July 12, 1996
A Publication of Internet Scout
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin
A Project of the InterNIC
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.
http://rs.internic.net/scout/reportSend comments and contributions to: scout@cs.wisc.edu
Research and Education
- INET'96 Proceedings
- Social Security Death Index
- CenStats--U.S. Census Bureau Electronic Subscription System
- MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
- Ask an Expert
- Godard-List
General Interest
- Slate
- 1996 Summer Olympics Sites
- Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments--Final report
- Campaign for Our Children
- DineNet--Restaurant menus on the web
- Total Baseball Online
- Investment Talk Mailing List
Network Tools
Proceedings of Sixth Annual Internet Society Conference (INET'96)http://www.isoc.org/inet96/
The proceedings of the recently completed sixth annual conference of the Internet Society (INET'96), including over 150 papers, are available at the ISOC web site. Main topics of the conference, held in Montreal, Quebec, consist of "Internet Applications and Services," "Transforming Internet Commerce and Reshaping the Marketplace," "Internet Learning and Teaching," "Networking Technology Frontiers," "Internet and Social Transformations," "Growing and Regulating the Internet: Economic and Policy Issues," "Expanding and Enhancing Internet Access," and "Internet Case Studies."
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Social Security Death Index
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm
The Social Security Death Index (SSDI), provided by Infobases, Inc., is a searchable database of the Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration (SSA). DMF "contains over 50 million records created from SSA payment records." The database can contain name, social security number, date of birth, date of death, and last residence/lump sum payment information when available, and can be searched on those criteria. Search help is available from the home page. Note that this is not an index of everyone who has died in the United States, but rather an index of people who had Social Security Benefits when they died.
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CenStats--U.S. Census Bureau Electronic Subscription Service
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/index2.html
For a limited time the U.S. Census Bureau is offering free access to many of its published statistical series through CenStats. This service is scheduled to become fee based in the future, but the Bureau is offering it "free for the next several months." Included at present are over 100 publications, including the _1995 Statistical Abstract of the United States_, the _1992 Census of Agriculture_, several of the 1992 Economic Censuses, and _1993 County Business Patterns_. Each item contains a description and is available in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. There is a connection to the Adobe site at the CenStats site.
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MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/
Provided by the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, MacTutor is a comprehensive archive that contains biographies of over 1100 mathematicians, from Niels Abel to Antoni Zygmund. Mathematicians can be accessed alphabetically or chronologically. Biographies contain birth and death information, along with a synopsis of the mathematician's work and references. The site also contains a history topics section, with short articles on over twenty topics ranging from Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics to the quantum age, as well as an overall chronology of mathematicians, a birthplace map (for those born in Western Europe), and a selection of short articles on over 60 famous curves. The site is searchable, and is one of the most exhaustive mathematics history sites on the Internet.
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Ask an Expert
http://www.askanexpert.com/askanexpert/
Over 200 "Ask an Expert" services, specializing in almost as many topics and provided by related organizations, have been gathered together on this page for easy browsing. The collection was assembled with teachers in mind "to enhance your curricula and answer your questions"; however many topics will prove more useful outside the classroom. The list is arranged alphabetically by subject, allowing the user to easily locate a service on a specific topic if it is provided. Some services promise to answer each question personally. Others state that due to volume they can answer only selected questions but will publicly post those they do answer. Many services offer listings of previous questions, with the answers. Having a forms-capable Web browser is a definite plus, since many services offer forms-based input for the questions; however, some also offer email input and in those cases the email address is listed along with the Web link. A random sampling of the services provided indicates that some are very well done where as others may not be as useful.
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GODARD-LIST
GODARD-LIST is an open, unmoderated discussion list regarding film director Jean-Luc Godard. The list is designed for persons studying, researching, writing, teaching, thinking, talking, gossiping, dreaming, making films, and ultimately loving all things Godardian. Discussion, therefore, is invited regarding the study of Uncle Jean's work, his ongoing impact on cinema, and his many disciples/imitators. To subscribe send email to:
MAJORDOMO@NEWSITE.NEWSCHOOL.EDU
In the body of the message type:
subscribe godard-list yourfirstname yourlastname
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http://www.hoovers.com/ipo/
Free until November 1, this Michael Kinsley-edited magazine from Microsoft offers an eclectic mix of content. Sections include "Briefing," shorter articles on current topics, "Features," more in-depth articles, usually with a political emphasis, and "Back of the Book," with reviews of other media outlets and even a poem. The "compost" page serves as an archive, listing previous issues' contents by section. If you don't like to read magazines from the computer, options include printing out the entire issue (it arrives in Microsoft Word 6 format--an Adobe Acrobat .pdf version is in the works), having it delivered by email, or subscribing to the print version (also available at Starbucks Coffee). Navigating around the site is easiest with a browser that supports client-side image maps (the current versions of Navigator and Internet Explorer do so). The content of the magazine is updated every weekday, and each article remains on the "current" site for at least a week.
[Note: This site is no longer available for free; subscription fee(s) required.]
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- Official Site: http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/
- AT&T: http://www.olympic.att.com/
- NBC: http://www.olympics.nbc.com/
- Atlanta _Journal-Constitution_: http://www.atlantagames.com/
- IBM Fan mail: http://www.fanmail.olympic.ibm.com/
- PointCast Olympic Channel: http://www.pointcast.com/
[Note: Resource(s)/URL(s) mentioned above is no longer available.]
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Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments--Final report
http://tis.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/report.html
The final report of the committee contains a historical perspective on the ethics of research using human subjects, case studies of the particular experiments that were performed on Americans during the period 1944-1974, an inquiry into the current state of human subjects research and the policies governing it, and the committee's findings and recommendations. Also included are the reservations of committee member Jay Katz, who argues that the recommendations of the committee do not fully address the problems of human subjects research. Appended to the report is the executive order that created the committee, and its charter, as well as glossaries and a selected bibliography. A search feature allows the user to find specific information within the report. There is also a link to the archive site of the original ACHRE gopher, which contains interim reports and background information.
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Campaign for Our Children
http://www.cfoc.org/
Campaign For Our Children was incorporated in November, 1987, as a not-for-profit organization to "organize, manage and conduct programs designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancies in Maryland..." Topics available on their web site include: adolescent pregnancy news flashes, teacher and parent resources, an "ask the expert" page, and chat pages where teachers and parents can discuss issues and strategies. The Teen Pregnancy Clock displays up-to-the-minute estimates of how many teen pregnancies and births have occurred this year. Users can preview and order CFOC materials directly from the web site. Several of the television and radio spots are available for display within a web browser.
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DineNet--Restaurant menus on the web
http://www.menusonline.com/
DineNet currently has restaurant listings for Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington/Baltimore. Each city's metro area is represented by an image map, allowing the user to search for restaurants by region. Each restaurant's menu includes descriptions and prices (restaurants that change their offerings on a daily basis supply a sample menu). Each listing also offers information about cuisine, credit cards accepted, hours, reservations, amenities, and pricing. Users may search by cuisine, location, credit cards accepted, amenities, and pricing. The most interesting search offered is by dish; users enter a favorite menu item and are presented with a listing of restaurants in the area that serve it. The site is free for restaurants and users, supported by advertising.
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Total Baseball Online
http://www.totalbaseball.com/
Total Baseball Online, provided by Tot@l Sports, is a web version of the well known Total Baseball encyclopedia. The highlight of the site is the availability of complete statistics (in a searchable database) of every major league player. Total Baseball not only gives players' raw statistics, but also its own set of derived statistics, including such variables as "Production Plus," "Park Factor," "Runs Created," and "Total Pitcher Index," among many others, all explained at the site and guaranteed to produce arguments among fans. There are also biographies, history, features, records, and a chat room--a veritable mountain of virtual information. At this time, there is no section on the World Series available. Total Baseball Online is only viewable with a browser that supports frames.
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Investment Talk Mailing List
INVESTMENT-TALK is an open, unmoderated discussion list featuring investments in commodities, bonds, equities (stocks), forex, funds, and futures mainly for the US markets, but not limited to! Anyone interested in investments, be it private or business oriented is welcome to join. Banks, brokers, investment & research houses are welcome to join and support the list with their comments, tips, hints and research.
To subscribe, send email to:
MAJORDOMO@MISSION-A.COM
In the body of the message type:
subscribe Investment-Talk
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http://www.onlinesupport.com/
The newly opened Online Support Center offers free support for user questions in the categories of "connection," "hardware & software," "Internet," "operating systems," "creating a web site," and "new user." Available on the site's "corkboard," OSS promises to answer these questions within 24 hours. Other users are also welcome to answer questions. So far, simple questions have been answered fairly quickly, and this seems a good place for new users to get answers to their computer or 'Net related questions. Note that the volume of questions has been fairly low to this new site. The site also produces an e-zine called "Hey!," the first issue of which contains articles on junk email.
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The Scout Report's Web page:
http://rs.internic.net/scout/report</ A>FTP:
ftp://rs.internic.net/scout/[Back to Contents]Copyright Susan Calcari, 1996. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.
