BKWHTINT.RVW 950806 "What's On the Internet", Gagnon, 1995, 1-56609-184-5, U$19.95/C$25.95 %A Eric Gagnon gagnon@interramp.com %C 2414 Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 %D 1995 %G 1-56609-184-5 %I Peachpit Press %O U$19.95/C$25.95, trish@peachpit.com, 510/548-4393, Fax: 510/548/5991 %P 366 %T "What's On the Internet" There should be a correction to this title. The book is *not* about "What's On the Internet," but rather, "What's On Usenet." Although some other Internet applications are mentioned (all the graphics in the book, for example, have been "ftp"ed from Internet sites), the central resource here is a listing, with descriptions, of 2200 of the 11,000 Usenet newsgroups available to the authors. The descriptive listings are divided into chapters on the Internet, business, politics, culture and philosophy, hobbies and travel, Clarinet, entertainment, science and education, computers and telecom, sports, local groups, and finishing with "Off the Wall, Singles and Adult". The listings contain a headline, group name, some description, possibly some sample subject lines and files available in the rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet directories. There is an alphabetical listing of the 11,000 newsgroups available to the authors, and a subject index. The decision as to what to include was based upon a minimum of ten messages posted over a three-day period. This makes for some interesting omissions. comp.risks, the Usenet news mirror of the RISKS-FORUM Digest, is missing, in spite of its being universally hailed as one of the best groups/lists on any topic. comp.binaries.ibm.pc wanted and comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d are there--but not comp.binaries.ibm.pc, the whole point of the exercise. (The newsgroup index is in error on this point.) Unless the group caught the author's attention, descriptions are limited to a single sentence, and seem to be primarily the author's interpretation of what the group *should* talk about. In almost every case of a newsgroup with which I am personally familiar, the description failed to catch the reality of the discussion. But then, what can you expect from someone who thinks that Bitnet is the predecessor of Usenet news, or that the Internet Protocol (IP) is what is used to organize and format newsgroups. The citations to the rtfm ftp site are helpful, but there is no explanation of the (arguably easier) mail server. There is little here to promote this work over descriptive lists such as Gene Spafford's (sarcasm and all), or even a simple review of newsgroup titles. However, it may be a helpful printed reference for those wanting a quick overview of the range of topics for Usenet news. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994, 1995 BKWHTINT.RVW 950806 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca DECUS Symposium '96, Vancouver, BC, Feb 26-Mar 1, 1996, contact: rulag@decus.ca