| Tortured Norns |
| Dissected Frogs |
| HTML Tag List |
| Kongo Ivory Art |
| Very, Very Goth |
| Biblically Inspired Art |
| Tarot Art |
| Netsurfer Book Recommendations |
| Slightly Longer Looks at JavaScript Books |
| Open Source Java Clone Released |
| Netscape Communicator 4.5 Beta Available for Download |
| RealSystems Releases New Online Audio/Video Player |
| SecureCRT 2.2 Delivers SSH Data Encryption for Windows |
| Does a Llama Go Bulk Rate? |
| New Gnu News |
| Blonde Ambition Turns to Flaunt |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Last issue, we reported on the Our First Time (OFT) Web site, which purported to follow two "teens" as they prepared to lose their virginity. We were skeptical but without evidence to back us up, we presented it as straight info with a cynical cast. About an hour after we went to press, a sponsor pulled out, claiming the project is a scam - the site would charge a pay-per-view fee on the day of the "big event", which would never happen as the subjects would choose abstinence. Can you imagine the uproar? Anyway, in an effort at damage control, OFT altered its pages to admit the story was fictitious. Wired broke the story, Salon has an analysis of the phenomenon, and the site in the plain brown wrapper is a great sodomistic parody of the original. Oh, and the teen virgins aren't.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/13816.html
Salon: http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/rose/1998/07/22straight.html
Wrapper: http://www.ourfirstanalsex.com/
Non-virgins: http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/13904.html
Censorious Net Legislation and Goofy Gambling Litigation
The US Senate has continued its tradition of constitutionally suspect but terribly politically correct legislation in appending several Net related amendments to the latest budget bill. One amendment prohibits the distribution of matter "harmful" to minors and another requires schools and libraries which receive federal funding to install filtering software on their Net access. The Senate also voted to criminalize online gambling with penalties of jail and fines to be handed out to convicted gamblers and casino operators. In a related story, a California woman who racked up $70,000 in online gambling debts has sued Visa and MasterCard, claiming that the transactions were illegal under California law and that the credit card companies should never have allowed them. CNet covers both issues.Senate: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,24538,00.html
Lawsuit: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,24561,00.html
The Last Tsar Interred in St. Petersburg
Despite the modest ceremony - at least by the standards of Tsarist funerals - luckless and recently reburied Nicholas II had to endure yet another indignity. The State Heraldry Service refused him the traditional 21-gun salute because he resigned the throne in 1917. Many interesting people turned up, not least the uninvited General Lebed (a potential presidential contender), who hopped a couple of fences to get in on the action. The St. Petersburg Times reported the funeral, and try Royal Russia for related links. The Czar's Bookshop has a massive collection of Russian related books and videos; we recommend a couple below. Also, take a look at the nicely designed, royalist tribute to Prince Alexei, Nicholas's hemophiliac son.St.Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.ru/current/news/tsar.htm
Royal Russia: http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/index.html
Czar's Bookshop: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/pavlovsk/cbsi.html
Alexei: http://member.aol.com/Dangit0/Alexei/alexei.htm
Cheap Custom Machine Cracks 56-Bit Code
Crypto researchers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) cracked the 56-bit DES code in three days using a relatively cheap $250,000 machine made of an ordinary PC hooked up to a bunch of custom processing chips. The press release states "EFF set out to design and build a DES cracker to counter the claim made by US government officials that American industry or foreign governments cannot decrypt information when protected by DES or weaker encryption, or that it would take multimillion-dollar networks or computers months to decrypt one message." This site has extensive information on the project, including a link to the just-published book about the effort called "Cracking DES". The book details the design of the machine, which can't be placed online due to ridiculous US crypto export laws.http://www.eff.org/descracker.html
Author of "Applied Cryptography" Starts Newsletter
Bruce Schneier, author of one of the most authoritative books on modern cryptography, has launched a free newsletter "providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on cryptography and computer security." The two online issues are full of good crypto related links of interest to both professionals and amateurs.http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9806.html
http://www.unrealnation.com/crackhouse/catscan.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Those of you who think the virtual world is a higher moral plane are in for a rude awakening. Like most artifacts, it teems with the full spectrum of human virtues and vices. A virtual life game called Creatures is easily the best of its kind. You control the breeding, feeding, teaching, and when needed, provide negative reinforcement to virtual creatures called norns. While many users enjoy benignly ruling their artificial world, as in real life some prefer the role of cruel despot. Tortured Norns is but one site dedicated to those who love to torture their Norns. The descriptions of norn abuse are worthy of de Sade, and we're not reporting this for its sick titillating value but to raise a philosophical question or two. Do we have moral obligations to our non-living creations? What's the difference between a norn and a brick? Will Norn abuse prevent or promote real abuse? Think about these issues and we've done our job.Creatures: http://www.creatures.co.uk/
Tortured Norns: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/2495/
Good Article: http://www.wired.com/news/news/wiredview/story/13293.html
Old friends know we strive to be the cutting edge of frog reporting. Since we first reported on a virtual frog dissection, such things have become quite a bit more sophisticated. Virtual Creatures is a National Science Foundation funded project to create sophisticated models of animals for teaching purposes. A Stanford University team is creating a virtual frog capable of being viewed from any position in or out of its skin. Students will be able to prod the frog with force feedback devices, insert virtual measuring devices into the model, or inject virtual chemicals into its system. This leads to more questions to think about. Is this virtual frog more or less alive then a norn (see above)? Will people who object to torturing norns also object to virtual frog dissections? Will virtual frog dissection prevent or cause more real frog dissection? If intent determines morality, then must we not punish thought crimes?
http://k-2.stanford.edu/creatures/
The HTML Tag List, a generous and useful Web reference, contains clear descriptions of every HTML tag on the planet (of which there are an awful lot these days). The site details with which browsers the tags work and - more importantly - do not work. The site stays up-to-date with the latest specs/recommendations/edicts. Excellent articles and tutorials on topics like cascading style sheets, color, and character sets supplement the tag list. What's more, you can download the whole site - complete with friendly framed structure and menus - as a single .zip file. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/schluter/doc/tags/index.html
This fascinating exhibit from the National Museum of African Art seems tailored for a virtual tour. The exhibit daringly features only a single artifact, a two-foot-long carved elephant tusk, on which the sculptor has recorded several scenes. Although the carvings themselves don't constitute a narrative, they do offer a virtuoso show of elements specific to the Loango Cost and Kongo style of the 1800s. The exhibit focuses on 16 individual carvings in the spiralled tusk, incorporating political, social, and art history in its annotations. The photography is gorgeous, and so good that you can get a sense of the incomparable warmth and depth that make ivory such a favoured medium for its fanciers - and such a curse for its original owners.
http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/africart/exhibits/loango/loango.htm
Take a look at Goth's newest incarnation at the Chapel Perilous. Reading and looking like the bastard child of Barbara Cartland, Roger Corman, and Russ Meyer, flame-haired Kallisti's personal site offers her artwork inspired by risque Renaissance verse. There's also a penchant for absinthe and too, too hip references to recreational pharmaceuticals. And, of course, there's sex. Oodles of it. Including a link to a droll article on kokagami, the oriental art of paper costumes for - um, one member of the party. Everything old is new again, of course. Some of us went through an earlier incarnation of self-absorbed Goth years ago - or years and years ago, depending on our Goth vintage. Still, pay Kallisti's Goth-gone-smart site a visit. Now, the warning: We'd be hard pressed to call the site pornographic, but ribald certainly applies to both language and graphics.
http://www.sepulchritude.com/chapelperilous/index.html
As an artist inspired by the Old Testament, Phillip Ratner has been fruitful and multiplied. His works have been displayed at some of the most prestigious sites in the United States: the Smithsonian, the Statue of Liberty, the US Supreme Court, the White House. In 1984, Ratner opened the Israel Bible Museum in Safed, Israel to house 250 of his sculptures, drawings, and paintings. See dozens of them at this site: Moses, Noah, et al, depicted in accessible, figurative sculpture. When you get to the Kaballah Page, get ready for some surreal black and white drawings that attempt to capture the ineffable mysteries of the ten sephiroth.
http://www.israelbiblemuseum.com/
That you can view more than 110 tarot decks here is evidence of a recent explosive interest in this 78-card symbol system of unknown, possibly ancient origin. Along with the classic Rider-Waite and the Wang/Regardie Golden Dawn decks, you'll find just about any New Age variation you could dream up: the Goddess, Lakota Sweat Lodge, Celtic, Chinese, Halloween.... The homepage has a few quasi-esoteric links, but the site's pretty much only an extensive catalogue of tarot illustrations, linked to Amazon.com for purchase. You'll find no background on what the artist was trying to say or learn anything about the fascinating history of the tarot or its symbolic significance. Too bad.
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/3878/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Netsurfer Book Recommendations Books our staff likes and you might too. Click on the cover or title to order the books at a hefty discount from Amazon.com and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Barbarians Led by Bill Gates
The Memoirs of Cleopatra: A Novel
The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II
Open Lands: Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden PlacesSlightly Longer Looks at JavaScript Books
Our intrepid book reviewer chokes down JavaScript with the help of two of O'Reilly's draft horses. David Flanagan's "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" and Nick Heinle's "Designing with JavaScript: Creating Dynamic Web Pages" will no doubt keep you up reading way past your bedtime.http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/books/book.04.22.html
SURFING SCIENCE
Which Came First, the Dinosaur or the Bird?
You know the answer - or do you? This fascinating Web page examines various theories about the relationships between those amazing, mysterious creatures and their delicate fluttering little cousins. The graphics are adorable, and the author is both informative and amusing (a rare combination!). Don't miss his bio, which describes how he earned a doctorate studying fossil crocodiles, and later worked as the Curator of Vertebrates for the University of Sydney.http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/dinobird/story.htm
Sure to Turn Any Kid into a Rockhound
The Fundy Geological Museum can be found in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia on the shore of the famous Bay of Fundy and close to a recent major paleontological discovery. Nearby, an ancient (Triassic) lakeshore surrenders thousands of fossilized bones of fish, amphibians, and reptiles and retains the footprints of land creatures. The museum's Web site captures the excitement surrounding the find and with photos of scientists at work and explanatory text provides a glimpse into the painstaking work required to prepare a prosauropod specimen. Beautifully done.http://www2.nova-scotia.com/nova-scotia/fundygeomuseum/index.htm
The Languages of Mexico and Beyond
Were there an Internet a millennium ago, you might find eight, ten, maybe a dozen different languages at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Mexico (SIL) site, instead of just English and Spanish, the latter being the language of the conquistadors, of course. Linguists recognize 20 separate indigenous language families in what is now Mexico. The SIL site provides bibliographic notes, links to dictionaries, grammar primers, and literature written in many of these languages. Students of linguistics shouldn't miss the Ethnologue page, a catalogue of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries, indexed by language family.SIL: http://www.sil.org/americas/mexico/
Ethnologue: http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/
The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
Not many sites have entertaining navigation icons. This one features sound effects, pyrotechnics, and a great use of color, yet still manages to tell you what hides beyond each button. And no matter which button you do click, you'll find a wonder. This fabulous museum virtual tour loads incredibly fast despite making heavy use of Shockwave, QuickTime, and streaming video. It would be easy to spend hours here playing the games and cruising the extensive information. Oh yes - there's a dressed-down version of the site, too.http://www.msim.org.uk/
You can learn more about our planet's essential marine habitats and the species who live in this underwater world at the World Wildlife Fund's Year of the Ocean '98 site. Special emphasis is given to sharks and the increasing need for shark conservation, to whales and the effects that toxins are having on these giants of the sea, and to sea turtles and the shrimp trade. The site's well designed and easy to navigate.
http://www.wwf.org/yoto/
If you've ever wondered about the status of your health, this online Health Risk Assessment will partially satisfy your curiosity in return for only a few minutes of your time. It provides feedback on your health risks and a personalized list of relevant Web sites. It's anonymous, so you needn't worry about endless e-mails scolding you for your high blood pressure. Check out the health library and its many useful resources.
http://yourhealth.catholichealthcarewest.org/
SOFTWARE
Open Source Java Clone Released
Transvirtual Technologies have released Kaffe, the first Java clone available under the Open Source initiative. This means you can get the source code of this Java implementation under the popular GNU Public License (and you can change it, but you have to make the source code of the changes publicly available). Kaffe comes in two flavors, Desktop and Custom. The more configurable Custom edition come with extra bells and whistles, but it costs an unstated license fee. The Desktop edition is free.http://www.transvirtual.com/
Netscape Communicator 4.5 Beta Available for Download
You really can download the beta of Netscape Communicator 4.5 now. Really. A few kinks remain to be straightened out and the software will crash on you occasionally, but it's smaller in size than the 4.0 versions. Whizzy new features include the much debated Smart Browsing feature. Type a word in the Location field and the browser either takes you to the site most likely to have content matching that word or it performs a Web search for you. The new Communicator comes for just about every platform, but there is no stand-alone Navigator 4.5 yet. Linux users can choose from three different Linux 2.0 versions, though you'll find no information explaining what linux20_pro and linux20glibc2 are all about.Web: http://home.netscape.com/communicator/navigator/v4.5/smartportal.html
FTP: ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.5/
RealSystems Releases New Online Audio/Video Player
RealPlayer clearly leads the online video delivery market. You find files in RealPlayer format on just about every major media delivery site out there. So when RealSystems delivers s new version of their player, the industry takes notice. RealSystem G2 is still billed as beta software, but it seems solid enough. You get better control over audio and video quality, and better performance. The software is available for Windows only and will cost you $30.http://www.real.com/
SecureCRT 2.2 Delivers SSH Data Encryption for Windows
Van Dyke Technologies has released the latest version of their SSH client software for Windows 95/98/NT. SSH, a popular protocol for securely connecting terminal sessions between machines, is rapidly replacing Telnet in the Unix world. System administrators who need to allow secure remote access to their machines should pay attention to this elegant and fully featured program. More info and an evaluation version are available at this site.http://www.vandyke.com/
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Wish it were more convenient to do your part to end hunger? The Heifer Project International will allow you to buy an animal for a hungry family at the click of a mouse. The FAQ reassures visitors who don't want to support programs in which animals compete with people for food and informs them that while some donated animals end up as meat, most farmers consider an animal more valuable alive than dead. Click on the Ark page if you want to donate to a specific section of the world; it outlines where specific animals are needed most. You can send a share of most animals for just $10 and two flocks of geese, six ducks, or two flocks of chicks for $20.http://www.heifer.org/
CORRECTIONS
The press release that NewHoo (see last issue) sent us came with the URL we used at the end of our review. We thought it odd at the time, but it worked. Another URL, one that makes more sense and is likely to be more easily remembered, also works.Old: http://www.gnuhoo.com/
New: http://www.newhoo.com/
Blonde Ambition Turns to Flaunt
In NSD 4.05, we covered Shauna's Blonde Ambition site, but that's since been deep-sixed in favor of her new project, entitled Flaunt. It's worth a look-see.http://www.flaunt.net/