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| Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, Creator of C++ |
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| Solo Ocean Crossing |
| Walking the Length of Chile |
| Hitchhiking across Eurasia and Other Stories |
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BREAKING SURF
DDoS Tools Infiltrate Windows Systems
Just what we need - an easier way to launch distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks! CNet reports that a new version of Trinoo - software allegedly used recently to attack on Yahoo and other sites - makes it easy to subvert PCs running Windows and to spread the infection via e-mail attachments. The Washington Post covers some of the risks you face with Windows and cable/DSL Internet access, and what you can do to protect yourself. As well, the SANS Institute has an informative road map for defeating DDOS attacks, including steps organizations and ISPs can take to provide some immediate protection as well as longer term measures. Oddly, there's no mention of boot camp for teenage boys.CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1555637.html
Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a2913-2000feb18.htm
SANS: http://www.sans.org/ddos_roadmap.htm
European Union Study of ECHELON Spy Network
These studies contain further details about the US/UK ECHELON spy network. The package names names and reveals the technology the US/UK intelligence alliance uses to spy on foes and allies alike. For example, "Interception Capabilities 2000" contends that ECHELON has covert interception capabilities at a number of the major Internet interconnection points. The report also describes the dictionary and topic recognition methods the spies use to sift through data, and it debunks the myth that computers can transcribe and analyze phone conversations - right now, it's an insurmountable technical problem. On the other hand, it is possible to automatically identify voices over the phone. These well researched and documented details make an engrossing read for anybody interested in privacy and espionage. The Wired article has some harsh French reaction to the studies. Journalists may want to jump on this for some prime story leads. The docs are in PDF format.Studies: http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg4/stoa/en/publi/default.htm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34575,00.html
The Business End of Online Porn
This first-rate article from Upside analyzes the business of online porn. Love 'em or hate 'em, porn ventures frequently slide along the bleeding edge of innovation. The business problems online porn merchants face, and successfully deal with, will soon start hitting more mainstream e-businesses like a paddle on the bottom. The article discusses how porn sites handle credit card accounts, how they manage traffic between related and even competitive Web sites, the technology of managing high-volume Web sites (porn is by far the largest bandwidth consumer), and even how these outfits deal with venture capital. You'll find much to be learned here. Required reading for the executive staff of all online businesses. Coincidentally, MSNBC covers the story of one porn entrepreneur this week.Upside: http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/story?id=38adbbff0
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/181553.asp
NBC Launches High-Bandwidth Portal
This typical melange of sports, entertainment, and business programming distinguishes itself by aiming squarely at the high-bandwidth crowd - DSL speeds or above. Aside from NBC content, you get audio and video from other outlets such as A&:E, the History Channel, and a crime network called APBOnline. (When exactly did crime became entertainment? Or is crime a sport? Or is business a crime? The mind boggles....) Sure 'nough, the site's festooned with RealContent, most of it mind-candy network TV. Worth looking at, if only to see what big media wants you to do with your bandwidth.http://www.nbci.com/
Around the World in a Balloon, Solo
US balloonist Kevin Uliassi is trying to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon. Last year, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the trip, but nobody has done it alone. Steve Fosset came close, managing a record 15,200 miles before running out of fuel. This is Uliassi's second attempt. His first attempt failed in 1997 when the skin of his balloon ruptured. This site has the ongoing story.http://j.renee.iit.edu/
The Obligatory Link to the Palm IIIc
The Palm hand-held computer line is on a roll. 3Com released the Palm IIIc, the first version with a color screen. 3Com shares have more then tripled since September because the company spun off the Palm computer division in an IPO due to take place this week. Many online commentators speculate that shortly after the IPO, as its shares skyrocket with huge investor interest, the Palm company will be worth more then its parent 3Com. As of press time, Palm had already doubled the price of the IPO to 23 million shares at $30-$32 per share. Anyway, here's the new Palm toy.http://www.palm.com/products/palmiiic/index.html
DoubleClick Resources for Advertisers
While DoubleClick deals with controversies and lawsuits regarding its privacy policies, it continues to roll out products aimed at dominating the online advertising market. This newly unveiled DoubleClick site bills itself as "the Internet's free advertising resource". It contains content aimed at advertisers in six vertical markets: Travel, Auto, Business, Entertainment, Tech, and Women & Health. Each area includes links to related advertising resources, guides to events of interest to advertisers, vaguely related news features, terse advertising case studies, and some lightweight editorials. The brand new site still lacks depth, but don't discount the effort yet. Online advertisers have unique needs, and you should keep an eye on DoubleClick's attempt to fill them.http://www.vertical.doubleclick.net/
One of the fun things about watching the Internet grow up is the constant evolution of methods that prove the maxim "information wants to be free." As part of the recent struggle between media companies and hackers, a couple of US courts banned Web sites from linking to the DVD decryption hack called DeCSS. The amusingly named Mr. Bad, of the equally amusingly named Pigdog Journal, took umbrage at this restriction on his freedom. Accordingly, he wrote a little program which does nothing particularly useful (it strips Cascading Style Sheet tags from an HTML document) - but he named the program DeCSS, and he encourages everyone and their brother to post it on their Web sites. Doing so, of course, makes tracking compliance with the court orders that much more difficult. In effect, this is Net-wide implementation of stegonography - hiding the existence of a program amid copies of a decoy program - and, as far as we know, an Internet first.
http://pigdog.org/decss/
We told you last year about the attempted stock manipulation of PairGain (NSD is never asleep at the wheel, never - we just rest our eyes sometimes). Now another firm has become the target of a similar scam. A bogus news release posted on Aastrom Biosciences' Web site claimed a planned merger between Aastrom and Geron Corp. The hacker's hoax briefly triggered market action in the two stocks before NASDAQ suspended trading. Aastrom is steaming and has shut its Web site down until the company can figure out how it happened. Value investing has its advantages after all!
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/043057.htm
ONLINE CULTURE
Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, Creator of C++
The inventor of arguably the second most popular programming language (C being first) gets the Slashdot interview treatment. This fairly technical interview will interest all professional bitslingers who sooner or later will be required to do something with the C++ language. Bjarne talks about his views on Object Oriented Programming, what he'd do differently were he to invent the language all over again, and his current work, and he answers a bunch of very technical questions. We're including a link to Bjarne's home page, which has numerous papers, books, and other works authored by this prolific computer scholar.Interview: http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/02/25/1034222.shtml
Bjarne: http://www.research.att.com/~bs/
Reality Check: A Better Message Board
Reality Check (RC), an experimental online forum format that ran about a year ago, hoped to avoid "the current norm of chaotic bulletin boards populated by drive-by postings and flame wars." RC tried to accomplish this with intentionally high barriers to entry (it required lengthy questionnaires and a commitment to one month's participation) and through small discussion groups that placed more emphasis on accountability than anonymity. It seems to have worked. Participants highly rated the quality and maturity of the discussion. The experiment also concluded that people tended to stay longer at RC than at other forums, and that they came away with a sense of actually having learned something. It's good research into online discussion dynamics.Reality Check: http://www.reality-check.org/
Conclusions: http://www.weblab.org/sgd/
SURFING SITES
In November 1998, Alabama passed a law prohibiting the sale of that bane of modern society, the vibrator. Yep, sell a magic wand and you face fines of up to $10,000 and a year of hard labor (which is six months more than you get for dangling your wife over the balcony). Clearly, the men in Montgomery moved to avert catastrophe. As with drugs, though, selling isn't the same as using, so as long as you order from out-of-state, you can vibrate to your, uh, heart's content. It warms the cockles of our hearts to know Alabama's legislators could take time from activities like fighting low literacy to probe issues that really matter. The Village Voice uses the absurd and surrealistically intrusive law to consider the history of vibrators, once prescribed - and administered - by physicians to alleviate female hysteria. The Voice's reporter had to run over one durable sample with his car five times before it broke. Paying attention, guys?Law: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/1975/13A-12-200.2.htm
Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9912/kushner.shtml
The now familiar state-of-the-visual-art Gap commercial took wonderful advantage of the kinetics of swing dance, so we were delighted when our own two left feet stumbled across this site quite by accident in a search gone wrong. Here you can enjoy a clip from the ad in streaming video or you can savor 85-year-old Frankie Morris, one of swing's pioneers and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, showing us how to go Stompin' at the Savoy in an 11MB QuickTime file. The site's content is pretty good and so tightly focused on its mission that we won't complain that its history of swing gives short shrift to its sociological significance. What we do want to commend, though, is the site's design, which calls up the flavor of the South Beach in neon hues and speeding icons and all looks right at home. Do we need to tell you, then, that these pages aren't for slower connections?
http://www.swingsouthflorida.com/
Rave, House, Techno, and Assorted Offspring
The incredibly varied and dynamic electronic dance music scene shows no signs of missing a beat, even as blustering pundits predict its demise and illustrate its contribution to the decline of civilization. Now, in the fine literary tradition of Kenyon College, this genre gets the circumspect treatment it deserves. A well written introduction to the Rave characterizes the general scene and explains why so many people like it. A collection of rare, beautiful birds - great pop music journalism pieces - narrates the stories behind neo-disco, New York and Chicago House, Acid Trax, Detroit Techno, the UK Rave explosion - and offspring too numerous to list. This is lively history presented not by outsiders who fear it but by people who've lived it.http://www.kenyon.edu/depts/iphs/cyberscape/index.html
NPR's All Things Considered Names That Tune
Some pick up Playboy for the articles, some read the New Yorker for the cartoons, and some listen to National Public Radio's All Things Considered for the music. And we go insane guessing where those short beautiful music bridges that join stories came from. Finally, comes a way to settle all those blind bets: an official arbiter for the name of the song, the artist, and the record label. Even if you don't listen to the radio program, check the All Songs Considered playlist to stream some exquisite music.http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/
This nicely executed home improvement store tries, fairly successfully, to distinguish itself by providing good advice. The community aspect here should attract the attention of the average home-improvement hacker. Face it, if you own a home you are slave to the 1,001 pesky little tasks that home ownership entails. The obligatory message boards cover topics like garden, tools, and paint, but traffic hasn't picked up yet. HomeWarehouse has also lined up an impressive array of professional contractors, decorators, carpenters and tool experts to answer your questions. If a house is a hole in the ground into which you shovel money, at least these folks can tell you what kind of shovel to use.
http://www.homewarehouse.com/
How Come There's an Extra Flat Piece?
Imagine going through the attic, tossing out old stuff, when you come across a Lego kit you loved so much when you were younger. You dust it off, spill the little blocks all over the coffee table, and proceed to build something unlike the picture on the front of the box because you seem to have lost the instructions. That's where BrickShelf.com comes to the rescue. Complete instructions for Lego sets prior to 1997 are available, as well as a gallery that'll just make you wonder how you ever thought your little building was special.http://www.brickshelf.com/
Historical revisionism is the art of rewriting history to prove that things happened the way you wish they had, rather than the way they really were. The Holocaust deniers used the "proof" supplied by Fred Leuchter Jr. that the gas chambers were really nice cozy work camps. Before tilting at that windmill, Fred had been the US's top expert on execution. Filmmaker Errol Morris examined Fred and his quest in what just about everyone except the Oscar nominators thought was the best documentary of 1999, and the background information provided on this site makes chilling reading.
http://www.mrdeath.net/
Digital West is a brand new public television show from San Francisco. Each week host Rebecca Roberts interviews Internet and tech industry luminaries about local tech issues. But don't let the local angle put you off - given the nature of Silicon Valley, local science and technology issues frequently become global. On the first program, Rebecca interviewed Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle about "The Internet Revolution". The next program looked at how Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley. This week, "The Research War" focused on, among other things, the competitive local biotech industry and the Human Genome Project. At our suggestion, the site has placed complete transcripts of the shows and video clips online. Worth following if you are interested in the hotbed of technology that is NSD's home turf.
http://dw.kqed.org/
Pretty Cool RealAudio Interviews
Interviewer Mark Snyder moved from humble beginnings with a handful of listeners to a national audience in large part because he does not use notes and he does not interrupt his guests - both unusual attributes. His site features an eclectic mix of interview guests, mostly from TV, including Billy West (Ren and Stimpy, Futurama), Laurie Holmes (widow of John), Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders), Georgia Engel (Mary Tyler Moore Show), and film director Peter Bogdanovitch.http://pmpnetwork.com/
Political pundits are a dime a dozen during primary season, but ABC News and the New York Times have created a wonderful diversion with their Political Points. The "limited editorial partnership" provides a daily 15-minute webcast on both sites at 1:30 p.m. weekdays. The broadcast features interviews, political discussions, and biographies of the candidates, and will run until the election in November. An archive of previous editions is also available. Go to the ABC site and scroll down for the black, white and red button.
http://abcnews.go.com/
The Amazing Kresky, TV's Supercop of the '70s
Remember when the whole world rushed be in front of the TV Thursday nights to catch the latest helping of Kresky, the award-winning TV cop from the '70s? A real treat is in store for all you Kresky fans with the Official Kresky Homepage, where you can rediscover the icon that was Nick Kresky - heart of a cop, soul of a lover, feet of a dancer. This guy had it all: the angst; the adoring sidekick; and the incredibly tight trousers. Don't quite remember him? OK, so maybe Kresky doesn't exist as anything other than brilliant parody - but he should have.http://www.kreskytv.com/
Fed up watching your expensive angelfish floating to the surface? Too busy to keep your goldfish bowl from turning into a lifeless scummy soup? Maybe try a new hobby - rock aquariums. The care, feeding, and breeding of rocks requires no patience, no routine and you can always use them to thump anyone who dares to suggest you have an uninteresting hobby. A funny satire, this Web page keeps a straight face while explaining the crucial difference between rocks and stones, how to breed them, and how to introduce new rocks into your tank (throwing them is not recommended for people who live in houses made of glass).
http://www.enter.net/~dmg5/rocktank.html
As the Net expands, the specificity of search engines increases. TextbookHound.Com, a textbook metacrawler, searches 20 online new and used college textbook merchants in one fell swoop. Any freshman who's lugged home a 40-pound bag of shockingly expensive school materials will vouch that this idea's time has come. Search for your books by title, author, keyword, or ISBN. Then choose the correct title, author, and binding (hardcover, paperback) from the subsequent hits. When you price the list, the query results include the new and used price and whether or not the book in question is in stock. We'd like to suggest they invest in a style guide as their first purchase through their site; on their front page alone, they refer to themselves as TextbookHound, TextBookHound, TextBook Hound, and Textbookhound.
http://www.textbookhound.com/
For Women with Babies inside Them
Besides cramps, one of the most irritating things about pregnancy is the conflicting advice you get - everyone from your mother to the women in the post office will tell you exactly what you should do and what horrible things will happen to your body during those long months. This valuable and well researched directory provides links to hundreds of information sources to allow the expectant mum to find out for herself the things she needs to know. You'll find plenty of reassurance and useful information for anyone expecting a baby.http://9pregnancy.com/
It seems like every day a new "Make Money on the Internet" site pops up, but which are legitimate ways to make a quick buck? Terri Iversen wanted to find out. She arranged her site around what you get out of the deal, i.e. cash, coupons, and goods or services. She joins each program and sits back. Each program is identified by name, link, and what she's earned to date through OPC (Other People's Clicks). She makes editorial comments about the quality of the site, plus she notes the minimum payment, which is where many people get tripped up. You'll be amazed by what you can get free, from a dental consultation to a morning wake-up call.
http://www.money4nothing.org/
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Beethoven Lives UpstairsONLINE TRAVEL
Have you ever received e-mail from Antarctica? You can now, maybe. Kym Newbery, a member of the Australian Antarctic Division based at Mawson Station, sends site updates whenever he has the time. As of this writing, it was more than a month ago, but past e-mails hint that he doesn't have a lot of spare time. The marvelous photo gallery seems to indicate otherwise, however. Some of these images are collected into a Windows screensaver, available free for download. We should add that this is probably the first site we've seen that has felt cold, at least partly because of its masterful design.http://www.artifactinteractive.com.au/antarctica/index.html
For the past two years, Jo Le Guen has been preparing for a voyage that would eventually find him rowing from New Zealand to Cape Horn in an effort to raise awareness of the need to protect the oceans. His journey began at the end of January and as he continues to row, his Keep it Blue site tracks his progress. The text provides detailed information on the project, including both audio and video interviews and a CD, sales of which will help to offset the cost of the operation.
http://www.keepitblue.net/
Brendan Cowan and Nina Page like to walk. And if they're going to walk, it might as well be somewhere like Chile, with its "beautiful mountains, welcoming people, great seafood, stunning landscapes, incredible seashores." Never mind that the trip would cover more than 4,400 miles, on foot - the entire length of Chile. They are doing it, more or less, because it is there. They have only just left Seattle (by plane) and plan to post updates to this site, which up till now they have been quite diligent in doing, considering they hadn't even left yet.
http://www.thelongwalk.org/
Hitchhiking across Eurasia and Other Stories
This Tom Thumb is a traveler who writes. Some of his stuff is online and some on paper, but even the paper publications have chapters online. It's hard to relate the flavor of Tom's work - he writes more or less true accounts of his travels, which start off with hitchhiking from England to India with no money at all. Subsequent novels stay in India, more or less. There's sex, drugs, philosophy, spirituality - and lots of Dervishes. Copies of the stories may be ordered online, and Tom might also give permission for some of the stories to be displayed elsewhere, so as long as he's given a linkhttp://www.tomthumb.org/
Aruba! Jamaica! Ooo, I Wanna Take Ya...
The Beach Boys had the right idea. Ever dream of fishing, sunbathing, or snorkeling in the Caribbean? Want to buy an island there, open offshore bank accounts, or scope out condos? Paradise has a portal for you. CaribSeek, a search directory in eye-pleasing pastels, helps you learn about your destination, and entices you to shell out simoleons for sun, sea, and sand. CaribSeek links to news (including, of course, weather reports), but many first-time visitors will likely head straight for the site's travel-guide-like resources. Drilling down, you search topics by country - a logical way to navigate in view of the diversity of the region. Don't forget about it when you're on one of the islands it covers brightly from many angles.http://www.caribseek.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Everybody's got to learn. With no foppish pandering to your precious self esteem, WiredGuide clearly explains how to open e-mail attachments, keep track of downloaded files, and use your browser to best advantage. Links provide computer dictionaries and daily tips about common software programs - from which even the seasoned surfer could learn.http://www.wiredguide.com/
XpertSite.com lets you question experts in various topics. We like that you can view the experts' past answers, brief resumes, and how other answer seekers have rated them.
http://www.xpertsite.com/
Can communities be hung on anything? WebRadio lets users have a home page with music/art related content. It's not the most user-friendly way to publish online and links to the radio stations are not readily apparent. Skip the community, just listen to whatever grabs your fancy.
http://www.webradio.com/
Captain RibMan, the brainchild of Rich Davis and John Sprengelmeyer, is a metacomic which pokes fun at politics, pop culture, and, naturally, superheroes. It features celebrity guest stars, a talking barbecue grill, and a recipe for Authentic Cafeteria-Style Meat Loaf. What more could you want?
http://www.supercomics.com/
Passionate about planes? You'll enjoy the Aviation Zone, packed with over 1,800 images, FactSheets that show where every nut and bolt go, and acres of information about the big warplanes of the world.
http://www.theaviationzone.com/
SOFTWARE
Evolution means ceaseless, restless probing for advantage. Or just aesthetic refinement. Netscape Communicator 4.72 won't get geneticists in a frenzy; it just tweaks the assortment of available add-ons and plug-ins. Fanatics and those of you who like to compare your Netscape-mobile to the neighbor's Explorer might be interested, otherwise you can take it or leave it. Well, except for the inevitable security fixes.http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html