The Online World resources handbook

Practical tips http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/12.html
your hard disk. Still, some people opt to do it by email. One reason may be that it is the only way they
can get them. Another good reason is to save time.
For most users, time is an important consideration. There is connect time (may cost you money),
the number of minutes it will take to get a task done (calendar time), and the number of minutes and
hours you must "work" to complete a desired task.
If you must complete a task by 11:55, then a direct connection to the remote source may be the
only answer. Interactive methods like the World Wide Web, Gopher, anonymous ftp, and telnet are the
probable choices.
However, as the number of people using the Internet grows, response time periodically is slow. If
you are out of luck, that important file from somewhere may snail toward you at a speed less than 300
bits per second. To sign on to a remote telnet site can take minutes. You may have to wait what feels
like a small eternity for the next WWW page or gopher menu to show up.
If getting more out of your hours online, then read on. Batch processing of online work can save
you much waiting time.
On the Internet, there are servers set up to give you Web pages by email. There is FTPmail, the
batch alternative to ftp transfers of files. Archie can be used by email. GopherMail lets you browse
Gopher menus by email (see Appendix 6). Sure, it may take more time to get the desired information,
but you will not waste time waiting in front of your display.
You can even search many data bases on the Web by email!
Batch searches of what others say on specialized matters is another exciting opportunity. (See
the discussion on how to search LISTSERV log files, and archives of other mailing list systems, in
Chapter 7 and 10).
Coping with other languages
The typical method is to start with some language training. The next step is usually to reach for some
language dictionaries or software.
On the web, you can also use an automated online language translator, like the free Babel Fish
service. It allows you to paste in your English language and have it automatically translated into
French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, or go the other way. Other options include Russian to
English, French to German and German to French. The result is far from perfect, but may be enough
to understand or make understood. Babel Fish has a World Keyboard, which let's you write with the
native characters of six languages, including Cyrillic letters.
Check FreeTranslation.com (Spanish, French, and German to English, and more), and
Langenberg.
The World Wide Web by email
Several services let you retrieve Web pages by email. Click here for a list of servers. This page also
lists FTP mail servers, gophermail servers, and Archie servers.
The method described below works with my current favorite, a Web by email service called
Agora in Japan. For help instructions, send a mail containing the world Help to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp.
Web2mail LV DQ DWWUDFWLYH DOWHUQDWLYH DV LV WWW4MAIL.
5HTXHVW ::: SDJHV E\ VHQGLQJ HPDLO WR agora@dna.affrc.go.jp. Put the retrieval commands in
the BODY of your mail, like this
send
The term "URL" may be thought of as a Web address. See Appendix 6 for more and explanation.
Here's an example: If you send the following command:
send http://www.eunet.no/~presno/presno.html
to the Agora Web page server, then a copy of my personal WWW page will be returned to you by
email.
An interactive user of the World Wide web can "click" on marked hypertext words, or mark them
in other ways, to retrieve associated pages with information. The WWWmail user does this by
resubmitting URL codes found appended to the received pages to the Agora server address.
Words of warning:
If the requested document is too large, this WWWmail service will only send you the first 5,000
lines.
If the service is unable to connect to the requested WWW server, you will receive an error
message without much explanation. The reason may be a spelling error on your part, but also
that the network connection between the LISTSERV and the requested server was "bad" at the
moment. Therefore, check your spelling, and try again.
Only the first 5 lines of requests will be processed.
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