From: Bob Rankin
Subject: TOURBUS 11/07 - Robots, Part 2
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\___/ \___/ "Why Surf When U Can Ride The Bus?" \___/
Today's Stop: The Infobot
Today's Address: Infobot@infomania.com
Welcome back for more on mail robots. Today we'll have some fun with
the Infomania Information by Mail server, or Infobot for short.
Infobot can be accessed by sending various commands to
infobot@infomania.com
and it can perform a variety of tasks including:
ALMANAC Looks up today in history (weather, trivia, etc)
CALLSIGN Looks up ham radio call sign {var}
CHEF Translate your message to Swedish Chef-ese
FINDCD Search a CD music catalog for titles of interest
PI Returns several thousand digits worth of PI
TAIZE Rev. Taize's daily bible verse
TOPTEN Get the latest Top-Ten list from the Letterman show
TV2NITE A list of what's on TV tonight (updated daily)
WEATHER Returns weather info for US & Canada
WHOIS Look up domain registration with the internet
There are a slew of others, some useful and some arcane. To get the
entire list of Infobot functions, send Infobot@infomania.com a message
with HELP in the Subject line (not the message body). Let's look at the
results of a few of the above options...
The Electronic Almamac
----------------------
To get the ALMANAC info, we'll send a message to Infobot with
Subject: ALMANAC
The returned message dutifully informs me that we have reached
Day 311 and Week 45 of the current year,
With just 48 shopping days until Christmas!
Other returned tidbits include the fact that today is John Phillip Sousa's
birthday, and that Jacob Schick was issued a patent for the electric razor
72 years ago. Also included are times for sunrise/sunset and NFL (football)
schedules for your perusal.
The Sveedish Chef!
------------------
Remember this fun fella from The Muppet's TV show? Well the Infobot can
take any text you send it and turn it info ChefSpeak. My apologies to the
119 TOURBUS subscribers who call Sweden home, but I asked our virtual chef
to translate the phrase "My name is Elmer J. Fudd, I own a mansion and a
yacht" and was treated to this bit of eloquence:
My neme-a is Ilmer J. Foodd. I oovn a munseeun und a yecht.
Bork Bork Bork!
Use Subject: CHEF and place your text in the message BODY to try your own.
Hamming It Up
-------------
Are you into ham radio? The Infobot can tell you a person's real name
given a "call sign" (or vice versa) and even return a list of ham radio
operators in a specific U.S. zipcode. I just queried my own zipcode and
found 3 hams on my block! Try one of:
Subject: CALLSIGN xxxxxx (substitute an actual call sign)
Subject: CALLZIP 60601
The CD Finder
-------------
Looking for a special music CD? Try the FINDCD service - an online
catalog that will display CD's containing your search string. You can
even order CD's from the company that provides this service. Never done
it myself, but I hear their prices are reasonable. Try:
Subject: FINDCD Pink Floyd
Have a Slice of PI
------------------
When I was 16 and bored one summer afternoon I actually memorized 50
digits of the value of the mathematical constant PI. Now you know I'm
a true geek, because 17 years later I can still spout it off (sort of).
Anyway, this feat pales in comparison to the fact that InfoBot can
rattle off OVER 20,000 DIGITS of PI. Yikes! Here are the first 500
or so digits, as returned by Subject: PI
3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128
4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196
4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091
4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273
7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436
7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094
3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548
0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912
Memorize them for Thursday - Patrick may spring a pop quiz. :-)
Try These At Home
-----------------
It's just gone 2:30 AM here, so I'll stop the Bus now and let you try
TOPTEN, TV2NITE and WEATHER on your own. But before we wrap, I thought
that today's quote from taken from the midday prayer of the Taize
Community in France (via Subject: TAIZE) was appropriate in light of
recent world events:
Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous, boastful or conceited.
Love does not seek its own advantage, it does not take offence or
harbour grievances. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
finds its joy in the truth. (1 Co 13)
Shalom, fellow riders! -Bob Rankin
******************** The WorldWideWeb Handbook **********************
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Details on the Web at http://www.ucc.ie/~pflynn/books/wwwbook.html
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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1995, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to a friend and tell them to get on the Bus!
