6.0626 Rs: Scanners; Gaia; Gopher (3/58)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 29 Mar 1993 14:39:07 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0626. Monday, 29 Mar 1993.


(1) Date: 26 Mar 1993 00:51:52 -0500 (EST) (12 lines)
From: "David J. Bookbinder" <DB0965@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 6.0619 Rs: Scanners for laptops (3/68)

(2) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 10:52 IST (5 lines)
From: <HVUAA@HUJIVM1>
Subject: electric gaia

(3) Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1993 13:11:30 +0200 (EET) (41 lines)
From: LBJUDY@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL
Subject: RE: 6.0616 Qs: Gopher

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 26 Mar 1993 00:51:52 -0500 (EST)
From: "David J. Bookbinder" <DB0965@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 6.0619 Rs: Scanners for laptops (3/68)

TENEX has a scanner that comes with an adapter that attaches to the parallel
port of a PC. The scanner plus adapter is $184 or thereabouts. I just bought
one, haven't had time to test it yet, but it comes with some OCR software, an
image editor, and image-grabbing software for both DOS and Windows. I don't
have their catalog handy, but TENEX has an 800 number which should be
available from 800 information.
-David Bookbinder

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------10----
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 10:52 IST
From: <HVUAA@HUJIVM1>
Subject: electric gaia

for the sci-fi forerunner of electric gaia see the soviet film SOLARIS
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1993 13:11:30 +0200 (EET)
From: LBJUDY@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL
Subject: RE: 6.0616 Qs: Address; Prophet; Peruvian Documents; Gopher (4/105)

Re. Norman Hinton's query about gopher instructions:

"telnet gopher" is what you do as a gopher user without a "client"
program: you telnet to a site that does run such a program (usually
simply line-based, since they're catering to whoever telnets in,
they can't assume your terminal is intelligent).

The instructions about modifying your .link file referred to the
"server" software that actually runs gopher. A gopher server keeps
a file of the addresses to connect to: where everything is on the
net. When you choose an item from the gopher menu, the program
actually runs to this file, sees where it should be burrowing to,
and makes the connection for you. As long as you keep within
gopher, and don't choose a menu item which uses telnet (to a
library catalog etc.) or ftp, you think you're getting menus from
the server you've logged in to when in fact they're coming from
all over the world.

To modify a gopher menu (add an item or whatever), the system
manager simply edits the .link file to add the info. about
where to connect to and what to display as the text of the
menu item. It's very easy and quick. But it has nothing to
do with *users* of the gopher: it's transparent to them.
You as a user simply connect to the gopher server (by telnet
or via a client running on your own computer) and choose
menu items.

Incidentally, ".link" is the name of the addresses (links) file
in the Unix gopher server: the initial period indicates a file
that's run automatically when you log in; a server running on
a VMS or DOS machine would have an address file with a different
name, but the principle is the same. (NB I don't actually know
if there are gopher servers for DOS; there are certainly gopher
clients for DOS, which make life much easier: available free,
I can dig up the ftp address if anyone's interested.)

Judy Koren, Haifa.