November 19, 1996

Hello again! As prom- ised, this column will be about news groups. News groups are,in my opinion one of the most interesting features of the Internet. Of course, they are also one of the most ad- dicting features of the Net, which is why this column had to wait until after midterms.

What are news groups? A news group is sort of like a bulletin board system, where people can post messages onto a place on the Net, and every- one else can read them, and, if they wish, reply to them. In other words, it is sort of like a group E-mail discussion. Thereare hundreds of Internet news groups, organized around various topics ranging from interests (rec.arts.animation, rec.arts.videogames.sega) to cultural and educational top- ics to some really strange groups of people (alt.angst, alt. barney-the- dinosaur.die.die.die). In other words, anything that interests you probably has a news group. Or two, or three, or even a dozen and more.

How do you access news groups from a UPEI ac- count? Well, there are several ways. One is to use the Trum- pet Newsreader software, which you will find on all the Net-capable computers. The problem is, this tends to have bugs in it when you try to "subscribe" to a new news group, and initializing (setting it up to work on your account) the program dumps a whole lot of files on your E-mail cache, which will fill it up quickly. A better-and actually simpler-way is to use certain

inter dit Tips For Students

to read the news groups of your choice. The two best ones are (http:// www.dejanews.com) and (http://www.zippo.com). Dejanews is a service which hasarchived all the news group articles for an immense vari- ety of groups since 1995, and is updated daily. You can use itto search for any news group articles which contain topics or people you might be inter- ested in. Zippo is aservice that allows you to read all the arti- cles for the past week on spe- cific news groups. It is up- dated every fifteen minutes, and you can actually post arti- cles through it as well as read- ing them. Well, have fun on the news groups, as I am going back to reading rec.arts.anime.misc....

Chris can be reached at chmcneil@upei.ca

OT

Yes, I know that I have been noticeably absent for the past few issues or so. Don't let that bother you though, for I am back! If this was any other column, I would go into what I have (or have not) been do- ing, but I have a much greater purpose than self-gratification this week. My topic, probably one of the most talked-about topics on PEI recently, is the game of Island politics.

News flash for the swamped student-- PEI had a provincial election. The lim- its of this printed medium pre- vent me from getting any more specific than that, lest 1 be totally off-base with my half- witted pundit predictions. | would, however, like to give my opinions on a few topics relevant to the campaign. (For the record, I have no associa- tion with any existing politi-

etta Lett Fieta by Joel Gillespie

The Panther Prints

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cal party running in this pro- vincial election. I have not even been following the cam- paign closely, but since this anything buta serious column, I donot think you will find this to be anything but a light- hearted romp through the past few weeks of Island history.)

If | wanted to do some- thing patriotic, | could com- pare our rather subdued elec- tion campaign to the outland- ish circus that happened south of the border, and describe how our quaint rural democ- racy is so much more civilised than the 'winner-take-all' presi- dential campaign. However, I will not be doing that.

I could shift into 'Gen- eration X' mode and say some- thing to the effect that 'shuf- fling the chairs on the deck of the Titanic doesn't make much sense.’ As much as I agree

SPORTS FANS TO

SEND US YOUR INTRAMURAL SCORES, NOTICES, ATHLETE PROFILES, GAME HIGHLIGHTS, AND

TEAM PHOTOS!

ALSO, LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME GAMES AND WE WILL SEND OUT A

PHOTOGRAPHER.

HELP US GIVE UPEI SPORTS THE ATTENTION THEY DESERVE.

with that statement, I do not think I can base a whole col- umn on apathy and the de- basement ofa provincial insti- tution.

If I had the inkling, | could go on a paranoid delusional rant and explain how the province is not actu- ally run by the government, and weare but the underlinings of a great, omnipotent, yet se- cret society that controls all. (Fjord.)

Actually, and I know

that this iseven more perverse than any idea from above, I would like to thank all the candidates for running. ("What?!?! How can you thank a bunch of two-faced, lying, hypocritical, etc..." Please, be patient. Read on.) Not only has this campaign been merci- fully short, but also rather well- behaved. No noticeable nega- tive ads, no real fireworks at many debates, not much at all for half-baked pundits like myself to elaborate upon. But therein lies my point in thank- ing the candidates. I doubt many people would volunteer to be the topic of all sorts of malicious rumours and con- versations and be the butt of jokes. Ittakes courage toclimb upon the provincial stage and sing and dance to the elector- ate-- I know for a fact that I could never do it. Once they are elected, however, another facet of politics comes into play.

I guess the main point of this column (since I have learned to use a concluding paragraph to sum upthe points that I have made) is that apa- thy breeds apathy. Being a politician is probably one of the few jobs that actually gives other people the right to criti- cise every move and decision a politician makes. Living under a microscope is not an easy job for anyone, especially not forone who honestly thinks he or she is doing the best job for the province.

(There, I think I have broken every possible stere- otype of the apathetic young

pages on the World Wide Web ; student. Except, of course, I

PPPRF ISIS

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