This article is classified "Real"
Every morning when I walk into the office of SPC, I sit down at my console terminal, log in and start a program called 'nn'. This program gives me access to the about 80 Megabytes of Network News that is stored somewhere on the 1.2 Gigabytes hard disk of the main host in our little network. The Network News is a part of the Usenet or Internet. This is a global network that has thousands and thousands of computers connected to it at thousands of sites, ranging from individual users to big companies like IBM and Microsoft (and Atari for that matter.) This Network News is a collection of articles of which there are thousands being sent every day by a LOT of people. If I post (send) a message, it is sent to the central machine for Holland in Amsterdam. This machine collects all the messages from all machines in Holland that are attached to the Usenet. Every hour or so, this machine sends its collected messages to a lot of machines abroad, typically to every central machine in every country that is in the network. At night, our computer calls the one in Amsterdam and collects all the messages that have arrived there during the day. They are then processed and divided into groups and formatted, etc. The next morning, they will be waiting for me, ready to be read. Every night, a couple of thousand messages come in, and it is of course impossible for me to read them all. So they are divided into groups, each group discussing a certain subject. Groups are divided into sub-groups and so on. Take for example the group 'alt'. Alt contains all 'alternative' things, items that do not have to relate to computers. So there is an 'alt.tv' subgroup that deals with TV. This one is subdivided into groups like 'alt.tv.simpsons' and 'alt.tv.twin-peaks,' the latter being at the top of my list of groups to read; it is very interesting to see what people have to say about this remarkable program. But it goes a lot further. I mean there is an 'alt.sex' group, and even an 'alt.sex.bestiality' where people actually discuss the sexual attractions of ponies and other animals. And how about 'alt.satanism' or 'alt.evil'? There are also more serious groups about religion, philosophy, and of course computer things. Groups about C programming, modems, printers, Xwindows, networks etc. The 'comp' group is one of the biggest around. So if I have problem getting my TCP sockets to work, I post a message to 'comp.networks.tcpip' and a few dozen to a few thousand people (depending on the popularity of the newsgroup) will read it and one of them will surely have the answer. It is a great way to reach a lot of people with the same interests. It was originally intended for computer topics, but it has stretched way beyond that. Another part of the Network is the Email facilities. Using a program like 'elm' (ELectronic Mail), I can send personal messages to people that are 'on the net'. So if there is a person called 'godzilla' and he is on a machine called 'nirvana' and that machine is on a network called 'dreamscape' in the USA, his address would be: 'godzilla@nirvana.dreamscape.us'. So I can type any message and send it to him. It will then travel to Amsterdam, be queued there and sent to a central machine in the US. This machine will then send it to the dreamscape network where the mailhost will then route it to the machine nirvana and the local mailer there would put it in godzilla's mailbox. Godzilla reads my message and replies to me (stefan@spc.nl). The whole process will take no more than one or two days. If I mail to people in Holland, I have a reply the same day. Now you are probably wondering why the hell the Hitchhiker's Guide is in the title of this article. Well, recently the group 'alt.fan.douglas-adams' has been created. In this group, people chat about the absurd books that Mr. Adams has written and one of them had the idea to create a kind of Hitchhiker's Guide to Earth or something. It will be a database filled with descriptions of things to be found on Earth - descriptions of people, things, countries, religions, whatever. This group is called 'alt.galactic-guide.' I could submit messages about Holland, Amsterdam, the Coffee shops, Windmills, Dykes, whatever! There are already countless people interested, and it is expected that this database will grow to be at least a couple of Megabytes. Ideally, you could request any subject and the Guide would give you a description. They have devised a way of submitting entries for this real Guide, and they want as many people to contribute as possible. So if you think you can describe something in an interesting and/or funny way, feel free to do so and send them to me. I will see to it that they get sent to the right person on the Usenet. Of course if you have access to the Usenet you can check it out for yourself. Entries have to be in a certain format, available at various FTP sites and frequently posted to the 'alt.galactic-guide' group. So get writing, think up funny entries and send them to me! [Update 19970219 by Editor 8: Submit articles to submit@megadodo.com. Requests for information can be sent to librarian@megadodo.com. The Project's dedicated server is, you guessed it, megadodo.com. The Project Galactic-Guide FTP site is: vela.acs.oakland.edu (141.210.10.2) in /pub/galactic-guide]