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BREAKING SURF
It's big (three times the size of 1992's Andrew). It's bad (third most powerful Atlantic 'cane ever recorded). It's beautiful (well, it is). Weather.com has good coverage and the most up-to-date maps we found and Yahoo has good coverage, if perhaps too Florida-centered for those of us with relatives in the Bahamas.Weather: http://www.weather.com/homepage.html
Yahoo: http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/FC/world/Hurricane_Season/
The Munich Summit: A Framework for Global Net Censorship
The centerpiece of the Internet Content Summit held this week in Munich has been a debate about a multinational Internet content rating system. As usual, the ostensible reason for such a system is to shield minors from assorted "harmful" content. Such a system is too easy to pervert into a vehicle for censorship by politicians. Unsurprisingly, most of the major civil liberty groups around the world have came out loudly against this initiative. Pay attention to this issue; it may restrict what you can put up on your private Web sites, enforced by your ISP. The best writeup of the subject comes courtesy of Michael Sims and Jamie McCarthy on Slashdot, and makes for recommended reading. CNet also has some info, while the conference site itself offers the various proposals.Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/yro/99/09/11/1346226.shtml
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-346859.html
Proposals: http://www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/internetcontent/english/frameset.htm?content/c2000.htm
Defying Law, Chemical Disaster Risk Assessments Plans Online
Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wanted to put online a set of reports prepared by companies on worst-case disaster scenarios involving a variety of toxic chemicals. These documents mostly analyzed unlikely disaster scenarios designed to help the EPA prepare for emergencies. Before the documents could be made public, President Clinton and Congress blocked the release of the documents, arguing they might provide blueprints for deadly terrorist strikes at those facilities. Now a public advocacy right-to-know group has published executive summaries of the studies, contending that the information was suppressed less for security than to avoid embarrassing the chemical companies for their lax security. Once again, a telling illustration of the futility of censorship in the Internet Age. The 14,000 documents come with a searchable database. The New York Times (you need to register) has the story.Summaries: http://www.rtk.net/rmpsearch.html
Times: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/13chemical-accidents.html
Timor in Latin means fear, and the world watched with horror while militias murdered, looted, and terrorized the East Timorese after the decisive UN-supervised vote in favor of independence. Indonesia for the longest time refused UN intervention, while its army openly supported the terror. TimorNet has extensive background information on the sad history of the Timorese including dramatic accounts of the 1991 massacre of peaceful protestors by the Indonesian army. Yahoo News has full coverage of current goings-on, photos, and audio journalist accounts to which you can hardly listen without outrage, as well as the usual impressive set of related links. You have no excuse for not being fully informed about this troubled part of the world.
TimorNet: http://www.uc.pt/Timor/TimorNet.html
Yahoo: http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/World/East_Timor/
GNU Privacy Guard: Open Source Replacement for PGP Crypto Software
Last week marked the release of an important piece of software by the GNU open software group. GnuPG 1.0 is an encryption program that uses no patented algorithms. And, since it was not developed in the US, it is completely free of US export restrictions. The free software is meant to replace the widely used PGP encryption program. It conforms to the OpenPGP standard, uses up to 128 bits of encryption, and has better functionality then PGP in some areas and a variety of security enhancements. The software runs on a wide variety of Unix systems as well as Windows, but do heed the warnings on the home page regarding specific security issues. It's free, it's sophisticated, and you don't have to jump through hoops to get it anywhere in the world.http://www.gnupg.org/
Red Hat Quiet Period Ends: A Couple of Insider Interviews
Those interested in the commercial Linux scene will want to read this set of interviews with Red Hat insiders. The post-IPO quiet period has just ended and the Red Hat gang is out and talking in force. Red Hat founder and CTO Matt Ewing talks to CNet about competing with Microsoft. Slashdot interviews Director of Technical Projects Donnie Barnes, who talks about world domination, patents, trademarks, and the success and problems with the Red Hat pre-IPO stock offer to developers.Matt Ewing: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-346850.html
Donnie Barnes: http://slashdot.org/features/99/09/08/1143242.shtml
Georgi Guninski Scores Again: More Explorer 5.0 and Hotmail Security Holes
Bug hunter supreme Georgi Guninski can be credited with a couple more big security bug scores. First is a big security problem with Explorer 5.0. Microsoft has a security bulletin, but in the mean time protect yourself by disabling active scripting. The FAQ instructs how to do that. Just as we were going to press, CNet reported that Guninski found another security problem in Hotmail, Microsoft's free e-mail service. No further details are available just yet, other than that it allows bad guys to spoof a login screen and steal your password.Guninski: http://www.whitehats.com/guninski/browsers.html
Bulletin: http://www.microsoft.com/Security/Bulletins/MS99-037.asp
FAQ: http://www.microsoft.com/security/Bulletins/MS99-037faq.asp
Explorer Story: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-117462.html
Hotmail Story: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-117672.html
Although US District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Ford's request to shut it down, the BlueOval site has removed at least some of the material that would let us judge the merits of this case. Ford claims the BlueOval site has posted commercial secrets concerning Ford's marketing plans and engineering problems. BlueOval didn't come away from the legal wrangling completely unbruised - they can't post any new documents, and they must tell Ford what they have and where they got it. And we're not even going to touch the issue of whether anyone should be proud of anonymously tattling on their employer - except to say doing so is not a great route to a successful career. Without the goods, we just don't know whether BlueOval is poseur or champion of freedom. This one ain't over yet!
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-346847.html
BlueOval: http://www.blueovalnews.com/
ECML: New E-Commerce Info Representation Standard
Life will soon get slightly easier for developers of e-commerce applications, and possibly for consumers as well. A consortium of major companies has approved a standard for how to capture and represent order information from customers. The standard defines how to capture the home and shipping address as well as credit card information during an e-commerce transaction. It's a minor but important step in standardizing the business of selling online, mostly of interest to developers who want to create online shop software blessed by the credit card companies.http://www.ecml.org/
Monkeylicious Letters to the Editor
We had a lot of letters that talked about monkeys recently, and others that we crowbarred into that pigeonhole regardless of relevance. Prepare yourselves for the next installment of Letters to the Editor.http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.05.29.html
SURFING SITES
All You Ever Wanted to Know about Sexuality, But Were Too Ignorant to Ask
Scholars tough-minded enough to write insightful history are rare, but one who succeeds with the slippery subject of sexuality is singular. Lesley Hall, archivist at London's Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, has assembled a History of Sexuality page any social historian would do well to visit. Hall has written many books chronicling sexuality in Western culture since the Enlightenment. The Web page offers a couple of recent essays on Victorianism, links to reviews of new scholarly works, and a special feature devoted to the ancient, enduring, miraculous sheep-gut condom. Make your own as a home craft project!http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~lesleyah/webdoc3.htm
If you're wondering what kind of baby you and your partner would make, the Genochoice site will tell you. Simply place your thumb on the scanner and the site will record your DNA, then report the probable nature of your future offspring. If they turn out to be potential attention-seekers, sickle-cell anemics, or Democrats, you can pay the Genochoice team a reasonable fee to grow you an upgraded embryo with these traits, or others, excised from its DNA. You can also choose eye/hair color, gender and sexuality, and there is a supplement service for IQ enhancement. This elegantly built and professional-looking site looks unsettlingly real.
http://www.genochoice.com/
Photographs of the Nixon White House
The only American President ousted for hiding his dirty tricks left vivid, even intimate documentation of the transgressions which brought him down. Richard Nixon himself narrated a version of the story on the Oval Office tapes. Photographer Fred Maroon's pictures take a few paces back and capture key moments in an ensemble tragedy played out on that big stage. Maroon was no baying news hound. He was granted special access to do a book on the Nixon White House, then caught the Watergate wave. Photographing History: Fred J. Maroon and the Nixon Years 1970-1974 can be seen online, as well as at the National Museum of American History in Washington. D.C. through December 5, 1999.http://www.si.edu/nmah/ve/maroon/
This essay seeks to undermine the binary opposition between Western and Asian values, and to some extent it achieves this. So read it. Written by a former Japanese Minister of Cultural Affairs, the text's specific viewpoint errs on the defensive at times. The opening section comprehensively and successfully disembowels the notion that Western individualism and Asian collectivism are deeply embedded in ancient culture. It loses focus a little as it tries to navigate that always dangerous course between academic rigor, political expediency, and populist ideology. The author wrote the piece in 1995 and we'd look forward to an update. At one point the author uses former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to prove a point. That alone will probably sway your final opinion.
http://ifrm.glocom.ac.jp/DOC/k02.001.html
Despite protestations to the contrary, virtually every aspect of modern life is in some way dictated by market research and focus groups. From politicians who test-drive new ideas to new, improved products - even top-40 songs - everything is tested and retested. Here's your chance to take part in a mock market research in which the products are six panhandlers. You'll hear pitches from all six, after which you decide how much money to offer each, based on their talent of persuasion. The site wants to provide people with "a context to examine their own perceptions of panhandling and how they form responses and opinions about people who panhandle." So, what do you do?
http://www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/
If you're an avid NSD reader, you know that we've talked a lot about SETI@home, the project in which you download a chunk of SETI data and let your computer sort through it during idle time. Meet SIMI, the Search for Intelligent Monkeys on the Internet, a parody where users read strings of text generated by "monkeys" (processes) to try to be the first person to discover randomly generated Shakespeare. This isn't the first time somebody's tried to do this on the Net, but it is a clever implementation.
http://www.100monkeys.org/
We've all been there. Or not. Perhaps it's just us. You date the weirdo in the class. Freaked out? Can't handle it? Turn here. Aimed squarely at all the characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this site gives you the lowdown on how to cope with 12 particular types of emotional cripple - including the President of the USA. Before kissing a redneck lover, make sure that toothpick is removed from the mouth. Never tell a raver that he just follows a bad re-hash of the disco movement. And remember that while hackers may believe all information should be free and accessible, make sure yours knows that does not necessarily apply to personal channels of communication. There's more here, lots more, and it's funny. Don't be put off by the picture of a guy shooting up.
http://www.grrl.com/bipolar.html
More than 3,400 archival sites are linked from this simple, unassuming, but fabulously useful University of Idaho page, utilitarianly titled Repositories of Primary Sources. Links are grouped by geographic area. A click on Western US and Canada, for example, unfurls URLs leading to all sorts of high profile and hidden gems the researcher, student, media producer, or historian can really appreciate: Stanford's famous audio archives (and just about every other university), historical societies, photo collections, national parks, religious organizations. Not all sites post the actual manuscripts, photos, etc., but they'll tell you what they house and how to get it.
http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
What do the simple folk do to help them escape when they're blue? Why, we sit around in our mortal coils, babbling about the royals and their gorgeous goils. Henry VIII is stale news, but what of Sultan Ibrahim I of Turkey? He had 280 wives - at the same time. In a fit of rage, he ordered them all drowned in the Bosporus. The Royalty in History site leans heavily on personal sexual excesses, but branches out into other juicy distempers, such as raving dementia and swift, decisive beheading. Links lead to impressive genealogical documentation of the late Lady Di, and various European royal houses.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/kings.htm
Netsurfers are partial to a wee dram of whisky (never whiskey - that's Irish) every now and again. Especially when up against deadline. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), with its not so subtle agenda of diminishing the British government's tax on whisky, is here to satisfy our every alcoholic need - well, you can't order online yet. Comprehensive lists of all the hundreds of brands, blended and single malt, produced by 69 different distillers should whet the appetite of even the most die-hard bourbon drinker. At the site, the SWA keeps telling us to drink whisky however we like, but frankly that's rubbish. Single malt, no ice, no mixers, pure Highland spring water - if you must - and you have one of the finest drinks known to man. If you're in the area, look at the Scottish map and plan a road trip - most of the distilleries are open to the public and they all give free samples. But make sure someone else drives.
http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/
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Mastering Algorithms With Perl
The Icarus Hunt
Stop Making Sense (Special Edition)
Dreamcast Video Game SystemONLINE TRAVEL
Originally designed as a reference for art history, the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names is useful for anyone interested in human habitation on the planet. The Thesaurus is nothing less than a guide to the names and identities of all classifiable geographic regions in history, from cities to nations. Unsure where Livonia was? You've obviously never played Diplomacy, so type it in and the Getty will tell it lay on the shores of the Baltic and will supply all variant names for the region. The Getty does not yet have a map capability, so you'll have to struggle along with lat-long information until they get that up. A great deal of fun to browse.http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/tgn_browser/
Journeywoman's travel site keeps the safety and happiness of the woman traveler foremost on its agenda. The online travel magazine has articles on all sorts of topics, from love stories to a feature called JourneyDoctor, which helps keep females healthy while on the road. The Go-Alone Travel Tips are priceless for those of us who enjoy getting away from everything and, more importantly, everyone. In this dynamic online medium, it's a bit odd that the online newsletter only comes out quarterly. Perhaps this is explained by its origins as a 24-page paper quarterly newsletter or because it's such a massive undertaking.
http://www.journeywoman.com/
Geography students may be the prime beneficiaries of the Perry-Castaeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas, but travelers, journalists, historians, distant relatives, and others, too, will find this map-o-rama a trove for general or special interests. The many political and relief maps are fairly current (most are dated in the 1990s). Some of the historical maps are large, so before you delve into them you may want to find a fast Net connection. Some visitors may find the most interesting resources here to be maps from the US Department of Defense. Three "Detailed Kosovo Maps - Tactical Pilotage Charts" carry a stern warning: "Not for navigational use." And just as we were planning some recreational reconnaissance runs in the vicinity!
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
The Library of Congress takes its original mandate - to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people - seriously indeed. Its move to the Web, via the magnificent American Memory Project, now includes an impressive collection of approximately 200 maps dating from the 17th century to the present. These maps document the "cultural aspects and geological formations of areas that eventually became National Parks", and include the four regions of Acadia, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yellowstone.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/nphtml/
If there is a heart of Africa in the mind of those in the West it might well reside in Mali, with the desert sand of the Sahara and the exotic Timbuktu. Those who might like to visit but profess an allergy to camels can now take part in a five-day virtual visit that features a wonderful step-by-step trek over land and water. Read the CARE worker's daily journal entries and meet rice farmers learning how to build irrigation systems. Or feel free to visit with nomads who might have paused at a well refurbished with CARE support. Along the way you'll also learn how CARE is helping the people of Mali in their efforts to help themselves.
http://www.care.org/virtual_trip/mali/
Travel can entail much more, and less, than the typical holiday vacation. For some, travel begins a new way of life. Immigration continues to occupy the news and the trend should continue as the world's population becomes more and more mobile. The Migration News is a well written, insightful way to keep track of the "most important immigration and integration developments of the preceding month." The global perspective here obviously emphasizes North America, but you'll also find plenty of news from Asia and Europe.
http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/mntxt.html
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
The Hitchhiker's Quiz of the Galaxy
If Slartibartfast, Marvin, and Milliway's mean anything to you, this quiz site was made for you. If someone says Ford Prefect and you think car, or you think Vogon poetry is the Russian equivalent of the beatnik movement, forget it.http://www.psychedellis.com/guidetrivia/
The latest brainchild of HipMama, Girl-Mom seeks to mitigate the discrimination pregnant teens face by providing positive strong online role models through vignettes of girls who've been there. Refreshingly, there's no antiseptic smell of pity here; these strong women take new turns in their lives.
http://www.girlmom.com/
Looking for Love in All the Online Places
Looking for love? Do it the modern way at Findmymate. Complete a personality profile online and be put in carefully-monitored touch with like-minded souls. SocialNet expands the basic concept to include roommate prospects and professionals.Findmymate: http://www.findmymate.com/default.htm
SocialNet: http://www.socialnet.com/
A Houston company offers real estate ads that shows you what the kitchen looks like or how much space is in the walk-in closet. Downside? Most of the homes right now are in southeast Houston, and you need to submit your vital stats before you can view ads. The site requires LivePicture and RealPlayer.
http://www.vrapartmentfinder.com/
Classic Cars and those Who Love Them
For those of you who think they stopped making real cars in 1970, the Classic Car site offers for sale ads, articles on how to clean real leather, and musings about the joy of a Porsche 911.http://www.drivingclassics.com/
You've drunk the beer, now marvel at the coasters. This site offers a collection of beer coasters from around the world, with an impressive sampling from various African countries.
http://www.beercoasters.silesianet.pl/
Canada, at least the bit below the Arctic tundra, boasts some pretty nifty fall foliage in the 18 or so hours between summer and winter. Tom Ebbs has taken pictures of leaves, as well as mountains and some other stuff.
http://members.xoom.com/ebbst/
Want to know where your taxes go, or the cost of mailing a letter to Texas? Visit GovSpot, a vast online resource for American governmental information.
http://www.govspot.com/
CORRECTIONS
In the last issue, we made a mistake in "Bank Code and E-Commerce Cryptography Broken" and said a group factored a 512-bit prime number in seven months. Heck, we could do it in seven seconds: the number itself and one. Much harder to do is what we meant to say, to find the prime factors of a 512-bit number.