CYBER-BYTES:
An "E-Mail" from Derrik

     Tom and I along with some assistance from our volunteers have been diligently working on several upgrades for the MTN Internet systems. Our concentration has been on the Year 2000 Compliant (Y2K) issues. We have upgraded the operating system for one of our servers, and continue to work on a similar upgrade to the rest of our systems.

     We have also upgraded the hardware for our main server (freedom). The system is now a dual Pentium II 350 with 128 Megs of Ram. It is several times faster than the previous "freedom".

     Our order of a new router (Cisco 2610) has recently been received and we are hard at work at getting that 100 percent functional as well. Our last router (Cisco 2501) was not Y2K compliant.

     There have been a few comments recently about our links page at . If your organization's web page does not appear on this page, or is outdated, please e-mail the URL (web address), the title you want for the link, and the category (as described on the above mentioned webpage), to . We will add the link as soon as we receive it.

      MTN Internet is also working on a web design program for local high school artists. The program will be free to each participating artist. The main focus will be to teach the artists how to put together a web page of their art. The program will be taught by me (Derrik). I am really looking forward to getting this off the ground, so please, if you have any feedback please write to with your suggestions.

     There is also a new class that is being offered by MTN. It is a hardware class that will examine what's "under the hood" of your computer. Tom Shannon will be teaching the class. So far, there has been a great response, so if you are interested, sign up today. You can view the schedule at or contact to request one via regular mail.

     The only bad news is that lately there have been a number of usersoverusing our modems. We have a limited number of modems for you, our users, to dial into. When one user takes up a modem for an entire day by programming it to not disconnect, it limits the use for other users. When several users abuse this, it really puts a strain on our accessibility. Please, if you know of anyone that is doing this, ask them not to. MTN is also sending notices to these "line campers" as we notice the lack of data transmitting. Another new development -- MTN has the ability now to make data CD's. If you are having a hard time downloading Netscape, Internet Explorer, or any other free programs, we can copy it to a CD and mail it to you for $5.

     If you have any comments or concerns please contact internet@mtn.org orcall 612.331.8575 - ext. 305

______________________
Derrik Dyka
Director of Internet Operation
(future primitive)
MTN to get Non Linear Systems! - Continued from page 3
by John Akre

casa      This staff research committee joined with the MTN equipment committee this past winter and put together a nonlinear recommendation.

     The MTN board approved that recommendation and MTN will soon be purchasing a Media 100 and Casablanca edit system. Over the next few months, committees of the staff will be learning the new equipment and putting together a training curriculum alongside access procedures. Our goal is to start teaching nonlinear editing classes in October. These two new systems - joining MTN's aging equipment lineup - offer many more features than MTN's current edit systems offer. You can then trim your shots, rearrange them and add titles before playing your finished video back on the Casablanca and recording it onto your edit master tape.

M100      The Media 100 we will be getting is a hardware and software combination that works with a Mac computer. It will have a separate hard drive - RAID (a set of hard drives that work more efficiently for video than a single drive does) - to store video on. The Media 100 will be taught as an advanced suite. It is becoming an industry standard system, and works hand-in-hand with a great deal of effects and animation software.

     There certainly will be some challenges to make this equipment work in the world of public access, and the staff will be spending some time this summer working on solutions to these. But look forward to better looking video on MTN's channels in a few months, for unlike linear editing, nonlinear does not involve making copies of your camera original in order to edit (or copies of copies), which can result in brighter and more detailed video and audio.

-John Akre, program mgr. at MTN, has been shooting and editing in digital formats outside of work for some time.


In this Issue:
MTN Page One: What's on mtn?
Page Two: Cable Franchise Negotiations
Page Three: MTN Profile
Page Four: Programming Notes
Page Five: Cyber-Bytes - Continued
Page Six: What's on mtn? - Continued
Page Seven: MTN board position opening