Newsletter No. 37
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Free Pint
"Helping 21,000 people use the Web for their work"
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ISSN 1460-7239 29th April 1999 #37
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Finding Outdoor Information on the Web"
by Richard Nelsson
BOOKSHELF
"Web Developer.Com Guide to Search Engines"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Something for nothing? Engineering e-journals"
by Roddy MacLeod
FREE PINT FEEDBACK
"Response: Online Biographic Checks"
"Chemistry Article in Free Pint No.36"
"Dublin Core Article Free Pint No.36"
"Company Law Gateways and Netmind"
"Cookies Article Free Pint No.31"
"Free Pint is Fantastic"
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ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
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EDITORIAL
As you know, whenever we get a new subscriber to Free Pint (and by
the way they are still coming in at the rate of 50 every single day)
Jane our administrator keeps a tally of how people heard about us.
The other day we had one who, when asked how they heard about Free
Pint, answered "Saw someone reading it on the tube!". Well, I would
like to thank the person who was reading it on the underground as
they must have printed Free Pint out in a VERY LARGE FONT and can't
have minded having a stranger reading it over their shoulder.
Also, welcome to the new subscriber ... and thanks for being so nosey!
Although Free Pint is published every two weeks, this happens to be
the third issue of Free Pint this month. No wonder April always seems
to be a long month to us! If your work or leisure takes you venturing
into the great outdoors then you'll really like the tips article on
outdoor eventing. This is followed by a very interesting look at
how various trade and professional journals are being made available
online - the various methods of charging and access control. Although
the focus here is on engineering, this article will definitely be of
use to anyone who is interested in the production of e-journals.
We also have our regular mix of readers letters, quick tips, and of
course another great book review. As always, if you enjoy this issue
then forward it to your colleagues and friends, and let me know what
you think also.
Kind regards,
William
William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Managing Editor
e: william@freepint.co.uk
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t: +44 (0)1784 455435
f: +44 (0)1784 455436
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form Thomson Financial Securities Data, the world's leading provider
of comprehensive business intelligence and financial data on
companies, industries and markets throughout the world. Together, we
offer the highest quality resources available to evaluate companies,
analyse securities ownership, monitor industry trends, gather company
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web site at www.tfsd.com or contact us on (+44) (0) 171 369 7622.
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QUICK TIP ... INTERNET CONSULTANCY
If you have registered a domain name then you will have paid for two
years fees in advance. If those two years pass and you don't pay your
renewal fees then someone can register your domain. I repeat:
someone else can register and use YOUR domain name. This has happened
a lot recently. Check when your renewal fees are due ... TODAY.
William Hann ~ http://www.willco.co.uk/
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Finding Outdoor Information on the Web"
by Richard Nelsson
Earlier this year the news that a massive avalanche had killed 37
people in the Austrian Alps had barely appeared on the wires when the
calls began to come through to the Guardian's Research & Information
Unit. Could we get detailed maps of the area, find experts to speak
to, compile chronologies of previous avalanches and what were Ski
discussion groups saying about the disaster?
Traditional reference and commercial online sources were used, but
much of the immediate information was found via web sites such as
the Avalanche Center http://www.csac.org/, local facts from
http://www.thealps.com/ and the British Ski Club
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/.
These sites form what could be loosely described as 'outdoor
information'; the places where mountaineers, surfers and walkers etc,
go for details on such things such as the weather, land access,
climbing routes and of course to buy equipment. The sites fall into
three basic categories:
Official information
--------------------
Includes Government sites such as the National Parks, the Met Office
and the Countryside Commission. Can be useful for finding out about
access problems.
Commercial
----------
Outdoor enthusiasts are often gear freaks. Several equipment
manufacturers and shops have their own sites which as well
as promoting their products have added on feature articles and links
to attract customers. Magazines too are gradually coming online.
Private pages
-------------
By far the largest area. Includes sports associations, clubs and
pages compiled by enthusiasts. Often detailed information with
plenty of links. They can also include more general `armchair'
travel pages such as Sir Chris Bonington's latest expedition progress
report. Due to the often dangerous nature of the these sports,
information is usually accurate and reliable. After all, word would
soon get around if the recommendations of a climbing site were found
to be untrustworthy. That said, notice boards, especially surf ones,
contain their fair share of juvenile drivel.
http://www.surfsystem.co.uk/ss_chat_frame.html.
Obviously these sites are aimed at the outdoor enthusiast, but as with
the example described above they are of great value to the researcher.
They also provide a gateway into other subjects, particularly on
environmental issues. For example, the pressure group Surfers Against
Sewage, http://www.sas.org.uk/ is an excellent source for data on
ocean and beach pollution.
If you're not quite sure what you are looking for,
http://www.yahoo.co.uk/Recreation/outdoors/ is a good place begin
searching. However it does show that there are hundreds of extreme
sport related sites in this country alone, never mind in the US. For
the purposes of this guide I have concentrated on UK sites with
reliable data, although it goes without saying that most have links to
US and the rest of the world.
Official
The Countryside Commission: http://www.countryside.gov.uk/ has
valuable information about land access as well links to the National
Parks. The National Trust is at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
Forestry Commission: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/ and Ordnance
Survey: http://www.o-s.co.uk/. For US National Parks look at
http://www.gorp.com/.
Weather
The Met office: http://www.meto.govt.uk/ is usually the first site
to turn to. For longer range forecasts look at the European Centre of
Medium-Range weather forecasts, http://www.ecmwf.int/ while
http://www.onlineweather.com is also very good. Look at the
Scottish Avalanche Information Service: http://www.sais.gov.uk/
during the winter months.
Mountaineering and climbing
The British Mountaineering Council, http://www.thebmc.co.uk/ is
probably the best place to start looking. For all things to do with
rock and ice climbing look at the UK climbing site
http://www.eclimb.com/ukclimb/ while the unofficial climbing pages:
http://www.lbell.demon.co.uk/ provide a different view. An excellent
site for general facts and discussion regarding the wider issues,
particularly mountain rescue, is Bluedome:
http://www.bluedome.co.uk/.
Surfing
It may sound corny, but surfers surf the web to find where the surf
is. Surf System http://www.surfsystem.co.uk/ has a constant update
of surf conditions throughout the country while for an understanding
of wave telemetry and oceanography http://www.diltd.demon.co.uk/ric/
is the place to go. For news, debate of the issues and links, look at
the British Surf Association: http://www.britsurf.org./.
Environmental news is at SAS: http://www.sas.org.uk/. If you prefer
a board with a sail, the British Windsurfing Association can be found
at http://www.zagato.demon.co.uk/bwa/.
Skiing and Snowboarding
As well as the links listed above, Snowsport Scotland
http://www.snsc.demon.co.uk/ is invaluable both for domestic and
international information including weather. The British Snowboard
Association can be found at http://members.aol.com/britboard and for
a complete list of resorts throughout the world look at
http://www.goski.com/.
Mountain biking
At the moment there doesn't seem to be a single site representing
mountain biking in the UK. Cycling UK: http://www.cycling.uk.com/
though has good links especially to the clubs dotted around the
country. More general information can be found at Cyber Cyclist:
http://www.cyberbike.com/.
Walking and backpacking
The Ramblers Association can be found at http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
while if you want to run around in the countryside, orienteering
information can be found at http://www.cix.co.uk/~bof/. For a more
international perspective try TrailWalk: http://www.trailwalk.com/.
Others
If you're planning to delve into the deep, the world's largest
Internet diving source The Diver's Resource is at
http://www.ukdiving.co.uk/; more specific UK information can be
found at Diver's Datalog: http://www.datalog.co.uk/. The A-Z of
Paragliding is at http://www.paragliding.com/. Speleologists can be
found at the National Caving Association:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/nca. A general extreme sport site (for
hardcore enthusiasts) can be found at http://www.awezome.com/.
General outdoor and armchair
A general site covering many aspects of the great outdoors is
http://www.mtn.co.uk/ while for a North American slant on things go
to the Mountain Zone: http://www.mountainzone.com/. If you'd prefer
to settle back and just dream of the wilderness, read about veteran
mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington's latest exploits at
http://www.bonington.com/ or Alan Hinkes' latest attempt to climb
all the 8000m peaks in the world at
http://www.bluedome.co.uk/challenge8000/index.html. Lazy surfers
may want to check how the surf is around the globe (including Cornwall
of course) by looking at the surfcam site:
http://goan.com/surfcam.html.
Shops
Two of the best outdoor shops on the net are Berghaus:
http://www.berghaus.com/ and Cotswold Camping
http://www.cotswold-outdoor.co.uk/. Rock and Run:
http://www.eclimb.com/ concentrates on climbing.
Magazines
Climbing Magazine: http://www.climbing.com/
Surfer Magazine: http://www.surfermag.com/ divernet, the online
edition of Diver magazine http://www.divernet.com/. An
action sports webzine is at http://www.playhard.com/.
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Richard Nelsson is a research librarian at the Guardian Media Group's
Research & Information Unit. He is also a freelance writer
specialising in outdoor issues and is a former editor of Deadline,
the newsletter for the Association of UK Media Librarians (AUKML). He
can be contacted at richard.nelsson@guardian.co.uk.
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FREE PINT FACT
The Free Pint Web site is a popular destination on the Web as it is.
However, as a direct result of the launch of the Bookshelf in the last
issue, the number of people visiting the Web site has tripled!
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
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"Web Developer.Com Guide to Search Engines"
Reviewed by Nick Lloyd
"As many Internet / intranet sites reach maturity, the needs of users
to gain fast and easy access to relevant content is sure to become one
of the single biggest concerns for site administrators. The "Web
Developer.Com Guide to Search Engines" addresses these concerns by
examining a range of dedicated (site specific) search-engines.
Written for a technically literate audience and addressing directly
many of the specific concerns of Internet / intranet site administrators,
the authors do tend to assume that readers have a basic level of IT
competency in issues such as web server set-up / maintenance, site
construction / administration etc. However an overview of these topics
is included (where relevant) throughout the book to enable
non-technical readers to gain a basic understanding of many of the
topics discussed ... [continued]"
... read Nick's full review on the Web site at ...
http://freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/develop.htm
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Nick Lloyd is an Internet consultant with extensive experience of
using and searching the Internet including creating and managing
Internet and intranet sites for major government agencies. His
interests include Internet design and 'content creation' with a
background in both information work and art and design. He can be
contacted on the Web at http://www.lloy.freeserve.co.uk/.
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Find out about the other great Web-related books we're reading at
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QUICK TIP ... INTERNET TRAINING
One single tip can make the whole day for a delegate. On a recent Web
searching course I made an aside about being able to open multiple
browser windows (thus viewing more than one site at a time). All the
delegates were so pleased, it was mentioned on every evaluation form.
William Hann ~ http://www.willco.co.uk/
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Something for nothing? Engineering e-journals"
by Roddy MacLeod
Readers of this newsletter are obviously aware that there is such a
thing as a Free Pint, and most will also know of the Internet
tradition that much else is freely available on the Net. This
tradition is currently being extended in the form of free Internet
service provision available through a number of companies, notably
Freeserve http://www.freeserve.co.uk/, Tesconet
http://www.tesco.net/indexn.htm, FreeUK http://www.freeuk.com/,
and now also BT, which has joined in with its BT ClickFree service
http://www.btclickfree.com/. And I recently read about a
Californian company that was giving away 10,000 computers for nothing
(Free-PC http://www.free-pc.com/) with the only proviso being that
recipients had to guarantee being online for a minimum number of hours
each month, and download advertisements aimed at them.
Another company is offering a free iMac computer to those who commit
themselves to do shopping through an online mall
http://www.shopss.com. But is this really the era of the free
lunch? Are there no drawbacks? Do such appetising deals apply only
to the mass market? Can professionals also get access to useful,
practical free materials? For worthwhile resources, is there not a
price that has to be paid somewhere down the line?
What some might see as the relatively mundane world of electronic
access to journals provides a number of answers to many of these
questions. But the topic of access to electronic journals is a rapid
growth area, and already very difficult to analyse in its entirety.
As engineering is my own area of interest, I will concentrate on
electronic journals in that subject, and in particular look at what is
freely available, why some titles are free and others
subscription-based, why online content varies so much, and how to make
the most of what is available at no cost.
If you look carefully at this issue of Free Pint, you will notice the
occasional advert. Those adverts help to pay for the cost of
producing Free Pint and keep it free at the point of use. The adverts
do not impinge on the usefulness of the rest of Free Pint - in fact,
it's probably the opposite case in that the adverts that appear in
Free Pint for such things as Internet consultancies, online
conferences, mailing labels, domain name registrations, and so on, may
indeed be of direct interest to the readers of a newsletter about
using the Internet to find information for work.
Many engineering trade journals work along the same lines (of course,
the principle is not restricted to engineering). Take, for example,
PetroMin, an upstream oil & gas magazine for Asia which, for 25 years,
has been published by AP Energy Business Publications Pte. Ltd., in
Singapore. The PetroMin magazine is distributed at no cost to
'industry leaders and providers of technology' in government
departments, exploration and production companies, and supplies and
services companies, and is also available by paid subscription,
although the publishers do not rely on such subscriptions to generate
all of their income. Total circulation is just over 7,000 and is made
up of mostly senior management, government officials or professional
and operating managers. The publishers of PetroMin have carefully
built up their database of recipients and have spent time ensuring
their quality, in terms of purchasing power or influence. As a result
of having such a focused readership, distribution costs are low and
yet advertising space can be sold at a premium. Trade journals such
as PetroMin are rarely indexed by the major abstracting services and
bibliographic databases, and as paid subscriptions would normally be
viable only in very specialised libraries and information centres,
their contents are therefore not readily available to many potentially
interested readers. Yet, along with the adverts, each issue of
PetroMin contains several articles of substance.
This is where the Internet comes to the rescue, because, as
subscriptions are not at risk, significant portions of trade journals
such as PetroMin can be made freely available on the Web. It even
makes economic sense for the publishers of PetroMin to provide free
content at their Web site http://petromin.safan.com/
because they can extend their readership at very little additional
cost, get increased exposure for their advertisers, and attract
additional targets for their controlled circulation database. They
must also be pleased when gateways such as EEVL
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/ include them in their catalogues of useful
resources, and help channel readers to their sites. For present
purposes, however, it means that if you are not a senior manager or a
supervising purchaser in the oil and gas industry in Asia (perhaps you
would like to be, one day), you can nevertheless get access to some
useful information, in the form of selected articles, news items, and
supplier details, at no cost.
PetroMin is only one of a number of engineering trade journals that
have online versions, many of which appeal to a wider audience.
Cahners Business Information, a Division of Reed Elsevier, Inc.,
publish a number of print trade journals, including Control
Engineering (circulation 88,000), Design News (circulation 180,000),
Industrial Distribution Magazine (circulation 41,000), Industrial
Maintenance & Plant Operation, and Plant Engineering (circulation
116,000). Free subscriptions to these and other Cahners titles are
available to qualifying individuals in the USA, and to others at
normal subscription rates. However, online versions of these and
another twenty Cahners publications are available from the
Manufacturing Marketplace Web site http://www.manufacturing.net/.
In some cases registration (free) is necessary to access parts of the
site, however not only is a considerable amount of full text
available, in the way of industry news and feature articles, but one
or two of the online magazines also feature Web exclusive sections not
found in the print issues. In addition, the Manufacturing Marketplace
incorporates a searchable database of over 30,000 manufacturers and
service companies, on-line product information, job listings, and
personalised services. The Search facility, which searches across the
entire site, demonstrates how impressive the resource is - when I
searched, rather unimaginatively, for the word `Internet', 2178
magazine articles, 23 new product descriptions, 365 industry news
items, 2 sponsored articles, and 2 technical white papers were
located.
With a combined circulation of over 1.2 million, the Cahners
print trade journals must generate considerable advertising income,
and once again, access via the Internet is beneficial to both the
publisher and the non-subscriber. During my visit to the
Manufacturing Marketplace I noticed a statement saying "Currently, the
entire site is free", which implies that charges may be introduced at
some time in the future. Clearly, there are costs associated with
maintaining such an enormous site, and the publishers must raise
income either through advertising, payments for listings, for loading
product catalogues, or from users, but in the meantime, access is free
to the last category. The Cahners e-journals are nice examples, but
there are many more offerings from other publishers, especially in the
USA.
Whilst surveying titles closer to home, I noticed that the Engineering
Magazine had closed its site for maintenance, but there are still
several popular trade journals with free electronic versions. They
include The Engineer Online http://www.theengineer.co.uk/ and
Industrial Technology http://www.industrialtechnology.co.uk/. The
Engineer is published by Miller Freeman, who also produce a number of
other online engineering trade journals including Design Engineering
Online http://www.designengineering.co.uk/. Other Miller Freeman
e-journals are currently not published separately, but are instead
organised into what I will term `concept areas', where news, articles,
product finders, and events diaries are amalgamated. Sites include
Dotpackaging http://www.dotpackaging.com/, which is supported by
Packaging Magazine; World Wide Wood
http://www.worldwidewood.com/revised/index.htm, which is supported
by the Timber & Wood Products, and Wood Based Panels International
magazines; Dotelectronics http://www.dotelectronics.co.uk/ which is
supported by Electronics Times, Electronic Engineering, Microwave
Engineering Europe, and various directories and yearbooks; and
DotFineChem http://www.dotfinechem.com/, which is supported by the
three magazines, Manufacturing Chemist, Inside Cosmetics, and
Pharmaceutical Ingredients Bulletin.
The trade journals mentioned above should be of interest to many
practicing and research engineers who need to keep up to date with
developments in industry. They aim to combine useful information with
advertising and sales, and, as with Free Pint, the adverts they run
may also be of direct interest to their readership. One analysis
(Forrester Research) for all UK online sales, estimates that they will
increase to 7.9 billion sterling by the year 2001. Online trade
journals may clearly benefit if this turns out to be true, and those
who do not qualify as subscribers to the print editions may also
benefit from the information they make available.
Sometimes quite different in style, and not usually attempting to sell
products, are those e-journals published by various professional
societies. There are a large number of these, but notable freely
available titles include Interlink
http://www.iee.org.uk/Internat/Intlink/, the quarterly newsletter
for international and UK members of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers (IEE); Connect http://www.twi.co.uk/connect/connect.html,
the magazine of TWI; Masterbuilder
http://www.fmb.org.uk/publications/masterbuilder/index.asp from the
Federation of Master Builders; Chartered Surveyor Monthly
http://www.rics.org.uk/csm/, the official journal of the Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors; CIC Newsletter
http://www.cic.org.uk/Entrance/News/Newsletter.htm, from the
Construction Industry Council; the AIAA Bulletin
http://www.aiaa.org/bulletin/index.html; and The Bulletin
http://www.housing.org.uk/bulletin/ from the National Housing
Federation.
In their printed formats, many of these journals were
previously available only to members, and it should be noted that
sometimes the contents, which often include society news, details of
forthcoming meetings, and such like, are of interest mainly to
members. However, as the mission of many societies is to promote the
profession or industry in question, in many instances these
newsletters also contain material of broader interest.
Any of the titles mentioned above might occasionally feature
specialised articles based upon detailed research, but more often than
not, they contain mostly industry news gleaned from news feeds and PR
departments, events diaries, product reviews and information, and
short articles written by the staff of the publishers or societies, or
invited writers. It is not impossible, however, to get free access to
research reports and scholarly engineering articles in some areas.
The majority of scholarly journals are published by commercial or
institutional publishers, and because of the considerable costs
involved in the publishing process, neither are likely to offer
entirely free electronic access to such titles. Exceptions to this
rule do occur, however, especially where a publisher is trying to
generate interest by offering free access for a trial period.
The Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering
http://www.nrc.ca/cisti/journals/cjceep.html, from the NRC Research
Press, is one example. The full text was freely available during
1997, but since 1998 it has been subscription-based. A sample issue
is still freely available at the NRC site, as a taster, along with
tables of contents. At the time of writing, a Letters Online version
of Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters
http://www.electrochem.org/letters.html is freely available.
NewJour http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/ often includes announcements
about limited period availability, although it must be said that the
number of engineering titles seems to be less than some other subject
areas.
Bell Labs Technical Journal
http://www.lucent.com/ideas2/perspectives/bltj/, from Lucent
Technologies, is a good example of a refereed scholarly journal which
is also published electronically with no strings attached. The
intention of the publication is to "foster technical excellence and
innovation among the technical community of Lucent Technologies and to
promote progress in communications fields worldwide."
Then there are examples of scholarly e-journals which have been made
available through individual or institutional initiatives. Included
in this category is Advanced Design and Manufacturing: ADAM
http://www.cimwareukandusa.com/ADAMmain.html. ADAM is a
professional, refereed international technical e-journal edited by
Professor Paul G. Ranky, from the New Jersey Institute of Technology,
and published through his company CIMware USA Inc. Other titles are:
Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
http://geotech.civen.okstate.edu/ejge/index.htm, Optical Diagnostics
in Engineering http://www.ode-web.demon.co.uk/, and from Sweden, The
Electronic Journal of Information Technology http://itcon.org/.
Because such titles are often dependent on the enthusiasm of a limited
number of academics, their publication cycles are sometimes more
erratic than commercially published titles, however this need not
always detract from their usefulness.
EEVL's Engineering E-journal Search Engine: EESE
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/eese/ provides a searchable index to one
hundred free, full text engineering e-journals (and also links to the
same e-journals). EESE is not yet a perfect tool, because the format
of its search results is rather dependent on the way that the Web
pages of the e-journals it indexes have been coded in HTML, but it is
free, and will become more user-friendly in the future.
A great deal of information about subscription-based engineering
scholarly e-journals, including tables of contents and sometimes
abstracts of articles, and also information about print-only scholarly
engineering journals, can often be found on the Internet. The
publishers' home pages are usually the best source, and one useful set
of links is available through the Association of Learned and
Professional Society Publishers http://www.alpsp.org.uk/members.htm.
The sources of such information are no different for engineering than
they are for other disciplines, and Loughborough University Library's
Keeping your Research up to date - Tables of Contents Services
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/library/aware/tocs.html provides very useful
links to what is available. In addition, ingentaJournals
http://www.ingenta.com/ which can be searched or browsed without
restriction, is also useful as it provides access to bibliographic
information from more than 550 journals from the following publishers:
Academic Press, Arnold, BMJ Publishing Group, Blackwell Publishers,
Blackwell Science, Gordon and Breach, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.,
Portland Press, Professional Engineering Publishing, Royal
Geographical Society, Scandinavian University Press, White Horse
Press, and Harwood Academic.
All of the above might not add up to a free lunch, but should
certainly enough to whet the appetite!
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Roddy MacLeod is Senior Faculty Librarian at Heriot-Watt University.
He edits the Internet Resources Newsletter
http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/ and is the Services Manager of
EEVL: the UK gateway to quality engineering information on the
Internet http://www.eevl.ac.uk/. He is trying hard not to become
addicted to the Internet.
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>>> DON'T FORGET TO VISIT THE BOOKSHELF <<<
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
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2b UK Portal - Lottery Results By Email
http://www.2b.co.uk/
2b, the UK's leading UK Content site now offers the lottery results
by email. You can sign up to receive the results by email on both
or either Wednesday or Saturday. The 2b Lottery Zone also features
the latest results and an archive of all the previous results.
To sign up to the lottery results visit the 2b Lottery Zone at
http://www.2b.co.uk/lottery/
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QUICK TIP ... INTERNET PUBLISHING
If publishing by email then it is important to leave plenty of white
space. Plain text has a tendency to look very blocky. Notice how
Free Pint has plenty of space with clear section dividers.
William Hann ~ http://www.willco.co.uk/
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FREE PINT FEEDBACK
We had an in-box full of letters in response to the last issue of
Free Pint and have reproduced some of those here.
Do you have ideas on how Free Pint could improve? Would you like
more content? Access to other material like interviews or a directory
of services perhaps? Let us know your view of Free Pint's future
by email to feedback@freepint.co.uk.
This issue's subject index:
* Response: Online Biographic Checks
* Chemistry Article in Free Pint No.36
* Dublin Core Article Free Pint No.36
* Company Law Gateways and Netmind
* Cookies Article Free Pint No.31
* Free Pint is Fantastic
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Subject: Response: Online Biographic Checks
From: Various
Some interesting issues were raised in the last edition of Free
Pint by the following letter from Chris Benecke ...
"Is there one or more places a US researcher can go for on-line
biographic checks for UK citizens -- sort of who's who for the
average person? Verify address, employment, family members,
educational background? I can't exactly call up articles on
Dow Jones Interactive or the Lexis/Nexis who's who. Thanks."
"It would be illegal (as I expect the Free Pint editorship know) to
put this sort of information on the web in the UK, without the
permission of the person who was the subject of the information
(which I would imagine many people would be reluctant to give).
It might be okay for, say, BT to put telephone directory information
on the web, but things like family members and education would be
covered by the Data Protection Act."
Jamie Montgomerie, Scotland
http://homepages.enterprise.net/jamiem/
On the subject of biographic information, Judith Alta Kidder wrote
in Free Pint No.36 ...
"My feeling toward the internet phone directories is, "so what?".
Here you can pick up any phone and call "information" and get phone
number and address ... People just don't realize how easy they are
to find without the Web."
... to which Alan J Bradshaw writes ...
"In reply I would just like to point out that the same is
unfortunately not true for this great land. In England we can also
pick up the phone and dial 192 for our information service, but we
cannot be given any more information via this means than the phone
number alone. This despite the fact that this information is freely
published in the telephone directory, the operator is not allowed
by internal policy to divulge this information. Therefore online
telephone directories would seem to be a "good idea". Having said
that, I have not had the need to use one as yet. So what do I know?
By the way, thanks for a "jolly good read" every other Thursday."
... and Sally Cox makes the point ...
"On the other hand, www.192.com is a revolution for the UK - there is
no such telephone service. Yes, you can call "directory enquiries"
(DE) but in order to obtain a telephone number you already have to
have a good idea of the person's address - the more common the
person's name, the more precise you have to be about their address.
DE are not allowed to give out addresses, for the good reason of
protecting personal security."
Send your comments to feedback@freepint.co.uk
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Subject: Chemistry Article in Free Pint No.36
From: Susan Bradley, Product Manager
Bibliographic Abstracts, Rapra Technology Limited, UK
Date: Friday 16th April 1999
"I have been a subscriber to Free Pint for over a year now and have
found it very useful and informative. In a world of information
overload an issue of Free Pint is something I always try and make
time for.
In issue 36 the feature article "Idiots' guide to chemistry
information resources on the Web" by Nigel Lees was very helpful
and well written. I would like to bring to the attention of your
readers two useful websites that Nigel did not mention. They are
both patent databases.
The first is the US Patent and Trade Mark Office's site at
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html. This allows searching of
both the full text of the patents or bibliographic and abstract
searching of the front page information.
Another useful patent site is the Patent Information Service of the
United Kingdom Patent Office http://dips.patent.gov.uk/. This
allows searching of UK, EP, PCT (WO), worldwide and Japanese patents.
The search facilities are not as extensive or sophisticated as the US
Patent Office but the display of the patents does include images. Both
these two sites are free to search and free to display the records.
With best wishes for a continued and successful future for Free Pint."
[For interest, we are planning to have an in-depth article on patent
resources on the Web in the next issue of Free Pint. WH]
Send your comments to feedback@freepint.co.uk
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Subject: Dublin Core Article Free Pint No.36
From: Bettina Langlois, Web Content Editor, Middlesex University
Date: Thursday 15th April 1999
"I read with great interest the article by Jennifer Davis on the Dublin
Core (DC).
I have been looking into the use of metadata and, in particular, DC
for describing the website on which I work. There is a lot of
information available on the Internet about use of metadata and DC and
I had been looking for several months in the hopes of teaching myself
more. The problem is that as DC standards are still being developed,
I have been unable to ascertain whether DC is merely a recommendation
or is already considered a standard, ready for use and implementation.
From the information I have read it would appear that, at present,
hardly any search engines actually look for DC elements. Several of
them can read certain metatags - see
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/features.html - but
this does not, frustratingly, seem to include DC at present.
In order to err on the side of caution and get around this problem on
our website http://www.mdx.ac.uk/ I have included ordinary metatags
*and* a set of Dublin Core metatags. This may actually result in
some search engines penalising our site for overuse of keywords. (A
small point to note - if anyone does decide to view our source code,
the actual amount of keywords will be substantially reduced once
subsequent pages are also metatagged.)
Despite extensive research and available information on DC, in-depth
cataloguing of web sites appears to be very much in its infancy,
probably because there are not many librarians out there being
recognised as having a vital role to play in cyberspace! Sadly,
experts in the field of DC appear reticent to answer e-mailed queries.
Does anyone in the UK run in-depth and preferably cheap courses on
this subject?
Readers interested in DC may also wish to look at the following
excellent article in Ariadne:
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue10/dublin/intro.html."
Send your comments to feedback@freepint.co.uk
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Subject: Company Law Gateways and Netmind
From: Name withheld on request
Date: Friday 16th April 1999
"I need to know of any gateway/portal sites (what's the difference
anyway?) to do with Company Law. There used to be a good one produced
by Andrew Brett, at http://www.wlv.ac.uk/ but it is very old now and
Andrew has gone elsewhere.
Also, I picked up (from you, I think) a reference to Netmind
http://www.netmind.com/, a page change tracking service, but I can't
get through to their registration page. I have emailed them, but no
reply yet. If it was Free Pint where I found it, I dare say it is your
fault for publicising them and making them so popular that they're too
busy!."
Netmind is still alive and well as far as I can see, and still a great
way to receive notification if a page (or element therein) changes.
This would be a great way to keep an eye on pages on the Free Pint Web
site, such as the Issues page or the Bookshelf section (e.g. when the
next edition of Free Pint has been posted there, or if a new book is
being featured in the Bookshelf). However since we have banner
adverts, which change all the time, then I'm afraid this doesn't work
automatically. You would have to be more specific when setting up
Netmind to tell it the sections in which to look for changes. WH.
Send your comments to feedback@freepint.co.uk
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Subject: Cookies Article Free Pint No.31
From: Janice Bell, Faculty Librarian, Health and Exercise Science
University College Worcester, UK
Date: Friday 16th April 1999
I have just read Jonathon Eaton's article on cookies and wanted to
express my thanks for a clear description of what has been a
mysterious concept in the past. I now understand what is going on
when I am asked if my browser accepts cookies.
Thank you and if only other computer related explanations were
as clear.
This article is available at
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070199.htm
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Subject: Free Pint is Fantastic
From: Emma Murray, Information Specialist
Fletcher Challenge Energy, Auckland, New Zealand
Date: Friday 16th April 1999
You asked for feedback on the Free Pint newsletter and all I can say
is keep them coming!
I have sent Free Pint issues to a number of my colleagues and have
had nothing but positive feedback from them and hopefully they have
now subscribed too! In this day and age, it's hard to believe that
something so good can be free!
Thanks to you and your team for doing such a great job!
Emma
Send your comments to feedback@freepint.co.uk
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DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION, COMMENT OR REPLY?
Let us know your feedback or favourite site by sending an email to
the Free Pint team now to feedback@freepint.co.uk
remembering to include your name, title and company or organisation.
Please note, if you write to us we may publish your letter in whole
or part for the interest of our subscribers unless you request
otherwise at the time of writing. Please let us know if you wish
your contact details to be withheld.
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If you've enjoyed this issue of Free Pint then please tell us as we
like to know if we're doing things right. Please do remember also
to visit the Web site to see the Bookshelf and archive of past
issues at http://www.freepint.co.uk/.
See you in two weeks!
Kind regards,
William Hann, Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
(c) Willco Ltd. 1999
http://www.willco.co.uk/
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FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
Weather Sources * Archaeological Sites * Patents * Language Sources
Graphical Formats * Online Communities * Eastern Europe
Search Engine Business Models * Rubber and Plastics
[Provisional]
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CONTACT INFORMATION
William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Managing Editor
e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor
e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Jane, Administrator e: jane@freepint.co.uk
Address (no stamp needed)
Willco "Free Pint", FREEPOST (SEA3901), Staines
Middlesex, TW18 3BR, United Kingdom
Web - http://www.freepint.co.uk
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Letters & Comments - feedback@freepint.co.uk
Latest Issue Autoresponder - auto@freepint.co.uk
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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free email newsletter for anyone who
uses the Internet to get information for their work in any business
or organisation. The newsletter is written by professionals who share
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet.
To subscribe, unsubscribe, find details about contributing,
advertising or to see past issues, please visit the Web site at
http://www.freepint.co.uk/ or call +44 (0)1784 455 435.
Please note: Free Pint is a trademark of, and published by, the
Internet consultancy Willco Limited http://www.willco.co.uk/ ...
providers of consultancy, training and publishing services. The
publishers will NEVER make the subscriber list available to any
other company or organisation.
The opinions, advice, products and services offered herein are the
sole responsibility of the contributors. Whilst all reasonable care
has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the publication, the
publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
This publication may be freely copied and/or distributed in its
entirety. However, individual sections MAY NOT be copied and/or
distributed without the prior written agreement of the publishers.
Product names used in Free Pint are for identification purposes only,
and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Free Pint disclaims
any and all rights in those marks. All rights reserved.
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 28th April 1999
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/37
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