INTERNET RESOURCES
Backto 1997 EDUCATIONAL LINKS... by Nanis
http://www.webreference.com/
This is basically a bible for anyone setting up a Web site.It doesn't offer to answer queries in the way a newsgroup would,but it has grouped together all kinds of resourcesand annotated hundreds of Web sites under loads of differentcategories like browsers, conferences, legal issues, standards,software, tutorials, graphics, HTML, image maps, programming,security, Unix, usage tools, VRML etc. It caters for both thebeginner and the professional and has a section called Web Wizardof the Month that is of interest to most users at any level. Ifyou're short on advice it's usually worth searching here.
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http://www.rubber-chicken.com/
Absolutely no apologies for reviewing this site on the basisthat its domain name is rubber-chicken. Quite unexpectedly, itturned out to be an American Internet consultant who is a bit ofa whizz with a Macintosh and, not that this man needs any furtherqualifications to get into the pages of Internet magazine, hissite is like one big experiment, stuffed with ideas about whatcould be achieved on the Web. Currently he is looking for guineapigs to try out his discussion forums and debate the merits ofWebSTAR software, whilst elsewhere he is running a Mac versusUnix Web server contest and continues to post the results. It'sall a bit of a hotch potch but Russ Reynaga, Mr Rubber Chickenhimself, is such a laugh that Webmasters are bound to findsomething worth nicking, maybe even his World Wide Web scratch'n' sniff!!!!!
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http://www.pictor.co.uk
Unsurprisingly, this is a very attractive site from one ofthe best picture libraries in the country. You can find outwhat's new in the wonderful world of Pictor, find out how to usethe picture library, take a look at a selection of the picturesavailable from the company and even download a screensaver. It'salso a good site to visit if you want to find out how frames canenhance your site if you know how to use them properly. Thepictures are all JPEGs, so they look stunning on a big, qualitymonitor.
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http://www.cam.org/~psarena/it.html
'It' stands for Internet tools Ü more specifically'Find-It!', 'Research It!' and 'Promote It!'. The first twoservices can more or less be discounted as there are betterresources elsewhere, but the third is practically indispensible.'Promote It!' helps you promote your Web pages all over the Net,initially by using the time-saving trick of linking your site tothe most popular search engines all in one go (see 'Submit it!').In addition, it lists other sites which don't charge to list yoursite, specialist interest areas, and those sites which give amention to some of the more outstanding Web pages (like CSotD).It then lists other organisations you can pay to do it for you!
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http://www.construct.net/
Unsurprisingly this is an excellent resource from a very wellrespected 'high end' Web production house specialising in theover-hyped but much maligned area of VRML. Useful as a source ofexamples and information on VRML's current capablilities, thereare links to projects that the company has been involved withlike The Rift, Worlds Inc and Planet Italy. What singlesConstruct out is its total professionalism, its commitment tosharing knowledge and an intelligent attitude to Web development.These are people with backgrounds at the Well and the Festival ofInteractive Media and they are interested in mapping a topologyfor digital communications that relates to the user in 'real'ways. Consequently there is much good stuff about developing theright 'tools' to build their vision. Keep a close eye on what'sgoing up.
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http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
A good starting page if you wish to delve into the history ofthe Internet or just generally learn how it's set up and who runsit. This is for the 'up and running' traveller and is not a 'howto' guide (there are plenty of those already). There are pointersto Internet organisations, the InterNIC Directory and Databaseservices, information on the Internet culture, 'netiquette','Internet personalities' and Net archives, including the Internetmonthly reports. NO LONGER AVAILABLE
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http://www.iguide.com/
iGuide has the feel of a very funky online service. Itsfriendly, lifestyle focus includes original own brand content Ücelebrity gossip, entertainment news and a Vint Cerf column. Itincludes points for parents on letting their kids use theInternet and also supports its own bulletin boards and IRC-basedchat rooms. In addition to this, inSites, a sort of subsection ofiGuide, is also excellent. An intuitively designed directory ofthousands of Internet addresses, catalogued by subject(entertainment, learning, lifestyle, sports, shopping etc) andrated, with the best sites getting a possible four squares out offour. Each entry includes a brief description and can be foundusing a simple search facility. Maybe a little mollycoddling fora long-time Internet user but a great place to go if you're onfor the first time.
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http://gnn.com/wr/
Consistently satisfying and with a fresh approach to what'shappening on the Web, this is definitely one for the bookmarks.Covering new sites, Web gossip and focusing on specific subjectareas every issue, the volume of information is easilydigestible. A regular Friday tipsheet gives a glimpse intoAmerican East Coast Internet tales out of school.
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http://cello.cs.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/slamm/ip2ll/
Enter a host name, domain name or IP address and itslatitude, longitude and place name are revealed to you. Notbrilliant if you put in an address in London but great forfinding out where obscure American sites are based.
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http://csbh.mhv.net/%7Ebobrankin/tourbus/
Jumping aboard the Tourbus offers a text-based newsletterthat stops at some interesting, often themed, sites on the Net.Usenet, FTP, Gopher and the Web are all visited and explained inamusing voice-over style. Previous routes are left up for perusaland provide an entertaining, slightly less formal way ofdiscovering new sites.
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http://newtoo.manifest.com/
Another long list of what's new Web announcements which areupdated daily. It's also possible to customise the informationyou get and limit the list to areas of specific interest.
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http://www.intercom.net/user/rbdrudge/
This is quite a nice idea Ü the Internet equivalent of adesk tidy. All the URLs you might want to have at hand have beenput into neat piles of hotlinked pages. From FAQs to politicalfacts and figures, from news and sport to what the weather islike, from free stuff to fun stuff and Cool Site of the Day...allyou have to do is add it to your hotlist.
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http://www.pointcom.com/
Clever little compilation of all the 'what's cool' and'what's new' you can handle. Point operates using correspondentswho submit reviews of thousands of sites. It then offers avariety of ways to view the information it collates, from listsof top sites to reviews and new and noteworthy things to look at.It has the same sensibility as sites like Yahoo and Cool Site ofthe Day so it's normally spot on. Point your browser right here.
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http://www.cnet.com/
C/Net central is actually a cable TV show in the States, butwith more than 75,000 subscribers to this online informationsource it's gone way beyond all that. The expertise available viaforums and chat rooms is of a high standard. Regularly updatedmaterial on computers, multimedia and the online services makesit a useful address in the ongoing digital revolution.
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http://www.amraf.co.uk
Top marks for using Eastenders' beer branding for a sitecelebrating the Best of British on the Net. Given that most ofthe recommendations are garnered from various UK Internetpublications, ourselves included, there's not much to say apartfrom...er...it's okay.
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FTP to:nic.merit.edu/resources/
This long established, computer-based tutorial for new aswell as experienced Internet 'navigators' is great, as long asyou've mastered the FTP software you'll need to access thoseresources.
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server@wndrwrks.demon.co.uk
Okay, this is the deal. Mail the above address, put 'sendbest-form' in the subject heading. The service you subsequentlyjoin has a way of profiling you, according to what newsgroups,Web, FTP or Telnet sites you recommend to it. Based on theprofile of you it builds up, its automatic server sendsrecommendations of other stuff you might be interested in. Phew!And if you don't understand that, just mail it with the subjectheading 'help' and see what happens.
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http://www.sips.state.nc.us/docs/top-10.html
The worst thing about some of these invaluable new userinstruction manuals is that, as an example of what the Net has tooffer, their reams of dull-looking, scrollable text make aterrible first impression. Fantastic nevertheless.
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http://www.rpi.edu/~okeefe/business.html
Inspired name - not! But ,it's a very sensible way of doingthings. The number of 'interesting' sites is limited to fifty,but regularly updated. An ideal way of getting a glimpse ofwhat's online without the information overload.
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http://www.city.net/checkup.cgi
Just connect to this page and it asesses straightaway whatplatform and what browser you are connecting with. It then tellsyou whether you're using the most up-to-date browser for yourmachine and if not sends you off to get an upgrade.
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http://www.compinfo.co.uk/index.htm
Far from being in the wrong section, this is an excellentsource of online Internet information. Functioning as guide forboth computer buyers and users in the UK, it deals withsuppliers, products, services and organisations. It's also aprime source of industry news.
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http://www.u-net.com/support/comms/
Information relating mainly to modems and the kind of thingsthat go wrong. This will eventually expand to include ISDNadaptors but at the moment there is very little in the way ofanything at all. Digitised versions of modem manuals can bemailed to comms@u-net.com.
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http://www.demon.co.uk/eurojournalism/
Although this bills itself as a compilation of links forjournalists working in or covering Europe, it would be prettyuseful as a guide before travelling abroad. Thorough, ordered,but with a strong UK bias, there's probably a little too much totake in.
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http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html
WWW newsletter produced by Heriot-Watt University Library.Although directed towards, and originally distributed to, staffand students at Heriot-Watt, it's useful for anyone interested intechnology-related resources on the Internet. Listserv lists andother email and FTP material is updated alongside WWW, Gopher andTelnet stuff.
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http://www.wmin.ac.uk/
Dedicated to research and development into hypermedia, theUniversity of Westminster site defines all the terms and all theNet vocab you're ever likely to come across. It has a tendencytowards hyperbabble but it's worth checking for new technicaltricks. Having read the theory, go to the practice, where oneparticular link self-generates surreal comments every 20 seconds.
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http://web.cs.ubc.ca/grn/virtual/virtual.html
GRN, a multi-part article culler and decoder, scansnewsgroups for encoded postings, such as pictures and sourcecode. The results are submitted here for perusal.
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http://draco.centerline.com:8080/~franl/crypto/
System security is undoubtably flavour of the year and ajustifiable concern. Many see the key to tighter security indevising clever codes to encrypt transfers so that interveningparties cannot decipher them. This site contains links to FAQs,publications, papers, utilities and government policies on thissubject, as well as alternative payment systems.
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http://www.uji.es/spain_www.html
Want to find out who's plugged in and what's on offer inSpain? Then get your Spanish-English dictionary and the latestversion of Netscape ready, and plough in to this snazzy virtualmapped digest.
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http://www.mroy.fi/info/
See the results of Rissa's online probe into Internet user'squirks, or link to other research results. The information isalso available in Finnish for bilingual surfers.
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http://thule.mt.cs.cmu.edu:8001/tools/nutscape/
Over-Netscape-enhance your favourite Web pages. This site,encouragingly subtitled Stupid Netscape Tricks, sets out to showthe power of Netscape extensions. For some reason, it doesn'talways work.
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How to get connected from Antanarivo to Zanzibar. The authorof this Internet access provider list is expecting an explosionof connectivity in Africa in the very near future.
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http://www.town.hall.org:80/Archives/guest/npc/
Based in Washington DC, this club is a professional andsocial organisation for journalists, established 1908. Basicallyit provides a bundle of links to journalist research resourcesand news media online but it's a bit dry and much of theinformation is better found elsewhere.
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http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/BL/
Find out how to deal with electronic junk mail and peskyadvertisers buzzing your favourite newsgroups. There's also alist of crafty Net abusers, which aims to discourage you fromjoining their ranks.
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http://www.disa.org/
This site is designed to disseminate information aboutelectronic data interchange and its effect on business and Netcommerce.
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http://www.catalog.com/catalog/domains.html
Find out how to look up and register your own domain name,using both official and subversive means.
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http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/html-primer.html
A very long primer on HTML and an excellent one at that. Itdoesn't just explain the code, it gives style hints,troubleshooting advice and provisions for avoiding errors.
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WWW Robots, Wanderers and Spiders are programs that traversethe Web automatically, collating references and links in order tobuild browsing libraries. This page details many, explains theiruses, their limitations and the damage they can do. There'sadvice about what to do when your server is overloaded by aRobot, a standard for Robot exclusion and guidelines fordesigning your own.
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http://www.engin.umich.edu/~jgotts/underground.html
This site, while disclaiming illegal encouragements, compilesdetailed information on phone tampering, encryption, hacking andthe hacker subculture. Even if you have no intention of tryingout any of these schemes, it can provide you with an illuminatinginsight into the mindset of hackers and a better understanding ofcommunication networks.
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http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/html/
This guide to preparing your own pages isn't bad, especiallyif you are compelled to do it all from first principles. It goesinto great detail explaining the code, its uses and itslimitations. Fortunately there are an increasing number ofcompilers, forms and software extensions becoming available,which can automate a lot of the hard work.
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http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/HomePage/
Here's a chance for you to try your hand at page publishing.This service lets you create your own page using a forms-basedHTML editor. Pictures can be imported by reference to another URLbut best of all it's free. What more could you ask for?
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FTP to:ftp.csn.net/pub/net/zen
A free ASCII or Postscript version of this book is availablefrom this FTP site. It's excellent reading if you wish to findout more about the Internet, including topics as TCP/IP anddomains.
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http://www.internic.net
InterNIC provides information on Internet access, use andnetwork connection. This service is provided by heavyweightsAT&T, General Atomics and Network Solutions and it's a veryuseful starting-out point for beginners.
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http://info.isoc.org
This organisation, with both corporate and private members,coordinates the development of standards and codes of conduct forthe Internet. There's detailed information about its activitiesand an encyclopaedic collection of information on the Internet'sdevelopment. However, it's starting to look quite dated.
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http://ici.proper.com
The limited information, divided into PC, Mac and Unixcategories, on this site means beginners might find it useful asa launch point for mailing list information and onlinepublications. However, its search index for reviews in PCMagazine, only returns issue and page numbers. You might bebetter off reading a couple of printed monthlies.
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FTPto: nic.merit.edu/documents/rfc/rfc1118.txt
This sounds as though it's going to be quite hip, but in factit's a fairly worthy 24-page treatise on the origins andoperation of the Internet. For the uninitiated, it goes some wayto explaining what it's all about, but it's all rather dry andtechnical. There are a few hints on how to be a good Internetneighbour but really it's one for the Net historians only.
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http://www.rfhsm.ac.uk:70/0/people/gifs/index.html
Useful paragraph dividers, icons, arrows, buttons anddingbats for Web page design. Rather than copying the picturefile directly into your HTML directory, you refer to each image'sunique URL.
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FTP to:ftp.nic.nnsc.nsf.net/fyi/fyi_04.txt
I've just got on the Internet - what can I do? What's aGopher? What's the World Wide Web? How do I find someone's emailaddress? This file sets out to answer the questions commonlyasked by new Internet users and deals at length with theInternet's evolution, explaining how technical and policy issuesare decided. All should be clear and accessible, even to anewbie.
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http://www.cern.ch
Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva,is the definitive source of information about the World Wide Web,which was intially developed by Tim Berners-Lee to aidcollaboration in physics research, but has since seen far wideracceptance. This server contains a wealth of vital Webinformation, including the extensive WWW Virtual Library (seeLibraries).
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