Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Thanks for the really nice review of my Art Bin e-zine-list article! I appreciate the comments.
John Labovitz
Hi. My site is the English muffin site English muffin site you recently put in NSD, and: a) was wondering why you didn't tell me; and b) thank you.
Tom Petrillo
a) Because we have way too much to do without tracking everybody down, and b) you're welcome. - LN
I just read my first issue of NSD, and all I can say is, "Wow!" This is just too cool. What a great way of filtering through the massive animal that is the WWW! Congratulations on doing such a fabulous job. The format and content is better than Cool Site, and much more user-friendly. Thanks again!
Brian Myers
>From the bottom of my heart, thank You! You are the first official recognition my site, The Damnedest Things, has received and this is a note to say thanks for including it in NSD 5.05. I was thrilled when I received this issue and saw the story. I am truly happy that you enjoyed your visit here enough to let your readers know about it. My first milestone - what a great feeling!
Butch Grafton
Thanks for mentioning SciTechDaily Review in NSD 5.08 - we appreciate it - and yes, we do miss Omni magazine! There's a stack of issues from the mid-'80s in the staff toilet.
Vicki Hyde - Editor, SciTechDaily Review
"Media Pentagon Hacker Scare in Saner Perspective" (NSD 5.08) was well put. You might spam the NY Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Times Mirror, et al with it. In journalism school they used to preach: "If your mother says she loves you, confirm it with two independent sources." Too bad the messengers don't heed their messages.
And to think we look down our noses at certain tabloids!
John VanLandingham - reporter for nearly 30 years, now retired
Thank you so much for the encouraging review ("The CIA and Drug Dealing", NSD 5.09). Even I must accede to the possibility that I have been creating an empire to feed crazy conspiracy folks and enrich myself. This leaves me the great hope that perhaps, after another 20 years, I will actually turn a profit!
Seriously, thank you. These issue are so important and the documentary evidence now so strong that we believe our class action suit will actually succeed using nothing more than the government's own documents.
Good site, good fun and true balance.
Mike Ruppert
I just noticed your link ("Free CDs, Really", NSD 5.09) and I just thought I'd drop you a line and point out a couple things.
1. I really appreciate the link. I noticed my traffic double yesterday due to NSD and a couple other sites linking me.
2. No mailing lists here so far, and if I do create one, it will only contain addresses from the previous week, and only be internal for mailing a one-time reminder. But I will not sell, trade, give, etc. e-mail addresses, names, or other info. I do thank you for pointing that out.
Joe
Just to clarify - when we wrote "Others have, however.", we meant they have won, not that they have found themselves on spam lists. - LN
I read both the original message posted in NSD as well as the latest regarding the KDS privacy concern. It appears to me that the last comment made from one of the people affected by this indicates a concern more for reporting "manners" than the underlying issue itself. Getting past the way in which you brought this to everyone's attention (and what order you did it in), I think that person did not realize you are more concerned with protecting everyone's privacy.
If I had been on the list, I would have appreciated knowing that the information was available, regardless of how I was informed. And the fact that you have to search for it is still no consolation when the information can be, ultimately, found by anyone else on the Web. I don't care what information is being posted about me, be it significant or insignificant. I have a right to know.
However, I understand KDS was doing what any typical business would do - that is, damage control. Their prompt attention to the matter was appropriate, and I feel its tarnished image has been improved through its openness about the cause for the information leak as well as the remedy. I applaud your publication's "virginal" reporting (and your ability not to be swayed from doing so). Whether the truth be good or bad, I still prefer the truth.
Angela Fremont
It was the inability of the college graduates who worked for me years ago to know when to use "its" and when to use "it's" that sent me on the road to becoming a full-time freelance writer. But alas, it is my contention that that "an old geezer" (NSD 5.03) is redundant. Don't you have to be old to be a geezer?
Your newsletter is the only one I receive that is literate. It bothers me that the editors of the many online newsletters don't fix the work of their writers before they publish it. I can only conclude that the editors do not know better. Keep up the good work.
Hal Schell - Stockton, Calif.
I guess you do have to be old to be a geezer, but
it's a colloquial expression - doesn't "an old geezer" roll off the tongue
better than just "a geezer"?
We're not perfect in our grammar details, but we try. Thanks for the kind
words. - LN
In NSD 5.04, you wrote: "One search engine which is probably particularly vulnerable is GoTo.com, whose profits are partly based on auctioning off search keywords to the highest bidder."
I think you'll find that GoTo will not sell trademarked terms to those who don't hold the trademarke. So this suit shouldn't affect them at all.
Danny Sullivan
Interesting. Does that mean they do a full trademark
search on each search term that somebody wants to buy? Or do they make you
sign in blood that you're not buying your competitors trademarks?
In any event, they should help fight this, since they're missing out on a
serious chunk of revenue. Nothing like a competitive situation to drive up
those ad prices. :) - AB
Not quite in blood - but you have to agree to a terms and conditions, which include something about not using other people's trademarks. Obviously, someone could slip through - but Coke trying to buy Pepsi would/should be spotted right away. Interestingly, there are also conditions about buying generic terms - you have to be relevant for the terms you buy. No getting "sex" to sell your auto parts online, for example.
In your review of the book "The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence", it was written that the book was "one of the best examples of that genera."
One expects that critiques of books and other written material to be checked for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Yours, quite obviously, was not.
KW Petersen
It was, but it slipped by. Heck, I'm a biologist by training - I ought to know the difference between "genus" and "genera". - LN
Okay - you got me. ROFL over your response. Here I was silly lil' ol' me thinking that you were searching for the word "genre". :)
You guys did notice that this thing was a fake, didn't you? It adds its own words that were not in your document.
bobb
Yes, yes we did. - LN
I'm sorry, but you have been fooled. There is no hidden message in the reverse text: the server adds the message in your text. As often in the "paranormal", simple tricks most powerfully catch people's interest... and their money, later. The paranormal doesn't exist; people's credulity does.
Patrick Pinchart - Belgium
No, we weren't fooled. It seems our tongue was planted too firmly in cheek for you to find it. - LN
I have been using MetaCrawler for years and it does what MP3 wishes it could do. It is fast and efficient. I did several searches on MP3 and got dumb and insufficient results.
Paul Muns
It would appear that the people of Prince Edward Island are no longer an isolated culture ("How's Your Feet and Ears?", NSD 5.07). With the addition of a new bridge the island is now physically connected to the continent via the province of New Brunswick.
This bridge has made it possible for everyone to access this beautiful island in a matter of minutes. This easy access will eventually change the culture and landscape of this summer resort island.
Dave Mackenzie - Saint John, N.B.
I've been reading your informative e-zine for over a year, but of late I find myself needing an interpreter at times due to the increasing number of abbreviations. While I'm sure that many of your readers understand this snippet, it means nothing at all to me:
"As an addendum to their large site for the PBS special "The Race for the Superbomb", WGBH has provided some disturbing special features."
Give us a break! Paper isn't all that expensive, 'specially when you don't use any!
Frank Halliwell
I studiously try to avoid unexplained abbreviations.
If we have one, it's because there is no long form or the abbreviation is
better known than the long form (e.g. CERT).
For the record, PBS is an American non-commercial television network. It
stands for Public Broadcasting System, but putting that in the article
would be like writing British Broadcasting Corp. for BBC.
WGBH is the Boston PBS affiliate's call letters, which stand for nothing.
WGBH is one of the most famous of PBS outlets because of the copious
programming it produces, but I probably should have clarified that it is a
TV station nonetheless. - LN
I'm sure that Burgess wasn't depicting a milestone in American culture when he wrote "A Clockwork Orange" ("Stanley Kubrick's Last Trailer", NSD 5.08). You only have to understand the meaning of the work to see that.
Kubrick's film shows a particularly English society, bar for the fact he based it on the US edition of the novella, which only had 20 chapters. The UK version had 21 and the 21st chapter makes the story less dystopian than you'd ever wonder.
For the full monty on this have a scurf over to A Clockwork Orange Resucked.
I am one with you on "sweaty men" though. How could anyone not realise it's a highlight - milestone seems rather a weighty word in this context - of American culture, starting in Capua in 73 BCE.
Frank Dunn
We did not mean that the movie settings were
specifically in and about American culture. It's just that over time the
movies have come to be important in American - indeed Western - culture.
Simply because the action takes place in Britain does not mean that the
themes are not appropriate to America.
I'd say that "Spartacus" was Kubrick's most "Hollywood" movie. The themes
are quintessenitally American - the quest for freedom, rebellion, even the
idea of working your way up from the bottom. And of course, the sweaty men,
a tradition carried on in the American preoccupation with sports culture. -
AB
In "Stanley Kubrick's Last Trailer", you wrote, "Few people have a Usenet newsgroup devoted to them...."
Few? I have one. There are currently around 300 alt.fan groups, most of which are about a particular person. I've read every single issue of NSD. I enjoy every one. But this little slip makes it look like you don't know the Net (or at least Usenet).
Gary Burnore
I'd consider 300 "few". There are probably more left-handed, one-eyed lepers in the world than people with newsgroups. - LN
I doubt it. BTW, I was using that as an example. there are groups in the big eight hierarchies too. But that's OK, I'll still read.
I saw your story on the Millennium Jump (NSD 5.09) and I thought I might inform you that the new millennium doesn't start until Jan. 1, 2001. A lot of people seem to think it starts in 2000, but they are wrong.
Think about it. The first millennium began in the year one. (Our calendar was invented by the Romans and they had no zero in their numerical system.) If years 1 to 10 is a decade, then the next decade starts at 11. The next decade and millennium begin on January 1st, 2001.
Robert Williams
The new millennium starts Jan. 1, 2001. Year 2000 is just the last year of this one, as number 10 is the last of a decade. Plenty of people make money out of baloney - these guys at least have a good cause...
Jiri Matejicek
You know, I used to think that way too. Then I thought of two things. First, no one cares when a car odometer rolls over to, say, 50,001. It's not nearly as exciting as watching it pass 49,999. And aren't parties and celebrations supposed to be exciting? Second, no doubt all those who try very hard not to enjoy themselves this coming New Year's Eve will hold awesome parties at the end of 2000. Why not celebrate twice? I can't even think of a single practical reason - remember, year-counting isn't practical, it's theory - why we should wait until 2001 to deem the start of a new millennium. - LN
I'm sorry, but the phrase is "Don't come the raw prawn with me". (I'm an academic, so I have to be pedantic). Love the dry cynicism in NSD, by the way.
Andrew Treloar - Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
In "Biking from Oz to London" (Nsd 5.05), there is a glaring mistake. In Australia we actually say, "Don't come the raw prawn with me", not "Don't play the raw prawn...."
Perhaps verbatim it's too suggestive for US consumption or it was seen as too salacious and a slight "adjustment" made to the saying. However, the correctness of the epithet is highly relevant to its import and significance of meaning.
We 19 million here in the Antipodes would appreciate a correction.
Sam Labourne
Oddly, our Oz correspondant got that wrong. - LN
Hmmmm. Hope s/he has been duly castigated.... You don't need a new correspendent do you? And do we still get the correction - please?
Love the speed of your reply. Thanks. Sometimes we think there aren't people out there in cyberland. It's a pleasant reassurance.
Kirsty adds spice to my life. Why would I replace her? And actually, I'm just a Turing construct. - LN
You might want to ask your "excellently rooted Aussie" about this particular descriptive phrase as well!
Patrick McDonald - Round Corner, Australia
The expression "don't come the raw prawn with me" is an historical absurdity which is seldom if ever used in everyday speech and even then by few people of particular backgrounds. I suspect that most of the Net generation would not have even heard the expression, let alone used it, so don't feel the need to apologise for misrepresenting the phrase.
Now as to whether your Aussie is "excellently rooted" or plain old everyday "rooted" is not dependent upon your colleague's Aussie origins. Excellent roots are not specific to culture, gender, or religion but are rather a function of style and performance.
Brian O'Farrell - Deepdene, Australia
That's what I meant. She has plenty of style and performance. - LN
As an Australian who subscribes to NSD I read with shrieks of laughter the "Come, not play prawns" correction in the latest edition. You will be interested to know, and perhaps verify with your "excellently rooted Aussie" that you now have an even bigger problem.
"Rooted" in the Australian vernacular means - to be polite, the receiver of satisfying sexual intercourse. Being "excellently rooted" - well, one can only imagine how that might come about.
I look forward to your next correction!
Jenny Bay - Accra, Ghana
Yep - rooted is exactly that. That's why we "support" our sporting teams, we don't "root" for them.
I'd hate to be trying to learn English - its different in every country!
Peter Hatley - Sydney, Australia
*blush* I dream of such a reputation. Thanks....
Kirsty Brooks - Netsurfer Digest, Australia
All right! Someone who appreciates this fantastic band - you guys are OK in my book!
Mike Coffman
OK, so which is their best album? - AB
Probably "Blow Your Cool" although an argument can also be made for "Stone Age Romeos". In 1989, I drove six hours to see HG open for The Fixx only to find that the Fixx had canceled. We got two hours of HG instead. Awesome! - LN
1989 was a good Hoodoos year! I saw them twice that winter at the late, great Chestnut Cabaret in Philly - once in the middle of a blinding snowstorm where they were cool enough to hang out and talk to people for a while afterwards. The guy standing next to me won a bottle of wine from 'em 'cause he was the first person to figure out that they were playing their set in alphabetical order.
"Blow Your Cool" is more consistent than "Mars Needs Guitars", but I think the latter's high points are higher - "Bittersweet" consistently battles it out with Big Star's "September Gurls" as my favorite power pop song of all time. I'm in complete agreement on "Stoneage Romeos"!
Glad to see someone else really digging this band!
I just thought that it was about time that I dropped you a line to thank you for all the fun you've helped me have. I love your work!
I'm from Australia and the first time I ever snuck into a bar was to see the Hoodoo Gurus so I'm glad you like them too.
Dave Muir
Thank you for being mostly positive about Macs and Mac OS. As a computer programmer, I must take issue with your characterization of the Mac's multitasking. First, you say, "Windows uses true multitasking", which is fine. But then you say, "...the Mac sort of emulates this" and go on to list all the programs you have open, ending with, "working simultaneously...and it works fine".
What do you call that? Multitasking is when you have several processes (programs, applications) sharing time on a single machine, giving the illusion to the user that they are all running at once.
The confusion arises when you compare pre-emptive to cooperative multitasking. Preemptive = dictatorship. One entity decrees who gets what, when, etc. Cooperative = anarchy (sort of). The CPU is passed around by programs who tell themselves to give it up. Windows 9x has both (don't go there). Mac OS is cooperative. Unix is preemptive. Windows NT is mostly preemptive. Questions? :-)
Bob Schulze
I've been getting your e-zine since April, 1997 and really enjoy it. While your descriptions and information have always been balanced, your Mac multitasking comment in the last Letters to the Editor 5.04 bothered me.
It is pretty much not true. Multitasking is simply having the computer simulate running multiple programs by switching between them. There are two main flavors of multitasking. Premptive multitasking is where the OS doles out and takes back the CPU between applications. In cooperative multitasking, the OS gives the CPU to an application and the application gives it back when it feels like it. I think Unix and NT use some flavor or preemptive multitasking while the MacOS and Windows 3.1/95/98 use cooperative. Both are "true" mutitasking and of course there are advantages and disadvantages to the different methods. The current trend seems to be favor preemptive and MacOS X Server, which came out this month, uses it as well.
Chris Blouch
I sure love NSD. The last few weeks have been particularly good. Of course, not everything works. The Lycos MP3 search engine comes up with all the rated sites - very pretty. However, getting music is another story. No matter what time of day or night I click, I get a "Server returned extended information" message.
Bill Dinger
I've never seen such an error message, so I think
that means it has something to do with the software difference between your
set-up and mine rather than something in the data communication.
Is it possible that your browser/FTP program/system doesn't know what to do
with a .mp3 file? Could it be telling you that it doesn't know what to do
with that info? I'm really just guessing here - I don't know.
I seem to be able to DL.... - LN
It's probably beyond the call of duty, but look at these error messages from Internet Explorer and Gozilla, a downloading utility. This happens infrequently to me - only when a site is just unavailable - usually, I think, from being too busy. Trying to download any song produces the same results.
Yes, "too many users" means that the FTP server has a
limited number of downloads that can be run at the same time, and that
number is filled already.
I did manage to get a download going at the Lycos MP3 site, but I had to
tell Netscape to save it as a file. I think you need to find where your
browser keeps its file types and add .mp3 so that it knows about it. But
that's just a guess.
Just so y'all know, NSD is the greatest. Enough stroking.
I would really like to know if there are any good, comprehensive music review sites on the Net. I've looked at Firefly and AMG, but have yet to find any site that is as good for music as some of the film sites. Any suggestions?
Ethan Shames
Dunno, really. Sorry. Try a search at the NSD search engine - if we did ever cover something like that, it'll be there. Try searching for "music" - I hope that's not too general.... - LN
I suspect you invent the information you send to me. Two URLs from a recent issue simply don't seem to exist! And this happens too frequently! I hope this is only a temporary problem because I do enjoy your e-zine.
Franca
But they do exist. I check each URL before the issue leaves the shop. It may be a problem with your ISP's domain name server. - LN
Do you know of a source I can subscribe to that will track every new Web site that goes online? I have a client that is interested in tracking mortgage companies as they come online. Can you help?
lglick
I'd say it's virtually impossible, since there's no one trackable way to announce Web sites - and some people don't even announce them. The best bet, I think, would be to find an appropriate Usenet newsgroup and hang out in there - or ask people in there. - LN
This morning, March 27, I finally received your issue dated March 23. It was sent at 3/27/99 3:40 AM. My husband, on the other hand, had his several days earlier.
I would appreciate if I could receive my issue in a more timely fashion. We both have the same ISP so the ISP is not the issue.
Dianna Schwartz
We have over 75,000 issues to e-mail. Even using two servers at once, it takes us four days or so to e-mail all our issues out. If you want yours earlier, you can change your e-mail address to aaaschwartz@yourisp.... (Note - address changed to protect the ignorant.) - LN
I have no intentions of changing my address for one newsletter and have to send out changes to everyone else. I will just unsub instead.
Jeepers, it was just a joke....
Already unsubbed. Maybe you should watch your jokes.
Well, at least there are a few thousand subscribers who will get their next issue a little earlier now. Gotta love martyrs....
Because of my Web e-mail configuration, I've got text defaulted to white, which I can't read too well in your white boxes. Could you set the font color in your boxes instead of using default?
Oliver Tseng
We prefer to let our subscribers live or die with their own options. - LN
Trying to download Windows upgrades is just like watching the last 15 minutes of a basketball game - without the excitement, but plenty of anxiety. For instance, downloading "Microsoft's Virtual Machine" took me a full three hours - not the 55 minutes that the download screen predicted! This seems to be the case with all MS downloads even though my server and modem are equipped for speed. The big frustration is download errors!
I assume what causes this situation is online traffic. Is this so????
Jack Stewart
Could be. Especially if you're part of a first big rush. MS is a big company with a lot of customers - enough probably to even overwhelm their Net pipe. Best to ask them for a definitive answer, though (good luck...). - LN
More Signal, Less Noise and fewer cookies. It takes forever to cancel all the cookie requests. I enjoy the contents, keep up the good work, but remove the requests for cookies.
Adrian
The cookies come from the ads. We have nothing to do with it. - LN
I understand fully you're need for advertisers. But can't y'all put some limits on them, say like, no cookies?
Stuart Luckie
Thank you very much for NSD. You might consider adding a small section at the end that has the name, URL, phone, product, etc. of all the advertisers in each issue. I clicked on the Nimble Technology Image and it returned with "404 not found". I suspect that it is a problem on my end - firewall and all that. If this is common, it might discourage people from visiting advertisers.
Richard Hendricks - Lynn, Mass.
Which software you use to write NSD in this way? It's very interesting, but I have no idea.
Luca Cattaneo - Milano, Italy
We just use normal word processors to write it up and add a few tags. Then we put it through an automated Perl script which converts it to HTML automatically. - LN
I don't use Hotmail, but all my NSD for the past few months have shown up as blank messages in my Microsoft Outlook Explorer mailbox (Mac versions 4.03 and 4.5). If I press the source button they are quite readable (as source) and I can also copy them into a browser for accurate HTML rendering.
Since I get other HTML mail that renders accurately in OE, perhaps the problem is with the coding.
John Mahar
I was using Internet Explorer 3.0 and recently downloaded 4.0. This is the first time I ever had a problem with e-mail. It froze - I re-booted - then Outlook Express gave a message stating that your mail was a problem and would not open it.
Diane Karpowitz
Come to mention it, I started using Outlook Express for Mac for about three days, until I realized that the silly stuff could not handle mail a la NSD or Wired News. Is this a normal thing?
Richard Wagner - Northampton, Mass.
In my opinion, OE is an evil contraption, the worst piece of crap to ever come out of the crapfactory. I've heard lots of complaints about it - for mail and newsgroups. - LN
I have had Hotmail problems with Newslinx news and they produce their newsletter in HTML as well.
Another thing about Hotmail is that when Microsoft originally took over, the close-down page gave a five-second warning stating that you were about to be transferred to the MSN site. Now it takes you straight there, no matter what. I await to be spammed with free copies of Slate - then I will really be out of there.
Thanks for both NSD/NSS. They are informative, amusing, and well worth the online time.
Leslie Penner - England
I too have had nothing but blank NSDs on my Hotmail account. I just assumed that it was yet another proof of Microsoft's inability to do anything right the first time. I use the blank as a reminder to come to your site to read the latest issue, though, so I guess Hotmail does serve some kind of service. Keep up the great issues!
Tom
I had an interesting missing content experience with NSD. I am using a university system and I retrieve my mail from there through my private ISP, MediaOne.
First time I drew it up, I got the content. The second time (on the same session), I got only the address header. Bounced around in my mail and never got the content on returning to the file (three times). I had to reboot the computer to finally get the contents on another attempt.
Normally, I would have attributed it entirely to my computer. But with your note about the Hotmail episode... well, just thought I'd drop this note. And since this had never happened before....
Thanks much for the service.
Greg Stene - Jacksonville, Fla.
What have you done to the HTML code of your magazine? I receive NSD and NSS. I use the Opera 3.2 Web browser and all has been well for over a year but the last two issues have crashed my browser. In Netscape, it displays the title, freezes while it looks up my cache server, then displays the page.
Miles Hoare
How about just don't use Javascript in your e-zine? I don't use Hotmail for my e-mail, but if I did, I'd drop Netsurfer Digest eons before going through the hassle of changing mail services
John Parsons
It's not us, it's our ad service. - LN
What I read at the bottom of NSD offended me greatly. I have recently changed my browser to IE5.0 and my e-mail to Outlook Express 5.0, per suggestion in NSD. As a result, NSD's excess of Javascript is wreaking havoc on my e-mail software.
I don't think its time to change mail services - its time to unsubscribe to your arrogant newsletter. I have been very pleased with NSD till I upgraded my software. If you carry on without rethinking your use of Javascript, you're gonna lose a lot more than just Hotmail clients. You will lose all those you suggested browser and e-mail updates to.
Ray Formica
We said they were available, but we didn't recommend them. I personally never recommend Outlook. Quite the opposite. - LN
I have problems reading your wonderful NSD with Lotus Notes. I think I don't get it in HTML format. Does that make a difference?
Christian Haacke
You do get it in HTML, since that's the only format
we use. Lotus Notes might be having a problem with the Javascript in our
ads. We know Hotmail and other some other Web-mail subscribers have trouble.
We're working on the problem, although we have no control over what's in
the ads. In the meantime, use the incoming digest as a reminder to check
out new issues at our home page. Sorry about that - LN
What did you do to the HTML? I was about to unsubscribe because I've been unable to read the four or five issues since I upgraded to MS Outlook Express v4.5. I know OE is suppose to be able to read HTML messages, but that claim has nothing to do with reality.
This is the first issue that I'm able to see and I'm happy again. Many thanks to the new designer and HTML coder.
Ted Mills - Tokyo, Japan
So far as I know, we changed nothing. - LN
But you did change the design, so the HTML must have changed along with it.
Nobody tells me anything around here. It's just "make the coffee", "get the doughnuts", "fix my spelling", all day long.
Are the IE and Netscape browsers programmed so that they one can't use them to download their rival's software?
I recently tried to use IE to download a new version of Netscape and IE indicated that the Netscape download URL didn't exist. Then, for curiosity, I tried to use Netscape to get to the IE download page, and got a perpetual hourglass. However, at this same time I was easily able to get to the IE download page using IE and the Netscape download page using Netscape.
Perhaps it would be interesting for you to check this out. In both cases, the browsers didn't just flat refuse to download the rival's software. Rather, they gave the deceptive impression that that there was something wrong at the rival's site, i.e., the wrong address for Netscape and the perpetual busy signal for IE.
Tunis Romein - Charleston, S.C.
Perhaps your perspective on the Liberty Project (NSD 5.09) would change if your daughter were murdered by a drunk as mine was. Freedom does not convey the right to yell "Fire" in a crowded theatre. If you don't take the responsibility to control yourself, others will do it for you. Maybe the crime rate is going down because we are incarcerating the bad guys.
E. J. Woolums
First off, you should probably send this letter to
the Liberty Project, not us. Secondly, I agree absolutely with you in
theory - drunk drivers should be severely punished. We might quibble over
what punishment - lifetime suspension, length of jail term, or loss of
property are all variables.
However, the Liberty Project will protect you and me from unjust
persecution. Let's say I drop a cigarette on my lap while on the highway
(not that I smoke) on the way to a housewarming party with a six-pack of
beer on the front seat next to me. I start weaving while I get the
cigarette out from between my legs, and the six pack falls to the floor,
breaking two bottles. A cop pulls me over because he saw me weaving.
Two things can happen - he believes me or he doesn't. If he doesn't, and
I'm in NY, he can take my car away from me for weeks - or forever if I'm
found guilty.
The Liberty Project tries to protect the innocent, not the guilty. - LN
Swiss watch-maker Swatch recently announced its proposal for a new Universal Time standard: Internet Time. It boasts "No Time Zones" and "No Geographical Borders", and is endorsed by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT's Media Laboratory. CNN was quick to add Internet Time to its Web page, alongside Eastern and Greenwich times. Their reporter, Rick Lockridge, was shown asking people if they could tell him the Greenwich Mean Time, the current global standard. Most couldn't. Apparently, that should be proof of simplicity for the three-digit Internet Time and its use of the Web-trendy '@' symbol - e.g. @666.
Believe me, if you can't figure out GMT in your head, you'll run screaming from the calculations needed for Internet Time!
First, you can't convert your local time to Internet Time without using the GMT system. Internet Time is based on Central European Winter Time, as used in Biel, Switzerland (home of Swatch), which is one time zone east of Greenwich So where do the "No Time Zones" and "No Geographical Borders" slogans come from?
Second, Internet Time is based on 1000 beats per day, 000 to 999; each beat is 86.4 seconds. Internet Time aligns exactly with regular time only once in every 7 min 12 sec, and can differ from it by almost 1.5 minutes: 11:59:59 PM converts to @999, yet @999 converts back to 11:58:33 PM, creating an 87-second void for the Twilight Zone! You could get e-mail earlier than it was sent.
Third, claiming that Internet Time is "the same all over the world" is misleading. By raising the issue, it is implied that GMT isn't constant, worldwide. In fact, GMT is equally independent of your location. Internet Time just moves the reference meridian from Greenwich to Biel. It's just a day that starts at midnight in Biel and is divided into some 1000 arbitrary units instead of hours, minutes, and seconds. While @500 is high-noon in Biel, it's 8 PM in Tokyo and 6 AM in the Bahamas.
Internet Time clearly stands on the shoulders of GMT, and thus inherits all the nags of that system - time zones, geographical borders, daylight savings time, etc. - plus it throws in its own quirks.
Does this describe a "completely new global concept of time" or a "revolutionary new unit of time," as quoted from Swatch?
Newsweek Magazine online had this to say: "By being virtually impossible to compute mentally, Internet Time assures brisk sales of Swatch Beat watches - well worth the effort to establish their new Biel Mean Time meridian. 'iTime' clocks are also available for Windows 95, Linux, and even the Newton."
Walking to the "beat" of a different drummer doesn't always mean that you're keeping in step with the times.
Gregory Vigneault
I like receiving NSD, but I have a problem with it because of where I live. In Bermuda, I am not allowed to pay due homage to the wealth of information you give in your reports. Instead, I am limited to one hour a day of Internet access if I want to avoid even more ridiculous excess charges. For this one hour a day, I have to pay US$ 72 a month, plus regular phone rates.
Nor can Bajans use toll-free numbers. Except for airlines serving Bermuda, toll-free numbers are not allowed, period. We are forced to pay long-distance rates averaging nearly $1 US a minute to the USA, 600 miles away.
We urgently need an organization to give international publicity to places like Bermuda where ISPs, telecom providers and their governments do not allow the same unlimited access that the USA, UK, Canada and so many other countries routinely provide.
In Bermuda and the Caribbean, the anti-Internet governments and profiteering private-sector ISPs and international telecom companies make it far too expensive and frequently difficult or downright impossible to use the Internet as citizens elsewhere do.
Keith Forbes - Bermuda
No feelings were harmed in the making of this document. Well, maybe they were.
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