Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet - Electronic Frontier Foundation (reading rainbow books .txt) 📗

for your search.

CURRENCY: All information is NOT current through the above date, which is

machine generated when ANY information is added to the file.

Bill numbers, official titles, sponsors, and status (STEP) added

within 48 hours. Indexing terms and digests added later, in

some cases several weeks after the bill is added to the file.

TO START RETRIEVE to find: EXAMPLES:

SEARCH: member name --------------> retrieve rep gingrich

retrieve sen kennedy

bill number --------------> retrieve h.r. 1

subject keywords ---------> retrieve day care

FOR HELP: Type the word HELP and press the ENTER key.

READY FOR NEW COMMAND:

CONVERSATION

Communications Canada, a Canadian government agency is developing

Conversational Hypertext Access Technology (CHAT) is a system being

developed by Communications Canada to provide easy database access to

people with little or no computer experience, using what are known as

hypertext links. Instead of cryptic computer commands, users type

questions in English.

Telnet: debra.doc.ca

Log in: chat

You choose one of the three databases now online, one on AIDS, and

then ask questions in English.

Ask the AIDS database, “When was AIDS first discovered?’’ and it

answers:

“The first case of AIDS in North America was diagnosed in 1979.

Before that, it existed in Africa, probably beginning in the 1950’s.

AIDS was discovered in North America when a number of young men with a

history of homosexuality developed a rare type of cancer called

Kaposi’s sarcoma.’’

Sometimes, you do have to rephrase your question. For example,

when asked “What is the link between AIDS and drug use?’’ the computer

responds:

“I know two things about drugs: the drugs that are used to treat

people with AIDS, and the risks that drug users have in getting AIDS.

Please ask about treatments or drug users.’’

COPYRIGHT LAW

See under Congress.

CURRENT EVENTS

Every year, the CIA publishes a Fact Book that is essentially an

almanac of all the world’s countries and international organizations,

including such information as major products, type of government and

names of its leaders. It’s available for searching through the

University of Maryland Info Database.

Telnet: info.umd.edu

Choose a terminal type and hit enter (or just hit enter if you are

using VT100). At the main menu, choose the number next to “Educational

Resources.” Then select the number next to “International,” followed by

“Factbook.” You can then search by country or agency.

This site also maintains copies of the U.S. budget, documents related

to the North American Free Trade Agreement and other government

initiatives. At the “Educational Resources” menu, select the number next to

“United States” and then the one next to “Government.”

The Access Legislative Information Service lets you browse through

and look up bills before the Hawaiian legislature.

Telnet: access.uhcc.hawaii.edu

ENVIRONMENT

Envirolink is a large database and conference system about the

environment, based in Pittsburgh.

Telnet: envirolink.org

Log on: gopher

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains online

databases of materials related to hazardous waste, the Clean Lakes

program and cleanup efforts in New England. The agency plans to

eventually include cleanup work in other regions, as well. The

database is actually a computerized card catalog of EPA documents —

you can look the documents up, but you’ll still have to visit your

regional EPA office to see them.

Telnet: epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov

No password or user name is needed. At the main menu, type

public

and hit enter (there are other listed choices, but they are only for

use by EPA employees). You’ll then see a one-line menu. Type

ols

and hit enter, and you’ll see something like this:

NET-106 Logon to TSO04 in progress.

DATABASES:

N NATIONAL CATALOG CH CHEMICAL COLL. SYSTEM

H HAZARDOUS WASTE 1 REGION I

L CLEAN LAKES

OTHER OPTIONS:

? HELP

Q QUIT

ENTER SELECTION —>

Choose one and you’ll get a menu that lets you search by document

title, keyword, year of publication or corporation. After you enter

the search word and hit enter, you’ll be told how many matches were

found. Hit 1 and then enter to see a list of the entries. To view

the bibliographic record for a specific entry, hit V and enter and

then type the number of the record.

The University of Michigan maintains a database of newspaper and

magazine articles related to the environment, with the emphasis on

Michigan, dating back to 1980.

Telnet: hermes.merit.edu

Host: mirlyn

Log in: meem

GEOGRAPHY

The University of Michigan Geographic Name Server can provide

basic information, such as population, latitude and longitude of U.S.

cities and many mountains, rivers and other geographic features.

Telnet: martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000

No password or user name is needed. Type in the name of a city, a

Zip code or a geographic feature and hit enter. The system doesn’t like

names with abbreviations in them (for example, Mt. McKinley), so spell

them out (for example, Mount McKinley).

By typing in a town’s name or zip code, you can find out a

community’s county, Zip code and longitude and latitude. Not all

geographic features are yet included in the database.

GOVERNMENT

The National Technical Information Service runs a system that not

only provides huge numbers of federal documents of all sorts — from

environmental factsheets to patent abstract — but serves as a gateway to

dozens of other federal information systems.

Telnet: fedworld.gov

Log on as: new

See also under Congress and Current Events.

HEALTH

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration runs a database of health-

related information.

Telnet: fdabbs.fda.gov

Log in: bbs

You’ll then be asked for your name and a password you want to use

in the future. After that, type

topics

and hit enter. You’ll see this:

TOPICS DESCRIPTION

NEWS News releases ENFORCE Enforcement Report APPROVALS Drug and Device Product Approvals list CDRH Centers for Devices and Radiological Health Bulletins BULLETIN Text from Drug Bulletin AIDS Current Information on AIDS CONSUMER FDA Consumer magazine index and selected articles SUBJ-REG FDA Federal Register Summaries by Subject ANSWERS Summaries of FDA information INDEX Index of News Releases and Answers DATE-REG FDA Federal Register Summaries by Publication Date CONGRESS Text of Testimony at FDA Congressional Hearings SPEECH Speeches Given by FDA Commissioner and Deputy VETNEWS Veterinary Medicine News MEETINGS Upcoming FDA Meetings IMPORT Import Alerts MANUAL On-Line User’s Manual

You’ll be able to search these topics by key word or

chronologically. It’s probably a good idea, however, to capture a copy

of the manual, first, because the way searching works on the system is a

little odd. To capture a copy, type

manual

and hit enter. Then type

scan

and hit enter. You’ll see this:

FOR LIST OF AVAILABLE TOPICS TYPE TOPICS

OR ENTER THE TOPIC YOU DESIRE ==>

MANUAL

BBSUSER

08-OCT-91

1 BBS User Manual

At this point, turn on your own computer’s screen-capture or logging

function and hit your 1 key and then enter. The manual will begin to

scroll on your screen, pausing every 24 lines.

HIRING AND COLLEGE PROGRAM INFORMATION

The Federal Information Exchange in Gaithersburg, MD, runs two

systems at the same address: FEDIX and MOLIS. FEDIX offers research,

scholarship and service information for several federal agencies,

including NASA, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation

Administration. Several more federal agencies provide minority hiring

and scholarship information. MOLIS provides information about minority

colleges, their programs and professors.

Telnet: fedix.fie.com

User name: fedix (for the federal hiring database) or

molis (for the minority-college system)

Both use easy menus to get you to information.

HISTORY

Stanford University maintains a database of documents related to

Martin Luthor King.

Telnet: forsythetn.stanford.edu

Account: socrates

At the main menu, type

select mlk

and hit enter.

SKI REPORTS

See under weather.

SPACE

NASA Spacelink in Huntsville, Ala., provides all sorts of

reports and data about NASA, its history and its various missions,

past and present. You’ll find detailed reports on every single probe,

satellite and mission NASA has ever launched along with daily updates

and lesson plans for teachers.

The system maintains a large file library of GIF-format space

graphics, but you can’t download these through telnet. If you want

them, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-0028.

Telnet: spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov

When you connect, you’ll be given an overview of the system and

asked to register and choose a password.

The NED-NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database lists data on more than

100,000 galaxies, quasars and other objects outside the Milky Way.

Telnet: ipac.caltech.edu.

Log in: ned

You can learn more than you ever wanted to about quasars, novae and

related objects on a system run by the Smithsonian Astrophysical

Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

Telnet: cfa204.harvard.edu

Log in: einline

The physics department at the University of Massachusetts at

Amherst runs a bulletin-board system that provides extensive conferences

and document libraries related to space.

Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu

Log on with your name and a password.

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

The University of Maryland Info Database maintains U.S. Supreme

Court decisions from 1991 on.

Telnet: info.umd.edu

Choose a terminal type and hit enter (or just hit enter if you are

using VT100). At the main menu, choose the number next to “Educational

Resources” and hit enter. One of your options will then be for “United

States.” Select that number and then, at the next menu, choose the one

next to “Supreme Court.”

TELNET

Hytelnet, at the University of Saskatchewan, is an online guide to

hundreds of telnet sites around the world.

Telnet: access.usask.ca

Log in: hytelnet

TIME

To find out the exact time:

Telnet: india.colorado.edu 13

You’ll see something like this:

Escape character is ‘^]’.

Sun Apr 5