6.0556 OFFLINE 41 (1/112)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 25 Feb 1993 14:18:33 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0556. Thursday, 25 Feb 1993.

Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1993 23:18:38 -0500 (EST)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: OFFLINE 41

Here is the latest. As you will note -- or already know -- we finally
have the ccat.sas.upenn.edu gopher and ftp site working, although we've
been concentrating on gopher. As people learn to use these tools, it may
take some pressure off of some listserv archives, where some materials
(like OFFLINE) might currently be duplicated.
Progress.
Bob
=====

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<<O F F L I N E 4 1>>
coordinated by Robert Kraft
[24 February 1993 Draft, copyright Robert Kraft]
[HUMANIST, IOUDAIOS, RELIGION, etc., 25 February 1993]
[Religious Studies News 8.2 (May 1993)]
[CSSR Bulletin 22.2 (April 1993)]
[codes: <t>...</(t)> titles, <emph>...</> emphasis,
<h>/<h1>/<h2>...</(h)> levels of headings.]
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This installment of OFFLINE continues the message that if you are
not yet on "the net," you are missing out on a great deal (of
course, in return, you may be saving your sanity, not to mention
a lot of time that might also be used to advantage elsewhere).
The observation bears repeating: the long awaited "information
explosion" associated with the "new technologies" is upon us with
a vengeance. And the net is where it is at with special ferocity.

Previous issues of OFFLINE have addressed such matters as
finding affordable links to the Internet, getting to library
resources remotely, electronic scholarly discussion groups,
tools and archives available from the net, and some of the
growing frustrations of trying to take advantage of this
explosive technology. A recurring complaint, or plea, has been
for tools and services that will help organize and facilitate
access to the desired treasures. Much still needs to be done in
this area, but among the bright lights now appearing on the
horizon is a series of access assisting programs (awkwardly, it
seems to me, called "clients," which operate as the relatively
less active part of a "client-server" relationship on the
network; my local "client" accesses the central "server"), one of
which will be highlighted in this column.

<h>Appeasing the Non-Networked</>

For those of you who, for whatever reason, have not chosen or
have not been able to connect to the net, please do not feel
abandoned by all this net-related hoopla. There are still lots of
other things going on in the computing for humanists world.
Indeed, a new publication has just crossed my desk that promises
to take up some of the slack left by us net enthusiasts: it is
called <t>Computer-Assisted Research Forum: A Reader-friendly
Bulletin for Academics and Educators in the Humanities</>, edited
by Todd J. B. Blayone at McGill University
(cxfw@musica.mcgill.ca). It plans to appear three times during
each academic year at a cost of $10 Canadian ($8.50 US). The PO
address is Birks Building, McGill University, 3520 University
Street, Montreal PQ-H3A 2A7, Canada. The first issue appeared in
Fall 1992 with articles on bibliographic programs (comparative
review, part 1), graphics-mode and multilingual word processors
for DOS, and (of course) something on e-mail. The current issue,
which arrived as a complimentary copy, adds discussions on
language learning, on text analysis software for the Mac, and (of
course) on electronic discussion groups. Looks quite promising.

Similarly, coverage in the more established newsletters that deal
with humanities computing as mentioned in previous columns
deserves to be kept in view. Indeed, Eric Dahlin has done such an
impressive job with his REACH (Research & Educational
Applications of Computers in the Humanities) Newsletter of the
Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California at
Santa Barbara CA 93106-3170 that he has also taken over as editor
of the Newsletter of the ACH (Association for Computers and the
Humanities), using the same address. Readers would do well to
keep their eyes on these and similar hardcopy sources of
information -- which also appear in electronic form on the
networks (contact hcfidahl@ucsbuxa.bitnet or @ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu),
to which this discussion now turns.




<----->

Please send information, suggestions or queries concerning
OFFLINE to Robert A. Kraft, Box 36 College Hall, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6303. Telephone (215) 898-
5827. Internet address: KRAFT@CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU (please note
that the previous electronic address is no longer preferred).
To request printed information or materials from
OFFLINE, please supply an appropriately sized, self-addressed
envelope or an address label. A complete electronic file of
OFFLINE columns is available upon request (for IBM/DOS, Mac, or
IBYCUS), or from the CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU Gopher (see above), or in
part from the HUMANIST (BROWNVM.bitnet) or IOUDAIOS
(YORKVM1.bitnet) ListServ facilities.

//end #41//


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[A complete version of this newsletter is now available through the
fileserver, s.v. OFFLINE 41. You may obtain a copy by issuing
the command -- GET filename filetype HUMANIST -- either interactively or
as a batch-job, addressed to ListServ@Brownvm. Thus on a VM/CMS system,
you say interactively: TELL LISTSERV AT BROWNVM GET filename filetype
HUMANIST; if you are not on a VM/CMS system, send mail to
ListServ@Brownvm with the GET command as the first and only line. For
more details see the "Guide to Humanist". Problems should be reported
to David Sitman, A79@TAUNIVM, after you have consulted the Guide and
tried all appropriate alternatives.]