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Computer and Information Services Newsletter This newsletter is an information resource for the University of Minnesota. Volume 4, Number 12 June 1995 Browse the Web with Minuet M Features Browse the Web with Minuet ................... 217 Electronic Mailing Lists Unsubscribing, Digests, and More .... 219 Finding Lists’ Addresses ................... 223 Virtual Library: U.S. Government CD-ROMs, an Update ........................ 228 World Wide Web by E-mail .......................230 Try These Web Sites: a Correction ........... 230 We recently released Minuet 1.0, Beta_18, and it includes a M Computer Store News Web browser. Williamson Hall: 625-3854 The computer discount program is available Text to Super-VGA Modes not only to departments but also to students, faculty, and staff, subject to the eligibility rules Minuet can run in text-only mode on any IBM-compatible. of the program. Or if you have a EGA, VGA, or Super-VGA display, Minuet now runs in graphics mode too, adding a bit of Get Info Electronically excitement to Internet browsing. To get product and price change bulletins for the products sold through the Computer Store sent to you electronically, subscribe to the Bookstore prices list by sending E-mail to: [email protected] Use Gopher to search the Computer Store’s database to find out part numbers, prices, and product availability; follow this path: Computer Information\U of M GIF and JPEG Microcomputer Prices\BookCenter Electronic Desk It fully supports Web GIF and JPEG images in up to 65,536 displayed colors. JPEG requires at least a 386 CPU. Printed on recycled paper. Addressing & Mailing’s Cheshire labels are recyclable. Page 218 June 1995 Computer and… Accessing a Web Site Minuet runs on IBM PC’s under DOS, from the When you select World Wide Web from the Windows lowly 4.77Mhz with 512k of memory up to the latest menu (or with the 8 key), the Web server name Pentium machines. For Internet access it comes with that is entered in the its own TCP stack; you just have to supply a packet driver. This makes it very easy to install. Setup/Server Available via FTP menu is displayed in the text box. You can press the R key to access that server or type in the name You can get Minuet by anonymous FTP from the of a new Web site to access a different Web page. host and directory listed below. Minuarc.exe is a self- extracting archive; when you type minuarc it To access another Web server, you must close the automatically expands to become the Minuet pro- current Web window and select Window/Web so you gram plus some info files. can type in another name. minuet.micro.umn.edu /pub/minuet/latest/minuarc.exe The “Open URL” Option Minuet is distributed as shareware. If after trying the URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator; it is a program for 15 days, you decide to continue using it, naming scheme that includes the location and you must register your copy by sending us $50. Site method of obtaining items or directories on the licenses are available, and the University of Minnesota Internet. has a site license for students, faculty, staff, and departments. For further information, contact The File menu’s Open URL option is useful for automatically accessing URLs that are embedded in [email protected] mail messages and other text files. To access the resource that the URL points to, put your cursor somewhere in the URL (to select it), then select the Installing is Painless Open URL command. Minuet will start up the Installing Minuet is painless. You don’t need separate proper Minuet module — that is, FTP, Web, Go- helper applications to: access Web and Gopher servers pher, or news — and establish a connection with the or anonymous FTP sites; establish a Telnet session; machine that hosts that information. access news groups; or to view GIF and JPEG graph- ics. We also provide an install program that copies everything into directories on your hard disk. You just have to type in personal information, such as your password, in the Setup/User menu. Upgrading is Painless Current Minuet users can use FTP to upgrade to the latest version. Those who upgrade do not need to worry about recreating “setup” files, group names or What’s Minuet? what happens to the mail they are saving. This Minuet is the Minnesota Internet User’s Essential information is not disturbed when you upgrade. Tool; it was developed by Distributed Computing Services at the University of Minnesota. Minuet is an The Minuet Team hopes you find our newest Minuet integrated network application for the IBM PC that even more helpful and enjoyable to use. does E-Mail (POPmail), NetNews, Gopher, FTP, Telnet, and now World Wide Web, too. [email protected] I …Information Services June 1995 Page 219 Electronic Mailing Lists Unsubscribing, Digests, Finding Addresses, and More If you change your residence or Save that Welcome Message activities in the summer, you may When you subscribe to a list you usually get a “wel- want to unsubscribe to the come” message that includes basic instructions, such mailing lists you receive in your as how to unsubscribe and get help. This is important electronic mail box. A drawback information. Unfortunately, many people foolishly do to doing this for some people is not save that message. that there isn’t one address or set of commands that is recognized by all the software that allows electronic Those who “lost” their Welcome message and have communications to be broadcast to subscribed users. forgotten the List Server address can read the section That is: how you unsubscribe depends on which list called Finding Lists’ Addresses for clues about finding managing software handles the list(s) you subscribe out how to unsubscribe. That section will also be to. We’ll refer to this software category as List Serv- useful to people who just want to locate interesting ers. discussion topics. Common Features Unsubscribe Commands Many of the mailing lists our department manages are Usually you must tell the list manager software which handled by a “request” program. Other widely-used list you want to leave (unsubscribe) because the List Servers are: LISTSERV, Majordomo, Listproc software installed on that site’s computer manages (Unix List processor), Mailserv, and Mailbase. Fortu- many lists. In Table 1 where you see [listname], nately, the commands to unsubscribe (and subscribe) substitute the actual name of the list, for example the from these lists are basically the same, as shown in list name “topten.” Table 1. Some software supports the command “signoff” in addition to the “unsubscribe” command. Table 1: Unsubscribe Commands Other common features of List Servers are: they run Software Unsubscribe command without human intervention, understand only pre- Request unsubscribe cisely worded messages, and have a very limited LISTSERV unsubscribe [listname] vocabulary. Like a dog listening to your conversation, Majordomo unsubscribe [listname] the software will “act” on the words it knows. Many Listproc unsubscribe [listname] dogs understand walk, out, and cookie. Our “re- Mailserv unsubscribe [listname] quest” software only understands the words subscribe Mailbase leave [listname] and unsubscribe. Other software has a larger vocabu- lary. In the sections below we will discuss some Example Address and Command common commands and also point you to a few [email protected] sources for tracking down E-mail List Server ad- unsubscribe topten dresses. Discussion List or Bulletin Two Addresses Moderated discussion lists and electronic bulletins Electronic mailing lists that are also discussion groups often take a different approach to unsubscribing. generally have two addresses you should remember. Examples from the “This is True” and “A Word a You use one address to communicate with the entire Day” bulletins are shown below. group and the other address to communicate with the List Server. Page 220 June 1995 Computer and… Figure 1: Overview of List Server Commands Includes excerpts from: Discussion Lists: Mail Server Commands Help Command Cancel digest format; receive the list as separate For more information on any of these programs, mailings. send a message containing only the word “help” to the appropriate mail server. [Editor’s note: The Software Command “request” mailing list we manage does not under- Listproc set [listname] mail ack stand “help.”] LISTSERV set [listname] mail Mailbase not supported Mailserv not supported Addressing the Message Majordomo unsubscribe [listname]-digest Remember to send all commands to — in the same message, send the line subscribe [listname] mailserver@host Mailserver is the program that maintains the list Acknowledgment of Own Messages and host is the address of the host computer. Receive copies of your own messages: Examples of mailservers are LISTSERV, listproc, mailbase, mailserv, and majordomo. Examples of Software Command hosts are cleo.murdoch.edu.au and Listproc set [listname] mail ack ucdavis.edu. For example, to join the discussion LISTSERV set [listname] repro list law-lib@ucdavis, John Doe must send a — to receive an automatic acknowl- subscribe command to the listproc address, as edgment that your message has shown below. been sent to the list, use [email protected] set [listname] ack subscribe LAW-LIB John Doe Mailbase standard feature; you always receive your own messages Generally all commands go in the message section, Mailserv same as mailbase not the subject section. Majordomo same as mailbase Do not receive copies of your own messages: Digests Receive the list in digest format (multiple messages Software Command compiled into a single mailing, usually daily or Listproc set [listname] mail noack weekly): LISTSERV set [listname] norepro Mailbase not supported Software Command Mailserv not supported Listproc set [listname] mail digest Majordomo not supported LISTSERV set [listname] digest Mailbase not supported Mailserv not supported Majordomo subscribe [listname]-digest Whenever you see [listname], — in the same message, unsubscribe substitute the actual name of the from the undigested version list.