January 5th, 1994.....

Preface

...FINALLY! Those specs for class took longer than I expected.. Well, I still have a couple of minutes left before class... huh? What's this? Some guy next to me is running something that looks cool... What's that name (squint squint).... looks like Mosaic... Well, I have a few minutes, I'll run it and hack around it for a couple of minutes...

Little did I know.....

Table of Contents

Section I

Introduction

A general Introduction to my homepage

Links to other places

Check out some of the starting points to the Web that I've found

Reference

A section where you can find reference books on the web to answer all your questions... also includes a few library catalogs

The Bookstore

Need to read something by tommorrow? Or just want to see what Dracula looks like on the Web? Try this section.

Section II

News, Weather, and Sports. Check out what's going on in the world... News, the latest weather, and sports... who needs the Globe?

Maps. Lost? Well, whip out your laptop, find the nearest Netdrop and find out where you are.

Art and Museums Galleries upon Galleries of Artwork... some of it just goes under the name of artwork, but the other stuff is the real thing.

Section III

Graphics and Images Cool pictures grace your screen in an endless plethora of xv frames

Sounds Want to really piss of the guy next to you who's trying to finish his junior lab report? Try blasting Welcome to the Jungle from your computer and then leaving!!!! (You need a sound card to try this)

Games and Other Recreation Have some time to blow off? Try this link (even if you don't have time to blow it off, still try this! )

The Fantasy Section

Links to other People's homepages Places I've snarfed stuff from

Other Miscellany and About me Want to hire me? Check here for my resume and other darker things....

Those extra minutes that I had set me off on one of the longest wanderings I have ever had without moving. For those of you that don't know, NCSA MOSAIC is a document reader... and MIT (I go to school here) uses it as their interface to the World Wide Web . The Web is new, quite new. It was created in March of 1989 at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee, as a means for transporting research and ideas within that organization. The Web soon spread, picking up universities, corporations and private individuals in the deluge of information. While it was meant as a document server, the programs running the Web are so versatile that they are now being used to transport more than just documents. Programs such as NCSA MOSAIC are becoming exceedingly popular, as they are simple point and click interfaces- even the most computer illeterarte person can get onto the Internet and the Web through these programs. For more information on the Web and NCSA MOSAIC, click here

This home page contains many contorversial aspects of the Web, as well as it's more mundane uses. This was not done to purposely offend any of the readers, but as a proof of individuals' rights to freedom of information.. I have tried to point out where the controverisal aspects are, so that explorers will know what they are acessing. More information on the limitation of accesing electronic information is available in a book called the The Hacker Crackdown

• The World Wide Web Virtual Library Subject Catalog This is where I got my start on the web. This site is maintained by CERN, the organization where the web got its start. (Beginners should start here)
• Planet Earth Home Page In my opinion this is the best starting point on the Web. (For intermediate and advanced types)
• GNN the Gloabal Network Navigator.. They are always reformatting their page with cool stuff. (Anyone can enjoy this page)

Don't ask me those questions, 'cause I don't know - but I know where you can find out. CMU has a lot of Online Reference Works . As of yet, there are no on-line encyclopedias, but Encyclopedia Brittanica is now online to only certain users (I'm not one of them, so I can't tell you that it's cool.)

The natural place to try to find information is a library... so why not try their catalogs ? The Boston Area Consortium Libraries, including MIT, Harvard, and BU have online catalogs, and the Library of Congress is available online. (Yes, this is a telnet). If you still haven't found what you are looking for, I'd advise you to go to the LINKS part of this document and try Searching your topic on the Web from the given starting points or the JumpStation.

Have to read Hamlet for Shakespeare 101 by tomorrow for the quiz, and you still haven't bought the book yet? Don't worry.. cause now ole Will's on the Net! Joking aside, this is what NCSA MOSAIC and the Web do best.. convey documents.. the amount of written material on the Web is staggering. You can get classic of literature from Electronic Books at Wiretap. One might also check out the Electronic Newsstand. A particularly good example of online publishing is the Global Network Navigator published by O'Reilly and Associates. There are a few other things that are of interest to Net explorers that would fall under this heading... first is Wired Magazine, a 'zine about the Net which is now on the net. Second is The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet . Third is the e-text Zen and the Art of the Internet , which is another guide to the Internet. Fourth is the The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Internet. Finally, there is the The Hacker's Dictionary, which allows you to look all the jargon about hacking (computers) that you don't understand but really want to know.