Brad Merrill Jul 12 1993, 8:42 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: merr...@sfranc.enet.dec.com (Brad Merrill) - Find messages by this author Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 04:35:39 GMT Local: Mon, Jul 12 1993 9:35 pm Subject: USCF should support ICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse To all USCF members who utilize ICS: It might be too late for this years meeting, but I think it is an appropriate part of the USCF mandate to help support the ICS someplace. It could even be based in New Winsor, with appropriate connectivity. Could a motion be made at this year's meeting to at least consider and/or research the idea? I haven't fleshed this idea out fully, but doesn't it fit within a non-profit organizations activity very nicely? Its educational (sometime noisy), and shouldn't be too expensive to run. It should qualify as tax deductable stuff by itself. What do people think? /Brad Richard V. Nash Jul 13 1993, 6:08 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: n...@visus.com (Richard V. Nash) - Find messages by this author Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 12:39:02 GMT Local: Tues, Jul 13 1993 5:39 am Subject: Re: USCF should support ICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse In article - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - merr...@sfranc.enet.dec.com (Brad Merrill) writes: > To all USCF members who utilize ICS: > It might be too late for this years meeting, but I think it is an > appropriate part of the USCF mandate to help support the ICS someplace. > It could even be based in New Winsor, with appropriate connectivity. > Could a motion be made at this year's meeting to at least consider > and/or research the idea? > I haven't fleshed this idea out fully, but doesn't it fit within a non-profit > organizations activity very nicely? Its educational (sometime noisy), > and shouldn't be too expensive to run. It should qualify as tax deductable > stuff by itself. > What do people think? > /Brad One of the problems is that good connectivity to the internet costs big money. At least I think it does. My company has a measly 56Kbaud connection and that costs us over $1,000 per year. That was in additional to the one time cost of several thousand for the modem, router and the installation of the leased line. I don't know anything about the USCF, but that seems like alot of money to an organization like that. What we really need is some university, that already has good network connectivity, to realize that the publicity it receives by hosting the ICS far (way far) outweighs the miniscule resources it takes to run it. CPU's are cheap, very cheap. A $1000 PC (running Unix) could run the ICS adequately. If one student chooses university A over B because he likes the ICS or hears about it in CL or something, that pays for the server 10 times over. (BTW: Before you jump in and say that '486s only have enough file descriptor space for 64 players, that is not true. That is a function of the OS you have loaded. Get a decent Unix OS for your PC, and you will have the more typical 256 file descriptor slots. ) -- +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Richard V. Nash | Visual Understanding Systems, Inc. | | n...@visus.com | Tel. (412)-488-3600 Fax. (412)-488-3611 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Tim Philip Jul 13 1993, 12:56 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: phi...@usask.ca (Tim Philip) - Find messages by this author Date: 13 Jul 1993 19:38:11 GMT Local: Tues, Jul 13 1993 12:38 pm Subject: Re: USCF should support ICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Brad Merrill (merr...@sfranc.enet.dec.com) wrote: : To all USCF members who utilize ICS: : It might be too late for this years meeting, but I think it is an : appropriate part of the USCF mandate to help support the ICS someplace. : It could even be based in New Winsor, with appropriate connectivity. : Could a motion be made at this year's meeting to at least consider : and/or research the idea? : I haven't fleshed this idea out fully, but doesn't it fit within a non-profit : organizations activity very nicely? Its educational (sometime noisy), : and shouldn't be too expensive to run. It should qualify as tax deductable : stuff by itself. : What do people think? : /Brad Excellent! I think that this is a great idea .. even though I am not a part of the USCF ... :( However, I am a Governer of the CFC (Canadian Chess Federation) and since this is supposed to be the North American ICS, if I can offer any support, please feel free to contact me. I would also appreciate any thoughts/opinions of Canadian players on this topic. If sufficient support can be found, I will forward all correspondence to the CFC. Later, Tim. (phi...@skdad.usask.ca) Beltim on ICS Peter Stein Jul 13 1993, 3:23 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: pst...@falcon.depaul.edu (Peter Stein) - Find messages by this author Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 21:41:09 GMT Local: Tues, Jul 13 1993 2:41 pm Subject: Re: USCF should support ICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - In article <1993Jul13.123902.12...@visus.com> n...@visus.com writes: >In article >merr...@sfranc.enet.dec.com (Brad Merrill) writes: >> To all USCF members who utilize ICS: >> It might be too late for this years meeting, but I think it is an >> appropriate part of the USCF mandate to help support the ICS someplace. >> It could even be based in New Winsor, with appropriate connectivity. >> Could a motion be made at this year's meeting to at least consider >> and/or research the idea? >> I haven't fleshed this idea out fully, but doesn't it fit within a non-profit >> organizations activity very nicely? Its educational (sometime noisy), >> and shouldn't be too expensive to run. It should qualify as tax deductable >> stuff by itself. >> What do people think? >> /Brad >One of the problems is that good connectivity to the internet costs big money. >At least I think it does. My company has a measly 56Kbaud connection and that >costs us over $1,000 per year. That was in additional to the one time cost of >several thousand for the modem, router and the installation of the leased line. >I don't know anything about the USCF, but that seems like alot of money to an >organization like that. Actually this isn't very much money at all. Keep in mind that ICS subscribers have been getting this service for FREE. I think those who have been on ICS for awhile would agree that it provides something valuable that most wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee for. Also if ICS hooks up with some postal outfit like APCT additional revenues are available. Advertising could raise additional $$, although I think it isn't even neccessary to resort to that. I don't think money is much of an issue. >What we really need is some university, that already has good network >connectivity, to realize that the publicity it receives by hosting the ICS far >(way far) outweighs the miniscule resources it takes to run it. CPU's are >cheap, very cheap. A $1000 PC (running Unix) could run the ICS adequately. If >one student chooses university A over B because he likes the ICS or hears about >it in CL or something, that pays for the server 10 times over. >(BTW: Before you jump in and say that '486s only have enough file descriptor >space for 64 players, that is not true. That is a function of the OS you have >loaded. Get a decent Unix OS for your PC, and you will have the more typical >256 file descriptor slots. ) While it may be great to have an Internet connected University host ICS there are some pitfalls. The University's primary focus is not hosting ICS and consequently ICS could be dumped overnight on a whim. We've already seen this. I'm much more comfortable with the idea that a Chess dedicated organization is in control of ICS. There are of course logistical problems, but they are of a one-shot nature. An extremely important aspect that hasn't surfaced is precisely what would be offered to members and how. To appeal to as many as possible it would be smart to provide more services than merely speed chess (i.e. postal, product orders, tournament information, etc.). The LINC could be examined as an example of the scope of services. Paramount to this scheme's success is low cost access. This one of the main reasons I terminated my LINC membership. Many PC owners do not have Internet access and would need a service like Delphi or Holonet to connect. If costs are prohibitive they'll be less inclined to join. These services are becoming more competitive; I recently saw an ad for Delphi indicating $1/hour rate. I think ICS is a winner, but like anything else, to remain a winner it will require organizational and individual commitments. I hope that if the host issue comes up again we don't punt too soon and instead explore options.