Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508230012
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: WS-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: HAL SHEIKERZ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But are you really connected with the computer world?
Let's start with a quiz. If you know the answers to the following questions, you're in good shape; if not, read on.
1. WWW stands for:
a. The new Warner Brothers label.
b. What, where, when.
c. Westinghouse's new Wide World of Sports program on CBS.
d. World Wide Web.
2. "It's a hard drive with a lot of megabytes still free" refers to:
a. Road trips down south.
b. The 254-mile drive between Blacksburg and Fairfax.
c. My Pentium computer with a 540-megabyte hard drive.
3. Cyberjunkie:
a. Someone who eats a lot of sugar-coated junk food.
b. The hottest punk group in Blacksburg.
c. Last night's dinner at Dietrick Dinning Hall.
d. Someone who spends way too much time behind the computer, exploring the Internet.
4. What is HTML?
a. A new sandwich at the local deli.
b. A new concentration in Hotel, Interior Design, & Resource Management.
c. Acronym for the Highlander's school song.
d. Hyper Text Markup Language.
5. What is Gopher?
a. U.S. Congressman who used to be on Love Boat.
b. Small rodent and star of "Caddyshack."
c. The kid next door who does your homework and takes class notes for you.
d. A text-based information-retrieval system on the Internet.
6. What is Yahoo?
a. A disgusting pseudo-chocolate-flavored drink.
b. The first name of a "serious" actor from Australia.
c. Another word for "yippee," used most often during football games or after passing organic chemistry.
d. The coolest search engine on the World Wide Web.
7. FTP stands for:
a. Something we can't print in a family newspaper.
b. Fried-thrice potatoes.
c. The newest fraternity on campus.
d. File Transfer Protocol, a way of transmitting data on the Internet.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the correct answers are "D" and the all the questions deal with the Internet, a world-wide connection of computer networks.
Some of you may have dabbled with the Internet before coming to college, through school or commercial online services such as America Online or CompuServe.
But now that you're here, the Internet is at your fingertips - literally.
Dorm rooms at both Radford and Virginia Tech are fiber-optically linked, which means you can get online in a matter of seconds. All you need is a computer and an Internet account.
"The technology is exactly the reason why I decided to come to [Tech]," said Christopher Brown, an incoming freshman from Vienna. "It really appealed to me, given my major, computer engineering."
The Internet is similar to a highway, except it's electronic and virtual. It takes you - or rather connects you - with computer systems around the world. The most common uses of the Internet are e-mail, network news, access to remote computers and data retrieval from remote locations.
Using the Internet sounds complicated, but it's not. It can even be addicting.
"Even an moron like me can use it," said Colleen Callaghan, a senior in communications at Tech.
Dan Liebert, a senior from Virginia Beach, uses e-mail to keep in touch with his friends. He says it beats using stamps.
Tiffany Beach, a senior in electrical engineering, is a true e-mail fanatic. She said she checks her messages first thing in the morning, mails out responses to the messages, goes to class, comes home and checks her messages again. She says she logs in about two hours a day on the Internet.
But it has paid off for her - sort of. While she estimates she spends close to $40 a month for her online access to a commercial service and her university account, she has sent out a number of resumes online and has had a few online job interviews.
Last year, about 2,000 students actively used their accounts at Radford, said Ed Oakes, system administrator there.
At Tech, on-campus students need to go to the computing center labs to activate their Personal Identification (PID) to receive a password to begin using the Internet.
On-campus students at Radford need to go to any computer lab to activate their account. The center also will supply students with terminal software for DOS-based systems.
Off-campus students go about the same route to get their accounts activated; however, they need a modem as well. These students also pay a monthly fee. (On-campus access is free).
Both campuses have computer labs, where students can use the computers for writing, programming or getting online. New River Community College has one computer lab with Internet access, and it's used mainly for browsing the World Wide Web. The college hopes to expand access to other labs in time.
by CNB