Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 22:43:08 -0400 From: crispen@INTERNIC.NET Reply-To: EFORM@BEACHTECH.COM To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: TOURBUS -- 7 AUGUST 1997 -- VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDYWEB This post contains inline ASCII graphics which look best in a monospace font like Courier. Text-to-speech readers should turn off punctuation now. _________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _ / | / | | / | \ | "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \ |__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \ / /______|----\ | Customers & Agents Needed Worldwide!! |//////| | | SAVE on International Phone Calls! NEW Low rates!! |//////| | | All Countries! See also, FREE & |//////| | | Special Business Reports! |//////| | | |//////| | \_______________________________________________________________|____/ / \ / \ / \ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDY WEB TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm http://www.studyweb.com/ Hi, kids! I have some GREAT news: 1. It looks like there is a pretty good chance that I might actually graduate from college sometime this century. Shocking as this may be, I am now only 6 credit hours away from getting my bachelors degree in economics. Unfortunately, those last 6 hours are going to be pretty tough. I am still missing a 3 hour elective (I think I am going to enroll in CS202 -- "Introduction to the Internet") and I am also missing a 3 hour course demonstrating my writing proficiency (no, I am not making this up). The really funny thing is that I am going to be spending so much time this Fall writing TOURBUS, Atlas (my Web workshop), and the second edition of my classroom textbook, that I am not quite sure when I will actually have the time to demonstrate my writing proficiency! :( 2. Your fearless bus driver has found a second job! Besides working full-time for the University of Alabama's mainframe computer center, I am now also working part-time for Network Solutions, Inc. (the folks who run the Internet Network Information Center, a.k.a. "the InterNIC"). My job with NetSol involves managing the 15 Minute Series (see TOURBUS 4/10/97) as well as writing my up-until-now vaporware Web training workshop. :) I am going to stay in Tuscaloosa until I graduate in December, and then will move to Herndon, Virginia, to work full-time for Network Solutions. And, to answer the big question that everyone is asking right now, "Yes, I will continue to write for TOURBUS for many years to come." The only thing that will change in January is my street address. :) Anyway, since it is going to cost me a bunch of money to ship Alabama's power-line-chomping squirrels all the way to Virginia (you didn't think I'd leave the squirrels here in Alabama, did you?), let's pay some bills. ===============[ DISCOVER THE NET'S COOLEST SITES! ]=============== To receive weekly Web site reviews FREE by e-mail, send mail to webscout-subscribe@lists.kz or visit our HUGE searchable Web site -------------------[ ]------------------- And now, on with the show ... BILLY PILGRIM TANS ALONGSIDE THE CHARLES ---------------------------------------- One of my favorite pastimes is driving our little bus of Internet happiness over urban legends . . . and SQUISHING them. Our latest contestant in TOURBUS' squish-o-rama is the graduation speech that Kurt "Slaughterhouse-Five" Vonnegut recently gave at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his speech, Mr. Vonnegut shared such pearls of wisdom as Wear sunscreen and Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. The problem is that Kurt Vonnegut didn't write this. He has never even given a commencement speech at MIT. The "wear sunscreen" graduation speech was actually written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, and it originally appeared in the Sunday, June 1, edition of the Chicago Tribune. Unfortunately, someone though it would be funny to post Schmich's speech on the Net and attribute it to Vonnegut. Unbeknownst to both Schmich and Vonnegut, the speech has spread across cyberspace like wildfire ever since (I have received 6 copies of it so far). If you want to see the latest information about the Schmich/Vonnegut "sunscreen" caper, check out Schmich's page on the Tribune's Web site at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm You can also find the original version of Schmich's "sunscreen" graduation speech at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm Personally, I think the speech is worth reading. While Schmich is certainly no Kurt Vonnegut, her speech is many times more entertaining than this year's *real* MIT commencement speech by Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations (who, in fact, never even *once* mentioned sunscreen). :) STUDY WEB --------- Searching the Internet is easy. *Finding* what you are looking for, however, isn't. As a professional college student ("college has been the best 11 years of my life"), there have been many times that I have turned to the Net for research information only to discover that what I was looking for was so well hidden in a sea of irrelevant information that it just wasn't worth the effort to find it. One site that tries to solve this problem is Study Web. You can find Study Web on the Net at http://www.studyweb.com/ Study Web site is a meta-encyclopedia for student research. In other words, Study Web is a little like Yahoo! or Point Reviews, but it only has pointers to educational resources on the Internet. As a matter of fact, Study Web has pointers to over 17,000+ research quality sites. Just like Yahoo!, Study Web offers both a subject index and a built-in search engine. The subject index is broken into 25 subject categories ranging from "architecture" and "business and finance" to "science" and "social studies and cultures." These categories, coupled with an interesting (albeit weak) search engine, make Study Web an extremely powerful tool for both students and educators. Actually, I have discovered that it is a tad bit easier to find what you are looking for in Study Web if you bypass their search engine altogether and instead point-and-click your way though their categories. Also, Study Web is a great place to find information about broad, general categories (which is GREAT when you are in the beginning stages of writing a term paper or thesis), but it isn't all that good at finding specific information. For example, a search for the words "Milton Friedman" (one of the fathers of monetarist school of economics) won't give you much. But a search for "capitalism" will give you two pages full of pointers to useful economics resources. As I said before, though, Study Web's search engine is pretty weak. Because of that, the best way to use Study Web is to browse through its categories by hand. One of the REALLY nice things about Study Web, though, is that it "grades" each of its 17,000 links based on its visual content and on the approximate educational level at which that link's information is written. Visual content is graded on a 1 to 4 "apple" scale (1 apple is low and 4 apples is high visual content). The educational level is a tad bit more difficult to explain. Everyone probably knows this already, but here in the United States (and in many other countries for that matter) children are required to attend a total of 12 years of primary and secondary education. Each year of these 12 years is called a "grade." Children start school in 1st grade, and they graduate from high school after completing 12th grade. Why is this important? Well, Study Web "grades" the educational content of each of its links based upon what grade level of student would most benefit from that link's contents. For example, a link on Study Web with an approximate grade level of 12+ would contain information that is only appropriate for students in the 12th grade or higher. If this confuses you, just remember this: the higher the grade level, the more complex and difficult the information (as a matter of fact, Study Web some physics links with a grade level of 14+ . . . this means that the content on these pages is so complicated that it would only be useful to people in or beyond their second year of college). So, in conclusion, Study Web site is a meta-encyclopedia for student research. Just like Yahoo!, Study Web offers both a subject index and a built-in search engine. These categories, coupled with an interesting (albeit weak) search engine, make Study Web an extremely powerful tool for both students and educators! That's it for this week. Have a safe and happy weekend. :) TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP: VONNEGUT AT MIT / STUDY WEB TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/top.htm http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/schmich/schmich0601.htm http://www.studyweb.com/ ===============[ DISCOVER THE NET'S COOLEST SITES! ]=============== To receive weekly Web site reviews FREE by e-mail, send mail to webscout-subscribe@lists.kz or visit our HUGE searchable Web site -------------------[ ]------------------- -------------------------------- TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY -------------------------------- HOWSCUM (a question) Usage: "Howscum Bubba tore down the bob war fence? (Special thanks to Robin Peoples for today's word) YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html [By the way ... that's "you-ay-won-eye-ex"] =--------------------------------------------------------------------= For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway" Visit http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/atlas.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- =====================[ TOURBUS Rider Information ]=================== The Internet TOURBUS - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238 Copyright 1995-97, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM PROMOTE your business on the Internet TOURBUS. Reach over 80,000 people in a Net-friendly way. Our sponsors say "It works!" Make it work for you - contact BobRankin@MHV.net for details. Editors: Reprint TOURBUS in your publication for free - Ask me how. Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to hop on the Bus! ===================================================================== .~~~. )) (\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen /o o \/ .~ Network Solutions Inc. / The InterNIC {o_, \ { Business E-mail: crispen@internic.net / , , ) \ Personal E-mail: crispen@brigadoon.com `~ '-' \ } )) http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/ _( ( )_.' '---..{____} Warning: squirrels.