How to use the internet, 1995

joining me now is Corey Doo he's going to help us surf the net he's been working with computers since he was seven and now he's an independent computer consultant and programmer okay Corey let's get our feet wet show us how to surf the net okay well when you're talking about playing around on the internet you're talking about one of two

talking about playing around on the internet you're talking about one of two things playing with yourself playing with other people uhhuh playing with yourself more or less means hanging around on the worldwide web which is a new way of putting together information on the internet that's very intuitive this is the amazing fish cam and it's a

this is the amazing fish cam and it's a worldwide web page from California it's from the Netscape Corporation what it is it's a camera pointed at a fish tank in California we click a button it sends us a picture from the fish tank this particular picture has no fish in it because and I pay $300 a year for

that's you're pay $300 a year for what makes this cool is not the fact that you can see Fish what makes this cool is the fact that you can point that camera at anything cameras can be on every corner in the world and if you can request that data from anywhere

you can request that data from anywhere else in the world over the worldwide web you're laughing you thought Rodney King was something what happens when I can have a look anywhere it's one of the really neat things that's changing the way we think about space and presence and what it means to be

and presence and what it means to be somewhere another big change that the internet is wreaking is the internet underground music archive it's it's changing the way we distribute music this is this is iuma the internet underground music archive and it was something started by a couple of University students who wanted

University students who wanted to make music available music that you'd hear on College radio over the internet and so if you're an independent band Apollo Creed from Seattle you can send them your press kit your logo bio your music your bio and all I have to do is come here and click

all I have to do is come here and click a button and down comes your single so getting rid of radio and record companies and marketing and prom exactly it means that no longer do Bureau s control the means of distribution and production for this

Bureau s control the means of distribution and production for this stuff it means that if I'm a musician I make music and that's all I got to do and then make it available and people can come to me really what's what value does a producer add in this world what about movies you've got music what about movies Tank Girl one of

music what about movies Tank Girl one of my very favorite movies they did a page because they're very high-tech and they make available some video clips so here we've got a list of a whole bunch of video clips we can download from there from the film and here we have the actual clip itself now that's not quite the same as

itself now that's not quite the same as seeing it on the big screen no it's someone issued a commemorative postage stamp of it what makes this cool is that it's the internet and its larel stage when this turns into a butterfly when it hatches what this can translate to is video on demand this can

translate to is video on demand this can translate to me deciding I want to watch a Welcome Back Cotter rerun and just requesting it and it comes down the line and there I am watching it means that the networks disappear and all that all that happens now are transactions between the people who made

transactions between the people who made the content and people who watch it now the big problem here is that if you've got however many tens of millions of people producing content and making it available on the internet there's no way to sort out the good stuff from the bad stuff presumably the CBC there's someone whose full-time job it is to watch a

whose full-time job it is to watch a whole bunch of stuff and decide which of it will be appropriate for their viewing audience no one does that for you on the internet presumably nobody does that for you on the internet for money but what there are a lot of volunteer guys this guy Justin who puts together his links from the underground he spends 10

links from the underground he spends 10 hours a day a stone internet freak sitting there in front of the computer coming up with neat things to connect to his page and you come by and you click a button and Away you go you're looking at Links of things that interested him so he's a volunteer

interested him so he's a volunteer editor yeah he's the future of the universe as far as I'm concerned he's anyone can make stuff anyone can listen to stuff but it takes someone really to find and identify the good stuff he's doing that for free but who is paying for this somebody's got to be

is paying for this somebody's got to be paying for who pays for the Internet it's a good question the Internet isn't owned by anyone the internet is bits of it and pieces of it are owned by different people universities governments municipalities phone companies cable companies you name it high-tech research firms private

high-tech research firms private corporations there's some speculation now that at some point we're going to have to we're going to see a real increase in the expense of Internet services because now it's being subsidized by all of these organizations and there's a lot of stuff out there that they might not want to continue subsidizing

pornography revolutionary manifestos instructions for making firebombs you name it's out there so that's the worldwide web how do you go from just having a one-on-one relationship with the net to group surfing groups and direct communication with other people

direct communication with other people first thing you got is email which you talked about it's me sending information to you or list of people the next big thing is the uset and the uset is a collection of thousands and thousands and thousands of groups of people

talking about different subjects picture it a giant corkboard marked off with tape into squares Each of which has a title you can go up I can go up write a note down scribble it up post it to the board someone else can come by have a look at it and post their response except millions of people do it

response except millions of people do it's said that somewhere on the uset someone has the answer to every question you've ever heard of you just got to find the place to ask it and ask it in the way is there is there stuff that you need to know about how to pose questions there a whole bunch of stuff that you should do before you before you plunge into your first uset

before you plunge into your first uset discussion first thing lurk hang around there see how people talk to each other the second thing get the fact a frequently asked questions file or FAQ here's the fact for alt folklore Urban which is an urban legends News Group and this has got a listing of every single urban legend they've been

every single urban legend they've been able to find and the resarch they've done to determine whether it's true so if you want to find out if Mikey's stomach exploded when he ate pop rocks and drank coke this is the place to go the third thing you got to do is ignore the Flames sometimes on the uset people shout at each other it's yelling at

shout at each other it's yelling at someone out the window of your car it's just Voom they're past you past them you've yelled something awful about their mother you have no consequences and it feels that on the uset except and it's really easy to forget that there's a human being at the other end when you get flamed and you will ignore it because you don't need to because the rest of the world doesn't

ignore it because you don't need to because the rest of the world doesn't need to see your argument with someone else what about muds and moo muds and moo muds and moo are the marriage of something called the Internet relay chat which is a giant party line with a thousand channels on it with thousands of rooms where people hang out and talk

of rooms where people hang out and talk at each other and you type on your keyboard I see it on my screen no matter where you are in the world and no matter where I am in the world and these people are hanging out chatting at each other wow there's a million places to go what would your advice be for someone who's just getting onto the internet now

who's just getting onto the internet now okay one thing I got to say is the internet's cool the internet's fun the internet's interesting and compelling and if that's why you want to learn to use the internet great go for it but if you're worried about getting lost if you don't know about the internet it's going to be easy you're not going to have to

to be easy you're not going to have to sweat this stuff there's no one taking telephone lessons today but at one point it was a hobbyist medium the internet now is for hobbyist and people who are interested in it but you don't have to be interested in it finally guilt-free advice that's

thank you very much no problem h