AN OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
CONTENT:
Pocket Personal Computer
Job Hunting
Justice
FTP
Gopher
Kermit
Pocket Personal Computer
There is a handheld personal computer called Palmtop. An example of
this palmtop PC is HP200LX made by ACE. HP200LX is as small as a
wallet and a person holds it in the palm of his hand. It uses PCMCIA
FlashRAM storage which means faster than the previous ATA FlashRAM card
and features faster data access, larger capacity and lower prices per
megabyte. There is a communication link between the desktop and
Palmtop, and data can be transferred from the PC to it. For E-mail
access and fax capability, data communication equipment enables Palmtop
to communicate with other computers via telephone lines. Recently,
there is a new palmtop product with color monitor. This is HP OmniBook
600C which is under 4 pounds. It has a super VGA card and a built-in
pop-out mouse. Since the market for this product is growing rapidly,
it is hoped that modems, CD-ROMs, sound cards and other peripherals can
be installed in the Palmtops with larger storage space and faster data
access, while at the same time, they can be easi Job Hunting Nowadays,
reading classified ads, going to employment centers and agencies is not
the only primary way of finding jobs. There are a number of worldwide
online associations and resources for the employment industry in the
World Wide Web. Their purpose is to help employ professional and those
looking for contacts or access to them. They bring a unique global
perspective to the company searching for the right fit at the right
time or the individual exploring new career directionsAssociations are
classified into different groups based on types of job they offer. The
Internet resources enhance the career planning process in several
ways. They enhance informational interviewing opportunities in usenet
newsgroups, mailing lists and electronic mail for contact; information
from print resources of associations, employers and other educational
institutions; and various type of information sought, eg. career
profile, job market realities, salary concerns and work settings.
However, there are still some limitation
Job Hunting
Nowadays, reading classified ads, going to employment centers and agencies
is not the only primary way of finding jobs. There are a number of
worldwide online associations and resources for the employment industry
in the World Wide Web. Their purpose is to help employ professional and
those looking for contacts or access to them. They bring a unique
global perspective to the company searching for the right fit at the right
time or the individual exploring new career directions. Associations
are classified into different groups based on types of jobs they offer.
The Internet resources enhance the career planning process in several
ways. They enhance informational interviewing opportunities in usenet
newsgroups, mailing lists and electronic mail for contact; information
from print resources of associations, employers and other educational
institutions; and various type of information sought, eg. career
profile, job market realities, salary concerns and work settings.
However, there are still some limitations on this industry. The
Internet cannot replace the one-to-one, personal interaction of the
career counseling process, observation and experience in the field
and interpersonal skills. In the future, it is hoped that this new
industry will be able to provide the one-to-one, personal interview
through the Internet.
Justice
There are a number of sites in the Internet for communicating
information on access to justice and legal issues. They provide a wide
variety of services. Some provide grant writing, consulting; some
design and implement programs for expanding the practice of justice in
public services and improving the quality of urban life; some are crime
stoppers; some provide criminal justice information, responds to
queries about justice and legal system. In the future, it is hoped
that legal actions can be taken through the Internet so everybody can
choose to listen to any proceeding held anywhere without any time and
space limitations, and juries from any location can be assigned.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol is a method of transferring files to and from
the SMB Unix network. It is simple to use and supported by many
different tools. The anonymous FTP access is open to all and the only
controls are to restrict the number of simultaneous anonymous accesses
allowed at popular sites in order to avoid the overloading of Internet
communications. People usually use it for making a file available for
someone else to FTP, FTPing to another host to get some files or having
file FTPed to a site. The FTP service was small in the past. However,
it grew larger and larger and is more difficult to browse due to the
increased volume of available materials. It is predicted that there
will be more and more people from all over the world accessing the FTP
and more FTP sites are available as time progresses.
Gopher
The Internet Gopher client/server provides a distributed information
delivery system around which a world/campus wide information system can
readily be constructed. While providing a delivery vehicle for local
information, Gopher facilitates access to other Gopher and information
servers through the world. It was originally developed in April 1991
by the University of Minnesota Microcomputer, Workstation, Networks
Center to help the campus find answers to their computer questions.
Later, it grew into a full-fledged World Wide Information System used
by a large number of sites in the world. Gopher is closely linked with
other systems like WAIS and ftp. The structure of its catalogs are
documents containing a title , the type of document, the Internet
address of the machine on which is held, and a file path to the
document on that machine. In the near future, it is predicted Gopher
clients will fade away and gradually be replaced by Web browsers while
Gopher servers will continue as some information is w
Kermit
Kermit is a file transfer protocol which was developed at Columbia
University in New York City in 1981 for the specific purpose of
transferring text and binary files without errors between diverse types
of computers over potentially hostile communication links. Its major
features are connection establishment and maintenance for a wide
variety of connection methods, terminal emulation, error-free file
transfer, character-set translation during both terminal emulation and
file transfer and script programming to automate complicated or
repetitive tasks. However, Kermit is a slow protocol even it gives
high performance. Since more and more people are using Internet,
Kermit may fade out in the future. However, if improvements can be
made to its speed, it may survive.
Kevin Ondic:
Ethics/Censorship
Jon Cooke: ATM,
Fiber Optics, etc.
Tina Peterson: Arpanet, BBS's, HTML, etc.
Nora Lee: Pocket PC, Gopher, FTP,
Kermit, Job Hunting, etc.
CPSC 547 Home Page
Any comments?
Mail me:nora@cpsc.ucalgary.ca