If you and a friend both have Internet access, you can chat long distance for free. Hardware vendors, especially Apple, have inadvertently thrown this market into overdrive by equipping home PC models with microphones and answering-machine technology. The necessary software is available via ftp to anyone with the brains to grab it. Now that the genie is out, this technology is going to have an exponential effect. Forget alt.sex newsgroups: telephony is the killer app that drags the government into regulating the Net as the telcos scream murder and beg for relief. Unfortunately for them, the "inter" part of Internet means "international," and what Washington says doesn't always play in Paris, Prague, or Pakistan. A program for Mac is available at ftp.sumex-aim.stanford.edu and www.vocaltec.com. - Chris Clark
ELECTRIC WORD
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Even Look at This Poster
The Internet as Ma Bell
