in specific fields, for example, social
sciences. Select "What's New & Featured
Resources" and then "Clearinghouse."
ISRAEL
jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il This Israeli system offers numerous documents
on Israel and Jewish life.
JAPAN
gopher.ncc.go.jp Look in the "Japan information" menu for
documents related to Japanese life and culture.
MUSIC
mtv.com Run by Adam Curry, an MTV video jock, this site
has music news and Curry's daily "Cybersleaze"
celebrity report.
NATURE
ucmp1.berkeley.edu The University of California at Berkeley's
Museum of Paleontology runs several online
exhibits here. You can obtain GIF images of
plants and animals from the "Remote Nature" menu.
The "Origin of the Species" menu lets you read
Darwin's work or search it by keyword.
SPORTS
culine.colorado.edu Look up schedules for teams in various professional
sports leagues here, under "Professional Sports
Schedules."
WEATHER
wx.atmos.uiuc.edu Look up weather forecasts for North America or
bone up on your weather facts.
8.5. WIDE-AREA INFORMATION SERVERS
Now you know there are hundreds of databases and library catalogs
you can search through. But as you look, you begin to realize that each
seems to have its own unique method for searching. If you connect to
several, this can become a pain. Gophers reduce this problem somewhat.
Wide-area information servers promise another way to zero in on
information hidden on the Net. In a WAIS, the user sees only one
interface -- the program worries about how to access information on
dozens, even hundreds, of different databases. You tell give a WAIS a
word and it scours the net looking for places where it's mentioned. You
get a menu of documents, each ranked according to how relevant to your
search the WAIS thinks it is.
Like gophers, WAIS "client" programs can already be found on many
public-access Internet sites. If your system has a WAIS client, type
swais
at the command prompt and hit enter (the "s" stands for "simple"). If it
doesn't, telnet to bbs.oit.unc.edu, which is run by the University of North
Carolina At the "login:" prompt, type
bbs
and hit enter. You'll be asked to register and will then get a list of
"bulletins,'' which are various files explaining how the system works.
When done with those, hit your Q key and you'll get another menu. Hit 4
for the "simple WAIS client," and you'll see something like this:
SWAIS Source Selection Sources: 23#
Server Source Cost
001: [ archie.au] aarnet-resource-guide Free
002: [ archive.orst.edu] aeronautics Free
003: [nostromo.oes.orst.ed] agricultural-market-news Free
004: [sun-wais.oit.unc.edu] alt-sys-sun Free
005: [ archive.orst.edu] alt.drugs Free
006: [ wais.oit.unc.edu] alt.gopher Free
007: [sun-wais.oit.unc.edu] alt.sys.sun Free
008: [ wais.oit.unc.edu] alt.wais Free
009: [ archive.orst.edu] archie-orst.edu Free
010: [ archie.au] archie.au-amiga-readmes Free
011: [ archie.au] archie.au-ls-lRt Free
012: [ archie.au] archie.au-mac-readmes Free
013: [ archie.au] archie.au-pc-readmes Free
014: [ pc2.pc.maricopa.edu] ascd-education Free
015: [ archie.au] au-directory-of-servers Free
016: [ cirm2.univ-mrs.fr] bib-cirm Free
017: [ cmns-sun.think.com] bible Free
018: [ zenon.inria.fr] bibs-zenon-inria-fr Free
Keywords:
<space> selects, w for keywords, arrows move, <return> searches, q quits, or ?
Each line represents a different database (the .au at the end of some of
them means they are in Australia; the .fr on the last line represents a
database in France). And this is just the first page! If you type a
capital K, you'll go to the next page (there are several pages).
Hitting a capital J will move you back a page.
The first thing you want to do is tell the WAIS program which
databases you want searched. To select a database, move the cursor bar
over the line you want (using your down and up arrow keys) and hit your
space bar. An asterisk will appear next to the line number. Repeat this
until you've selected all of the databases you want searched. Then hit
your W key, after which you'll be prompted for the key words you're
looking for. You can type in an entire line of these words -- separate
each with a space, not a comma.
Hit return, and the search begins.
Let's say you're utterly fascinated with wheat. So you might select
agricultural-market-news to find its current world price. But you also
want to see if it has any religious implications, so you choose the
Bible and the Book of Mormon. What do you do with the stuff? Select
recipes and usenet-cookbook. Are there any recent Supreme Court
decisions involving the plant? Choose supreme-court. How about synonyms?
Try roget-thesaurus and just plain thesaurus.
Now hit w and type in wheat. Hit enter, and the WAIS program begins
its search. As it looks, it tells you whether any of the databases are
offline, and if so, when they might be ready for a search. In about a
minute, the program tells you how many hits it's found. Then you get a new
menu, that looks something like this:
Keywords:
# Score SourceTitleLines
001: [1000] (roget-thesaurus) #465. [results of comparison. 1] Di 19
002: [1000] (roget-thesaurus) #609. Choice. -- N. choice, option; 36
003: [1000] (roget-thesaurus) #465. [results of comparison. 1] Di 19
004: [1000] (roget-thesaurus) #609. Choice. -- N. choice, option; 36
005: [1000] (recipes) aem@mthvax Re: MONTHLY: Rec.Food.Recipes 425
006: [1000] ( Book_of_Mormon) Mosiah 9:96
007: [1000] ( Book_of_Mormon) 3 Nephi 18:185
008: [1000] (agricultural-ma) Re: JO GR115, WEEKLY GRAIN82
009: [ 822] (agricultural-ma) Re: WA CB351 PROSPECTIVE PLANTINGS 552
010: [ 800] ( recipes) kms@apss.a Re: REQUEST: Wheat-free, Suga 35
011: [ 750] (agricultural-ma) Re: WA CB101 CROP PRODUCTION258
012: [ 643] (agricultural-ma) Re: SJ GR850 DAILY NAT GRN SUM72
013: [ 400] ( recipes) pat@jaamer Re: VEGAN: Honey Granola63
014: [ 400] ( recipes) jrtrint@pa Re: OVO-LACTO: Sourdough/Trit 142
Each of these represents an article or citing that contains the word wheat,
or some related word. Move the cursor bar (with the down and up arrow
keys) to the one you want to see, hit enter, and it will begin to appear
on your screen. The "score" is a WAIS attempt to gauge how closely the
citing matches your request. Doesn't look like the Supreme Court has had
anything to say about the plant of late!
Now think of how much time you would have spent logging onto various
databases just to find these relatively trivial examples.
8.6 THE WORLD-WIDE WEB
Developed by researchers at the European Particle Physics
Laboratory in Geneva, the World-Wide Web is somewhat similar to a WAIS.
But it's designed on a system known as hypertext. Words in one document
are "linked" to other documents. It's sort of like sitting with an
encyclopedia -- you're reading an article, see a reference that
intrigues you and so flip the pages to look up that reference.
To try the Worldwide Web, telnet to
ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Log on as: www. When you connect, you'll see something like:
Welcome to CERN
The World-Wide Web: CERN entry point
CERN is the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.
Select by number information here, or elsewhere.
Help[1] About this program
World-Wide Web[2] About the W3 global information initiative.
CERN information[3] Information from and about this site
Particle Physics[4] Other HEP sites with information servers
Other Subjects[5] Catalogue of all online information by subject. Also:
by server type[6] .
** CHECK OUT X11 BROWSER "ViolaWWW": ANON FTP TO info.cern.ch in
/pub/www/src *** Still beta, so keep bug reports calm :-)
If you use this service frequently, please install this or any W3 browser on
your own machine (see instructions[7] ). You can configure it to start
1-7, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
You navigate the web by typing the number next to a given
reference. So if you want to know more about the web, hit 2. This is
another system that bears playing with.
8.7. CLIENTS, OR HOW TO SNARE MORE ON THE WEB
If you are used to plain-vanilla Unix or MS-DOS, then the way these
gophers and WAISs work seems quite straightforward. But if you're used
to a computer with a graphical interface, such as a Macintosh, an IBM
compatible with Windows or a Next, you'll probably regard their
interfaces as somewhat primitive. And even to a veteran MS-DOS user, the
World-Wide Web interface is rather clunky (and some of the documents and
files on the Web now use special formatting that would confuse your poor
computer).
There are, however, ways to integrate these services into your
graphical user interface. In fact, there are now ways to tie into the
Internet directly, rather than relying on whatever interface your
public-access system uses, through what are known as "client" programs.
These programs provide graphical interfaces for everything from ftp to
the World-Wide Web.
There is now a growing number of these "client" programs for
everything from ftp to gopher. PSI of Reston, Va., which offers
nationwide Internet access, in fact, requires its customers to use these
programs. Using protocols known as SLIP and PPP, these programs
communicate with the Net using the same basic data packets as much larger
computers online.
Beyond integration with your own computer's "desktop,'' client
programs let you do more than one thing at once on the net -- while you're
downloading a large file in one window, you can be chatting with a
friend through an Internet chat program in another.
Unfortunately, using a client program can cost a lot of money. Some
require you to be connected directly to the Internet through an Ethernet
network for example. Others work through modem protocols, such as SLIP,
but public-access sites that allow such access may charge anywhere from
$25 to $200 a month extra for the service.
Your system administrator can give you more information on setting
up one of these connections.
8.8. WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
As the Internet grows ever more popular, its resources come under
more of a strain. If you try to use gopher in the middle of the day, at
least on the East Coast of the U.S., you'll sometimes notice that it
takes a very long time for particular menus or database searches to come
up. Sometimes, you'll even get a message that there are too many people
connected to whichever service you're trying to use and so you can't get
in. The only alternative is to either try again in 20 minutes or so, or
wait until later in the day, when the load might be lower. When this
happens in veronica, try one of the other veronica entries.
When you retrieve a file through gopher, you'll sometimes be asked
if you want to store it under some ludicrously long name (there go our
friends the system administrators again, using 128 characters just
because Unix lets them). With certain MS-DOS communications programs, if
that name is longer than one line, you won't be able to backspace all the
way back to the first line if you want to give it a simpler name.
Backspace as far as you can. Then, when you get ready to download it to
your home computer, remember that the file name will be truncated on your
end, because of MS-DOS's file-naming limitations. Worse, your computer
might even reject the whole thing. What to do? Instead of saving it to
your home directory, mail it to yourself. It should show up in your mail
by the time you exit gopher. Then, use your mail command for saving it
to your home directory -- at which point you can name it anything you want.
Now you can download it.
8.9 FYI
David Riggins maintains a list of gophers by type and category. You
can find the most recent one at the ftp site ftp.einet.net, in the pub
directory. Look for a file with a name like "gopher-jewels.txt."
Alternately, you can get on a mailing list to get the latest version sent
to your e-mailbox automatically. Send a mail message to gopherjewelslist-
request@tpis.cactus.org (yep, that first part is all one word). Leave
the "subject:" line blank, and as a message, write SUBSCRIBE.
Blake Gumprecht maintains a list of gopher and telnet sites related
to, or run by, the government. He posts it every three weeks to the
news.answers and soc.answers newsgroups on Usenet. It can also be
obtained via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu, as
/pub/usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers.
Students at the University of Michigan's School of Information and
Library Studies, recently compiled separate lists of Internet resources
in 11 specific areas, from aeronautics to theater. They can be obtained
via gopher at gopher.lib.umich.edu, in the "What's New and Featured
Resources" menu.
The Usenet newsgroups comp.infosystems.gopher and
comp.infosystems.wais are places to go for technical discussions about
gophers and WAISs respectively.
The Interpedia project is an attempt to take gopher one step
further, by creating an online repository of all of the interesting and
useful information availble on the Net and from its users. To get on the
mailing list for the project, send an e-mail message, with a "subject:"
of "subscribe" to interpedia-request@telerama.lm.com. You can get
supporting documentation for the project via anonymous ftp at ftp.lm.com
in the pub/interpedia directory.
Chapter 9: ADVANCED E-MAIL
9.1 THE FILE'S IN THE MAIL
E-mail by itself is a powerful tool, and by now you may be
sending e-mail messages all over the place. You might even be on a
mailing list or two. But there is a lot more to e-mail than just
sending messages. If your host system does not have access to ftp,
or it doesn't have access to every ftp site on the Net, you can have
programs and files sent right to your mailbox. And using some simple
techniques, you can use e-mail to send data files such as spreadsheets,
or even whole programs, to friends and colleagues around the world.
A key to both is a set of programs known as encoders and
decoders. For all its basic power, Net e-mail has a big problem: it
can't handle graphics characters or the control codes found in even
the simplest of computer programs. Encoders however, can translate
these into forms usable in e-mail, while decoders turn them back into
a form that you can actually use. If you are using a Unix-based host
system, chances are it already has an encoder and decoder online that
you can use. These programs will also let you use programs posted in
several Usenet newsgroups, such as comp.binaries.ibm.pc.
If both you and the person with whom you want to exchange files use
Unix host systems, you're in luck because virtually all Unix
host systems have encoder/decoder programs online. For now, let's
assume that's the case. First, upload the file you want to send to your
friend to your host site (ask your system administrator how to upload a
file to your name or "home" directory if you don't already know how).
Then type
uuencode file file > file.uu
and hit enter. "File" is the name of the file you want to prepare for
mailing, and yes, you have to type the name twice! The > is a Unix
command that tells the system to call the "encoded" file "file.uu"
(you could actually call it anything you want).
Now to get it into a mail message. The quick and dirty way is to
type
mail friend
where "friend" is your friend's address. At the subject line, tell
her the name of the enclosed file. When you get the blank line, type
~r file.uu
or whatever you called the file, and hit enter. (on some systems, the ~
may not work; if so, ask your system administrator what to use). This
inserts the file into your mail message. Hit control-D, and your file
is on its way!
On the other end, when your friend goes into her mailbox, she
should transfer it to her home directory. Then she should type
uudecode file.name
and hit enter. This creates a new file in her name directory with
whatever name you originally gave it. She can then download it to her
own computer. Before she can actually use it, though, she'll have to
open it up with a text processor and delete the mail header that has
been "stamped" on it. If you use a mailer program that automatically
appends a "signature," tell her about that so she can delete that as
well.
9.2 RECEIVING FILES
If somebody sends you a file through the mail, you'll have to go
through a couple of steps to get it into a form you can actually use. If
you are using the simple mail program, go into mail and type
w # file.name
where # is the number of the message you want to transfer and
file.name is what you want to call the resulting file. In pine, call
up the message and hit your O key and then E. You'll then be asked
for a file name. In elm, call up the message and hit your S key.
You'll get something that looks like this:
=file.request
Type a new file name and hit enter (if you hit enter without
typing a file name, the message will be saved to another mail folder,
not your home directory).
In all three cases, exit the mail program to return to your host
system's command line. Because the file has been encoded for mail
delivery, you now have to run a decoder. At the command line, type
uudecode file.name
where file.name is the file you created while in mail. Uudecode will
create a new, uncompressed binary file. In some cases, you may have to
run it through some other programs (for example, if it is in "tar" form),
but generally it should now be ready for you to download to your own
computer (on which you might then have to run a de-compressor program
such as PKXZIP).
9.3 FILES TO NON-INTERNET SITES
What if your friend only connects with a non-Unix system, such as
CompuServe or MCIMail? There are programs available for MS-DOS, Apple
and Amiga computers that will encode and decode files. Of course, since
you can't send one of these programs to your friend via e-mail (how would
she un-encode it?), you'll have to mail (the old-fashioned way) or give
her a diskette with the program on it first. Then, she can get the file
by e-mail and go through the above process (only on her own computer) to
get a usable file. Remember to give her an encoder program as well, if
she wants to send you files in return.
For MS-DOS machines, you'll want to get uunecode.com and
uudecode.com. Both can be found through anonymous ftp at
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /mirrors/msdos/starter directory. The MS-
DOS version is as easy to use as the Unix one: Just type
uudecode filename.ext
and hit enter.
Mac users should get a program called uutool, which can be found
in the info-mac/util directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Think twice before sending somebody a giant file. Although large
sites connected directly to the Internet can probably handle mega-files,
many smaller systems cannot. Some commercial systems, such as CompuServe
and MCIMail, limit the size of mail messages their users can receive.
Fidonet doesn't even allow encoded messages. In general, a file size of
30,000 or so bytes is a safe upper limit for non-Internet systems.
9.4 GETTING FTP FILES VIA E-MAIL
To help people without ftp access, a number of ftp sites have set up
mail servers (also known as archive servers) that allow you to get files
via e-mail. You send a request to one of these machines and they send
back the file you want. As with ftp, you'll be able to find everything
from historical documents to software (but please note that if you do
have access to ftp, that method is always quicker and ties up fewer
resources than using e-mail).
Some interesting or useful mail servers include:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu Files of "frequently asked questions"
related to Usenet; state-by-state lists of U.S. representatives and
Senators and their addresses and office phone numbers.
archive-server@eff.org Information about the Electronic Frontier
Foundation; documents about legal issues on the Net.
archive-server@cs.widener.edu Back copies of the Computer
Underground Digest and every possible fact you could want to know about
"The Simpsons."
netlib@uunet.uu.net Programs for many types of personal computers;
archives of past postings from many Usenet newsgroups.
archive-server@ames.arc.nasa.gov Space-related text and graphics
(GIF-format) files.
service@nic.ddn.mil Detailed information about Internet.
Most mail servers work pretty much the same -- you send an e-mail
message that tells them what file you want and how you want it sent to
you. The most important command is "send," which tells the computer you
want it to send you a particular file.
First, though, you'll need to know where the mail server stores
that file, because you have to tell it which directory or sub-
directory it's in. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can
send an e-mail message to the archive-server that consists of one
line:
index
The server will then send you a directory listing of its main, or
root directory. You'll then have to send a second message to the
archive server with one line:
index directory/subdirectory
where that is the directory or directory path for which you want a
listing. An alternative is to send an e-mail message to our old
friend archie, which should send you back the file's exact location on
the archive-server (along with similar listings for all the other
sites that may have the file, however)
Once you have the file name and its directory path, compose a
message to the archive server like this:
send directory/subdirectory/file
Send off the message and, anywhere from a few minutes to a couple
of days later, you'll find a new message in your mailbox: a copy of the
file you requested. The exact time it will take a file to get to you
depends on a variety of factors, including how many requests are in line
before yours (mail servers can only process so many requests at a time)
and the state of the connections between the server and you.
Seems simple enough. It gets a little more complicated when you
request a program rather than a document. Programs or other files that
contain unusual characters or lines longer than 130 characters (graphics
files, for example) require special processing by both the mail server
to ensure they are transmitted via e-mail. Then you'll have to run them
through at least one converter program to put them in a form you can
actually use. To ensure that a program or other "non-mailable" file
actually gets to you, include another line in your e-mail message to the
server:
encoder
This converts the file into an encoded form. To decode it, you'll
first have to transfer the file message into a file in your home
directory.
One further complication comes when you request a particularly
long file. Many Net sites can only handle so much mail at a time. To
make sure you get the entire file, tell the mail server to break it up
into smaller pieces, with another line in your e-mail request like
this:
size 100000
This gives the mail server the maximum size, in bytes, of each
file segment. This particular size is good for UUCP sites. Internet
and Bitnet sites can generally go up to 300000. When you get all of
these files in mail, transfer them to your home directory. Exit mail
and call up each file in your host system's text processor and delete
each one's entire header and footer (or "signature" at the end). When
done with this, at your host system's command line, type
cat file1 file2 > bigfile
where file1 is the first file, file2 the second file, and so on. The >
tells your host system to combine them into a new megafile called
bigfile (or whatever you want to call it). After you save the file to
your home directory (see section 9.2 above), you can then run uudecode,
tar, etc. One word of caution, though: if the file you want is long
enough that it has to be broken into pieces, think of how much time it's
going to take you to download the whole thing -- especially if you're
using a 2400-baud modem!
There are a number of other mail servers. To get a list, send an
e-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:
send usenet/comp.sources.wanted/How_to_find_sources_(READ_THIS_BEFORE_POSTING)
You'll have to spell it exactly as listed above. Some mail
servers use different software, which will require slightly different
commands than the ones listed here. In general, if you send a message
to a mail server that says only
help
you should get back a file detailing all of its commands.
But what if the file you want is not on one of these mail
servers? That's where ftpmail comes in. Run by Digital Equipment
Corp. in California, this service can connect to almost any ftp site
in the world, get the file you want and then mail it to you. Using it
is fairly simple -- you send an e-mail message to ftpmail that
includes a series of commands telling the system where to find the
file you want and how to format it to mail to you.
Compose an e-mail message to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Leave the "subject:" line blank. Inside the message, there are
several commands you can give. The first line should be
reply address
where "address" is your e-mail address. The next line should be
connect host
where "host" is the system that has the file you want (for example:
wuarchive.wustl.edu). Other commands you should consider using are
"binary" (required for program files); "compress" (reduces the file
size for quicker transmission) and "uuencode" (which encodes the file
so you can do something with it when it arrives). The last line of
your message should be the word "quit".
Let's say you want a copy of the U.S. constitution. Using archie,
you've found a file called, surprise, constitution, at the ftp site
archive.cis.ohio-state.edu, in the /pub/firearms/politics/rkba
directory. You'd send a message to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com that looks
like this:
reply adamg@world.std.com
connect archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
binary
compress
uuencode
get pub/firearms/politics/rkba/constitution
quit
When you get the file in your mailbox, use the above procedure
for copying it to a file. Run it through uudecode. Then type
uncompress file.name
to make it usable.
Since this was a text file, you could have changed the "binary" to
"ascii" and then eliminated the "uuencode" file. For programs, though,
you'll want to keep these lines. One caveat with ftpmail: it has become
such a popular service that it could take a week or more for your
requested files to arrive.
9.5 THE ALL KNOWING ORACLE
One other thing you can do through e-mail is consult with the
Usenet Oracle. You can ask the Oracle anything at all and get back an
answer (whether you like the answer is another question).
First, you'll want to get instructions on how to address the Oracle
(he, or she, or it, is very particular about such things and likes being
addressed in august, solemn and particularly sycophantic tones). Start
an e-mail message to
oracle@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
In the "subject:" line, type
help
and hit enter. You don't actually have to say anything in the message
itself -- at least not yet. Hit control-D to send off your request
for help. Within a few hours, the Oracle will mail you back detailed
instructions. It's a fairly long file, so before you start reading
it, turn on your communications software's logging function, to save
it to your computer (or save the message to a file on your host system's
home directory and then download the file). After you've digested it,
you can compose your question to the Oracle. Mail it to the above
address, only this time with a subject line that describes your
question. Expect an answer within a couple of days. And don't be
surprised if you also find a question in your mailbox -- the Oracle
extracts payment by making seekers of knowledge answer questions as
well!
Chapter 10: NEWS OF THE WORLD
10.1 Clarinet: UPI, Dave Barry and Dilbert.
Usenet "newsgroups" can be something of a misnomer. They may be
interesting, informative and educational, but they are often not news,
at least, not the way most people would think of them. But there are several
sources of news and sports on the Net.
One of the largest is Clarinet, a company in Cupertino, Calf., that
distributes wire-service news and columns, along with a news service
devoted to computers and even the Dilbert comic strip, in Usenet form.
Distributed in Usenet form, Clarinet stories and columns are
organized into more than 100 newsgroups (in this case, a truly
appropriate name), some of them with an extremely narrow focus, for
example, clari.news.gov.taxes. The general news and sports come from
United Press International; the computer news from the NewsBytes
service; the features from several syndicates.
Because Clarinet charges for its service, not all host systems
carry its articles. Those that do carry them as Usenet groups starting
with "clari." As with other Usenet hierarchies, these are named starting
with broad area and ending with more specific categories. Some of these
include business news (clari.biz); general national and foreign news,
politics and the like (clari.news), sports (clari.sports); columns by
Mike Royko, Miss Manners, Dave Barry and others (clari.feature); and
NewsBytes computer and telecommunications reports (clari.nb). Because
Clarinet started in Canada, there is a separate set of clari.canada
newsgroups. The clari.nb newsgroups are divided into specific computer
types (clari.nb.apple, for example).
Clari news groups feature stories updated around the clock. There
are even a couple of "bulletin" newsgroups for breaking stories:
clari.news.bulletin and clari.news.urgent. Clarinet also sets up new
newsgroups for breaking stories that become ongoing ones (such as major
natural disasters, coups in large countries and the like).
Occasionally, you will see stories in clari newsgroups that just
don't seem to belong there. Stories about former Washington, D.C. mayor
Marion Barry, for example, often wind interspersed among columns by Dave
Barry.
This happens because of the way wire services work. UPI uses
three-letter codes to route its stories to the newspapers and radio
stations that make up most of its clientele, and harried editors on
deadline sometimes punch in the wrong code.
10.2 REUTERS
This is roughly the British equivalent of UPI or Associated Press.
Msen, a public-access site in Michigan, currently feeds Reuters
dispatches into a series of Usenet-style conferences. If your site
subscribes to this service, look for newsgroups with names that begin in
msen.reuters.
10.3 USA TODAY
If your host system doesn't carry the clari or msen.reuters
newsgroups, you might be able to keep up with the news a different way
over the Net. USA Today has been something of an online newspaper
pioneer, selling its stories to bulletin-board and online systems across
the country for several years. Cleveland Free-Net provides the online
version of USA Today (along with all its other services) for free.
Currently, the paper only publishes five days a week, so you'll have to
get your weekend news fix elsewhere.
Telnet: freenet-in-a.cwru.edu or
freenet-in-b.cwru.edu
After you connect and log in, look for this menu entry: NPTN/USA
TODAY HEADLINE NEWS. Type the number next to it and hit enter. You'll
then get a menu listing a series of broad categories, such as sports and
telecommunications. Choose one, and you'll get a yet another menu,
listing the ten most recent dates of publication. Each of these
contains one-paragraph summaries of the day's news in that particular
subject.
10.4 THE WORLD TODAY, FROM BELARUS TO BRAZIL
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are American radio stations
that broadcast to the former Communist countries of eastern Europe.
Every day, their news departments prepare a summary of news in those
countries, which is then disseminated via the Net, through a Bitnet
mailing list and a Usenet newsgroup.
To have the daily digests sent directly to your e-mailbox, send a
message to
listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Leave the subject line blank, and as a message, write:
subscribe rferl-l Your Name
Alternately, look for the bulletins in the Usenet newsgroup misc.news-
east-europe.rferl.
Daily Brazilian news updates are available (in Portuguese) from the
University of Sao Paulo. Use anonymous ftp to connect to
uspif.if.usp.br
Use cd to switch to the whois directory. The news summaries are stored
in files with this form: NEWS.23OCT92;1. But to get them, leave off the
semicolon and the 1, and don't capitalize anything, for example:
get news.23oct92
Daily summaries of news reports from France (in French) are availble
on the National Capital FreeNet in Ottawa, Ont. Telnet to
freenet.carleton.ca
and log on as: guest. At the main menu, select the number for "The
Newsstand" and then "La presse de France."
10.5 E-MAILING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS
A number of newspapers, television stations and networks and other
news organizations now encourage readers and viewers to communicate with
them electronically, via Internet e-mail addresses. They include:
The Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. sysop@news.ci.net
The Boston Globe voxbox@globe.com
WCVB-TV, Boston, Mass. wcvb@aol.com
NBC News, New York, N.Y. nightly@nbc.com
The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ont. ottawa-citizen@freenet.carleton.ca
CJOH-TV, Ottawa, Ont. ab363@freenet.carleton.ca
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times 73174.3344@compuserve.com
Illinois Issues, Springfield, Ill. gherardi@sangamon.edu
WTVF-TV, Nashville, Tenn. craig.ownsby@nashville.com
10.6 FYI
The clari.net.newusers newsgroup on Usenet provides a number of
articles about Clarinet and ways of finding news stories of interest
to you.
To discuss the future of newspapers and newsrooms in the new
electronic medium, subscribe to the Computer Assisted Reporting and
Research mailing list on Bitnet. Send a mail message of
Subscribe carr-l Your Name
to listserv@ulkyvm.bitnet.
Chapter 9: ADVANCED E-MAIL
9.1 THE FILE'S IN THE MAIL
E-mail by itself is a powerful tool, and by now you may be
sending e-mail messages all over the place. You might even be on a
mailing list or two. But there is a lot more to e-mail than just
sending messages. If your host system does not have access to ftp,
or it doesn't have access to every ftp site on the Net, you can have
programs and files sent right to your mailbox. And using some simple
techniques, you can use e-mail to send data files such as spreadsheets,
or even whole programs, to friends and colleagues around the world.
A key to both is a set of programs known as encoders and
decoders. For all its basic power, Net e-mail has a big problem: it
can't handle graphics characters or the control codes found in even
the simplest of computer programs. Encoders however, can translate
these into forms usable in e-mail, while decoders turn them back into
a form that you can actually use. If you are using a Unix-based host
system, chances are it already has an encoder and decoder online that
you can use. These programs will also let you use programs posted in
several Usenet newsgroups, such as comp.binaries.ibm.pc.
If both you and the person with whom you want to exchange files use
Unix host systems, you're in luck because virtually all Unix
host systems have encoder/decoder programs online. For now, let's
assume that's the case. First, upload the file you want to send to your
friend to your host site (ask your system administrator how to upload a
file to your name or "home" directory if you don't already know how).
Then type
uuencode file file > file.uu
and hit enter. "File" is the name of the file you want to prepare for
mailing, and yes, you have to type the name twice! The > is a Unix
command that tells the system to call the "encoded" file "file.uu"
(you could actually call it anything you want).
Now to get it into a mail message. The quick and dirty way is to
type
mail friend
where "friend" is your friend's address. At the subject line, type
the name of the enclosed file. When you get the blank line, type
~r file.uu
or whatever you called the file, and hit enter. (on some systems, the ~
may not work; if so, ask your system administrator what to use). This
inserts the file into your mail message. Hit control-D, and your file
is on its way!
On the other end, when your friend goes into her mailbox, she
should transfer it to her home directory. Then she should type
uudecode file.name
and hit enter. This creates a new file in her name directory with
whatever name you originally gave it. She can then download it to her
own computer. Before she can actually use it, though, she'll have to
open it up with a text processor and delete the mail header that has
been "stamped" on it. If you use a mailer program that automatically
appends a "signature," tell her about that so she can delete that as
well.
9.2 RECEIVING FILES
If somebody sends you a file through the mail, you'll have to go
through a couple of steps to get it into a form you can actually use. If
you are using the simple mail program, go into mail and type
w # file.name
where # is the number of the message you want to transfer and
file.name is what you want to call the resulting file. In pine, call
up the message and hit your O key and then E. You'll then be asked
for a file name. In elm, call up the message and hit your S key.
You'll get something that looks like this:
=file.request
Type a new file name and hit enter (if you hit enter without
typing a file name, the message will be saved to another mail folder,
not your home directory).
In all three cases, exit the mail program to return to your host
system's command line. Because the file has been encoded for mail
delivery, you now have to run a decoder. At the command line, type
uudecode file.name
where file.name is the file you created while in mail. Uudecode will
create a new, uncompressed binary file. In some cases, you may have to
run it through some other programs (for example, if it is in "tar" form),
but generally it should now be ready for you to download to your own
computer (on which you might then have to run a de-compressor program
such as PKXZIP).
9.3 SENDING FILES TO NON-INTERNET SITES
What if your friend only connects with a non-Unix system, such as
CompuServe or MCIMail? There are programs available for MS-DOS, Apple
and Amiga computers that will encode and decode files. Of course, since
you can't send one of these programs to your friend via e-mail (how would
she un-encode it?), you'll have to mail (the old-fashioned way) or give
her a diskette with the program on it first. Then, she can get the file
by e-mail and go through the above process (only on her own computer) to
get a usable file. Remember to give her an encoder program as well, if
she wants to send you files in return.
For MS-DOS machines, you'll want to get uunecode.com and
uudecode.com. Both can be found through anonymous ftp at
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /mirrors/msdos/starter directory. The MS-
DOS version is as easy to use as the Unix one: Just type
uudecode filename.ext
and hit enter.
Mac users should get a program called uutool, which can be found
in the info-mac/util directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Think twice before sending somebody a giant file. Although large
sites connected directly to the Internet can probably handle mega-files,
many smaller systems cannot. Some commercial systems, such as CompuServe
and MCIMail, limit the size of mail messages their users can receive.
Fidonet doesn't even allow encoded messages. In general, a file size of
30,000 or so bytes is a safe upper limit for non-Internet systems.
9.4 GETTING FTP FILES VIA E-MAIL
To help people without ftp access, a number of ftp sites have set up
mail servers (also known as archive servers) that allow you to get files
via e-mail. You send a request to one of these machines and they send
back the file you want. As with ftp, you'll be able to find everything
from historical documents to software (but please note that if you do
have access to ftp, that method is always quicker and ties up fewer
resources than using e-mail).
Some interesting or useful mail servers include:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu Files of "frequently asked questions"
related to Usenet; state-by-state lists of U.S. representatives and
Senators and their addresses and office phone numbers.
archive-server@eff.org Information about the Electronic Frontier
Foundation; documents about legal issues on the Net.
archive-server@cs.widener.edu Back copies of the Computer
Underground Digest and every possible fact you could want to know about
"The Simpsons."
netlib@uunet.uu.net Programs for many types of personal computers;
archives of past postings from many Usenet newsgroups.
archive-server@ames.arc.nasa.gov Space-related text and graphics
(GIF-format) files.
service@nic.ddn.mil Detailed information about Internet.
Most mail servers work pretty much the same -- you send an e-mail
message that tells them what file you want and how you want it sent to
you. The most important command is "send," which tells the computer you
want it to send you a particular file.
First, though, you'll need to know where the mail server stores
that file, because you have to tell it which directory or sub-
directory it's in. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can
send an e-mail message to the archive-server that consists of one
line:
index
The server will then send you a directory listing of its main, or
root directory. You'll then have to send a second message to the
archive server with one line:
index directory/subdirectory
where directory/subdirectory is the directory path for which you want a
listing. An alternative is to send an e-mail message to our old friend
archie, which should send you back the file's exact location on the
archive-server (along with similar listings for all the other sites that
may have the file, however)
Once you have the file name and its directory path, compose a
message to the archive server like this:
send directory/subdirectory/file
Send off the message and, anywhere from a few minutes to a couple
of days later, you'll find a new message in your mailbox: a copy of the
file you requested. The exact time it will take a file to get to you
depends on a variety of factors, including how many requests are in line
before yours (mail servers can only process so many requests at a time)
and the state of the connections between the server and you.
Seems simple enough. It gets a little more complicated when you
request a program rather than a document. Programs or other files that
contain unusual characters or lines longer than 130 characters (graphics
files, for example) require special processing by the mail server to
ensure they are transmitted via e-mail. Then you'll have to run them
through at least one converter program to put them in a form you can
actually use. To ensure that a program or other "non-mailable" file
actually gets to you, include another line in your e-mail message to the
server:
encoder
This converts the file into an encoded form. To decode it, you'll
first have to transfer the file message into a file in your home
directory.
One further complication comes when you request a particularly
long file. Many Net sites can only handle so much mail at a time. To
make sure you get the entire file, tell the mail server to break it up
into smaller pieces, with another line in your e-mail request like
this:
size 100000
This gives the mail server the maximum size, in bytes, of each
file segment. This particular size is good for UUCP sites. Internet
and Bitnet sites can generally go up to 300000. When you get all of
these files in mail, transfer them to your home directory. Exit mail
and call up each file in your host system's text processor and delete
each one's entire header and footer (or "signature" at the end). When
done with this, at your host system's command line, type
cat file1 file2 > bigfile
where file1 is the first file, file2 the second file, and so on. The >
tells your host system to combine them into a new megafile called
bigfile (or whatever you want to call it). After you save the file to
your home directory (see section 9.2 above), you can then run uudecode,
tar, etc. One word of caution, though: if the file you want is long
enough that it has to be broken into pieces, think of how much time it's
going to take you to download the whole thing -- especially if you're
using a 2400-baud modem!
There are a number of other mail servers. To get a list, send an
e-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:
send usenet/comp.sources.wanted/How_to_find_sources_(READ_THIS_BEFORE_POSTING)
You'll have to spell it exactly as listed above. Some mail
servers use different software, which will require slightly different
commands than the ones listed here. In general, if you send a message
to a mail server that says only
help
you should get back a file detailing all of its commands.
But what if the file you want is not on one of these mail
servers? That's where ftpmail comes in. Run by Digital Equipment
Corp. in California, this service can connect to almost any ftp site
in the world, get the file you want and then mail it to you. Using it
is fairly simple -- you send an e-mail message to ftpmail that
includes a series of commands telling the system where to find the
file you want and how to format it to mail to you.
Compose an e-mail message to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Leave the "subject:" line blank. Inside the message, there are
several commands you can give. The first line should be
reply address
where "address" is your e-mail address. The next line should be
connect host
where "host" is the system that has the file you want (for example:
wuarchive.wustl.edu). Other commands you should consider using are
"binary" (required for program files); "compress" (reduces the file
size for quicker transmission) and "uuencode" (which encodes the file
so you can do something with it when it arrives). The last line of
your message should be the word "quit".
Let's say you want a copy of the U.S. constitution. Using archie,
you've found a file called, surprise, constitution, at the ftp site
archive.cis.ohio-state.edu, in the /pub/firearms/politics/rkba
directory. You'd send a message to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com that looks
like this:
reply adamg@world.std.com
connect archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
binary
compress
uuencode
get pub/firearms/politics/rkba/constitution
quit
When you get the file in your mailbox, use the above procedure
for copying it to a file. Run it through uudecode. Then type
uncompress file.name
to make it usable.
Since this was a text file, you could have changed the "binary" to
"ascii" and then eliminated the "uuencode" file. For programs, though,
you'll want to keep these lines. One caveat with ftpmail: it has become
such a popular service that it could take a week or more for your
requested files to arrive.
9.5 THE ALL KNOWING ORACLE
One other thing you can do through e-mail is consult with the
Usenet Oracle. You can ask the Oracle anything at all and get back an
answer (whether you'll like the answer is another question).
First, you'll want to get instructions on how to address the Oracle
(he, or she, or it, is very particular about such things and likes being
addressed in august, solemn and particularly sycophantic tones). Start
an e-mail message to
oracle@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
In the "subject:" line, type
help
and hit enter. You don't actually have to say anything in the message
itself -- at least not yet. Hit control-D to send off your request
for help. Within a few hours, the Oracle will mail you back detailed
instructions. It's a fairly long file, so before you start reading
it, turn on your communications software's logging function, to save
it to your computer (or save the message to a file on your host system's
home directory and then download the file). After you've digested it,
you can compose your question to the Oracle. Mail it to the above
address, only this time with a subject line that describes your
question. Expect an answer within a couple of days. And don't be
surprised if you also find a question in your mailbox -- the Oracle
extracts payment by making seekers of knowledge answer questions as
well!
Chapter 10: NEWS OF THE WORLD
10.1 Clarinet: UPI, Dave Barry and Dilbert.
Usenet "newsgroups" can be something of a misnomer. They may be
interesting, informative and educational, but they are often not news,
at least, not the way most people would think of them. But there are several
sources of news and sports on the Net.
One of the largest is Clarinet, a company in Cupertino, Calf., that
distributes wire-service news and columns, along with a news service
devoted to computers and even the Dilbert comic strip, in Usenet form.
Distributed in Usenet form, Clarinet stories and columns are
organized into more than 100 newsgroups (in this case, a truly
appropriate name), some of them with an extremely narrow focus, for
example, clari.news.gov.taxes. The general news and sports come from
United Press International; the computer news from the NewsBytes
service; the features from several syndicates.
Because Clarinet charges for its service, not all host systems
carry its articles. Those that do carry them as Usenet groups starting
with "clari." As with other Usenet hierarchies, these are named starting
with broad area and ending with more specific categories. Some of these
include business news (clari.biz); general national and foreign news,
politics and the like (clari.news), sports (clari.sports); columns by
Mike Royko, Miss Manners, Dave Barry and others (clari.feature); and
NewsBytes computer and telecommunications reports (clari.nb). Because
Clarinet started in Canada, there is a separate set of clari.canada
newsgroups. The clari.nb newsgroups are divided into specific computer
types (clari.nb.apple, for example).
Clari news groups feature stories updated around the clock. There
are even a couple of "bulletin" newsgroups for breaking stories:
clari.news.bulletin and clari.news.urgent. Clarinet also sets up new
newsgroups for breaking stories that become ongoing ones (such as major
natural disasters, coups in large countries and the like).
Occasionally, you will see stories in clari newsgroups that just
don't seem to belong there. Stories about former Washington, D.C. mayor
Marion Barry, for example, often wind interspersed among columns by Dave
Barry. This happens because of the way wire services work. UPI uses
three-letter codes to route its stories to the newspapers and radio
stations that make up most of its clientele, and harried editors on
deadline sometimes punch in the wrong code.
10.2 REUTERS
This is roughly the British equivalent of UPI or Associated Press.
Msen, a public-access site in Michigan, currently feeds Reuters
dispatches into a series of Usenet-style conferences. If your site
subscribes to this service, look for newsgroups with names that begin in
msen.reuters.
10.3 USA TODAY
If your host system doesn't carry the clari or msen.reuters
newsgroups, you might be able to keep up with the news a different way
over the Net. USA Today has been something of an online newspaper
pioneer, selling its stories to bulletin-board and online systems across
the country for several years. Cleveland Free-Net provides the online
version of USA Today (along with all its other services) for free.
Currently, the paper publishes only five days a week, so you'll have to
get your weekend news fix elsewhere.
Telnet: freenet-in-a.cwru.edu or
freenet-in-b.cwru.edu or
freenet-in-c.cwru.edu
After you connect and log in, look for this menu entry: NPTN/USA
TODAY HEADLINE NEWS. Type the number next to it and hit enter. You'll
then get a menu listing a series of broad categories, such as sports and
telecommunications. Choose one, and you'll get a yet another menu,
listing the ten most recent dates of publication. Each of these
contains one-paragraph summaries of the day's news in that particular
subject.
10.4 NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Look in the alt.radio.networks.npr newsgroup in Usenet for summaries
of NPR news shows such as "All Things Considered." This newsgroup is
also a place to discuss the network and its shows, personalities and
policies.
10.5 THE WORLD TODAY, FROM BELARUS TO BRAZIL
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are American radio stations
that broadcast to the former Communist countries of eastern Europe.
Every day, their news departments prepare a summary of news in those
countries, which is then disseminated via the Net, through a Bitnet
mailing list and a Usenet newsgroup.
To have the daily digests sent directly to your e-mailbox, send a
message to
listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Leave the subject line blank, and as a message, write:
subscribe rferl-l Your Name
Alternately, look for the bulletins in the Usenet newsgroup misc.news-
east-europe.rferl.
The Voice of America, a government broadcasting service aimed at
other countries, provides transcripts of its English-language news
reports through both gopher and anonymous ftp. For the former, use
gopher to connect to this address:
gopher.voa.gov
and for the latter, to this address:
ftp.voa.gov
Daily Brazilian news updates are available (in Portuguese) from the
University of Sao Paulo. Use anonymous ftp to connect to
uspif.if.usp.br
Use cd to switch to the whois directory. The news summaries are stored
in files with this form: NEWS.23OCT92;1. But to get them, leave off the
semicolon and the 1, and don't capitalize anything, for example:
get news.23oct92
Daily summaries of news reports from France (in French) are availble
on the National Capital FreeNet in Ottawa, Ont. Telnet to
freenet.carleton.ca
and log on as: guest. At the main menu, select the number for "The
Newsstand" and then "La presse de France."
10.6 E-MAILING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS
A number of newspapers, television stations and networks and other
news organizations now encourage readers and viewers to communicate with
them electronically, via Internet e-mail addresses. They include:
The Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. sysop@news.ci.net
The Boston Globe voxbox@globe.com
WCVB-TV, Boston, Mass. wcvb@aol.com
NBC News, New York, N.Y. nightly@nbc.com
The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ont. ottawa-citizen@freenet.carleton.ca
CJOH-TV, Ottawa, Ont. ab363@freenet.carleton.ca
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times 73174.3344@compuserve.com
Illinois Issues, Springfield, Ill. gherardi@sangamon.edu
WTVF-TV, Nashville, Tenn. craig.ownsby@nashville.com
Santa Cruz County (Calif.) Sentinel sented@cruzio.com
Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio mamjornl@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu
WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, Minn. wccotv@mr.net
Tico Times, Costa Rica ttimes@huracon.cr
10.7 FYI
The clari.net.newusers newsgroup on Usenet provides a number of
articles about Clarinet and ways of finding news stories of interest
to you.
To discuss the future of newspapers and newsrooms in the new
electronic medium, subscribe to the Computer Assisted Reporting and
Research mailing list on Bitnet. Send a mail message of
Subscribe carr-l Your Name
to listserv@ulkyvm.bitnet.
Chapter 11: IRC, MUDs AND OTHER THINGS THAT ARE MORE FUN THAN THEY SOUND
Many Net systems provide access to a series of interactive
services that let you hold live "chats" or play online games with
people around the world. To find out if your host system offers
these, you can ask your system administrator or just try them -- if
nothing happens, then your system does not provide them. In general,
if you can use telnet and ftp, chances are good you can use these
services as well.
11.1 TALK
This is the Net equivalent of a telephone conversation and
requires that both you and the person you want to talk to have access
to this function and are online at the same time. To use it, type
talk user@site.name
where user@site.name is the e-mail address of the other person. She will
see something like this on her screen:
talk: connection requested by yourname@site.name
talk: respond with: talk yourname@site.name
To start the conversation, she should then type (at her host system's
command line):
talk yourname@site.name
where that is your e-mail address. Both of you will then get a top
and bottom window on your screen. She will see everything you type in
one window; you'll see everything she types in the other. To
disconnect, hit control-C.
One note: Public-access sites that use Sun computers sometimes have
trouble with the talk program. If talk does not work, try typing
otalk
or
ntalk
instead. However, the party at the other end will have to have the same
program online for the connection to work.
11.2 INTERNET RELAY CHAT
IRC is a program that lets you hold live keyboard conversations
with people around the world. It's a lot like an international CB
radio - it even uses "channels." Type something on your computer and
it's instantly echoed around the world to whoever happens to be on the
same channel with you. You can join in existing public group chats or
set up your own. You can even create a private channel for yourself
and as few as one or two other people. And just like on a CB radio,
you can give yourself a unique "handle" or nickname.
IRC currently links host systems in 20 different countries, from
Australia to Hong Kong to Israel. Unfortunately, it's like telnet --
either your site has it or it doesn't. If your host system does have it,
Just type
irc
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Connecting to port 6667 of server world.std.com
*** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, adamg
*** Your host is world.std.com, running version 2.7.1e+4
*** You have new mail.
*** If you have not already done so, please read the new user information with
+/HELP NEWUSER
*** This server was created Sat Apr 18 1992 at 16:27:02 EDT
*** There are 364 users on 140 servers
*** 45 users have connection to the twilight zone
*** There are 124 channels.
*** I have 1 clients and 3 servers
MOTD - world.std.com Message of the Day -
MOTD - Be careful out there...
MOTD -
MOTD - ->Spike
* End of /MOTD command.
23:13 [1] adamg [Mail: 32] * type /help for help
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You are now in channel 0, the "null" channel, in which you can look
up various help files, but not much else. As you can see, IRC takes over
your entire screen. The top of the screen is where messages will
appear. The last line is where you type IRC commands and messages. All
IRC commands begin with a /. The slash tells the computer you are about
to enter a command, rather than a message. To see what channels are
available, type
/list
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Channel Users Topic
*** #Money 1 School CA$H (/msg SOS_AID help)
*** #Gone 1 ----->> Gone with the wind!!! ------>>>>>
*** #mee 1
*** #eclipse 1
*** #hiya 2
*** #saigon 4
*** #screwed 3
*** #z 2
*** #comix 1 LET'S TALK 'BOUT COMIX!!!!!
*** #Drama 1
*** #RayTrace 1 Rendering to Reality and Back
*** #NeXT 1
*** #wicca 4 Mr. Potato Head, R. I. P.
*** #dde^mhe` 1 no'ng chay? mo*? ...ba` con o*iiii
*** #jgm 1
*** #ucd 1
*** #Maine 2
*** #Snuffland 1
*** #p/g! 4
*** #DragonSrv 1
Because IRC allows for a large number of channels, the list might
scroll off your screen, so you might want to turn on your computer's
screen capture to capture the entire list. Note that the channels
always have names, instead of numbers. Each line in the listing tells
you the channel name, the number of people currently in it, and whether
there's a specific topic for it. To switch to a particular channel,
type
/join #channel
where "#channel" is the channel name and hit enter. Some "public"
channels actually require an invitation from somebody already on it. To
request an invitation, type
/who #channel-name
where channel-name is the name of the channel, and hit enter. Then ask
someone with an @ next to their name if you can join in. Note that
whenever you enter a channel, you have to include the #. Choose one
with a number of users, so you can see IRC in action.
If it's a busy channel, as soon as you join it, the top of your
screen will quickly be filled with messages. Each will start with a
person's IRC nickname, followed by his message.
It may seem awfully confusing at first. There could be two or
three conversations going on at the same time and sometimes the
messages will come in so fast you'll wonder how you can read them all.
Eventually, though, you'll get into the rhythm of the channel and
things will begin to make more sense. You might even want to add your
two cents (in fact, don't be surprised if a message to you shows up on
your screen right away; on some channels, newcomers are welcomed
immediately). To enter a public message, simply type it on that bottom
line (the computer knows it's a message because you haven't started the
line with a slash) and hit enter.
Public messages have a user's nickname in brackets, like this:
<tomg>
If you receive a private message from somebody, his name will be
between asterisks, like this:
*tomg*
11.3 IRC COMMANDS
Note: Hit enter after each command.
/away When you're called away to put out a grease fire
in the kitchen, issue this command to let others know
you're still connected but just away from your terminal
or computer for awhile.
/help Brings up a list of commands for which there is a help
file. You will get a "topic:" prompt. Type in the
subject for which you want information and hit enter.
Hit enter by itself to exit help.
/invite Asks another IRC to join you in a conversation.
/invite fleepo #hottub
would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on
the #hottub channel. The channel name is optional.
/join Use this to switch to or create a particular channel,
like this:
/join #hottub
If one of these channels exists and is not a private
one, you will enter it. Otherwise, you have just
created it. Note you have to use a # as the first
character.
/list This will give you a list of all available public
channels, their topics (if any) and the number of users
currently on them. Hidden and private channels are not
shown.
/m name Send a private message to that user.
/mode This lets you determine who can join a channel you've
created.
/mode #channel +s
creates a secret channel.
/mode #channel +p
makes the channel private
/nick This lets you change the name by which others see you.
/nick fleepo
would change your name for the present session to
fleepo. People can still use /whois to find your e-mail
address. If you try to enter a channel where somebody
else is already using that nickname, IRC will ask you to
select another name.
/query This sets up a private conversation between you and
another IRC user. To do this, type
/query nickname
Every message you type after that will go only to that
person. If she then types
/query nickname
where nickname is yours, then you have established a
private conversation. To exit this mode, type
/query
by itself. While in query mode, you and the other
person can continue to "listen" to the discussion on
whatever public channels you were on, although neither
of you will be able to respond to any of the messages
there.
/quit Exit IRC.
/signoff Exit IRC.
/summon Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to
join you on IRC. You must use the person's entire e-mail
address.
/summon fleepo@foo.bar.com
would send a message to fleepo asking him to start IRC.
Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you
know they're already amenable to the idea; otherwise you
may wind up annoying them no end. This command does not
work on all sites.
/topic When you've started a new channel, use this command to let
others know what it's about.
/topic #Amiga
would tell people who use /list that your channel is meant
for discussing Amiga computers.
/who <chan> Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular
channel.
/who #foo
would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo.
/who
by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person
on IRC at the time, although be careful: on a busy night
you might get a list of 500 names!
/whois Use this to get some information about a specific IRC
user or to see who is online.
/whois nickname
will give you the e-mail address for the person using
that nickname.
/whois *
will list everybody on every channel.
/whowas Similar to /whois; gives information for people who
recently signed off IRC.
11.4 IRC IN TIMES OF CRISIS
IRC has become a new medium for staying on top of really big
breaking news. In 1993, when Russian lawmakers barricaded themselves
inside the parliament building, some enterprising Muscovites and a couple
of Americans set up a "news channel" on IRC to relay first-person
accounts direct from Moscow. The channel was set up to provide a
continuous loop of information, much like all-news radio stations that
cycle through the day's news every 20 minutes. In 1994, Los Angeles
residents set up a similar channel to relay information related to the
Northridge earthquake. In both cases, logs of the channels were archived
somewhere on the Net, for those unable to "tune in" live.
How would you find such channels in the future? Use the /list
command to scroll through the available channels. If one has been set up
to discuss a particular breaking event, chances are you'll see a brief
description next to the channel name that will tell you that's the place
to tune.
11.5 MUDs
Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the
realm of fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you
enter assume a new identity and enter an alternate reality through
your keyboard. As you explore this other world, through a series of
simple commands (such as "look," "go" and "take"), you'll run across
other users, who may engage you in a friendly discussion, enlist your
aid in some quest or try to kill you for no apparent reason.
Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or God) who was
willing to put in the long hours required to establish the particular
MUD's rules, laws of nature and information databases. Some MUDs
stress the social aspects of online communications -- users frequently
gather online to chat and join together to build new structures or
even entire realms. Others are closer to "Dungeons and Dragons" and
are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people out to keep you
from completing your quest -- through murder if necessary.
Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs)
require you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name
and password. One that lets you look around first, though, is
HoloMuck at McGill University in Montreal. The premise of this game
is that you arrive in the middle of Tanstaafl, a city on the planet
Holo. You have to find a place to live (else you get thrown into the
homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring. Magic is allowed
on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored with the
city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into
orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your
weekly salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become
familiar with the city and get your own character, you can even begin
erecting your own building (or subway line, or almost anything else).
To connect, telnet to
collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu 5757
When you connect, type
connect guest guest
and hit enter. This connects you to the "guest" account, which
has a password of "guest."
You'll see this:
The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna)
You wake up in the town's Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for
protective holding. Please don't sleep in public places-- there are plenty of
open apartments available. Type 'apartments' to see how to get to an
apartment building with open vacancies.
There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information. Type 'look
sign' to read it.
The door is standing open for your return to respectable society. Simply walk
'out' to the center.
Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you
want to see what that sign says. So you type
look sign
and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then
you type
out
followed by enter, which brings up this:
You slip out the door, and head southeast...
Tanstaafl Center
This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl. High Street runs north
and south into residential areas, while Main Street runs east and west into
business districts.
SW: is Tanstaafl Towers. Please claim an apartment... no sleeping in public!
SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment.
NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail.
NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public
Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and
other governmental/ bureaucratic help.
Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter 'U's, a
staircase leads into an underground subway passage.
(Feel free to 'look' in any direction for more information.)
[Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw]
Contents:
Instructions for newcomers
Directional signpost
Founders' statue
To see "Instructions for newcomers", type
look Instructions for newcomers
and hit enter. You could do the same for "Directional signpost" and
"Founders' statue." Then type
SW
and enter to get to Tanstaafl Towers, the city housing complex, where
you have to claim an apartment (you may have to look around; many will
already) be occupied. And now it's off to explore Holo! One command
you'll want to keep in mind is "take." Periodically, you'll come
across items that, when you take them will confer certain abilities or
powers on you. If you type
help
and enter, you'll get a list of files you can read to learn more about
the MUD's commands.
The "say" command lets you talk to other players publicly. For
example,
say Hey, I'm here!
would be broadcast to everybody else in the room with you. If you
want to talk to just one particular person, use "whisper" instead of
"say."
whisper agora=Hey, I'm here!
would be heard only by agora. Another way to communicate with
somebody regardless of where on the world they are is through your
pager. If you suddenly see yours go off while visiting, chances are
it's a wizard checking to see if you need any help. To read his
message, type
page
To send him a message, type
page name=message
where name is the wizard's name (it'll be in the original message).
Other MUDs and MUCKs may have different commands, but generally
use the same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively
simple English commands.
When you connect to a MUD, choose your password as carefully as
you would one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who
enjoy trying to break into other people's MUD accounts. And never,
never use the same password as the one you use on your host system!
MUDs can prove highly addicting. "The jury is still out on
whether MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with
gamelike qualities'," says Jennifer Smith, an active MUD player who
wrote an FAQ on the subject.
She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you
wouldn't do in real life, even if the world is a fantasy world. The
important thing to remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly
hundreds of people, and not just yours in particular. There's a
human being on the other side of each and every wire! Always remember
that you may meet these other people some day, and they may break
your nose. People who treat others badly gradually build up bad
reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of Disapproval."
11.6 GO, GO, GO (AND CHESS, TOO)!
Fancy a good game of go or chess? You no longer have to head for
the nearest park with a board in hand. The Internet has a couple of
machines that let you engage people from around the world in your
favorite board games. Or, if you prefer, you can watch matches in
progress.
To play go,
telnet hellspark.wharton.upenn.edu 6969
log on as: guest
You'll find prompts to various online help files to get you started.
For a chess match,
telnet news.panix.com 5000
log on as: guest
You'll find prompts for online help files on the system, which lets you
choose your skill level.
11.7 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net
has its share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make
your life miserable (you've already met some of them in chapter 4).
There are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many
would find healthy. It also has its criminals. Clifford Stoll writes in
"The Cuckoo's Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were
breaking into U.S. computers and selling the information they found to
the Soviets. Robert Morris, a Cornell University student, was convicted
of unleashing a "worm" program that effectively disabled several thousand
computers connected to the Internet.
Of more immediate concern to the average Net user are crackers
who seek to find other's passwords to break into Net systems and people
who infect programs on ftp sites with viruses.
There is a widely available program known as "Crack" that can
decipher user passwords composed of words that might be found in a
dictionary (this is why you shouldn't use such passwords). Short of
that, there are the annoying types who take a special thrill in trying to
make you miserable. The best advice in dealing with them is to count to
10 and then ignore them -- like juveniles everywhere, most of their fun
comes in seeing how upset you can get.
Meanwhile, two Cornell University students pleaded guilty in 1992 to
uploading virus-infected Macintosh programs to ftp sites. If you plan
to try out large amounts of software from ftp sites, it might be wise to
download or buy a good anti-viral program.
But can law enforcement go too far in seeking out the criminals?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in large part in
response to a series of government raids against an alleged gang of
hackers. The raids resulted in the near bankruptcy of one game
company never alleged to have had anything to do with the hackers,
when the government seized its computers and refused to give them
back. The case against another alleged participant collapsed in court
when his attorney showed the "proprietary" and supposedly hacked
information he printed in an electronic newsletter was actually
available via an 800 number for about $13 -- from the phone company
from which that data was taken.
11.8 FYI
You can find discussions about IRC in the alt.irc newsgroup.
"A Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing," by Darren Reed
(May, 1992), provides a theoretical background on why conferencing
systems such as IRC are a Good Thing. It's available through ftp at
nic.ddn.mil in the rfc directory as rfc1324.txt.
Every Friday, Scott Goehring posts a new list of MUDs and related
games and their telnet addresses in the newsgroup rec.games.mud.announce.
There are several other mud newsgroups related to specific types of MUDs,
including rec.games.mud.social, rec.games.mud.adventure,
rec.games.mud.tiny, rec.games.mud.diku and rec.games.mud.lp.
For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris
Worm, read "Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management," by
the U.S. General Accounting Office (June, 1989). You can get a copy via
ftp from cert.sei.cmu.edu in the pub/virus-l/docs directory. It's
listed as gao_rpt.
Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked
a group of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in "The Cuckoo's Egg:
Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage," Doubleday
(1989).
Chapter 12: EDUCATION AND THE NET
12.1 THE NET IN THE CLASSROOM
If you're a teacher, you've probably already begun to see the
potential the Net has for use in the class. Usenet, ftp and telnet have
tremendous educational potential, from keeping up with world events to
arranging international science experiments.
Because the Net now reaches so many countries and often stays
online even when the phones go down, you and your students can "tune
in" to first-hand accounts during international conflicts. Look at
your system's list of Usenet soc.culture groups to see if there is one
about the country or region you're interested in. Even in peacetime,
these newsgroups can be great places to find people from countries you
might be studying.
The biggest problem may be getting accounts for your students, if
you're not lucky enough to live within the local calling area of a
Free-Net system. Many colleges and universities, however, are willing
to discuss providing accounts for secondary students at little or no
cost. Several states, including California and Texas, have Internet-
linked networks for teachers and students.
12.2 SOME SPECIFIC RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed
specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers. You
can use these to set up science experiments with classes in another
country, learn how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the
latest advances in teaching everything from physics to physical
education.
Among them:
AskERIC Run by the Educational Resource and Information Center,
AskERIC provides a way for educators, librarians and
others interested in K-12 education to get more
information about virtually everything. The center
maintains an e-mail address (askeric@ericir.syr.edu) for
questions and promises answers within 48 hours. It also
maintains a gopher site that contains digests of
questions and answers, lesson plans in a variety of
fields and other educationally related information. The
gopher address is ericir.syr.edu.
Health-Ed: A mailing list for health educators. Send a request to
health-ed-request@stjhmc.fidonet.org
K12Net: Begun on the Fidonet hobbyist network, K12Net is now also
carried on many Usenet systems and provides a host of
interesting and valuable services. These include
international chat for students, foreign-language
discussions (for example, there are French and German-
only conference where American students can practice
those languages with students from Quebec and German).
There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific
subjects, from physical education to physics. The K12
network still has limited distribution, so ask your
system administrator if your system carries it.
Kidsphere: Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary
teachers, who use it to arrange joint projects and
discuss educational telecommunications. You will find
news of new software, lists of sites from which you can
get computer-graphics pictures from various NASA
satellites and probes and other news of interest to
modem-using teachers.
To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to kidsphere-
request@vms.cis.pitt.edu or joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu and
you will start receiving messages within a couple of
days.
To contribute to the discussion, send messages to
kidsphere@vms.cis.pitt.edu.
KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students
who want to contact students. To subscribe, send a
request to joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu, as above. To
contribute, send messages to kids@vms.cist.pitt.edu.
Knoxville Using the newspaper in the electronic classroom. This
News- gopher site lets students and teachers connect to
Sentinel the newspaper, and provides resources for them derived
Online from the newsroom. Use gopher to connect to
gopher.opup.org
MicroMUSE This is an online, futuristic city, built entirely by
participants (see chapter 11 for information on MUSEs
and MUDs in general). Hundreds of students from all
over have participated in this educational exercise,
coordinated by MIT. Telnet to michael.ai.mit.edu.
Log on as guest and then follow the prompts for more
information.
NASA Spacelink: This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala.,
provides all sorts of reports and data about NASA, its
history and its various missions, past and present.
Telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov or 128.158.13.250.
When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the
system and asked to register. The system maintains a
large file library of GIF-format space graphics, but note
that you can't download these through telnet. If you want
to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-
0028. Many can be obtained through ftp from
ames.arc.nasa.gov, however.
Newton: Run by the Argonne National Laboratory, it offers
conferences for teachers and students, including one
called "Ask a Scientist."
Telnet: newton.dep.anl.gov.
Log in as: cocotext
You'll be asked to provide your name and address. When
you get the main menu, hit 4 for the various conferences.
The "Ask a Scientist" category lets you ask questions of
scientists in fields from biology to earth science.
Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and
computer networks.
OERI: The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational
Resources and Improvement runs a gopher system that
provides numerous educational resources, information and
statistics for teachers. Use gopher to connect to
gopher.ed.gov.
Spacemet Forum: If your system doesn't carry the K12 conferences, but
does provide you with telnet, you can reach the
conferences through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board
system aimed at teachers and students that is run by the
physics and astronomy department at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst.
Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu.
When you connect, hit escape once, after which you'll be
asked to log on. Like K12Net, SpaceMet Forum began as a
Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger. Mort
and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university,
started SpaceMet as a one-line bulletin-board system
several years ago to help bolster middle-school science
education in nearby towns.
In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries
numerous educationally oriented conferences. It also has
a large file library of interest to educators and
students, but be aware that getting files to your site
could be difficult and maybe even impossible. Unlike
most other Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp
interface. The Sternheims say ZMODEM sometimes works over
the network, but don't count on it.
12.3 USENET AND BITNET IN THE CLASSROOM
There are numerous Usenet newsgroups of potential interest to
teachers and students.
As you might expect, many are of a scientific bent. You can find
these by typing l sci. in rn or using nngrep sci. for nn. There are now
close to 40, with subjects ranging from archaeology to economics (the
"dismal science," remember?) to astronomy to nanotechnology (the
construction of microscopically small machines).
One thing students will quickly learn from many of these groups:
science is not just dull, boring facts. Science is argument and standing
your ground and making your case. The Usenet sci. groups encourage
critical thinking.
Beyond science, social-studies and history classes can keep busy
learning about other countries, through the soc.culture newsgroups.
Most of these newsgroups originated as ways for expatriates of a
given country to keep in touch with their homeland and its culture. In
times of crisis, however, these groups often become places to
disseminate information from or into the country and to discuss what is
happening. From Afghanistan to Yugoslavia, close to 50 countries are
now represented on Usenet. To see which groups are available, use l
soc.culture. in rn or nngrep soc.culture. for nn.
Several "talk" newsgroups provide additional topical discussions,
but teachers should screen them first before recommending them to
students. They range from talk.abortion and talk.politics.guns to
talk.politics.space and talk.environment.
One caveat: Teachers might want to peruse particular newsgroups
before setting their students loose in them. Some have higher levels of
flaming and blather than others.
There are also a number of Bitnet discussion groups of potential
interest to students and teachers. See Chapter 5 for information on
finding and subscribing to Bitnet discussion groups. Some with an
educational orientation include:
biopi-l ksuvm.bitnet Secondary biology education
chemed-l uwf.bitnet Chemistry education
dts-l iubvm.bitnet The Dead Teacher's Society list
phys-l uwf.bitnet Discussions for physics teachers
physhare psuvm.bitnet Where physics teachers share resources
scimath-l psuvm.bitnet Science and math education
To get a list of ftp sites that carry astronomical images in the GIF
graphics format, use ftp to connect to nic.funet.fi. Switch to the
/pub/astro/general directory and get the file astroftp.txt. Among the
sites listed is ames.arc.nasa.gov, which carries images taken by the
Voyager and Galileo probes, among other pictures.
CHAPTER 13: Business on the Net
13.1 SETTING UP SHOP
Back in olden days, oh, before 1990 or so, there were no markets in
the virtual community -- if you wanted to buy a book, you still had to
jump in your car and drive to the nearest bookstore.
This was because in those days, the Net consisted mainly of a series
of government-funded networks on which explicit commercial activity was
forbidden. Today, much of the Net is run by private companies, which
generally have no such restrictions, and a number of companies have begun
experimenting with online "shops" or other services. Many of these shops
are run by booksellers, while the services range from delivery of indexed
copies of federal documents to an online newsstand that hopes to entice
you to subscribe to any of several publications (of the printed on paper
variety). A number of companies also use Usenet newsgroups (in the biz
hierarchy) to distribute press releases and product information.
Still, commercial activity on the remains far below that found on
other networks, such as CompuServe, with its Electronic Mall, or Prodigy,
with its advertisements on almost every screen. In part that's because
of the newness and complexity of the Internet as a commercial medium. In
part, however, that is because of security concerns. Companies worry
about such issues as crackers getting into their system over the network,
and many people do not like the idea of sending a credit-card number via
the Internet (an e-mail message could be routed through several sites to
get to its destination). These concerns could disappear as Net users
turn to such means as message encryption and "digital signatures." In the
meantime, however, businesses on the Net can still consider themselves
something of Internet pioneers.
A couple of public-access sites and a regional network have set up
"marketplaces" for online businesses.
The World in Brookline, Mass., currently rents "space" to several
bookstores and computer-programming firms, as well as an "adult toy
shop." To browse their offerings, use gopher to connect to
world.std.com
At the main menu, select "Shops on the World."
Msen in Ann Arbor provides its "Msen Marketplace," where you'll find
a travel agency and an "Online Career Center" offering help-wanted ads
from across the country. Msen also provides an "Internet Business
Pages," an online directory of companies seeking to reach the Internet
community. You can reach Msen through gopher at
gopher.msen.com
At the main menu, select "Msen Marketplace."
The Nova Scotia Technology Network runs a "Cybermarket" on its
gopher service at
nstn.ns.ca
There, you'll find an online bookstore that lets you order books through
e-mail (to which you'll have to trust your credit-card number) and a
similar "virtual record store.'' Both let you search their wares by
keyword or by browsing through catalogs.
Other online businesses include:
AnyWare Associates This Boston company runs an Internet-to-fax
gateway that lets you send fax message anywhere
in the world via the Internet (for a fee, of
course). For more information, write
sales@awa.com
Bookstacks Unlimited This Cleveland bookstore offers a keyword-
searchable database of thousands of books for
sale. Telnet:
books.com
Counterpoint Publishing Based in Cambridge, Mass., this company's main
Internet product is indexed versions of federal
journals, including the Federal Register (a daily
compendium of government contracts, proposed
regulations and the like). Internet users can
browse through recent copies, but complete access
will run several thousand dollars a year. Use
gopher to connect to
enews.com
and select "Counterpoint Publishing"
Dialog The national database company can be reached
through telnet at
dialog.com
To log on, however, you will have first had to
set up a Dialog account.
Dow Jones News A wire service run by the information company
Retrieval that owns the Wall Street Journal. Available
via telnet at
djnr.dowjones.com
As with Dialog, you need an account to log on.
Infinity Link Browse book, music, software, video-cassette and
laser-disk catalogs through this system based in
Malvern, Penn. Use gopher to connect to
columbia.ilc.com
Log on as: cas
The Internet Company Sort of a service bureau, this company, based in
Cambridge, Mass., is working with several publishers
on Internet-related products. Its Electronic
Newsstand offers snippets and special
subscription rates to a number of national
magazines, from the New Republic to the New
Yorker. Use gopher to connect to
enews.com
MarketBase You can try the classified-ads system developed
by this company in Santa Barbara, Calif., by
gopher to connect to
mb.com
O'Reilly and Associates Best known for its "Nutshell" books on Unix,
O'Reilly runs three Internet services. The gopher
server, at
ora.com
provides information about the company and its
books. It posts similar information in the
biz.oreilly.announce Usenet newsgroup. Its
Global Network Navigator, accessible through the
World-Wide Web, is a sort of online magazine that
lets users browse through interesting services
and catalogs.
13.2 FYI
The com-priv mailing list is the place to discuss issues surrounding
the commercialization and the privatization of the Internet. To
subscribe (or un-subscribe), send an e-mail request to com-priv-
request@psi.com.
Mary Cronin's book, "Doing Business on the Internet" (1994, Van
Nostrand Reinhold), takes a more in-depth look at the subject.
Kent State University in Ohio maintains a repository of
"Business Sources on the Net." Use gopher to connect to refmac.kent.edu.
Chapter 14: CONCLUSION -- THE END?
The revolution is just beginning. New communications systems and
digital technologies have already meant dramatic changes in the way we
live. Think of what is already routine that would have been considered
impossible just ten years ago. You can browse through the holdings of
your local library -- or of libraries halfway around the world -- do your
banking and see if your neighbor has gone bankrupt, all through a
computer and modem.
Imploding costs coupled with exploding power are bringing ever
more powerful computer and digital systems to ever growing numbers of
people. The Net, with its rapidly expanding collection of databases
and other information sources, is no longer limited to the
industrialized nations of the West; today the web extends from Siberia
to Zimbabwe. The cost of computers and modems used to plug into the Net,
meanwhile, continue to plummet, making them ever more affordable.
Cyberspace has become a vital part of millions of people's daily
lives. People form relationships online, they fall in love, they get
married, all because of initial contacts in cyberspace, that ephemeral
``place'' that transcends national and state boundaries. Business
deals are transacted entirely in ASCII. Political and social
movements begin online, coordinated by people who could be thousands
of miles apart.
Yet this is only the beginning.
We live in an age of communication, yet the various media we use
to talk to one another remain largely separate systems. One day,
however, your telephone, TV, fax machine and personal computer will be
replaced by a single ``information processor'' linked to the worldwide
Net by strands of optical fiber.
Beyond databases and file libraries, power will be at your
fingertips. Linked to thousands, even millions of like-minded people,
you'll be able to participate in social and political movements across
the country and around the world.
How does this happen? In part, it will come about through new
technologies. High-definition television will require the development
of inexpensive computers that can process as much information as
today's workstations. Telephone and cable companies will cooperate, or
in some cases compete, to bring those fiber-optic cables into your home.
The Clinton administration, arguably the first led by people who
know how to use not only computer networks but computers, is pushing for
creation of a series of "information superhighways" comparable in scope
to the Interstate highway system of the 1950s (one of whose champions in
the Senate has a son elected vice president in 1992).
Right now, we are in the network equivalent of the early 1950s,
just before the creation of that massive highway network. Sure, there are
plenty of interesting things out there, but you have to meander along
two-lane roads, and have a good map, to get to them.
Creation of this new Net will require more than just high-speed
channels and routing equipment; it will require a new communications
paradigm: the Net as information utility. The Net remains a somewhat
complicated and mysterious place. To get something out of the Net today,
you have to spend a fair amount of time with a Net veteran or a manual
like this. You have to learn such arcana as the vagaries of the Unix cd
command.
Contrast this with the telephone, which now also provides access to
large amounts of information through push buttons, or a computer network
such as Prodigy, which one navigates through simple commands and mouse
clicks.
Internet system administrators have begun to realize that not all
people want to learn the intricacies of Unix, and that that fact does
not make them bad people. We are already seeing the development of
simple interfaces that will put the Net's power to use by millions of
people. You can already see their influence in the menus of gophers and
the World-Wide Web, which require no complex computing skills but which
open the gates to thousands of information resources. Mail programs and
text editors such as pico and pine promise much of the power of older
programs such as emacs at a fraction of the complexity.
Some software engineers are taking this even further, by creating
graphical interfaces that will let somebody navigate the Internet just by
clicking on the screen with a mouse or by calling up an easy text editor,
sort of the way one can now navigate a Macintosh computer -- or a
commercial online service such as Prodigy.
Then there are the Internet services themselves.
For every database now available through the Internet, there are
probably three or four that are not. Government agencies are only
now beginning to connect their storehouses of information to the
Net. Several commercial vendors, from database services to booksellers,
have made their services available through the Net.
Few people now use one of the Net's more interesting
applications. A standard known as MIME lets one send audio and
graphics files in a message. Imagine opening your e-mail one day to hear
your granddaughter's first words, or a "photo" of your friend's new
house. Eventually, this standard could allow for distribution of even
small video displays over the Net.
All of this will require vast new amounts of Net power, to handle
both the millions of new people who will jump onto the Net and the new
applications they want. Replicating a moving image on a computer screen
alone takes a phenomenal amount of computer bits, and computing power to
arrange them.
All of this combines into a National Information Infrastructure able
to move billions of bits of information in one second -- the kind of
power needed to hook information "hoses" into every business and house.
As these "superhighways" grow, so will the "on ramps," for a high-
speed road does you little good if you can't get to it. The costs of
modems seem to fall as fast as those of computers. High-speed modems
(9600 baud and up) are becoming increasingly affordable. At 9600 baud,
you can download a satellite weather image of North America in less than
two minutes, a file that, with a slower modem could take up to 20
minutes to download. Eventually, homes could be connected directly to a
national digital network. Most long-distance phone traffic is already
carried in digital form, through high-volume optical fibers. Phone
companies are ever so slowly working to extend these fibers the "final
mile" to the home. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is working to
ensure these links are affordable.
Beyond the technical questions are increasingly thorny social,
political and economic issues. Who is to have access to these
services, and at what cost? If we live in an information age, are we
laying the seeds for a new information under class, unable to compete
with those fortunate enough to have the money and skills needed to
manipulate new communications channels? Who, in fact, decides who has
access to what? As more companies realize the potential profits to be
made in the new information infrastructure, what happens to such
systems as Usenet, possibly the world's first successful anarchistic
system, where everybody can say whatever they want?
What are the laws of the electronic frontier? When national and
state boundaries lose their meaning in cyberspace, the question might
even be: WHO is the law? What if a practice that is legal in one
country is "committed" in another country where it is illegal, over a
computer network that crosses through a third country? Who goes after
computer crackers?
What role will you play in the revolution?
Appendix A: THE LINGO
Like any community, the Net has developed its own language.
What follows is a glossary of some of the more common phrases you'll
likely run into. But it's only a small subset of net.speak. You an find
a more complete listing in "The New Hacker's Dictionary," compiled by
Eric Raymond (MIT Press). Raymond's work is based on an online reference
known as "The Jargon File," which you can get through anonymous ftp from
ftp.gnu.mit.ai.mit as jarg300.txt.gz in the pub/gnu directory (see
chapter 7 for information on how to un-compress a .gz file).
ASCII Has two meanings. ASCII is a universal computer code
for English letters and characters. Computers store
all information as binary numbers. In ASCII, the
letter "A" is stored as 01000001, whether the computer
is made by IBM, Apple or Commodore. ASCII also refers
to a method, or protocol, for copying files from one
computer to another over a network, in which neither
computer checks for any errors that might have been
caused by static or other problems.
ANSI Computers use several different methods for deciding
how to put information on your screen and how your
keyboard interacts with the screen. ANSI is one of
these "terminal emulation" methods. Although most
popular on PC-based bulletin-board systems, it can also
be found on some Net sites. To use it properly, you
will first have to turn it on, or enable it, in your
communications software.
ARPANet A predecessor of the Internet. Started in 1969 with
funds from the Defense Department's Advanced Projects
Research Agency.
backbone A high-speed network that connects several powerful
computers. In the U.S., the backbone of the Internet is
often considered the NSFNet, a government funded link
between a handful of supercomputer sites across the
country.
Baud The speed at which modems transfer data. One baud is
roughly equal to one bit per second. It takes eight
bits to make up one letter or character. Modems rarely
transfer data at exactly the same speed as their listed
baud rate because of static or computer problems. More
expensive modems use systems, such as Microcom Network
Protocol (MNP), which can correct for these errors or
which "compress" data to speed up transmission.
BITNet Another, academically oriented, international computer
network, which uses a different set of computer
instructions to move data. It is easily accessible to
Internet users through e-mail, and provides a large
number of conferences and databases. Its name comes from
"Because It's Time." "
Bounce What your e-mail does when it cannot get to its
recipient -- it bounces back to you -- unless it goes
off into the ether, never to be found again.
Command line On Unix host systems, this is where you tell the
machine what you want it to do, by entering commands.
Communications A program that tells a modem how to work.
software
Daemon An otherwise harmless Unix program that normally works
out of sight of the user. On the Internet, you'll most
likely encounter it only when your e-mail is not
delivered to your recipient -- you'll get back your
original message plus an ugly message from a "mailer
daemon.
Distribution A way to limit where your Usenet postings go. Handy for
such things as "for sale" messages or discussions of
regional politics.
Domain The last part of an Internet address, such as "news.com."
Dot When you want to impress the net veterans you meet at
parties, say "dot" instead of "period," for example: "My
address is john at site dot domain dot com."
Dot file A file on a Unix public-access system
that alters the way you or your messages interact with
that system. For example, your .login file contains
various parameters for such things as the text editor you
get when you send a message. When you do an ls command,
these files do not appear in the directory listing; do ls
-a to list them.
Down When a public-access site runs into technical trouble,
and you can no longer gain access to it, it's down.
Download Copy a file from a host system to your computer. There
are several different methods, or protocols, for
downloading files, most of which periodically check the
file as it is being copied to ensure no information is
inadvertently destroyed or damaged during the process.
Some, such as XMODEM, only let you download one file at
a time. Others, such as batch-YMODEM and ZMODEM, let
you type in the names of several files at once, which
are then automatically downloaded.
EMACS A standard Unix text editor preferred by Unix types
that beginners tend to hate.
E-mail Electronic mail -- a way to send a private message to
somebody else on the Net. Used as both noun and verb.
Emoticon See smiley.
F2F Face to Face. When you actually meet those people you
been corresponding with/flaming.
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. A compilation of answers to
these. Many Usenet newsgroups have these files, which
are posted once a month or so for beginners.
Film at 11 One reaction to an overwrought argument: "Imminent death
of the Net predicted. Film at 11."
Finger An Internet program that lets you get some bit of
information about another user, provided they have first
created a .plan file.
Flame Online yelling and/or ranting directed at somebody else.
Often results in flame wars, which occasionally turn into
holy wars (see).
Followup A Usenet posting that is a response to an earlier
message.
Foo/foobar A sort of online algebraic place holder, for example: "If
you want to know when another site is run by a for-
profit company, look for an address in the form of
foo@foobar.com."
Fortune cookie An inane/witty/profund comment that can be found around
the net.
Freeware Software that doesn't cost anything.
FTP File-transfer Protocol. A system for transferring files
across the Net.
Get a life What to say to somebody who has, perhaps, been spending a
wee bit too much time in front of a computer.
GIF Graphic Interchange Format. A format developed in the
mid-1980s by CompuServe for use in photo-quality graphics
images. Now commonly used everywhere online.
GNU Gnu's Not Unix. A project of the Free Software
Foundation to write a free version of the Unix operating
system.
Hacker On the Net, unlike among the general public, this is not
a bad person; it is simply somebody who enjoys stretching
hardware and software to their limits, seeing just what
they can get their computers to do. What many people
call hackers, net.denizens refer to as crackers.
Handshake Two modems trying to connect first do this to agree on
how to transfer data.
Hang When a modem fails to hang up.
Holy war Arguments that involve certain basic tenets of faith,
about which one cannot disagree without setting one of
these off. For example: IBM PCs are inherently superior to
Macintoshes.
Host system A public-access site; provides Net access to people
outside the research and government community.
IMHO In My Humble Opinion.
Internet A worldwide system for linking smaller computer
networks together. Networks connected through the
Internet use a particular set of communications
standards to communicate, known as TCP/IP.
Killfile A file that lets you filter Usenet postings to some
extent, by excluding messages on certain topics or from
certain people.
Log on/log in Connect to a host system or public-access site.
Log off Disconnect from a host system.
Lurk Read messages in a Usenet newsgroup without ever saying
anything.
Mailing list Essentially a conference in which messages are delivered
right to your mailbox, instead of to a Usenet newsgroup.
You get on these by sending a message to a specific e-
mail address, which is often that of a computer that
automates the process.
MOTSS Members of the Same Sex. Gays and Lesbians online.
Originally an acronym used in the 1980 federal census.
Net.god One who has been online since the beginning, who knows
all and who has done it all.
Net.personality Somebody sufficiently opinionated/flaky/with plenty of
time on his hands to regularly post in dozens of
different Usenet newsgroups, whose presence is known to
thousands of people.
Net.police Derogatory term for those who would impose their
standards on other users of the Net. Often used in
vigorous flame wars (in which it occasionally mutates to
net.nazis).
Netiquette A set of common-sense guidelines for not annoying others.
Network A communications system that links two or more
computers. It can be as simple as a cable strung
between two computers a few feet apart or as complex
as hundreds of thousands of computers around the world
linked through fiber optic cables, phone lines and
satellites.
Newbie Somebody new to the Net. Sometimes used derogatorily by
net.veterans who have forgotten that, they, too, were
once newbies who did not innately know the answer to
everything. "Clueless newbie" is always derogatory.
Newsgroup A Usenet conference.
NIC Network Information Center. As close as an Internet-
style network gets to a hub; it's usually where you'll
find information about that particular network.
NSA line eater The more aware/paranoid Net users believe that the
National Security Agency has a super-powerful computer
assigned to reading everything posted on the Net. They
will jokingly (?) refer to this line eater in their
postings. Goes back to the early days of the Net when
the bottom lines of messages would sometimes disappear
for no apparent reason.
NSF National Science Foundation. Funds the NSFNet, a
high-speed network that once formed the backbone of the
Internet in the U.S.
Offline When your computer is not connected to a host system
or the Net, you are offline.
Online When your computer is connected to an online service,
bulletin-board system or public-access site.
Ping A program that can trace the route a message takes from
your site to another site.
.plan file A file that lists anything you want others on the Net to
know about you. You place it in your home directory on
your public-access site. Then, anybody who fingers (see)
you, will get to see this file.
Post To compose a message for a Usenet newsgroup and then send
it out for others to see.
Postmaster The person to contact at a particular site to ask for
information about the site or complain about one of
his/her user's behavior.
Protocol The method used to transfer a file between a host
system and your computer. There are several types,
such as Kermit, YMODEM and ZMODEM.
Prompt When the host system asks you to do something and
waits for you to respond. For example, if you see
"login:" it means type your user name.
README files Files found on FTP sites that explain what is in a given
FTP directory or which provide other useful information
(such as how to use FTP).
Real Soon Now A vague term used to describe when something will
actually happen.
RFC Request for Comments. A series of documents that
describe various technical aspects of the Internet.
ROTFL Rolling on the Floor Laughing. How to respond to a
particularly funny comment.
ROT13 A simple way to encode bad jokes, movie reviews that give
away the ending, pornography, etc. Essentially, each
letter in a message is replace by the letter 13 spaces
away from it in the alphabet. There are online decoders
to read these; nn and rn have them built in.
RTFM Read the, uh, you know, Manual. Often used in flames
against people who ask computer-related questions that
could be easily answered with a few minutes with a
manual. More politely: RTM.
Screen capture A part of your communications software that
opens a file on your computer and saves to it whatever
scrolls past on the screen while connected to a host
system.
Server A computer that can distribute information or files
automatically in response to specifically worded e-mail
requests.
Shareware Software that is freely available on the Net. If you
like and use the software, you should send in the fee
requested by the author, whose name and address will be
found in a file distributed with the software.
.sig file Sometimes, .signature file. A file that, when placed in
your home directory on your public-access site, will
automatically be appended to every Usenet posting you
write.
.sig quote A profound/witty/quizzical/whatever quote that you
include in your .sig file.
Signal-to-noise The amount of useful information to be found in a given
ratio Usenet newsgroup. Often used derogatorily, for example:
"the signal-to-noise ratio in this newsgroup is pretty low."
SIMTEL20 The White Sands Missile Range used to maintain a giant
collection of free and low-cost software of all kinds,
which was "mirrored" to numerous other ftp sites on the
Net. In the fall of 1993, the Air Force decided it had
better things to do than maintain a free software library
and shut it down. But you'll still see references to
the collection, known as SIMTEL20, around the Net.
Smiley A way to describe emotion online. Look at this with
your head tilted to the left :-). There are scores
of these smileys, from grumpy to quizzical.
Snail mail Mail that comes through a slot in your front door or a
box mounted outside your house.
Sysadmin The system administrator; the person who runs a host
system or public-access site.
Sysop A system operator. Somebody who runs a bulletin-board
system.
TANSTAAFL There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The
particular system for transferring information over a
computer network that is at the heart of the Internet.
Telnet A program that lets you connect to other computers on
the Internet.
Terminal There are several methods for determining how your
emulation keystrokes and screen interact with a public-access
site's operating system. Most communications programs
offer a choice of "emulations" that let you mimic the
keyboard that would normally be attached directly to
the host-system computer.
UUCP Unix-to-Unix CoPy. A method for transferring Usenet
postings and e-mail that requires far fewer net resources
than TCP/IP, but which can result in considerably slower
transfer times.
Upload Copy a file from your computer to a host system.
User name On most host systems, the first time you connect you
are asked to supply a one-word user name. This can be
any combination of letters and numbers.
VT100 Another terminal-emulation system. Supported by many
communications program, it is the most common one in
use on the Net. VT102 is a newer version.
Appendix B: General Information About the Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a membership organization that
was founded in July of 1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected as new communications
technologies emerge.
From the beginning, EFF has worked to shape our nation's communications
infrastructure and the policies that govern it in order to maintain and
enhance First Amendment, privacy and other democratic values. We believe
that our overriding public goal must be the creation of Electronic
Democracy, so our work focuses on the establishment of:
o new laws that protect citizens' basic Constitutional rights as they
use new communications technologies,
o a policy of common carriage requirements for all network providers
so that all speech, no matter how controversial, will be carried without
discrimination,
o a National Public Network where voice, data and video services are
accessible to all citizens on an equitable and affordable basis, and
o a diversity of communities that enable all citizens to have a voice
in the information age.
Join us!
I wish to become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I enclose:
$__________ Regular membership -- $40
$__________ Student membership -- $20
Special Contribution
I wish to make a tax-deductible donation in the amount of $__________ to
further support the activities of EFF and to broaden participation in the
organization.
Documents Available in Hard Copy Form
The following documents are available free of charge from the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. Please indicate any of the documents you wish to
receive.
___ Open Platform Proposal - EFF's proposal for a national
telecommunications infrastructure. 12 pages. July, 1992
___ An Analysis of the FBI Digital Telephony Proposal - Response of
EFF-organized coalition to the FBI's digital telephony proposal of Fall,
1992. 8 pages. September, 1992.
___ Building the Open Road: The NREN and the National Public Network - A
discussion of the National Research and Education Network as a prototype
for a National Public Network. 20 pages. May, 1992.
___ Innovative Services Delivered Now: ISDN Applications at Home, School,
the Workplace and Beyond - A compilation of ISDN applications currently in
use. 29 pages. January, 1993.
___ Decrypting the Puzzle Palace - John Perry Barlow's argument for strong
encryption and the need for an end to U.S. policies preventing its
development and use. 13 pages. May, 1992.
___ Crime and Puzzlement - John Perry Barlow's piece on the founding of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the world of hackers, crackers and
those accused of computer crimes. 24 pages. June, 1990.
___ Networks & Policy - A quarterly newsletter detailing EFF's activities
and achievements.
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