The Network Connection
This column is a continuing feature of
Benchmarks intended to present news and information on various aspects
of wide area networks. If you haven t seen these Web
Sites...
Who knew that in a couple of years World Wide Web
would take over as the premier Internet information service? Well,
actually, I did, but that's how I get to write this column. World Wide
Web started as an early competitor to Gopher in the Internet arena,
but it wasn t until the development of NCSA Mosaic, and it s follow-on programs like Netscape, that
World Wide Web (WWW) really took off. These programs let you view
pictures, read text, and hear sounds all within the control of one
program. WWW, a hypertext Internet information organization tool which
required a lot of time and effort for which to administer and create
documents, was transformed into the hypermedia tool that we know
today, for which all that extra effort in creating documents became
quite worthwhile.
After collecting bookmarks to various WWW pages over the years,
several stand out for a number of differing reasons. Some are good
collections of information. Others are particularly well organized,
and still others make clever use of the technology. When you find a
Web site that does all of the above, then it s definitely a candidate
for a bookmark. So, as the title says, if you haven t seen these Web
sites, then you ought to.
- http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html
The Nine Planets is an on-line atlas of the solar
system, and it s scope of information goes beyond what you d expect
from the title. Not only do you find information about the nine
planets, but the Sun, asteroids, and various comets are covered as
well. Even the possibility of other solar systems is explored. The
page starts with a well organized and comprehensive table of contents
that let s you immediately jump to the information in which you are
interested. Along the way are spectacular photos, and occasional
movies and sound bites. This page serves as a valuable reference as
well as an excellent interactive presentation that compels you to
browse it s contents. Even if you are not interested in the hard
astronomical facts, the pictures will hold your interest. If you want
to know how to do a Web page right, take a look at The Nine Planets.
- http://www.emf.net/wm/
The Web Museum Network provides access to some of the
world s great art treasures. This is online access, of course, so don
t start planning any devious capers. Since this Web page had it s
origins as the online Louvre, you can see many famous images by
browsing the page s General Exhibition. The popularity of this page
caused it to become a network of sites all offering the same starting
point. The URL listed above is for a site in Berkeley California.
There are other sites in the U.S. As well as pages in South America,
Australia, Asia, and of course, Europe. Current special exhibitions
are Art of the 20th century and the art of Paul Cezanne. These include
information as well as images. For a dose of online culture, check out
this page.
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Welcome to the Whitehouse is a view into the executive
branch of the government of the United States. In addition to the
information about the executive branch, the Tours section of the page
allows you to view scenes from the Whitehouse itself, the Executive
Office Building, and the First Ladies Garden. It s a nice way to
visit an important historic U.S. site, if you haven t been there in
person. The design of the page makes good use of graphics, and there s
audio messages available as well. Politics aside, if you are
interested in the Internet and its uses, this page shows some active
support of these technologies from a high level of U.S. Government.
- http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.htm
Have you ever wondered what the German word for butterfly is?
The Human Languages Page may hold the answer. This Web site
provides links to translation dictionaries, as well as collections of
literature and scholarly work in and about more of the world s
languages than you can imagine. For shear volume of information, this
page could win an award. For those involved in academic pursuits who
are not language scholars, this site is a valuable reference when you
need to translate the occasional word or phrase.
- http://www.geom.umn.edu/apps/
gallery.html
The Gallery of Interactive Geometry is
one of those sneaky things that manages to be entertaining and
educational at the same time. This page uses web forms to allow you to
create pictures based upon some set geometric concepts and view the
results of your efforts. You can even save some of your creations to
your local computer. Of course, you can read about the underlying
mathematics of the games included in this gallery. The interactive
nature makes this a good example of using World Wide Web for
educational pursuits.
Summing up...
The above WWW sites only scratch the surface of what s available
on the Web. Each is a good example, however, of how this technology
can be used in creative, entertaining, and educational ways. Eddie
Chiles Western Oil Service Company commercials used to say if you
don t have an oil well, get one! (easier to do in Texas than
elsewhere). To paraphrase, if you don't have a Web browser, get one!
And take a look at these Web sites.
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