| The Iraq Agreement |
| Awards for the Silver Screen... |
| ...And for the One You're Looking at Right Now |
| If You're Visiting Virtual Romania, Pack Tissues |
| A Bottle of Your Best Tour Guide, Please |
| The Adventure Traveler's Resource |
| Colorado Lore, Legend, and Fact |
| Do Not Cook This at Home |
| Acronym Finder |
| See Jane Run |
| It's a Gambling, Gambling, Gambling World |
| Free Stuff on the Net |
| Look, Ma, No Web Searching |
| Unzip from Your Browser Window with NetZip |
| AccuSoft Releases Java Based Image Viewer |
| DevSearch, Search Engine for Web Developers |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Formally, it's called the "Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations and the Republic of Iraq". In a nutshell the agreement says that Iraq will let UNSCOM inspectors see anything they want, and spells out some organizational details for inspecting the so-called "Presidential Sites". At the same time the Memorandum states "The United Nations reiterates the commitment of all Member States to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq". Is it just us or does that strike everybody else as utterly contradictory? Diplomacy by committee at its best. CNN has the full text.http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/23/un.iraq.agreement/index.html
Awards for the Silver Screen...
As inevitably as "Titanic" steams its way to the top of the all-time box-office revenue charts, garnering a boatload of Academy Award nominations along the way, the Oscar buzz creeps back onto the Web this year. As Oscar night draws near, the Web site, run by ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ramps up with the latest news on the nominated films, the presenters, and the performers that will entertain millions of viewers worldwide. Besides a photo gallery of past fashion triumphs and nightmares, the site also features a searchable database of past winners and nominees stretching back to 1927, that distant past when no-one preplanned sequels and a lead character might actually pass away. Hey, wait a minute....http://www.oscar.com/
...And for the One You're Looking at Right Now
Forget Oscar fever. The hottest award show of the Internet, the 1998 Webby Awards, will on March 6 boast a live 3-d Webcast. The celebrity-studded San Francisco audience of 2,000 and others around the world will all be able to geek out with 3-d glasses. In anticiption of the gala, 100,000 surfers voted online for their favorite sites in the Webbies' "People's Voice Awards". A panel of 95 celebs (including Esther Dyson, Kim Polese, and other team players with technical credentials like Jerry Brown and Dennis Rodman) also vote. You're likely to recognize many of the big names among the nominees, and not only because we reviewed them. Visit "the best, brightest, and boldest Web sites" here, but next year, nominate us, you ingrates.http://www.webbyawards.com/
SURFING SITES
Subtlety and the Sublime in All Things 'Almost Useful'
There's a subtlety so inflected in Chindogu that we can only describe it as a Zen-existential philosophy of inventive loopiness. It is, in its originator's words, "an internationally embraced discipline which celebrates the creation of 'almost useful' inventions and 'inconvenient conveniences'." As if the subtle philosophy of each tenet of Chindogu weren't hard enough to grasp, the site offers ten nuanced commandments of the discipline, including the observation that to be useless, a Chindogu must first be. The illustrated Chindogu selection may be more illuminating, including Geisha-on-the-Go (a make-up applicator for all you busy geishas with too much foundation on your hands and not enough time), the Ear Extender hearing augmenter (resembling a two-colander earmuff), and the full-body umbrella. You may join the international society and offer your own Chindogu submission - but remember, first it must be.http://www.new-kewl.com/chindogu/
Exploring Ancient World Cultures (EAWC) is more than a respectably scholarly look at archeology or classical sources. It's also not a site that starts with graphics that need explanation. Quite the opposite, it starts with explanation that needs illustration. Contemplative about ancient origins in a Campbell/Bronowski sort of way, compelling in a Burke/Sagan sort of way, EAWC asks not just what we can see of ancient culture, but what we can understand of it, how it informs our lives now, how ancient culture informed itself even then. The subtleties of these ideas aren't easily conveyed in mere bytes, and the core of the site is text heavy, built around thoughtful essays and questions. Links to rich text and graphics lend the essays more depth, help answer the questions, or make the questions even more intriguing. We can't recommend this site too highly for surfers with a similar sense of time and history.
http://eawc.evansville.edu/index.htm
Images from Inside the Holocaust
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum chronicles events so elementally evil that trying to say anything cogent about them here is unequivocally futile. We can tell you the museum offers not only a record of the atrocity, but also the means to honor its victims and direction to resources which set some treacheries right, in however small the measure. Installations and exhibits approach the Holocaust's enormity a little at a time. One installation, just closed, presents the work of Josef Nassy, a Black American portrait artist in Belgium married to a Belgian national when arrested and interned for three years. Spared the horrors of the most notorious camps, he and his art survived the war. Nassy's pencil portraits and oil landscapes are invested with the character and emotions of their subjects - dignity, joy, and tedium. Among the expected offerings are lesson plans for teachers. Among the chilling offerings are Auschwitz prisoner registration forms compiled by the compulsively orderly regime.http://www.ushmm.org/index.html
The Greatest Show on Earth Hits Cyberspace
Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey (RBBB) have trademarked this site "The Coolest Place in Cyberspace", and they just might be right. Welcome to the land of animated clowns and elephant WAVs where you can find out when the show is coming to town, meet the stars and the clowns, read a rundown of the programs, download sound files of popular acts, or take a quiz on your circus expertise. Their On the Road segment consists of educational features, like this month's "The Town Without a Zip Code", which give the visitor a glimpse into the life of a circus performer. They've even implemented a well integrated Ticketmaster link that lets you buy tickets online. All in all, RBBB's venture into cyberspace - even this, the preview edition - is everything but the cotton candy, and we'd have to assume old P.T. would be proud, and not 'cuz you're a sucker.http://www.ringling.com/
Now, on the Other White Gloved Hand...
Do you have coulrophobia? Does a dead white face with staring eyes and no hair make you feel uneasy? If so, you have much in common with the host of the No Clown Zone, and you might benefit from the therapeutic treatments available on the site. Discuss your hatred of Krusty with other phobics on the chat page or play the Shockwave "Punch the Clown" game, and you may soon start to feel better. An entertaining site, with competitions, games and stories around the theme of hating clowns - but we're not scared of them, not at all. Really.http://www.circle-r.com/ncz/
Adventure Living celebrates the lifestyle of those who feel most alive when most active. Site creator Carl dos Santos, whose right arm is "pretty much useless" because of a skiing accident that he describes (and displays with a horrific x-ray) as a "medical adventure", is up front about his own zeal for skydiving and provides great aerial photos of himself and fellow daredevils in freefall. He's also posted a couple of large movie files and a slide show for sedentary rubberneckers. When sky doesn't satisfy, there's always sea. Scuba diver dos Santos, certified with his bum arm, and 30 correspondents supply plenty of watery prose, photos, or both to commemorate good times while whitewater rafting, sailing the South Seas, or biking the Gulf Coast. The color and compressed energy of this site show skill, stamina, and vision. This guy has mastered land, air, sea, and the Web. Eat your heart out, Ernest Hemingway! Carl invites you to submit your own materials to this fine testament to muscle and will.
http://www.adventureliving.com/
At House of Tartan, you'll find just about everything you could want to know about plaid. You chuckle, but don't dismiss it lightly. Tartans were once banned, recognized for their inflammatory propaganda value as sharp rebukes and challenges to the English Crown and rule. Their history, though long, is not so tied to clan identity as you'd expect. Only in the past 300 years has the relationship between clan and tartan been formalized. Even more complex is the design of these patterns, demanding a mathematician's eye and a sense of protocol for when each variation of the same tartan may be worn. You can search your family and clan names to find the five - yes, five - variations on your pattern, guarded as jealously by Crown appointment as any heraldic shield. And you may have claim to a tartan even if you don't think you do: Americans can start by looking up American Bicentennial in the Finder.
http://www.house-of-tartan.scotland.net/story/story.htm
Not Quite the Whole Black World
The Black World site makes every effort to be inclusive, acknowledging that it's trying to serve the history and interests of Blacks and, noted distinctly, African-Americans. Like much of the Web, of course, the result is still Ameri-centric. Not that there's anything wrong with that; goodness knows African-American history, culture, and interests could more than justify a site. But there's scant reference to, for instance, the Black diaspora through Europe, or even the history or recent political upheavals and natural disasters of, say, South Africa, Rwanda, or Liberia. Cogent editorials and callouts on most pages urge a change in the understanding of Black history. We couldn't agree more; its own Black history timeline, covering just 400 years, lists only American events. Here's a site to be valued for its strengths, although we'd really like to see a broader presentation.http://www.tbwt.com/
In the wake of Canadian snowboarder Ross "I have these friends who smoke up, see?" Rebagliati's gold medal controversy over trace amounts of THC in his bloodstream, we find this next idea intriguing. An alternative to the anti-drug stance of the International Olympic Committee exists on the Net, calling itself the "Powerlympics Project". The Powerlympics would not test athletes for any performance-enhancing substances; drug use, while not encouraged, would be permitted. The project members, unhappy with what they perceive as the hypocrisy and small-mindedness of the official Olympics, aim to offer games where athletes don't need to take dangerous drugs to mask the presence of other dangerous, performance-enhancing drugs. At least this concept has a certain cynical honesty about it, but we doubt it will fly by the 2002 target date, or even at all.
http://www.powerlympics.com/
Sewing Circles around the Competition
One of the better commercial Web sites, Dyed and Gone to Heaven is the Caron Collection's answer to the question, "How do we promote our thread and patterns online?" They've come up with a unique blend of community and resources, with a bit of advertising sprinkled in. Each month's topic ties in with a spotlight on a designer and a feature column, plus they run monthly classes and contests and even sponsor a kid's corner for those not yet old enough to pick up a needle without supervision. All in all, the site's warm and cozy feeling makes it seem the perfect spot to grab a cup of coffee and curl up for a long evening.http://www.caron-net.com/
Advanced Intro to Web Programming
The Web Developers Virtual Library, probably the best source of advice for Web designers on the Internet, has added to their range of free online training courses with an Advanced Introduction. Clearly written, with every unfamiliar concept defined, the course provides lucid explanations and links to a host of supporting material. Don't tackle it unless you've passed the basic course first or you have advanced placement.http://stars.com/Authoring/Scripting/Tutorial/
Nifty Gardening Knowledge from Amaryllis to Zucchini
Every keen gardener knows no gardening book will tell you everything. Shady gardens, wet gardens, garden design, and bug killing - a gardener's bookshelf is soon groaning. Give your pressboard a break and instead stroll to the attractive, well planned Suite 101 gardening center to find articles and expert advice, intelligently written and full of interest. From green Irish lawns to breathtaking Tasmanian Hydrangeas, this site provides a fertile paradise for gardeners' minds.http://www.suite101.com/userfiles/79/gardening.html
How Many IRS Dollars Do You Suppose Went into This?
The IRS's Digital Daily includes everything you ever wanted to know about US taxes. If it doesn't, it'll tell you when you can try the next IRS Problem Solving Day for an answer. Or you can get your tax law questions answered via e-mail, with a two-week turnaround. Right now, the site pushes E-File, the electronic tax filing system. For those into traditional filing, the site includes downloadable PDF versions of all forms and publications. The IRS devoted a section of the site to tax professionals and another to the tax regulations in plain English for those of us who thought 1099 had something to do with the Battle of Hastings. That'll teach ya to read your history books upside down.http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/
A brief sampling of the articles on this site says more than we could possibly explain otherwise: "Our Teeny-Tiny National Debt"; "We'll Never Have to Pay It Back"; "The Debt Clock: Single-number-itis"; and "Throw Away the Prozac". Steve Conover says on this site that Americans should not worry about the national debt, but should instead be concerned about economic growth. These alternative arguments add to the debate over concern with government spending.
http://web2.airmail.net/scsr/
ONLINE TRAVEL
If You're Visiting Virtual Romania, Pack Tissues
Meet Zan, a missionary whose Virtual Romania could best be described as an epistolary site, in that it contains a series of her letters written home documenting her recent visit to Cluj, Romania. Many of the accounts center around a group of children she calls the "Cave Kids", who live under outcroppings on the side of a hill beneath an expensive local hotel. You'll be amazed at how Zan and others find the strength to help these kids. You may also be amazed to find homelessness, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and bad table manners lumped in the same category. If you're moved by Zan's site, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the front page to find out how you can help.http://www.maximus.com/StPhilotheaMission/
A Bottle of Your Best Tour Guide, Please
You'll find the Wines Northwest page delightfully crisp and its user interface remarkably friendly. Site visitors can browse through wineries, restaurants, and lodgings in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and create personally designed tours for their visits to the Pacific Northwest wine country. Woven into the blend are facts, maps, and listings of wine-related business elements, all finishing cleanly with a suave marketing accent. We look forward to the things to come this site promises and label it a perfect complement to your favorite route-mapping Web page.http://www.winesnw.com/
The Adventure Traveler's Resource
Hike, bike, raft, safari - active travelers have many choices, so why not visit a Web site designed to help you choose both activity and destination? The Green Travel Network provides plenty of guidance. Top-ten lists offer ideas for honeymoons, biking and hiking trips in Europe, and warm weather escapes (rafting the Bio-Bio, anyone?). Experts recommend favorites of their own (Patagonia may be old hat, but how about the Karadoram mountains in Pakistan?). "Get out of the City Guides" point the way for athletic North Americans who like to stay close to home. FAQs and forums flesh out the skinny. The basic idea is simple: spend time here and you may end up spending time - or more time - in the place you want to be.http://www.greentravel.com/
Colorado Lore, Legend, and Fact
These pages make up a must-visit site for history buffs interested in the early wild west. You'll find heroes, villains, hard-luck stories, and tall tales in addition to Colorado maps, trivia, art, and links. We were fascinated to read about colorful characters like Baby Doe Tabor and the Matchless Mine; Doc Susie, High Country Physician; and Alfred Packer, the San Juan Cannibal. If you're a true Colorado aficionado, check out the dozens of Qwik Facts and Trivia.http://www.ionet.net/~jellenc/hcg_fac.html
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
It all looks so innocent. French chick peas, olives, and spinach in red wine. Then, as you scan through the ingredients, you realize something's not quite right. Do silicon chips come in fluid ounces? Hit reload for another equally implausible recipe, courtesy of the Chaos Cafe's Java scripting team.http://members.tripod.com/~mick_cunningham/recipes.htm
So you thought you knew your ABC? At the Acronym Finder, you'll discover 27 meanings of ABC, and over 400 of the letters USA. This is a great place to decipher those irritating government acronyms.
http://www.mtnds.com/af/
Tude Fitness wants you to shape up. It tells you how to become a distance runner, how to develop a training program, and what's involved in moving those tennies along the dust in marathons and other races.
http://members.aol.com/runbetter
It's a Gambling, Gambling, Gambling World
This site for commerce and gamblers includes travel, handicappers, sportbooks, casinos, and (no surprise) ads. The weirdest part is the Gamblers World Police Department, which provides an opportunity to play cop in the wicked, wild world of gambling. Anyone for a game of Go Fish?http://www.gamblersworld.com/
The Free Site has over two dozen button icons that take you to listings and reviews of some of the best freebies that are available on the Net. They also feature an electronic greeting card section.
http://www.thefreesite.com/
This directory serves those of you who cannot or will not Web search for yourselves. The Search Beat has searched for you and put the best of their results into about 70 categories organized by theme.
http://www.search-beat.com/
SOFTWARE
Unzip from Your Browser Window with NetZip
NetZip 6.0 is a solid, user-friendly plug-in (for Netscape 2+ and MSIE 3+ on Windows) that does a lot more than your average zip program. You can use it locally, like any other zip software, but the neato part is the way it launches itself every time you download a file it recognizes; you can then extract, view, or install the contents of the zipped file from your browser window. Ignore the tutorial - there's such a thing as too user-friendly, though we don't think they're deliberately condescending. This is a stunningly useful piece of software, though we suggest they lose the ugly blue buttons in the next release.http://www.netzip.com/
AccuSoft Releases Java Based Image Viewer
Accusoft has just released NetVue, a general purpose image viewer application written in Java for platform independence. The program can display JPEG, GIF, and TIFF images and features a number of optimizing features (threads, caching) designed to speed performance. The software is designed for VARs, publishers, Web developers and anybody who wants to integrate a versatile document viewer into their project.http://www.accusoft.com/
DevSearch, Search Engine for Web Developers
This new search engine targets people who build Web sites. The authors needed some obscure bit of technical trivia but could not find it using the usual massive search engines. Figuring that others, too, had trouble sifting relevant technical information from the dross offered up by the big guys, they set up a search engine limited to the technical sites they found most useful. After some tweaking, DevSearch was born. It's simple, it's clean, and it's useful. If you do Web development, you'll want to bookmark this.http://www.devsearch.com/