Monster Media 1994 #1/monster.zip/monster/TEXT/BIGDUPD1.ZIP/BIGD-UPD.001

Internet Message Format | 1994-03-01 | 21KB

Xref: world comp.org.eff.talk:28447
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.internet.services,news.newusers.questions
From: [e-mail] (Adam M Gaffin)
Subject: Big Dummy Update, V.1
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 04:48:04 GMT
Lines: 449

                             THE BIG DUMMY UPDATE
                             ====================
                              V.1.0, March, 1994
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           An online publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
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CONTENTS:

1.  Welcome!
2.1 Lynx -- The World-Wide Web for the rest of us
    2.2  Imagine that -- downloading pictures
    2.3  Addressing a problem
    2.4  Some interesting WWW servers
    2.5  Lynx commands
    2.6  When things go wrong
    2.7  FYI
3.  Services of the Month
4.  Contact info

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WELCOME!

The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was never meant to be the
definitive work on every possible facet of the Internet.  For one thing,
the Net is growing so rapidly that any book that tried to list all its
resources would be outdated the day it was published.  But more
important, such a guide would be so long that a beginner could easily get
lost in it trying to learn such fundamental things as how to log on.

That's where the Big Dummy Update comes in.  Every month, it will look
at topics not covered well, if at all, in the original guide -- topics
that, as you become more comfortable as a net.surfer, you'll want to know
more about.  And because the Internet continues to grow exponentionally,
the Update will also carry news of interesting new Net resources and
tools.

I welcome your comments and questions  -- thanks to all who have already
written. If there's a particular topic you'd like to see covered -- or
one that you would like to write about yourself -- drop me a line. And if
you run across a new service that you think is great and that others
should know about, let me know that, too!

Adam Gaffin
[e-mail].


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2.1  LYNX -- THE WORLD-WIDE WEB FOR THE REST OF US


If you've wandered around the Net much in recent months, you probably
couldn't get away from the talk about the World-Wide Web (WWW).
Everywhere, it seems, you read about all the nifty new services available
through it -- all wrapped up in a beautiful, easy-to-use interface called
Mosaic.

There was just one problem.  If you connect to the Net by having your
communications software dial a public-access provider, you couldn't tap
into any of this. All those fancy graphics and documents require some
hefty Net processing power, which means the Web was basically limited to
those with direct Internet connections or with the inclination and money
to set up what's known as a SLIP or PPP connection. Yes, you can sort of
browse the Web via a standard modem connection (telnet to info.cern.ch),
but the basic interface is clunky and ugly, and doesn't give you access
to any of the online images.

Fortunately, Michael Grobe, Lou Montulli and Charles Rezac of the
University of Kansas are on the case.  They've created a character-based
interface to the Web, called Lynx,  that is easy to use and even gives
you ready access to many of the available images. In many ways, it'll
remind you of gopher; in fact, you can use it to access gopher servers.
But the World-Wide Web has a unique way of presenting information.  And
because there are a growing number of Web-only resources out there, from
real-estate listing to postings from student expeditions to Belize to
descriptions of archaeological digs along the Aegean, it's well worth
getting to know your way around.

As with gopher, probably the best way to learn how to use Lynx is to just
dive right in. At your host system's command prompt, type

        lynx

and hit enter.  If you're lucky, your system administrator has
already installed Lynx and you'll see something like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE WEB [IMAGE]

   There is no "top" to the World-Wide Web. You can look at it from many
   points of view. Here are some places to start.

   [IMAGE] by Subject
          The Virtual Library organises information by subject matter.

   List of servers
          All registered HTTP servers by country

   by Service Type
          The Web includes data accessible by many other protocols. The
          lists by access protocol may help if you know what kind of
          service you are looking for.

   If you find a useful starting point for you personally, you can
   configure your WWW browser to start there by default.

-- press space for more, use arrow keys to move, '?' for help, 'q' to quit
  Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
 H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If nothing happens, consider asking your system administrator to get Lynx
(tell him it's available via anonymous ftp at ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the
pub/lynx directory).  Until he does, you can try out lynx by telnetting
to one of the following addresses:

        ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
        www.twi.tudelft.nl
        millbrook.lib.rmit.edu.au

For the first one, in Kansas, log on as: www.  For the other two (in the
Netherlands and Australia, respectively), log on as: lynx.  The Kansas
site is set up more to demonstrate the software than to serve as a
heavy-duty public Lynx service, so try to go easy on it!

As you can see from the above, the Web has no real menus, at least not in
the sense that Gopher does.  Instead, the system is composed of
documents or "pages."  If you are using VT100 or similar emulation and a
color monitor, the above screen would have certain words in a different
color than the others.  These words (for example [IMAGE]) are known as
hyperlinks.  By moving your cursor to one and then hitting enter, you'll
move to a new page -- which could be located on a completely different
computer somewhere else in the world.  Think of it as an online
encyclopedia that lets you flip very quickly through its pages when
some you read makes you want to look up a related topic. This is perhaps
the biggest difference between gophers and the Web.

The above main page has three main hyperlinks:

   [IMAGE] by Subject
   List of servers
   by Service Type


The first one contains a list of various Web resources around the world,
categorized by subject.  The second one lists them by continent, country
and then city.  The final one lets you browse among non-Web services,
such as our friend gopher and Wide-Area Information Servers (in fact,
you could live your entire Internet life within the Web; not only does it
let you connect to gophers, ftp sites and the like, but you can even use
it in many cases to read and reply to Usenet messages as well).

Move your cursor around, hit enter, and see where you pop up.  The key
navigational keys are your arrow keys.  The up and down arrow keys let
you hop among highlighted links.  The right arrow key is the same as
enter -- it sends you to the highlighted service.  The left arrow key is
analogous to 'u' in gopher -- it takes you back to the previous document.

There are additional navigational commands that will come in handy in a
hypertext system (without them, it would be easy to get lost rather
quickly).  A key one is your backspace or delete key.  Hitting that will
bring up a list of links you've made in the current session; you can then
choose one if you want to get back somewhere.  Hitting m will bring you
back to your "main page,'' that is, the first page you saw when you
started up Lynx.

2.2  IMAGINE THAT -- DOWNLOADING PICTURES

As you play with Lynx, you'll notice that some pages will have entries
that look like this: [IMAGE].  If you put your cursor on one of these
and hit enter, you'll get one of two messages.  One says something about
how the "client" can't display an ISMAP image.  In that case, there's not
much you can do, except hit your left arrow key to get back to the
previous page -- Lynx at this point can't handle this particular system
for displaying maps.

The other message also looks potentially frustrating: "This file cannot
be displayed on this terminal.  D)ownload or C)ancel."  This is actually
good news, however, because it means it's an image you can retrieve.  If
you hit d, you'l be asked if you want to save the image to your host
system, or if you want to use ZMODEM to download it directly to your own
computer.  If you're using a communications program with ZMODEM,
selecting the latter will immediately start the process of transferring
it to you.  The file names will always look something like: L23015.HTM.
In most cases, the files will be GIF images, occasionally JPEG images,
and, rarely TIFF images. You'll obviously need a GIF/JPEG viewer on your
computer to view these.  If you don't have ZMODEM, save the image to your
host system.  Interestingly, when you do this, you'll get a more
descriptive file name, for example, instead of L2015.HTM, you might get
OLDBONES.GIF.  In either case, when done transferring the file, hit your
left arrow key to get back to the previous page.  Before you actually
download the file, you'll see a message indicating how large it is --
handy to know if you're using a relatively slow modem.

A related function to downloading is retrieving a copy of a document.  To
do that, hit p within a document.  You'll be given several choices as to
how to retrieve it, including sending it to yourself via e-mail or saving
it to a file in your home directory on your host system.

2.3  ADDRESSING A PROBLEM

One feature Lynx has that gophers do not is the ability to go directly to
a service by typing in its address.  You get to this by hitting g at any
point in Lynx.  And here's where you run into the mess that is Universal
Resource Locators (URLs).  The idea behind URLs is actually a good one:
to create a universal system for accessing information on the Internet,
no matter if it's a single file on an anonymous-FTP site, an entire
gopher server, or a Web image.  Unfortunately, that means that, in WWW,
you're going to have to get used to seeing, and typing, things like:

        http://www.germany.eu.net/books/bdgtti/bdgtti.html

(which is actually the Web address for a version of the Big Dummy's Guide
to the Internet).  Ack!  The "http" means you're dealing with a WWW
resource -- it stands for "hypertext transport protocol," which is the
particular way the Web moves information around the world.  Other common
prefixes you'll run across are "gopher" (to get to a gopher), "ftp" (to
get to a particular FTP site) and "file" (to get to a specific file).
Always, these prefixes will be followed by :// and then the name of the
resource you're trying to reach.  In the above example, notice how the
last item ends in ".html."  That stands for "hypertext markup language,"
which is the coding used to create hyperlinks.  You'll often find Web
addresses ending in that, because they will be pointers to main pages for
particular resources.  If you are trying to reach a service without a
main HTML page (a gopher, for example), you would end the address with a
/, for example: gopher://gopher.eff.org/

Fortunately, in many cases, you will have to type these long names only
once.  Recall how hitting your backspace or delete key creates a list of
hyperlinks to services you've tried in a particular session. You can also
create a list of "bookmarks" to speed you to particular services in the
future.  To add a page to your list, hit a while on that page.  To see
your bookmark list, hit v.  You'll then be able to zoom to any services
in the list by moving your cursor to its highlighted name and hitting
enter.

One thing WWW does not yet have is an equivalent to gopher's veronica
function.  Until then, the best way to find a particular resource is to
keep up with the postings in the relevant Usenet newsgroups (see FYI
below) and Web services (see the next section).


2.4  SOME INTERESTING WWW SERVERS

When using the g command, preface all of the following site addresses
with http://

GENERAL

www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html  You'll find
all sorts of new Web and Internet services listed and detailed here.  An
excellent resource for keeping up with the Web.

sunsite.unc.edu/expo.ticket_office.html  A virtual World's Fair that lets
you tour exhibits from around the world and, at the end of the day, hop
on a computerized shuttle bus for a trip to the official Expo restaurant.

141.214.4.176/uwi/reviews.html   Look here for "What's Hot and Cool" on
the Web.

www.cen.uiuc.edu/   The College of Engineering at the University of
Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, maintains a variety of Internet guides here.

DINOSAURS

www.hcc.hawaii.edu/dinos/dinos1.html  Look here for images of dinosaur
skeletons.

ENVIRONMENT

www.econet.apc.org/lcv/scorecard.html  See how your local
congressman/woman is ranked by the League of Conservation Voters.

seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/JASON/JASON.html  Follow the exploits of a group of
scientists and students on a research expedition to Belize to study the
rain cycle.

LAW

www.law.cornell.edu/lii.table.html   Cornell University's Legal
Information Institute provides a variety of law-related documents, from
information on specific legal issues to copies of U.S. Supreme Court
decisions.

LEGOS

legowww.itek.norut.no/catalog/index.html   Yes, it's a set of documents
and pictures all about the little plastic blocks with the pegs on top.

MOVIES

www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Movies/moviewquery.html   You can search for
filmographies for particular actors and directors here.

NEWSPAPERS

www.service.com/PAW/masthead.html  The Palo Alto (Calif.) Weekly, makes
copies of its articles available at this address.

NEW ZEALAND

www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/NZ/MainPaige.html  Your personal
guided tour of New Zealand, complete with pictures of its cities, scenery
and people, begins here.

REAL ESTATE

www.gems.com/realestate/   Real-estate listings from several cities around
the U.S.

SLOVENIA

www.ijs.si/slo.html  Learn more about the former Yugoslav republic in
words and photographs.

SPACE

sspp.gsfc.nasa.gov/  Look here for info ondiscount space flights from
NASA, like the "Get Away Special" -- only $27,000 to launch a 90-pound
cannister aboard a space shuttle.


2.5  LYNX COMMANDS

Down arrow      Highlight next topic
Up arrow        Go to previously highlighted topic
Right arrow     Same as hitting enter on a highlighted topic
Left arrow      Move back to previous topic
+               Scroll down to next page
-               Scroll back to previous page
? or h          Help
a               Add current page to bookmark file
c               Send a comment to the creator of the document
d               Download the document on your screen
g               Go to specific resource (you'll have to type in its
                address)
m               Return to main screen
o               Set personal options (for example, your e-mail address)
p               Print, save or download a document.
v               View your bookmark file
z               Cancel document or image transfer
backspace       View your past links in the current session
delete          Same as backspace
=               Get address information for current file or link

2.6  WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

* You try to connect to a site, but get an error message that "The
requested URL was not found on this server."

Re-check the spelling of the site address you entered.  WWW addresses are
case-sensitive, so that might be a problem, as well.  Hit your left arrow
key, then g then try entering the address again.

* You try to use g to get to a new site and nothing happens.

Lynx does not seem to let you go to sites from error-message pages and
some other pages.  If that happens, hit your left arrow, then try again.


2.7  FYI

Once a month, Thomas Boutell posts a WWW FAQ (answers to "Frequently Asked
Questions") in the news.answers and comp.infosystems.www newsgroups in
Usenet.  You can also retrieve a copy via anonymous ftp (or ncftp) at
rtfm.mit.edu. Look in the pub/usenet/news.answers/www directory for a
file called faq.


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SERVICES OF THE MONTH

Adam Curry, MTV VJ, has apparently stopped updating his rock/celebrity
gopher, putting all of his online effort instead into a similar WWW
server, which you can reach at http://mtv.com/


FTP
Connect to these sites like this: ftp site.name or ncftp site.name

BUSINESS ON THE NET

netcom.com               Look in the pub/GUIDES directory for Dave
                         Taylor's Internet.Mall list of businesses that
                         now advertise and sell stuff on the Internet.


GOPHER
Connect to these sites like this: gopher site.name

ART

gopher.cs.ttu.edu        Those of us old enough to remember the '70s
                         probably still wonder about those people who
                         managed to create pictures of Snoopy or naked
                         women entirely out of ASCII characters using only
                         a keyboard, a printer, and a $70,000 mini-
                         computer.  Today, anybody with an XT clone and a
                         cheapo graphics program can turn out strikingly
                         complex and colorful pictures.  But there's life
                         yet for the old school of computer graphics.
                         Just ask Abdul Malik of Texas Technical
                         University, who has assembled a library of
                         hundreds of images built entirely of keyboard
                         characters.  We're not sure why you'd ever need
                         an ASCII picture of Toucan Sam or of a 16-ton
                         weight, but if you do, here's the gopher for
                         you. When you connect, select "Art and
                         Images" and then "ClipArt/ASCII."  This site
                         also has numerous other artistic images for the
                         taking.

ENVIRONMENT

minerva.forestry.umn.edu The University of Minnesota's Forestry Library
                         maintains an extensive bibliography of documents
                         related to the care and preservation of forests,
                         from maintaining trails in the wilds to keeping
                         trees alive in urban forests.  Also runs a
                         bibliography of material on blood-sucking
                         arthropods.


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CONTACT INFO

The Big Dummy Update is published monthly by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, and is available by several routes.  It is posted monthly in
the comp.org.eff.talk, alt.internet.services and news.newusers.questions
newsgroups.  To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to
[e-mail]. As the message, write:
add big-dummy-update (don't include your name). Back copies will be
available by anonymous ftp at ftp.eff.org in the
pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Updates directory; by gopher at gopher.eff.org
(select Net Info, then Big Dummy then Updates); and by WWW at
http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Updates/

To obtain a copy of the entire Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, use
anonymous ftp to connect to ftp.eff.org and look in the
pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy directory, or use gopher to connect to
gopher.eff.org and then select Net Info and then Big Dummy.

For general information on the Electronic Frontier Foundation, send an e-
mail message to [e-mail]. To ask a specific question, write
[e-mail].
--
Adam Gaffin
[e-mail] / [phone]
The big dummy behind the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet.