January 1997 Issue, copyright
1997 Canada Computer Paper Inc.
That's why they call it a personal computer
by Jean Allen-Ikeson
Imagine that you are a 15th century monk in an isolated monastery with
a "treasure" of 30 books. Outside of prayer, these books are your
world. A magician comes to visit and casts a spell. You are thrust into
one of today's book superstores with not 30 but 5,000 volumes filled with
photographs, maps and words you have never heard or read. When you purchase
your first computer, you are that monk.
Your computer is like the physical store that contains those books. It is
a tool with which software and the Internet come alive, offering as revolutionary
a change in your world as the monk experienced in his. Software development
and access to information through channels such as the Internet have come
as far in 20 years as book publishing has in 500 years. Just as there are
volumes on nearly every subject in the bookstores, there are software products
or Internet sites on a myriad of topics.
Confused by the technology? You have a right to be, but the rewards can
be awe inspiring if you take the time to map out the territory.
A portal on the world at large
So what is this Internet stuff, and the Web and e-mail people keep talking
about? The Internet is like a large county library system with numerous
satellite libraries linked by computer-but on a vastly larger scale. Instead
of looking in the card catalogue to see what books are available, you can
search for people and their interests and activities as well. On the Internet,
you'll come into contact with people with ideas to share, skills to test
or questions that need answering-perhaps by you.
Whatever your waking activities-from work, home or hobby-there are people
around the world with the same interests who you can connect with on the
Internet.
It's the people, not the technology, that makes the Internet so terrific.
You will find people who are the antithesis of the violence and anti-social
behavior you see on the news every night. You can get help to find an antique
car part, a quilt pattern, help your kids find out about an obscure village
in France, watch a comet's progress in real time, share parenting ideas
or locate the names of great grandfather's ancestors. (But let's not
forget that the Internet has its darker, seamier side too. Whatever you
find in the world, warts and all, you'll likely find a correlate for on
the Internet.-Ed)
Getting hooked (up)
How do you get all this? Buy a computer with a modem, and subscribe
to an Internet service provider (ISP).
A modem is a piece of equipment inside your new computer (you can also buy
an external modem), which connects to a telephone line and allows your computer
to send-and receive-digital information to other likewise-equipped computers
across the telephone line. An ISP is connected to the global interconnected
network of networks, called the Internet. When you connect to your ISP with
your modem, your computer becomes a part of that network.
24-hour mail service
One service available with an Internet connection is e-mail, which is
short for electronic mail.
So what is so good about that? First, outside of what you pay for an ISP
connection (about the same as basic phone service), there are no stamps
to buy or lines to stand in at the post office. Just like a letter, you
have an address such as "anyone@tcp.ca"-which is short for a person
named "anyone" at "tcp," or The Computer Paper,
in "ca," or Canada. Enter that, then type your note or letter,
click a key on the keyboard and poof! it's sent. About 15 minutes to an
hour later, it is in the receiver's mailbox. But the other person can read
it at his or her convenience. E-mail does not ring during supper or while
you are in the shower. But this is one-on-one communication.
The club is meeting here tonight
For one-to-many interaction, you can participate in newsgroups or forums.
These are like clubs for topics such as gardening or stamp collecting or
diseases or parenting-but instead of meeting in a community centre or church
hall, they meet via the Internet.
One person serves as the hub. Everyone sends messages to or receives messages
from that person's computer. This is how it works: you send a message to
the hub's e-mail address with only the words in the message "subscribe
(this-hobby)." Then a few times a week or even daily, you receive a
collection of questions, answers and discussions that others have offered
to the group. To put in your own two cents, you e-mail the hub with your
question or comment. But what makes these so terrific is that instead of
perhaps having access to only a few people in your geographic area interested
in the same topic, you are in contact with hundreds from all over the world.
For example, I grow orchids to keep from going crazy over the winter. I
belong to two Internet newsgroups: the Orchids List Digest, which is international,
and Orchids-can, which is primarily about orchids, orchid growers and activities
in Canada. I also belong to the Royal Botanical Gardens Orchid Society,
but it only meets once a month and members are a long-distance call away.
With these computer groups, I can locate a plant I have always wanted, ask
about a new potting media I saw used at another club's show or find people
who will trade pollen to help conserve endangered species. I have "friends"
in Belgium, South Africa (this person sent stamps to my youngest son and
articles for our society newsletter to me), Saskatchewan and Texas.
Newsgroup discussions are often lively and the willingness to help and share
defies the dog-eat-dog mentality we're always told is the heart of 20th
century culture.
For people in isolated areas, a phone connection to the Internet makes them
an instant member. For example, Steve Saunders in Nova Scotia posted photos
of elegant orchid displays on the Web within a few days of the national
Canadian Orchid Congress in Halifax this past Fall. With children in school,
I could not go. But thanks to Steve, I was still able to view the show anyway.
Using my computer, I can also send a photo of an orchid I'm having a problem
with to a special section of the Orchid List Digest and receive a diagnosis
the same day from someone thousands of miles away.
And there are other ways computers help with my orchid growing. I maintain
a "database" of my orchids using a special program called Orchidata-3.
(The software from Computer/Management Services requires Windows/DOS and
sells for US$66.50, plus shipping and handling). A database is a special
group of programs that collects, sorts and collates items, numbers or other
information. A common use for a database is to maintain a mailing list that
can be sorted automatically by name, province, affiliation, etc.
With my orchids, I use a database to keep a record of the name, parents,
flowering history, repotting and, most important, where I acquired the plant.
Why do I need the last item? Orchids are becoming endangered all over the
world. This provides evidence that they were obtained from legitimate sources
and not collected illegally or smuggled.
I can also print a report with the database that sorts all plants blooming
in the spring so that I can remind myself to repot and fertilize without
jeopardizing flower spikes.
Web world wide
The Web is the third big player on the Internet in addition to e-mail
and newsgroups. The world wide Web is like indexed yellow pages for businesses
and individuals. But instead of a small box advertising a business or service,
"Web pages" can be almost any number of full pages (but are usually
less than 10). The pages tell you what a business or organization has to
offer or what an individual is interested in. As a perk, there are always
items marked by bold type or a different color type. By clicking on one
on your computer screen with the pointer that is controlled by your "mouse,"
you can jump to another Web page for that related item.
For instance, Ruthe Stowe (her Internet address is http://home.netinc.ca/~rstowe/)
in Hamilton is interested in weaving. On her page, she has links to the
weaving guild she belongs to and the weaving newsgroup she subscribes to.
She also has other links to weaving friends, resources such as looms, software,
classes, events, etc. along with other things or places she finds interesting
such as textile museums. This is one of the best features of the Internet
and Web: when you become interested in a topic or hobby such as doing stained
glass, antique cars, photography, women's issues, political causes, etc.,
the Web offers access to clubs, resources, technical information and people
who share your enthusiasm.
The Web is like a huge library that is stocked with books, videos and people.
The people are as numerous as books in a typical library. For instance,
Ruthe Stowe has a counter to indicate how many times her site has been visited.
In the last six months, she has received more than 4,000 visitors. This
does not mean, however, that her computer has to run 24 hours a day. Her
Web pages are kept on the computer that provides her Internet account for
all to access.
Web sites often contain information to help you with a project. For example,
one offers step-by-step help to build your own computer. It also contains
information on locating and buying parts (http://www.verinet.com/pc/).
The family roots phenomenon
Yet another Web site is an index to hundreds of genealogy (the study
of your family ancestors) sites on the Internet, including a number of Canadian
ones. One site, Barrelful of Genealogy Links, has registered over 56,000
callers in the last six months. (I am number dropping only to give you an
idea of how many people worldwide are communicating and sharing.)
None of these three sites (the weaving site, build your own computer site
and this genealogy site) are commercial. All have been published because
someone had an interest and wanted to share it.
Software programs you can purchase sometimes also have built-in links to
the Internet so that you can add or update information. Two of the most
common genealogy programs, for example, have Internet links for research.
Family Gathering (works with both Windows and Macintosh computers and retails
for about $62) from Palladium links to chat rooms and discussion groups
hosted by experts, a genealogy reference library and a fee-for-service genealogical
research service.
The program itself does far more than penciling in a few names and dates.
You start with an on-screen form in which you type names, dates, places
and events such as birth, burial and where you found the information for
each ancestor. You can add photos or scans of documents such as birth certificates
or old land records. (Scanners are computer add-ons that work like photocopiers
but put the image on your screen and into your computer's memory. The image
can be stored or printed out.) Besides doing Internet research directly
from this program, you can also search Internet sites or newsgroups such
as Roots-L for more information.
Family Tree Maker Deluxe from Broderbund, which sells for $112 and requires
Windows (a Macintosh version will be available early this year), comes with
millions of names in an index that you can search by simply typing in a
name and asking your computer to find all the references to that individual.
The company also produces a large number of research CD-ROMs with census
and other genealogy indexes, immigration records, and millions of people
in family trees that have been submitted to share with other researchers.
They have also recognized that many of their CDs were primarily American
and have started to release data for other countries.
First was an 18th century Irish census. Last month Broderbund released two
for Canada: the index to the Ontario 1871 census with 375,000 names (this
disc, No. 116, sells for $28) and the Canadian Genealogy Index 1500s-1900s,
with two million names gathered over 20 years from more than 1,000 sources
(it sells for $42 and is disc No. 118).
Many genealogy societies in Canada have Web pages with links to numerous
additional research sources. Best known is the Ontario Genealogical Society.
With these programs, you can ask your computer to do what it does best:
organize data. By choosing from a menu, you can have an ancestor tree of
a specific number of generations with photos, dates and places-as much or
as little information as you choose to add. Start with any name and choose
ancestors or descendants. Then ask your computer to print it out with a
fancy border so that you can frame it or add it to a family picture album.
It will also take all the information you have added and collate it in a
family journal or biography.
So, with these programs, you can research, organize what you have found,
and publish it in a professional-looking form.
Hobbies and crafts
One final example: if you are a crafts person, you will know how tedious
designing craft items by hand can be. With computer programs, you can play
with design features, change them with a click of the mouse, add or take
away color, resize, etc. and estimate what the end product will look like.
For instance, a program called Stitch Painter 2.0 from Cochenille (run by
Canadian Susan Lazier) has been developed for any textile craft design that
uses a grid, from weaving or needlepoint to cross-stitch to knits to beading
(it requires Windows or Macintosh and sells for $225, the beading module
is priced at $40). Make a design on the grid, then flip, rotate, resize
or repeat it somewhere else on the project using any of 250 different colors.
Two other Canadians are getting in the act with weaving software: ProWeave
from Cameron Fiber Arts (available for Windows 3.1 or 95 for $295, or $255
for Macintosh) and Fiberworks PCW from Fiberworks ($27 for the demo version
for PCs, with a Windows and Macintosh version due out this spring).
If you weave, then you know that throwing the shuttle back and forth is
not the hard work. Rather, it is choosing and developing a design and transferring
it to the loom when you thread the warp. You may draw a design on graph
paper, but that only tells half the story. With Fiberworks, you can instantly
see what the back of the project looks like. It will also drive electronic
looms. you can experiment with colors until you get the shade and hue right.
Then go to the dye pot and dye your yarn to your own specifications. You
are also able to make corrections anytime on the computer rather than painstakingly
correcting with needle weaving on the loom later. Or print the design to
share it with friends in your weaving guild. If you teach weaving, it is
a great tool to display just the threading and treadling draft, leaving
the drawdown a blank grid, or reverse these values to demonstrate fabric
analysis showing interlacement or structural drawdown.
Proweave is another design program for hand looms that will drive electronic
looms. It has a wonderful custom color editor so that you can match specially
dyed yarns to your design. It will also calculate how many heddles you need
for each harness, which saves running out in the middle of warping.
Dini Cameron also runs a computer weaving design workshop from her home
near Ottawa. The cost is $250 for five full days plus $25 per day room and
board. Here is how computers have affected a craft thousands of years old.
She uses computers to develop new methods of design that were not possible
before. Experimentation on this scale would just be too complex without
computers.
Contacts:
Broderbund: Tel: 800-474-8696.
Web site: http://www.familytreemaker.com
Cameron Fiber Arts: Tel: 613-838-5000.
Web site: http://www.magi.com/~proweave
Canadian Orchid Congress: Web site:http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Recreation/OrchidSNS/coc96sho.html
Cochenille: Tel: 416-469-5978 (in Toronto) or
619-259-1698 (in U.S.),
Web site: http://www.cochenille.com
Computer/Management Services: 1426 Medina Ct., Arnold, MD 21012.
Fiberworks: Tel: 519-822-5988.
Web site: http://www3.sympatico.ca/fiberworks.pcw
Palladium: Tel: 800-910-2696.
Web site: http://www.palladiumnet.com
Ontario Genealogy Society: Web site: http://www.interlog.com/~dreed/ogs_home.htm
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