It might be a good idea to scan your latest love interest's home page on the World Wide Web before you do something you might regret.
You might discover that your new sweetheart's home page includes a gallery of photographs of dead people, like Dartmouth Medical School third-year student Dan Blumfeld's "Gallery of the Grotesque."
Or you could find you have a real Casanova on your hands, like Rob Leathern '97, whose home page includes an extensive anthology of original poetry.
"I saw you standing on the corner,/ Like some cheap whore --/ Selling meaningless gifts, soulless offerings," states one of Leathern's poems titled "Sell My Soul For Your Freedom."
Home pages are a fast-growing phenomenon on the Internet and can be accessed by anyone who can get on-line. The pages are personal spaces on the Internet where individuals can post personal information and create links to information posted by other people.
Andy Williams, Kiewit Computational Center's Computer Resource Center manager, created Dartmouth's home page system more than a year ago.
There is no real concrete purpose for home pages, Williams said. They are simply a "form of personal expression" and places for people to explore.
Dartmouth students' home pages are stored on a Dartmouth server and cost nothing for the College to run, Williams said.Students can produce a home page simply by following instructions available on-line.
Williams said about 17 students attended a two-hour Kiewit minicourse he conducted last month about how to create a home page. The course is taught on an "as-needed" basis.
He said Dartmouth students' home pages are probably graphically better and possibly technically better than the home pages of other college students.
"There are a number of very, very sharp people doing home pages," he said.
But home pages are not only for experts.
Students who took Engineering Sciences 4: The Technology of Cyberspace last term were required to create a home page as part of the class -- with the requirement that the home pages be as original as possible.
David Lynch '97, whose home page bears the disclaimer "Have you met me? (Beware: I'm a pretty dull guy)," said the project helped him to learn about the different resources available on the web.
Lynch said he tried to provide information about himself. "Nothing too fancy, nothing too revealing, but at the same time let people know who I am."
Other students are not quite as wary.
"I didn't realize that putting your entire life on display for the Net was a trend," freshman Chin Yoo's home page reads. "But hey, I guess I'm just as game as anyone to expose my deepest, darkest, secrets."
Indeed students seem almost eager to expose their most personal secrets to millions on the net.
Freshman Simon Holmes a Court went so far as to display pictures of his pet rubber chicken, Keith.
"Keith the Chicken emigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan shortly after his birth (early 1993). Shortly after arriving in the U.S., Keith was adopted from a Connecticut novelty store and soon found himself in Australia, as the 21st birthday present of Simon Holmes a Court," his page reads.
"Since then Keith has been photographed in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Austria, the USA, Norway, England and Corsica."
Holmes a Court, who created the page as part of Engineering Sciences 4, said he decided to feature Keith on his home page because friends who had seen his photographs of Keith "had really enjoyed them."
Holmes a Court said he has received between 15 and 20 electronic mail messages from random people commenting on his home page since he created it last term.
Phil Cheung '97 said he too has received messages from people who have read his page -- in fact, three random people sent him messages on his birthday.
Cheung, a self-professed "computer geek", said he designed his home page "basically for me and people who know me."
Other students also described their home page as a kind of second home.
"It's sort of a nice electronic doorstep,'" John Mowat '97 said. "It was something to do, so I did it."
Mowat's page boasts a 24-hour O.J. Update.
"I doubt anybody's seen it," he said. "It's just there to be there ... the whole thing really has no purpose."
In contrast, Blumfeld said he created his page, "Gallery of the Grotesque," for the general public.
Blumfeld said all pictures included are actual forensic pictures of cadavers and many of them were taken from books.
The collection is an alternate way of dealing with the more morbid side of the medical profession, Blumfeld said. He added that it is also a way of shocking people into taking a look at the society around them.
Since he started the page six months ago, Blumfeld said there have only been two negative comments out of the hundreds of responses he has received.
One of Dartmouth's most famous home page creators is Bill Kartalopoulos '97.
Kartalopoulos said he decided to create a home page to accommodate his growing interest in the World Wide Web.
Kartalopoulos said he learned the computer language to create his home page, Hypertext Markup Language, in one afternoon last fall.
This is ironic, he noted, because "the only class I ever dropped in high school was computer programming."
Soon after, Kartalopoulos created two specialized pages, one of pop music singer Sting and the other of the musical Les Miserables.
In one term, Kartalopoulos' Sting page had between 800 and 1,000 accesses a week. Kartalopoulos was contacted by Williams because the page was slowing down the College's server. Eventually, access to the page had to be restricted to after-business hours.
Kartalopoulos said he made his Les Miserables page during Winter vacation. Three days after its creation, Les Miserables was named "Cool Site of the Day" on the World Wide Web and was accessed by 7,000 people that day alone.
Luckily, by that time, Kartalopoulos' pages had been moved off of Dartmouth's server to one run by a commercial company.
This term, Kartalopoulos said he is working for Kiewit in conjunction with the History Department and Special Collections to create an on-line history exhibit about Daniel Webster, Class of 1801.
Kartalopoulos said the project will be the first time a museum-type exhibit has existed only in cyberspace.
"It is a really innovative project for the College to be doing," he said.
Williams' own home page is another of the more elaborate ones the net.
"Mine's a bit extensive," he admitted. Williams said his home page works as a personal advertisement, which he uses to get freelance work.
Apart from a lengthy biography and resume, Williams' page features a whole section on his two cats, including their pictures.
"I have two cats. One is white, one is black. This was not planned, but it worked out beautifully. When they fight, they look like ying and yang. Order vs. entropy. Every evening I have good vs. evil right there in my living room," his page reads.
