VICNET ZINE - JUNE 1999
http://www.vicnet.net.au/zine
Welcome to the VICNET Zine! This will be emailed free to subscribers each month. It will also be archived on the Web. Readers will be kept up-to-date with all the news at VICNET, as well as news and sites of interest to members of the Victorian Community.
If you wish to submit your article for publication, please contact the VICNET Zine Editor: Neil Shedden, neils@vicnet.net.au
In this issue:
1 - INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN AUSTRALIA
The current Internet censorship issue for Australians is The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999. On May 26th 1999 the Australian Senate passed this sweeping Internet censorship legislation, despite being voted against by the Australian Labor Party and the Democrats – even some Coalition MPs have voiced concerns. When mandatory filtering, blocking and classification comes into force on 1 January 2000, it will affect Internet access for all Australians.
Follow the issue of Internet censorship here:
http://www.vicnet.net.au/issues/censorship.htm
"The Government has turned Australia into the global village idiot" says Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) spokesman, Danny Yee
http://www.efa.org.au
Hundreds turned up at a protest rally and seminar organised by EFA at The State Library of Victoria on May 28.
2 - PUCKAPUNYAL - SAFE HAVEN
Roadshow gets Kosova Refugees online
by Sandie "The Swaggie" Downey - Skills.net Roadshow Co-ordinator
The Skills.net Roadshow has been travelling all over Victoria, working with local community organisations, promoting and raising awareness of the Internet in local communities and showing people the benefits the Internet can bring to their life. From 24th - 29th May, 1999, Sandie took the Roadshow to visit the Kosova Refugees at Safe Haven, Puckapunyal, in North-East Victoria.
Read this story:
http://www.vicnet.net.au/news/safehaven.htm
Skills.net Roadshow
http://www.nevernever.net.au/skillsnet/roadshow/welcome.cfm
Kosovo News and How You Can Help
http://www.vicnet.net.au/news/kosovo.htm
3 - GULLIVER
Gulliver is a collection of online databases that has over
1000 full-text journals, books, newspapers and pictures.
Staff training is currently underway to provide this as a free service at 240 public library branches throughout Victoria.
Gulliver is funded by Multimedia Victoria
as part of the Libraries Online projects.
Get a sneak pview of the site at:
http://www.librariesvictoria.vicnet.net.au/gulliver/
(this project has not been officially launched yet)
4 – ONLINE BOOKSTORES – NEW VICNET SECTION
http://www.vicnet.net.au/books/
By May 1999 Amazon.com accounted for two thirds of all online book buying traffic in Australia*. There are, however, a whole world of other booksellers out there - many right here in Victoria! This new section on VICNET allows you to explore them! *Report by Sinewave Interactive in The Age 12 May 1999
The links in the VICNET /books/ section are not intended to provide exhaustive or comphensive coverage of all bookstores, merely a starting point! Only bookstores with a Web psence are listed. They do not all offer online sales. Of those that do, not all offer secure server transactions. If you think we have omitted an important site, please let us know.
neils@vicnet.net.au
5 - WOMEN @ THE CUTTING EDGE LAUNCH TRAINING PACKAGE
Women @ The Cutting Edge is a group of Victorian women
teachers who have developed and launched a CD-ROM
portfolio training package and Web site - Portfolios @ the
cutting edge, http://www.cuttingedge.rmit.edu.au
Along with RMIT University, the group designed the training
package and Web site to help people create a multimedia
portfolio when applying for jobs, performance reviews or general
psentations.
The package teaches people how to search the Internet, create
home pages with images and video clips and "inspires them to
learn new technology skills through the production of a
practical tool for career advancement".
6 - DEAF PEOPLE TRAINING DEAF PEOPLE
at Deaf Communities Online
http://www.nevernever.net.au/skillsnet/template.cfm?id=169
Deaf Communities Online is unique. Trainers are Deaf and are training other Deaf and hard of hearing people. Two of the trainers are located at the John Pierce Centre in Prahran.
Using Auslan (Australian Sign Language) Jules and Cheryl are able to communicate quickly and effectively with Deaf people looking for training on the Internet. Jules and Cheryl say they both love teaching the Internet and it has been great for their self-confidence. Cheryl says it adds something different to her life and Jules says it is a challenge that she enjoys.
Just one of the success stories from the Skills.net program.
http://www.skills.net.au/
7 - HOW DO YOU SEE OUR FRONT PAGE?
A summary of details from over half a million visitors to the VICNET front page over the last 100 days:
Most Popular Hour of the Day 4 – 5pm
Most Popular Day of the Week Thursday
Javascript Enabled Browsers 98%
Most accessed
Browser Netscape 4
Operating System Windows 95
Screen Resolution 800 x 600 pixels
Search Engine Altavista
Domains / Countries:
Australia 65%
Unknown 22%
US/Int’l (.net/com/edu) 8%
Rest of the world 5%
It is also interesting to note that a few visitors were also identified from countries as diverse as:
Ukraine, India, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Swaziland and San Marino.
This information was gathered from over a half a million visitors to http://www.vicnet.net.au/ from 26 February to 7 June 1999, using eXTReMe Tracking. Check it for yourself:
http://z.extreme-dm.com/s/?tag=vicnet
8 - BETTER THAN A COUNTER
You can set up your own free tracking for your Homepage by visiting:
http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/
This not only tells you how many people visit your homepage, but also what sort of software they use to view your site, what search terms they used to arrive there, and what country they’re from.
It’s free for single-page tracking (e.g. of your entry page), but multi-page tracking for the whole site must be paid for.
9 - HTML TIPS
TIP #1 * all file names are case sensitive *
As a general rule, it is best to name all Webpages and images with lowercase names, no spaces or special characters. Incorrect MIxeD or UPPERCASE file names or references are a major cause of "broken images" on your site, or 404 "not found" ERRORS.
TIP #2 * upload your Webpages to the public_html directory *
If you upload your Webpages from your machine using FTP, remember to copy your pages into your public_html folder on the VICNET server. This will not happen by default, you need to double-click on the public_html folder first to open it, then upload your pages.
Confused? WebHelp can assist you in Web page production through the Webpage online tutorials, email and telephone support.
http://www.vicnet.net.au/webhelp/
webhelp@vicnet.net.au
Tel. 8664 7001
We also offer Internet training: http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/
10 - REVIEW: STAR WARS
by Richard Hayward.
June has seen the arrival of the long awaited addition to the Star Wars library: Episode I. This film is undoubtedly entertaining and spectacular, and the characters and dialogue really strive to grab our attention. The interplay between the heroic Jedi Knights takes us through the story, while the comical Jar Jar Binks is an amusing distraction. The story unfolds more with the development of the young Anakin, and with the increasing role of the Queen.
Critics will point out the lack of any moral backbone to the story, essentially a modern fairy tale of good versus evil. Problems are solved with blasters and spaceships, and the characters are never required to examine their own thoughts or actions. Battles and races are excellent opportunities to market toys and video games to youngsters. Some of the plot manoeuvres are obvious leads into future episodes. Bring on Episode II!
11 - AOL TAKES OVER ONLINE MUSIC
America Online is making massive moves to become a massive player with both Internet radio and online audio listeners thanks to a $400 million dollar deal with Spinner Networks and Nullsoft.
By purchasing both companies, AOL effectively becomes a music and programming network overnight with great potential to lead the way in online digital delivery.
Spinner.com broadcasts 2 million songs daily and claims around 1.5 million listeners a month. It's catalogue contains over 175,000 songs from more than 350 record labels.
Nullsoft is the developer of Winamp, a very popular audio player which is downloaded over a million times per month. It also offers SHOUTcast, an MP3-based audio broadcast system that allows any Internet user to, in effect, set up an online radio station.
Last year, AOL took over Netscape and also acquired Mirabilis, to add browsers and the popular ICQ online chat & messaging system to its empire.
Why not take a look at these great, free, music and chat sites?
http://www.spinner.com/
http://www.winamp.com/
http://www.shoutcast.com/
http://www.icq.com/
News item
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/news/9906_106/
12 - CLICK HERE
This months potpourri of sites that are new, useful, or fun:
CLICK #1
Family Search
http://www.familysearch.org/
Family history research, which ranks among the Internet's most popular activities, gets a big boost with the Mormon Church unveiling its online database of 400 million names
CLICK #4
History Online at VICNET
http://www.vicnet.net.au/history/
Links to Victorian, Australian and World Historical Sites
CLICK #3
MP3 Sounds
http://www.mp3.com/
http://www.mp3.com.au/
http://www.mpsound.com.au/
These sites let you download CD quality sound for free
Find out more:
http://www.guitarsite.com/mp3.htm
CLICK #4
On Cue Online
http://www.oncueonline.com.au/
Choose your city and find out what shows are on -
everything from Swan Lake, Toy Story on ice and John Farnham
CLICK #5
InfoJump
http://www.infojump.com/
Search over 3,500 online publications, over 5,000,000 articles published by magazines, newspapers, journals, newsletters, and e-zines. Resource for finding past and current articles from thousands of magazines, newspapers, journals, newsletters, and e-zines.
CLICK #6
The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/
Worth a laugh, but note it’s satirical humour is not intended for readers under 18 years of age.
13 - ODD SPOT
Ever heard of VSNL? No? Last year, VSNL handled over 1.7 billion minutes of international telephone traffic and earned revenues of US$1.6 billion. They are an ISP & telecom company, majority owned by the Government of India. Puts VICNET in perspective!
http://www.vsnl.net.in/
14 - Ticket Xpss - Australia's cheapest airfares?
http://www.ticketxpss.com.au/
Ticket Xpss offers significant savings to clients who do not require a travel consultant to plan their itinerary. They are one of Australia's first independent airline ticketing agents, specialising in domestic and international airfares. Airfare quotes are available online. As an airline ticketing agent, they discount the standard travel agents commission charging only a set booking fee. Why not check out their Red Hot Specials on airfares?
15 - Getfresh.com.au
http://www.getfresh.com.au/
Melbourne's Internet Greengrocer. Getfresh deliver fresh fruit &
vegetables directly from the Footscray Wholesale market to you. Free delivery and, because this in the Internet, you can order 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
16 - Australian Youth Parliament for the Environment
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aype/
Australia's peak body working to put youth at the forefront of creating a sustainable future. 30th August - 3rd September 1999.
Any comments, views or opinions expssed through the site or newsletter are those of their respective authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by, or reflect those of the Zine Editor or publishers. VICNET can take no responsibility for the content of third party sites it shows links to - please read the legal disclaimer! http://www.vicnet.net.au/legal.htm
Please also note that the articles here are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, but are provided for your information & entertainment only... enjoy!
Zine Editor:
Neil Shedden, VICNET Web Developer
neils@vicnet.net.au
Published Monthly by:
VICNET: Victoria's Network
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AUSTRALIA.
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