** ** ****** ** ** ******** ** ** ***** ** ** ** * ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** * **** **** ** * ** ** ** ** ** **** ** ** ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ****** ** ** ** ***** ***** ** ** ** ****** ****** ***** ** **** ******** ****** ****** ** ** ** ** * ** ** * ** ** ** ** ****** **** ** ** ** ** **** ****** ** ** ** ** **** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ****** ***** ** **** ** ****** ** ** **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER *** FEBRUARY 1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS UKCC Short Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Upcoming Retirement Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 PC Virus Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Conduct in the Users' Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Policies for Using UK Computing Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . 300 New LISTSERVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Is Your Software Legal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 The Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556 Getting Started on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684 Prime Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844 Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908 UKCC Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949 Services Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967 ********************************************************************** UKCC SHORT COURSES The following short courses are free to all UK faculty, staff, and students, but preregistration is required. If you register for a course and then find that you can't attend, please cancel your registration by calling 257-UKCC. Failure to do so may jeopardize your right to register for future UKCC short courses. There are two ways you can register, depending on the class: * You can register online -- some classes require online registration. Just enter VIEW UKCC SHORTCOURSE on your CMS account and follow the menus. * You can register by calling 257-UKCC (this is Voice Mail Exchange; your registration will be confirmed by phone within five days). Many of these classes don't require any knowledge or experience with any computer system. If there are prerequisites for a particular class, they'll be listed in the class description. If you have questions about class content or bypassing prerequisites, call the instructor for that class. INTRODUCTION TO VM/CMS AND XEDIT February 11 and 12 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall A basic introduction to interactive use of the IBM 3090, this class presumes no previous knowledge of the IBM or any other computer system. You'll learn how to access the computer, how to create and manage files on your account, and how to use online tools such as CALENDAR and VIEW. You'll also learn how to use the CMS text editor, Xedit, to create and modify individual files. This course will be taught in two two-hour sessions. Both sessions will provide hands-on practice of the commands that are covered. You'll be given a class computer account which will remain active for the duration of the course. Your instructor will be Chris Corman, 257-2243, chris@ukcc.uky.edu. INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC MAIL ON THE IBM 3090 February 13 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall An introduction to the MAIL command on the IBM 3090, this class is for the beginner. You'll learn how to create mail files and send them to other users on the IBM 3090 as well as to users on the Prime and Wang systems. We'll also cover the use of BITNET to communicate with individuals at other academic centers around the world, and you'll learn how to read incoming mail and some techniques for storing old mail. We'll discuss how to create and maintain a NAMES file of individuals with whom you frequently correspond. You'll learn the log on sequence and some basic CMS background before we begin the discussion of MAIL. This class presumes no previous knowledge of the IBM 3090 or any other computer system. You'll be given a CMS account for the duration of the course and will receive hands-on instruction for all the commands covered. Your instructor will be Chris Corman, 257-2243, chris@ukcc.uky.edu. INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL COMPUTING February 11 and 13 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. 104 McVey This course will introduce you to the fundmental concepts of computer graphics. Techniques and software packages on a variety of platforms (IBM 3090, Sun SparcStation, Apple Macintosh, and IBM PS/2) will be demonstrated and explained. No computing experience is necessary for this course. Bob Williamson, 257-2227, robertt@ukcc.uky.edu, will be your instructor. INTRODUCTION TO SAS February 3 and 4 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall SAS is a collection of powerful and flexible data management and statistical analysis procedures that allow you to create and analyze libraries of data files on the IBM 3090. This two-session course will emphasize simple data manipulation and general syntax, and is designed for new and inexperienced SAS users. CMS and Xedit knowledge is prerequisite. Your instructor will be Lorinda Wang (ukc333@ukcc.uky.edu, 257-2204), and online registration is required for this course. INTRODUCTION TO SAS/GRAPH February 6 and 7 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall SAS/GRAPH is a collection of SAS PROCs that can be used to draw text in various fonts; plot values in the x-y plane with various curves; draw three-dimensional and contour plots of functions; display bar, pie, star, and block charts; and plot several different map displays using SAS datasets for county, state, and country boundaries on the IBM 3090. The Introduction to SAS short course, described above, is a prerequisite. Lorinda Wang will be your instructor (257-2204, ukc333@ukcc.uky.edu). Online registration is required for this course. INTRODUCTION TO SPSS February 17, 18, 20, and 21 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall SPSS is a powerful program for displaying and analyzing data on the IBM 3090. This course is designed for those who have little or no knowledge of SPSS, but do have experience with CMS or have completed the Introduction to VM/CMS & Xedit class, described above. Your instructor will be Emmanuel Okorley (257-3238, okorley@ukcc.uky.edu), and online registration is required for this course. PARALLEL COMPUTING IN FORTRAN February 25 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. 327 McVey Hall An introduction to parallel processing using VS/FORTRAN Version 2, Release 5, on the IBM 3090. Parallel coding instructions allow you to use up to all six processors of the IBM 3090 to concurrently process data, reducing wall clock time in running jobs. Automatic parallelization, parallel concepts and commands, and the architecture of the IBM 3090 will be discussed. Your instructor will be Anne Leigh, 257-2205, anne@ukcc.uky.edu. INTRODUCTION TO DI-3000 February 24, 26, 28 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 106 McVey Hall DI-3000, a Precision Visuals, Inc., product, is a device-independent, general purpose graphics subroutine system for the FORTRAN programmer. It is primarily a toolkit system for custom application development. It is also part of a larger family of integrated software modules which do contour maps, 3-D gridded surfaces, charts, graphs, metafiles, etc. The complete family of products will be covered in this course. The class will meet two hours per day for three days. You should be familiar with VM/CMS and VS FORTRAN. Bob Williamson will be your instructor; 257-2227, robertt@ukcc.uky.edu. VISUALIZATION WITH PV-WAVE February 25 and 27 10:00 to 12:00 p.m. 104 McVey PV-WAVE is the latest graphics software from Precision Visuals, Inc., for interactive analysis and visualization of scientific data. This course will guide you through understanding and the use of the new point-and-click version of this popular package, and it will explore application possibilities, hardcopy options, etc. Bob Williamson will be your instructor; 257-2227, robertt@ukcc.uky.edu. ****************************************************************** UPCOMING RETIREMENT RECEPTION A reception honoring Lavine Thrailkill and Selwyn Zerof will be held on Thursday, February 27, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the lobby of the 18th floor of the Patterson Office Tower. Lavine Thrailkill will be retiring from the UKCC after 25 years of service on February 29, 1992. Selwyn Zerof will be retiring from the UKCC after 28 years of of service on March 9, 1992. Refreshments will be served, and everyone is welcome to attend. There will also be a special buffet dinner honoring the retirees on Saturday, February 29 at Spindletop. For more information about the reception or dinner, please contact Patsy Penrod at 257-2900. ***************************************************************** PC VIRUS ALERT The PC Michelangelo virus, a relatively new virus, is rapidly spreading throughout the US. Three factors make this virus particulary dangerous: The virus uses similar techniques as the Stoned virus, which remains the most common virus currently reported. Since the virus infects only the Master Boot Record (MBR) on hard disks and the boot record of floppy disks, viral detection techniques that rely on alteration of DOS- executable files will not detect the virus. Similarly, techniques that monitor the status of the MBR may only provide you with a single warning which, if execution is permitted to continue, may not be repeated. Michelangelo was first discovered in Europe in mid-1991. Consequently, many virus scanners in use today will not pick up the virus unless more recent updates have been obtained. Unlike the Stoned and Jerusalem viruses, which are more annoying than dangerous, the Michelangelo virus will, on its trigger date of March 6, attempt to overwrite vital areas of the hard disk, rendering it unreadable by DOS. Since the File Allocation Tables (FATs) may be damaged recovery will be very difficult and require rebuilding -- unless you have backups available. Fortunately, this virus is very easy to detect. When resident on your PC, the CHKDSK program will return a "total bytes memory" value 2048 bytes lower than normal. This means that a 640K PC that normally returns 655,260 "total bytes memory" will report 653,312. While a low value will not necessarily mean that the Michelango or any other virus is present, be sure to have your PC examined by someone familiar with viral activity to determine the reason. If the Michelangelo virus is found, turn off your PC until it can be disinfected properly. All floppy disks and other machines in the area should also be examined since the Michelangelo virus is spread in the boot record (executable area found on all floppy disks, including data-only disks). If you suspect your PC may be infected by this or any other virus, contact Miles Howe (howe@ukcc.uky.edu, 257-2207, 107 McVey Hall), or Brenda Ghaelian (brenda@ukcc.uky.edu, 257-2203, 100 McVey Hall). Both Brenda and Miles can help you disinfect your PC. And contact the UKCC Security Officer, Jack Coffman at 257-2273, uka051@ukcc.uky.edu, to report the incident. -- Padgett Peterson ***************************************************************** CONDUCT IN THE USERS' ROOMS The Users' Rooms in 111 and 103 McVey Hall are public access facilities, open twenty-four hours a day, to allow students, faculty, and staff members access to the University's computing services. The Users' Rooms are not monitored twenty-four hours a day, so we must rely on users exercising common courtesy when using the facilities. The basic rules for using the Users' Rooms include no smoking, no drinks of any kind, no tobacco products, and no disruptive behavior (including game playing), at any time of the day or night. These rules were set out to protect the health and comfort of users as well as to protect the equipment. A complete listing of the policies for using UKCC facilities is available on the Prime system by entering POLICY HELP. A copy of these policies also follows this article. If you violate any of these rules, you may lose your computing privileges and/or be required to reimburse the University for any damages. It's just not worth it. Should your work be disrupted by a user who doesn't understand the rules of conduct for the Users' Room, contact either a Consultant in 107 McVey Hall, or, after hours, an Operator in the Data Center. ****************************************************************** POLICIES FOR USING UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY COMPUTING FACILITIES Every account issued by UK Computing Services has been issued to a particular person with the understanding that the account is for the use specified by that person. Use of these accounts is a privilege that may be revoked if the owner of the account is found to be misusing that account, violating applicable University policies, or violating applicable state or federal laws. Computer misuse at the University of Kentucky includes, but is not limited to: * use of someone else's account without their knowledge or approval. * allowing someone other than the person to whom the account was issued to use an account for purposes other than which the account was originally issued. * unauthorized distribution of password(s) or others' accounts without their knowledge or approval. * attempting to acquire another's password or userid. * transmitting lewd or obscene messages. * disrupting the work of others. * any unauthorized accessing, using, copying, and modifying, or deleting of any one else's file(s). * copying or capturing licensed software for use on a machine for which the software is not authorized or licensed. * any unauthorized modifications of access rights of files, directories, and accounts. * modification of an account balance or resource limit without permission. * attempting to "crash the system" (causing a computer failure). * damage to hardware through intentional or grossly negligent acts (normal wear and tear excepted). * fraudulent access to computer systems. * other actions which are disruptive to the use of the computing facilities by others. Violations of any of the above rules will result in appropriate action. Such action may include reimbursement to the University at current established rates, the computing charges incurred in violation of these rules. When the Director of University Computing Services has reason to believe that a violation may have occurred, he shall immediately suspend computing privileges for the individual(s) involved, pending further investigation. Such action, together with an explanation of the causal events, shall be made by the Director to the Dean of Students office, in case of students; or to the appropriate Chancellors' offices or the President's office, for all others. In all cases, 'due process' shall be afforded to all users (UK students, faculty, and staff, as well as non-UK and general public users) in reaching a proper determination. For users affiliated with UK, as applicable, rights under the "University Code of Student Conduct," the "Faculty Handbook," "Administrative Regulations," and the "Staff Handbook" shall be afforded. For non-UK affiliated users, generally accepted 'due process' provisions will be accorded. ****************************************************************** NEW LISTSERVs If you'd like to be informed of new LISTSERVs, just check NEW-LIST by entering VIEW NETNEWS NEW-LIST. Following are a few of the more recent LISTSERVs, along with instructions for subscribing. ADDICTION LIST ADDICT-L on LISTSERV@KENTVM or LISTSERV@KENTVM.KENT.EDU ADDICT-L is an electronic conference for mature discussion of the many types of addictions experienced by a large portion of society. The focus of this list is to provide an information exchange network for individuals interested in researching, educating, or recovering from a variety of addictions. It is not the intent of this list to focus on one area of addiction, but rather to discuss the phenomena of addiction as it relates to areas of sexual, co-dependency, eating addiction, etc. . . . truly a list in which many aspects could be discussed. * All individuals with an interest in the topic area are welcome. * Subscriptions of those interested will be added by the listowner. * Subscribers should look forward to educating themselves about addictions, and discussing relevant topics related to addiction and recovery. * Intended as an information exchange network and discussion group. Possible appropriate subjects include * Discussion of etiology of addictions * Effects of addictions * Recovery from addiction and 12 Step Programs * Recent article publications relevant to addiction literature * Networking with others having related interests NOTE: Drug/Alcohol addiction has a way of becoming an easy topic of discussion. It is the intent of this list to broaden the awareness of addiction into a variety of other areas. There are electronic lists devoted to drug/alcohol use for those interested only in that area. To subscribe from a BITNET account, send an interactive or e-mail message addressed to LISTSERV@KENTVM. Internet users should send mail to LISTSERV@KENTVM.KENT.EDU. (In mail, leave the subject line blank and make the text of your message the following: SUB ADDICT-L Yourfirstname Yourlastname Questions can be addressed to listowner: David Delmonico Ddelmoni@kentvm.kent.edu * * * * * GARDENS (Gardens & Gardening) This list is for those users interested in gardens and gardening, especially the novice gardener. Topics include flowers, vegetables, indoor gardening, outdoor gardening, container plants, etc. To subscribe, enter the command TELL LISTSERV@UKCC SUB GARDENS yourfirstname yourlastname Owners: Marguerite Floyd (editor@ukcc.uky.edu) Bob Crovo (crovo@ukcc.uky.edu) Notebooks: yes public weekly * * * * * * SUPERIBM on LISTSERV@UKCC (Discussion of Supercomputing Issues) or LISTSERV@UKCC.UKY.EDU This list is for users of IBM equipment for high performance scientific applications (supercomputing). The anticipated audience will principally be the attendees of SUPER! and other interested users. To subscribe to SUPERIBM, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UKCC.UKY.EDU, or BITNET nodes can send to LISTSERV@UKCC. The message should contain only the following command in the body of the mail: SUBSCRIBE SUPERIBM yourfirstname yourlastname Owner: Bob Crovo (crovo@ukcc.uky.edu) Notebooks: yes public weekly * * * * * VIRTUAL REALITY LIST VIRTU-L on LISTSERV@UIUCVMD.BITNET or LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU A bi-directional gateway for the Usenet newsgroup sci.virtual-worlds. This is a discussion of all aspects of virtual reality. The mailing list is not moderated. If you have access to the Usenet network of newsgroups, you probably do NOT need to subscribe to this list. All notes to the mailing list are sent automatically for posting to sci.virtual-worlds, at the discretion of the newsgroup moderators. All sci.virtual-worlds posts are automatically sent to LISTSERV subscribers. CAUTION: Traffic on this mailing list is fairly high. Expect about 10-30 messages per day, some of which are lengthy. To subscribe, send e-mail to the listserv address, either: LISTSERV@UIUCVMD (for Bitnet) or LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU (for Internet) with the following text: SUB VIRTU-L Your full name where "Your full name" is your real name, not your e-mail address. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to the same listserv address with the text: UNSUB VIRTU-L Do NOT send requests to subscribe, unsubscribe, etc., to the mailing list address. Send such requests ONLY to listserv. Listserv does NOT maintain archives of this mailing list. Archives of all posts to sci.virtual-worlds are maintained by the newsgroup sponsors. Archives are available via anonymous FTP to milton.u.washington.edu The list owner is Greg Newby: gbnewby@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu or gbnewby@uiucvmd.bitnet. The Usenet newsgroup sci-virtual-worlds is sponsored by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University Washington, Seattle. Although the listserv redistribution is sponsored by the University of Illinois and Greg Newby, the HITL crew deserves most of the credit for this important forum. * * * * * UNITED NATIONS UN on ListServ@IndyCMS or ListServ@IndyCMS.IUPUI.Edu UN (United Nations) is dedicated to discussion of the United Nations, Nations, and is open to all interested persons. To subscribe, send mail to LISTSERV@INDYCMS.BITNET or, on the Intern listserv@IndyCMS.IUPUI.Edu with the following command in the body: SUB UN yourfirstname yourlastname The list owner and coordinator is John B. Harlan; IJBH200@IndyVAX or IJBH200@IndyVAX.IUPUI.Edu ****************************************************************** IS YOUR SOFTWARE LEGAL? A few months ago a lawsuit was brought against the University of Oregon by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) over alleged software copyright violations. The SPA obtained a search warrant and made an unannounced raid on a department computer lab that evidently had illegal copies of software and documentation for up to sixty of its computers. In the settlement, Oregon agreed to pay the SPA $130,000 and sponsor a national conference on copyright law and software use. For those who doubt this could happen to the University of Kentucky, think again. An SPA official recently said they plan to file more lawsuits against colleges and universities, as well as private industry, in the near future. No department, lab, or office is immune from a warrant to search the hard disks of computers on the premises. Oregon had no warning. Their computing managers didn't realize what their own staff and lab consultants were up to. While they had a policy supporting legal use of software, they never checked for compliance. The University of Kentucky supports title 17 of the US copyright Code, which states: "It is illegal to make or distribute copies of copyright material without authorization." (Section 106) The only exception for software is the users' right to make a backup copy for archival purposes (Section 117). In other words, if you don't have some proof of purchase for the programs that reside on your computer, they should be deleted. According to the SPA, acceptable proofs include documentation, original program disks, or a vendor invoice (detailed UK purchase order). Violators who have been caught add that consistency is the key when proving ownership. For example, you cannot show documentation for one program, a receipt for another, and so on. The penalties for illegal use are severe. Some corporate offenders have paid more than double the cash penalty of the University of Oregon, but fines aren't the only cost for non-compliance. Violators have to forfeit the illegal software and purchase replacement copies at retail cost. Compliance is cheap when you add these costs to the staff time it takes to conduct a raid-induced audit. If you need more information about making copies of your software, speak with one of the UKCC Consultants in 107 McVey Hall, 257-2249, suggest@ukcc.uky.edu -- Brian Rust Editor's Note: This article was adapted from the December 1991 issue of "@MACC," the newsletter of the University of Wisconsin- Madison Academic Computing Center. ****************************************************************** THE DATA CONNECTION Did you do a lot of traveling over the holidays? Did you know that you could have reserved your plane tickets, hotel room, and car rental online? A wealth of information is available to computer users; from molecules to movies, Texas to travel, you can discuss common interests with other computer users, as well as download software and programs. What does it take to access all this? Essentially, an account on a mainframe computer that is connected to the Internet will do the trick; but in some cases, you will need a modem and an empty telephone line. The options are endless with today's computer sophistication. With all the network possibilities, it's easy to end up with a deluge of mail in your electronic mailbox. Half the battle is knowing what the various services offer and then choosing your connections carefully. Internet and BITNET If you have an account on the IBM 3090, you have access to the many different networks and mailing lists. Mailing lists started out on the Internet, which is a large collection of networks all over the world. BITNET, a network that connects computers at universities and research centers around the world, is also connected to the Internet. You can use the services of both the Internet and BITNET to reach other users on virtually any of the connected networks. Via telnet, you can log on to various sites over the Internet and use its services interactively. Some Internet and BITNET hosts provide access to specialized databases or to archives of information. A copy of the "Internet Resource Guide," which lists the facilities (including supercomputer centers, library catalogs, and specialized data collections) is available in 107 McVey Hall. Some of the host computers on BITNET offer LISTSERVs. A LISTSERV is actually an abbreviation for "list server." LISTSERV offers basic mail capabilities including mailing lists. People with common interests were grouped in a list which was then stored on LISTSERV. Thus, there is now a massive e-mail system that links millions of people with common interests. To find out what services best suit your needs and interests, you can receive a list of all the mailing lists available on the Internet and BITNET through anonymous FTP. Enter the command TELL LISTSERV@UKCC LIST GLOBAL. Dial-Up Services In addition to services that require connection to a host computer, you can also connect directly to a wide variety of resources with your modem. Most of these services are not free, as you will be charged for the long distance phone call and possible service fees. BBS You may want to start your search for information on what is commonly known as a computer-based bulletin board system (BBS). The BBS works like this: users "post" messages on a "bulletin board" and other users respond to the posted messages. Developed as an information, mail, and real-time conferencing system with file upload and download facilities, BBS services often offer programs and information files that you can download to your own PC. BBSs are often available locally through computer users who use their own PCs as hosts. Locally, SSH (Science Spoken Here) is run by the UK Physics department. Other discussion lists of general interest are kept on VIEW, free of charge; just enter VIEW NETNEWS. U.S. Naval Observatory This service provides information such as the time of sunrise, sunset, twilight, moonrise, and satellite transits from a given location; the direction and distance between any two points on the earth; and the universal time. Voice information is available from (202) 653-1525. To connect: Settings: 2400 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. Dial (202) 653-0068, (202) 653-0155, or (202) 653-1079 Password: CESIUM133 If you have any questions about connecting to the Naval Observatory, call (202) 653-1034. Department of Energy The Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy maintains an electronic publishing system (EPUB) which allows you to access selected energy data from various statistical reports. The system is menu-driven and provides online help capabilities that can be accessed free of charge (except for the long distance charge), 24 hours a day. To connect: Settings: 300-2400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and full duplex. Dial (202) 586-2557. No password is required, but you'll be prompted to enter your telephone number as a userid. For technical assistance, call (202) 586-8959 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. For questions about information contained in the EPUB reports, call (202) 586-8800. Climate Analysis Center Information available from this service, supported by the National Weather Service, includes climate conditions around the world (such as temperature, precipitation, weather indices, heating and cooling days, and crop conditions). This information is gathered from more than 8,000 stations worldwide. The service does provide user accounts for a fee. For information about how to obtain an account on this database, call (301) 763-8071. Commercial Services CompuServe and GEnie are two examples of the commercial dial-up services available to computer users who have a modem. These national services are well known for their interconnections to a large number of systems and users. Because so many users subscribe to these systems, the files and discussions tend to be more detailed than those found on local BBS systems. Types of services offered by the commercial services include online shopping, encyclopedia databases, financial data, and travel reservation capability. Fees vary from service to service, but they are usually based on a monthly subscription. These fees are, of course, in addition to the telephone charges. For more information on the services offered by CompuServe, call (800) (800) 848-8199. For details about GEnie, call (800) 638-9636. Also, you can usually find information on various other commercial services from advertisements in computing journals like "PC World," "MAC World," "CompuServe Magazine," etc. If Santa left a modem under your tree, you'll have a lot of exploring to look forward to. Be picky when choosing your resources; wealth of information is handy for accomplishing tasks, but it can also overwhelm you (and your pocketbook!). Choosing the connections best suited for you will save you time and money. -- Jani Farlow Spede Editor's Note: This article was adapted from the University of Florida Data Center's newsletter, "/Update," December 1991. It was made available through CCNEWS, a BITNET-based service of EDUCOM. ****************************************************************** GETTING STARTED ON THE INTERNET There is such a thing as too much information. You might say that the Internet illustrates this idea perfectly, once you go beyond utilizing just electronic mail. The network is so vast that you can sometimes be overwhelmed by the number of services to the point of not knowing where to start. If you have investigated the Internet at any length you have, no doubt, seen announcements for a number of Internet services. Perhaps here it is appropriate to step back a bit and talk about the Internet in more general terms in order to categorize the types of services available as well as the access methods to those services. This article will attempt to provide you with a starting point to organize your Internet activity and perhaps help you evaluate which services are most important to you. For the sake of this discussion, I'd like to think of Internet services as falling into one of three categories: those related to file transfer using FTP (File Transfer Protocol); those accessible via an interactive telnet session; and services which utilize another protocol or a client/server model. FTP is a capability of almost all computers that have access to the Internet. The FTP command or program allows you to establish an interactive file transfer session with a remote computer system on the Internet. FTP usually allows you to see a directory of files on the remote system, change directories, get a file from the remote system, or in some cases, put a file from your local system to the remote system's directory. Telnet is another staple of Internet activity. Telnet is the program or command that allows you to establish an interactive session with a remote system. In other words, it allows you to log on to a remote system as if it were a local host. A number of Internet services can be accessed by telnetting to an Internet host. A number of other applications available for utilizing the the Internet don't require you to establish an FTP or telnet session. These programs will often retrieve and/or organize information, sometimes using a client/server model in which some processing of data occurs on both the local and remote hosts. File Transfer Protocol The first of our three categories is fairly limited conceptually but perhaps the most widespread in practice (other than e-mail). Many Internet hosts implement a service called "anonymous FTP" that allows anyone on the Internet to establish a file transfer session by using the user name, "anonymous." In most cases, the files available are publicly-distributed documents, shareware, or freely-distributed software. Once you know how to accomplish an FTP file transfer, a world of sources opens up. Since there are so many sites available for anonymous FTP, finding a program or document can be a daunting experience. Fortunately, a new Internet service has been made available which makes this process a bit easier. At this point, our discussion is getting a bit out of order to discuss a service which actually falls into categories two and three, as mentioned above. Archie is an "archive server;" it is a database containing names of files and the sites on the Internet where they are available for anonymous FTP. You can telnet to archie.sura.net, log in as archie, and follow the instructions to query the archie database. There are also archie client utilities available for VMS and Unix that employ a client/server architecture to search the database without your having to establish a Telnet session. If your site has an archie client installed, you can receive a list of anonymous FTP sites for a particular topic by typing archie topic, where topic is the name of a program or document. Telnet to the World A number of universities are making various information services accessible via the Internet. The three most common types of services are online library card catalog systems, bulletin board systems (BBS), and campus-wide information systems. The availability of card catalogs is a natural progression from the automation of card catalogs within libraries. As with other information systems, usefulness comes when your client population can access the system directly. As systems were included in campus networks, it was a short step to making them available on the Internet. There are now over 200 library card catalogs, some as far away as Australia, accessible from the Internet, and that number is growing at a rapid pace. Check VIEW LIBRARY INTERNET for more information on library catalogs that are available through telnet. An increasing number of bulletin board systems are being made available via the Internet. Many of these were developed by various universities' computing support departments, while a number of publicly available "Free-Net" systems are beginning to appear around the country. The Cleveland Free-Net system was the first of its kind and expansion of this concept is being promoted by an organization called the National Public Telecomputing Network. You may have heard of the Cleveland Free-Net in relation to Project Hermes, which makes available online the full text of recent Supreme Court decisions. Campus-wide information systems (CWIS) is another service available through a Telnet connection. Like the online catalog systems, these are usually created to serve a particular campus and are then made available to other interested parties via the Internet. CWISs usually use some type of menu-driven software to organize information relevant to a particular school. Items included might be the campus calendar, administrative procedures, or a university directory. If you are trying to find out such information about a university, their CWIS is probably a good place to look. Princeton, Cornell, and the University of North Carolina have been leaders in making their systems available on the Internet as well as providing support for CWISs elsewhere, either by making their CWIS software available or by offering their systems as a model for other developments. The BITNET mailing list CWIS-L (check VIEW NETNEWS COMPUTERS CWIS-L) has much discussion about the management of CWISs, and is also a good source to find out about various systems around the US. A comprehensive list of systems is periodically posted to that discussion list. Miscellany A number of services are available, if not directly via the Internet at least because of the Internet. In other words, you may or may not be establishing an Internet connection in order to utilize the service, but the service depends on an Internet connection at some point. One example is USENET news. Some USENET news reader programs maintain a database of USENET messages on the system where the news reader runs. Other programs are remote news readers; when you are reading news they actually use the network to transfer the text of messages that you wish to see. In either case, chances are that many of the posted messages were at some point tranferred over the Internet long before you read them, even though USENET still remains in great use over UUCP networks. (UUCP stands for Unix to Unix CoPy and is a method of Unix system networking that uses dial-up connections to transfer information. Another class of programs used to access Internet services are those that employ a client/server architecture, such as the archie program mentioned above. Another relatively new service is Wide- Area Information Servers or WAIS, a software technology being made available by Thinking Machines Corporation. They will allow you to enter search parameters and will then query WAIS server databases, and, if any is found, return information on the topic you specified. Such client/server applications do not require you to utilize the telnet or FTP programs. Instead, they require a specialized program to support their activities over the Internet. It is anticipated that the number of client/server applications running over the Internet will see dramatic growth over the next several years, especially as large-scale collections of online information become more prevalent and as the network grows to accommodate additional use. In your use of the Internet, it is important to decide on your objective and then select your method of access. If you want to log on to another system on the Internet, use telnet; if you want to transfer a file, use FTP; if you are looking for a file or program on the Internet, try telnetting to archie; if you want information on a particular university, check to see if they run CWIS or BBS; if you need online information on a topic, try WAIS. The quest for The quest for information becomes manageable once the tools involved are better understood. Ideally, one day all of this functionality will be at your fingertips within a standard interface. I'd like to be able to enter a command like "Connect me to a BBS where I can download the latest version of Kermit" and without too much delay, find myself with a connection to the appropriate computing system. In fact, the reality of that type of command actually working may not be too far off. In the meantime, there's a lot of information out there; we just need to work a little harder to find it. -- Dr. Philip Baczewski Editor's Note: This article was adapted from the November/December 1991 issue of "Benchmarks," the newsletter of North Texas Computing Center. It was made available through CCNEWS, a BITNET-based service of EDUCOM. ****************************************************************** PRIME BULLETIN BOARD 1. Is it possible for the Prime to have a cpl compiler installed? >>>There is a CPL compiler available, but we do not have the resources to purchase it at this time. Thanks for the suggestion. 2. Can I forward mail from the prompt? I cannot find it anywhere in the Help section for mail. >>>From the Disposition prompt you can forward your mail; just say FORWARD mail_address. 3. Could we add a feature to Finger files for easier reference? On some machines, when you FINGER a person, you get the general information, and then you also get a nice little thing that says "messages unread since (date)." This is nice, so you can tell from outside machines if you have mail. >>>The mail information would be nice, but the current mailer does not keep track of when you read your mail. Good suggestion, though. 4. The dorm laser printer refuses to print. >>>Check the data cable to be sure it's ready and not jammed. Most likely, you'll need to press reset and let the printer reinitialize. 5. There is no help available for the -d and -e options. >>>We will add the help for -d and -e to the qterm help file. 6. Logging in from ethernet machines at the Nursing Lab is very slow. It will hesitate anywhere from 5 to 25 seconds, especially noticable when scrolling through a document in an editor. This does not happen on an async terminal. >>>There was a period when ethernet traffic was slow, not from a particular host but the actual ethernet. The cause is unknown at this time. When you encounter this type of problem, contact a lab consultant as soon as possible. 7. I can't ftp to most locations. It either comes up with "tcp timed out" or "unknown name." >>>This problem appears sporadically on all machines. Most likely, it's a nameserver or network problem. We'll check into it. 8. I sent mail to Transy; I was told that the mailer queue was full and the problem was fixed, but the mail never went through. Does this mean my mail was lost? >>>If you did not receive an error message when you sent the mail, the mail was delivered. 9. The printer in 111 McVey is printing two lines where it should be printing only one line. >>>The printer had been configured to print smaller lines; perhaps someone sent a binary file by mistake or a PrimeWord file that did not correctly reset the printer. We've powered the printer off and back on; it's working now. ****************************************************************** SUGGESTIONS 1. Often there is a party going on in 111 McVey Hall; shouting, laughing, food, drinks (often beer), general pandemonium from users. This behavior is suitable for a bar, but not for the Users' Room. Please provide some sort of policing for this room after hours to prevent such behavior. Thanks. >>>We are unable to monitor the Users' Rooms 24 hours a day. The Users' Rooms are public access facilities, and we expect users to behave in responsible and non-disruptive ways. 2. Who is the AIX Consultant? >>>When you need help with an AIX problem, just contact any of the Consultants in 107 McVey Hall, 257-2249, suggest@ukcc.uky.edu. 3. I'm getting a "mailbox unavailable" message when I try to send e-mail to someone on the Wang using one of my nicknames. >>>It probably means that there is a problem with the Wang Office directory entry for that person. Send us the exact name to which you were trying to send it, and include a copy to postmaster@ukwang.uky.edu. We'll check it out for you. 4. I'm trying to install CUTCP on my PC. I understand that there is usually one person at a site who handles the distribution of IP numbers. Could you tell me who to contact? >>>IP numbers are assigned by the administrator of the subnet that you are going to be using. You will need to have an Ethernet card for your PC, and it will be attached to a LAN somewhere on campus. Some departments assign their own IP number (on their subnet), and some let Robert Lee (257-2201, sysbob@ukcc.uky.edu) do it. 5. Does UKnet support the SLIP8250 packet driver ? >>>We don't have any SLIP links at this time. ****************************************************************** UKCC CLASSIFIEDS Classified ads are free to UK students, faculty, and staff. Ads run for one issue and must be resubmitted for publication in subsequent issues. If you'd like to place a computing-related ad (such as buying or selling used computer equipment), send it via e-mail to editor@ukcc.uky.edu; or mail it to Editor, UK Computing Center, 128 McVey Hall, Lexington, Ky. 40506-0045. The deadline for ads is the first week of the month for the following month's issue. We do not accept advertising from commercial vendors and all ads are subject to revision by the Editor. FOR SALE: Mac SE with Image Writer II printer. Includes various software. Call 223-3116. ****************************************************************** UKCC SERVICE DIRECTORY McVey Service E-Mail Address Phone Hall Vice President, Information Services Eugene R. Williams DPS128@UKCC 257-3609 Assoc. VP, University Computing Services Dr. Douglas Hurley HURLEY@UKCC 257-2900 128 Director, Communications Services Doyle Friskney DOYLE@UKCC 257-6225 Director, Computational Sciences Dr. John Connolly CONNOLLY@UKCC 257-8737 324 Director, Academic User Services Dr. Robert S. Tannenbaum RST@UKCC 257-2900 128 Director, Distributed Services Janet Baynham DPS108@UKCC 257-1535 120 Director, Information Resources Dr. Jon Hesseldenz UKA045@UKCC 257-3904 230D Academic Consulting Services Lavine Thrailkill UKC105@UKCC 257-2257 121 CMS Consulting Bob Crovo CROVO@UKCC 257-2258 109 Complaints Carol Lotz LOTZ@UKCC 257-2213 129 Consultant for Remote Sites Wanda Dixon WANDA@UKCC 257-2206 115 Consulting Consultant on Duty SUGGEST@UKCC 257-2249 110 Database - IDMS Rick Chlopan DBA003@UKCC 257-2211 230E Data Center 257-2222 61 Data Entry Frank McCormick OPFRANK@UKCC 257-2216 72 Desktop Publishing Consulting Marguerite Floyd EDITOR@UKCC 257-2219 205 Disk Rental Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 130 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 130 Facilities Operations Joe Williams UKA048@UKCC 257-2231 122 Graphics Consultation Bob Williamson ROBERTT@UKCC 257-2227 207 Information Center Judy Kisil UKA041@UKCC 257-2241 222 Instructional Software Wayne Beech WAYNE@UKCC 257-2238 100 Local Area Networks Gary Porter PORTER@UKLANS 257-5267 Machine Room 257-2222 59 Management Information Systems Forrest Hahn UKA006@UKCC 257-2260 123 Memos and Manuals Consulting Room 257-2249 110 Micro Lab 257-6100 Network/Telecommunications UKT101@UKCC 257-2229 New Accounts Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 130 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 130 Numerical Analysis Consulting Anne Leigh ANNE@UKCC 257-2205 109B Optical Scanner - NCS Chris Corman CHRIS@UKCC 257-2243 109 Bob Crovo CROVO@UKCC 257-2258 109 Passwords Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 130 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 130 Prime Information 257-2237 100 Program Documentation/Libraries Consulting Room 257-2249 110 Publications Office Marguerite Floyd EDITOR@UKCC 257-2219 200 Refunds Consulting Room 257-2249 110 SAS and SPSS Consulting Lorinda Wang UKC333@UKCC 257-2204 109B Security & Disaster Recovery Jack L. Coffman UKA051@UKCC 257-2273 218 Tapes to Borrow, Tape Storage Data Center 257-2222 61 Tours of UKCC Lavine Thrailkill UKC105@UKCC 257-2257 121 User Account Services Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 130 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 130 Vectorization Consulting Anne Leigh ANNE@UKCC 257-2205 109B ********************************************************************** UNIVERSITY COMPUTING ADVISORY COMMITTEE RESEARCH COMPUTING SUBCOMMITTEE Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Chair, 1994 Gregory W. Brock, 1992 Graeme Fairweather, 1993 Robert A. Lodder, 1993 Judith G. Shelling, 1993 Carolyn Brock, 1994 James M. McDonough, 1994 ex officio Delwood Collins John W. Connolly Doyle Friskney Douglas E. Hurley Robert S. Tannenbaum David S. Watt Student (1) INSTRUCTIONAL COMPUTING SUBCOMMITTEE Merrill W. Packer, Chair, 1994 Joel M. Lee, 1992 David J. Shippy, 1992 Anthony Q. Baxter, 1993 Robert L. Fehr, 1993 John E. Christopher, 1994 Kevin S. Kiernan, 1994 ex officio Doyle Friskney Douglas E. Hurley Louis J. Swift Robert S. Tannenbaum VC Academic Affairs, MC VC Academic Affairs CCS Undergraduate Student (1) ADMINISTRATIVE COMPUTING SUBCOMMITTEE Jack B. Jordan, Chair, 1994 David Carter, 1992 Sue Fosson, 1992 Ken Clevidence, 1993 Karen T. Combs, 1993 Randall W. Dahl, 1993 Joan McCauley, 1993 Dale R. Austin, 1994 Daniel L. Fulks, 1994 Nancy Ray, 1994 Walter F. Skiba, 1994 ex officio Doyle Friskney Jon Hesseldenz Roseann Hogan Douglas E. Hurley MC - vacant CCS - vacant *********************************************************************