http://www.webreference.com/
This is basically a bible for anyone setting up a Web site. It doesn't
offer to answer queries in the way a newsgroup would, but it has grouped
together all kinds of resources and annotated hundreds of Web sites under
loads of different categories like browsers, conferences, legal issues,
standards, software, tutorials, graphics, HTML, image maps, programming,
security, Unix, usage tools, VRML etc. It caters for both the beginner and
the professional and has a section called Web Wizard of the Month that is
of interest to most users at any level. If you're short on advice it's usually
worth searching here.
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http://www.rubber-chicken.com/
Absolutely no apologies for reviewing this site on the basis that its
domain name is rubber-chicken. Quite unexpectedly, it turned out to be an
American Internet consultant who is a bit of a whizz with a Macintosh and,
not that this man needs any further qualifications to get into the pages
of Internet magazine, his site is like one big experiment, stuffed with
ideas about what could be achieved on the Web. Currently he is looking for
guinea pigs to try out his discussion forums and debate the merits of WebSTAR
software, whilst elsewhere he is running a Mac versus Unix Web server contest
and continues to post the results. It's all a bit of a hotch potch but Russ
Reynaga, Mr Rubber Chicken himself, is such a laugh that Webmasters are
bound to find something worth nicking, maybe even his World Wide Web scratch
'n' sniff!!!!!
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http://www.pictor.co.uk
Unsurprisingly, this is a very attractive site from one of the best
picture libraries in the country. You can find out what's new in the wonderful
world of Pictor, find out how to use the picture library, take a look at
a selection of the pictures available from the company and even download
a screensaver. It's also a good site to visit if you want to find out how
frames can enhance your site if you know how to use them properly. The pictures
are all JPEGs, so they look stunning on a big, quality monitor.
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http://www.cam.org/~psarena/it.html
'It' stands for Internet tools Ü more specifically 'Find-It!',
'Research It!' and 'Promote It!'. The first two services can more or less
be discounted as there are better resources elsewhere, but the third is
practically indispensible. 'Promote It!' helps you promote your Web pages
all over the Net, initially by using the time-saving trick of linking your
site to the most popular search engines all in one go (see 'Submit it!').
In addition, it lists other sites which don't charge to list your site,
specialist interest areas, and those sites which give a mention to some
of the more outstanding Web pages (like CSotD). It then lists other organisations
you can pay to do it for you!
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http://www.construct.net/
Unsurprisingly this is an excellent resource from a very well respected
'high end' Web production house specialising in the over-hyped but much
maligned area of VRML. Useful as a source of examples and information on
VRML's current capablilities, there are links to projects that the company
has been involved with like The Rift, Worlds Inc and Planet Italy. What
singles Construct out is its total professionalism, its commitment to sharing
knowledge and an intelligent attitude to Web development. These are people
with backgrounds at the Well and the Festival of Interactive Media and they
are interested in mapping a topology for digital communications that relates
to the user in 'real' ways. Consequently there is much good stuff about
developing the right 'tools' to build their vision. Keep a close eye on
what's going up.
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http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
A good starting page if you wish to delve into the history of the Internet
or just generally learn how it's set up and who runs it. This is for the
'up and running' traveller and is not a 'how to' guide (there are plenty
of those already). There are pointers to Internet organisations, the InterNIC
Directory and Database services, information on the Internet culture, 'netiquette',
'Internet personalities' and Net archives, including the Internet monthly
reports. NO LONGER AVAILABLE
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http://www.iguide.com/
iGuide has the feel of a very funky online service. Its friendly, lifestyle
focus includes original own brand content Ü celebrity gossip, entertainment
news and a Vint Cerf column. It includes points for parents on letting their
kids use the Internet and also supports its own bulletin boards and IRC-based
chat rooms. In addition to this, inSites, a sort of subsection of iGuide,
is also excellent. An intuitively designed directory of thousands of Internet
addresses, catalogued by subject (entertainment, learning, lifestyle, sports,
shopping etc) and rated, with the best sites getting a possible four squares
out of four. Each entry includes a brief description and can be found using
a simple search facility. Maybe a little mollycoddling for a long-time Internet
user but a great place to go if you're on for the first time.
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http://gnn.com/wr/
Consistently satisfying and with a fresh approach to what's happening
on the Web, this is definitely one for the bookmarks. Covering new sites,
Web gossip and focusing on specific subject areas every issue, the volume
of information is easily digestible. A regular Friday tipsheet gives a glimpse
into American East Coast Internet tales out of school.
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http://cello.cs.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/slamm/ip2ll/
Enter a host name, domain name or IP address and its latitude, longitude
and place name are revealed to you. Not brilliant if you put in an address
in London but great for finding out where obscure American sites are based.
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http://csbh.mhv.net/%7Ebobrankin/tourbus/
Jumping aboard the Tourbus offers a text-based newsletter that stops
at some interesting, often themed, sites on the Net. Usenet, FTP, Gopher
and the Web are all visited and explained in amusing voice-over style. Previous
routes are left up for perusal and provide an entertaining, slightly less
formal way of discovering new sites.
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http://newtoo.manifest.com/
Another long list of what's new Web announcements which are updated
daily. It's also possible to customise the information you get and limit
the list to areas of specific interest.
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http://www.intercom.net/user/rbdrudge/
This is quite a nice idea Ü the Internet equivalent of a desk tidy.
All the URLs you might want to have at hand have been put into neat piles
of hotlinked pages. From FAQs to political facts and figures, from news
and sport to what the weather is like, from free stuff to fun stuff and
Cool Site of the Day...all you have to do is add it to your hotlist.
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http://www.pointcom.com/
Clever little compilation of all the 'what's cool' and 'what's new'
you can handle. Point operates using correspondents who submit reviews of
thousands of sites. It then offers a variety of ways to view the information
it collates, from lists of top sites to reviews and new and noteworthy things
to look at. It has the same sensibility as sites like Yahoo and Cool Site
of the Day so it's normally spot on. Point your browser right here.
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http://www.cnet.com/
C/Net central is actually a cable TV show in the States, but with more
than 75,000 subscribers to this online information source it's gone way
beyond all that. The expertise available via forums and chat rooms is of
a high standard. Regularly updated material on computers, multimedia and
the online services makes it a useful address in the ongoing digital revolution.
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http://www.amraf.co.uk
Top marks for using Eastenders' beer branding for a site celebrating
the Best of British on the Net. Given that most of the recommendations are
garnered from various UK Internet publications, ourselves included, there's
not much to say apart from...er...it's okay.
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FTP to: nic.merit.edu/resources/
This long established, computer-based tutorial for new as well as experienced
Internet 'navigators' is great, as long as you've mastered the FTP software
you'll need to access those resources.
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server@wndrwrks.demon.co.uk
Okay, this is the deal. Mail the above address, put 'send best-form'
in the subject heading. The service you subsequently join has a way of profiling
you, according to what newsgroups, Web, FTP or Telnet sites you recommend
to it. Based on the profile of you it builds up, its automatic server sends
recommendations of other stuff you might be interested in. Phew! And if
you don't understand that, just mail it with the subject heading 'help'
and see what happens.
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http://www.sips.state.nc.us/docs/top-10.html
The worst thing about some of these invaluable new user instruction
manuals is that, as an example of what the Net has to offer, their reams
of dull-looking, scrollable text make a terrible first impression. Fantastic
nevertheless.
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http://www.rpi.edu/~okeefe/business.html
Inspired name - not! But ,it's a very sensible way of doing things.
The number of 'interesting' sites is limited to fifty, but regularly updated.
An ideal way of getting a glimpse of what's online without the information
overload.
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http://www.city.net/checkup.cgi
Just connect to this page and it asesses straightaway what platform
and what browser you are connecting with. It then tells you whether you're
using the most up-to-date browser for your machine and if not sends you
off to get an upgrade.
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http://www.compinfo.co.uk/index.htm
Far from being in the wrong section, this is an excellent source of
online Internet information. Functioning as guide for both computer buyers
and users in the UK, it deals with suppliers, products, services and organisations.
It's also a prime source of industry news.
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http://www.u-net.com/support/comms/
Information relating mainly to modems and the kind of things that go
wrong. This will eventually expand to include ISDN adaptors but at the moment
there is very little in the way of anything at all. Digitised versions of
modem manuals can be mailed to comms@u-net.com.
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http://www.demon.co.uk/eurojournalism/
Although this bills itself as a compilation of links for journalists
working in or covering Europe, it would be pretty useful as a guide before
travelling abroad. Thorough, ordered, but with a strong UK bias, there's
probably a little too much to take in.
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http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html
WWW newsletter produced by Heriot-Watt University Library. Although
directed towards, and originally distributed to, staff and students at Heriot-Watt,
it's useful for anyone interested in technology-related resources on the
Internet. Listserv lists and other email and FTP material is updated alongside
WWW, Gopher and Telnet stuff.
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http://www.wmin.ac.uk/
Dedicated to research and development into hypermedia, the University
of Westminster site defines all the terms and all the Net vocab you're ever
likely to come across. It has a tendency towards hyperbabble but it's worth
checking for new technical tricks. Having read the theory, go to the practice,
where one particular link self-generates surreal comments every 20 seconds.
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http://web.cs.ubc.ca/grn/virtual/virtual.html
GRN, a multi-part article culler and decoder, scans newsgroups for encoded
postings, such as pictures and source code. The results are submitted here
for perusal.
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http://draco.centerline.com:8080/~franl/crypto/
System security is undoubtably flavour of the year and a justifiable
concern. Many see the key to tighter security in devising clever codes to
encrypt transfers so that intervening parties cannot decipher them. This
site contains links to FAQs, publications, papers, utilities and government
policies on this subject, as well as alternative payment systems.
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http://www.uji.es/spain_www.html
Want to find out who's plugged in and what's on offer in Spain? Then
get your Spanish-English dictionary and the latest version of Netscape ready,
and plough in to this snazzy virtual mapped digest.
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http://www.mroy.fi/info/
See the results of Rissa's online probe into Internet user's quirks,
or link to other research results. The information is also available in
Finnish for bilingual surfers.
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http://thule.mt.cs.cmu.edu:8001/tools/nutscape/
Over-Netscape-enhance your favourite Web pages. This site, encouragingly
subtitled Stupid Netscape Tricks, sets out to show the power of Netscape
extensions. For some reason, it doesn't always work.
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Gopher:
rain.psg.com:70/00/networks/connect/africa.txt
How to get connected from Antanarivo to Zanzibar. The author of this
Internet access provider list is expecting an explosion of connectivity
in Africa in the very near future.
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http://www.town.hall.org:80/Archives/guest/npc/
Based in Washington DC, this club is a professional and social organisation
for journalists, established 1908. Basically it provides a bundle of links
to journalist research resources and news media online but it's a bit dry
and much of the information is better found elsewhere.
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http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/BL/
Find out how to deal with electronic junk mail and pesky advertisers
buzzing your favourite newsgroups. There's also a list of crafty Net abusers,
which aims to discourage you from joining their ranks.
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http://www.disa.org/
This site is designed to disseminate information about electronic data
interchange and its effect on business and Net commerce.
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http://www.catalog.com/catalog/domains.html
Find out how to look up and register your own domain name, using both
official and subversive means.
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http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/html-primer.html
A very long primer on HTML and an excellent one at that. It doesn't
just explain the code, it gives style hints, troubleshooting advice and
provisions for avoiding errors.
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http://web.nexor.co.uk/users/mak/doc/robots/robots.html
WWW Robots, Wanderers and Spiders are programs that traverse the Web
automatically, collating references and links in order to build browsing
libraries. This page details many, explains their uses, their limitations
and the damage they can do. There's advice about what to do when your server
is overloaded by a Robot, a standard for Robot exclusion and guidelines
for designing your own.
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http://www.engin.umich.edu/~jgotts/underground.html
This site, while disclaiming illegal encouragements, compiles detailed
information on phone tampering, encryption, hacking and the hacker subculture.
Even if you have no intention of trying out any of these schemes, it can
provide you with an illuminating insight into the mindset of hackers and
a better understanding of communication networks.
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http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/html/
This guide to preparing your own pages isn't bad, especially if you
are compelled to do it all from first principles. It goes into great detail
explaining the code, its uses and its limitations. Fortunately there are
an increasing number of compilers, forms and software extensions becoming
available, which can automate a lot of the hard work.
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http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/HomePage/
Here's a chance for you to try your hand at page publishing. This service
lets you create your own page using a forms-based HTML editor. Pictures
can be imported by reference to another URL but best of all it's free. What
more could you ask for?
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FTP to: ftp.csn.net/pub/net/zen
A free ASCII or Postscript version of this book is available from this
FTP site. It's excellent reading if you wish to find out more about the
Internet, including topics as TCP/IP and domains.
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http://www.internic.net
InterNIC provides information on Internet access, use and network connection.
This service is provided by heavyweights AT&T, General Atomics and Network
Solutions and it's a very useful starting-out point for beginners.
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http://info.isoc.org
This organisation, with both corporate and private members, coordinates
the development of standards and codes of conduct for the Internet. There's
detailed information about its activities and an encyclopaedic collection
of information on the Internet's development. However, it's starting to
look quite dated.
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http://ici.proper.com
The limited information, divided into PC, Mac and Unix categories, on
this site means beginners might find it useful as a launch point for mailing
list information and online publications. However, its search index for
reviews in PC Magazine, only returns issue and page numbers. You might be
better off reading a couple of printed monthlies.
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FTP to: nic.merit.edu/documents/rfc/rfc1118.txt
This sounds as though it's going to be quite hip, but in fact it's a
fairly worthy 24-page treatise on the origins and operation of the Internet.
For the uninitiated, it goes some way to explaining what it's all about,
but it's all rather dry and technical. There are a few hints on how to be
a good Internet neighbour but really it's one for the Net historians only.
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http://www.rfhsm.ac.uk:70/0/people/gifs/index.html
Useful paragraph dividers, icons, arrows, buttons and dingbats for Web
page design. Rather than copying the picture file directly into your HTML
directory, you refer to each image's unique URL.
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FTP to: ftp.nic.nnsc.nsf.net/fyi/fyi_04.txt
I've just got on the Internet - what can I do? What's a Gopher? What's
the World Wide Web? How do I find someone's email address? This file sets
out to answer the questions commonly asked by new Internet users and deals
at length with the Internet's evolution, explaining how technical and policy
issues are decided. All should be clear and accessible, even to a newbie.
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http://www.cern.ch
Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, is the
definitive source of information about the World Wide Web, which was intially
developed by Tim Berners-Lee to aid collaboration in physics research, but
has since seen far wider acceptance. This server contains a wealth of vital
Web information, including the extensive WWW Virtual Library (see Libraries).
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