From crash!bigbang!scubed!seismo!cbosgd!stargate!mark Tue Jun 16 03:16:09 1987 Received: by crash.CTS.COM (5.54/UUCP-Project/rel-1.0/09-14-86) id AA02154; Tue, 16 Jun 87 01:35:46 PDT Reply-To: crash!bigbang!scubed!seismo!cbosgd!stargate!mark Received: by bigbang.UUCP (4.12/UUCP-Project/rel-1.0/11-09-86) id AA01716; Mon, 15 Jun 87 23:10:45 pdt Received: by SCUBED.ARPA (4.12/5.20b) id AA18790; Mon, 15 Jun 87 22:15:33 pdt Received: from cbosgd.UUCP by seismo.CSS.GOV (5.54/1.14) with UUCP id AA22207; Tue, 16 Jun 87 01:15:41 EDT Received: by cbosgd.MIS.OH.ATT.COM (smail2.1) id AA09438; 14 Jun 87 17:00:47 EDT (Sun) Received: by stargate.COM (smail2.3) id AA01416; 14 Jun 87 16:17:06 EDT (Sun) Ppath: pnet01!jeh To: crash!pnet01!jeh@scubed:bigbang Subject: stargate announcements Date: 14 Jun 87 16:16:51 EDT (Sun) From: crash!stargate.COM!mark Message-Id: <8706141616.AA01410@stargate.COM> STARGATE INFORMATION SERVICES EXPERIMENTAL SERVICE SUBSCRIPTIONS The Stargate Project is an experiment in the transmission of netnews-type materials via satellite and widely available cable-TV systems. This transmission method provides subscribers not only with considerable monetary savings over dialup telephone lines, but also has no need to tie up modems or phone lines for data purposes. The Stargate technology offers much more bandwidth than "connection-based" dialup systems, and since it is a true "broadcast" system, is far better suited for the rapid dissemination of information without the various delays and costs associated with other technologies. The current Stargate system provides a 2400 bps data stream on a 24 hours/day basis. Even higher data rates are a possibility for the future. Stargate transmits data within the vertical interval (a generally unused segment of TV signals) via widely available "Superstation" WTBS. It may be received via conventional cable-TV systems that provide WTBS, or received directly with an inexpensive "home satellite receiver" if desired. The project was originated by Lauren Weinstein, with start-up funding by the Usenix Association. The project has grown from the efforts of a single person into a team of dedicated volunteers. The initial stage has shown the technical feasibility of the project, and we are now ready to enter an experimental subscription stage as the next step in the continued development of this system. At the January 1987 Usenix meeting in Washington, D.C., the Usenix Board of Directors declared the Stargate technical experiment to be a success. The experimental subscription phase that is now beginning is designed to move Stargate onto a self-supporting and independent basis. The approximately $12,000 in operating expenses for the experimental period will be raised from subscriber fees and donations. We desire to keep the fees down to the lowest practical levels--the more subscribers we receive the lower the fees can be. The Stargate Project experimental subscription period will run for six months, beginning approximately in March, 1987. During the experimental period, we will be transmitting a variety of Usenet newsgroups via the system. Stargate considers this only the first phase of our operations--our goal is to expand toward providing an even broader selection of information on a variety of topics as soon as possible. Experimental subscribers will have the unique opportunity to work with us and help us shape the overall services of this system. Feedback from the experimental subscribers will play a major role in our future development. Upon successful completion of this experimental phase, Stargate Information Services intends to convert this project to "full production" status, whereupon additional subscribers will be solicited and the evolution of Stargate services will proceed as rapidly as possible. Experimental subscribers will need to purchase two pieces of equipment: a demodulator and a data decoder, costing $800 for the pair. A third item of equipment, a 68000-based "buffer box" computer to offload most data collection functions from host CPU's, may become available at a later date for approximately $400. The service fee for receiving Stargate data will range from $500 to $1000 for the six month period, depending on the number of experimental subscribers who sign up (the more subscribers, the lower the fee!) It is the responsibility of experimental subscribers to arrange for a cable-TV hookup, including satellite Superstation WTBS, within serial line distance of the computer to be connected to Stargate. (Note that it is not necessary for the cable-TV feed to be near the host computer--so long as the 2400 bps data stream can be fed to the host via RS232 lines, line drivers, or other similar local transmission technologies.) If it is not possible to receive Stargate via cable-TV, another possibility is for the subscriber to purchase a standard satellite receiver, to be tuned to WTBS and fed into the decoder. The type of satellite gear needed in this case is of the same (inexpensive) sort bought by consumers for home use. (Recommendations are available upon request.) There is some monetary risk associated with experimental subscriptions. It is possible that the project will not prove to be financially viable by the end of the experimental period. In this case, the subscribers will own two or three pieces of equipment that may not be useful to them. The demodulator will double as a cable-TV remote control, and the buffer box as an inexpensive and general-purpose single board 68000 computer, but the data decoder is not useful for other applications. Nonetheless, many organizations can achieve enough savings in netnews telephone bills during the six month period to easily cover the equipment and fees, and the overall cost of participating in the experiment is relatively low given the capabilities and possibilities that result. Until the "buffer boxes" become available for those who desire them, the Stargate data feed will be connected to a serial port of your host computer. C language software (written for the Unix system but modifiable for other systems) will be provided for processing this incoming data. Since there will be an essentially constant stream of data arriving on this port, it is recommended that the feed be connected to an efficient port on a machine that can afford to spend a few cycles to process this data. Our own tests have shown good results for direct data input into a 3B2 running System V release 2, and on a UNIX PC 3B1, running release 3.0 with a 3.02 tty driver. On these systems, the additional load on the system generated by the Stargate process was barely visible. On an old-style Sun 2/120 ZS port (SunOS 2.0 driver) performance was rather poor, but we expect that a Sun ITM port will provide good results. We have also heard of recent Sun software changes which may allow for good results on the ZS port as well if the appropriate software upgrades are in place. We also anticipate good results on a VAX DH port, or with dedicated micros used for collecting the data. Other sorts of systems, and the performance differences between the System V and 4.2BSD tty drivers, are currently unknown--we hope to gather data regarding these issues during the experimental period. The bottom line is that if you have a dedicated or fairly fast machine and reasonable serial ports, your performance should be good. The future buffer box will serve to improve performance for those sites which do not show satisfactory performance in a direct decoder hookup. The signup period for experimental subscriptions is from now through February 28, 1987. By the expiration of this time, we need a firm verbal commitment from experimental subscribers that their organization will participate, and that the wheels are turning to provide the necessary funds. We will announce the exact service rates (i.e. the sliding $500-$1000 portion of the overall cost) in early March, as soon as we have determined the total number of experimental subscribers. If you are interested in an experimental subscription and require additional information, please send us the following as soon as possible: - Your name - Organization - Postal address - Electronic address - Telephone number If you are ready to subscribe to Stargate, and have the verbal OK from a person authorized to sign checks or purchase orders, please let us know by Feb 28, so that we may include you among the experimental subscribers. Checks or purchase orders should be sent to Stargate Information Services Suite 252 4067 Hardwick St. Lakewood, CA 90712 Please contact us (preferably by email) before actually sending a check or PO, so that we can send more detailed information. Due to our lack of substantial capital during this early stage, we would be extremely grateful if orders include a check rather than P.O. billing. If this is not possible, please contact us so we can work out a procedure for billing against your P.O. We may be contacted electronically at either of the following addresses: cbosgd!stargate!stargate-query stargate-query@Stargate.COM If you cannot contact us at the above electronic addresses, please write to the U.S. Mail address above. Thank you. ------------ The Stargate Information Services Team Lauren Weinstein Mark Horton Steven Morenberg Mel Pleasant Einar Stefferud Clarifications of Stargate Experimental Service The most important thing to note is that this initial phase of subscription availability to Stargate is an experiment. Some of the issues related to a future production service are impossible to define fully until after we have experience with a reasonable-sized experimental subscriber base in day-to-day operations. At this stage, the subscribers we're looking for are organizations who feel that it would interesting, useful, or even just plain fun to participate in the early stages of a unique operation that is forging considerable new ground in a number of areas. Initially SIS plans to transmit virtually all of the available moderated Usenet newsgroups and possibly some other moderated materials from non-Usenet sources. As the volume of non-moderated material on Usenet has continued to grow explosively, and the overall quality in many unmoderated groups has continued to decline, it has become increasingly obvious that moderated groups (which are continuing to grow rapidly in popularity) are the most appropriate material for broadcast at this stage. We are carrying only moderated newsgroups since that's the only reasonable manner in which we can ensure quality and manage our transmission bandwidth. The unmoderated groups for which there is demand also tend to be of very high volume and difficult for people to keep up with. We're working on plans for future additional services (e.g. highlights of unmoderated groups and the creation of more moderated groups) over Stargate as well. Overall, Usenet netnews is just the starting point for the sorts of services we plan to provide--we are looking at a wide variety of information sources as potential candidates for Stargate transmission. Since we have very limited financial resources with which to operate during this experimental period, SIS is not currently incorporated. We are attempting to keep our expenses (and thusly subscription fees) to an absolute minimum--and incorporation just does not make sense during this early experimental phase. SIS currently exists as a sole proprietership, in the name of the SIS business manager, Steve Morenberg. Incorporation will occur when feasible. The issue of profit vs. non-profit corporations is considerably more complex than it at first appears. Creating a non-profit corporation introduces a significant number of restrictions that could potentially impact services in a negative manner (for example, non-competitive issues may prevent the offering of useful services by a non-profit entity that could be provided by a for-profit entity). There are also considerable complications in day-to-day operations, bookeeping, etc. involved in non-profit status. On the other hand, many firms which are "for-profit" make little profit (or even none). It may well be the case that from the standpoint of services, complexity, etc. it would be easiest to be "for-profit" but to still hold fees and rates as low as possible. We are currently investigating the details of the "profit vs. non-profit" issues--no decisions have been made as of yet. But our goal remains the same in either case--to keep the services being offered priced as fairly and reasonably as possible. Regarding transmitted material copyrights--transmissions from a system like Stargate are best viewed as a "compilation" work. Ultimately, some of the material will come from public sources (such as Usenet) and other material may be locally originated by Stargate or other entities. Regardless of origin, material broadcast through a communications channel "not meant for reception by the general public" (which is the category Stargate is in) can be protected through a number of mechanisms, including contractual agreement with subscribers. In particular, we want to be as flexible as possible about the use of Usenet newsgroups being transmitted by Stargate. However, we do have some contraints. We will ultimately be paying fees for our satellite time based on the number of subscribers, and we need to have a significant number of paying subscribers to maintain the feasibility of the system--it is not economically practical to maintain a satellite system if only a few sites subscribed to the system and they simply passed material around via dialup to many other sites. The assumption with Stargate is that most sites with the capability of receiving materials directly from the WTBS data feed will want to do so. One of the important advantages of this is the receiving of materials simultaneously with all other subscribers, with none of the latencies or other problems associated with connection-based systems for distributing articles. Since each subscribing site has virtually a direct, continuous, and simultaneous link with the central node, the ability of Stargate to provide information on a timely basis is unsurpassed. We realize that some sites will be unable for technical reasons to tie-in directly with the WTBS-based system. We are working on plans to allow those sites to receive materials from other sites that do subscribe directly to Stargate, with a fee schedule adjusted to take this situation into account. Of course, in the long run the amount of information being sent by Stargate may be so large that such "non-direct" sites would be unable to receive all materials, and of course such sites will also be receiving all materials later than direct subscribers, reducing their ability to participate in discussions in a timely manner. We need to encourage as many sites as possible to directly subscribe to Stargate to encourage the viability of the network and the lowest overall fees possible. However, for those situations where a subscriber site wishes to feed portions of the Stargate data stream to another site which is unable to subscribe directly itself, we will attempt whenever possible to reach an amicable agreement under which this can be done and still maintain the overall viability of the satellite distribution system which is the primary modality of the network. Part of the purpose of the experimental subscription period is to help give us time to judge the sorts of arrangements, subcriber relationships, etc. that need to be established to help everyone get the most benefit possible from Stargate at the lowest possible costs. About equipment. There are two (eventually an optional third) pieces of equipment involved with Stargate: 1) The data decoder. This is a highly specialized LSI-based device which extracts, slices, and decodes data from the video signal at very high video speeds. It uses a proprietary protocol (held proprietary by the manufacturer to protect their years of R&D work) and would be exceptionally difficult to duplicate. We must arrange for the setup, addressing, and delivery of this decoder for subscribers. 2) The cable-TV demodulator. This is NOT the same thing as the typical boxes your local cable-TV company provides to you at home. Normal cable-TV boxes are strictly RF to RF units. The Stargate data demod must output carefully controlled baseband video. We have found a relatively inexpensive demodulator that meets the required tight specifications of video output filtering, baseband performance, and other parameters that are required to achieve good performance with the data decoder. Testing has also indicated that many other demods do NOT meet the required specifications. Since our demod and decoder have been tested with each other for proper operation, we cannot assure reasonable performance with subscriber-provided demod equipment. While we can't force everyone to use our demod, we strongly urge its acceptance as the best match for the job at hand. 3) The buffer box. In the future, we plan to make an optional "buffer box" available to subscribers who would like to offload the direct Stargate data stream from their host computers. This inexpensive 68000-based computer would be quite difficult to duplicate in functionality for less money than our price, since it is being mass-produced. However, no subscriber will be forced to buy or use the buffer box, and if a subscriber wishes to use their own equipment and software (e.g. some other dedicated micro, etc.) to buffer the data coming from the Stargate decoder they will of course be free to do so. We believe, however, that many sites will not need any such buffering equipment, since they will achieve good performance with a direct hookup from the Stargate decoder to their host computers. It is not possible at this time for us to announce "production phase" rates for service after the experimental period. These will depend on the number of subscribers and the success of the experimental phase. However, it is our goal that the production fees fall into the same basic range as the experimental fees. If anyone has any further questions about any of the above, please feel free to contact us directly at: stargate-query@Stargate.COM (if you understand domains) cbosgd!stargate!stargate-query@seismo.css.gov (for ARPANET hosts that don't conform to RFC 973/974) cbosgd!stargate!stargate-query (if you can get to cbosgd with bangs from UUCP) Thank you. The Stargate Team << Stargate Information Services (SIS) >> Stargate Experimental Subscriptions -- Questions and Answers -- What service is Stargate providing? Stargate is providing a satellite broadcasting service of moderated netnews-type materials. Subscribers will be able to receive such traffic on their host computer via cable-TV reception of WTBS, or, where cable reception is not possible directly using relatively inexpensive satellite receiving systems (such as satellite dishes). Stargate transmits a virtually continuous stream of data--there are approximately 83 characters per second of throughput, after transmission overhead. The raw data output rate from the Stargate decoder to your host computer is 2400 bps. Data is repeated on a regular basis. New moderated data is currently running between 300K and 800K per day. In the future, we plan to offer a variety of additional services, potentially including non-Usenet materials relating to a wide variety of technical and other subjects which would be of value to our subscribers. When will this occur? We are currently offering a 6 month experimental subscription. This period will be used to help establish the long-term financial viability and subscriber response to the Stargate concept and operations. The 6 month period will begin when most of our initial set of subscribers are online. We are ready to proceed technically--the only holds now are the delays involved in purchase orders, shipping of equipment, and of subscribers' acquiring cable-TV services. We anticipate that the first subscribers will be online in early April, 1987. At the end of the experimental period, we anticipate moving into a full production mode, with no interruption of service to experimental subscribers. What is the geographic range supported? The Stargate data is carried on the vertical interval of Superstation WTBS's satellite feed. A vast number of U.S. cable-TV systems carry this signal. The satellite signal covers the entire continental USA, including Alaska and Hawaii. However, potential subscribers planning to use their own satellite receiving equipment rather than using cable-TV access should note that WTBS signal strength, and thusly satellite receiver system requirements, will vary depending on your location and other factors. Not all satellite receiving systems are equally suitable technically for data reception, so persons interested in using their own satellite receiving gear should contact us so we can help them establish the equipment requirements that will be required in their environment. Since we are starting up Stargate using volunteer labor, and our time and money resources are extremely limited, we are concentrating our efforts on domestic service at this time. Canadian organizations who might be interested in subscribing should contact us so we can discuss their situations in detail. Most subscribers who have WTBS on their local cable-TV systems will be able to receive Stargate directly from cable. Subscribers in the Atlanta area will probably find that their cable does not come from the satellite, but directly over-the-air from WTBS. Since our data is added at the satellite uplink, and is not present in the WTBS air broadcast (channel 17) in Atlanta, these subscribers will need a satellite system. A minority of cable-TV systems may be scrambling WTBS--in this case a cable company descrambler will normally be required to unscramble the signal for feeding to the Stargate equipment. There is also a slight possibility that some cable companies may be using scrambling systems which damage the WTBS data even when descrambled. In general, if your local cable-TV company is scrambling WTBS, you should probably contact us so that we can help you determine the exact status of the WTBS signal that you can receive from your cable. What are the responsibilities of subscribers? a) Arrange for a feed of WTBS You need to arrange for a feed of WTBS, either through cable-TV or with an appropriate satellite receiving system. Since it can take time to get cable-TV installed in a commercial building, we urge you to get started on this right away. It is NOT necessary for the WTBS feed to be near your computer--in fact keeping it out of a busy computer room may be a good idea to help avoid interference from your computers to the video data system. All you need is a serial line running from the location of the Stargate equipment to your host computer. This can be an RS232 line, a longer circuit using higher-power line drivers, or anything else that can move the serial data between the two arbitrary points. b) Provide a host computer You need to provide a host computer system running the Unix operating system. This system need not be dedicated for netnews, but if it has a low load, so much the better. The code we provide for processing Stargate data is designed for either System V or 4.2/4.3BSD. You can modify the code for other versions of Unix, though we of course cannot be sure how well such modifications will perform in any given case. In the future, we may be able to provide Stargate receiving programs for some non-Unix systems. If you plan to be able to process and hold "all" Stargate data, you probably should have about 30MB or more of free disk space. Of course, if you are willing to keep less data online, you can operate with smaller disks. c) Install and manage the hardware/software You will need to install the hardware and software on your system and to manage it. At the present time, we are providing no applications support beyond the invocation of the rnews command, which will allow Stargate materials to be dropped directly into netnews processing channels. Can I use my own cable-TV converter box instead of buying the Stargate demodulator? Probably not. The cable-TV to Stargate data chain looks like this: You provide a cable-TV feed or satellite system, and the host computer. Items provided by SIS are marked with a * cable-TV 75 ohm coax -----------------\ Satellite system (receiving satellite G1/18) | + demodulator* + + + NTSC video cable (RCA) + + + + decoder* # # # Serial connection (e.g. RS232) # # Host computer ( ( software (/dev/ttyxxx) ( sg-read* ( sg-inject* ( rnews The decoder requires unmodulated, baseband NTSC RS-170 video input, of the sort used by a monitor or a video camera. Output modulated onto channel 3, (or any other channel) won't work. The purpose of the demodulator is to extract the video signal from whichever cable channel WTBS is on, and to produce RS-170 output. Most garden variety cable-TV converters are far too simplistic to do this--most only shift the RF frequency to a fixed channel without ever converting to baseband video. If you do have a cable-TV converter with a VIDEO output jack (such converters probably have an audio mute switch and remote volume control, as well) it is possible that it will work. We have tested various brands, and we have found one particular brand of demodulator that produces particularly good results. You are free to try use your own, but your results are more problematic in such a case. Since the demodulator is a small part of the overall cost, we recommend that you obtain our tested demodulator from us for a good overall match. If instead of using cable-TV you use an appropriate satellite system, you will probably not need a demodulator since RS-170 output can normally be obtained directly from the receiver. The data decoder uses a special LSI-based technology proprietary to the manufacturer, and is not available to the general public. The decoder must be prepared and addressed for each subscriber. You will need to obtain the decoder from us--it is not feasible to build your own. What is the buffer box? The initial service does not use a buffer box. This will be fine for many uses, but will put a small near-constant load on your machine as the data comes in at 2400 BPS. This may cause performance degradation on some systems. We plan to develop a buffer box which will buffer data between the decoder and host. This box will have a 32 bit processor, about 3/4 MB of RAM, two RS232 ports, and be programmable. It will be able to gather data from the satellite, buffer it, eliminate duplications, and feed data two the host with a two-way handshaking protocol, resulting in less load on the host. We currently estimate the price of the buffer box at $400, and hope to make it available later in the experimental period. Is your WTBS signal adequate for receiving Stargate data? In general, most cable-TV systems provide decent signals of adequate quality for good results. There are, however, many different cable-TV companies, using a vast array of different kinds of equipment of varying quality. As mentioned earlier, some cable-TV companies scramble WTBS and require their own descrambling box to view it. If done properly, this should still allow data reception, but some scrambling equipment degrades the signal enough to cause a problem. If you can find a TV on your cable-TV system, you can get a rough idea of your signal quality by tuning in WTBS and examining the picture as described below. You can also apply the following tests to a private satellite receiving system, though additional factors must also be considered with private satellite receiving gear (please contact us for more information if you plan to use your own satellite receiving equipment). Is the picture snowy? Are there scatterings of short white or black horizontal "teardrops" (sparklies) scattering through the picture? Is the picture ghosty? If any of these conditions are present, you may have a problem--please contact us. If you have a stable, high-quality WTBS picture from your cable-TV system, you will probably be able to operate successfully. Adjust the vertical hold control on your TV to get the black "vertical interval" stripe down into the viewable part of the screen and examine it. There should be a number of scan lines of rapidly flickering white or colored dots. These dots should be fairly sharp and well defined. These dots contain the Stargate data. If for some reason you order and pay for Stargate equipment, and for technical reasons cannot make it work, we will of course refund your money if you return the equipment in like-new condition within a reasonable period of time. Does a satellite receiving system need to be tuned into WTBS 24 hours a day? The Stargate service is designed for continuous transmission. We are, however, doing a lot of repetition, in case your equipment is turned off for various periods of time. Traffic as old as two weeks will be transmitted. New traffic will be transmitted several times the first day, and less frequently thereafter. Because of this repetition, you should still get reasonable results if your signal is not available 24 hours. If you choose to shut off the signal between 8 AM and 5 PM, or in the evening, for example, you should still get everything. If you are planning to do this, please let us know so we can try to arrange transmission schedules to minimize problems. Do I have to make any special arrangements with my Cable-TV company? No, all you need is the regular Cable-TV service, so you can get WTBS. You do not need to ask them for any special service, and they do not even need to be aware that you are receiving Stargate data. What things should be started right away? The Stargate receiving software is already operational. The expected delay factors are subscribers obtaining cable-TV service and the ordering of the Stargate hardware/service by subscribers. Since both of these may require the approval of management, which may take time, it is recommended that subscribers get started right away. We will arrange for shipment of the hardware when we have received a check or purchase order. Estimated delivery time for the hardware is 2-3 weeks after we receive the check or PO. In addition, we can authorize reception of Stargate by your decoder as soon as we have a check or PO for the service; this should take only a few days (the decoders are remotely addressable via our satellite transmission system). Since we have no startup capital other than the subscription fees we are receiving from experimental subscribers, we would appreciate anyone who can do so to send us a check, rather than a P.O.--this will make it a lot easier for us to get the hardware out to you on a timely basis. Purchasing departments often take considerable time to get a PO through. The sooner you start a P.O., the sooner we will receive it. We won't have a firm price on the service until about March 15, but you can safely start a PO for $1800 (or one for $800 and one for $1000, if you need to order equipment and services separately) to get it started. We will actually invoice for the proper amount, so you don't have to worry about overpaying. If you are able to send a check, you can wait until the final price is announced. If you prefer, you can send a check now for the full amount; we can refund the difference or issue you a credit toward the production period, as you wish, if the actual experimental service price is under $1000. Before you send out the PO, you'll want to get verbal approval from the person in your organization who can sign the PO. If you have a long chain of people who sign PO's, many of whom serve a "rubber stamp" function, then only the verbal approval of the people who might say "no" is necessary. Once you are convinced that a PO will go through if issued, you should contact us and give us your firm, verbal committment. Unless your purchasing process is very fast, it is probably a good idea to get the PO started once you've got the verbal OK. This way, we'll be able to get your service started with a minimum of delay. In summary: (a) get verbal approval (b) start the PO or send a check (c) order cable-TV service (d) Welcome to Stargate! Thank you! The Stargate Team First of all, let me thank all of you who have shown your interest in this project and (to those who have committed or will soon) your faith in the goals of STARGATE! 1) As a brief (and perhaps redundant) introduction: STARGATE was conceived by Lauren Weinstein, who developed it over a two-year period under the auspices of USENIX. In that time, Lauren joined forces with Mark Horton and others. It was originally thought that STARGATE would be funded by USENIX, but it evolved instead into an independent organization named STARGATE INFORMATION SERVICES (S.I.S.). At a meeting with the USENIX board of directors during the Winter Technical Converence, it was agreed that the time had come for STARGATE to "leave the nest" and make it on its own. As a result, the announcement regarding the start-up of the experimental phase was made, to which you all responded. Thanks to those who committed to this enterprise, we are pleased to announce that we are officially beginning the EXPERIMENTAL PHASE of the STARGATE PROJECT. With a successful completion of the six-month experimental period, we will commence the FULL PRODUCTION PHASE. 2) RATES-- The original target figure for experimental subscribers was ten to twenty. The exact rate schedule was not announced before because we wanted to determine the actual number of subscribers first [The team is volunteering for this phase but funds for expenses, equipment, and reserves are needed], therefore the range stated previously ($500 - $1000). As of this date, we have eight commitments, but several more are needed (and we feel strongly that these will appear). Therefore, the rate has been set: ===================================== STARGATE EXPERIMENTAL SIX-MONTH RATE: SERVICE---------$900 EQUIPMENT**-----$800 ------ TOTAL----------$1700 ====================================== **[The equipment supplied by STARGATE will include a decoder box and a demod. both of these will be necessary for a cable feed, but only the decoder (in most instances) will be needed for a satellite dish feed--most "dish" set-ups include an acceptable demod. If you only need the decoder, we can ship it at a $600 rate, therefore making the total $1500.] 3) PAYMENT-- We are currently accepting P.O.'s for service and equipment. However, due to our shoestring status, we would be VERY appreciative if several subscribers were able to pay some or all of the charges up-front. [Due to the fact that WE have to pay for the boxes IN ADVANCE.] The mail address to send checks or P.O.'s is: ====================================== STARGATE INFORMATION SERVICES Suite 252 4067 Hardwick Street Lakewood, CA. 90712 ====================================== For those of you who's company accounting departments require a telephone number: ====================================== After mid June, the "official" phone number for STARGATE will be: (818) 358-5710 This number will be available 24 hours 7 days a week; -------------------------------------- For both phone numbers, please leave a message--your call will be returned within 24 hours (at the latest). ====================================== If you wish to transmit electronic P.O.'s, you may send them to: billing@stargate.com 4) POLICY MATTERS-- Certain decisions will be considered during this EXPERIMENTAL PHASE, such as: what news groups will be transmitted; what other information will be transmitted; STARGATE news moderators; redistribution policies, etc. These considerations will be undertaken with the help and advise of the EXPERIMENTAL SUBSCRIBERS. Those of you who subscribe now will provide the important and necessary feedback to ensure the success of STARGATE. 5) BUSINESS QUESTIONS-- If you or your accounting departments have any business-related questions, feel free to contact Steve Morenberg at the above phone number, or: steve@base.stargate.com steve@stargate.com cbosgd!starbase!steve Please direct technical questions to Mark Horton: mark@stargate.com cbosgd!mark THANK YOU! =============================================================================