NSD FOR THE BLIND, AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
One side effect of our switch to exclusive HTML was a rash of complaints
from the visually impaired, who felt they needed plain text to enjoy our
witty scribblings. Christos Hux wrote in with a solution. He uses Eudora
Light and a screen reader called OutSPOKEN. While he uses a Mac, both
Eudora and OutSPOKEN are available for Windows, too. Look for Christos's
commentary on the changeover and other nastiness on the latest Letters to
the Editor page.
Eudora: <http://eudora.com/>
OutSPOKEN: <http://www.aagi.com/>
Letters: <http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.03.36.html>
WANT TO PIRATE SOME FONTS? FIRE UP IE 4.0
Microsoft's new Internet Explorer has cheesed off font foundries the Web
over. Its OpenType technology allows the browser to display fonts provided
by the Web site. By mining the browser cache and using a font authoring
tool, pirates can extract these embedded fonts for their own use. (Netscape
uses TrueDoc to display embedded fonts without such risk.) Microsoft
acknowledges the problem, but contends the onus of protection lies with
font designers, and if the fonts can be deciphered, it's the fault of the
operating system and not the browser. A Microsoft flack offered this: "As
it's fixed down the road, it'll get fixed in the Windows code, not in the
browser code." <http://news.i-us.com/wire/>
MARKET BOUNCES AND ONLINE STOCK BROKERS
How well did online stock brokers handle the recent market roller coaster?
A market newsletter called "The Street" (two-week free access with
registration) surveyed 294 readers, who ranked E*Trade and Schwab as the
worst during this period and Datek as best. E*Trade in general has been
much flamed in online forums over its performance, probably due to its
commanding share of the market. By far the most comprehensive information
about online stock brokers is part of Don Johnson's exhaustive rankings of
discount brokers. The beauty of this work is that it contains copious
quotes from broker customers gathered from numerous online forums, as well
as trenchant comments by Don and many notes about prices, perks, and
gotchas. Don't even think about shopping for an online broker without
reading Don's report.
Survey: <http://www.thestreet.com/Markets/marketfeatures/24397_10301997.html>
Don: <http://www.sonic.net/donaldj/>
JAPANESE GARDEN MAKES AN ENTRANCING SITE
There are some real gems on the Web, and Scott Anderson's Seiwa-en site is
one. Seiwa-en is the largest Japanese garden in North America, but you
wouldn't know that from Anderson's intimate, entrancing site. His pages
manage to capture the complexities in the simple lines of Japanese garden
design and retain the peaceful, meditative flavor of the gardens in a
medium that seems to get more annoying by the day. There's a great deal of
information here for those interested in Japanese gardens or garden design
in general. Anderson's simple text and clear photographs lead you quietly
through the paths and structures, past the lanterns and waterfalls of the
garden. It's a stunning site, one worth visiting for the design and the
experience. <http://www.outside-in.com/seiwa-en/index2.html>
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Housed at and hosted by the wonder-filled Smithsonian Institution, the
National Museum of the American Indian is a stunning and sophisticated
site. Vibrant colors and artifacts warmed by the real use of long-dead
people mark its exhibits. The catalogues are not the usual dry recitation
of data, but instead enlivened by personal remembrances and interpretations
by a select council of Native American advisors and artisans. Aside from
the exhibits, take a look at the Cultural Resource Center of the National
Museum of the American Indian, now being completed in stages.
<http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/amerind/start.htm>
Winekey is a clean, simple, encyclopedic guide to Californian and Italian
wines. Listed are wine styles, appellations, types of grapes, growing
regions, details on winemaking and more for the learning. For surfers with
some knowledge of wine there are trivia tests. (Multimedia hasn't quite
perfected taste tests yet.) Those of you with questions can query wine
experts by e-mail with a two-day response time. By not promoting any
particular wineries, this site helps oenophiles pare the pulp from the
pits. <http://www.winekey.com/>
MM-MM GOOD - A TASTE OF FLORENCE
To accompany those Californian and Italian wines, you might want to try a
little northern Italian cuisine and ambiance. Visually inviting, the Mangia
Firenze (A Taste of Florence) Web site is home to some tempting recipes for
crafting Florentine culinary creations in your own cucina - scusi, in your
own kitchen. The Cyber Cookbook includes historical context and directions
for whipping up such regional specialties as fagioli all'olio (Tuscan white
beans with sage) or ravioli gnudi (resembling a gnocchi or dumpling). The
site is primarily an ad, though, for culinary programs that include
Florentine shopping, cuisine, and culture. <http://www.mangiafirenze.com/>
GOOD THINGS COME IN... TILED PACKAGES?
Tiles, tiles, tiles. Get yer red-hot tiles here. Well, that isn't exactly
what the Pyramid Tile site proclaims, but judging from the site's
outstanding look, and the accolades the Web page design community has
showered upon it, you may be too dazzled to notice. A clever design and
offbeat, tile-oriented content distinguish the Pyramid Tile site, which has
managed to garner 13 Web design awards this year alone. To that we can add
the official 1997 Netsurfer Digest Award for Best Tile-Related Site
Reviewed. One can imagine how proud the site's creators must be.
<http://www.pyramidtile.com/>
EDUCATIONAL SLIME AND OTHER KID STUFF
What better way to learn about basic scientific methods than playing with
the Alien Slime Lab? Or perhaps you fancy singing along with Cookie Monster
about the letter C? Visit the RedRocket site and delve through their
primary colored shelves to choose a microscope, or pick up instructions on
how to have fun with a math party. (Maybe math has changed over the
years....) The site has a shopping basket facility, in-depth information
about child rearing and psychology, and hundreds of books, videos and toys
that teach while they entertain. It's a great place to choose Christmas
presents for your kids, and get inside info on how their dear little minds
work while you're doing the shopping! <http://www.redrocket.com/>
Among the Masai people of Kenya, HIV and AIDS run rampant in nearly ideal
societal conditions. The disease is common in this community that favors
multiple wives, is suspicious of Western customs, and declines to discuss
sex or sexuality, and where medical supplies and treatment are difficult to
get. Here there are no quilts, few activists, and fewer resources. The
author asks for ideas about how to help, and makes a straightforward
request for donations.
<http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/5227/maasai-HIV.htm>
THE KEY IS NOT MAKING HISTORY, BUT KEEPING IT
The official Web site for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "a
private, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving America's diverse
historic places and revitalizing our communities", looks as irreplaceable
as some of the buildings it protects. Visitors can search for preservation
news in their neighborhoods, find out how to plan their next vacation
around hot historical locales, or learn what to do with their waning
wainscoting if they are the lucky owners of one of these rare gems. Best of
all for the future, it has a section for teaching kids - who think last
week's fashions are history - about the importance of preservation.
<http://www.nationaltrust.org>
Homearts is chock-full of goodies for the body, mind, and soul from the
editors of "Redbook", "Country Living", "Marie Claire" and other magazines
aimed at the women's market. Features include health and beauty topics,
money matters, interactive articles on literature, fashion, and decorating
with sound bytes, QuickTime movies and online chats, even a recipe finder.
You can have your favorite topics e-mailed to you or click a button to
e-mail the story you've just read to a friend. It's well worth a repeat
visit as each issue comes out. And definitely check out the wall of
animated TV screens at Planet Lunch. <http://homearts.com/>
FOLKSY SMART-ASS GETS OWN PAGE
At least he's honest. Jeff Wall has a self-confessed "woefully sarcastic,
jaded smartass attitude". Fortunately you're warned, so you can go
elsewhere if you find a lot of "yer" and "sumpthin" annoying or cloying and
self-consciously broad statements of personal opinion offensive. Wall loves
bluegrass music and writin', and indulges in the latter to share his views
on anything from dentists to gays in the military. He's spent a lot of time
in the navy, and feels it "necessary to let the American Public know how
well this great nation is being defended from the tofu eatin', tree
hugging, line dancing, politically correct commie bastards." Remember, you
were warned. <http://www.klondyke.net/whome/>
The word "extreme" in conjunction with the word "sport" form an expression
now all too common on cable sports networks. Attempting to lure a younger,
hipper, more suicidally-inclined audience, these channels offer up
rollerblading and skateboarding as much more than the bone-crushing hazards
that they are. As a still-thriving ancestor of the so-called extreme
sports, All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) racing has been enshrined on the Net on
the ATV Connection Web site. Off-roading netsurfers will find technical
info, features, and photos from and dealing with ATV racing events.
<http://www.atving.com/>
Whether you're a competitive dancer or, like our reviewer, just love
watching ballroom competitions on your local PBS station, DanceScape has
something for dance enthusiasts of all types. With the recognition of
ballroom dance as a possible Olympic sport, that audience is only growing.
If you're having trouble nailing down your rhumba, the site collects links
to instructional video clips across the Internet. You can also find the
latest news on your favorite dance pair, or you can buy the future dancer
in your life some practice shoes, presumably easier on your toes and the
wearer's. <http://www.dancescape.com/>
We'll admit right up front that we haven't a clue what purpose a scrum
serves. That said, Scrum.com itself appears to be the perfect scrum spot
for rugby fans. The site offers news, scores, player profiles, club
information, and scads of facts that ought to slake any rugger enthusiast's
thirst for knowledge. Most information focuses on clubs and matches played
in England, France, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and there is some
information on international play. The site is ferociously framed, leaving
precious little room for text sometimes, but that's easily forgiven in a
site this rich. <http://www.scrum.com/>
My Holidays in Turkey is a delightful tribute to this historically rich and
visually sumptuous country. Your Norwegian host, a teacher by profession,
takes you to Cappadocia, Istanbul, the Black Sea, and more, with wonderful
photographs and instructive commentary.
<http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/9978/>
IF YOU LIKE DESERTS, THIS IS ONE HOT SITE
DesertUSA is a mecca of American desert land. You can explore the Sonoran
Desert by boat, go fossil hunting in the Yuha Basin, and learn how to
harvest the prickly pear cactus. There's a desert animal of the month, a
desert plant of the month, and a ton of great virtual desert trips to take.
If you're not up for traveling in the hot sun, download the free desert
calendar, try the desert puzzle, or view the QuickTime archive, featuring
360-degree virtual reality desert scenes. Cool! Oh, wait. We mean, hot!
<http://www.desertusa.com/>
NSD's resident Virginian, having grown up with local Civil War battlefields
in school field trips and reenactments, took up the duty to review this
site. The site combines information on all levels, packaging it for the
Civil War buff and for the tourist who just happens to be passing through.
It has a calendar of upcoming Virginia Civil War events, plus maps and
historical information about different campaigns. At the bottom of nearly
every page, there's a toll-free number to call for more information if the
Web site whetted your interest. <http://www.civilwar-va.com/>
Interested in some Web work? Speak Mandarin? The Mandarin Language Web site
is hunting for a fluent guide for its information pages. If, on the other
hand, you want to know all about the Mandarin language (or would just like
to memorize a few words), you can still point your Web browser here. In
addition to learning the language, you'll learn about the culture, find out
about travel in China, and even track down software and fonts for viewing
Chinese text on the Web. So, how do you say "human rights" in Mandarin?
<http://mandarin.miningco.com/>
Vietnam Online is a handsome site with an interesting background, but it's
hosted by a Hong Kong ISP; Pacific RIM, its content provider, is in Hanoi.
It will be some time before the Vietnamese government fulfills a promise to
lead the country onto the Internet as the nation's sole access provider,
the only gateway and filter for its 75 million people and 100,000
computers. Handsome as it is, Vietnam Online is still a bit light in the
content department, especially for tourists. It lists hotels, museums, and
business contacts, but the information lacks verve and the enticing visual
and textual depth that travelers, real and virtual, crave. Still, take a
look. Let's hope it's just a baseline. <http://www.vietnamonline.net/>
SMOOTHHOUND SMOOTHS UK ACCOMMODATIONS
There are thousands of hotels and guesthouses in Great Britain, and finding
the right one can be a problem. With SmoothHound's huge, fast-loading and
comprehensive Web service, choosing the right accommodation for your stay
in the UK is simple; all the information you need is a click away,
including over 5000 places to stay with AA ratings, built-in Web-based fax
to contact the hotel, tariffs, color photos, and sample menus. Choose the
area using the clickable maps that zoom right in to individual towns and
villages, and debate the merits of four-poster beds draped in lace,
pictured in full color, or an afternoon tea of "home made crumpets, scones,
jams and cakes such as Walnut Date, a log fire and priced at 6.50". (The
log fire may be a bit indigestible, though).
<http://www.SmoothHound.co.uk/shs.html>
A couple issues back we offered a quick review of that rarest of sites, a
Star Trek homage. In the interest of equal time (time, of course, being
relative in these neighborhoods), we point you to an astoundingly
comprehensive Babylon 5 site. <http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html>
JUST TO PROVE THERE'S A SITE FOR EVERYONE
We could hardly believe it ourselves when we stumbled on this little site
devoted to collecting pencils. There's a crisply illustrated explanation of
how pencils are made, and a link to the American Pencil Collectors Society
(est. 1958). You're in luck. Conventions are held in odd-numbered years.
<http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~dmartin/geninfo.htm>
PAPIER MACHE REACHES NEW HEIGHTS - ABOUT 4 FEET
OK, so this artist isn't a whiz with site design, his spelling sucks and we
couldn't find his name even on the About page. But he sure has a way with a
stack of old newspapers and a bucket of glue. Take a look at his gallery.
With whimsy and considerable ambition, this Canadian's dream to papier
mache the world may be within his grasp. <http://www2.uwindsor.ca/~vrhovni/>
The Pride Lesbian and Gay Community Centre in Sydney, Australia has a Web
site with a message board, chat zone, and e-mail list to help the gay
community keep in touch. Anyone can appreciate the site's stylish use of
Shockwave. <http://cybersyd.rainbow.net.au/pride/>
QUEEN AND METALLICA FIGHT IT OUT AT MUSIC SITE
MusicNation provides free Web space to up and coming musicians, and then
categorizes the pages by genre and locality. Queen is competing with
Metallica for the top spot in their most frequently downloaded MIDI files.
<http://www.musicnation.com/>
WOODY WATCHES OFFICE, BUT WHO WATCHES WOODY?
Microsoft Office 97, given the virtual monopoly its maker has on the PC
market, finds its way onto many of the world's desktops, often bringing
confusion and annoyance along for the ride. Woody's Office Watch site aims
to clear away the cobwebs of confusion and offer suggestions as well as
utilities to alleviate some of Office's quirkier behavior. A weekly e-mail
bulletin, direct from Woody's Office-clogged computer, provides the latest
and greatest advice and workarounds, free for anyone who uses the Office
software. It's definitely an invaluable aid, and much more constructive
than pulling your hair out before tossing the beloved family PC out a tenth
storey window. <http://www.wopr.com/wow/>
As the Web is evolving, content aggregators like Roger at Roger's Creative
Design seem to be the way of the future. He has links to archives of MIDI
files, animated graphics, Java applets, backgrounds and icons - pretty much
anything you might want to use to add a little zip to your Web page. He
uses nearly every single one on the front page of his site. The whole thing
is a bit distracting (don't go if you're epileptic or have a heart
condition) but worth bookmarking for his reviews of links when he adds them
to his page. <http://www.rogersgifs.com/>
NEW SENDMAIL 8.8 RELEASED WITH ANTI-SPAM FEATURES
The latest release of Sendmail has some built in provisions for helping you
deal with spam. For the uninitiated, Sendmail is the definitive Internet
mail handler whose ubiquity is rivaled only by its complexity. The newest
version was just released last week. If you're a sysadmin who has to deal
with large volumes of spam e-mail, this version is of great interest to
you. The anti-spam page on the main Sendmail site has information about how
you can prevent spam relay attacks, how to refuse mail from spamming relay
hosts, how to validate mail host names, and how to deal with mailbombing
attacks. This version also contains a number of minor bug fixes. Sendmail:
<http://www.sendmail.org/>
Anti-spam: <http://www.sendmail.org/antispam.html>
PATCH UPGRADES EXPORT VERSIONS OF NETSCAPE TO 128-BIT ENCRYPTION
Due to problematic crypto laws in the US, Netscape is forced to offer only
weak 40-bit encryption in the browsers it makes available outside the US
and Canada. Farrell McKay, an Australian programmer, decided to do
something about it. He wrote Fortify, a program that upgrades export
versions of Netscape Navigator and Communicator to use strong 128-bit
encryption. The program, available in precompiled and source versions for
both Windows and Unix, safely modifies your version of the browser to
automatically generate the stronger keys. If you routinely use Netscape's
Web browsers and you live outside the US and Canada, you need Fortify.
Netscape doesn't plan any legal action, presumably since they basically
agree with Farrell but are legally prevented from offering stronger
encryption. <http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Plaza/6333/>
WEIRD NEW JERSEY MOVES, SORT OF
The weird New Jerseyites behind Weird New Jersey want you to use the
following URL, even though it directs you elsewhere. We guess they expect
to be Web-hopping. <http://www.weirdnj.com/>
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