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Internet Message Format | 1994-08-21 | 17.8 KB

Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!ceylon!sundog.tiac.net!news.sprintlink.net!bga.com!lthumper From: lthumper@bga.com (Jeff Kramer) Newsgroups: alt.galactic-guide Subject: PGG Report 1.1 Date: 17 Aug 1994 22:11:46 GMT Organization: Real/Time Communications - Bob Gustwick and Associates Lines: 431 Message-ID: <32u1v2$r80@giga.bga.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: edwin.bga.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] __ /\ \__ _____ __ __ _ __ __ _____ ___ _ __\ \ ,_\ /\ '__`\ /'_ `\ /'_ `\ /\`'__\/'__`\/\ '__`\ / __`\/\`'__\ \ \/ \ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \L\ \ \ \ \//\ __/\ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \ \ \/ \ \ \_ \ \ ,__/\ \____ \ \____ \ \ \_\\ \____\\ \ ,__/\ \____/\ \_\ \ \__\ \ \ \/ \/___L\ \/___L\ \ \/_/ \/____/ \ \ \/ \/___/ \/_/ \/__/ \ \_\ /\____/ /\____/ \ \_\ \/_/ \_/__/ \_/__/ \/_/ 1.1 Posted: 5:00 PM, Wednesday, August 17, 1994 (CST) Welcome to the Project Galactic-Guide Report! This bandwidth sucking newsletter is brought to you courtesy of the alt.galactic-guide Usenet newsgroup. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * What the hey is PGG? * Intro 1) Report from the PGG Field Research Recruiter - Roel van der Meulen 2) The Report on the PGG Weekend - Steve Baker 3) A quick intro to HTML and what it means to PGG - Ed 4) A plea for input - Ed 5) Next issue - Ed * Appropriate name-mentioning --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What the hey is PGG? -------------------- Well, PGG or Project Galactic-Guide is a ongoing project dedicated to creating a working version of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, from the book of the same name by the author of a completely different name: Douglas Adams. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (THHGTTG) is a book about a book. THHGTTG is a book that is basically a guide to everything you need to know (If your a intergalactic hitchhiker.) about the galaxy. Although Douglas Adams has nothing to do with the project, except, of course, inspiring it. Also we are kind of restricting it to the known galaxy. :) The field researchers congregate on the internet, and communicate through the usenet newsgroup entitled alt.galactic-guide. If you want more info on PGG, want to contribute, etc . stop by, we'd be glad to have you. You can obtain the FAQ (Which explains all this much better than I could.) the following ways: finger ------ rtucker@worf.infonet.net WWW --- http://www.realtime.net/~lthumper/pggfaq.html (Up as soon as I get the new FAQ, IE not yet, maybe a week from now.) FTP --- vela.acs.oakland.edu /pub/glalactic-guide/faq If you can't seem to find it, send mail to swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu. He is the "keeper of the FAQ". The new one is probably hitting the newsgroups as you read this. Intro ----- Welcome to the PGG Report (Although the name is open to suggestions.). This, being the first issue, is a bit ... lacking. We plan to expand the PGG report, I have a lot of ideas, this is my first real "Me Be In Charge" job, and I'm taking my best crack at it. Any comments, questions, corrections, Etc. may be sent to me at lthumper@bga.com. If you need to send me hardcopy stuff, send it to: Jeff Kramer 12514 Darryl Dr. Buda, Tx 78610 USA (FYI Buda is really south Austin, Texas.) There's more Editorial blah-blah at the end. 1 Report from the PGGFRR (PGGFRRR) By Roel van der Meulen -------------------------------- My job as a Project Galactic Guide Field Researcher Recruiter used to only involve the finding of funny articles in newsgroups and other places and getting them ready for submission to the PGG editor. This means that I scan some newsgroups, especially alt.humor.best-of-usenet for submissions that could probably be interesting or amusing for people reading The Guide. If I find one I convert it to the PGG format, sometimes also altering the contents a bit, to make it better suited for us. Then I send this version to the original author, if available, and ask if I can send it to our editor. People always reply positively, although I have never had the pleasure to see one of them submit a second article especially made for the Project. Maybe I'd better call myself PGG Article Recruiter. Hopefully I won't have to. To this activity I have recently added the compiling of amusing threads, mostly from the newsgroup alt.shenanigans. I follow the threads, save the articles, and when the thread has ended I cut and paste it to an interesting article. I don't mention all the different authors here, as there are so many of them and not everyone gives equal contributions. Instead I give credit to "people who wrote to the newsgroup". Until now I have recruited the following articles: 2R55 -- Santa Claus, Existence of; Scientific Inquiry into The Virginia Postulate. 2R76 -- Law School Necessities; What You Need When Going to Law School. 2R86 -- Cameras, How To Make Money Using; Creative Camera Use. 2R87 -- Elevators, Fifty Fun Things To Do In; A Boring Place Made More Enjoyable. 2R95 -- How to Say "I Love You" in Different Languages; My "I Love You" List. 2R97 -- No Charge; How to Get Free Coke, Telephone Calls, and More. 2R99 -- Opinions On UFOs; Take Me to Your Leader. 2U34 -- World According to Student Bloopers, The; History Turned Upside-Down. 2U39 -- Perception and "Usefulness"; An Attempt at a Typology. 2U41 -- Conservation of Cookies, General Principle of; Splergle Arb. 2U42 -- Devilled Ham; Recipe for Devilled Ham. 2U43 -- Ka-Dink Effect, The; Mechanical Click in an Apple Newton Computer. 2U45 -- Mathematical Model of God and Jesus; Sexual Sin and Christians. 2U46 -- Catholic Theme Park; Froodiest Kitch in the World, Once It Exists. 2U47 -- Gedankenexperiment; What does this word mean, and where does it come from? 2U48 -- RSA Broken By The Russians?; Kolmogorov Cryptography System possibly cracked. 2U49 -- Feline MPD; Cats with suspected Multiple Personality Disorder. 2U50 -- Light, Speed Of, Why it is Finite; The Untold Truth about Creation. 2U54 -- M.E.O.W. Treatment; Treatment for Feline Psychological Problems. 2U55 -- Aura Photograph Technique; Technique for the Restoration of Damaged CD's. 2U57 -- Argicize; What Does Argicize Mean and What are its Roots? 2U58 -- Kevinlian; The Planet Kevinlian, the H&R Kevlin Store, and Alien Kevin Lentin 2U60 -- Geeks and... er... Romance; What Geeks Find Romantic. 2U62 -- Mating Habits Of The McBain Initial; Slide Show by Doctor Vincent Elwing, Ph.D. 2U63 -- Self-Destructing Computers; Which Computer to Choose Now CBM Has Folded. and compiled: 2R116 -- Telemarketers, How to Hassle and Deal With; How to Puzzle the Annoyers. More is to come! I have noticed recruiting by other people is taking place more and more. Alex McLintock already engaged in this activity (fi Alpha Centaurian...) but now Rudy Wijnands (Hyper-Cerebral...), Peter Juul (Code of Geeks), and Nicole Aucoin (Wine, Amontillado) have made their contribution (hope I haven't missed out on anyone). Finally I would encourage everybody to work to add their name to this list. 2 PGG Weekend Results By Steve Baker ------------------- P R O J E C T G A L A C T I C G U I D E ** FIRST QUASIANNUAL PGG WEEKEND RESULTS ** The First QuasiAnnual PGG Weekend was a success! During a mere four-day span, almost thirty articles from eleven PGG Reporters and Recruiters were added to the PGG Archives! The following is a list of the articles that were sent, processed, edited, approved, and/or added to the PGG Archives between the days of Friday, July 15 and Monday, July 18. After that is a summary of the tremendous authors who made the PGG Weekend possible. Special thanks to Roel van der Meulen for his help in compiling this list of PGG Weekend articles. Totals: 16 Real + 8 Semi-Real + 3 Unreal = 27 articles Submitted by a total of 11 Authors (one article was written by an anonymous author, gathered by a recruiter) REAL ARTICLES: Title Author -------------------------------------------------- ------------------- Art of Being, The Dave Shockey Jr. Calvin and Hobbes Ryan Tucker Code of the Geeks Robert A. Hayden Goedel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid Rickard Andersson Ice Cream Ryan Tucker Junk Mail, How to Avoid Adrian James Harvey Juul, Peter Bjarke "RockBear" Peter B. Juul Top Twenty-Six Ways to Kill Time Ryan Tucker Mountain Home, Baxter County, Arkansas, USA, Earth Ryan Tucker Poutine Daniel Robitaille Press Cards, Project Galactic Guide Jason S. Kohles Recursiveness Peter B. Juul Telemarketers, How to Hassle and Deal With Roel van der Meulen Stairs, Travelling Rudy Wijnands Tucker, Ryan Steven Ryan Tucker Weather and Your Health Ryan Tucker SEMI-REAL ARTICLES: Title Author -------------------------------------------------- ------------------- Field Researchers, How to Recognize Roel van der Meulen Humphrey, Sol X Roel van der Meulen Mercury, Sol I Roel van der Meulen Modems Ryan Tucker Professions, Waitering, How to Get Tips Rudy Wijnands Professions, Waitering, Problems and Traumas Rudy Wijnands Sun, The Roel van der Meulen Venus, Sol II Roel van der Meulen UNREAL ARTICLES: Title Author -------------------------------------------------- ------------------- Hoovercraft Ryan Tucker Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis Anonymous Uhm, Eh Ryan Tucker CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Name Internet Email -------------------- ---------------------------------- Andersson, Rickard rickard@softlab.se Harvey, Adrian James aharvey@comp.vuw.ac.nz Hayden, Robert A. hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu Juul, Peter B. rockbear@diku.dk Kohles, Jason S. Jason.Kohles@m.cc.utah.edu Robitaille, Daniel daniel@ocean.seaoar.uvic.ca Shockey Jr., Dave dashocke@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Tucker, Ryan rtucker@ins.infonet.net van der Meulen, Roel vdmeulen@rulrol.leidenuniv.nl Wijnands, Rudy wijnands@rulrol.leidenuniv.nl 3 HTML and what it means to PGG By the Editor (Jeff Kramer) ----------------------------- HTML, we've all heard of it, now what is it? And what about this talk of converting the guide to HTML? Well, HTML (Or the HyperText Markup Language.) is simply a way to format text. What this universal formatting setup allows, is for documents to be "linked" to other documents. For example: There are a lot of large PGG sites, including vela.acs.oakland.edu. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This, when looking at it with a HTML viewer(To be discussed later.) would be highlighted, and if you would select it, it would probably take you to either a document with all the files in vela.acs.oakland.edu on it, or (And this is the real beauty of HTML and some WWW viewers.) it would take you to the actual directory, where you can select documents you want to get. (Although there's a nasty bit about using binary transfer, but you get the picture.) You can connect to gopher, ftp, www, wais, and a few other types of sites with HTML references. Now, another feature of HTML is the fact that you can incorporate graphics, animations, and sounds into your documents. Although this lengthens them, it allows for more creative license, which is one of the maj or impacts for the guide, also it allows a universal format, with no special readers for each system. HTML viewers exist for many different machines. Mac, Pc, Unix, Amiga, etc. A good viewer is Mosaic, if your looking for one. There are several places you can get the viewers, for instance, if you have WWW access, you can go to: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/index.html (It's somewhere near the bottom. Just keep hitting down.) If you know you have access to WWW, but you can't figure out how to open a specific site, look for a menu option to open a URL. In Lynx, a viewer that is completely text based, this is done by typing "g" and then your destination (In the format above.). I admit, this address thingy is a bit confusing, so here's a little help. 1_________ 2_________ 3_____ 4__ \ \ \ \ http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/index.html 1) The type of connection to be made, here it is a Hypertext connection (To a HTML document.) other types are for things like FTP and gopher. 2) Server to connect to. Basically it's the internet address of the computer that the WWW server is running on. 3) The directory that the software looks in. The ~ means (At least on our server.) That it looks in the users directory, and then under a directory called public_html. 4) The file to look up. Several times I've mentioned the WWW or World Wide Web. This is a net that uses HTML documents cross-referenced to each other to provide information. Much like Gopher has menus that you can follow around the world. WWW has no starting point, but you ca n usually find some cool sites if you look. Our own Roel van der Meulen has a cool site at: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/index.html And my site (Which all these Documents will be on, and in HTML format with various cross references.) is: http://www.realtime.net/~lthumper/ I hope this helps. If you have any questions, you can e-mail me and I'll help as much as I can. 4 A Plea for Input By Ed ---------------- Well, here we are folks, almost at the end of the first issue of the PGG Report. But before we sign off, I'd like to ask for your help. PGG has always been a group project, and I don't want this one to be any less groupy. Currently Roel and I have identified the following positions we'd like people to take. This would involve perhaps a lot of work and a lot of research on your part, so don't ask for it if you can't handle it. :) But hey, take a crack at it even if you don't think you can, we could sure use you! - Article Reporter This person would get all the new articles that have come in since the last newsletter went out, and would provide a small blurb on each of them. This job will (hopefully) be soon swamped with articles, so we may have to divide the job between one for UnReal articles, one for Semi-Real, and one for Real. But for now, we only need one. That person would also write an account of the growth of the guide, and other cool tidbits. - Article Reviewer/'s It had to be done. We need someone to take all the new articles and tell which ones they liked, why, the ones they didn't like, why, the ones they didn't even bother to read and why. I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible field researcher, but it would help if someone was sending out constructive criticism. We don't want someone who will sit there and tear an article apart, we don't want to scare anybody off, but we'd like to have someone (objective) to say whats good, and what could use a little improvement. - Researcher Interviewer In each newsletter I'd like to have a profile of one or two Field Researchers, and all the new ones, so we can get to know everybody real well. These can be worked into PGG Articles as soon as their done, but just some quick stuff, where your from, what you enjoy, what you hate, etc. This person would be responsible for contacting the person, writing up and sending them a questionnaire, and sending that to me. - New Developments Reporter Tee shirts, Press Cards, Home pages, new software, there's some much stuff to keep track of, and we need some willing soul to do it! Basically we need to have somebody to keep tabs on all the new stuff that comes out, get in contact with the person responsible, and write a little blurb about each one. This would add to the newsletter immensely. After all, it is a NEWSletter. - ______ Have an idea for a position you'd like to fill? Send it to me, and I'll see what I can do. :) 5) The next issue By Ed -------------- Well, the next edition on the PGG Report (1.2) should be out in about 2 weeks, that's figuring for submission time, return time, and time to sit back and drink a few dozen Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters (TM). You can look forward to reports from a few of our outstanding founding fathers, and maybe a surprise or two. Appropriate name-mentioning --------------------------- Editor: Jeff Kramer <lthumper@bga.com> Artist: Ryan Tucker <rtucker@worf.infonet.net> Submissions: Roel van der Meulen <vdmeulen@rulrol.leidenuniv.nl> Steve Baker <swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu> ------- The End ------- Don't worry, be hoopy!