As of this writing, no-one has conclusively determined why TWA flight 800 exploded. Of course, this has not stopped rumor or speculation from making the rounds. We recommend CNN's online coverage and its collection of pointers to such primary sources as the National Transportation Safety Board, the FBI, the US Navy, TWA, Boeing, and related newsgroups. Time magazine, in a sleazy tabloid twist, includes a prominent Related Sites section labelled "Arab Perspective". With no credible evidence for a crime by anyone, the lack of a comparable "Lithuanian Perspective" or "Hawaiian Perspective", or for that matter "Martian Perspective" leads one to an inescapable conclusion. Not alas about the crash, but about the rapidly deteriorating reputation of Time as a sober reporter of fact. CNN: "http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/18/twa.section/index.html" Time: "http://pathfinder.com/@@r9EbYQYAp*zH6oTX/time/twa/"
NEW BETA OF MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 3.0
This beta version, for Windows 95 and NT, now supports Java with a just-in-time compiler for improved performance. There's also support for plug-ins, some features for personalizing the software, new security features, and various technical improvements and bug fixes. There's also a short description of what additional features are planned for the final production release. "http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie3/newbeta.htm"
STATE LAWMAKERS MOUNT ASSAULT ON THE INTERNET
The recent legal victory against the Communications Decency Act (CDA) is clearly not the final word on attempts to regulate the Internet in the US. While the country awaits the Supreme Court's final decision, numerous state governments are passing laws that limit aspects of the Net. The American Civil Liberties Union site has a good rundown on the legislative madness. The Georgia legislature debated outlawing online pictures of marijuana (see next item for a related story). Unfortunately, other laws, listed here, are not nearly as funny. "http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/stbills.html"
With recent admissions that numerous members of the White House as well as the keynote speaker for the Republican Convention have done the odd toke, we could not resist bringing you this site. All parties, of course, expressed politically correct contrition. We must have been wrong when we thought those draconian anti-drug laws were crafted with deep, heartfelt conviction. Let us pause for a moment of silence, take a deep breath, and contemplate the wafting fumes of political hypocrisy. "http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/drugs/hemp-marijuana/faq.html"
AMERICA ONLINE VS. THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Up until now, America Online has encouraged the use of English on the service by the simple expedient of indiscriminately removing foreign language posts. The policy was exposed when Olympic soccer fans noticed their posts in Spanish were removed. They complained. The San Francisco Examiner picked up on one subscriber's orchestrated e-mail campaign against the practice and brought the policy to light. Give credit to AOL management for a swift apology, a policy change, and the promise to hire moderators fluent in non-English languages. Now if only AOL's automated smut filters would stop censoring references to the fine town of Scunthorpe, UK.
NETSURFER INSIDER SUN MING LIEU ON YAHOO CHAT 07/31
We are pleased to report that Sun Ming Lieu, one of the movers and shakers here at Netsurfer, will be featured on Yahoo's "Webmaster of the Week" chat forum. It's a good opportunity for us to give a mutual admiration nod to the Yahoo Computing site which is worth visiting on general good content principles (conflict of interest alert: Yahoo gave us a four-star review recently). Sun Ming's chat will be Wednesday, July 31, at 10 pm EDT. To participate, you'll need to download their software (available for PC, Mac, and many Unix systems). An archive of the chat will also be made available. "http://www.zdnet.com/yahoocomputing/filters/webmast.htm"
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE PATENT SETS OFF LEGAL WARFARE
E-Data Corporation's broad patent claim on key aspects of electronic commerce technology has fueled its fierce legal assault - some would call it blackmail - on prominent Internet firms. Over the past six months, in a display of truly predatory behavior, E-Data has been suing every Internet firm in sight as it clamors for royalties on the use of the potentially weak "Freeny Patent". The full story can be found on the biased but accessible League of Programming Freedom (LPF) page. The Oppedahl and Larson (OL) Web page looks like it was put together by lawyers (it was) but has an extensive set of related links. Another important legal Internet story in the making. Patent: "http://www.icw.com/dialgift/freeny.txt" LPF: "http://www.lpf.org/Patents/edata.html" OL: "http://www.patents.com/ige.sht"
This site offers you access to hundreds of thousands of downloadable clip art images for a flat rate in what may become the dominant model of proprietary information sales on the Net. Despite the usual hype-filled press release, this is not the first service to sell online art; they used to do that back in the BBS days. However, it does have some compelling advantages. The site maintainers can offer professionals a much larger volume of art than can be found on any CD-ROM and expect to have a million images by the end of the year. Unlike a CD-ROM, it can be extensively indexed and continuously updated. Of definite interest to graphics design pros, the site's opening subscription price is $99 per year. "http://www.arttoday.com/"
You may recall from previous issues that a Delphi poll is a predictive method used to assess the likelihood of certain events coming to pass. The third round of this international trends forecast is now ready to go. The first two rounds surveyed predictions of global trends and when they would come to pass. This round, forecasters are asked to reappraise their previous positions and refine the forecast. Check it out to see what may be in our future. "http://homepage.interramp.com/us000664/"
The number of commercial domains reached 468,000 this July, an increase of about 140% since January. Recent US domain statistics reveal that the District of Columbia has the largest number of domains per thousand population. The top three are D.C. with 3.235 per 100,000 people, Massachusetts with 2.849, and California with 2.698. The least wired is West Virginia with 0.213. "http://www.webcom.com/walsh/stats.html"
MYST is one of the best-selling PC games of all time. As part of the pre-publicity for its sequel, InfoMedia and Broderbund Software have put together the MYST Trivia Challenge, a 50-question quiz to be launched August 1. The contest will offer over 50 prizes to contestants, with first prize a special copy of the upcoming sequel autographed by creators Rand and Robyn Miller. The questions will cover not only the game, but also the MYST novel, technical production, and the personalities of the creators. "http://www.worldvillage.com/myst.htm"
ANIMATED GIF SITE AND COMPETITON
It seems like animated GIFs are the latest web site fad, one to which we ourselves have succumbed (q.v.). The GRAND competition (GIF89a Rendered Animation: New Designs) has entry categories for businesses, hobbyists, teens, and kids, and runs from July 30 to September 30. No cash awards, but you'll get that moist feeling in your brain you get whenever you do something creative. Or is that just us? In any event, Tru Realities is a non-commercial site which houses what they claim is the largest collection of online GIF89a animations in the world. There are over 1000 animations here for your enjoyment, some truly trippy. "http://trureality.com/"
LOGO AVAILABLE FOR NETSURFER LINKS AND QUOTES
Due to popular demand, we've come up with a little animated graphic logo for sites which redistribute, quote from, or link to Netsurfer Digest. We had resisted this trend due to the rather pervasive overuse of various "Top Site" logos, but we've had a number of requests from webmasters who want to promote our site, so who are we to refuse a free plug? Modesty should not be carried to extremes. Take a look at it on our redistribution page and feel free to use it when you quote us or link to us. "http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/redist.html"
WHAT IF FRIENDS' CAST WERE REALLY GOOD FRIENDS?
We've been bombarded with press features telling us how the cast of Friends really are good friends. But what if they were really good friends - we mean so good they had kids, or so good they decided to switch face parts. Here's the answer. The Mr. Showbiz Plastic Surgery Lab lets you mix and match features of the gang. Use Monica's nose and eyes in Ross's head to get Moss, an imaginary long-lost sibling. See what Ross and Rachel's kids might look like. Or, if you're a Warner Bros. exec, take your revenge out on the brats for threatening of a walkout if they don't get their contracts renegotiated. See, it IS breaking news. "http://www.mrshowbiz.com/features/games/surgery/"
The stated goal of Internet Archive is to collect digital texts and make them accessible to future historians, scholars, and technologists for research into digital media. To this end, it has taken on the gargantuan task of archiving the fluid contents of the Web. The project is not unlike attempting to give a perm to Medusa - combing through a moving target liable to bite at any time with its intellectual property laws. Never mind the problem of storing and indexing terabytes of data. Intel will love the technology page that informs us that the gatherer robot runs on a humble Pentium 166 under BSDI Unix. Check out their slide presentation for the deep issues, and if you ever get a chance, go hear the highly entertaining Brewster Kahle, president of the archive (and inventor of WAIS) speak about it. "http://www.archive.org/"
It's almost impossible to use Usenet today without running into spams. If you read newsgroups, you constantly see off-topic obnoxious commercial junk messages. Anytime you post, you're in danger of being added to some obnoxious direct-marketing mailing list. It all lowers the signal to noise ratio, a particular bug in our ear (see motto). You can fight spammers by gleaning their true source and complaining to the system administrators. Check the IP addresses in the message headers and use the services below to find out where the junk is coming from. It won't always work, but it's a start. Whois: "http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois/Ip2" Name: "http://cello.cs.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/slamm/ip2name/"
BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS HIM
Ad Nauseam is the home of Jim Nelson's intelligent, opinionated, and sometimes profane commentary on the Net and Web culture. The "Verbage" section contains monthly columns which have links to his targets - er, subjects. "Lists" gather treatises such as "Stuff to do when you're bored with the Web" and the riotous "Rejected Web advertisements". Nelson collects reader feedback and publishes it with his responses. Just when you think this is all too negative, explore his links to sites he does like, because "it's not like everything on the Internet sucks." Nelson is sort of a Brock Meeks for the non-political. "http://www.crl.com/~jnelson/nauseam/"
Bruce Hlavna is a consummate digital artist. Flow, his Web page, displays his skill with abundant examples. Naturally designed cleanly, the site is marred only by an unending stream of JavaScript ticker messages. Besides image collections, which seem to be mostly of the science fiction ilk, there are links to and brief ratings of other sites that provide graphic textures, meshes, and IPAS routines (plug-ins for 3DStudio). There's also a fairly complete selection of links to graphics utilities. Get the FLC player so you can eyeball the exciting (405 kB but worth it) animation done for Walt Disney World. Hlavna promises a comic strip which, judging by his other work, will likely be worth a revisit. "http://www.panix.com/~fero/"
The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, N. Mex., has opened a Web exhibit entitled "Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap". Aside from the 600+ kB opening animation, the exhibit is an entertaining and enlightening excursion through a few jewels produced by folk artisans using everything from fabric scraps to pop-tops to jeans buttons. The crisp text and layout delivers a good commentary on the use of recycled folk art in craft, utilitarian, religious, and other contexts. The site also offers two games and promises more, though, truth be told, they're fairly simple - this is an art museum, not a Doom gallery after all. This is a must-see site for anyone who sports one of those motherboard-covered appointment books. "http://www.state.nm.us/MOIFAOnLine/"
It's so nice when someone pays enough attention to their pages to take the time to construct what is in essence a virtual frame for their art. Very much like a walk through an elegant gallery, Affairs of the Art is a beautiful and interesting collection of collectible fine art. We marveled at the surroundings as much as at the works themselves. "http://www.eagle.ca/gallery/"
GLOBAL NEWS, INTELLIGENTLY DELIVERED
Intelligent Network Concepts (INC) offers free subscriptions to their Daily Brief, an e-mail summary covering the past 24 hours of national, international, business, entertainment, and sports news delivered bright and early every weekday morning. Smartly realizing that their information distribution format is the least intrusive on time and resources, INC restricts each item to a succinct two to five lines. While not the NY Times, the Daily Brief gives you as much information as you'd get skimming your daily's headlines and first graphs. It's definitely worth five minutes each morning to keep informed, however briefly, of the world's events. To subscribe, send a message to incinc@tiac.net with the subject "subscribe db" (without the quotes). "http://www.tiac.net/users/incinc/"
Martinis, cigars, vices, sex, thrift shopping and lounge music - this is retro. City guides with advice and maps, articles about new art and parks, discussions and reader advice, how to set up a vintage bar in your home - it's got it all. Cruise through and sink into the ambience of retro with Retroradio to smooth your mood - it's sexy, it's delicious, it's very, very cool. Help us - we're using too many hyphens. "http://www.retroactive.com/"
INTERSTELLAR FICTION RELIES ON COOL GRAPHICS AND CONTENT
If you enjoy science fiction and great graphics, you'll want to visit this official Web site of an interstellar exploration program from the late 21st century. There are wonderfully creative images of what the interstellar probes have discovered, analysis of the images, descriptions of the spacecraft and technology involved, and a short history of the project. The site, called the Silent Universe, is a definite winner in content and presentation. "http://users.deltanet.com/~mjholmes/"
Traffic tracks the zany world of the media. If you have an offbeat sense of humor, regard John Tesh as a "snoozician", and think the Pottery Barn catalogue is amusing, then this is the magazine for you (after you've read Netsurfer Digest, of course). The magazine's departments include the Museum of Corporate Folly, the Tesh Files, and Excerpts from the Past. The latter offers snippets from a diary - such as, on 01/01/90, "Watch tape of the Big Chill then toss it" - followed by the author's memories. "http://www.microweb.com/traffic/"
Quick, what's the largest prime number? Anybody who gets the answer (2 to the 859,433th power minus 1) belongs with the rest of the crew working on the GREAT Internet Mersenne Prime Search. Don't know what a Mersenne number is? Doesn't matter - so long as you've got a Pentium or 486 machine and a few CPU hours to spare (anywhere from five to 2,000 hours), you can join the search by downloading free software, selecting some numbers to factor, and starting to crunch. More than 260 number nuts have joined the quest to test every Mersenne number with an exponent of less than 1,300,000 by the end of 1997. Needless to say, this is not for the faint of heart, or 386SX machines. "http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/justforfun/prime.htm"
Those who surf the heavens will want to add NASA on Houston Chronicle Interactive (HCI) to their hotlists of space-travel havens. Multimedia is the main attraction. In addition to the inevitable press releases, you can listen to RealAudio news streams, chat about NASA missions, subscribe to the e-mailed HCI News, access NASA archives, and generally stay on top of astronautic developments near Earth. You can also follow links to deep-space archives. "http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/index.html"
DIRECT FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
Another good space site is this collection of live space broadcasts. For anyone who wanted to be an astronaut, this page is fuel for the imagination. Lots of live satellite feeds from various NASA missions, updated every four minutes and including RealAudio transmissions when missions are in progress. Also weather imagemaps. Very cool, if a bit slow at 14.4 kbps. "http://204.97.92.3/~brickman/nasacams.html"
If you think that "Pan troglodytes" refers to caveman cooking utensils, then you need to drop in on the Primate Gallery. Hear the scream of the siamang, be titillated by the tarsier, pleased by the pongo, and delighted by the 'drill. A complete listing of the ENTIRE primate order is listed as well as a number of photographs, illustrations and sound files of various primate calls. It's your one-stop primate shop. "http://www.selu.com/~bio/PrimateGallery/"
If you lack a good medical guide but have a specific question about a particular childhood illness, this site is useful. The information is clearly and sensibly presented for parents who just need to know how to handle something like Thrush or That White Goop in Yer Kid's Eyes ( yes, that IS the official medical term). Dr. Coffin (quit laughing) offers traditional/natural solutions to many problems in addition to pharmaceutical means, which may not be something you want to try out on your kid. "http://www.kidsdoctor.com/"
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