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Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| The Kennedy Plane Crash |
| The End of the World Is Nigh? |
| New Free E-Mail Spam Filtering |
| How Much Would it Cost the NSA To Break Your Codes? |
| Version Six of the Internet Protocol |
| Muppets from Space |
| Geeks in Space |
| Voyeur Dorm Loses Zoning Hearing |
| True Stories from Jeff Bezos |
| In a Flap over Envelopes |
| Picasso's Gray Period |
| Museum-Quality Art |
| Young Photographers |
| Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Wag the E-Zine |
| Upbeat Entertainment News |
| Essays on Life and Stuff |
| Truth or Tabloid |
| A Car E-Zine |
| Remembering Apollo 11 |
| Space News |
| Ready for Your Closeup, Mr. Velociraptor |
| Six Billion and Counting |
| UK Museums |
| Diabetes Info |
| Auction Browser Helps To Keep Tabs on e-Bay |
| Non-AA Substance Abuse Recovery |
| Where Are You? |
| Say Yes to "Say No to Third Voice Software" |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Yahoo's compilation of news stories, news sources and memorial items about the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, and his sister-in-law en route to Martha's Vineyard is about as exhaustive as any reasonable human being could wish for. Obviously, anytime anything happens to the Kennedys, America's "royal family", it's big-time news.http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/US/John_F_Kennedy_Jr/
Smacking atoms together can end the world? The Times reports that Brookhaven National Laboratories' Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider may just spoil your breakfast. Physicists plan to use this huge, complex apparatus to accelerate gold ions to near light speed and smash them together. Such experiments help to decipher the fundamental natures of matter and the universe. But some scientists feel the collision might produce Really Bad Things - a small black hole, for example. Never fear, a committee of physicists will try to determine whether the experiments will or will not cause fatal (for us) perturbations in the universe. Who knows? If it all goes wrong, maybe we'll make a new and better place. Ain't science fun! Personally, we're not heading for the escape pods just yet.
Times: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/99/07/18/stinwenws02029.html?999
Collider: http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/
New Free E-Mail Spam Filtering
Bright Light, known for providing high-level spam filters to ISPs, now offers a free service to consumers. After you set it up, the service basically inserts itself between you and your POP mail server. It fetches your e-mail from your regular POP server and filters it before you see it. You then access the Bright Mail POP server to get your spam-scrubbed mail in the usual way. Bright Light claims it stops about 80% of spam, which it retains for 30 days on a Web site just in case you want to take a look and verify that nothing important was accidentally filtered out. Sounds useful, and worth a try.http://www.brightmail.com/
How Much Would it Cost the NSA To Break Your Codes?
This engineering cost study examines how to build a code-breaking machine. The author, John Bazier, calculates, based on the recent DES code-breaker built by the EFF, what it would take to build a machine to decrypt certain codes with brute force. He concludes that for about $280 million - almost certainly a high estimate - the NSA could build a machine which would break 72-bit ciphers in 15 hours on average, and 64-bit keys would take only four minutes. The study notes that just because such a machine could be built does not necessarily mean that the NSA would want to build it. Easier and more cost-effective ways of breaking such codes include spycraft and good old-fashioned cracking. Crypto-geeks will certainly appreciate the technical stuff, but anyone will benefit from this great example of how to do an economic analysis of a tech project.http://jya.com/nsa-study.htm
Version Six of the Internet Protocol
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has announced that Regional Internet Registries can now start doling out IPv6 Internet addresses, the next-generation numeric addressing system for the global network. Be still, our beating hearts! The big significance of this breathtaking news is, of course, that there's now no fear of running out anytime soon. The registry responsible for the Americas has info on how to register.Announcement: http://www.iana.org/ipv6-announcement.txt
Registration: http://www.arin.net/ipv6/ipv6-regserv.html
They're Muppets and they're back in a new movie, "Muppets From Space". Like any new movie, there's a Web site, but unlike many others this one's interactive. All your favorite Muppet pals are there, mugging for the camera and plugging their new flick. The site impressively uses Shockwave to let the viewer search space for the missing Gonzo.
Site: http://www.muppetsfromspace.com/
ONLINE CULTURE
"This isn't real radio, this is the Internet. You can do anything." Sound effects, witty IPO banter, and amusing and genuine enthusiasm for hard core geekdom sums up Slashdot Radio: Geeks in Space. Slashdot, the Web site, is an orgy of information built around a community that attempts to cover all things pertaining to Nerds: what games are available for Linux; a section of free code; book reviews; polls and comments; and anything, really. Now, imagine all that distilled into a RealAudio file. The guys promise to suck less as they do more shows.Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/
Geeks: http://slashdot.org/articles/99/07/15/1325256.shtml
Show: http://thesync.com/geeks/
Voyeur Dorm Loses Zoning Hearing
"The real life, adult version of the Truman Show" is what Voyeur Dorm (VD) calls itself. The city of Tampa, Fla., calls it adult entertainment and has moved to shut down the house of seven young women and 40 webcams. As usual, the Web has generated tricky legal questions, as the VD women passionately defend their right to eat, party, shower, and sleep (they have night vision cameras in the bedrooms) in front of anyone paying $34 a month to watch. The city claims the women are violating zoning laws; VD lawyers contend that pre-Internet zoning laws don't apply. Wired has an amusing story with all the details, which means of course that someone there is out $34 a month.VD: http://www.voyeurdorm.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/20792.html
Last week, Amazon opened two new online areas which sell toys and electronics. As an Amazon affiliate, we get e-mail from it every now and again. In the latest message, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos himself sent us a nice announcement about the new sites, along with some trivia we thought you might enjoy. Jeff note, "For those keeping score at home, the first book we ever sold was Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies, Douglas Hofstadter's extraordinary look at artificial intelligence and machine learning." He writes that the new toy store will include "a whole toys-for-grownups section (office toys, classic games, puzzles, etc.). A true story about this grownups section: When we had our first design meeting, we referred to it as 'Adult Toys.' After 30 seconds, and quite a bit of laughter, we realized it would certainly need a different name. :-)" Actually, we're willing to bet that lot's of people would be quite happy to fork over some money to Amazon Adult Toys.
Toys: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=netsurferdigest&path=subst/toys/home/home.html
Electronics: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=netsurferdigest&path=subst/electronics/home/home.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Consider the lowly envelope. Most stationers tart it up with color or graphics, or the occasional square die cut on the flap. And that pretty much seems to exhaust any imagination. John Cunliffe, though, knows that envelope and letter-folding, country cousins of the more fanciful and complex art of origami, have a history both practical and romantic. With a few practiced folds, your letter can conceal itself without benefit of envelope in any of a dozen secure packets. If you do insist on packaging your missive, choose from a score of envelopes - including the butterfly, harlequin, and frog. We tried a few of the offerings. It's unlikely this month's bill payments will go out in a Florentine fold, but the next time we give a present, the package will include a deftly folded handwritten note.http://www.ghh.com/elf/index.html
We have no idea whether the ink drawing this site claims is Pablo Picasso's unknown masterpiece is authentic; our opinion is irrelevant in any case. However, these pages, posted by the owner of the disputed drawing, are a fascinating dissection of the style and iconography that Picasso used in 1934, motifs that he may well have employed to such horrific effect again three years later in the complex and massively symbol-laden "Guernica". The drawing in question purports to be of the crucified master, flanked by his bull-baiting wife, Olga, and his pregnant mistress, Marie-Therese. Embedded in its every inch, hidden in plain sight, are the symbols of his intent and message. Whatever the truth about the drawing, this is still a learned but accessible dissertation on Picasso's singular style.
Drawing: http://web.org.uk/picasso/picasso.html
Guernica: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9820/guernica.htm
Focusing on fine art painting and sculpture, the Artcyclopedia aims to become the definitive and most effective guide to museum-quality fine art on the Internet. They don't define "fine art", deferring instead to museum curators for that tricky task - any artist in a museum has passed the test. The Artcyclopedia also limits itself to Web sites on which artists' works can be viewed. We spent a pleasant afternoon tracking down works in the Tate Gallery in London, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam, to name but a few.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/index.html
Thirty Under 30 collects the brightest young stars in the photography world into an online exhibition. Each page focuses on a single photographer with but a single photo and a contact number, should you find yourself moved enough by an image to try to find out more. You might bump into an occasional URL as well. We found the layout to be fresh, clean, and surprisingly low bandwidth. As with all expressions of the soul, perhaps not for all ages.
http://www.pdn-pix.com/30under30/
Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz
The superb Library of Congress American Memory series has collaborated with great jazz journalist William Gottlieb to present Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz. Sixteen hundred photographs document the jazz scene from 1938 to 1948, mostly in New York and Washington, D.C. There's audio too, in RealPlayer and .wav formats.http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wghtml/
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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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Nathaniel's Nutmeg, or, the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice
Trader Who Changed the Course of History
Soccer Barbie
Olympus D-400 Zoom Digital Camera
Aliens vs. PredatorBOOKS & E-ZINES
You have to love an e-zine whose featured novel is Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat", one of the enduring classics, worth reading many times. Articles like one about the pervasive stylistic influence of set design in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger" and another that discusses the two film versions of Nabokov's "Lolita" have considerably more heft than is usual for samizdat of this sort. WAG displays particular grace in providing a print-only version of every article, a blessing for those who surf when they aren't being paid to do something else. You may end up making WAG a regular stop.http://thewag.net/
Pop and Hollywood celebrities are the meat and potatoes of Upbeat, a framed site for the couch potatoes, videophiles, E! watchers among us who hunger for regular infusions of entertainment feature articles, fiction, interviews, and reviews. Annoyed as we were by the embedded music on many pages, we found a wonderful variety of kink, wishful thinking, insight, trivia, lament, and sass. We especially enjoyed a retrospective on "Melrose Place" in Vol. 2, Issue 9 ("Beg? Hell, bark for all I care. I wouldn't sleep with you at gun point.") and an installment of Sports Beat by columnist Dean Fleischman in Vol. 2, Issue 10in which he reflects on the NBA and how pro basketball has disappointed many fans even as it dominates advertising and other aspects of national consciousness. Surfers with slow modems will crave greater bandwidth to fully enjoy this attractively beefy yawp.
http://www.2upbeatmag.com/
Some guy in Vermont named Will Baker has put up a site featuring his own essays about unsettling events and existential situations we collectively face: the bombing of Kosovo, parenting, the Littleton, Colo. high school shooting. The essays are critical without being adversarial or self important. Baker assumes an everyman tone, sifting thoughtfully through various popular arguments, rather than shooting them down, as we so often see television pundits do. He does not pretend to be objective, but offers his own experience and reflections without bombast. Nice.
http://homepages.together.net/~wbaker/index.htm
Sign up at this teaser page, and you'll receive a copy of the weekly Truth or Tabloid newsletter and game by e-mail. The concept? Basically, playing true or false with trivia. Sample: "In the 1970's (sic), if you deposited a roll of quarters in a bank in New York, the coins might have been counted by a highly irritated Slobodan Milosevic." (Truth.) The possibilities are endless, and maybe that's why "Truth or Tabloid" and the name of its fictitious reporter, Nigel Puddingporne, are registered trademarks. Perhaps the people behind the curtain foresee spin-offs such as a board game, quiz show, licensed parroting by weathercasters, greeting cards....
http://www.truthortabloid.com/
The Zabb Report describes its beat as classic cars but that must be some kind of marketing code; it's actually just a great overall publication for people who want to keep up with the newest in consumer vehicles, be they high performance automobiles or suburban schleppers; there's even some stuff about antique cars. Start reading this page if you're even considering buying a new or a used car. One article warns about useless "optional extras" that can inflate the sticker price by thousands. Another rates the best new convertibles. A classified section lets you post your wares and look for deals posted by owners.
http://www.zabb.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
It seems unreal that 30 years have passed since Apollo 11's historic mission to the Moon. This virtual infomorial (you read it here first, folks, and probably last) to man's first landing on another heavenly body (almost obligatory sexist joke omitted) contains comments by Neil Armstrong, "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins, as well as biographies, online documents, and image galleries. You can also click over to blockbuster NASA sites when you're done reminiscing about the glory days of the manned space program. Unfortunately, you missed the notices for 30th anniversary shindigs at various locations (so sue us). If you weren't there, you missed it, and if you were - well, you don't need us to tell you about it!http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/introduction.htm
A new kid on the block is vying for your space-related viewing attention. The digital paint's still wet on Space.com, launched July 20 with Lou Dobbs, former CNN talking head, in control. Sections include Area 51, Business, and a smattering of other space-related stuff, including the new Muppet movie. This is no compendium of deep, meaty articles, but a place where you can find all the news and views of things to do with space - a good way of keeping up. The site even promises an excerpt from a new Dune novel.
http://www.space.com/index.html
Ready for Your Closeup, Mr. Velociraptor
Doug Henderson is an unusually accomplished visualizer of the vanished world of the distant past. He has illustrated a number of paleontology books. His site includes a personal essay about how he fell into the world of dinosaurs, as well as many paintings, ranging in time from the Devonian to the Pleistocene. A guide to the geologic eras lets you easily orient yourself. The paintings are incredible realizations of not only the creatures, but their environments. A roiled underwater scene shows long-necked aquatic reptiles maneuvering through a log jam in a Triassic river. Pteranodons ride thermals high above a sandy shore. Mammoths trudge across tundra with the looming edge of the continental ice sheet just visible through the dusty air. The paintings are complex, but load surprisingly quickly. This site is well worth an extended tour.http://gallery.in-tch.com/~earthhistory/
The UN will peg the world's population at 6,000,000,000 on October 12 of this year. They have an online counter which marks the human population (as primates, we're nothing if not prolific). The US Census Bureau, however, claims we're reaching the six billion mark right about now. Counting populations on a global scale is, as you would imagine, a tricky business, and both sites do an excellent job explaining how they arrive at their conclusions.
UN: http://www.unfpa.org/modules/6billion/en/index.htm
US: http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw
The 24 Hour Museum highlights some 2,000 museums and galleries in the UK. The News Around the Clock section inside the Magazine runs down current and forthcoming exhibitions, including addresses and phone numbers so you can call any museum for more information about an exhibit. One of the best sections of the site is Trails, each of which is arranged either around a geographical area or a particular theme, designed to get kids excited about learning. For best results, visit on a Java-enabled browser with Flash installed.
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/
Children with Diabetes (CWD) is a robust online community for anyone who must deal with diabetes in themselves or a loved one. The site offers chat rooms and mailing lists, and presents the latest news, info, and research. The CWD mission statement is "to promote understanding of the care and treatment of diabetes, especially in children, to increase awareness of the need for unrestricted diabetes care for children at school and daycare, and to promote understanding of research into a cure." John Ratzenberger, who played Cliff on "Cheers" and is himself a parent of a diabetic child, is CWD's chairman.
http://childrenwithdiabetes.com/
SOFTWARE
Auction Browser Helps To Keep Tabs on e-Bay
ZCurve Software presents Auction Browser, a souped up version of Microsoft Explorer (for Windows only) customized to track various elements in eBay auctions. ZCurve says it will automatically update the latest item bid prices and bidder info, show you when auctions end and synchronize your time, and finally notify you when auctions that interest you are closing. An Archive section lets you maintain a database of past auctions - useful for analyzing trends perhaps.http://www.auction-browser.com/
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Non-AA Substance Abuse Recovery
Based on a program using addictive voice recognition technique (AVRT) and focusing on the person rather than the problem, this recovery concept comes at right angles to confessional groups such as AA and looks at separating the destructive voice inside you - the "easily deflected enemy that has been causing you to drink" - from your rational mind. This Web site show you how to put yourself in control through abstinence and provides forums, negative and positive feedback, and a system of coaching and positive steps for family and friends.http://www.rational.org/recovery/
Want to help someone trace Web traffic? A pure science experiment which may help analyze the Net and geographically target Web advertising is being conducted and all that you have to do is enter the name of the city nearest to you in the text box on the site. Easy, and potentially interesting.
http://www.ezymail.com/~s98154521/geolocate/default.htm
CORRECTIONS
Say Yes to "Say No to Third Voice Software"
In NSD 5.19, we lamented the disappearance of Say No to Third Voice Software ("Third Voice Browser Utility Sparks Debate", NSD 5.18). Apparently, it just moved without leaving a forwarding address. We have spies everywhere, however, and it couldn't hide for long. You can now find the site at the following location.http://saynotothirdvoice.com/index.html