Scout Report: Week ending October 21, 1994

October 21, 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.

Errata: Last week's Scout Report included the Daily News pointer listed below. I have been alerted by several of our loyal readers that the UPI, USA Today and additional selected publications are in fact not available to the general Internet population. It is possible to follow these links through several menus, but when you reach the level of actual content a terse message is returned in place of the text of the article. (More than one reader also mentioned that they didn't appreciate being addressed as "dude" in the return message they received, but then that's another issue altogether. ;-)

My apologies for not confirming access to each publication more thoroughly and for any confusion this has caused.

Daily News - Free Internet Sources
gopher: gopher.nstn.ca
choose: NSTN CYBRARY/Internet READING Room/Daily News

Highlights In This Week's Report:

  • The White House Interactive Web Server As noted by a net.colleague: "We've come a long way from the White House without direct dial telephones or accessible fax machines of two years ago."
  • Internet Training Video available from USGS
  • Mosaic Communications releases its first public browser: NetScape
  • The Moscow Libertarium provides a link to guidelines on installing Cyrillic fonts in your WWW browser
  • The Breeder's Cup on the 'net, via school kids and the Web

World Wide Web

  • "Welcome to the White House: An Interactive Citizens' Handbook" was announced Thursday, October 20 by Vice-President Al Gore on C-SPAN and the Internet's Multi-cast Backbone (M-bone). The White House Web server is a great starting point for finding government information, including executive branch offices and agencies, and the ongoing Government Information Locator Service (GILS) initiative working to provide easier access to government information. It's well organized, has a nice look and feel, and good response time.

    >From the White House Press Release:

    "In an effort to make government information more readily accessible to citizens across the country, Vice President Gore, joined by Associate Director for Technology in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Lionel S. (Skip) Johns and world-renowned artist Peter Max, today (10/20) unveiled the first interactive, multimedia, electronic citizens' handbook on the White House, including detailed information about Cabinet-level and independent agencies, and information about the First Family and the White House. "Welcome to the White House: An Interactive Citizens' Handbook" provides a single point of access to all electronic government information on the Internet, a vast electronic computer network used by people in more than 150 countries. Examples of accessible material demonstrated at today's event include information about the President and Vice President and their families, a virtual tour of the White House, detailed information about Cabinet-level and independent agencies, a subject-searchable index of federal information, and a map of Washington, D.C."
    • Ruggiano's School Home Page - created by a Beaverton Schools (Beaverton, OR) teacher to introduce students and teachers to the internet. Nicely organized collection of K12 Internet resources, including Education, Humanities, Science, Math, and Social Studies. Includes links to schools on the 'net, and a pointer to the K12 Internet School Site Page.
    • LAFEX, a laboratory of the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas devoted to Cosmology and High Energy Physics, has announced a WWW server.
    • The Health Info-Com Network Medical Newsletter (MEDNEWS) mirror for the USA is now operational at the University of Pennsylvania. This news is distributed biweekly and is very international in flavor. This Web site maintains an internal WAIS server to search by topics.
      [Note: Resource(s)/URL(s) mentioned above is no longer available.]
    • The Advertising Law Internet Site houses articles about the legal aspects of marketing products, with particular emphasis on infomercials, home shopping, and direct response TV. Other articles discuss 900 Number regulations, contest laws, business opportunity laws, and additional aspects of promotion law. The site also houses copies of FTC Guides and Speeches and FTC Rules and statutes. Consumer Advisories issued by the FTC will also be made available at the site.
    • The Screenwriters and Playwrights Page offers a variety of resources and services of special interest to professional and student scriptwriters alike, from film and script databases, format templates, marketing strategies, and discussion of the nuts-and-bolts of scriptwriting.
    • Over 400 megabytes of patent information are now available at the Internet Patent News Service's (IPNS) WWW Patent Searching home page, including being able to retrieve titles to all US patents since 1970 using the US patents Manual of Classification. Files with administrative information about PTO offices, as well as an archive of IPNS news releases are also available.
    • Moscow Libertarium is a project aimed at the information support of social activity and scientific research on the problems of liberalism, and liberal conscience in Russia. Important: most materials are in RUSSIAN! A link to the guidelines on installing Cyrillic fonts in your WWW-browsing program is included.
    • In light of the recent sightings of Basking Sharks Cetorhinus maximus in the New England coastal waters and the resultant influx of requests for information regarding this second largest of sharks, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts has assembled a short fact sheet regarding this species.
    • Conservation OnLine, (CoOL) a project of the Preservation Department of Stanford University Libraries, is a full text database covering a wide spectrum of topics of interest to those involved with the conservation of museum, archives and library materials.
    • LabSOURCE is a periodic newsletter produced by the University of California. It provides news and information on UC's management of three DOE laboratories -- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory -- and news highlights from the laboratories themselves.
    • The editors and staff of The MIT Press, invite you to browse through their on-line catalogues featuring recent books (1993-1994) and current journals. The MIT Press is one of the world's leading scholarly technical publishers, offering texts and monographs in the computational and cognitive sciences, architecture, photography, art and literary theory, economics, environmental science, and linguistics.

    Gopher

    National Information Infrastructure

    New documents on the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) gopher:
    • Irving Speech: NII: Public Institutions as On-Ramps
    • NII Awards Information
    • IITF October Report (10/12/94)
    • IITF Factsheet (Revised 10/12/94)
    • NII Advisory Council 09/13/94 Meeting Summary Minutes
    • Calendar of Public Events (10/12/94)
    • Notice of Intellectual Property Working Group Hearings
    • V.P. Gore Speech to Center for Communication 10/17/94
    • Intellectual Property WG 09/14/94 Hearing Transcript
    • Intellectual Property WG 09/16/94 Hearing Transcript
    • Intellectual Property WG 09/22/94 Hearing Transcript
    • Intellectual Property WG 09/23/94 Hearing Transcript

    NetBytes

    • The U.S. Geological Survey has produced a video titled "Connecting to the Internet." It is released as a USGS Open File Report and all material contained in the videotape is in the public domain. This training videotape provides information on how to get connected to the international network of networks called "the Internet." It is intended to help the viewer be aware of the complexities involved in shopping for the hardware and software products and services needed to connect to the Internet as a host computer in order to use powerful Internet client software. The training is oriented toward those who need occasional access and will be using a personal computer with a dial-up telephone line and an inexpensive modem. The citation: OF 94-570. Connecting to the Internet, by E. J. Christian. 1994. One VHS videotape, approximately 45 minutes $20.00. Copies of the tapes may be obtained by sending an order to: 
      Book and Open-File Report Sales
U.S. Geological Survey
Federal Center
Box 25286, MS 306
Denver, Colorado 80225
      In the order, specify the Publication Series Number, Title, and Unit Price as follows: Open-File Report 94-570, "Connecting to the Internet", Unit Price: $20.00. For each copy, specify the Quantity you wish to order and the Total Price (Quantity times Unit Price), then add 10% if first class delivery is desired, or 25% for transmittal outside the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Clearly indicate the Total Amount Remitted. Payment in the form of check, money order, purchase order, or Government account, must accompany the order. Do not send cash. Drafts are to be made payable to "Department of the Interior - USGS." Please note that these videotapes are distributed in the VHS NTSC format. Other formats, such as PAL or SECAM, can be produced by special arrangement
    • Mosaic Communications Corporation (MCC) the company formed by several members the original NCSA Mosaic development team and others, has released their first widely available Web browser, called Mosaic Netscape (version 0.9) for Macintosh, Windows, and Unix. Here's their plans, taken directly from the MCC server:
      • Mosaic Netscape.0.9 (public beta version) is free for your personal use, subject to the terms detailed in the license agreement.
      • Subject to the timing and results of this beta cycle, Mosaic Communications will release Mosaic Netscape 1.0, also available free for personal use via the Internet. It will be subject to license terms; please review them when and if you obtain Mosaic Netscape 1.0.
      • A commercial version of Mosaic Netscape 1.0, including technical support from Mosaic Communications, will be available upon completion of the beta cycle.
      FTP: ftp.mcom.com cd netscape
    • The Indiana University Support Center has begun maintaining html versions of the standard Emacs, Windows, and Perl FAQs for their UCS Knowledge Base. They've also added a Usenet Resources page, which provides a thorough introduction to newsgroups and newsreaders, including links to charters, RFCs, man pages, FAQs, periodic postings, and netiquette guides. Hint: click on the unlabled icons for more options.

    Weekend Scouting

    • Announcing a new WWW page for Mountain Biking enthusiasts. This page focuses on mountain biking in the San Francisco Bay area (including descriptions of several local trails), but also contains links to descriptions of mountain biking in other areas, including Pittsburgh, Colorado, Utah and New Zealand.
    • A WWW FAQ on Isaac Asimov is now available covering Dr. Asimov's personal life and the books he wrote. It includes pointers to bibliographies of his books and stories and other miscellaneous items on Dr. Asimov available on the Internet.
    • A University of Louisville journalism class is taking the Breeder's Cup 1994 from the racetrack to the Internet. The students are working in the Churchill Downs press box disseminating information about the Nov. 5 Breeder's Cup via the World Wide Web. Beginning Oct. 25, students will post daily summaries of the morning workouts and provide the latest analysis from the backside. Through a partnership with IgLou, the Internet Gateway of Louisville, the students' reports will be available on the World Wide Web, complete with text, graphics, video, and sound. For more information on the program, contact the instructor, Hugh Finn, at hfinn@iglou.com

    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

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    ** To access the hypertext version of the Report, point your WWW client to:
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    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.

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