NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/alt/comp/acadfre/talk/2650

Text File | 1992-08-20 | 8.2 KB | 259 lines

Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
Path: sparky!uunet!gumby!destroyer!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!kadie
From: [e-mail] (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Any info on Indiana U Admin?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Originator: [e-mail]
Sender: [e-mail] (NNTP News Poster)
Nntp-Posting-Host: eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 14:17:20 GMT
Lines: 245

[e-mail] (Greg Lindahl) writes:

>I hate to interrupt the flamewars, but UVa just hired Polley McClure,
>who was most recently the dean of academic computing at Indiana U.
>Anyone have any comments on her view on news, irc, and other such
>topics? Email would be fine.

One way to try to answer such questions is to do a full text search on
the CAF archive. (I did this. Polley McClure isn't mentioned. Not
incidents have been reported at Indiana U.)

Anyone who can ftp to eff.org can also do a fuzzy full text search on
the CAF archive using "wais".

If you already know what WAIS is, here is the comp-acad-freedom.src
record:

(:source
   :version  3
   :ip-address "192.88.144.4"
   :ip-name "wais.eff.org"
   :tcp-port 210
   :database-name "comp-acad-freedom"
   :cost 0.00
   :cost-unit :free
   :maintainer "[e-mail]"
   :description "Files relating to the Computers & Academic Freedom lists.

Includes computer usage policies, bibliographies, archives of old
discussion, and much more.
"
)

Some popular wais programs (clients) include "swais" and "xwais".
Your site may already have these installed. If not, you can
access a client at Thinking Machines via telnet. Just telnet
to quake.think.com. Login as "wais".

In addition to the "comp-academic-freedom" server, there are servers
for recent Supreme Court decisions, for FAQ's, for EFF, for the bible,
etc, etc.

Here is some additional information from alt.wais.

- Carl

=====================================
>From: [e-mail] (Brewster Kahle)
>Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.wais,alt.wais
>Subject: Re: WAIS FAQ part 0 of n: getting started
>Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
>Date: 8 May 92 23:04:35 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Martti Tolvanen) writes:

   Path: think.com!ames!olivea!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!tolvanen
   From: [e-mail] (Martti Tolvanen)
   Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.wais,alt.wais
   Date: 6 May 92 14:07:34 GMT
   References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
   Organization: University of Helsinki
   Lines: 6
   Xref: think.com comp.infosystems.wais:4 alt.wais:731

   Where does one find the WAIS client that runs under UNIX (related to GNU
   Emacs?)

   --
   Martti Tolvanen, Dept. Biochem., Univ. Helsinki, Finland
   [e-mail]


it is in the unix release:


       New Unix Internet Release (Beta 3 Release) Available
                September 16, 1991

Thank you for the interest in WAIS.  The servers on Quake (including the
directory of servers) has 70k requests from over 1100 different hosts all
over the world (18 countries) in a couple of months.  There are now 70
servers including one in Norway, one in Australia, poetry, recipies,
comp.sources, as well as a Connection Machine serving all sorts of things.

There are are a few mailing lists on this subject that you might want to be
on:
    wais-interest: only announcements like this (1 a month or so)
    wais-discussion: moderated mailings every 1 or 2 weeks.  Good
            stuff including all on wais-interest.
    wais-talk: unmoderated for implementors and interactive discussions.
Requests to wais-<foo>[e-mail].  Archives available from
wais server: wais-discussion or anonymous ftp from quake.think.com.

A bibliography of available written materials and resources is available
from /pub/wais/wais-discussion/[e-mail] (ftp) or
WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src, or on request from [e-mail].

Jonathan Goldman pulled the most recent release together (with help from
developers all over the world, see below):
Highlights of modifications (see the release for the full report)
    Overall: make it more portable, and small enhancements
Thank you to all that have contributed bug reports and suggestions.  There
are no concrete plans for the next release.

Overview of components:
In this release is source code for:
 * Server code:  There is code to index text and picture files.
 * Protocol code: based on Z39.50-1988 using the internet.
 * Clients code: User interfaces for contacting servers
    * GNU emacs interface
    * simple shell interface
    * Mac interface (in separate WAIStation file)
    * tool kit for making your own interfaces
    * X interface
 * Directory of servers: This is be a network service that lists
    existing servers and how to contact them.
 * A Connection Machine server with some patent information, the CIA
    factbook, and some Biomedical abstracts, info-mac, risks, etc
    to serve as example servers.

Other components available elsewhere:
 NeXT release:     /wais/[e-mail]
 Telnet access: telnet quake.think.com login wais
 DOS:         /pub/wais/UNC/wais-dos*@samba.oit.unc.edu
 Motif:     /public/wais/[e-mail]
 IBM RS6000:    /pub/misc/[e-mail]
 SunView:     /pub/wais/sunsearch.src.*[e-mail]
 VMS:         pub/wais/UNC/vms-client

The public servers that are currently advertized are:

Biology:
 biology-journal-contents.src
 biosci.src             Molecular-biology.src

Usenet and internet archives:
 comp.graphics.src        comp.admin.src
 comp.db.src            comp.emacs.src
 comp.multi.src            comp.archives.src
 rec.pets.src            comp.sources.src
 usenet-science.src
 user-contrib-cookbook.src     usenet-cookbook.src
 homebrew.src
 info-mac.src             sun-spots.src

Frequently Asked Questions:
 NeXT.FAQ.src             unix.FAQ.src
 ibm.pc.FAQ.src            mac.FAQ.src

Connection Machine info:
 CM-applications.src
 CM-tech-summary.src
 CM-fortran-manual.src         CM-paris-manual.src
 CM-star-lisp-docs.src        CMFS-documentation.src

Books:
 jargon.src
 bible.src            koran.src
 sample-books.src
 MIT-algorithms-bug.src     MIT-algorithms-exercise.src
 MIT-algorithms-suggest.src

Libraries:
 online-libraries.src
 tmc-library.src

Misc:
 open_systems_calendar.src    matrix_news.src
 astro-images-gif.src         astro-images-fits.src
 nsf-bulletins.src
 midi.src
 unimelb-research.src (Australia!)
 supreme-ct.src
 NIH-Guide.src
 UNTComputerDoc.src
 US-Gov-Programs.src
 UiO_Publications.src (Norway!)
 cosmic-abstracts.src        cosmic-programs.src
 directory-of-servers.src
 eff-documents.src        eff-talk.src
 empire.src             empire20.src
 internet-documents.src        internet-drafts.src
 internet-resource-guide.src    internet-rfcs.src
 patent-sampler.src
 poetry.src
 risks-digest.src

 sample-pictures.src
 unix-manual.src
 wais-discussion-archives.src    wais-docs.src
 wall-street-journal-sample.src
 weather.src
 world-factbook.src


The first "Digital Librarians", I think it would be safe to say are the
maintainers of these servers:
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]

The release is available from Think.com via anonymous FTP in
/public/wais/wais-8-b3.tar.Z and WAIStation-0-62.sit.hqx.

Bugs to [e-mail] or to me.

For the bug fixes, thanks to:
Garrett A. Wollman <[e-mail]>
Simon E Spero <[e-mail]>
<[e-mail]>
[e-mail],
Michael Haberler ([e-mail]) and to
[e-mail] for bug fixes to the last release.


-brewster and the wais crew

"Paper and flesh are fleeting media for the treasures that are ideas."

Brewster Kahle                    Thinking Machines Corporation
[e-mail]                1010 El Camino Real
Project Leader                    Menlo Park, CA 94025
Wide Area Information Servers            415-329-9300x228
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =[e-mail], [e-mail] =