Date:         Wed, 13 Jan 1999 02:16:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Bob Rankin 
Sender:       The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
              
From:         Bob Rankin 
Subject:      TOURBUS - 12 Jan 1999 - Tourbus FAQ File
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
 
    _________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _
   /         |            /        |          |             /   | \
  |          BREAKTHROUGH SHOPPING ADVANCEMENT!            /    |  \
  |__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/     |   \
 /                                                       /______|----\
|   Adventure into a "realistic dimensional" shopping    |//////|    |
|   environment. Sidescroll thru doorways, stores and    |//////|    |
| aisles. Merchandise items pop up from shelves. A small |//////|    |
|       shopping basket follows you thru the mall.       |//////|    |
|        Three levels and 12 stores to shop from.        |//////|    |
|     WorldWide Store - The Internet Place to Shop.      |//////|    |
|             http://www.worldwidestore.com              |//////|    |
\________________________________________________________|______|____|
    /   \  /   \                                             /   \
    \___/  \___/  T h e   I n t e r n e t   T o u r B u s    \___/
 
 
            TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: The Tourbus FAQ File
 
Hi all!  It's a new year, that means it's time again for the
annual "TOURBUS Frequently Answered Questions" issue.  Patrick
and I have lots of fun stuff in store for you in 1999, but it's
important to pause for a few moments and share in this warm
fuzzy Q&A session.  Reading this entire issue is like eating your
oatmeal - it's just the right thing to do.  So just read it.
 
+------[ Free Newsletter Full of Great Stuff for the Family! ]-------+
  Hungry for more awesome Internet tidbits? Sign up for the FREE
  Family First Newsletter and get a weekly helping of top-notch
  sites, fun downloads, educational pages, screen savers, themes,
  and more, all lightly seasoned with a pinch of attitude. All
  content is rated and intended for all members of your family.
+------------------[ http://www.familyfirst.com ]--------------------+
 
 
------------------
WHAT *IS* TOURBUS?
------------------
 
TOURBUS is a free email newsletter published twice a week, and read
by over 90,000 people in 130 countries around the globe.  Your
tour guides Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen (also known as the
"Click and Clack" of the online world) explain Internet technology in
plain English, with a dash of humor.  Since 1995, Tourbus riders have
been getting the scoop on Search Engines, Spam, Viruses, Cookies,
Urban Legends, and other topics.  We also give you in-depth reviews of
the most useful, fun and interesting sites on the Net.
 
 
-----------------------------------
WHO ARE THESE CLICK AND CLACK GUYS?
-----------------------------------
 
Bob Rankin, known as "Doctor Bob" in the online world, is a writer and
computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the
fruit of his experience with others.  His work has appeared in Yahoo!
Internet Life, Boardwatch Magazine, ComputerWorld, NetGuide, Newsday,
and other publications.  Bob is also author of several computer books
including "JUNO: Free E-Mail and More" and "The No BS Guide to Linux".
 
Patrick Douglas Crispen, a professional college student, lecturer and
radio personality, is author of the ROADMAP workshop, a Net tutorial
that's been read by billions and billions. He is author of the book
"Atlas for the Information Superhighway" and serves as Internet
Mythologist for WGN Radio, AM 720, Chicago.
 
Bob lives in upstate New York, and graduated from college a long time
ago.  Patrick lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he's spent the past
twelve years threatening to graduate.  Rumor has it, the sheepskin is
finally in hand.
 
 
---------------------------
HOW MUCH DOES TOURBUS COST?
---------------------------
 
TOURBUS is absolutely free.  All of the costs associated with keeping
the TOURBUS on the road are paid by our sponsors.  Each issue will
contain short messages from our sponsors, like the ones you see above,
and right here:
 
+------------  SAVE! 2 FOR 1 ON MOST INKJET CARTRIDGES  -------------+
 EPSON S020089: 2 FOR $25 / EPSON S020189: 2 FOR $26 / EPSON S020191:
 2 FOR $26 / CANON BCI-21: 2 FOR $10.50 / CANON BJI-201: 2 FOR $8
 ONE HP 51645A $19.99 / EPSON S020093: 2 FOR $14.50 / 100 SHEETS OF
 1440 DPI PHOTO 27 LB $13.50 / OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCY 15 SHEETS $15.75
+------------ http://www.ACSMsupplies.com/tourbus.htm ---------------+
 
So please visit our sponsors, buy lots of stuff from them, and tell
them the TOURBUS brought you.  :-)
 
 
--------------------------
WHEN IS TOURBUS PUBLISHED?
--------------------------
 
It's kind of hard to say.  TOURBUS is, for the most part, distributed
every Tuesday-ish and Thursday-ish.
 
 
----
ISH?
----
 
Well, sometimes we get 'em out on time, but more often than not, an
issue is a day early or a day late. If you want to be technical (or at
least statistical), you could say that TOURBUS has a probability
distribution centered around Tuesday and Thursday, with a standard
deviation of a day or two.  :)
 
 
-------------------------------------------
IS THERE AN ARCHIVE OF PAST TOURBUS ISSUES?
-------------------------------------------
 
Yep!  You can find the TOURBUS archives from 1995 to present, and a
whole bunch of other TOURBUS-y stuff on the TOURBUS website at
 
     
     Tourbus Website - http://www.tourbus.com 
 
Tourbus is also available in Spanish!  Visit the web address above
for details.
 
 
----------------------------------------
HOW CAN MY FRIENDS SUBSCRIBE TO TOURBUS?
----------------------------------------
 
Just tell 'em to visit the TOURBUS website at
 
     
     Tourbus Website - http://www.tourbus.com 
 
and click on the TICKETS button.  Or they can send an email to:
     LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
with the command
     SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
in the body of their letter, replacing FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME with
their first and last names.
 
----------------------------------------------
WHY DO THE WEB LINKS IN TOURBUS LOOK SO FUNNY?
----------------------------------------------
 
When we put a website link in the TOURBUS newsletter, we want you
to be able to just click and go directly to it.  The format we
normally use looks like this:
 
     
     Flowers Fast! - http://www.flowersfast.com 
 
This allows over 95% of our readers to get a clickable hotlink.  Yes,
we know that some people see TWO hotlinks, and some see the "raw"
HTML codes, but this seems to work for almost all readers, and
almost all email programs.  If you don't like it, have another bowl
of oatmeal.
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOURBUS AND TOURBUS PLUS?
--------------------------------------------------------
 
TOURBUS (the thing that you are reading right now) is a free,
twice-weekly, advertiser-supported, Internet newsletter.
 
TOURBUS Plus! is a new pay subscription service (US$10 a year) for
people who want an additional TOURBUS post every weekend.  Published
every Saturday-ish, TOURBUS Plus! is an exclusive newsletter available
only to TOURBUS subscribers.  Besides offering tours of nifty Web
sites, TOURBUS Plus! also includes:
 
     - Interviews with cyberspace celebrities;
     - Free software and other geeky giveaways (we gave away a $1000
       multimedia computer system last year)
     - In-depth tutorials on Internet tools and topics
     - Cool morphs of Patrick's face, and other fun stuff
 
Interested in learning more about TOURBUS Plus!?  Hop on over to
 
     
     Tourbus PLUS! - http://www.tourbus.com/plus.htm 
 
Remember, though, that TOURBUS (the newsletter that you are reading
right now) is free, and will remain free ... and TOURBUS will continue
to offer the same in-depth information and online coverage that we
have offered for the past three years.  TOURBUS Plus! helps Bob and
Patrick pay the evil bankers who actually expect us to pay our
mortgage and student loans.
 
 
----------------------------
HOW DID THE TWO OF YOU MEET?
----------------------------
 
Well, actually, we've never met.  We've exchanged hundreds of e-mails
and a couple dozen phone calls over the past few years.  Bob thinks
Patrick might have been the tall guy who put his seat ALL THE WAY BACK
on that flight from Chicago to Philly, but he can't prove it.
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PATRICK KEEPS MENTIONING "SQUIRRELS" IN HIS TOURBUS POSTINGS.
WHAT'S THE STORY?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The number one cause of power outages in the USA?  The weather
(electrical storms, snow, etc.).  The number two cause?  Squirrels!
 
You don't believe it?  Just come to the University of Alabama!  It
seems 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 he was running the Roadmap workshop in 1994, Patrick 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 he was not able to deliver that day's Roadmap lesson to the 64,000
people in the workshop, the participants would panic and mailbomb him
with 64,000 "where is today's lesson?" messages.
 
By telling the subscribers up front to expect a squirrel attack, he
kept himself from being mailbombed, elevated Alabama's squirrels to
Net-legend status (people around the world were even rooting for the
squirrels), and gained a really neat "trademark."
 
-----------------------------------------
WHAT ABOUT THE SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY?
-----------------------------------------
 
TOURBUS subscribers send them in to Patrick, and he publishes the best
ones in his Thursday issues.  Since Bob is a Northerner (where people
talk right) you won't see the SWOTD in the Tuesday editions. You can
find all the archived Southern Words at this web address:
 
     
     SWOTD Archive - http://www.netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html 
 
If you don't think the Southern Words are funny, you really need to
eat more oatmeal.
 
 
-----------------------------------------------
IS CRAIG SHERGOLD REALLY DYING OF BRAIN CANCER?
-----------------------------------------------
 
No.  We debunk a lot of urban legends, hoaxes and bogus virus warnings
on TOURBUS, but I still get a bunch of emails every day asking if the
PENPALS, WIN A HOLIDAY, SICK CHILD or STOLEN KIDNEY stories are really
true.  Of course they're not.  Please check the TOURBUS archives and
use the search feature to get the scoop on these stories if you're
ever tempted to write and ask.  You can also check out Patrick's Urban
Legend Combat Kit at
 
     
     UL Combat Kit - http://www.netsquirrel.com/combatkit 
 
And if you're as tired of these things as I am, and you want to read
something REALLY FUNNY, I've got a little treat for you...
 
     
     WARNING, DANGER! - http://www.tourbus.com/warning.txt 
 
Have fun, laugh heartily, and feel free to pass it along.  See you
next time!  --Bob Rankin
 
 




The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2239

 Copyright ©


 Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen - All rights reserved












=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================

   The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
      Copyright 1995-98, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
 
  Do You Like Tourbus?  Recommend It and You Could Win a Palm Pilot!
  CLICK HERE 
 
 Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
 Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
 Archives & Advertising Info: Online at http://www.TOURBUS.com
=====================================================================