The Online World by Odd de Presno (find a book to read txt) 📕

photography. General info, hints, experiences, equipment, techniques, and stereo "happenings." Anyone interested is welcome to join.

There are clubs for all popular outdoor hobbies.

Roots

On [email protected] and soc.roots on Usenet, the emphasis is on genealogy. Here, you'll get tips about tools and techniques. You can exchange information about ancestors and find new friends and partners for joint research.

On CompuServe, it is called The Genealogy Forum. One message section is called Overseas Ancestry. Remember to check out the Family History Library, a newsletter bringing news from the library for genealogical research in Salt Lake City, U.S.A. (stored in Library 10.) The North American bulletin boards ROOTS-BBS (San Francisco) and THE FAMILY ROOTS (Oklahoma) are connected to FidoNet. GEnie has the Genealogy Knowledgebase. FidoNet has GENDATA Genealogy Database GENEALOGY:_WGW Who's Got What (WGW) Data Base GENSOFT Genealogy software SE_GENEALOGY South Eastern US Genealogy Conference

Since FidoNet has links all over the world, these conferences can give contacts in countries that you might otherwise have problems in reaching.

On most of these services, you'll find interesting genealogy programs and files with practical hints about how to write a book about your family.

Him and Her

Members of the female sex have their favorite meeting places, like Cleopatra on Bergen By Byte. Men do not have admission.

Usenet has soc.feminism. Those with limited access to Usenet, may subscribe to "feminism-digest." Send email to feminism- [email protected] to get on the mailing list. "Contact [email protected]" above means that you need to write a message to this Internet email address with a subscription request, or to receive further information about how to join. This mailing list does not have automatic subscriptions.

To join the mailing list "feminists," write Patricia Collins on [email protected] . She presents the conference's purpose in this way:

The feminist mailing list is intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues of interest to women, in a friendly atmosphere. The basic tenets of feminism and the day-to-day experiences of women do not have to be explained or defended. Men and women can join, but everyone requesting to be added to the mailing list MUST provide the moderator with: (1) a full name; (2) a complete UUCP path to a well-known host or a fully specified Internet address; (3) the correspondent's gender (for records and statistics only). NO exceptions.

While we're at it, let's move on to other topics associated with the term sex:

Bisexuals can participate in "sappho" on UUCP. Contact [email protected]. On BITNET, you'll find BIFEM-L (BIFEM-L@BROWNVM), BISEXU-L (BISEXU-L@BROWNVM) and others. Spanish speaking users can subscribe to ARENAL (Lista de discussion para hispanos/as que desean acabar con la homofobia). Subscribe by email to [email protected] . Usenet has tons of it: soc.motss, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.pictures.d, clari.news.group.gays, alt.sex.pictures, alt.sex.motss, clari.feature.kinsey (Sex Q&A and Advice from Kinsey Institute), clari.news.law.crime.sex and clari.news.sex. Conferences called "SEXUALITY" are alive on FidoNet and The Well. CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Adult Forum and a Human Sexuality Open Forum. [email protected] is a Sexual Assault Activist List. Finally, there are a large number of pictures of nudes in all possible and impossible positions. Most of them are childish, some are decidedly pornographic, a few are beautiful and erotic. The online services' policies vary about what kind of pictures and picture programs to make available. The larger the service, the more conservative they tend to be.

Programs for hobbyists

It's no rule that a service need to have a conference about a hobby, to have interesting programs available for downloading. Programs float around from service to service much easier than conference items. Still, the best programs for a given hobby are normally found on services where hobbyists meet to discuss.

You will find: Chess and bridge programs, Morse code training programs for ham amateurs, Astrology programs, Data base systems for keeping track of music cassettes or records, video cassettes, books, stamps, coins, etc. Information systems for wine lovers, Recipe programs (tell me what you've got, and I'll tell you what you can make), and much more.

Online shopping

You can buy almost anything online: video cameras, books, music, Bonsai plants, golf equipment, canned cakes from Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies, Levi's trousers for men, computer equipment, a four-door Nissan Pathfinder SE-V6 car, and air tickets for Mexico.

Shoppers who let their modem do the "walking" are already a few steps ahead of people Still stuck shopping the old-fashioned way. Experienced online shoppers know that you can tap a world of stores without ever leaving your keyboard, and that you can browse and buy with very little effort. Some services present their wares "for your information only." It's like reading newspaper ads. You must contact the seller to buy. Other services have large online supermarkets with many stores, and you can by while you visit. Subscribers to CompuServe get a monthly magazine by mail. "Go Mall Shoppers' Guide" is a regular insert with color photos and descriptions of selected products. Type GO MALL, order a product, enter your credit card number, and have it sent you by mail. What if used goods are good enough? ILINK, the international conference exchange system, has GARAGESALE. Here you can buy and sell for hobby or home: Photo, video, audio, sound/music and midi equipment, and all kinds of other domestic items. ILINK also has a conference called BUY-SELL. HAM-SALE on the FidoNet is for ham amateurs wanting to swap, by or sell. The American computer magazine PC Week is operating a Buyer's Forum on CompuServe. UUCP's "muscle-cars" is where "muscle car" enthusiasts offer advice, share problems and solutions, discuss technical issues, racing, buying or selling parts, cars, or services, or just discuss cars and swap stories with others. (Contact: muscle-cars- [email protected]). Similar experiences are waiting for you in "BMW" (Write: bmw- [email protected]), "british-cars" (Write: british-cars- [email protected]), "italian-cars" (Write: italian-cars- [email protected]) and "Z-cars" (the topic is Z-cars from Datsun/Nissan. Write: rsiatl!z-car-request). Vintage VW (at [email protected]) is about Vintage Volkswagens. This includes the Beetle, Bus (Types II and II/IV), Ghia, Squareback, Kubelwagen (Thing), bajas, buggies, Schwimmwagen, rails and any VW (air-cooled) powered vehicle including aircraft. Beginners, gurus, mechanics and non-mechanics, restorers and daily drivers are welcomed. This is where you can discuss how-to stuff, parts availability, answer mechanical questions, list show dates, swap meets, club addresses, favorite stories, etc. To subscribe, send a message to [email protected] . The newsletter NEWSBYTES brings you regular reports about prices on used computers from The Boston Computer Exchange (BOCO). The newsletter is available through GEnie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, NewsNet, Dialog, and others. ZiffNet also offers the Computer Directory, an online encyclopedia with information about more than 75,000 hardware and software products sold in North America (1993). The data base is updated monthly.

Planning your holidays

CompuServe invites you to read reviews of theater performances, books, movies and restaurants, opera, symphonies, ballets, dance, museums and art galleries. They have information about airline schedules and prices, hotels and the latest ski weather forecast.

Televerket's Datatorg in Norway offers air tickets and hotel reservations through SMART LINK, a self-serve system operated by the Norwegian travel agencies. Entertainment and travel are also popular on Prestel. Most British tour operators have an "office" there. Several international services, including CompuServe and Dow Jones News/Retrieval, offer OAG (The Official Airline Guide) and Eaasy Sabre (the American Airlines reservation system). Worldscan/Travel shopper is on CompuServe and Delphi. The Travel Forum on CompuServe administers a member travel discount program. Download HOTEL.SAV in Library 0 for information about lower rates on hotel room and car-rental rates. It's often possible to book hotel rooms and rent cars online. Travelshopper has a built-in hotel guide, searchable by city around the world. OAG has a database of over 40,000 hotels worldwide (1992). It has the AA Rated European Hotels & Restaurants menu, which covers trips from Andorra to Yugoslavia. Accu-Weather provides three-day weather forecasts for 450 cities worldwide, updated hourly. Travel agents are also operative through the Internet. One alternative is at [email protected] . Telnet lib.dartmouth.edu for a World Factbook on countries. Is this your first visit to Japan? Why not prepare your visit through the online service TWICS in Tokyo. It presents itself like this:

"Japan is an island nation, full of communities in villages, towns, and cities squeezed in between the mountains and the sea, with ports of various sizes and shapes through which communication flows between communities.

Our own online community is organized in the same terms, an island community "BEEJIMA" (Bee Island), with our village ("MURA"), a port ("MINATO"), and our very own volcanic mountain ("YAMA").

In the village, there is a village office ("YAKUBA"), a community meeting place ("YORIAI"), a high-tech corner ("AKIHABARA") named after the famous electronics district in Tokyo, a health center ("EMEDICA"), a place to hang around and read things ("HON YA"), a school ("GAKKOU"), and a market ("ICHIBA"). The port has holding areas and leads to other parts of Japan ("NIPPON") and the world ("SEKAI"). The mountain has a hot springs ("ONSEN") recreational area, and a lively outdoor bath ("IN THE OFURO") which has become the social center of our island.

Add to this soc.culture.japan on Usenet, the BITNET discussion list JAPAN@NDSUVM1, the Japan Forum on CompuServe, and "JAPAN" on RelayNet.

Did you say the former "Soviet Union?" Here are phone numbers to some "local" bulletin board systems: Moscow Fair (Moscow): +7 095 366 5209 SUEARN NIC BBS (Moscow): +7 095 938 3618 Kreit BBS (Leningrad): +7 812 112 2611 Amber Way BBS (Vilnius, Lithuania): +7 012 222 7194 UFO BBS (Riga, Latvia): +7 013 232 3983 Post Square #1 (Kiev, Ukrain): +7 044 417 5700

BITNET club TRAVEL-L (TRAVEL-L@TREARN) for those interested in tourism. ILINK and The Well have conferences under the name TRAVEL.

Many conferences in online land concentrate on particular parts of the world. [email protected] is focusing on the Baltic states. In [email protected] they discuss Africa. On Usenet, the news group is called soc.culture.african. To brush up your Portuguese, consider joining BRAS-NET, It is a Brazilian mailing list/network. Send your subscription request to [email protected] . For general information about other Brazilian interest groups, write [email protected] . For those who are into Spanish, why not check out CHILE-L (at [email protected]), or FOLLAC, a mailing list about 'Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano y Caribeno'. To join, write Emily Socolov at [email protected] . Here are some other African sources: the French language Algeria News List (ALGNEWS) is on [email protected]. TUNISNET (on [email protected]) is The Tunisia Network. EGYPT-NET (write: [email protected]) is the Egypt Discussion and News forum. Send mail to [email protected] to get a list