Odd De Presno

“ On most online services, many things can happen at each "junction of your road." At one point in one of my scripts, up to twenty things may happen. Each event needs its own "routing." Twenty possible events are an extreme, but three to four possibilities at each system prompt is not unusual. All of them need to be handled by your script, if you want it to visit online services unattended while asleep. It is quicker and simpler to use other people's scripts and programs, although this might force you to use a different program for each service. ”

“ Menus are important when browsing new offerings, or accessing services that we seldom use. Frequent users of a service, however, quickly learn how to do things. Menus may soon begin to annoy rather than please. Reading them costs money, and it slows our communications down. We do not need menus when accessing online services in fully automated mode. Your communications program remembers exactly what to do, and does all the typing for you. ”

“ Nobody can possibly know that you are mute and lame from the neck and down, that computer communication is your main gate into the outer world, and that you are writing messages with a stick attached to your forehead. Therefore, the online world has changed the lives of many people with disabilities. Computer communications have opened a new world for those who are forced to stay at home, or thinks that it is too difficult to travel. ”

“ An MS-DOS computer with 256 KB RAM is enough when using popular programs like PROCOMM. Your computer does not have to be very powerful and super fast, unless you want ultra fast transfers, use a slow communications program, or a complex system of script files. If this is the case, you'll know to appreciate speed and power. You do not need a hard disk. Many do without. Not having one, however, means more work, and less room for storage of all the nice things that you may want to retrieve by modem. Personally, I want as much hard disk space as I can possibly get. ”

“ Monitoring what others do ————————————- The best business opportunities are outside your company, in the external world. We need to monitor customers and markets, find technologies to help develop and build products, research new business actions, find new subcontractors and suppliers, people to hire, and persons to influence to boost sales. In this marketing age, where sales calls cost hundreds of dollars and business-to-business marketers use the telephone or the mails to reach prospects, complete and accurate market lists are most valuable commodities. ”

“ Some services emphasize colors, graphics and sound. They may require that users have certain hardware or special add-on cards in their communications computer. Often, a special communications program is also needed. Other services use methods for presenting colors and graphics already built into their users' computers (and programs) . Colors, graphics and sound are highly desirable in some applications, like online games and weather forecasts. But even where it is not important, there will always be many wanting it. ”

“ That is all it takes to build a personal network. One day you may need it. It will give you an incredible advantage. I have seen people get jobs, partners and clients through such contacts. The online world is full of opportunities.
Watch your words ———————— Written communications are deprived of the body language and tone of voice that convey so much in face-to-face meetings and even in telephone conversations. Therefore, it makes sense to work much harder to build in humor, sarcasm, or disagreement and avoid your words come across as stupidity, rudeness, or aggressiveness. ”

“ The large number of online offerings is bewildering. To be successful, you must have a sound search strategy. Your first task is to locate useful SOURCES of information. The next, to decide how best to find that specific piece of information online. You must PLAN your search. Although one source of information, like an online database, is supposed to cover your area of interest, it may still be unable to give you what you want. ”

“ Many computer experts are ready to help YOU without asking a dollar in return. The same is the case with experts in other areas. You have an impossible decision to make. A lawyer has a dotted line that requires your signature, or a surgeon has a dotted line in mind for your upper abdomen. You're not comfortable with the fine print or the diagnosis and wonder if a second opinion is in order. Just ask, and get help. If you have problems with your communications program, post a message on a bulletin board. Do the same thing if you want to sell equipment. ”

“ Others refer to "conferences" by using the name of the software used to administer the discussions, like LISTSERV, PortaCom, News, Usenet, Caucus, or PARTIcipate. On the bottom line, we're still talking email. However, while private mail is usually read by one recipient only, 'conference mail' may be read by thousands of people from the whole world. All of them can talk and discuss SIMULTANEOUSLY. It is almost impossible for one single individual to dominate. The number of active participants can therefore be far larger than in 'face-to- face' conferences. ”

“ Bits —— Bit is an abbreviation for Binary digIT. Computer words and data are made-up of bits, the smallest unit of information. A bit can be either zero or one, represented in a circuit by an off or on state, respectively. The bits are set on or off to store data, or to form a code that in turn sends instructions to the computer's central processing unit. ”

“ It can support democratic tendencies, the transition to a market economy, the formation and support of businesses, the spreading of interpersonal and mass communication, the forging of invisible colleges among scientists, and breaking-up of traditional and closed information systems developed in some societies. No matter whether your application is useful or just a pastime, online services queue up to help give your life a better content. Some people fear that language might be a problem, and in particular if English is not their first language. ”

“ Others (like Prodigy in the U.S.) force clients to use communication software that makes it impossible to store incoming data to disk. The reason is simple. Information providers want to protect their income. In most countries, you can quote from what others have written. You can cut pieces out of a whole and use in your own writing. What you cannot do, however, is copy news raw to resell to others. If an online service discovers you doing that, expect a law suit. Read copyright notices to learn about the limitations on your usage of data that you receive. ”

“ Electronic mail on the move —————————————- For some time, we have been witnessing a battle between giants. On one side, the national telephone companies have been pushing X.400 backed by CCITT, and software companies like Lotus, Novell, and Microsoft. On the other side, CompuServe, Dialcom, MCI Mail, GEISCO, Sprint, and others have been fighting their wars. Nobody really thought much about the Internet, until suddenly, it was there for everybody. The incident has changed the global email scene fundamentally. One thing seems reasonably certain: that the Internet will grow. ”

“ Telnet ——— A program on the Internet that allows logins to another computer to run software there. Telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote system at another site as if the user's terminal was connected directly to the remote computer. With telnet, you can browse menus, read text files, use gopher services, and search online databases. Sometimes, you can join live, interactive games and chat with other callers. Usually, you cannot download files or list file directories. Telnet is not available to users who have email only access to the Internet. ”

“ Our major problem is how to use what we have access to. This is especially true on the Internet. Expect future personal information agents, called "knowbots," which will scan databases all over the online world for specific information at a user's bidding. This will make personal knowledge of where you need to go redundant. Artificial intelligence will increase the value of searches, as they can be based on your personal searching history since your first day as a user. Your personal information agents will make automatic decisions about what is important and what is not in a query. ”

“ On the other hand, a modem doing 9600 bps or more, does give you considerably faster communication. If doing things faster is more important than keeping costs down, then it is a wise investment. This is the case for me. Besides, often it is definitely cheaper. Your applications have a considerable impact on your costs. If you mainly use your modem for retrieval of programs and large data files from bulletin boards - and don't have to pay extra for volume - then higher modem speeds will immediately give reduced costs. A slower speed modem may also stop you from getting what you want. ”

“ They need new newspapers, magazines, information sources, and services. Trial and error are required to find online gold mines. As you get more experience, focus tends to shift from getting information to digesting. Getting the data gets 'into your fingers', and doesn't bother much anymore. The number of retrieved lines increases. The only bad news is that your reading speed remains at the same old level. In our time, people tend to talk more than they listen, and you usually find more information than knowledge. Therefore, say NO to irrelevant information. It is seldom worth keeping. ”

“ Long streams of data without stops are cheaper through services that only charge by the minute. Retrieving software is a typical high volume application. Trips that include navigation from conference to conference, with a little bit of up- and downloading here and there, make the average transfer speed fall dramatically. It's like driving through a big city at 150 kilometers per hour. Red lights will reduce the average speed considerably. ”

“ Those who read them will never know whether it's because you never learned how to write on a computer, or if it is because you have difficulties in controlling your movements. You alone decide if others are to know about your personal disability. ”

“ The main purpose, however, is to help participants cope with the absolute flow of information. A conference can have an educational purpose. If so, you may bring in someone who can add value by bringing experience and expertise to the group. You will also need someone to do all the dirty jobs everyone expects to be done - but never notices until they are not done. ”

“ Packet radio —————— A global amateur radio network allows users to modem around the world, and even in outer space. Its users never get a telephone bill. There are over 700 packet radio based bulletin boards (PBBS) . They are interconnected by short wave radio, VHF, UHF, and satellite links. Technology aside, they look and feel just like standard bulletin boards. Once you have the equipment, can afford the electricity to power it up, and the time it takes to get a radio amateur license, communication itself is free. Packet radio equipment sells in the United States for less than US$ 750. ”

“ When you pay for volume ———————————- Some network services, like Datapak in Norway, have high rates for volume, and very low rates for connect time. When using such services, automatic communication becomes less useful. Rather than connecting, getting a piece of information, disconnecting, and then going back for more, you may find it cost efficient to review menus and results while online. When paying for volume, the online service's menus become luxury items. Using quick commands for navigating is cheaper. ”

“ As always, the quality of the people is the first requirement of a good conference. Professional 'Sysops' moderate the discussion in IBMHW. They get up to 15 percent of what you pay CompuServe for using their forum. To them, being a sysop is a profession. They use a fair amount of time trying to make the forum a lively and interesting place. The Printers/utilities section is not just about Epson FX-80. Its members have hundreds of different printers, each with their own set of user problems. Let's use this to explain differences between some conferencing systems. ”

“ MetaNet regularly 'ports' (exchanges) conference notes with systems in Europe, Asia and North America. Exchanging conferences have long traditions in the bulletin board world. To some, it is routine to call Thunderball Cave BBS in Oslo to discuss photography with people in California. New messages are exchanged daily across country boundaries. The global web of connections between computers enables us to discuss with people living in other parts of the world, as if they were living next door. ”

“ Reuse of data on your hard disk ———————————————- Over time your personal archives will grow in size. You begin to experience the benefits of having all this information on your hard disk. Yesterday's news is today's history, and may be used in many interesting ways. One business executive regularly monitors key technologies, customers, competitors, and suppliers. He does it by tapping sources like KOMPASS, Associated Press, and Reuters. Interesting bits of information are regularly stored on his disk. ”

“ EUNET is a UUCP based network in Europe. JUNET is an equivalent network in Japan. There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and the Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used.
Usenet ——— Usenet, Netnews, or just "News" are common terms for a large many-to-many conferencing (only) system distributed through UUCP, Internet, FidoNet, and BITNET. This grassroots driven "network" has grown out of the global university and research domains. It is a service rather than a real network. It is not an organization, and has no central authority. ”

“ Small online services often have interesting offerings in specialized areas, and especially when they are based on local phenomena or events. They tend to be more personal. They often present their 'wares' in a local language, and offer very large collections of free software. The large online services have hundreds of thousands of users. The activity is often high. They usually attract interesting (and competent) participants to their conferences and forums, have more programs available for download and more news sources and databases to search. They generally give you a wider choice. ”

“ One typical motive is to reduce an online service's own communications costs. KIDLINK is a global project for children between 10 - 15 years of age. It allows kids to discuss through a system of electronic mail. Part of the dialog takes place by the children sending email to a recipient called KIDCAFE. A message to 'the cafe' goes through the international networks to a host computer in North Dakota (U.S.A.) . There, a computer program called LISTSERV distributes copies of the message to names on an electronic address list. ”

“ You must have a modem ——————————- Some computers are always connected to a network. If this is your situation, then you probably have what you need already. The rest of us need a modem. A modem is a small piece of equipment that is translating the internal, electrical signals of the computer to sound codes. These codes can be sent over an ordinary telephone line. You may think of it as a type of Morse alphabet. The recipient of data also needs a modem. ”

“ It is a good idea to visit NewsNet to gather intelligence. Review indexes of potentially interesting newsletters. Save them on your hard disk for future references. You never know when they may be of use. The newsletters within computers and electronics bring forecasts of market trends, evaluation of hardware and software, prices, information about IBM and other leading companies. You will find stories about technological developments of modems, robots, lasers, video players, graphics, and communications software. ”

“ Your "physical" contact with the service is when your modem is disconnected. The help menus that you read belong to your program, and not the online service. You read and respond to mail in a reading module (ref. the term "offline reader") . Some offline readers give the caller access to more tools than is available on the online service itself. They may have spelling checkers, multimedia support, let you use your favorite editor or word processor, and offer various storage, search, and printing options. ”

“ This private database therefore contains more relevant information per kilobyte than the online databases I'm using. Searching the data often gives enough good hits to keep me from going online for more.
| I repeat: You will often get better results when searching your | | own subset of selected online databases, than by going online | | to get information. It is usually easier and faster. |
On the other hand, your in-house database will never be fully up- to-date. Too many things happen all the time. Also, the search terms used for your daily intake of news will never cover all future needs. ”

“ The communications program ————————————— A powerful communications program is half the job. In my case it's the whole job. Most of my work is done automatically. The communications program will help you with the mechanical transportation of data in both directions. It lets you store incoming information for later use and reduces the risks of errors. Here are some items to consider when shopping communications program: * Seriously consider buying automatic programs ('robots') for access to individual online services, even if that means having to use several programs for different applications. ”

“ As the cost of communicating and using online services continues to decrease, many people will be able to do the same. This is where we are heading. Some people say it is too difficult to read news on a computer screen. Maybe so, but pay attention to what is happening in notebook computers. This paragraph was written on a small PC by the fireplace in my living room. The computer is hardly any larger or heavier than a book. (Sources for monitoring notebook trends: NEWSBYTES' IBM and Apple reports, CompuServe's Online Today, and IBM Hardware Forum.) ”

“ You are not expected to live in the United States or in Norway. Emphasis is on major international offerings available through services and networks like the Internet, BITNET, CompuServe, Echo, FidoNet, Usenet, Dialcom, Dow Jones/News Retrieval, MCI, NewsNet and UUCP. These services can be accessed from almost anywhere. Talking about the Internet, we do not expect that it will be easy for you to get full access. We assume that most people can get access to this network by electronic mail only. ”