Usenet ====== Long, long ago, when transport was hard, and communication primitive, when SlashDot, blogs, wikis, facebook, and all that malarkey were not even dreamed of, there was **Usenet**... Ah, Usenet! The flame wars, Godwin's law, newgroup battles, propagation delays, trn, C news, INN... And an enormous amount of extremely useful discussion and information that could be found nowhere else. I learnt a great deal from Usenet. In passing, I have to mention the `comp.lang.c FAQ`_, maintained by `Steve Summit`_, and one of the best collaboratively produced documents I have ever come across. Eventually Steve published it as a book ("C Programming FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions", Addison-Wesley 1996, ISBN 0-201-84519-9), and I was delighted to find my own name in the acknowledgements list, along with Dennis Ritchie, Andrew Koenig, Bjarne Stroustrup, and other luminaries. (My contribution to the FAQ was small to the point of vanishing: I corrected a misplaced "either". So I didn't really deserve to be there, but still...) .. _comp.lang.c faq: http://c-faq.com/ .. _Steve Summit: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/ I've grouped my postings together, *mainly* by the group they were originally posted to, but - for example - postings about **qmail** to ``comp.security.unix`` are collected here with the other ``comp.mail.*`` postings. Cam.misc -------- This was a general discussion group for people connected to Cambridge (the one in Cambridgeshire, UK), and remarkably high quality it was too. Read `my contributions to cam.misc`_ for musings on vegetarianism, intelligence, and genetically modified crops. And some dodgy science. .. _my contributions to cam.misc: /software/book/cam Comp.lang.c ----------- My favourite newsgroup: high quality writing, low levels of flamage, and at least lurked in by some very important people. I once posted some incorrect information about K&R, and received a reply from ``dmr`` himself! I've already mentioned the excellent FAQ; many of my postings to the group simply pointed people to the appropriate FAQ. But here are some `more interesting articles`_. .. _more interesting articles: /software/book/clc Comp.lang.functional & Comp.lang.misc ------------------------------------- I was never very active on either of these groups, so I've `combined them`_. .. _combined them: /software/book/clm Comp.lang.perl & Comp.lang.perl.misc ------------------------------------ Another great news group, frequented by Larry Wall (the author of Perl), and some other fine programmers / writers, including my colleague and friend Ian Phillips. Here are `my contributions`_. .. _my contributions: /software/book/clp Comp.mail.* ----------- Through my work with first UKnet, and then PIPEX, I became something of an email guru, and `regularly posted`_ authoritatively (if sometimes a touch arrogantly!) to the various ``comp.mail`` groups. At one time I maintained the ``comp.mail.mime`` FAQ. .. _regularly posted: /software/book/cmail Comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains ----------------------------- I was also a DNS guru: here are some postings from the snappily named `comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains`_. .. _comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains: /software/book/cptd Comp.protocols.time.ntp ----------------------- I have always been fascinated by clocks and calendars, and remain so to this day. So it is no surprise that I took a keen interest in the Network Time Protocol for synchronizing clocks over the Internet to (ultimately) atomic clock time sources. I posted `a few articles`_ to ``comp.protocols.time.ntp``. .. _a few articles: /software/book/cntp Comp.unix.* ----------- Unix is, of course, the best operating system in the world. I contributed_ to various groups in the ``comp.unix`` hierarchy, but I seem to have lost those articles at the moment, sorry. .. _contributed: /software/book/what Comp.unix.shell --------------- Another of `my favourite haunts`_, with some more great regular posters. I particularly relished the contributions of Barry Margolin and Ken Pizzini, and the occasional posting from Andy Walker, whom I once met. As the maintainer of the ``rc`` shell, I appear to have felt obliged to mention its superior syntax in at least one post in three! Sorry. ``:-)`` .. _my favourite haunts: /software/book/cush News.groups & Uk.net.news ------------------------- The hub of it all, ``news.groups`` was where the creation, renaming, and removal of groups in the "official" hierarchies was discussed. I followed this group, but only made a couple of contributions. I was more active in ``uk.net.news``, the analogue for the ``uk`` hierarchy. Here are `both together`_. .. _both together: /software/book/ng Uk.misc ------- A completely general discussion group for people in the United Kingdom, which had the advantage that I'd met in person at least a few of the people on the group. `My postings`_ ranged over a variety of topics. .. _my postings: /software/book/ukm Uk.net ------ A `time slice`_ from the early 1990s, when the commercial Internet was just springing up in the UK. .. _time slice: /software/book/ukn Uk.politics ----------- `Lots of articles`_ here, mainly concerning the legalization (or otherwise!) of cannabis. .. _lots of articles: /software/book/ukp Miscellany ---------- `These postings`_ didn't really seem to fit anywhere else. .. _these postings: /software/book/misc