Everybody's talking about the Internet, including many who don't have a clue about what it actually is. Long-time readers of this column know of my passion for communicating via computer, so it should be no surprise that I am up to my eyebrows in "the Net." Is it useful for screen printers at this point? I think so, and more than a few printers are finding out the same thing. It isn't a huge group yet, but as the numbers grow, so will the utility of being part of the Net.
You can safely ignore the naysayers who tell you that the Internet isn't important, useful, or ready. And you can certainly ignore the cretins who paint it as "83.5% pornographic," as a quickly-discredited cover story in the July 3 issue of Time magazine boldly proclaimed.
What, actually, is the Internet? In many ways, it is a completely uncontrolled riot. Imagine the world's largest county fair, with no rules about who can put up a booth, what hours they can keep, or what obscure politician can speak from a soapbox while handing out lollipops. Unlike traditional fairs, however, Internet users have personal computers instead of booths, and the Internet itself is the result of electronically joining millions of these users in one global network.
The original Internet, called DARPANET, was operated by the US government under the auspices of the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency and served as a communication link between high-level scientists around the country. It allowed researchers at any member school or military base to access super computers and other expensive resources without leaving their home location, and it allowed them to rapidly disseminate and discuss their results.
Today, the Internet is a free-for-all. Most of the original government sites are still active, but millions of users contribute resources and information and millions of users access it. With no rules to speak of, parts of the Net aren't terribly polite. But it works, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. Incidentally, for those who are concerned about our tax dollars paying for the foolishness out there, direct government subsidy of the Internet ended late in 1994.
The first reason to be on the Net is mail. Yes, you already get postal service, and you have a fax machine and voice mail. But there simply is no better way to convey short messages to busy people around the world than Internet mail. Like voice mail or a fax, you can leave information for your correspondents without regard to their travel schedule. However, unlike those methods, Internet mail allows recipients to save the data and use it in their own work by cutting and pasting in either Macintosh or Windows environments. And unlike a fax, they can probably read and reply to your mail from whatever hotel room they find themselves in, as long as they have a laptop computer.
Newsgroups are a public variation on mail. Anyone can subscribe to a group mailing list and get all the messages that other users post. The list of newsgroups changes frequently, and they definitely include a lot of garbage that you will probably have no interest in. (For example, parents of frustrated preschoolers temporarily had a list going called alt.recreation.kill_barney.) But I have found plenty of value in groups such as comp.sys.mac.graphics, comp.publish.prepress, and comp.fonts, among others.
Users will find a few variations on the newsgroup theme. Some groups are completely open, and everyone posts whatever they wish. Some are moderated, in which case someone takes the responsibility of receiving all new messages, distributing those that are meaningful, and spiking those that are either off the topic or counterproductive. And some are just like a magazine in which only one author or organization prepares material and mails it to all subscribers. (As a good start for digging into graphics-related newsgroups, point your "Web browser" at http://jasper.ora.com/comp.fonts/.)
It's hard to believe how many files are available for downloading, which is known as "FTP" in Internet vernacular, after the Unix command for "file transfer protocol." Many of the major software developers--including Adobe, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Novell, and Quarterdeck--maintain FTP sites at which you can grab the latest updates and demo versions of their software. "Anonymous FTP" allows you to get into any of these sites, read helpful text files, and download the updates, patches, or printer drivers you need, without advanced permission. You log in as "anonymous" with the password from your e-mail address (vanhorn@whidbey.net in my case) and select the files. In minutes, those files are on your own computer and available for use. In addition to getting valuable bug-fixes and useful new software myself on the Internet, my daughter found me a nifty Windows cribbage game on an FTP site in England.
Becoming active on the Internet may seem difficult, but it only takes a couple of visits to discover the mind-boggling variety of information you can access. To make your introduction to the Net a little smoother, I've provided a glossary (below) listing some of the terms you're likely to encounter when you go online. Next month, I'll continue my look at the Net by discussing features such as the World Wide Web, providing guidance for attaching to the Net, and identifying tools for working with Internet data.
Go directly to Part 2: October Infiltrating the Internet, Part 2