European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes computers monday tuesday july 4/5,1994a love letter about email by Joshua Quittner. New Day. A a. Id rather give up my Telephone than my email. I love being Able to communicate in writing with people and not have to wait Days or weeks for a reply or have to find a Stripp. Its a luxury to be Able to com. Pose my thoughts before i communicate. On a recent typical Day i sent email to a computer technician in Finland a a How a it going a fellow reporter in new York City a lunch a riday a College kid at Dartmouth a a Here a that Telnet address you wanted a and my Quot mom in Pennsylvania done task. I also received mail from All of the above As Well As from a Magazine editor in san Francisco a Programmer in Boston a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and. Actually got about 60 messages from people All Over the world. Unlike using regular a Snail mail a the . Postal service kind a i can Send and receive As much email As i want paying nothing other than my Flat monthly internet Access fee. Corresponding with my Friend in Espoo Finland is As cheap ase mail Irig my Friend in new York City which makes the Quot global Vij lager cliche really work. The Only problem with email is that some people i want to reach done to use it a yet. A a but that a changing. An estimated 15 million people Swap electronic mail Over the internet. That includes the worlds College and University students users of America online Compuserve Delphi what you need to make a connection by new Day the hardware you need to tap into the internet. A any desktop or Laptop computer that can connect to a Modem. In other words virtually any computer sold during the past decade a a a Modem preferably 5,600 bps or faster that is compatible with your computer. A a Telephone line. Note be sure to disable Call waiting during on line sessions. 1 the us flare. You need to tap into the internet. A any off the shelf communications program. Pro comm and Mirror Are particularly Good for ism compatibles a term and microphone Are Good for macs. Fido net Genie Prodigy and anyone who subscribes to the email services offered by at amp to Sci and sprint. More commercial on line services Are offering email Only gateways to the. Internet every Day. Much of that email is just like the communicating you do in letters and Over the Telephone. Its casual and has the feeling of a Long running conversation one Way email improves upon the Telephone is most people read their own email rather than having say their Secretary screen it. Of course president Clinton Isnit any More Likely email addressed to than he is a postcard mailed to him. But other people might be. Until the new yorker published an amusing piece a few months ago that detailed the correspondence Between a staff writer there and Microsoft founder Bill Gates Gates read his own email. Then after tens of thousands of messages he turned the chore Over to an assistant. Finding someone be mail address requires More sleuthing than finding someone so Snail mail address. There Are a few directories on the internet that represent Little More than the first attempts at collecting addresses. For now your Best bet is having someone be mail address already in hand but you can often figure out a persons address if you know a Little bit about How email addresses Are structured. The syntax of an email address is a Peculiar thing. The first time you saw one you probably thought it was a Typo q Uit if i were telling someone that address id say a quit at new Day Dot in the bit speak of network land you always say a Dot Quot rather than Quot period a and a at Quot instead of at the far right of that address com is the a a Domain name internet domains can be com commercial cd educational like colleges and universities gov governmental agencies org organizations and so on. The name in the Middle is usually the name of the school organization Agency or business. The at sign identifies the individual user at that Domain. A a a a. Beyond person to pcs of correspondence email is used for a powerful new Way of communicating known As mailing lists. These mailing lists Are creating Small floating communities without boundaries that Are growing up around special interests. You can subscribe to mailing lists by sending your name to 3 computer known As a list scr that automatically handles the email Listl any message sent to the Lis serv bounces out to All the members of the list. So if someone Ori a. List about say Power Book computers sends a question to the Lis serv asking Why his track bail gets All Gummy the question would go out to everyone chances Are someone knows Why a and How to fix it and Wil Send a reply Back to the in. The past two years in be subscribed to email lists that track Sivil liberties issues on the electronic Frontier disseminate bad jokes a report on technological risks examine questions surrounding computer ass is Ted journalism provide daily feeds of what s hot in cyberspace and discuss and nausea the television series Mayberry red. You can get the list of lists by email. Send email to maj7-serve/t�sri.cpm put the words a Send interest groups in the body of the message or you can buy one of the Many books that provide directories of mail help users navigate through internet by Joshua Quittner a a new Day a scattered throughout the internet Are free files and com Puter programs that teach you How to use the internet. This has always struck me As sweetly ironic if you knew How to find any one of them hint try using Archi trans for it using Ftp move it from your Host computer to your pc using Modem and decompress it using god knows what what More would you need to know about the internet a. ,. A of course these files were placed on the net so that vet Dran Inte netters could retrieve them and print them out for net newcomers. These free files Are typical of the internet a spirit and explain something that you should know by now Here is a Community that has flourished because its inhabitants believe that the world is a better place when information flows freely and for free. Indeed until about two years ago the Only Way you could learn about the internet was from other people who a been there or from these free files. How to books were available at bookstores. A a a that a changed. In a Bookstore in new York any last week there was an entire Section devoted to internet books every major publisher and lots of Small presses Hay their own. Authority on the subject. Most of these books Are indistinguishable from each other. Some of them Are marketed by exploiting your insecurity about new tech. Ology. Quot a if you really want to understand More about the internet you la Start amassing your own Library which it seems to me should be built on a foundation of three books a comprehensive How to guide a directory of places to go and things to do on the net and a comprehensive computer dictionary which will help fill in the Blanks left by the other two books Here Are some books published during the past year that i can recommend How to guides. A the whole. Internet user s guide amp Catalon by de Krol of Reilly. Amp associates $24.95. This is the Book that started it All Way Back in 1992, and is one of Many internet related offerings from the Sebastopol a calif., publisher. More than 250,000 copies Are now in print which explains Why other publishers have jumped into the Market. Recently updated Krolus Book is a straightforward account of How the internet works. It also has a Brief list of places to go and things to do. Best of All it has a nifty a Quick reference card a that gives you a Short list of commands you need to know to use Telnet Ftp Archie and usenet among other things. A internet starter kit everything you need to get a. Is amps a Many books can help users of internet learn their Way around the system. On the internet by Adam Engst Hayden books $29.95. An excellent find for macintosh users since in addition to being a solid How to Book it conies with a Diskette that contains five genuinely useful programs for net surfing including Stu fit expander a compression program and inter slip a High Speed protocol for connecting to the net. There a also a windows version if you re so the internet navigator by Paul Gilster John Wiley amp sons inc., 524.95. Gilster wakes a regular column for the news amp observer in Raleigh n.c., so he Speaks a form of English most people will readily in. De stand. The Book is written in a Way that makes you feel As if you were looking Over Gilster a shoulder he tells you where he a going and How he got there. A zen and the Art of the internet by Brendan Kehoe Prentice Hall $23,95this guide started As an on line file and you can still find it at Many Sites on the net. It was published in Book form for the first time last year. Kehoe really knows his stuff. A the internet guide for new users by Daniel Dern Mcgraw Hill inc., $27,95. Dern editor at the Magazine internet world has put together a comprehensive guide with the right mix of information on internet tools arid unix commands. Directories a net guide by Michael Wolff amp go. Random House 519. The Best attempt yet at categorizing and organizing All the great stuff you can find out there. Net guide also includes non internet cyberspace Masieri Al such As forums on the main commercial on line service providers. Plans Are under Way to put All this information up on database but until then this Book is definitely Worth owning. As evidence of its popularity its the Book people keep stealing off my desk at work. A the internet directory by Eric Braun Fawcett Columbine Ballantine books $25. Instead of approaching the internet by category this directory Breaks it Down into sections that Index mailing lists usenet newsgroups on line Library card catalogues Ftp Sites and various navigational Sites. Impressively comprehensive with a Good Index in the Back of the Book. R a the whole Earth online almanac by Don Rittner Brady computer Book $32,95. The whole Earth folks have been Way out in front on the info revolution and their Book is Well Laid out and Complete. A internet mailing lists edited by Edward . Hardie and Vivian Neou Prentice Hall $29. The Book is Little More than the comprehensive list of lists a list of All the email groups that anyone on the internet can subscribe to. Email groups focus on any topic you can think of from dog ownership to Mayberry red fans. A. A dictionary a the computer glossary the Complete illustrated desk reference by Alan Freedman Mac pm $25.95. Of the half dozen or so computer dictionaries this is my favorite. Lots of pictures and charts. The explanations of arcane computer technology Are simple and direct and wont make you feel like a Complete idiot Dummy ,
