Shoot!  Got nailed again by this Eudora quotes bug and my fever not making
me careful!  Here is how that post SHOULD have read (inserting quotes by
hand...sigh...):
 
>>The only way to tackle it is to force improvements on all at once through
>>improved stricter standards in keeping, treating, and shipping.
 
>Amen to this notion!
 
>>Make sure first that they really are improvements.
 
>How do you make sure there are changes?  MF wont even let someone from the
>public come in and inspect everything.
 
Don't need to have anyone from the public come in (and perhaps best not
to since they could bring in things like ECE and more).  What is needed --
and not easy to get as anyone can learn fro asking Julianna -- are
improvemtns in the federal regulations.  They already are inspected
regulary and do better thansoime of their ferret-farm competition on
inspections.  Want change?  Try to raise the bar federally.
 
BTW, thoe inspection results are available to anyone.  If you go into back
FML issues I believe that it waqs Liegh who posted how to get them.  MF
has aced the inspections for a few years now.  Have a birt of a virus with
on and off fevers, and amnot up to finding things.
 
 --
 
The >> were me a few days ago, then > was Danielle, then plain stuff
was me yesterday.
 
Thanks to Jim who explained to me that he has found that if only part of a
paragraph is used Eudora strips off the quote bars; have also noticed that
it *seems* perhaps to do that if the bar saying who sent it is removed.
 
Ferretguy and others:
Okay, there were a lot of companies which had contracts with Excite.
@home is about 30% AT&T customers and the rest at @home are with three
other companies.  Excite has contracts for service with @home, and with
others under different names.  I understand that the judge declared the
Excite contracts null and void on Friday, which happened after the major
stock-holders of Excite wanted 3X what the service-providing part would
have been worth, so refused a split-off that could have saved the company.
When Exciite first had to declare bankruptcy (due to bad investments, I
gather) AT&T offered a purchase of the service part that in part was of
current AT&T investments in Excite and that split would have saved all
the services, and helped the Excite people save the rest (such as Blue
Mountain Cards which Excite had bought for somethng like 900 million).
(AT&T was both bound by contracts of service providers it had bought
earlier, and had an investment in Excite, though that investment was
nowhere near a large interest percentage-wise of the entire Excite, I
gather.)
 
From talking with those close to the situation AT&T already has 10% of its
customers back up as ATTBI; within 2 weeks the rest who had it through
AT&T will be up.  Estimates for how long the others will take to get up
again now that Excite contracts are gone vary.  HOpe that helps.  The AT&T
customers in Oregon and Washington are already up again with ATTBI addies
as I write this.  If your @home was through AT&T rather than through the
others you should be back up in two weeks at most.  I know that at least
one of the other @home using companies has some other areas up and
functioning because I chatted with a friend in the Washington D.C.  area
who is getting service now.  Bit by bit much wil come back, depending on
provider and area.  Estimates vary, so ask locally or follow your updates
and media.  If your's is AT&T that's one of the ones which can come back
up more readily so you'll be back soon, Randy.
 
 --
The official English language name for group of ferrets is a
"busyness" (as in very busy) or the modern spelling "business".
 
[Moderator's note: There are still 113 @home subscribers (of all flavors)
on the FML.  Mail to most of those have not gotten through.  About 35
former @home subscribers have changed their address already.  The rest
will likely do so soon -- or they'll be deleted since mail isn't getting
to them anyhow.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3620]