Re: UNIX newbie question

[mnementh@netcom.com (David R. Villegas)]

mahaffy@cc (James Mahaffy) wrote:
>Chris Deschu (cdeschu@nyx.cs.du.edu) wrote:
>: Hmm. Until Joe mentioned it, I had never heard of ncftp. I barely
>: have the time to read the CSA2 hierarchy, much less a bunch of
>: general unix/www/net groups with much more traffic. I really don't
>: mind learning something new on here once in awhile about the 'net,
>: as long as it can be directly applied to retrieving appleii info,
>: or something of that nature. Something like this improves my
>: productivity, and gives me more time for other things. Makes me
>: wonder what other gems are out there that I'm missing...
>
>
>I agree with Chris. I had not heard of ncftp either and Joe's
>explanation was clear enough to suggest that it might help my
>productivity.  Little UNIX gems like that that help me get stuff easier
>are helpful.  I don't want a lot of UNIX junk but little gems like that
>(if it is one) are helpful.  Until I read some of these posts, I would
>not even have known where to go for some basic information for folks
>fairly new to the net.  .       

Interest in Apple II's and interest in the internet are two different
things.    What confuses me is how people who find the internet so
daunting manage to locate comp.sys.apple2 in the first place.

A common complaint is that using and keeping up with USENET is time
consuming.  This can be true if you're not using a threaded newsreader
and if you don't really know what you're doing.  Believe it or not,
USENET addicts can zip through hundreds of newsgroups (especially the
the ones that receive hundreds of messages a day) without spending
hours in front of the computer.  The key is knowing how to select
the articles that interest you quickly and discarding the rest.  Of
course, addicts end up staying on the net for hours but at least they
can accomplish a lot more.

Fortunately, learning basic information about the net is _easy_.
Unfortunately, many newbies don't take the time and effort to do the
learning.  A simple means of getting info is to go to a bookstore or
library and get an introductory book about the internet.  Many of these
books have gems that non-newbies may not know.  Ever finger a Coke machine?
UNIX is a different beast but a book like _UNIX_for_Dummies_ covers
the basics.  You may master the internet but UNIX takes some computer
savvy.  And if the manual pages don't intimidate you, RTFM.

If you're using a commercial internet service, you'll probably get an
introductory manual and be able to consult a support staff.  If you're
using an account from a university, you probably had to go to a department
or office to get your account in the first place- see if there are any
introductory pamphlets or one-day classes or just get to know your local
computer gurus (they're the ones in the computer clusters playing Doom
or mudding all night long :-).

Once you get started on USENET, don't forget about news.announce.newusers.
Many services and schools also have local newsgroups where people can
post computer or more general questions and can discuss the programs
available on their computer system.  Often these newsgroups appear
at the top of the default .newsrc file so don't immediately unsubscribe
these groups simply because you only want to read about Apple II's.

Newbies manage to bypass the newbie info.  If you only care about Apple II's
and don't care about how to find info about things like ncftp, just don't
whine about using ftp or about how hard the net can be.

In case your system doesn't have gems like ncftp, www, tcsh, and strn, don't
worry about it.  If you have initiative or know a computer guru, you can
install the programs yourself.  If you have a low disk quota, you're probably
out of luck.

-- 
David Villegas  (ENTP)                                     mnementh@netcom.com
San Francisco, CA                                   villegas@csli.stanford.edu
Drive-by shootings on the information superhighway have begun!