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... et Oracle. You can ask the Oracle anything at all and get back an
answer (whether you'll like the answer is another question).
First, you'll want to get instructions on how to address the Oracle
(he, or she, or it, is very particular about such things and likes being
addressed in august, solemn and particularly sycophantic tones). Start
an e-mail message to
oracle@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
In the "subject:" line, type
help
and hit enter. You don't actually have to say anything in the message
itself -- at least not yet. overture suggestion tool Hit control-D to send off your request
for help. Within a few hours, the Oracle will mail you back detailed
instructions. It's a fairly long file, so before you start reading
it, turn on your communications software's logging function, to save
it to your computer (or save the message to a file on your host system's
home directory and then download the file). After you've digested it,
you can compose your question to the Oracle. Mail it to the above
address, only this time with a subject line that describes your
question. Expect an answer within a couple of days. And don't be
surprised if you also find a question in your mailbox -- the Oracle
extracts payment by making seekers of knowledge answer questions as
well!
Chapter 10: NEWS OF THE WORLD
10.1 Clarinet: UPI, Dave Barry and Dilbert.
Usenet "newsgroups" can be something of a misnomer. They may be
interesting, informative and educational, but they are often not news,
at least, not the way most people would think of them. But there are several
sources of news and sports on the Net.
One of the largest is Clarinet, a company in Cupertino, Calf., that
distributes wire-service news and columns, along overture suggestion tool with a news service
devoted to computers and even the Dilbert comic strip, in Usenet form.
Distributed in Usenet form, Clarinet stories and columns are
organized into more than 100 newsgroups (in this case, a truly
appropriate name), some of them with an extremely narrow focus, for
example, clari.news.gov.taxes.
The general news and sports come from
United Press International; the computer news from the NewsBytes
service; the features from several syndicates.
Because Clarinet charges for its service, not all host systems
carry its articles. Those that do carry them as Usenet groups starting
with "clari." As with other Usenet hierarchies, these are named starting
with broad area and ending with more overture bid manager software specific categories. Some of these
include business news (clari.biz); general national and foreign news,
politics and the like (clari.news), sports (clari.sports); columns by
Mike Royko, Miss Manners, Dave Barry and others (clari.feature); and
NewsBytes computer and telecommunications reports (clari.nb). Because
Clarinet started in Canada, there is a separate set of clari.canada
newsgroups. The clari.nb newsgroups are divided into specific computer
types (clari.nb.apple, for example).
Clari news groups feature stories updated around the clock. There
are even a couple of "bulletin" newsgroups for breaking stories:
clari.news.bulletin and clari.news.urgent. Clarinet also sets up new
newsgroups overture suggestion tool for breaking stories that become ongoing ones (such as major
natural disasters, coups in large countries and the like).
Occasionally, you will see stories in clari newsgroups that just
don't seem to belong there. Stories about former Washington, D.C. mayor
Marion Barry, for example, often wind interspersed among columns by Dave
Barry. This happens because of the way wire services work. UPI uses
three-letter codes to route its stories to the newspapers and radio
stations that make up most of its clientele, and harried editors on
deadline sometimes punch in the wrong code.
10.2 REUTERS
This is roughly the British equivalent of UPI or Associated Press.
Msen, a public-access site in Michigan, currently feeds Reuters
dispatches into a series of Usenet-style conferences. If your site
subscribes to this service, look for newsgroups with names that begin in
msen.reuters.
10.3 USA TODAY
If your host system doesn't carry the clari or msen.reuters
newsgroups, you might be able to keep up with the news a different way
over the Net. USA Today has been something of an online newspaper
pioneer, selling its stories to bulletin-board and online systems across
the country for several years. Cleveland Free-Net provides the online
version of USA Today (along with all its other services) for free.
Currently, the paper publishes only five days a week, so you'll have to
get your weekend news fix elsewhere.
Telnet: freenet-in-a.cwru.edu or
freenet-in-b.cwru.edu or
freenet-in-c.cwru.edu
After you connect and log in, look for this menu entry: NPTN/USA
TODAY HEADLINE NEWS. Type the number next to it and hit enter. You'll
then get a menu listing a series of broad categories, such as sports and
telecommunications. Choose one, and you'll get a yet another menu,
listing the ten most recent dates of publication. Each of these
contains one-paragraph summaries of the day's news in that particular
subject.
10.4 NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Look in the alt.radio.networks.npr newsgroup in Usenet for summaries
of NPR news shows such as "All Things Considered." This newsgroup is
also a place to discuss the network and its shows, personalities and
policies.
10.5 THE WORLD TODAY, FROM BELARUS TO BRAZIL
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are American radio stations
that broadcast to the former Communist countries of eastern Europe.
Every day, their news departments prepare a summary of news in those
countries, which is then disseminated via the Net, through a Bitnet
mailing list and a Usenet newsgroup.
To have the daily digests sent directly to your e-mailbox, send a
message to
listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Leave the subject line blank, and as a message, write:
subscribe rferl-l Your Name
Alternately, look for the bulletins in the Usenet newsgroup misc.news-
east-europe.rferl.
The Voice of America, a government broadcasting service aimed at
other countries, provides transcripts of its English-language news
reports through both gopher and anonymous ftp.
For the former, use
gopher to connect to this address:
gopher.voa.gov
and for the latter, to this address:
ftp.voa.gov
Daily Brazilian news updates are available (in Portuguese) from the
University of Sao Paulo. Use anonymous ftp to connect to
uspif.if.usp.br
Use cd to switch to the whois directory. The news summaries are stored
in files with this form: NEWS.23OCT92;1.
But to get them, leave off the
semicolon and the 1, and don't capitalize anything, for example:
get news.23oct92
Daily summaries of news reports from France (in French) are availble
on the National Capital FreeNet in Ottawa, Ont. Telnet to
freenet.carleton.ca
and log on as: guest. At the main menu, select the number for "The
Newsstand" and then "La overture suggestion tool presse de France."
10.6 E-MAILING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS
A number of newspapers, television stations and networks and other
news organizations now encourage readers and viewers to communicate with
them electronically, via Internet e-mail addresses. They include:
The Middlesex News, Framingham, overture suggestion tool Mass. sysop@news.ci.net
The Boston Globe voxbox@globe.com
WCVB-TV, Boston, Mass. wcvb@aol.com
NBC News, New York, N.Y. nightly@nbc.co ... |
