Some interesting newsgroups

Reading newsgroups

Are you new to newsgroups ? If so then you might like to read what I have said about them here. Once you have read that you might like to read about how to setup Outlook Express for newsgroup reading here. Or how to setup Free Agent for newsgroup reading here.

How do you read newsgroups ? Through the browser that got you to this page ? Or via a usenet newsgroup reader like the ones mentioned above ? Either way, unless you have a free internet connection, every minute you spend reading costs you money. If you read for an hour your I.S.P. (Internet Service Provider) charges you an hour's charge.

Is there any way to reduce this cost ? Yes. By using an offline newsreader. If you have one of these then you can download messages. Disconnect from the internet and then read, or read and reply to messages. When you are finished you simply reconnect to the internet and send your message replies (if you have any).

How long downloads, or postings, take depend on on how fast your modem is, but a guide to the three options could generally be summarised as follows :

  1. Spend an hour "on line" reading newsgroup messages. Get charged for 1 hour internet connection.
  2. Spend 5 minutes "on line" downloading newsgroup messages. Disconnect from the net. Read them, and reply to the ones you want to. When finished go back "on line" and post your replies. Maybe 5 minutes. Get charged for 10 minutes internet connection.
  3. Spend 5 minutes "on line" downloading newsgroup messages. Read them but don't reply to any of them. Get charged for 5 minutes internet connection.
If you would like to do your reading of newsgroups off line and don't know what offline readers are available then you might consider the Forté site. They have two excellent offline readers. Their "free" one is called Free Agent and their commercial one is called Agent. The commercial version is the best in my opinion however you might like to use the free version first before you make your decision. A search for "Free Agent" should give you a download link.

To find out how to get Agent, or to actually get it click here 
 

If you would like to have further questions about offline readers answered then you might like to look at :

Some interesting E-mail "lists"

There are thousands of different lists one could join. Before joining an email list one should understand what they are. A list is created when a number of people want to talk about a common subject. It is similar to a newsgroup but different in that there is usually a single person who is a moderator. This means that all messages go via him/her.

Unlike newsgroups if a message is abusive, off topic or advertising, then the moderator would usually stop it being sent to other members on the list. Some people would say this is a form of "censorship", however many consider it results in a better, more interesting, discussion.

The main down side of lists is that the people on the list receive messages from everyone else via email. Some lists can result in subscribers getting a hundred, or more, emails a day. Even if one only gets a dozen messages a day it doesn't take long for them to mount up. Especially if one subscribes to more than one list and/or does not collect their email every day.

What is the solution ? Well, knowing what you are doing is a good help. Make sure you are totally clear about how you *unsubscribe* to a list. Ideally you would know this before subscribing, but if not you should be advised on this when your subscription is acknowledged. Be sure to keep this unsubscribe information where you can find it easily.

To save you some headaches I have subscribed to most of the following lists and found that the "traffic" is not too heavy, and the unsubscribe procedure straightforward. Subscribing details should be available via the following web pages :

For channeled information :

For things related to intuition, healing etc : For discussion on Atlantis, pyramids, crystals etc.

Reading E-mail

How do you read your email ? Through an email application like Eudora ? Did you know that you could read AND write messages AFTER you have closed your internet connection ? The saving in costs is similar to that detailed above for newsgroup messages.
  1. Spend an hour "on line" reading, and/or replying to, email messages. Get charged for 1 hour internet connection.
  2. Spend 5 minutes "on line" downloading email messages. Disconnect from the net. Read them, and reply to the ones you want to. When finished go back "on line" and post your replies. Maybe 5 minutes. Get charged for 10 minutes internet connection.
  3. Spend 5 minutes "on line" downloading email messages. Read them but don't reply to any of them. Get charged for 5 minutes internet connection.
How does one do this ? Well it depends which version you have but with Eudora 3.0.6, downloadable here, it is as simple as A,B,C.

(A) Go to the menu item Tools

(B) Select Options

(C) Then go to the Checking Mail tab. Once there look in the "Check for mail every......" box. You should change this to 0 (nil) minutes. This will mean that you can now read your mail, and write your replies, off line (after downloading new mail).

The minor downside of this is that you now do not have Eudora checking your mailbox for mail automatically. You need to remember to go File then Check mail whenever you want to collect your mail. You will also see a new item under the file menu called Send Queued Messages. If this is black (not grey) then you will need to select it to get off accrued messages (when you are on-line).

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