The Scout Report - August 11, 1995
A Service to the Internet Community
Provided by the Info Scout
and the InterNIC
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new
and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and
educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However everyone is welcome
to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML) or visit
the Web version of the Scout Report on the InterNIC server:
http://rs.internic.net/scout_report-index.html
Additional information and detailed access and subscription
instructions are included at the end of each Scout Report.
Highlights In This Week's Report:
World Wide Web:
- The China News page provides links to sources
of political, social and economic news about mainland China, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Tibet available free of charge on the Internet. Extensive
information is provided on how to view Chinese characters on the Web,
how to listen to Chinese, and where to go to see interesting Chinese
language sites on the Web. There are also links to sources of Asian and
world news which might contain information about recent developments in
the Greater China area. The page is the work of a BBC correspondent
living in Hong Kong.
http://www.hk.net/~drummond/milesj/china.html
- Hurricane Felix - watch it for yourself on the
Web. Download options include a current GOES 8 color enhanced infrared
image, current Atlantic Basin Tropical System Tracking Chart, NOWRAD
Radar Composite, or NOWRAD Radar Summary which shows speed and
direction. Also links to the public advisory, marine advisory, latitude
& longitude pairs, and full-resolution IR satellite photo, NOAA's most
recent report and the Disaster Information Network.
http://www.netcreations.com/hurricane/
- The Media Online Yellow Pages is another good place (along with
the Big List and Newslink mentioned last week) to find media sources on
the Internet. Does not appear to be searchable but the index is
well-organized for browsing.
http://www.webcom.com/~nlnnet/yellowp.html
- The Web page titled "New Orleans, Louisiana
- A Virtual Library," offers a comprehensive view of New Orleans for
residents and visitors alike. Hundreds of photos are available,
including a Library of Congress collection of photos of New Orleans at
the turn of the century, current photos courtesy of other Web sites and
photographers, and pictures taken from the Space Shuttle. Besides
music, recreation, arts, and tourist listings, you can read Ann Rice's
views on the film, "Interview with the Vampire."
http://www.geopages.com/SunsetStrip/1202/
- The Nomadic Research Labs is a small enterprise devoted to the
pursuit of nomadness. It was created by Steve Roberts who has been a
technomad for the past 11 years, wandering 17,000 miles around the U.S.
on various versions of a computerized recumbent bicycle known first as
the Winnebiko and then BEHEMOTH. The Web site offers extensive
information about BEHEMOTH and its travels and the ongoing development
of Microship which holds a satellite Internet connection, two Macs,
onboard video production capability and more. You can also find
extensive information about the growing field of technomadics -- the
use of nomadic connectivity and autonomous power/control tools to
render one's physical location irrelevant.
http://microship.ucsd.edu
- Teacher Talk is published by the Center for Adolescent Studies
at the School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. It is
a publication for preservice, secondary education teachers and exists
on the Web documents in a print. Content is indexed by topic making it
easy to find specific information.
http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/tthmpg.html
- The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides a
Web page covering "Basic Facts About Registering A Trademark." Topics
include establishing trademark rights, applications, who may apply,
searching for conflicting marks, and use of the "TM," "SM" and "circled
R" symbols. The information presented here has been quoted on the 'Net
often recently with respect to the relationship (or lack there of)
between domain names and trademarks.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/trad_reg_info/basic_facts.html
- The Vote Smart Web is a new service made available by Project
Vote Smart, a non-profit organization that makes factual information
about politicians available for free. Project Vote Smart's database is
available in conjunction with other sources of political information
found on the Internet, and is researcher assisted via an 800 number.
Links include the '96 presidential campaign, issues, organizations,
educational reference materials, and other directories of political
information. Also useful is the political humor section, which makes
wading through the rest a little easier. (!)
http://www.vote-smart.org/
- WeatherNet, brought to us by The Weather Underground at
University of Michigan, aims to be the premier site of weather links on
the Internet. Besides the topical tropical storm page, you can view
Accu-Weathers graphics including Nexrad imagery, satellite photos,
surface maps, and forecast maps.
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/
Gopher
- The Council of State Governments (CSG) is a
non-profit organization which provides information on state government
issues to both the legislators and the public. CSG is a nonpartisan
organization that seeks to foster excellence in state government.
Founded on the premise that the states are the best sources of insight
and innovation, CSG provides a network for identifying and sharing
ideas with state leaders. The gopher server provides information about
CSG and innovative state programs plus links to state legislative
gopher servers and federal gophers.
gopher to: gopher.csg.org
- Voice of America Chinese radio scripts are now available on
their gopher server. The Chinese texts are character-encoded according
to the Chinese national standard (Guo Biao) and you must have software
that recognizes Guo Biao characters installed on your browser,
word-processor or other application program in order to read this text.
Also see the Voice of America (VOA) News and English Broadcast Wire
Service and the Worldnet television schedules and satellite downlink
information. VOA Internet audio files are available in Sun AU format
and Microsoft 8 bit and 16 bit WAVE format.
gopher to: gopher.voa.gov
Electronic Mailing Lists
-
ACROBAT is an unofficial email list for discussion of everything
related to Adobe's Acrobat program and is not sponsored or endorsed by
Adobe Systems or its employees. The Acrobat mailing list is
unmoderated, everyone and anyone is welcome to post in it as long as
they observe the Acrobat topic.
- send email to:
acrobat-request@blueworld.com
- in the body of the message type:
subscribe
- The main purpose of GENTECH is to exchange information among
concerned scientists, activists of grassroot groups and other
organizations about the impacts of genetic engineering to environment
and society. As there are several other lists and newsgroups backing
scientists in biotechnology with academic information the focal point
of GENTECH is to provide information and support for individuals and
organizations whose are not necessarily familiar with biotechnological
terms. The topics for discussion on GENTECH may include among others:
food produced by genetic engineering (novel food); releases of GMO's
(genetic manipulated organisms); genetic diagnosis in medicine and
eugenic tendencies.
- send email to:
GENTECH-REQUEST@doo.donut.ruhr.com
- in the body of the message
type: SUBSCRIBE yourfirstname yourlastname
- MEDIALIB has been formed to discuss issues surrounding
audiovisual/media services in library. It serves, primarily, library
professionals and paraprofessionals who provide media services in
public, academic, and special libraries. These issues include the
selection, acquisition, and cataloging of media software, purchase and
maintenance of audiovisual equipment, distance education, instructional
media production, film and video distribution, etc. The list is open
and unmoderated.
- send mail to: LISTSERV@CFRVM.CFR.USF.EDU
- in
the body of the message type:
- SUBSCRIBE MEDIALIB yourfirstname
yourlastname
NetBytes
- Netscape Communications released its
first offering of public stock last week, but if you were planning to
get in early you're already too late. The initial plan to release 3.5
million shares at $11 was raised to 5 million shares at $28 but they
all went to insiders. On opening day the demand was as high as
100,000,000 according to one broker who called Netscape the "rookie of
the year." After 45 minutes on the market the price was $74.75. By the
end of trading on Friday 8/11 it had settled at $52. All this before
the company has earned a profit. A daily graph of Netscape stock on the
most recent trading day is available at:
http://www.secapl.com/secapl/quoteserver/nscp.html
For more
information and some quotes see Webster at:
http://www.tgc.com/webster.html
- NETSURFER TOOLS is a new e-zine bringing news about online
technology to technical professionals and others interested in keeping
current on network tools. The majority of the information is about the
Web with a sprinkle of related utilities. Also available via email in
either plain text or text with HTML versions.
http://www.netsurf.com/nst/
- send email to: nstools-request@netsurf.com
- in the body of the
message type: subscribe nstools-text
- or subscribe nstools-html
Weekend Scouting
About the Scout Report
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offered by the InterNIC to the
Internet community as a fast, convenient way to stay informed about
network activities. Its purpose is to combine in one place selected new
(and newly-discovered) Internet resources.
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 -- mailing lists
for both a plain text and HTML version, and World Wide Web. The World
Wide Web version of the Report includes links to all listed resources.
The report is released every weekend.
In addition to the plain text version, the Scout Report is
distributed in HTML format allowing sites to post the Scout Report on
local WorldWideWeb servers each week. The result is faster access for
local users. You are welcome and encouraged to re-post and
re-distribute the report. Note that copyright statements appear on all
versions of the Scout Report, and we ask that these be included when
re-posting or re-distributing.
If you haven't yet subscribed or told your friends and colleagues,
now is the time. Spread the news by word-of-net. Join 20,000 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@internic.net
-- Susan Calcari
InterNIC Info Scout
Scout Report Access Methods
Resource Addressing Conventions
After each resource in the Scout Report one or more network addresses
are listed. Every attempt is made to use the same convention in each
listing for 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.) 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 using 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 forward
slashes. 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 can use a WWW browser
installed on your desktop computer, or a "command-line" WWW client on
your local Internet host computer. Web browsers are available for all
major computer platforms, including Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. Check with
your local support center or your Internet Service Provider for more
information about Web browsers.
Copyright Susan Calcari, 1995.
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 a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation:
NCR-9218742. 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, AT&T, or Network
Solutions, Inc.