|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NetMonth, September 1990
*** *** ******** ********
**** *** ********* *********
***** *** *** ***
********* ****** ***
********* ******* ***
*** ***** *** ***
*** **** ********* ***
*** *** ******** ***
***
*** *** ******* *** *** ******** *** ***
**** **** ********* **** *** ********* *** ***
********* *** *** ***** *** *** *** ***
*** * *** *** *** ********* *** *********
*** *** *** *** ********* *** *********
*** *** *** *** *** ***** *** *** ***
*** *** ********* *** **** *** *** ***
*** *** ******* *** *** *** *** ***
***
*** NetMonth / An Independent Guide to BITNET
***
*** October, 1990 / Issue 37
***
*** Edited by Christopher Condon / BITLIB@YALEVM
***
*** CONTENTS:
***
*** Bitnotes / 1
*** Guest Editorial: Lee Varian / 3
*** Headlines / 5
*** Feature: The Human Genome Project / 7
*** New Mailing Lists / 9
*** Letters / 12
***
*** BITNET SERVERS is a list of network servers and services.
*** If you know of servers not listed in BITNET SERVERS, or if
*** some listed are no longer available, please contact the
*** Editor. We need your updates so we can stay accurate!
***
*** BITNET USERHELP is a document written to assist the new
*** network user understand the different network services and
*** how to use them. You can get a copy by sending the command
*** SENDME BITNET USERHELP to LISTSERV@BITNIC.
***
*** To subsscribe to NetMonth and BITNET SERVERS, send the
*** command "SUBSCRIBE NETMONTH your_name" to LISTSERV@MARIST.
*** You can unsubscribe by sending the command UNSUB NETMONTH.
***
*** Your editorials, articles, and letters are encouraged
*** (indeed, sought afer). Send your ideas and letters to the
*** Netmonth Editor.
********************** Subscribers: 7692 **********************
1
Page 1
***
*** Bitnotes
***
*** by Christopher Condon
***
*** Yale University
***
*** CONDON@YALEVM
***
"What it is."
Back when I had the time to chat with people on Relay for a few
hours each night (WAY back) I noticed something interesting.
Many of the people I talked to were under the impression that
Relay *was* BITNET. That is, they were not aware that BITNET
existed for some other purpose. It wasn't that these people
were close-minded about the uses of the network, it was just
just Relay so dominated the scene at the time that everything
else seemed to fade into the woodwork.
Before Relay, the servers that dominated BITNET were file
servers, and the biggest gun among these was CSNEWS@MAINE
(later UMNEWS). Among the other major servers of the time
(BITSERVE, VMBBOARD, NETSERV) CSNEWS was unique it was run
primarily by students. In a burst of vision, the CSNEWS
management made it a point to reach out and communicate with
people outside of University of Maine. CSNEWS provided not
only a file library, but also a primitive bulletin board, a
user database, and a "checkin/checkout" facility to let people
know one was available for chatting (this was pre-Relay,
remember).
This "by the students, for the students" approach made CSNEWS
the most widely used server on BITNET for several years.
Getting a file stored there was to almost guarantee that active
BITNET users would find it. CSNEWS was the center of BITNET
activity. As far as many people were concerned, CSNEWS *was*
BITNET.
Yet, CSNEWS/UMNEWS is gone. After several stops and starts, it
has finally kicked the proverbial bucket. But why?
LISTSERV has been the center of BITNET for the past few years,
eclipsing even Relay in popularity. The combination of semi-
interactive communication, the ability to particpate and log
ongoing discussion on specific topics have put mailing lists
and forums at the center of BITNET communication. This is a
formula that was discovered long before in the Internet.
1
Page 2
In BITNET, mailing lists drive the network, and (for the most
part) LISTSERV drives the mailing lists. As such I have talked
with many people who are under the impression that BITNET and
LISTSERV mailing lists are one and the same. They are
completely unaware that anything that exists outside of that.
For these people, I have to make a complete reversal of logic.
Where I used to explain how LISTSERV worked by comparing it to
file servers, now I have to do it the other way around!
I like LISTSERV, for the most part. It has made BITNET a much
easier place to communicate, and a much more useful one at
that. Still, I hate to see any one service so completely
dominate the others that they dissapear.
*****
Well, this is the new format. What do you think? I've
complicated/simplified it into the following sections, which
will appear each month:
1. Bitnotes
2. Guest Editorial
3. Headlines
4. Feature on interesting new/old service
5. New Mailing Lists
6. Letters
The secion where you can contribute the most is in the Guest
Editorial department. You can think, right? Of course you can!
You have an opinion, right? Of course you do! Send your idea
to CONDON@YALEVM, and I'll let you know if it's suitable.
Thanks for your help!
As always, I am entirely dependent upon you for updates on new
servers and services. Send them in!
This month I have taken the liberty of printing as the
editorial Lee Varian's fascinating letter on the origins and
meaning of the BIT in BITNET. I think you'll like it.
Virtually,
Chris Condon@YaleVM
1
Page 3
***
*** The BIT In BITNET
***
*** by Lee C. Varian
***
*** Princeton University
***
*** LVARIAN@PUCC
***
Since I'm known locally as a bit of a squirrel, I happen to
have a few of the early documents on BITNET. Some of these
might shed some light on that nagging question, "What does the
BIT in BITNET stand for?"
The initial letter from Ira Fuchs (then Vice Chancellor for
University Systems at CUNY, now Vice President for Computing
and Information Technology at Princeton), dated March 4, 1981,
did not suggest a name for the proposed "network of university
computer centers which utilize the IBM networking software
(RSCS and eventually PVM), and which would permit file
transfers, electronic mail, and resource sharing between
faculty and/or administration at participating institutions."
This letter was sent to 34 institutions on the east coast, from
Maine to South Carolina, which Ira believed had hardware which
was compatible with the proposed network.
The Winter 1981 Educom EDUNET NEWS article ("BITNET makes
'splash'", pp. 6-7), ended with a postscript: "The BIT in
BITNET is not an eighth of a byte; it stands for Because It's
There."
The same phrase, "Because It's There NETwork", was used in an
informational brochure from CUNY, undated but from mid-1982, I
believe.
Ira Fuchs wrote an article, titled "BITNET -- Because It's
Time", (pp. 16-27 of the IBM journal Perspectives in Computing,
vol. 3, no. 1, March, 1983). The last paragraph of this
article included the line "Remember, the BIT in BITNET stands
for Because It's Time."
I suspect that both "Because It's There" and "Because It's
Time" were ultimately considered too cute for a network which
was becoming a major international force in academic
networking. It does point up the fact, however, that Ira Fuchs
had made the perspicacious observation in early 1981 that most
of the pieces needed for the formation of a low-cost but
extremely useful network were already in place. All that was
1
Page 4
required was his insight and leadership, a willingness on the
part of a few computer center directors to proceed on faith,
and a few 9600-baud links among universities to launch what
continues to be the most ubiquitous and discipline-diverse
academic network in the world.
1
Page 5
***
*** Headlines
***
*** Edited by Christopher Condon
***
*** Yale University
***
*** Send your updates to BITLIB@YALEVM
***
* List-of-Lists now available in BITNET:
The popular Interest Groups (List-of-Lists) file now has a home
in BITNET. This file provides a list of various discussion
lists available to network electronic mail users. This
includes not only LISTSERV lists, but lists originating in
other networks, as well.
If you wish to obtain the entire Interest Groups file send the
command GET INTEREST PACKAGE LISTSERV@NDSUVM1. You will
receive about a dozen files including the segments of the
Interest Groups list and a file listing the current files in
the "INTEREST PACKAGE".
To submit new descriptions of mailing lists, to update existing
information, or to delete old mailing list information from the
List-of-Lists send mail to interest-groups-request@nisc.sri.com
and NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1.
Thanks to Rich Zellich for the many years of effort that he put
into maintaining this file. Sadly, circumstances have changed
and it was not possible to continue the arrangement that worked
so well over those years. (NISC, Marty Hoag)
* BITSERVE Bites The Big One:
A recent command to the server yielded the following message:
"BITSERVE on CUNYVM is no longer in service. Its functions
have been replaced by two service machines at node BITNIC:
LISTSERV and NETSERV." (Jahangir Momin)
1
Page 6
* Directory servers at Calgary:
University of Calgary has two new user directory servers to
help you find the userids of people there. They are:
DIRECTORY@UCDASVM1 - Calgary Administrative Personnel
DIRECTORY@UNCAMULT - Calgary Academic Personnel
The servers accept commands by mail. Withing your mail you
should use the command FIND surname. For example, if you were
looking for Joe Shmoe, you would send the command FIND SHMOE.
(Don Barker)
* Directory server at Drake:
Drake University has installed a user directory server named
FINGER@DRAKE. It accpets commands by interactive message. To
find the userid of a person ar Drake, send the server a message
with the name for which you are searching. There are no
commands. (Robert Lutz)
* Trickle Update:
The Trickle servers provide directory listings and recently
requested files from the SIMTEL20 personal computer software
archives to users in Europe. TRICKLE@DTUZDV1 has moved to
TRICKLE@DS0RUS1I. DTUZDV1 no longer exists. (Richard
Rodriguez)
1
Page 7
***
*** The Human Genome Project
***
*** by Jane Peterson
***
*** National Center for Human Genome Research
***
*** JP2@NIHCU
***
The National Institute of Health's Human Genome Program is
planning to start a newsgroup for the disucussion of genome-
related issues. Information on how to subscribe follows.
There are four distribution points for the HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM
newsgroup depending upon your geographical and network
locations:
If you reside in the Americas, to subscribe to the HUMAN-
GENOME-PROGRAM bulletin board, please send a request to the
Internet address
biosci@genbank.bio.net
If you use the European Academic Research Network (EARN) and
live in Continental Europe or Ireland, you can subscribe send a
subscription request to LISTSERV@IRLEARN withe the command:
SUBSCRIBE GNOME+PR your_personal_name
If you reside in the United Kingdom, please send your
subscription request to
biosci@uk.ac.daresbury
If you reside in Scandinavia (or in Continental Europe and have
nternet access), please send your subscription to
biosci@bmc.uu.se
If you do not fall into any of the above categories you may
contact whichever of the above sites is most convenient.
1
Page 8
* Posting Messages to the Bulletin Board:
Once you have chosen your distribution point, you may post
messages by sending to the bulletin board address at that site.
Note below the shorter addresses used for BITNET/EARN/JANET
sites.
Location Posting address
-------- ---------------
Americas / Internet: human-genome-program@genbank.bio.net
Americas / BITNET: gnome-pr@genbank.bio.net
Ireland / EARN: gnome-pr@irlearn.ucd.ie
U.K. / JANET: gnome-pr@uk.ac.daresbury
Sweden / Internet: human-genome-program@bmc.uu.se
USENET news software users may post messages on their local
computer to bionet.molbio.genome-program (set distribution to
"world") and let the software handle distribution details.
1
Page 9
***
*** New Mailing Lists
***
*** Moderated by Marty Hoag
***
*** North Dakota State University
***
*** Send your list descriptions to NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1
***
Each of the lists described here is maintained on a LISTSERV
machine unless otherwise noted. To subscribe to one of these
lists you would send the following command to the the
appropriate server via mail or message.
SUBSCRIBE listname Your_full_name
For example, if your name is Kristen Shaw and you want to
subscribe to a list described as "DIAPERS@YALEVM" you would
send the following command to LISTSERV@YALEVM:
SUBSCRIBE DIAPERS Kristen Shaw
To make contributions to the list you would send mail to
DIAPERS@YALEVM. Please note that this is just and example and
to my knowledge there are no mailing lists about diapers
(although you never know).
*****
NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS - Catalogers of Rare Books
NOTRBCAT is an open forum for catalogers of rare books and
special collections. Although it was founded to provide a
means for RBSC catalogers working in NOTIS to exchange
information on working in the NOTIS system, NOTRBCAT members
soon decided that issues of rare books cataloging in general
were paramount. System affiliation, then, is no longer a
criterion for membership. It is expected that all systems
represented by the membership will be discussed from time to
time, although NOTIS continues to be the primary system.
1
Page 10
NewsE-D@INDYCMS - News of the Earth
NewsE-L@INDYCMS - News of the Earth Letters
NewsE-S@INDYVMS - News of the Earth Supplements
NewsE-D is News of the Earth (ISSN 1052-2239) distribution, the
free and public dissemination of global news and information
monitored by shortwave radio by John B. Harlan.
Reader/subscriber discussion is encouraged on the companion
NewsE-L (News of the Earth letters). Additional news and
information from other sources is made available on NewsE-S
(News of the Earth supplements). NewsE-D and NewsE-S are
successors to JBH Online (ISSN 0896-8241) and JBH News (ISSN
1048-7999), published electronically from 1987 to 1990 as
Online-L and JBHNewsL.
EXLIBRIS@ZODIAC.RUTGERS.EDU - Rare Books and Manuscripts
ExLibris is an unmoderated news and discussion group for the
purpose of discussing matters related to rare book and
manuscript librarianship, including special collections and
related issues. You may subscribe by sending a message to
exlibris-request@zodiac.rutgers.edu
with a subject indicating subscription request ("Subscription
request" would do just fine) and a text which gives your name
and electronic address. Messages may be sent to the discussion
group by e-mailing to:
exlibris@zodiac.rutgers.edu
JUGGLINGV@INDYCMS - Past, Present, and Future Jugglers
JUGGLING is an online forum for jugglers of all abilities.
This allows for open communication of juggling topics,
including conferences, newsmedia, and other related topics.
TRAOM-L@AEARN - TRends in Angular Overlap Model
Unmoderated list dedicated to AOM practicioners and other
interested researchers to interchange ideas, comments,
information, computer programs and results, and possibly papers
associated with ligand field analyses by the AOM and related
approaches. This list may also be used to announce
opportunities for doing collaborative research and to promote
such joint projects.
1
Page 11
THEATRE@GREARN - The Theatre List
The purpose of this list is to offer to all people who are or
want to be involved with theatre as a hobby a way to
communicate and share ideas and experiences.
DTS-L@IUBVM - Educational Issues
This list is devoted to the discussion of educational issues by
educational professionals.
PHILOS-LV@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK - UK Philosophers
This list is mostly for UK and European philosophers, but with
a world-wide membership. Information, announcements and
queries predominate over idle or even philosophical chat.
INCLEN-L@MCMVM1.CIS.MCMASTER.CA - Clinical Epidemiology
The purpose of this list is to provide units of the
International Clinical Epidemiology Network presently connected
by electronic mail, with a vehicle for questions and comments
to an "expert" in different aspects of clinical epidemiology.
To subscribe to this list send a mail message to
CLIFTONJ@MCMASTER or CLIFTONJ@SSCVAX.CIS.MCMASTER.CA requesting
a subscription to list INCLEN-L giving your full name and
title.
REFUGE@UCHCECVM - South America after Nuclear War
Nicolas Luco, journalist for chilean newspaper El Mercurio
opens a debate on whether a nuclear middle eastern conflict
would leave South America's southern cone free from disaster.
The results and opinions of the exchange will be used for a
major feature story for El Mercurio, one of the top newspapers
in South America.
STREK-L@HEARN - Star Trek Discussion list
STREK-L is a list for the discussion of the many aspects of
Star Trek, ranging from discussions about the movies, series,
and books; discussions about the characters and/or actors;
discussions about Star Trek fan clubs; to anything else dealing
with Star Trek. This list is open to anyone with an interest
in Star Trek.
1
Page 12
***
*** Letters
***
*** Letters!!!
***
*** Letters!!!!!!
***
*** Send your letters to BITLIB@YALEVM
***
** From: Hank Nussbacher
|