Word: usenet
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Besides e-mail, students use Harvards' link tothe Internet to read electronic bulletin boardssuch as Usenet news, to join on-line discussiongroups and to carry on long-distance conversationson screen--all for free. They can accesseverything from 15th century commentaries onDante's Inferno top telephone directories.Students also may look for library books throughHOLLIS (Harvard's On-Line Library InformationSystem) or even find and run applications softwarefor their personal computers...
...casual visitor to the newsgroups on the Usenet (a bulletin-board system that began as a competitor to the Internet but has been largely subsumed by it) will discover discussion groups labeled, according to the Net's idiosyncratic cataloging system, alt.sex.masturbation, alt.sex.bondage and alt.sex.fetish.feet. On Internet Relay Chat, a global 24-hour-a-day message board, one can stumble upon imaginary orgies played out with one-line typed commands ("Now I'm taking off your shirt . . ."). In alt.binaries.pictures.erotica, a user can peek at snapshots that would make a sailor blush...
...mail and other features on computers accessible by a large number of users, you should expect that whatever you do is your own business. For example, you surely don't want your nosy roommate to read an intimate letter or eavesdrop on what you read and post on Usenet...
Unfortunately, some people disagree with your definition of privacy. Consciously or subconsciously, they like poking around other people's accounts. They take pleasure in reading others' e-mail and at times even replying incognito to messages addressed to you. They enjoy posting provocative messages on Usenet using your identity. "To use e-mail is to expose your trail," is the motto by which they live...
...mechanical error, the last sentence of last week's P.C. Corner was incomplete. It should have read: "Whether it's advice on traveling in India or the latest news on supercomputer design you are looking for, Usenet should be an information source with which you become acquainted...