Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 15:58:54 CST
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply to: TOURBUS-REQUEST@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: Multiple recipients of list TOURBUS
Subject: TOURBUS - JAN 2 -- TOURBUS FAQ
TOURBUS - TUESDAY, JANUARY 2
TODAY'S STOP: TOURBUS FAQ AND OTHER STUFF
TODAY'S ADDRESS: http://csbh.mhv.net/~bobrankin/tourbus/
HAPPY NEW YEAR! As we begin the year of the Rat (which is
quite appropriate considering the upcoming US Presidential
elections), we're going to do something a little different
with today's TOURBUS post. Instead of focusing on a
particular Internet site or tool, today's TOURBUS post is
going to answer some of TOURBUS' most frequently asked
questions :)
------------------
WHAT *IS* TOURBUS?
------------------
TOURBUS is a free, on-going, bi-weekly, text-based tour of
some of the neatest sites and tools on the Internet. TOURBUS'
posts are written by Bob Rankin (author of "Accessing the Internet
by E-mail") and me (Patrick Douglas Crispen, author of the
ROADMAP workshop), and are distributed via a LISTSERV e-mail
distribution list at America Online. The TOURBUS list is the
fourth largest LISTSERV list in the world.
What makes TOURBUS unique is that each TOURBUS post not only gives
you the address of a neat Internet site or tool, but also gives you
a really in-depth look at how to fully use that site or tool.
A lot of the Internet's most exciting sites and tools do not come
with instruction manuals or maps. The information in each
TOURBUS post helps you overcome that problem.
Bob and I also try to make each TOURBUS post as conversational --
and humorous -- as possible. Above everything else, the Internet
is FUN ... and Bob and I try to show that in our TOURBUS posts :)
---------------------------------------
WHEN ARE THE TOURBUS POSTS DISTRIBUTED?
---------------------------------------
TOURBUS is distributed every Tuesday-ish and Thursday-ish.
----
ISH?
----
Well, sometimes we fall a little behind (like today) :)
----------------------------------------
HOW CAN MY FRIENDS SUBSCRIBE TO TOURBUS?
----------------------------------------
Just have them send an e-mail letter to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
with the command
SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME
in the body of their letter, replacing YOURFIRSTNAME and
YOURLASTNAME with their first and last names.
---------------------------
HOW MUCH DOES TOURBUS COST?
---------------------------
TOURBUS is completely free. All of the costs associated with
running TOURBUS are paid by advertisers (and by Bob and me).
------------------------------------------
IS THERE AN ARCHIVE OF PAST TOURBUS POSTS?
------------------------------------------
Yep! You can find the TOURBUS archives and other TOURBUS
stuff at the TOURBUS homepage at
http://csbh.mhv.net/~bobrankin/tourbus/
--------------------------------------------------------
HEY! THAT'S A WEB ADDRESS! I DON'T HAVE A WEB BROWSER!!
--------------------------------------------------------
Don't panic. You can still access the TOURBUS homepage
(and, for that matter, ANY other Web page) through e-mail
using the information contained in Bob Rankin's free
guide "Accessing the Internet by E-mail." To find out
how to get this guide (and how you can still participate
in the ROADMAP Internet training workshop), send an
e-mail letter to
LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU
(that's "you-aye-won-vee-em") with the command
GET NEWUSER PACKAGE F=MAIL
in the body of your e-mail letter.
----------------------------------------------------------
WHERE DO YOU AND BOB GET YOUR IDEAS FOR THE TOURBUS STOPS?
----------------------------------------------------------
Bob and I receive a lot of suggestions from the TOURBUS
riders (like "get a life"), but most of the sites that I
write about are sites that I accidentally find while
surfing the Net :)
--------------------------------
HOW DID YOU AND BOB RANKIN MEET?
--------------------------------
Well, actually we've never met.
I know Bob from the NETTRAIN list, and Bob and I have exchanged
hundreds of e-mails (and about three phone calls) over the past
year, but I have no idea what Bob looks like ... and, from what
I hear, that's a good thing :)
Bob e-mailed me shortly after the end of my last Roadmap workshop
with the idea of creating a sponsor-supported, two or three week
workshop of neat Internet sites. I suggested that we make the
workshop on-going ... and the rest, as they say, is history :)
----------------------------------------------------
YOU KEEP MENTIONING "SQUIRRELS" IN YOUR POSTS AND IN
YOUR SIGNATURE. WHAT'S THE STORY?
----------------------------------------------------
The "squirrel story" comes from the fact that the squirrels
living in the trees on the campus of the University of Alabama have
developed quite a taste for power lines ... especially for the power
lines leading into the University's mainframe computer center
(if you are not electrically inclined, let me just add that
energetic squirrels and power lines do not mix well).
Back when I was running the Roadmap workshop (that online
Internet training thingy that I did in 1994), I was really
concerned that if the University of Alabama's mainframe was
taken down by a squirrel (which was a regular occurrence at
the time) and I was not able to deliver that day's Roadmap
lesson to the 64,000 people in the workshop, the workshop
participants would panic and mailbomb me with 64,000 "where
is today's lesson?" messages.
By telling the subscribers up front to expect a squirrel attack,
I kept myself from being mailbombed, I elevated Alabama's
squirrels to Net-legend status (people around the world were
even rooting for the squirrels), and I gained a really neat
"trademark." :)
---------------------------------
IS THERE A SOUTHERN WORD ARCHIVE?
---------------------------------
Not yet, but that is one of my New Year's resolutions.
When the archive is up, I'll make an announcement on
TOURBUS.
-------------------------------
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GRADUATE?
-------------------------------
I dunno, mom ... soon :)
-----------------------------------------------------
AND FINALLY, WHAT'S TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY?
-----------------------------------------------------
WARSH - verb. To clean.
SQUARSH - noun. A vegetable (also verb - to flatten).
Usage: "Warsh that squarsh, Bubba ... you don't know where its been!"
(Special thanks goes to Barb Fogg for today's wurds)
TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1996, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { pcrispe1@ua1vm.ua.edu
/ . . ) \ The University of Alabama
|-| '-' \ } )) http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/crispen.html
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
