E-mail 101 · Chapter 4Part 4
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
The documents that can be viewed by WWW are ASCII text with special "tags" that give a addresses of the "hypertext links." The tags use the syntax of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SGML is a language used by scholars to mark text for academic research. The WWW vision of the library of the future is a collection of documents spread all over the world, the whole of which can be looked at starting from any one of them. Sort of like having the whole world on your desktop.
There is not "top" node to the Web, but you can find points of entry at:
telnet info.cern.ch (European Center for High Energy Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, the "home" of WWW).
<Section 18.4> Summary of Navigation Tools
To summarize, here are the three systems discussed, together with their underlying technology and "constituency":
Gopher : Simple FTP and Telnet : Campus Info
WAIS : Artificially Intellegent searches : Business
World Wide Web : Hypertext and SGML markup : Ac. Research
<Chapter 19> Research Methods II: Usenet Newsgroups
[This chapter is under construction]
<Chapter 20> Research Methods III: Advanced Techniques
The previous two chapters covered the more or less standard techniques for finding your way around the net. This chapter covers more
There are three basic "problem situation" that every researcher using the Internet will eventually face:
(1) You know who has the information but you don't know their "address".
(2) The information is on the net, only you don't know where.
(3) The desired information is not on the net, but their *is* information on how to get it from a non-network source.
The methods described in this chapter are more tentative than in the preceeding two chapters. They don't always work.
<Section 20.1> Finding Persons and Computers
There are a couple of standard methods for checking and verifying E-mail addresses.
% ping rtfm.mit.edu
(Remember that "%" is the prompt the computer gives you. Your system prompt may look different). You should get back a message saying "rtfm.mit.edu is alive" or something like that.
Many machines support a command called "nslookup" that will return the dotted decimal address given the name of the machine
% nslookup rtfm.mit.edu
returns "xxx" as the dotted decimal address.
If you can guess the name of person or institution—this is not hard— then you can try to see if you have a valid address by "fingering" your intended victim:
% finger pdq@hoople.usnd.edu
If the system supports the "finger" feature (and many don't), you can try any number of guesses or permutations. If you succeed, you can find out lots of information about the person: their telephone number, when they last logged on, when they last read their mail, what department they work in, etc. Many systems allow you to leave a file called ".plan"—note the initial dot—that contains further contact information.
Good guesses for names:
o last name (bach),
o last name with one or more initials (pbach, pdqbach),
o three (or more!) initials (pdqb)
o nicknames, cute handles, etc. (fluffy,aragorn)
o work ID numbers (bach2378@bigblue.com)
Your last resort is a search program called "netfind". It lets you find a machine or person by keyword. If you know your target is at USND, you can try the keywords PDQ, USND, EDU and find pdq@hoople.usnd.edu. Note that you often have to guess the "domain", but this should not be hard. You can also search with PDQ, "University of Southern North Dakota", EDU, if USND is not sufficiently obvious. City and state names work, too. Try it.
The main short comings of "netfind" are:
(1) it often fails if the target computer does not support the "finger" command; and
(2) it only works on the Internet, not Bitnet or other mail systems.
To use "netfind" you have to telnet to any of several standard locations and log in as "netfind".
If one server is busy it should give you a list of alternate servers to try.
Detailed information on how to find someone on the net is given in the Usenet FAQ (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/ xxxx ). This FAQ is oriented towards helping University students, who flood the networks every Fall looking for the E-mail addresses of their friends.
<Section 20.2> Finding Information and Software
By far the easiest way to
If you do not have Internet access, then you will have to use FTP by E- mail (use the "Archie by E-mail" archive server first to find your target!).
Finding Information and Software Usenet News FAQ Archives Archie
<Section 20.3> Finding References to Paper Documents
This is the last resort, right? Most information is still in paper, although the high cost of paper will mean that less and less is available this way.
(1) Use the Internet to access bibliographic databases, especially library catalogues
(2) Use a document retrieval service like that provided by the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL).
(3) Try to get someone to send you a xerox or fax.
<Chapter 21> <Chapter 22> <Chapter 23> <Chapter 24> <Chapter 25> These chapters, which deal more with abstract theory than with specific instructions, has been omitted from this special edition.
<Part IV> Resources
The main resources on the Internet are to be found on the net itself: especially the Usenet news and its many FAQs including the PDIAL and NIXPUB listings and various Internet resource guides. The resources provided here are second best. Nevertheless, it was felt important to provide a few addresses and a few book titles for the neophyte to get started. The information in this section is a point of departure, not a conclusive summary.
<Chapter 26> The Internet Address Book:
[This Chapter is under construction]
<Chapter 27> Bibliography
Most of the books below do not contain a great deal of how-to information about connecting to the Network. This course is intended to fill the gap. But they do tell you what to do once you are on. The first few, which are available by Internet, are especially useful. They do make the network "self-describing".
The Incomplete Guide to the Internet (for Macintosh with Microsoft Word only—for paper version see below)
A very complete guide written by the Education Office of the National Supercomputing Agency (NCSA). It contains a very complete intro- duction to the Internet and classroom Internet projects for K12 teachers. This is the best guide for public school teachers.
For paper version, write: Chuck Farmer, 152 CAB, 605 E. Springfield Ave., Champaign, IL 61820. Cost is around $22.00 for 300 pp.
Polly, Jean Armour. Surfing the Internet nysernet.org:/pub/resources/guides (192.77.173.2). This is my all- around choice for best introduction to the Internet. It contains references to most other good sources of information together with instructions on how to get them. It is especially complete in giving information of interest to librarians.
Kehoe, Brendan. Zen and the Art of the Internet (1st ed.)
A very good guide for how-to information. Unfortunately, the FTP versions are all marked up in a dialect of the TeX typesetting system. They are still somewhat readable though, even if you don't have the TeX system. A Postscript version is also provided.
ftp.uu.net:/inet/doc (137.39.1.9) ftp.cs.toronto.edu:/pub/zen (147.31.254.132) ftp.cs.widener.edu:/pub/zen (147.31.254.132) files are called zen- 1.0.tar.Z, zen-1.0.dvi, and zen-1.0.PS ftp.sura.net:/pub/nic/zen-1.0.PS
Kehoe, Brendan. (1993). Zen and the Art of the Internet: a Beginner's Guide (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-010778- 6. Index.
Krol, Ed. (1992). The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 1-56592-025-2.
LaQuey, Tracey, & Ryer, J. C. (1993). The Internet Companion: a Beginner's Guide to Global Networking.. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-62224-6
Marine, April. (1992). INTERNET: Getting Started. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International. ISBN 0-944604-15-3
Tennant, Roy, Ober, J., and Lipow, A. G. (1993). Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook. Berkeley, CA: Library Solutions Press. ISBN: 1-882208-01-3 (Library Solutions Institute and Press, 2137 Oregon Street, Berkeley, CA 94705. Voice: 510/841-2636 FAX: 510/841-2926)
<Chapter 28> Glossary
[This chapter is under construction]
<Appendix A> COMPUTER HINTS FOR THE *REALLY* GREEN
1. (turning on) Make sure the computer is plugged in and on. Is something on the screen? Can you hear a fan? Does anything happen when you type or move the mouse? Are lights lit or flashing? The screen may be frozen by a "hold" button (look for a light labelled "scroll lock" or something similar. Try touching the upper left button on the keyboard— F1, "escape", "hold", "break", whatever). If the computer is not on look for a switch on back or a key labelled "on" or with a triangle on it.
2. (using a mouse) Determine whether you are looking at a character terminal or a window-oriented screen. If window-oriented, then moving the mouse should cause a pointer to appear and move around. Use this pointer to click on windows, buttons, etc. You click the mouse by pressing its button (leftmost one if there are three). If you hold the mouse button down you can "grab" things and drag them around. Clicking on windows makes them active (ready for commands) and brings them forward.
3. (modifier and function keys) Keys labelled "shift", "alt", "meta", "option", "command", "ctrl" or marked with certain funny symbols are modifier keys. They work like shift keys on a typewriter and can change the effect of typing a key or clicking a mouse button. Function keys, labelled F1, F2, etc., do something immediately—like edit, move to the next page, or quit the program—when you press them. The keys on the keypad (right hand side, looks like a calculator pad) act as function keys in some programs.
4. (popup menus and menubars). If there is a string of words at the top of the screen ("menubar"), touch one of the words with the pointer using the mouse and then hold down the mouse button. A menu should pop up. If you continue holding down the mouse button and drag down the menu, then let go, you will select one of the commands. If you don't want to activate a command, drag the pointer away from the commands (towards the middle of the screen, say) and let go.
5. (getting the computer's attention) No luck? Try hitting "return" or "enter" a few times, look for keys labelled "break" or "escape", try "control-C" (hold down the key labelled "CTRL"—it works like the shift key on a typewriter—and then press "c", then let go of both keys).
6. (carriage return) Once the system is responding you usually have to hit the carriage return key (marked with a hooked arrow or "return" or "enter" or "CR" or "newline") or else click the mouse (left-most button if there are three) before anything permanent happens—like sending a command to the computer.
An exception is in "menu-driven" systems which print a list of options and expect you to type a number or letter (like "y" for yes, "n" for no). Sometimes answering a question with a carriage return gets you a default answer. The default is often indicated in brackets:
Do you really want to quit [n]?
Hitting return here will not quit.
7. (delete key) If you make a typing mistake, there is a key in the upper righthand corner labelled "del", "delete", "backspace", or with a backwards arrow or "x" on it that will erase what you typed.
8. (logging on) If you see a message like this:
Hello. Welcome to FUBAR system. Authorized persons only.
Username: xxx Password:
then the computer wants you to give it a username (nickname, handle) and type a password. Type your last name and hit return; then type your password and hit return. If you are sure the system is meant for the general public—say it is a donor database run by the Red Cross—try obvious names like "redcross", "anonymous", or "public". If the account is meant for general use then: (1) no password will be required, or (2) any password at all will work, or (3) the password will be something easy like "redcross" (again) or "donor" or "guest".
9. (system prompts and help) If the computer prints a funny symbol (called a prompt—often it is a dollar sign, percent sign, question mark, right angle bracket or some such) and sits there blinking at you, it is waiting for a command. Try "help" or "?" to find out what is possible. Or try "man intro" (UNIX systems only) to read the online manual. There might be a help key or help command on a menu.
10. (text buffers) At some point you may be composing a message. You type the message, of course. You may or may not have to type "return" at the end of each line—experiment with this. You can erase any mistakes with the delete key. See if the cursor (blinking marker that marks where you type) can be moved around with arrow keys or a mouse. If there is a mouse, you can select text by "dragging" across it (hold down button, move mouse, release mouse). Once selected a large block of text can be deleted with the delete key or moved by issuing the "cut" command (look for a function key or command on the "edit" menu) and then the "paste" command.
11. (usernames) if you need to know someone's username, try their last name (goodwin) , first initial or both initials and last name (jgoodwin, jegoodwin), or all three initials (jeg). Be warned that many sites add numbers (goodwin21), use serial numbers (g21135), or use cutesy aliases (thumper). Usernames are usually all lowercase.
12. (case sensitivity) if nothing seems to work the way it is supposed to check your caps lock. Most systems are either case-sensitive (like UNIX) or automatically translate commands to all upper case. Thus "help", "HELP", and "Help" are either three differnt commands or one and the same.
13. (saving your work) With most programs, whatever you do or change is not permanent unless you write the changes to disk. You "save" your work by selecting "save" from the "file" menu or some other method. Often there are two commands for exiting—one that saves your work and one that discards it. For example, "exit" might save changes and "quit" ignore them. If your program does not have an "autosave" feature—and even if it does—you should save your work every 15 minutes at least.
14. (quitting or logging off) After you have properly saved your work you can quit your program or system by finding the quit command (look at the bottom of either the first or last menu on the menu bar), or by typing "quit", "exit", "q", "x", "bye", "lo", "logout", "logoff", or something similar.