From crispen@INTERNIC.NET Sun Aug 31 20:53:25 1997
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 22:05:22 -0400
From: crispen@INTERNIC.NET
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 28 AUGUST 1997 -- INFOBEAT
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: INFOBEAT
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS: http://www.infobeat.com/
Howdy, y'all! :)
Your semi-fearless bus driver is back from San Francisco (I was at an
Internet conference there last week . . . that's why I didn't send out a
post last Thursday). If you have never been to San Francisco, by all means
stop reading this post right now and *GO*!
Before you go, though, here is one point of advice: whatever you do, FOR
HEAVEN'S SAKE DON'T GET IN TO A SAN FRANCISCO TAXI CAB! Remember all those
movies shot in San Francisco where the cars go flying over the hills? The
stunt drivers in those movies are now San Francisco cab drivers!
With that piece of advice out of the way, let's pay some bills. Today's
sponsors were kind enough to pay for the therapy that I've had to undergo
since my near-death, KC135 parabolic curve "vomit comit," San Francisco
taxi ride from hell, so make sure that you stop by and thank them for their
support of TOURBUS.
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If you have been on our little bus of Internet happiness for a while, you
will no doubt remember that I am a *HUGE* fan of Mercury Mail (we even
visited Mercury Mail on August 8th of last year). Mercury Mail is a
*free*, advertiser-supported service (sort of like TOURBUS) that delivers
only the news and information that you want, when you want it. Think of
Mercury Mail as an e-mail based newspaper with only the topics that
interest you. Mercury Mail delivers its "stuff" daily, but you get to
determine what time of day you want that stuff to be delivered. Best of
all, Mercury Mail does all of this through e-mail.
Well, imagine my surprise the other day when I found out that Mercury Mail
has _MOVED_! Heck, they even changed their name! How rude! :)
Fortunately, I found them again. Mercury Mail changed their name to
"InfoBeat" and moved their Web page to
http://www.infobeat.com/
According to the folks at Mercury Mail/InfoBeat, "[t]he only change is our
name and the new look of our web site and messages." So, if you are one of
the 1.5 million people who is already a Mercury Mail subscriber, you don't
have to do much other than 'enjoy the fun that Mercury Mail/InfoBeat is
having with their new design.'
If you aren't a Mercury Mail/InfoBeat subscriber, however, the rest of
today's TOURBUS is for you! As I said earlier, InfoBeat is a *free*,
advertiser-supported service (sort of like TOURBUS) that delivers only the
news and information that you want, when you want it. Here is how to
subscribe:
If you have a forms-capable Web browser (like Netscape Navigator or
Microsoft Internet Explorer), hop on over to
http://www.infobeat.com/
Actually, for those of you who don't have a forms-capable Web browser, I'm
willing to bet that it is also possible to subscribe to InfoBeat's services
through e-mail. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do it. [I had this
same problem when I wrote about Mercury Mail last August. If anyone knows
how to subscribe to InfoBeat's services through e-mail, let me know.]
InfoBeat offers 8 services: Finance, Sports, Entertainment, News, Snow,
Weather, and Reminders. All of these services are absolutely free.
InfoBeat is able to fund these services by placing small ads in the e-mail
newsletters that they send to you (sort of like what Bob and I do to be
able to pay for TOURBUS).
Anyway, if you go to
http://www.infobeat.com/
and click on "User Profile," you'll be taken to the "Enter InfoBeat E-mail
Services" page. Type in your e-mail address -- NOTE: type in the e-mail
address at which you want to InfoBeat to send you stuff -- and click on the
"Enter" button on the screen.
This takes you to a new page that asks you for some personal information.
The first piece of information -- "E-Mail format" -- is ESSENTIAL! If you
use Netscape as your e-mail reader, or if you use Hotmail, RocketMail,
Microsoft Outlook Express, or Web TV to read your mail, you can request
that InfoBeat send you your daily news in Web page (HTML) format. Everyone
else should make sure that the E-Mail Format box says "Text/Plain."
[Personally, I'd recommend that *EVERYONE* select "Text/Plain," but that's
just because I'm partial to plain old "vanilla" e-mail messages.]
The rest of this page asks for personal information for InfoBeat's
database. In particular, they ask you for your:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Zip Code (Non-US folks can just enter "00000")
- Sex
- Age
- Operating System
- E-mail Program
- Income (optional)
- Phone Number (optional)
Now, before you panic, let me assure you that this information will remain
completely confidential. InfoBeat will NEVER release, sell, or give your
name or e-mail address to any other party or organization, nor will
InfoBeat ever send you any e-mail messages that contain anything other than
1. The stuff (news, sports, weather, etc.) that you tell InfoBeat
to send to you, and
2. Administrative messages (notices of new InfoBeat services,
etc.).
Once you are registered with InfoBeat -- BTW, I promise not to tell
anyone if you lie about your age or income -- you can start "customizing"
InfoBeat to e-mail you the specific news and information.
Let's actually "customize" one of InfoBeat's 8 services. If you click
on the "InfoBeat News" icon, you are taken to the "InfoBeat News" page.
Click on the "click here" icon in to top right-hand corner of the screen,
and you are taken to a page that asks you to type in your e-mail address
(now you understand why I had you register with InfoBeat a few moments
ago). Type in your e-mail address, and click on the "Enter" button on the
screen.
InfoBeat News is much like The Daily Brief (TOURBUS, April 18, 1996) in
that it delivers a daily e-mail summary of news topics, including U.S.
news, international news, and special events. Customizing "InfoBeat News"
and, for that matter, the rest of InfoBeat's services is a lot like
customizing My Yahoo! You are given a page full of topics that you can
select, like:
U.S. News of the Day
--------------------
* Front Page Stories
* Crime and Catastrophe
* The U.S. Political Scene
* The Courts
* U.S. Business & Financial News
World News of the Day
---------------------
* Front Page Stories
* The World Political Scene
* The Americas
* Europe and Russia
* Africa
* India & the Middle East
* Asia and Australia
* International Business and Financial News
Just select the topics that interest you (you'll understand how once you
see the page) and you are set to go. InfoBeat's services even allow you to
determine the delivery dates and times for the stuff that InfoBeat sends
you. Say, for example, you don't read your e-mail on the weekends; you can
tell InfoBeat not to send you anything on the weekends! [Actually,
InfoBeat News does not publish on the weekends, so I guess that point is
moot.] :)
Here's some more information on the other free InfoBeat services:
Finance
------
InfoBeat Finance send you a daily e-mail message containing
closing prices and news for your personalized portfolio of market
indices, mutual funds and securities from the three major U.S.
exchanges
Weather
-------
InfoBeat Weather brings you personalized weather forecasts for
the U.S. cities you want. Pick as many U.S. weather regions as
you like, then select the days and times you want the forecasts
delivered to your e-mail box.
Sports
------
"InfoBeat Sports " gives you more sports information than any
human being could ever possibly need. BTW, Sports Wrap also
features information on the one pure sport left on this planet:
NCAA college football!
Entertainment
-------------
"InfoBeat Entertainment" delivers daily horoscopes, lottery
numbers, movie reviews, TV listings, lists of top selling movies,
videos and music, plus much more, customized according to your
wants and needs.
Snow
----
This is a really useful service in Alabama ... especially in
August! "InfoBeat Snow" gives you current mountain conditions,
updated daily, on how the skiing and snowboarding really is.
Reminders
---------
"InfoBeat Reminders" sends you a reminder e-mail a week before
and the day before an important date, just to make sure you
don't forget.
Cool, huh?
That's it for this week. I hope that you enjoy InfoBeat, and that you
have a great and safe weekend!
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: INFOBEAT
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS: http://www.infobeat.com/
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
TUNA MINT (Noun) - a contest
Usage: "Y'all gonna go to that Bass Masters fishin tuna mint?"
(Special thanks to Franz Witte for today's wurd)
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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For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway"
Visit http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/atlas.html
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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.
