Alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean FAQ

Alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean FAQ

Post by Peter Watkins » Thu, 26 Apr 2001 05:32:58

alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean FAQ

V 1.3 3rd March 1997

First of all you may be wondering why
alt.binaries.pictures.sports.pictures.ocean is called that rather than
alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean. Well that is because I made a
small Error when sending the Newgroup Control
message. I'll rectify this in the near future, in the meantime just
use this group.

(For the rest of this post, in the interests of brevity,
alt.binaries.pictures.sports.pictures.ocean will be known as
a.b.p.s.p.o)

Contents

   1.What is a.b.p.s.o for and why was it created ?
   2.The Charter.
   3.Where is a.b.p.s.o and how can i find it?
   4.I've looked in my Newsgroups list but a.b.p.s.o is not there?
   5.How do I download the pictures?
   6.How do I decode the pictures?
   7.How do I view the pictures?
   8.How do I post a picture?
   9.Are there any other rules for posting pictures?
  10.Where can I get software to help download and view the Pictures?
  11.How do i scan my pictures?

     NB All software listed is for Windows/Win95. For a more complete
listing of utilities check out the web page listed
     in section 10.

1. What is a.b.p.s.o for and why was it created ?
a.b.p.s.p.o was created to allow ocean sports (watersports)
enthusiasts of all disciplines to post and view pictures of their
activities. This was done partly because it is bad Netiquete to post
binaries to the standard ocean sport newsgroups, i.e.
alt.surfing,rec.windsurfing etc.. Binaries are discouraged from those
groups for several reasons.

     i) Because many people have slow internet connections and they
get clogged up when someone sends a picture.
     ii) Because lots of people read there newsgroups at work (tut
tut!!) or at college where the news servers have
     limited capacity and any groups that have too many binaries sent
to them and grow to large are in danger of being
     excluded.

2.The Charter.
alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean
Charter
To allow water sports enthusiasts of all disciplines to post and
download binaries, pictures and plans of watersports and
craft. This group is mainly for posting pictures taken by enthusiasts
and *not* for scans from magazines.

3. Where is a.b.p.s.o and how can i find it?
a.b.p.s.o is a Usenet newsgroup and you should be able to view its
contents by downloading the Usenet nes from your
Internet providers News server. For further details on downloading
news you should read the information they supplied
you with when you subscribed to their service or contact them
directly.

4. I've looked in my Newsgroups list but a.b.p.s.o is not there?
If a.b.p.s.o is not in your newsgroups list then first of all you
should download the new groups from your news server. If it
still doesn't appear then it may be because your Internet Service
provider does not support binary newsgroups or alt.*
newsgroups. If this is the case then you should contact the news
administrator for IP and ask him if it is possible that they
can make an exception in this case. Usually the News Admin has an

It may be possible to read the messages posted to a.b.p.s.o by
creating a Query filter in a usenet search engine such as
Dejanews on the WWW. However I shouldn't think that they will support
the binaries so you'll only be able to read the
text, in most cases.

5. How do I download the pictures?
Downloading pictures is the same as downloading noraml usenet
articles, they just take a little longer than average,
depending on the speed of your internet connection. Many Usenet
Newsreaders show a number beside each article this
shows the number of text lines for that post, most normal messages
average around 50 lines, Binaries can be anywhere up
to 5000 lines for a picture and 10,000 + for avi/mpg video.

6. How do I decode the pictures?
I've downloaded the picture but it is just a load of scrambled numbers
and letters, how do I get the picture?
Well if you look at a Gif or jpg picture in your text editor you will
that that it is made up of lost squigly marks spaces and
odd characters. If you were to send the picture in this format across
the internet many of those gaps and characters would
get lost as the message is compressed in an email. To get around this
problem the picture is turned into a 'Binary'- which is
the picture turned into streams of letters and numbers. However when
you download the 'binary' from the internet you
cant just view it with picture viewer you have to decode it first.
There are two main coding formats used on the internet
UUencoding and MIME. UUencoding being by far the most popular.
Therefore to send and view the pictures using these
coding methods you have to either have.

     a) A newsreader that will do the encoding/decoding for you.
     or
     b) Another piece of software to do it.

a) Newsreaders that are both Mime and UUencode compliant are
Agent 0.99f
Winvin
Netscape Navigator
Internet Explorer

Newsreaders that are just UUencode compliant are
Earlier versions of Agent 0.99
Free Agent

b) Software that'll decode binaries for you includes
uuexe513.zip, DOS
uudec540.zip Dos.
wncode26.zipWindows

7. How do I view the pictures?
Once you have decoded the usenet message you should up with a picture
which will most likely be in either .gif or .jpg
format. There are many picture editors available which will view these
pictures, many of them Freeware or Shareware
available to download on the internet from web pages or by FTP.

The most popular ones being

Lview
Lview Pro
Paintshop Pro
Ulview,
Pro Image Plus

8. How do I post a picture?
To post a picture you first have to Encode it, using either the
UUencode or MIME methods. Most Newsreaders should
have a function that should allow you to at least encode the picture
using the UUencode format. Once you have Encoded
your pic, you just send the post in the same way as you would to any
other Newsgroup.

9. Are there any other rules for posting pictures?
Yes. One small point.
Because a.b.p.s.o is a general newsgroup that is used by people who
have interests in different sporting activities it would
be convenient if you could label your posting so that readers can have
an idea of what subject matter is in the binary
before they download it. i.e.

SURF: Bit of extra info if you like. picturename.jpg
WINDSURF: Bit of extra info if you like. picturename.gif
SAIL: Bit of extra info if you like. picturename.jpg
SCUBA: Bit of extra info if you like. picturename.gif
etc.....

Also it is inevitable that from time to time somebody is going to
cross post a picture from one of the less incongruous
newsgoups in the alt.binaries.* hierarchy. Therefore so long as
posters follow this system the less chance that a reader
may download a picture they didn't quite expect!!

10. Where can I get software to help download and view the Pictures?
Try the alt.binaries.pictures Utilities archive at

http://harley.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~ABPics/#FAQ:

11. How do I scan my pictures?
To turn normal print photographs into the binary format needed to post
them on the internet you need to have access to a
scanner. Picture scanners come several formats the useful here being
Hand held Scanners and Flatbed.
Hand held scanners are cheapest but are also the most difficult to
acheive good results with. In shape they look a bit like
the bar code scanners used at the checkouts in supermarkets. Which
means that to scan a picture with them you have to
more the scanners 'reader' over the surface of the photograph. As you
can imagine this requires a very steady hand, and
can be slow and frustrating if you have to scan many pictures. One
techniqure though is to align the picture with bound
edge of a book or a box and slide the side of the scanner along it.
The price of hand held scanners makes up for their
difficulty in use and retail for around 30 in the UK, $30-$40 in the
US.
If you have to scan many pictures to high quality standard then you
need to purchase a Flat-bed scanner. To scan with
these you just place the picture on the glass top, close the lid, and
then use the scanning software provided. Similar in a
way to using a photocopier. The quality of the results with a flat bed
is down to resolution it can acheive, and the higher
the resolution the scanner the more it costs. Thankfully because
demand is increasing across the world for scanners, many
manufacturers are producing cheaper and cheaper scanners. Flat bed
scanners start at aroun 150, $200 for the basic
models up to several thousand pound/dollars for the top of the range
versions.

Companies who produce scanners are

Hewlett Packard
Acer
Trust
Epson
Umax
Media Force
Genius
Canon
Logitech

FAQ compiled and written by Peter Watkinson.
First copy written 7th January 1997.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Peter Watkinson, all rights reserved.

This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations
without express permission from the author.

Any Comments ?


All comments gratefully received.

Peter Watkinson

Internet: http://you.genie.co.uk/peterw/
Windsurf International.com http://www.windsurf-international.com/
PW Navigate.com http://www.pwnavigate.com/