FBI. We've talked with the Secret Service on a few
occaisons about bad email sent from Grex, but thats it. That
I know of, Grex hasn't been involved in other groups destruction
of others computers, simply becuase we've been aware enough of
problems that we've caught things rather quickly, once a breech
occured. ...As for "giving" data to the FBI, I'll only say that
I wouldn't hand out information to them, or anyone else, unless
they had a clearly legal reason for having it. The USSS is
sworn to protect the lives of various government officials--it's
part of their job. If they come and ask for help on something
that relates to Grex, I believe we have a moral duty, besides
a legal one, to help them in that capacity.
I am sorry to hear of a potential user who could contribute
$50/month but will not, because of this policy. I'll also point
out that they, as well as anyone, could become a member of Grex
without supplying ID, and lose only the ability to gain access
to the Internet. Since Grex is not and never has been an ISP
I do not beleive that this is an onerous policy.
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rcurl
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response 6 of 106:
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Jun 7 20:18 UTC 1996 |
State law requires us (CCI) to know exactly who are members are, since
they form the "body" of this membership-based corporation. However
anyone can *donate* $60 and remain anonymnous, but they can't then be
members.
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janc
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response 7 of 106:
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Jun 7 21:04 UTC 1996 |
Yes, there are lots of ways to donate money to Grex, including the auction.
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kaplan
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response 8 of 106:
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Jun 7 23:14 UTC 1996 |
Suggested alternate wording to the last paragraph of #0:
Grex membership includes voting privilidges. Other member benefits
include telnet and ftp access. If you pay by cash or money order, and you
want to be a member, you must include a copy of an ID.
Anonymous contributions are welcome.
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dpc
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response 9 of 106:
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Jun 8 02:13 UTC 1996 |
I'd love to see some substantiation for the idea that state law requires
potential corporate members to submit photo ID. 8-)
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scg
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response 10 of 106:
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Jun 8 03:21 UTC 1996 |
We require some sort of ID. It doesn't have to be a photo ID.
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robh
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response 11 of 106:
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Jun 8 03:37 UTC 1996 |
I'd be surprised if Michigan law allows our members to use fake
names and addresses. Maybe they would, but I'd be surprised.
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srw
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response 12 of 106:
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Jun 8 05:43 UTC 1996 |
For heaven's sake, people. No one here ever said we needed photo ID.
We need a photocopy of some ID. There's a difference.
STeve, you are incorrect when you say that by not providing ID the donor would
lose only the access to the internet. The donor would not be considered a
member, and thus could not vote (as Rane indicates).
Dave, no one can substantiate that because it is false. No one here it
claiming photo ID is needed. Please note that, Kerouac. You misread #0, no
photo is needed, much less important. Only a photocopy of some ID.
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davel
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response 13 of 106:
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Jun 8 12:46 UTC 1996 |
(Another urban legend, impossible to kill ...)
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ajax
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response 14 of 106:
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Jun 8 19:27 UTC 1996 |
Back on the topic of finances, I'm not sure when the next JCC sale is, but
at the moment, we'd have very little to sell there. It would be an
opportunity to raise publicity, although we could probably put some fliers
on their communal flier table anyway, and we have the perennial problem of
being darned full without added publicity.
After watching the auction, I would guess that on average, fairly decent
hardware and software fetch much more money by auction, while books do
better at the JCC sale. I'm not sure about junky hardware parts or old
software, but I doubt they'd bring in much in any case.
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rcurl
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response 15 of 106:
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Jun 8 19:28 UTC 1996 |
There, he said it in #12... "Only a photo..<garbled>..ID."
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popcorn
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response 16 of 106:
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Jun 9 00:21 UTC 1996 |
This response has been erased.
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popcorn
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response 17 of 106:
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Jun 9 00:22 UTC 1996 |
This response has been erased.
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adbarr
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response 18 of 106:
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Jun 9 01:03 UTC 1996 |
Re id/security/membership - I agree with STeve. Re JCC - I am storing
a 24pin ALPS printer, plus several re-inked ribbons (sans cable) for Grex's
next JCC sale. I works fine.
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aruba
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response 19 of 106:
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Jun 9 05:14 UTC 1996 |
I like Jeff's wording.
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gregc
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response 20 of 106:
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Jun 9 08:51 UTC 1996 |
As far as the JCC, I still have a fair amount of crap, err, valuable
grex merchandise, sitting in my basement.
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popcorn
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response 21 of 106:
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Jun 9 16:10 UTC 1996 |
This response has been erased.
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void
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response 22 of 106:
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Jun 9 23:31 UTC 1996 |
s far as the ID thing goes...if someone were to become a member and provide
a photocopy of some ID, would their legal name and address be kept/posted
online? or could they request that their name and address be kept offline for
privacy reasons?
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scg
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response 23 of 106:
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Jun 9 23:45 UTC 1996 |
All those records are kept off-line. Only the treasurer has access to them.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 106:
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Jun 10 04:33 UTC 1996 |
Incidentally, not ever other members have automatic access to member
records. In fact, state law provides several layers of protection of
that information if the corporation wishes to keep it private. The
member records *can* be opened by court order.
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