Hard on the heels of the infamous US Department of Justice Web page hack comes another home page grafitti incident. The home page of no less then spook central USA (a.k.a. the CIA) was hit by some nebulous, politically adolescent entity calling itself "Power Through Resistance". The stupidity of this act can only be compared to... well, actually we can't think of anything as stupid at the moment. The incident is so obviously inflammatory to the already paranoid law enforcement and government communities, there are rumors it was an inside job by some right-wing civil service flake - a poor hacker's version of the Reichstag fire. Nothing good will come of it. In the meantime, to satisfy your morbid curiosity, check out these mirrors of the hacked site. The real CIA site was still down at press time, and may stay that way permanently. So much for the eminently useful CIA World Fact Book. Hack: "http://www.is.co.za/mikev/cia--hack/" Hack: "http://www.skeeve.net/cia/" CIA: "http://www.odci.gov/"
BRITISH GOVERNMENT SETS UP NET CENSORSHIP ORGANIZATION
In typical Orwellian newspeak, they call it "Safety-Net". The organization, endorsed by the British government, will publish a legality indicator for Usenet news groups to indicate what kind of illegal and pornographic material each contains. No doubt, ratings will be based on some legislators' dimly remembered sexual arousal, but even so we foresee the birth of a surprisingly popular, government-financed guide to naughty bits online. Of course, it will be just as easy to access your favorite kinky knickers page, but now you'll be able to narrow your prurient search courtesy of Her Majesty's Government. The site below has a full description of the organization. Visit comp.org.eff.talk and alt.censorship newsgroups for discussion. "http://dtiinfo1.dti.gov.uk/safety-net/r3.htm"
It started with the Chinese. Then came Alexander. In due course, the British took their turn, and how can we forget the Soviets. All left a sorry mess in their wake. Afghanistan has been been a victim of the Great Game for a long, long time, and the current bloodshed is just another pathetic episode in this sad, albeit strategic, region of the world. For background, as well as the latest news on what appears to be the newest Islamic state, see this site. It has lots of good material, offers a huge number of links, and is worth the visit. "http://frankenstein.worldweb.net/afghan/"
CERT ISSUES SENDMAIL SECURITY ADVISORY
Sendmail is the workhorse of Internet e-mail. Chances are that if your access provider runs Unix (and the sane ones do) they use Sendmail to shuffle your bits around. Two security holes in versions up to 8.7.5 potentially allow local users to gain access to root accounts. A patch and a new version are available. Sysadmins will need to look at the advisory itself for details. "ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.20.sendmail_vul"
CISCO AND ASCEND ANNOUNCE NEW ROUTER TECHNOLOGIES
Cisco has submitted a new router technology called "tag switching" to the Internet Engineering Task Force as a proposed standard. The technical details are in the press release, but the gist of the announcement is that networks now have the technology to prioritize their traffic, and presumably charge extra for high priority feeds such as multimedia. Trials will begin in the first half of 1997, but the tech wizards among us need to know about this now. In other news, Cisco and Ascend Communications each unveiled new high-speed routers which should help alleviate the now chronic Net congestion. Tag: "http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/916_tag.html" Cisco: "http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/916_scales.html" Ascend: "http://www.ascend.com/pressrel/press78.html"
AMERICA ONLINE GETS PERMISSION TO BLOCK E-MAIL SPAM
Awake readers of NSD will remember our report on AOL's blocking a number of professional e-mail spam dispensers. One of the larger targets, Cyber Promotions, promptly sued the network. The court ordered AOL to unblock e-mail from the Cyber Promotions domains until judges could sort out what's what. In the latest round, the Court of Appeals has vacated the earlier injunction and granted AOL permission to reblock the spam. The issue may be moot, however, since AOL will shortly unveil software which will allow users to block spam sites directly themselves. Here is the AOL Press Release: "http://www-db.aol.com/corp/news/press/view?release=53&"
CAN YOU PASS THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID HYPERTEXT?
It's sorta annoying when you need a dictionary to interpret a Web site. The ADH (Audience Delivers Hypertext) home page was created to, supposedly, demonstrate unique ways of dealing with hypertext. The purpose, according to the authors of the page, is to show "a new way of delivering hypertext that will be multilinear or rhizomatic." The authors also note that they plan to give a "performance" at the 1997 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Conference created by collaborators from the C-FEST group, who have been meeting at the Lingua MOO. If you'd like to involve yourself in this intrigue, check out the recordings of their meetings and/or learn more about Lingua MOO. Possible paths of exploration include "Aristotelian notions of audience and delivery", "cybernetic delivery", "Nietzsche gets a modem3 (french fried delivery)", and more. Whatever happened to studying Shakespeare? "http://www.uta.edu/english/mal/adh/adh.html"
THE FIFTH ANNUAL REC.SPORT.BASEBALL AWARDS
The baseball season is over, playoffs are upon us, and major league baseball will not announce its official award winners for a month or so. If you are not one of the elite who get to vote for Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Most Valuable Player awards but you want to make your presence felt, vote for the rec.sport.baseball awards. Look for the thread titled "RSB Awards" for the ballot. You can also vote at the following URL. All ballots must be received by October 7. "http://www.millennianet.com/dpease/bp/awards/index.html"
LAURIE ANDERSON DOES SHOCKWAVE
Utilizing the 258 most common words in the English language - which, incidentally, does not include the word "women" - writer and performer Laurie Anderson attempted to write a multimedia song called "Here". Be sure you've installed the Shockwave plug-in, available at the page. If you know Laurie, you know what to expect from the spiky haired one. If not - well, you really don't. "http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/here/index.html"
Photojournalist Doug Menuez showcases photos that document the last decade in the computer and technology industries, beginning with a young Steve Jobs in 1986. The photos and accompanying text intrigue the visitor and the site design is smart. The coolest feature is unadvertised: click on any pic to reveal an image of the actual negative. The negative is also flipped 180 degrees, creating the illusion of seeing the photo from behind, and the accompanying text changes, exploring the photographer's thoughts at the time of the shoot. Notes on the site tell us that the images are supposed to be ephemeral; presenting a different set of 36 on each visit, but they didn't change for us. That's OK. Despite the sluggish Web server behind the site, it's worth repeated visits. "http://www.menuez.com/"
If you've ever wondered about the artist who created the giant flowers and floating animal skulls in American Southwest-inspired landscapes, this is your chance to satisfy your craving. The Georgia O'Keeffe site has an excellent collection of her works, but there's more to it than just a gallery. The paintings run parallel to a history of her life. Entertaining vignettes about the paintings are often included, as is a series of photos of O'Keeffe that follows her through the course of her 98-year life. "http://www.ionet.net/~jellenc/okeeffe1.html"
PONDERING ARCHITECTURAL RENDERINGS
It's amazing what you can draw on a computer these days. With computer-aided design and drafting technologies, the sky's the limit. Case in point: this University of Oregon architecture site features some nice drawings and computer renderings that were, needless to say, not drawn with a pencil and T-square. Particularly worth a visit if you're a graphic designer, architecture or interior designer. "http://www.architecture.uoregon.edu/gallery.html"
Michael Lucero's collected series of brightly colored ceramics and bronze sculptures can be found in one spot. In addition to an in-depth history of Lucero and his artistic approach, there's an entire section devoted to children's interactive art. Kids are encouraged to create a Lucero totem pole from images found in individual sculptures. "http://www.charweb.org/arts/mint/lucero/lucero.html"
We spent countless sleepless nights trying to solve this riddle - what do Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Volvo, Arthur Anderson, and the US Embassy in Japan have in common? Turns out, they've all chosen a bit of artwork by Alexandra Jacobs to grace their corporate walls. Corporate is the operative word here, both Webwise and artwise. The Alexandra Corporation features a plenitude of Alexandra's artwork, plus a few diverting gimmicks. The hands-down goofiest is "Art at Work" wherein you get to change the painting hung in a conference room or behind a reception area. the most useful is the ability to send a Net postcard of any painting you select. Alexandra's art is nice in the way Muzak is nice - it's elevator music for the eyes. "http://www.alexart.com/"
THE FRITZ: YOU COULD DO A LOT WORSE!
The Fritz is a column by Fritz Holznagel that amuses, bemuses, and occasionally abuses. We like it for Fritz's offbeat shotgun approach to stuff. One recent column covered stoning, with pills not rocks, pigeons at Denver's new pie-in-the-sky airport. Another looked at the grossness to be found inside his computer keyboard. The daily essays are short and more or less to the point, if there is one. Oh, and the headline? That's the winner of Fritz's slogan contest. Personally, we'd have chosen "The Fritz - Because Lycos Won Him in a Poker Game". Yeah, he's a PointCommie.... "http://www.pointcom.com/columns/fritz/index.html"
THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE
Trust the British to produce a classic. The Oxford Book of English Verse Web site is beautifully designed, from its elegant gold title to its dedication ("To the President, Fellows and Scholars of Trinity College Oxford; A House of Learning...") to the nicely arranged contents. You can search for your favorite poets by first line, author, date, or key word. Boy, that Anonymous sure wrote a lot. If you long for a byte of Shelley, Matthew Arnold, John Milton, and more, feast here. "http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/obev/"
THE CONTEMPORARY SPIRIT OF ZEITGEIST
Zeitgeist is a daily feed of opinions, news and unsubstantiated rumors, or so they say in their press releases, brought to you by the folks at the Transom, an ISP/online service/news feed. Zeitgeist is a daily dose of words culled from the larger organization. It is simple, in a good way. The essays are short and zippy, sometimes maybe a bit too short. While the home page seems to emulate the too frequent "we're a hip-cool, nipple-pierced outfit" style, with articles like "Love Noise", about a lover who screams too loudly, or "33 Reasons the Transom Loves LA", the content is better than you're likely to expect. We found the print a little too small, but that may be an artifact of our monitor setting. "http://www.thetransom.com/"
FOOTBALL GRIPES, AMERICAN STYLE
Ah, the joys of self-publishing! Internet Chat and the Web are like two lovers at Gridiron Grumblings, an e-zine for fans of the National Football League who crave instant gratification - the pleasure of submitting your gripes with the click of your mouse and seeing them born in the world a refreshing moment later. After you pick a pseudonym - for protection, of course - you'll have to contend with the yawping contentiousness of others, because the comments don't seem to be threaded. You have your choice of forums: "Gridiron Grumblings" and "The Losers' Lounge." Sometimes they may seem the same. Be careful, because "we don't hold back any punches!" This is not for the Misses Manners of the world, but how many Misses Manners spend their Sundays watching football? "http://redbay.com/gridiron/index.htm"
Wolves were recently re-introduced, not without controversy, into Yellowstone National Park. Soon, Mexican gray wolves will be returning to the American Southwest. This site offers a balanced discussion of this issue giving literal voice to each side of the battle, delivered automatically with Netscape 3.0 (AIFF), RealAudio, or AU files. Most of the audio is thankfully repeated as text on the screen, but hearing the speaker's voice does add a dimension. The site designers have implemented "cognitive flexibility hypertext", which translates into a bad case of link-itis in which nearly every word is a link. Not surprisingly, we turned up the odd "404 (not found)" error. If you have a cat, you simply must go to the home page and test its reflexes with the wolf howls. "http://www.ems.psu.edu/Wolf/"
For those with passing interest in astronomy, and even for many with serious interest, the Fremont (Michigan) High School Astronomy Home Page has much to offer: highlights of new topics in the field; a picture archive; the obligatory, but well-chosen, links to other astronomical sites; an educational tour of constellations; links to astrofreeware sites; and more. The design is enticingly simple, and the obvious respect for the gravity and grandeur of the subject will soon dispel any notion you might have that this site is for students only. These kids are putting up animated graphics and JavaScript already, and using them more effectively than many adults. "http://ncats.newaygo.mi.us/~astro/"
The Boston Computer Museum's Web site offers pretty much what you'd expect: membership info; events listings; newsletters; etc. All this professionally executed with an added twist: when you enter the site, you pick a handle good for your entire visit. You then get to see who else is online (and display their location on a map), communicate with them, and even cooperate with them to solve a puzzle (if you have Win95/NT and Netscape). This and other features seem to be aimed at kids. The best part of the site is an historic timeline covering 1945-1995. Click on a year to yield photos and details about that year. Parts of the site are still in development, such as the online store, the forums, and an interactive robot feature. The server is also a bit pokey, but this is a site with lots of potential. "http://www.tcm.org/"
Net-A-Thons, sponsored by the nonprofit National Educational Technology Initiative and endorsed by President Clinton, are semi-annual auctions which raise funds to bring Internet-ready computers and full Internet access to US public schools. It's a cross between a telethon and a silent auction. Corporations and other donors provide the software, hardware, and celebrity memorabilia for the auctions, which occur during Comdex and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The next will be held November 1-18. The main attraction of the Web site is the collection of goodies to be auctioned. Sadly, there's nothing there. This should be fixed soon, because the donor corporations include some pretty big names in technology. Donations are tax deductible. "http://www.neti.org/"
A nine-year-old girl with determination and anger over the plight of homeless people has established a forum to exchange ideas, suggestions for immediate action, and ways to harrass the government into doing something effective. You can use the e-mail link to tell President Bill (well, his lackeys) what's on your mind, or send Katie clothing for her homeless acquaintances. For some reason there are two versions of the page. If you can help, check one or the other out. "http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8677/" "http://www.acekids.com/katie.html"
Every once in a while, we print a review only to find the URL changes a day or so later. It's happened to the Beaucoup search engine site. "http://www.beaucoup.com/engines.html"
Netsurfer Digest Home Page: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
Netsurfer Digest FTP Site: ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsd/
Subscribe WWW form: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/subscribe.html
Subscribe E-mail: nsdigest-request@netsurf.com
Include one of the following commands in the BODY of the
message:
HTML Format version: subscribe nsdigest-html
Plain ASCII version: subscribe nsdigest-text
Submission of Newsworthy Items: pressrm@netsurf.com
Letters to the Editor: editor@netsurf.com
Advertiser and Sponsor inquiries to: sales@netsurf.com
Netsurfer Communications: http://www.netsurf.com/
General Information: info@netsurf.com
Letters to the editor may be printed unless you explicitly tell us not to.
NETSURFER DIGEST © 1996 Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
NETSURFER DIGEST is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.