Seymour Cray died October 5, following a tragic automobile accident. Cray's name has passed into legend and become synonymous with supercomputers, the high speed machines he arguably invented. Indirectly, his work touches all of our lives. His machines are being used for weather forecasts, car safety studies, designing other computers, and sorting through our very DNA, not to mention their use at NCSA which made all your Web clicks possible. It so happens he even played an indirect role in the history of your humble Netsurfer Digest, but you'll have to go to the Memorial Page to find out why. No fancy graphics or links, just a simple place to leave comments. Memorial Page: "http://lornet.com/cray.htm" NCSA: "http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/"
US ROBOTICS, LUCENT ANNOUNCE 56 KBPS MODEM TECHNOLOGY
The rumors we noted in a recent issue turn out to be true. US Robotics (USR) has announced something called X2 Technology, which will enable modems to achieve 56 kbps speeds. It seems it will be possible to attain that speed gain with just flash ROM updates to various Courier and Sportster modems. USR's home page has a link with more technical details. In an unrelated, though no doubt cosmically linked move, Lucent has announced digital signal processing chip technology which will result in the same thing. Look for demos at Comdex. USR: "http://www.usr.com/" Lucent: "http://www.lucent.com/press/1096/961016.mea.html"
ALLEGED INTERNET NAME REGISTRATION SCAM EXPOSED IN UK
A dubious outfit has been reported as sending letters to UK Web sites in an attempt to scare them into paying for domain names. The companies are told that someone has attempted to register their trademark in the great-britain.com domain and that they'd better pay up 65 pounds and change to secure it. This is obviously silly since the .com domain is registered by the US-based Internic, while the central UK naming agency, Nominet, administers the .co.uk domain. There is no benefit to registering a subdomain within great-britain.com. A brief press release signed by many European Net luminaries is available here. "http://www.netbenefit.co.uk/news/17-10-96.html"
Could we have timed this item better or what? Madonna has a child, Halloween is right around the corner, and then we find this gem of a page. Appropriately psycho pictures, perfectly in the spirit of the season. Since we know you trust us to keep you informed about the generally inconsequential events of the world, here are some other Madonna resources in quantity large enough to be scary in themselves. Start with the Madonna Resource/Links Page, move on to the Madonna Picture Archive, and stop in for a bit of nostalgia at Madonna's Biological Clock Countdown. Please note that unlike our Sillycon Valley neighbors at Yahoo, we refrained from headlining this item "Madonna and Child". Your gratitude is quietly noted. Psycho: "http://www.powerweb.net/madonna/" Resources: "http://www.cbvcp.com/c2/madonna.html" Picture: "http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/jwb/madpics.html" Clock: "http://www.comcentral.com/madonna.htm"
Another Internet treasure hunt, sponsored by Yahooligans and the Software Publishers Association, raises its head. The first prize is $5,000 and a chance at a trip to Disnay World in Florida. The hunt starts October 22. High profile sponsors include Disney, IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Compaq, Netcom, and others. Chances are you'll at least get a T-shirt out of the deal. Kids' school teams are also encouraged to compete. "http://www.spa.org/cybersurfari/"
PRODIGY ATTEMPTS TO COME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Well, it is Halloween soon, after all. prodigy has just opened a new Internet content service targeted squarely at the "New to the Net" market. Pricing is the usual $19.95, with subscribers gaining access to proprietary content in addition to being able to surf the open Net. A quick look makes the Prodigy service seem as if America Online had put all their content on the Web. The only incentive to sign up seems to be that they will "pre-qualify" content and tools for their members, whatever that means. You can sign up for 20 free hours and bail out if it's not to your liking. "http://www.prodigy.com/download/news.htm"
Tasty Bits from the Technology Front, Keith Dawson's weekly online newsletter, updates significant changes in internet use, culture, and policy with emphasis on developments that affect Web commerce. Recent issues covered topics as far-ranging as the fallout after a hackers' journal published techniques used to intentionally overload TCP/IP servers, the impact of "vanity" e-mail address aliases which emulate prestigious academic domain names, and Japan's move toward a standard for e-cash. With many links to further useful details, this is a nice page to return to periodically to keep abreast of the state of Net affairs. A listserv is also available. Send a message to tbtf-request@world.std.com with the word "subscribe" in the message body. "http://www.tbtf.com/"
"They're out to get your money, and they won't take no for an answer as they mindlessly bombard your e-mail box with their demands." Does this sound all too familiar? The information presented here will help you deal with all the unwanted attention from the misguided and obnoxious in the world of e-mail. The section on understanding and coping with spams includes how to avoid getting on lists, deciphering message headers, and suggestions and ideas on how to respond. "http://www.cciweb.com/iway7/spam.html"
Squares beware, this is a round hole of aesthetic pleasures. Slick, beautiful images inhabit a page of art, architecture, design, photography and film. From virtual mountains for rock climbers to indie haute couture, this page is a bewitching, hipper-than-hip collection of advice for becoming a slicker, groovier, all-round spunky person. Big photo spreads and a focus on independent work help make this a sexy destination. "http://www.ruse.com/"
The subject is fake masterpieces and the source is Le Musee Imaginaire. These folks are ready to sell you legal fakes of the works of artistic masters from Manet to Modigliani, but unless the JPEGs lie, these won't fool anyone who ever got an "A" in art history. There are plenty of pictures to whet your appetite for the real thing. Almost as interesting as the subject of the site is the unbelievable amount of self-congratulatory back-patting. In six languages, no less. "http://www.museeimaginaire.it/"
If snowy, windswept vistas and ice cubes hold particular beauty in your eye, try Marc Deneyer's iceberg pictures on for size. The black-and-white photos come in convenient bite-sized thumbnails so you can pick and choose which to view. Besides the Greenland iceberg pictures, Deneyer also has a few other landscapes to offer, including one from Scotland that looks just like the hiking scene from "Trainspotting", minus the wheezing addicts and the footbridge. If you want more than pictures, a working knowledge of French will prove helpful, as the little text that exists is primarily of that bent. "http://www.skynet.be/deneyer/home.html"
We let Joanne out for air and water occasionally, but most of the time she's locked up cranking out reviews. We have a surplus so this week you get two - that's right, two - reviews. The first is "Designing Web Animation" and the second, "Most Popular Web Sites". Lock up the kids and comfort the dogs. "http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/books/book.02.33.html"
Proving once again that imitation is the sincerest form of irony, the Underwired site has popped up on the Net to give Wired, self-styled dictator of Internet virtue and vice, a bit of a hard time. This parody Web site offers mutated versions of the features and graphics that make Wired the bright, colorful, dizziness-inspiring magazine that it is. Some of the more noteable potshots include "Overtired/UnderWired", a what's in/out list; an informative and erudite article entitled "The Luddite's Corner"; and "Type Design vs. Legibility", a dissertation on Wired's nonconformity in terms of design and a personal favorite. UnderWired is likely dead - it hasn't been updated in about a year - but it's worth a visit nonetheless. "http://www.covesoft.com/underwired/"
STUDENTS, EDITORS, AND WORDSMITHS ALERT!
This terrific site offers a dictionary that can be searched in categories such as science, medical, business, and computer. You can use wildcards, and enter either terms or words. In addition, if no match is found the search is automatically expanded. There are also links to other dictionary sites, and the opportunity to contribute suggestions. Bookmark this one if u want tu lern tu spel. "http://www.onelook.com/"
The Word Detective Web site features questions and answers on the proper use of words. The tone is light, but the information is often helpful to those who idolize idioms or like language lagniappes. Before you call someone a codger, for example, you might want to know that the Word Detective defines the term as a grumpy or cranky person, not necessarily an elderly person. And, to sharpen your trivia competitiveness to a keen edge, you should also know that the word dates back to the mid-18th century, and is thought to be a variant of "cadger" (One who cadges, or begs). "http://www.interport.net/~words1/"
SEND YOUR NASTY LETTERS TO OTHER EDITORS, TOO
Read something in a publication and want to tell the editor your opinion? Now it's easy: just go to the Mr. Smith E-Mails the Media site. This site contains a number of links to numerous publications. Click on the name of a magazine, and you're whisked to a page that lets you enter your name and related info, write a message, and click a send button to automatically zap your e-mail to the magazine's editor. It's not just for computer magazines, either - media categories range from Music to Fashion and Health to Entertainment. Now you can tell People magazine that you're fed up with covers of Princess Di by just clicking a button. "http://www.searcher.com/media.html"
Astronaut wanna-be's can get more of a feel for the job thanks to QTVR movies of the Apollo 16 and 17 moonwalks NASA constructed from actual images gathered during those manned missions. There is also a choice of color or black and white QTVR panoramas of Mars taken from the Viking Lander spacecraft, and links to several more from the viewpoints of the space shuttle and Mir space station. For teachers, there's a detailed lesson plan for helping students design their own exploratory space mission to Mars which includes a nice Shockwave map of the planet's surface. Rockets not included. "http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PRPDC/"
We've all asked ourselves the question, "What do you do with a dead whale?" The enterprising populace of Homer, Alaska, was prepared and knew just what to do when in 1988 a few locals discovered the carcass of a dead whale washed ashore some 40 miles south of the town. Within a month, the late leviathan had been hacked to pieces and dragged back to a hillside in Homer for some bone-cleansing, environmentally friendly decomposition - they let it rot for two years. Then they gave what was left to the high school to put back together. The Sperm Whale Project tells the tale of rot and restoration as undertaken, catalogued, and illustrated by the students. The site's informative and stylish, the whale's back together, and the students had a biology lesson the rest of us could only wish for. "http://www.alaska.net/~pratt/"
NASA has committed to the Web in a massive way. One of its new sites, maintained in Houston by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, focuses on our solar system. It has an academic orientation. "On the Question of the Mars Meteorite", for example, may sound like the title of a dry dissertation, but a journalist or librarian with a research deadline might do well to check here first. It's a good starting point if you need images, data, background, or links. Most of the "Hot Topics" have appeared in mass media: craters on Venus and Ganymede, for instance, and exploration of Mars. It's not clear whether the site has a lot of traffic or a slow server, but you might want to access this site with a network connection to minimize the World Wide Wait. "http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/lpi.html"
HAVE HEART - AFTER A TRANSPLANT YOU'LL LIVER LUNGER
One of the most complex and provocative social, emotional, and financial issues in medicine is organ donation and transplantation. TransWeb crosses the boundaries of ethics, law, sports, family life, education, and research to link to announcements, testimonials, reports, press releases, policy changes, an organ-donation FAQ, newsgroup postings, and other information for medical professionals, patients, and family members. (Pant, pant.) There are also plenty of links to foundations, medical societies, transplant centers, and support groups. (Phew, glad that's over.) If you're looking for a newsletter or video about transplantation, this is a good place to start. Athletes and others may be interested in the section on the 1996 US Transplant Games. "http://www.transweb.org/"
EUREKALERT SITE ANNOUNCES THE LATEST IN SCIENCE DISCOVERIES
This unique site bills itself as "a comprehensive news server for up-to-date research in science, medicine, and engineering." News is posted daily by major research facilities, universities, nonprofits, and peer-reviewed journals for use by reporters and research institutions wanting the very latest on scientific discoveries. EurekAlert is produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "http://www.eurekalert.org/"
BIG ROCKS FLYING THROUGH THE SKY TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
NASA is watching the skies for asteroids and comets that may pose an impact hazard on earth. Technically, the heavenly bodies they seek are those with near Earth orbits. This site features news from that search, and a beautiful but disturbing picture on the home page. Whether you are curious about the history of collisions with Earth, the possibility of one in the future, or what we could do about objects headed in our direction (head between your knees, kiss your ass goodbye), you'll want to check this out. "http://ccf.arc.nasa.gov/sst/"
Health Direct is a medical gateway par excellence. The Health News section links to headline stories (including the topic-rich Reuters Medical News for medical professionals), updates on new drugs, research findings, and (gulp) press releases. This section is updated every day. Health Check will help nonphysicians watch out for signs of thyroid disease, osteoporosis, and other afflictions. Health Care provides tips on doctors, insurance, and HMOs. Health Direct contains a what's-new page, a survey, and information about the entire site. Add this site to your hotlist and your body and others may thank you for it. "http://www.healthdirect.com/"
SUN RELEASES JAVA BEANS API, ANNOUNCES JAVA MICROPROCESSOR
For you hardcore Java junkies out there these are a Big Deal. The Beans API specification, available in Postscript and Acrobat format, lets programmers create Java components with common interfaces to such diverse environments as ActiveX or OpenDoc. You can download it all from the Java site. A JavaBeans development kit is scheduled for December. Also of interest is Sun's announcement of the new hardware picoJava microprocessor core. Actual chip deliveries are slated for second quarter of '97. Beans: "http://java.sun.com/beans" PicoJava : "http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/9610/sunflash.961011.1667.html"
LINUX JAVA DEVELOPMENT KIT AVAILABLE
Just because we like Linux, we figure we'd mention that Sun has finally updated their Java license binaries, so you can now download the Java development kit from the Linux Java project site. "http://substance.blackdown.org/java-linux.html"
Missingkids, an ummoderated e-mail discussion list, provides a resource for information about programs, services, and research for those interested in missing children. It does not aim to list such kids, but to provide a framework of prevention, support, and help in finding them. To subscribe, e-mail listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with "subscribe missingkids yourfirstname yourlastname" in the body of the message.
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Due to a glitch in our delivery system some readers may have gotten a double copy of the last Netsurfer Digest. Sorry for the clutter. We'll go spank our naughty sofware. No, wait, this may have been operator error....
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