THE "ALTERNATIVE" COMPUTER SCENE Upstairs at Binary Cafe's Computer Underground Yonge Street -- what a dump. Used to be mildly interesting to walk Yonge south of Bloor. It had some actual human culture. Some character. Now look at it. A walk-on movie set. A sterile extension of The Eaton Centre. I recently trudged up strip one night, homeward. Images of unleashing a _Sim City_ tornado straight up the centre of the street entertained me. Miles to go before I SLIP (Serial Link Internet Protocol). I halt at a curious banner above and before me, undulating heavily in the breeze, like some Roman Legion banner. I've not seen this before. Or maybe I've seen it 100 times and simply not noticed. It proclaims the existence of some thing called _The Binary Cafe_. Little 1s and 0s adorn it. Binary digits. Yep, definitely computer-related. I pull my collar higher about my neck and frown darkly... _Offline_ computer culture... Suits. Yuppies. Computer engineers. Reform party members. Yet there _is_ something odd here, this is no site for corporate culture, a strange door wedged between dingy Syd Silver and some dayglo California-lifestyle shop. I look nervously around streets devoid of life and glance sideways again at the mysterious banner -- feeling rather like Harry Haller first encountering the Magic Theatre in Herman Hesse's _Steppenwolf_... But, as GOD ALMIGHTY HIMSELF has made me an INTERNET COLUMNIST, it's my BRAVE DUTY to SLIP through this portal and investigate. Inside, I ascend steep stairs and find myself on a landing flanked by two doors. Each bears a sign. One informs me psychics "Will Be Back in 15 Minutes"; the other, "The Binary Cafe." (If it added "FOR MADMEN ONLY!" my Steppenwolf fantasies would be complete.) I cross the second threshold and enter Binary Cafe space. Small. Jazz plays. A handful of tables are scattered by two windows overlooking Yonge, at which humanoids yap. On the far wall, three computers (two PCs and a Mac). A hardcore fat-boy gamer sits at one, a downtown-ish looking fellow is cruising the Internet on the Mac, a game of DOOM beckons on the unoccupied third. A diverse collection of Torontonians, to be sure, but all clearly off the mainstream track, no suit-and-tie UNIX yuppies. I scrutinize the old walls for writing. Plenty of curious literature here, true anarchist evening entertainment -- journals of hard science, skeptics guides, Loompanics shit, _2600_, _Iron Feather Journal_ and other underground delights. I love this kind of shit. (There's also _.tiff_ (tiff@io.org), an attitudinal net.savy Toronto publication worth scanning.) A little kitchenette dominates the centre of this converted residential flat. The sink has freshly washed dishes drip-drying in one of them dish racks circa the Cleaver household 1958 (or any installment of Wombat -- actually, Wombat would have a blast at the Binary). No alcohol. Lots of caffeine -- coffee or stacks of Jolt cola. Cyberspace abhors booze, adores the caffeine jag. Cigs if you want. Holographic chocolates. Prepared sandwiches. The Binary Cafe is run by Steve Berhardson, 28, a computer science grad from the University of Saskatchewan. He's aiming to meld art, Internet, intellect, and "cafe culture," to strip computers of their pathological association with socially-retarded nerds, geeks, and flourescent office culture. Night staffer Mark Flesher says they want Toronto artists with work related to technology or cyberspace to bring it in for display or sale. There's a display case of such "cultural artifacts." Stuff to fuck-up archeologists a few millenia from now. The Binary Cafe and Hexidecimal Emporium (bincaf@io.org) is at 502 Yonge -- NW of College. 922-2189. Check out the Binary homepage at www.io.org/~bincaf . The cafe's card quotes French poet Arthur Rimbaud -- "Il faut etre absolument moderne." CELEBRITIES AT YONGE & EG!! The Adam and Eve of the net.cafe remain Jamie Neilsen and Kelly McCombs, owners of Yonge & Eg's Help Wanted Cafe (helpcafe@io.org). eye first reported on their lahti and net linkage back in June, when they were struggling to rustle up customers. Since, they've been barraged by media attention -- CBC, CITY, CTV, Canada Press, Toronto Computes!, etc. And business is booming. Heck, the Cafe was even visited by Bob Allisat (allisat@pcs.org), activist bon vivant and eye's Man In Parliament! Bob lectured owner Jamie on the evils of serving meat. Children gathered at Bob's feet and wild doves fed from his hands. SUDDENLY THIS SUMMER -- NET PROVIDERS Indeed, _all_ net.related business is booming. Check out Toronto's Internet providers -- those people who sell connectivity to average Torontonians like you and me. Beginning of 94, there were maybe two or so; today, eight or nine. And they've all appeared the last few months. "That was _quite_ the huge coincidence, now wasn't it?" grins Matt Harrop (mattp@interlog.com), owner of Interlog. Interlog came online July 4. And the market is not saturated yet -- indeed, demand grows daily. More providers are on the way, guaranteed. "The market's so big right now, we don't have to go after each other's business," says John Nemanic (sysop@cml.com), owner of Etobicoke's ComputerLink Online. Compulink used to just be a chat BBS, but is adding full Internet access. Alan Park, owner of The Wire agrees. He says that providers will have to offer services as well -- The Wire will start a side business helping companies develop World Wide Web homepages. "The net's evolved out of the backroom techie-world into a popular cultural pasttime," says Stuart Lombard (lombard@inforamp.com), co-owner of InfoRamp, another new net provider. "So now we're seeing the market split into niches." Lombard says one niche wasn't served: the true neophyte. And that's why he started InfoRamp with a nifty software package called Pipeline. Passport Online also feature Pipeline. Pipeline brings the vast Internet features together with no set-up fuss. But users have to pay higher rates to use. Plenty of people think it worth the premium. Judge yourself. In short: There's never been a better time to get an account, Toronto. You have more options than have _ever_ before. -30- K.K.Campbell