New to the Interent?

New to the Internet ? Start Here:

by Peter Mellow © 1995.



Future tech is now: by Michael D. Lemonick, TIME Magazine July 17 1995.

"Acceleration. It's the phenomenon that takes a formula one racer from 0 to 275km/hr in less than 10 seconds. It's what happens when a space shuttle soars to an orbital speed of 28,000 km/hr only eight minutes after lift-off. But the most incredible acceleration of all is in the pace of technological change. It took humanity more than 2 million years to invent wheels, but only about 5,000 years to drive those wheels with a steam engine. The first computers filled entire rooms, and it took 35 years to make the machines fit a desk-but the leap from desktop to laptop took less than a decade. For much of this century, the mail and the telephone were the primary means of communication. Now faxes, voice mail and electronic mail have all come into widespread use in less than a decade."


You have probably heard about the Internet. You may even have an idea of what it is. You probably have a computer, and are getting good use out of it with work and home, using CD's and games. But it is time to venture out into a wider range of computer applications.
NOW, there is another use for your computer. One that can could change completely the way you think about the world. For around an initial setup price of $300-$400 ( assuming you already have a computer ), and ongoing costs of about $30+ per month ( depending on use and provider charges ) you can connect to the internet. And once in, you'll be able to get ALL sorts of information, on any subject, as well as having an extremely powerful communication tool. The services you could use would include:

E-mail, ( Electronic Mail )

E-mail is a text only based communication system. It has been noted that you can email messages to over 30 million people in 160 countries. ( MacWorld magazine May 95 ) Faxes are cheaper than a phone call, but the rule of thumb with email is that if a fax costs $1, the same email message would cost 1 cent! You can contact anyone
who has an email address, write a message to them, and once you click the SEND button, it will make its way to their computer, and could be over on the other side of the world in 5 seconds! No wonder emailers call the usual postage system 'snail mail!'
As well as being able to contact people, email has an even more exciting use. You can subscribe to usergroups that have a special interest. They will email you newsletters on a regular basis and you can 'post' to the group a message that everyone will read. I currently subscribe to 3 Macintosh groups and 4 exercise / fitness groups.
A- majordomo@stonebow.otago.ac.nz is a sports science, sports Physiology group based at Otago University, run by Will Hopkins. It currently has 1,200 people subscribing to it, but only about 100 of those are from New Zealand. Lots of 'known names' write on it, and its good to read every day to keep up with the latest research in this area.
B- listserv@vm.temple.edu is a Sports Psychology group based at Temple University in America. Lots of interesting discussion is posted every day on a wide variety of topics.
C- listserv@etsuadmn.etsu.edu runs Fit-List, which is less scientific, but covers more general fitness topics from aerobics, to weight training and nutrition.
D-weights@fa.disney.com is a weigh training, bodybuilding newsletter that is published almost every day!
The Macintosh groups have interesting hints and tips on how to use your computer better, as well as keeping you up to date with the latest gossip in the computer world.


Web Browsers

With browsers such as Netscape, ( the most popular, and it has the most features ) you can 'surf' the net and jump from site to site. '"'There are currently 100,000 sites freely available, and a group that monitors the growth of the Web ( Internet Solutions ) suggest its size is doubling every 2-3 months, and should reach 500,000 by the end of 1995!'"' MACFORMAT issue 30 November 1995. Often one site will lead to many others through 'jump lists', connections written into the document. You can for example: Visit my page NEW ZEALAND FITNESS at http://www.ait.ac.nz/~sport and after reading all you want JUMP to either:
Planet Reebok
New Balance
Yahoo's Health and Fitness Page
The National Federation of Personal Trainers
National Endurance Sports Trainers
The Weightlifting Page
Dietitians Online
Body Mechanics - Online Fitness Centre
OR a Fitness Gopher
If you aren't interested in these fitness related pages you could go to a search engine and request for a search on any topic you wish, from asthma to microbiology, stamp collecting to Argentina. You can find lots of information on ANY topic or subject.
As well as reading all this recorded knowledge, you can also copy it and use in your word processor ( acknowledging the reference of course! ) and also copy any graphics or photos you look at.
You can also go to sites that are a big bank of different software programs for your computer and download games, communication software, updates for programs that you already have and demos of new systems that companies want you to try out.


FTP ( File Transfer Protocol )

FTP is a useful tool that allows you to connect your computer to another larger computer (usually
at an educational institution) and roam around what they will let you use. If you find anything you
want, you can transfer that file down onto your computer. Examples of this include 'First Search'"'
which allows you to read 'Medline' online.



What does this Address mean:
The way to make sure you get your message to where you want it to, or to ensure that you go to the right page, you must use the correct address. There are 2 basic address types.
A- Email address's always have '@' in them, which tells you where that person is. E.G. My email address is peterm@cybernet.co.nz
This says that the mail is for peterm AT @ cybernet ( my provider ) which is a private COmpany in New Zealand. If you email me on this address it will go to the main cybernet computer, and when I log on in the evening, and ask to clear my mail, it will be transferred to my computer.
B- World Wide Web addressed ( normally used on the browsers ) will have a www in the address. The full address is the URL ( Uniform Resource Locator ) is the text based address of the provider or page that you want. E.G. My page is address is: http://www.ait.ac.nz/~sport
This says that my page is a HTTP ( HyperTextTransferProtocol ) a language used in the document so all computers can read it, and is a WWW page at AIT which is an educational institution ( ac or sometimes edu in the US ) at New Zealand in the directory ~sport .
If you enter this address in your browser, up will pop my page in a few seconds. On the page you can see that some text is of a different colour than most of the other text. This coloured text is 'hypertext', as you move the cursor over this text, in the bottom of the browser you can see the address of that site that is linked to that page. If you click on that coloured text you will jump to that site.


Sites you may wish to visit:

http://tito.hyperlink.com/balance/ will take you to Balance magazine in Chicago which is excellent. It also has an International Register of Personal Trainers, which you can put your name on.

http://www.cybercise.com/ace.html is the home page of ACE, The American College of Exercise.

http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/ Lycos is a great search site that you can enter what you want, and it will tell you where you can get it!

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html
Is the World Wide Web Worm Search Site.

http://www.yahoo.com/ Yahoo is another search site.

http://www.weta.co.nz/ Weta is a NZ search site.

http://www.best.com/~myee/ultimate_mac.html
Is The Ultimate Macintosh, a site with lots of Mac stuff on.

http://www.macfaq.com/ The Well Connected Mac, another great mac site.

http://sunsite.unc.edu/drears/running/running.html
The Running Page

http://www.mixcom.com:80/newslink/#menu
Link to over 160 newspapers online.

http://www.cnn.com/ CNN news online.

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