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 thereof) 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.