Scout Report: Week ending November 25, 1994
The Scout Report is
a weekly publication provided by
InterNIC Information
Services to assist InterNauts in their ongoing quest to know what's new
on and about the Internet. It focuses on those resources thought to be of
interest to the InterNIC's primary audience, researchers and educators,
however everyone is welcome to subscribe and there are no associated
fees.
The Scout Report is posted on the InterNIC InfoGuide's
gopher and
WorldWideWeb servers
where you can easily follow links to resources of interest. Past issues are
stored on the InfoGuide servers for quick reference, and you can search the
InfoGuide server contents to find the items reported in all previous issues.
The Scout Report is also distributed in an HTML version for use on your own
host, providing fast local access for yourself and other users at your
site.
http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
gopher is.internic.net choose
Information Services/Scout Report
Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be
sent to
scout@internic.net.
See the end of the report for additional information and detailed access
and subscription instructions.
ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES
- Last week the HTML version of the Scout Report was sent in error to
the mailing list for plain text version, resulting in folks on that list
receiving two copies of the same Scout Report. Have no fear, you haven't
been mistakenly added to another mailing list -- it was only an error on
the part of an un-named (ahem...) InterNaut. Apologies for the confusion.
- You may have noticed that recently the Scout Report has been arriving
a bit late in the week. This is due to two factors: one of them human
related (too many airplanes) and one computer related (too much work).
Action is being taken to alleviate both situations. ;-) In the
meantime, thanks for your patience.
Highlights In This Week's Report
World Wide Web
- American Memory Project
- The Library of Congress has added a collection of sound recordings to its
American Memory project. The Nation's Forum collection consists of fifty-nine
sound recordings of speeches by American leaders at the turn of the century.
The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the First World War and
the subsequent presidential election of 1920. Speakers include Warren G.
Harding, James Cox, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Gompers,
Henry Cabot Lodge, and John J. Pershing.
-
Banned Books Online is a new Web page featuring books available on-line
that have been the objects of censorship, particularly by legal
authorities or by schools. The on-line exhibit gives short descriptions
of the titles, which range from "Ulysses" to "Little Red Riding Hood". It
also describes how and why each book was censored or suppressed. You can
then follow hypertext links from the top-level page to the works
themselves, so that you can see what the censors didn't want people to
see. Pointers to other resources (both on- and off-line) on censorship
issues and on-line literature are provided. The exhibit is based at
Carnegie Mellon University, where the administration recently announced
the university would censor numerous newsgroups (including text-based
groups) related to sexuality, citing fears of legal liability as its
reason. The exhibit is particularly appropriate now, as a reminder of the
continuing struggle for free expression and the increasingly important
role of computer-based forms of expression.
- The
Berlin Wall Falls Project is being initiated by the Patch American
High School in Stuttgart, Germany. Do you remember where you where when
the Berlin Wall fell? It's been 5 years now, and Patch American High
School has started a collaborative Web project that invites participation
from students and researchers around the globe. Over the next twelve
months, the Berlin Wall Falls: Perspectives from 5 Years Down the Road
project hopes to link student-produced Web documents from as many as 30
different sites. Willkommen!
- The
Cabot Science Library at Harvard University has announced its new WWW
home page providing a variety of information and directional links to
assist science students and researchers at Harvard and elsewhere. In
addition to providing information about the library's services,
collections and policies, this resource also provides guidance in how to
access major scientific databases on campus, and points to useful
Internet-accessible science resources including home pages of other
science libraries, as well as a number of Harvard scientific publications
currently being produced via WWW. Also included are HTML versions of
Cabot's popular topical research guides and of the Library newsletter.
- The City University of
New York, New York, USA contains the 19 CUNY
colleges. Offers previews of multimedia programs developed by CUNY faculty
and links to an innovative gopher containing resources for teaching
English as a second language. Featured in the CUNY Multimedia Development
Initiative page is "The Art of Renaissance Science," a prototype
hypermedia article that explores the interconnections between art and
science in Renaissance Italy.
- Guide to Stars
and Galaxies,
produced by the Engineering in Astronomy team
at the University of Bradford, England, is a multimedia guide to stars and
galaxies. The guide has been converted from a popular CD-ROM (with
permission), is rich in graphics and audio, and is nicely done.
- The Institute of Social
Science, University of Tokyo now has a WWW server.
The server offers Social Science Japan, an online magazine containing
articles on recent trends in economics, political science and legal
research on Japan. An events diary of conferences, seminars etc. for
social scientists interested in Japan.
- The World
Data Center A for Marine Geology & Geophysics, located at the
National Geophysical Data Center, USA, is now accessible through the Web
and includes a forms interface allowing full on-line inventory searches of
all Marine Geology & Geophysics Division holdings.
- Xerox PARC Web Map Viewer
offers a "clickable" world map which lets you
zoom in on areas of interest. Cities, roads, and rivers are not labeled
since the underlying map data contains only line data such as coastlines,
borders, rivers, roads, and not the data or software to add labels or
topographic information. However, there is a link to link to the
Geographic Name Server which allows searches by name, and returns a Map
Viewer page which pinpoints the searched item on the appropriate map.
Gopher
- A Citizen's Guide to Internet Resources on the Rights of Americans. The
guide is designed for the layperson and focuses on Internet resources
which explain and discuss individual rights under: the Bill of Rights,
select federal statutes (e.g., the ADA, the Copyright Act), rights by
status or group (e.g., women, youth, the disabled), and other
rights-related resources (e.g., gateways to legal information). It has
been posted on the Clearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resource
Guides at the University of Michigan.
gopher to: una.hh.lib.umich.edu
select: inetdirsstacks/Citizens' Rights
- Association for the Advancement
of Computing in Education
- French Embassy, Washington
DC (NOTE: totally in French)
- InfoPro -- Information
Professionals List Gopher
- Jobs Online
- National Data Archive on
Child Abuse and Neglect, provided by the Family Life Development Center
at Cornell University.
- Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
-- digital cartographic data
Email
National Information Infrastructure
New documents on the Department of Commerce
National
Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) gopher:
- Government Information Locator Service Announcement
- IITF Meeting Minutes
- G-7 Meeting Information
NetBytes
- "New on the Net"
states that the Nov. 15th snapshot of the commercial
domains registered with InterNIC shows 24,762 unique domains compared with
21,777 as of Oct 15, 1994. The net increase of 2,985 domains represents
and 13.7% month to month gain. This smashes the previous record number of
additions set in the month ended Sept. 15, 1994 when 1,839 domains were
added. A detailed analysis of the data wasn't complete at the time of
release of the Scout Report, but author Mike Walsh of Internet Info says
the growth appears to be coming from all sectors e.g. high tech, consumer
products, financial services, publishing, etc. Notable domain name
registrations: "Mosaic Communications registers MOZILLA.COM. Let's see
how long it takes for their corporate name change to catch up. The Coca
Cola Company finally registers some domains COCA-COLA.COM and
COCACOLA.COM. Bet they wish they had COKE.COM. And if you thought the
Net was just for geeks, Harley-Davidson registers HOG.COM (along with a
couple of other variations). The National Hockey League registers
NHL.COM. Hey, they got nothing better to do."
After analysis, two versions of "New on the Net" will be released. If you
want to receive the short version which is free, just sent email to
short@internetinfo.com. The long version includes
noteworthy registrations and charts which breakdown registration by state,
area code and Internet Service Provider. The long version isn't free but
is cheap.
- RODEO INRIA
High Speed Networking, France, is offering information about
the INRIA Videoconferencing System an IVS videoconferencing package which
enables audio and video to be sent over the Internet. Included are a
description of the system, the H.261 coding scheme, the changes required
to use this video coding over packet-switched networks, platforms
currently supported, and pointers to freely retrieve the package.
Weekend Scouting
- A Guide to
Covered Bridges, offered by Drexel University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, transforms the Web into a time machine. Find the answer to
the question, why are there so many covered bridges, and why in
Pennsylvania and the Northeast? The Drexel University Honors Program
sponsors this guide to dozens of covered bridges of the Philadelphia
region. Driving tours are suggested, and bridge images are indexed by
season (fall color, winter, snow and ice, spring/summer) and structure as
well as county.
- Dan Brown's Beer Page
serves as something of an index to other
beer-related resources on the net, from the alt.beer FAQ to Finnish beer
aficionados. The contributor of this item summed it up nicely when he
said: "We're talking good beer and home brewing technology here, not
cheap swill and reckless indulgence."
About the Scout Report
The
Scout Report is a
weekly publication offered by
InterNIC Information
Services to the Internet community as a fast, convenient way
to stay informed about network activities. Its purpose is to combine in
one place the highlights of new (and newly-discovered) online resources
and other announcements seen on the Internet during the preceding week.
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 -- electronic mail,
gopher, World Wide Web, and HTML. The gopher and World Wide Web
versions of the Report include links to all listed resources. The Report
is released every weekend.
In addition to the ascii version, the Scout Report is distributed
in HTML format via a separate mailing list. This allows sites to easily
add the Scout Report to their local WorldWideWeb servers each week,
providing fast access for local users. Subscription information for the
scout-report-html mailing list is included below. Note that permission
statements appear on both versions of the Scout Report, and we ask that
these be included in any re-posting or re-distributing of the report.
Thank you!
If you haven't yet subscribed or told your friends and colleagues, now
is the time. Spread the news by word-of-net. Join thousands 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.
-- InterNIC Info Scout (sm)
Scout Report Access Methods
Resource Addressing Conventions
After each resource in the Scout Report one or more network addresses are
listed. In all cases a convention is used for listing 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) and instructions for accessing additional information in
the InterNIC InfoGuide about each 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 through 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 will need a WWW client
installed on your host computer. Clients are available for all major
computer platforms, including Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. To use a WWW
client on your computer, you will need a TCP/IP connection to the
Internet, either through a dedicated line connection or a SLIP/PPP
connection. See the
InfoGuide for
additional information about the World
Wide Web and for sites which archive WWW clients. For more information
about SLIP/PPP, which can be used over a dial-up connection, see the
document listed in the NetBytes section above.
gopher://is.internic.net/11/infoguide/using-internet/basic-resources/email/
Gopher to: is.internic.net
Choose: Information Services/Using the Internet/
Send email to mailserv@is.internic.net
and in the
body of the message type:
send INDEX
Copyright 1994 General Atomics.
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 the
National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9218749. 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, General Atomics,
AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.
scout@is.internic.net
guide@is.internic.net