******** ************************************************** * * * * * The independent guide to BITNET * * * * * * January, 1989 * * * * * * Volume 3, Number 6 - 7 * ******** * * * * *** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ********** * ** * ********** *********** * ********** *********** * * ********** *********** * * ********** *************** ****** * ********** ************ * * ********** ****** ****** * * ******** ********** ** * **** ************* ******** * ** *********** * * ** ******************* * * ******************************* * * **************************** ** * * ******************************** * * *************************** ** ******** * ** ********************* * ** *************** ** *** * ** ***************** * * * ** ****************** ** * * * ** ************************* * * * ** ********************** ** *** * ** *************************** * ** *********************** ** ****** * ** *************************** * * ** ************************** * ******** ** ************************* * ***************** ******************************** **** **************************************************** **************************************************** * **************************************************** * **************************************************** ****** **************************************************** * **************************************************** * **************************************************** **************************************************** ******** **************************************************** * **************************************************** * **************************************************** * **************************************************** **** ************************************************** 1 * * ****** ******* * * ***** * * ******* * * ** * * * ** ** * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***** * * * * * * * * * * ******* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * * ****** * * * ***** * * * * * * * * * *********************** ******************************* Christopher Condon Editor CONDON @ YALEVM Timothy Stephen Associate Editor STEPHEN @ RPICICGE Craig White Associate Editor CWHITE @ UA1VM June Genis Contributing Editor GA.JRG @ STANFORD David Hibler Contributing Editor ENGL0333 @ UNLVM Henry Mensch Contributing Editor HENRY @ MITVMA Deba Patnaik Contributing Editor DEBA @ UMDC Gerry Santoro Contributing Editor GMS @ PSUVM Marc Shannon Helpdesk Editor HELPDESK @ DRYCAS Glen Overby Technical Assistant NCOVERBY @ NDSUVAX Gary Moss Point of View MOSS @ YALEVM ********************* Contents - Issue 28 ********************* ********* * *** * EDITORIAL PAGE____________________________________ * *** * * *** * Bitnotes ....................................... 1 *** *** The Human Factor ............................... 4 * *** * Flames To: ..................................... 8 * *** * The Way BITNET Moves .......................... 10 * *** * ********* ********* * *** * FEATURES__________________________________________ * *** * * **** * JBH Online .................................... 13 * ***** * Announcing CHESERVE ........................... 14 * ****** * * *** *** * * *** **** ********* ********* * * DEPARTMENTS_______________________________________ * ***** * *** * Headlines ..................................... 15 * *** * New Mailing Lists ............................. 17 * *** * Feedback ...................................... 19 ***** * NetMonth Policies ............................. 20 * * ********* *********************** Distribution: 3622 ********************* 1 Page 1 ********* * *** * Bitnotes * *** * * *** * by Christopher Condon *** *** * *** * Yale University * *** * * *** * CONDON@YALEVM ********* "Terminology of the Damned" The tall man in the italian suit steps into the brightly lit television studio. He smiles, hiding his upper lip with a dark, bushy moustache. The reflected glare from his teeth is blinding, if only for a moment. He is at ease here, he is comfortable here. This is his environment. His three companions on the stage are not so fortunate. While they are obviously somewhat smarter than Him, they are not nearly so polished, so confident. Especially not here, with millions of people watching. Well, they are only taping now, but people WILL be watching... They wonder why they have come to this. A day in the spotlight? A MENSA membership? Money? Our host's smile fades slightly, imperceptibly as he glances at the cards in his hand. One of the contestants speaks, and it begins... "I'll take BITNET SERVERS for five hundred." He smiles and reads the answer. "People access this kind of server when they are looking for someone--" A bell rings. "What is a list server?" He frowns at the contestant. "In some cases, yes, but not quite what we wanted. I'll finish the answer. People access this kind of server when they are looking for someone's network address." A brief pause and a bell sounds again. Another contestant: "What is a name server?" 1 Page 2 Out host glances at the judges and they shake their heads. "I'm sorry," he says. The contestant looks very confused. A buzzer sounds, and he explains. "The terminology was changed recently and the term *name server* is no longer accurate. The correct response would have been *user directory server*..." ***** Computing, like many disciplines, has it's own language. Like any language it has its own dialects, accents, and characteristic inflections. This is especially true of computing, where the technology moves so quickly that new words are invented every day so we can avoid using new terms like "that new thigamajig from Apple." If anything, we can confuse the people who were starting to understand what we were saying. BITNET has it's own dialect in the language of computing. We have terms like "file server" and "list server" and "electronic magazine." While these terms are often used in other areas of computing, here they have a different (if subtly so) meaning. I don't know if anyone is sure from where the term "name server" came. It is one of those little pieces of our young culture that no one bothered to document. Certainly it is accepted, or else no one would understand what significance the names NAMESERV@UNCAMULT and NAMESERV@DREW have. Alas, the Internet has grown up with a very similar term of its own, the "name service". Unfortunately, this type of service does something totally different than the "name servers" to which we are used. As a matter of fact, they have been reading the literature that comes out of BITNET, confused by the similarity between the terms, and thinking us complete boobs for saying that a "name service" does THIS, when we were really talking about "name servers" all along. Makes sense? Of course not... Now, the Internet term "name service" has little relation to the function it performs. However, it has been suggested that this confusing Internet/BITNET terminology situation is the perfect opportunity to replace "name server" with something a little more descriptive. Hence the phrase "user directory server." It doesn't exactly roll off the tounge, but I didn't make it up, so don't blame me. It appears now in BITNET USERHELP and BITNET SERVERS (as well as the BITLIB online help product). 1 Page 3 Come to think of it, "list server" is a little vague, too. I mean, it could be a list of anything. Perhaps "mailing list server" would be more sensible, or "the Eric Thomas All-Purpose Server", or... Virtually, Chris Condon@YALEVM 1 Page 4 ********* * *** * The Human Factor * *** * * *** * by T. D. Stephen *** *** * *** * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * *** * * *** * STEPHEN@RPICICGE ********* The pace of technological change being as dizzying as it is, most computer users, however reluctantly, have grown accustomed to watching their applications and hardware become obsolete overnight. The thirty five hundred dollar IBM-PC compatible that I sweated out of my department in 1985 lost 70% of its resale value and was technologically passe a year after I took it out of the box. Similarly, the technology used to provide BITNET is already outmoded and has been outmoded for quite a long time. Much better wide-area networking protocols than BITNET's -- protocols that provide dynamic routing of messages, wider bandwidths and faster transmission between machines -- have been in existence for some years. BITNET continues to rely on its present technology for the same reason that I continue to rely on my outdated office PC: keeping up with the state of the art is expensive and if what is already in place continues to provide a minimally acceptable level of service, it's all the more difficult to justify the cost of upgrading. Nevertheless, it is worth considering what a future, upgraded BITNET might offer. Articles appearing during the past year in the EDUCOM Bulletin and the Chronicle of Higher Education have provided a glimpse. Imagine a network uniting researchers, educational users from every level (primary and secondary schools, community colleges, four-year and graduate institutions), corporate centers, government agencies, libraries, publishers, supercomputer centers, and professional associations. Like today's BITNET, this BITNET of tomorrow would provide electronic mail and file transmission; however, it would do so differently. One of the more noticeable differences would be the type of terminal that you might use to connect up. Imagine a mouse-driven desktop workstation with a large (17 inch or so) high-resolution screen. The operating system for this machine provides a Macintosh-style graphic-oriented user interface to network functions (pull down menus, icons, layered windows). If you've been following the press descriptions of the NeXT computer, picture one of those. 1 Page 5 To use a network resource like Comserve, the user opens a window on a directory of network services, moves a pointer to the entry for Comserve and taps a button. A second or two later, a window opens to a terminal session with Comserve. Although mail, files and messages will still be sent between individuals, the primary mode of interaction with network servers will be through directly established terminal sessions. No more commands sent in mail messages, no more one-line "tell" messages hopping from node to node; dynamic routing, high speed links and wide bandwidth mean that it will be practical to have a terminal session with a server in the same sense that one has a terminal session on one's university mainframe. In this way, the net will function more in the fashion of today's PC bulletin boards where users directly operate a program running on a remote machine. Getting a file from a server would be more convenient and far faster than current methods: point to the file's name in a list displayed in a sub-window by the server, tap a button and the server transfers a copy of the file to your workstation. According to estimates, transmission speeds of 10 to 100 million bits per second are possible (BITNET's present transmission speed is 9,600 bytes per second between most nodes) with the potential for speeds to reach far higher, so there would be no appreciable delays. Transmission would be from point to point, as it is in the Internet FTP procedure today. This means no more waiting days for poorly monitored intermediate computers to come back on line and transmit your messages, no more waiting days or weeks for large files to make it through clogged queues; in fact, no more queues! The range of network services available to users would be expanded considerably. Library materials -- papers and journals certainly -- would be available from library servers located at various points on the net. Professional associations and other organizations would provide services to users over the net. The availability of Internet-style "Telnet" sessions (i.e., using the network as a vehicle for establishing a session on a remote computer) would allow new dimensions in cooperative scholarship: imagine being able to collaborate with co-authors at distant sites by working on a draft of a document simultaneously. Ira Fuchs, Erich Bloch and others have described some of these potentials in the Summer/Fall 1988 issue of EDUCOM's Bulletin and I encourage individuals interested in the future of academic networking to take a look at this set of articles. The potential of the national network they describe is tremendous in its implications for enhancing educational excellence and for improving the quality of new knowledge 1 Page 6 produced within research centers. The major stumbling block of course is money. The cost of such a network will be staggering. According to a recent wire service item, Senator Albert Gore introduced legislation last October that would create a 400 million dollar fund to cover a portion of this net -- presumably the backbone. Four hundred million is not a great deal of money, but keep in mind that this is only a rather small part of the total cost. Consider that NeXT-style workstations will be at least five times as expensive as the terminals or PCs most of us use to communicate over BITNET today. Since many university departments cannot presently afford to provide professors with simple ASCII terminals, the cost of computing hardware will need to fall substantially before many will be able to participate fully in tomorrow's network. While legislators deliberate and we wait for the costs of workstations to come down, we should be doing whatever we can to educate university, public and government officials about the potential such a network can provide. It is going to be difficult to sell the network using the standard arguments about how it will increase productivity or sharpen America's competitive edge in world markets. Unsubstantiated claims of this sort were shoveled at the public by manufacturers of personal computers during the early portion of this decade and, having weathered that barrage, many Americans have lost their innocence. Furthermore, many would rank BITNET's interconnection with international networks (JANET, EARN, etc.) as one of its greatest values, so it could be difficult to explain how a network that allows researchers and scholars from other countries to participate is going to create an edge for the US. Joining these hurdles is the credibility problem created by the recent media circus over network viruses. In a focus segment, the McNeil/Lehrer Newshour depicted Arpanet as a vulnerable network jockeyed by a group of exuberant Stanford undergrads who appeared to sustain themselves solely on lockers of candy bars. Clearly, however, a strong base of grass roots support can help. We need to let legislators and campus administrators know that we want them to get behind academic networking. In particular, we need to extend campus involvement in networking as widely as possible. Those who haven't used networks are usually impressed once they've seen things work and have a sense of the possibilities. Each newcomer represents a potential network advocate (obversely, each student or professor who is denied access represents a lost opportunity for support), so it is to our advantage to increase participation in networking throughout the academy. 1 Page 7 Based on our experience with Comserve, I think that there is no question but that disciplinary services can function as significant magnets for involving new people in academic networking. In fact, I invite anyone who has any doubts about the promise of networking to take a look at what has happened with Comserve over the past two and a half years. Comserve is a service that provides educational and research materials, information about graduate programs, course syllabi and so on. It provides a method for users to search for bibliographic references and it provides a 'white pages' of network addresses of students and professionals in the communication studies discipline. In addition, users can subscribe to about 20 online conferences covering divisions of communication scholarship. Comserve processed its 100,000th command around the first of the year and is now managing 3,000 subscriptions to its suite of conferences. It has been used by people from over 6,200 network addresses who represent 19 countries and 5 other networks and it gains approximately 100 new users each week. Now if Comserve was a system that dispensed nude photographs, I wouldn't find these figures surprising. However, Comserve is an academically oriented service and, as such, delivers some relatively dry material. Nevertheless, this type of disciplinary resource has proven sufficiently valuable to attract quite a number of professors and students to the net, and these users hail from a social science/humanities discipline that is far from the forefront of computer literacy. Clearly, one way to increase grass roots support for academic networking would be to set up services similar to Comserve that cater to other academic disciplines. Today's BITNET was built from the voluntary labors of many people and their efforts deserve our gratitude. Now there is an opportunity for each of us to contribute to tomorrow's BITNET. If this visionary network is to become a reality, we need to get behind Fuchs, Bloch and the others and promote academic networking to our legislative representatives and to our campus administrators. Those in BITNET's administration could do much to forward the effort by helping academic disciplines create and sustain services similar to Comserve. 1 Page 8 ********* * *** * Flames To: * *** * * *** * by Craig White *** *** * *** * University of Alabama * *** * * *** * CHWITE@UA1VM ********* Hello all, I hope everyone's holidays were good and that this year will be your best ever. It seems ironic that the season of good cheer can be so trying because of unattended computers and the like. A couple of times this month I have anxiously awaited files that took so long to arrive. I have received many pieces of mail regarding the Shapiro book. Several people wrote to tell me how the book could be ordered. So for all of you who are interested, I gratefully pass on the following from Michel S. Perdreau who is a librarian at the Southern Campus of Ohio university. "It may (?) still be available from Rand Corp. 1700 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90406-2138, for $4.00 (US). It is also available as an ERIC document (ED2690033) from most university libraries." This months flame is not really a flame. It is a question that, judging from my mail, seems to be important to many people. The question is this: "How do I go about retrieving files from the trickle servers of the SIMTEL20 archives?" First off let me explain what these trickle servers are. On the Internet there is a machine, SIMTEL20. The administrators of this machine have seen fit to provide several directories of public domain software, mainly of the IBM PC varieties but not exclusively. This software is available via ANONYMOUS FTP. For those of you who are unfamiliar with FTP (File Transfer Protocol), it is a method of transferring files between two hosts. It is the primary way to move data around on the Internet. Because FTP works in a disk to disk fashion as opposed to SENDFILE which stores files in your reader, you must have a userid to log into the system you want to transfer files from. This is where the anonymous part comes in. ANONYMOUS is a special userid that anyone can use for the purpose of transferring files. Because most BITNET hosts do not have FTP access to the Internet, the trickle servers were invented. When you request a file, if the server that you are dealing with has the file, 1 Page 9 it sends it to you. If it does not have the file, it requests it from the next server up. Each time a server gets a file it keeps a copy for the next person who may ask for it. This way requested files "trickle" down to the servers with each request going only as far up the chain of servers as is needed. In my opinion this is a very efficient way for servers to operate. It keeps network traffic down and allows server to evolve depending upon what files the users in a particular area are interested in. In addition, the servers keep track of how much they send to each node and there are limits on this. Unfortunately, this can create a problem. The problem that many people are encountering is that when they try to get a file they are informed that the limit for their node has been exceeded for that day and that they should try the next day. I have talked with people who say that they ordered files right after midnight and got the message then too. I have been told of a similar situation that occurs with LISTSERVs that retrieve files from SIMTEL20. It probably has something to do with the different time zones. There is a slightly different twist on this scenario with LISTSERVs. You order a package of programs and at some point during the retrieval of the package you are informed that you have execed the limits for the day and you must try again tomorrow. Many times it's very difficult to figure out what files have and haven't been shipped. This can make it extremely frustrating for users to get the software they want, and in the case of new networkers, leaves them with a negative impression of networks. Many people who have taken the time to write to me about this are genuinely upset and have things to say like "What good is a network if you can't get what you need?" and other such statements often accompanied by crude expletives. Winding down, I think that the problems caused by this feature of servers are serious, but with network congestion as it is, it seems to be effective in reducing network traffic. I would like some feedback on this problem and I will continue to follow this for all of us. Meanwhile, I hope you will get a copy of the Shapiro book and read. This is what it's card catalog entry looks like here: Author: Shapiro, Norman Zalmon, 1932- Title: Toward an ethics and etiquette for electronic mail Norman Z. Shapiro, Robert H. Anderson. Publication: Santa Monica, CA : Rand, 1985 Material: vii, 35 p. ; 23 cm. As always send your questions, comments and flames to CWHITE@UA1VM. 1 Page 10 ********* * *** * The Way BITNET Moves * *** * * *** * by Eric Thomas *** *** * *** * Centre Europeen de la Recherche Nucleaire * *** * * *** * ERIC@LEPICS ********* * Note: This editorial was extracted with permission from correspondence between the author and the Editor. It is in response to the Bitnotes column appearing in the November 1988 NetMonth. Funny that I got the issue of Netmonth where you're mentioning user directory standardization right after I finished the test of the first version of the LISTSERV UDD... Anyway, I take your point about the disorganized way in which changes are made to BITNET. I would fully agree with you if BITNET were a corporate or self-supporting network. But it's not, and I therefore have to disagree. The discussion groups you are mentioning are, quite often (albeit not always) nothing but a group of people who have self-appointed themselves as being responsible for Deciding what "The Way to " is. I would have nothing against this, if it were useful. But apparently, it's not. I remember subscribing to some of these groups, 3 years ago. I heard discussions about whether X should be done the A way or the B way, knowing that there were advantages and drawbacks to both A and B. After some time I thought that, although the actual discussions were boring, it might be interesting to come back in 6 months and see what has been decided. I signed off, came back maybe one year later, and they were discussing whether X should not, after all, be done the C way. At this point I completely lost interest in these discussions. The most irritating part is that, when they eventually do reach some decision, they all quickly withdraw when the Fatal Questions is asked: "Ok, now who will write the software"? They are all so busy that they cannot contribute a single minute of their time to the actual code, even though they apparently have no problem finding time to send 100-lines notes every day on the subject. 1 Page 11 Now, on the other side, you have the developers. They have often been described as having an arrogant (should I say IBM- like?) attitude, ie "this is the way I decided it would be done, take it or leave it, complaints will be discarded as they are received". That is a cheap shot. Quite to the contrary, most developers are eager to receive input from users and/or system managers who would like to see this new feature in the code or would like that to be done in another way. Whether or not they will actually do what these people suggest is another matter - after all, they're not a netwide free consultancy office where you can mail your requests and get the resulting code 2 weeks later. The reason why developers usually don't participate in the Big Forums is that they consider this to be a waste of time. Although there is a tiny fraction of "useful" people in there, most of them spend their time arguing over the sex of angels, and, indeed, every 20 notes or so there comes a message from someone saying "You are on the wrong track, this is completely stupid, the way to go is (...)". Then 10 heated replies to the message, and so on. It is then very easy to say that the developers didn't heed the advice of the Forums. They have, at least, provided software that exists, and usually even works :-) If it meets only 75% of the needs of the BITNET community, it's already a big achievement - my experience has shown that it's impossible to satisfy more than 80-90% of people with a given piece of software. Look at the popular pieces of hardware and/or software on the marketplace, and you'll have to agree with me. MACs and UNIX seem to become the norm, yet I can easily find some 10% of people who strongly dislike it. XEDIT is deemed to be a very good editor, and still some people can't stand it. Chris: "I agree that BITNET and EARN aren't corporate networks. However, most users are unaware that services which seem pretty basic (LISTSERV, RELAY) are provided by volunteers. Their membership fees are paying for the ability to access these services, not the services themselves, and they don't know it!" Now, I don't know about NetNorth, but EARN has an organization similar to BITNET where you pay a membership fee and hook up a line and you get the service. However, it is true that with this amount of money, you can't expect the service of a corporate network. BITNET has a NIC and EARN doesn't. Anyway, EARN and BITNET, and probably NetNorth, are in a very similar situation. Users don't know what comes from what they pay and what is an extra, and in fact they don't even know how much has been paid to join the network. They will complain anytime they feel the service does not meet their standard; sometimes they'll be right, and sometimes they'll be wrong. 1 Page 12 The EARN Board of Directors, and probably also the BITNET Board of Trustees, consciously or unconsciously attempt to fool the users into believing that all these extras come from the money they're giving, i.e are supported (if not sponsored) by the network organization. This makes it much easier for users to "swallow the pill"; indeed, a lot of people might get upset if they knew all that they are paying for is, er, well, that is, a legal framework within which much of the work is done by volunteers. A very good example is a Nordunet network manager who recently told me: "the basic services of EARN/BITNET are electronic mail, MAIL/MAILBOOK/MAILER, LISTSERV, and a few other minor services". Of course, the BoD is smart enough never to say anything about having sponsored the the development of the volunteer-supplied utilities in writing, or in any way that might be construed as implying they might have to actually finance any of this. But, if you had been "invited" to be a member of the EARN panel in the EARN'88 user meeting in Turkey, you would have seen up to what point EARN is advertising these services (and probably rightfully so). You would also have been astounded by how they are able to make it *sound* like it all came from EARN- promoted, EARN-organized, EARN-fostered, EARN-monitored development while at the same time pronouncing the words "developed by Eric Thomas, to whom I would like to extend my thanks on behalf of the whole EARN User Community." Now, if you cross the fence and look at it from their way, it's quite simple. Users (the people who supply the money and trust that give you the power you have) ask you, "how can I do that"? Well, you have no EARN/BITNET-funded way of doing that, you have no vendor-supported way of doing it, but you have a long- haired guy down there in Tennessee who's done something very much akin to what the user is asking for. If you say, "you can't", you stand the chance of disappointing the user, and then actually displeasing it when he finds out by himself. If you say, "there is this thing, but it's completely unofficial - use at your own risk", the user will invariably reply "Why isn't it a standard tool, or why doesn't EARN make one", and you will have disappointed him once more. If you say, "there's this LISTSERV software that will do exactly what you want and was developed in EARN" (which is, stricto sensu, an accurate statement), you will imply that this is part of the "package" and the user will be happy. Until he finds out. If he ever does... 1 Page 13 ********* * *** * JBH Online * *** * * **** * by John B. Harlan * ***** * * ****** * University of Notre Dame * *** *** * * *** **** ONLINE@IRISHMVS ********* "EXECUTIONS CITED: A new report issued by Amnesty International cites increasing human rights violations by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the end of its war with Iraq. The abuses include at least 300 documented instances of secret executions, which AI officials believe represent only the *tip of the iceberg*. The executions are believed to be a symptom of the continuing power struggle for eventual succession to the Ayatollah Khomeini, now approximately 87 years old..." English language news broadcasts from overseas, monitored via shortwave radio in South Bend, Indiana, are accessible in digest form to all interested parties through electronic mail. The digest, JBH Online, is produced weekday mornings by John Harlan. JBH Online is distributed free of charge to recipients at academic institutions nationally and internationally via BITNET. The British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Moscow and Radio Nederland are the three services John monitors most regularly. Others monitored less frequently include Radio Australia, Radio Beijing, Radio Canada, Radio Havana, Radio Prague, and Radio Tirana. A number of factors, including atmospheric conditions and nearby electrical activity, influence which services can be monitored on any given day. More mundane variables, including "line noise" interference in telephone access to the mainframe at IrishMVS (the University of Notre Dame) and John's schedule, also determine whether JBH Online appears. Begun on a test basis in November 1987 and produced fairly regularly since last spring, JBH Online also includes a selective capsule listing of contents from the morning's New York Times and specialized news items gleaned from other sources, including journals and subject-specific electronic mail discussion groups. In addition, occasional specialized supplements carry commentary, interviews, reading summaries, and surveys of JBH Online readers on various topics. For more information, or to be added to the JBH Online distribution list, send mail to ONLINE@IRISHMVS. 1 Page 14 ********* * *** * Announcing CHESERVE * *** * * **** * by Dan Jacobs * ***** * * ****** * University of Maryland * *** *** * * *** **** DAN@UMDC ********* CHESERVE@UMDC is a network file server dedicated to information concerning the Chesapeake Bay. Currently, the server has on disk back issues of CHESNET bulletins, Marine Notes (a publication of Maryland Sea Grant), It is the companion to CHESNET@UMDC, an electonic bulletin board. In the future, the server will also have on disk descriptions of important environmental data sets, copies of Maryland Sea Grant managed data and and software, lists of experts in the many different aspects of the Chesapeake Bay, and other information. You can send commands to CHESERVE via mail or message, although commands sent by mail must be put on the "Subject:" line of the note. The valid commands are: HELP - a help file explaining CHESERVE commands will be sent. LIST - a catalog of all files that are available from CHESERVE will be sent to you. JOBS - a list of current job announcements that have been sent to CHESNET and stored in the file CHESBAY JOBS on CHESERVE will be sent. SEND fileid - to request a CHESERVE file to be sent to you. For example, if you want vol. 6, issue 6 of Marine Notes then the fileid is MARINE NOTES66. WHATIS NEW - a list of files that have been recently added or updated and available from CHESERVE will be sent. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please send them to: Dave Swartz (SWARTZ@UMDC) Dan Jacobs (DAN@UMDC) 1 Page 15 ********* * * Headlines * ***** * *** * edited by Christopher Condon * *** * * *** * Yale University ***** * * * Send your bits of news to BITLIB@YALEVM ********* * From Jim Conklin: The Winter 1989 BITNET Technical Meeting will be hosted by University of Southern California, Los Angeles on Saturday, February 25, 1989 from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (PST). Objective: To provide a forum for BITNET users to become involved with network-related issues and to develop proposals for submission to the BITNET Board of Trustees, or its Committees. Structure: After sign-in and refreshments the meeting opens with a one-hour plenary at 9:00. Then three or four groups (depending on the forthcoming agenda) will break off for the rest of the morning. After lunch the groups reconvene, allowing time for a summary and wrap-up later in the afternoon. There is NO FEE to register, meals and transportation are up to you. If you can attend the meeting PLEASE acknowledge by subscribing to the BITTECH mailing list by sending this command to LISTSERV@BITNIC by mail or message: SUBSCRIBE BITTECH Your_full_name. After joining the BITTECH list we urge you to use it for talking amongst your peers on meeting issues -- anything is fair game, from the agenda items (both before and after they're unveiled) to carpool and hotel arrangements. We will use it for official announcements pertaining to the BITTECH meeting. * Two more TRICKLE PC software file servers have been added in Europe. These are TRICKLE@AWIWUW11 (Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien) and TRICKLE@DB0FUB11 (FU Berlin Institut fuer angewandte Statistik). For more information send either server the /HELP command. * The VM-UTIL library of VM software is now available from several LISTSERVs. These include the ones at UTARLVM1, MARIST, DEARN, TECMTYVM (a short version), UBVM, and UCF1VM. The list 1 Page 16 of these files can be obtained by sending one of these servers the command INDEX VM-UTIL. Thanks to John F. Chandler and David Young for this update. Anyone with questions or wishing to contribute to the FILELIST may contact David Young (DYOUNG@TRINITY). * From Patricia Noeth: The Annual BITNET Meeting is now in progress. Martin B. Solomon, Election Trustee, has sent voting packets online and via postal mail to all BITNET Institutional Representatives of Class A and Class B Members. Currently, two items require a vote: Election of Trustees and BITNET/CSNET Merger. Votes must be returned to ELECTION@BITNIC by February 6, 1989. 1 Page 17 ********* * * New Mailing Lists * ***** * *** * edited by Christopher Condon * *** * * *** * Yale University ***** * * * Send new list descriptions to NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 ********* NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 The "NEW-LIST" list has been established as a central address to post announcements of new public mailing lists. In addition, "NEW-LIST" might be used as a final verification before establishing a list (to check for existing lists on the same topic, etc.). However, be sure to check sources such as the Internet List-of-Lists (SIGLIST or INTEREST-GROUPS list), LISTSERV GROUPS, Usenet News newusers lists, and the LISTS database on the major LISTSERVs. Postings to NEW-LIST will be regularly published in NetMonth magazine. You may subscribe to the NEW-LIST list by sending the following command to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 via mail or message: SUB NEW-LIST Your_full_name. Coordinator: Marty Hoag DISARM-L@ALBNYVM1 DISARM-D@ALBNYVM1 This is an international and East-West discussion group dealing with all ways to facilitate disarmament of nuclear, conventional, chemical and biological weapons. Topics covered include strategic, political, social, educational, psycholgical and military strategies. Also, improved relations with USSR and China and developing free telecommunications with those countries, education of the public in the economic consequences of continued arms race, and writing of joint position papers on vital topics will be discussed. To receive the monthly digest, send the following command to LISTSERV@ALBNYVM1 via mail or message: SUB DISARM-D Your_full_name. To participate in the forum, subscribe to DISARM-L. Owner: Donald F. Parsons MD, PhD 1 Page 18 CCMEDH-L@TAMVM1 CCMEDH-L is a list dealing with the issues associated to cross- cultural medicine and/or folk/herbal medicine. You may subscribe to the CCMED-L list by sending the following command to LISTSERV@TAMVM1 via mail or message: SUB CCMED-L Your_full_name. Owner: Richard Holbert HAMLICEN@UIUCVMD The list HAMLICEN has been established for discussion of Licensing matters of Ham Radio. This is a splinter group from the USENET newsgroup "rec.ham-radio" and the digest "info- hams@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil" to separate the high traffic of the licensing discussion that have been taking place. You may subscribe to the list by sending the following command to LISTSERV@UIUCVMD via mail or message: SUB HAMLICEN Your_full_name. Owner: Philip Howard CUMREC-L@NDSUVM1 The CUMREC-L list is named after the annual conference. It is designed to be a forum for the discussion of computer use in college and university administration. Topics include but are by no means be limited to: Purchase of administrative software from vendors, general purpose software and hardware purchasing, the CUMREC conference itself, and just about any subject for which a CUMREC paper could be written. You can subscribe to the CUMREC-L list by sending the following command to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 via mail or message: SUB CUMREC-L Your_full_name. Owner: Joe Moore 1 Page 19 ********* * * Feedback * ***** * *** * a Letters Column * *** * * *** * "Letters! Where are the letters?" ***** * * * Send your letters to BITLIB@YALEVM ********* From: Leonard D. Woren Subject: Computerization In the October NetMonth, T. D. Stephen compares BITNET access and computer use with library use. It's an interesting analogy. With both computer use and library use, once someone gets started, they tend to find more uses than they originally planned. That's not the point of this letter, though. Rather, I would like to point out another trend in libraries: computerization. At some leading universities (USC is one; UCLA is another), the library is investing heavily in computer technology. This takes two forms that I'm aware of: (1) online card catalogs, and (2) online databases. I believe that within a few years, people who are put off by computers will be at a big disadvantage at the research libraries. A number of universities now provide universal computer access to all enrolled students. Just as each student may use the research library, each student automatically gets a computer account. USC is moving towards giving all registered students an e-mail account. I believe that universities that don't have similar attitudes will, in the near future, have difficulty attracting top students, and also will be putting their students at a disadvantage in this computer literate society. 1 Page 20 ********* * * NetMonth Policies * ***** * *** * Everything you ever wanted to know... * *** * * *** * ...but were afraid to ask. ***** * * * BITLIB@YALEVM ********* NetMonth is a network service publication distributed free of charge to students and professionals in BITNET and other networks. This magazine and its companion file, BITNET SERVERS, are the work of the BITNET Services Library (BSL) staff and contributors from around the network. BITNET SERVERS is BITNETs list of servers and services. If you know of servers not listed in BITNET SERVERS, or if some listed are no longer available, please contact the NetMonth Editor. * Subscribing to NetMonth and BITNET SERVERS: Send the following command to LISTSERV@MARIST by mail or messgage: SUBSCRIBE NETMONTH Your_full_name A subscriber can delete him/herself from the mailing list by sending LISTSERV@MARIST the command: UNSUB NETMONTH Internet users may use these methods, but must address the mail to LISTSERV@MARIST.BITNET * Back issues: BITNET users may get NetMonth back issues from the file server LISTSERV@CMUCCVMA. For a list of files, send the server the the command: INDEX NETMONTH * Letters to the Editor: If you have questions or comments about BITNET or NetMonth that you would like to see printed here, mail your letter to BITLIB@YALEVM. Make sure that you specify in the "Subject:" header or somewhere in the letter that it is for the NetMonth letters column. 1 Page 21 * Article Submissions: The only requirements for NetMonth articles and columns are that they be informative, interesting, and concern some BITNET-related topic. Send your articles and to BITLIB@YALEVM. * Printing this file: VM users can print this file by using the "( CC" option of the PRINT command. VAX/VMS users should RECEIVE NetMonth with a format of FORTRAN. This will allow page-breaks to be accepted by your printer. _ __- __--- The __----- BITNET __------- Services ___________ Library "Because We're Here." ***************************************************************