Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 23:30:57 -0800
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply to: TOURBUS-REQUEST@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: Multiple recipients of list TOURBUS
Subject: TOURBUS - MARCH 28 - USENET INFO CENTER
/~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~/~~~|~\
| "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \
|__________|__________/__________|__________|________/ | \
/ /______|----\
/ Send INFO TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM ///////| |
| Or visit http://www.WorldVillage.com/tourbus.htm |//////| |
| |//////| |
~~~/~~~\~/~~~\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~\~~~~
\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TOURBUS is proud to announce a new terminal of departure - the Internet
Hotel at WorldVillage! When you get off the Bus, be sure to check out
the latest at WorldVillage this week. ( http://www.worldvillage.com )
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP : USENET INFO CENTER
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS : http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/home.html
I am pround to announce that my modem's manufacturer has created a software
patch that fixes my recent modem problem (my modem currently does not
work). There is, however, one small drawback. Wanna guess where the
geniuses at
my modem's manufacturer put the software patch? On America Online (AOL)!.
Yeah ... THAT makes sense! I'll just use my modem (which does not work
because I do not have the software patch) to login to my AOL account and
download the software patch :)
On a different subject, Newsweek magazine is looking for the best e-mail
mailing lists on the Internet. If you have a favorite list (and no, your
favorite list does *not* have to be TOURBUS), send the list's name info
the folks at cscope@newsweek.com
*--------------< BIG-TIME MAGAZINES FOR $10 A YEAR? >----------------*
Take the 'Bus to Magazine Express for exclusive TOURBUS discounts
and get Dr. Bob's new guide free! ELVIS the mailbot tells all...
*---------------< E-mail: tourbus@Magazines.Com >--------------------*
As shocking as this may sound, there is a whole bunch more to the Internet
than just the over-publicized World Wide Web. Before the Web, and even
before Gopher, Usenet newsgroups were the hot spots on the Net. As a
matter of fact, with well over 15,000 different discussion groups used
daily by millions upon millions of people, Usenet is still one of the
hotest areas on the Net.
For those of you who may have never experienced Usenet, it is a little like
a room the size of the Superdome with thousands of bulletin boards on the
wall. People post little slips of paper on bulletin boards whose topics
interest them. Sometimes people read and/or reply to the other slips of
paper on these bulletin boards, and sometimes they don't (you can find out
more about Usenet and the rest of the Internet in the Roadmap workshop, a
free, 27 lesson Internet training workshop. To find out how to retrieve
any or all of the Roadmap lessons using nothing but e-mail, send an e-mail
letter to LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU that says GET MAP PACKAGE F=MAIL in the
body of your e-mail letter).
You access Usenet newsgroups through your local Internet service provider,
who will be more than happy to tell you how to do this (and, to repeat my
Roadmap mantra, PLEASE do not contact me to ask me how to access Usenet ...
*ONLY* your local Internet service provider can tell you how to do this).
THE USENET INFO CENTER
----------------------
Today's TOURBUS stop is the Usenet Info Center at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/home.html
The Usenet Info Center is a totally unspectacular looking web site (they
have NO graphics at all), but it is replete with really cool information.
From the Usenet Information Center homepage you can access the Frequently
Asked Questions for almost EVERY Usenet newsgroup, and you can also find
out a whole bunch of information about these newsgroups as well. One note,
though: you can't use the Usenet Info Center to access Usenet newsgroups
and read articles (although the Usenet Info Center homepage does have links
to other Web services that allow you to do this). The Usenet Info Center is
simply designed to give you valuable information about each of the Usenet
newsgroups.
What sort of information can you find? Well, if you click on "Browse the
Usenet Groups", you can find out stuff about each Usenet newsgroup like:
* What that newsgroup discusses,
* Where you can find that newsgroup's FAQ,
* The number people who actually read that newsgroup each day,
* The percentage of crosspostings (if you don't know what this is,
trust me when I say that you want this percentage to be as low as
possible),
* The percentage of all Internet service providers that provide that
newsgroup, and
* The number of messages posted to that newsgroup each day (and each
month).
You will find that this information is quite valuable when you are hunting
for a Usenet newsgroup that meets your particular needs.
You can find out more about the format used to post each newsgroup's
information by visiting
http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/info/format.html
but that probably isn't going to be necessary. If you ignore the numbers
in parenthesis at the bottom of each newsgroup's description, you can
easily figure out everything else in each newsgroup's description.
Of course, you are going to have to go though a couple of directories to
get to the information about the newsgroup that you want. For example, if
you wanted to find out about the "rec.food.chocolate" newsgroup, you would
have to go through the "rec/" directory, and then the "rec.food/" directory
to get to your final destination (but if you understand Usenet hierarchies,
you'll have no problem finding your way around the directories).
That's it for today. You and I have in our bookmark files dozens, maybe
hundreds of sites, that we plan to actually visit someday. If you use
Usenet, however, today's TOURBUS stop is actually a site that you will both
use and visit frequently.
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
SENSUOUS - Phrase.
Usage: "Honey, sensuous up, could you get me another beer?"
(Special thanks goes to several bus riders for today's wurd)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE
SOUTHERN WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
*--------------------< SPEED UP YOUR SURFING >-----------------------*
Add memory to your Laptop, Desktop or Workstation and Go Faster!
CLC RESEARCH offers Rock Bottom Prices, Lifetime Warranty, and Money
Back Guarantee on all products. Special Discounts for TOURBUS Riders!
*-------------------< http://www.CLCR.com/memory >---------------------*
======================================================================
SUBSCRIBE : Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Firstname Lastname
to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
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Web Site : http://www.WorldVillage.com/tourbus.htm
Advertising: E-mail BobRankin@MHV.net w/ Subject: SEND TBRATES
======================================================================
TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1996, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus!
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { The University of Alabama
/ . . ) \ *NEW ADDRESS* crispen@campus.mci.net *NEW ADDRESS*
|-| '-' \ } )) http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/crispen.html
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
