On that first day, however, you knew that if you stuck it out, it would all be worth it. So instead of turning around and catching the next bus, you faced your apprehensions and went forward. In the end, that first day became a blur, shadowed by the successes you've had since. USENET is like that, too.
So read carefully, follow step by step, and the first-day blues can be, well, if not avoided, then certainly minimized. That is, unless you are one of those people who never read the introductions to chapters.
That is, unless your school has already created a customized list for you. In that case, you'll be subscribed to between five and ten introductory groups. If so, you don't know how lucky you are, and you can skip the next part on clearing the newsgroup list, unless you want to see what I'm going to put the rest of these people through.
When you first start up a newsreader, a file called .newsrc will be created. If you have never used a newsreader before, I'm going to take you through it very briefly just so we can create this file. At your prompt, type:
nnYou'll see some introductory pages. Read this stuff and scroll through it by hitting the Spacebar until you come to a screen that looks reminiscent of your e-mail inbox. At that point, quit by typing Q, or if you really want to hit some other buttons and play around until you get so frustrated that you want to chuck the computer out the window, then go for it. USENET can do that to you. Watch out.
Once you have quit, type:
more .newsrcFirst, let's find out what newsgroups your site has to offer. From your UNIX prompt, type:
more .newsrc
The file .newsrc is a listing of every newsgroup available for you to read. The more command will pass them across your screen one page at a time. Here is an example of what you will see:
(1b)news.admin: 1-16159 news.admin.misc: 1-10363 news.admin.policy: 1-12847 news.admin.technical: 1-557 news.announce.conferences: 1-4416 news.announce.important: 1-21 news.announce.newgroups: 1-3940 news.announce.newusers: 1-703 news.answers: 1-20677 news.config: 1-1162 news.future: 1-4102 news.groups: 1-73550 news.lists: 1-1691 news.lists.ps-maps:1-1194 news.misc: 1-6093 news.newsites: 1-1390 news.newusers.questions: 1-23600 news.software.anu-news:1-4991 news.software.b: 1-9805 news.software.nn: 1-5094 news.software.nntp: 1-6850 news.software.notes: 1-183 news.software.readers: 1-9035 news.sysadmin: 1-2596 comp.admin.policy: 1-4910 comp.ai: 1-13003 comp.ai.digest: 1-1 comp.ai.edu: 1-1525 comp.ai.fuzzy: 1-2000 comp.ai.genetic: 1-2550 comp.ai.nat-lang:1-1421 comp.ai.neural-nets:1-13010 comp.ai.nlang-know-rep:1-204This is just a few of them. Press the Spacebar to advance to the next page. Notice that each newsgroup name in the list is followed by a colon. The colon means that you are subscribed to that particular newsgroup. News- groups that you aren't subscribed to will have a ! at the end of them.
Notice that, at least in my list, there isn't a single ! in sight. (There probably won't be in yours either.) So the challenge is to change all of the : to !. (Yes, I know, you want to keep some of them, but this way we can begin with a clean slate and work from there.)
Luckily there is an easy way to unsubscribe all of them at once. Unluckily, you have to use the vi editor to do it. Don't get me wrong--I realize that vi is a powerful text editor, but it can also be powerfully intricate and confusing. So follow along and I promise this is the only time I will ask you to do this.
First, you have to open your .newsrc using vi. At your UNIX prompt, type this:
vi .newsrcand press Enter. Your .newsrc appears on-screen just like it did when you used the more command, except now you can make changes to it. Follow these directions:
grep keyword .newsrcI'm using the UNIX grep command to search through my .newsrc for newsgroups relating to my interest as defined by my keyword. If I was looking for a newsgroup relating to computer games, for example, I would type:
grep games .newsrcSuch a search brought the following results on my server:
comp.sources.games! 1-765 comp.sources.games.bugs! 1-372 comp.sys.amiga.games! 1-47535 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games! 1-62417 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action! 1-30867 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure! 1-20229 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce! 1-449 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim!1-14799 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc! 1-15608 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg! 1-21396 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic! 1-18144 comp.sys.mac.games! 1-49855 rec.games.chess! 1-33879 rec.games.moria! 1-15023 bit.listserv.games-l!1-25366 comp.os.os2.games! 1-800 comp.sys.acorn.games! 1-108 comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games! 1-25 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.marketplace! 1-1384If you did such a search on your server, you would probably see some of the same groups and some different ones. Not all hosts carry every newsgroup that's out there.
Let's pick one that looks interesting and see what it has to offer. However, before we do that let's look at our options.
Finding out which program your school supports is easy. Try typing in the commands at your UNIX prompt: nn or tin. If either works, you are in luck and on your way, if not, try rn or trn. Any of these will get you into USENET. If none of these work, check with your campus computer people and find out what your options are for reading the news.
No News (is good news)It's only right. When you cleared out your .newsrc list, you indicated that you didn't want to read any groups, but now, you want to check out a news-group to see whether it's interesting enough to subscribe to. To check it out without subscribing, use the following command:
nn -X newsgroupwhere newsgroup is the name of the group you want to check out. (Make sure the -X is uppercase.) Once you've subscribed to one or more newsgroups, you can read them anytime by just typing nn--this -X business is only for reading newsgroups that you haven't subscribed to yet.
Which group should you check out first? Absolutely your call. Turn back to the list you created with the grep command a few pages ago for some ideas. Personally, I like rec.games.chess, so I will type:
nn -X rec.games.chessI'll get the following response:
Newsgroup: rec.games.chess Articles: 469 UNSUB a Ian Torwick 22 >Star Trek 3D board now so b Elliott Winslow 26 >>Estrin c Kevin Gowen 13 >chess is stupid. d ed.knowles 13 >>1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Bg5!? e Glen Newbury 9 Chess Books f LewisP4909 10 > g Timothy Takach 6 >> h Glen Newbury 3 Time Clocks i Darrin Bond 13 > j crawf 23 >> k Jordan S. Berson 13 > l Peter Stein 53 >Chess Databases: my decision: Chess Assistant m Herb Wolfe 12 >E-MAIL CHESS n Ramjet 24 - o cowboy2 43 > p Robert Hams Jr. 30 :tHE gAME rOOM The Game Room THE GAME ROOM q Herb Wolfe 30 >>>>Weakest GM's Ever r J E H Shaw 14 >> s Jeffrey Golds 29 >>>> --21:28 --SELECT --help:? -----Top3%-----This screen shows 19 messages relating to the game of chess. The 3% at the bottom lets us know that we are only seeing the top 3% of all the messages available for us to read. So if 19 messages is only 3%, that means there is a total of, um" well" you can figure that one out yourself. There's a whole bunch of them.
The names in the left column indicate the author of the posting. The number in the middle shows us the length of the message and the right column gives us the subject. Notice there are a fair amount of >s and >>s and >>>s and so on. These signs indicate that posting is a follow-up to the message directly above it. For instance, in the sequence:
e Glen Newbury 9 Chess Books f LewisP4909 10 > g Timothy Takach 6 >>Glen had something he wanted to say regarding Chess Books. LewisP4909 found it of enough interest that she/he wanted to add his/her two cents worth. Then in comes Timothy who responds to whatever it was that Lewis said. Got that? Good.
We have tricked the computer into thinking that we are subscribed to this group, but we're not yet. Being subscribed means that this group (or groups) will automatically come up onto our screen when we invoke nn. To formally get yourself into the group, type U (uppercase again). This will bring up the message:
Already unsubscribed. Resubscribe to rec.games.chess ?Answer with a resounding y, and you have just subscribed to your first newsgroup.
Group or Folder (+./~ %=sneN) I type mi.jobs and press Enter. Themi.jobs newsgroup comes up: Newsgroup: mi.jobs Articles: 23 of 3389/29 UNSUB a Fred Bosch 1 Telecommunications recruiters, sales, managers b Jimbo98086 20 ****MUMPS Programmers (Search Firm) c Jimbo98086 20 - d Brady Hartman 49 ATEGRA NEEDS SQL RDBMS DE<>S/SYSTEM ARCHITECTSNATIONWIDE e Brady Hartman 49 - f Arbor I Systems 45 Smalltalk and Gemstone de<>nted Ann Arbor MI andNew York g KHANSEN@suvax1 24 Your Cover Letter Critiqued Online and Free h Khris Hruska 6 Looking for people who found a job through the Net... i James Downward 23 Job opening for Macintosh/Newton Programmer j PEKKAN 54 URGENT JOB OPENINGS! k MISTHWEST2 19 SAP R/2 and R/3 Positions for Consideration l Patrick Lademan 42 >>--->Software Jobs >>---> m johnrody@onramp 36 BROADCASTING JOBS-freesample!! n Dan Karbal 18 Computer Operations Manager o JAMES GARY 12 Sales to Physicians/Chiropractors p Jim Dakin 15 Tandem Non Stop SQL, Pathways q Jim Dakin 19 MS C++, GUI, DOS, Windows 3.1, contract r Charles Garces 21 freelance work/experience requested s Patrick Lademan 18 >>--->Oracle w/Forms Exp. >>---> --18:05 --SELECT --help:? -----Top81%-----At this point, I type U to subscribe to this group.
I choose the postings that look interesting to me and type the letter next to each one to select them. The posting
i James Downward 23 Job opening for Macintosh/Newtonlooks good. So does
n Dan Karbal 18 Computer Operations ManagerI type i and n (the letters in front of these messages) and those two postings become highlighted (selected for later reading). I can check out the message summaries on the next page by pressing the Spacebar.
Once I have selected all of the postings I want, I type Z (uppercase) to read the messages I've marked. Let's look at one:
Macintosh/Newton Programmer/Analyst Position Innovation Associates, Inc. has an immediate opening for a full time programmer/analyst to assist in completing a six month development project to develop a mobile, pen-basedgraphic interface to a database system for medical applications. If the project is successful, this position may lead to permanent employment. Applicants should have a BS in Computer Science or Engineering and some experience in developing applications for Macintosh computers and Newton PDA's in C/C++ and NewtonScript. Experience in developing database applications and graphic user interfaces is desirable. For immediate consideration, please send your resume in confidence to: James Downward Innovation Associates, Inc. P.O. Box 1506 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Tel: (313) 997-9338 FAX: (313) 997-9338 E-mail:Downward@Sphinx.Biosci.Wayne.com
My options for responding to this posting are:
How do you know what your choices are? Check with your system administrator. Most systems have at least a few text editor choices. If you have another text editor available, let nn know that you want to use it instead. From within nn, type :set editor editorname where, of course, editorname is the name of the text editor program you want to use.
Pico is a common editor and fairly easy to use. To install pico as my editor on my system, I entered:
:set editor picoFrom here on, pico (or whatever) will be your editor. Other editors you could try instead of pico include emacs, elm, or med. I like pico the best, though.
--and now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
i James Downward 23 Job opening for Macintosh/Newton j David Clark 45 >This may not the best choice to deal with this particular posting, especially if I did a fair amount of groveling and some creative résumé stretching in this message to impress these potential employers. In this case, you would want to consider the next option: responding via private e-mail.
Saving the MessageIf you're not ready for that degree of commitment or don't have your résumé ready to zip off via e-mail, you'll want to save this posting for future reference. Send a copy to yourself by typing M. Doing so will bring up an option for you to type in an e-mail address. You can then mail a copy to yourself.
If you prefer, you can save the file in your UNIX account. Type S and nn will ask you where you want to put it. Type a path (a directory and a file name); if the directory doesn't exist, nn will create it. You can then read the message whenever you want using the more command (remember, just like you did with the .newsrc file at the beginning of this chapter).
nnpost newgroup
where newsgroup is the name of the newsgroup (of course). To post from within a newsgroup, type:
:post
You will be asked which group you want to post to. At this point, you can fill in the name of the group, or if you leave it blank, it will post to whatever group you are in at the moment.
Before you can actually type your message, there are several hoops you will have to jump through. Included are the following:
can Canada usa United States na North America eunet Europe CO, FL State within the USThis can be handy if you are posting something for local eyes only.
There are two types of commands in nn: selection commands and reading commands. When the newsgroup menu is on the screen and you are choosing which articles to read, you're issuing selection commands. When you have an actual message on your screen and you're deciding how to dispose of it, you're issuing reading commands.
a-z Select article for reading. space Move to next page. ? Bring up the Help menu. G Go to another group. N Move to next newsgroup. Q Quit nn. U Unsubscribe or subscribe. X Mark all articles as read. Z Read selected articles.
Space Move to next page in selected article. ? Bring up the Help menu. F Post a follow-up to selected article. M Mail copy of article to anyone. R Reply via e-mail to selected article. S Save article to a local file. Q Quit nn. U Unsubscribe/subscribe to newsgroup.
Group Selection (nntp.msstate.edu 14 R) h=help 1 75840 misc.jobs.offered 2 4765 misc.jobs.resumes 3 258 news.announce.newgroups 4 31 news.announce.newusers 5 46 news.lists 6 964 rec.arts.drwho 7 11161 rec.motorcycles 8 26525 rec.music.gdead 9 15 sci.nanotech 10 19402 soc.culture.japan 11 50 alt.exotic-music 12 21606 alt.folklore.computers 13 171 rec.juggling 14 216 comp.mail.pine <n>=set current to n, TAB=next unread, /=search pattern, c)atchup, g)oto, j=line down, k=line up, h)elp, m)ove, q)uit, r=toggle all/unread, s)ubscribe, S)ub pattern, u)nsubscribe, U)nsub pattern, y)ank in/out *** End of Groups ***Where nn will take you through your newsgroups one at a time, tin gives you the option of choosing which newsgroup you want to read first. The commands are listed at the bottom of the screen. To read a newsgroup, I can type the number in front of it and hit return. Doing so will bring up another menu of all the postings in that particular group. You can then go through them and read the ones that are of interest to you. If you haven't subscribed to any groups yet, typing y will bring in all the groups available to you (expect several hundred). You can then use s to subscribe to the ones you want.
tin is moving in the right direction of providing us a program that is intuitive and easy to use. It is worth keeping your eye on and asking your campus computer folks if they can put it on, if it's not there already.
soc.college
soc.college.grad
soc.college.gradinfo
soc.college.teaching-asst
soc.college.graduation