Scout Report: Week ending October 7, 1994

October 7, 1994

The Scout Report is a weekly publication provided by InterNIC Information Services to assist InterNauts in their ongoing quest to know what's new on and about the Internet. It focuses on those resources thought to be of interest to the InterNIC's primary audience, researchers and educators, however everyone is welcome to subscribe and there are no associated fees.

The Scout Report is posted on the InterNIC InfoGuide's gopher and WorldWideWeb servers where you can easily follow links to resources of interest. Past issues are stored on the InfoGuide for quick reference, and you can search the InfoGuide contents to find the items reported in all previous issues. The Scout Report is also distributed in an HTML version for use on your own host, providing fast local access for yourself and other users at your site.

http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
gopher is.internic.net choose Information Services/Scout Report

Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be sent to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

See the end of the report for additional information and detailed access and subscription instructions.

Highlights In This Week's Report:

  • OCLC on the Web
  • Visit Hawaii, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New Mexico... today.
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service
  • Can't get those hot tickets to the WWW conference? Get daily updates.
  • Learn a little Italian.... ciao

World Wide Web

  • The Aboriginal Studies WWW Virtual Library has been now added to the other four WWW Virtual Library systems (Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies, Demography & Population Studies, and Social Sciences) developed and maintained by the Research Schools of Social Sciences & Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra.
  • The Human-Languages Page is a collection of human-language resources on the Net, from tutorials to dictionaries to software to literature collections. The Page currently contains 100 links relating to 40 different languages, and the list grows every week.
  • OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization whose computer network and services link more than 18,000 libraries in 61 countries and territories. OCLC now has a World-Wide Web server providing information about OCLC and its products and services, including product information, research results, documentation about how to use OCLC services, and electronic forms. In 1995, the server will provide links to OCLC Electronic Journals Online and the FirstSearch service, for subscribers to these reference services.
  • Univerisy of California San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences now offers a Web server with papers, images, and progress reports that relate to the Faint Object Spectrometer on the Hubble Space Telescope. Also available is information relating to the science, facilities, and personnel at the center.
  • The Hawai`i Home Page provides a starting point for access to Web services in the state of Hawai`i, including Hawai`i businesses, K-12 and higher education servers, state government agencies, various organizations and visitor information.
  • The State of Oklahoma Web Page contains current information and events in the Sooner state, ranging from arts and recreation to application procedures for research grants.
  • The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's server offers among other things a "point-and-click" guide to the outdoor recreation resources in the state of Nebraska, such as parks, fishing, and hunting.
  • A new WWW server called VIVA New Mexico promotes everything New Mexican.

Gopher

Email/FTP

  • The Sister Cities Listserv is devoted to those worldwide cities already maintaining Sister Cities relationships or those wishing to establish Sister Cities relationships. The list also attracts those organization contacts which work in close cooperation in enhancing these city government recognized contacts. This mailing list was created as an international focal point for the exchange of information and as a central information location for the 931 U.S. Sister Cities communities, and some 1530 foreign communities in 111 nations.

    To subscribe to the list, send email to:

    SISCITY-REQUEST@SISCITY.OCC.UKY.EDU
    in the body of the message type:
    SUBSCRIBE SISCITY FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

National Information Infrastructure

  • A new WWW page "Telecom Information Resources on the Internet" is now available and promises to be a well-maintained source of current telecom information on the 'Net.
  • On September 23, 1994, Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee announced his decision to withdraw from further consideration S. 1822, the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1994. In a written statement, Senator Hollings explains his reasons for taking this action. This has triggered a number of responses. An initially comprehensive set of statements by key players and third parties is now available by gopher and WWW on bell.com. These include: Senator Hollings Statement, Senator Dole's Statement, MFJ Task Force Reaction, Sprint Reaction, American Telemedicine Association Reaction, National Association of Development Organization Reaction, Access2000 (Independent Film & Video Producers) Reaction.

    http://bell.com
    gopher: bell.com
    FTP: bell.com cd pub/Announcements_on_S.1822_Withdrawal
    questions or copies via email or snail mail, send a message to: info@bell.com

  • New documents on the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) gopher.
    • Technology Policy Working Group 09/12/94 Minutes
    • Global Information Infrastructure Awards Announcement
    • NII Awards Entry Kit
    • Comments Extended to 10/27 on Intellectual Property
    • Hearing/Public Comments on NII Security Issues
    • Universal Service Virtual Conference Starts 11/14/94
    • 1994 NECET Grant Awards 10/04/94
    • Notice of NII Advisory Council Meeting to be held on 10/19/94
    • NII Advisory Council 06/20/94 Meeting Summary Minutes
    • Global Information Infrastructure: Progress Report - Web version
    • Global Information Infrastructure: Progress Report - Gopher version

NetBytes

  • The next World Wide Web conference, beginning 17 October in Chicago, is already a sold out event. Two Web pages have been established in anticipation of a need to provide articles and updates across the Web for people who are interested - or who couldn't get in. The alternate site for the WWW Conference and the complete agenda.
  • Daily reports sent live from an InterNaut at the scene of the WWW conference will also be available via email from the folks behind WEBster:

    send mail to: live@webster.tgc.com

  • An ISDN World Wide Web page is now available which lets you flip between product info from different ISDN cards, software, and ISDN Internet access vendors quickly, making comparisons easy. It also has links to all known online technical specs related to ISDN. You can even order ISDN equipment online (gasp!). New info is constantly being added, and input is welcome.
  • "In, Around and Online" -A Weekly Summary of Consumer Online Services is a painless way to stay tuned to events in the worlds of Compuserve, Prodigy, America Online, etc. A weekly report, not too long, and an easy read.

    FTP: ftp.clark.net pub/robert/
    Email: send a message to the author -- robert@clark.net

Weekend Scouting

  • Veggies Unite! is a searchable index of 800+ vegetarian recipes. Also other topics such as storage tips, vitamins, and many links to nutrition and health WWW and gopher sites all over the world.
  • During the next two weeks, the Booleweb server at University College, Cork, Ireland will have information on the 39th Cork Film Festival. The festival will screen 160 films including 33 feature films, 30 documentaries and short films and ninety-nine short films.
  • If you are looking for NFL or NBA scores, schedules stats, or history you can check out the WWW Sports Information Service where results are updated on a daily basis. {The Pack was suppose to be back!}
  • Italian lessons on the 'Net! {yes!}

About the Scout Report

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offered by InterNIC Information Services to the Internet community as a fast, convenient way to stay informed about network activities. Its purpose is to combine in one place the highlights of new (and newly-discovered) online resources and other announcements seen on the Internet during the preceding week.

A wide range of topics are included in the Report with an emphasis on resources thought to be of interest to the InterNIC's primary audience, the research and education community. Each resource has been verified for substantial content and accessibility within a day of the release of the Report.

The Scout Report is provided in multiple formats -- electronic mail, gopher, World Wide Web, and now HTML. The gopher and World Wide Web versions of the Report include links to all listed resources. The Report is released every weekend.

In addition to the ascii version, the Scout Report is distributed in HTML format via a separate mailing list. This allows sites to easily add the Scout Report to their local WorldWideWeb servers each week, providing fast access for local users. Subscription information for the scout-report-html mailing list is included below. Note that permission statements appear on both versions of the Scout Report, and we ask that these be included in any re-posting or re-distributing of the report. Thank you.

If you haven't yet subscribed or told your friends and colleagues, now is the time. Spread the news by word-of-net. Join thousands of your colleagues already using the Scout Report as a painless tool for tracking what's new on the 'Net!

Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be sent to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

-- InterNIC Info Scout (SM)

Scout Report Access Methods

** To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report each Friday, join the scout-report mailing list which is used only to distribute the Scout Report once a week. Send mail to:
majordomo@is.internic.net
in the body of the message, type:
subscribe scout-report
to unsubscribe to the list, repeat this procedure substituting the word "unsubscribe" for subscribe.

** To receive the Scout Report in HTML format for local posting, subscribe to the scout-report-html mailing list, used exclusively to distribute the Scout Report in HTML format once a week. Send mail to:

majordomo@is.internic.net
in the body of the message, type:
subscribe scout-report-html
** To access the hypertext version of the Report, point your WWW client to:
http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
>> Gopher users can tunnel to:
is.internic.net
select: Information Services/Scout Report.

Resource Addressing Conventions

After each resource in the Scout Report one or more network addresses are listed. In all cases a convention is used for listing the network address of each resource. It is assumed that users recognize the type of address and know how to use it. However, for those users unfamiliar with the Internet we provide here the order in which addresses are listed (by network tool) and instructions for accessing additional information in the InterNIC InfoGuide about each network tool. A brief explanation of one tool, WWW is included below.

The four network tools referenced most often in the Scout Report are World Wide Web, gopher, email, and FTP. Occasionally WAIS and Telnet addresses are also listed.

After each resource at least one address is listed, and sometimes more. This is because some resources are available through multiple network tools. The network tool addresses are always listed in the same order after each resource:

  • World Wide Web (WWW)
  • Gopher
  • FTP
  • Email
  • Telnet
  • WAIS

A WWW address is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and always begins with a string of characters followed by a colon and two right brackets. For example:

http://www.internic.net/
gopher://gibbs.oit.unc.edu:70/11/research.d/grants.d
ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/hecker/internet/slip-ppp.txt

To access the resource through the WWW you will need a WWW client installed on your host computer. Clients are available for all major computer platforms, including Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. To use a WWW client on your computer, you will need a TCP/IP connection to the Internet, either through a dedicated line connection or a SLIP/PPP connection. See the InfoGuide for additional information about the World Wide Web and for sites which archive WWW clients. For more information about SLIP/PPP, which can be used over a dial-up connection, see the document listed in the NetBytes section above.

gopher://is.internic.net/11/infoguide/using-internet/basic-resources/email/

Gopher to: is.internic.net
** Choose: Information Services/Using the Internet/

Send email to: mailserv@is.internic.net
In the body of the message type:

send INDEX
Copyright 1994 General Atomics.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice, this permission notice, and the two paragraphs below are preserved on all copies.

The InterNIC provides information about the Internet and the resources on the Internet to the US research and education community under the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9218749. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, General Atomics, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

scout@is.internic.net
guide@is.internic.net