---------------------- <> coordinated by Robert Kraft [03 September 1992 Draft, copyright Robert Kraft] [HUMANIST, IOUDAIOS, RELIGION, etc., 04 September 1992] [Religious Studies News 7.4 (November 1992)] [CSSR Bulletin 21.4 (November 1992)] [codes: ... titles, ... emphasis, /

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... levels of headings, &..; accents -- e.g. &e/; e acute, &o%; o umlaut, etc.] ---------------------- Another OFFLINE deadline awaited my return from the Papyrological Congress in Copenhagen at the end of August, and there is much to report on all fronts. The Congress illustrated how the computer as a research tool is beginning to become part of the regular repertoire of many scholars -- not only for searching and browsing the growing wealth of textual information (for the papyrologists, the TLG and Duke Documentary Papyri CD-ROMs are most important), but for representing it to colleagues and students alike. Hypercard stacks for various purposes were increasingly evident -- for example, Willy Clarysse of Leuven demonstrated his shareware Mac programs for (1) converting dates of the ancient Egyptian calendars (Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine) into modern equivalents, (2) tracing the career of Zenon of Caunos, whose archive from the third century bce has survived, (3) identifying ancient "ghostnames" from the papyri -- over a thousand names are available now, and the list is growing, and (4) an instructional game in which Greek and Egyptian gods answer a set of questions regarding the future, in Greek. A real bargain package at $30 for copying and shipping. Similarly, Janet Johnson (University of Chicago) gave a stunning presentation on the production of a Demotic Dictionary in which computer generated graphic representations of letters, words, and contexts will be included. Indeed, it was in Copenhagen that I saw the first Scholars Press Software Order Form, with its announcement of the availability of the "Electronic Bibliographie Papyrologique 1.0" produced by Roger Bagnall and Jeffrey Rusten, of a listing and study of "Homer in the Papyri 1.0" by Dana Sutton, of a Homeric metrics program by Joel Farber and Harry Haddon, and of new versions of the popular "GreekKeys" fonts and the Pandora search program. The Order Form was not exclusively papyrological and classical in orientation -- it also includes the "Annotated Bibliography on Religious Studies and Liberal Education" by Karen Pechilis. Scholars Press is to be congratulated for this expansion of consciousness and of services, along with all those whose efforts are reflected in such products. We will all be enriched by these developments! It was also in Copenhagen, working with a Mac supplied by Apple Corporation that had a CD-ROM reader attached, that I first was able to test the new SoftPC/AT 2.5 program that permits Mac users to run DOS software. It seemed to work fine, both for regular DOS programs and for specific CD-ROM DOS software (e.g. the CETEDOC CD-ROM), although at some points the Mac we were using, with only 4 megabytes for programs, would run out of memory. This is for me a very exciting development since it promises to make it possible to do sophisticated (including CD-ROM) things from both the Mac and the IBM worlds on a single powerful machine (for myself, I have a Mac portable in mind!). But equally large on the Copenhagen papyrological horizon, along with bibliographies, hyperstacks, graphical representations, and versatility of access, was the consciousness of the value of connecting with the electronic communications networks. I would argue that this is at present the single most important electronic challenge for the inhabitants of academe, and it is hoped that this OFFLINE column will be of assistance to some of you who feel frustrated about how to avail yourselves of this rich resource and opportunity. The lead article below is an abridgment of a piece by Walter Henry (Assistant Conservator, Stanford University Libraries), written for conservationists, about the Internet, with specific focus on how to find a way of connecting. Alongside that item is a description of the relatively new electronic conference on "Post-Modern Judaism" by Peter Ochs, an announcement of a new Classical Studies discussion list just getting underway, and some information on an electronic work group dealing with a specific current problem in biblical studies. You are referred to earlier OFFLINE columns for details concerning other academic lists of relevance to religious studies, and on accessing libraries remotely. Also appended below are various news notes related to the networks and/or offloaded from them. For those of you who are struggling with the question of what sort of equipment/hardware might be appropriate, this OFFLINE column offers some comments by John Baima on David Regensberg's recommendations in OFFLINE 38, and some sage suggestions extracted from the Medieval Text discussion list on what to include in setting up a computer lab for contemporary research needs. Not so incidentally, all of these contributions also were taken directly off the network -- indeed, nothing in this OFFLINE column reached me in hardcopy form. Since this column is scheduled to appear in print just before the San Francisco annual SBL/AAR/ASOR meetings, a word is also in order about the activities sponsored by the Computer Assisted Research Group (CARG) on that program, or related to that program. Its meetings and demonstrations will be held in the Hilton Hotel, Lobby Level, Plaza Room A, with special program segments on Sat at 3:45 (Digital Imaging), Sun at 9 am (Scholarly Computing), and Mon at 9 am (panel on Electronic Resources). In addition, please note the following details. In the next issue of OFFLINE, input will be requested regarding the 1993 CARG sessions (topics, formats, demonstrations), so keep this in mind as you peruse and reflect on the 1992 presentations. Raymond G. Harder, CARG co-chair (with Robin Cover), will be pleased to receive your ideas. CARG 1992 Annual Meeting Announcement [information supplied by Robin Cover] The following announcement and invitation concerns three services sponsored by the Computer Assisted Research Group (CARG), Society of Biblical Literature (SBL): ** An updated Directory of institutional research and development projects ** Computer software demonstrations at the upcoming AAR/SBL Annual Meeting in San Francisco. ** Literature distribution covering computer assisted research endeavors and products, AAR/SBL Annual Meeting

DIRECTORY OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS In 1991 and previous years, CARG has sponsored a full session of oral reports on computer-related research and development activities at academic institutions. For the 1992 meeting, we will abandon the oral presentation format and communicate the same kind of information (updated) in more durable and distributable media: paper and electronic document. Academic institutions or departments thereof within the AAR/AOS/ASOR/SBL orbit are hereby encouraged to submit a written summary of computer-related work (electronic data preparation, archiving, software development, academic network services, etc.). No report is necessary if the information in the 1990 CARG written report fascicle is current -- in which case, the 1990 report may simply be reprinted. However, if new circumstances warrant an updated entry for the 1992 Directory (different principal investigators, address changes, new research and development activities, additional software/data offerings), please send a summary reflecting the current information. We realize that fuller and "prettier" promotional literature may be available for most projects, but the summaries in directory format will supply a useful compendium of project descriptions and contact addresses. The report forms will be compiled, printed and distributed as a Directory at the CARG main session in San Francisco; they will also be available electronically. The activities and products described should relate to text corpora or text-processing software distinctly within the area of religion, oriental studies or broadly "ancient" cultures, including generic multi lingual text-processing software. If an academic institutions is working cooperatively with a commercial entity to deliver the data/software, the address of the latter may be given within the summary. It is not our intention, however, to print listings for major commercial software firms (WordPerfect, Microsoft) whose development activities are not focused on the humanistic study of "texts." Instructions for a Directory entry: Structure. Please use this template: 1. Project/entity name: REQUIRED 2. Principal investigators (names and addresses): REQUIRED 4. Project summary (one-two sentences): REQUIRED 3. Project purpose and history: OPTIONAL 5. Current research efforts: OPTIONAL 6. Product/service availability (terms, contacts): OPTIONAL 7. Bibliography: OPTIONAL Length. The description should be no more that two pages in length (preferably one page), as formatted on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Format: Email ASCII format is preferable because we may then circulate the Directory later in electronic copy over the networks. In order of preference, please use: (a) pure ASCII, viz: network-safe, 7-bit, non national-use IRV character subset, as given below; (b) PostScript, if you can ensure that the file is network-safe (use UU- or XX-encoding, or make sure lines are less than 80 characters); (c) xerox-ready copy, or (d) some combination of a-c. The set of "safe" network characters is: lower and upper case standard English letters a/A-z/Z, and numbers 0 through 9, plus " % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? _ and space (dec 32) Deadline. Your submission should be received on or before November 10, 1992 in order to allow time for paper printing. Submissions received after November 10th may be included later in an electronic edition, or in any reprint version of the Directory. Please send the submission to Robin Cover at one of the addresses given below.

SOFTWARE/DATA DEMONSTRATIONS Software and data development teams (whether institutionally-affiliated, for-profit or non-profit) are welcome to arrange a time for demonstration of their project tangibles as time permits during the AAR/SBL conference. Preference will be given to institutionally affiliated and non-commercial groups, but anyone may apply. If you would like to request a 30-minute session for the purpose of describing and demonstrating your research endeavors and/or products relating to religious and oriental studies, please contact Robin Cover via email or phone (see address block below). Time slots are available on Sunday and Monday 12:00 - 5:00, and Tuesday 9:00 - 11:00. A printed schedule of demonstrations will be available in the main CARG room during the conference (H1-L-Plaza A). Participants should attempt to bring their own computers for demonstrations if at all possible, since minimal time will be available on the "public" IBM/DOS and Macintosh microcomputers for installation and setup; time for lengthy installation processes cannot be accommodated. However, display (projection) hardware for standard DOS and Mac microcomputer configurations will be available for use in these demonstration sessions.

LITERATURE DISTRIBUTION FOR COMPUTER ASSISTED RESEARCH ENDEAVORS AND PRODUCTS, AAR/SBL ANNUAL MEETING For the duration of the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting, CARG will maintain a literature table in H1-L-Plaza A. Research teams, software developers, data preparation firms and other vendors are invited to distribute promotional or descriptive literature by placing it on the literature table. Such material should describe products or services clearly in support of the academic computing needs of AAR/SBL members. Conference participants are invited to visit the CARG room to obtain this literature. Communiques regarding the the three items above should be sent, as appropriate, to Robin Cover (CARG Program Co-Chair) at one of the following addresses: Robin Cover BITNET: zrcc1001@smuvm1 ("one-zero-zero-one") 6634 Sarah Drive Internet: robin@utafll.uta.edu ("uta-ef-el-el") Dallas, TX 75236 USA Internet: zrcc1001@vm.cis.smu.edu Tel: (1 214) 296-1783 Internet: robin@ling.uta.edu FAX: (1 214) 709-3387 Internet: robin@txsil.sil.org * * * Connecting to the Internet -- Revised Excerpts from Islands In The Net: A Guide to the Internet by Walter Henry (whenry@leland.stanford.edu) [The full 9 page article appears in the September 1992 WAAC (Western Association for Art Conservation) Newsletter, available for $5 from Elizabeth Welsh, editor, 1213 W. San Miguel Ave., Phoenix AZ 85013] Anyone who has spent more than three minutes in my presence has been subjected to one of countless passionately rhapsodic and largely interchangeable discourses on the joys to be found on the Internet. The Internet (with an emphatically capital "I"), is a global Network of Networks. That is, it ties together a large number of computer networks (over 2200, a couple of years ago), allowing machines (and the people welded to them) on one network to communicate and share resources with systems on other networks. One of the most familiar of the networks participating in the Internet is BITNET, a network of academic and research institutions around the world (in Canada it is known as NetNorth and in Europe as EARN, but it is effectively a single entity). There are also individual machines connected directly and indirectly to the Internet. Technically, the Internet is a set of standards and protocols (the TCP/IP protocol suite) that describe methods for connecting heterogeneous computer systems, coupled with hardware and software to implement those standards and protocols. "The Net," however, is actually an extension of the "true" Internet, since many networks running incompatible protocols are able to "talk" to the Net for one purpose or another. For example, BITNET can easily exchange mail with "true" Internet sites, but BITNET users do not have immediate access to other Internet services such as remote login (telnet, rlogin) and file transfer (ftp). This is probably as good a time as any to confess that the description you read here, like any description of the Net is to some extent a fiction. The network is a remarkably complex organism and any attempt to describe it will suffer from inevitable simplification. Even technically adequate descriptions fail, because they can't comprehend and don't convey the social reality.

RESOURCES AND SERVICES The services available on the Net are many, but most are based on one or more of these three things: electronic mail, remote login, and file transfer.

Electronic Mail, usually called email, allows you to send messages to other people on the Net and receive messages from them. The length of time that it takes for a message to move from one machine to another can vary a great deal depending on the networks involved. In many cases the message will be transmitted virtually instantaneously. In others, there may be a delay of hours or (in pathological situations) days. As a practical matter, communication is remarkably quick and discourse via email is much closer to telephonic communication than to ordinary post. But unlike a phone call, the recipient does not have to be present ("online") to receive the message.

Remote Login (telnet, rlogin) allows you to connect to a machine anywhere on the Internet, provided that you have permission to do so. For example, a travelling researcher could acquire a courtesy account at an institute where she is visiting and use it to run programs and check email on the computer back at her home institution. There are also many cases in which a machine allows remote login (telnet) anonymously (i.e. you don't need an account and password on the remote host) in order to deliver a particular service, such as public access to library catalogs. In the past few years, several hundred libraries around the country, and some abroad, have opened up their OPACS (Online Public Access Catalogs) to Internet users. Thus, if you are doing research on a subject, you can browse the catalogs of many great libraries without leaving your desk.

File Transfer (ftp) enables you to log-in to a remote host in order to transfer files, both binary (such as computer programs, word-processing files, etc.) and text (ASCII) from the host to your own computer, and vice versa, usually at very high speed. Many computer systems allow you to log-in anonymously (as with anonymous telnet) in order to obtain copies of files that are provided in special publicly accessible directories. The Net is rich with such ftp sites, many of which specialize in files of a particular type (e.g. public domain and shareware software, information files such as technical reports, mailing list archives, "electronic texts" of various sorts).

MAILING LISTS There are thousands of mailing lists available. Until a few years ago, the bulk of them dealt with computers, networks, engineering, and such matters of which a Net is made, but in the past few years there has been a mass migration of people from the humanities and social sciences which has changed the face of the Net dramatically. There are also various Lists of Lists available on the Net. My favorite of all these is the Directory of Academic Discussion Lists and Interest Groups, compiled by Diane K. Kovacs, Kent State University Libraries, which is available from LISTSERV@KENTVM.KENT.EDU. An enlarged hardcopy version of this material, produced in collaboration with Michael Strangelove, was described in OFFLINE 37. Some of the more important groups for people in religious studies have been listed in OFFLINE 31 and 34.

ACCESS TO THE INTERNET The following discussion of ways to gain access to the Net is, of necessity, a bit on the cursory side, so if you need further information please ask. There are many other services available that may fill individual needs. In particular, a topic that is beyond the scope of this article is connecting your lab's computer system (e.g., LAN = "local area network") directly to the Internet, so that you have full high-speed access to Net services from your desktop. If you need some leads on this, request the file CONNECT.NET. There are also other services that are available in particular geographical areas that are not represented here but are discussed in CONNECT.NET. Some services (e.g., Western Union EZ-Link) are not covered because I was unable to find useful information about them.

UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTERS. Many colleges and universities offer accounts to individuals and/or commercial firms on machines that are on the Net. Some may limit access to the Net, so you should be sure to make it very clear to the office folks that you are interested in Net access. You will also need to make sure that you can get dial-in access to the university center via ordinary phone lines (as opposed to dedicated lines). An advantage to this method of Net access is that you may be able to use other Net services besides mail; e.g., remote login (telnet) to other machines on the Internet and file transfer (ftp) from other Internet machines. Costs will vary and will in many cases be somewhat more expensive than what the universities charge their own constituents. As an example, at Stanford rates are as low as $1/connect hour for off-peak use.

COMPUSERVE (CIS; phone 800-848-8990) is a commercial service, offering online discussion groups and a wide variety of services, one of which is the ability to send and receive electronic mail via the Internet. CIS runs its own network, so to connect to their machine, you dial up a local access number and, one hopes, limit your phone charges to a local call. There are some limits to the size of message that CIS will allow (50K/message at present) to avoid bottlenecks, but there are no special charges to send or receive electronic mail. Also, because of certain legal restrictions on "commercial" use of the Internet, CIS is required to block messages between itself and MCIMail and AT&T mail (this is beyond CIS's control). Conservators in private practice may find many of the services available on CIS of special value; for example, you can do credit checks online, send faxes, and send paper (i.e. printed) mail. On the negative side (and this is to the credit of CIS), people tend to get addicted to CIS, so bills can grow large easily. There are several payment options, depending on what sort of services you need. There are special communications programs available that make it easy to offload messages so that you can read and write messages offline and save connect charges. There is an initial sign-up charge and a very small monthly charge. In general you are charged for connect time ($6.00/hr for 300 bps, $12.50/hr for 1200/2400 bps, $22.50/hr for 9600 bps). If your needs are modest, Compuserve offers a flat-rate plan ($7.95/month) which gives you unlimited access to a set of "popular services" and allows you to send or read 60 Internet messages of moderate size per month. Additional messages (whether sent or read) cost 5 cents/2500 characters. If you want to use optional services, such as special interest forums, there is a connect-time charge similar to those listed above.

MCIMail is a commercial email service very popular with business people. You connect to MCIMail via an 800 number, so telephone charges are not an issue. Software is available to facilitate offline creation of messages and downloading of received mail. For example, Norton Commander can be used to check periodically to see if mail is there, and since there are no telephone charges, there is no cost to do this. You are charged an annual fee and a per-byte charge for sending messages. There is no charge for receiving messages, so you can sign up for mailing lists without fear. As noted above, MCIMail is required to block messages between itself and CIS and AT&T mail.

THE WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link; phone 800 848-8199) is a very popular commercial service, based on the West Coast but serving the entire country. A Unix-based conferencing system, it provides more than 200 different forums in addition to Internet and Usenet access. The WELL costs $10/month and $2/hour, and long-distance users can connect to The Well via Compuserve's Packet (wide area) Network for a surcharge (I believe it is $4/hour).

THE WORLD. Based on the east coast, The World is a public access Unix system run by Software Tool & Die (1330 Beacon Street, Brookline MA 02146; tel 617 739-0202). Access is by direct dial-up or Compuserve's Packet Network. There are a couple of billing options. The basic plan calls for a monthly charge of $5 and a $2/hour connect charge (24 hours a day) plus any surcharge for using Compuserve's Packet Network. They also offer "The 20/20 Plan" in which you pay $20 in advance for 20 hours of online time during a one-month period. This includes the monthly account fee and an additional 1500 blocks of disk space. After your first 20 hours, the cost is $1/hr. Software Tool & Die provide the following additional information: Compuserve Packet Network - To access The World via CPN, you first need to find your local CPN number. Dial direct to Compuserve at 800 848-4480 using your modem. Enter the command "phones" at the prompt or call us direct at 617 739-0202 and our staff will provide your local number. After you have your local number, dial it and enter "world,domestic" at the "Host name:" prompt. Use the password "notobvious" to gain access to The World. Getting an Account - At The World's login prompt, use the login "new" to begin the account request program. You will be asked a few questions necessary to create your account. Visa or Master Card is accepted for billing purposes. The World will allow you to select your login name. Most people select their name, their initials, or a combination of both. Your login name will be your electronic mail address. Your initial password will be provided by the account creation software. For customers with credit cards, the account is available immediately upon completion of the request. Customers who request postal billing must contact our office for account activation.

PORTAL (Portal Communications Company, 19720 Auburn Drive, Cupertino, CA 95014; tel 408 973-9111) is a commercial service that provides electronic communication to both business and individuals for a relatively low monthly charge. It offers access to Usenet news as well as email. It also offers additional services, such as a public domain software library and realtime conferencing. Users report that Portal has recently added ftp and telnet to its services. Since it offers unlimited access for a monthly charge of only $13.95, Portal would be a convenient service for people interested in Net access, except for the fact that you need to make a phone call to Cupertino, California. If you are able to make such a call inexpensively, then this service is extremely cost effective. If you are outside the area, Portal can also be reached through Telenet, a wide-area packet network. Using Telenet will increase the cost of connecting by $5.50 - $13.50/hour (peak) or $2.50/hour (off-peak). There is a startup cost of $19.95 One way of handling phone charges for Portal (or any other service that doesn't offer another means of connection) is to use PCPursuit, a service of Telenet. For a flat fee of $30/month Telenet provides 30 hours of off-peak data communications to many (but alas not all) cities in the U.S. This would bring the total cost of email to $40/month, and would limit you to communicating at night and on weekends.

NETCOM is a San Francisco Bay Area company that provides several levels of Internet access to firms and individuals (NETCOM Online Communication Services, 4000 Moorpark Avenue, Suite 209, San Jose CA 95117; tel 408 554-UNIX (Voice), 408 241- 9145 (Fax); info@netcom.com). They run a high speed network from Seattle to Los Angeles, called CALNet. For firms with comparatively sophisticated networking needs, they provide a range of relatively inexpensive services based on SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol) dialups (using leased lines and in some cases a dedicated port), with cost ranging from $160 - $275/month. This provides a low cost means of connecting your LAN to the Internet. For individuals, there are personal dialup accounts to a Unix system offering all Net services (mail, ftp, telnet, Usenet) for a flat monthly fee of $19.50 (or $17.50 if you opt to have your credit card billed automatically) for unlimited, 24-hour access. This provides 80 hours/month of prime-time connection via modem (8 a.m. - midnight). Additional connect-time costs $2/hour. If you connect via telnet, there is no limit (nor is there a limit for late-night modem connections). For all but the most seriously addicted, this amounts to unlimited connect-time. Business accounts are available for $35/month. NETCOM services are currently available in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, and an extension to Sacramento is imminent. A personal note: I use NETCOM as an inexpensive means of accessing my accounts at Stanford from my home and am quite pleased with the service.

AMERICA ONLINE (AOL; Quantum Computer Services, 8619 Westwood Center Drive, Vienna VA 22182; tel 800 227-6364) may appeal to some because it is fairly inexpensive and is Macintosh- oriented, though PC and Apple II users are able to use the service as well. The service is similar to Compuserve, with a wide variety of services in addition to email. Like Compuserve, AOL is not fully connected to the Internet and therefore cannot offer telnet, ftp, or other Internet services. AOL users must use special software, provided by AOL. The basic cost is $7.95/month, which includes 2 hours/month of connect-time. In addition there is a $6/hour connect charge. An American Online document specifies some limitations that make AOL less attractive than it would otherwise be E-Mail to and from America Online is restricted to 27K on the Macintosh and Apple, and 8K on the PC. Longer mail will be truncated. We do not support FTP, IRC, telnet, Usenet groups, or other advanced features of the Internet, and we request that members not subscribe to mailing lists. We restrict incoming Internet mail to 75 pieces in a mailbox at one time.

SINGLE SOURCE. Although Single Source Network Systems, Inc. (2360 Qume Drive, Suite B, San Jose CA 95131; tel 408 943- 0380, fax 408 435-8197) offers a range of sophisticated network services for businesses, one of their services will be of particular interest to individuals and small groups. The provide full access to the Internet, including telnet and ftp, by telephone. For users in the Silicon Valley (area code 408) the cost is $5/hour. Outside the area, there is an 800 number, which increases the cost to $11.50. For those who don't want a flat- rate plan, this is one of the most cost effective services.

PANIX is a public access UNIX system located in New York City, offering Internet mail, Usenet access, telnet, and ftp, as well as other regular UNIX functions. For users outside the area, it can be reached by PC Pursuit. The basic cost for the service is $100/year (or $10/month) but for Internet access there is a $9/month surcharge and a one-time fee of $40, bringing this into the same price range as Netcom. According to a message from the organizers: Panix is a system created solely for the convenience of its users. If there is a program or newsgroup that you want that we don't have, let us know, and we'll try to get it. If you are interested in subscribing to Panix, you can dial in at (718) 832-1525, and log in as "newuser". Panix will ask you a few questions and then one of us will call you back shortly. If you'd like to talk to one of us first ... call us. Alexis Rosen 212 877-4854 Jim Baumbach 718 965-3768

HOLONET describes itself as "an Internet Access BBS," and offers Usenet news and full Internet access, including telnet and ftp. There is a high-speed network that runs throughout the Bay Area and there are dial-in numbers in most cities in the area. Users outside the area can access HoloNet using PC Pursuit, PSINet, or Tymnet. HoloNet's pricing schedule is rather involved, but rates are quite reasonable, especially for users in Berkeley who can access the system in off-peak hours for as little as $2/hour. There is a basic fee of $6/month (or $60/year) which includes a $6 credit toward connect-time charges. You can visit HoloNet as a guest by dialing 510 704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps. Once online, you can sample the system's services and register for an account (Information Access Technologies, Inc., 46 Shattuck Square, Suite 11, Berkeley CA 94704-1152; tel 510 704-0160; fax 510 704-8019).

HALCYON is a Seattle BBS (DATAWAY, PO Box 555, Grapeview WA 98546-0555; tel 206 426-9298) that is directly connected to the Internet and offers all Internet services as well as Usenet news. Free 30-day trial BBS accounts are available but access to the Internet is blocked during this period. To register for a trial account, set your modem to 8N1, dial 206 382-6245, log-in as "bbs", and follow the prompts. There is a $10 signup fee and a flat-rate for using the service: $5/month ($50/year) for a mail-only account $10/month ($100/year) for mail and news $15/month ($150/year) for full UNIX services, news, mail, and Internet access There are different rates for businesses, groups, organizations, K-12 students, etc.

CONCERT (COmmunications for North Carolina Education, Research and Technology), through CONCERT-CONNECT, provides Internet access in North Carolina. Of particular interest are their Public Dial UNIX accounts, which for a flat-fee of $30/month ($37.50 for commercial users) gives users near Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem full access to Net services. There is a $100 setup charge (Center for Communications-MCNC, PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park NC 27709-2889; tel 919 248-1999).

CLEVELAND FREE-NET. Run by Case Western Reserve University (The Community Telecomputing Laboratory, 319 Wickenden Building, Cleveland OH 44106; tel 216 368-5121), the Cleveland Free-Net is an unusual system dedicated to providing community computing services. Essentially an elaborate bulletin board system (BBS), it is organized like a town, with the following activity centers: The Administration Building The Post Office Public Square The Courthouse & Government Center The Arts Building Science and Technology Center The Medical Arts Building The Schoolhouse (Academy One) The Community Center & Recreation Area The Business and Industrial Park The Library University Circle The Teleport The Communications Center NPTN/USA TODAY HEADLINE NEWS They do not offer telnet or ftp, but you can send and receive Internet mail. There are no charges for using Free-Net, but there are some connect-time limitations to keep the system accessible. There are local dial-in numbers in Cleveland, but FreeNet is popular and users report that the numbers are often busy. You can get an account on the Cleveland Free-net by logging in and following the menu prompts (216 368-3888). There are other Free-Nets throughout Ohio. The Cleveland Free-Net is the largest and most popular, but all share a community orientation and all are freely accessible. To visit the following Free-Nets as a guest, enter the specified user ID in lower case letters. Once you are on the system, you can register for an account. The Heartland Free-Net is hosted by Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois (guest ID: "bbguest"). 309 674-1100 Tri-State Online, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, sponsored by Cincinnati Bell Telephone (guest ID: "visitor"). 513 579-1990 The Youngstown Free-Net is sponsored by St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center and Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio (guest ID: "visitor"). 216 742-3072 The Lorain Free-Net is sponsored by variety of supporters and is connected to the Internet via Oberlin (guest ID: "visitor"). You may visit the system as a guest by entering the user ID "guest" (in lower case letters) at the "login:" prompt. Medina County Free-Net 216 723-6732

FIDONET is an international network of local Bulletin Boards Systems (BBSs), nearly all of which are run on personal computers. It is run entirely by its participants, most of whom do the work without compensation. FidoNet connects these BBSs by a very clever scheme for sending messages via ordinary phone calls, in the most cost effective manner possible. For a very small fee, you can send/mail to other people on FidoNet (which also offers a large array of discussion groups on a variety of topics), and, by using a gateway to the Internet, send/receive mail to the Net. To use FidoNet, you will need to locate a BBS near you that offers FidoNet access (I may be able give you a hand with this, if you have trouble finding one). Then you will need to talk to the system operator (Sysop) and arrange to set up an account. Some systems offer free email (these are usually run by firms whose wide area telephone lines are unused at night), but many will ask for a small yearly fee (often less than $35) and will charge you for each message you send. The fee for an "ordinary" sized message is typically about 25 cents. If you wish to use a system that is more than a local call away, see the information about PCPursuit under the PORTAL entry above.

PUBLIC ACCESS UNIX SYSTEMS. There are many Unix systems around the country that, like BBSs, offer free (or very low cost) accounts to individuals (I don't know about firms). Because communications has always been a fundamental aspect of life in Unix, many of these systems are connected to the Net and offer the ability to send/receive Net mail to users. Some also offer other Net services, such as remote login and file transfer. A list of Public Access Unix Systems is available (if you need a copy, drop me a message requesting the file NIXPUB). One word of caution is warranted: Unix is not (and this is a gross understatement) "user-friendly." While it is not necessary to become a very sophisticated Unix expert in order to create and send mail, you will definitely need to spend a little time with a good, basic Unix book before you give this a try. While you will not be able to do anything harmful, it is quite easy to find yourself stranded at an incomprehensible command prompt, with no idea whatever of what is expected of you. (A side note: once the initial learning curve is conquered, Unix can be a great deal of fun). Most of these systems are either free or very low cost. If you wish to use a system that is more than a local call away, see the information about PCPursuit under the PORTAL entry above.

METHODS THAT DON'T (OR ALMOST DON'T) WORK There are several other commercial services that do not at present offer a means of sending/receiving Net mail. Among these are PRODIGY (which also places a limit -- a ridiculously low limit -- on the number of within-Prodigy messages you can send) and GENIE. As of this writing, Genie is said to be experimenting with an Internet gateway, so Genie should become an option soon and there are rumours that Prodigy is doing the same. Net access is a relatively new and slightly obscure feature on many commercial services, so the sales staff may not know much about it. If you investigate a commercial service, be sure to tell them that you are interested in access to the Internet and make sure they understand what you're talking about.

OTHER INFORMATION SOURCES Once you are on the Net, there is a wealth of literature available to help you find your way to the information and services you need. For those curious about the technical aspects of the Internet, all the details are spelled out in a group of documents called RFCs (Requests For Comment), which constitute the formal standards for the Internet. There are also a few RFCs that are less technical, one of which, Ed Krol's "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet" (RFC 1118) should be on everyone's reading list. These are available for anonymous ftp from nic.ddn.mil. Aside from the RFCs, there are a number of beginner's guides available from any number of ftp sites and Listservs. My favorite is Chris Condon's USERHELP. To get a copy send a message to listserv@bitnic.bitnet with the body of the message "GET BITNET USERHELP". There is rather little available in print, so your options for learning about the Net before you plunge in are limited. The classics in the field are Quarterman, John S. The Matrix : Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide. Bedford MA: Digital Press, 1990. and Frey, Donnalyn and Rick Adams. A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks. 2nd ed., rev. and updated. Sebastopol CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1990. Both of these books are aimed at networking professionals and describe -- in more detail than most non-technical readers will appreciate -- the various networks that make up the Internet, outlining the organizational structure, the message transport mechanisms, etc. that characters the individual networks. Nevertheless, both are quite readable and the curious should find them interesting. An early edition of Frey's book is still available online, for anonymous ftp. Another document that started out in life as a machine-readable text freely available for ftp will soon be released in printed form: Kehoe, Brendan. Zen and the Art of the Internet. Prentice Hall, 1992. (Paperbound. ISBN:0-13-010778-6) Similarly useful and even more detailed is: Krol, Ed. The Whole Internet Catalog & User's Guide Sebastopol CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1992 (ISBN 1-56592-025-2). * * * The Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Bitnetwork by Peter Ochs (Drew University) pochs@drew.drew.edu A 1990-91 Collaborative Research Grant from the AAR helped launch a new kind of electronic journal that falls somewhere inbetween an academic journal, a newsletter, and a moderated listserver forum (which receives, stores, and distributes members' writings, but allows for editorial intervention). The Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Bitnetwork emerged out of discussions in the Academy for Jewish Philosophy. A group of Academy members who shared a special interest in postmodern philosophy sought a way of nurturing interactive inquiry that was less formal and more responsive than an academic journal but more edited and less voluminous than a Listserver discussion network. We set up a BITNET newsletter, for which Drew University contributed the use of computer facilities and assistants, the AAR contributed initial funding and I contributed time as initial editor. The first technical requirement was that all of us had access to a computer network that subscribed to BITNET. The AAR grant allowed an original group of ten of us to purchase modems for those few who lacked them and a DaynaFILE disk drive with Dayna translators. Drew University uses an Epson, IBM-compatible system; the editor also uses a Macintosh: the DaynaFILE enabled the editor to receive disks from Mac users and translate them into the IBM system and vice-versa, for editing purposes. Drew provided on-site technical advice (the editor knew nothing about this kind of thing when he started) and clerical assistance for managing electronic correspondence and for processing hardcopy pieces into the system. The mechanism of the Bitnetwork has been for members to send materials electronically to the editor, who edits them together into a newsletter/journal format and then, three times a year or so, sends them out to a distribution list of members and of others who express interest (we now have 25 on our mailing list). Each issue is also printed out in hardcopy and mailed to colleagues who lack access to BITNET (we absorbed the cost of hardcopy mailings for the first year, but now will charge a fee). The Bitnetwork is now in its second volume. We devoted the three issues of Volume One to discovering who we were. We asked members, first, to provide abstracts of their "postmodern" writings and, later, analyses of what they believed the collection of abstracts revealed about what we were collectively up to. We also featured news items, in a chatty format, and brief reprints of representative works in postmodern Jewish philosophy. Here are the results thus far: Edith Wyschogrod (Rice University) on the prehistory of postmodern Judaism, offered in response to an AAR Session on "Trends in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy"; Eugene Borowitz (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) on the history of Jewish ethics through the postmodern age; and Richard Cohen (University of Alabama) on Judaism and existentialist philosophy. Reviewing members' contributions, Robert Gibbs (Princeton) noted the group's shared concerns with speech and with texts, Biblical and rabbinic texts in particular. Jacob Meskin (Williams), while sharing with Cohen a concern about the pretensions of self-conscious "postmodernism," noted the group's attention to lived practice, to antecedent traditions and to ways in which traditional Jewish thinking anticipates postmodern thinking. Norbert Samuelson (Temple) noted that a postmodern Jewish philosophy need not abandon traditional philosophic methods, but can offer new paradigms of logic and of reason for an age transformed by revolutions in communication (TV and film) and in physics (relativity and quantum theory). Steven Kepnes (Colgate) noted that the network elicited a dialogue between two sub-groups in particular: hermeneuts of classical texts and phenomenological hermeneuts in the Continental tradition of Buber, Rosenzweig, Levinas and now Foucault, Derrida and Lyotard. Yudit Greenberg (Rollins) has joined previously mentioned network members as one of several editors of the individual issues of Volume Two. In each of these issues, editors will collect responses from several postmodern thinkers to a particular text, theme or interpretive problem, ideally producing a forum that is philosophic in argument, but Talmudic in mode of redaction. The first issue redacts several discussions that took place through a Bitnet forum that Samuelson organized as a spin-off of the Bitnetwork. The discussion topics are: "Does study of the Holocaust radically transform Jewish thought or not?"; "What is the place of reason in postmodern philosophy?" and "Does the University provide a home for postmodern Jewish philosophy?" The greatest challenge we have faced in developing the Bitnetwork has been encouraging colleagues to use BITNET ("it's easy!") and to send in their thoughts spontaneously ("just think out loud! forget the footnotes!"). To allay some colleagues' fears, we provide a copyright notice, but we assume other colleagues may still feel uncomfortable about publishing their words hastily, or about taking the time to publish them in a professionally unconventional place. We therefore still have work to do to elicit more contributions, but the conversations already begun are satisfying. One of the unexpected rewards of the electronic network has been its capacity to stimulate face-to-face interaction. Bitnetwork members have sponsored Postmodern Jewish Philosophy group sessions at the 1991-2 annual meetings of the AAR, the Academy of Jewish Philosophy and the Association for Jewish Studies and similar meetings are planned for 1992-3. At Lehigh University in June 1992, Steven Kepnes organized a workshop for Bitnetwork participants on "Postmodern Critical Theory and Jewish Studies." Appended to a conference on "The Other in Jewish Thought and History," the workshop featured discussions of transformations in Zionist discourse (led by conference director Larry Silberstein, of Lehigh), of pragmatism and legal theory (Ochs), of critical theory and Talmud (Daniel Boyarin, Berkeley), of Jewish tradition and contemporary Israeli politics (Adi Ophir, The Van Leer Foundation, Jerusalem) and, more generally, of points of interruption in our disciplines of Jewish Studies (Kepnes). Medieval Jewish philosophy was principally Aristotelian or neo- Platonic in approach; modern Jewish philosophy was Kantian; and the disciplines of modern Jewish Studies tend to classify Jewish philosophy as a subject strictly for historical-critical study. Members of the Bitnetwork address Jewish philosophy, instead, out of a variety of discourses in hermeneutics, semiotics, history, critical social theory, deconstructive literary theory, feminism, pragmatism and process thought. The variety might seem to challenge cooperative inquiry, but, judging from the first face- to-face meetings that were stimulated by the Bitnetwork, the variety has stimulated conversation rather than chaos, and the conversation appears to be the kind that accompanies the discovery of new partners in dialogue. These partners seem to share a sense of having been released from the constraints of academic discourses that were no longer self-sufficient. Those interested in joining the Bitnetwork should send an email message to "POCHS@DREW.BITNET" or, for hardcopies of Volumes One and Two, send a check for $10 per volume to Peter Ochs, Bitnetwork Editor, 57 Fairmount Ave., Morristown, NJ 07960. * * * CLASSICS List Announcement Coordinator: Linda Wright An unmoderated list for discussing ancient Greek and Latin subjects has been initiated with the following addresses: CLASSICS@uwavm.u.washington.edu on internet; CLASSICS@uwavm on bitnet. This list is open to everyone interested in Classics, and prospective members are warmly welcomed. The discussions assume a background in ancient Greek and/or Latin. The CLASSICS list is neither run by nor directly affiliated with the University of Washington Classics Department. All requests to be added to this list should be sent to listserv@uwavm.bitnet or listserv@uwavm.u.washington.edu with the one-line message: SUBSCRIBE CLASSICS your-full-name To unsubscribe, send: UNSUBSCRIBE CLASSICS * * * Networked Electronic Seminar to Critique the New "Biblia Hebraica" Sample Text (Habakkuk 1 Fascicle) from the United Bible Societies by Robin Cover [[Editor's Note: Because the main working phases of this project will have concluded before OFFLINE 39 reaches hardcopy distribution, the following abridged description of the project is intended for the November audiences. For those receiving OFFLINE 39 online, in September, detailed instructions on how to participate in the seminar are also appended. RAK]]

Introduction High speed academic networks profoundly impact scholarly communication in the modern world. The "Internet," linked through gateways to dozens of other research networks, creates a global network for scholars who wish to communicate on an international scale in nearly "real time." One such communication genre is the electronic discussion group in which subscribers are networked through a central host computer: each participant's submission to the public conversation is automatically forwarded to the electronic mailbox of other scholars. IOUDAIOS, a discussion forum for First Century Judaism and related issues, currently links over 400 subscribers in more than a dozen countries within Africa, North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. While the highly interactive conversations on a lightly-moderated forum like IOUDAIOS are normally spontaneous, the perpetually convened "conference" also permits more structured, serious events. In October and early November of 1992, the international body of networked scholars on IOUDAIOS will have taken the opportunity to create a collective "critical review" of the newly released Habakkuk 1 Sample Text (proposed revision to Biblia Hebraica). The informal nature of the electronic seminar allows scholars to "publish" critical comment in a setting unencumbered by the formalities and delays of paper publishing. Because communication is so fast, scholarly exchanges can be dynamic and highly iterative: rejoinders and sur-rejoinders are heard within minutes or hours, not within "months," as may be expected in successive journal issues. Participants in the electronic conference sometimes are energized by the liberal ethos (less stuffy and more entertaining than print organs; also more volatile, sometimes pedantic). Network diction is refreshing for its economy: opinions are candid and debate is sometimes sharp, but since no one can "interrupt" a speaker who has composed a thoughtful and closely-argued case (likewise, no one is forced to suffer an intolerable line of argument), eloquent speech and impeccable logic, like rich cream, rise to the top. Some real work gets done!

The Text being Reviewed The Hebrew Habakkuk 1 fascicle was released in May 1992 by the seven co-editors of the UBS Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (HOTTP) as an experimental prototype for a new version of Biblia Hebraica provisionally entitled Biblia Hebraica: Editio quinta funditus renovata. The fascicle itself bears the title "Habakkuk 1: An Introduction, Sample Text and Commentary offered for reaction and response." This 25-page sample text continues and formalizes the text-critical work of an evolving committee begun some 20 years ago; antecedent work has been published in five volumes of Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (UBS, 1973-1980) and in three volumes of "final" report, Critique textuelle de l'Ancien Testament (ed. Dominique Barth&e/;lemy, OBO 50/1-3, 1982-1992, to continue). The introduction to the Habakkuk fascicle confirms the invitation for public comment implicit in its subtitle: "We offer this sample edition for distribution among colleagues and for use in classes and seminars in the hope that we may thereby obtain reactions to the edition and its principles at a stage where its development can be refined in response to the observations of colleagues."

Parameters of the Seminar Discussion Commensurate with the importance of the new proposed edition and with the invitation cited above, the organizers of the electronic seminar sensed it would be appropriate to call for critical comment in a public electronic forum. It was anticipated that the discussion would be wide-ranging, addressing not just the form and content of the fascicle, but the project scope and methodological principles underlying the new edition. Respondents were expected to evaluate the sample edition as measured against its own stated goals of providing a work for "specialists in textual criticism and Hebrew Bible" based upon current "standards of textual criticism." The fourth principle articulated in the fascicle introduction claims that "the edition should be capable of use by a broad audience including not only specialists in textual criticism and Hebrew Bible, but also field translation teams, clergy and students." We expected, therefore, that the seminar discussion would involve both technical comment pertaining to individual readings as well as evaluation of the UBS project in programmatic terms.

Seminar Schedule, Sponsors, and Planned Followup The network-based seminar was hosted on the IOUDAIOS electronic discussion group between the dates October 4, 1992 and November 14, 1992. Seminar discussion was guided by a simple outline and schedule, but otherwise was unstructured and only lightly moderated. This experimental seminar was sponsored by representatives from the following institutions: CARG: SBL/AAR Computer Assisted Research Group (Program Co-Chair, Robin Cover) CCAT: UPenn Center for the Computer Analysis of Texts (Coordinator of External Services, Robert Kraft; Director, James O'Donnell) IOUDAIOS: First Century Judaism (Electronic) Discussion Forum (Coordinator, David Reimer) WTS/AIBI: Westminster Theological Seminary/Association Internationale Bible et Informatique (Hebrew Morphology Project, Alan Groves) These sponsors and their institutional affiliates imply no endorsement of the content in the UBS documents reviewed, and assume no responsibility for the content of public discussion generated during the seminar. For the benefit of other interested parties, the organizers plan to publish an edited summary of the electronic seminar in paper format. [[The following should be omitted from the printed copy]]

Supplementary Information For the benefit of OFFLINE readers who may wish to participate in the electronic seminar devoted to the Sample Text "BH5" of Habakkuk 1, or just "listen in" (as a majority of readers do), we provide the following additional information. A fuller version of the announcement and invitation may be obtained by requesting the file 'TC-HAB ANNOUNCE' from listserv@vm1.yorku.ca (see section 6 below for addressing the LISTSERVer).

Detailed Seminar Schedule The seminar schedule calls for a brief period of general comment, a paced discussion of the content covering the 17 verses, and a brief period for concluding comments. In the schedule printed here, the "TOPIC" identifies the general subject material for each calendar week. The "TOPIC" also provides the suggested content for a "Subject: " line used in email submissions: participants are encouraged to use these "TOPIC" lines to help specify the content of a posting. Postings with appropriate headers may be submitted in advance of the beginning "DATE." DATE TOPIC Oct 4-10 TC-Hab General Oct 11-17 TC-Hab Vss 1-7 Oct 18-24 TC-Hab Vss 8-10 Oct 25-31 TC-Hab Vss 11-13 Nov 1-7 TC-Hab Vss 14-17 Nov 8-14 TC-Hab Conclusions

Obtaining Print Copies of the Habakkuk Fascicle Since the sample text of Habakkuk has not been made available in electronic format, participants will be expected to secure a paper print copy. If possible, obtain a copy of the fascicle from colleagues in local universities and towns. If you cannot locate a copy locally or through colleagues in your host country, you may request a copy from one of the following sources via email: (a) Germany and environs: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Attn: Habakkuk Fascicle Request Postfach 810340 D-7000 Stuttgart 80 Phone: 49 711 71810 FAX: 49 711 7181126 (b) Canada (E) and environs: David J. Reimer Religion & Culture Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA N2L 3C5 Email (Internet): dreimer4@mach1.wlu.ca (c) US (NE) and environs: Robert Kraft Box 36, College Hall University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6303 Email (Internet): kraft@penndrls.upenn.edu (d) US (NE) and environs: Alan Groves Westminster Theological Seminary PO Box 27009 Philadelphia, PA 19118 Email (Internet): groves@penndrls.upenn.edu (e) US (SW) and environs: Robin Cover 6634 Sarah Drive Dallas, TX 75236 Email (Internet): robin@utafll.uta.edu (f) UK and environs: Philip R. Davies Department of Biblical Studies University of Sheffield P.O. Box 595 Arts Tower, Western Bank Sheffield S10 2UJ England Email: bs1pd@primea.sheffield.ac.uk (g) Australasia and environs: Roland Boer Studies in Religion Unit Philosophy Dept University of New England Armidale NSW 2351 Australia Email: rboer@metz.une.edu.au

Subscription to the IOUDAIOS List Anyone not currently on IOUDAIOS may subscribe to the IOUDAIOS electronic discussion forum for the duration of the seminar. Simply send an electronic mail message to listserv@vm1.yorku.ca with the following content as the first and only line: sub ioudaios YOUR NAME substituting your first and last names for "YOUR NAME." BITNET users may need to use the host name YORKVM1 rather than the Internet style host name (vm1.yorku.ca), depending upon mailer software on local machines. As a subscriber, you will receive all mailings from IOUDAIOS automatically. To terminate a "subscription," issue a command to the same address (listserv@vm1.yorku.ca or listserv@YORKVM1): signoff ioudaios To contribute to the seminar, send email messages to the IOUDAIOS forum (*NOT* to the LISTSERVer) with an appropriate "Subject: " line. The electronic address for submissions to the forum is: ioudaios@vm1.yorku.ca (or ioudaios@YORKVM1). For further information on use of the LISTSERVer which supports IOUDAIOS, contact David Reimer (address in section 5 above). Technical questions pertaining to the operation of the IOUDAIOS LISTSERVer should be directed to David Reimer; questions about procedural matters in the seminar may be addressed to any (or all) of the four sponsors named in section 7 above. [[end of special section]] * * * A Second Opinion: Notes to Offline 38 by John Baima (Silver Mountain Software, 1029 Tanglewood, Cedar Hill TX 75104; tel voice/fax 214 293-2920; john@ling.uta.edu) I must say that I was a little disappointed by the recent article by David Rensberger in OFFLINE 38. While the article is helpful, it contains some factual errors and the decision to buy at least a 386SX is the easiest choice facing a DOS computer shopper. I could not even find a 286 last time I was in CompUSA. Not even a 286 laptop. Most of the errors are not really that important: The 8088 is a 16 bit processor that has an 8 bit data path (R. seems to suggest that it is only 8 bit); 286 computers have extended memory that can also be used for expanded memory and several 286's had SIMM slots for several MB of RAM on the motherboard (R. presented a rather more convoluted picture). The advantage of a 486 over a 386 is not just the math co- processor. A 486 running at the same clock speed as a 386 will generally be about twice as fast. The price differential between 486 and 386 computers is rapidly vanishing for desktop models. The chips at the bottom end of the 486 line now only cost about $124. A 486 no longer adds "hundreds" of dollars to the system cost. Most 486 machines have more RAM, hard disk space, and better video and thus the difference seems greater. In the DOS world there is an almost continuous spectrum of prices. I would not recommend anyone buying anything less than a 25 Mhz 386SX. However there are many other parts to a computer. If you just plan on running DOS, 2 MB of RAM memory is okay. For the reasons David Rensberger describes, just a plain DOS machine is probably not the best target. If you are planning on running Microsoft Windows, you should get at least 4 MB of RAM. If you are looking at OS/2, then you should get 8 MB of RAM. If you think Windows NT may make it onto your dream machine, plan on a minimum of 16 MB of RAM. How much hard disk space? For a desktop machine, I see little reason to buy less than 100 MB. That may seem excessive to some, but 100 MB drives now cost only a little more than $300 and users consistently underestimate their long term disk storage requirements. A 100 MB disk is adequate for Windows or OS/2. If you want Windows NT, plan on at least 200 MB. Why even mention OS/2 and Windows NT (Rensberger does not)? Some day many of you will be using OS/2 or Windows NT (or one of their direct descendents). OS/2 is the best DOS multitasker available. It will probably prove to be the best DOS multitasker ever. For all it's benefits, Windows NT will not be as good for DOS applications. OS/2 allows DOS users to download files, format diskettes, or run a long search in the background better than anything else available today. People ask me for recommendations about hardware from time to time and this is what I would recommend: At least a 25 Mhz 386SX, 4 MB RAM (easily expandable with SIMMs to 8 MB), 100 MB hard disk (and another can be added internally) and VGA video. Cost: about $1,500. If I had extra money, I'd buy a 200 MB disk (add ~$200). If I still had money, I'd buy a 486 (add $50-$300). If I still had money, I'd buy a better video sub-system (16-17" color monitor that can handle 1024x768 non-interlaced with an ATI Ultra or an ATI Vantage. Add $500-$600 for the monitor and $200-$300 for the video card). Of course network cards, CD-ROM drives and tape backup are common ways to spend more money (and add value). * * * Thoughts on Setting Up a Computer Research Lab by James Marchand , in response to a request on the MEDTEXTL (Medieval Text List) discussion group. 1. You need a computer, the fastest (e.g. 100 Mhz.) you can get. It needs a hard disk, the biggest (e.g. a gigabyte) you can get. The more RAM you have, the better (let us say, 16 MB). 2. People are always wanting to scan in something. You need a scanner, preferably a flatbed, but with a sheetfeed if you can afford it. A Hewlett-Packard ScanJet Plus is good. You need scanning software; in my opinion, the best is OmniPage Professional from Caere; it is trainable and reads already most European fonts and languages. 3. You need a CD-ROM reader and CD-ROMs. Don't worry that much about speed; the software engine is important. If it is to be used for real research, you ought to have as many of the Wilson and Bowker disks as you can afford. Computer Select is important if you are going to be looking for products and prices. The rest would depend on the direction one wants to go. I would, myself, try to get a juke-box (Pioneer has one that holds 6 CD-ROMs). If it is an open lab, you are going to have trouble with keeping the CD-ROMs secure. 4. For screen, you need at least Ultra-VGA; the larger the screen the better, ceteris paribus. 5. If you are going to lecture using the PC, you will need a projector. 6. Printing facilities. You need a laser printer and someone who knows how to use fonts and to set them up. If you don't have such a person, get Multi-Lingual Scholar. Do not let people tell you you cannot do any font you want. 7. Manipulation facilities. According to what you are going to do, you need clip-art and the ability to manipulate images. Probably best at the moment is GF/X from Xerox, but there are a lot of good, cheap ones. Also good and cheap is PC-Paintbrush (Publishers Paintbrush). 8. Everybody wants concordances as soon as they know what one is, plus word counts. Probably easiest to use is WordCruncher. 9. The next most important thing is to decide what things you are going to support. Our lab people have all kinds of trouble trying to install rogue programs and telling people which key strokes do what. I know it sounds hard and cruel, but you have to say: If you want our help, take our suggestions as to what to buy. Debugging strange programs is not my idea of fun, though now and again ... I think our single most difficult thing is to get over the idea of handshaking, that not every printer will plug and play with every program. It's a hard world out there. One or two additional points to what's been said so far, from Timothy Reuter (MGH, Munich; Timothy.Reuter@mgh.badw-muenchen.dbp.de) 1. Even if you're planning a DOS environment, it would be as well to get at least one large Mac, since there is lots of good software for it (e.g. Peter Robinson's COLLATE) which has no DOS equivalent. By the same token, at least one machine ought to be capable of running some flavour of UNIX and perhaps OS/2. 2. Email links are desirable. 3. Don't spend all the money on hardware. A computer lab ought to have a reasonable annual software budget and a reasonable annual maintenance and consumables budget; for example, disks and tapes, not to mention toner for laser printers, all cost money. And so does software: for example, somebody is likely to need a decent Data Base Management System at some stage, and good products like ORACLE will run into four figures. [Another respondent emphasized the need for support staff to make it all work well.] 4. If anyone intends doing serious large-scale text scanning, then perhaps a dedicated machine might be better than ScanJet plus OmniPage: for example, a Kurzweil 5200 or Makrolog's OPTOPUS. 5. On storage it might be worth considering optical disks, not as an alternative to a big server hard disk, but as an ancillary: anyone who has a large project can then have a disk which she can call her own and which will hold up to 600-700 MB. I'm talking here about genuine rewritables, not WORMs. * * * Selected News Notes

More on Electronic Information >From Dan Lester Many of you may not regularly see Library Trends, but may wish to examine the current number. Each issue of LT is devoted to a single topic, and this issue of over 200 pages is dedicated to "Electronic Information for the Humanities", edited by Mark Stover. Some of the articles include: User Instruction Issues for Databases in the Humanities Electronic Journals in the Humanities: A Survey and Critique Religious Studies and Electronic Information: A Librarian's Perspective Electronic Texts in English and American Literature Humanists, Libraries, Electronic Publishing, and the Future. There are many other articles as well; those mentioned above are just to give you an indication of the breadth of coverage. Those who want a personal copy can purchase one for $18.50, postpaid, from University of Illinois Press, Champaign IL 61820.

Shareware Information James Marchand reports that he has just received the new fourth edition of Nelson Ford's Source Book of Free and Low-Cost Software (Houston: Public Software Library, 1992): "It is easily the best reference guide to shareware and freebies, well indexed and well set up. With this and The PC-SIG Encyclopedia of Shareware (4th ed., Sunnyvale CA: PC-SIG, Inc., 1991), you can conquer the world of share-ware. Once you learn ARCHIE, you can find out more about the shareware, download it and use it to your heart's content."

Locating Electronic Addresses Queries about whether someone is on the network and if so, the electronic address and other pertinent information, are frequent. Recently two ways of searching for such information were described: (1) Telnet to bruno.cs.colorado.edu and login as netfind Enter S for search Enter [name sought] [place, if known] NETFIND will return [full name] [electronic address] [any other public information that is in the NetFind files] (2) Finger [electronic address] This is supposed to return information on post office address, telephone number, etc.

Oxford English Dictionary CD-ROM Update from Ruth Glynn, CD-ROM Project Manager, Oxford Press (rglynn@vax.oxford.ac.uk) The Second Edition of the OED on CD-ROM was published in June in the single-user version (the network version is about to be beta- tested and should be available at the end of September). It costs 495 pounds or 895 US dollars. To get your detailed brochure contact my colleague here Janet Caldwell (email OUPJSC, same address as mine) or ring Royalynn O'Connor at our New York office (212-670-7300). <-----> Please send information, suggestions or queries concerning OFFLINE to Robert A. Kraft, Box 36 College Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6303. Telephone (215) 898- 5827. Internet address: KRAFT@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (please note that the previous BITNET address is no longer operational). To request printed information or materials from OFFLINE, please supply an appropriately sized, self-addressed envelope or an address label. A complete electronic file of OFFLINE columns is available upon request from the editor (for IBM/DOS, Mac, or IBYCUS), or from the CONTENTS Project fileserver (listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca or listserv@uottawa) via FTP to 137.122.6.16 as offline.zip, or from the HUMANIST discussion group ListServ (BROWNVM.BITNET), for recent issues. //end #39//