CERT ISSUES SERIOUS BROWSER SECURITY ADVISORY
The critical hole, a nasty JavaScript bug which is not prevented by
firewalls, allows a cracker to monitor activity in your browser, including
any information entered into forms, the Web sites you visit, and your
cookies. Netscape has Navigator 3.02 with a fix, but Communicator will not
be done until end of month. Microsoft is working on a fix expected by next
week. Meanwhile, turn off JavaScript.
CERT: <ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-97.20.javascript/>
Microsoft: <http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security/update.htm>
The World Wide Web Consortium has just released the first HTML 4.0 draft.
According to the release, the new draft has "more multimedia options,
scripting languages, style sheets, better printing facilities, and
documents that are more accessible to users with disabilities." Back to
school, boys and girls. <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-html40-970708/>
MORE SIGNAL, MORE NOISE, MORE WIRED
One of the lively little banners on the newly redesigned HotWired pages
promises "More Signal, More Noise, More Everything" - almost a direct
opposite of our own less-is-more approach to covering the Net. The newly
revamped site, called HotWired 4.0, is certainly full of the
love-it-or-loathe-it visual anarchy for which the print magazine is justly
(in)famous. To call all the visual glitz noise would be to do a disservice
to the creativity of the design/programming team. Like much of modern art,
the new design is largely a matter of taste. Content? Technology in
Webmonkey, a tribute to Wu-Tang (who?) in the Net Surf section,
cyberculture ideas in Synapse, and a smattering of techno-art geek Dream
Jobs. In other words, the usual expressions of Wired's love affair with the
fetish of digital culture. <http://wwww.hotwired.com/>
NSI FILES FOR IPO, INVESTIGATED FOR ANTITRUST VIOLATIONS
Everybody's favorite domain name whipping boy last week filed for an IPO
worth up to $35 million. Network Solutions (NSI) is to be traded on the
NASDAQ exchange under the symbol NSOL. Shortly thereafter the news broke
that the company is being investigated for violations of antitrust laws in
connection with its business of handing out domain names. That can't be
good for raising money. CNet has the story.
NSI: <http://www.netsol.com/>
CNet: <http://www.news.com/News/Item/0>
,4,12189,00.html
Many of you may be familiar with the 18-year-old Bennett Haselton, who's
been publishing workarounds to foil the CyberSitter site-blocking software.
CyberSitter has been trying to shut Bennett up with all their might. The
latest CyberSitter checks browser cache files on your computer before
installation and will not install itself if it finds Bennett's site in your
browser cache directory. Welcome to the brave new world of moralware, where
your tools lighten the heavy burden of thinking for yourself! Up next, a
browser which silently switches to breakable encryption after you've
accessed Uncle Bob's House of Explosive Toys and Nude Cheerleaders. Toast
Mr. Orwell while you visit Wired for the story and Bennett's site for
technical details.
Wired: <http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/4856.html>
Peacefire: <http://www.peacefire.org/censorware/CYBERsitter/csinstall.html>
Somewhere in your past, after you outgrew the tricycle and training wheels,
after you became aware of the world out there, after you left four wheels
for two, there was that fleeting moment, that instant of joy when you took
your hands off the handlebars, threw them in the air, and won the Tour de
France. No? Well, you at least have a fruitful career as a vegetable. The
official site offers excellent profiles of all Tour stages and a search
engine for historical and rider info. Velo News has by far the best
minute-by-minute coverage by people who deeply love the sport. Audionet has
RealAudio interviews while ESPN, amidst otherwise anemic coverage, has the
amazing Bill Nye explaining why human beings don't have wheels - don't miss
it.
Official Site: <http://www.letour.fr/>
Velo News: <http://www.velonews.com/races/road/97tdf/tdf.html>
Audionet: <http://www.audionet.com/sports/tourdefrance/>
ESPN: <http://espn.sportszone.com/editors/other/tdfrance97/index.html>
"Bull about to trample downed runner" says the photo caption, but we're not
going to lash you with obvious puns and smarmy metaphors. The manly thing
to do is to state simply that the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
will separate the wussy girly boys from the manly men with hoofprints on
their butts and horny bits in their groins. There must be some significance
to the fact that you always hear of guys getting gored in the groin at
these events. Maybe that's the draw - other than a nine-day keg party
coupled with facing your ultimate fear while intoxicated. And why do the
women - like Bella - run? Well, why they do just about anything is pretty
much the ultimate manly mystery.
Festival: <http://pages.prodigy.com/elmundo/xamplo97.htm>
Bella: <http://www.tntmag.co.uk/travel/s/spain_pamp.htm>
Ahh, the joys of virtual testosterone. WarSport is the latest online game
on the MPlayer game site. It so lovingly combines all the attributes which
drive the average Net gamer geek into a maniacal techno-fetishistic
competitive frenzy: war; sports; heavily armed robot warriors; explosions;
territiorial conquest; the two-minute warning; live opponents; and the
ability to abuse them via a chat link. Although WarSport left out the
scantily clad cheerleaders, think of it as American football a few years
after heavily weaponed arguments become legal below the national level.
It's free, it's beta, it's for Win95, and it'll take you about 45 minutes
to download. <http://www.mplayer.com/games/warsport/warsport-home.html>
BOARDWATCH BACKBONE SPEED STUDY
Leave it to the folks at Boardwatch to cut through the bull and with a
simple experiment blow a lot of marketing hype out of the water. As part of
their latest update to the Directory of Internet Service Providers,
Boardwatch teamed up with Keynote Systems to do some systematic
measurements of backbone speed. Keynote measured how long it took to access
and download 50 kB of data from each backbone provider's own Web site every
15 minutes, 24 hours a day, from 27 major metropolitan locations. After
processing the data they found that CompuServe was almost twice as fast as
the second place provider GridNet. IBM Global Net, PSINet, and CRL Networks
came in with some of the slowest scores. This, with T1 cost data, lets you
rank the best values in Net access. Vital reading for Net business junkies.
Press: <http://www.keynote.com/company/announcements/pr062597.html>
Study: <http://www.keynote.com/measures/backbones/backbones.html>
Use Netdictionary if you want to know the meaning of an Internet-related
term. It's not just technical - you can also get definitions for cultural
and humorous words. It's great for those infuriating abbreviations such as
ARPANET. (No clue? Check it out!) You'll like the funny ones, too. We
enjoyed "barfmail". Netdictionary defines it as bounced messages, but we
think you could probably apply it to spam mail, too. The site comes in Java
and HTML flavors, both accessible from this URL.
<http://www.netdictionary.com/html/index.html>
We've always liked art that doesn't set out to be art, but which arises
from the stuff of daily living. The Gondwana site offers art from the daily
lives of mostly sub-Saharan Africans from the 16th century to the 20th.
Cups and plates, masks and fans, doors and spirit figures - each of these
items bears the evidence of authentic design and real use. Catalogue notes
provide basic data and background, with references. Of many intriguing
pieces, a graceful gong and a haunting medicine vessel particularly
enthralled us. An oracle figure prompts a description of cults and justice
that teaches that the rooster represents the social and political place of
queen mothers in sub-Saharan society. Surprisingly, some of these items -
several of which you'd think are unique cultural property - are for sale.
<http://www.gondwana.com/>
Creator Derek Powazek offers the Fray as a "place for people who believe
that the Web is about personal expression and a new kind of art." That
hardly says it. In fact, it's a place where people may connect without
banter and without defenses, challenging readers to match their creativity
and mood. The writing is frequently poetic, sometimes painfully aware,
occasionally self-indulgent, and almost always poignantly unresolved.
Seamlessly realized, the Fray smudges the difference between images and
words. The design is at once lush and spare; minimalist navigation cues and
paths demand commitment. Powazek's frames move beyond technical structure
to become a weightless part of the atmosphere. Hypnotic - yes, that's the
word we're looking for. <http://www.fray.com/>
A project attempting to unite various nodes of the Net in one vast tapestry
is focusing on "The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even", a work of
art by Marcel Duchamp. The original piece, also known as "The Large Glass",
consists of sculpture and painting on a glass background. Captured as an
image map, "The Large Glass" page will eventually point to 25 separate Web
sites, each casting its unique perspective on an assigned section of the
artwork. This new means of interpreting art, while obviously not for
purists, exemplifies how the Internet medium continually redefines the way
we interpret the message. <http://caiiamind.nsad.newport.ac.uk/lead.html>
Reminiscent of economically stylish architectural renderings, Archeire
celebrates and deplores Ireland's constructed landscape. Cityscapes of its
ancient centers seem surprisingly modern, products of obviously
ill-advised, centuries-old determination to renew and improve and generally
muck up. Archeire captures the overbearance of Georgian and Victorian
"renewals", although even those 800-pound gorillas speak more of grace and
character than modern monstrosities. Can we really imagine these sterile
and anonymous constructions matching the longevity of their neighbors,
enduring for centuries or millennia, even as ruins? References to "Ulysses"
abound; a local writer re-traces Bloom's odyssey through present-day
Dublin, ruing one lost site and design fiasco after another.
<http://www.archeire.com/>
This cool site reviews the history of hot jazz. You can hear complete, full
length RealAudio streaming playback of the recordings of many early jazz
greats. And, even more important to true jazz fans, you can follow the
early jazz artists and follow the many different groups that they played
with over the years. This is a great place to gain a new appreciation of
the true roots of jazz. <http://www.technoir.net/jazz/>
ArtToday offers hundreds of thousands of graphics, fonts, and clip-art
images that are yours for the downloading - well, almost yours. Here's the
catch. First they tempt you with a smattering of sample images. Then, they
lure you in with a 30-day free trial offer. If you like the service,
they've got you for $9.95 per month or $69.95 per year, which is probably a
pretty good deal for true image junkies, Web designers, art directors, and
other creative types. Check it out. We liked what we saw.
<http://www.arttoday.com/>
We have an odd pair this week, yet one may come in useful while reading the
other. Read "Stretching at Your Computer or Desk" first so that you can
stretch and relax while reading the second, "HTML: The Definitive Guide".
<http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/books/book.03.22.html>
Long before Agents Fox and Mulder, there was Charles Fort: iconoclast,
scholar, and collector of strange phenomena. His spirit lives on in the
British Fortean Times magazine (FT), whose subtitle says it all: "the
journal of strange phenomena". The FT Web site offers a taste of the
magazine, featuring a mix of critical articles on everything from giant
snakes in the Congo to the evangelical underpinnings of Heaven's Gate.
Mixed in are short bits detailing just plain weird events (as the editors
boast, the Times "holds the largest collection of strange stories, odd
occurrences, and damned data in the world"). The site is simple in design
but dense in wonderfully bizarre information. A must see - via remote
viewing perhaps? <http://www.forteantimes.com/>
INCOMPETENCE AND INJUSTICE EXPOSED
Daily Outrage! is sure to make your blood boil one way or another. While
the views expressed may not always reflect your own, you've got to admit
they do a good job of illustrating the frequent stupidity and irony
displayed by governments, politicians, celebrities, and basically, the
whole human race. Stop by if you're mad as hell and you're not going to
take it anymore. <http://www.dailyoutrage.com/>
Want to know about upcoming computer books? McGraw-Hill's Beta Books Web
site lets computer pros look at technology-related titles in an
easy-to-find-and-read format. No charge, and you can submit your comments.
Just as with beta software, however, it's user beware. There may be missing
graphics or chapters, and/or spelling and grammatical errors. But you can't
beat the price tag. Typical titles include "Java Certification for
Programmers and Developers" and "Webcasting".
<http://www.betabooks.mcgraw-hill.com/>
If you like sarcastic movie commentaries, you'll love MovieJuice. Topics
range from "'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' - Danger! Dino-snore!" to
"'Batman and Robin' - Same Bat Time, Same Bat Guano". It's funny, it's
clever, and, as the site boasts, it's all about "movies movies movies
movies movies movies movies movies movies movies movies movies movies
hollywood hollywood hollywood hollywood hollywood hollywood hollywood
hollywood movies movies movies movies movies movies movies." Get the
picture? <http://www.moviejuice.com/>
You'll love it or hate it, maybe at the same time. It is the irreverent,
sometimes unrepentant, but never irrelevant column by Will Durst. This
column tackles large and small issues with wit and sarcasm, and sometimes
with logic that borders on common sense - the oxymoron of the ages. This
column is mostly about San Francisco issues, but some of it has much wider
focus. To enjoy this site, bring your sense of humor.
<http://www.wald.com/durst.html>
Inkspot is a cool Web site if you're a writer. This frequently updated
resource offers market information and other key writer stuff in its
biweekly newsletter, "Inklings". You can subscribe (it's free) at the site,
search through an archive of back issues, and read articles about topics
such as self-publishing and manuscript submission. Bookmark it if you want
to be the next Hemingway. <http://www.inkspot.com/>
THE REVIEWS ARE IN FOR BOOKS ON TAPE
Whether you're embarking on a long roadtrip, commuting to work, or just
relaxing on the weekend, listening to a book on tape is an increasingly
popular alternative to curling up with the real thing, especially if your
eyes and/or hands are busy with other activities (like staying on the
road). This site features a fairly comprehensive list of reviews of these
audiocassettes, so you can make sure you're making the right investment.
<http://www.probe.net/~whita/>
You knew someone was gonna do it. Here's Pathfinder's first panorama of
Mars in Quicktime VR. A map of Ares Vallis, the landing site, clearly shows
the evidence of the flood that once swept through the region. More pics and
VRML can be found at the official Pathfinder mirror sites. Two hundred
million netsurfers can't be wrong.
QTVR: <http://members.aol.com/space7/exper.html>
Mirrors: <http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/>
Extraterrestrial contact, homeopathy, psychics - in a credulous world,
these hot buttons are the working capital of marketers, true believers, and
charlatans. The Skeptical Inquirer, billed as the magazine for science and
reason, cools off these buttons. The March issue, preceding the Heaven's
Gate suicides, traced the otherwise comic snowballing of misinformation
that spawned belief in a space ship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. (Hale,
debunking the nonsense, earned an inbox of hate e-mail.) Inquirers reserve
special places in their version of Hell for willful scientific illiteracy,
psychics, extraterrestrial visitation, and pseudodocumentaries on the
"unexplained". Now that patron saint Carl Sagan has passed away, a clutch
of Nobel laureates, Stephen Jay Gould, and James "The Amazing" Randi take
up the torch. <http://www.csicop.org/si/>
While aimed at rock jocks, the Geologist's Lifetime Field List can serve
geologist, other scientist, and amateur adventurer as a road map to some of
Earth's (just Earth, for now) cool, and hotter, spots. Suggestions: visit
an active volcano, glacier, or geyser. Pay a visit to a layered igneous
intrusion in Montana. See a total solar eclipse. Nearly all suggested
must-sees are accompanied by photos and links to more in depth information.
A great spot to visit if you're itching to see something that will amaze.
<http://www.uc.edu/~ACOMBTY/geologylist.html>
We at NSD are aghast at the fate of our web-footed friends as the numbers
of deformed frogs in North America increase. Scientific concern arose in
1995 when students on a field trip reported a high incidence of leopard
frogs with malformed limbs in a pond in Minnesota. Since then, these and
other malformations have been reported among many amphibian species across
the continent. US and Canadian residents wishing to help an ongoing
investigation should report sightings of both normal and malformed
amphibians at this Web site. Background info, maps of known incidences, and
pics of malformed frogs accompany the data-entry form. The report form can
also be used to record the absence of malformations in a location if the
observer has examined several animals. <http://www.npsc.nbs.gov/narcam/>
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S SACRED, VOTE HERE
We consider you, NSD readers, to be intelligent, forthright, and sensible.
We are asking you to register your vote in TIME's poll of the most
influential people of this century. Net.morons have invaded the voting -
the ranking of the most influential warrior/statesman goes: Franklin
Roosevelt; Adolf Hitler; Ronald Reagan; Madonna; Gandhi; John Kennedy;
Winston Churchill.... Top scientists/healers are: Einstein; Madonna; Wright
brothers; Henry Rollins.... See the problem? (We'd even argue against
Orville and Wilbur, who frankly were just two among a crowd of flight
pioneers, but that's another story.) Even the list of top
entertainers/artists - Madonna; Reba McEntire; Jennifer Saunders; Salma
Hayek - makes us retch. Where's Picasso? Olivier? Frank Lloyd Wright? To
vote - sensibly - go to this site. Hopefully, together we can overcome
stupidity. <http://cgi.pathfinder.com/cgi-bin/gdml2x/game/time/time100>
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