Report 3: My Travels Through Gopher

Generation 1,2, & 3 home pages represent Social Psychology databases of UH students in different semesters and classes which gather information, data, links, and contributions of cybernauts throughout the world on topics ranging from Cyberspace Psychology to Traffic Psychology. The Generations above deal with Cyberspace Psychology.

Generational Links on Traffic Psychology:	Generation One	Generation Two	Generation Three

The Raw Stuff!

Right bellow are the uncut links, information, and URLs I found through my travels through Gopher:
This is the information the Macs save and process for URL and address information.

Junior Forward Keri Farley Has Her Moment in History
cornell.edu
Toy collection brings joy to special ed children 0/news/camnews/May8/p2toy gopher.unm.edu 70
THE JOY OF READING FOR WHATEVER REASON F-1:3557:3c 129.7.34.27 70
The Joy of Hop Growing SLK6P@cc.usu.edu 0/Local UA1VM Listserv Archives/HOMEBREW/LOG1369/HOMEBREW.LOG369.F.224 ua1vm.ua.edu 70
Design Brings Joy To Child 0/WhistleArchives/94WhistleDec12/DJ.txt gopher.gatech.edu 2070
Students Learn Math,Science Lessons In Jumping For Joy 0/WhistleArchives/95WhistleJan2/CEISMC.txt gopher.gatech.edu 2070 +ADMIN:
Friends, Cornell Co-workers Share Joy with $18 Million Winners 0/.files/CH110394/CH11039402 gopher1.cit.cornell.edu 70 +ADMIN:
Livingston Staff Bring Joy to Patients and Their Siblings 0/cnews/pubs/Quest/Summer_Esprit_1994/Livingston.txt gopher.fhcrc.org 70 +ADMIN:

What's Gopher?

Simply put, Gopher is http without any pizzazz or multimedia. I believe you can put pictures through Gopher on the net though. Also, Gopher is a part of the internet despite how much people hate it.

Of Feelings, Emotions, and Being Too Proud...

Well, well, well, what do you know? I did it! I was able to finish this homework using both Macs and IBMs. Now to write about the hell I went through to finish this assignment. I started the homework or assignment at the IBM lab in Porteus. Boy does it suck in there! Sucky aircon, sucky computers, and too boot, I'm an IBM guy. I like the Macs here (at Keller Hall) much better. Hmm... I've got thirty minutes to write this dang report right now. Anyway, I used WS gopher at first, and it really sucks, needless to say like the computer that program ran on! There is no simple search engine for Gopher in my point of view. I felt like swearing at the lab. I don't think Dr. James would of appreciated it. I was extremely irritated. I can't stand other people's incompetence and neither can I stand my own! I first used Yahoo.com hoping I could use http to do the work for this Gopher assignment thingy. Oh yeah, I'm getting real technical. It took a while just to link with Yahoo! It was extremely busy! There was also a lot of junk there that I couldn't use on my Gopher assignment. This, needless to say, infuriated me further. I went to Computers and Internet: Searching the Net: Archie at Yahoo.com. I couldn't use anything here. You can go back and check out info on Jughead or Veronica, if you wish. Then, I went to Archie Gateway. The link took too long to establish. I was irritated again so I went back to the WS gopher program thingy. I tried to calm myself. I really didn't know what I was doing. The thing with me is that I'm never discouraged, only angered or more angered, kinda like the hulk. Anger feeds me and gives me strength to keep hammering things out. Something breaks eventually, and luckily, it usually isn't me. I don't give up easily. If I'm competing against someone, I always take a piece of them, but I couldn't do that with a computer. Hmmm... perhaps a virus. Anyway, I kept going back and forth between Yahoo.com and WS gopher and finally decided to ask someone for help which I hate doing unless the person I'm asking is one of my friends. I got help from a classmate, Jasmine I think. She was a big help, and I got the information the Prof., I mean Dr. James, was giving to other students. I didn't bother asking him. All my searches on the IBMs start here! I simply use WS Gopher by clicking the icon and links that latter appear. Anyway, I searched the net or gopher for a long time randomly going to any server or gopher link that was available and started doing a lot of searches and only got a lot of junk. More disappointment, but I didn't quit of course cause that's for losers. I did figure something out when the rest of the class decided to work on the form thingy cause they couldn't get the addresses or URL whatever that is. I found out how to use the bookmark and edit options to look for the address. It was a little complex and mostly irritating, but I reasoned it out. I told some of the students. I wonder how my classmates are going to do there assignment. I know for a fact a few will find totally unique ways of accomplishing the homework different from me. Anyway, I went to WS Gopher, next clicked Information Services, and then Search Gopher Space Using Veronica and last of all typed in a search word, words, or phrase. I went to NYSERNET and UNITT/U.Bergin and all the gopher sites I was able to get into. A lot of junk again. The internet is too much like a dirt road. I searched for documents typing the words like "moment", "good", "happy", "joy", and "fun" and all kinds of other words in different combinations into the Veronica window. The links were slow and crappy. I was extremely pissed to say the least! I finally found one article typing in "moment" in the gopher links at the NYSERNET server. I found Junior Forward Keri Farley Has Her Moment in History. It is about Miss. Farley's moment in history when she almost broke a record in a basketball game for the amount of three pointers made. I found another gopher document, but I found out that I couldn't attain the address for some reason. I gave up after a while cause time was running out on me, and I wanted to go home.

Frustration

Next, I latter went back to the Porteus lab to do my homework and guess what? The damn computers weren't saving the damn address when I found some perfectly good stuff for my assignment, or rather good documents. The software and computers there were too inferior. Next, I went to my safe haven or my Avalon at the MacLab at Keller.

The Macs
Need I say More?

Ahhhh... the air-conditioning and superior seats and computers. A brilliant combo! What now you may ask? Well, the sites or links for gophers weren't the same at Keller due to the use of Macs and apple software of course. Another swear word starting with the letter... uhmm... never mind. Any hoot, I was uhmm... screwed. I wonder? Is that tame enough for educational purposes? I found out the gopher sites were more plentiful, more complex, and more complicated to master than the IBM counterparts. Well? What to do? I learned and mastered it after some complications. I found out that the program turbogopher also had the same address "location problem". It didn't blatantly tell or have the address right in front of you or rather me. My friend at the Mac Lab was of no help whatsoever. He's such a disappointment. This is how I got things to work. First, I clicked programs on the desktop, than internet, and next turbogopher 2.02. I think I next clicked "Other Gopher and Information Servers", than "North America", than "USA", than "Hawaii", than "University of Hawaii Search Gopher Space Using Veronica" and last of all either "Search GopherSpace (Veronica)" via UNINETT/U of Bergen or "... via" PSINET". Very simple, yes? I typed in many search words and phrases. The best search was when I used the word joy. I found all the other gopher documents through this word. I first found the gopher document "Toy collection brings joy to special ed children". It is rather obvious what it is about. I believe that this link is no longer workable. I next found THE JOY OF READING FOR WHATEVER REASON which was hard to link to due to too many users of the server. A person shares the joy of reading and the benefits of reading. The Joy of Hop Growing is actually an e-mail made into a gopher document about hop growing. The author, "Coyote", gives pointers on having a green thumb. He shares other people's experiences, questions, and joys with the reader. Design Brings Joy To Child is actually about the invention of a "play tray" which allows a child more joy and freedom. The child "is diagnosed with Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, a disorder which causes involuntary self-mutilation" so the child needs this "play tray" to stop the self-mutilation and increase his freedom of movement. Students Learn Math,Science Lessons In Jumping For Joy is actually a program which teaches kids math in a unique way.

"Sherita Edmonds, a sixth grade student at Walden Middle School in Atlanta, recently completed "Jumping for Joy" in her mathematics class. According to Sherita "Jumping for Joy" made learning math fun and interesting. "I liked the activity because I got to work with my friends," she said. "We helped each other understand the lesson.""

In case your wondering, I simply went down the matches in the search and found all these gopher links/documents above and bellow in this exact order. Friends, Cornell Co-workers Share Joy with $18 Million Winners is a gopher document which made me envious. I wish I won a million dollars. Livingston Staff Bring Joy to Patients and Their Siblings was the last gopher document I found. It's about employees at the Livingston and Co. throwing a great Easter 1994 party full of bunnies, eggs, and joy for their siblings and patients. After finding a few articles after tons of searching, the location of the address problem came back to haunt me. After thirty minutes of madness, I went one step back or window before the actual gopher document and found out some magical options which were highlighted and clickable in one of the windows that drop out from above in the Macs. I clicked "Gopher" at top, and next chose the option "Get attribute information and URL". Presto, I was half way done. After another hour had past, I saved all the relevant information by e-mail after losing at all once and finding it all again in 5 minutes. I did gamble on one thing. I hoped that the info on the addresses or URLs would be right, or I would have just wasted two hours or 2 and 1/2 hours doing homework that didn't work. So, here I am! At the Click Lab, not at Porteus or the MacLab. I gotta run soon and work on my form thingy and a previous generation's contributions soon! What a waste of time! At the Click Lab presently, I'm typing this report and also making links that work. I was so relieved that my data and theories were right about how the address thing works. I hope I don't have to help anyone cause it's been a week, and I don't know how to do this stuff anymore hahaha! Done and done over. Au revior!