The maps in this directory show the backbone of Usenet (Net News), news flow, and Usenet sites in various regions. More recent maps might be obtained from the "news.lists.ps-maps" newsgroup, or via anonymous ftp to ftp.fu-berlin.de (130.133.4.50) in the directory /pub/postscript/maps. Some relevant information from the newsgroup is included below. - Richard J. Barbalace ------------------------------ Newsgroups: news.lists.ps-maps From: reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid) Subject: notes about the contents of this newsgroup Organization: DEC Network Systems Laboratory Date: Sun, 2 Aug 92 15:48:54 GMT The files posted in this newsgroup contain component pieces that can be used to produce PostScript files for printing on any PostScript printer. The messages in this newsgroup are in exactly the same format as those in comp.mail.maps, with the intention that you can unpack these PostScript maps with the same software that you use to unpack comp.mail.maps. If you don't have this unpacking software (it is available in all of the usual comp.sources.unix archives), then just take all of the articles in this month's posting and unshar them. If you don't have "unshar", then just edit off the article headers, put the resulting text into "filename", and type "sh filename". If you don't have "sh", then you will need to pick them apart with a text editor. Once you have unpacked the component files, type "make", to assemble the components into PostScript files. If you don't have "make", then you will have to assemble the components by hand using the instructions found in "Makefile". Here are the questions asked most frequently: * Q: Why isn't my site shown in the maps or listed in the reports? A: In order to be listed, two conditions must be met: 1) You must be in the uucp maps (see comp.mail.maps) and your uucp map entry must have a valid #L field (longitude and latitude) 2) We must receive data showing a non-zero flow to, from, or through your site. The "inpaths" program, which is posted each month at the same time as this report, provides that data. * Q: Why are there sites in Greenland and near the North pole? A: Because a lot of people don't seem to know latitude from longitude. These flow maps are just posted from the data submitted by site administrators. When an administrator lists something like these, for example, it's just going to show up in the wrong place: (All of these are real examples taken from August 1990 data, with the site names removed to avoid embarassing people) #L 75 10 N / 40 5 W #P ... , Chicago, Il 60632 #L 29 27 N / 98 30 W city #P ... , Boynton Beach, FL 33426 #L 26 32 30 N / 80 05 30 E #P ... , Bar Harbor, ME 04609 #L 44 23 W / 68 45 N #P ... , Billerica, MA 01821 #L 42 20 N / 17 05 W city * Q: I tried to print these files but I get error messages about "undefined operator INIT". A: You have neglected to type "make" or to assemble the PostScript files from the components. * Q: The maps aren't centered on the page. That looks bad. Can you center them? A: Obviously you live in North America. Until August 1990 the maps were centered, but you can only center for a particular size of paper, and formatting the maps for North American paper meant that everybody else in the world had trouble printing them. Beginning August 1990, the maps are formatted so that they can be printed either on A4 paper (the world standard) or North American Letter paper. Because Letter paper is slightly wider than A4, this causes the image to be off-center in North America. Sorry. NB: The file FIX_MAPS will automatically correct the problem mentioned in the last question. This file should be run each time the maps are made. - rjbarbal