One of the best features of the Internet is that you can communicate with other people in distant lands without worrying about time zone problems or language problems beyond a basic grasp of written English. However, the Internet doesn't prevent real-time conversations[emm]they're simply a bit less common. As popular as IRC (Internet Relay Chat) may be, it doesn't hold a candle to the amount of email or Usenet news generated on the Internet. In addition, many people generally find IRC to be a waste of time. Although there's no inherent reason for it to be one, the conversations due tend toward the sophomoric. For some logs of famous IRC times (such as during the 1994 California earthquake, the Gulf War, the 1992 Russian Revolution, along with the IRC FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) list, check out this Web page:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/dbarberi/chats.html
Typing to strangers may not be your cup of tea, though, and more recent programs have brought sound and video to real-time Internet communications, most notably via NetPhone and CU-SeeMe. These programs prefer fast connections and usually require some additional hardware, such as a microphone or a video camera.
Once again, unless I mention otherwise, these programs are all available in:
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/
Talk, yet another useful little program from Peter Lewis, implements the Unix talk protocol on the Mac, providing a decent Macintosh interface in the process. I've taken to using Talk all the time, not to chat with strangers on the Internet, but so Tonya and I can communicate small bits of information that aren't really worth a full interruption. It's also great for telling someone something while they're talking on the phone.
After you launch it, choose Talk from the File menu. Talk presents you with a small dialog box that looks almost exactly like Finger's dialog box. You can type a username and a machine name in the two fields provided. When you click the Talk button, Talk adds that person to your Status window, which lists all of your current connections and his status (see figure 27.14).
Figure 27.14: Talk Status window.
At this point, Talk notifies your friend to alert him to your talk request. After your party makes the connection, Talk opens a two-paned window for you to type in and be typed at (see figure 27.15).
Figure 27.15: Talk window.
You type in the bottom pane and your friend types in the top pane. (Since I had to fake figure 27.15 because Tonya was out when I was writing this, I'm actually talking to myself on my Unix shell account.)
Like Finger, Talk enables you to save a hierarchical menu of the people you commonly talk to, and the interface is uncluttered and simple. My main complaint is that Talk could use a more obvious interface for telling you what it's doing when you're attempting to connect with someone. Tonya and I often end up trying too many times because we can't tell that it's actually taking the other person an extra few seconds to switch into Talk and answer the call.
If you have a use for Talk, it's worthwhile. Talk comes with a background application called Talkd, which simply receives requests to talk from others. Talk is $5 shareware from Peter Lewis, and you can retrieve the latest version of Talk from:
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/
Whereas Talk enables you to talk directly with another person, and Homer (discussed later) enables you to talk with multiple people on Internet Relay Chat, Chat 2.0.3 acts as a Chat Server, much like IRC itself. It's limited in comparison to IRC, so unless you have a specific use in mind, it may make more sense to use Homer and a private channel on IRC than it does to attempt to run your own Chat Server. Chat was originally created by the ubiquitous Peter Lewis. It was significantly updated by Nathan Neulinger, who has made it shareware and charges $10.
Chatting is all fine and nice, but what about when you really need to do some brainstorming? That's when you need a commercial application from Bittco Solutions called Co-motion Lite for Internet, which is a network brainstorming application that works over the Internet. Other versions, including a fully featured version called Co-motion, work over AppleTalk networks. Co-motion Lite for Internet was designed to encourage collaboration and idea generation among a group of people, and it includes tools for annotating and evaluating ideas, as well as tools for printing a variety of reports about what was discussed during a session. Co-motion Lite for Internet isn't one of those applications that you'll pick up immediately, but if it helps you avoid plane trips, it will be well worth every penny. The program is commercial, but has massive discounts that range from $1.50 to $15 per copy. Contact Bittco Solutions at bittco@ccinet.ab.ca or call 800-265-2726; 403-922-5514; 403-922-2859 (fax). For a demo, try checking out Bittco's Keen Minds package, which is based on Co-motion Lite for Internet, but it is specifically designed to work with online meetings Bittco holds every now and then.
Cornell University's free CU-SeeMe (primarily written by Tim Dorcey) provides videoconferencing over the Internet. Nothing more, nothing less, but if you've seen the prices for some of the videoconferencing software available, you realize what an incredible accomplishment this program is. To use CU-SeeMe to receive video, you need a MacTCP-based Internet connection, the faster the better. If you want to send video as well, you must have a video camera and a video-capable Mac, such as a 660AV, a video-input card, or a Connectix QuickCam. And of course, audio requires a microphone. You can use CU-SeeMe in either point-to-point mode with another person or in broadcast mode with a CU-SeeMe reflector, which enables you to view up to eight windows simultaneously. I often use 132.236.91.204, which is one of Cornell's reflectors. CU-SeeMe works its magic by only transmitting information that has changed in the image -- that significantly reduces the amount of data it must pump over the Internet. CU-SeeMe is free for both the Mac and the PC, although the Mac version is well ahead of the PC one.
ftp://gated.cornell.edu/pub/video/
Homer is the killer app for Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It enables you to participate in worldwide Internet chats from the comfort of your Mac. Homer has a colorful and unique interface that makes using IRC significantly easier because it simplifies switching channels, keeping multiple discussions going, giving and taking operator privileges, and much more. In recent releases of the $25 shareware Homer, creator Toby Smith added support for Apple's PlainTalk technology, so Homer can speak all or some of what goes on in your IRC discussion. With the addition of Face resources, it can even display a picture of the people with whom you're typing.
Olaf Titz's free ircle 2.0f2 takes a more traditional approach to IRC than does Homer, although it has some nice features such as user-definable shortcuts for common phrases, the capability of capturing a conversation to a file, and font and size control. The most recent version adds color support and sound support, and can even speak incoming text, much like Homer. Considering that Homer seems to have been ignored for some time, ircle may well be worth checking out if you use IRC much at all.
Along with Cornell's CU-SeeMe, Maven, from the University of Illinois at Urbana, goes a long way toward turning the Internet into a general-purpose communication medium. Where CU-SeeMe provides video (and has audio support using Maven's code), Maven provides only audio. In some respects this seems silly, since a telephone does exactly the same thing, and generally for less money, but with the costs of international phone calls, I could see programs such as Maven becoming all too popular (in fact, they might seriously overload the networks). When I last tried Maven, it didn't work over dialup connections, but the Maven code in CU-SeeMe definitely works over faster dedicated connections and sort of over a 28.8 Kbps PPP connection. Maven was written by Charley Kline, and may be freely redistributed.
The idea of an online virtual environment is powerful, and a small company called World Benders has brought it to the Macintosh world. Don't think of MUDs as games; think of them as online spaces -- places where you can do things and interact with other people. That's the idea behind Meeting Space, and it's one that becomes especially attractive when paired with a simple Macintosh interface. There's no need to type commands or to know how to program -- in Meeting Space almost everything is in plain view. Although World Benders could have supported sound and video, they stuck to text to reduce the network traffic (Meeting Space works well over both AppleTalk and TCP/IP, even slow PPP or SLIP connections) and hardware requirements. Creating new places and objects in Meeting Space is simple, and moving among places and working with objects is equally simple. For pricing details and more information, contact World Benders at wb-info@worldbenders.com, or call 603/881-5432 (voice & fax).
Where Maven pioneered, NetPhone has colonized. NetPhone is a commercial application from Andrew Green of Electric Magic. NetPhone costs $59 for one copy or $99 for a pair, but it can pay for itself pretty easily if you're racking up massive international telephone bills, in large part because NetPhone does work over a 14.4 Kbps modem connection via PPP or SLIP (although you do need to know the other person's IP number to connect). NetPhone also works with pretty much any Macintosh from the IIsi on up, although it does work better on the faster Macs because of all the processing that goes on. In my testing, NetPhone performed admirably, although the sound quality wasn't good enough that I'd use it in favor of a local phone call. NetPhone comes with a small application called NetPhone Alert that alerts when someone is trying to call you with NetPhone. You can try out a demo of NetPhone before buying -- it's doesn't include NetPhone Alert and is limited to 90 second outgoing calls, although you can use it to receive calls of any length.
All of these applications are fine and nice, but what if they don't quite do what you want? What if you want to provide a custom Internet service that alerts the user whenever traffic gets really bad in a certain part of town, or some other unique use? Your best chance, short of becoming a talented MacTCP programmer, is the TCP/IP Scripting Addition. But other tools exist out there, such as Peter Lewis's unusual Script Daemon, which enables you to Telnet to a Macintosh and issue commands in the form of pre-written AppleScripts. Or, perhaps most importantly, you might need to control a Macintosh over the Internet, and for that, Farallon's Timbuktu Pro is just what you need. So read on, and see if any of these tools might fill a need that you've got.
If you need to control a Macintosh Internet server, or if you need to help Mac users in your organization, you need Farallon's Timbuktu Pro remote-control application for use over both AppleTalk and the Internet. Timbuktu enables you to observe or control a remote Macintosh, and you can also exchange files with the remote Mac. Timbuktu Pro has worked well for the time I've spent administrating an SE/30-based Gopher server. The Macintosh lives elsewhere, but it's directly connected to the Internet, and I can check in any time with Timbuktu Pro. Although Timbuktu Pro's speed is impressive, it's still slower than normally using a Mac. However, programs run at full speed on the host Mac -- the only slowdown is in screen redraw. Mail order prices seem to run at approximately $140 for one user, and you can contact Farallon at info@farallon.com or call 510-814-5000; 510-814-5023 (fax). There's a free trial version that works for a week on three Macs, and there's more information on Farallon's Web site.
ftp://ftp.farallon.com/pub/farallon.products/timbuktu.products/freeversions/
I've muttered about AppleScript here and there in this book, but always in the context of being able to script a program. With the release of the TCP/IP Scripting Addition from Atul Butte, however, those of you who are fluent in AppleScript can create entire Internet applications without leaving AppleScript. Since, for most people, AppleScript is an easier programming environment than something such as C or Pascal, I'm curious to see to what purposes people put the TCP/IP Scripting Addition. It comes with some impressive sounding sample applications, including an application on which you can drop a file to have it uploaded via FTP, a simple Finger implementation, a script that displays the weather in Washington, DC (in case you're concerned about the political climate), a script that can send email, and finally a full Gopher server. The TCP/IP Scripting Addition is free for personal use, and if you plan to distribute a free program based on it, it's probably also free. For anything written to support an organization or for sale purposes, there are various charges.
ftp://gaea.kgs.ukans.edu/applescript/osaxen/
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/util/
Script Daemon is yet another tiny background application from Peter Lewis. It enables you to telnet to your Macintosh from another machine and enter AppleScript commands. Needless to say, it requires MacTCP, System 7 or later, AppleScript, and only allows the owner (using the Owner name and password) to log in (mostly for security reasons, I suspect). Peter states up front that Script Daemon is rather rough, which is one reason he released it for free and without many features. He's waiting to see how people attempt to use it and what questions and suggestions they have, before he spends any more time on it. Script Daemon only makes much sense if you have a permanent connection to the Internet. Still, being able to telnet to a Macintosh and then enter AppleScript commands and run AppleScript scripts is a neat idea, so if you can imagine how you would use this, check out Script Daemon.
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/
I think you'll agree after skimming through this chapter (you didn't read every word, did you?) that there are a ton of miscellaneous Internet programs out there, and that's only for the Macintosh. But that's good! The more programs that are available, the more choices you have and the more likely you are to find one that does precisely what you want. We all use the Internet for different purposes, and I'm sure that you will find some of the programs I've discussed in this chapter useful. I personally use Internet Config, Finger, Talk, and MacWeather constantly, and there are certainly plenty of others that I could imagine using in different situations. Let your imagination guide you to applications that you can use.
Okay, it's time to buckle down and look at some serious programs, the heavy duty integrated Internet programs from Synergy and InterCon Systems.