| Social Engineering is Alive and Well |
| Internet Censorship Report |
| Disabled-Accessible Web Site Design |
| If It Bled, Weegee Led |
| Worthy African Art |
| Lights! Camera! Web Site! |
| Focus on Photography |
| Curls on Film |
| Political Agnostics Welcome |
| The Alsop Review |
| Positively Positive |
| Anglophiles Alert! |
| Guide a Robot over the Web |
| New Scientist's Rex Files |
| Hayward Fault Memento Mori |
| Recomposing Decomposing Composers |
| The Beginners Guide to Diabetes |
| New RealNetworks Audio/Video Player Technology Available |
| Disabled Kids |
| Chicago's Pier Walk '97 |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
The First Extrasolar Planet Is a Renegade
We hope you've already heard that astronomers think they've taken the first tourist photo of a planet outside our solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope snapped the infrared pic of what researchers estimate with 98% certainty to be a gas giant planet. The planet appears to have been gravitationally flung away from its parental binary star system - as if the stars are saying, "Off to your room, and no space pudding until you learn to behave!" Astronomers expect the young planet to run away from home and wander the universe alone, either forever or until it meets a nasty old star cruising around the wrong side of the Milky Way in a dirty van who promises it a lollipop if it helps find the star's lost kitten.http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/19/
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http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Win98/
Movie: http://www.godzilla.com/
Museum: http://www.microlink.net/~conniegn/welcome.html
CompuServe Manager Convicted in German Porn Case Despite Law
About a year ago, a hapless manager of CompuServe operations in Germany was charged in Bavaria with helping to spread banned materials - child porn and Nazi images, among others - online simply because such material was available on the Internet through the CompuServe network. Net advocates widely criticized German authorities for bringing the case, remarking that an ISP like CompuServe can't control the content available through its network. Since then, Germany has passed a new law which relieves ISPs of liability for banned material online. Even the prosecutors came to argue in court that the case should be dropped. Despite all this, the Bavarian court convicted the manager and handed down a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 100,000 marks. Expect an appeal.http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,22563,00.html
The Failure of Security through Obscurity
A recent incidence of phone card piracy illustrates the folly of security by obscurity. Dutch hackers found a way to recharge expired German phone debit cards by exploiting a design bug in the card's relatively simple, low-cost cryptographic circuits. Con men used this technique to recharge cards and resell them to retailers. Siemens and Deutsche Telekom collaborated on this type of card, implemented to improve security over a first generation, but used as security the same ostensibly "hidden" or "secret" information again. Third time's the charm? Wired has the full story.http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/12459.html
Audionet Becomes Broadcast.com
Audionet, the online service which serves up a cool menu of audio programming and book readings, has changed its name and URL. At press time, they were featuring a Gypsy Kings concert, the book "The Golden Rule of Schmoozing", and a broadcast of the Cosmetic Surgery Trial on Court TV. How can you possibly resist?http://www.broadcast.com/
Web and ISP Performance Survey Results
Inverse Network Technology has released the latest results of their service quality survey for the first quarter of 1998. Erol's Internet and IBM Global Networks got the highest log-in reliability ratings, while Pacific Bell Internet and Sprint Internet had the highest throughput performance. Overall call failure rates decreased from 10.7% in January to 9.4% in March while Web throughput has also gone up slightly from 1.97 Kbps in October 97 to 2.07 Kbps in March. On the other hand, the percentage of e-mail delivered within five minutes declined from 95% to 91% over the first quarter - partly due to several major e-mail outages. The press release links to a PDF document with more extensive statistics.http://www.inversenet.com/news/pr_05-26-98.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Social Engineering is Alive and Well
Hacking of computer networks via social engineering depends on the desire of others to be nice. Hackers have recently targeted those nice America Online customer service reps. A hacker calls AOL, and with information gleaned from members' online profiles - addresses, personal details - convinces a rep to change the account password. This locks out the legitimate user with the old password and gives the hacker exclusive access to the account. AOL's policy is to ask for credit card information when manipulating accounts but every once in a while, a service rep trying to be nice won't request that information, convinced that the hacker knows too much personal information not to be the legitimate user. Two lessons: be careful what personal information you post online, and insist your customer service reps are downright fascist in enforcing privacy policies. CNet has the story.http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,22512,00.html
The Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists site presents provocative insights into theories and the future of the Internet, with disussions on free speech, corporate control of the industry, inequalities between socio-economic classes, and legislation. The Internet Censorship Report details current arguments and can provide you with ammunition for your next dinner party/pub debate as well as enlighten those who have the power to alter the fate of this increasingly controlled "free medium".
http://www.ccpj.ca/publications/internet/index.html
Disabled-Accessible Web Site Design
Web authors have one headache that never goes away - differing standards of Web design, be they for browser, platform, or official HTML specs. Web designers should take another consideration, one sadly oft ignored, into account - the disabled. The blind cannot read tables with their readers, and frames are a waste of time for them. The Web can become a great leap forward in communication for the visually impaired, but only if designers consider their needs. A Design Above, a Web design company promoting its services, argues the case for totally accessible Web sites in a series of well written articles, and provides links to HTML and coding advice to comply with minimum browser requirements. Total accessibility may not be feasible, but it is a point of view worth reading about.http://www.adesignabove.com/business/articles/intro.html
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Things lurid and salacious fascinate us, and tabloid journalism is the offspring of that fascination. Occasionally, though, the genre rises above itself, to tell us less about an event and more about the humanity trapped in it. Mayhem and death were the favorite subjects of New York's Arthur Fellig. Working from a police precinct, helped by radioed reports, he seemed prescient in getting so quickly to crime and accident scenes - thus, his nickname Weegee (as in ouija). Weegee's '30s and '40s images of violent death, trashy glamor, and unacknowledged desperation were ahead of their time. This tiny exhibit just hints at how aggressively Weegee pursued his subjects and confronted their stories. The page downloads slowly, but it's still a rare chance to see how revealing raw photography can be in the hands of someone born to it.http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/weegeeGIF.html
Museums of art often cram their treasures from floor to ceiling into limited space, despite the doubtful effectiveness of such a display. The Standard Bank of South Africa has avoided this mistake and instead provides detailed, well lit photographs of just a few of the most outstanding African sculptures, shawls and baskets on the Internet. Every piece presents the visitor with vibrant colours, strong, raw forms, and delicate details. The bank also includes a striking collection of prize-winning press photographs from African newspapers, which range from the tragic to the breathtakingly beautiful. This site's worth a visit from any art lover.
http://www.sbgallery.co.za/
You'd expect Eastman Kodak to have great photos on its corporate site. It does. For starters, search the Feature Archives for "The Enduring Spirit", a short, evocative promotion of human rights and tribal culture told silently through human faces. The archives also include "Legends Online", a collection of profiles and portfolio selections from masters of photography. Other riches include "Through the Eyes of a Child" (where kids and cameras meet in New York) and a tribute to Russell Carpenter, director of photography of "Titanic". You'll also find tutorials, sound clips, and discussion forums. Here and there you'll find promos for Kodak products, but they're so unobtrusive, it feels like Kodak would rather you spend time looking at the elegant features than the house ads. Archives:
Kodak: http://www.kodak.com/
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/archives/featureArchives.shtml
This site welcomes serious photo buffs, and those who aspire to the title. The first page offers a grayscale scale with which you're supposed to adjust your monitor for best viewing of the images. The site is laid out like a campus - you go from workshop to workshop, learning about different aspects of photography on the way. Photography instructors will find teaching aids, point-and-shoot types can get quick tips, and all might find useful the guest lectures, classifieds, and tips on making money with your burgeoning skills. Very well done, thorough and clear, the site obviously focuses on content more than on design.
http://www.photo-seminars.com/
Body of Work, a site about a film documenting a bodybuilding challenge, gives you two options upon entering the site: with or without Shockwave. The alternatives are equivalent in terms of information available, but on either path pack your sense of adventure because it's hard to tell what's clickable on the site. Don't get so involved in the story that you won't be able to sleep at night until you know who won. You can't find out from the Web site; you have to order the video. On the plus side, the video is free if you agree to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Personally, we think they should let us vote on who should win. We'd write in Hank, the Angry, Drunken, Pectorally-Challenged Dwarf.
http://www.bodyofwork.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
Anyone with a touch of cynicism will find amusement in the raison d'etre of Capitol Hill Blue: "Because nobody's life, liberty or property is safe while Congress is in session." This smart news site about doings and undoings in Washington posts "all the news that fits." Plenty fits. Some headlines smack of tabloid journalism (one headline we saw called President Clinton "Billy") but the news itself is cogent and hot on the heels of major newswires. Forums and instant polls let you contribute, albeit anonymously, rants or considered discussion, depending on the topic. Americans can also send e-mail to their House representative through this site. Capitol Hill Blue loves quotations. You may discover some funny ones in "The Quotes".http://www.capitolhillblue.com/
So what is the Alsop Review? It's a combination of words and images culled from across the editorial staff's collective experience to form a unitary piece, embodied in the site. Flip through it, keeping in mind that being art, it, like real life, may not be suitable for all age groups. On your journey, be sure to stop a moment and visit Erik Kraft's whimsical tale of the lessons learned from overabundant chowder and Han-hua Chang's disturbing piece entitled "The Polaroid Land Camera as a Form of Ancient Punishment". There's a lot of crap out there, and we wouldn't recommend this if the writing didn't sparkle.
http://www.hooked.net/~jalsop/
A Positive Light's Web site wants you to feel better through positive thinking. You can subscribe to the Positive Light newsletter, or read some online samples of already published positive thinking. For example, in "Win, lose, or...", the author discusses the virtues of cooperation with competitors. If you'd like to counteract the negativity that every so often rears its ugly head in all our lives, it just might be worth checking out. Then again, there's always the Teletubbies to numb you out....
http://www.execpc.com/~shepler/
NewsNow is rather nice, as some Brits might say in their restrained version of enthusiasm. You get constantly updated headlines from more than 25 UK newsfeeds. The new news categories range from Technology to Business and Finance to Sport to Gaming and Entertainment. Soccer/football fans will be ecstatic.
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/
SURFING SCIENCE
Those of you fascinated by wind-up and remote-controlled toys as a kid might be tempted to spend too many hours here. Khepera is the name of a small robot that you can "telemanipulate" through a maze on a lab tabletop in Switzerland. With controls for Khepera's rotation, speed, and distance, controls for camera zoom and orientation, and very clear instructions for many more complex operations, this site is a bookmark for sure.http://khepontheweb.epfl.ch/
>From museums to movies, dinosaurs fascinate millions. The Rex Files, done by New Scientist, wants to feed our insatiable appetite for information about the creatures. This site, rather murky but easy to navigate, is a collection of short articles that address both scientific and popular speculation. Questions such as "Did male dinosaurs use their tails to gain control?" and "Jurassic pink?" pique recurrent interest in dino behavior and appearance. You'll also find perennial background favorites such as "What killed them?", "From birds to dinos?" and "Were they warm blooded"? We still don't know many of the details, but every year brings a few more.
http://rexfiles.newscientist.com/
An earthquake has always been an unexpected menace, one paid little heed to until it strikes. This eerie site, maintained at UC-Berkeley, brings to that earthquake-prone corner of the continent a memento mori. Latin for "reminder of death", a memento mori is an artistic convention, a skull placed among the lush and young in a painting to remind all that tragedy is always just around the corner. This Web site uses a Java applet to display a seismic trace, much in the manner of an electrocardiogram, of the movements of the Earth along the Hayward Fault, which has gone 300 years since its last major earthquake. Tremors and vibrations appear as irregular beats on the frightening but strangely compulsive trace. On each page is a skull, a reminder - especially to those in Silicon Valley, perhaps - that one day, maybe tomorrow, your world may rip in twain.
http://memento.ieor.berkeley.edu/index.html
Recomposing Decomposing Composers
For a euphonious dose of artificial intelligence, try Mozart's 42nd symphony. "Ah-Ha!", you cry. Even NSDers are gum-popping Puff Daddy purveyors of a declining culture! Everyone knows Mozart only wrote 41 symphonies! Yes, indeedy. But respected composer David Cope has created a computer program called EMI (pronounced "Emmy") which takes up where the great composers left off. EMI analyzes a composer's body of work, then performs a bunch of secret calculations you can read about at this Web site, and poof! A new Chopin mazurka. Or a Bach fugue. Or a Scott Joplin rag. Listen to a few pieces. David Cope is the first to admit it's a little computery - short on soul - but it's still better than most of the stuff that Salieri guy wrote.http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/home/
The Beginners Guide to Diabetes
Anyone with diabetes mellitus and relatives and friends will likely find a visit to the Web site of the Joslin Diabetes Center helpful. This research, treatment, and educational center was established in 1898 and is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. The Web site describes its many programs and resources for patients and professionals, including clinics and training, satellite and volunteer programs, and camping programs for children. News alerts and announcements, a catalogue of publications, and discussion groups enlarge the sense of online community here.http://www.joslin.org/
SOFTWARE
New RealNetworks Audio/Video Player Technology Available
The folks who bring you RealAudio and RealVideo have announced the next generation of RealPlayer. RealNetworks calls it RealSystem G2 and it comes with a boatload of new features, the vast majority aimed at streaming video broadcasters. The end user will benefit most from better quality audio and video and more control over quality vs. bandwidth tradeoffs. This page offers press releases that summarize all the features and host a link to the latest software. That RealNetworks has a lock on the vast majority of the Internet streaming media market makes this significant news, but only if you have a at least a Pentium 100.http://www.real.com/g2/
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Despite irritatingly pink backgrounds and an alarming proliferation of angels and fairies, this site provides a serious and often dramatic look at the lives of children with disabilites and illness and their families. With appropriate links and the empathetic stories of children who start out in life with less than they deserve, this site should open your eyes to those you may never have acknowledged.http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/redwood/106/index.html
CORRECTIONS
In NSD 3.33, we covered the Web adjunct of the Pier Walk, an exhibit of outdoor sculpture on Chicago's Navy Pier. The site has moved to the following URL.http://www.ezsa.com/pierwalk97/97index.htm