Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaDemoCD2.iso/ASCII/TEXTE/TheInternet/BDGTTI_2.2/FAQINTRO

Internet Message Format | 1994-05-13 | 7.5 KB

From: [e-mail] (Joerg Heitkoetter)
Originator: [e-mail] (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

             *BDG Newsletter*

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 <[e-mail]> for issues related to
this project.

   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

            -=- * -=-