CMU BANS ALT.SEX, SPARKS NET FUROR
Carnegie Mellon University sparked a nationwide furor by removing several alt.sex newsgroups from its Usenet feed. Officials were worried about liability for knowingly distributing sexually explicit or obscene material, especially to minors. Criticism has come from both the student body and the faculty, which passed a resolution to reinstate the alt groups. National organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have also weighed in with criticism. The ever-practical students have responded with a "How to Receive Banned Newsgroups" FAQ and a well orchestrated series of protest actions. Check out the comprehensive and informative Web page for daily updates on the situation. Discussion threads can also be found on alt.censorship and alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk. "http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs/usr/kcf/www/censor/"
COURT RULING LIMITS SCOPE OF ELECTRONIC PRIVACY ACT
In reviewing the outcome of the notorious Steve Jackson v. the Secret Service case (the Secret Service went nuts and confiscated the BBS of a harmless Cyberpunk game publisher), the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the seizure of a bulletin board (BBS) which contains private electronic mail is not an unlawful interception prohibited by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. They upheld a lower court ruling that the seizure was not an intercept because it was not contemporaneous with the transmission of the communications, thus not protected under the ECPA. "ftp://cpsr.org/computer_crime/jackson_ecpa_appeal_1994.txt"
DATABASE PROVIDER DIALOG ON THE WEB
This is probably of great interest to online researchers since Dialog Information Services, Inc., is one of the biggest providers of online databases in the world, with more than 450 databases - primarily business, news, scientific, and technical topics - used by over 155,000 customers in 100 countries. They also have databases on CD-ROM with more than 60 titles offered in six subject families: Business Information, Education and Humanities, Health and Biomedicine, Law and Government, Newspapers, and Science and Technology. You can find out more about all of those, and do some searches on their indexes at their new Web site. "http://www.dialog.com"
MOSAIC COMMUNICATIONS NOW NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS CORP.
It turns out that the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has started to aggressively remind people that NCSA Mosaic is protected by a trademark. This prompted Mosaic Communications, makers of the hyper-popular Netscape WWW browser, to change their name.
The Internet Hunt is on hiatus until January. According to Rick Gates, master of the hunt, "We're trying to evolve the Hunt. If we are to avoid stagnancy, and continue to reflect the energy and dynamism of the Nets, it's time for a change." The monthly contest features a series of questions with answers to be found on the Net. Contestants vie to answer the most questions in the least amount of time by surfing the Net. We'll let you know when it's back.
NET SURVEY REACHES 3.8 MILLION HOSTS
The latest Domain Survey recorded a 21 percent host growth rate in the third quarter of 1994, the greatest rate of growth in the past four years. If projections hold, we should see 100 million hosts by the first quarter of 1999. Not surprisingly, the .com domain is now the largest with over one million hosts. In another telling statistic, the .net domain, used by many public data internet service providers for their customers, grew by 66 percent during the quarter. You can find all the statistics at: "http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/top.html" "ftp://ftp.nw.com/zone/"
NEW ESTIMATES OF K12 DOMAINS YIELD OVER 100,000 USERS
John Clement and Janice Abrahams are surveying grade school sites in the U.S. and have come up with over 500 schools connected to the Net, with over 71,000 WWW users in only six states (California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Virginia). Based on work in progress, they estimate there are over 100K WWW users in schools across the nation. Other results can be found on John and Janice's Research Page: "http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/states/states.html"
LATEST ELECTION STUNNER OVERSHADOWS REPUBLICAN SWEEP IN U.S.
In what may be the most stunning election result of our time, a true bird brain has been swept into high office. On November 8, 2,648 voters, spanning three countries and 31 institutions of lower learning, voted to elect a new mayor of Toon Town. The illustrious roster of candidates included Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, and Batman. The real kicker is the results: Tweety Bird (!!), with 709 votes, is the new mayor of Toon Town. It gets better. The commercial powerhouse Mickey Mouse (385) placed a distant 5th behind runner-up Minnie Mouse (581), Donald Duck (512) and Mayor-elect Tweety Bird's archnemesis, Sylvester (388). Batman was not in the running, with only one vote, the same pathetic number as the Tick. You won't get news like this on CNN, folks. "http://buckman.pps.k12.or.us/election/election.html"
JAN'S KNITS MAKE NICE GIFTS (AND SMALL GIFS)
It's time to think about the holidays, so here's a gift tip. For something cool and offbeat, check out the new site for Jan's Custom Knits. She claims she can customize any of her knit blankets, wraps, bags, and so on, with a name, date, and even a photograph. Nice thing about this site is that the sample design GIFs (some themes: Hobby, Music, Dogs, Dr. Who) are small and easily checked out. We suggest you turn off your inline image downloading then look at the descriptions before downloading the designs. "http://www.rahul.net:80/puffin/"
Well, maybe not, but it's getting some online competition from a new mailing list called "tv2nite". You can get a free listing of American prime time network and cable TV programs. Every morning, you'll get a new E-Mail which summarizes the evening's best viewing, followed by a complete programming guide for all major broadcast and cable networks. You also get to find out who's scheduled to appear on the late night talk shows. Local programming listings are not included. To subscribe, send E-Mail to "listserv@netcom.com" with the message "subscribe tv2nite-l".
"WAS TOO!", "WAS NOT!" BATTLE OVER MAGAZINE BRAGGING RIGHTS
We found a couple of great quotes in a recent Wall Street Journal from rival publishers of Internet oriented magazines. NetGuide says they are "the first consumer magazine devoted entirely to helping people navigate through cyberspace." No way, says Internet World: "We were the first consumer magazine to help people navigate through cyberspace." Well, we here at Netsurfer say they're both wrong. As far as we know, Boardwatch magazine was there long before either of them. Back before the Net was the happening thing they covered the cyberspace of the BBSes with more style, substance, and panache then either of the above can possibly hope to match. So here's a free plug for them. "http://www.boardwatch.com"
ANARCHY, ECONOMICS, FREEDOM, AND PSYCHOPATHS
The newsgroup is alt.anarchy. The topic is freedom. This is the place to hang out if governments give you the dry heaves and if liberty is your passion. The discussion can turn to conventional politics - for example, the rightist outcome of recent U.S. Congressional elections - but you can also find more philosophical threads: how should an anarchistic society deal with psychopaths? ("Anarchy and Psychopaths"); is it possible to sell your freedom? ("Freedom for Sale"). For the practical anarchist who must deal with everyday problems of managing a revolution, this is the place to ask about how-to manuals like "The Anarchist Cookbook". A useful resource if you need to go and overthrow something.
ONLINE STARK FIST COMING "SOON": REV. IVAN STANG
The approaching online appearance of The Stark Fist of Removal, the official zine of the Church of the SubGenius, is great news for fans of the Church and denizens of alt.slack. It can be confusing in this corner of the Info Bog (aka Kibosphere, The Information Catheter) for the uninitiated, but cheap enlightenment does not come cheap. Read about the Church's charismatic yet fecund anti-leader J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, connections between the Mormon "Guide to Self-Control" and masturbating with boxing gloves on, Bob Dobbs screen savers for Linux (that most slackful of Unixes), and a proposal for countering the religious right's insistence on a moment of silence in schools with a moment of chaos. If you can't wait to see the online Stark Fist, try this URL: "http://www.voicenet.com/voicenet/homepages/SirWill1/slack.html"
Two Solitudes, an E-Mail romance, is now available for subscription. Two Solitudes is a short work of fiction delivered through E-Mail. Upon subscription to the service, readers receive over the course of several weeks carbon copies of messages exchanged between two persons familiar with each other, as they send them. Subscription requests should be addressed to "two_solitudes@cdtl.umn.edu" or "twosolit@ie1next.me.umn.edu".
If you're a Peter Gabriel junkie, you'll have to stop by this fan-oriented site. Here you'll find a discography, a list of lyrics and guitar chords, and information on the Peter Gabriel mailing list. If you're expecting loads of visuals, you might be disappointed. There are just a few images of the Big Time guy. The only other major drawback is that some of the categories need updating for 1994. "http://www.nwu.edu/music/gabriel/"
"Our music is so fresh that the artists barely have time to starve before we get their demos online." So says the opening page of this cool music site featuring some not-very-mainstream bands in all sorts of music categories. The neat interface design has icons embedded directly in its top level menu. Choose the music category, then select the name of the group you would like to check out, and you'll see their own page with soundfiles, graphics, bios, and other related stuff. Some spots are still under construction, but there's a lot of variety and something for everyone, including Spoken Word Poetry. Good content. "http://streams.com/starchild/"
This Web site offers an eerie exploration of life through photography and poetry. Maintained by artist Joseph Squier, "The Place" was optimized for viewing on a Macintosh utilizing the Netscape browser. "Text only" viewing is not recommended. You'll find some disturbing themes, but this is an interesting and instructive use of cyberspace for art. "http://gertrude.art.uiuc.edu/ludgate/the/place.html"
KITARO HOMEPAGE HONORS THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
Who would have known that this Living National Treasure of Japan was inspired by Otis Redding? A complete discography including every album track, upcoming tour dates, and a fan club address in Beverly Hills round out this new age devotional. "http://mindspring.com/users/shadow/kitaro.html"
TRIO OF JAPANESE SITES: RENAISSANCE MUSIC AND MODERN PAINTING
The sites can be accessed from the Ikeda Laboratory page at Chiba University. Renaissance Consort brings you a demonstration of Renaissance consort and Renaissance instruments complete with sound files and pictures of such ominously named items as the Tenor Crumhorn, Treble Viole, and Glastonbury Pipe. You can then hop over to the Electronic Early Music page where you can listen to some synthesized outtakes from Tieleman, immersing yourself in the Rhonde, the Pavane, and La Bataille. Finally, head over to an art exhibition of rather interesting works in what may be watercolor (hard to tell), accompanied by unreadable (to us) Japanese text. Constructed by Yasuhiko Higaki. "http://www.hike.te.chiba-u.ac.jp/cons1/" "http://www.hike.te.chiba-u.ac.jp/eem/" "http://www.hike.te.chiba-u.ac.jp/rooms4res/jb/No.01.html"
OSU ART PROGRAMS AND LINKS TO WORLDWIDE ART RESOURCES
The Ohio State University Department of Art has a collection of local info of interest to art students. It also contains a complete list of art links with lists of world art resources, museums, galleries and exhibitions, commercial resources, arts publications, institutions, government and academic sites, and others. Also check out their "Mystery Links". Beware: lots of large graphics. "http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/Newark/artsres.html" "http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/COTA/Home.html"
John Ockerbloom has created a new Web page making books which have been the objects of censorship, particularly by legal authorities or by schools, available online. The selections range from "Ulysses" to "Little Red Riding Hood". It seems Red was toting a bottle of the grape to Grandma and some killjoys thought kids couldn't handle that monumentally trivial detail. In an inspired piece of irony this page is hosted at Carnegie Mellon University (see above). "http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/spok/banned-books.html"
COLLECTION OF WEB LINKS FOR KIDS FORM BOOK PREVIEW
Presumably, the profligate links on Websters's Page will be among the 500 to be listed in the soon-to-be-released book "Internet: A Parents' Guide", for which this site serves as an advance teaser. The page, ostensibly for use by kids and their parents, contains links both useful and irrelevant to the target audience. Among the worthwhile science, art, and reference sites are a few like EDGAR, an outlet for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which might be okay for a term paper, but otherwise would seem to have limited appeal. "http://www.halcyon.com/ResPress/kids.html" Book: "http://www.halcyon.com/ResPress/parents.html"
STRANGE LINKS FORM MAGICAL BLEND
"Magical Blend Magazine" seems to have nestled itself in the simply strange and mystical, improved over, or perhaps retreating from, its original "too weird for words" style. Unfortunately, they also removed some interesting links, though plenty of strange ones remain. It has some far-out articles and art on display. Authors like Tim Leary and Ursula Le Guin cavort around articles like "The Call of the Goddess", "Q'ero Shamanism and the West", and "The World of Ambient Music". If the offbeat is your bag, check it out at: "http://www.eden.com/magical/main.html"
CYBERKIND KINDLY WELCOMES NEW SUBSCRIBERS
Rated by PC Week as a must-visit E-Zine, Cyberkind plays tribute to the electronic world and its scientific underpinnings. This electronic journal is specifically designed for prosaics and poetics who wax poetic about the world of wired communication. For this reason, a majority of the pieces mentioned in the table of contents contain a reference to Internet, electronic, or scientific offerings. Choosing to link to the description of the contributors offers insight into why Cyberkind's creators have joined forces. Most of the writers sound hip and with-it, and a number provide links to individual home pages. Linking to a poem called MiceLives was a very out-there experience and worth exploring for the poetically inclined or just electronically curious. "http://sunsite.unc.edu/ckind/title.html"
CYBERNETICS DIGEST TO FOLLOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
Cybernetics Digest, debuting in November, is a 20-page newsletter distributed by first class snail mail. It is designed to help those in development, marketing, planning, etc. to keep up with news from the business and technical press concerning the converging information technologies. The editors will follow, they say, "hundreds" of publications and will focus on "those articles that provide insightful analysis". Yearly subscriptions: US$24, CDN$36, elsewhere via airmail US$48. Cybernautics Digest, c/o Subscriptions, 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103.
The editor of Campus Voice needs your help. Campus Voice is a college magazine put out as a four-foot square poster installed in wall-mounted frames and kiosks. It reaches about 3.8 million college students. The January poster will be all about pizza - from a college perspective. If anyone out there has any interesting facts (e.g. college students eat 45 lbs. of pizza per semester, etc.), strange recipes, stories, or knows where such things can be found, please let him know. He'll even cite you as a source if they use the info and send you a T-shirt. Reply to Mango Mon: "mangomon@aol.com"
TELL NASA WHAT TO PUT ON THEIR K-12 WEB PAGE
A group of NASA webmasters and interested parties will gather next week to put together a new NASA WWW home page for school kids and teachers. They obviously have tons of stuff, but wonder how best to organize it. Are you a teacher? If so, how could NASA materials and datasets help you in your work? Do you have an idea that if implemented could improve the usefulness of the NASA Web? Send suggestions to Chris Beaumont at "ccat@netcom.com".
MIDLINK SEEKS SCHOOL KID HOLIDAY ART
MidLink Magazine, an E-zine for kids in middle grades, is looking for submissions to their "Home for the Holidays" page, to be featured in the December/January issue. Kids should draw something about their favorite holiday celebrated anytime from now through January. While at MidLink's WWW page, check out the last two monthly features, Virtual Haunted House and "Consider Yourself At Home", with drawings of homes and schools by kids worldwide. The "Global Skylines" project is also conceptually interesting, allowing you to gaze, for example, at the skyline of Des Moines, Iowa, as drawn by a pre-teen. Kids or teachers can contact Caroline McCullen at "mccullen@aquarius.cc.ucf.edu" for more info or send her the URL of the drawing once you get it online. "http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink"
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