Arid Lands Newsletter--link to home pageNo. 38, Fall/Winter 1995
The Whole Wired World

Aids to navigation: A short but useful list of hotlists

Compiled by John M. Bancroft

[Ed. note: URLs last checked March 2000]

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson
President & Founder, Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

The Web may be vast, but it's not entirely uncharted. The lists that follow offer a few suggested starting points for your own personal voyage of discovery.

Internet & World Wide Web Access

The first three sites below will help you download a free or demo version of the three leading Web browsers; and remember that if you have Web access, you have access to the other levels of the Internet in the bargain. The fourth site will give you access to links to information on Internet Access Providers -- the companies that will, for a fee, wire you into the 'net.

How To. . .

Free advice is as abundant in cyberspace as anywhere else. Here are a few sources of information you may find useful if you decide to become a World Wide Web publisher.

The Art of Web Page Design

Learning the technical side of HTML coding is easy. Putting it to good use can be a little trickier. For an introduction to sound design for the World Wide Web, check out what graphic designer Merrill Parsons has to say in this issue of ALN; then, sample a few of the links to other sources you'll find at the end of her article, including a thoughtful essay by Nathan Shedroff, one of Multimendia Gulch's more prominent young maestros.

You might also want to take a look at Web designer Jeffrey M. Glover's Top Ten Ways To Improve Your Home Page. His list (which, at the moment has an empty slot at No. 5, ready for your suggestion) is brief and to the point.

HTML Tools

These tools are items of software specifically designed to make marking up a Web page easy. Some succeed, some don't; some are free, some aren't. Look around and see what you like.

Sweet Inspiration

There's a lot of everything out there on the Web -- the good, the bad, and the profoundly ugly. The first six sites below are collections of various people's ideas of what constitutes the best the medium has to offer. The others are links to just a few of the sites I like. What do you think?

News of the World (Wide Web)

Things change fast these days. These digital publications will help you keep up.

Arid Lands Information: A Starter Set

This short list of WWW sites will get you started on an exploration of digital information resources on arid lands.

Now Jump!

Here are some good places to start your journey of discovery. The first few sites are collections of links to search engines, indexes, and other navigational aids. Then comes a handful of home pages for sites that pack both a lot of information and electronic signposts pointing to more. Bon voyage -- and don't forget to drop us a line.

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John M. Bancroft is Editor of The Arid Lands Newsletter and Senior Editor at The University of Arizona's Office of Arid Lands Studies.

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