|
NETSURFER DIGEST
More Signal, Less Noise |
Volume 05, Issue 01 Friday, January 08, 1999 |
NETSURFER LINKS
|
|
BREAKING SURF We were impressed that there were no public glitches when Europe started trading the new Euro currency on January 4. We know how difficult it is to implement complex systems, and we can only imagine the organizational and technical problems that had to be overcome. Many anonymous people deserve a lot of praise for the smooth debut. The EC has an informative multilingual site where you can get background information and trivia about the Euro. You can check out conversion rates (but not to US dollars) and take a look at the notes and coins which will go into circulation in 2002. While you're at it, check out the interesting History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day site and if you like it - shameless plug - order the book by Glyn Davies.European Commission: http://europa.eu.int/euro/html/entry.html History of Money: http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/llyfr.html Book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0708313515/netsurferdigest
Play SimCity Online with Browser and Java Since its original release way back in 1989, SimCity has garnered a minor cult following among game fans. It has also spawned a number of neat sequels such as SimAnt, SimFarm, SimEarth, and SimCopter. On the eve of the release of SimCity 3000, Electronic Arts is making the original SimCity game available online through the magic of Java. The newly revamped SimCity Web site lets you play a Java version of the original game with the added capability of chatting with other users while you play. You'll need to go through free registration first and download a SimCity plugin, but it's a small price to pay for some addictive fun.http://www.simcity.com/ Death to Hackers - The Real Thing Chinese leadership evolved from a long, imperially authoritarian legal tradition unsullied by any significant value placed on patently overabundant human life. Sending a message by killing off a few wayward worker units is a time-honored ancestral custom. Recently, a Chinese judge taking a "tough stance" on high-tech crime has sentenced to death a pair of hapless hackers who broke into a bank's computer system and stole $86,700. >From a legal perspective - usually synonymous with political perspective and not always to be confused with a rational perspective - hacking is ultimately an intellectual property crime aimed at information which may or may not be used to commit further crimes. The US and other Western countries have been pressuring China for years to crack down hard on intellectual property crimes, apparently without considering the culturally ruthless context. Representatives of those same Western countries who pressure China to improve its human rights record must find the irony of the situation particularly poignant.http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/98122812.html Emerging Patterns in Intrusion Detection That's the name of what sounds like a fascinating online interview with Steven Northcutt, director of the SHADOW Project, the US military's counter-cracker organization. Northcutt is also one of the movers behind the Center for Intrusion Detection, an ad hoc organization of security and spook types formed last August. The Center aims to rapidly respond to possible hacking attempts (see the Wired story for background). The interview will be broadcast live online Jan. 14 at 1:00 pm EST via RealAudio, and will be available for replays thereafter. Questions from the audience will be taken via e-mail. Hosted by the SANS Institute.Registration: http://www.sans.org/jan14.htm Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/14718.html SANS: http://www.sans.org/ Fix for Explorer Frame Spoofing Security Bugs As we reported in NSD 04.35, both the Netscape and Microsoft browsers are vulnerable to a new security bug called "frame spoofing". The bad guys can collect private content with a browser window from any site that uses frames. Microsoft has released a patch for Explorer that fixes this problem. Netscape has not yet acknowledged the problem on their security pages.http://microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms98-020.asp SURFING SITES An online version of Carl G. Liungman's book "Thought Signs", Symbols.com is an exhaustive catalogue of Western non-pictorial ideograms, with meanings and associations. Here you'll find crosses, crescents, alchemical symbols, and the rest, but the true fascination lies in the offbeat: the rune for aurochs; the ancient Greek cartographic symbol for "stone bottom at the water's edge"; and the complex symbols of tramps and hobos of various countries. Browsing is addictive. Does it say something about their respective cultures that the French hobo sign for "the man in the house is horny" is followed immediately by the American hobo sign for "the man in the house is armed with a gun"? The site is searchable by concept, and also by the specific characteristics of a sign, if you have one whose meaning you do not know.http://www.symbols.com/
Going Places You're Not Supposed to Lacking the grace not to gush, we got rather overexcited about this site. It's full of great advice on how to sneak your way into some pretty top-level adventures - especially in Toronto. Fancy exploring abandoned (or not so) buildings, the Paris Catacombs, the Arctic Gardens, or Toronto City Hall when no one is looking? Feel like perusing secret transit tunnels or sneaking about in the bowels of the city where "there is a very good chance of being killed"? The latter only applies to moments of tomfoolery such as forgetting to look out for trains or dancing on the electrified third rail but with all this experienced, sensible advice, relevant information and lists of books on the subject, as well as where similar adventures feature in films, you'll probably emerge with all limbs intact and an increased perception of your own world. But if you don't, don't blame us.http://www.infiltration.org/ The Modern Moist Towelette collecting site verifies what should be called a Law of the Net: one person's weirdness is another's passion. This site fawns over moist towelettes, those pre-packaged, moist, scented hand wipes. The site highlights include the anatomy of the towelette, a sizable gallery of towelette photos, and a debate on whether to use or collect the moist towelette. As the site says, "despite whatever differences we have as humans, we can all satisfy the natural urge to clean ourselves with lemon-scented, moist-filled napkins." http://members.aol.com/MoistTwl/ You gotta love a site with an editor's note that reads: "Though most stores use the spelling of 'donut' we prefer the more doughy form, 'doughnut'." The "Call of the Doughnuts!" site features the guilty pleasures in all their glory. From eating tips to recipes to links, here's the skinny (well, maybe that's not quite the right word) on these delectable, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth masterpieces of flour, sugar, and grease. Even a bad doughnut is good. Sadly, there's no truth to the rumor that eating five raspberry jelly doughnuts a day counts as five daily servings of fruit. http://www.elliskaiser.com/doughnuts/ Quest for Fire from Grapes of Wrath This site, which hasn't been updated since June 1994, shows that you don't have to have the latest Javascript to make your page interesting. You remember 1994, don't you? The first big spam comes to us courtesy of Canter and Siegel, domain name registration is still free, FTP rides high as the most popular use of the Internet, nearly everybody's browsing the new-fangled Web with a copy of Mosaic, and an IRC regular, Patrick Michaud, is creating spectacular pyrotechnics with nothing more than grapes and a microwave. Fans of the TWINKIES project and Strawberry Pop-Tart Blowtorches will love this. Warning: Do not visit this site with impressionable children. They will undoubtedly want to try it out. Impressionable adults - go for it. Just don't say we didn't warn you.http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pmichaud/grape/ Taking Stocks of Popular Culture The Invisible Hand Electronic Market is designed to let you transform your intuition and knowledge of topics such as rock'n'roll and the economy into tradable assets and, ultimately, prizes. You must register - free - to receive a virtual $10,000 in your account. To win a prize, buy and sell contracts created by the site designers to make more profit than anyone else. There's info online to help those of us who are not so clued into culture as the rest of you. Popular contracts include Star Wars vs. Titanic, Russia's leader in 2000, and whether Elizabeth Dole will run for president.http://www.myhand.com/ This site claims to be preserving the bad taste of our era for future generations. It's well on its way, as a wonderful museum of kitsch postcards from all eras and countries. From seemingly frozen disco dancers on the verge of doing some hot-damn wooin' moves to a Mountie who appears to have been recently clubbed over the head, these cards will draw you in with that just-one-more syndrome that accompanies any "next" button. The site plans a much anticipated "Send a Stinker" virtual postcard service which should serve you well in those moments when words just ain't enough. http://home.att.net/~ro/index.htm Mother Earth Meets Mother Jones Meets RealAudio While media giants grapple awkwardly with the Internet, a technoherd of independent news sources have begun stampeding across the Net. Earth Broadcasting Corp. (EBC), one of these alternative outlets, provides free daily RealAudio news and views. The broadcast categories include topics such as HardNews, Sports, and FunStuff, which subscribers receive via e-mail. Each lasts three or four minutes. EBC prides itself on a renegade, listener-centered attitude, a disposition that begets unique and incisive news coverage. The EBC staff seems genuinely committed to realizing the Internet's most altruistic ends, a refreshing mind set in a sea of corporate exploitation. However, those averse to somewhat subjective and generally editorialized news had best stick to their Real Audio presets.http://www.earthbroadcasting.com/ Planes and Pilots of World War II Until 1942, the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe put the US to shame in training and air power. With the help of new pilots and new planes, notably the agile Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter, the Allies turned the tide and defeated Axis forces in North Africa, then Sicily, then the mainland. History buffs, aviators and war moviegoers, this site has a lively feel, perhaps partly because of its ties to active veterans associations. Pictures of the old planes are great, but only a fighter ace can tell the story of what happened in the cockpit.http://home.att.net/~C.C.Jordan/index.html One infuriating aspect of the EC to the British is that commercial rules sometimes take a back seat when it suits government or big business. EU law requires car sellers to supply left and right-hand drive versions at the same price. But it doesn't happen - the Brits pay some 30% more for cars than the French or Germans. And Brits who try to buy a car in France often get red-taped to a standstill, have phone calls go unreturned, and find cars have gone "out of stock". Several TV programs have exposed this inequality but it continues. The Carseekers service in the UK is a simple idea - it locates the car, arranges the paperwork, cuts the red tape, and makes sure the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. With potential savings of several thousand pounds - or however many euros - on top-range models, it is an option Brits might find well worth looking into. http://www.carseekers.co.uk/ Still trying to reconcile that NT server with those pesky Novell boxes? Drop by Tek-Tips for free, peer-to-peer technical support for the computer professional and anyone else interested in computer tech - and we do mean tech. This site boasts over 800 forums in a simple-to-navigate, intelligible-at-a-glance format. The forum tree branches initially into Software and Hardware, but each branch then blossoms with forums. Fortunately, a search function allows you to drill through the site based on key words. The engine ranks search results with a relevance percentage and gives a brief description for each, such as "Strange changes to permissions when changes made to logging files" in regard to Microsoft's Internet Information Server. If we had a dollar for every time we had that problem.... http://www.tek-tips.com/ Companies who plan to hire a Web design house often face a confusingly difficult choice. They can try to resolve that decision by surfing the Net and looking at appealing sites that they judge well designed. To find out who designed these sites can be an uphill job, as subcontracts within subcontracts in Internet work proliferate. The Who Built It Directory, however, contains the names and contact details of many of the top designing firms and provides a simple interface to help visitors find the originator of sites they like. They also offer a "hand-holding" service that brings buyer and design house together. As the Internet and multimedia markets expand, this useful concept can protect companies from the vagaries of a random choice of supplier. http://whobuiltit.com/ A Site Pickle Lovers Can Relish The Mt. Olive Pickle Company dedicates its Web site to its product and the Mt. Olive community where it is located. The product section is far more odd, and fun. Did you know nutmeg may be used to flavor your pickle? Check out the slightly biased pickle chronology to find out Thomas Jefferson's briny preferences. Find out what makes a kosher pickle kosher (it might not be what you think...). Discover how Mr. Crisp, the Mt. Olive spokespickle, single-handedly stops crooks. There's also a section of Pickle-Phernalia, because you never know when you're going to need a pickle telephone. Just ask Maxwell Smart.http://www.mtolivepickles.com/ ONLINE TRAVEL More than Just the Little Mermaid and Marzipan Hamlets Perhaps Berit Krickhahn knows that most English speakers have only fictional mental associations with Denmark, and her site aims to fix that by educating us. You need to have Shockwave and really good eyesight to get into the site. The chosen font is tiny, although it does enlarge somewhat when the cursor passes over. Berit designed the inner pages with Shockwave also, so if you're on a slow connection, it may take some time to load. However, once you have loaded the pages, be sure to read Traditions for some fascinating customs about witches, pixies, and marzipan pigs. Each section of the site contains its own little treasure which makes it worth the wait.http://www.xcu.com/mmdesign99/denmark/ With a thorough look at health issues while travelling, extensive logs, and the broad experience of an adventurous man, this site brims with stories and details for the potential traveler. Here you can follow Patrick Wullaert's adventures through India and the Middle East and note his pitfalls and successes. Patrick does not shy away from describing either the disasters of diarrhea or the erotic temples of Khajuraho. http://titan.glo.be/patw/index.html Residents of or visitors to South Africa will find an excellent resource at Pretoria Online. Lots of maps, a calendar of events, tourist information, local news, and a host of useful government and embassy contact details are presented in an easily navigated site. Local information sites, when as well presented as this, provide a taste of a region and hint at what it's like to visit - virtual tourism the easy way. http://www.pta-online.co.za/ Dreaming of a getaway to the Caribbean? Check out Trinidad-Online.org, which assures us that "Living in Paradise can be affordable!" This growing site is devoted to the southernmost Caribbean islands, Trinidad and Tobago. Its Web Ring Forum invites discussion from Trinbagonians and others. Local news and sports are available in RealAudio. Surfers who prefer music can enjoy island dancehall beat by way of Sound Booth. You can send a free postcard through Postcard Center, available in 14 languages with optional music. Rumshop Lime provides chat at 21:00 EST or you can join a discussion group called Trinbago Now. You'll find diverse offerings from a diverse culture at this address. http://trinidad-online.org/ If you're familiar with Travelocity, long an exemplar among travel sites on the Web, you'll be familiar with its new cousin, Travelocity UK, which has an almost identical design and navigation. Book a flight or cruise or vacation package, rent a car, make currency conversions - there's so much here for consumers and business travelers, it's hard to know where to start. Travel Tools includes personal profiling, with reservation checking, flight times, maps, and weather reports. Even if you don't use Travelocity UK to make reservations, you'll find features such as Low Fare Tips and the global Destination Guide useful. http://www.travelocity.co.uk/ FLOTSAM & JETSAM Yes, this is the end. "You will have to turn around. Use your browser's BACK button to do so." Once you enter Newfoundland on the Net, you can only go back.http://opaldata.com/the_end/index.html To see a really eye-catching Shockwave navigation system, check out Subnet. Taste the '60s, groove to the background sounds, and freak out with the psychedelic color scheme. Amusing and well-designed eye-candy for anyone with a fast connection. http://www.subnet.co.uk/ This is one of the most exhaustive wargame sites we've seen. The extensive topics range from the venerated/maligned Axis and Allies to the latest wares. Complete with constant updates, professional reviews, and inside information, this site's sharp in presentation and demeanor. http://www.wargamer.com/ On the Theory That You Can Never Have Too Many Turtle Cams... We present Pixel's Place, the Turtle Cam with a difference. Sure, she's got the gratuitous shots of herself in an image archive and the obligatory "What's in the Tank?" section, but by far the best bit is her advice column, where she gives humans a heads up on the impending turtle take-over.http://www.pixelsplace.com/ The Learning Kingdom provides educational tidbits for kindergarten through high school students. The Academy features math, the Playground has educational games, and don't miss the Cool Fact and Cool Word of the Day. http://www.learningkingdom.com/ THREAD WATCH Warning! Do Not Read Under Influence of Alcohol It's been a while since we broke out the ol' Thread Watch category, but here's something fun. Slashdot, a Web forum for nerds, has one thread that started out as a pointer to a Web site called Stuff the Warning Label Said Not to Do, which is less a collection of stupid warning labels than an explicit page devoted to a potato gun that might just send a potato slug flying out at the speed of sound. Nevertheless, the nerds have contributed their own uneven experiences with warning labels. Both the potato gun site and the ensuing discussion are worth your while.Discussion: http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/01/05/1618218.shtml Potato gun: http://www.ittc.ukans.edu/~botanika/warning_label.htm SOFTWARE Linux Running on Macs, and Some Shocking MacExpo News LinuxPPC has made available a beta build for the PowerPC machines (most of which are Macs), LinuxPPC Release 5.0. The software is scheduled to start selling by the end of the month, and is getting good reviews for its performance. Bits and pieces available for download as well as extensive information on running Linux on Macs can be found at the Web site. In other (shocking!) news, according to LinuxPPC the entire Internet backbone at the Macworld Expo is running on Linux. Kind of like uncovering human sacrifice at the Vatican, isn't it?http://www.linuxppc.com/r5/
BitJazz's New Image Compression JPEG is the prevailing standard for compressing photos for digital transmission but BitJazz wants to change that with its new lossless PhotoJazz (JZZ) compressed file format. JPEG loses image data - i.e. it's lossy - and comprehensive lossless formats can't compress the image beyond half its natural size. In JZZ files, color and resolution remain absolute while compression better than halves file size. The technology is based on a thermodynamic process model. In your system, it operates in the same way QuickTime does - as a library (extension or DLL). JZZ files are compatibility with many Adobe products and QuickTime. The $99 PhotoJazz Pro software package comes with a plug-in for Photoshop. The decompression engine is free, but like all such standards, it remains to be seen how widespread it becomes.http://www.bitjazz.com/ |
| CONTACT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION | |
| ||||
| CREDITS | |
| ||||