| ==Phrack Magazine== | |
| Volume Four, Issue Forty-Four, File 18 of 27 | |
| **************************************************************************** | |
| Searching the Dialog Information Service | |
| By Al Capone | |
| (alcapone@mindvox.phantom.com) | |
| This file will show you how to use the Dialog Information Service. | |
| It is divided into the following parts: | |
| <> --- Background Information | |
| <> --- Accessing Dialog | |
| <> --- What to do when you're in | |
| <> --- Searching and Search Strategy | |
| As loyal Phrack readers may recall, there have been two articles | |
| written about Dialog already: Control-C wrote "Inside Dialog" in Issue | |
| 9 and much later Brian Oblivion wrote "The Complete Guide to The DIALOG | |
| Information Network" in Issue 39. Why another one? The online world | |
| changes so rapidly that things written just a couple of years ago can | |
| be out of date today. What differentiates this file from its two predecessors | |
| is that this file is: less 'manual derived', current (as of 11/93), | |
| more hands on, and hopefully is easier to read and put to immediate use. | |
| To obtain additional information about Dialog contact: | |
| Dialog Information Service Worldwide Headquarters | |
| 3460 Hillview Avenue | |
| P.O. Box 10010 | |
| Palo Alto, CA 94303-0993 | |
| Phone: 1-800-3-DIALOG (800-334-2564) | |
| <> Background Information | |
| ------------------------- | |
| "The United States is turning from an industrial age nation into | |
| an information age nation," U.S. Senator Gary Hart, The Tonight | |
| Show, 1993. | |
| From Big Brother creating dossiers on subversives to credit | |
| reporting agencies determining whether or not you get your credit | |
| card application approved, it all boils down to the more you know, | |
| the better you are able to succeed in society. | |
| Following through a hacker progression, huge databases have | |
| amassed providing online access to a seemingly infinite number of | |
| sources used for anything imaginable. Lawyers can access these | |
| databases to research such things as precedents for court cases. A | |
| graduate student trying to earn his or her masters degree can gain | |
| access to research a thesis, companies can get information on | |
| competitors, and so on. Databases are distributed into two categories: | |
| Research and Entertainment. | |
| Gaining prominence in the early 1980's, entertainment databases | |
| were comprised of the big two: The Source and Compuserve. Another | |
| prominent service, the Dow Jones News Retrieval Service was part | |
| research and part entertainment. A few other less significant databases | |
| also existed at this time. | |
| The Source was a subsidiary of the investment firm of Welsh, | |
| Carson, and Stowe. It provided some seven hundred and fifty features | |
| and services including electronic mail. Investment features included | |
| a discount brokerage firm, and a full range of stock, bond, and | |
| commodities information, with an option to search portfolios. It also | |
| allowed you to search other fellow users by location, account number, | |
| or interest. The Source was subsequently bought out by Compuserve | |
| and was shutdown on August 1, 1989. | |
| Compuserve is a division of H&R Block. It is the largest | |
| service worldwide offering some four hundred thousand subscribers a | |
| variety of news and financial information. It also offers access | |
| to Valueline and the Standard and Poor databases, which are online | |
| business references. It also has online games and a travelling service. | |
| The Dow Jones News/Retrieval is a part of the Wall Street Journal | |
| and provides online abstracts of printed papers published by Dow | |
| Jones and Co. It now includes profiles of over forty six hundred | |
| companies and has diversified to provide sports coverage. | |
| Today, most of you are aware of the myriad of other entertainment | |
| online services such as Genie, Prodigy, America OnLine (AOL), etc. All | |
| of these so called entertainment services have made attempts at | |
| offering various business and research services to their users. Its | |
| interesting to sit back and watch how each one tries to out-do the | |
| other. You will find that some databases are offered through some of | |
| these entertainment services as well as dialog and perhaps other | |
| commercial services. Be aware that the costs may differ substantially | |
| among them for the same exact database. If you are paying for access, be | |
| sure to shop around if the particular database is popular. | |
| If you travel to your local university library you will notice | |
| computer databases to which you can access such things as doctoral | |
| dissertations (get brownie points by telling your professor how | |
| interesting his/her thesis was), medical research (look up that newly | |
| acquired disease that your doctor mumbled that you now have), even | |
| national newspaper articles. This is just another source of information | |
| at your disposal (aside from books that is). Popping up more and | |
| more in libraries are "fee based research services". These are simply | |
| professional librarians who use research databases to retrieve the | |
| information you are too ignorant or stupid (or don't have enough time) | |
| to retrieve yourself. Fees range from their cost only (ie, online charges) | |
| to upwards of $100. per hour of their time spent PLUS any online | |
| charges. | |
| As you can probably deduce, it would be cost effective to use every | |
| possible free source of information before turning to online searchers. I | |
| recommend exhausting all the in-library databases before going online | |
| simply because the in-library databases are usually available on | |
| CD-ROM and you are not charged an hourly rate to use it. And don't | |
| forget about all those free Internet FTP sites, Gopher, WAIS, WWW, and | |
| even usenet! Most librarians are just starting to pay attention to and make | |
| use of the Internet. However once you have read this article you | |
| will be well versed on one of the major databases that is being used by | |
| these research services. If you run into an online database | |
| in your library, I suggest that you know what you are doing, as | |
| librarians are very skeptical due to the fact that you are using their | |
| money to do your searching. | |
| Running a research service seems to be a good idea. Not | |
| only does it provide a "legal" form of hacking to satisfy your | |
| thirst for information, there is definitely a substantial amount of | |
| money to be made. Entrepreneur magazine lists it as being in the top | |
| ten of prospective business opportunities. You are professionally | |
| known as an information broker, a degree in Library Studies (a | |
| traditional four year degree) helps, and if you don't decide to pursue | |
| the research angle, you could then become a librarian (how exciting). | |
| One of the research databases commonly used is the Dialog | |
| Information Service. Dialog is a subsidiary of Lockheed Missile and | |
| Space Corporation. It provides access to more than three hundred | |
| databases containing over one hundred million records. The | |
| significance of this service is that it joins all 300+ databases | |
| together, you can skip from one database to another simply by | |
| 'beginning' the database. In the past, the user would have to | |
| individually call each database and pay an exorbitant charge to | |
| use it. Dialog eliminates this and keeps all the databases | |
| together. Because of the vastness, all sources are summarized | |
| with keyword searches. Dialog has substantial signup charges | |
| ($295. last time I asked them) in addition to the fact that | |
| each individual database charges an hourly rate. Each rate varies | |
| according to things like the relative importance of the topic, | |
| cost to put the information online, and the main determining | |
| factor: what they think the users will pay. Some database | |
| providers seem to defy any logical reasoning as to how they | |
| determined the cost to access their information. | |
| Dialog can be accessed in about a dozen different ways. It is | |
| available through Westnet, Wangpac, Dunsnet, IBM Information Network, and | |
| TWX-TELEX. The following chart lists some other alternatives along | |
| with connection rates: | |
| Ways to Access Dialog with Connection Rates | |
| Table 1 | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| | Service Rate per Hour (U.S.Dollars) | | |
| | ------- --------------------------- | | |
| | | | |
| | Dialnet Direct Dial (Palo | | |
| | Alto Dialnet Nodes).................................$ 4.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | Dialnet-In Watts (Direct 800#)........................$24.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | GEIS-Marknet *........................................$25.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | GNS (Global Network Services - | | |
| | BT Tymnet) **.......................................$12.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | Internet Gateway..(ANSnet)............................$ 4.20 | | |
| | | | |
| | Journal of Commerce (JOC and | | |
| | KRU Network) ***...................................$24.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | Sprintnet (Formerly Telenet)..........................$12.00 | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| * = Available for users in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, | |
| and the Philippines. | |
| ** = Available in Europe. | |
| *** = Available in the Far East and Asia. | |
| <> - Accessing Dialog | |
| --------------------- | |
| The following three scenarios will show you how to log in | |
| to Dialog to begin your searching. [] denunciates what you | |
| should type in: | |
| 1. - Accessing Dialog through the Internet via the telnet command: | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
| $ Telnet dialog.com | |
| DIALOG INFORMATION SERVICES | |
| PLEASE LOGON: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Usernumber] | |
| ENTER PASSWORD: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Password] | |
| You're In! | |
| 2. - Accessing Dialog through Tymnet | |
| ------------------------------------ | |
| [a] | |
| please log in:[dialog] | |
| DIALOG: call connected | |
| DIALOG INFORMATION SERVICES | |
| PLEASE LOGON: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Usernumber] | |
| ENTER PASSWORD: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Password] | |
| You're In! | |
| 3. - Accessing Dialog through Sprintnet | |
| --------------------------------------- | |
| [Enter] [Enter] [Enter] | |
| TELENET | |
| 123 45K | |
| @ [41548] | |
| 415 48 connected | |
| DIALOG INFORMATION SERVICES | |
| PLEASE LOGON: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Usernumber] | |
| ENTER PASSWORD: | |
| ?XXXXXXXX [Enter the Dialog Password] | |
| You're In! | |
| Here let me say a few things about getting a correct | |
| logon/password combination. In order to familiarize yourself | |
| with the system, Dialog gives you a starter kit which includes | |
| your legit logon/password, along with some other perks like some | |
| free online time. This online time can be used the minute you | |
| get your starter kit. You may also illicitly obtain a correct | |
| logon/password combination using such an elaborate technique as | |
| looking over the shoulder of the person typing it in (shoulder | |
| surfing). | |
| Of course Dialog will immediately revoke the 'hacked' account the | |
| minute that the "scheme" is uncovered, but at least you will have by then | |
| done your research and quietly slipped away. Keep in mind that network | |
| nodes send port identifiers and if you are using a bogus credit | |
| card, then you might be in some hot water should they decide to | |
| track you down. It is assumed that if you intend to gain unauthorized | |
| access, you are somewhat versed in the various methods to negate | |
| the 'tracing' capability of the network(s). | |
| Dialog offers 6 'free' accounts to prospective and current | |
| subscribers. These are restricted accounts which provide access | |
| to their ONTAP training databases. There are two to three dozen | |
| databases which they scale down to include a fraction of the | |
| number of records and/or contain dated records from years ago. You | |
| search these databases the same way as the full-scale ones. The | |
| purpose is for you to verify your search strategy, and once you feel | |
| confident that your search strategy will pull up the info you want | |
| (not too many records yet not too little), you use your dialog | |
| account to access the same database at the going rate. This way, | |
| you don't lose lots of cash if you screw up, because you made all | |
| your mistakes using the free accounts. Since I use the free accounts | |
| on occasion, I don't think it would be a good idea to list them in | |
| this file. Suffice it to say that Dialog is happy to provide the | |
| phone number to you that has the pre-recorded userid and password | |
| combinations for the ONTAP accounts. Note that these passwords are | |
| changed every month, with new passwords being provided at the first of | |
| each month and that only one person may use each account at a time. | |
| Also note that Dialog occasionally offers a 'free file of the | |
| month' in which you use your normal Dialog account to do searches in | |
| the particular database. They usually allow you to rack up to $50 or | |
| sometimes an hour's worth of search charges -- I guess that is Dialog's | |
| definition of 'free'. The only charges you pay when you access any free | |
| files of the month are telecommunications charges (see Table 1 above). | |
| Once you leave the free file of the month, you will start to incur | |
| normal Dialog online time charges. | |
| <> What to do When You're In | |
| ---------------------------- | |
| Once you have gained access to Dialog the system will show | |
| you something like this: | |
| Welcome to DIALOG | |
| Dialog level 29.01.04B | |
| Logon file227 22may93 12:27:30 | |
| COPR. (c) DIALOG INFORMATION SERVICES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | |
| NO CLAIM TO ORIG. U.S. GOVT. WORKS. | |
| ***Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Data Available in CENDATA | |
| Menu 22.7 | |
| ***Preformatted Patent REPORTS are now available for File 28,351 | |
| New: CINCINATTI/KENTUCKY POST (PAPERS) (File 722) | |
| New: ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (File 735) | |
| New: WICHITA EAGLE (PAPERS) (File 723) | |
| >>> Enter BEGIN HOMEBASE for Dialog Announcements <<< | |
| >>> of new databases, price changes, etc. <<< | |
| >>> Announcements last updated 07may93 <<< | |
| SYSTEM: | |
| The "SYSTEM:" prompt directs you to pick a file. A file in | |
| this case is the number to a database. In the above welcome message | |
| you will notice that the St. Petersburg Times appears in File 735. | |
| This simply means that if I wanted to look up an article in the St. | |
| Pete Times, I would type in "b735" at the "SYSTEM:" prompt. The "b" | |
| stands for begin, as if you are beginning in that database. Like I | |
| said earlier, each database charges a different rate which typically | |
| depends on the 'importance' of the information. Therefore, it will | |
| probably charge more for biochemistry information than for newspaper | |
| articles. The following list shows costs for the some of the "A" databases | |
| in the Dialog system. | |
| HOMEBASE is the Dialog tutorial. It provides all sorts of help | |
| needed by the beginner hacker...errr user. Homebase lists announcements, | |
| dates and locations of training seminars ($70 to $140 for half/full day | |
| seminars, I have been to a few for dialog and some of their individual | |
| databases and highly recommend going especially if they are offered for | |
| free), and lists dialups in various area codes. | |
| Individual Dialog databases by the Letter A | |
| Table 2 | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| | File Number | Database Name | Rate per Minute/Hour | | |
| |---------------|--------------------------------|-------------------------| | |
| | 15 | ABI/Inform | 2.20/132.00 | | |
| | 88 | Academic Index | 1.40/84.00 | | |
| | 108 | Aerospace Database | 1.50/90.00 | | |
| | 163 | AGELINE | 1.00/60.00 | | |
| | 581 | Agribusiness U.S.A. | 1.60/96.00 | | |
| | 10 | Agricola 1979-present | .75/45.00 | | |
| | 110 | Agricola 1970-1978 | .75/45.00 | | |
| | 203 | Agris International | 1.00/60.00 | | |
| | 306 | The Agrochemicals Handbook | 4.41/265.00 | | |
| | 157 | AIDSline 1980- | .60/36.00 | | |
| | 708 | Akron Reacon Journal | 1.60/96.00 | | |
| | 38 | America:History and Life | 1.08/65.00 | | |
| | 625 | America:Banker Full Text | 2.00/120.00 | | |
| | Banknews | American Banker News | 2.00/120.00 | | |
| | 460 | American Library Directory | 1.25/75.00 | | |
| | 236 |American Men and Women of Scien.| 1.58/95.00 | | |
| | 305 | Analytical Abstracts | 2.66/160.00 | | |
| | 257 | API Energy Business News | 1.60/96.00 | | |
| | 897 | API Energy Business News | 1.60/96.00 | | |
| | 354 | APILIT (non-subscriber) | 3.08/154.00 | | |
| | 954 | APILIT (Subscriber) | 1.83/110.00 | | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| This list continues for some fifteen more databases (those | |
| that start with the letter A). If I were to list the entire database | |
| list, this covers some ten pages of documents, not withstanding | |
| that it's constantly being revised/updated. If you look at my example | |
| in logging on, the St. Petersburg Times was recently added as a database. | |
| This would not reflect in my database list as I have compiled, outdating | |
| it before I even listed it. I suggest that you contact Dialog at the | |
| phone/address at the beginning for an updated list of databases. The | |
| document is called "Price List". However Dialog has online an entire | |
| list of all its databases. This list is located in File 411. | |
| Also contained in this list is the Dun and Bradstreet databases | |
| (Files 514 through 522). Dun and Bradstreet provides corporate | |
| information to subscribers. It can be used for anything from | |
| competitive intelligence on another business to credit reports on | |
| prospective clients to background intelligence. File 519 contains full | |
| disclosure on financial information on a company. Each record costs $106. | |
| (at this time). The other databases are significantly cheaper, but not | |
| by much. The way D&B gathers this information is they send out employees to | |
| "interview" various corporations and their officers and simply translate | |
| the info into a record which they then market. One thing about each database | |
| is that they each contain their own language within the general Dialog | |
| language (which will be discussed further in this file). In Dun and | |
| Bradstreet you can search by company, PIC and SIC codes (these are simply | |
| manufacturing categories which the searcher can use to find companies. | |
| Example: if I wanted to find the top ten companies in long-distance | |
| services, I could use a PIC code), or various other categories. | |
| The following is an exploration of Phrack's old buddies, BellSouth: | |
| $ s dp=10-667-8006 | |
| $ t s2/co/all | |
| (The "dp" command displays all subsidiaries of a company (only the | |
| direct subsidiaries, the ones that report directly to BellSouth. The | |
| result is the following:) | |
| Company | |
| Name | |
| -------------------------------- | |
| Mobil Communications Corp | |
| Bellsouth DC Inc | |
| American Cellular Communications | |
| Bellsouth Enterprises Inc | |
| Bellsouth Financial Services | |
| Bellsouth Advertising & Publishing | |
| Mobile Communications Corporation | |
| Mobilecomm of Nashville, Inc. | |
| Bellsouth Telecommunications | |
| Here is the record disclosure from File 516: D&B Market Identifiers: | |
| 2655560 DIALOG File 516: D&B Duns Market Identifiers | |
| Bellsouth Corporation | |
| 1155 Peachtree St Ne | |
| Atlanta, GA 30367-6000 | |
| TELEPHONE: 404-249-2000 | |
| COUNTY: Fulton MSA: 0520 (Atlanta, GA) | |
| REGION: South Atlantic | |
| BUSINESS: Telecommunications Services | |
| PRIMARY SIC: | |
| 4813 Telephone communication, except radio | |
| 48130000 Telephone communication, except radio, nsk | |
| 48130102 Local telephone communications | |
| 48130103 Long distance telephone communications | |
| 48130104 Voice telephone communications | |
| SECONDARY SIC(S): | |
| 4812 Radiotelephone communication, nsk | |
| 48129901 Cellular telephone services | |
| 48129902 Paging services | |
| 2741 Miscellaneous publishing, nsk | |
| 27410304 Directories, telephone: publishing only, not printed on site | |
| 5065 Electronic parts and equipment, nec, nsk | |
| 50650100 Telephone and telegraphic equipment | |
| 50650103 Telephone equipment | |
| LATEST YEAR ORGANIZED: 1983 OWNER CHANGE DATE: NA | |
| STATE OF INCORPORATION: GA DATE OF INCORPORATION: 10/13/1983 | |
| ANNUAL SALES REVISION DATE: 04/19/1993 | |
| LATEST TREND BASE | |
| YEAR YEAR YEAR | |
| (1991) (1989) | |
| SALES $ 15,201,600,000 $ 14,445,500,000 $ 13,600,000,000 | |
| EMPLOYEES TOTAL: 97,100 96,975 102,000 | |
| EMPLOYEES HERE: 982 | |
| SALES GROWTH: 6 NET WORTH: $ 11,996,800,000 | |
| EMPLOYMENT GROWTH: -5 | |
| SQUARE FOOTAGE: 480,000 OWNED | |
| NUMBER OF ACCOUNTS: NA | |
| ACCOUNTING FIRM: Coopers & Lybrand Atlanta GA | |
| BANK: Chase Manhattan Bank NA Inc BANK DUNS: 00-698-1815 | |
| THIS IS: | |
| A HEADQUARTERS LOCATION | |
| AN ULTIMATE LOCATION | |
| A CORPORATION | |
| A PUBLIC COMPANY | |
| A MILLION DOLLAR DIRECTORY COMPANY | |
| DUNS NUMBER: 10-667-8006 | |
| CORPORATE FAMILY DUNS: 10-667-8006 | |
| CHAIRMAN: Clendenin, John L /Chb-Pres-Ceo | |
| PRESIDENT: Clendenin, John L /Chb-Pres-Ceo | |
| VICE PRESIDENT: O Neill, Robert W /Vp Assoc Gen Counsel | |
| Markey, David J /Vp-Govt Affairs | |
| Fiedler, Mark L /Vp-Corp Development | |
| Gunter, John R /V Pres-Corp Responsibility & C | |
| Casey, Patrick H /V Pres-Comptroller | |
| Yokley, Arlen G /V Pres-Sec-Treas | |
| SECRETARY: Yokley, Arlen G /V Pres-Sec-Treas | |
| TREASURER: Yokley, Arlen G /V Pres-Sec-Treas | |
| VICE-CHAIRMAN: Holding, Harvey R /V Chb-Finance & | |
| Administration | |
| McCoy, William O /V Chb | |
| COUNSEL: Alford, Walter H /Exec V Pres-Gen Counsel | |
| FINANCE: Holding, Harvey R /V Chb-Finance @ | |
| Administration | |
| RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: Fiedler, Mark L /Vp-Corp Development | |
| EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: McGuire, Raymond L /Exec V Pres-Govt Affairs | |
| Alford, Walter H /Exec V Pres-Gen Counsel | |
| Mauldin, Earle /Exec Vp & Cfo | |
| SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT: Reddersen, William F /Sr Vp-Broadband | |
| Strategies | |
| CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Clendenin, John L /Chb-Pres-Ceo | |
| ADMINISTRATION: Reddersen, William F /Sr Vp-Broadband | |
| Strategies | |
| McCoy, William O /V Chb | |
| McGuire, Raymond L /Exec V Pres-Govt Affairs | |
| Mauldin, Earle /Exec Vp & Cfo | |
| Holding, Harvey R /V Chb-Finance & | |
| Administration | |
| CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Mauldin, Earle /Exec Vp & Cfo | |
| MANAGEMENT: O Neill, Robert W /Vp Assoc Gen Counsel | |
| SALES-MARKETING VP: Gunter, John R /V Pres-Corp Responsibility & C | |
| FINANCE VP: Casey, Patrick H /V Pres-Comptroller | |
| ENGINEERING VP: Fiedler, Mark L /Vp-Corp Development | |
| Record 519 goes on and displays news and personal information on | |
| the executive officers, including the following: | |
| At divestiture, AT&T transferred to this corporation its 100 | |
| ownership in South Central Bell Telephone Company, Southern Bell Telephone | |
| and Telegraph Company and Bellsouth Mobility Inc. | |
| Shareholders of AT&T as of Dec 30 1983 received one share of | |
| Bellsouth stock for every 10 common shares of AT&T stock. | |
| Business started 1983. The common stock is listed on the New York, | |
| Boston, Midwest, Pacific and Philadelphia stock exchanges under the symbol | |
| "BLS". As of Jan 31 1993, there were 1,286,670 shareholders of record. The | |
| majority of the outstanding common stock is owned by the general public. | |
| Officers and directors own less than 1 of the outstanding stock. | |
| ............RECENT EVENTS......... | |
| In Jan 1992, the company and RAM Broadcasting Corporation formed a | |
| business venture to own and operate certain mobile data communications | |
| networks worldwide as well as certain cellular and paging operations in the | |
| US (Further details on file at the Woodbury, NY office of Dun & Bradstreet). | |
| During 1992, the company made several small acquisitions, principally | |
| related to cellular phone service. | |
| On Sep 20 1991, the company acquired several properties in Indiana, | |
| Wisconsin and Illinois from McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc in exchange | |
| for $361 million, including BellSouth's interest in Rochester, NY's | |
| non-wireline cellular provider. | |
| On Sep 17 1991, the company completed the acquisition of Graphic | |
| Scanning Corp for an adjusted total cash purchase price of $168 million. | |
| In addition, certain liabilities of Graphic Scanning amounting to | |
| approximately $142 million were assumed by BellSouth. | |
| On Mar 28 1991, the company acquired from GTE Mobilnet Incorporated | |
| two cellular partnerships in which it held minority interests, which | |
| resulted in BellSouth Enterprises, Inc gaining an additional 21 interest | |
| in the Atlanta-Athens Limited Partnership and an additional 42 interest in | |
| the Lexington, Kentucky MSA Limited partnership. | |
| ........MANAGEMENT BACKGROUND........ | |
| CLENDENIN born 1934 married. 1955 Northwestern University BS. | |
| 1955-1978 Illinois Bell Telephone Co, Chicago, IL. 1975 Vice President. | |
| 1978-1980 Pacific Northwest Telephone Co, Seattle, WA, Executive Vice | |
| President. 1980-1981 AT&T Vice President. 1981 Southern Bell Telephone. | |
| 1984-present Chairman of Board, President, and CEO, Bellsouth Corporation. | |
| MCCOY born 1933. Graduate of University of North Carolina, 1955 BS, | |
| BA and MIT and 1968 MS Management. 1955-1959 U S Marine Corps. 1959-present | |
| BellSouth Corporation; 1993 Vice Chairman, BellSouth Corporation. | |
| YOKLEY born 1937. Graduate of Catawba College, Salisbury, NC 1959. | |
| 1959 joined subject. | |
| MCGUIRE born 1933 married. Graduate of Mississippi College 1957 and | |
| University of Mississippi 1960. 1961-1965 law clerk of the U S Court of | |
| Appeals, 5th Circuit and trial attorney for tax division at the Department | |
| of Justice, Washington, DC and 1966 became Assistant U S Attorney, Northern | |
| District of Mississippi. 1967 joined Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph | |
| Company (Inc), Atlanta, GA. Mar 1985 elected to present position. | |
| Explanation of Bellsouth search results: | |
| ---------------------------------------- | |
| WOW! All they made in sales was 15 billion dollars -- and they call | |
| hackers crooks. The data showing the news is helpful, and all | |
| the personal information could really be used for harassment purposes if | |
| necessary. Take a look at their credentials. A prospective employee | |
| could use this data to ass-kiss a little. Their college references | |
| clearly show why the E911 document created such a fiasco in the company.... | |
| <> - Searching and Search Strategy: Contrived and Free Text Searching | |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| There are two different types of searching to find the topic you | |
| need: contrived and free text. After selecting the "file" or database | |
| number that you want, Dialog gives you a "?" as a prompt. At this | |
| point you can begin your searching. | |
| Contrived word searches should begin offline though. The database | |
| in question will send you a thesaurus (for a fee usually) which | |
| will tell you exactly what words correlate with your topic, so that | |
| you can go directly to the topic eliminating a lot of extra online | |
| time. Keep in mind that each database has a different thesaurus | |
| so unless this database you have chosen is going to be your primary | |
| database of use down the road, then you may want to just use free | |
| text searching. | |
| The only problem with free text searching is if your word is | |
| anywhere in an article it is counted and shown to you whether | |
| relevant or not. Imagine searching for the word "aircraft" in an | |
| aeronautical database or "student" in an educational database. The | |
| result could be apocalyptic as you would have to sort the data by | |
| its relevancy or irrelevancy. That is why you need to develop what | |
| is called a "search strategy". Although Dialog permits you to expand | |
| a too narrow search or condense a broad search, a perfect strategy will | |
| not require the use of these commands (I will discuss them later though). | |
| A perfect strategy is both effective, time efficient, and doesn't | |
| generate too many headaches. | |
| The only things I feel that a search strategy needs to be considered | |
| a good one is the correct use of the system's language (you need to know | |
| exactly what you are typing in and why, just as with any other language - | |
| Fortran, C, etc.) and a synonym dictionary. Occasionally my mind will go | |
| blank in searching through a database for a topic because once I have | |
| input the primary topic, I run out of ideas with which to draw | |
| correlations. That is why you need the dictionary. If I were searching | |
| with the word "student", I could use the word "pupil" and "scholar" as | |
| other points of venue to search with after I have looked up "student" in | |
| the dictionary. By using this technique, you are sort of using a | |
| modification of the contrived word search as the costly thesaurus | |
| does the same action as your two dollar synonym dictionary. | |
| Beginning Your Search: The SELECT Command | |
| ----------------------------------------- | |
| After completing the login procedure, began the database that | |
| you want to search, and viewed the welcome banner, etc. you will | |
| be shown the following message: | |
| Set Items Description | |
| --- ----- ----------- | |
| ? | |
| This question mark tells you to start your search. Functionally | |
| the Select command will search through the database looking for the | |
| terms that you have specified. The correct way to do this is as | |
| follows: | |
| ? S [term] | |
| ex. ? S COMPUTER | |
| Although very broad, the select command will search the entire database | |
| for the word "Computer" and will compile a total list. It will | |
| display it to you as the following: | |
| ? S COMPUTER | |
| S1 27263 COMPUTER | |
| After each search the S# will increment itself by one. What this | |
| does is ease in the resurrection of searching. If I ever wanted to | |
| use the word "Computer" again, all I would have to type in is: "S1" | |
| for an easy substitution. Especially when I am using CD-ROM, I like | |
| to use a very broad topic to begin my searching, and then I will narrow | |
| it down. The word "Computer" fits this description. | |
| Adding meaning to the SELECTion | |
| ------------------------------- | |
| Here I would like to talk a little about the words "and" and | |
| "or". These words are definitely the most important words to search | |
| with. Specifically they will narrow down your search because you | |
| are using one more word to help you find and article. | |
| ex. ? S COMPUTER AND CRIME or S S1 AND CRIME | |
| 27263 S1 | |
| 356 CRIME | |
| S2 49 S1 AND CRIME | |
| Notice how "CRIME" had 356 articles that contained its word, however | |
| when combined with the word "Computer" only had 49! This makes it | |
| very easy to narrow your search down to specifics, but not all the way | |
| as I will further explain. | |
| Another command I would like to discuss is the "SS" command. | |
| This is an abbreviation of the Select command known as "Select Steps". | |
| What this does is break up a search into individual steps. | |
| ex. ? SS COMPUTER AND CRIME | |
| S4 27263 COMPUTER | |
| S5 356 CRIME | |
| S6 49 COMPUTER AND CRIME | |
| This is specifically used if I want to individualize a search and | |
| use the terms for other topics. Keep in mind that the assigning of | |
| these steps and the individual searches that it must conduct may | |
| result in slower processing times thereby running up your total | |
| online bill. | |
| When Dialog is asked to do a search, it retrieves the following | |
| in what is called fields: Title, Abstract, Descriptors, and Identifiers. | |
| The two most important fields are the descriptors and identifiers. | |
| When scanning a database that has come up with fifteen sources the | |
| easiest way to determine if these articles are worth keeping or | |
| tossing into the circular file is through the descriptors and | |
| identifiers. The "Descriptor" will in two words or less explain the | |
| entire article, which is why they are otherwise known as the controlled | |
| vocabulary terms. Identifiers, on the other hand, are the free language | |
| terms. These are the ones we can relate to on an easier plane. You | |
| can also search specifically for descriptors or identifiers as well as | |
| a lot more terms by the following commands. | |
| Ex. S COMPUTER AND CRIME/DE | |
| This will search for computer and will use crime as a descriptor. /ID | |
| works as well for identifiers. Other suffixes can be used as according | |
| to the following table: | |
| Index Listing - Part 1 | |
| Table 3 | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| | Suffix | Field Name | Indexing | Examples | | |
| |--------|--------------------|------------------|-------------------------| | |
| | /AB | Abstract | Word | S COMPUTER AND CRIME/AB | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | /DE | Descriptor | Word and Phrase | S COMPUTER AND CRIME/DE | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | /ID | Identifier | Word and Phrase | S COMPUTER AND CRIME/ID | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | /TI | Title | Word | S COMPUTER AND CRIME/TI | | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| Truncation | |
| ---------- | |
| Truncation permits you to search for different forms of a | |
| search term. On Dialog, the symbol is "?". For instance, if I wanted | |
| to search for a word and I didn't know its exact spelling, I would do | |
| the following: | |
| ex. [Searching for the word Capone or Capoan, but not quite sure] | |
| ? S CAPO? | |
| S1 122753 CAPO? | |
| This also can be used in several other ways. For instance, plurality, | |
| or maximum number of letters following a word. Example: | |
| ex. ? S CAPO?? | |
| This maximizes the word search at two letters past the "O". | |
| ex. ? S CAPONE? | |
| This finds the plurality in the word capone. | |
| ex. ? S CAP? ? | |
| This finds the letters between the two question marks. | |
| Proximity and Field Operators | |
| ----------------------------- | |
| Proximity operators specify the position of search terms in | |
| relation to each other within a record or field. If I wanted to search | |
| for the words "Legion" and wanted to make sure that the word "Doom" | |
| was within a certain area around it, I would use a proximity operator. | |
| For instance: | |
| ? S LEGION(3W)DOOM | |
| 932 LEGION | |
| 812 DOOM | |
| 27 LEGION(3W)DOOM | |
| In the above example Doom was searched within three words of Legion. | |
| You can use any number in place of the three. The good thing about | |
| this proximity operator is that it searches the second word from the | |
| first on both sides. Using the above example here is a picture of it: | |
| Doom <---- 3 words ----> Legion <---- 3 words ----> Doom | |
| A field operator allows two words to be within a field in any | |
| order. For example: | |
| ? S COMPUTER(F)CRIME/DE | |
| 14321 COMPUTER/DE | |
| 2720 CRIME/DE | |
| 95 COMPUTER(F)CRIME/DE | |
| This shows that in the descriptor section of a search, the words | |
| computer and crime show up ninety-five times together. They could be | |
| completely unrelated, although this is doubtful. | |
| The L operator is used exclusively for the descriptor section. | |
| This operator simply "links" the words together. A search term looks | |
| like this: | |
| ? S COMPUTER(L)CRIME | |
| The N operator is used similar to the W operator in that it | |
| searches for a proximity of one word from another. Here is an example | |
| of a search: | |
| ? S COMPUTER(5N)CRIME | |
| This searches for the words computer and crime within five words | |
| of each other. Another way the N is used is to search with words | |
| that are the same, for instance the words: air-to-air, or | |
| protein(N)protein. The below example when using the "N" operator | |
| shows in the text just why the file would be flagged by the search | |
| program. Notice the "protein/protein". | |
| ? S PROTEIN(N)PROTEIN | |
| ... surfaces presumably as a result of dynamic process of protein | |
| adsorption and desorption and protein / protein interaction. | |
| Sample Record | |
| ------------- | |
| In order for me to discuss critical points in a found record | |
| I first need to show the record itself. The following record was | |
| searched in the ERIC database (File number 1 - - $.50 per minute and | |
| $30.00 per hour). | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| EJ330267 JC504091 | |
| Invitation to a Hacker. | |
| Archer, Chalmers, Jr.; Archer, A. J. Finch | |
| Community, Junior and Technical College Journal, v56 n4 p26-28 Feb-Mar | |
| 1986 | |
| Available From: UMI | |
| Language: English | |
| Document Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE (080) | |
| Journal Announcement: CIKMAY86 | |
| Examines the susceptibility of computerized institutional records to | |
| security violations by "hackers," wishing to access the systems. Points | |
| to practices that encourage security abuses and risk confidentiality. | |
| Outlines procedures used by Northern Virginia Community College to protect | |
| its computer system. (LAL) | |
| Descriptors: Community Colleges; *Computer Oriented Programs; *Computers; | |
| Confidentiality; *Confidential Records; Two Year Colleges | |
| Identifiers: *Hackers; School Records | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Let us examine this search more closely. | |
| EJ330267 : This is what is known as the Dialog Accession | |
| Number. All files contained in the Dialog system, | |
| no matter what database has an accession number. | |
| You can search for an article exactly by this. | |
| Use the index AN=. Example: | |
| S AN=EJ330267 | Will call up the above article. | |
| Invitation to a Hacker : This is the title, use /TI as the index for this. | |
| Archer, Chalmers, Jr. : This is the author, Use the index AU=. Example: | |
| S AU=ARCHER, CHALMERS, JR. | |
| Community, Junior ... : This is the location, the source of the | |
| publication. Use the index SO=. | |
| English : This is the language. Dialog lets you search | |
| for articles in different languages. Use the | |
| index LA=. | |
| CIJMAY86 : This is the Journal Announcement. You can use | |
| the index JA= | |
| And you know the Abstract, descriptors and identifiers. The following | |
| table shows all the indexes including the ones above for convenience. | |
| Index Listing - Part 2 | |
| Table 4 | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| | Prefix | Field Name | Indexing | | |
| |--------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------| | |
| | AN = | DIALOG Accession Number | Phrase | | |
| | AU = | Author | Phrase | | |
| | BN = | International Standard Book Number (ISBN) | Phrase | | |
| | CD = | Conference Date | Phrase | | |
| | CL = | Conference Location | Word | | |
| | CS = | Corporate Source | Word | | |
| | CT = | Conference Title | Word | | |
| | CY = | Conference Year | Phrase | | |
| | DT = | Document Type | Phrase | | |
| | JA = | Journal Announcement | Phrase | | |
| | JN = | Journal Name | Phrase | | |
| | LA = | Language | Phrase | | |
| | PY = | Publication Year | Phrase | | |
| | SN = | International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)| Phrase | | |
| | SO = | Source Publication | Word | | |
| | SP = | Conference Sponsor | Word | | |
| | UD = | Update | Phrase | | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| The TYPE Command | |
| ---------------- | |
| The TYPE command is used to display your search results. Once you | |
| "S" the topic, you can display it in eight different formats. Each | |
| format costs a different price and varies with each database. It is | |
| usually more to display a full record than abstracts though. The | |
| command is listed as follows: | |
| T (or TYPE) set/format/range of records | |
| ex. T s1/5/1-20 | |
| This will "type" the results found in s1, show the whole record | |
| (format 5), and display the first twenty records. The command can | |
| also be used to directly display an accession number as displayed | |
| in the following: | |
| T (or TYPE) accession number/format | |
| ex. T EJ330267/5 | |
| This will display the full record of the "Invitation to a Hacker" | |
| (the sample record). Note that most Dialog databases contain citations and | |
| sometimes abstracts of articles but NOT the full text of the article. There | |
| are some databases that do contain the full text of articles but most don't. | |
| The reason most people search these databases is to get a bibliography | |
| of articles that have been written on their topic. After reviewing the | |
| results of their search, they can decide which if any, of the articles | |
| published that they want a copy of. Obtaining full text copies of | |
| articles is referred to as 'Document Delivery' service. Sometimes you | |
| will see that the newspaper, magazine, or journal that a specific article | |
| you obtained a citation of is in your library and can just photocopy it | |
| yourself. Other times, the journal may be in another library perhaps | |
| hundreds of miles away, in which you can request it via ILL (Inter-Library | |
| Loan). And if you have no clue where to find a copy of the source of | |
| an article, you can ask Dialog or the individual database supplier to | |
| get a copy for you, typically at a cost in upwards of $15.00 for an | |
| article from 1 to 20 pages. Fifteen bucks is a bit steep for a 2 page | |
| article, so be sure you really need it before ordering. Besides, most | |
| articles don't contain as much info that the title or abstract implies | |
| it does. | |
| If you need direct record access, with any options in the Dialog command | |
| system, just input the accession number. All eight formats are shown in the | |
| following table. | |
| Predefined Formats | |
| Table 5 | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| | Format Number | Record Content | | |
| |------------------------------------|-------------------------------------| | |
| | 1 | DIALOG Accession Number | | |
| | 2 | Full Record except Abstract | | |
| | 3 | Bibliographic Citation | | |
| | 4 | Full Record with Tagged Fields | | |
| | 5 | Full Record | | |
| | 6 | Title and DIALOG Accession Number | | |
| | 7 | Full Record except Indexing | | |
| | 8 | Title and Indexing | | |
| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |
| User Defined Format Options | |
| --------------------------- | |
| If you are not satisfied with the eight formats, you can | |
| modify the output to display exactly what you want. The command | |
| would look like the following: | |
| ex. TYPE S3/AU,TI/1-5 | |
| This would exclusively show the author and the title in records | |
| one through five. | |
| The EXPAND Command | |
| ------------------ | |
| The EXPAND command allows you to look through the database | |
| like looking through a dictionary. The command would look like this: | |
| ex. ? E AU=CAPONE, F | |
| Ref Items Index-term | |
| E1 4 AU=CAPONE, A | |
| E2 10 AU=CAPONE, B | |
| E3 55 AU=CAPONE, C | |
| E4 8 AU=CAPONE, D | |
| E5 4 AU=CAPONE, E | |
| E6 2 AU=CAPONE, F | |
| E7 10 AU=CAPONE, FA | |
| E8 912 AU=CAPONE, FB | |
| This is an especially useful term or name if you don't know exactly what | |
| you are looking for. | |
| Conclusion | |
| ---------- | |
| This file should give you an overview of the Dialog Information | |
| System. I exited the hacking world shortly after The Leftist, The | |
| Urvile/Necron 99, and The Prophet were arrested in Operation Sundevil, | |
| and Digital Logic's Data Service went down permanently along with my | |
| sysop access. It wasn't until a few years later did I reenter the | |
| computer world to find a whole lot of things to have changed | |
| including my hacker ethic. I felt writing this file would be a | |
| natural progression from my original hacking talents to "hacking" on | |
| a legal basis. | |
| I would like to thank Erik Bloodaxe (for encouragement and | |
| project ideas) and Lex Luthor (for more project ideas and editing). | |
| If you have any questions or comments my Internet address is: | |
| alcapone@mindvox.phantom.com. On IRC, I am usually on either | |
| #mindvox or #hack so look me up and say "Hey!". | |