Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 11:10 AM Subject: Encina Update (be cool/email/forwarding/forms/dsl/72/reunions/alumni reunion/65/70/75/80/81/84/85/90/95/rayfuse/ferreira/ballance/siblings/virus/firewall/golden spike/whats new) ENCINA ALUMNI, Recently folks have been writing to express and share their opinions and I want to encourage you all to feel free to write. If you want your message to remain private please add a note to that effect. But I'm sure it's interesting for you to hear from other folks besides myself. BE COOL PART 4 Jay MacIntyre 61 wrote: " Hi my name is Jay and I have hurt feelings" and the crowd responds "Hi Jay" Yikkes Batman !!! Looks like we need a " 12 Step Program" In Camp Encina. I could be wrong but I think we have all hurt someone's feelings , probably more than once. Of course its been almost 40 years since I crusied down Bell Street in Warners '48 ford . My daughter thinks I shouldn't be out without Adult supervision, so maybe I just don't remember how many people I offended. However if I did hurt your feelings I now apologize and if you still remember that I did .....you need a hobby! I guess what I'm trying to say is if you still have hurt feelings you basically have two choices: 1- get over it or 2- don't invite them to your next latte party. People with "Issues" waste allot of time that passes , way to fast. At the risk of offending any of you Encina Alumni that are not religious "He who is with sin cast the first stone" Jay MacIntyre class of '61 (a very long time ago) EMAIL ETIQUETTE Lance Ballance 85 wrote: If I might add something your comments about E-mail. (by the way, this is not a negative message...) You are right about not replying to e-mail. To me, it's the same as not returning a phone call. However, (Harlan, you can understand this...) in the business that I'm in, I probably receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-250 E-mails per day, not counting Spam. And, NO, the Encina Update is NOT Spam!! :) Obviously, to reply to every single message is tough. Most messages are from listeners, either requests, or about something that they heard on the air, and want to know more about it. Since listeners are my bread and butter, those messages almost always get a response, even if it's a quick "I'll try to play it, thanks for listening!" Because of that, messages that come from friends, new and old, or family, sometimes fall thru the cracks. I save every message, hoping to reply to them ASAP, but from time to time, they get deleted because of all the new messages coming in. It's not a matter of being rude to anyone, but a matter of being overwhelmed. This is not to make excuses about not replying to any particular person's message, but so that some folks will understand why these things sometimes happen. Besides, when messages come in from old classmates that I haven't heard from (no matter who they are), I make it a point to reply right away!! FORWARDING Eric Storm 83 wrote: I have a suggestions for those people who have you forwarding e-mail to them: get an e-mail account from one of the many free services and then stop hiding and list it in the Alumni Directory. That's what I did. My work, like many others, frowns on personal e-mails coming to my work account. Also, I don't want to mix the two if I can help it. So, years ago I got a Yahoo/geocities account and use that for The Update and other things. It keeps those messages from interfering in my work day, offers spam filters and address blocking if needed, and since it's not my primary account I can always walk away form it if I decide to. There are a huge number of sites out there; yahoo, remarq, hotmail, iname, and mail.com just to name a few. And, don't forget that almost all of the "free" internet providers offer mail. If you sign up for Yahoo Delivers (a free service where they send you ads once a week), you can set up an automatic forward for your @yahoo.com address or use a POP3 mail program to retrieve your mail. Prior to the buy-out, Geocities used to offer this without the ads, but I guess Yahoo saw an opportunity for a little more profit . Eric Storm (eric_storm@yahoo.com) (deb_n_eric@geocities.com) (ericstorm@netzero.com) (and a secret work account) '83 FORMS An alumni wrote that she was surprised when the "contact webmaster" form she intended for a lost friend was read and forwarded by me to a third party who I knew is in touch with the lost friend. For those of you who are new and missed my last explanation of how the forms work, here it is again. The Encina website is NOT automated. Everything is manually updated and maintained. "Contact webmaster" and "care of webmaster" forms are sent to me (and no one else). For "care of webmaster" forms, I have the email address and forward the form to the alumni. For "contact webmaster" form, I may have the address. Or I may have the sibling or a friend's email or address or phone. In which case I forward the form to them asking them to help put the two parties in touch with each other. Many of you who have used the forms have experienced this process. This is why I ask for the names or siblings and friends. If I were to remove all the care of and contact listings it would decimate the listings. But the downside is that I have to manually put folks in touch with each other. I've put an additional note on the forms warning that the Encina webmaster will read and may forward the forms. So don't write anything personal or embarassing that you don't want me to read in the forms. DSL PacBell has lowered their monthly charge from $49.95/month to $39.95/month. However, you must call (1-888-884-2375) and ask them to switch you to the new lower rate. The only downside of switching is that the 1 year contract period clock restarts. So if you were thinking of cancelling your PacBell DSL service, you wouldn't want to switch to the lower rate or you will incur the cancellation fee. I haven't been able to verify it on their website, but the San Jose Mercury said they have extended their offer of free equipment ($198 normally), which was due to expire on February 15th. Pepai Falck Whipple 73 wrote: "I hope you like the DSL. I'm sure it's going to be the fastest growing service for the next several years in the communications industry. Since I work for PacBell and support DSL, please let your friends and family know that I can make referrals for PacBell DSL service. Its a great offer to save several hundred dollars on installation right now, although I think they will probably extend the offer again. All I need is a name and current phone number for the referral. It's kind of a "that a girl" for me because I work for the Company. Thanks for interest in DSL and helping to spread the word." You can reach Pepai at pepalapu@pacbell.net CLASS OF 72 Craig Moseley 72 added the 20th reunion memory book to the 72 homepage here: I forgot to include this last week. I enjoyed looking at the pictures of folks I knew. REUNIONS It's amazing the effect that one person can have by volunteering to chair the reunion committee. Last year the class of 84 didn't have a 15 year reunion. This year Kari Reser 84 volunteered to chair the next 84 reunion and has been bombarded with offers to help. This was also the case last year for Bob Goosmann and the class of 74. All it takes it one brave soul to volunteer to chair the reunion committee and I can almost guarantee you'll find lots of classmates to help with the planning. ALUMNI REUNION Date: March 18, 2000 Time: 5:00 pm Place: TBD Contacts: Lucia Churches 73 Lorna Cline Gragg 72/73 We are currently working on a new location at one of Sacramento's "finest" watering holes. Please mark your calendars with the date ... location information will follow. We will ask for an RSVP later in the month. Hope everyone can come! The Homecoming Party was a great opportunity to see old pals and make new ones. We'll be in touch. Lucia Churches Class of '73 loosha@pacbell.net (916) 369-2505 work number (916) 395-6696 home number Here's the RSVP list as of two weeks ago: 1961 Lee Pratt 1971 Jerry Burks 1973 Lorna Cline Gragg Lucia Churches Stephanie Dugas Pat Dunn Scott Harris Dona Lyn Jones Heather Kendall Bob Nannini Debbie Skalisky 1974 John Nunez 1975 Donald Bright 1976 Janice Patton If you plan to go, please send mail to encinahomecoming@egroups.com so I can update the attendance list and other folks can see if their classmates are going. I've seen several messages about the alumni reunion on various class mailing lists. 1965 REUNION George Hullin and Joyce Rogers have mixed emotions about whether to organize a 35 year reunion this year. If you are interested in having a reunion this year please contact George at george.hullin@hrh.com or 916-488-1400 (work). You can also send mail to encina1965@egroups.com as I've added George to the Encina Update and class mailing list. 1970 REUNION No one from the class has stepped up to fill the void left by Tom Henley 70, who passed away last fall. If you'll step forward like Melissa Tovar 81 and Kari Reser 84, I'm sure you'll get a lot of classmates who'll volunteer to help. Write encina1970@egroups.com if you are interesting in attending and/or helping to organize the 30 year reunion. 1975 REUNION Where: Sutter Club When: Saturday, July 15, 2000 Contact Jenny Bender Bittner at jedb@pacbell.net 1980 REUNION Where: The Firehouse When: Saturday, October 14, 2000 Contact: encina1980@egroups.com There was a reunion committee meeting this week and planning is moving right along. 1981 REUNION Melissa Tovar is chairing the reunion committee. She had lots of volunteers to help and they are already having their first committee meeting even though their reunion is not until next year. 1984 REUNION Kari Reser Mozingo 84 wrote: "...after much thought, I have decided since Becky Fransham cannot be "located" that I would step forward and plan the 1984 - 20th class reunion for 2004. I have enlisted the help of a few of my former classmates I have contact with and have put out several more feelers. This summer my family is planning a trip to Sacramento which may be a good time for a "pre-reunion" planning meeting. Details still need to be worked out.. Anyway, so you may list me as the reunion contact and hopefully, with the help of others, be able to pull this off. [My home email address is: LKMozingo@aol.com & work is: KariM@co.yakima.wa.us]" If you are interesting in attending the 20th reunion and/or helping Kari with the planning, please get in touch with her. Thanks for volunteering Kari! 1985 REUNION No news regarding the elusive Melinda Cope 85. Do we have any other reunion committee members present? Send email to encina1985@egroups.com if you are interesting in attending and/or helping organize the 15 year reunion. You need to have a leader step forward and get things moving. Don't wait for Melinda or you could end up missing your reunion like 84 did last year. Lance Ballance 85 wrote: As for the 15th year reunion for the class of '85, I would love to help out in some capacity. Even though I'm not what you would call "geographically desirable". My E-mail address and Work Phone numbers can be found in the class directory. 1990 REUNION The current reunion committee is Denyce Bellinger, Hayley Fojut and Jinne Webb. You can contact them at the following addresses. Denyce: tiniegrrl@Aol.com Hayley: mskitty_13@hotmail.com Jinne: jphorger@pacbell.net 1995 REUNION Do we have anyone from the reunion committee on the mailing list? Please write encina1995@egroups.com if you're interesting in attending and/or helping to organize the 5 year reunion. KATHIE RAYFUSE 63 Congratulations to Kathie Rayfuse Calcidise 63, who was recently appointed President of the Virgin Entertainment Group! In addition to the Virgin Megastores all over the states that sell music, video, DVDs, books, etc, they are also an internet business. Visit www.virginmega.com Mike Solomon 66 is the president of Tower Records, so Encina is well represented among the music industry's leaders. BRUCE FERREIRA 78 Paul Stewart 76 wrote that his good friend Bruce Ferreira 78 died last September (1999). LANCE BALLANCE 85 Lance Ballance 85 wrote: My station has become obsessed with the Internet, so they've made it possible not only to listen live on the web, but to also see right in the studio with a webcam!! This works best with at least a 56k modem, although 28.8k speeds do work. (If you have a high speed connection at work, or home, you will be able to enjoy it in HiFi Stereo!!) If you want to listen live to KBIG 104 via RealAudio, this is the link: http://www.kbig.com/listenlive/kbig.ram If you want to check out the webcam, here you go! If you wish to make fun of my clothes or rudimentary attempt at facial hair, I'm on display (on the air) Monday thru Friday from 10am-3pm Pacific Time. SIBLINGS Judy Kriege 76 wrote: John Kriege 71 Cathy Kriege 74 Judy Kriege 76 Alicia Galle 90 wrote: Alicia Galle 90 Janette Galle 94 Pamela Maples 77 wrote: Bob Maples 70 Carrie Diane Maples 73 Tom Maples 74 Pamela Maples 77 Pamela Maples 77 is in contact with: Katie Setters 76 Glenda Setters 78 Sandy Cameron 85 wrote: Sandy Cameron 85 Ron Cameron 87 Arthur Taylor 75 wrote: Carol Taylor 61 Linda Taylor 62 Mary Taylor 70 Arthur Taylor 75 is in contact with: Marty Holzschuh 75 Dave Rittenhouse 76 John Rittenhouse 73 Kari Reser 84 wrote: Kari Reser 84 Jason Reser 87 Lou DeCosta 66 wrote that he told friend Jack Turney 66 about the Encina website and Jack has a sister Carol: Jack Turney 66 Carol Turney 68? (is Carol class of 68?) Tim Fountain 91 wrote: Gary Reynolds 62 Gayle Fountain 64-67? (please write if you know what year Gayle was) Gloria Reynolds 67+ (please write if you know what year Gloria was) Tim Fountain 91 GULLIBILITY VIRUS This message is for those of you who forwarding notices about viruses and other urban legends to everyone in your address book. Please don't! Or if you must forward, please leave me off your mailing list . Gullibility Virus Spreading over the Internet! WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Institute for the Investigation of irregular Internet Phenomena announced today that many Internet users are becoming infected by a new virus that causes them to believe without question every groundless story, legend, and dire warning that shows up in their Inbox or on their browser. The Gullibility Virus, as it is called, apparently makes people believe and forward copies of silly hoaxes relating to E-Mail viruses, get-rich-quick schemes, and conspiracy theories. "These are not just readers of tabloids or people who buy lottery tickets based on fortune cookie numbers," a spokesman said. "Most are otherwise normal people, who would laugh at the same stories if told to them by a stranger on a street corner." However, once these same people become infected with the Gullibility Virus, they believe anything they read on the Internet. "My immunity to tall tales and bizarre claims is all gone," reported one weeping victim. "I believe every warning message and sick child story my friends forward to me, even though most of the messages are anonymous." Internet users are urged to examine themselves for symptoms of the virus, which include the following * the willingness to believe improbable stories without thinking * the urge to forward multiple copies of such stories to others * a lack of desire to take three minutes to check to see if a story is true T. C. is an example of someone recently infected. He told one reporter, "I read on the Net that the major ingredient in almost all shampoos makes your hair fall out, so I've stopped using shampoo." When told about the Gullibility Virus, T . C. said he would stop reading e-mail, so that he would not become infected. President Clinton has been advised by the National Health Council. He has had an emergency session with former presidents Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, and Lincoln. All agreed he should not quarantine the country. This is not being reported in the major news media to avoid panic. Anyone with symptoms is urged to seek help immediately. Experts recommend that at the first feelings of gullibility, Internet users rush to their favorite search engine and look up the item tempting them to thoughtless credence. Most hoaxes, legends, and tall tales have been widely discussed and exposed by the Internet community. Many companies have internal support groups to help employees minimize the impact of this terrible virus. *********************************************************** Forward this message to all your friends right away! Don't think about it! This is not a chain letter! This story is true! Don't check it out! This story is so timely, there is no date on it! This story is so important, we're using lots of exclamation points!!! For every message you forward to some unsuspecting person, the Home for the Hopelessly Gullible will donate ten cents to itself. (If you wonder how the Home will know you are forwarding these messages all over creation, you're obviously thinking too much.) Once again, please do not forward messages of this type to your friends. You are not doing anyone a favor! FIREWALL We've had our DSL line about a week now. I have a software firewall called BlackICE Defender installed, which monitors and blocks most (hopefully all) attacks on our home network. I would say our system averages 2-4 attacks/probes per day. The most scary was Sunday, when we received a "Back Orifice" attack. "Back Orifice" is an infamous program which installs itself on your system when you inadvertently open an innocent looking email attachment. You don't even know your system has been hacked but from then on, this "Back Orifice" program is lurking on your system. It allows anyone who finds your system to take control of it remotely and do whatever they want. Read your files, etc. I believe the attack was some hacker looking for systems with Back Orifice installed. Back Orifice is a play on Microsoft's Back Office software. I think many of the so-called attacks are really not malicious but the "Back Orifice" attack got my attention. I urge those of you with DSL/cable internet connections to install a software or hardware firewall. Even normal modem dialup connections are vulnerable. First go to www.grc.com and use ShieldsUp to test how secure or insecure your present system is. Then download the free ZoneAlarm firewall or install some other software firewall and use ShieldsUp to see the difference. You can download the free ZoneAlarm 2.0 firewall from www.zonelabs.com . This is recommended by the highly regarded Steve Gibson at www.grc.com . GOLDEN SPIKE Forbes ASAP had a fascinating article called "The Golden Spike" which compares the internet revolution to the railroad revolution more than a century ago. This entire issue is well worth reading if you find this article of interest. The premise is that the internet revolution is not unique, that history does indeed repeat itself, and we can learn from the past. The Golden Spike The Internet is most analogous to the railroad revolution more than a century ago. By John Steele Gordon The Internet in the 1990s is just like the railroads in the 1840s. It is still in its infancy, its growth is exploding, and no one yet knows how to make money at it. It also performs the same economic function: connecting things. And there is no more potent force than connecting buyers and sellers. The GDP of an economy, after all, is nothing more than the sum of all these connections. The more buyers and sellers there are, the greater the wealth generated. That's why the railroad was the seminal invention of the 19th century and the Internet will undoubtedly be of the 21st. It is hard to imagine just how wretched the overland transportation system was before the railroads, even in well-developed Europe. Indeed, system is hardly the word for a spotty network of roads, many of which were hardly better than paths. The Great North Road, the major highway through the north of England in the 18th century, had potholes so large that men and horses are known to have drowned in them. This meant that goods, except for luxuries, had to be transported by river or sea or they could not be transported at all. As an underdeveloped country, and one of continental size at that, the young United States' overland transportation problems dwarfed those of Europe. Worse, most East Coast rivers were navigable for only short distances inland. As a result, there really was no "American economy." Instead there was a myriad of local ones. Most food was consumed locally, and most goods were locally produced by artisans such as blacksmiths. The railroads changed all that in less than 30 years. When Andrew Jackson made his way from Nashville to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration in 1829, he traveled by coach and required a month for the journey. Thirty years later it was possible to make the trip in three days. Because of the speed and ease of railroads, the volume of passenger traffic increased enormously as well. Before the new technology, passenger traffic between Charleston, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, was handled by a single stagecoach making three round-trips a week. Five years after rail service opened between the two cities, traffic was averaging more than 2,600 passengers a month. But it was the railroads' ability to haul freight, not people, that transformed the world. Before its arrival, shipping a ton of goods 400 miles could easily quadruple the price. But by rail, the same ton of goods could be shipped in a fraction of the time and at one-twentieth of the cost. No wonder the multitude of separate economies began to vanish. "Two generations ago," wrote Arthur Hadley, a Yale economics professor, in 1885, "the expense of cartage was such that wheat had to be consumed within 200 miles of where it was grown. Today, the wheat of Dakota, the wheat of Russia, and the wheat of India come into direct competition. The supply at Odessa is an element in determining the price in Chicago." Sound familiar? With the Internet, it is information and data that can be moved much more quickly and cheaply. According to a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter report, buying airline tickets over the Internet results in an 87% reduction in the distribution cost. Banking online is an 89% reduction. While the railroads produced a national market, the Internet is producing a truly global one. An example: India's software development services now compete with China's, which compete with Silicon Valley's. A New Street At first most railroads were locally financed by the people and businessmen who stood to benefit from the new transportation. But the securities issued by these new companies often made their way to Wall Street and played a major part in the growth of the American financial market. In the 1820s and early 1830s, state and federal bonds and bank shares dominated securities trading, and business was often less than brisk. On March 16, 1830, a mere 31 shares changed hands on the New York Stock and Exchange Board (as the NYSE was then known). By the 1850s, however, average volume had multiplied manyfold, and two-thirds of the issues being sold there were railroad stocks and bonds. With the American economy not yet able to generate enough capital internally, many of these issues were sold to European investors, especially in Britain, despite the 10-day delay in communication across the Atlantic. Today, the Internet also is remaking Wall Street, and not just with the upstart online companies, 24-hour trading, or the new electronic exchanges. Volumes and prices have reached all-time highs, thanks in large measure to companies trading on the hope of the Internet. Nor is the craziness of the stock prices unique to our time. Because the Erie Railroad had an erratic, often crooked, management, and an odd route (it ran between Dunkirk on Lake Erie and Piermont on the Hudson River--two towns of no commercial importance whatsoever), it became known as "the scarlet woman of Wall Street," the most notorious railroad stock of the 19th century. But many railroad stocks soared and plunged in the early days of the industry as the potential profits and the practical realities intersected with the greed and fear of investors. Bigger Is Better It wasn't long before the small, local railway lines began to merge into larger and larger entities, at first regional and then national in scope. In 1853, the New York Central was stitched together out of 10 local lines running between Buffalo and Albany. When Cornelius (nicknamed "Commodore") Vanderbilt took control in 1867, he quickly merged it with his Hudson River Railroad, running from Manhattan to Albany, and then with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, running west to Chicago. Carrying millions of tons of freight between the nation's two largest cities built the fabulous row of Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue. With the growth of national and international markets, economies of scale became possible in nearly all industries, and they quickly began to grow to take advantage of them. Instead of each village blacksmith making horseshoes from scratch, one factory could produce horseshoes by the hundreds of thousands at a fraction of the cost per unit. It was precisely to take advantage of such possibilities that many industries began to merge into larger entities and then into the "trusts" that have been a bogeyman of American politics ever since. But despite the supposed threat of "monopoly pricing," the cost of manufactured goods fell relentlessly as the 19th century progressed. In 1911, when Standard Oil was broken up, the price of kerosene was only about one-third of what it had been in 1870, when Standard Oil was formed. Retailing, as well, could become national in scope, thanks to the railroads. Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Woolworth could not have offered such low prices and grown into such vast enterprises if they had not had the railroads to deliver their goods. Catalog companies, of course, threatened local retailers and forced them to lower their prices in order to compete effectively. This played no small part in making possible the fact that the period between the Civil War and World War I was an era completely without inflation, despite an economy that was--even with recurrent and severe depressions--growing explosively. Internet retailers such as Amazon.com are doing to the American economy exactly what Sears and Montgomery Ward did more than a century ago. Amazon is forcing local retailers to compete on a national scale. It is reducing prices and changing how businesses interact with their suppliers and consumers. While the railroads themselves greatly increased the demand for some goods, they also almost single-handedly gave birth to new industries. The need for rails built the iron and then the steel industries in both Europe and America, the measure of economic power by the dawn of the 20th century. They, in turn, vastly expanded the mining industry. In a classic example of the synergy that is seldom recognized but is so much a part of economic history, the telegraph companies that sprang up after Samuel Morse demonstrated his invention in 1844 soon realized that the rights-of-way of the railroads were the perfect paths along which to string their lines. (Today, companies laying fiber-optic cable have discovered the same thing.) The railroads also saw that the telegraph could be used as a signaling system, allowing trains to move much more quickly and safely (and thus more cheaply) on the often single-track lines of the early days. The Internet is proving equally synergistic. It has sparked growth in nearly all sectors of high tech and no doubt will propel the wireless, PDA, and multimedia industries forward. It was not until 1946 that half the households in the country had their own telephones. Half a century later, thanks to the Internet, it is not unusual for middle-class households to have two, three, and even four telephone lines. Creative Distinction By the 20th century the railroads' endless ramifications had produced our modern economic world. And much of our domestic politics have centered on devising rules needed to distribute fairly the vast wealth created by that world. (These regulations haven't always worked, of course. The Interstate Commerce Commission, established to protect the public from price gouging by the railroad companies, quickly evolved into a government-sponsored price-fixing cartel that devastated the American railroad industry in the long term.) In the future, we can expect much of our energy will go to figuring out how to distribute the vast wealth created by the Internet. Just as the railroads--the application of the steam engine--were the prime agent of the creative destruction of the preindustrial world, so the Internet--an application of the computer --is becoming the prime agent in shaping the postindustrial world. And it is doing so a lot quicker than the railroads, which were expensive to build. The Erie Railroad, hardly a model of efficient management, to be sure, cost $23.5 million at a time when that sum was roughly what the federal government was spending per year. The Internet, on the other hand, has been dirt cheap to create. Much of the infrastructure, such as telephone lines and personal computers, already existed. Anyone can go into business as an Internet service provider with little more than a server costing a few thousand dollars and some telephone lines. A Web page can be established so easily and at so little cost that millions of teenagers have already done so. Thus it is no surprise that the Progress and Freedom Foundation reports that the Internet has spread to 25% of American households in only seven years, whereas the telephone took 35 years, five times as long, to reach that penetration. Nearly 40% of the American adult population now uses the Internet at home, work, or the local library. Train Wreck The railroads overbuilt wildly in the decades after the Civil War, often for competitive rather than economic reasons. In the 1880s and 1890s, as depression hit, two-thirds of the railroad tracks in the United States passed through receivership and were reorganized by the great Wall Street banks such as J. P. Morgan and Kuhn Loeb. This, of course, greatly strengthened the power of these banks. (In the first quarter of the 20th century, J. P. Morgan's was probably the most powerful bank that ever existed.) But it also made it possible for the banks to impose needed reforms. At that time, it was the banks and the stock exchange, not the government, that required publicly traded companies to adopt generally accepted accounting principles and independent accountants to certify their books. The Internet will not escape a shakeout of its own at some point. Most of the thousands of entrepreneurs who rushed in at the first sign of opportunity will fall by the wayside, their fortunes as evanescent as rainbows. The pieces, if the history of the railroads is any guide, will be picked up by people who at first stood on the sidelines. Commodore Vanderbilt never built a railroad in his life. Instead he bought badly run ones, restructured them, merged them into efficient operations, and managed them superbly. (No Vanderbilt railroad went through reorganization at the hands of the banks.) He thus created the largest fortune of the railroad era and died the richest self-made man in the world. Who the Commodore Vanderbilts of the Internet will be is impossible to say at this point. (If I could, I wouldn't be spending my time writing magazine articles!) But whoever they turn out to be, they're going to make the old Commodore look like a welfare case. John Steele Gordon is the author of The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power, 1653-2000, and Hamilton's Blessing. WHAT'S NEW 2/16/00 Arthur Taylor 75/bio, Carol Taylor 61, Linda Taylor 62, Mary Taylor 70, Jack Turney 66, Kristin Kirk 84, Laura Pelfanio 84, Mike Bordisso 84 2/15/00: Amey Bate 87 update, Melissa Tovar 81 update, Kari Reser 84 bio 2/14/00: Sandy Cameron 85, Sharyn Hagen 63, Lynn Bradhoff 80, Jane Bassett 79 2/13/00: Sharyn Hagen 63 2/12/00: Maria Krear 72, Susanne Harrison 77/bio, Julie Harrison 66, Steve Harrison 68, Bruce Harrison 72, Jean Harrison 74, Judy Kriege 76/bio, Cathy Kriege 74, John Kriege 71, Pamela Maples 77 bio, Katie Setters 76, Glenda Setters 78, Tami Kehoe 77, Sue Kehoe 72, Michael Kehoe 74, Lori Kehoe 76, Paul Mensch 79, Janette Galle 94, Debbie Schirner 77 2/9/00 Greg Fox 78, Lisa Mensch 80/bio, Charles Mensch 77, Amy Mensch 86, Marcy Duke 80, Terry Durham 79, Sandy MacDonald 80, Kyle Purcell 80, Janni Schott 80, Kathy Slater 79, Carrie Verzwyvelt 80, Samuel Brewer 92 bio, Chuck Long 65 update, Vernon Kelley 73, Savyvanh Chandavong 89, Kongkeo Chandavong 91, Somgnot Chandavong 94, Manda Moore 90 update Sorry the update was so long this week. I even cut some stuff out to save for the next issue... Harlan Lau '73 Encina webmaster www.encinahighschool.com harlan@rambus.com