[11154] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
March Ask Dr. Internet Part I (long)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Public-Access Computer Systems For)
Thu Mar 20 20:50:12 1997
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 14:43:16 -0600 (CST)
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
March 1997 Ask Dr. Internet Part I (490 lines)
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
Subject: March Issue of "Ask Dr. Internet"
This is "Ask Dr. Internet" for March, 1997
This issue went out a day later than usual, so we could
get in some late breaking stories we received in the 24
hours we were working on polishing things up, and final
run throughs with the interview. More news than usual!
Latest news:
DEC just introduced a 533 mhz 61164 alpha chip.
just $595 in thousands, made by Samsung in Korea...
First chip to break the 500 mhz barrier...
[From Kevin Gilmore, guru to the gurus]
Answers to questions received from Feb. 15 to March 15
Q0.
When "push" comes to "shove." Notes on "push" technology.
Will this optimize your surfing? Surf the net for you?
Or drown you in advertizing?
Q1.
Many of the questions received during the past month have to do with
downloading files and pictures with web browsers. What most persons
with these questions don't realize is they everything they see is an
already downloaded file.
Q2.
We still get a lot of questions about the difference between the Web
and the Internet, Intranets, etc.
Q3.
Lots of questions about Apple this month, of course.
Q4.
Why do my color selections change the speed of some programs?
Q5.
How do I see hidden files?
Q6.
What about high speed CDROM drives?
Q7.
How can I control what my children see on the Internet?
Q8.
Please keep us up to date on the growth of the Internet.
Q9.
Selected topics from Edupage, one of our favorite sources:
Q10.
Interview
This month's interview is with Jude Milhon [St. Jude],
the first female hacker, amongst many other accomplishments.
***
Q0.
When "push" comes to "shove." Some notes on new "push" technologies
that "shove" something down your throat, whether you asked for it or
not. . . ?
Will this optimize your surfing? Surf the net for you?
Or drown you in advertizing?
A0. [Also see latest report from Edupage at end of A9.]
Right now it's hard to tell, and though we have been researching the
topic far too long, it is hard to tell what it will actually be when
it comes to your computer.
Believe it or not, a Yahoo search only yields ONE HIT on this topic,
a topic which we have personally seen on discussion groups. . .is it
really the hot new thing. . .or just another way to force you do see
more of what THEY want you to see, whether it is advertising or. . .
What happens when you get something you didn't ask for: at your own
expense? They used to call this "spamming," now they call it "push"
technology. . .but this is all just fiction at the moment as various
companies, including Microsoft and Netscape run a lot of things up a
variety of flagpoles to see who salutes.
Most of you have heard the term "push technology," but classified it
with things that probably come with the new versions of Java and all
that sort of thing. . .hard to really tell. . .but one source says a
person using this technology today spends 12-15 hours a week onsite,
using the current version of push, which is more like pull. What is
going to happen when 12-15 hours worth of information per week comes
to your doorstep like a newspaper?
Believe it or not, a Yahoo search only yields ONE HIT on this topic,
a topic which we have personally seen on discussion groups. . .is it
really the hot new thing. . .or just another way to force you do see
more of what THEY want you to see, whether it is advertising or. . .
That one hit is from PC Magazine, February 18, 1997.
"The Web Delivers-spotlights push technology"
However, a more detailed search of the site that leads to [ZDNET] is
giving many more hits, but not a lot more information.
We don't want to spend a lot of time on something that isn't really,
truly a standard yet so we will keep this short, but it is basically
a program with the potential for you to tell it to go out and surf a
variety of sites for your and bring back what you ask for, including
a wide variety of advertizing which is what pays for the whole thing
. . .as might be expected from the way the Web is developing.
Ask it for enough topics, and you could just sit there forever in an
e-trance of pretty pictures of information flowing across the screen
and across your mind.
We would like to think this will be more useful to you than it is to
the advertisers whose work pays the bills. . . .
Some people think it is the "Best Internet Application" [from C/Net]
and others think it is just more advertizing pollution, with as many
ads thrown in as people can assimilate along with the information an
individual asks for. Our guess is that the ads will be targeted for
the kind of person your information requests indicate you are.
This is all supposed to be part of the 4.0 releases of Netscape, and
of Microsoft Internet Explorer, and other programs. Our guess is it
won't actually be resolved for 100 days yet and then perhaps another
100 days before enough bugs are out that you might see more than the
beta-test versions. For now a search for "Pointcast," the inventors
of this technology.
More in future months, should be fun to watch.
The real question will be whether you are willing to pay for program
usage just to eliminate the advertizing. Anyone whose time is worth
anything to them will cough up a few buck to save hours per week for
the elimination of advertizing showing up on their screen and even a
bit more to have all the information predownloaded in the background
to their machine or to space rented on a different site altogether.
Supposedly there are already a million viewers for this service.
[Note that it does not say a million computers subscribed, which may
mean that they are counting readership in the same way newspapers or
magazines do, presuming that people are sharing.]
Q1.
Many of the questions received during the past month have to do with
downloading files and pictures with web browsers. What most persons
with these questions don't realize is they everything they see is an
already downloaded file.
A1.
We strongly suggest you locate your web browsers' cache directories,
and learn how to copy files that are in them to other locations. It
can save you huge amounts of download time, because everything on an
entire surfing session gets put into these cache files, everything a
person sees on the screen has ALREADY been downloaded, so there will
be no reason to download again to a file to save it in, it is there,
in the cache files, unless you have turned them off, which speeds up
many processes. Many users find that they have to delete such cache
files from time to time to speed things up, some never use them. It
all depends on your preferences and the program preferences you set.
Try different browsers. Ask others for their browser tips.
Practice with this one, it will save you LOTS of time.
Please send us hints for particular browser setups.
Q2.
We still get a lot of questions about the difference between the Web
and the Internet, Intranets, etc.
Reminders:
The Internet is just like the phone system, only it connect computer
sites to each other. There is really no difference, only better Net
lines mean more data can be sent in less time. The better lines are
going to cost you more money, unless you live somewhere that ISDN is
only $30. [ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network?]
The Web is just a certain software [programming] standard to combine
files with pictures, sounds, movies and text. When you look in your
cache files, you will see that a single web page is made up of many,
many files, usually one for each graphic, sound, article, or movie.
The Internet is set of hardware.
The Web is a set of software [programs].
The Web uses the Internet to send data.
There is a lot on the Internet besides Web stuff.
Intranet is just a fancy buzzword name for LAN [Local Area Network].
An advertising game to get people to buy more LANs.
Q3.
Lots of questions about Apple this month, of course.
A4.
So much that could possibly be said about Apple--where to start?
And where to stop?
Highlights:
Apple is laying off 3,000 people [?] [That sounds like too many,
out of a workforce that has already been pared down to 13,000.]
Apple increased its market share from 7.8% in November to 11.2% in January
mostly with the help of Apple clones, not the real thing [or Mountain Dew]
Apple is getting a $50 fee for each legal clone sold, and is extending its
potential market base for future hardware and software upgrades.
What will happen with NeXTStep? Very quiet on that front lately; supposed
to be something out in July, but what will the cost be? And the price?
What will happen with Steve Jobs? As predicted, the Apple founder was not
a half-time employee very long, as the troops rallied around their leader,
making him the de facto five star general at Apple in one fell swoop. The
news about him after that has been a total blackout. Perhaps some reading
of the history of General MacArthur might yield some insights. However it
seems to me that Apple won't be foolish enough to make any demotions in an
extremely public manner as President Truman did with MacArthur.
Q4.
Why do my color selections change the speed of some programs?
A4.
Some of our users have noticed that when they install new video cards that
the optimal selection for speed might not be the highest number of colors.
We suggest you test your video applications with 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits, to
see which runs best for you; there may be significant degradation in movie
speed and flexibility when moving to the higher levels, but we also find a
significant degradation in color at the lower levels.
Our own tests indicate that 16 bits is plenty for all the color we like or
need, and still fast enough to drag movies around and resize them, without
any noticeable slowing down. 32 bits DOES! take twice as long to process,
and it was a noticeable difference on P120s with a loaded Diamond Stealth.
If you have significantly faster hardware, or do not really care if movies
slow down just barely when you move or resize, this will not be a problem.
However, we didn't notice much advantage in 32 bit mode, except for one of
our most erudite video developers, Steve Weintz. [Hi, Steve!]
16 bits still yields millions of colors, and is good enough for any but an
extremely demanding graphical application that needs transparency.
Q5.
How do I see hidden files?
As operating systems take you further and further away from the innards of
your computer, it gets less and less obvious how to see your own files and
deal with them. The number of times people have asked how to move/delete/
kill/modify hidden or system files is beyond measure. Start here. . . .
In Windows 3.x:
In File Manager [which is where virtually ALL of OUR files live, open VIEW
which is usually the 4th pull down menu [from either side]. [File Manager
is usually in the MAIN program group.]
The very last option in the VIEW menu is "BY FILE TYPE". . .open that.
Again the very last option. . ."X SHOW HIDDEN/SYSTEM FILES"
Be sure that under "OPTIONS", the "SAVE SETTINGS ON EXIT" is on.
Then close File Manager.
You might want to turn that "SAVE SETTINGS ON EXIT" off later on.
Especially after you or someone has messed things up. . .which we
do to ourselves all to often. Same for the general Windows "SAVE
SETTINGS ON EXIT."
We suggest you only turn this on after you have made changes that
you are sure you like. Then turn on, exit, restart Windows, then
turn that setting back off. It takes more than a minute, on most
systems, but when you accidentally hit that "CASCADE" button, and
can't get back to normal, you will be glad you did this.
With Win95
Open the Windows Explorer [bottom of the list when you run START]
and move up to PROGRAMS.
[Windows Explorer has replaced File Manager in many ways.]
When you have Windows Explorer open [not to be confused with the
Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is a Web Browser], you click
on the VIEW menu, and the last thing in the list is "OPTIONS."
The first options is "SHOW ALL FILES."
Mark that with an X.
It will say it will show you .dll, and other files, but it also
shows all hidden files.
Q6.
What about high speed CDROM drives?
We have been testing some of the new 12x and 16x CDROM drives and
there are pluses and minuses to watch out for.
The big pluses we have found are in combining IDE and SCSI which
is something most people will probably not consider. However, it
is unbelievably faster to copy from one to the other than to copy
from IDE to IDE or SCSI to SCSI, on the same order of magnitude a
copy is faster from one drive to another than to another location
on the same drive.
When you use two controllers, the caches can both be optimized to
an unprecedented degree, allowing, for example, the installations
of things such as Windows 95 from an IDE 12x CDROM to a very fast
SCSI drive and card. . .IN ABOUT 10 SECONDS total transfer time!!
For programmers who like to "make" their compiles from first disk
to second disk to optimize disk access you will see the same kind
of improvement with this as you did with two drives.
However, this is NOT for the faint of heart, and most people will
probably not find it worthwhile, as SCSI drives and cards cost an
awful lot more than do IDE, in general.
This is also a good way to make backups, as if one controller has
a problem, you should still be able to use the other.
Some people don't like the noise and say they will wear out, only
buy the ones with ball bearing support, etc.
Unless you are the kind of person who tries to get years and years
of use out of each of your computer components, this will not have
to be much of an issue, especially if DVD CDROMs make these a very
quick obsolete technology.
The next problem somewhat counteracts the previous one.
We have noticed that unlike some of our lower speed drives, these
do not stay spinning all the time, and therefore the wear isn't a
contact factor, and neither is the noise. However, this also can
noticeably make the performance of the drive slower.
If you ask whether your drive has bearings or not, and whether it
stays spinning or not, you might not get a reliable answer. . .an
awful lot of computer salespeople don't know a ROM from a RAM and
have no idea what is actually happening inside a computer. These
are obvious when they are spinning, so if you see a demo version,
you can tell about that, and if they are noisy, you can presume a
lack of ball bearings. . .as a rule of thumb.
Dealers' cost on the 12x's is about $139 and $150 for 16x, unless
they buy thousands. These are IDE prices. The SCSI 16x is $650.
Q7.
How can I control what my children see on the Internet?
A7.
We did some research and came up with these, all of which should
have multiple hits on most search engines:
NetNanny
WebTrack
CyberPatrol
SurfWatch
CyberSitter
Safe Surf
KinderGuard
EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]
Q8.
Please keep us up to date on the growth of the Internet.
INTERNET USAGE HAS DOUBLED
A study by CommerceNet and Nielsen Media Research concludes that Internet
use has more than doubled in the last 18 months, from 10% to 23% of all
persons in the U.S. and Canada over age 16. A Nielsen executive says: "Not
that long ago, the people using the Web tended to be a rather homogeneous
group -- young, upscale and rather well educated. The big gains that we're
seeing now are coming from outside that group." (Washington Post 13 Mar 97)
[All notes in this format are relayed from Edupage]
You might want to note that this trend indicates that approximately 50%
are probably trying the Internet, since the number of households with a
computer is now between 40% and 50% in the United States.
A quick look would indicate that Internet usage is increasing slightly
faster than computer usage. . .however. . .be aware that as any usage
statistic approaches 50%. . .the level of usage can never double again.
"There are lies, damned lies, and then statistics." Usage rates of the
general computerized and Internet population in the United States should
be suspect from now on if you hear very large growth rates. What will
probably be the case will be that they are measuring some specific kind
of usage, and saying that THAT usage is doubling, and wanting people to
hear that GENERAL usage is doubling.
Let's face it, if the average user is on the Net for 20 hours a week,
and watching TV for 40 hours a week, there really isn't any more time.
Q9.
Selected topics from Edupage, one of our favorite sources:
From: Edupage Editors <educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu>
SPEEDING UP OF HTTP PROTOCOL
The World Wide Web Consortium in Cambridge, Mass., an industry
standards-setting group, says that a redesign of the http protocol that has
been the basis of the Web since 1990 will speed up downloads by two to eight
times. Browsers supporting the new H.T.T.P./1.1 protocol will be available
in the spring. (New York Times 17 Feb 97)
ALTA VISTA ENHANCES SEARCH PROCEDURES
Digital's Alta Vista search engine has added an enhancement that categorizes
Web search results. By clicking on a button, LiveTopics organizes pages
with similar content into groups, bringing structure and meaning to the
process. The LiveTopics software creates its topics dynamically using
statistical analysis, rather than relying on a group of predefined
categories. The beta version is available at:
<http://altavista.digital.com/> (InfoWorld Electric 13 Feb 97)
EXPERIMENT SHOWS STUDENTS DO BETTER ONLINE
A sociology professor at California State University at Northridge conducted
his own experiment to test online learning, randomly dividing his statistics
class in half, and teaching one half by lecture and the other half by Web
assignments, online discussion groups and e-mail. The students who'd been
banned from the physical classroom scored an average of 20% higher than
those who'd attended in-person. "The motivation for doing this was to
provide some hard, experimental evidence that didn't seem to exist
anywhere," says the prof, who plans to expand his research to determine
whether the online students performed better because they spent more time
collaborating with their classmates, or because of the online format of the
class. (Chronicle of Higher Education 21 Feb 97)
BAGHDAD SEES INTERNET AS END OF CIVILIZATION
An editorial in the Iraqi government newspaper Al-Jumhuriya says that the
Internet -- which is not accessible in Iraq -- is "the end of civilizations,
cultures, interests, and ethics," and "one of the American means to enter
every house in the world. They want to become the only source for
controlling human beings in the new electronic village." (AP 17 Feb 97)
MICROSOFT WANTS TO STANDARDIZE INTERNET BROADCASTING
Microsoft has proposed a standard format for delivering television-like
channels through the next version of its Internet Explorer Web browser,
capitalizing on the new strategy of using "push" technology to deliver
information to customers, rather than passively waiting for them to retrieve
it. A Microsoft VP says the standard would make it easier for other Web
site operators to personalize their sites for individual users, and to add
animation to their pages: "Internet Explorer 4.0 allows you to take any Web
site and turn it into a channel." Netscape is proposing a competing
standard, which is incompatible with the Microsoft technology: "Both
companies have decided, 'Hey, it's time to batten down the hatches and go
into battle mode,'" says a Forrester Research analyst. (Wall Street Journal
12 Mar 97)
(end of part I, March 1997 Ask Dr. Internet)
