Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 22:43:08 -0400
From: crispen@INTERNIC.NET
Reply-To: EFORM@BEACHTECH.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 7 AUGUST 1997 -- VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDYWEB
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TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDY WEB
TODAY'S ADDRESSES:
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm
http://www.studyweb.com/
Hi, kids!
I have some GREAT news:
1. It looks like there is a pretty good chance that I might
actually graduate from college sometime this century.
Shocking as this may be, I am now only 6 credit hours away
from getting my bachelors degree in economics. Unfortunately,
those last 6 hours are going to be pretty tough.
I am still missing a 3 hour elective (I think I am going to
enroll in CS202 -- "Introduction to the Internet") and I am
also missing a 3 hour course demonstrating my writing
proficiency (no, I am not making this up). The really funny
thing is that I am going to be spending so much time this Fall
writing TOURBUS, Atlas (my Web workshop), and the second
edition of my classroom textbook, that I am not quite sure
when I will actually have the time to demonstrate my
writing proficiency! :(
2. Your fearless bus driver has found a second job! Besides
working full-time for the University of Alabama's mainframe
computer center, I am now also working part-time for Network
Solutions, Inc. (the folks who run the Internet Network
Information Center, a.k.a. "the InterNIC"). My job with
NetSol involves managing the 15 Minute Series (see TOURBUS
4/10/97) as well as writing my up-until-now vaporware Web
training workshop. :)
I am going to stay in Tuscaloosa until I graduate in December,
and then will move to Herndon, Virginia, to work full-time for
Network Solutions. And, to answer the big question that
everyone is asking right now, "Yes, I will continue to write
for TOURBUS for many years to come." The only thing that will
change in January is my street address. :)
Anyway, since it is going to cost me a bunch of money to ship Alabama's
power-line-chomping squirrels all the way to Virginia (you didn't think I'd
leave the squirrels here in Alabama, did you?), let's pay some bills.
===============[ DISCOVER THE NET'S COOLEST SITES! ]===============
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And now, on with the show ...
BILLY PILGRIM TANS ALONGSIDE THE CHARLES
----------------------------------------
One of my favorite pastimes is driving our little bus of Internet happiness
over urban legends . . . and SQUISHING them. Our latest contestant in
TOURBUS' squish-o-rama is the graduation speech that Kurt
"Slaughterhouse-Five" Vonnegut recently gave at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. In his speech, Mr. Vonnegut shared such pearls of wisdom as
Wear sunscreen
and
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians
will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll
fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
The problem is that Kurt Vonnegut didn't write this. He has never even
given a commencement speech at MIT. The "wear sunscreen" graduation speech
was actually written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, and it
originally appeared in the Sunday, June 1, edition of the Chicago Tribune.
Unfortunately, someone though it would be funny to post Schmich's speech on
the Net and attribute it to Vonnegut. Unbeknownst to both Schmich and
Vonnegut, the speech has spread across cyberspace like wildfire ever since
(I have received 6 copies of it so far).
If you want to see the latest information about the Schmich/Vonnegut
"sunscreen" caper, check out Schmich's page on the Tribune's Web site at
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm
You can also find the original version of Schmich's "sunscreen" graduation
speech at
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm
Personally, I think the speech is worth reading. While Schmich is
certainly no Kurt Vonnegut, her speech is many times more entertaining than
this year's *real* MIT commencement speech by Kofi Annan, Secretary General
of the United Nations (who, in fact, never even *once* mentioned
sunscreen). :)
STUDY WEB
---------
Searching the Internet is easy. *Finding* what you are looking for,
however, isn't. As a professional college student ("college has been the
best 11 years of my life"), there have been many times that I have turned
to the Net for research information only to discover that what I was
looking for was so well hidden in a sea of irrelevant information that it
just wasn't worth the effort to find it.
One site that tries to solve this problem is Study Web. You can find Study
Web on the Net at
http://www.studyweb.com/
Study Web site is a meta-encyclopedia for student research. In other
words, Study Web is a little like Yahoo! or Point Reviews, but it only has
pointers to educational resources on the Internet. As a matter of fact,
Study Web has pointers to over 17,000+ research quality sites.
Just like Yahoo!, Study Web offers both a subject index and a built-in
search engine. The subject index is broken into 25 subject categories
ranging from "architecture" and "business and finance" to "science" and
"social studies and cultures." These categories, coupled with an
interesting (albeit weak) search engine, make Study Web an extremely
powerful tool for both students and educators.
Actually, I have discovered that it is a tad bit easier to find what you
are looking for in Study Web if you bypass their search engine altogether
and instead point-and-click your way though their categories. Also, Study
Web is a great place to find information about broad, general categories
(which is GREAT when you are in the beginning stages of writing a term
paper or thesis), but it isn't all that good at finding specific
information. For example, a search for the words "Milton Friedman" (one of
the fathers of monetarist school of economics) won't give you much. But a
search for "capitalism" will give you two pages full of pointers to useful
economics resources.
As I said before, though, Study Web's search engine is pretty weak.
Because of that, the best way to use Study Web is to browse through its
categories by hand.
One of the REALLY nice things about Study Web, though, is that it "grades"
each of its 17,000 links based on its visual content and on the approximate
educational level at which that link's information is written. Visual
content is graded on a 1 to 4 "apple" scale (1 apple is low and 4 apples is
high visual content). The educational level is a tad bit more difficult to
explain.
Everyone probably knows this already, but here in the United States (and in
many other countries for that matter) children are required to attend a
total of 12 years of primary and secondary education. Each year of these
12 years is called a "grade." Children start school in 1st grade, and they
graduate from high school after completing 12th grade.
Why is this important? Well, Study Web "grades" the educational content of
each of its links based upon what grade level of student would most benefit
from that link's contents. For example, a link on Study Web with an
approximate grade level of 12+ would contain information that is only
appropriate for students in the 12th grade or higher.
If this confuses you, just remember this: the higher the grade level, the
more complex and difficult the information (as a matter of fact, Study Web
some physics links with a grade level of 14+ . . . this means that the
content on these pages is so complicated that it would only be useful to
people in or beyond their second year of college).
So, in conclusion, Study Web site is a meta-encyclopedia for student
research. Just like Yahoo!, Study Web offers both a subject index and a
built-in search engine. These categories, coupled with an interesting
(albeit weak) search engine, make Study Web an extremely powerful tool for
both students and educators!
That's it for this week. Have a safe and happy weekend. :)
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDY WEB
TODAY'S ADDRESSES:
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm
http://www.studyweb.com/
===============[ DISCOVER THE NET'S COOLEST SITES! ]===============
To receive weekly Web site reviews FREE by e-mail, send mail to
webscout-subscribe@lists.kz or visit our HUGE searchable Web site
-------------------[ ]-------------------
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
HOWSCUM (a question)
Usage: "Howscum Bubba tore down the bob war fence?
(Special thanks to Robin Peoples for today's word)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
[By the way ... that's "you-ay-won-eye-ex"]
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.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~ Network Solutions Inc. / The InterNIC
{o_, \ { Business E-mail: crispen@internic.net
/ , , ) \ Personal E-mail: crispen@brigadoon.com
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_( ( )_.'
'---..{____} Warning: squirrels.
