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2006-04-08 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

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Posted by 3dc 2006-04-08 12:24|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Where are the invisible missiles?

Posted by Raj 2006-04-08 12:51|| 2006-04-08 12:51|| Front Page Top

#2 They're invisible, silly.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2006-04-08 13:02|| 2006-04-08 13:02|| Front Page Top

#3 I've got a better idea - someone go and get them, and post them on the web where everyone can see.

Posted by gromky 2006-04-08 13:18|| 2006-04-08 13:18|| Front Page Top

#4 what on earth are these newsnet things? i often here of newsgroups and that - are they and elite club or something? help lol

Posted by ShepUK 2006-04-08 15:42|| 2006-04-08 15:42|| Front Page Top

#5 Shep, Usenet is a set of bulletin boards that predates the Web. Think of it as comment threads organized by topics.

If you're using Internet Explorer to surf the web, click on Tools, then Mail and News and then Read News. This will bring up Outlook Express, which will ask if you want to see a list of all the newsgroups. The first time you say yes, it will take a while to download the list of newsgroups from your Internet service provider to you. Once they are loaded you can type in a keyword to find newsgroups on whatever topic interests you. It's a pretty Wild West part of the Net .... basically a centralization of what were (back in the 80s ) privately hosted bulletin boards on various topics.

BTW, this assumes your provider offers Usenet as part of its service. Most do, but some don't and a lot of employers block access to Usenet because of the porn and other objectionable content.

When you first got Internet access, the ISP's instructions should have told you how to specify the Usenet (news) server to use, just as you specified the server for getting to the Web.

If you are want to use some other program besides Outlook Express as a news reader, you can specify that program to Internet Explorer by choosing Tools, Internet Options and then Programs.

Hope that helps get you started. Your ISP should be able to give you more specific directions.

Posted by lotp 2006-04-08 15:56|| 2006-04-08 15:56|| Front Page Top

#6 It could also be said that USENET "newsgroups" are the other half of the Internet. First, a primer:

There are about 75,000 newsgroups, arranged according to subject. Most of the interesting, non-academic, business or community ones are in the "alt.*" groups, which are pretty much at the head of the list.

They can have a simple name, like "alt.slack", or a complex name, like "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.girls-feet". Most groups are text only, unless they have the words "binaries", or "multimedia, or "pictures", or "mp3", etc. in them; in which case they are both text and binary attachments, like pictures, music, and movies.

Some of the groups are usually empty. Some of the group are intentionally hostile, like "alt.flame". There are political groups of every stripe. There is a ton of illegal activities that goes on there, to include Warez and illegal porn. Huge amounts of mp3 files, movies, and pictures are given out there, oblivious to copyright. Vast amounts of legal porn, too. USENET is NOT for children.

But there are generally a bunch of groups about subjects that you are interested in, which makes it worthwhile.

The way the newsgroups work, is that someone posts a message in a particular group that they have "subscribed" to, a confusing word, which just means that you have chosen that group to browse or post in.

Anyway, their message starts a new "thread", which stays up there for several days to a week or two. Anyone who wants to can reply to this message, and to other people's replies, and some threads can have dozens or hundreds of replies.

Because it is a very old system, which was designed for text only, several fixes had to be used to send and receive binary files. Some convert binary files into ASCII, some compress the ASCII to take up less space (like yEnc), and some error check and correct gaps in postings (like Par2). Often large files are compressed and split into segments with a program like WinRAR, then error correction segments are made (Par2 files), and all are posted. Each downloader must reassemble and correct any gaps in the files.

I would strongly suggest *not* even having Outlook Express on your computer for any purpose. For a USENET newsreader, probably the best free program you can use is Forte Free Agent, though its registered version, Forte Agent, is even better.

Your ISP may not provide USENET services, so for casual use, I recommend either Yotta News or Bubba News:

http://www.yottanews.com/

http://www.bubbanews.com/

The first thing Free Agent will do is download a complete listing of all the newsgroups offered either by your ISP or one of these "NNTP servers", that you have identified to Agent with a login and a sometimes optional password.

Fewer and fewer ISPs are offering USENET anymore, which has led to a rise in the "premium" news servers, which can run to about $20/month.

For just the look and feel of USENET, there is also web-based news services, such as Google Groups beta:

http://groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q=

and Newzbot:

http://www.newzbot.com/

But they are usually far inferior to using a newsreader. Google also keeps an enormous archive of the text-only messages posted, which goes back many years.

USENET remains one of the last "Wild Wests" of the Internet, along with IRC and P2P. Enjoy it while it lasts, because lots of people hate the idea of other people having fun.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-04-08 17:42|| 2006-04-08 17:42|| Front Page Top

#7 A few years back, I used to regularly check out alt.survivalism for its entertainment value. Some seriously weird stuff used to go on there. People sending coded messages and arranging secret rendevous.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-04-08 19:15|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-04-08 19:15|| Front Page Top

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