The Internet

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The Internet

A knowledge of the Internet is assumed. For those interested in the Internet itself, we do provide some external course links. The Internet is a source of useful knowledge, but to find what you are looking for is a bit like the old saying of "looking for a needle in haystack". Search engines form an essential part of the Internet and a list of some of the more common ones is given in the last of the links below.

• Entering the World-Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace by Kevin Hughes

Glossary

Although the contents of this link are out of date in places, it still contains much that is very useful, and that is not easy to find elsewhere.

• Glossary of Internet Terms by Matisse Enzer
• Networking by David Steffen (Bielefeld, Germany)

Networking by David Steffen (Baylor mirror, USA)

• Search Engines

MUDs and MOOs

A MUD (Multi-User Dimension) is a virtual meeting place which contains objects and people which behave (in principle!) in a similar way to real-life equivalents. The system is based on rooms which can contain objects and where people can meet in real time. Communication is generally by means of typing a command word followed by a sentence in English. In general peoples' activity is restricted to the current room. A MOO is a MUD built on Object-Oriented principles.

MUDs and MOOs have great potential for educational purposes and professional communication. However, they do require tutors and students to meet up at fixed times and experience shows that most students at this level of study prefer email contact instead. Hence, we will not be using such a chatroom, e.g. the one described below, unless students have problems in understanding concepts that require real-time discussions for their explanation.

Birkbeck Crystallography MUD

There are a number of different ways of connecting to the Birkbeck Crystallography MUD:

Detailed information on the use of the MUD can be found by following the links on the Birkbeck Crystallography MUD page (who to contact, how it works, command reference, map of the MUD).There is also a quick reference card.

The advantage of using telnet (or other MUD clients) is that the response should be much faster than the Web browser interface; however the nice feature of using the browser interface is that you can view the contents of URLs that other users in the MUD send to you, by clicking in the usual way.

In a telnet (or MUD client) window, connect using "connect  <user-name>  <password>" where <user-name> is your user-name, and <password> is your password (omit the angle brackets). Passwords for the Birkbeck MUD will not be issued unless the need for real-time communication arises.

The time and date in the Birkbeck Crystallography MUD is in Greenwich Mean Time. Please use your watch rather than your computer time because computer clocks are notoriously unreliable!

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