The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article]Whether or not you know what the Internet is, you should read on! I recently read Zen and the Art of the Internet which was written by Brendan P. Kehoe. It brings to light answers to frequently and not so frequently asked questions.
The first half of the book addresses the topics for the beginner and the second half for the curious system user. You can find this book at the reference desk of Siegesmund Engineering Library in Potter Engineering Center.
Such topics for the beginner are the mail system, ftp, news, finger, ping, talk and telnet. For the curious user who wants to expand his/her knowledge of the internet, there is information about commercial services and available organizations .
If you want to know about the internet numbers and names, or how the internet is connected, read the book. If you want to know how it is possible to connect to a friend in Australia, read the book.
This book describes the mail system; how it works and how it may not work. Did you know that there is more than one way to address mail to reach your best friend in Europe? Have you ever asked yourself, "What does all of the information in the header of the mail I receive mean?" Then you might want to pick up a copy and read the book.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol (this you might have known), but did you know that there is more than one way to send the data? Did you also know that you can turn off the prompting when you use a "mget?" When most people begin using FTP, they find out about Archie, a system that queries remote sites and creates a database of anonymous ftp contents. Accessing this archive is an excellent way to find the source that you might wish to copy and use. If you want to know how to connect to one of the Archie sites, read the book.
Have you ever gone by the terminal room and seen people sitting there for hours on end reading? Chances are they were reading news! If you have wished that you knew how to access a news group, then Zen and the Art of the Internet can help you out. Read the book.
Once you graduate from all of this you can move into the better and bigger things in life: finding the electronic journals and commercial databases. If you want to find out more about these and how to find then on the net, you will have to read the book.
Have you ever been interested in the Internet worm, or the Cuckoo's Egg? Kehoe goes into a brief outline of these. You might have heard something about organizations and foundations that deal with these and other challenges concerning computing today. A brief review of some of these organizations, such as: The Association for Computing Machinery ( ACM ), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, The Free Software Foundation is presented. To find out more, read the book.
Check this book out at the reference desk of Siegesmund Engineering Library in Potter Engineering Center. This would make easy reading some afternoon; it is only 89 pages long.
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