Net Surf
Getting Yourself Wired
Choosing the right type of Internet service and service provider is still no walk on the beach. The following information should help ease you gently into the waves.
The Internet can be reached via three fundamentally different types of connection: Direct IP, Terminal, and Gateway. Direct IP (or "Direct Internet Protocol") connections are the most flexible and desirable. A direct IP link allows your local computer to send and receive IP packets directly; thereby making available virtually all of the Net's resources. Direct IP links support your favorite GUI-based software (such as NCSA's Mosaic - see WIRED 2.01, page 136), and allow multiple, simultaneous connections to remote sites: Jumping among sessions is as easy as a click of the mouse or a touch of the key. This is the only way to be truly wired: You can read your mail, open multiple IRC channels, download files via ftp, and play on a MUD - all at the same time.
IP connections are still somewhat difficult to obtain for the typical home.net.user, because of hardware and software requirements (most call for nonstandard software; a 14-thousand baud (14.4 k) modem is recommended), limited availability, and cost (US$20 per month plus $2 per hour is typical). However, direct IP should become a more feasible alternative as service and software providers improve support and modem prices continue to drop.
Terminal-based connections are a less elegant, less flexible, yet more widely accessible net.connection.alternative. Connections of this sort reduce your snazzy PC to a not-quite-so-dumb terminal, connected to a remote host computer via a modem and POTS (plain old telephone service) line. The going rate for such basic shell accounts - usually including electronic mail, telnet, and some means of access to Usenet news - is US$20-$35 per month for unlimited access. System depending, you may also have access to ftp, gopher, IRC, and other tasty treats. (Regardless, they are just a telnet session away!)
Certain conferencing systems - such as the Well, MindVox, and Delphi - also offer terminal-based access to these Internet services. For many users, such systems offer the best of both worlds - an electronic home community in which to establish residence, and a means by which to sail the seas of the greater Net. Still other online services (including America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy, as well as many local BBSes) tout Internet connectivity, but buyer beware: These systems currently offer only e-mail gateways to the Internet - in no way a substitute for interactive services such as telnet or ftp. Despite this limitation, large online services can be financially attractive to seekers of e-mail-only net.access: Their GUI clients support the composing and reading of mail offline, and their widespread local access numbers reduce phone bills (though watch for potentially costly per-message fees).
Like choosing a board, selecting the net.connection.method that is right for you is a personal decision, based on your level of experience, your need for particular capabilities, your tolerance for disgusting user interfaces, and your bank account balance. But one way or another, it's relatively easy to reach the beach. - Jonathan Steuer (jonathan@cyborganic.com)
Next Issue: Getting your very own direct IP connection.
"Beware the Tablespoon..."
The Net is burgeoning with electronic "alters" of many classic works of literature - Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" among them - though many might contest the lucidity of the e-scribe in question. Robert McNally recently decided to write Carroll's poem on his Apple Newton. The resulting, um, interpretation (which has been floating upon many waves of the greater Net) goes something like this:
Tablespoons
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch. Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"
He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and though, The Verbal blade went thicker shade.
He left it dead, and with its head,
He went gambling back.
"And host Thai slash the tablespoon?
Come to my arms my bearish boy.
Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!"
He charted in his joy.
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
Double Double, Toil and Trouble
Hear ye, all practicing witches and warlocks! Supernatural surfers combing the beaches for eye of newt and ear of bat need look no further than slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com - an anonymous ftp site and mystic ground fecund with abstracts from Magick in Theory and Practice (and many other titles by Aleister Crowley), tantric rituals, GIFs, documents defining Chaos, and more! As the dark Crowley-wizard himself said, "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." The routing spell to weave is cd /pub/magick.
Of Fire, and Scales, and. . .Chatter?
Hiding away in his virtual electronic lairsleeps Maur The Dragon. His slumber, however, can be easily broken when you enter CHAT, the Conversational Hypertext Access Technology site established by Communications Canada, whose natural language information system is dedicated to the development of and experimentation with interactive technology. For a simulated conversation with the dragon, telnet to debra.dgbt.doc.ca and login as chat; type Maur at the "information file" prompt. The stage is set with a brief description of your environs before you're brought face to face with the mighty drake - your only weapon your words, as you bargain, challenge, or plead with Maur's unforgiving mass. (And, if you are charred to a crisp, you'll still be able to reincarnate to try again.) Sharpen your wit and harden your verbal armory before entering this cave.
Drift No More
This Canadian BBS first went online in 1989, and is still a free access site. Today, Driftnet boasts a 200-Mbyte SCSI drive and 14.4-k baud capability (though it still lives on only a single POTS line). The board has evolved into a provider of technical references, security programs, and network utilities, and continues to maintain a collection of obsolete and otherwise oddball stuff suited to older computers. Driftnet's forte, however, is anti-viral news and info. It is the source for virtually anything in the anti-virus field (with the exception of updates on NAV, CPAV, and MSAV). Posted files have been tested and proven through reliable sources, and survived a battery of anti-nasty probes before they become available for download. You can surf sysop Wallace Hale's files by dialing +1 (506) 325 9002.
Weekly World Newsgroup
Now touching down on Planet Usenet: alt.alien.visitors - a current and comprehensive listing of extraterrestrial accounts. HEAR actual Netnaut accounts of UFO encounters. READ the shocking truth about Eisenhower's secret treaty with the Zeta Reticulans (Hoover was also in on this one). DISCOVER the connection between the Branch Davidians, CIA, drug money, Nostradamus, and the alien plot to mine our planet for human pituitary glands. Miss a single post, and you could end up an entree for these reptilian invaders. Tune in - this stuff is as real as a crop circle!
School's Out - University MOOs Are In
Never heard of Diversity University, you say? Well, check your Net.College listings in years to come, and chances are, you'll find this atypical MOO within the ranks. Based on the LambdaMOO program popularized by Pavel Curtis at Xerox PARC, DU's mission is to broaden the variety of educational experiences available on the Net. Using a college campus metaphor, the DU-MOO currently boasts interactive classrooms, a comfortable student commons (where you can take a study break and peek into a unique, multilevel fishtank), a school newspaper, bulletin boards with meeting announcements, and extensive help files. Among the helpful wizards are an international group of educators and collaborators, eager to establish reputable live classes and conferences (also perfect for the disabled, or for those whose facilities are limited). Programmers or professional educators interested in participating in education on the cutting edge should e-mail DU at moo@erau.db.erau.edu. Other interested surfers should telnet to erau.db.erau.edu 8888 and follow the login prompts.
Kids, Don't Try This at Home
The mission of the The Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR) is to bring you news about overly stimulating research and ideas, as well as updates on the annual ig-Nobel Prize and ceremony - one honoring "achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced" in the scientific community or elsewhere. Published jointly with The MIT Museum, Mini-JIR is the official, electronic organ of the Society for Basic Irreproducible Research. Articles included in the November/December 1993 issue included "The Saluting Fetus," "Scientific Gossip" (regular column), and "How to Testify to Congress." JIR is distributed six to twelve times a year. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listserv@mitvma.mit.edu or listserv@mitvma with subscribe mini-jir your-name-here as its sole body text. If you hanker for more, e-mail jir@mit.edu with editorial questions.
Jack In Before You Tune In
If you're a big fan of the Warner Brothers - not the studio, of course, but the animated stars of Fox network's Animaniacs series - then you'll definitely want to check this wave out. Follow the antics of Yakko, Wakko, and sister Dot by fingering hendry@helios.physics.utoronto.ca. Here, Paul Hendry gardens the Animaniacs Future Episode List as a service to fans around the world. One glance will usually show you a detailed blow-by-blow of programming for the following two weeks or so. And if you're still hungry for more, be sure to visit the Brothers' Usenet site at alt.tv.animaniacs.
.sig/.plan of the month
__\/__ . / ^ _ \ . |\| (o)(o) |/| THUNDERFOOT#—.OOOo—-oo—-oOOO.—–#–Immortality-for-sale, - The # Evan "ThunderFoot" Gibson. # Lifetime Guarantee! Legend # ECSCEG@lust.latrobe.edu.au # Continues # gibson@latcs1.lat.oz.au # Old Immortals never die. #______________Oooo._________# They just.... DON'T... Certified .oooO ( ) Caffeine ( ) ) / "Dancing on air, just over the edge, Addict. \ ( (_/ and it's only a matter of time till \_) gravity notices." - Me
Thanks to the WIRED 2.03 Surf Team
Michael A. Burstein mab@panix.com
Sean Derrick sderrick@netcom.com
JC Herz mischief@mindvox.phantom.com
Sean Simmons ssimmons@ucsd.edu
Jonathan Steuer jonathan@cyborganic.com
Casimir J. Palowitch cjp+@pitt.edu
