This article is classified "Real"
This city is the capital of Texas. It is known for it's educational value with the University of Texas and other technological attributes. It is also the city where Charles Whitman killed a bunch people from the top of the observation tower at UT in the 60's. (Not to discourage you). It is, for the most part, a city of liberals. (Once again, not to discourage you). It has its share of underground book stores, virtual reality gaming facilites, and coffee houses. Some areas of town remind me of the environment described in some of William Gibson's books (i.e. Chiba City). Elicit drugs, such as LSD, are plentiful (from what I understand) and mainly used by the computer hacks in town. There are several Internet providers in town, thus never a bored moment for Unix lovers. It is important to note that people in this city would rather compute, read, write, create, telnet, ftp, and play DOOM than take a bath. Austin is the home of science fiction author Bruce Sterling, author of "The Artificial Kid", "The Hacker Crackdown", and other books. It is a fantastic city for writers, computer hobbyists, Internet dwellers, and other sloth-type people. In Austin, people can sit at home on their personal computers for hours at a time and be completely happy. There's just not much to worry about in Austin. If you can scrape enough money up to eat, and you have your personal computer handy, by Austin standards... you're OK! There are legends of people who have Ph.D's from major universities and could get a job anywhere. But they choose to drive a cab just so they can stay in Austin. It's that good. Austin is know for its clean air, farms and meadows to the east, its high, rolling hills on the west side, and technology in the middle. It is the home of some of the cleanest water in America and has been designated as one of the best places to live and work in America. It is nationally known for its support of live music and the infamous "6th Street." This is a street downtown that is chocked full of brew-pubs, tattoo shops, clubs, bars, and other forms of alternative entertainment. The other famous street in Austin is Guadelupe. If you ever come to Austin and need to ask for directions to this street, ask a local where "The Drag" is. This is the street with most of the underground book stores, coffee houses, and virtual reality holes-in-the-wall. "The Drag" is a big hangout for computer- literate folks with some free time on their hands. One of the more popular book stores on this street is called "Europa Books." It is the biggest collection of hard-to-get and non-mainstream publications in Texas. If you can't get it at Europa, it don't exist! Austin is commonly referred to as "The Silicon Gulch" due to all of the computer and technology related companies that make their home there. Some people also refer to Austin as "Berkeley On The Colorado" due to it's similarity to Berkeley, California. (And Colorado being the name of the big river near-by). All in all, Austin's computer-underground culture is special in its own way. I recently had a friend come and visit from Houston. His first words when he walked in the door were "Where's the computer?? I need the Internet!". I personally have travelled all around the United States and evaluated the status of the computer community in most major cities and I must say (and many people agree with me) that Austin is "The Promised Land." Two of the most popular electronic magazines on the net come from Austin. They are "The Journal Of American Underground Computing" and "Phrack." This city is a major pit-stop on the Information Super-Highway. New service providers for the Internet are popping up all over in Austin, the latest being Freeside Communications. (Thoughts of William Gibson running through my head.) People come from all over just to jack-in to the net from my apartment. Austin is chocked full of smart people. Most people here either have degrees from the University of Texas, or they are working on it. It is my guess that if the government decided to do something like conduct a "stupid-people-genocide," where all people with IQ's below 110 were to be killed, Austin would escape for the most part untouched. But who am I to speculate what the government might or might not do? I just work here. In the last few years, many people have moved to "The Promised Land," thus some overcrowding is unavoidable. The freeways have only two lanes. It was never the intention of the city's developers to have Austin multiply as it has. So don't move there. Just visit. But visit often. Reporting live from the Silicon Gulch, this has been Scott Davis, Editor of The Journal Of American Underground Computing. E-Mail subscription requests to: sub@fennec.com