Cybersaber Issue 01
A Computer 'Zine
ISSUE 1
May
Editor: servO (Daniel Stringfield) at 73544,504 on CompuServe
FROM THE EDITOR
By:servO
This is the very first issue of CYBERSABER. This is a 'zine for us, the computer people. If you have something to say, or yell, send a ASCII version to me on CompuServe at 73544,504(Internet users can send it as 73544.504@compuserve.com). Almost anything goes. Freely distribute this 'zine to everyone you know. If you want to be on the list of people who get it regularly, e-mail your name and digital address. You can get a disk mailed to you if you pay for the disk, postage, and the disk mailer in advance. Post copies on your local BBS. And I am sorry for having a fairly lousy first issue, but after you start sending in your own material it will get better. Send in anything any time you like. A subscription issue will be in production soon, so e-mail me if you would like this subscription. A self viewing file format with color graphics and various fonts will be at your disposal if you are a subscriber. This text version can be downloaded on CompuServe from the CYBERFORUM, under ZINES. Thank you for taking the time to view this free issue of CYBERSABER.
Trade Center
E-mail to servO what you have & price
Mini-Case w/250 w/p.s.: $60 or trade for 40M MFM hard drive
CGA Monitor: $50 or trade for 40M MFM hard drive
1 Node Lantastic AI w/ARCnet board: $60 or trade for 40M MFM hard drive.
from Daniel Stringfield
TONS of GIF's : will trade equivalent bytes for anarchy files
from rEDdragon by way of Daniel Stringfield
Robotics "How To" manuals: trade for something nice
CD's: trade for something nice
from Daniel Stringfield
ELL
By:servO
I am creating a new language called ELL. If you want a listing of what I have so far, e-mail the request to me. I should have a file compiled soon. The truth is, it is not a real "language." I have created short (about four characters max, but will increase in size later) "words" the have a close meaning to another shortened word. The word 'hate' translated to ELL is 'IRS'. You see my point there, they also tend to be funny. The phrase 'Can I go to the bathroom?' translates to 'CP', and 'KLEP', coming from the word 'kleptomaniac' which means a person who is a compulsive thief, translates in english as 'I have to steal'. So you see, it's just a fun and funny project I am working on. I have already created a number system so you can even count in this new language!(Pretty amazing isn't it?)
INTERNET
By:Nick Rosen
Imagine an electronic, modern day version of the C19th Grand Tour, but instead of a cabin trunk and a steamer, a computer and a modem take today's gilded youth wandering past the accumulated culture of western civilization to date, gaining enjoyment as well as enlightenment out of the journey itself and the diversions available along the way.
It is a spin-off from the explosive growth of the Internet, the worlds biggest computer network, with an estimated 36m subscribers and growing at 20% a month.
By connecting to the Internet, the gilded youth can then transfer himself to computerized databases all over the world. If the gilded youth is a single mother, she could first leave her children at "Kids Cafe" where kids from all over the world converse by electronic mail (and teach each other hacking, the art of breaking into computers over the phone lines). It is maintained by some Academics in Norway. She could also drop into the Femnet, started in San Francisco "to provide more demographic balance in the online world."
He could choose to inspect images of a recent archeological dig in Leptiminus, Tunisia. He could perhaps, compare it to others found in Pompeii or Sicily. He could then skip electronically to the contents of the Australian National Gallery, or the Israeli collection at the Smithsonian or any of thousands of points in "the Dataverse" where arts and literature are stored. The experimental Australian section currently includes 2,800 images and their associated short records dealing with the history of printmaking from the 15th century to the end of the 19th century, and a few on the classical architecture of the Mediterranean. 2,500 images of classical architecture & architectural sculpture are shortly being added to this collection.
A more recent and permanent addition, is the Fine Art Forum Gallery which will be showing a new exhibition each month. It opened last month with a show of 28 paintings by Australian artist Wendy Mills. There is an electronic door from the Fine Art Gallery to the Fractal Gallery, showing computer generated art, and from there to the Mandlebrot Gallery, dedicated to the memory of the great mathematician.
Exhausted by this succession of images, our traveler could take comfort from a good book -- Project Guthenburg has placed the first few hundred, of a planned 10,000 classic, out, of copyrighted books in an electronic library which includes Plato and Alice In Wonderland and Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Since much of the big work is still done by enthusiasts and academics, the choice of subjects reflect their interests.
The Internet was started by academics, which is why much of the data is still relatively lofty. It is increasingly being used as a means of entertainment and business transactions (everything from porn to cheap airline tickets), but the core use is still for researchers and those with enquiring minds. There are over 7,000 special interest groups covering everywhere from Archeology to Zen Bhuddism, to Beavis and Butthead jokes. If your gilded youth wanted to make a comment about one of the books from the Guthenburg project, he could place it in one of the book discussion groups. If his comment were on any general interest, a lively discussion would die up and then fade away as others replied and debated the original message.
Computer programmers are turning the Internet from a resource for the expert computer user into a seamless web of connections for anyone to search for their own special interests without knowing or caring what the steps the computer is taking to fulfill their needs.
The result is a culture pot-pourri which can place an illuminated C15th manuscript one electronic door step way from the KGB's archives, or put the Smithsonian Museum next door to the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz with sound recordings of the author reading his own work.
For moments when the Grand Tour called for something less highbrow, the Virtual Nightclub, a temporary installation in January allowed visitors to walk through images of different rooms, listen to records and look at the latest fashions. MTV DJ Adam Curry has a free gossip column called Cyber-Trash, which last week broke the story that the brothers of Patrick Swayze and Sylvester Stallone had starred in a soft porn film in order to cash in on their famous names. If our gilded youth doubted the story, he could E-mail Mr. Curry (who happens to be in New York) and receive confirmatory details within hours.
Music is already well-represented on the Internet. There is a list of over 200,000 records, complete with reviews and links to others by the same composer or band. There have been some experimental chamber concerts with each member of the orchestra in a different place, and among the many music discussion groups is one for guitarists who want to exchange technical details. It has been become a forum where some leave tablature of their favorite songs. The earliest form of written music, tablature works by indicating the fret number of the note. It is not copyright protected in the same way as the current notation. London band the "Digital Nomads" who produced the first pirate disc in the Philips CD-I format have become the latest to move their activities to the online world of the Internet.
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