Corrections: None at present.

Appendix A, Research & Helpful Hints

• How to use Boolean logic on search engines: When searching with two or more key terms, you can distinguish between or among them by using the Boolean operators 'and,' 'or,' 'not.' For example, if you searched for Jerry Garcia 'and' The Grateful Dead, you will retrieve only those titles in which they both appear. If you searched for Jerry Garcia 'or' the Grateful Dead, you will retrieve the titles that either of them appear in. And if you searched for Jerry Garcia 'not' Grateful Dead, you will retrieve hits that Jerry is mentioned in except for those with the Dead.

  
  

• Which search engine to use?: This is a difficult question to answer, for I (VJV) have found that I need to use several on particular problems. However, the engines do differ: For example, when I search through WebCrawler for my name, I get very few hits; when I search through AltaVista, I get several hundred hits. And when I search through HotBot, I get even more hits.

  Why the difference? WebCrawler for the most part counts on people submitting their URLs, whereas AltaVista and HotBot continuously searches through websites, indexing everything in its database. There is a difference!

  
  

• How to enhance your chances of finding a file that can no longer be found at a website: You have the URL (http address) but you get a Not Found message. Here's a specific example that is in Chapter 1 (CR website):

  http://www.idg.no/mmw/eng/eco/index.html.

  It's an interview with Umberto Eco (the file is /eco/index.html), and it has been either disconnected from IDG's webtree or has been moved, or renamed. This happens frequently. So What to do? The first thing to do is point to the basic URL, which is

  http://www.idg.no

  and hope to find a link on the homepage to Umberto Eco or to interviews or whatever seems the logical place to look. If you find no clues--even if you click every link and button--then, look for the webmeister (info is usually given at the end of the first page and in the form of an e-mail link) and send him or her a very specific message with the old URL and the title of the page that you are looking for. In many cases, you will get a response eventually informing you of the new file, if one is available. (I actually have sent the webmeister a note requesting the new URL; I sent it on January 25th! Let's see if I get an answer.) If this does not work, keep the link for a while; for in many cases, it may very well be that the webtree is being worked on or that it will be reconnected. If not, then, remember that the WWW is nomadic: Here today; gone morphed into something else tomorrow! I completely understand the kind of frustration that comes with this problem, for I am constantly having to refind lost links on the CyberReader website as well as other websites that I manage. Good Luck!

  Update (March 6th, 1996): I have heard nothing from the webmeister, so I have removed the link for Eco in the Chapter 1 (web update). As I explained, links come and go. That's what the WWW is all about: Constant change. While many people see this as a weakness of the Web, many see it as its strength. However, you would be surprised of how many sites do remain stable. Sites established by individuals (hobby sites) tend to move or disappear, while institutional or commercial sites remain put or, at least, leave a link at the old site to get to the new one.

  
  

• Citing Electronic Discourse: The format for citing e-discourse in CR is primarily from the MLA stylesheet. Here's an alternative way that has been developed by Janice R. Walker. Other examples:
  • Citing Electronic Materials with the New MLA Guidelines, developed by Michael N. Salda.

  • MLA Format: Giving Credit to Sources, Purdue Univ. OWL.

  • UVic Writer's Guide: Acknowledging Your Sources.

    
    

• From The Elements of Style for papertext to ... :
  • Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. From the Editors of Wired, Edited by Constance Hale. San Francisco: Hard Wired, 1996. Like Strunk and White's book, this one is a handy reference source to take with you when writing for the Web.

  • Writing Style Resources (Here you will find links to discussions of and debates about "electronic style.")

Appendix B, Dictionaries & Glossaries

• Babel: A Glossary of Computer Related Abbreviations and Acronyms

• Computing Dictionary

• Cyberpoets Guide to Virtual Culture (See Lexicon of Virtual Culture.)

• Synthetic Pleasures Glossary: (See Synthetic Pleasures HP)

• Hypertext Terms

• Viruslex

• Virtual Reality Terms

• Windows 95 Glossary

• Smiley Dictionary

• Kevin Hughes's A Guide to Cyberspace

  --> There are additional sites listed in Appendix B (CR)

Appendix C, Bibliographies & New Publications

• Anne Balsamo's Bibliography: Cyberspace, Cyberpunk, Electronic Communication, Postmodernism.

• John Brockman. Digerati: Encounters with the Cyber Elite. San Francisco: HardWired, 1996.

• Bob Cotton and Richard Oliver, The Cyberspace Lexicon: an illustrated dictionary of terms. London: Phaidon, 1994.

• Douglas Coupland, microserfs. New York: ReganBooks (HarperCollins), 1995. (The inside cover reads: "... a handful of misfit Microsoft employees who realize they don't have lives and subsequently become determined to get lives inside the lightning-paced world of high-tech 1990s American geek culture." etc.) See Microserfs Home Page.

• Bill Gates, The Road Ahead. New York: Viking, 1995. | The Road Ahead HP | (There are excerpts, a news story, and interview in Newsweek [Nov 27, 1995].)

• John Seabrook, "Gates at the Temple." The New Yorker. (Dec. 11, 1995): 78-81. (See JS's "My First Flame". The New Yorker.)

• Mark Slouka, War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-Tech Assault on Reality. New York: Basic Book, 1995.

• 01: Cyberspace

• 02: Freedom/Censorship

• 03: CyberWars

• 04: Hypertext/Multimedia

• 05: Virtual Libraries/Copyrights

• 06: Cyberpunk/Cyborg

• 07: MUD's/MOO's

• Educational Links