News ... Newsgroups ... Blogs

PARENT’S PAGE 7

Did you know that in 1833, a Barney Flaherty answered an ad in "The New York Sun" and became the first newsboy, what we now call a paperboy ... he was 10 years old at the time. Are there any 10 year olds who read any newpaper today?

Arts & Letters... updated reports on news and views ... plus links to the major newspapers.
Associated Press - their homepage ... with updated links to the most current news.
BBC World Service... note the map in the upper left hand corner with five different links.
Crayon... create your own online newspaper by compiling favorite links ... has instructions .
Cursor... takes a look at our ongoing obsession with the cult of media personalities.
Excite Assistant - gives radio stations, delivers e-mail notifications, and personalized news.
Fortune - with a little bit of luck - with a little bit of luck - with a little bit of bloomin' luck.
Hometown Free Press - select a country, and suddenly you are reading its local newpaper.
Individual.com - a custom, personalized news delivery service, personalized just for you.
Info Junkie - stories on current events, technology, business, entertainment, and sports.
Intellectual Capital… all right, you're at a party and you need a few ideas to throw around.
International Herald Tribune… articles on a myriad of news topics from around the world.
Life Magazine - pictures are very good, but then again, you have to remember ... that's life.
Media Links - targeted news organized by geographic regions or media categories.
News & Info - if you need to do very targeted archive searching, this is the place to go.
NewsBot 1 - has about two dozen sources, so use Newsbot 2 to learn about the big story.
NewsBot 2 - has a pull-down menu interface helping you zoom in on target ... to the details.
News Directory - newspapers and magazines, TV, comics, light browsing, & college locator.
NewsHub - adds content every fifteen minutes and lists updated stories on its front page.
NewsHunt - 72 archives and search forms on-site so you don't have to go back and forth.
NewsLink - browse for newspapers by state, city, or country and magazines by topic.
NewsTracker - currently indexes over 300 publications and offers them for free lookup.
News of the Weird - volumes of actual news stories so strange that they have to be true.
Newspapers - every major newspaper in the United States ... a web portal limited to media.
Newspapers & Magazines - a basic search engine and additional relevant listed categories.
NewsTraveler - a search engine of news sources, and divided out by region and by topic.
Newsweek - it's like having the magazine right in your livingroom ... or bedroom, wherever.
OIC - opinions, ideas, and commentary - find editorials from newspapers all over the world.
Pathfinder - this is the Time/Warner contribution to the Internet.
PointCast - broadcast right to your computer screen over the Internet ... its free, its easy.
Positive Press… good news press ... you'll find one or two reasons to be happy every day.
SavySearch - search through Infoseek, News.com, Newsbot, NewsTracker, and Yahoo.
SheWire - news from a woman's perspective with an audience of twentysomething in mind.
The Wire - get the big picture from AP, then drill down to the little local picture
Time Magazine… don't have to wait until you're in the dentist's office ... here it is ... ouch.
TotalNews - is a little overwhelming with categories ... but good when you get the hang of it.
WebActive - provides access to news outlets not likely to be foremost in your mind.
Why Files... has easy-to-understand articles about science topics discussed in the news.
Yahoo News... ten days' worth of stories, so there's not a lot of depth to the archive.
To return to ... Menu

Adlai Stevenson once said ..."Newspaper editors are men who separate the wheat from the chaff, and then print the chaff" ... today, same might be said for TV.

---

And speaking of news, did you hear the latest? ... Sorry to report this, but veteran Pillsbury spokesman, Pop N. Fresh, died Wednesday of a severe yeast infection ... He was 71 ... He was buried Friday in one of the biggest funerals in years ... Dozens of celebrities turned out including Mrs. Butterworth, the California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Betty Crocker, and the Hostess Twinkies.

The graveside was piled high with flours, as longtime friend Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy, describing Fresh as a man who "never knew he was kneaded."

Mr. Fresh rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a smart cookie, and wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes ... Still, even as a crusty old man, he was a roll model to millions ... Fresh is survived by his second wife ... They have two children, and one in the oven, I'd say just about done.

With all that attention that the World Wide Web has generated over the past few of years ... it is easy to understand why some folks think that the Internet and the World Wide Web are synonymous. Well, that's unfortunate, because there's a lot more to the Net than HTML and Web pages ... One of the Net's best ... (and often overlooked) resources is its email newsletters ... they sure keep me busy enough.

In addition, this section is intended as a one-stop information stop for resources about email discussion groups, newsgroups, newsletters, mailing lists, web forums or "lists," as they are all sometimes called ... My favorite? ... PCWorks, of course.

Newsgroup Netiquette

Online netiquette becomes even more important when dealing with newsgroups because many more people read each message. Here are some suggestions for good newsgroup etiquette:

• Don't post to the whole group a follow-up intended solely for the author of the original article. Instead reply via e-mail.

• Be sure that each article is appropriate for the group to which you post it.

• Never criticize someone else's spelling or grammar. It just annoys the rest of the newsgroup readers.

• Make your subject lines as meaningful as possible. If your reply is tangential to an article, change the subject line to reflect the new topic.

Posting Your First Newsgroup Article

Standard Usenet dogma is to read a group for a few weeks before posting anything. It's still good advice, although Internet newbies generally aren't big on delayed gratification. Here are some tips on your first posting:

• Pick a newsgroup whose subject is one you know something about.

• Read the FAQ before you post.

• Reply to an article with specific information you know firsthand or that you can cite in a reference and that is relevant to the topic being discussed.

• Read the entire preceding thread (a series of replies to the original article and replies to those replies) to make sure that your point hasn't been raised already.

• Edit included text from the original article to the bare minimum.

• Keep your reply short, clear, and to the point.

• Have your facts straight. Your article should contain more than your opinion.

• Check your spelling and grammar.

• Stay calm. Don't be inflammatory, use foul language, or call people names.

• Avoid Netisms, such as ROFL ("rolling on floor laughing"). If necessary, use - at most - one smiley :-).

• Use a local hierarchy for stuff of regional interest. The whole planet does not need to hear about your school's bake sale.

• Edit the follow-up newsgroup list to one newsgroup.

• Save your message overnight, and reread it before posting.

RemarQ... this is not exactly a newsgroup or a chatroom, but a discussion group site where you can read, contribute, and start new conversations. And you don't need a newsgroup reader to do so, just a web browser. Here discussions are organized by categories or you can do your own search for message boards on any subject ... that being said, we return to our ... Menu

---

BLOGS
Finding Information on Anything

Popular internet sitds called weblogs (blogs for short) allow you to get in touch with people around the world who share your interests, from abacuses to zoology, and all the sundry matter between. You can even use a blog to promote your business (that’s if you have a business; which clearly is non of my business).

You ask how they work? Well, like chatrooms, blogs allow web surfers to contribute their opinions and insights. Information is logged on the site in a diary format, with new entries at the top. Users can also provide links to related sites and hold on-line discussions.

To find a blog, type the name of the subject and the word "blog" in a search engine, such as Google (www.google.com). While you are there, you might consider getting for yourself a Google Toolbar or a Google Deskbar. Another way to get to a blog is to try a blog directory such as http://www.blogwise.com/ … as they say, "there are many trains to Chicago."