Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
In addition to email and the Web, Usenet is another part of the Internet. You can think of Usenet as a worldwide bulletin board system, where people from everywhere can post messages and join discussions about subjects that interest them. Each subject is called a newsgroup. More than 25,000 newsgroups cover virtually every subject imaginable.
Finding newsgroups
To find a newsgroup that interests you, you have to know a little about the structure of newsgroup names. A newsgroup name has several parts separated by periods. The first part specifies the general subject, the next part narrows the subject, and subsequent parts narrow the subject still further. Table 6-1 shows the most common top-level newsgroup names, and Table 6-2 shows examples of full names of newsgroups.
| Identifier | Included subjects |
|---|---|
| alt | Subjects that don’t fit into one of the other official categories |
| biz | Business |
| comp | Computers |
| misc | Miscellaneous subjects |
| news | News and other topical information |
| rec | Recreational hobbies and arts |
| sci | Scientific |
| soc | Social |
| talk | Debates |
| Newsgroup name | Subject |
|---|---|
| alt.tv.simpsons | Adventures in Springfield |
| comp.sys.mac.advocacy | Let’s hear it for the Mac |
| rec.sport.triathlon | For the Iron man in all of us |
| sci.med.nutrition | Scrutinize your diet here |
Accessing the news
You can find the newsgroup of your dreams using a variety of programs. Two Mac OS X newsreaders are Thoth, available at www.thothsw.com, and Microsoft’s Entourage (which has a built in newsreader). You can also browse and search newsgroups from your Web browser by going to the Google Groups site (http://groups.google.com).
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