Re: Confusion at the End of the World

[Urge Conch <jsd@gaffa.MIT.EDU>]

In article <BC44FD391EBF206372@ccmail.sunysb.edu> PBMANCHESTER@CCMAIL.SUNYSB.EDU writes:
>       My problem is that I DON'T UNDERSTAND what a lot of this network 
>esoterica is about!  Assuming that I am not alone in this, maybe it would be 
>useful, as we all contemplate the End of the World this week, if one of our 
>technically more experienced regulars could explain a couple of mysteries:
>
>       What and where is rec.music.gaffa?  Apparently it is only one of a whole 
>tree of "newsgroups", the stem here "rec" standing for recordings, "music" for 
>music, "gaffa" for where we live and move and have our being.  From the arcana 
>provoked this past week by Doug's announcement, I surmise that one can post to, 
>and read postings directly from, rec.music.gaffa via a thing called USENET.

rec.music.gaffa is a newsgroup that exists on the internet, but only
some internet sites are equipped to receive newsgroups.  rec stands
for "recreation," not "recordings," by the way.  There are groups like
rec.comics (for comic books), rec.games.chess (you can figure this
out) and rec.music.beatles.  There are also comp. groups (for
computers) and alt. groups (like alt.sex and alt.suicide) for
anything.  Some local clusters add their own newsgroup types too like
"ne" for new england...

>       What is USENET?  Is it the same or other than UUNET?  What is UUNET? 

Well, pretty much everything these days is the internet.  Inasmuch as
the terms USENET and UUNET still apply, they are pretty much the same
thing, but the lines are blurring everywhere.  Only BITNET is still
pretty much alien.

>       I ask on behalf of all us babes in the woods out here, still learning to 
>maneuver on INTERNET, outside the BITNET womb.  To confirm my ignorance, one 
>final query:  I have learned to FTP to an INTERNET server, login as user 
>anonymous, change directories and view them.  But what have I missed that I 
>cannot seem to SEND myself anything?  It seems that no matter what, if I enter 
>SEND filespec, for a file right in front of me in the directory, I get the 
>message "file not found."  Is there some added punctuation I need to use?

Well, "send" usually means that YOU are sending the file specified to
the other system.  I think you want to use "get" to get the file from
the remote host...

>       Final note:  WARMEST THANKS AND ADMIRATION TO |>OUG ALAN as he and his 
>red chair move onward and upward!!

Indeed, |>oug, it's been a great tenure despite the occasional
technical glitch.  I wish I had the resources to take it over from
you, but warmest wishes to whoever volunteered to do the dirty work!

+---------------------- Is there any ESCAPE from NOISE? ---------------------+
|  |   |\       | jsd@gaffa.mit.edu | ZIK ZAK - We make everything you need, |
| \|on |/rukman | jsd@umass.bitnet  | and you need everything we make.       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+