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Appendix A: THE LINGO




        As has any community, the Net has developed its own language.  
What follows is a glossary of some of the more common phrases you'll 
likely run into.  But it's only a small subset of net.speak.  You an find 
a more complete listing in "The New Hacker's Dictionary," compiled by 
Eric Raymond (MIT Press).  Raymond's work is based on an online reference 
known as "The Jargon File," which you can get through anonymous ftp from 
ftp.gnu.mit.ai.mit as jarg300.txt.gz in the pub/gnu directory (see 
chapter 7 for information on how to un-compress a .gz file). 
 
ASCII           Has two meanings.  ASCII is a universal computer code 
                for English letters and characters.  Computers store 
                all information as binary numbers. In ASCII, the 
                letter "A" is stored as 01000001, whether the computer 
                is made by IBM, Apple or Commodore.  ASCII also refers 
                to a method, or protocol, for copying files from one 
                computer to another over a network, in which neither 
                computer checks for any errors that might have been 
                caused by static or other problems.
 
ANSI            Computers use several different methods for deciding 
                how to put information on your screen and how your 
                keyboard interacts with the screen.  ANSI is one of 
                these "terminal emulation" methods.  Although most 
                popular on PC-based bulletin-board systems, it can also 
                be found on some Net sites.  To use it properly, you 
                will first have to turn it on, or enable it, in your 
                communications software.
 
 
ARPANet         A predecessor of the Internet.  Started in 1969 with 
                funds from the Defense Department's Advanced Projects 
                Research Agency. 
 
backbone        A high-speed network that connects several powerful 
                computers.  In the U.S., the backbone of the Internet is 
                often considered the NSFNet, a government funded link 
                between a handful of supercomputer sites across the 
                country. 
 
Baud            The speed at which modems transfer data.  One baud is 
                roughly equal to one bit per second.  It takes eight 
                bits to make up one letter or character.  Modems rarely 
                transfer data at exactly the same speed as their listed 
                baud rate because of static or computer problems. More 
                expensive modems use systems, such as Microcom Network 
                Protocol (MNP), which can correct for these errors or 
                which "compress" data to speed up transmission.
 
BITNet          Another, academically oriented, international computer 
                network, which uses a different set of computer 
                instructions to move data.  It is easily accessible to 
                Internet users through e-mail, and provides a large 
                number of conferences and databases.  Its name comes from 
                "Because It's Time." " 
 
Bounce          What your e-mail does when it cannot get to its 
                recipient -- it bounces back to you -- unless it goes 
                off into the ether, never to be found again.
 
Command line    On Unix host systems, this is where you tell the 
                machine what you want it to do, by entering commands.
 
Communications  A program that tells a modem how to work.
software   
 
Daemon          An otherwise harmless Unix program that normally works 
                out of sight of the user. On the Internet, you'll most 
                likely encounter it only when your e-mail is not 
                delivered to your recipient -- you'll get back your 
                original message plus an ugly message from a "mailer 
                daemon. 
 
Distribution    A way to limit where your Usenet postings go.  Handy for 
                such things as "for sale" messages or discussions of 
                regional politics. 
 
Domain          The last part of an Internet address, such as "news.com."
 
Dot             When you want to impress the net veterans you meet at 
                parties, say "dot" instead of "period," for example: "My 
                address is john at site dot domain dot com." 
 
Dot file        A file on a Unix public-access system 
                that alters the way you or your messages interact with 
                that system.  For example, your .login file contains 
                various parameters for such things as the text editor you 
                get when you send a message.   When you do an ls command, 
                these files do not appear in the directory listing; do ls 
                -a to list them. 
 
Down            When a public-access site runs into technical trouble, 
                and you can no longer gain access to it, it's down.
 
Download        Copy a file from a host system to your computer.  There 
                are several different methods, or protocols, for 
                downloading files, most of which periodically check the 
                file as it is being copied to ensure no information is 
                inadvertently destroyed or damaged during the process. 
                Some, such as XMODEM, only let you download one file at 
                a time.  Others, such as batch-YMODEM and ZMODEM, let 
                you type in the names of several files at once, which 
                are then automatically downloaded. 
 
EMACS           A standard Unix text editor preferred by Unix types
                that beginners tend to hate.                
 
E-mail          Electronic mail -- a way to send a private message to 
                somebody else on the Net. Used as both noun and verb.
 
Emoticon        See smiley.
 
F2F             Face to Face.  When you actually meet those people you 
                been corresponding with/flaming.
 
FAQ             Frequently Asked Questions.  A compilation of answers to 
                these.  Many Usenet newsgroups have these files, which 
                are posted once a month or so for beginners. 
 
Film at 11      One reaction to an overwrought argument: "Imminent death 
                of the Net predicted. Film at 11."
 
Finger          An Internet program that lets you get some bit of 
                information about another user, provided they have first 
                created a .plan file. 
 
Flame           Online yelling and/or ranting directed at somebody else.  
                Often results in flame wars, which occasionally turn into 
                holy wars (see). 
 
Followup        A Usenet posting that is a response to an earlier 
                message.
 
Foo/foobar      A sort of online algebraic place holder, for example: "If 
                you want to know when another site is run by a for-
                profit company, look for an address in the form of 
                foo@foobar.com." 
 
Fortune cookie  An inane/witty/profund comment that can be found around 
                the net.  
 
Freeware        Software that doesn't cost anything.
 
FTP             File-transfer Protocol.  A system for transferring files 
                across the Net.
 
Get a life      What to say to somebody who has, perhaps, been spending a 
                wee bit too much time in front of a computer.
 
GIF             Graphic Interchange Format.  A format developed in the 
                mid-1980s by CompuServe for use in photo-quality graphics 
                images.  Now commonly used everywhere online. 
 
GNU             Gnu's Not Unix.  A project of the Free Software 
                Foundation to write a free version of the Unix operating 
                system. 

Hacker          On the Net, unlike among the general public, this is not
                a bad person; it is simply somebody who enjoys stretching
                hardware and software to their limits, seeing just what 
                they can get their computers to do.  What many people 
                call hackers, net.denizens refer to as crackers.

Handshake       Two modems trying to connect first do this to agree on 
                how to transfer data.
 
Hang            When a modem fails to hang up.
 
Holy war        Arguments that involve certain basic tenets of faith, 
                about which one cannot disagree without setting one of 
                these off.  For example: IBM PCs are inherently superior to 
                Macintoshes.                     
         
Host system     A public-access site; provides Net access to people 
                outside the research and government community.
 
IMHO            In My Humble Opinion.
 
Internet        A worldwide system for linking smaller computer 
                networks together.  Networks connected through the 
                Internet use a particular set of communications 
                standards to communicate, known as TCP/IP.
 
Killfile        A file that lets you filter Usenet postings to some 
                extent, by excluding messages on certain topics or from 
                certain people. 
 
Log on/log in   Connect to a host system or public-access site.
 
Log off         Disconnect from a host system.
 
Lurk            Read messages in a Usenet newsgroup without ever saying 
                anything.
 
Mailing list    Essentially a conference in which messages are delivered 
                right to your mailbox, instead of to a Usenet newsgroup.  
                You get on these by sending a message to a specific e-
                mail address, which is often that of a computer that 
                automates the process. 
 
MOTSS           Members of the Same Sex.  Gays and Lesbians online.  
                Originally an acronym used in the 1980 federal census.
 
Net.god         One who has been online since the beginning, who knows 
                all and who has done it all.
 
Net.personality Somebody sufficiently opinionated/flaky/with plenty of 
                time on his hands to regularly post in dozens of 
                different Usenet newsgroups, whose presence is known to 
                thousands of people.
 
Net.police      Derogatory term for those who would impose their 
                standards on other users of the Net.  Often used in 
                vigorous flame wars (in which it occasionally mutates to 
                net.nazis). 
 
Netiquette      A set of common-sense guidelines for not annoying others.
 
Network         A communications system that links two or more 
                computers. It can be as simple as a cable strung 
                between two computers a few feet apart or as complex 
                as hundreds of thousands of computers around the world 
                linked through fiber optic cables, phone lines and 
                satellites.
 
Newbie          Somebody new to the Net.  Sometimes used derogatorily by 
                net.veterans who have forgotten that, they, too, were 
                once newbies who did not innately know the answer to 
                everything. "Clueless newbie" is always derogatory.
 
Newsgroup       A Usenet conference.
 
NIC             Network Information Center.  As close as an Internet-
                style network gets to a hub; it's usually where you'll 
                find information about that particular network. 
 
NSA line eater  The more aware/paranoid Net users believe that the 
                National Security Agency has a super-powerful computer 
                assigned to reading everything posted on the Net.   They 
                will jokingly (?) refer to this line eater in their 
                postings. Goes back to the early days of the Net when
                the bottom lines of messages would sometimes disappear
                for no apparent reason.
 
NSF             National Science Foundation.  Funds the NSFNet, a 
                high-speed network that once formed the backbone of the 
                Internet in the U.S. 
 
Offline         When your computer is not connected to a host system 
                or the Net, you are offline. 
 
Online          When your computer is connected to an online service, 
                bulletin-board system or public-access site.
 
Ping            A program that can trace the route a message takes from 
                your site to another site.
 
.plan file      A file that lists anything you want others on the Net to 
                know about you.  You place it in your home directory on 
                your public-access site.  Then, anybody who fingers (see) 
                you, will get to see this file. 
 
Post            To compose a message for a Usenet newsgroup and then send 
                it out for others to see.
 
Postmaster      The person to contact at a particular site to ask for 
                information about the site or complain about one of 
                his/her user's behavior. 
 
Protocol        The method used to transfer a file between a host 
                system and your computer. There are several types, 
                such as Kermit,  YMODEM and ZMODEM.                             
 
Prompt          When the host system asks you to do something and 
                waits for you to respond.  For example, if you see 
                "login:" it means type your user name. 
 
README files    Files found on FTP sites that explain what is in a given 
                FTP directory or which provide other useful information 
                (such as how to use FTP). 
 
Real Soon Now   A vague term used to describe when something will 
                actually happen.
 
RFC             Request for Comments.  A series of documents that 
                describe various technical aspects of the Internet.
 
ROTFL           Rolling on the Floor Laughing.  How to respond to a 
                particularly funny comment.
 
ROT13           A simple way to encode bad jokes, movie reviews that give 
                away the ending, pornography, etc.  Essentially, each 
                letter in a message is replace by the letter 13 spaces 
                away from it in the alphabet.  There are online decoders 
                to read these; nn and rn have them built in. 
 
RTFM            Read the, uh, you know, Manual.  Often used in flames 
                against people who ask computer-related questions that 
                could be easily answered with a few minutes with a 
                manual. More politely: RTM.
 
Screen capture  A part of your communications software that 
                opens a file on your computer and saves to it whatever 
                scrolls past on the screen while connected to a host 
                system. 
 
Server          A computer that can distribute information or files 
                automatically in response to specifically worded e-mail 
                requests. 
 
Shareware       Software that is freely available on the Net.  If you 
                like and use the software, you should send in the fee
                requested by the author, whose name and address will be 
                found in a file distributed with the software. 
 
.sig file       Sometimes, .signature file.  A file that, when placed in 
                your home directory on your public-access site, will 
                automatically be appended to every Usenet posting you 
                write. 
 
.sig quote      A profound/witty/quizzical/whatever quote that you 
                include in your .sig file.
 
Signal-to-noise The amount of useful information to be found in a given
ratio           Usenet newsgroup.  Often used derogatorily, for example: 
                "the signal-to-noise ratio in this newsgroup is pretty low."
 
SIMTEL20        The White Sands Missile Range used to maintain a giant 
                collection of free and low-cost software of all kinds, 
                which was "mirrored" to numerous other ftp sites on the
                Net.  In the fall of 1993, the Air Force decided it had
                better things to do than maintain a free software library
                and shut it down.  But you'll still see references to
                the collection, known as SIMTEL20, around the Net.

Snail mail      Mail that comes through a slot in your front door or a
                box mounted outside your house.
 
Sysadmin        The system administrator; the person who runs a host 
                system or public-access site.

TANSTAAFL       There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.  
 
TCP/IP          Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The 
                particular system for transferring information over a 
                computer network that is at the heart of the Internet.
 
Telnet          A program that lets you connect to other computers on 
                the Internet.
 
Terminal        There are several methods for determining how your 
emulation       keystrokes and screen interact with a public-access 
                site's operating system.  Most communications programs 
                offer a  choice of "emulations" that let you mimic the 
                keyboard that would normally be attached directly to 
                the host-system computer. 
 
UUCP            Unix-to-Unix CoPy.  A method for transferring Usenet 
                postings and e-mail that requires far fewer net resources 
                than TCP/IP, but which can result in considerably slower 
                transfer times.
 
Upload          Copy a file from your computer to a host system.
 
User name       On most host systems, the first time you connect you 
                are asked to supply a one-word user name.  This can be 
                any combination of letters and numbers. 
 
VT100           Another terminal-emulation system.  Supported by many 
                communications program, it is the most common one in 
                use on the Net.  VT102 is a newer version. 




Appendix B: ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION INFORMATION




The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a membership organization that
was founded in July of 1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected as new communications
technologies emerge.
 
From the beginning, EFF has worked to shape our nation's communications
infrastructure and the policies that govern it in order to maintain and
enhance First Amendment, privacy and other democratic values.  We believe
that our overriding public goal must be the creation of Electronic
Democracy, so our work focuses on the establishment of:
 
o       new laws that protect citizens' basic Constitutional rights as they
use new communications technologies,
 
o       a policy of common carriage requirements for all network providers
so that all speech, no matter how controversial, will be carried without
discrimination, 
 
o       a National Public Network where voice, data and video services are
accessible to all citizens on an equitable and affordable basis, and
 
o       a diversity of communities that enable all citizens to have a voice
in the information age.
 
 
Join us!
 
I wish to become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  I enclose:
 
$__________  Regular membership -- $40
$__________  Student membership -- $20
 
 
Special Contribution
 
I wish to make a tax-deductible donation in the amount of $__________ to
further support the activities of EFF and to broaden participation in the
organization.
 
 
Documents Available in Hard Copy Form
 
The following documents are available free of charge from the Electronic
Frontier Foundation.  Please indicate any of the documents you wish to
receive.
 
___  Open Platform Proposal - EFF's proposal for a national
telecommunications infrastructure.  12 pages.  July, 1992
 
___  An Analysis of the FBI Digital Telephony Proposal - Response of
EFF-organized coalition to the FBI's digital telephony proposal of Fall,
1992.  8 pages.  September, 1992.
 
___  Building the Open Road:  The NREN and the National Public Network - A
discussion of the National Research and Education Network as a prototype
for a National Public Network.  20 pages.  May, 1992.
 
___  Innovative Services Delivered Now:  ISDN Applications at Home, School,
the Workplace and Beyond - A compilation of ISDN applications currently in
use.  29 pages.  January, 1993.
 
___  Decrypting the Puzzle Palace - John Perry Barlow's argument for strong
encryption and the need for an end to U.S. policies preventing its
development and use. 13 pages.  May, 1992.
 
___  Crime and Puzzlement - John Perry Barlow's piece on the founding of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the world of hackers, crackers and
those accused of computer crimes. 24 pages.  June, 1990.
 
___  Networks & Policy - A quarterly newsletter detailing EFF's activities
and achievements.
 
 
Your Contact Information:
 
Name:  __________________________________________________________
 
Organization:  ____________________________________________________
 
Address:  ________________________________________________________
 
               ________________________________________________________
 
Phone:  (____)  _______________  FAX:  (____)  _______________  (optional)
 
E-mail address:  ___________________________________________________
 
 
Payment Method
 
___ Enclosed is a check payable to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
 
___ Please charge my:   
        ___ MasterCard  ___ Visa  ___ American Express
 
                Card Number:  ___________________________________________
 
                Expiration Date:  _________________________________________
 
                Signature:  ______________________________________________
 
 
Privacy Policy
 
EFF occasionally shares our mailing list with other organizations promoting
similar goals.  However, we respect an individual's right to privacy and
will not distribute your name without explicit permission.
 
___ I grant permission for the EFF to distribute my name and contact
information to organizations sharing similar goals.
 
 
Print out and mail to: 
     Membership Coordinator
     Electronic Frontier Foundation
     1001 G Street, N.W.
     Suite 950 East
     Washington, DC  20001
     202/347-5400 voice
     202/393-5509 fax
 
 
 
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization
supported by contributions from individual members, corporations and
private foundations.  Donations are tax-deductible.

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