|
|
Netsurfer Digest: Vol. 01, #01 (TEXT)
Douglas B Hanson (dhanson@WORLD.STD.COM)
Thu, 1 Dec 1994 13:34:44 -0500
For some of you information junkies ;-) enjoy!
___________________________________________________________________________
N E T S U R F E R D I G E S T
Friday, November 18, 1994 Volume 01, Issue 01
___________________________________________________________________________
"More Signal, Less Noise"
SURFING SITES
Socks and Cartoons at the White House
Web-O-Phile Slaps Together Star Trek, Bible, and the Grotesque
Over 140 Cool Subject Guides to the Internet
Professor Neon, Improbable Research, and the Weather
Veggie Madness 1: First You Farm It
Veggie Madness 2: Then You Eat It
Veggie Madness 3: Then You Tell Your Cat He's Not Lunch.
The Play's the Thing at Theatre Central
Now That You've Sampled PizzaNet - How About Some Java?
You Gotta Have a Cool T-Shirt to Surf the Net
Architectural Sites on the Web
Military and Disaster Medicine
One Stop Shopping for Macintosh Info
Free Macaroni & Cheese: SenseMedia Surfer Rides High
ONLINE TRAVEL
Surfing in California
WWW Heads South - Really South
Go Shopping in New York, Catch a Broadway Show
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Your Mom Has Moved (but Left You an Address)
Online Icon Emporium
Telnet to a BBS Using This List
CIA World Factbook on Gopher
Miscellaneous Merchandise Merits Modem Monitoring
Listserv for Kids Who Need Special Health Care
Asia Online Introduces the Digital Version of the Silk Road
Spill Your Consumer Guts, Get $50 FedEx Credit.
Real Estate Matchmaker Online
Dun & Bradstreet Business Info Tailored For Small Businesses
ONLINE SERVICES
Prodigy Hits the Web
SOFTWARE
Convert RTF on Mac or UNIX to HTML with a Stroke of a Key
New Version 1.10 of Gwstat
COMt Software Lets You Use Comm Programs to Talk Telent
WSGopher 1.1 Released
CONTACT INFORMATION
CREDITS
SURFING SITES
___________________________________________________________________________
___
The best places to netsurf this week
SOCKS AND CARTOONS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Is there anybody who doesn't yet know about the brand new White House
Web page? A great home page graphic, a text version for fast access
(good design), greetings in text and audio from the Prez and the Vice,
and a guest book complement a goofy picture of Bill and Hillary along
with a cute, politically correct, and picture-filled family bio in
"First Family". A White House tour, nice set of White House
publications online, and a very complete set of links to US Government
Net resources fill out the rest. Absolute faves: Al Gore's Cartoon
Gallery under "What's New" and the cool picture of Socks the cat,
complete with an AU sound file, under "First Family". Good design,
worthy content, great netsurfing. "http://www.whitehouse.gov"
WEB-O-PHILE SLAPS TOGETHER STAR TREK, BIBLE, AND THE GROTESQUE
Cruciform is Andrew Tong's personal Web enterprise, created at the
expense of his GPA. It is quite the unusual collection. It contains a
thorough "Star Trek:TNG" page with episode synopses, trivia, and cast
bios; the disturbing "Grotesque in Art"; a Phrack magazine archive for
hackers and crackers; a library of suggested classical music
essentials; and Biblical Contradictions, in which Christian apologists
explain why they aren't. There's also some personal info. (werdna =
Andrew backwards, get it?) "http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu:80/~werdna/"
OVER 140 COOL SUBJECT GUIDES TO THE INTERNET
A great place to begin your netsurfing is University of Michigan's
Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides. They
present over 140 topical guides to Net resources available via FTP,
Gopher, and WWW. The guides cover a diverse range of topics from
theatre to chemistry to midwifery, and are WAIS-indexed for full text
searching. General Net users, librarians, Net trainers, and Internet
system designers will find these guides useful. In honor of their
first anniversary, they have updated their Web home page with a "nifty
new low-bandwidth logo". Other Web developers need to follow suite.
"http://www.lib.umich.edu/chhome.html"
"gopher://gopher.lib.umich.edu/What's New.../Clearinghouse..."
"ftp://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/inetdirsstacks"
PROFESSOR NEON, IMPROBABLE RESEARCH, AND THE WEATHER
Vortex Technology's collection of Web pages is an intriguing mix. It
provides the Privacy Forum - a digest and index of articles relating
to Internet privacy - and Professor Neon's TV and Movie Mania. Neon's
site is the WWW outpost of a Los Angeles radio show. You can view
reviews, publicity stills and releases, and even download 30-minute-
long audio files. Other sites index files belonging to the Computer
History Association of California and the Annals of Improbable
Research, a breakaway group from the Journal of Irreproduceable
Results. You can also get L.A. weather reports.
"http://www.vortex.com/"
VEGGIE MADNESS 1: FIRST YOU FARM IT
Three sites here will delight veggie lovers. The first is "An Organic
Farmer's Home Page" complete with references to understanding the
soil, biological pest control, insect pictures, "The Barn Owl" (a
flying cat?!), and "Organic Chermoya" (???). Newsletter available.
Find all this in the "Noah's Ark Home Page" at
"http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html".
VEGGIE MADNESS 2: THEN YOU EAT IT
From the second site you can get over 800 ways to cook, prepare and
combine vegetables, all in a form-searchable index. It's delicious,
and the site has the best list of hyperlinks to health, nutrition, and
medical sites that we have seen recently. Graze fully in their garden
at "http://www-sc.ucss.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/recipes/".
VEGGIE MADNESS 3: THEN YOU TELL YOUR CAT HE'S NOT LUNCH.
The last vegetarian site is from the UK and, like many, is "under
development". It has pointers to mailing lists, newsgroups, and over a
dozen other sites with info on vegetarian and animal rights groups.
Dig it up at "http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Vegetarian/".
THE PLAY'S THE THING AT THEATRE CENTRAL
This very complete resource features a directory of Net-savvy theatre
professionals, a list of new plays, theatre newsgroups, active theatre
groups, and a link to the Playwright's and Screenwriter's Home Page.
Most impressive of all is the Shakespeare play archive. You can read
the Bard's plays in their entirety, or search all plays for keywords
of your choosing. "http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/quijote/WWW/theatre-
central.html"
NOW THAT YOU'VE SAMPLED PIZZANET - HOW ABOUT SOME JAVA?
Hey, all you environmentally-correct health-conscious coffee drinkers
out there: have we got a page for you. Announcing "Cafe Mam", your
connection to what claims to be a "pesticide free, environmentally
conscious product from Chiapas, Mexico." The Cafe Mam home page
explains that the growers are part of ISMAM (Indigenous Peoples of the
Sierra Madre of Motozintla). For details about ISMAM, and how to order
coffee and such Cafe Mam goodies as T-shirts and chocolate-covered
Cafe Mam espresso beans ("sorry - not with organic chocolate"), see:
"http://mmink.cts.com/mmink/dossiers/cafemam.html".
YOU GOTTA HAVE A COOL T-SHIRT TO SURF THE NET
And stuff.com is the place you can get them. They have two new T-
shirts; one features a wizard surfing the fiber lines while the other
is a surfer atop a wave flowing from a computer to a Net node. They're
$19.95 each, not that this is a commercial - we just figured you'd be
interested. See them for yourself at "http://www.stuff.com"
ARCHITECTURAL SITES ON THE WEB
If you're ready for something really off-the-wall (ahem), visit "Never
Never Land", an architectural Web site in New Zealand. You'll find
some neat renderings and visuals - if you're willing to venture deep
enough within
"http://archpropplan.auckland.ac.nz/People/Rob/Rob.html". For some
spiffy GIF files of ancient Greek monuments and the like, stop by the
ArchGopher at "gopher://libra.arch.umich.edu".
MILITARY AND DISASTER MEDICINE
How could we resist a peek? The Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences (USUHS) has a Web site operating over three different
servers. Information is available on their mission as a medical school
specializing in military and disaster medicine. It is difficult to
connect to this site (busy?) and, alas, it doesn't have a lot to
offer. While the USUHS's page doesn't quite live up to the tantalizing
promise of its specialty, they do have some good medical and general
Net links of interest. "http://net.usuhs.mil"
ONE STOP SHOPPING FOR MACINTOSH INFO
The Well Connected Mac is a well organized list pointing to Mac-
oriented Usenet newsgroups, freeware, Mac technical info, book
reviews, periodicals, an impressive vendor list, etc., etc. This
really good job was put together by a doctoral student from New Jersey
who'd appreciate help with reviews from interested parties. If you use
a Mac, this is definitely worth checking out.
"http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/Macintosh.html"
FREE MACARONI & CHEESE: SENSEMEDIA SURFER RIDES HIGH
Dedicated to delivering quality hypermedia to your screen, SenseMedia
Surfer is a good way for Webmaster wannabes to get their home pages
out there quickly. Thirty dollars per month buys you a page on this
24x7 cybermag, and if you advertise with the Fractal Images Company,
you might win a free box of Kraft Cheese & Macaroni! We could probably
learn something from them in the goofy marketing department.
Seriously, it's a pretty slick collection of humor, art, adventure
gaming, and links to many small Pacific coast servers, as well as the
paid pages. Neat. "http://www.picosof.com/"
ONLINE TRAVEL
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Click your mouse and see the world
SURFING IN CALIFORNIA
California has a great surfing reputation and, being the laid back
kind of place that it is, even the state government is into it. The
California State Government Network page has prominent links to both
Net surfing (Netsurfer Digest, dude!), and to real hang ten wave-type
surfing (SurfNET). This may be the hippest set of government pages
we've seen. Yes, there are the usual links to government agencies, but
also the California Virtual Tourist, state arts and entertainment
(Scottso the Clown, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Survival Research
Laboratories), sports and recreation (San Francisco 49ers, Nude Beach
FAQ, Juggling Information Service), and a bunch of other neat Web
sites. If you're heading for west coast waves, you must stop here
first. "http://www.ca.gov/"
WWW HEADS SOUTH - REALLY SOUTH
The New South Polar Times is an ongoing, first-hand account of life at
the South Pole. The bi-weekly newsletter is written by staff at
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is named after the South Polar
Times, the on-board paper of Robert Scott's first expedition to
Antarctica in 1901-1904, and is sprinkled with neat tidbits: on August
13, record high temperatures were reached as the mercury topped off at
a sizzling -37 degrees C. The Times also contains other polar links,
polar science data, and a history of polar exploration. It's a tough
life down there, so send some cheery E-Mail to Katie Wallet and ask
her to forward it to the Station. Tell 'em Netsurfer sent you. Katie
Wallet: "kwallet@pen.k12.va.us" or "courtla1@pen.k12.va.us".
"http://www.deakin.edu.au/edu/MSEE/GENII/NSPT/NSPThomePage.html"
GO SHOPPING IN NEW YORK, CATCH A BROADWAY SHOW
New York-based eMall is notable for a small but eclectic set of shops.
You might find them useful for the upcoming holidays: Spice Merchant
"Flavor Secrets of Asia and the Orient"; Springs of Life book shop;
Harvest Burgers; Rowena's cake shop; Capulin "Jungle" Coffee; Rob-1
Motorsports; and the great sounding Chile Today - Hot Tamale's
"Gourmet Peppers and Hot Sauces from around the world". Write a letter
to Santa (Santa's Hangout) and win a sampler of all those wares. After
shopping, try the list of Broadway shows or a tour of the various
sections of New York City. Those are somewhat interesting in text
format, but could be really exciting with some well chosen graphics
and simple maps. The site has promise. "http://eMall.com/"
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Random acts of online reality
YOUR MOM HAS MOVED (BUT LEFT YOU AN ADDRESS)
"Your MoM", self-described as "funny funny fun and funny stuff", has
moved to a new URL. We covered them, but we'll let you figure out when
yourself. "http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~emj5/yourmom/ymhome.html"
ONLINE ICON EMPORIUM
Need some nice icons for your HTML documents? There are over 3,000
here. Some are pretty big, thus slow. Go for the FTP site, but keep in
mind it's a big file (almost 700kB).
"http://crab.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/hobbes/hobbes.html"
"ftp://www.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/pub/hobbes-gif-html.tar.gz"
TELNET TO A BBS USING THIS LIST
Tired of the same old Internet stuff? There's a list of some 50 BBSs
reachable by Telnet stored at Texas A&M.
"gopher://gopher.tamu.edu:70/11/.dir/bbs.dir"
CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ON GOPHER
The CIA's World Factbook 1993 (published in 1994) is available via
Gopher. For those who don't know, this is the ultimate in almanac-
style data of countries around the world.
"gopher://umslvma.umsl.edu:70/11/LIBRARY/GOVDOCS/WF93"
MISCELLANEOUS MERCHANDISE MERITS MODEM MONITORING
"Sell-it on the WWW" is a new site with a variety of products for
sale. Consider it a cyber-classified section. Ads cost $10 a month.
"http://xmission.com/~wwwads"
LISTSERV FOR KIDS WHO NEED SPECIAL HEALTH CARE
The Institute for Child Health Policy has a Listserv to promote
discussion of issues relevant to children with special health care
needs and their families. To subscribe, E-Mail
"LISTSERV@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu" or "LISTSERV@ nervm.bitnet" with
"SUBSCRIBE CSHCN-L [your first name] [your last name]" as the message.
ASIA ONLINE INTRODUCES THE DIGITAL VERSION OF THE SILK ROAD
Asia Online will provide information on commercial and investment
opportunities in Asia and will distribute Asian electronic
publications. It'll also hold a few online exhibitions in conjunction
with real-world events. "http://www.ncb.gov.sg:1080/"
SPILL YOUR CONSUMER GUTS, GET $50 FEDEX CREDIT.
Federal Express is sponsoring a survey about online shopping. If you
qualify to take it, you'll be presented with a 30-minute survey and be
sent $50 of FedEx credit. You can also register for other future
online surveys. "http://www.portal.com/~eclectec/presurvey.cgi"
REAL ESTATE MATCHMAKER ONLINE
The Realty Referral Network matches real estate buyers and sellers
with real estate agents. It serves over 5,000 cities and towns
throughout the U.S. and Europe. Best of all, it's free.
"http://mmink.cts.com/mmink/dossiers/rrn.html"
DUN & BRADSTREET BUSINESS INFO TAILORED FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Dun & Bradstreet's business information server comes equipped with a
series of tutorials designed to help the small business owner.
"http://www.dbisna.com"
ONLINE SERVICES
___________________________________________________________________________
___
What's new with the commercial services
PRODIGY HITS THE WEB
Prodigy's server, called AstraNet, went Web recently. Right off the
bat, they get points for splitting their content paths into graphic
and non-graphic links. The main menu lists general topics like News,
Sports, Shopping, Weather, and others. The graphics are not excessive
and fairly functional. Right now the proprietary content is rather
sparse but they do have numerous links to "Best of the Net" providers
in all those areas. The site and content is free for now. Prodigy
plans to offer three paid services consisting of news, sports and
financial material in December. For now, use them as a well organized
index to good Web sites. "http://www.astranet.com"
SOFTWARE
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Online related software notices and mini-reviews
CONVERT RTF ON MAC OR UNIX TO HTML WITH A STROKE OF A KEY
If you don't know the acronyms, you probably aren't interested. The
latest version when we looked (2.7.4) of RTFTOHTML software converts
rich text format documents containing graphics, tables, text, and
equations into hypertext markup language (HTML for the WWW). It runs
on UNIX and Macintosh, but also translates documents produced on DOS
and Windows platforms. You can get a copy from:
"ftp://ftp.cray.com/src/WWWstuff/RTF/rtftohtml_overview.html"
NEW VERSION 1.10 OF GWSTAT
The perl program which generates GIF graphs showing activity at your
WWW server has recently been updated. Gwstat reads the output of the
indispensable wwwstat HTTPD log analysis package to get its raw data.
Together they can be used to create on-the-fly graphs of your server's
statistics. To use it, you also need Xmgr, a plotting package,
ImageMagic (used to do image type conversion), and Ghostscript, a
postscript interpreter package. All are freely available and can be
downloaded from the gwstat Web page.
"http://dis.cs.umass.edu/stats/gwstat.html"
"ftp://dis.cs.umass.edu/pub/gwstat.tar.gz"
COMT SOFTWARE LETS YOU USE COMM PROGRAMS TO TALK TELENT
"COMt: the Telnet Modem" is a WinSock 1.1-compliant communications
driver that allows you to assign unused COM ports to act as "Telnet
Modems". Each Telnet Modem acts as a Hayes-compatible modem, so it
provides the behavior expected by most comm programs. All you need to
do is tell your favorite Windows terminal program to connect to one of
these telnet ports, then give the IP address for a phone number. When
you "dial", you will be connected to the host via a Telnet connection.
It's $15.95 shareware.
"ftp://ftp.std.com/customers/software/rfdmail/comt.zip"
WSGOPHER 1.1 RELEASED
WSGopher is a Gopher+ client program for Microsoft Windows and WinSock
version 1.1. The new version has some improvements to help sysadmins,
is more robust, and has a number of features slated for the upcoming
Unix Gopher version 2.1. It runs on Windows and Windows for
Workgroups, and you'll need a minimum of 8MB RAM. The author, Dave
Brooks, is working on a Windows NT binary. Download, read the docs, if
you have questions write "gopher@tis.inel.gov".
"ftp://dewey.tis.inel.gov/pub/wsgopher"
CONTACT INFORMATION
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Netsurfer Digest Home Page http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
Netsurfer Digest FTP Site ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsd/README
Subscribe E-mail: nsdigest-request@netsurf.com
Include one of the following commands in the BODY of the
message:
HTML Format version: subscribe nsdigest-html
Plain ASCII version: subscribe nsdigest-text
Submission of Newsworthy Items: pressrm@netsurf.com
Letters to the Editor: editor@netsurf.com
Advertiser and Sponsor inquiries
to Arthur Bebak: ad@netsurf.com
Netsurfer Communications http://www.netsurf.com/
General Information info-request@netsurf.com
CREDITS
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Publisher
Arthur Bebak
Production Manager
Bill Woodcock
Copy Editing
Lawrence Nyveen
Writers & Netsurfers
Joanne Eglash
Lisa Hamilton
Rebecca Kuchar
Jay Mills
Lawrence Nyveen
___________________________________________________________________________
___
NETSURFER DIGEST (c)1994 Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
NETSURFER DIGEST is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
|