From: IN%"POSTMASTER@EMBL.BITNET" "General PostMaster" 7-FEB-1990 17:28:09.87 To: HARPER@cc.Helsinki.FI CC: Subj: Automatic response to : GET SOFTWARE:BIOBIT.4 Received: from jnet-daemon by cc.Helsinki.FI; Wed, 7 Feb 90 17:26 EET DST Received: From EMBL(NETSERV) by FINUHB with Jnet id 3220 for HARPER@FINUH; Wed, 7 Feb 90 17:26 O Date: Wed, 07 Feb 90 16:04:52 From: EMBL Network File Server Subject: Automatic response to : GET SOFTWARE:BIOBIT.4 To: HARPER@cc.Helsinki.FI Reply-to: General PostMaster Organisation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory Postal-address: Meyerhofstrasse 1, 6900 Heidelberg, W. Germany 4444444444 444 4444444444 4444444444 444 4444444444444 4444444444 4444444444 4444444444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444444444 444 444 444 444444444 444 444 444444444 444 444 444 444444444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 444 4444444444 444 4444444444 4444444444 444 444 4444444444 444 4444444444 4444444444 444 444 No 4 << EDITED BY ROBERT HARPER >> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% This issue of BIOBIT is about the CONFERENCING facility that has been implemented by LIFESCI "A network tools for life scientists". It is made up of two main parts. 1) A dialogue that I had with RELAY on the morning of Friday 16th. This is a short introduction to RELAY. 2) The minutes of the BIOBIT conference that was scheduled to take place that evening at 18:00. But before we begin to get down to brass tacks, let's digress a little and talk about fishing. Fishing has three components: mechanical skill (accurate casting of lures), analytical knowledge (on how to find fish and to tempt them), and the ability to apply analytical knowledge in a practical situation. Now for someone to use the conferencing facility at LIFESCI it requires that they have some degree of mechanical skill. They should know how to hook up to their nearest RELAY node, they need to know how to SIGNUP to RELAY, and they need to know how to SIGNON and send "interactive messages" to other users. Those are the basic skills. So... I issued a command to the LIFESCI server in Israel, and it diligently began to send out mail messages to the other members of BIOBIT (a topic that I moderate on LIFESCI), telling them that a CONFERENCE had been scheduled for FRIDAY 16th March at 18:00. Not surprisingly I then received mail from people who had been summoned to participate, asking what they should do. It was as though I had invited them to go fishing and they did not know the first thing about fishing rods or fish. Biologists are often blinkered when it comes to applying skills that are outside their own particular field. We lack the basic "mechanical skills". I must confess that my own use of RELAY was rather rudimentary, and my first encounter could be compared with trying to catch salmon using a bamboo pole as a rod and a bent safety pin as a hook. If we carry the analogy further, it would appear that using RELAY and fishing have other things in common. For example you often need a permission if you want to fish, and so it is with RELAY... you have to be CLASS 3 in order to use RELAY during PRIME TIME. This is essential if you want to hold a conference with people on both sides of the Atlantic. Well that is enough of a preamble now lets have a look at the "fishing rod" called RELAY. This is a "slightly edited" log of my first encounter. I sent this file to BIOBIT so that other subscribers would get some idea of what was expected of them. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THOUGHTS DURING A RELAY SESSION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From the amount of mail I received it looks like fellow BIOBITers are not sure what a CONFERENCE is or how to participate in it... so I suppose todays effort might turn out to be a fiasco. Anyway when a conference is called we should all get to our terminals and hook into the nearest RELAY node. In FINLAND it is FINHUTC. From a VAX you would give the command SEND RELAY@FINHUTC /HELP and you will be given a list of commands you can use on the RELAY. /HELP **************** Relay Commands *************** /Bye . . . . . . . . . . . . Signoff from Relay /Channel . . . . .Change to channel /COntact . .Show Relay contact info /Getop . . . . . Try to summon a Relay operator /Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . Prints this list /INFo. . . . . . . . . . . Send RELAY INFO file /Invite . . .Invite user to your channel /LINks . . . . . . . . . . .Shows active relays /List. . . . . . . . . . . List active channels /Msg . . . .Sends private message /Nick . . . . . . Change your nickname /NAmes . . . . .Show users with names /Rates . . . . . . . . . .Display message rates /SErvers . . . . Show relays serving node /Signon . . . .Signon to Relay /Signon ,SHIFT . . Forces uppercase shift /Signon ,UNSHIFT . Forces lowercase shift /Signoff . . . . . . . . . . Signoff from Relay /SIGNUP . Signup or change full name /STats . . . . . . . . Display Relay statistics /SUmmon @. . Invite user to Relay /Topic . . . . Topic for your channel /Who . . . . Show users and nicknames /WHOIs . . . . . . . .Identify a nickname If you want to read more about RELAY then you can give the command /INFO To which RELAY will respond by sending a file which tells more about the workings of RELAY |Relay| Info file has been sent FINFUN : Received network file RELAY.INFO from RELAY@FINHUTC To find out the name of the NEAREST RELAY node you can issue the command /SERVERS to any RELAY and it will tell you the best node to contact. /SERVERS FINABO Node FINABO is serviced by: RELAY at FINHUTC /SERVERS CERNVAX Node CERNVAX is serviced by: RELAY at CEARN Now due to PRIME TIME restrictions you have to be granted a certain classification to be able to use RELAY at any time. To be granted CLASS 3 status you should write some mail to your local RELAY operator. You can find out his name by giving the command /CO /CO Primary contact for relay Finland is (Petri Autio) LK-PA@FINHUTC (+358 0 4512632) Now you are ready to register with RELAY using the /SIGNUP command. /SIGNUP robert harper * Thank you for signing up, robert harper. * Now use the /SIGNON command to * establish a nickname and to logon Relay. RELAY prompts you to then SIGNON with some suitable nickname. /SIGNON rob Welcome to the Interchat Relay Network, Rob. Your host is RELAY@FINHUTC (Finland). Your last logon was at 08:39:23 on 03/17/89. There are 67 users on 27 relays. You are given some statistics about how many users are on the RELAY and how many CHANNELS are ACTIVE. Now our CONFERENCE this afternoon will be called BIOBIT. At the moment we can see that there are 67 users online but who are they. You can find out with the /WHO command. This will give you the names of the active CHANNELS, the USERID@NODE, the NICKNAME of the user, and the HOST-ID. As you can see early in the morning there is ONE crazy European and all the rest are from somewhere else in the world. (I only give the first 15 users instead of the 67 so this article is not too long. ) /WHO RELAY Version 01.24x0 Host RELAY@FINHUTC (Finland) Ch UserID @ Node Nickname Host-ID 1 V050JXEV@ UBVMSC ( knute ) Buffalo 1 XNPU @PURCCVM ( Goober ) Purdue 1 HARPER @ FINFUN ( Rob ) Finland 2 7516050 @TWNCTU01 ( Henry ) Tokyo 2 TBCST @PITTVMS ( Nitro ) Pittsburgh 3 7611012 @TWNCTU01 ( Sunny ) Tokyo 5 TROOPER @ ALBION ( Mr.Nubbs ) Urbana_IL 5 BRINPAT @ IITVAX ( Flabitus ) Ithaca_NY 13 519876 @UOTTAWA ( Krazy ) Canada01 13 CMS0193 @ UWF ( Tengue ) Pensacola 13 X3110DHQ@ UFOAK ( Stafford ) Pensacola 13 D1140068@ BCIT ( Anim ) Edmonton 13 C14300 @AKRONVM ( Daemon! ) Urbana_IL 25 EVALS @ UFOAK ( Evals ) Pensacola 29 GPOY @CRNLVAX5 ( Tanaman ) Ithaca_NY Msg in: 437; out rmt(local): 181(0); CPU: 3.72% OK so you are interested, but the big question is what is the nearest RELAY that you can log into. Well there are many RELAYS and you should hook up to the one nearest you. Anyway the /LINKS command gives you the ACTIVE RELAYS in EUROPE and AMERICA... so choose one near you to talk to. (This /LINKS command was patched into this "log" from another session so that you can look for a RELAY node that is near you) /LINKS RELAY Version 01.24x0 Host RELAY@FINHUTC (Finland) Relay RELAY @ CEARN ( Geneva ) -> Finland Relay RELAY @ DEARN ( Germany ) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @ AEARN ( Austria ) -> Germany Relay RELAY @CZHRZU1A ( Zurich ) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @ HEARN ( Holland ) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @TAUNIVM ( TAUrelay ) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @EB0UB011 (Barcelona ) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @ ORION (New_Jersey) -> Geneva Relay RELAY @ BITNIC ( NewYork ) -> New_Jersey Relay RELAY @JPNSUT10 ( Tokyo ) -> NewYork Relay RELAY @ VILLVM (Philadelph) -> New_Jersey Relay RELAY @NDSUVM1 (No_Dakota ) -> New_Jersey Relay RLY @CORNELLC (Ithaca_NY ) -> New_Jersey Relay RELAY @ UTCVM (Tennessee ) -> Pittsburgh Relay RELAY @UIUCVMD (Urbana_IL ) -> Pittsburgh Relay RELAY @CANADA01 ( Canada01 ) -> Ithaca_NY Relay RELAY @ AUVM ( Wash_DC ) -> Va_Tech Relay RELAY @ VTVM2 ( Va_Tech ) -> Ithaca_NY Relay RELAY @UALTAVM ( Edmonton ) -> Canada01 Relay RELAY @NYUCCVM ( Nyu ) -> New_Jersey Relay RELAY @ UWF (Pensacola ) -> Va_Tech Relay MASRELAY@ UBVM ( Buffalo ) -> Ithaca_NY Relay RELAY @CMUCCVMA (Pittsburgh) -> Ithaca_NY Relay RELAY @PURCCVM ( Purdue ) -> Pittsburgh Relay RELAY @UREGINA1 (Regina_Sk ) -> Canada01 Relay RELAY @ GITVM1 ( Atlanta ) -> Tennessee Now tonight you will have to find out which CHANNEL the BIOBIT conference is being held on and you find out with the /LIST command. You will be given the channel numbers and the number of people hooked into that channel and hopefully the BIOBIT conference will be PRIVATE channel so only BIOBITers can get into it. /LIST * There are 5 channels active *--Channel--* Users *---Topics (if defined) * 1 3 Weather * 2 1 * 5 2 * 13 7 Swapshop * 29 1 You can then begin to chat with people on the same channel by writing short messages Hello from Finland...Is there anyone on this channel hello rob Where are you from Nitro? hello Rob how are you? rob : this is Nitro from Windber PA U.S.A. That is quite some distance from Finland So we can see that there are a couple of people responding whose nicknames are and . To find out who they are you can give the command /WHO 1 which means who are the people on channel 1, and if you want, you could continue your contact with them later through E-Mail. /WHO 1 RELAY Version 01.24x0 Host RELAY@FINHUTC (Finland) Ch UserID @ Node Nickname Host-ID 1 HARPER @ FINFUN ( Rob ) Finland 1 TBCST @PITTVMS ( Nitro ) Pittsburgh 1 INS_ANML@ JHUVMS ( Marie ) Va_Tech Msg in: 516; out rmt(local): 512(0); CPU: 3.72% I then had an interesting chat about the weather, and why this winter was so mild. We discussed the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the problems of pollution... which was not bad for strangers thrown together in the early morning. This evenings BIOBIT session should be an interesting experiment... and for the folks in the UK who cannot join the relay. I will keep a log of the session so you can see just what went on. You finnish off your RELAY session with the /BYE command. And dont foget that all commands to RELAY are proceeded with a slash (/). /BYE |Signoff| User HARPER @ FINFUN (Rob) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% END OF FIRST ENCOUNTER %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% There is a strong tradition of oral and written lore regarding the craft of fishing. You become a expert fisher by going fishing. You learn about RELAY by using RELAY. As I made my way to the water's edge for the first time on the morning of Friday 16th I noticed that I was the only European using RELAY. My arrival did not go un-noticed and soon there was a barrage of questions being hurled at me. There I was, sitting like a fool with my new "fishing rod" watching the old-hands swapping "fishy stories" with each other. You learn by watching what others do. By 17:30 in the afternoon with some fear and trembling I was ready to apply my new found skills in a practical situation. LIFESCI sent me mail saying the BIOBIT conference was about to start and I logged onto RELAY@FINHUTC. The mail informed me that the conference would be held on a private channel 502. This would prevent any other RELAY USERS from "fishing in our stretch of the river". Here is the "slightly" edited log of the session between Finland and Israel. I was lucky that Dr Ami Zakai was on hand to give me instruction, and the session proves that tele- conferencing via LIFESCI/RELAY could be a valuable method of communication at an international level. %%%%%%%%%%%%%% LIFESCI/RELAY BIOBIT MINUTES %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Subj: FILE FROM LIFESCI: "BIOBIT MINUTES" Conference about BIOBIT was started on 17 Mar 1989 at 17:55:21. The conference was scheduled by Robert Harper and run on relay channel 502. Please welcome Ami Zakai(Zak) Please welcome Robert Harper(Rob) welcome rob :) thats more like it Hello ZAK, I had some trouble getting in to the conference but signoff signon seemed to help I beleive it was temprary flip-flopping of relay links if you do /LINKS you will see that lifesci does some neat things to RELAY Well we made it Finally... connection between Finland and ISRAEL I hope all of this is being LOGGED... just to prove that it happened. By the way what are those * stars around your name u dont know RELAY too well.. the *ZAK* means that was a PRIVATE msgs .. and of all the ppl in the channel only you can see it Does it mean you have some special privileges? To send PRIVATE msg to me do '/m zak msg...' The * next to my name on the /who means I am an operator of RELAY I thought it ment that you were some two star general :-) nope :) You should change your relay CLASS to 3. This will allow you to use at any time even within PRIME TIME. To get your class to 3 send now the relay command '/CO' this will tell you whom to contact about it Well I have a confession to make this is my SECOND time on RELAY The first time was this morning. oh .. then its pretty good OK I will try that /CO command. All academic staff are entitled to class 3 normal users are class 2, and ops are 4 and above I see I should contact Perti Autio at FINHUTC. So what do these different CLASSES mean? Being class 3 allows access to negative channels and bypass prime time (closed relays during the day) This is especially important for our american friends. I just got some mail from NORM ENDLER from CANADA who could not get onto the RELAY because it was down until 17:00 his local time He could not join his relay cos it was in prime time (closed till 17:00 local time) if he had CLASS 3 he could join.. Well that is a bit of useful information...what is your CLASS I am 8 which is the masterop of Tau .. Yossie is Israels 9 OH well I am WORKING CLASS.... hehehehehehehe I hope these jokes are getting recorded. I hope you will edit it :) Does RELAY have any really serious applications. This is the FIRST try to make something serious out of it. but even if it does NOTHING serious.. non academic socializing is very important< for normal international collaboration. Could it be a useful tools for researchers to talk to each other. That's precisely why we made this ellaborate LIFESCI/RELAY hookup Well I was impressed when LIFESCI began to page me and say that the conference was about to start. Does that message go out to everyone who is a member of BIOBIT? Yes .. to every1 .. greetings as well and also the info about the log being made for you u can even set how much u want it to nag .. and send mail memos The network connections seem to be working like a dream... is it always so good hopefuly :) It looks like RELAY users have their own special way of writing yes .. its refered to as 'talking in writing' I have an intereting article on it if you want I can give you the refrence and you can look it up if u want. Hmmmm... you have to write fast just in case the network fails :-) It is called 'Writing style in Computer Conference' by Michael Spitzer Still getting mail from NORM ENDLER in Canada looks like he is trying hard to get in. Tell him he can not do it until he is CLASS 3. Well I think we can call it a day. Perhaps you could explain something about these CLASSES in BIOBIT. Sure.. I would be happy to Do I get the LOG of the session? u should get the log 30-60 min after we both leave the channel and no1 else bothers monitor1 so bye for now I hope u enjoyed it :) we aim to serve *humble bow* Well it has been a very POSITIVE experiance. Lets hope others get the VISION to use RELAY.... BYE for now and take care -=ROB=- Robert Harper left this conference and signed off I stop monitoring this conference. Conference about BIOBIT was ended on 17 Mar 1989 at 19:33:56. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% END OF BIOBIT MINUTES %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% My first encounter with LIFESCI/RELAY was positive, but let me end with a quote from "Teaching as a moral craft". "The fisherman's expertise does not guarantee success... uncontrollable factors often combine to neutralize the abilities of the best of fishermen. In short there are no certainties when it comes to fishing" I am sure that those sentiments will strike a chord with anyone who has used the EARN/BITNET network over and extended period of time. But then uncertainty is rather exciting... whereas predictability tends to be boring. .. By the way did I ever tell you about the time I was caught on the net in a RELAY session, with forty female dairy scientists from Hong Kong :-) -=ROB=-