• This page describes fun stuff in the greater Boston area, available over the Net . Most of this currently is from MIT Techinfo, but there are some lab-local resources up at the top. Suggestions are welcome.
  • The AI lab's list of menus for local restaurants.
  • The MIT Techinfo list of menus for a different set of local restaurants.
  • The pizza program, which allows you to order a pizza using your computer.
  • Calendar of local events (at museums, movies, etc.).
  • Around MIT --- Lab for Comp. Sci., MIT Phone Book, Food & Fun, etc.

  • Reference --- AI topics, Libraries, MIT and Net pages, and more...

  • Other topics --- Social issues, Finance, and just plain fun

  • Around the lab --- Info files, Reading Room, and other resources.
    MIT LCS/AI Reading Room web site.
    This Web server contains information on the Reading Room location, hours, holdings, and policies, and pointers to numerous other resources available to lab members.
    Info files
    This is the Emacs on-line documentation system, containing information on local software packages and the lab itself (particularly the computing environment).
    Novice's Guide to the AI Lab
    Beginner's Guide to the lab's computing enviroment.
    Notes on the local Web
    What this stuff is, a bit about how it works, and how to write more.
    Very local weather
    Specifically, weather stats gathered from the lab's roof.
    Computing Resources and Software
    An overview of what's available at the lab
    Incoming FAXes
    See what's come in on our FAX modem. (Local users only, please).
    Administration and Facilities
    Nuts and bolts.
    Back to the top.

    _______________________________________

    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu
    MIT AI lab - library catalogs and info

    Library catalogs and information

    This page contains pointers to library catalogs and bibliographic information of general use to the MIT AI lab community. There are three different types of information:
    • library catalogs proper
    • other bibliographic databases
    • administrative information on MIT libraries.

    Library catalogs

    Many library catalog systems aren't set up to interface well with the Web or Web browsers; rather, you telnet in. Most of the catalogs here are like that; mousing those menu entries will pop up a telnet window which will attempt to log in to the system in question.

  • MIT LCS/AI Reading Room Catalog
  • MIT Library Catalog (Barton)
  • BU Library Catalog. Log in as "library" (without the quotes) when prompted, and select terminal type V.
  • Boston Library Consortium Periodicals Index --- Periodicals holdings and current contents for most libraries in the greater Boston area, both University and Public (the major exception being Harvard). Select "BLC" and terminal type 5 when prompted.
  • MIT Science Fiction Society Catalog. (The SFS library itself is on the fourth floor of the Student Center).
    • Some catalogs for libraries which are not generally accessible to the lab community may be useful anyway:
  • Harvard Library Catalog. Just hit carraige return when prompted for terminal type; then ask for "Hollis". The rest is self-explanatory.
  • Library of Congress catalog and gopher.
  • Other library catalogs, worldwide.

    • Bibliographic databases

     The LCS/AI Reading Room maintains its own list of external resources as part of its own Web space, which should probably be consulted in addition to this one. Each list has things not on the other --- the Reading Room is trying to catalog CS-related servers regardless of location; I'm trying to extensively catalog local sources of all sorts of information, and to be a good jumping-off point for searches in other places, including the Reading Room.
  • Unified Computer Science TR Index --- keyword retrieval on abstracts of CS TRs from numerous on-line archives. A marvelous resource -- but see others listed in the Reading Room's List as well.
  • The complete bibliography of AI lab publications can be searched on line, and some recent publications are available on line as well. See here for information.
  • AI Lab BibTeX Repository, for citations of papers from all over.

    • Other Library Information
  • MIT Library general information, including hours and locations, and other info.
  • MIT LCS/AI Reading Room general information.
    • Back to the top.

    _______________________________________

    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu
    MIT AI Web --- technical notes

    AI lab Web Server Notes

    The web server which is serving these documents is a modified NCSA HTTP server, version 1.1. This server has been modified to allow CGI scripts and ordinary files to be served out of the same directories; see here for details on how to write scripts for this server.

    (A CGI script is a program to which the Web server effectively delegates control of a certain region of Web space --- all requests for files and forms submissions in that region are referred to the program, which can respond to the client in any way that it likes. These can be written in any language; Perl and C are common choices; Scheme is also possible).

    The home page was designed by Robert Thau, with considerable assistance from Laurel Simmons and Mike Wessler, and helpful suggestions from several others.

    If you want to write some hypertext, information is here.

    Back to the top.

    _______________________________________

    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu
    Other Information Resources at MIT

    Other Information Resources at MIT

    Here are some information resources at MIT, but outside the AI lab. See also AI lab information resources, and library catalogs and bibliographic information for MIT and elsewhere.
    MIT Techinfo.
    This is the official bulletin board, with a great deal of information on policy, the libraries, and so forth.
    MIT Directory
    Finding peoples' offices and phone numbers.
    SIPB Web server
    Web server for the Student Information Processing Board, with pointers elsewhere; this is, in particular, the home of the MIT Science Fiction Society catalog.
    The Tech web server
    Articles and information from the student newspaper.
    MIT gopher
    A collection of random topics.
    Back to the top.

    _______________________________________

    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu
    MIT AI lab: Other Information Sources

    MIT AI lab: Other Information Sources

    There are a lot of information sources around out there other than this server. A few of particular relevance to the Lab:
    • AI resources, net-wide, from the NRC in Canada.

    • Library Information: Catalogs, bibliographies, and administrative info.

    • MIT Information Resources, (from MIT's LCS and others).

    Here are some resources which may be useful for more general reference:
    • Network services --- using FTP, Gopher, and WAIS through this program; also indexes of their content

    • Virtual Reference Desk --- dictionaries, thesauri, etc.
    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu
    MIT AI lab software and computing environment

    Software and Computing Environment

    This page contains pointers to documents on software and the computing environment at the MIT AI lab. See also technical notes on this server.

    On the Unix boxes

    Beginners may wish to look at the DRAFT Novice Guide to the UNIX systems.

    For nitty-gritty details, the major source of information on the local Sun environment is the local Info files, which contain the official documentation of numerous local software packages, including FSF and other software, and Emacs packages for reading mail and news, keeping an automatic rolodex, and so forth. See in particular the sections on the local computing environment, including documents on unwedging emacs, importing new fonts, retrieving files from backup, and other topics. See also the sections on administering the machines, and general facilities.

    Other Facilities

    Members of the lab have access to resources beyond those on their desks. The lab has access to a CM-2, CM-5, and several Lisp Machines. We also have information on campus computing services, including the MIT Supercomputer Facility. Unfortunately, much information on these is currently in places where the Web Server can't get at it. So, for those, I'll just describe the available resources:
    CM-5
    The CM-5 has 128 vector nodes and 20-odd gigabytes of very fast RAID disk. During the day, it runs as 3 partitions (32, 32, and 64 nodes); the whole machine operates as a unit for overnight batch runs.

    This machine is administered by LCS on behalf of more organizations than you can shake a stick at. However, the AI lab did chip in cash towards the purchase, so if you're here, you're entitled to use it. Hardcopy manuals are in the Reading Room; on-line documentation exists on the machine itself. Send mail to SC-help@sneezy.lcs.mit.edu for more information

    CM-2
    The older CM-2 is presently front-ended by soggy-fibers.ai.mit.edu. This is an "8K" CM-2, with 32-bit floating-point. See the file /home/cm/doc/intro.text for more information.
    Campus-wide Supercomputing
    The MIT Supercomputing Facility operates a Cray X-MP EA and a VAX-9000. These are available to all members of the Institute, although heavy use starts to cost money. More information here.
    Other campus-wide computing
    The Athena project makes workstation-level computing available to all students at the institute. More information on Athena and other campus-wide computing resources may be found here.
    Lisp Machines
    Manuals for these things are all over the place, both as ready reference and for all those awkward occasions where you need an object which is about 8.5'' by 11'' by 3'' (say, to prop up a monitor or block a radiator vent), but none happens to be handy. The documentation is also available on line from the console of any Lisp Machine that still happens to be running, by typing "<Select>D" (that's the "Select" key followed by the "d" key) to get to the Document Examiner. Local Info contains a document on getting started on the lispms, which also includes a useful taxonomy of local world loads.

    This list is not complete. Suggestions are, as always, welcome.

    Back to the top.

    _______________________________________

    Robert Thau --- rst@ai.mit.edu