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| Literate Gen-X Travel and Musings |
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| Social Phobias |
| One Word - Plastination |
| The Plight of the Flightless |
| Movie Scripts for Cultish Tastes |
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BREAKING SURF
DeForest Kelley 1920-1999: "He's dead Jim"
You just have to use that line, don't you? And we do it with fond affection. DeForest Kelley lent a great deal of dignity and humor to his role as Doctor "Bones" McCoy in the original Star Trek series. Ultimately, we mythicized his character as the kind of doctor any would desire but few will ever encounter in an age of HMOs and managed care. Kelley died last weekend after a long illness. This link takes you to the official DeForest Kelley home page.http://www.kilroywashere.com/sarah/
ExploreZip Trojan Horse Virus Harassing Windows Machines
CERT has released an advisory about a virus program which propagates itself using e-mail. If you receive an e-mail message with an attached ZIP file called zipped_files.exe, don't try to run it or the nasty little program will delete files on your hard disk and try to spread itself through your e-mail. You'll find the problem and countermeasures detailed in the advisory. We also recommend Don Kelloway's Threats web site for comprehensive information on Windows Trojan Horses and how to detect them.CERT: http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-06-explorezip.html
Threats: http://www.commodon.com/threat/
Elements 118 and 116 Discovered
Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered two new elements, which do not yet have names. Elements 118 and 116 were produced in a 88-inch Cyclotron by bombarding lead with high-energy krypton atoms. The discovery of these elements and how they decay support the theory that there is an island of stability in the element sequence, paving the way to the discovery of long-lived heavy elements. Indeed, a Russian team claimed earlier this year to have seen element 114, which is right in the middle of the theoretical stable region. Read the news of the latest discovery and check out the technical details if you're science oriented. We only wish Glenn Seaborg was around to hear this.118/116 News: http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/elements-116-118.html
118/116 Tech Details: http://user88.lbl.gov/element118.html
114 Claim: http://news.laboratorynetwork.com/rd-news/19990208-4559.html
Seaborg: http://seaborg.nmu.edu/Seaborg/gts.html
The Military Technical Agreement between the International Security Force ("KFOR") and the governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, signed June 9, is short, clear, and uncompromising, with little wriggle room. CNN has a timetable for the 11-day withdrawal process. Meanwhile, in a television address following the signing, Slobodan Milosevic portrayed the cessation of hostilities as a triumph for his government. Ignoring the alleged campaign of ethnic cleansing so ruthlessly deployed in Kosovo, he speaks of freedom and dignity. The transcript is online. Looks to us as if the fight is far from over.
Agreement: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/agreement_6-9.html
Schedule: http://cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9906/09/kosovo.plan.01/
Transcript: http://www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-06/10/12493.html
Some may call it growing pains while others call it plain ol' managerial bungling, but in a kind of unintended multiple redundant verification program, SETI keeps doling out the same data blocks for analysis to the half-million volunteers of the SETI@Home project. The distributed computing project uses spare CPU cycles on the computers of volunteers to search for tell-tale signs of aliens but because of the blunder - blamed by project director David Anderson on manpower shortages and a dearth of computers - volunteers make no progress. David also complains some volunteers are using hacks to appear to have processed more data than they have. This is almost as much fun as watching for aliens! Wired has the story. By the way, we can't believe only 33 of you signed up for the NSD team (hint, hint).
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/20088.html
NSD team: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Netsurfer+Digest
Third Voice Browser Utility Sparks Debate
It didn't take long for the innovative browser utility Third Voice (TV) to begin creating a ruckus on the Net. As reported in NSD 5.16, TV allows users to annotate web pages with virtual Post-It Notes and add comments for other TV users to see. By adding more notes, surfers can engage in inline discussions at a Web site. Of course, there are those who have used the program for what some would consider nefarious purposes: negative comments and porn site ads (you knew that was coming, didn't you?). A group of concerned netizens is imploring TV's creators to cease distribution of the software. They even offer counter-TV Javascripts which will either defeat TV or direct TV users to other pages. Should it come to legal blows, prepare for long and interesting arguments from both sides. TV doesn't work with Windows 98 yet but you can visit the Say No to TV site for their opinion and screen shots of offending notes.TV: http://www.thirdvoice.com/
No: http://nototv.hypermart.net/
Quebec Cracks down on English Web Site, Again
We've been running short of hate mail, so we thought we might throw in an article on another attempt by the government of Quebec to apply its restrictive language laws to Web sites. Last time we did that (NSD 3.26), readers swamped us with opinion. Break out those poison pens, mes amis. Anyway, the infamous Office de la langue française (OLF), a government department tasked with maintaining the supremacy of French and suppressing other languages under the aegis of the Charter of the French Language, has interpreted the Charter to include electronic transmissions and Web sites - even though such media are not mentioned in the document (what's next? cracking down on English TV commercials?). It maintains that any company with an office in Quebec that markets in Quebec must use French in its advertising. Of course, in the OLF's ill-advised latest swoop, it has raked a small family business for having an English-only Web site, threatening fines and closure of the site. If the OLF really wants to stop looking like a bully, they'll step up to challenge bigger fish like McDonald's, which still uses the dreaded non-French apostrophe in its brand name.NSD 3.26: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/v03/nsd.03.26.html#OC3
Charter: http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/charte/english/anglais.html
Swoop: http://www.globeandmail.com/gam/ROB/19990608/RWEBB.html
International Survey of Encryption Policies
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has released "Cryptography and Liberty 1999 - An International Survey of Encryption Policy". It should come as no surprise that the document contains a bias against government exerting strong controls over cryptography. The report itself impresses with its deep and broad coverage of the international community and makes an excellent resource for those interested in the complexities of encryption policy.http://www2.epic.org/reports/crypto1999.html
Keynote Systems, which immodestly calls itself the Internet performance authority, has started a Web Broker Trading Index that measures the average time needed to create online stock buy orders. The press release we looked at provides scores for June 1-4, and Keynote has promised weekly checks and updates. Perhaps the wide variation in performance will shake up a few IT departments. The methodology involves thousands of transactions and seems statistically sound.
http://www.keynote.com/measures/brokers/
E*Offering lets the individual investor in on initial public stock offerings (IPOs). One of seven banks that now provide e-underwriting services, they'll even e-alert you to new offerings by e-mail if you e-register. To participate, of course you'll need an E*Trade account. Meanwhile, Wit Capital, a pioneer in this kind of online investment activity and which had the largest ever participation of any e-underwriter with the Barnesandnoble.com IPO, promises all kinds of investment opportunities that, in its words, "Wall Street has long denied to individuals". Power to the people!
E*Offering: http://www.eoffering.com/
Wit: http://www.witcapital.com/
Linux 2.2: What's New and How It Stacks up Against NT
We wanted to bring this article at ZDNet to your attention, first because it's a good technical anaylysis of what's in the new Linux kernel, but also because it's refreshingly free of hype. A good balanced overview, probably useful for technical managers who need to make some decisions on whether to move operations to Linux.http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/content/18/11/tf1811.001.html
Entire Text of O'Reilly Open Source Book Online.
O'Reilly has made the entire text of their book Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution available online. The book is a collection of essays from various open-source gurus. O'Reilly says they've "freed the book" which is "a ground breaking collection of essays that offer insight into how the Open Source movement works, why it succeeds, and where it is going." Good online reading during those dead moments of the day while you're waiting for management to make a decision.http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html
SourceXchange to Invigorate Open Source Development
Open source software should receive a public boost this summer, when Apache co-creator Brian Behlendorf and O'Reilly and Associates roll out SourceXchange, a site that plans to bring together companies and open source developers. The SourceXchange site will also try to serve as a communication center for interested parties. More info on the site and a brief interview with Behlendorf can be found at Forbes.com.SourceXchange: http://www.sourcexchange.com/
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/tool/html/99/jun/0607/feat2.htm
ONLINE CULTURE
Degaussing Your Monitor - Oh, Never Mind, Jar Jar Sucks
When asked by Slashdot how often they degauss their monitor, 40% of 19,135 voters (at press time) said that Jar Jar sucks. In that spirit, check out the amusing comix-style epic "Jar Jar Binks Ate My Balls". For those of you who don't have the time to see "The Phantom Menace", we highly recommend the abridged and hilarious script written by Rod Hilton. It captures the essence of the work in only a fraction of the space and time. More entertaining, too.Poll: http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=degauss&aid=-1
Balls: http://www.dropclaw.com/jarballs/
Script: http://freehosting2.at.webjump.com/di/diediediejarjar/script.html
Anti-Spam List Shuts off Credit Card Processing Company
Wired reports an interesting escalation in the spam wars. The Realtime Blackhole List (RBL), a volunteer service, lists Net sites using or condoning spam. Numerous ISPs around the world use this list to block e-mail or even all packet traffic to those sites as a measure to discourage spam. Last week, apparently, Internet payment company Ibill was added to the list for a few days, and as a result numerous third-party sites could not process their credit card receipts. Ibill is pissed enough to complain to the Department of Justice. The news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup has a good discussion going about the action - just search for Ibill in the subject.Article: http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/20115.html
RBL: http://maps.vix.com/
Ibill: http://www.ibill.com/
To some, the word "geek" seems a title and not an insult. It is for this crowd that Geek Radio Network exists - not to explore computer science (as publisher Mark Harlan states, "...in the final analysis computers are as uninteresting as a hammer or any other tool") but to provide a forum "as a publication by geeks, for the planet." With this all-inclusive vagary in mind, Harlan has posted a multipart interview, in prose and RealAudio format, with Scott Knaster, a Mac developer who works for Microsoft, as well as pieces on Mountain Dew bread, James Brown, and Y2K. You can provide feedback on any of these sections in a bulletin board called "The Mosh Pit." Geek Radio Network is an ambitious project in capable hands. To judge by the paucity of postings from its intended audience, though, it is in need of original material.
http://www.geekradio.net/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Too clever by half, BRUTE! Propaganda displays the works of multi-talented Aidan Hughes. Go to be offended at the intentionally offensive neo-pulp parody magazine BRUTE!, based on a combination of British religious tracts of the 1920s and post-war pulp fiction, if you can imagine that. View his record covers for the band KMFDM. You astute computer gamers should visit the Zero Population Count page, a 3-D shooter that was visually quite different from anything on the market when in came out in 1996. Fun to look at.http://www.bruteprop.com/
A simple calculator, a furious pencil, a martini glass - these are the simple props that "The VC: Life at The Conference Table" uses to parody the frenetic world of venture capital financing. It's a tough job to skewer a subject that so routinely drags itself to absurdist heights but The VC does the job admirably - and even-handedly. Feel free to laugh at someone else's pathetic equity structure and warrant coverage for a change. Better hurry, however - the strip has retired and who knows how long the lights will be on.
http://www.thevc.com/
Like your Net audio, radio, and video a bit off the beaten path? ReviewList offers RealAudio streams and written reviews of music, radio, and video, all by category. Our reviewer knew he was out of touch and out of his league when he followed an external link from the "Audio: Dance-Techno" page to SpAz SoUnDz and listened briefly to looping, loopy gibberish. He retreated quickly to the "Video: Comedy" page and soon realized that ReviewList will appeal most to those under 30. Or 20. Or - well, your parents probably won't spend much time here, but your neighbor might.
http://reviewlist.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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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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Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes
Chariots for Apollo: Untold Story behind the Race to the Moon
The First World War
Austin Powers: Operation Triviahttp://djust.hypermart.net/
Literate Gen-X Travel and Musings
The Nepenthe Journal offers a wonderfully perceptive and fresh approach to literary arts and culture. Named after the drug "nepenthe" (found in Homer's "Odyssey") which made one forget heartbreak and sorrow, the journal holds that the circumstances that initiate such a state can be found anywhere. Take a discussion about non-smoking bars - in which the loss of the right to smoke is contrasted with the fact that "the law that made possession of child pornography illegal has been struck down because it infringes on our charter of rights and freedom" (hmm, sounds like Ontario to us) - add a log book of European travel and some good critiques on modern culture, sprinkle with Generation X, and shake.http://www.freespeech.org/tumbleweed/
If you like well-presented e-zines with a variety of topics and viewpoints, you'll find much to like in Scrawl. Often, 'zines supported by advertisers seem bland or narrow. Not Scrawl. Its theme is creative flow. For example, the Features section has an eclectic - some would say, scattershot - but engaging approach, with recent articles such as "Vampires through Time", "Sinning in Las Vegas", and "The Unabomber and Thoreau". Columns, stories, and reviews add spice to this literary buffet. Sarcasm, wit, and sobriety abound here, in sometimes odd or inelegant expression. We like the emphasis on content. Our guess is that Scrawl will appeal most to 20-somethings, although the editorial guidelines that invite submission are age-neutral.
http://www.scrawl.org/
Chic and full of content, Weekly Wire collects articles and comics from alternative weekly newspapers, including such second-stringers as the Boston Phoenix and the Nashville Scene. Sample the hearty helping of news and opinion, although the site's luscious cream filling is the rich film, arts, books and music categories. Recent reviews include the Phoenix's look at the Insane Clown Posse, "the controversial Detroit-based white rap duo who paint their faces like evil circus performers", and the Austin Chronicle's take on "Trekkies", a documentary about the Star Trek devotees who make Star Wars fans "look like pikers".
http://www.weeklywire.com/
Humor Magazine/Nominated for Review/Read for More Details
You have to admit, you have to have some cojones to take the domain Coolwebsite.com. It's like having the vanity license plate 2Hot4U: it promises something the bearer is going to have to live up to, and everyone is going to peer in to see if, in their estimation, the title is applicable. Although you'd imagine Coolwebsite to be taken by a 13-year-old with too much free time, the site that inhabits that domain, Full Deck, caters to the literary thinkers in the crowd. From the "haikuization" of this week's news headlines to limericks about the full stories, it takes a jaunty look at life, the universe, and everything. Maybe it deserves the domain; perhaps not. Check it out for yourself.http://www.coolwebsite.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
Ever felt a little discomfort entering a crowded party or tried to avoid public speaking because it makes you nervous? Spare a thought for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from social phobias that bring on true panic attacks with nausea, dizziness, and dread or other irrational fears. With a complex exploration of social disorders and therapies, as well as a wide range of links, this site is incredibly useful to anyone who knows anyone who suffers from social phobias.http://www6.pair.com/algy/anxiety/social.html
A couple of years ago, an artist by the name of Gunther Von Hagen displayed the human body as art in a museum in Mannheim, Germany. This was not metaphorical. Actual human bodies had been impregnated with polymers, and put on display. "Runner" was a skeleton with muscles streaming out behind it; "Figure with Skin" held its own hide over one arm. This site does not mention that exhibit, but sternly keeps to the actual procedure of plastination, a fascinating four-step process that results in a perfectly preserved human body, or a 3mm thick slice of one, suitable for framing. If you want to donate your body for a future art work or for physiological study, the site includes instructions on how to do so.
http://www.plastination.com/
One would expect a tiny bird that can't fly to have trouble with the modern world, and it does: the six varieties of kiwi native to New Zealand are having trouble dealing with loss of habitat and competition from introduced species. This site, in addition to pleading the kiwi's case, and detailing the threats to its survival, is as complete a guide to kiwi lore as one would wish to find. You can even listen to a mournful kiwi call. No, it has nothing to do with a lack of beer.
http://www.kiwirecovery.org.nz/
CORRECTIONS
Movie Scripts for Cultish Tastes
The Movie Scripts for Cultish Tastes (NSD 4.20) have moved to a new server. Life's like that sometimes, ya know?http://www.buzzlink.com/ent/bluesend/scripts.htm