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Net Gains (Dec 26, 95)
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I had surfed the Net, a few weeks earlier, with the help of my keyboard and fingers. From the US cities listed, I had a choice ranging from Alabama to Wyoming. I had travelled to Wisconsin and was given a further choice of places. I randomly chose Madison. A picture of an isthmus filled the screen and I was given a choice - this time of looking up visitor information, and a listing of the accomodation available. Which led to a picture of Lake Mendota heading the rest of the information listed, about the Motels and Hotels. For further information, I had to fill out a form giving personal details and detailed information regarding the trip there, its duration, the size of the party, and arrangments preferred (such as sightseeing) and then e-mail the form to the server. The information was promised to me within a month, by mail. So much for that.
The Net ( a.k.a. the Internet) is a fascinating place to travel through. Information of anything and everything is available at your fingertips. Need to share a few thoughts ?? Share it on the Net. Need a few laughs ??? Browse through a few comic strips on the Net, or laugh your way through a few jokes. Want to learn more about places you've heard about, and maybe plan your visit there ?? Go right on - it's all there for the asking - on the Internet. All you have to do is follow the biblical saying - "Seek and ye shall find."
After slogging his butt out for his GRE, a friend managed to get a full scholarship to the Kansas State University (KSU). His prospects thrilled him, as well as all of us too. But like us, he too had no detailed info. about KSU except that it was geographically located in any IITians mecca - the U.S.of A. One option open to him was to try to get information via a letter or maybe through a fax to someone currently studying there. Or better still, from one of his relatives in the US. He could have gone in for any of the above, but chances were that the information he would get would probably not contain in - depth information and specific details that he was interested in. Moreover, there was the time factor that had to be taken into consideration.
What we did instead, was to surf the Net, to find out relevant information. We went to the World Wide Web at the address http://www.yahoo.com. From this site, we narrowed our search to "Education in the US" . We further zoomed in on the alphabet "K" which listed all colleges and universities starting with the letter K. And we looked up Kansas State University. Slowly the screen filled up with the home page of KSU - the site from where we could jump to any related topic on the Kansas State University. Topics ranging from the Student Organisations and Sports to Research and Graduate studies available. Or details of Alumini, & geographical maps of Kansas State University. In a matter of 15 minutes, we had at our disposal anything and everything we could possibly want to know about KSU. We discovered that it was founded on Feb 16, 1863 and was spread over 664 acres. We could actually see images and pictures of the offices, library, and the computer centre. We even went on a campus tour, visiting buildings that we wanted to find out more details of. A listing of the faculty was also available in the 'people dictionary'. All this with just a little finger exercise. Virtual Reality is no longer just a concept that you only hear about. You can be in Bombay (oops ! Mumbai) and still be travelling across the US - sightseeing, and visiting places of interest.
The Net is so wide, and so addictive, that you can spend hours, and if given a chance, even days, exploring cyberspace. There are times when you should sit back and check yourself - and look out for the following symptoms (off the Net) :
| You know you've been on your computer too long....
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