A million bucks per day works out to about an eighth of the typical profit
1997, and that's how much the US Justice Department is seeking as
punishment for allegedly violating the consent decree the company signed
way back in the summer of 1994. If you're legally inclined or just need
background on the legal dustup, you'll want to visit this site. It contains
a briefcase full of press releases, legal analysis, articles, and of course
tons of court papers, including the soon to be legendary consent decree.
<http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/01antitrust/microsoft.html>
The US Supreme Court decision legitimizing free speech online was not quite
a death blow to the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The Supreme Court
struck down just one provision of that legislation prohibiting
"communication which is... indecent, with intent to annoy...." The backers
of, appropriately, Annoy.com are going after this part of the Act, arguing
that Americans have a constitutional right to send "indecent" messages to
"annoy" others. Oddly, they have a good case - precedent says expressions
of opinion can't be regulated based solely on content. Thus, Americans may
legally annoy their elected representatives with messages which could be
judged indecent (whatever that is). CNet has a nice summary of the
situation and the legal niceties involved, and Annoy.com is - well,
gloriously annoying.
Annoy: <http://www.annoy.com/>
CNet: <http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,15376,00.html>
Ultima Online is an ambitious attempt to sustain an ongoing online fantasy
world inspired by the best-selling Ultima computer games. It is certainly
one of the most complete realizations of a virtual world yet attempted,
with the capability of sustaining thousands of simultaneous players. All
the usual features common to this type of game are here: spells; weapons;
quests; a closed economic system; and a virtual ecology of beasts and
monsters. While there's a great deal of information about the mechanics of
the fantasy universe here, you will need to purchase the CD-ROM game
package to participate. Strangely, there's no online sales section, but
check your local computer store. This is an epic, highly professional
effort, well worth the attention it is sure to attract.
Usenet: <rec.games.computer.ultima.online>
<http://www.ultimaonline.com/>
SECURITY BUG IN INTERNET EXPLORER 4.0: DESCRIPTION AND FIX
A German magazine testing the latest Microsoft Explorer 4.0 has discovered
a security problem which - what else? - allows unauthorized users to read
your files. Basically, some evil JScript can suck in files from your hard
disk and send them to the crackers using Dynamic HTML even though you may
have activated the highest security setting for the browser. Fortunately, a
fix is available, as are several workarounds. The details can be had at the
German site, while the official Explorer site has the fix for the
"Freiburg" bug.
Problem: <http://www.jabadoo.de/press/ie4_us.html>
Fix: <http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security/?/ie/security/freiburg.htm>
Wired has just opened a news search engine. The NewsBot bills itself as
"the ultimate guide to news online" and has a familiar search engine
interface. Search for a keyword in several news categories within a
selected period of time and you get a listing of headlines and a couple of
lines from each article containing the keyword. The headlines come from a
variety of major news sources, mostly major US media outlets. The layout
makes it easy to compare the day's stories from various news outlets and
despair at the limitations of day-to-day media coverage. The interface is
simple and clean, with the trademark Wired colors much in evidence.
Overall, a good resource for researchers and news junkies.
<http://www.wired.com/newbot/>
ENGLISH NURSES' MURDER CASE IN SAUDI ARABIA
Deborah Parry and Lucille McLauchlan were accused of murdering fellow nurse
Yvonne Gilford at the King Fahd Medical Complex. The nurses claim they were
framed and forced to make confessions, which they subsequently retracted.
The law firm handling the women's defense has an online site with press
releases which provides an interesting glimpse into the Saudi Arabian legal
system and the various machinations by the legal team to prevent the
imposition of the death penalty. The firm is hardly unbiased in the case
and this is reflected in the pages, but still, it makes for fascinating
reading. The material can be found in the Press Releases section.
<http://www.law-al-hejailan.com/>
SUN/MICROSOFT JAVA WARS: LICENSING CONTRACT AND LAWSUIT REBUTTAL
As we recently reported, Sun has sued Microsoft over the implementation of
Java in Explorer 4.0. Both sides are now firing with guns blazing in the
inevitable PR war swirling around the lawsuit. Sun posted the terms of its
contract with Microsoft online; Microsoft came back with an FAQ-style
document which rebuts Sun's position. Such is the playing field of the
greatest techno-legal spectator event since the momentous Microsoft-Apple
look-and-feel lawsuit. Enjoy.
License Terms: <http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/info/document.www.html>
Rebuttal: <http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/contractfaq.htm>
MCI RELEASES FREE DENIAL OF SERVICE TRACKER SECURITY TOOL
MCI has released an interesting piece of software called the Denial of
Service Tracker (DoS). The security program helps track the source of
denial of service attacks, which aim to overload a target computer system
to the point that it's unusable for anything else. According to MCU, the
DoS Tracker works against SYN, ICMP flood, bandwidth saturation, and
concentrated source attacks, and is currently being modified to detect
other DoS-based attacks, including a new attack called the Smurf. The info,
a free download, and all the technical information is at the site. A must
have for sysops. <http://www.security.mci.net/dostracker>
THE TOP 25 ACCESSED WEB SITES, ACCORDING TO RELEVANTKNOWLEDGE
RelevantKnowledge, a consulting firm, periodically surveys Web site
traffic. They've just released their list of the top 25 Web sites for the
month of September. Not surprisingly, the top three are Yahoo, Netscape,
and Microsoft. As near as we can gather, they get their data from tracking
randomly signed-up human beings and their Web habits instead of tracking
page hits. Details about the survey and methodology are available at the
site. <http://www.relevantknowledge.com/rk/press/release/10_13_97.html>
Third Age, a Web site for older surfers whom they call "Wired Agers",
conducted a survey with Excite whose results may surprise you, especially
if you think everyone over 20 is totally, hopelessly out of it. About 13%
of respondents were Wired Agers (over age 50) and although it doesn't
provide raw stats, Third Age reaches some conclusions about them. More than
half of Wired Agers surf more than eight hours a week; Grandma surfs "as
enthusiastically as her grandchildren" and, like Grandpa, probably logs on
every day.. Wired Agers use search engines and download software as often
as other users and are generally well educated and well off (31% earn
$70,000 or more). Only 31% of Wired Agers are women, and only 25% consider
themselves retired. After you're done with the survey, you might want to
explore other sections of Third Age, a fine collection of pages with a
demographic slant. <http://www.thirdage.com/features/other/wired/index.html>
From the framed cornucopia of Net guides that is the Mining Company comes
this handy resource on Usenet. Our guide and self-professed non-expert
Robert Garland has this to say about Usenet: "Put seven people in a small
malfunctioning elevator for twelve hours and you will see first hand what
any single newsgroup and Usenet itself has become." Spot on, Bob. The
information here will be exceptionally valuable to new (or experienced)
netsurfers who may be just a bit intimidated by the Usenet behemoth. On the
other hand, the features will entertain you even if you're a flame war vet.
<http://usenet.miningco.com/>
Many cartoonists have had trouble finding an audience (especially if one's
name does not happen be Gary Larson). Often the works of even the best are
quickly forgotten. Hence the appeal of Daryl Cagle's Professional
Cartoonists Index, the kind of showcase many cartoonists will wish had
existed early in their careers. A host of newspaper regulars have 'toons on
display here. Links lead to artists' biographies, Web sites of their
employers, and personal home pages. Some links led nowhere at last visit,
but plenty of others at this superb site will quickly reward your
curiosity. <http://www.cagle.com/>
Not often do we highlight sites linked from sites we just covered, but this
site is special. Damon Rarey was born in 1944, a few months before his
father, George "Dad" Rarey, was killed flying a P47 over France. Damon
inherited two things from his father - a sketchbook journal of his father's
military experiences and the talent that drew them. Damon interviewed Dad's
squadron mates and added notes to the drawings which bring them poignantly
alive. The Rarey family tradition continues with Damon's Alum Falls Ohio
pages, in which he draws the life of a kid growing up in the 1950s - "a
thinly-veiled autobiography in comic strip form". Like father, like son -
both stories enthralled us for an entire day.
Dad: <http://www.rarey.com/sites/rareybird/>
Damon: <http://www.rarey.com/sites/alumfalls/home.html>
The smoky infrared photographs, sensual images of Africa, vivid visual
poetry, and the rest all load quickly against a minimalist black
background. ZeroZine is a small art-zine of impeccable taste, well designed
and navigable. The subscribers could post more witty repartee to the
discussion board, which seems sadly underutilized given the
thought-provoking nature of the art displayed. <http://www.zerozine.com/>
Wanna be rich and famous? Try the "The Rich and Famous Money Book" - it
couldn't hurt. <http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/books/book.03.34.html>
AM News Abuse provides daily tidbits of endlessly interesting facts and
weirdness discovered around the world. Recent published info included that
Princess Di's death was the most news covered item (beat all general sports
and WW II), that the world's shortest man died at age 36 from excessive
smoking, and - with the headline "Blimey! Grimey Tinies Stymie Limeys" -
that rats outnumber people in the UK. Don't miss the Headline Hall of Fame.
If you're impressed enough, you can order an e-mail subscription.
<http://www.amnewsabuse.com/>
MEDIEVAL AND CLASSICAL LIBRARY
We don't have to look far to find myth and legend today. Most obviously and
literally, recent entertainment has incorporated the seven deadly sins,
Greek deities, and King Arthur and the Holy Grail. The University of
California presents full-text transcripts and translations of these tales
and others in its Berkeley Digital Library. It's a good thing they've done
it, too, 'cause for most of us these stories are inaccessible in their
original languages. Here are Norse sagas and tales of Lancelot, El Cid, and
Troy, and stories attributed to Lucan, Chaucer, and Chretien deTroyes.
Admittedly, even in translation these texts are daunting, but readers who
welcome a challenge may enjoy lingering over phrases and interpreting the
images conjured by these heroic, romantic, or divine lines.
<http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/>
Thomas Mangan thinks that "people who chase news for a living also tend to
have great personal Web sites". From his own crisply designed pages, you
can link to the personal sites of editors, columnists, reporters,
photographers, teachers, and freelancers. Mangan may be right in his
assessment; there was certainly no want of quality in the sampling of pages
we chose. The sites sometimes center on the authors profession, sometimes
on interests far removed from professional lives. Mangan also offers
resource pages for journalists or surfers interested in journalism,
including a page of particularly irksome cliched and misused phrases. The
Americans among you can also find out how to apply for that Pulitzer you've
always wanted. <http://www.newsies.com/>
Another literary review site in New York City could expect to be critiqued
with a fine comb. And it would be, were this one not simply a link to some
of the most famous pulp-based publications on the state of writing: the
stately New York Review of Books; Granta, the ultra-hip literary magazine
that predates any and all attempts at making lit crit cool; and The
Reader's Catalog, a treat for finding, perusing and purchasing books. The
reviewers are as wonderful to read as the authors. Bring your reading
glasses. <http://www.nybooks.com/>
STOP THE PRESSES AND START UP THE T1
The times they are a-changing - even in New York. The New York Times wants
you to know all about how newspapers are produced, and just how this
physical process is being altered by the latest and greatest technology.
This Web page describes the past, current, and future procedures for
creating a newspaper. It includes some nice graphics, and insights into
what these changes mean. <http://www.nytimes.com/specials/presses/index.html>
ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE VIRTUAL REALITY DAMAGE MODELS
Most of you have probably heard of the recent series of quakes in the
Umbria and Marche regions of Italy. We've unearthed this interesting site
which illustrates one method by which seismic scientists interpret and
classify such geologic events. Here you'll find the results of a
photographic survey done after the quake. The data from that survey is used
to produce QuickTime Virtual Reality models which help scientists do damage
assessment. The models range in size from 230 kB to 1.4 MB. You can
download the plug-in here too.
<http://www.nettuno.it/eventi/terremoto/index_i.html>
DIGGING IT UP FROM THE HOLES IN CALIFORNIA
Imagine being the first person to see an ancient creature... ever.
Collecting Fossils in California makes beautiful use of crisp graphics and
clear, concise text to explain about California fossils and the whys and
hows of collecting them. The site also acts as an active forum where folks
can post info about their own findings. In keeping with the friendly tone,
the author actually gives maps and directions to places for people to dig
up their own bits of prehistory. With links to books at Amazon.com and
other fossil related sites, the site has enough to get you caught up in the
hobby. <http://www.gtlsys.com/>
NOT JUST FROGS: SALAMANDER MONITORING
Frogs, you may know, are on the decline. The number of deformed frogs has
increased as the numbers of all frogs has decreased, so much so that
scientists launched a public survey of the ranids (see NSD 3.22). The
Terrestrial Salamander Monitoring Program wants to do the same, with
salamanders. So little is known about salamander poulation dynamics that no
one can say whether these amphibians are suffering the same fate as their
larger cousins. The text here is not exactly written in layman's terms, but
if you want to do some hands-on science, this is an easy way to go.
<http://www.im.nbs.gov/sally/>
Pity poor pure mathematics, without the cachet of a popular icon like
Sagan, unlikely to find Jodie Foster in thrilling pursuit of Fermat's last
theorem. Even famous mathematicians - Fuller, Newton, Copernicus, Turing -
are known for different pursuits. Congratulations then to this site for
reclaiming its own, and putting mathematics into historic perspective. Most
names are obscure, granted, and most history fails to spark the
imagination. However, there are a handful of essays on accessible subjects
like math games and mathematic memory (you know, calculating square roots
of 11-digit numbers in your head). There's even a small section on women in
mathematics. The prose doesnt exactly sing, but it's precise and has just
enough tidbits to make this arcane science interesting to the rest of us.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk:80/~history/index.html>
Feeling like the world's a-whirl with change, that nothing, but nothing, is
constant? If you're in need of a bit of grounding, and you happen to be
mathematically inclined (so to speak), you can visit Steven Finch's
collection of Favorite Mathematical Constants. There you'll find old
familiars such as the Golden Mean and pi along with some more esoteric (to
the non-math type) constants such as Wirtinger-Sobolev Isoperimetric
Constants. Each constant is accompanied by a bit of history, derivation,
and discussion. Granted, it's pretty heady stuff if you bombed algebra, but
it is good to know that some things just don't change.
<http://www.mathsoft.com/asolve/constant/constant.html>
SUNNY, WITH A 30% CHANCE OF METEOR SHOWERS
Sure, your local station can give you up-to-the-minute forecasts in your
neighborhood or around the world, but what happens when you need the
forecast for a different world? That's where the Space Environment Center
(part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) steps in with
their page dedicated to Today's Space Weather. Complete with a Sun Cam, the
Space Weather Outlook, the X-Ray Flux, and the Satellite Environment Plot,
the site is geared to astronomy folks, but it's still an amusing read for
normal mortals. The next time a Mironaut says, "Hey, man, I couldn't see
for the storm. How'd you expect me to pick up that satellite?", click here
and get the real scoop. <http://www.sel.bldrdoc.gov/today.html>
Getting inside someone's head is a breeze at Human Anatomy On-line (sic).
The site offers both interactive excursions through the human body and a
more staid general anatomy lesson. The interactive journey allows you to
select one of ten anatomy systems and investigate it in detail. Small
diamond "pick points" give you the option of text information or further
graphics, and there's no lack of these landmarks. The site has hundreds of
simple but colorful graphics, though they are sometimes ill-served by
occasionally convoluted text. That said, this is a body of work that can
lend a hand to students or wannabe medical examiners.
<http://www.innerbody.com/indexbody.html>
HEALTHY KIDS MAKE HAPPY PARENTS
KidsHealth provides all sorts of resources for visitors who've recently had
a baby, are thinking about it, or are merely babysitting someone else's
child. Print out the Household Safety Checklist and walk around
reacquainting yourself with your house from a toddler perspective. Learn
how to deal with common childhood infections or check out development from
birth to two years of age in different areas like sleep or communication
skills. The site brims with information on what to do in differing cases of
emergencies and how to know when to call the pediatrician. Best to
familarize yourself with it now, so when that tense moment rolls around you
won't be dashing for the computer. <http://www.ama-assn.org/KidsHealth/>
Scrimshander Mark Thogerson was caught a tad unawares when we featured his
scrimshaw site in NSD 3.32. He was in the middle of a site renovation, and
he wants a second chance to greet visitors. His new facade is in place and
his scrimshaw has been tucked back where it belongs, so paddle on by.
<http://members.aol.com/scrimshndr/index.html>
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