A little more than 6 years ago, a friend installed a 1200 baud modem on my new computer. I don't know whether to thank him or curse him. All I wanted was a simple word processor. I thought I would stop scribbling illegible notes on crumpled up pieces of paper.
I've heard that there is a 12-step program for modemjunkies. Unfortunately, you have to log on to participate. While you are looking for it, here are a few things that may make matters worse:
Enjoy your visit.
For the past several years I have written occasional pieces under the title
Reflections of a ModemJunkie.
Now they are collected in one place. Included in these columns are my impressions of the online world as
well as the rapid change we are witnessing and my sometimes futile
efforts to resist hype and power. My new columns appear each month in
WindoWatch Magazine as well. WindoWatch is a great source of
information and humor in PDF format. My columns are also collected in an online archive for your leisurely perusal.
Enjoy.
Return to index
Getting started on the net is easy with the right tools. The most important is a good starting point. But I don't like other people to tell me what I should see. If you have a news reader configured in your browser, set your home page to News:comp.infosystems.www.announce and you will have an instant and UNFILTERED source of new sites to surf. If you'd rather read the newsgroup in HTML, book mark What's new from CIWA an up to date archive of the CIWA announcements.
M.L. Grant, who used to moderate C.I.W.A. and probably saw more new pages than anyone else around, created a list called "Best O' CIWA".
According to Ms. Grant, the factors she considered important included the following: Interesting, useful
content; an excellent command of the language and
skill in proofreading; non-exclusiveness of access to
the pages by one or another specific Web client;
whatever piques her interest that day; and a
purposeful lack of hype.
None of the foregoing explains how this page was selected as a Best O'CIWA site back in April. 1996, but they are all principles I applaud. M.L. has recently abandoned the list. Send her a note asking her to come back.
Speaking of proofreading, if you are looking for just the right word to use in your next page, check out the OneLook Online Dictionaries That site allows you to search over 50 online dictionaries with one click.
All of which somehow brings me to The Care and Feeding of Web Pages an essential text for web authors. (^_^)
Return to index
Lately, I've been hooked on viewing, creating and editing Web pages, as you can see. (Take a look at the Temple Har Zion page and the Gropper Windows page, for example.)
Readers of my columns and viewers of my pages know I like to keep things simple. I believe it should not be necessary to upgrade your computer every 6 months or add RAM every few weeks to write a letter or browse the Web or even to create Web pages. So, I appreciate applications that do their job with out requiring much in resources. I am happy to share with some recent finds:
DiDa is a simple, small, freeware HTML editor for Windows created by Godfrey Ko. The executable is less than 460 K. Beta version 1.72 was released on October 24,1996 and is available here. The whole zipped file, dida172.zip is barely 300 K. While it is not a WYSIWYG editor, the app includes a fast previewer which will let you view your page without opening your memory-hog browser (and it will let you see how your masterpiece will look in browsers that don't handle "netscapisms," as well). This streamlined application has features not found on much bigger editors, including a status line indicating what line you are on, an invaluable feature for making corrections after running validation programs like Weblint.
A professional version, DiDa Pro is now available at REGNET. Godfrey can be reached directly at godfreyk@faico.com. Tell him I sent you. Check back here regularly for the latest version of the freeware edition. He has also created a whole range of useful web related tools. Check out the Faico home page. All of my pages are edited or created with DiDa.
Return to index
Another recent find is Opera. This new browser is commercial but meets my requirements for special mention. It is small (the compressed file is less than one meg) and offers many innovative features. Its zoom feature is worth your attention. With just a click you can magnify a page (both text and graphics) as much as 1000% or reduce it to 20% of its original size. Thus vision impaired users (including bleary eyed late night surfers) can enlarge the screen to legible size. On the other hand, it is also possible to reduce the screen so that you can see who a whole page is layed out at a glance.
The latest version is available to download for evaluation . Its authors will listen to any problems or suggestions you have and are very responsive. Additional information, including links to sites with software for the disabled is also available at the Opera home page.
Return to index
My addiction to computers can be blamed on George Matyaszek's great BBS, Chicago Syslink and the people who hang out there. If you know anyone who needs a simple, inexpensive e-mail address you can get it there and get the benefits of a full service BBS thrown in. Let your modem dial(708)795-4478
It was on George's board that I first learned of two great user groups:The next meeting will be March 5, 1997 at West Suburban Temple Har Zion. 1040 N. Harlem, River Forest, Illinois. This month our own Jim Smith will give a demo of the latest freeware incarnation of DR DOS.
NICOL now has it's own page at http://lgrossman.com/nicol.htm
I am the president of NICOL and can be reached at grossman@mcs.net Please contact me if you have a computer related product or other computer related information you would like to present at our meetings or if you have any other questions.
River Forest is really in the center of the Chicago Metropolitan Area. I have created a link to directions and maps to help you find your way.
CACHE's president, Peter Hru, can be reached at peter.hru@syslink.mcs.com.
Return to index
The Web can be a bewildering, vast, source of entertainment and information. AltaVista and Infoseek are two of the many new, fast, search engines designed to help you find what your are looking for in seconds.
Also available are tools like Who/Where to enable you to find e-mail addresses, phone numbers and even reverse directories to tell you whose number that is scribbled on that scrap of paper in your wallet.
I do my searches right from here. If you don't find what you are looking for, try Lycos or Excite, or one of the many other search engines available on the Web. Here are some of the best:
I used to have a HotBot search form on this page, but I have discovered that the HotBot form could not be validated at HTML 3.2 without omitting certain tags which I believe are necessary for good presentation. Also, HotBot, which used to be the fastest, has fallen far behind in updating its index. Still, HotBot is easily configured so I have kept a link to their service. I hope they get back on track in the near future.
This form will enable you to search the Usenet news groups, I have found it extremely useful.
Return to index
I am proud to announce that my wife, Sally, has become affiliated with the Baird and Warner Real Estate Agency in River Forest, Illinois. So if you are looking for a house or have one to sell, in Chicago or the suburbs, drop her a note at sgrossman3@aol.com.
Return to index
In addition to being a fascinating page in its own (W)right,
The Oak Park Tourist has an excellent
set of links to information on the creation of web pages, search tools and other fascinating places (including a link to the VMA page).
You may also want to visit some pages I have created:
The Gropper Windows:Genesis in Glass. This set of pages celebrates a magnificent series of stained glass windows by controversial artist William Gropper. For something a little different take a look at the unedited, computer translated French version of the Gropper home page. At the bottom of that page is a link to a service that automatically translates html pages to and from a number of languages.
West Suburban Temple Har Zion.
You may also want to take a look at the home page of the Mid-America Congress on Aging Return to index
(public).
Return to index
Leonard Grossman
Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects. ACLU v. Reno
This page has received a WDG Award for accessibility . Although this page has been validated to the WebTechs "Wilbur" (HTML 3.2) standard, it is not my intention to restrict viewing to any particular browser. If this page presents any problems on your browser, please drop me a note.Return to index