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BREAKING SURF
Looks like a serious nuclear accident has Japan's attention. Yahoo has the usual coverage, but the problem has motivated us to look around for some information on nuclear power plants in general. Note, however, that the accident happened in a fuel processing plant, not in a reactor. One of the best places to start is the Virtual Nuclear Tourist site. The site provides a comprehensive guide to virtually every aspect of nuclear power plant design, along with worldwide maps of power plant locations and their addresses. Joseph Gonyeau, the author of the Tourist site, has also set up a related Quick Virtual Nuclear Power Plant Tour which answers many specific questions. Try this for an executive summary of the topic.Yahoo: http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/World/Nuclear_Waste/
Tourist: http://www.cannon.net/~gonyeau/nuclear/index.htm
Tour: http://www.cannon.net/~gonyeau/nuclear/tour-a.htm
The Overlooked Y2K Risk - Espionage and Security
The SANS Institute looks at the Y2K problem in a way we have not seen addressed anywhere else. Its recent paper notes that many US companies are employing foreign nationals to fix their Y2K problems. This provides golden opportunities for those employees to engage in electronic espionage against the traditional military infrastructure and against purely economic targets. The paper fearlessly names names, citing the economic espionage records of countries such as Israel, India, and France. It also notes a risk of information warfare, noting that Y2K fixes allow spies the opportunity to insert Trojan horse code into sensitive systems. SANS's report makes a worthwile read, especially if you oversee sensitive systems with international exposure.http://www.sans.org/newlook/resources/Y2K.htm
Cause of Mars Loss: Pounds? We Thought You Meant Newtons!
A profound human error caused the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter. One set of engineers used metric units, and another used English units. NASA offers few details, but we wander why anybody in the space program would use non-metric units these days. It's all about science, and the international science community has been metric (properly called the International System of Units, abbreviated SI from the French name) for well over a century. Along those lines of thought, we can reasonably place ultimate blame for this loss on the failure of the xenophobic American electorate to support a switch to metric back in the '70s. (Oooh, can't wait for the e-mail on this one!)NASA: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco990930.html
SI: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html
The US Department of Commerce managed, after all, to pull a rabbit out of a hat as it shepherded .com, .net, and .org domain name agreements among the US Department of Commerce (DOC), Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Key points in the five four-year agreements (don't you love it when we condense pages into a couple of lines?): NSI will charge $6 per registration year from January 15, 2000; management of the authoritative root server stays with NSI but may be transferred to ICANN; policy responsibility for the server rests with the DOC; and all registrars must provide bulk access to registration data for no more than $10,000 yearly. The settlement goes into effect November 4 if no substantive issues arise during ICANN's 30-day public comments period. Go here for the gory details and legal blather.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/agreements/
Ease of Online Trading Kills Profits
The Motley Fool has an article that cites several studies in comparing the investment performance of knowledgeable investors who engaged in online trading with those who did it the old-fashioned way, via the telephone. Surprisingly, the very ease of online trading tends to suck up trading profits. Those who switched from phone-based to online trading went from outperforming the market by 2.4% per year after expenses to underperforming the market by 3.5% per year. This article, with links to the cited studies, should be required reading for all online traders.http://www.fool.com/news/1999/foth990922.htm
Since the beginning of Web time, there's been a great deal of hype and hope over using the Web for distance education. Indeed, we've reported on a number of online courses during our tenure, many apparently well received by both students and teachers. Here, however, is a study of one online course which did not go so well, a study which purports to expose some of the failings of the distance education model. "Students' Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course: A Taboo Topic in the Discourse" documents one course - the subject is not disclosed for privacy reasons - that frustrated the students with a "lack of prompt feedback, ambiguous instructions on the web, and technical problems." This study can't serve as a model for all online teaching - for one, a last minute replacement taught the course instead of the regular teacher - but it's an interesting counterpoint to the unbridled enthusiasm for distance education.
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp99_01.html
Subverting Proposed UK Crypto Law
A draconian crypto bill is winding its way through the UK Parliament. The bill allows police to throw you in jail for two years if you refuse to hand over the keys to your encrypted computer files. A clever subversion of the obviously badly thought out legislation has evolved on the Net. Stand.org, a political Web site in the UK, has encrypted a signed felony confession, destroyed the key, and mailed the secure file to various citizens. Theoretically, all those innocent citizens could be jailed as they cannot possibly hand over the encryption key - and the bill makes no provision for targets who don't have it. So, how can you legislate this? Anyone can claim they don't have a key - and the law breaks down. If, on the other hand, you can't claim ignorance of a key, then any innocent citizen is one anonymous (and potentially police authorized) e-mail away from becoming liable for a coupla years in the slammer.Stand.org: http://www.stand.org.uk/
Letter: http://www.stand.org.uk/dearjack/
97-Bit Elliptic Curve Crypto Broken
An interesting point of data for crypto fans. Elliptic curve cryptography is a relatively recently invented encryption algorithm. The Elliptic Curves site has a great deal of technical information about the mathematics behind elliptic curves, but what's interesting is that an international team of crypto buffs has managed to solve with brute force the 97-bit version of the encryption algorithm. The solution came out of another of these massively parallel efforts - 95 volunteers in 20 countries took 40 days on 740 computers to crack the problem. Modern encryption usually uses over 100 bits of code, so this mostly bears academic interest on the question of how fast crypto cracking technology is evolving. The Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithms Project (ECDLP) has detailed information.Elliptic Curves: http://www.fermigier.com/fermigier/elliptic.html.en
ECDLP: http://cristal.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl/
Some humor hacker put up eBay the company for auction on eBay, and managed to get seven bids, the highest of which was $1.25. The company is worth over $18 billion on the stock market.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-123220.html
SURFING SITES
How Not to Choke Ignominiously at the Dinner Table
Check out Miss Abigail's Time Warp Advice for guidance on all aspects of life, including love, housekeeping, and home repairs. After discovering a 1967 gem called "The Art of Dating" in a Salvation Army store, Abigail Grotke began collecting advice books and now her collection has works that date from 1822 to 1978. Using her windfall for good rather than for evil, she doles out fascinating information from it weekly, in both a question-and-answer section ("Do Long-Distance Relationships Work?") and a selection of the week ("The Modern Girl's Craze for Dancing"). Demonstrating that this advice is intended for amusement purposes only, the acne treatment piece advises washing one's face with carbolic acid. Hmm, maybe she is evil?http://www.missabigail.com/
At the beginning of this century, the average citizen had a cobbler, as well as a barber and a seamstress. Who do you know these days who bothers to resole her shoes? Skipping through each decade of the Century of Shoes, the big changes in our society leave their footprints - from Victorian boots laced up two sizes too small, to delectable '30s pumps, up through the clunky, synthetic platform boots of the mid-'90s. This site is absolutely wonderful to look at, and it provides a thoughtful, entertaining way of chronicling the changes in everyday life in the 20th century.
http://www.centuryinshoes.com/intro.html
THE Internet Medieval Sourcebook
There is no way to adequately convey the full scope of this site within the confines of a brief review. It is massive and quite authoritative, all the more remarkable when one considers that much of the site has been constructed using documents available in the public domain. The site was in fact created as a guide for teachers and their students, but anyone interested in such texts will find a wealth of information. There are also links to full-text documents found elsewhere on the Web. The source book is also fully searchable. Amazing.http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Musketeers (and others) - names and tales that have endured for hundreds of years, passed from one generation to the next with such familiarity that one might be forgiven for thinking they were still roaming about the forest today. The Legends site takes on the heroes and heroines of ages old and delves into their histories. The Robin Hood and King Arthur pages indeed demand attention, but other points of interest include Ballads & Broadsides, Swashbucklers & Fops, and Shakespeare's Stories.
http://www.legends.dm.net/
The history of trade doesn't promise fireworks, but the James Bell Ford Library has put together a gorgeous site dedicated to the subject. The site's centerpiece is a collection of stunningly detailed historical maps, including Waldseemuller's world map, the first one to mention "America". The colors and detail are fantastic. A section on trade products lets you examine the histories of cinchona bark (used for treating malaria), indigo, porcelain, and coffee, all with much fascinating detail and period illustrations of production and trade. A masterpiece of aesthetic scholarship.
http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/index.html
TV SF: As Twisted As Slartibartfast's Designs
Vogons, Skutters, Cluster Lizards, Vorlons, and Humans. Don't nobody get no respect at Sad Geezer's TV SF site? Sad doesn't even look to the overexposed final frontiers of Star Trek. Noooo. Instead, he turns his eye to resident aliens populating other TV universes, like the world of the terminally cool, oft-deceased, seldom-clad Aeon Flux. The section on hyper-funny Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy improbably goes down as smooth as two Pangalactic Gargleblasters. We've had trouble committing to Lexx, and we positively despise the smug Babylon 5. But Sad Geezer is plainly more tolerant of all those humanoid, lizardoid, robotoid, arachnoid, fingers-out-the-nose-oid races. We like Sad Geezer - which just tells you what sad geezers we are ourselves.http://www.sadgeezer.com/
The sexual content of the Internet swings from the trashiest of porno sites to boring pseudo-scientific abstracts. World Sexual Records manages to land right in the middle of the two extremes - some tantalizing information, wittily written, and with none of the jargon used by either porn or science. Who had the most women in his lifetime? What is the highest number of multiple orgasms enjoyed by a woman? What did the Balkan Bogomils practice, and how does one join their sect (answers on a postcard please)?? An amusing, interesting and - er, stimulating Web site.
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jmeans/WSR.html
The Unknown Presidential Candidate
Unlike some of the relatively unknown candidates that have or will run for President of the United States, Bernard Palicki really is quite unknown. Calling himself the "only candidate with specific solutions", Palicki is running a no-cost election campaign instead of relying on contributions from the public purse, as is the custom. And unlike the front runners, whom he claims tell voters what they want to hear, Palicki will tell them what they need to know. If nothing else, you have to hand it to him for securing the domain name.http://www.ovaloffice.org/
Radicalism in American History
This archive of American Radicalism reminds us how history will sometimes eventually fold progressive ideas into shared values - as with the birth control movement - and at other times, expose extremism for the kooky threat that it is, as with the KKK. Michigan State University Library posts digitized copies of documents and images published by and pertaining to many important movements outside mainstream American culture such as the American Indian movement, the student movement and the Black Panthers, and Communism and the Labor movement of the 1930s, among others.http://www.lib.msu.edu/spc/digital/radicalism/
Taoists strive to achieve Wu Wei, "effortless action", a way of unleashing the inner strength and talents we all have without stress or strain. John Bird, an enthusiastic Taoist and a mandolin player, writes a little piece each week about his mandolin playing with a Taoist slant, his goal being to achieve Wu Wei. He hopes eventually to collect all his weekly efforts into a book for publishing. If you already understand and appreciate the Tao then this site may be of interest.
http://www.access1.net/birdj/
The Kids' Diary Project was inspired by Bosnian diarist Zlata Filipovic, author of "Zlata's Diary", which detailed the horrors of living in Sarajevo amid a raging war. Although not all teens live such harrowing lives, the folks at the Project wanted to offer regular teens a site where they could share their innermost secrets without fear of identification or retribution. There are currently 12,000 entries, divided into 24 categories.
http://www.diaryproject.com/
Most lists of links sites are dull in the extreme, and give little indication of what might be found when you click the link. HereontheWeb.com concentrates on a few outstandingly good sites each week, so you can be assured of no dead links and something interesting when you click. As well as the Sites of the Week there is a comprehensive collection of themed links which include shopping, finance, and other useful topics - again the quality is high and the number of dead links minimal. They do not have the witty, incisive reviews we offer for your delight, but they do offer some very good links.
http://www.hereontheweb.com/
Personal portal sites that allow members to store credit card numbers, phone numbers, to-do lists, and calendars online are growing like weeds. Their primary advantage is total portability - you can access your most crucial information anywhere in the world (theoretically). Advertising sales finance the sites that offer this service, and there's a lot of money to be made. An enterprising and innovative organization called VerticalOne now offers to set up your site as a personal portal provider: they create the accounts for you, hold the data securely, and add e-mail, marketing, and financial content. VerticalOne then takes a percentage of the ad revenue generated, or a set fee. A clever business idea that is truly vertical marketing in action.
http://www.verticalone.com/
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Network Intrusion Detection: An Analyst's Handbook.
A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners
Yellow Submarine Songtrack (Remastered)
Rainbow Six Rogue Spear for Win95/98/NTONLINE TRAVEL
While we couldn't immediately figure out the precise rationale for this e-zine, we're glad we stuck with it. Navigating seemingly at random, eventually we ended up at a whole selection of articles, many of them ostensibly takes on foreign cultures. In one, a lawyer seems unsure of whether he falls into the social justice or greedy attorney legal camp. In the end the only conclusion he draws is that he has to get home in time to watch Lionel Hutz on "The Simpsons". Visitors to the Transit Lounge are positively encouraged to get involved and submit articles, reviews, pictures and pretty much anything they want. It ends up a scattershot approach to the theme of residents living in foreign cultures - but some of it sticks, so pass on by.http://www.transitlounge.net/
Short Accounts of the Majesty of Ancient Civilizations
Adventures in South America is a cleanly-designed site highlighting visits through places like Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and the Inca Trail. Each completed site includes a collage of panoramic photos plus two or three paragraphs at the most about the location. It's a refreshingly brief departure from most travel journals on the Web, which too often feel like you're being subjected to someone's slide show of what they did for their summer vacation. You could call it a travelogue for an audience with ADD.http://www.fluid7.demon.co.uk/adventures/
Some good people of Matadi, Congo's major sea port, have compiled a lot of information and resources on their town and the country and culture. There's even local music on RealAudio, and you can buy albums of Congo's better known artists straight from the site. The town, with a population estimated at 200,000 to 300,000, is apparently a hive of activity and should you wish to visit, do check out the detailed travel and accommodation information here. The Matadi team's love of their town really comes through.
http://matadi.iscool.net/
The study of what makes Canada unique has been taught for three decades. Most undergraduates north of the 49th parallel are required to take classes in Canadiana, although curricula are taught in universities all over the world. This bibliographic essay introduces the interdisciplinary elements: history, literature, language, geography, media and government. It also addresses the subtle, difficult, sometimes humorous issue of the need for self-understanding for a people so culturally tied to the United States, France, and Great Britain.
http://www.iccs-ciec.ca/blackwell.html
What's in a name? Plenty if you happen to live in Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT). When the NWT split in two in April 1999, the eastern half became known as Nunavut and the government held a vote on whether to rename the western half. The majority wanted to retain the NWT name, but 81 people voted for the name Bob. Despite some suspicion that mainly good-natured residents of Nunavut voted for the name Bob, the idea appealed to some people, Bobs and otherwise. Naturally a campaign to change the name to Bob ensued. And of course anyone is welcome to cast their vote online. So far, Bob runs well ahead.
http://www.bobcanada.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Hilarious NY Subway Instruction Icons
Take those universal human figures with the cannonball heads and mix them with deadpan NYC subway system rules, and you get hilarious madness. Three men sit in a row, until one gets up and dances: don't annoy your fellow passengers. Minimalist animations lead to maximalist hilarity.http://www.juvenilemedia.com/subway/
We have a trivial challenge for you - explore this site without finding a trivia topic of interest. We guarantee you'll fail. This fast-loading, highly usable site is creaking at the seams with content. Well worth a visit for both trivia addicts and those of us who want a ten-minute diversion.
http://www.quizsite.com/index.html
Iron Minds, Hypercondensed Thoughts
Ironminds is a hip campus mag with great graphic zing, whose articles, if not penetrating, are at least short. Really short.http://www.ironminds.com/index.shtml
GPS, the Global Positioning System, relies on a network of 24 satellites to determine precise locations. You'll find a GPS device in your car soon, if not already. GPStoday.com hosts the latest info. Read news, get the lowdown on units, download software, and find relevant links here.
http://www.gpstoday.com/
Check out the exciting world of robot combat - an irresistible combination of Heath Robinson ingenuity, mechanical inventiveness, and healthy doses of testosterone. Man the Hunter is not extinct, he simply went up-market.
http://www.infernolab.com/
What's the Name on Adam Ant's Passport?
Passport, Mr. .... ah, Ant? Very well, Stuart Leslie Goddard, you are free to move about the country. Barbie's passport says Barbara Millicent Roberts. Plastic dolls, rock singers with silly pseudonyms, poets, lawyers, TV evangelists - find their real names here.http://www.walshnet.com/walshnet/punster/realname.htm
The idea's simple. Register your name and send in lists of books, movies, and films that you love, hate, or which remind you of your pet. Whatever you want. Then enter search terms to see who agrees with you. It's just a bit of fun.
http://www.listology.com/index.html
WebMD provides a wealth of healthcare resources, from a medical library to special live chats on topics like multiple sclerosis. The healthcare professionals' side of the site apparently provides insurance verification and an answering service for a fee.
http://www.webmd.com/
Store Your Medical Information
We worry about people getting unauthorized access to our medical data, but equally worrisome is assuring that a doctor who needs it, gets it. PersonalMD allows all of your medical records to be stored and maintained in one online location, so that it can be accessed by a physician.http://www.personalmd.com/
SOFTWARE
AOL Releases Version 4.7 of Netscape Communicator
In addition to bug fixes - oddly unspecified - the new browser version has a bunch of updates to peripheral utilities. You get new versions of AOL Instant Messenger, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, and a new RealPlayer G2. Other enhancements - or feature bloat, depending on your mood - include a new toolbar button which takes you straight to the Netscape Netcenter shopping area, and a menu item called Netscape Radio which presents audio content in a separate window. It's a lot of stuff, but as usual, you should be running the latest browser for security reasons. You can download it here.http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html