EVERYBODY'S INTERNET UPDATE ==================== Number 4 - July, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An online publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS: 1. Touring the USA in your Virtual Chevrolet 1.1 On the road 1.2 FYI 2. Public-access Internet sites 3. Errata/Updates 4. Contact info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. TOURING THE USA IN YOUR VIRTUAL CHEVROLET It's July in Boston, it's hot, it's muggy and my brain is fried. So no lessons this month, class. Instead, let's hop in the car, crank up the A/C. and go on a road trip! Oh, darn, the car's in the shop (that alternator again)! Well, fortunately, this is 1994, and we don't even have to leave our den. Pull up your keyboard, dial into your local public- access site and let's see what this baby can do. First, we have to figure out where to go and what to do. Let's head over to the wiretap.spies.com Gopher site to pick up a copy of Hans L'Orange's "Tourist Traps in the U.S." It's a guide to all the attractions that make us great, the stuff you just stare at and go "Hey, Martha, lookit that!" like the world's largest ball of twine and the world's second largest coal strip-mining shovel. Once you connect, select Online Library, Articles, Journeys and Travels and then "Tourist Traps in the U.S." It must be great to be Mike Wilkins, Ken Smith and Doug Kirby. They actually make a living writing about how they drive around the country looking for such marvels. Now the authors of "Roadside America" are back on the road again, on "Hypertour '94". You can follow their paeans to monuments honoring people who thought the earth was hollow and the like over the Net, thanks to Wired magazine. Point your World-Wide Web browser at http://wired.com/Hotwired/roadside/index.html. And don't forget to pick up your free souvenir pennant. "Travels with Samantha" is the story of a man, his Powerbook and his journey across North America. Let's pick up Philip Greenspan's classic of online travel, too, via WWW as http://martigny.ai.mit.edu/samantha/travels-with-samantha.html All abooooard! Car sick? How about taking a train ride? Look up Amtrak train schedules via Gopher at gwis.circ.gwu.edu. From the main menu, select General, then Information, then Train Schedules. Or if you'd rather get there (wherever it is) quickly, look up toll-free numbers for airlines via Gopher at cs4sun.cs.ttu.edu. From the main menu, select Reference Shelf, then Airlines, then Toll-free Numbers. Find your kicks on Route 66 (by way of Belgium). Point your Web browser at http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~swa/route66/main.html From Antigonish (Nova Scotia) to Vancouver, you can Tour Canada Without Leaving Your Desk by pointing your WWW browser at http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/clamen/misc/Canadiana/ Travelogue.html Finally, we should probably check the weather before we head out. So we'll use Gopher to connect to wx.atmos.uiuc.edu and from the main menu, select either States for U.S. weather reports and maps, or Canada, for the Canadian counterparts. NOW ONTO THE OPEN ROAD (And Billy, stop hitting your sister, I don't care if she started it)! ALASKA The University of Alaska maintains a number of Alaska-related resources on its Gopher, from information about native birds to probably more than you want to know about "Northern Exposure." Connect to info.alaska.edu and from the main menu, select Information about Alaska. ARIZONA It's back to wiretap.spies.com, this time for Mark Leeper's epic Arizona and New Mexico Travelogue, which, as you might guess, is a detailed chronicle of his travels through the two southwestern states. For more current information, check out RDT Systems and Network's Virtual Tourist Project, which has information on everything from interesting sites to shopping in Phoenix. Special emphasis is given to tourist attractions in the state's largest cities, i.e., Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, with Yuma information promised in the future. Point your Web browser at http://www.rtd.com/arizona/textlist.html Arne Henden's Grand Canyon Guide will tell you what you need to know to plan a trip there. You can get it via anonymous ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/arizona/grand_canyon.henden CALIFORNIA The Virtual Tourist-California is your basic tourist-info center just over the state line on the Information Highway. You can find traffic and road-condition reports, maps, pictures of lighthouses, lists of things to do and places to go and one-stop clicking to a variety of California museums. Set your Web browser to http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtual-tourist/California.html Surf's up, dudes! SurfNet maintains information about surfing worldwide, but it's fitting that it's based in, and centered on, southern California. You'll find everything from classic surfer photos and wave predictions for the southern California coast to surfer tips and even surfer poetry. Go with the flow via the Web at http://sailfish.peregrine.com/surf/surf.html COLORADO Internet Express can keep you posted on the arts in the Colorado Springs area. Use Gopher to connect to cns.cscns.com. From the main menu, select Gopher by Subject, then Events in Colorado Springs/Denver. You'll find listings for movies, music, plays and more. For basic Colorado travel information, get Ilana Stern's guide to the state, available via ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/colorado/colorado CONNECTICUT Atlantic Computing Technology Corp. maintains a World-Wide Web server with various resources related to tourism in the Nutmeg State, at http://maddie.atlantic.com/ct/intro.html. "If you ache for a landscape uncluttered with skyscrapers and concrete, come to Connecticut's Quiet Corner." Even if your yearning isn't quite as strong as the Chamber of Commerce for northeastern Connecticut would like, you might still want to find out what there is to do in the region. You'll find all sorts of information about the area via gopher at gopher.uconn.edu. At the main menu, select Around and About UConn. and then Quiet Corner -- Northeast Connecticut. FLORIDA What would a trip to Florida be without a stop or two at Uncle Walt's? Todd McCartney has written a book-length Very Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (in fact, after several online revisions, he says the next version will be on paper). You can get it via anonymous ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/florida/disneyworld.mccartney HAWAII The online version of The Moon Travel Handbook is a guide to the sights and sounds of the Big Island. It's available via the Web at http://bookweb.cwis.uci.edu:8042/Books/Moon/hawaii.html You can't drive cross-country without stopping at at least one dinosaur exhibit. So check out Honolulu Community College's Dinosaur Exhibit, via WWW at http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/dinos/dinos.1.html. And yes, here is the glory of the Information Highway -- you can drive to Hawaii and not get wet. ILLINOIS The University of Chicago gopher has guides to Hyde Park restaurants and to ethnic restaurants across the Windy City. Connect to gopher.uchicago.edu and select "Chicago!" from the main menu. To get a listing of Chicago galleries and museums, use Gopher to connect to nuinfo.nwu.edu. From the main menu, select Entertainment, then Galleries. And for a different view of life in Chicago, check out biancaTroll's Smut Shack (no, it's not what you think), available via World-Wide Web at http://www.psych.nwu.edu/biancaTroll/ INDIANA Visit the bookstores, theaters and restaurants of Bloomington. Use the Web to connect to http://cs.indiana.edu/inds/localstuff.html IOWA Find out what makes Des Moines the city that it is, via WWW at http://www.dsmnet.com/. Pick up maps of the city to stuff in your virtual glove compartment. Is there anything to do in Iowa City? Well, they do have movie houses, and you can find out what's playing when via Gopher at chop.isca.uiowa.edu. Check out a movie schedule via Gopher at chop.isca.uiowa.edu. From the main menu, select Local and then Movie Times. KENTUCKY To some, the Kentucky Derby IS Kentucky. Catch up on photos of past Derby winners via World-Wide Web at http://guinness.inslab.uky.edu/~stevem/horses/pics/pics.html LOUISIANA The natives always know the best -- and worst -- places in town, right? Find out how New Orleans residents rate their city's attractions in a unique best&worst city guide available via ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca. You'll want to get /rec- travel/north_america/usa/louisiana/new_orleans MARYLAND Pick up Mark Steven's Baltimore travel guide via ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca, as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/maryland/baltimore You'll find lists of B&Bs, hotels and motels as well as information on hunting in the Chesterton/Kent County area via Gopher at martha.washcoll.edu. From the main menu, select Selected Local, State, US & International Resources, then Local. MASSACHUSETTS Ellis Cohen's Boston Restaurant List contains reviews and listings for some 500 restaurants in the Boston area. It's available via World-Wide Web at http://www.osf.org:8001/boston-food/boston-food.html. You can get copies of restaurant reviews from the Boston Globe's Thursday Calendar section by e- mail. To get a list of available reviews of expensive restaurants, write request@globe.com. In the "subject:" line, write: 555111. To get a list of available "Cheap Eats" reviews, write to the same address, only as your "subject" write: 555222. Look up what there is to do on Ol' Cape Cod in Cynthia Sellers's Cape Cod Travel Guide. Use anonymous ftp to connect to ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca and then get /rec-travel/north_america/usa/massachusetts/cape_cod MINNESOTA Look up current road conditions in the Land o' 10,000 Lakes before you head north. Use Gopher to connect to wx.atmos.uiuc.edu. From the main menu, select States, Minnesota and then Road Conditions. NEBRASKA What can you say about Nebraska? That it's flat? We used to think that, until we visited the Nebraska Travel and Tourism gopher, where we found a handy listing of "Nebraska Areas Where the Land Ain't Just Flat." This Gopher is as close as you can get to the feeling of tooling down the road in your '57 Chevy. Why, it's even got the complete text to all those historic markers you were forever stopping at, even though they invariably commemorated local events you had never heard of. Only now you don't have to get out of the car -- just pick up a copy of Nebraska Historical Markers (pt 1) and Nebraska Historical Markers (pt 2), for the complete texts of every single roadside marker in the state. You'll also find information about lodging, interesting sites and the like, as well as mind-numbing details about Nebraska tourism (most tourists to Nebraska come from Colorado). Use Gopher to connect to unlvm.unl.edu. From the main menu, select Selected Gopher Servers, then Nebraska Economic Development Gopher and then Nebraska Travel and Tourism Information. Oh, and when you're done, don't forget to take the 110-question (!) Nebraska Trivia Challenge! NEVADA The University of Nevada will keep you posted on events in Reno and Las Vegas, although the latter calendar tends to focus on stuff like jazz rather than Wayne Newton. For the former, use Gopher to connect to gopher.scs.unr.edu and from the menu, select Events. For the latter, use WWW to connect to http://www.unlv.edu/events/index.html. Suffer from allergies? You might want to check out the Clark County Health District Pollution/Pollen Reports before you travel to Las Vegas. Use the World-Wide Web to connect to http://www.unlv.edu/CCHD/ NEW HAMPSHIRE Look up schedules of plays and other performances in the Upper Connecticut Valley region by using Gopher to connect to gopher.dartmouth.edu. At the main menu, select The Community and then Upper Valley Performing Arts Calendar. NEW JERSEY Princeton's this quaint little town built around a university. Find out what to do and where to stay via Gopher at pucc.princeton.edu. At the main menu, select Travel and Visitor Information. NEW MEXICO This is not your father's travel guide. But pick up a copy of Strange but True Southwest - Weird Sights of Arizona and New Mexico anyway. It's available via anonymous ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/arizona/az-nm-sights NEW YORK The NYC - Net Person's Guide to NYC is just what it sounds like. You'll find guides to everything from bars to bookstores to theater listings. There's a file on abandoned subway tunnels and tracks; another that lists basic NYC "survival" info. Use Gopher to connect to quartz.rutgers.edu (which is actually across the river in New Jersey), and from the main menu, select NYC. But New York doesn't end at the Westchester line. Find out what's happening in the Albany region via Gopher at uacsc2.albany.edu. At the main menu, select Albany/Tri-Cities Regional Information for info on local attractions. Buffalo, the state's second-largest city, has a skyline, too. You can get GIF images of it and other Western NY buildings via World-Wide Web at ftp://wings.buffalo.edu/hh/wny/images NORTH CAROLINA Bone up on North Carolina's share of the Smoky Mountains via WWW at http://www.nando.net/smokies/smokies.html The University of North Carolina maintains an online museum of the American South. You can get there via Web at http://sunsite.unc.edu/doug_m/pages/south/south.html You'll find pointers to lodging, restaurants, shopping and cultural activities in the Research Triangle Park area via World-Wide Web at http://www.rti.org/local_info/ lodging.html">Lodging Know before you go. Use the Web to find out what roads will be blocked or narrowed by construction. Connect to http://itre.uncecs.edu/dot/projmap.html OREGON The state runs a Gopher that lets you check up on local hunting and fishing information. Connect to gopher.or.gov and from the main menu, select Quality of Life, Recreation and then either Hunting or Fishing. Oregon has a lot of big trees. And they're mighty proud of 'em. Apparently, there's some official National Registry of Big Trees, and Oregon is, well, big on the list. Learn all about these wooden Oregonians at gopher.or.gov. From the main menu, select Government, Natural Resources, Department of Forestry and then Big Trees. RHODE ISLAND Brown University's gopher has tons of resources of interest to both residents and tourists, from a calendar of events to information on Ocean State beaches, restaurants, hotels, B&Bs and more. Point your Gopher at gopher.brown.edu and at the main menu, select Providence Local and Regional Information. Find out what's happening at Roger Williams Park and Zoo and the Cormack Planetarium in Providence by using the Web to connect to http://ids.net/~cormack_pl/rw.html. If you want to get tips from the natives (such as: what's the deal with coffee syrup, anyway?), leave a message in the alt.rhode-island newsgroup in Usenet. SOUTH CAROLINA Learn about the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway via WWW, at http://www.clemson.edu/~barryj/bunky.html. TENNESSEE Register for the Smoky Mountain Field School 1994 via World-Wide Web at http://www.ce.utk.edu/smoky.html TEXAS There's more to Texas cuisine than barbecue sauce slathered over ribs. You can get reviews of "health-conscious restaurants" in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area via the Web at http://gopher.metronet.com:70/1/North-Texas- Free-Net/Directs/Rests Read about Texan history on a Gopher at Rice University. Use Gopher to connect to riceinfo.rice.edu. From the main menu, select Texas and then Texas History. UTAH The University of Utah gopher is the place to go for Utah tourist information. Use Gopher to connect to gopher.cc.utah.edu. From the main menu, select Off Campus Info. Pick Recreation for information about local ski resorts and shops. Or, pick State of Utah. Then, ignoring the Salt Lake City police log (unless you must), pick Utah Travel Council for information on everything else, including Panoramaland, which is actually the name for a scenic part of the state, not the tacky tourist trap it sounds like. VERMONT How did a whale wind up buried in Vermont? Find out in the University of Vermont's online exhibit on Charlotte the Vermont Whale, which features essays and images that also explain the geologic history of the Lake Champlain region. It's available on the World-Wide Web at http://www.uvm.edu/whale/whalehome.html. WASHINGTON, DC Find out what's happening at the Smithsonian and the National Zoo on the American University Gopher. Connect to gopher.american.edu and from the main menu, select About Washington DC & the Area. WASHINGTON STATE Besides grunge, Seattle's best known for its coffee. Find out where the natives go for java by picking up a copy of MotherCity Coffee: Reviews of Seattle Coffeehouses, via WWW as http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cpage/mothercity.html For things to do in Seattle besides sipping espresso, there's Destination Seattle. Use Gopher to connect to gopher.seattle.wa.us. At the main menu, select Destination Seattle for tips on restaurants, recreation, cultural activities and more. Winter's sooooo long away. But get ready now by checking out the possibilities for cross-country skiing in Washington. Point your World-Wide Web browser at http://eskinews.eskimo.com/nordic/ WEST VIRGINIA Dave Peyton is a writer who likes to describe the things that make his state unique. Catch up with his columns via World-Wide Web at http://pcn.proline.com/Dave_Peyton/dpeyton.html WISCONSIN Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- A Great Place on a Great Lake. It's your guide to what to do there. Get it via anonymous ftp at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/wisconsin/milwaukee And for a list of places to eat in Milwaukee, use Gopher to connect to alpha1.csd.uwm.edu. At the main menu, select Milwaukee Information, then Restaurant Guide. WYOMING Mike O'Brien has compiled a guide to Yellowstone National Park and environs. You can get it via ftp at our old friend, ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca as /rec-travel/north_america/usa/wyoming/yellowstone_geysers 1.2 FYI Brian Lucas has created an amazing travel resource on the Net: the rec- travel archives. at ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca (if you made it this far on our trek, you'll have noticed that a number of the recommended guides come from there). You'll find detailed recommendations for U.S. states, Canadian provinces and other countries; cruise-line recommendations; basic travel information, and more. Use anonymous ftp or ncftp to connect and then switch tothe rec-travel directory. If you have access to Mosaic, Lynx or some other World-Wide Web browser, you'll want to get ftp://ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/rec-travel/rec-travel.html, which will give you a Web interface to all of the resources. O'Reilly and Associates's Global Network Navigator has its own extensive, and growing travel center, which features guides to specific locations as well as original travel writing (it's currently featuring Jeff Greenwald's saga of travel through remote parts of Asia). Use a Web browser to connect to http://gnn.com to pick the GNN server nearest you. Then select the Travel Center. Speaking of World-Wide Web, you can use a Web version of our virtual tour. Point your browser at http://www.std.com/NE/usatour.html. And yes, I realize I missed some locales. Alas, there either isn't much to do in Delaware, or nobody's put information about such places online. If you do hear of any, let me know! 2. PUBLIC-ACCESS INTERNET SITES GERMANY Erlangen-Nuernburg. Free-Net Erlangen-Nuernburg, 09131-85-8111. Log on as: guest. Local conferences and information, access to many Internet resources and to other Free-Net sites in the U.S. and Canada. German and English menus. Complete access requires completion of written registration form, 2DM registration fee. Voice: 09131-85-2693. MISSOURI Springfield. Ozarks Regional Information Online Network, (417) 864-6100. Log on as: guest. Local conferences and information, access to many Internet resources and to other Free-Net sites in the U.S. and Canada. Complete access requires completion of written registration form. Free. Voice: (417) 837-5050, ext. 15. NEW YORK Buffalo. Buffalo Free-Net, (716) 645-3085. Log on as: visitor. Local conferences and information, access to many Internet resources and to other Free-Net sites in the U.S. and Canada. Complete access requires completion of written registration form. Free. UTAH Salt Lake City. XMission, (801) 539-0900 Voice: (801) 539-0852. Menu and Unix. CSLIP/PPP usage no extra charge. $5 for the first month; $19 a month after that; $102 for six months. WASHINGTON STATE Seattle. Seattle Community Network, (206) 386-4140. Log on as: visitor. Local conferences and information, access to many Internet resources and to other Free-Net sites in the U.S. and Canada. Complete access requires completion of written registration form. Free. 3. ERRATA/UPDATES In Chapter 1, the wrong information is given for reaching a user of the GEnie network. To send e-mail to somebody on GEnie, the generic address form is: user@genie.geis.com. In section 9.4 of the Guide, it is recommended to use the index%% command for getting directory listings via ftpmail. dir%% or ls%% will probably work more reliably. Appendix A may make it seem as if the Simtel software collection is no longer available. In fact it is, via any number of ftp sites. What is no longer available is public access to the computer originally used to house the collection. 4. CONTACT INFO Everybody's Internet Update is published monthly by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Current and back copies are available by anonymous ftp at ftp.eff.org in the pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide/Updates directory; by gopher at gopher.eff.org (select Net Info, then EFF Net Guide, then Updates); and by WWW at http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide/Updates/ If you'd like to receive the Updates automatically, write to net-guide- request@eff.org. As the message, write: add net-guide (do not include your name or address). To obtain a copy of the entire EFF Guide to the Internet, use anonymous ftp or ncftp to connect to ftp.eff.org and look in the /pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide directory, or use gopher to connect to gopher.eff.org and then select Net Info and then EFF Net Guide. You'll find several versions for different types of computers. The file netguide.eff is the generic ASCII version. For general information on the Electronic Frontier Foundation, send an e- mail message to info@eff.org. To ask a specific question, write ask@eff.org. To reach Adam Gaffin, editor of Everybody's Internet Update, write adamg@world.std.com. Everybody's Internet Update is copyright 1994 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Washington, D.C.