Net Surf
Publish the Spew: The Way of the Web Publisher Once I read John Markoff's New York Times piece on Mosaic and the World Wide Web ("A Free and Simple Computer Link," December 8, 1993), I was hooked. Graphics and linked resources traversing the Internet? The concept blew me away. I immediately immersed myself in the Web, and soon realized that nearly every page was an amateur production. Here was a tremendous publishing opportunity and a wetware challenge: I could offer up my own writings, engage the Web with links, and wouldn't have to pay a publisher in the process. Content would be key, however; no one would visit if it wasn't engaging. Many Web posters obviously knew how to use HTML, but didn't necessarily have anything to say (a fate I wanted to avoid).
I learned the basics of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) – the lexicon of the Web – inside a weekend. All the necessary information was online. I fired up my graphic WWW browser and a basic text editor (SimpleText, or any similar text editor will do), then retrieved the source code for a page I admired (most browsers will allow you to download the hypertext version, or guts of the page you are looking at – try the "View Source" option). I studied how one translated to the other by comparing the source code with the finished product, checking against the official hypertext of the online reference guide ("A Beginner's Guide to HTML": http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html).
Within a few hours, I had a working knowledge of HTML, a programming language I found to be similar to text formatting on old DOS word processors – simple formatting codes surrounding applicable text. By the end of the weekend, I had set up a copy of MacHTTP – a freeware program that serves Web pages from Macs connected to the Internet – to serve "Justin's Home Page" from my PowerBook 180.
As time progressed, I sought to make my page an interesting, informative e-zine, and renamed it "Links From the Underground" in homage to a book of dark musings by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I established references and cross-references across the Net by surfing extensively, recording my sessions, and contacting other page publishers. I wanted my site to have the same dynamic feel as the Web itself. Every two or three weeks, I would reapproach my site, or a specific section, and redesign it. Many Web pages are stagnant soon after they are posted; the pages that sustain energy are both rare and obvious. People will return, usually with friends, to a unique and dynamic site.
To be a Web publisher of the first order, however, you need to have your own server, or at least one over which you have a good deal of control. You will want to tinker with the workings of the hypertext server, adding forms and scripts for interactive and other advanced functions. But hardware constraints shouldn't dissuade you. If you want to get involved, and are just getting started, check out Getting Started on the WWW; there you'll find links to useful resources, as well as tutorials, tips, and tricks. Point your Web browser to http://more-deals.info/staff/justin/dox/started.html and start learning.
The Web is still virgin territory. It's brimming with opportunity. Get out there, play around, contribute. Find someone with an interesting story that you can help tell on the Web. Compelling, dynamic, and human stories illustrated online are still the best defense against a Netwide wasteland. With enough perseverance and personality, and a little bit of hardware, you can create a seminal site – and maybe even blow a few minds in the process. – Justin Hall (justin@cyborgasmic.com, URL: http://raptor.swarthmore.edu/jahall/)
The House That .jack Built If your idea of open architecture is a smart industrial loft space (à la New York's SoHo or San Francisco's SoMa district), check out alt.architecture.alternative for info on high-tech glass coatings, virtual floor-plan software, alternative energy sources, or anything else you might need for your wired dream home.
A Roll of the Dice, a Spin of the Wheel…. Let's face it, most Web lurkers aren't shelling out clams for every minute they're jacked in to the info-super-highway-bahn. Searching for that perfect wave – that tasty morsel – surfers can oft times carve hours out of a perfectly good, otherwise productive day. Point, click. Point, click. It's all so linear. Yet just when you thought the Web couldn't get any easier, two guys from the University of Kansas set up the ultimate search engine – a random URL generator! Point and spin the URouLette and take yourself to servers and sites unvisited, oceans uncharted. The destination doesn't really matter – chances are you haven't been there anyway. Best of all, the boys from Kansas boast their database lists no repeats. Cash in your chips at http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/organizations/kucia/uroulette/uroulette.html. Every spin's a winner, baby.
Music to Your Eyes When you first see one, an oscilloscope – a device that graphically represents electrical waveforms on a display screen – seems a bit ho-hum. But after spending some time exploring the many ways high-end oscilloscopes can visualize their input, you might begin to wonder if the machines aren't truly the work of a sophisticated off-world culture. Cthugha 5.1 may just push you toward such a conclusion. An oscilloscope program for PC sound cards, Cthugha has tuned in, turned on, and decidedly dropped out of the humdrum world of scientific analog-signal processing.
The product of Australian code-jock Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt (zaph@torps.apana.org.au), Cthugha displays your sound card's CD, line, or mic-input, then processes it into a hypnotic, swirling, 256-color confection for your eyes. Although Cthugha requires DOS, a VGA monitor, and a Sound Blaster or Gravis UltraSound sound card, the complete C source-code is part of this online package. Cthugha is available via anonymous ftp from oak.oakland.edu in simtel/msdos/sound/ or from ftp.earthlink.net in pub/users/jay/CTHUGHA/. And, if that's not enough, David Andrew Harrigan (david.harrigan@umist.ac.uk) of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England has set up a Cthugha Web site featuring information about the latest version of Cthugha and a gallery of downloadable pictures grabbed from Cthugha sessions. Feel free to upload your favorite Cthugha screen shots to the gallery! To witness this psychedelic display, point your graphic Web browser to http://a32.cc.umist.ac.uk/cthugha/cthugha.html, and take a sonic trip.
Getting PC with Your PC In an earnest attempt at "Communicating to Save the Earth," the EnviroLink Network is providing a fortune of environmental Internet resources. EnviroGopher, EnviroChat, and EnviroFreenet coalesce at EnviroWeb, and then combine with the EnviroNews Daily Bulletin to inform and embolden the electronic masses. (To subscribe to EnviroNews Daily Bulletin, send an e-mail message to listproc@envirolink.org with subscribe environews in the body of the message.)
The EnviroWeb connects resources and HTML links to facilitate the healing for which our planet yearns. Aside from the information references, eco-Web links, EnviroForum (for interactive postings), and EnviroArts Gallery ("to come"), this site is helping develop several valuable tools: a World Species List (WSL) of plants, animals, and microbes; a Sustainable Earth Electronic Library (SEEL) devoted to collecting publications that teach about sustaining the earth; and the Environmental Education Network – a developing multimedia clearinghouse for educational information, materials, and ideas available on the Internet. A Gaia-friendly cybermeditation at http://envirolink.org is strongly recommended.
Extra! Extra! Download All About It! It may not be the Grand Convergence, but the media is beginning to bleed around the edges. The latest example is Extra, a syndicated entertainment-oriented TV magazine. Extra is a blend of show-business news, celebrity interviews, gossip, and peeks behind the scenes of movies and television.
Extra has opened shop in the Television and Hollywood Online sections of America Online. Its cyberspatial avatar is Extra Online. There, you can find information about Extra broadcasts, movie, and video-release dates, or flip through celebrity interviews and publicity photos (the photo gallery has proven to be one of Extra Online's most popular features, with the stats showing that AOL subscribers have downloaded thousands of pictures of such stars as Sharon Stone, Elle Macpherson, and Michael Richards).
Have a question for or about one of your favorite TV shows, movies, or stars? Post one, and Extra Online will try to answer it for you. And you don't even have to be an AOL subscriber to use its free question-and-answer service. Questions for Extra can be e-mailed to extrapr@aol.com.
Clawing Your Way to the Top As certain hard-core number nerds might already know, highly sophisticated, newly discovered methods have literally transformed the field of computational fluid dynamics. The University of Washington's Randy Le Veque (who has made significant contributions to this science) has generously put Clawpack on the Net. A collection of advanced computational tools for attacking shallow-water equations, plasma physics, gas dynamics, and even traffic flow, Clawpack's methodology, which until now has remained within the confines of the applied mathematics community, is seriously cutting-edge. Its appearance on the Net is downright subversive.
Clawpack's routines are all in Fortran, and you don't need a Cray to run 'em. Documentation is included with the package, including the postscript file for an introductory paper.
The package may be obtained via anonymous ftp from netlib.att.com, where it resides in netlib/pdes/claw. (The file netlib/pdes/claw.tar is a tar file of the entire directory.) You can also find Clawpack on the Web at ftp://netlib.att.com/netlib/pdes/claw/index.html, or ftp://amath.washington.edu/pub/leveque/programs/clawpack.html. Alternately, files can be obtained by sending e-mail to netlib@research.att.com. Or, send a message with help in the subject line to obtain more information. Uploads from users will be gratefully accepted, as Le Veque hopes to establish a whole library of similar, high-level applications. Clawpack goes a long way toward demystifying the various techniques of this branch of science – it's the closest thing to a "black box" we're going to see any time soon.
Fire of the Dragon MUD creators Dr. Cat, 'Manda Dee, and Jeff Dee are at it again. Their latest collaborative spawn is DragonSpires. This shiny-new graphic MUD has a look similar to some of the best home-PC fantasy games; hardly a surprise, given the creators' participation in the award-winning Ultima series.
Unlike most graphic games, which tend to focus on combat and violence as the sole means of entertainment, DragonSpires sets forth a more social setting, where relationships, wit, and a sense of community can peacefully develop. (A rumor's been circulating that this may even evolve into a full-fledged, graphic online service.) Access is free while the site is in development, and new features are being added frequently. The front-end software and a sample GIF can be found on the Web at http://www.xmission.com/~ermine/games.html#dspires or via anonymous ftp from ftp.eden.com in pub/dspire. The server is accessible via telnet at boris.eden.com 7734. A great place to hang; just check your futuristic weapons at the door.
Random ASCII Art o' the Month _____________ , ,…''', ___________-'''''___RKM.| – – – – – :::;- – – – ' “——_______.-/ ___ '''… ,'.__ __,,,_ /'._ . _ .-'''-''// ,-_/ /' `` Ron Vissers "' ' | / / // / /.|' |'| Comp. Sci. Dsgn. Eng. /' | Y | |/ / // | . /'/' /<" | | ||/ // | / | -' Battlelords – 23rd Century / _.-. .-,___| _-| / /|_/ | Game Master -' f/ | / __/ __ / |/ | `-' | -| -| |-'| Team Internet Paintball / /,-' ) ,' ;' TIP#398 ((.-'((___..-' <<,' <rvissers@execpc.com>; aka: Pantera – Peace through excessive Firepower!
Wipeout! It seems the Doom site we mentioned in Wired 2.12 (page 196) has moved. The game's new site address is: ftp.orst.edu/pub/doom. "Please make a note of it."
Thanks to the Wired 3.03 Surf Team Tim Barkow phred3@well.sf.ca.us JC Herz mischief@phantom.com Daniel Marcus marcus@well.com Mario Profaca Mario.Profaca@public.srce.hr John Reul JohnReul@aol.com Sandy Sandfort sandfort@crl.com David Shapiro cat@eden.com David Voss dvoss@aaas.org Lang Zerner lang@asylum.sf.ca.us
