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Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| SETI@Home Out for All - Get It and Join NSD's Effort |
| Blueprint for a Freer Web? |
| CRTC Keeps Hands off Net in Canada |
| Linux Portal |
| Bush Battles Bogus Basher |
| Weather in your Mailbox |
| Star Wars, in ASCIImation |
| A DoubleTake on Art and Communication |
| German Expressionism |
| Garlic art |
| Great Bargain: Amazon.com NYT Bestsellers 50% off List Price |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Foreign Language Dictionary |
| Sue on Camera |
| The Precambrian |
| Heigh Ho, PaleoSilver, Away! |
| Alaskan Science |
| How Do You Say "Vomit Comet" in Russian? |
| Stormchasers |
| Free Encrypted Web E-Mail |
| Third Voice |
| Netscape Inching toward Version 5.0 |
| ImageMagick 4.2.6 Graphics Program |
| Stunnel 3.2 Released, Lets Daemons Communicate Using SSL |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
SETI@Home Out for All - Get It and Join NSD's Effort
SETI@Home has finally arrived for us Windows/MacOS plebeians and it has quickly grown into the most popular distributed computing project ever. Who can resist the infinitesimal chance to be the one who discovers intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? You can run it as a screensaver or as a background application, but be prepared to have your CPU spend hours to weeks thoroughly slogging through the 250 kB or so of data - though do keep in mind that the program doesn't hog your machine for that length. As happens with all distributed computing projects, organizations form teams, and who are we to buck the trend? After you download the software, feel free to visit NSD's sign-up page at SETI and join our team, thus giving our humble e-zine an infinitesimal chance at immortality.Software: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Join: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_join_form&id=1103
Ian Clarke is circulating online an interesting proposal for a new, censorship averse World Wide Web-type network for comment. Why would you want to replace the good ol' WWW? This system would have some interesting properties designed to make censorship more difficult, if not impossible. Specifically, the proposed system would require no central control or administration (think no domain name monopoly) and would allow anonymous publication and retrieval of information and dynamic duplication of popular data. What's more, the author describes some experiments that measured the efficiency of the system. The technically inclined may wish to look this over and feed back any critiques or enhancement suggestions.
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~iic/4yp/
CRTC Keeps Hands off Net in Canada
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recently displayed uncommon wisdom for a government organization and declined to regulate the Internet for Canadian consumers. Ironically, first among the otherwise reasonable points upon which that wisdom relies is that "everything transmitted over the Internet that is predominantly alphanumeric text is by definition not broadcasting under the Broadcasting Act." Odd that an organization with such clout would make primary such a pedantic point, no? If the Net evolves to contain mostly broadcast feeds, would the CRTC then enforce its mandate to maintain at least 60% Canadian content and apply it to the Net? We bet the CRTC thought about that, and with discretion decided to let sleeping dogs lie. Wired has more.CRTC: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/
Decision: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/NEWS/RELEASES/1999/R990517e.htm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19726.html
VA Linux Systems, a company that sells Linux systems, has purchased the linux.com domain name and has deployed a site there as an open forum and knowledge base for anyone interested in Linux. The site will interest everyone from those considering or just getting started with Linux to those who have deployed corporate servers running the open source code. The site does not have flashing banners and pop-up ads pushing VA System's own products, and the company promises it never will. Refreshing: a corporate site that encourages community-based learning without product promos on every page. Only with Linux.
http://www.linux.com/
Let's see. Bushsucks.com is owned by Texas Gov. George W. Bush but Gwbush.com isn't? Makes sense in a crazy kind of way, we suppose, as the first pre-empts sarcasm and the other - well, Zack Exley, a Massachusetts computer consultant, just plain beat the Bush folk to it. Zack's using the domain to satirize the Bush campaign. Is putting up a site that looks at first glance like that of the person or organization you're ridiculing fair comment or electronic guerilla terrorism? The Bush campaign people, we add needlessly, aren't amused and have asked the Federal Election Commission to beat back the bogus Bush business. Just think of the possibilities here! For one, we wonder if Exleysucks.com is taken. And how long would it take your friends to distinguish bona fide Bush from bogus Bush? Free speech can be messy business....
Bogus: http://www.gwbush.com/
Bona fide: http://www.georgebush.com/
Bushsucks: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19703.html
The Weather Channel, the American 24-hour weather TV network, has launched Inbox Weather, a service which allows users to receive daily weather updates on over 1,600 US cities. Users can receive up to three updates daily.
http://inbox.weather.com/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Some people have way, way too much time. Others digitally reproduce movies and post them as moviez (warez movies) for download. At the intersection of these two groups lives Simon Jansen. The unstimulated Simon - "You have to be _very_ bored to do something like this!" - has used ASCII images to reproduce Star Wars. Well, some of Star Wars. He hasn't yet finished it. But what he has now matches the original for sublime, mythic awe - not. Nevertheless, you should take a look, for it does inspire awe of perhaps a different sort. Will it ever be finished? The FAQ advises, "Don't hold your breath waiting!"http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/lucas/339/page1.html
A DoubleTake on Art and Communication
Like its print counterpart, the Web version of DoubleTake Magazine, a quarterly arts magazine published by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, aims to connect readers to important social issues through evocative photography and prose. Each issue has a potpourri of features that include interviews, visual essays, poetry, and other forms of communication. The rich variety of subjects and styles can overwhelm you when you start digging into back issues, but each section is a neat package unto itself. Think of this site as an exhibition space with images as catalysts for rumination. You'll also find the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival, an international event held each spring in Durham, N.C.http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/index.html
You couldn't ask for a better introduction to the short, tumultuous period in European modernism called German Expressionism. The site's organized for a happy combination of pleasure and learning, with lots of quick-loading images of paintings by Kandinsky, Klee, Beckmann, and others. Like the expressionists themselves, the site's author, Elizabeth Kealy, shows not just intellectual understanding, but ardor: "I am not an art historian, but a lover of color, movement and social struggle who stumbled upon Klee and Macke. I haven't ended my search for understanding their and their contemporaries' goals and ambitions or the times in which they lived." Come visit the movement that bore the Bauhaus.
http://www.german-expressionism.freeserve.co.uk/
In Gilroy, Calif., they think very highly of garlic. Not only is it a major local industry, but the stinking rose also occupies the focus of the town's yearly art festival. Jean Hanamoto has created a stunning series of pictures on the topic, from stained glass windows depicting garlands of bulbs to a convincing painting of mock fossil garlic. Garlic forms the focal point of the site, but there are also some very nice watercolors on offer with floral and garden themes, and a delightful set of fun mouse pointers to download. You'll have to supply your own breath mints, though.
http://www.garlic.com/~artworks/ArtNGarlic/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
Great Bargain: Amazon.com NYT Bestsellers 50% off List Price
Amazon has to be selling these books at cost or very nearly so. Not only are they slashing 50% off the price on New York Times bestseller list books, they still give 5% commissions to their affiliates (like us). We figure it's a loss leader to drive traffic to their site. In any event, it's a great bargain for book buyers - and us. Use the link below to reach their NYT Bestsellers Web pages and send a few pennies our way if you choose to buy. Thanks. best/nyt-fiction-hc.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=netsurferdigest?path=subst/lists/
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliates Amazon.com and Beyond.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
Cryptonomicon (50% off Amazon bestseller version)
Vast
Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & the Wailers
Star Wars Game Softwarehttp://www.logos.it/
SURFING SCIENCE
To some, a webcam in a fossil preparation lab may seem ludicrous. Who wants to watch curators pick at bones behind security glass? Well, when the bones belong to Sue, the world's largest T. rex, we're talking field trips, media attention, and big bucks - history, in a word. Perceptual Robotics provides the technology that lets you zoom in on staffers at work in the McDonald's Fossil Preparation Laboratory at Chicago's Field Museum. (To get Sue, found in South Dakota in 1997, the museum enlisted the financial support of McDonald's, Disney, the California State University system, and a handful of lawyers.) Sue will likely become a popular Web destination for children and others. Watch her get naked, or dressed, or both, while you're still flesh and blood. You may never get this close to her again.http://www.fmnh.org/sue/default_icam.htm
The Miller Museum of Geology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. has given new meaning to the term "Canadian Content". Their site on the Cambrian Era claims to display only fossils found in Canada (though, actually, several rocks from other jurisdictions sneak in). The online exhibit reaches back four billion years, to the beginning of the Archean Era. It then follows the creation of eukaryotic cells to the mysterious Ediacaran fauna that preceded the Cambrian explosion. We can hardly wait for them to add Burgess Shale pages....
http://geol.queensu.ca/museum/exhibits/dawnex.html
Fossil Horses in Cyberspace, funded by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the National Science Foundation, teaches kids - and adults - about evolution and paleontology by showing them what we can learn from simple things like the shape of hooves or the structure of sediment, drawing on the fossil record of a familiar animal, the horse. Best of all, the exhibit avoids the cliche "ladder" of evolution and presents the various species in a bush of anatomical innovation. If you think you'd like to get into horse paleontology for real, check out the Pony Express link, which highlights fossil digs that are open to the public. The museum has plans for virtual exhibits on the Calusa Indians, Caribbean archaeology, and Florida butterflies.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/vertpaleo/fhc/fhc.htm
Since 1979, the University of Alaska has collected short, pithy and fascinating essays from its scientists and lecturers, and the whole collection can be found on the Alaskan Science Web site. Neatly indexed, with articles never too long, and full of nifty tidbits, this gem of a site is packed with theories, facts, and predictions. Dip into any section to find something new - pink worms that live inside glaciers, volcanoes grumbling and throwing their weight around, or maybe predictions of the next aurora. The latest additions include a fascinating and totally readable account of the attempt to map the magnetic connection between the sun and Earth, in the SuperDARN project.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/
How Do You Say "Vomit Comet" in Russian?
Do you love adventure? Do you dream of traveling in space? And - key question here - is faking it good enough? If so, a cosmonaut training expedition just may be your ticket. Russia's Star City will host civilians who want to turn $20,000 (no rubles!) into a week of "specialized Russian Cosmonaut training", which includes "all of the zero-G, high-G, and space walk exercises earth-bound space fans have come to know from hours of newscasts, documentaries and Hollywood blockbusters" but which does not include your bar tab. Heck, if you have some more change kicking around, you can opt to take a MiG up for a spin.http://www.russianenter.com/A-Contents/Space/Training/MainPlaceSpace.htm
Everyone talks about the weather, especially lately, and of course they have Web sites about it. This Annenberg/CPB Project, aimed at students, covers the basics of storms, snow, and climate. The most interesting features are the "hands on" portions, like the one where you become a stormchaser. You have to identify the silhouettes of storms ravaging Kansas, and then get to compare your identifications with those of a professional meteorologist. Watch out for hags on bicycles.
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/
SOFTWARE
Law enforcement officials, privacy advocates, and international terrorists take note: 1,024-bit encrypted e-mail is now available on an anonymous account basis over the Web at Hushmail. The service uses a Java applet. Both sender and recipient need a Hushmail account to take advantage of the scheme. The company has incorporated in the Caribbean to take advantage of the absence of American encryption laws. Look for renewed and vociferous debate from law enforcement officials and privacy advocates.http://www.hushmail.com/
Invented by three guys from Singapore, this Third Voice isn't a band but a pretty neat browser plug-in that allows registered users to annotate any Web page anywhere - for personal purposes or for sharing with either a group or all Third Voice users. Fire up your favorite Web sites and be the first to add graffiti or responsible comment. If you can weather the dauntingly long agreement designed to discourage irresponsible use, Third Voice can be a clever subversive or constructive tool for advocates of Web democracy and broad-band opining. Third Voice offers a tour and Wired News has more depth.
http://www.thirdvoice.com/
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19722.html
Netscape Inching toward Version 5.0
Netscape's Communicator 4.6, now available for download, isn't a revolution but is another tweak in its steady improvement. The latest version provides a claimed 4,000 enhancements including integration with RealPlayer G2, bug fixes, and an export version with 56-bit encryption. The Internet Keywords feature has been modified as well and now links to parent company AOL's Digital Cities. CNet has more.Communicator: http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html
CNet: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36702,00.html
ImageMagick 4.2.6 Graphics Program
This popular freeware image display and manipulation program has a new version with many bug fixes and enhancements. The home page has details, and information for those who don't yet know about this terrific graphics resource. Runs on Win95/NT and Unix.http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html
Stunnel 3.2 Released, Lets Daemons Communicate Using SSL
A nifty piece of software which lets your Unix Daemons - like POP, IMAP, SMTP, NNTP, and HTTP - talk with clients using SSL encryption. Obviously of interest only to Unix sysadmins and developers.http://mike.daewoo.com.pl/computer/stunnel/