Dr. Bob's Hot TipsDr. Bob's Hot Tips
eed a little "spice" in your life? Getting bored with
the usual surfing products on the net? Want a little different
slant on the Web? Dr. Bob Lade spends a bit of time each day surfing
for those unusual yet entertaining Web sites he thinks most of
you CyberNetters might find amusing. Some of these links are serious,
some just plain fun. We'll try to update the listing monthly,but
if a hot URL shows up, it will be added ASAP.
I spent a lot of time discussing real audio last month
so this month will be spent on the subject of email and internet
connectivity. In January we
summarized the general topic of internet software
and I'm still getting a lot of response to that subject. If I get ambitious
I'll archive all the past newsletters...maybe next month.
It's hard to believe, but I've been on the net (at least the WWW part of the
net) longer than Yahoo has existed! The venerable search engine from
Stanford University just celebrated its first anniversity by announcing
its IPO (initial public offering). The first permanent SLIP connections
to the web in Ft. Myers became available on January 23, 1995.
I remember it well!
A lot of changes have occurred since "way back then". We now have 7 or 8
Internet Service Providers here in Lee County. The newest is Online Services
USA, and we welcome them to the local internet community. They had three of
their officers present at the last SIG meeting and we all had a chance to
meet them. I wish them well in providing yet another connectivity option
to our area.
In addition to the local ISPs a possibly significant development looms on the
horizon with the February 27th announcement by ATT regarding *free*
internet access. To make certain that I get it right, I have taken the
liberty to copy the opening part of that announcement and since I consider it
to be important, I'll list it here:
hings change all the time on the 'net. I guess that's what is so interesting
about it. Just when you think you can comfortably sit down and read the
Wall Street Journal, they start charging for it! Just when you think you've
got a good deal paying your ISP a minimal amount because all you really
want to do is use email, something else comes along. Right? Right.
Here's a quote from the New York Times Feb 21, 1996:
But Juno isn't the only kid on the street. Freemark Communications , a venture capital-backed Boston group is planning a similar launch in April called "Freemark Mail". Again, the service will be supported by advertisors.
In one of the implimentations the consumer will see an envelope on the screen with his name on it, the name of the sender in the upper left hand corner, and in place of the stamp guess what? Right. An icon of the sponsoring product like a picture of Mr. Peanut! The letter itself will have advertising on it either on the top or bottom, but is not too distracting, I guess. My main doubt is the propensity of the public to willingly fill out a profile sheet describing their lifestyle...
Since I'm "in the business", I've signed up for all the of stuff I've described above. To date I've received a postcard from Charles Ardai, President of Juno Online Services stating that the product is being beta tested and I should be receiving my free installation disk "no later than the end of March". I have heard nothing from FreeMark to date.
ince I received such a large response to my issue on internet software,
I decided to update you on Forrest Stroud's situation at the University
of Texas. Stroud is a senior in Electrical Engineering there and is the
author of perhaps the most widely read Web pages on the net. His "Consummate
Winsock Applications" site is the most popular route to acquiring the
internet client software so many of us are using. Because of the tremendous
amount of traffic on the server at UT, he has had to move to another location.
While I'm not certain that these moves are permanent (what is on the net?),
here are the latest URLs to his page:
http://www.enterprise.net/cwsapps/ (This is the main site)
http://www.supernet.net/cwsapps/cwsa.html (Mirror)
http://cws.wilmington.net/ (Mirror)
ot News Flash!
Don't forget to contact me if you would like to be put on an e-mail list for announcements for the Internet Special Interest Group (ISIG) meetings in the southwest Florida area. We plan on normally holding them monthly on the first Tuesday of the month. This month's (April) meeting will be held on April 9th. I know, I know, that's the *second* Tuesday of the month but my 40th wedding anniversity is on April 2nd and Mrs. Dr. Bob probably wouldn't like to attend a SIG meeting that night!!!. The meeting time is 7 p.m. We'll meet at CyberStreet's new office complex at 1721 Hendry Street. That's just one door south of the Dunkin' Donut place on Hendry in downtown Ft. Myers. Walter will have the 26 inch monitor set up so I'll give a program on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) using mIRC ver. 4.0 (just came out on March 20th). I'll spend about 20 minutes giving a demonstration of the software, then turn the floor open for questions. Questions about mIRC, or anything that comes to mind. Rumor has it we may even have a T1 line to hook up to!!!
New schedules for the introductory internet course are being drawn up. If you have an interest in this class, or know of someone who is, drop a note to me , or give me a call at 772-8229. Have a friend interested in joining the fun on the internet? Have him call me and we'll get him started with an introductory package.
In addition to the introductory class, I am also available for advanced instruction on the internet, Windows95, Word Processing, or what have you. My rates are $25/hour. Reasonable for individual instruction, I believe. Give me a call at 772-8229, or send me an e-mail message and we can talk about your particular needs.
Comments about this page should be sent to Dr. Bob Lade .Reactions, positive or negative will be carefully considered. You're also invited to visit my Web Page to learn a little more about me, my family and our lifestyle.
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