 |
Net Gains (Dec 12, 95)
|
With a lifestyle like this, we often miss out on some of the simple pleasures in life - like just being a couch - potato in your own home.(We turn into chair potatoes at our office desks - having to sit in front of a terminal 8 - 10 hours a day !). I, for instance haven't been able to catch up with the news on my idiot box for the last three months. But I don't miss out on the news - No Siree !. The first thing that comes up on my computer when I switch it on, are the headlines India has made all over. These headlines arrive twice a day courtesy IndiaWorld. IndiaWorld Headlines is a free service, broadcast twice a day via email. To subscribe, all you have to do is to e-mail [email protected], with the phrase "subscribe headlines" (without the quotes) in the body of the message. An electronic news - headlines service ! What more could you ask for ?? Plenty of things - trust me on this !!
You could, for instance, get not only the headlines, but the whole story as well. But, at a cost. You can subscribe to IndiaWorld at a cost of US$20 ( or as specified on their subscription form),Indian Rupees 700 per year. Once you do that you can access IndiaWorld - India's first daily electronic news and information service. This also gives you a chance to read India Today on your computer, and also get your daily dose of R. K. Laxman, and Busybee. Talking about Busybee (Behram Contractor), his tabloid - "The Afternoon Despatch and Courier" has a page on the Net giving details about the paper (the usual stuff about its reach and circulation, columnists, and even the income bracket of its readers, blah, blah, blah ). It appears that this page is part of the deal for the exclusive use of Busybee on the Net by IndiaWorld. Also available on IndiaWorld are short stories, BSE quotes,& Bollywood entertainment masala ka listings. Besides all of the above, you can also gift someone you love with something they love, through a facility offered by IndiaWorld. All this is offered on the World Wide Web at IndiaWorld
And if you're not particularly fond of paying for staying in touch with the news, don't fret - the Internet caters to you too. You could, for instance, log onto CNN Interactive - CNNs news service on the Internet. It now no longer comes to you on the World Wide Web. CNN Interactive offers you the choice of US news or World news, and news from other areas like sports, and technology. Also available are the days headlines and top stories, complete with pictures. The news awailable here is updated throughout the day. Also available are CNNs programme guide and listings. One unique feature on CNN Interactive is its Video Vault - an archive of video clippings in different areas like news, technology, showbiz, health, politics, and style. Once you reach these sites, (and if you have certain software installed), you can watch these video clippings from CNNs television shows. These clippings are regularly updated, still keeping the older video clippings for reference. CNN Interactive also has a "text- only" version of all the above, for cases like ours, where ordinary Net subscribers through VSNL cannot avail of graphics while browsing the Net. Under such conditions, you can get all the news minus the pictures and visual treats available to the lucky few who do have propah graphical Web Browsers News is also available specially for journalists at INTERNET NEWSROOM - a newsletter designed to help members of the working press use the Internet for fact-gathering purposes. The Internet can be a great resource for the press because it is replete with information that can be used for stories. And unlike expensive commercial news databases, everything on the Internet is free ! The Internet Newsroom is a twice-monthly, hard-copy newsletter which is a practical "How To" Internet guide for reporters, producers, editors, news directors and news librarians. You can visit their home page on the Internet from here.
And last, but not the least, is the news avaiable (free again) at the mother of all sites - Yahoo!. Once there, go in for the "News" section, and you may just spend a whole day or more trying to read that particular days' news, by which time it will be time for the next days news......... until there's no tomorrow !!