THE INTERNET HELP PAGE

REVISED: 05/04/99

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Some of you will have had no experience with the Internet, while others will have a basic knowledge of how to use it and a few will be very knowledgeable in its use. Since this course requires that you use the Internet extensively I have gathered the following material to assist you. I do not claim to be an expert on the Internet, but I have accumulated considerable knowledge on its use over the last four years. However, I welcome constructive criticism and advice (tips, tricks, examples) on how my presentations can be improved and I consider the adaptation of Computer Aided Instruction to the classroom to be a concerted effort involving the instructors, the students and the computer experts. Ultimately students will determine how best to use this technology in education by the simple act of telling the rest of us what works or doesn't work for the majority.

BROWSERS

Browsers are the programs that find and display the various files on the Internet to the viewer at their request. Your computer must have a browser and a connection to the Internet before you can access the material on the Internet. Although there are a number of browsers available, realistically you should choose between only two; Netscape and Internet Explorer (IE). I prepare the course material so it is compatible with Netscape, but the vast majority of it is also compatible on IE. Netscape must be purchased while IE is currently free and is installed on almost all IBM-based computers using Windows.

HTML EDITORS

One set of EXTRA CREDIT (see the Syllabus) points can be earned by preparing a 50 points multiple choice quiz for one of the exam sections. As this quiz must be "Internet Ready" so all I have to do is import it onto the Internet when I receive it from the student it must be prepared in HTML language. This is most easily done using a HTML editor which converts normal word-processing text into the HTML code as you type. Several programs used by students in the past are listed below; many other are available. One of them, Internet Assistant, is loaded on several machines in SLIC. All of them are free and can be downloaded into your personal computer. However, they all take time to learn so you should set aside at least one day to learn how to use an editor before planning to write your exam. In may case it takes me about 6 to 8 hours to write 50 reasonably decent questions.

http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/ia; This software (I.A.) is free and it is the one I initially used to prepare the pages currently on the Internet, although I now use FrontPage 97. I will be switching over to Front Page 98 before the spring '98 semester starts.

http://www.stars.com/Vlib/Authoring/HTML_Editors.html; An index page with many free HTML editors.

http://www.webtechs.com/html-val-svc/; Site for validating the correctness of a HTML document.

http://www.webtechs.com/html-val-svc/about.html; Contains information on automatically checking on the validity of your web document.

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html; A beginners guide to HTML

HELPER APPLICATIONS YOU WILL NEED TO USE THE MICRO 101INTERNET TEXT

User Friendly Links to Helper Applications that will let you take full advantage of the Links in the Text. To load these helpers first create a new file (e.g. Chime), then load the application and save it to the new empty file. From there follow the various instructions. Usually they are self-extracting, which means you have very little to do other than to double click on the loaded *.exe file and follow the instructions. Check for updates every few months. Also check the sites on your browsers for new Helper Apps frequently.

The helper programs you will need to view the required material in NetText 101/102 are colored GREEN

Rasmol, Kinemage and Chime can be downloaded from : http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/ However, they DO NOT WORK ON  Microsoft Internet Explorer but only work with Netscape (version 3.01 or 4.01 are recommended).

Chime/Rasmol Tutorials:

Adobe Acrobat: http://www.adobe.com/homepage.html

Quicktime: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/index.html

RealAudio: http://christie.prognet.com/index.html This is no longer free.

Macromedia: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/

WebLab: http://www.msi.com/weblab

Intervu: http://www.intervu.net/installer/eyeq.html

URLs containing lots of gifferent plug-ins and helpers

Complete list of plug-ins; let me know which ones you find useful. Includes the last time each one was updated.

Plug in Helper Page: http://www.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/C4/helpers.html

SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines are programs that help you fine topics on the Internet. Although their search logic differs, basically each search program asks you to enter a set of "key words" that the program will search the Internet for. It will then bring up all the addresses of sites containing these key words. The problem is designing a set of key words that will find only those URLs that are useful. However, the problem is that one often ends up with the search being to wide and giving you 30,000 URLs to search through or the dreaded "0 items matching your key words found". At best expect to find only one out of 100 URLs that are worthwhile.

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.altavista.digital.com/

http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/

http://www.search.com/

http://www.excite.com/?b-a-b2

http://www.hotbot.com/

Copyright © Dr. R. E. Hurlbert, 1998. This material may be used for educational purposes only and may not be duplicated for commercial purposes.

TOC

SCIENCE HALL, ROOM 440CA
PHONE: 509-335-5108
FAX: 509-335-1907
E-mail adresses: HOME or OFFICE
OFFICE HOURS: Tues. Thurs. 2:00 to 4:00 PM.