From: joke@ls11.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Joerg Heitkoetter) Originator: joke@ls11.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Joerg Heitkoetter) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions,de.newusers.questions,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.infosystems.www,alt.folklore.computers,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.sys.amiga.datacomm,alt.internet.services Subject: FAQ: Big Dummy's Guide 2.2, Life, and Everything... Followup-To: comp.org.eff.talk Date: Summary: This posting tells you everything you ought to know about an exciting project that helps so-called Newbies to survive their first year on The Net. It gets you softly into most of the often severe details of mindboggling complexity that popup when you're hooked into The Net. It is also intended to help you get around the trap doors, avoid pitfalls and other non-funny things (e.g. local gurus that laugh at you), you'll encounter during life as a Netizen in Cyberspace. It is styled after a FAQ list, ie. "Frequently Asked Questions and their respective Answers". Keywords: Internet, Big Dummy's Guide, Newbies, Introduction, Babelfish, Help The-FAQ-Version: 10 Day-of-Last-Changes: February 26, 1994 Period-of-posting: quarterly parody /'paeredi/ n. & v. -- n. (pl. -ies) 1 a humorous exaggerated imitation of an author, literary work, style, etc. 2 a feeble imitation; a travesty. -- v.tr. (-ies, -ied) 1 compose a parody of. 2 mimic humorously. --- The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary Ahoy! This is a reminder to get your hands on a copy of the EFF's "BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET." (Version 2.2) It's your free ticket to a round trip through Global Networks, Life in Cyberspace, and Everything... So, SYSTEM ADMINSTRATORS everywhere: Get this for your LOCAL DUMMYS! Throw printouts into your terminal pools, install it online, do whatever you want, only *selling* it is NOT ALLOWED! This electronic version comes for FREE! -=- * -=- * I READ THIS BEFORE, WHAT'S NEW? The changes, updates and re-arrangements are too numerous to list; all bug fixes I received have been incorporated, including the changes Adam Gaffin made to his original ASCII version 2.2 (cf VERSIONS below). For a test drive, point your favorite Worl Wide Web client to URL: "http://www.germany.eu.net/books/bdgtti/bdgtti.html". DUMMY's has undergone a lot updates recently, and we want to settle down the pace of new releases a bit; therefore, Adam decided to edit a monthly *Big Dummy Update* that will serve as a collection of new resources (and thus new parts/ideas, that then will get into DUMMY's twice a year). The newsletter will be posted to USENET newsgroups comp.org.eff.talk, alt.internet.services, and maybe others, contact Adam Gaffin for issues related to this project. From the first version of *Big Dummy Update*, March 1994: CONTACT INFO The Big Dummy Update is published monthly by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. To obtain a copy of the original Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, or back copies of the update, you can use either anonymous ftp or gopher. For the former, connect to ftp.eff.org and use cd to switch to the pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Updates/ directory. For the latter, connect to gopher.eff.org. Select "Net Info", then "Big Dummy", then "Big Dummy UPDATES". Updates are available via the World Wide Web from: http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Updates/ A new "Welcome" by Mitch Kapor has been added in release 2.2, and the "glitches" in chapters 1/9/10, introduced in release 2.0 have been fixed. Texinfo edition 2.1 doesn't exist, so, you didn't miss anything. "Paperware freaks", should note that MIT Press will publish Adam's "core manual" (Chapters 1-13) as a "real book", probably in June '94. -=- * -=- * WILL DUMMY'S GET INTO THE *PROJECT GUTENBERG* ARCHIVES? Since Fri, 14 Jan 1994 12:00:35 -0500 (EST), we know that Michael S. Hart, Professor of Electronic Text, Executive Director of Project Gutenberg Etext, Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, IL 60532, is adding DUMMY'S to the Gutenberg e-text archives! -=- * -=- * SO, WHATZ THE PROBLEM? (with apologies to Douglas Adams) There are of course many problems connected with young ape-descended life forms, of which some of the most popular are `What is life all about?' `Will I ever be able really to understand young ape-descended life forms of the oppopsite sex?' And `What is the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet?' The Encyclopedia Galactica defines the "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" as a mostly interesting attempt by the EFF to bring knowledge to the people. The marketing division of Sirius Cybernectics Corporation defines the "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" as `Your Electronic Online Pal Who's Fun To Be With.' The Texinfo editor of "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" (aka "bdgtti.texi") defines it as `The Best Stuff I've Been Involved In Since Breakfast.' Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" as a mostly interesting but useless attempt by the EFF to bring knowledge to the people...? -=- * -=- * WHO WROTE IT? This Guide, originally written by Adam Gaffin, then a senior news reporter, of Middlesex News, Boston, MA, comes in an easily understood language, and provides almost all information you'll ever need to survive, when you got stranded in this mindboggling universe called Internet, ie. the Net of all Nets on this crazy planet. So take this writing as kind of electronic Babelfish, that helps you to understand what the hell everybody out there is talking about. -=- * -=- * WILL I BE ABLE TO READ IT? DUMMY's is available (in one format at least) for all currently running computer architectures, from Amiga to CRAY, although some IBM EBCDIC main- frames might have problems with the ASCII versions. But usually you won't work with these anyway. (And thus won't have to worry what EBCDIC is all about...) It comes in printable (TeX DVI, PostScript, ASCII) and electronically readable formats (World-Wide Web/HTML, GNU Info). You will definitely be able to read one version at least! -=- * -=- * WHAT ABOUT AN OVERVIEW OF THIS FAQ LIST? Enclosed in this posting you'll find 5 files from the Texinfo version (cf below) of DUMMY's: (1) WELCOME, the original, official welcome message by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Shari Steele; the foundation that hired Adam Gaffin for this writing job. (2) README, a file that answers most of your questions concerning the Texinfo project of DUMMY's. (3) SERVERS, a file that lists all Internet resources/locations DUMMY's is accessible from; either as simple file(s), or as online readable HyperText multimedia book! (4) VERSIONS, a file, ie. a table, that lists all the currently available versions of DUMMY's (cf README for the differences). (5) CREDITS, a list of all the people (consciously and unconsciously) involved in this project. If I should have forgotten you, please I'd regret it. Please, drop me your address once again. (6) COPYLITE, terms and conditions under which the sources of DUMMY's are distributed. -=- * -=- * WHERE DO I FIND DUMMY's? DUMMY's actually *is* wide-spread, globally speaking; distribution site locations range from KOREA to JAPAN to AUSTRALIA to USA to CANADA to the UNITED KINGDOM to GERMANY to SWITZERLAND to AUSTRIA to BETELGEUZE to SOUTH AFRICA to RUSSIA. Only LATIN AMERICA is missing at present. So what about the Southern hemisphere, folks? Where are you, Netizens? (The complete list is appended below.) -=- * -=- * HOW CAN I CONTRIBUTE? If you find any mistakes/typos/inaccuracies/whatever in this posting drop me a mail; if you have newer informatio than the ones listed below drop me a mail; if you have questions, please folks, *READ THE GUIDE FIRST*, it's all in there. Given you're a system/ftp/WWW administrator: Please consider installation of DUMMY's on your site; and please let me know. The more sites carry DUMMY's, the sooner these postings will go away... ;-) Anyway, enjoy the trip! -joke -=- * -=- Foreword By Mitchell Kapor, Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation. Welcome to the World of the Internet The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to have sponsored the production of the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. EFF is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the newly emerging communications technologies vital to active participation in the events of our world. As more and more information is available online, new doors open up for those who have access to that information. Unfortunately, unless access is broadly encouraged, individuals can be disenfranchised and doors can close, as well. The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was written to help open some doors to the vast amounts of information available on the world's largest network, the Internet. The spark for the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was ignited in a few informal conversations that included myself and Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, Inc., in June of 1991. With the support of Apple Computer, EFF engaged Adam Gaffin to write the book and actually took on the project in September of 1991. The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for people who had little or no experience with network communications. We intended to post this guide to the Net in ASCII and HyperCard formats and to give it away on disk, as well as have a print edition available. We have more than realized our goal. Individuals from as geographically far away as Germany, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Scotland, Norway, and Antarctica have all sent electronic mail to say that they downloaded the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. The guide is now available in a wide array of formats, including ACSCII text, HyperCard, World Wide Web, PostScript and AmigaGuide. And the guide will be published in a printed format by MIT Press in June of 1994. EFF would like to thank author Adam Gaffin for doing a terrific job of explaining the Net in such a nonthreatening way. We'd also like to thank the folks at Apple, especially Steve Cisler of the Apple Library, for their support of our efforts to bring this guide to you. We invite you to join with EFF in our fight to ensure that equal access to the networks and free speech are protected in newly emerging technologies. We are a membership organization, and through donations like yours, we can continue to sponsor important projects to make communications easier. Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation and some of the work that we do can be found at the end of this book. We hope that the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet helps you learn about whole new worlds, where new friends and experiences are sure to be yours. Enjoy! Mitch Kapor Chairman of the Board Electronic Frontier Foundation mkapor@eff.org For comments, questions, or requests regarding EFF or the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, send a note to ask@eff.org. --- big-dummys-guide-texi/$Id: README,v 2.2 1994/02/06 13:54:24 joke Rel $ SPREAD THE WORD: "The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet is now available, in a variety of easily convertible formats *and* at your local laser printer." -=- * -=- * WHAT IS BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE? This is still the first Texinfo edition of a book entitled "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" (aka "bdgtti.texi") written by Adam Gaffin for a joint project of Apple Computer, Inc. and The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). -=- * -=- * WHERE DO I GET THE HYPERCARD STACK? Steve Cisler courtesy of the Apple Library, used a Macintosh computer and converted Adams writing into a so-called HyperCard stack; this stack, readable by the HyperCard software that comes bundled with every Mac, is available via anonymous FTP from the EFF's server "ftp.eff.org" as file "big-dummys-guide.sea.hqx" see under "pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions". However, this version is completely out of date; if you're a passionte Apple/HyperCard hacker and want to volunteer in creating an up-to-date version, please send e-mail to ask@eff.org. The latter also includes man more versions, e.g. AmigaGuide, MS-Windows Help, and GeoWorks Write formats are also available, the latter by Adam himself (cf. VERSIONS). -=- * -=- * AND THE ORIGINAL ASCII? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? Also available in the same directory is Adam's original ASCII version "big-dummys-guide.txt" (currently at version 2.2) that served as the starting point for this Texinfo based release. Besides several "bug fixes," witty quotes, corrections, including some complete rewrites (cf Chapter 8) and the new layout, some more value has been added; notably, two personal articles from EFFector Online, the EFF's bi-weekly news magazine (available in comp.org.eff.news on USENET), now serving as superb afterwords, and some other contribution of Netizens I found quite worthwhile reading over the past years: -=- * -=- * NOW, WHAT'S IN THERE? * "A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community" by Howard Rheingold describes the social life on the Internet from the WELL's point of view. * "A Statement of Principle" by SF author Bruce Sterling discusses some moral and legal issues you will definitely get to know when becoming a "cybernaut" on Internet. * "Subject: TIME Article on Internet" by Philip Elmer-Dewitt shows , that even the non-virtual world (aka "reality") finally got interested in cyberspace, and the cybernauts on Internet. * "Subject: A Perspective on NREN" by Grag Chartrand *parodies* the NSF's proposed US National Education and Research Network. Moreover a bibliography has been stuffed into this edition: * A comprehensive list of Paperware related to the Internet (This is an updated version of the bibliography section that comes with the first edition of "Zen and the Art of the Internet" by Brendan Kehoe, plus part of the reference section of Henry Edward Hardy's Master's Thesis "The History of the Net" written at the School of Communications, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 49401. Version 7.2 was posted to comp.org.eff.talk on August 28, 1993.) -=- * -=- This guide is same 250 European A4 size pages in length, (i.e. same 300 US-letter size pages) and is divided into the following sections: * A 5 part Introduction - G'day by the Texinfo editor - Welcome by Mitchell Kapor, EFF - Foreword by Mitchell Kapor, EFF - Addendum to Foreword by Mitchell Kapor and Jerry Berman, EFF - Preface by Adam Gaffin, Middlesex News, Boston, MA, USA. * A 13 part Walk-trough-the-Internet Chapter 1 -- Setting up, Getting connected, Jacking in... Chapter 2 -- Electronic Mail Chapter 3 -- Usenet: the Global Watering Hole Chapter 4 -- Usenet: from Flame Wars to Killfiles Chapter 5 -- Mailing Lists and Bitnet Chapter 6 -- Telnet (Mining the Net, part I) Chapter 7 -- FTP (Mining the Net, part II) Chapter 8 -- Gophers, WAISs, and the World-Wide Web Chapter 9 -- Advanced E-mail Chapter 10 -- News of the World Chapter 11 -- IRC, MUDs, and other things... Chapter 12 -- Education on the Net Chapter 13 -- Business on the Net * A 5 part Afterword - "Conclusion: the End?" by Adam Gaffin - "A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community" by Howard Rheingold - "A Statement of Principle" by Bruce Sterling - "Subject: TIME Article on Internet" by Philip Elmer-Dewitt - "Subject: A Perspective on NREN" by Greg Chartrand * A Bibliography - Paperware on the Internet: A comprehensive list of over 200 (sic!) literary references of books, papers, magazines, newspaper bits, and electronically published texts, all of them related to the Internet and similar topics. * 5 Appendices - Appendix on Internet Jargon - Appendix by Ms. Emily Postnews - Appendix on The Electronic Frontier Foundation - Appendix on Internet Country Codes (ISO 3166) - Appendix on Smileys: ``The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary'' * 4 Indices - E-mail addresses mentioned - Internet Sites mentioned - Commands, Suffixes, and Tools mentioned - General Index -=- * -=- * WHY DO YOU WANT THIS? Why do you want this? Well, for one thing, it's better than Bloomfield's "99 more things to do in zero gravity", and then it's free. So what else do you expect? Ok, for an encore: it definitely saves you some time and trouble: traditionally users learned by word of mouth, stumbling upon things, being trapped by dozens of pitfalls, and laughed at by systems wizards. These times are OVER! This guide should serve as a first straw to clutch at when you're stranded in this mindboggling universe called Internet; and are curious about what else can be done. It also presents the fundamental topics on a "rookie" level that are all too often assumed and considered trivial by many more experienced network users/admins/gurus. -=- * -=- * WHERE DO YOU GET IT? It should be available from the EFF's FTP server "ftp.eff.org" in the "pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy" directory. Just check out the European edition on "ftp.germany.eu.net" in "pub/books/big-dummys-guide". See below for instructions on "How to configure DUMMY's". AND read the SERVERS file that comes with the Texinfo distribution for more servers than you probably need... -=- * -=- * DISTRIBUTION DIRECTORY: |-README // FAQ file |-README.VMS // help for VMS folks |-big-dummys-guide-texi-|-bdgtti-2.2.ps.gz // PostScript |-bdgtti-2.2.dvi.gz // TeX DVI file |-bdgtti-2.2-US.dvi.gz // TeX DVI US paper |-bdgtti-2.2-US.ps.gz // TeX PS US paper |-bdgtti-2.2.info.gz // GNU Info file |-bdgtti-2.2.txt.gz // TEXT file |-bdgtti-2.2.html.tar.gz // HTML (WWW) files |-bdgtti-2.2.amiga.lha // AmigaGuide/MultiView files |-bdgtti-2.2.tar.gz // all Texinfo sources Both sites can uncompress the files "on the fly", i.e., you do not need to have the GNU gunzip utility. Just get the files with the ".gz" extension: get bdgtti-2.2.ps instead of: get bdgtti-2.2.ps.gz -=- * -=- * WHAT ARE ALL THESE FILES? Now, how to read it. The file bdgtti-2.2.dvi is a DVI (DeVice Independent) file created by the TeX typesetting system. Filters exist to convert these DVI files into printer-specific files for a variety of printers. Also included is the file bdgtti-2.2.ps, a PostScript version. bdgtti-2.2.txt is the plain ASCII version of bdgtti-2.2.info, ie. the latter can be browsed either using EMACS in INFO mode, or any GNU info browser, e.g. "info", or "xinfo". Just type "info -f bdgtti-2.2.info" and there you go. For the folks who want to print the PS version on a Hewlett-Packard laser printer with Postscript option, take care. You cannot print the file double-sided, which results in "0.5in upwards shifted" even pages; but printing it single-paged is ok. This is obvioulsy due to a bug in the HP-printer's firmware, and was reported by Ed Moore of HP, using a LaserJet 4Si (with PostScript option, of course). Dawn Cooley reported troubles with a Texas Instruments microLaser Turbo. After downloading Adobe's error handler, DUMMY's printed fine. The tar file with suffix ".html" contains DUMMY's in some 300 files in HyperText Markup Language format. They can be thrown into your system's World-Wide Web directory, and then browsed using the various WWW tools. E.g. from within xmosaic "Load Local" bdgtti-2.2_toc.html, and there you go! An alternative is to set the default home page environment variable with: "setenv WWW_HOME bdgtti-2.2_toc.html" which makes DUMMY's the HOME page (press the HOME button to get back to the top) on startup. (Well, at least when xmosaic is installed on your system. If it's not, BUG YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR! He obviously missed the leading edge of today's infosystems technologies.) In the tar file bdgtti-2.2.tar.gz (a gzip'ed tar file---ask YOUR LOCAL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR and/or Unix guru how to extract the files from this), there are a number of files suffixed by ".texi". These are all the Texinfo sources to this guide. Note again that on the eff.org site, this file will have a .z extension, not a .gz extension, though it is the same sort of archive. This is due to a lousy script, and should be fixed Real Soon Now. New in the collection is bdgtti-2.2.amiga.lha, an archive containing the AmigaGuide/MultiView (cf VERSIONS below) version of the book. -=- * -=- * FYI: WHAT IS TeX? FYI: TeX is a free typesetting system by Don Knuth of Stanford; the source of which you can FTP or buy on a tape. Texinfo is a package of macros written on top of TeX by the GNU Project for easy manual creation. See the FTP Chapter in DUMMY's on how to obtain TeX. -=- * -=- * HOW TO CREATE A DVI FILE? Well, first you must configure DUMMY's to produce an US letter size, or a European A4 paper size version: this can easily be done with the provided "configure" shell script (C-shell), eg.: example % configure --letter Or: example % configure --a4 Note, that "example %" represents your system's input prompt, that might look different for you, eg. on MS-DOS you're used to see something like "C:\DUMMY>". You might also configure DUMMY's "by hand", e.g. for the letter size version: example % cp config/Makefile.us Makefile example % cp config/bdgtti.us bdgtti.texi And for the A4 version: example % cp config/Makefile.a4 Makefile example % cp config/bdgtti.a4 bdgtti.texi To create a DVI file of your own (e.g. to produce an A4 paper version), simply run "texi2dvi" on bdgtti.texi twice; or use the Makefile included; it does almost *everything* for you (...although "make coffee" doesn't work, yet). All there is to do is to type: example % make dvi It's really that easy! (If you have the appropriate tools installed, and a *real* operating system running on your box...) -=- * -=- * WHAT ABOUT A HYPERTEXT INFO FILE? Well, some moons have passed since edition 1.00, and now it's there! But you need to patch "makeinfo v1.55" with the included "makeinfo-1.55. patch" file, and compile it with "-DJOKES=1" defined. Then type "make info" for the Info, and "make txt" for a TEXT/ASCII version. -=- * -=- * HOW TO CREATE THE HTML FILES? Just say "make html" which runs "texi2html" on "bdgtti.texi" and creates a bunch of HTML files; Note that "texi2html" needs Larry Wall's "perl" program to be installed on your system. Maybe you need to edit the first line in the perl script "#!/usr/local/bin/perl" to whatever directory "perl" is installed on your system. -=- * -=- * HOW TO HANDLE TYPOS, MISTAKES, AND OTHER BUGS? Given, that this is still the first edition, some "bugs" or other "quirks" are inevitable, that might have been overseen during Texinfo production. If you find something, drop me an e-mail; if you have any comments or questions, want to make further addition or corrections, please send "all-your-stuff" to the address below. I'll probably include them into future releases of this guide. But, please, folks, don't expect an answer on your question until the weekend following your quest. And thus you might drop me the question on Fridays. I am currently writing my thesis on something completely different than the Internet, WWW, Information Retrieval, or something alike, and thus like to limit the e-mail traffic on this project to the weekends. Thanx in advance for your patience! -=- * -=- * THE CURRENT TEXINFO EDITOR/COORDINATOR? Joerg Heitkoetter c/o Systems Analysis Research Group, LSXI Department of Computer Science University of Dortmund D-44221 Dortmund, Germany -=- * -=- --- big-dummys-guide-texi/$Id: SERVERS,v 2.2 1994/02/06 13:54:26 joke Rel $ -=- * -=- "A map of the world without Utopia is not worth glancing at." -- Oscar Wilde -=- * -=- This file lists the currently (January 1994) available electronic archive sites/services, that either distribute the "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet", or let you browse through it using the latest of infosystems technologies... Please note that the Texinfo based version (below addressed as "DUMMY's") is different from the original HyperCard and ASCII files, (cf the README for more info on this issue). -=- * -=- * THE WHOLE STORY COMPRESSED DUMMY's comes in a variety of formats: PostScript (.ps), TeX DVI (.dvi), GNU Info (.info), plain text (.txt), HyperText Markup Language (.html), AmigaGuide (.amiga) and the complete source distribution (including some patch files, you'll need to use Makeinfo-1.55, and texi2html-1.21) bundled in a Tarfile (.tar). Depending on the system adminstrator, ie. the disk space he's willing to give away for DUMMY's, these files will be stored in one of some dozen of compression "flavors". Thus, here's an excerpt from the FTP chapter of DUMMY's, that explains the whole story: FTP (Mining the Net, part II) ***************************** [..] There are a wide variety of compression methods in use. You can tell which method was used by the last one to three letters at the end of a file. Here are some of the more common ones and what you'll need to un-compress the files they create (and these decompression programs can all be located through archie). `.txt' `.TXT' By itself, this means the file is a document, rather than a program. `.ps' `.PS' A PostScript document (in Adobe's page description language). You can print this file on any PostScript capable printer, or use a previewer, like GNU project's GhostScript. `.doc' `.DOC' Is another common suffix for documents. No de-compression is needed, unless it is followed by `.z' A file compressed by the Unix `pack' utility. It uses Huffman coding (which minimizes redundancy) on each byte. Type `unpack filename.z' or `gunzip filename.z' to decompress it. This suffix was also briefly used to indicate gzip'ed files before `.gz' was adopted. However, some sites *still* use this suffix for gzip'ed files, e.g. the EFF's FTP-server, due to local set-ups. `.Z' This is a Unix compression method. To uncompress the file, type `uncompress filename.Z' or `gunzip filename.z' and hit enter at your host system's command prompt. If it's a text file, you can read it online by typing `zcat file.txt.Z |more' at your host system's command line. There is a Macintosh program called "MacCompress" that you can use on your machine if you want to download the file (use archie to find where you can get it!). There's an MS-DOS equivalent, often found as `u16.ZIP', which means it is itself compressed in the ZIP format. `.zip' `.ZIP' An MS-DOS format. Use the PKZIP package (usually found as `PKZ201.exe' or something similar). `.gz' The GNU project's compression format. A variant of the PKZIP format. Use `gunzip filename.gz' to uncompress. `.zoo' `.ZOO' A Unix and MS-DOS format. Requires the use of a program called zoo. `.Hqx' `.hqx' A Macintosh format that needs BinHex for de-coding. `.shar' `.Shar' A Unix format. Use unshar. `.tar' Another Unix format, often used to glue several related files and/or completet directory trees into one big file. Use the `tar' command. Often, a "tarred" file will also be compressed with the `.Z' method, so you first have to use uncompress and then tar. `.TGZ' `.TAZ' Sometimes used for compressed tar archives `.tar.Z', that are stored on "3 letter suffix only systems" (aka MS-DOS). `.sit' `.Sit' A Macintosh format, requires StuffIt. `.ARC' A DOS format that requires the use of ARC or ARCE. `.LZH' Another DOS compression format; requires the use of LHARC. `.lz' `.lha' The Amiga variant of LHARC. It's the most common Amiga archiving method, and made with the program `lha' or `lz'. [..] -=- * -=- * THE WHOLE LIST OF FILES Check the version number! Get 2.2, it's the latest! Some servers may run "out of pace" with updates; so check out more than one of the SERVERS listed below. The default distribution (all papers sizes) is placed on "ftp.Germany.EU.net", in "pub/books/big-dummys-guide/": |-README // FAQ file |-README.VMS // help for VMS folks |-big-dummys-guide-texi-|-bdgtti-2.2.ps.gz // PostScript |-bdgtti-2.2.dvi.gz // TeX DVI file |-bdgtti-2.2-US.dvi.gz // TeX DVI US paper |-bdgtti-2.2-US.ps.gz // TeX PS US paper |-bdgtti-2.2.info.gz // GNU Info file |-bdgtti-2.2.txt.gz // TEXT file |-bdgtti-2.2.html.tar.gz // HTML (WWW) files |-bdgtti-2.2.amiga.lha // AmigaGuide files |-bdgtti-2.2.tar.gz // all Texinfo sources In the US, it's avail. from "ftp.EFF.org", in "pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/ Other_versions". -=- * -=- * ANONYMOUS FTP AFRICA * South Africa ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/misc/papers/big-dummys-guide * ASIA * South Korea cair.kaist.ac.kr:/doc/EFF/EFF/papers/ ** AUSTRALIA ftp.vifp.monash.edu.au:/pub/userdocs/bdgtti/ BETELGEUSE hftp.sirius.cybernetics.com:/pub/slurb-this!/big-dummys-guide/ EUROPE * GERMANY ftp.germany.eu.net:/pub/books/big-dummys-guide/ bwl.bwl.th-darmstadt.de:/pub/... NORTH AMERICA * USA ftp.eff.org:/pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/ ftp.wustl.edu:/doc/EFF/EFF/papers/ ** uceng.uc.edu:/pub/wuarchive/doc/EFF/EFF/papers/ ** ftp.hep.net:/networks/bigdummyguide/ * CANADA ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror3/EFF/EFF/papers/ ** * mirror of ftp.germany.eu.net version 2.2 ** mirror of ftp.eff.org version 2.2 -=- * -=- * E-MAIL SERVERS EUROPE Address: Message layout: BEGIN REPLY SEND SEND ... END Sample: To: archive-server@germany.eu.net Subject: BEGIN REPLY dummy@neverland.com SEND books/big-dummys-guide/README SEND books/big-dummys-guide/big-dummys-guide-texi/bdgtti-2.2.ps END NORTH AMERICA Address: Message layout: reply connect get get ... quit Sample: To: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com Subject: reply joke@foo.bar connect ftp.eff.org get pub/Net_Info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions/bdgtti-2.2.ps quit And then? You'll receive a mail from with a contents similar to the following: We processed the following input from your mail message: reply joke@foo.bar connect ftp.eff.org get pub/Net_Info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions/bdgtti-2.2.ps quit We have entered the following request into our job queue as job number 749212187.29067: connect ftp.germany.eu.net anonymous -ftpmail/joke@foo.bar reply joke@foo.bar get pub/Net_Info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions/bdgtti-2.2.ps There are 876 jobs ahead of this one in our queue. You should expect the results to be mailed to you within a day or so. [..] NOTICE * If you don't know how to uncompress gzip'ed files (.gz), or any other howevercompressed files, just don't tell FTPmail the suffix! FTPmail is clever enough to *automatically* uncompress the file(s) split them, and mail them to you. * is the *full* filename, ie. including the PATH! -=- * -=- * FSP SERVERS You need to have the FSP client software installed on your system. If you don't know what FSP, clients, or software is, better choose a different service. EUROPE * GERMANY ftp.germany.eu.net 2001:/pub/books/big-dummys-guide/ -=- * -=- * Gopher ASIA * JAPAN gopher.ntt.jp: See "Other information" EUROPE * GERMANY gopher.germany.eu.net: See "EUnet Bookstore" * NORWAY gopher.oslonett.no: See "Informasjonsarkiv" NORTH AMERICA * USA gopher.eff.org: See "EFF Files & Information/Search the EFF on-line document library" and search for "big-dummys" [warning: due to "site construction" the BDGttI may or may not be available from gopher.eff.org as of this writing. If it isn't, it will be eventually.] -=- * -=- * World-Wide Web (entry points) ASIA * JAPAN http://www.ntt.jp/bdgtti/ AUSTRALIA http://www.vifp.monash.edu.au/bdgtti/ EUROPE * AUSTRIA http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/doc/bdgtti/ http://info.archlab.tuwien.ac.at/doc/ http:/iuinfo.tuwien.ac.at/htdocs/ * GERMANY http://www.germany.eu.net:8000/bdgtti/bdgtti.html http://physinfo.uni-augsburg.de:80 http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/archive/doc/bdgtti/bdg_toc.html * HUNGARY http://bagira.fsz.bme.hu/welcome.html [machine: bagira.fsz.bme.hu (152.66.76.5)] * NORWAY http://www.oslonett.no/html/bdgtti/bdgtti.html * SWITZERLAND http://cui_www.unige.ch/OSG/Dummy/ * UNITED KINGDOM http://sg1.cc.ic.ac.uk:6680/bdg/bdgtti.html NORTH AMERICA * USA http://soma.npa.uiuc.edu/docs/bdgtti.html http://www.hep.net/documents/bigdummy/bdgtti.html [note: an EFF WWW server is in the works. Don't hold your breath. but you might give: http://www.eff.org a try.] http://alpha.acast.nova.edu/bigdummy/bdg_toc.html >>> Search the Big Dummy's Guide by Topic: http://alpha.acast.nova.edu/cgi-bin/srch.cgi/search/bigdummy/mylist http://vermithrax.jpl.nasa.gov * CANADA http://www.cs.dal.ca/dummy.html -=- * -=- * CREDITS Another BIG "thank you" to the following Net.saints, who made DUMMY's publicly accessible (in any form) from their sites. In the order of appearance in my mailbox: * Ingo Dressler EUnet Deutschland GmbH, Germany. * Christopher Davis * Helen T. Rose Davis KEI - Kapor Enterprises Inc., Cambridge MA, USA (formerly with EFF) * Dan Brown * Stanton McCandlish EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Washington DC, USA. * Bo Frese Rasmussen ESO - European Southern Observatory, Space Telescope, European Coordinating Facility * Rik Harris Victorian Inst. of Forensic Pathology, Monash Uni, Australia http://www.vifp.monash.edu.au/people/rik.html * Jeremy Payne UIUC Neuroscience program, College of Medicine, IL, USA. * James Grinter Imperial College, University of London, UK. * Oscar Nierstrasz University of Geneva, Switzerland. * David Trueman Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. * TAKADA Toshihiro Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., NTT Basic Research Labs., Information Science Research Lab., Japan. * Jeff Dingbaum National HEPnet Management at Fermilab, Batavia, IL, USA. http://www.hep.net/general/dingbaum/dingbaum.html * Otmar Lendl University of Salzburg, Austria. * Elmar Schmidinger Guenter Technical University of Vienna, Faculty of Architecture and Urban planning, Austria. * Pieter Immelman The University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Africa. * Ralf Utermann University of Augburg, Institute of Theoretical Physics I & Computer Center * Paul F. Mende Dept. of Physics, Brown University * Steinar Kjaernsrod Oslonet, Inc. * Maray Tamas Technical University of Budapest, Hungary * Rob Kabacoff Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314 * Andreas Gehmeyr FORWISS Passau http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/forwiss/mitarbeiter/hiwis/gehmeyr.html * Tony Sprinzl Univ. of Technology Vienna/Computing Services * Roger Lighty Vermithrax New Application Development, NASA Jet Propulsion Labs., Pasadena, CA. -=- * -=- --- big-dummys-guide-texi/$Id: VERSIONS,v 2.2 1994/02/06 13:54:27 joke Rel $ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Format * Version:Date * Author * * Computer/Software -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ASCII 1.0:20/08/93 Adam Gaffin any 1.1:02/09/93 1.2:??/09/93 1.3:26/10/93 1.4:22/12/93 2.0:21/01/94 2.1:03/02/94 2.2:23/02/94 * FILE(S): /pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/bigdummy.txt (Unix) /pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/bigd-txt.zip (DOS) [also available on various BBSs and other systems as bigdummy.*, bdummy.*, bdguide.*, bdg.*, bdgtti.*; .* may be .txt, .doc, .zip, etc.] GeoWorks 2.0 Adam Gaffin 286PC GeoWorks Write /pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions/bigd-geo.zip Windows Help 2.0 Eric R. Smith PC, Windows 3.1 /pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/Other_versions/bigd-win.zip -=- * -=- Texinfo 1.0:02/09/93 Joerg Heitkoetter any (Unixoid) 1.1:22/09/93 1.2:26/09/93 1.3:17/12/93 1.4:01/01/94 2.0:02/02/94 2.2:26/02/94 * FILE(S): TeX DVI: bdgtti-2.2.dvi.gz TeX PostScript: bdgtti-2.2.ps.gz GhostScript/View TeX DVI (US paper): bdgtti-2.2-US.dvi.gz TeX PostScript (US paper): bdgtti-2.2-US.ps.gz GhostScript/View GNU Info: bdgtti-2.2.info.gz GNU info/xinfo/emacs ASCII Text: bdgtti-2.2.txt.gz * HyperText Markup Language: bdgtti-2.2.html.tar.gz WWW tools/Mosaic AmigaGuide HyperText:** bdgtti-2.2.amiga.lha AmigaGuide The whole Texinfo sources: bdgtti-2.2.tar.gz many Unix tools ** AmigaGuide version courtesy by Holger Hoffstaette (see below) -=- * -=- HyperCard 1.0:20/08/93 Steve Cisler Apple Macintosh 1.1:21/08/93 HyperCard * FILE(S): big-dummys-guide.sit.hqx [may also show up as big-dummys-guide.sea.hqx or big-dummys-guide.cpt.hqx, or as BigDummy.*] -=- * -=- AmigaGuide 1.0:30/08/93 Robin Evans Commodore Amiga 1.1:04/09/93 AmigaGuide 1.4:07/01/94 Holger Hoffstaette 2.2:02/02/94 * FILE(S): * ...aminet/text/hyper/bdgtti-2.2.guide.lha or ...aminet/text/docs/bdgtti-2.2.guide.lha Aminet sites: Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 pub/aminet/ Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 pub/aminet/ (*) Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.1.43 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 pub/aminet/ USA ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 pub/aminet/ USA wuarchive.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/ UK src.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1 pub/aminet/ Australia splat.aarnet.edu.au 192.107.107.6 pub/aminet/ (*) (*) closed 6:30am to 4pm weekdays ** NOTE: the AmigaGuide format, which requires the AmigaGuide utility for Amiga-OS 1.x or 2.x. Under 3.x, it can be used with MultiView. The file "AmiGuide2Inet1_1.lha" on some AmiNet sites is outdated, since January '94. -=- * -=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ** HyperCard and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. AmigaGuide is a trademark of Commodore Computer Corp. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe System, Inc. Unix is a trademark of Bell Labs, now owned by AT&T. HTML is affiliated with the World-Wide Web project of CERN, Switzerland. Texinfo is affiliated with the GNU project of The Free Software Foundation. Joke is not a trademark of Jester Inside, Inc., which doesn't exist. -=- * -=- -- big-dummys-guide-texi/$Id: CREDITS,v 2.2 1994/02/06 13:54:21 joke Rel $ -=- * -=- "Du willst laufen wie ein Kind im Wind, und dahin kommen wo wir anderen schon so lange sind---ins Labyrinth" -- Spliff -=- * -=- * THE PEOPLE? The following individuals, consciously (and unconsciously), willingly (and unwillingly) contributed to the Texinfo project as a whole; in the order af their respective appearance: * Shari Steele * Howard Rheingold * Bernd Raichle * Adam Gaffin * Brendan Kehoe * Bruce Sterling * Jonathan I. Kamens * Gene Spafford * Greg Chartrand * Brad Templeton * Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond * Ingo Dressler * David Sternlight * Otto Lang * Christopher K. Davis * Iain O'Cain * Lionel Cons * David J. Bianco * Achim Voermanek * Noel Hunter * R. Stewart Ellis * Mark Sanderson * Bo Frese Rasmussen * Chris Varner * Martin Schweikert * Timo Harmo * Rik Harris * James Grinter * Oscar Nierstrasz * Jeremy Payne * David Trueman * Michael P. Urban * Mark Woodward * Iain Lea * David E. Fox * Peter Smulders * Gert C Van Rooyen * Patrick Nielsen Hayden * Robin Evans * Tim Berners-Lee * Helen Trillian Rose Davis * Jon L. Spear * Alan Legatt * Paul Brown * Larry W. Virden * Ted Shapin * Roman Schwartz * TAKADA Toshihiro * Fred Schimmel * Antony Cooper * Lennat Tower, jr. * Jon Bell * John Campbell * Ed Moore * Axel Belinfante * Arthur Secret * Jason Schmit * Uri S. Naishtut * Chris Ruprecht * Dan Brown * Keith Bostic * Clemens Schrimpe * Reinhold Tokar <100014.3265@CompuServe.COM> * Jeff Dingbaum * Jim Meyering * Otmar Lendl * Warwick Kau-Choon Chai * Pieter Immelman * Joseph Taylor Potts * Guenter * Reiner Hoenig * Steve Cisler * James Rice * Stephen C. Trier * James E. Burns * Rodrigo Vanegas * Steve VanDevender * Reinier de Vos * Gerald Malitz * David Mason * Volker Kunert * David Beasley * Anthony Rajakumar * Aniekan Akpaffiong * A. Solomon Eaglstein * Jan Adlington * Elaine Jackson * John Sheckler * Larry W. Virden * Dave Rosselle * Cristine Hollinshead * Wolfhang Banzaf * Stoffel Erasmus * Stanton McCandlish * Robert E. Maas * Bryan D. Boyle * Paul F. Mende * Michael A. Patton * Joseph E. Sacco * Steinar Kjaernsrod * Luis Ochoa Giraldo * Thomas Gellekum * Moritz D. Klingholz * Benedikt Homann * Holger Hoffstaette * Maray Tamas * Forrest Cook * Shmuel Browns * Roland H. Pesch * Richard Stallman * Dawn Cooley * John O'Hare * George D. Greenwade * Tony Sprinzl Thanks alot, folks! -=- * -=- * THE AGENTS? Additional thanks to the following people for local propaganda: * Ruediger Jegelka * Joerg Svensson * Jenna Wai-Mun Dea * Uri S. Naishtut * Susanne Spitzer <100141.1745@CompuServe.COM> -=- * -=- * THE ARTISTS? Ok, here's the list of a whole bunch of Musicians, that provided the right sound during production of the Texinfo version, in alphabetical order: * BAP (Pik Sibbe) * Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet, Keep the Faith) * The Cross (Blue Rock) * Dire Straits (On the Night: Live) * Genesis (A Trick of the Tail, ...and then there were three, Duke) * Fish (Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors) * Guns 'N Roses (Use your Illusion I+II, The Spaghetti Incident?) * Marillion (Misplaced Childhood, Clutching at Straws) * Meat Loaf (Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Rock 'N Roll Hero) * Mike Oldfield (Crisis, Tubular Bells II, Amarok) * Pink Floyd (The Wall) * Prince (Sign O' the Times) * Queen (A Day at the Races, Innuendo) * Saga (Beginner's Guide to throwing Shapes, Security of Illusion) * Simple Minds (Real Life) * Spliff (Radio Show, 85555, Herzlichen Glueckwunsch, Alles Gute!) * Styx (Paradise Theatre, Edge of the Century) * Supertramp (Very Best of: White label) * U2 (Wide Awake in America, Joshua Tree) -=- * -=- * THE WOMEN? Special thanks to my virtual little sisters: Oggi, Bettina, Gabi, Nora, Claudia, Christiane, Heidi, Marietta, Martina, Angela, Astrid, Kirsten, Ilke, Kerstin, Renate, Rosie, Jenna, Heike, Nicole, Cornelia, Susanne, Davika, and some other *long legged complex systems,* who contributed passion to the *abstract hill* I compiled over the past years. Finally, love to Ute, the *strange attractor* that rules the chaos I call life. And of course to Monika, my original little sister, without her, I'd never known how much fun it is to be a *big brother*... -=- * -=- "If your life is just a highway, and your soul is just a car, objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are..." -- Jim Steinway for Meat Loaf -=- * -=- --- big-dummys-guide-texi/$Id: COPYLITE,v 2.2 1994/02/06 13:54:21 joke Rel $ * WHATZ COPYLITE? Copyright in a virtual medium is something very hard to define and/or persue. In general you should treat this book as you would treat any other book, with the following exceptions: * If you think any information given in this guide is partially invalid or simply wrong, rewrite the paragraph(s) and send them to the Texinfo editor/coordinator. Notes of this kind are greatly appreciated even if you cannot provide a rewritten paragraph, just tell what you think is wrong. * If you think information is omitted and/or must be provided on subjects not yet discussed herein, no problem, drop the current Texinfo editor/coordinator your new Texinfo @node and it will be included in future releases. These ideas are not that brandnew, usually this is what happens to FreeWare software packages, posted to The Net. But as time goes by and MultiMedia and electronically available texts (e-text) become more and more common, these give-aways are also well-suited for distribution under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (GPL). Anyway, there's a subtle but intriguing difference between software pieces and electronically available texts, i.e. a text "implements" it's authors view, and thus changing it would immediately "fake" it's contents. We conclude that there must be a facility to INDIVIDUALLY COPYRIGHT "pieces" of e-texts, such that reflected opinions CANNOT BE CHANGED, UNLESS THESE CHANGES ARE APPROVED BY THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR(s). WE THEREFORE CALL THE RESULTING PROTECTION SCHEME "COPYLITE," RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRADITIONAL COPYRIGHT, AND THE GNUISH COPYLEFT PROTECTION SCHEMES. THE TERMS OF THE GPL APPLY TO THIS TEXINFO PACKAGE WITH A SINLGE BUT SIGNIFICANT EXCEPTION: YOU MUSN'T CHANGE THE INDIVIDUALLY COPYRIGHTED PARTS OF THE BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET. THESE ARE LISTED BELOW: * COPYLITE: ``COPYLITE License'' Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 by Joerg Heitkoetter. All rights reserved. * gpl.texi: ``GNU General Public License'' Copyright (c) 1992 by Free Software Foundation. All rights reserved. * gday.texi: ``G'day, folks!'' Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 by Joerg Heitkoetter. All rights reserved. * welcome.texi: ``Welcome'' Copyright (c) 1994 by Mitchell Kapor. All rights reserved. * foreword.texi: ``Foreword'' Copyright (c) 1993 by Mitch Kapor. All rights reserved. * nyt.texi: ``Subject: A Superhighway through the Wasteland?'' Copyright (c) 1993 by New York Times Corporartions. All rights reserved. * preface.texi: ``Preface'' * adam.texi: ``Conclusion: The End?'' Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 by Adam Gaffin. All rights reserved. * howard.texi: ``A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community'' Copyright (c) 1992 by Howartd Rheingold. All rights reserved. * bruce.texi: ``A Statement of Principle'' Copyright (c) 1992 by Bruce Sterling. All rights reserved. * nren.texi: ``Subject: A Perspective on NREN'' Copyright (c) 1993 by Greg Chartrand. All rights reserved. * emily.texi: ``Dear Emily Postnews'' Copyright (c) 1991 by Brad Templeton. All rights reserved. * eff.texi: ``Information on the Electronic Frontier Foundation'' Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 by EFF. All rights reserved. * isocodes.texi: ``ISO 3166 Country Codes'' Copyright (c) 1993 by Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond. All rights reserved. * time.texi: ``Subject: TIME Article on Internet'' Copyright (c) 1993 by Philip Elmer-Dewitt. All rights reserved. -=- * -=- RESPECT COPYLITE, ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY. -=- * -=-