will begin to make more sense. You might even want to add your two cents (in fact, don't be surprised if a message to you shows up on your screen right away; on some channels, newcomers are welcomed immediately). To enter a public message, simply type it on that bottom line (the computer knows it's a message because you haven't started the line with a slash) and hit enter. Public messages have a user's nickname in brackets, like this: If you receive a private message from somebody, his name will be between asterisks, like this: *tomg* 12.3 IRC COMMANDS Note: Hit enter after each command. /away When you're called away to put out a grease fire in the kitchen, issue this command to let others know you're still connected but just away from your terminal or computer for awhile. /help Brings up a list of commands for which there is a help file. You will get a "topic:" prompt. Type in the subject for which you want information and hit enter. Hit enter by itself to exit help. /invite Asks another IRC to join you in a conversation. /invite fleepo #hottub would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on the #hottub channel. The channel name is optional. /join Use this to switch to or create a particular channel, like this: /join #hottub If one of these channels exists and is not a private one, you will enter it. Otherwise, you have just created it. Note you have to use a # as the first character. /list This will give you a list of all available public channels, their topics (if any) and the number of users currently on them. Hidden and private channels are not shown. /m name Send a private message to that user. /mode This lets you determine who can join a channel you've created. /mode #channel +s creates a secret channel. /mode #channel +p makes the channel private /nick This lets you change the name by which others see you. /nick fleepo would change your name for the present session to fleepo. People can still use /whois to find your e-mail address. If you try to enter a channel where somebody else is already using that nickname, IRC will ask you to select another name. /query This sets up a private conversation between you and another IRC user. To do this, type /query nickname Every message you type after that will go only to that person. If she then types /query nickname where nickname is yours, then you have established a private conversation. To exit this mode, type /query by itself. While in query mode, you and the other person can continue to "listen" to the discussion on whatever public channels you were on, although neither of you will be able to respond to any of the messages there. /quit Exit IRC. /signoff Exit IRC. /summon Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to join you on IRC. You must use the person's entire e-mail address. /summon fleepo@foo.bar.com would send a message to fleepo asking him to start IRC. Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you know they're already amenable to the idea; otherwise you may wind up annoying them no end. This command does not work on all sites. /topic When you've started a new channel, use this command to let others know what it's about. /topic #Amiga would tell people who use /list that your channel is meant for discussing Amiga computers. /who Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular channel. /who #foo would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo. /who by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person on IRC at the time, although be careful: on a busy night you might get a list of 500 names! /whois Use this to get some information about a specific IRC user or to see who is online. /whois nickname will give you the e-mail address for the person using that nickname. /whois * will list everybody on every channel. /whowas Similar to /whois; gives information for people who recently signed off IRC. 12.4 IRC IN TIMES OF CRISIS IRC has become a new medium for staying on top of really big breaking news. In 1993, when Russian lawmakers barricaded themselves inside the parliament building, some enterprising Muscovites and a couple of Americans set up a "news channel" on IRC to relay first-person accounts direct from Moscow. The channel was set up to provide a continuous loop of information, much like all-news radio stations that cycle through the day's news every 20 minutes. In 1994, Los Angeles residents set up a similar channel to relay information related to the Northridge earthquake. In both cases, logs of the channels were archived somewhere on the Net, for those unable to "tune in" live. How would you find such channels in the future? Use the /list command to scroll through the available channels. If one has been set up to discuss a particular breaking event, chances are you'll see a brief description next to the channel name that will tell you that's the place to tune. 12.5 MUDs Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the realm of fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you enter assume a new identity and enter an alternate reality through your keyboard. As you explore this other world, through a series of simple commands (such as "look," "go" and "take"), you'll run across other users, who may engage you in a friendly discussion, enlist your aid in some quest or try to kill you for no apparent reason. Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or God) who was willing to put in the long hours required to establish the particular MUD's rules, laws of nature and information databases. Some MUDs stress the social aspects of online communications -- users frequently gather online to chat and join together to build new structures or even entire realms. Others are closer to "Dungeons and Dragons" and are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people out to keep you from completing your quest -- through murder if necessary. Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs) require you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name and password. One that lets you look around first, though, is HoloMuck at McGill University in Montreal. The premise of this game is that you arrive in the middle of Tanstaafl, a city on the planet Holo. You have to find a place to live (else you get thrown into the homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring. Magic is allowed on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored with the city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your weekly salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become familiar with the city and get your own character, you can even begin erecting your own building (or subway line, or almost anything else). To connect, telnet to collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu 5757 When you connect, type connect guest guest and hit enter. This connects you to the "guest" account, which has a password of "guest." You'll see this: The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna) You wake up in the town's Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for protective holding. Please don't sleep in public places-- there are plenty of open apartments available. Type 'apartments' to see how to get to an apartment building with open vacancies. There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information. Type 'look sign' to read it. The door is standing open for your return to respectable society. Simply walk 'out' to the center. Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you want to see what that sign says. So you type look sign and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then you type out followed by enter, which brings up this: You slip out the door, and head southeast... Tanstaafl Center This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl. High Street runs north and south into residential areas, while Main Street runs east and west into business districts. SW: is Tanstaafl Towers. Please claim an apartment... no sleeping in public! SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment. NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail. NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and other governmental/ bureaucratic help. Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter 'U's, a staircase leads into an underground subway passage. (Feel free to 'look' in any direction for more information.) [Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw] Contents: Instructions for newcomers Directional signpost Founders' statue To see "Instructions for newcomers", type look Instructions for newcomers and hit enter. You could do the same for "Directional signpost" and "Founders' statue." Then type SW and enter to get to Tanstaafl Towers, the city housing complex, where you have to claim an apartment (you may have to look around; many will already) be occupied. And now it's off to explore Holo! One command you'll want to keep in mind is "take." Periodically, you'll come across items that, when you take them will confer certain abilities or powers on you. If you type help and enter, you'll get a list of files you can read to learn more about the MUD's commands. The "say" command lets you talk to other players publicly. For example, say Hey, I'm here! would be broadcast to everybody else in the room with you. If you want to talk to just one particular person, use "whisper" instead of "say." whisper agora=Hey, I'm here! would be heard only by agora. Another way to communicate with somebody regardless of where on the world they are is through your pager. If you suddenly see yours go off while visiting, chances are it's a wizard checking to see if you need any help. To read his message, type page To send him a message, type page name=message where name is the wizard's name (it'll be in the original message). Other MUDs and MUCKs may have different commands, but generally use the same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively simple English commands. When you connect to a MUD, choose your password as carefully as you would one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who enjoy trying to break into other people's MUD accounts. And never, never use the same password as the one you use on your host system! MUDs can prove highly addicting. "The jury is still out on whether MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with gamelike qualities'," says Jennifer Smith, an active MUD player who wrote an FAQ on the subject. She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't do in real life, even if the world is a fantasy world. The important thing to remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly hundreds of people, and not just yours in particular. There's a human being on the other side of each and every wire! Always remember that you may meet these other people some day, and they may break your nose. People who treat others badly gradually build up bad reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of Disapproval." 12.6 GO, GO, GO (AND CHESS, TOO)! Fancy a good game of go or chess? You no longer have to head for the nearest park with a board in hand. The Internet has a couple of machines that let you engage people from around the world in your favorite board games. Or, if you prefer, you can watch matches in progress. To play go, telnet hellspark.wharton.upenn.edu 6969 log on as: guest You'll find prompts to various online help files to get you started. For a chess match, telnet chess.lm.com 5000 log on as: guest You'll find prompts for online help files on the system, which lets you choose your skill level. Other game servers include: The Backgammon Server (telnet): fraggel65.mdstud.chalmers.se 4321 Bridge on the Internet (the Web): http://www.cts.com/~okbridge/ 12.7 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net has its share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make your life miserable (you've already met some of them in chapter 4). There are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many would find healthy. It also has its criminals. Clifford Stoll writes in "The Cuckoo's Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were breaking into U.S. computers and selling the information they found to the Soviets. Robert Morris, a Cornell University student, was convicted of unleashing a "worm" program that effectively disabled several thousand computers connected to the Internet. Of more immediate concern to the average Net user are crackers who seek to find other's passwords to break into Net systems and people who infect programs on ftp sites with viruses. There is a widely available program known as "Crack" that can decipher user passwords composed of words that might be found in a dictionary (this is why you shouldn't use such passwords). Short of that, there are the annoying types who take a special thrill in trying to make you miserable. The best advice in dealing with them is to count to 10 and then ignore them -- like juveniles everywhere, most of their fun comes in seeing how upset you can get. Meanwhile, two Cornell University students pleaded guilty in 1992 to uploading virus-infected Macintosh programs to ftp sites. If you plan to try out large amounts of software from ftp sites, it might be wise to download or buy a good anti-viral program. But can law enforcement go too far in seeking out the criminals? The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in large part in response to a series of government raids against an alleged gang of hackers. The raids resulted in the near bankruptcy of one game company never alleged to have had anything to do with the hackers, when the government seized its computers and refused to give them back. The case against another alleged participant collapsed in court when his attorney showed the "proprietary" and supposedly hacked information he printed in an electronic newsletter was actually available via an 800 number for about $13 -- from the phone company from which that data was taken. 12.8 FYI You can find discussions about IRC in the alt.irc newsgroup. "A Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing," by Darren Reed (May, 1992), provides a theoretical background on why conferencing systems such as IRC are a Good Thing. It's available through ftp at nic.ddn.mil in the rfc directory as rfc1324.txt. Every Friday, Scott Goehring posts a new list of MUDs and related games and their telnet addresses in the newsgroup rec.games.mud.announce. There are several other mud newsgroups related to specific types of MUDs, including rec.games.mud.social, rec.games.mud.adventure, rec.games.mud.tiny, rec.games.mud.diku and rec.games.mud.lp. For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris Worm, read "Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management," by the U.S. General Accounting Office (June, 1989). You can get a copy via ftp from cert.sei.cmu.edu in the pub/virus-l/docs directory. It's listed as gao_rpt. Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked a group of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage," Doubleday (1989). For information on keeping your e-mail private, use anonymous FTP or ncftp to connect to ftp.eff.org and switch to the pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide/Updates directory and get the file netupdate.003. Chapter 13: EDUCATION AND THE NET 13.1 THE NET IN THE CLASSROOM If you're a teacher, you've probably already begun to see the potential the Net has for use in the class. Usenet, the Web and ftp have tremendous educational potential, from keeping up with world events to arranging international science experiments. Because the Net now reaches so many countries and often stays online even when the phones go down, you and your students can "tune in" to first- hand accounts during international conflicts. Look at your system's list of Usenet soc.culture groups to see if there is one about the country or region you're interested in. Even in peacetime, these newsgroups can be great places to find people from countries you might be studying. The biggest problem may be getting accounts for your students, if you're not lucky enough to live within the local calling area of a Free-Net system. Many colleges and universities, however, are willing to discuss providing accounts for secondary students at little or no cost. Several states, including California and Texas, have Internet-linked networks for teachers and students. 13.2 SOME SPECIFIC RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers. You can use these to set up science experiments with classes in another country, learn how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the latest advances in teaching everything from physics to physical education. Among them: ArtsEdge Federally sponsored Online arts resources for students and teachers, it's available on the web at http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/artsedge/artsedge2.html Ask Dr. Math Math professors and college students help k12 students with tough math questions. Students can ask questions by e-mail and browse past answers on the Web. The e-mail address is dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu; the Web url http://olmo.swarthmore.edu/dr-math/dr-math.html AskERIC Run by the Educational Resource and Information Center, AskERIC provides a way for educators, librarians and others interested in K-12 education to get more information about virtually everything. The center maintains an e-mail address (askeric@ericir.syr.edu) for questions and promises answers within 48 hours. It also maintains a Web site that contains digests of questions and answers, lesson plans in a variety of fields and other educationally related information. The Web address is http://ericir.syr.edu/. Health-Ed A mailing list for health educators. Send a request to health-ed-request@stjhmc.fidonet.org