Monday, January 10, 2000
I have religiously kept all my NSD and NS Science files since subscription. Unfortunately, problems occured with my e-mail system, and I lost some files. Most of what I lost I can live without, but much to my surprise I feel a real loss of the Digest and Science e-mails. I'm sure you're told constantly how good they are. I get a number of e-zines and I can manage to live without those back copies, but I feel a real need to replace the Digest and Science e-zines. I think they represent some of what is best about the Internet nowadays.
I've looked at your site and can pick up single copies of each one, but it's extremely time consuming. Do you have all the past issues zipped up somewhere where I could download the lot in one swoop? I'd be really grateful if you could help. Be assured your e-zines are much appreciated even down in this little corner of the world.
Paul Curry - Upper Hutt, New Zealand
We used to have an FTP site, but we shut it down for security reasons. One by one from the NSD Web page is the best we can offer. - LN
Pleased to see NSD 5.29 publicises the plight of the people of East Timor. Americans are often accused of being blinkered to the problems outside their own "patch". It is publicity like yours and, one hopes, the resulting international pressure that will result in civilised behaviour. I commend your actions.
John Elliot
Well, of the 13 people who write stuff for NSD, six are American, four are Canadian, two are in England, and one is an Aussie. We like to think we're cosmopolitan. - LN
Go to the front of the line. Excellent.
Steve - Calgary, Alberta
I look forward to getting this e-mail! It is fun and educational. Keep them coming and keep up the good work!
Brenda Clark
Just a word of praise: Praise!
I like your newsletter a lot - I've forwarded six of the articles from your latest edition to my friends and colleagues. Keep it coming!
Ron Schaumburg - New York
I was reading NSD 5.33 and was rather surprised to see my Web site mentioned. Thanks guys, and I take back everything I said!
Robert Williams
I've been subscribing to NSD for a while. Only recently have I been checking it out in earnest (read: making the time to read).
Long story short, this is an incredible resource. Definitely an added value to the Slashdot, Wired.com variety. I work at a technology mag, and am always looking for untapped ideas. NSD definitely keeps me abreast.
Mykella
LOL. Geeks.... - LN
Are you callin' me a geek? Wow. Cool.
You can thank us by sneaking mentions of NSD into articles in your technology mag. :) - AB
Just a note of sincere thanks for the pleasure you have given me over the past couple of years! As a latecomer to the marvellous world of cyberspace, I felt impelled to find sites worthy of preserving as bookmarks to ensure speedy familiarization with "surfing". Your superb knack of selecting fantastic sources of delightful information has captivated me. When NSD arrives, it gets top priority - and slows down progress through the mail. By the way, my computer crashed a few months ago and the very first site I restored to my bookmarks was NSD!
This 75-year old neophyte is grateful for all the treats you have given me, as well as the tricks that you sometimes feature.
Continued success!
Bruce Woodland
I love the "The Contents of Rodin's Skull, Revealed" headline (NSD 5.34), but wish the text had the strength of its conviction. If you thought my point was merely that The Thinker "looks like" the brain, I doubt you would have bothered mentioning it. And what Washington and a mushroom have to do with anything, I have no idea. But I'm happy. The hits are rolling in. You broke the story. Thanks!
Lewis Retrum
NSD 5.36 was another interesting and inspiring edition! Thanks for your research and go on!
Axel Heyer - Cologne, Germany
You're very nice. Too nice. Seriously, there was no need for the correction (NSD 5.37) as all my sites generally link among each other and well, I'm just not that concerned that people aren't finding "the right place" anymore. It's enough to see that people are still reading!
Thank you so much for mentioning my stuff at all. A couple of years ago, when you brought up my site, I was so surprised by the sheer number of hits that you guys drove to it (I'm an obsessive log watcher - not just my own, either) and so thankful! I'm so glad to see you're still around, writing cool stuff and pointing even more people to cool places. I meant to do this way back when but methinks I shall finally subscribe! :-)
Maggy Donea
Just wanted to say that I've been a subscriber for at least two years now. Great job. Keep it up!
Paul Formichelli
I wanted to say I think your NSD is the best thing I read online! Congratulations! I am happy like a kid when I see the header in my inbox. Keep it up!
Axel Makaroff - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Alas, we are a bit behind in our link tracking, but we just found your link to our site in your 8/28/99 issue. Thank you. I have just subscribed to your (obviously) tasteful and respectable e-zine; after all, if you recommend our site, then you must be a wonderful publication. Again, we thank you. Rodents unite!
Gair - Co-Founder, CEO, and Webmaster of the Hamster Liberation Front
We do a rodent good. (tm)
I'm a computer nerd. Suburban single mom. Self-employed. NSD helps me keep in touch with the world - with wit, humor, and sometimes even heart - while I'm trying to eke out a living. I read a lot, but I always look forward to spending some quality time with NSD. Thanks for putting so much of yourselves into it. Merry Christmas, too!
Wendy Wilson
You've missed an important point - back when the calendar was invented, there was no concept of the number zero (try finding a roman numeral for zero)... so whether you look at the question of quanta or not, on the year 2000 only 1,999 quanta (years) have passed. So there!
James Carrier - London, England
Define "on the year 2000". By my reckoning, if year 1
was the first, then year 2000 is the 2000th. I'm defining "on the year
2000" as being the indivisible year-quantum 2000, whether you celebrate it
at 12:00:01 a.m., Jan 1, 2000 or at 11:59:59 p.m., Dec. 31, 2000.
I'd agree that 2001 is the beginning of the next millennium, but that
wasn't our point. To me, the "Question of the Millennium" was which night
should you party more profoundly - Dec. 31, 1999 or 2000.
And the answer is "both". - LN
Quantum physicists do count the leading edge of the marble but I'm not one of them.
The argument is, I think whether the 2000th marble is the last marble of the 20th century or the first marble of the 21st. You say a millennium is composed of 1,000 years. We'll call them year 1 to year 1000. Second millennium is year 1001 to 2000. Third millennium then is 2001 to 3000, yes? So I'll be celebrating the end of the millennium for 12 more months.
More importantly, where can I get a date?
Tom Kennedy
Well, that's a question of the Millennium, but not the one I was answering. - LN
I'm lazy, I don't want to do the research, but - no one has shown that neither of these dates are correct yet. And they are not! You need to weed out and add (or subtract) all the times trough the last (approximately) 2,000 years that the calendar has been changed on the whim of calendar keepers!
I do recall that about 10 days (or so - told you I was lazy!) were added back in the 1700s (or 1800s in some countries).
Of course it wouldn't be easy to do all this calculating because some of that addition (or subtraction) was legitimate, in other words, what are we counting here? Calendar days? Earthly rotations? Diurinal cycles? Perhaps Earth years, like dog years, aren't the same!
Bob Krampetz
What are you doing, running for office? Talk about spurious rhetoric. The celebrations going on for Dec. 31, 1999 are for the beginning of a new millennium. A new millennium doesn't start until we finish the current one, which won't be until Jan. 1, 2001 due to the fact that there was no year 0 for our calendar and the first year didn't finish until the start of year 2, etc. By your example above, if I owe you 2000 million dollars and I give you 1999 million dollar certificates, I can celebrate the end of the debt because I remain in the process of giving you the last million (which, in the meantime, stays in my bank account earning me bigtime interest). What would be your reply to that? In the words of Bob from ReBoot: "I don't think so!"
David T. Adams
First, you're subdividing the year-quantum into days, which don't apply. I agree 2001 is the first year of the next millennium, but that means 2000 is the last of this one - and when you celebrate during the last year doesn't matter. - LN
Who do I think should be the person of the century?
I believe that our choice must come from an area that had the most significant impact on mankind over the past 100 years. This is not necessary the best approach, but because the choices are so numerous, it is necessary to use this exclusion or elimination method to arrive at an objective conclusion.
The areas that I consider are: Politics; Literature and Theatre; Religion, Philosophy, and Learning; Visual Arts, Movies, and TV; Music; Science and Technology; and Daily Living.
Science and Technology is miles above the rest in terms of influence, with Religion, Philosophy, and Learning a distant second. Why do I believe the choice should come from Science and Technology? It doesnt take a genius to figure out the significant impact of Science and Technology on humanity over the past 100 years. Where would politics or the fine art of communication be without the invention of the television set? Or Marconi transmission of telegraphic radio messages or the first telegraphic transmission of photograph?
Succinctly, there are more significant impacts in the area of science and technology in this century than all the other fields combined. Perhaps more lasting impact in this century than all the influences of all the generations of humanity combined (Except for the influences of the carpenter from Galilee and Moses before him)!
As a rationally thinking person, my choice must come from the area of Science and Technology. But which discipline? Consider the greatest inventions of mankind - the television set, the computer, and electricity - two of which were invented in this century: television set and the computer. But which is the greater? Ask me this question 20 years ago and my answer would clearly be the boob tube. Today, the computer makes mince meat of all other invention or influence on humanity. And oh yes, my person of the century is definitely its inventor, John Von Neumann
And so, there you have it. My choice for person of the century and the reasons for my selection.
Donald S. Stewart - LaSalle, Quebec
Who would I choose? Tough to say. Time Magazine chose Einstein, and he'd definitely get my nod as scientist of the century. But is that enough? The event on which most of the century turns is WWII, and Hitler and Stalin played the largest roles (I'm a big Churchill fan, but I don't think he makes this list). As far as business goes, it has to be Henry Ford. Hmm. Let me cop out with a list of four: Stalin, Ford, Einstein, and Hitler. - LN
As for me, quite independently (i.e. we haven't discussed this at all) I have to agree with Laurie that WWII is the pivotal event of the 20th century. Everything before WWII led up to it, everything after WWII was a consequence of it. That would make Hitler, for ill and good, the Person of the Century. He looms over history like hideous beast casting his shadow over everything - politics, science, business, morality. It will be several lifetimes before his influence on the course of events wanes. - AB
You could easily pin the blame for the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter on America's reluctance to adopt the metric system. This, however, would be too facile an argument.
The problem doesn't lie in metric versus English measurements. The problem lies in slipshod organization - the sort of bad planning that destroyed the Challenger, and the sort that we've, sadly, come to expect from NASA. The fault lies with all involved for failing to take the most basic questions into account.
The fact that America should adopt the metric system is neither here nor there. The fact that these scientists would waste more of our tax dollars on mistakes that even high school physics classes wouldn't make is what's truly disturbing.
John Grow
Regarding your note about how NASA should use metric measurement. Remember, Captain Kirk always used metric.
Don Greer - Tulsa, Oklahoma
We must bring the truth about Mars into the light of public debate. CBS news correctly stated that this makes the 30th attempt at sending a probe to Mars and only 10 have been successful. Missions fail 2/3 of the time only to this planet. Missions to other planets have not failed, only Mars holds this unique distinction in our Solar System. Why? What's on Mars that NASA, JPL, and MSSS are hiding? Why aren't the MGS MOC images being released? You should want to know!
With the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter on Sept. 23, 1999 it is even more imperative that data from the existing spacecraft be shared with the public that pays for these spacecraft, the instruments on them, and the salaries of the people who manage them. If NASA continues to refuse to release data when it is acquired than maybe it is time for Congress to cut the NASA budget. If the public cannot directly and immediately benefit from this data, then the public should not be required to pay for these missions. If images from missions to the planets continue to be hidden from public view then the public should stop spending tax dollars on these planetary missions.
The Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera (MGS MOC) has been in orbit since September 1997 and began its mapping mission on March 1, 1999. Dr. Mike Malin, NASA, and JPL have not been releasing the images from this spacecraft in the manner which they have posted on the Web sites and agreed to. The spacecraft has passed over the Cydonia Mensae at least four times since mapping began, but only one image has been released. Where are the rest?
All images are supposed to be released after six months, but that has not been done either. Only two images per week, on average, have been released by Dr. Malin, and recently this has been reduced to only one image a week. Kirk Goodall, who manages the MGS site for NASA, says the release of images is up to Dr. Malin, not NASA. I respectfully request a serious investigation into the Cydonia images, and a re-look at the fully processed images of the Cydonia Face. It is a face, not just a pile of rocks. Take a good look and use your Common Sense. How many fundamentally different geomorphic processes had to occur in the same place, at the same time, to form precise alignments of facial features as eyes, nose, nostrils, mouth, lips, chin and a uniform headdress built upon a uniformly high mesa? Huh? It is supremely unlikely for this feature to occur naturally, as the "main-stream scientists" say it does. Dr. Carl Sagan is famous for "Extraodinary claims requires extraordinary evidence." Well, extraordinary evidence requires extraordinary investigation, and NASA is simply not doing it, and releasing that investigative data to the public as per their own stated policy. Your investigation into this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Bob Williams - Plattsburgh, New York
Gosh, I love this job. - LN
Sorry guys, but you're out of line, and you're out of your depth. A "stable global trade environment"? "International beaurocracy?" How about reserving your opinionated snide comments for stuff you know something about? How can you ridicule protesters simply because they're protesting when you clearly do not have the faintest clue what you're talking about? Does the fact that you carry advertising on the bottom have something to do with your automatic, reflexive pro-business stance? Has it occured to you that the protesters might have a point? What could it be? Find out at
World Trade Observer
WTOWatch.org
In the future, would you please make sure not to take sides as long as you don't know what the fuck you're talking about? Makes you look like corporate monkeys.
Jurgen Fauth
You made some good points about lemming-like attacks on the WTO. But you, like much of the media, focused on the tiny minority of extremist vandals. Ignored was the 90% plus of peaceful, non-violent protestors - thinking adults - who took time out from jobs and families and travelled to Seattle. To flippantly dismiss these people with needing to vent is both ignorant and a slap in the face.
I'll remember to take an even larger dose of salt with your future commentary.
Harlan Simantel
Your e-mag is the only one this old broad has ever sent a fan letter to - but this one isn't it. You're editorializing entirely too much, folks - first the (sorry, but it's obvious) lame coverage of the WTO situation in Seattle, and then in the same issue, for crying out loud, the sentence reading "representatives of your government will lie to you and try to outflank the law, and online libertarians are too willing to join a lynch mob." Both sides of your mouth? I've already unsubscribed, and I really hate how your newsletter has changed.
Jean L. Hohnstein
The whole e-zine is one big editorial rant - all the
choices we make in what to cover are our take on what's interesting and how
relevant we feel it is. Obviously not everyone agrees with us, which is
fine.
Part of the reason for our shallow coverage was that we had to get the item
written the very first day that the story broke. By the time you got the
issue several days later, our article had been overtaken by events. Having
said that, I don't think the item was too far off the mark either factually
or in the tone of our opinion.
Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that a creative balance of
intellectual terror is the best that we can hope for between the forces of
control (government) and the forces of anarchy (the masses). They both have
their excesses and it would be foolish to uncritically accept the inherent
moral superiority of either. Our editorial position has always been to be
sceptical of everybody equally, though I'll confess to a more libertarian
bent to our coverage on most issues.
The years fly by and we all grow up in ways that won't please everybody.
Thanks for taking the time to write without flaming. - AB
Pretty disappointing WTO report. You should check out the incredible video coverage at the Seattle Indy Media Center.
Peter Mitchell
Geez, must have been some pretty good server software to repel those kind of attacks ("WTO Follow-Up", NSD 5.41). What was it? I think I would want that running my Web site!
Charles P. Watson - Reno, Nevada
I don't know, but I bet they'd tell you. - LN
Just wanted to thank you for an especially interesting edition on Oct. 30! I didn't know which to read first, things were all so fascinating. Lots of effort went into making the page the great one it was. Thanx again!
Dorothy
Halloween? What's that?
Garry Brennan - Sydney, Australia
This was a great one. :) Carry on with this great work.
Elmar
I think I am one of your 1994 subscribers - anyway, it's been a long time.
Hate the Halloween issue. Hate the stupid monkey ad on your home page. Other stuff is good.
Paul Rogers - Oz
"In 1888, Graham Harwick bought a couple of female bodies from the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane and mummified them with a formula of his own devising.... Hospitals nowadays are less free with corpses, so it is unlikely that such an experiment can be repeated, legally at least."
Actually, it has been done since, and the BBC's science magazine programme "Tomorrow's World" (on which I used to work) made a film about it. I'll try and track down the details for you but it certainly was in the USA and only about two years ago.
Alex Seaborne
About the pickled people: weird site, eh? I particularly liked the obligatory (Japanese) group shot, next to the alien with a quarter of his head missing!! You can download a good asian script decoder at: NJStar Software, by the way. Keep up the excellent work - my favourite online mag.
Simon Drury - Tokyo, Japan
I visited GenoChoice (NSD 5.29) and I liked the design of the site but I cannot understand the reason why the homosexuality is considered by author Virgil Wong as a "genetic defect". This interpretation of human sexuality, even in humor, injures both homo and hetero. Hitler used this reason to justify the murder of the homosexuals as defective people. What will be Mr. Wong's next joke? Blacks, Asians, Whites, Jews or even women may become considered to be "genetic defects".
Enrique Ros - Spain
I mostly enjoy NSD, but today I really got my dander up at wording in NSD 5.29 that will reinforce the belief that Canada is all snow and ice as soon as you cross the border: "the bit below the Arctic tundra" and "the 18 or so hours between summer and winter". It just ain't so, man! Not for several hundred miles north of the border. I agree that it's colder than most of your more southerly states, but not as bad as the majority of Americans think of it!
Dorothy - Canada
Cool your jets, Dot. I'm in Montreal. And you'll note I was making fun of the fall, not the summer. - LN
From "Art Frahm and the Art of Falling Panties" (NSD 5.30): "...the likelihood of this happening is next to nil; anybody who's wrestled with a girlfriend for her underwear knows these things don't just fall off."
But in the '50s, when the elastic was a far cry from today's, they often did! And they still will today if you lose too much weight or sweat a lot. Just thought a panties-wearer's input might be useful here.
Lily Phoenix
I just wanted to take issue with your confused metaphor in "Slashdot Meets Jane's: The Birth of Collective Journalism?" (NSD 5.32). The offending sentence reads: "We liken such practice more to mob rule than democratic reporting."
Democracy is a Greek word. "Demos" is for "many, mass, multitude, or mob". The "ocracy" means "system, or method". Hence, mob rule. As Plato noted, democratic rule (government by the majority) will always result in a minority.
Your error is akin to the oft stated, "Mr. Clinton shouldn't be put out of office by the Senate - he was elected by the American people." We don't elect our Presidents or Vice Presidents by popular (mob rule) vote.
J.C. Blanqui
While the literal translation is the same, the connotation is not. There's a difference between a reasonably well-behaved multitude that follows rules and a chaotic, unruly mob. - LN
Mr. Blanqui's note about "(government by the majority) will always result in a minority" rang a bell with me. Since this was written I ran into an article somewhere (too lazy to track it down, maybe Scientific American) which talked about multi-candidate voting systems. For example if you have candidates A,B and C, and A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A, who should be elected as the clear choice of the voters? It turns out that it's quite difficult to come up with a fair voting system in ballots which force voters to choose between multiple simultaneous alternatives. Anyway, the bottom line is that after some mathematical analysis it turns out that in many of those kind of cases you wind up with a choice which only reflects a view of the minority. For all our ideological love fest with democracy, it is far from a perfect system. What's that famous quote? Democracy is the worst possible system of government, except for every other system of government. - AB
I received this today via a list I belong to - and reading your article about 97-Bit Elliptic Curve Crypto Broken (NSD 5.31) reminded me.
>Have you heard about HREF="http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/29/timintint02001.html?
>1341861">this?
>
>The Israeli Weizmann Institute has broken RSA 512-bit encryption in, get
>this, 12uS (microseconds). And if that was not enough, it's handheld using
>a
>mix of quantum and optical computing technology.
Vic Firestone
This was a hoax. There are no quantum computers, at least not yet. :) - LN
The quantum bit (ahem...) is not true. However, they did manage to design an optical computer which can search for keys reasonably fast due to being able to do lot's of parallel processing. Somebody has probably build one by now. - AB
Do you guys look at the articles you recommend? The National Geographic poll (NSD 5.32) makes no sense. Tikal Guatemala is listed at least three times with different numbers and, in the alphabetic listing, Glacier Park shows up in Israel.
Peg - Chantilly, Virginia
When our monkeys aren't avoiding punches, we have them banging away at keyboards. This random text looked good enough to put in NSD. We don't look at the sites, since we know none of you really read NSD anyway. - LN
Your, and every other announcement of the availability of an online Britannica (NSD 5.34) adds up to nothing more than a fraud. Britannica, for all practical purposes, was unavailable. Web site congestion, server problems, whatever. I never have been able to reach it, despite trying all hours of the day and night. I do get a polite message explaining their problems, though. That message is delivered reliably. I would like to suggest the real news is the unavailability of Britannica.
Cary Africk
That was sorta the point of our review. - LN
Somehow I missed the subtlety.
"It is free and it is online, but there's a little problem with the available part. The launch of free Web access has hit the company's servers hard, and for now you just get a polite little note advising you that demand exceeds capacity...." Who's subtle? - LN
Regarding your recommendation in NSD 5.36 to visit a link to help to identify criminals in a recent riot in the UK. The article was clear: the cameras exist as a result of "Irish terrorism" in Britain. Such a statement shows your arrogance and prejudice.
I will be discontinuing my subscription to your service and vigorously warning friends everywhere to boycott your company as a result.
Ongoing oppressive British foreign policy, particularly over the course of the past 70 years, has got them to where they are today in their relationship with the indigenous community of Northern Ireland. Your parroting of the spin-phrases of that policy will not help your business.
YangZone
Terrorism is the use of violence to force a political
(often) point. Regardless of any political stance on the question of
Ireland, the fact is that the IRA in the past used violence to promote its
cause. Ergo, they used terrorism. Ergo, they are terrorists.
To help avoid the terrorism, British authorities posted this system.
Your perspective is clear, but you seem unable to take words at face value.
For the purposes of this article, we couldn't care less about Northern
Ireland. Since when is "terrorism" a spin-phrase?
You need to set aside your agenda and only read what's there. And if you
deny that the IRA used terrorism, you're too far removed from reality to
get anything out of NSD anyway. - LN
Your definition of terrorism is accurate. Common military action, too, is the use of violence to force a political (often) point.
There is an implied perjorative sense when you use the phrase "Irish terrorism". Some 90% of the people involved in paramilitary activity are actually citizens of the UK. But look how saying UK terrorists would have made your article confusing.
The IRA got the label "terrorists" from a Tory government that wanted war and got war in Northern Ireland. At that time Margaret Thatcher was busy calling Nelson Mandela "a terrorist" and was trying to convince all around her to support his continued incarceration. Yes, he advocated the use of violence to promote his cause but who now would refer to him as a terrorist or one-time terrorist?
Several sides in the Irish conflict used violence to promote their cause. First you state that the IRA used violence to promote their cause. But you then feel the need to go further and call it "terrorism". For what purpose? The effect is not just to refer to a conflict but to instill a notion that one side might be more legitimate in their violence than the other. That is editorial bias and that's where you and I have a problem.
The Yugoslavs have held to the view that the military action recently taken against them was terrorism. They used this term to try to make their enemy look like the bad guy. But where do you see a journalist here refer to the action as terrorism?
But I see your view. It's held by the BBC, CNN, and Murdoch. But I do not and will not subscribe to any publication that continues to institutionalize the term "terrorist" for a chosen enemy. The people who are trying to bring about peace in Northern Ireland do not use the phrase "Irish terrorism" or "terrorism" because they know that name calling does not help. The term "violence" is to the point and what people are trying to bring an end to.
Anyway, were in two different political places. No more NSD for me. Damn, I bought a gift through your site recently. Oh, well.
I was expecting to get a reply stating that it was a mistake that the piece got past the editors.
I will be posting your reference to "Irish terrorism" widely so then anyone who reads it will see how naive I am.
I wish to raise a voice of protest in relation to "UK Riot Portraits Online"
As an Irishman, I object to the tone and phraseology used in this article about "Irish terrorism". You brand a whole country by reference to the acts of a few (at most a couple of hundred) crazy, miguided people. The vast majority of Irish people have had no time for the men of violence and we all live in hope of a lasting peace without guns or bombs.
Bobby Davison
I think you're reading too much into this. Tone and
phraseology? The following is the only mention: "The UK incorporates one of
the largest public space video surveillance networks on the planet, a
consequence of Irish terrorism."
I don't see a tone there. And the phraseology is just two words: Irish and
terrorism.
Facts are the IRA used terrorism, and they were Irish (well, according to
their name, anyway). It's perfectly adequate to refer to them as Irish
terrorists, and their acts as Irish terrorism.
I could understand your concern if we'd said something like "Irish
state-sanctioned terrorism" or had we described Ireland as a hotbed of
radical bombers, or some such. Nobody is likely to say: "as a consequence
of terrorism conducted by some people who happen to support an Irish cause
but don't represent but a minority opinion in that land."- LN
Regarding "Clever Bubbleboy Worm Hits Microsoft Outlook E-Mail Client Users" in NSD 5.36: You would have saved me some time and a lot of consternation had you included the fact a link to Microsoft's patch and told me that Microsoft issued a security bulletin about this in August 1999.
So much for "hot" crisis news from Netsurfer and Reuters/Yahoo. Next time I'll have be careful to do some checking on my own to verify the actual criticality of what you report. Wish your editors and reporters would do the same....
Harry Childers
You say about the Bubbleboy virus, "We should note that this only affects Microsoft Outlook users and not any other e-mail clients"
Then you link to an article on Yahoo that says, "Other e-mail programs such as Exchange and Lotus Notes are also vulnerable, Viveros said." The Yahoo article also goes on to say that the virus also affects Outlook Express.
Your Microsoft bashing is always noticeable, but this seems particularly mean-spirited and poorly researched.
Matt Wareham
Shame on NSD for recommending the book on foie gras. NSD should know better than advocate cruelty to animals. Foie gras is extremely cruel and NSD should know that.
Here is what the esteemed Sir John Gielgud has to say about foie gras: "Even a cursory examination of the methods used to restrain and force feed these birds would make a decent person shudder. Foie gras is an abomination that every humane individual and organisation must reject as a disgrace in civilised society."
Also, here is some information about foie gras production: Ducks are mellow and gentle creatures that add charm and serenity to any human community that respects them and permits them to thrive. Next time you go to the parks to toss bread for the ducks picture this - instead of being able to eat at will, some ducks lead a life where they have a metal tube jammed down their throats to pump food into the ducks' stomachs. Three times a day for several weeks prior to slaughter, these ducks are force-fed large quantities of fatty corn mixture with the intent of enlarging their livers eight times the normal size. This forced-feeding causes the ducks to suffer extensive throat, liver, spleen, and gall bladder damage. All of this cruelty for the sake of a gourmet "delicacy" called foie gras or "fatty liver".
Absolutely no care is taken when putting the tube down the duck's throat. It is easy to see the end of the tube pushing out the side of the neck as it slid down the throat. Some duck's stomachs rupture when the machine pumps too much air and food into their bodies. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says that even if tubes are carefully inserted, the force-feeding procedure results in "intense suffering and frequently painful deaths."
I like to read NSD but I do not like when cruelty to animals is supported. I am very disappointed that NSD would recommend a book about foie gras.
David Adams
So use chicken liver, like we suggested, instead. - LN
I did not find your reply amusing in the slightest. You are rude and inconsiderate. Learn some manners!
I knew we'd get an off-the-hip shot from some animal
lover on this one, so I specifically mentioned in the recommendation that
the book addresses this very topic. You might want to stop by your friendly
neighborhood bookstore and read the chapter on the physiology of ducks and
their treatment by any reputable foie gras producer. In fact, I
specifically ran this information by a knowlegable animal lover of my
acquaintance who confessed to having been favorably educated about the
facts of foie gras production and impressed that the authors have given
serious thought to the animal welfare aspect of their operations. For
example they discuss scientific studies of duck stress levels in foie gras
farms, the physiology of duck throats and livers, natural duck feeding
patterns, and modern duck farming methods designed specifically to
eliminate stress in the animals.
Ultimately the bottom line is that if you buy into being an omnivore and
eat meat then you can't escape the perfectly natural reality of killing
animals for food. The moral issue then becomes one of treating them
reasonably up until that point and killing them cleanly. I'm personally
satisfied that the authors of this book have dealt with this issue in a
responsible manner. Your moral outrage mileage may vary.
By the way, I was not aware that the esteemed Sir John was an expert duck
farmer in addition to his considerable talents as a thespian. More power to
him! - AB
Shouldn't we really be talking about geese, anyway? - LN
I enjoy NSD immensely, but I am moved to comment on your review of ExpertCentral.com (NSD 5.38). At minimum, you should have mentioned that the experts are not credentialed.
I am an educator, pharmacist, and attorney with over 25 years of experience, so I reviewed a number of questions and answers. Many were incomplete, misleading, and incorrect. A feedback system is of little value when it is generated by people who do not have the ability to truly rate the so-called expert, i.e. they are not professional peers. Also, how can the typical user evaluate the expert's qualifications? The experts say they have a degree, but no verification is made. In fact, many that I looked at that named a degree failed to mention the institution that conferred it.
One of the problems with the Internet is that it is difficult to determine the authenticity and accuracy of information. By featuring this site, you are contributing to the problem. The concept behind the site is great, but why doesn't the site place their disclaimer in a predominant place on the main page? (No need to answer that one!) The site itself is fairly well designed, but unfortunately a large number of users equate site design with accurate and unbiased information.
Consider your own NSD. It is well documented with the identification of editors, writers, and corporate officers and how to reach them. Use the same criteria for sites such as the one above that profess to supply "expert" advice. I teach my students that if a resource or informational site doesn't provide at least some biographical, credentialing, or meaningful contact information regarding the authors or designers, they should view the site with extreme skepticism.
Thomas George - Cresson, Pennsylvania
I agree with you completely. In this case, I'd have to say that failing to mention the lack of any standard qualifications background was an error on our part. - LN
I got into a huge discussion here with a guy over Peter Duesberg's book (related to NSD 5.39, "Another AIDS Conspiracy Theory").
I did computer support for several years for some researchers doing AIDS and cancer work here. Duesberg's claims just didn't ring true. His books sounds more like a life insurance infomercial than reasoned science. So I went and did some surfing and found this NIH rebuttal of his claims.
I called up one of my friends from there and asked him about Duesberg. He was very familiar with the controversy. He was sad because he said Duesberg did some great early work. Nobody's quite sure what drove him to irrationality. Bad brain chemicals maybe?!
Sid Sidner
Personally, I think he's turned quack, but the site did more or less rationally present the controversy so I decided to cover it. - LN
You might be interested to know that @Home customers (or at least us customers of Cox Communications using Cox@Home) can't get to icravetv.com (NSD 5.40). Traceroute times out on some Alter.net server in San Jose, so it looks more like an @Home move to block access. I didn't think it was @Home's policy to censor any Web content.
George Wu
I have been reading NSD for many years. I have found it to be a valuable resource. But as of late it takes from 10 to 30 minutes to load the page. It appears to hang on Flycast or something like that. I know they are the source of your revenue, but if I cannot wait for your page to load I don't get the advertising or the information I really want, then we all lose.
Vic Linderholm
Agreed. I've noticed the same. I think Flycast is
being hit with some serious loads. I believe the problem has to do with the
fact that people are surfing like mad, making many more ad exposures that
must be handled by Flycast.
This is a serious issue for us because we have to badger Flycast to make
sure they don't choke on the holiday ad-serving load. Last year, its
servers went down for a good part of a week and it scrambled to add more
boxes during the November/December rush.
On the other hand, a wait of 10-30 minutes is excessive and is much more
likely to be congestion on your network. We're certainly not seeing
anything nearly as bad - at most 60-120 seconds for the entire issue to
load at worst. If you know how, you can do traceroutes to adex3.flycast.com
and see where the problem is. As a general rule anything over two minutes
is not likely to be the ad servers - they either load the whole issue's
worth of ads in that amount of time or they're totally offline. - AB
For a comp[any involved in Net business, your newsletter has to be the slowest loading of all I get. You need a new webmaster. Have a look at anyone else's and you'll see that you are by far the slowest. Not very impressive.
J-M D'Aoust
Not to be flip about it (well, maybe a little) but it's quite fast if you have a DSL/cable modem. Seriously, the loading speed depends on many factors including the speed of your connection, the load on the ad servers, domain name server speed, and general Internet network congestion. If it's too slow for your patience threshold, we certainly understand. - AB
I was very disappointed to see your advertisement for Playboy.com in a recent issue of Netsurfer Digest. As a member of the military, I've seen first-hand the devastation that this kind of stuff can cause in the lives of both young and old alike. I sincerely hope and pray you'll reconsider your choice to support these types of sites. Consider me unsubscribed and rest assured I'll be telling my friends to do the same.
Tom Hogan
We have little say in what ads appear, as we subscribe to an ad service. When an ad appears, we see it for the first time at the same time as you. We can request that some ads not appear in NSD, and we'll consider your opinion now that we know Flycast is sending us Playboy ads. - LN
Flycast sucks! I can't even open your pages with Flycast ads. In fact to open your home page, I had to steal the source, delete all Flycast references and open it from my desktop. This has been the case with the last three bulk mails.
Andy Freeman
Yeah, Flycast bogs down sometimes, especially near Christmas. But there wouldn't be a NSD without it. - LN
I absolutely hate all the animated advertisements on your site and others. They are extremely distracting and aggravating, and they make me want to leave your site as soon as I can. To express my displeasure, i never use or buy from a website that has such advertisements, if I can find another that doesn't.
Norman Ershler - Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Hit the ESC key. This might stop all animations on a Web page. Problem solved, possibly. - AB
That obnoxious, irritating monkey at the top of the newsletter that runs back and forth is the most irritating thing any Web site can have. I wouldn't click on that monkey to win $10,000. Some people use the four or five monkey thing at the top their pages, too. Very irritating. I want to read a newsletter or view a Web site; I don't want a lot of irritating flashing or animated graphics pounding out or across my screen.
Just a comment that maybe other people are reluctant to make.
William J. Viers
Just finished reading Letters to the Editor 5.29. I agree with Leonard, Don, Joseph, Fred, and Bob. Tell the rest of the letter writers to chill out, relax, enjoy. Do your bitching at the polls. To the boss. To the wife/husband. They sure aren't putting any money in your pocket for all the work that you do - but I bet that monkey running back and forth helps with the bills. I just pulled up the first NSD that I received - about a year ago, or so I thought. Boy was I surprised: NSD 2.20, June 27, 1996. Keep 'em comin'!
Ron McGann
Can you tell me how I can add this game to my site?
Stan Bialowas
Thank you for getting rid of the Web's most annoying advertisement, "Punch the Monkey". Unfortunately, you now have the Web's second most annoying ad, for "enonymous". Frankly, all these ads do is make me close the page or move on. Please reconsider using the ad.
Russ Silbiger
It would be interesting to know how many of the creationists writing to NSD are from America. Possibly 100%? I ask because here in Western Europe it is a bit of a non-issue. Although I cannot claim a lot of friends within the church, I certainly have never met one who was a creationist. There is a new theory somewhere here... I have to work on it. Let's see: monkeys, Americans, creationism, evolution.... Hmmm, I'll get back to you.
Jalal
Generally, I can't stomach reading the mumbo-jumbo that spews out of Redmond like a geyser. Luckily for me, Microsoft has decided to use some crazy font in their Linux-bashing page (NSD 5.32) which my Mac renders illegible anyway. "Mumble sans"?
Andy Freeman
P.S. The funny part, from what I could make out, was the bit about Linux's "weak" security system. It reminds me of the Ingsoc method of increasing the chocolate ration from 50% to 30%.
From NSD 5.42 ("The Final Hours of Quake III Arena"): "How do you say "smuggling" in Brazilian? (Hey, we know it's really Spanish. Ha! Gotcha! We know it's Portuguese)."
You say "contrabando".
Wayne Selcher - Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
"Some of you are still not aware that we also publish a monthly e-zine devoted to school and educaton resources online."
My question: Do educaton resources online include a spailling be?
Yves Jodogne
See, the way we look at it, if we didn't have a
blatent error in NSD now and again we'd be depriving people such as
yourself of the great pleasure of correcting us. So it's really a feature,
not a bug.
Thanks for reading (carefully, it seems)! - AB
I enjoy reading NSD. In NSD 5.38, I followed the link at the end of "The Internet for Cocktail Parties" to find out what kind of information someone would put together for newbies. As I read the first few paragraphs, I noticed at least two words spelled incorrectly. I skipped down to the bottom to find the webmaster's e-mail address and noticed the phrase "techinal words". Clearly the author either doesn't know how to spell or did not read what he had written. Out of curiosity, do you guys read the pages you recommend?
Jeff Block
We do extensively visit each site we review. I agree with you that poor spelling and typos detract from Web pages, but, on the other hand, the quality of content can more than make up for that deficiency. - LN
The "How to Become Sportingly Correct" (NSD 5.42) site doesn't seem to come up with a definition of "bonking".
John Wondrack
Hmmm. I'd vote for the third option then. - LN
Just a minor correction: the Biblical book is Revelation, not Revelations.
And for what it's worth, that's the Protestant designation. Catholic Bibles call it Apocalypse, which is just the English transliteration of the Greek word that means revelation (apokalupsos).
Dan Olinger
Microsoft's other monopoly which many have been unaware of, will exist between consumers and the Internet in Europe.
At first it was by forming a gateway in which the world must pass through to use a computer, now they're quietly forming a similiar controlled gateway between the people and the internet. It's also evident they're using local European Internet Service Providers to carry out this master plan in particular a company by the name of Internet Gold, a Israeli Internet Service Provider than dominates the Mediterranean.
This is Microsoft's "other" monopoly and its currently under construction. However, this time Bill Gates and Co. have decided to start in Europe. Currenly MSN Israel, next MSN Europe and maybe MSN China
Here's a quote from Microsoft's Internet Gold: "The firm also signed a pact with Microsoft Corp. in October in which both companies will initiate a Hebrew language Web search service on the Israeli Gold portal -- to be called MSN Israel."
Another quote: "Internet Gold is a leading ISP in Israel. But the company plans to buy into ISPs in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority - most of which Holtzman said can be had at bargain prices."
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991202/50.html
Questions that need to be answered:
- Has anyone noticed this yet?
- Will Microsoft succeed while putting little European and Asian ISPs out
of business?
- Can a purely Internet based monopoly be regulated?
Sarah
The emergency online service supplied on the McAfee Web site to create an emergency rescue disk online is nine months old. What good is anti-virus software that is so out of date? My informer was infected by the babylonia.exe worm virus, and believed the hype put out by McAfee and tried to take up their offer of a fix. Needless to say, he was let down badly.
His next step was to download the 28 MB Norton Antivirus v5.0, which did not run, and in final desperation bought a full release of Norton v5.0 with ..dat files dated July 1998. On installing this, the virus infected the files as they loaded.
So are we being ripped off by the virus detection software publishers? I can only conclude that their cries of requiring updates are perpetuated by the age of the files they supply on CD. Not everybody has the internet to download massive files that don't work afterwards.
Adrian Sadler
No probes of any kind were lost in the making of this page.
Publisher: Arthur Bebak
Editor: Lawrence Nyveen
Address your letters to editor@netsurf.com.
Letters and
signatures edited for clarity and brevity.