592 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
592 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
"I took a course in speed reading and was able to read War and
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Peace in 20 minutes. It's about Russia." - Woody Allen
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======================================================================
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BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS ONLINE EDITION:
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B B I T S B B Y Y T E S =THE ELECTRONIC
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BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS =NEWSLETTER FOR
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B B I T S B B Y T E S =HIGH-TECH
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BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS =DUMPSTER DIVERS
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======================================================================
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Volume 1, Number 12 (October 10, 1993)
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======================================================================
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CONTENTS: =
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The World at Your Fingertips -|- Microchip Wars =
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Free Faxing Service -|- Virtual Nations =
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Don't Believe the Hype: -|- Software for Good Health =
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Two Oversold Technologies -|- The Virtual Community =
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Telecommuting Benefits Business -|- Internet 101 =
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AND MORE..... =
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======================================================================
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The World at Your Fingertips
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Gross and/or rapid changes in quantity can make for equally
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discontinuous changes in the quality of a phenomenon, when "emergent
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behaviors" kick in. When you can transfer the Library of Congress from
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one place to another in under a minute, the very notion of what it
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means to have a place called the Library of Congress changes. As it
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goes digital, that place in Washington, D.C., is virtualizing. I can
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already get the Library of Congress catalog from my desktop. When I
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can download the source text itself to my desktop, my sense of where
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that information resides changes. It's at the other end of my modem
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line, along with the rest of the Net, which means it is more or less
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on my desktop. (Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community, p. 79. See
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B&B Bookshelf for more information)
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======================================================================
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That's a Nice Macro You Wrote. Too Bad Lotus Now Owns It.
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"What set me off is the recent ruling in the Lotus-Borland lawsuit
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that found Quattro Pro's macro key reader a violation of Lotus'
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intellectual property rights because it allows Quattro Pro to execute
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1-2-3 macros. That ruling finally brought home to me the underlying
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nature of these lawsuits. The party whose intellectual property rights
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are being violated here is not a software vendor at all, but the
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user -- you and me."
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"Think about it. You, as a user of 1-2-3, may have developed a number
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of macros over the years for your organization that are part of the
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way you do business. They're your macros, your intellectual property,
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not Lotus'. The Lotus position (if you'll pardon the expression) is
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that if you decide another spreadsheet program offers you something
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that 1-2-3 doesn't, you shouldn't be able to run those macros on it.
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You must rewrite them to run on the new program."
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. . .
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"Yet a user's ability to work more quickly with the familiar slash
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commands is due again to your efforts, not Lotus'. Nothing was
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terribly innovative about the slash command interface over many other
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programs that existed when 1-2-3's was introduced; WordStar had
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already proven the basic concept. What made 1-2-3's command interface
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worth cloning was the skill 1-2-3 users had developed with it over
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the years. Shouldn't that be considered the user's intellectual
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property, too?"
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. . .
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"So what do we do about it? It's clear that the patent and copyright
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laws are a complete anachronism for this industry. Waiting for
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inspired legislation to clear up the mess is a pipe dream. And,
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judging by this latest ruling, hoping for precedent-setting wisdom in
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the interpretation of the laws is probably just as futile."
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"The only time you get to be judge and jury of these vendors is when
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you buy products, so it might be wise to take a company's track record
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on these issues into account at that time. It's probably not relevant
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now to worry about Lotus' behavior when buying your next spreadsheet,
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as they've already lost a lot of their leadership position there. But
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what about Notes? How much of your company's energies should be put
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into a development environment whose publisher, on precedent at least,
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will try to keep it closed? It would be an interesting question to
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put to your Lotus sales representative."
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(Excerpts from an editorial in Infoworld by Ed Foster (8/23/93, p.45)
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======================================================================
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Chip Wars
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What we now call platforms won't matter much in the future. When PC
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horsepower becomes virtually unlimited, specific operating
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environments won't matter; all that power will allow us to emulate
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any operating system and still get speedy results. We will, at long
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last, focus on the applications and tools that can help us do our
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jobs. We won't have to settle for a computing environment that offers
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the best compromise. You've probably seen the Power PC ads. The focus
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has been on the relatively low cost of the new MPC601 processor, the
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first product of the IBM-Apple-Motorola alliance. The price is
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impressive: roughly half the cost of Intel's Pentium chip with better
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overall performance, according to benchmarks I've seen. So you get
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the muscle of a Pentium at the price of a 486DX. And this is the
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least powerful of the Power PC family. ... But this is just the
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beginning. Companies such as Insignia Solutions will provide Windows
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emulation on the Power PC, and IBM is said to be working on an 80X86
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emulator as well. Apple, as part of the Power PC consortium, will
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offer Macintosh emulation. In fact systems based on the Power PC will
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give users the choice of character-based Unix, OSF Motif, Windows 3.1,
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and the Macintosh Finder as interface choices, with the ability to
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switch from one to the other and to exchange data among these
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environments. ... Still, we started with the notion that there was a
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business advantage to desktop system environment transparency, not
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just the option to play Stupid Computer Tricks. That advantage will
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come with the ability to select the best tools for the job, regardless
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of underlying operating systems. That will mean additional user
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training and technical support-but it's beginning to look like it will
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be worth the effort. (Excerpted from "Fast Chips: The Great
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Equalizers" by Richard Dalton. Information Week, 8/2/93, p. 51)
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======================================================================
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Don't Believe the Hype I: Whither Wireless Computing?
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Cutting all these cords and cables is exciting, but it isn't
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inevitable. The truth about wireless computing is that it isn't going
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to pan out. Simply put, there aren't enough megahertz to go around out
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there in our increasingly polluted electromagnetic ether. It is an
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ecologically unsound waste of energy to broadcast bits in all
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directions when they need to be received in only one. The ether is too
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scarce to be wasted on nonbroadcast communications, and it won't be.
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. . .
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Need more reasons why wireless won't become widespread? There are the
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privacy challenges of wide-area data broadcasting, which you'll
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encounter as you demonstrate that you care. What about standards for
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wireless computer networking, which will settle down right after ISDN,
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HDTV, PCMCIA, and ATM are resolved. Consider governments around the
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world reallocating spectrum for use by wireless computer networks,
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which they will right after whale hunting is stopped. And there are
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the health risks of prolonged exposure to increasing levels of higher
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frequency electromagnetic radiations, which I hope are nil. And
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finally, what about the vast amounts of money needed for building
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wireless networking infrastructure, which will be raised right after
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The Deficit is eliminated?
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. . .
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Is it any wonder then, that the TV industry, which has relied on
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broadcast radio for most of its history, is in a full-swing switch to
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cable? Increasingly we will switch data via fiber networks instead of
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broadcasting it via radio.
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And in case you're not upset yet, there's this angle: If half the
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world's problems are caused by having too many people, the other half
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are caused by all of us wanting to move around so much -- from home to
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work, from work to our customer's work, from our picturesque hometowns
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to identical airports, hotels, and tourist traps around the world. So
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let's just wire up our homes and stay there. (Excerpted from "Wireless
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computing will flop -- permanently" by Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld
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8/16/93, p. 48)
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======================================================================
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NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
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+COLOR WORD PROCESSOR. In Japan, NEC will release a dedicated word
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processor that comes equipped with both a color LCD screen and a color
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printer. The device has a supertwist nematic (STN) color display with
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a resolution of 640 x 400 pixels. The printer uses a four color
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ribbon, so users will be able to print documents in full color. The
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machine includes programs for doing illustrations and graphics, as
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well as regular word processing. A proprietary color scanner is also
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available. (SOURCE: Newsbytes, 9/30/93)
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+EMPLOYMENT DATABASE. Forty leading U.S. corporations have formed a
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nonprofit employer association to develop and manage a national
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public-access database on Internet for recruiting, outplacement,
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career assistance, and communications. The database includes job
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listings and full-text resume files with online keyword search to
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assist both employers and individuals seeking employment. For info:
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contact occ-info@mail.msen.com. (SOURCE: EDUPAGE)
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+WABI INTERFACE. Sun Microsystems recently announced the final version
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of its Windows Application Binary Interface. WABI will allow Unix
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systems from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Novell and Sun to run Windows
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applications on their systems. (SOURCE: Computerworld 9/20/93, p. 16)
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+FREE FAXING. Chaos Corner (see administrivia section) reports that
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Internet Fax services are being set up to provide the capability to
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send free faxes to certain areas. People wanting to sign up to provide
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the service can limit the area that they serve to just the local
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community. For a current list of the areas served, send electronic
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mail to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org and write to tpc-faq@town.hall.org
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for more information. (SOURCE: Chaos Corner V03 N06 8 October 1993)
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+HEALTH INFO ON DISK. Pixel Perfect Software Co. has released a floppy
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disk that helps them diagnose their ailments at home, and gives
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detailed information and a video on complex surgical procedures. The
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program, which has been under development for five years, provides
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diagnoses through an interactive process, and explains treatment for
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over 600 diseases and 150 injuries. A multimedia version is planned
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for next year. (ACCESS: Pixel Perfect Software: 407/779-0310) (SOURCE:
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Miami Herald 10/5/93 B2, EDUPAGE)
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+MOVIES FOR BUTTON-PUSHERS. The months ahead will bring video games
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with characters played by live actors. For example, Sylvester
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Stallone spent two days filming special footage that will be combined
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with computer graphics in a video game due in the spring. (SOURCE: New
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York Times 10/3/93 Section 2 p. 1, EDUPAGE)
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======================================================================
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Don't Believe the Hype II: Desktop Video Teleconferencing
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Another emerging technology that may not be ready for prime time is
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desktop video conferencing. Ron Wilson, writing in OEM magazine, says
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the technology promises a lot: all users need to do is drop in some
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video cards and a little new software. But the reality is that desktop
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computers can't handle the task, Ethernet networks can't handle the
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data rates, and capable servers don't yet exist.
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(SOURCE: Ron Wilson, "The Other Video Conferencing," OEM Magazine,
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October 1993, quoted in Information Week)
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======================================================================
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Object Orientation
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Q: What about programmer retraining in object technology? Doesn't that
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present a fairly steep learning curve for most IS organizations?
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A: It's very analogous to the time when people programmed in
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Assembly language. They had to then learn Fortran or Cobol as a higher
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level language, and there's definitely training involved. But once you
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go through that, the productivity increase is tremendous.
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It takes a while to 'get it' with object oriented programming [OOP].
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You can take someone from the procedural world and teach them OOP, but
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the first programs they write will still look and feel procedural in
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style. Yon won't get the benefits of the higher level language until
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you make the mind shift.
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Q: Is there a simple way to envision that mind shift?
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A: Imagine that you're cooking a cake. You can make It from scratch,
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from a recipe, by assembling a list of ingredients and following the
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directions step by step. That's procedural programming.
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In the object-oriented world, you don't think about cooking as a
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sequence of steps. You think about it as a package of cake mix, a cup
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of water, a bowl and an oven. It seems to be pretty obvious what you
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do with those elements.
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(from an interview with Guy "Bud" Tribble, VP of end user software at
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SunSoft, Inc., which appeared in Computerworld, 8/11/93, p.48)
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======================================================================
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Virtual Nations
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"In two years, there will be more network users than residents of any
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state in the United States. In five years there will be more network
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users than citizens of any single country except India or China. What
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will happen when McLuhan's global village becomes one of the largest
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countries in the world? Using two-way communications, not broadcast?
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And crossing boundaries of space, time, and politics?"
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(John Quartermain, "How Big is the Matrix," Matrix News 2, no. 2,
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quoted in The Virtual Community (see B&B Bookshelf)
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======================================================================
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ACCESS: Internet 101
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The Internet has reached a crucial juncture in its 20 year history. It
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is experiencing an amazing spurt of growth, estimated at 10% monthly
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-- when you have an estimated 5-10 million users worldwide, a 10%
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monthly growth rate seves up some dizzying numbers. The pressure is
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increasingly on to turn the internet over to be managed by the private
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sector. To some degree this is already happening. Whereas previously
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the internet has been a medium for researchers, scientists, and
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academicians, nowadays the business segment of the internet is the
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fastest growing one. Not everyone is thrilled with this state of
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affairs, but the facts are stubborn things, and these new users (I
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guess I'm one of them) are not going away. Business and private
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citizens in growing numbers are realizing the benefits of being able
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to tie into a network that enables them to communicate with people
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around the world and to tap into huge amounts of online information
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and resources.
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But it's not exactly easy to navigate these waters: the Internet is
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not a unified whole, but an amazing patchwork quilt of networks that
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have agreed on a set of standards that (under ideal circumstances)
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allow everyone to talk to everyone else. Finding a given piece of
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information in this vast sea of possibility is more of an art than a
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science. Tools do exist to help find and retrieve a given document or
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program, and more are being developed and refined. You might have
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heard of some of them: archie, gopher, veronica, WAIS (Wide Area
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Information Search), WWW (World Wide Web), USENET, IRC, FTP (File
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Transfer Protocol), and telnet. But for someone just starting out it
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can all seem a little intimidating.
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Fortunately, there is help available. There has been an explosion of
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beginner's books on the internet recently -- all part of the newfound
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interest in the online world and interactive media. I was ready to
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print a list of these books, but when I went to the bookstore, I found
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half a dozen titles have been added in recent months; clearly a little
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more research is in order. In the meantime, here is a list of three
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*online* text files aimed at the beginner. Internet access
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information is provided (I used archie to get this info) and also
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availability on the commercial online services when I had this info.
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Additionally, these files should be available on local BBS systems.
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They are presented more or less in order of increasing amount of
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detail, though all will put you on the road to information overload
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and cybernetic bliss via the mother of all networks, the Internet.
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***** The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet (Adam Gaffin)
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The newest of the three texts, this one comes from the folks at the
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Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that is trying to
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insure that the net remains safe for truth, liberty, and the American
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way. Contact them at 202/347-5400 for more information. This guide is
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for folks with little or no experience with network communications.
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A print version is forthcoming. Here's a partial table of contents:
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Chapter 1: Setting up/getting connected/jacking in.
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A. List of public-access sites.
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Chapter 2: E-mail.
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A. Smileys. B. Seven Unix commands you can't live without.
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C. E-mail to other networks
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Chapter 3: Usenet I -- the Global watering hole.
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Chapter 4: Usenet II
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A. Flame, blather and spew and the First Amendment.
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B. rn commands. C. nn commands. D. Usenet hints.
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E. Cross posting F. The brain-tumor boy and the modem tax.
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G. The Big Sig. H. Killfiles. I. Usenet history.
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Chapter 5: Mailing lists and Bitnet.
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Chapter 6: Telnet
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A. Telnet sites. B. Telnet BBSs. C. Finger.
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D. Finding someone on the Net.
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Chapter 7: FTP
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A. The keyboard cabal. B. FTP sites.
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Chapter 8: Gophers, WAISs and the World-Wide Web
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Chapter 9: Advanced E-mail.
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Chapter 10: News of the world.
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Chapter 11: IRC, MUDs and other things that are more fun than they
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sound.
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Chapter 12: Education and the Net.
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Conclusion: The end?
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Appendix A: Lingo
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=ACCESS: If you have access to Gopher, the guide is available from the
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EFF gopherspace. Or do an anonymous FTP to ftp.eff.org, and download
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big-dummys-guide.txt from the pub/EFF/papers directory.
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It is available on America Online (along with B&B) in their telecom
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and text files section as bigdummy.zip, and on Delphi in the internet
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SIG's resource database, also as bigdummy.zip.
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***** Zen and the Art of the Internet (Brendan P. Kehoe)
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The first edition of Zen etc., is available in print (Prentice Hall,
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1993), and is a readable introduction to internet basics. A little
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more detail than Big Dummy. Contents include:
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Chapter 1: Network Basics (Domains, Internet numbers, the networks,
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the physical connection)
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Chapter 2: Electronic Mail (email addresses, anatomy of a mail header,
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bounced mail, sending and receiving mail)
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Chapter 3: Anonymous FTP (FTP Etiquette, basic commands, those '.Z'
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files, using archie)
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Chapter 4: Usenet News (What Usenet is, the diversity of Usenet, what
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Usenet is not, history of Usenet, hierarchies, newsgroups,
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how Usenet works, Usenet "Netiquette", quality of postings,
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frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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Chapter 5: Telnet (Using Telnet, publicly accessible libraries,
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Internet Services List, HYTELNET, The Cleveland Freenet,
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directories, databases and other resources)
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Chapter 6: Various Tools (Finger, ping, talk, the WHOIS database)
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Chapter 7: Commercial Services (Electronic journals, commercial
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databases, Clarinet News)
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Chapter 8: Things You'll Hear About (The Internet worm, Coke machines
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on the Internet, The Cuckoo's Egg, Organizations, text
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projects, advances in networking)
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Chapter 9: Finding Out More (Internet Resource Guide, the MaasInfo
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package, requests for comments (RFCs)
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Conclusion
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Appendix A: Getting to Other Networks
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Appendix B: Retrieving Files via Email
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Appendix C: Newsgroup Creation
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Appendix D: Items Available for FTP
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Appendix E: Country Codes
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Glossary, Bibliography, Index
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=ACCESS: This one is widely available on the Internet, I will list a
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few FTP sites. Look for zen10.zip at the following sites:
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Host: wuarchive.wustl.edu Location: /mirrors/msdos/books
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Host: nic.funet.fi Location: /pub/msdos/magazines/books
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Location: /pub/msdos/SIMTEL20-mirror/books
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Host: rigel.acs.oakland.edu Location: /pub/misc/books
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Host: src.doc.ic.ac.uk
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Location: /literary/collections/project_gutenberg/etext92
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Host: sunsite.unc.edu Location: /pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext92
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Host: uceng.uc.edu Location: /pub/wuarchive/mirrors/misc/books
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Host: csus.edu Location: /pub/banyan/other
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Host: swdsrv.edvz.univie.ac.at Location: /pc/dos/books
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Host: tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
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Location: /pub/rz.archiv/simtel/msdos/books
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On America Online, the file is available in the telecom and text files
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download library as zen10.zip.
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***** The Online World (Odd de Presno)
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The Online Deals with the practical aspects of using the rapidly
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growing global online information resource. The book is an outline
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of what you can get from the online resource. It gives access
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information for a large number of specific online offerings ranging
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from entertainment and the bizarre to databases and special services
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for professionals and organizations. Emphasis is on major
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international offerings available through services and networks like
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the Internet, BITNET, CompuServe, Echo, FidoNet, Usenet, Dialcom,
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Dow Jones/News Retrieval, MCI, NewsNet and UUCP. The Online World is
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for anybody interested in knowing a bit more about our current "Global
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Village." While not being a textbook on data communications, it
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contains much information to help novices get started. Note that the
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Online World is shareware, and the author requests that you become a
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registered reader. Your contribution will support further research and
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development of the text. Contents include:
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PREFACE
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1. Going online will make me rich, right?
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2. The online world (The structure and content of the online
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offerings. About BBS systems, discussion lists, conferencing
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systems, online data bases, packet data services, and network
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services like FidoNet, i-Com, Infonet, Internet, and others.)
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3. How to use online services
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4. Hobbies, games, and fun
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5. Home, education, and work (Tips for house owners, for those more
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concerned about money, about education and the exchange of
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knowledge, electronic conferences. Building a personal network.
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Job hunting by modem, and about working from home.)
|
|
6. Your personal healthnet (About support for diseases like AIDS,
|
|
cancer, and kidney diseases. Forums for people with physical or
|
|
mental disabilities, like hearing impairments, learning
|
|
disabilities, vision impairment, mobility problems.
|
|
7. Electronic mail, telex, and fax (How to communicate globally at a
|
|
ridiculously low cost, with notes about how to address your global
|
|
electronic mail.)
|
|
8. Free expert assistance
|
|
9. Your electronic daily news (Read national and global news before
|
|
getting it through the traditional media. Get those interesting
|
|
background facts. Read special interest news that the media never
|
|
bother to print.)
|
|
10. Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay (Notes about searching
|
|
data bases. How to locate interesting books and articles.)
|
|
11. Getting an edge over your competitor (Using the networks to manage
|
|
projects. Monitor competitors, prospects, suppliers, markets,
|
|
technologies, and trends.)
|
|
Marketing and sales by modem.
|
|
12. Practical tips (How to get more out of the time spent online.)
|
|
13. Cheaper and better communications (Using packet data services or
|
|
competing data transport services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet,
|
|
Internet, PC Pursuit, and others.
|
|
14. Keep what you find. (Build your local personal data base.
|
|
Strategies for locating interesting information. What separates
|
|
good from bad information.)
|
|
15. You pay little for a lot! (How to figure out costs.)
|
|
16. Automatic communication (Get a lead on your competitors. Avoid
|
|
duplication of effort. Reduce costs. Reduce boring repetitive
|
|
work. No need to remember all the "tricks" of communications
|
|
anymore.)
|
|
17. Gazing into the future. (Thoughts about things to come.)
|
|
Appendices:
|
|
1. List of selected online services
|
|
2. How to get started (About your personal computer, modem and
|
|
communications program.)
|
|
3. Your first online trip (Getting started. Typical pitfalls and
|
|
simple solutions. Down- and uploading.)
|
|
4. Explanation of some frequently used terms
|
|
5. Books and articles for further reading
|
|
6. International standard country codes
|
|
7. About the author
|
|
8. How to register
|
|
|
|
=ACCESS: Anonymous FTP to oak.oakland.edu, the file is online11.zip,
|
|
and it is located in the pub/msdos/info directory. It is also avail-
|
|
able in Compuserve's IBM Communications Forum, Library 5, as
|
|
online.zip, or possibly online11.zip.
|
|
|
|
The book can be retrieved by email from LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU
|
|
(U.S.A.) by sending the command /PDGET pd:<msdos.info>online11.zip .
|
|
Use the same command to get it from TRICKLE@SEARN.BITNET (Sweden),
|
|
TRICKLE@DB0FUB11.BITNET (Germany), TRICKLE@FRMOP11.BITNET (France),
|
|
TRICKLE@AWIWUW11.BITNET (Austria), TRICKLE@UNALCOL.BITNET (Colombia),
|
|
TRICKLE@IMIPOLI.BITNET (Italy).
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
In Brief...
|
|
|
|
LOVE AT FIRST BYTE. We value computers for the ways they make us
|
|
efficient and improve our productivity. Yet we truly love them for the
|
|
ways they undermine productivity -- games, bulletin boards, etc. --
|
|
and for the way they excite that part of us that craves new
|
|
possessions. They exercise one of our basic human needs: the
|
|
compulsion to figure something out, to make it work. (James Fallows,
|
|
"Hard Drives," Los Angeles Times Magazine 9/12/93, p. 26, quoted in
|
|
Information Week 9/20/93)
|
|
|
|
TELECOMMUTERS MORE PRODUCTIVE. American Express reports that home-
|
|
based workers handle 26 percent more calls than office workers,
|
|
resulting in a 46 percent average increase in revenue from travel
|
|
bookings. AmEx, which began looking into telecommuting for employees
|
|
two years ago, expects to have 10 percent of its telephone order-
|
|
entry employees working from home. (SOURCE: Fortune Autumn/93 p.28,
|
|
EDUPAGE)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Bits and Bytes Bookshelf:
|
|
|
|
The Virtual Community (Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier)
|
|
by Howard Rheingold [Addison Wesley, 1993. 325 pp. $22.95]
|
|
|
|
- As I mentioned above, there are now a slew of books on internet
|
|
basics. Without going into specifics, I will say a lot of them look
|
|
quite similar. No surprise here -- they all get their basic
|
|
materials from the internet itself. But here comes Howard Rheingold
|
|
(author of Virtual Reality) to show us the next step. Once you're
|
|
out there, and have mastered the basic navigation skills, the human
|
|
element begins to manifest itself. You'll begin to come in (virtual)
|
|
contact with certain individuals again and again in your wanderings,
|
|
people who share your interests and inclinations. Email will be
|
|
exchanged, networks of contacts will begin to form, and friendships
|
|
will begin to bloom in the electronic landscape of cyberspace.
|
|
|
|
The Virtual Community focusses on the human side of computer
|
|
mediated communications (CMC). It shows us the power of networked
|
|
mind, with stories that show us people online exchanging everything
|
|
from technical assistance to political opinions to moral support in
|
|
times of trouble. There are stories of the network springing into
|
|
action and getting things done faster than any other communications
|
|
medium could accomplish. This is a power that has barely been
|
|
tapped, and it wouldn't surprise me if it might not make some
|
|
politicians a wee bit nervous. The role of networks as virtual
|
|
watering holes, places for like-minded (and not so like-minded)
|
|
people to get together and exchange views is explored, as are the
|
|
prospects for online democracy, and the future of the internet and
|
|
the online world of commercial access providers and BBSs.
|
|
|
|
Also explored are the darker possibilities of all this, the
|
|
dangers arising "once we are all wired into the net, and all our
|
|
transactions -- commercial, politcal, personal -- are electronically
|
|
mediated and recorded. "When Big Brother arrives," warns Rheingold,
|
|
"he may come in the form of a grocery clerk." (from the dust jacket)
|
|
Mr. Rheingold has written an important book, and an immensely
|
|
readable and enjoyable one. I for one am having a hard time putting
|
|
it down, mesmerized as I am by the possibilities of life in
|
|
cyberspace, a vast region whose outlines I am only now starting to
|
|
discover.
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the
|
|
system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed,
|
|
analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
|
|
- Bruce Leverett, "Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers"
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
### ADMINISTRIVIA ###
|
|
|
|
THANKS to everyone who wrote in to support B&B. Rest assured that I am
|
|
committed (and perhaps ought to be committed) to putting out B&B for
|
|
the foreseeable future. What do I need a social life for anyway?
|
|
|
|
SORRY about the long mail headers, sports fans. I need to get on a
|
|
listserver. Any suggestions as to how I go about that? While I'm
|
|
on the subject, a note to new subscribers: BE PATIENT! As I am a
|
|
human listserver, I don't send out an acknowledgement (or back
|
|
issues), but you will receive the next scheduled issue. Another
|
|
aspect of human listserverhood: If your address bounces, I will
|
|
attempt to contact you once. If that fails, I remove your name from
|
|
the list. I realize that there are lots of variables involved here,
|
|
but life's too short.
|
|
|
|
IN THE FUTURE...The next issue is due out 10/20/93, but I will
|
|
probably let that date slide a bit. Major programming effort at work.
|
|
My head may explode, and I don't mean that in the good sense. The
|
|
theme of issue #13 will be (cue the organ music) The Dark Side. Issue
|
|
13, Halloween right around the corner, it seems quite the thing to do.
|
|
Any thoughts or suggestions as to the dark underside of the
|
|
technologies we all know and love?
|
|
|
|
CHAOS CORNER is an occasional e-zine of various and sundry tidbits of
|
|
internet information. Free subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available
|
|
by sending electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
|
|
|
|
ACCESS. B&B is available for downloading on America Online in their
|
|
telecom files area, and in Compuserve's telecom forum library. Delphi
|
|
access is forthright, and forthcoming. Could be here for all I know..
|
|
INTERNET ANONYMOUS FTP SITES:
|
|
ftp.dana.edu in /periodic directory
|
|
INTERNET GOPHER ACCESS.
|
|
- gopher.law.cornell.edu in the Discussions and Listserv archives/
|
|
Teknoids directory
|
|
- gopher.dana.edu in the Electronic Journals directory
|
|
|
|
If anyone else is archiving B&B, I would appreciate knowing about it.
|
|
Include specifics and I will add you to this list. If B&B is being
|
|
distributed via mailing lists, I would appreciate being informed about
|
|
it so I can estimate how many people are reading B&B. Thanks!
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
BITS AND BYTES ONLINE, an electronic newsletter for text-based life-
|
|
forms, is published three dozen times a year, on the 1st, 10th, and
|
|
20th of each month. E-mail Subscriptions are available at no cost from
|
|
slakmaster@aol.com. Put "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject header and your
|
|
email address in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a
|
|
message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject header and your email
|
|
address in the body. Send correspondence to jmachado@pacs.pha.pa.us.
|
|
*This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons*
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Jay Machado = (Copyright 1993 Jay Machado) *unaltered* =
|
|
1529 Dogwood Drive = ELECTRONIC distribution of this file for =
|
|
Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 = non-profit purposes is encouraged. =
|
|
ph (eve) 609/795-0998 = The editor is solely responsible for the =
|
|
======================== editorial content. Opinions expressed are =
|
|
======================== subject to change. You figure it out. =
|
|
=============== End of Bits and Bytes Online V1, #12 =================
|
|
|