| Larry Wall on Life, the Universe, and Perl Onions |
| HTML:TNG |
| Netiquette |
| Pi, the Movie |
| Good Evening! |
| Community Bridge, Public Art |
| Pretty Cool Doll Art, but It's Not Dolls |
| Venture into a Fantasy World |
| Web Site as Digital Easel |
| Netsurfer Book Recommendations |
| One Look at One Other Book |
| Thoughtful Essays and Other Tidbits |
| Francis Ford Coppola's Online Writing Workshop |
| Irish Irony |
| Dr. Quack, I Presume? |
| Flora of Australia |
| Silicon Valley Soapbox Derby and Accordion Invasion |
| Heikki Luhtala Changes Background |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Market Ups and Downs: Sex and Stock Quotes
The gods must be smiling on us. Just as we're going to press, the stock market is gyrating wildly, we're looking for a lead, and this drops into our - ahem, laps. There's nothing like a brilliantly loopy idea to brighten your day, especially when your stock investments are playing your nerves for a yo-yo string. Sexquotes.com definitely qualifies for the loopy label, but you can't argue with its premise - offer the public stock quotes and sex in one neat package. Do we have the definitive metaphor for the '90s here? After you log in, a nicely designed page shows you the latest market quotes and a salacious (yes, she's naked) picture to match your taste. You'll be able to customize both the quotes display and the degree of photographic explicitness to supplement your greed. The free site goes live September 4 and we predict a massive traffic jam.http://www.sexquotes.com/
Yahoo Clubs, Excite Communities
A new battle between free online services is occurring in the broad category of user-created online sites known as communities. Typically, each consists of a Usenet-like message board, a chat area, and links and member info, all devoted to a fairly focused topic. Yahoo Clubs, first out of the gate, already has a wide variety of special interest clubs, though most number members only in single or double digits. Excite is catching up with a beta version of a somewhat more capable community builder that incorporates features such as group calendars, photos, bookmarks, and attachments. Be aware that the terms of service of these online communities may restrict the kind of content and free-wheeling discussion you can engage in - don't expect the often debilitating yet frequently glorious anarchy of Usenet news groups. On the other hand, if you want to run your own bulletin board system dedicated to cooking quail or betting on the market, here's your chance.Yahoo: http://clubs.yahoo.com/
Excite: http://www.excite.com/communities/new/
When HotWired went online, we wrote in NSD 00.27 (yes, we're older): "The interface has a coherent techno-tribal look ('fresh world-beat colors', but we miss the beveled edges :). The labels and icons can be somewhat cryptic and the whole thing could use a single text-based index...". And who could forget those day-glo colors? Amazing how nostalgia makes the nausea go away. But give them credit - HotWired was always on the cutting edge of artistic design, even when the design overshadowed, sometimes literally, the content. Now, after selling Wired, Wired Ventures has turned HotWired into a more staid and conventional Web site. The site now emphasizes news headlines, which get a new prominence, in a familiar style that crams as many concise text links as possible on the home page. It's depressingly utilitarian - surely not a sin - especially when contrasted with the wild exuberance of the past.
http://www.hotwired.com/
Steve Jobs on the State of the Mac
The Seybold Publishing conference traditionally serves as a forum for big players in publishing technology to mingle and schmooze. And since publishing professionals everywhere dearly love the Macintosh, it's not surprising Steve Jobs would pick the event to discuss the future of the suddenly white-hot Apple Computers. At this year's conference, Jobs talked about what lies ahead for the Mac operating system - better networking by October and a major revamp by the fall of next year. He also unveiled a new line of PowerBook notebook computers notable for following the iMac in lacking a built-in floppy drive. CNet has a good summary of the talk for those who follow the Mac. The actual transcript will likely wind up on the Seybold site in the near future.CNet: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,25936,00.html
Seybold: http://www.seyboldseminars.com/
Project Appleseed Seeks to Harness the Power of Parallel Macs
The goal of this project is nothing less then plug-and-play parallel computing. Scientists at the University of California noticed an interesting thing about the Macintosh G3/266 computer: it can deliver computational power comparable to a single node of a massively parallel processor. They also noted that "a cluster of four Macintoshes has the same computational power (and twice the memory) as one of the best supercomputers of eight years ago, a four-processor CRAY Y-MP." So, they wrote software which hooks up Macs in a parallel computational array and put together a surprisingly powerful system for exactly $11,256. This site has all the information about how you too can build such a machine.http://exodus.physics.ucla.edu/appleseed/appleseed.html
Java Grande Forum: Big-Time Computing with Java
While Java takes the world by storm, at least to hear the media tell it, the language is not as well suited to big-time scientific and engineering computing as it could be. To address the perceived deficiencies of Java in those areas, a group of scientists and programmers have formed the Java Grande project to make sure that Java can handle high performance computing, large parallel and distributed computing applications, and high-end scientific and engineering math projects. The site, with information from the last three meetings of the forum and a variety of papers discussing perceived problems and proposed solutions, will be of interest mostly to scientific computing types and Java insiders.http://www.javagrande.org/
Strange Brew, the First Java "Virus"
It's not strictly correct to call the Strange Brew Java exploit a full virus, since it doesn't propagate from computer to computer on its own. But it does appear to be the first Java-based infectious agent. Strange Brew can be attached to a Java application so that when a human runs the application in a mode which gives it access to the local file system, Strange Brew will replicate itself into other class files within your Java file structure. It's harmless, since it can't be spread through the Web via applets such as those you'd normally run in your browser and it does nothing except attach its code to other files. Sun has a page devoted to Strange Brew, as does the Symantec Anti-Virus Center where it was first discovered.Sun: http://java.sun.com/nav/about/sb.html
Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/data/javaapp.strangebrew.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Larry Wall on Life, the Universe, and Perl Onions
Even the most casual Perl programmer recognizes Larry Wall's great philosophical depth and exceptional wit. Larry is one of the authentic heroes of the free software movement and his creation, the programming language Perl, has taken on a life of its own, becoming the tool of choice for system administrators and webmasters everywhere. His qualities shone as he gave his "State of the Onion" speech at the recent Perl conference here in Silicon Valley. Don't let the fact that this speech is ostensibly about a programming language put you off. This fine piece of writing is deep, entertaining, and a thorough pleasure to read for just about anyone willing to take a moment and contemplate reality. Oh yeah, Star Wars fans who read closely will find out why the Force is like duct tape.http://www.perl.com/pace/pub/perldocs/1998/08/show/onion.html
Take a deep breath, webheads. The relative simplicity of hypertext markup language (HTML) is quickly giving way to more capable complexity as it moves from version 3.2 to 4.0 and cascading style sheets, dynamic HTML (cool nerdy stuff), and XML (SGML's baby for the Web). The Web Developer's Virtual Library, a member of the Internet.com family of Web sites, now has a great subsite, Next Generation HTML: The Big Picture. This ambitious overview uses image maps, outlines, and a lot of intramural links to bring developers up to speed. You may want to start with the Acronym Expander and view the Big Picture page before you delve into the rest. If hyperlinks distract you, we recommend reading some of these pages offline before entering a clicking frenzy.
http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/Overview/
Feel as if your online manners need a refresher course? Visit the Netiquette Home Page to learn about the polite way to live an online life. You can read some excerpts from Virginia Shea's netiquette book, take a quiz to test your netiquette know-how, or subscribe to a mailing list on the subject.
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
What do Go, Sundance, fingerprints, galaxies, mathematics, Kabbalah, migraine, chaos theory, and the New York Stock Exchange have in common? No answer? Perhaps you're not a genius like the protagonist of the movie "Pi", a thinker's tale tastefully promoted with a stunning array of scripts and animated GIFs at its Web site, the most creative, if not the darkest, cinematic promo site we've seen. Intellectual teasers abound, as you might expect of a thriller named after a mathematical constant. Where's the beef? Director Darren Aronofsky wrote in his diary: "Basic idea: a genius mathematician going insane." The trailers you can download here indicate he has depicted that and more. "Pi" received a Sundance 1998 Directing Award. Notably, the movie's lead actor is also the site's webmaster.http://www.pithemovie.com/
Hitchcock's films are so deceptive, such seemingly light suspense fare, but even his frothiest confections - "To Catch a Thief" for instance, or "North by Northwest" - turned on serious themes that ran throughout his most thoughtful works. Identify a good man caught in someone else's deceit, place him opposite a knowing woman, use the absence of sex to underline the erotic - and watch the fireworks. From this distance, it's hard to remember what a pioneer Hitch was: the lighted milk in "Suspicion"; the homo-eroticism of "Rope"; the 12-minute lapse in dialogue in the climactic scene of "The Man Who Knew Too Much"; the frankly unstated prostitution of "Notorious" and "North by Northwest"; the fact of a bathroom scene at all in "Psycho", let alone what happens in the shower. Then, of course, there was Hitch's penchant for sly appearances in his own films. If his dry wit in the colorized intros of his resurrected television series has lulled you into a false sense of security, take a second look at just how disturbing his films really are. This site will get you started.
http://nextdch.mty.itesm.mx/~plopezg/Kaplan/Hitchcock.html
The Community Bridge project is so astonishingly unusual that, at first, it's difficult to see its many dimensions. Mural artist William Cochran took an ugly little concrete bridge in downtown Frederick, Md. and, with the help of 173,000 citizens, transformed it into a stunning piece of public art. The bridge is lavishly painted as a trompe l'oeil - a trick-of-the-eye that makes the concrete look like fine stone work covered with beautiful embellishments. According to Cochran, it stands as a physical and lasting monument to the spirit of community. That's not just a platitude. To really get it, you've got to see it. And you've got to read the story behind it to get the full impact of its quietly creative audacity.
http://bridge.skyline.net/
Pretty Cool Doll Art, but It's Not Dolls
Art involving the human form in a distorted reality, these works are presented as an artists index and links to other pages related to "the best figurative art from the most talented artists worldwide." The Doll Art Company, a unique combination of fine art craft and three-dimensional figurative sculpture, features a select group of the world's most talented artists in this field.http://www.dollartcompany.com/
Meet Karen Barberie, struggling artist. Having completed her mandatory waitressing dues, she's designed a Web site to exhibit her illustrations. Her online portfolio is full of fairies, mermaids, and other waiflike creatures. She follows most illustrations with a snippet about the artwork, usually when and why it was drawn, which gives a little insight into the piece. There's some nudity involved, so if you don't like naked people in your art, don't go. We'll tell Michaelangelo's David you send your regrets.
http://members.tripod.com/Celara/
Digital Paint showcases two digital artists, John Pangia and Judy Fioravanti. Their best original content hides behind the Paint Gallery link. The Gallery contains over 50 images, four thumbnails to a page, which load quickly and can be clicked on to get a larger pixelated version, presumably so you won't print out their work and hang it on your wall. The images run the gamut from mundane to stunning and we found them worth a look-see. The Illusions link leads to that form of amusement we all indulge in when we first try Photoshop: putting things where they shouldn't be. Somebody's head lands on someone else's body, preferably someone of the opposite sex, and the hilarity ensues until the novelty wears off. In Single Editions, the artists offer to create a digital painting from a photo. An 8x10 runs $60.
http://www.jersey.net/~usns/
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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Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes - And Its
The Perl Cookbookhttp://www.netsurf.com/nsd/books/book.04.26.html
Thoughtful Essays and Other Tidbits
Auren Hoffman hosts Summation, a collection of insightful essays and personal critiques of current affairs and weird events. With discussions on the US non assassination policy - "Death squads are not the American way" - to accounting firms obsessed with fresh breath (apparently they dispense mouthwash in their bathrooms), this site combines good links and an unusual perspective with intelligent, humorous commentary.http://www.summation.net/
Francis Ford Coppola's Online Writing Workshop
Hollywood (and we) can't help but belly-ache about its lousy scripts, but it's rare to see a producer creative enough to come up with a practical way to help young writers develop. Francis Ford Coppola once again pulls ahead of the pack by expanding his fine literary magazine, Zoetrope, into an interactive online writing workshop. Writers register at the Zoetrope: All Story site, which means they agree to read and critique other peoples prose stories, in exchange for critiques from fellow members. Submission categories include short stories with fewer than 7,000 words and novellas with fewer than 24,000 words.http://www.zoetrope-stories.com/
The Fin's Shebeen Web site offers a wealth of all things Irish. Let's start with an anonymous quote from the home page: "Everyone is sociable until a cow invades the garden." The site's language is sophisticated - not surprising, since the author writes fiction that is broadcast by the BBC and published in magazines "available at all fine bookstores and haberdashers." (Just visiting the site will make you write long, convoluted sentences....) Perhaps site visitors who read all the learned links should earn college credits.
http://www.columbia.edu/~fjk4/
SURFING SCIENCE
If you're a fan of oddities such as those showcased in Ripley's Believe It or Not, you'll love the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices. This home of quackery features some amazingly fraudulent gadgets. Learn, for example, about prostate cures like the light-bulbed prostate gland warmer or the frighteningly named recto rotor. Or perhaps you'd like to check out devices for the other end, such as the phrenology machine which maps the bumps on your head to evaluate your personality? These delights and more await you.http://www.mtn.org/quack/index.htm
You'd almost have to be a potted plant not to love this site. The pictures of exotic flowers alone are worth a visit. Serious gardeners, botanists, and environmentalists will be rewarded with Linnaen nomenclature and hard science, courtesy of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (a collaborative effort of Australia's conservation research institutes). On the metaphysical side, a vendor page claims Aboriginal tradition uses flower essences to influence health. For example, the essence of the jacaranda blossom is said to promote "decisiveness, clear mindedness, quick thinking". Whether you buy it or not, the flower-power descriptions are fun.
http://users.wantree.com.au/~rosmci/ausplant.htm
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Silicon Valley Soapbox Derby and Accordion Invasion
We got this straight from Guy Kawasaki. A famous Silicon Valley restaurant called Buck's is sponsoring a soapbox derby to raise funds for the Peninsula Community Foundation. For the uninitiated, a soapbox derby is a race of home-built mini-cars, usually down a steep hill at utterly ridiculous speeds. Naturally, kids love the opportunity to nail together wood and wheels in the not-so-forlorn hope of a heap of glory - sometimes literally. The event takes place Sunday, September 20, 1998 at 8:15 AM here in Silicon Valley. At the same time, the owner of Buck's, Jamis MacNiven, is trying to set the Guinness Book of World Records record for the largest accordion band. Help spread the word far and wide to any accordion players you may know.http://www.sandhill.org/
CORRECTIONS
Heikki Luhtala Changes Background
In NSD 3.26, we pointed you to the aforementioned Mr. Luhtala's treasure trove of backgrounds ("Heikki Luhtala's Backgrounds Paradise"). He's moved.http://njet.net/heikki/