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How to use the Internet to Your Advantage
It is not necessary to actually own a computer to explore the Internet or enjoy receiving e-mails from your family and sending e-mails and photos to friends. Lacking a computer why not use one at your local public library which usually runs short computer courses for the benefit of retired people. Old age is not an excuse for avoiding new technology. One of our club member's grandfather, aged 89, regularly uses a library computer to browse the Net and send e-mails
To communicate with friends and Club members you need an e-mail address, such as Hotmail or Yahoo which costs nothing for the convenience of worldwide communications. Ask the librarian to help you sign up and find the application page to fill in and send off into Cyberspace!
The new Club website has on Page 5 our "Cyberspace Library" which at present is a list of about 30 website addresses useful for Club members. Because each website has links to more websites, the total size of our library as it stands now would be more than a billion words.
"So what", you may say, "but how do I use it!"
I shall explain how I use it, which may be of some help.
This last month I have become addicted to learning about the geology of the planet Mars. Two American and one European space probes have now reached the planet and are sending back data and pictures of the surface in great detail. While sipping coffee in front of my computer I can be looking at a close-up picture of a Martian rock or be scanning the planet's desert landscape. The Mars orbiting Express satellite is mapping the surface in detail and has found volcanoes, mountain ranges, canyons, mesas and frozen oceans covered with desert sand and underground glaciers bordering the polar ice caps which have seasonal frozen carbon dioxide. Every other day I check the latest results from Mars at the NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) websites listed.
Often we gaze up at the night sky and see a bright star, planet or passing satellite. But which ones?? Problem solved if you go to the Heavens Above website. Tell it you live in Adelaide (or wherever) and the local time, then it will allow you to print out a real time star chart naming the major stars and planets overhead. Hold the chart above your head outside and so identify the mystery planets or constellations.
Now and then everyone has a garage sale to sell off unwanted assets and then spend the proceeds on more useful assets, often when moving house. This can also be done efficiently on the Internet by using the eBay auction system. For example, for 10 years I had stored away several thousand dollars worth of residual stock from a shop I once had in the Dandenongs; mainly display minerals, fossils and semiprecious stone jewellery. After finding eBay and learning how to work it I sold most of the stock within 6 months and with the extra cash I bought a new digital camera which I now use to take photos for the Bulletin and Club website. So a swap-around of assets can be very beneficial.
Another example: I have always collected children's classic books bought from garage sales and Opp-shops. For the last 12 years I have had boxes of books never looked at, including 45 hard-covered "Biggles" books which I proceeded to sell on eBay usually listing them at $10, and most sold at $10 to $20 within the week or 10 days. However, one day I was surprised to see frenzied action with bidding for one book rising quickly to $100 and I received e-mails from Europe asking for more details and photos of "Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea". Unbeknown to me, this is the rarest of the "Biggles" books, the last written with only a short print run. At the end of the week it sold for $830 by auction!
This illustrates the point that it is important to have some idea of what your books are worth before you sell them, or give them away (to the Club library?). To do this go to the Antiquarian booksellers' database website at www.abebooks.com and punch in the author's name and book title. Up will come a list of book shops in the world holding your book and the asking price in US dollars, which depends on its condition and whether there is a dust jacket etc. My most valuable book was acquired in a batch of mining books I inherited from a prospector friend in 1953. It is Ion Idriess's "Cyaniding for Gold", 1st edition 1939, with dust jacket and valued now at US$1500.
So, instead of going bush looking for gold nuggets with a metal detector you can explore the local garage sales and Opp-shops looking for Collectables either for your own library or to sell off on eBay. Last year I picked up an old AusIMM Publication on the Zambian Copper Region for $1, listed it on eBay and sold it for $20 to a Geology Prof who lives in the USA. Although eBay originated in California and is huge in the USA, many overseas people browse the Australian eBay for pickings, so really you have a world-wide market at your mouse tip.
It is easy to sell fossils and collections of fossils on eBay but the demand is weak for mineral specimens and jewellery. The two websites listed for fossils can be useful for identifying your specimens and getting some idea of their value if you want to try and sell off an excess supply. You need a digital camera to photograph each item for display on the Net together with your sales description.
The Internet is a boon for travellers since it makes things so much easier compared to pre-Internet days. Club members who are planning to travel in Australia (and Tour Leaders planning a long field excursion) can consult the Australian WalkAbout site which lists accommodation, restaurants and tourist attraction details for 1500 Australian towns and cities.
When planning to travel overseas first consult the Australian Foreign Affairs & Trade website for travel advice and warnings about the safety in your chosen countries. Always follow this advice. When in doubt don't go as there are still plenty of safe places in the world to visit, such as Tierra del Fuego.
The two best travel websites are Lonely Planet, the Australian company of Guide Book fame, and Bootsnall based in Portland, Oregon. Started by two Australians and an American, this successful company has had worldwide success. Cofounder Aussie, Chris Heidrich, now runs the Brisbane Office.
Bootsnall specializes in travel articles written by members and has over 3000 articles on the Net. These inspire adventure and usually provide information on accommodation and tourist sites in an unfettered and often amusing style. Lonely Planet website provides useful feedback from travellers in their Thorn Tree section which has dozens of geographic and interest groups. The effort of sifting the wheat from the predominant chaff can sometimes be worthwhile.
In Thorn Tree I often check up on feedback in the Older Traveller group and sometimes post a reply to some query. A few years ago I made use of it to considerable advantage. I wanted to go on a short cruise on the Terra Australis along the Beagle Channel of Tierra del Fuego which is at the southernmost tip of South America. I got the details off the Net (www.australis.com) and found that the last week of October still had low season prices and with a double occupancy B-class cabin I could get a budget price for the 4-day cruise. So I needed a companion to avoid the single supplement increase in price of 50%. My Adelaide friends expressed interest but none were free to go. What to do?
I thought there must be someone in the world who would like to do such a trip in an economical fashion. My solution was to put a posting on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree section, subgroup Older Travellers explaining my proposition. It must have been the perfect advertisement as I got only one e-mail reply and it turned out tops! The details of the cruise can be read on the Bootsnall Travel Site (see Fiordland Cruise).
So the Internet and e-mail can be useful for finding a travel companion and for keeping in contact with friends if they have gone off doing their own thing for a while, and to find your soul-mate if you are lucky.
When travelling one can resort to using a computer in an Internet Café which tend to be more prolific overseas than in Australia, specially in the poorer countries where fewer people can afford to own a computer. If you are set-up for Online banking and share investment or trading (e.g., www.etrade.com.au) then you can attend to your financial affairs even from a remote jungle village in the Amazon, provided there is a telephone line.
To keep up-to-date about ideas circulating in the Arts, Science and Technology you could regularly check up on the websites Arts & Letters Daily and SciTech Daily which continually monitor and report on developments. When you do find a website listed in our Cyberspace Library that you want to repeatedly look at I suggest saving it to Favourites on Windows rather than unnecessarily boosting visitor counts to the Club website.
Go to it and Happy Surfing.
by Allan Taylor
29 Feb 2004