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| Bill Joy on Why Humans Are Passe |
| The Propriety of Virtual Sit-In Software |
| The Short but Spectacular Life of Gnutella |
| Wednesday Night at the Drawing Club |
| Who Doesn't Dream of Jeannie? |
| Virgin Pushes Music |
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BREAKING SURF
AMA Guidelines for Medical Web Sites
The American Medical Association (AMA) has weighed in on the ethics of running medical Web sites. This article, in its prestigious journal, sets forth guidelines specifically designed for AMA's own Web sites, which also clearly serve as a fine example for any Web site that wants to be taken seriously by the ailing public. The guidelines include disclosure of site ownership and funding, independent peer review of content, identification of content source, timely updates, and other common sense rules for making the sites useful and more accountable than otherwise. Major sections deal with advertising/sponsorship, privacy, and ethical e-commerce. Abiding by these rules stringently may prove difficult, but any site to do so will take steps toward an unimpeachable reputation - the real gold standard of Net currency.http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v283n12/full/jsc00054.html
Mightywords: Marketplace for Your Electronic Scribblings
Last year, the folks at the Fatbrain.com online bookstore introduced eMatter, a section selling electronic books and publications which apparently succeeded so well that Fatbrain is expanding the concept. Here comes MightyWords, "a secure digital marketplace where you can buy, sell and publish the written word." Think of it as an Amazon.com of electronic publishing. As a writer, you can publish your work at your chosen price and let the marketplace work over your baby. Fatbrain splits the income 50/50 with you. Right now, the eclectic top-seller list leads off with "The Sinus Cure: A Self-Help Guide to Halt Sinus Symptoms", followed closely by a piece from SF author Arthur C. Clark and a book on why high tech companies fail. Yep, eclectic. It's only a matter of time before Amazon sends a dump truck of dollars over to Fatbrain and buys these guys out. Meanwhile, it's a great - and apparently successful - experiment in electronic publishing.http://www.mightywords.com/
This time of year in North America, the birds flock north, the students flock south, and flowers just kind of spring up (unless there's still snow cover). Yep, the season has turned, and here are some thematically appropriate sites. Real College has a fine guide to spring-break student festivities, complete with a page full of spring break webcams and convenient listings of drinking age by favorite vacation venue. Bulb.com, the official US press office of the Dutch flower bulb industry, has a great page with tons of information about planting spring flowers. But we've saved the best for last: Journey North is a great project (and 1999 Webby Award winner) which tracks the migration of North American wildlife as the continent warms. Students, teachers, and interested amateurs report animal and plant sightings, which this site melds into cool maps and records to provide a wonderful snapshot of the unfolding season in the wild. Very cool, and not too late for you to get involved.
Spring Break: http://www.realcollegelife.com/travel/
Spring Bulbs: http://www.bulb.com/springflwr.html
Journey North: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/index.html
Salon Free Software Book Project
Salon is undertaking an innovative open-source publishing project about free software. Author Andrew Leonard is writing the as-yet-untitled book and posting bits online as soon as he can, while calling on the collective wisdom of the Net to keep him honest. "What we're doing is taking a book about the history, ideas and personalities behind the free-software/open-source movement... and posting it, in pieces, here, as it's written. We're publishing the book as a work in progress and inviting readers - Linux veterans and newbies alike - to post their comments, criticisms and reactions." So far, you can read three chapters along with the reader discussions, which while sparse are of reasonably good quality. Obviously, the idea is that the collaborative feedback process will produce a better book.http://www.salon.com/tech/fsp/index.html
Byte's Short and Lucid Tour of US Patent Law
In the last couple of issues we've been covering the Amazon patent controversy. (Don't you just love that word "controversy"? Ahh, the joys of yellow journalism....) Byte approached the coverage from another angle with this article which neatly summarizes the state of US patent law. In addition to a lucid snapshot of the law - well, as lucid as you can make anything produced by Congress - the article discusses how US patent laws interact with international laws agreed to under the aegis of the infamous World Trade Organization. This is good reading, both for hackers who do the inventing and for managers who need to legally protect those inventions. Of particular interest to open-source types is the discussion of statutory invention registration (SIR) patents which "convey legal protection to the general public by registering the invention and thereby formally declaring it to be prior art for the purpose of future patent filings." Just what you want for open source software. Jump on it.http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000301S0001
Mattel Cracking Down Hard on CyberPatrol Censorware Decoders
Another legal war has erupted over the reverse engineering of censorware blocking lists. This time, Mattel - owner of CyberPatrol blocking software - is taking on the authors of a program called "cphack" that decrypts CyberPatrol's list of blocked sites. Steve Mann, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, wrote cphack as an exercise in reverse engineering. The legal vehemence with which Mattel is pursuing not only Steve but even sites which link to the program makes this crackdown particularly worth following. Mattel's lawyers have apparently also subpoenaed at least one site to get the list of all people who downloaded the program - a legal first as far as we can tell. Politechbot has all the relevant documents and links in another intellectual property struggle worth watching.http://www.politechbot.com/cyberpatrol/
This self-proclaimed ultimate chess portal is Garry Kasparov's latest business gambit. Newsy and informative, it has a wide range of features designed to popularize the sport worldwide and especially among children. One neat idea is a schools contest over the Internet, with the tantalizing prize for finalists of a simultaneous exhibition match with Kasparov. Other features include the Playing Zone, where you can duel online with grandmasters, and the KC University that offers online chess lessons for beginner, intermediate, and advanced players. KC magazine has game analyses, news, trivia quizzes, and articles about the meaning and significance of chess. We think they've made a good start here, although some of the articles may mystify those unfamiliar with the literature of the game, and the design could be a little less clunky and unkempt.
http://www.kasparovchess.com/
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) honors Web sites via the Webby awards, which come in two flavors - the Webby awards themselves, chosen by a panel of judges, and the People's Voice, open to voting by - well, anyone, via the Internet. The fourth annual awards ceremony will be held May 11. With five nominees in each of the 27 categories ranging from Activism to Weird, voters must consider many worthy contenders. You can even send in a write-in vote (ahem...). And while we know you need no inducement to practice online democracy, IADAS will give away an Audi TT roadster to some lucky voter. Even without that inducement, checking out the list of nominees is a great way to discover some of the best sites on the Web.
http://www.webbyawards.com/about/index.html
Perl Harbor, proto-cyberpunk, the physics of golf, a bit of Copernicus, the technology of orgasm, vintage cars on the roof of the world, and a killer in drag courtesy of Ed Wood, all to the dulcid tones of Billie Holiday. Yep, just another action packed issue of Netsurfer Books. Subscribe if you like what you see.
NSB: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/nsb.02.03.html
Subscribe: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/subscribe.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Bill Joy on Why Humans Are Passe
The actual title of this long Wired article by the legendary Bill Joy (creator of Sun, Java, and our beloved vi text editor) is "Why the future doesn't need us". The well written, quote-strewn piece postulates that intelligent machines, which can bootstrap themselves to evolutionary triumph over human beings, will inevitably render us obsolete. It would be easy to dismiss this as science fiction, but Joy skillfully sets out his argument, building on his impressive first-hand knowledge of current technology. His literate article raises some important questions about the race to future civilization, and our role in our own ultimate demise.http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
The Propriety of Virtual Sit-In Software
A group calling themselves the Electrohippies plans to release a program which enables them to stage a virtual sit-in. The idea came out of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests late last year, which included a denial of service attack by the e-hippies on the WTO servers. The e-hippies want to make the process easier and more powerful. Their simple virtual sit-in Web page will let visitors opt into a protest. Should you choose to go along, you'd get an e-mail from the e-hippies consisting of a Web page. When you load that page in your browser, your browser would repeatedly request the target server's Web pages. It's obviously a denial of service attack - and distributed at that, to spread out the load - but one that will be completely ineffective unless thousands of people choose to use it. Neat trick if it works. A paper on the Electrohippies' Web page discusses the morality of such a tool, while the Cult of the Dead Cow provides a rebuttal. MSNBC has a good overview of the issue.Electrohippies: http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/
Paper: http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/files/op1.htm
Rebuttal: http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/files/op1-cdc.htm
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/380065.asp
The Short but Spectacular Life of Gnutella
Who knows what lurks in the basements of AOL? Apparently, not AOL, which found itself unknowingly hosting an open-source project perfectly at odds with the interests of pending merger partners in the record industry. Gnutella is an ambitious Napster-like program designed to let users trade MP3 files without the benevolent guidance of the media industry's copy protection. It was the brainchild of engineers in AOL's Nullsoft division, responsible for the phenomenally successful WinAmp MP3 player. News of a beta version hit Slashdot and within minutes, to the subsequent horror of AOL executive management, thousands of surfers downloaded the software from Nullsoft's site. In a predictable move, AOL shut down the site and banished Gnutella to the void - and now the open-source community is racing to build similar software at breakneck speed. Wired has the story, Slashdot has the discussion.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34978,00.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/00/03/15/1754208.shtml
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wednesday Night at the Drawing Club
Here is an intriguing look through the eyes of a group of artists who meet every Wednesday to hone their figure drawing skills. By collecting the work produced at each session and presenting it in individual windows, the artists let us compare the individual results obtained from a common subject model. The differences among the images might draw your interest, but what really catches the untrained eye are the similarities - the same jaw line, the sweep of hair - all drawn identically by different people. An unusual study site with a lot of interest for layman and artist alike.http://www.wednesdayportrait.com/
Want "I Dream of Jeannie" production gossip? Have to know what the scriptwriters really wanted to do? Need to compare "Jeannie" with "Bewitched"? This site is an incredible reference for any fan. Scene by scene, episode by episode, you get an inside look at this kitschiest of sitcoms. Like mistakes? How about Barbara Eden casting a shadow on a car door as she goes to take a stuntman's place in a crash scene, "ghostly" body parts incompletely removed with blue screen, or Jeannie forgetting to blink and the magic happening anyway? Did you know Neiman Marcus made Jeannie's shoes? Or that Sidney Sheldon used three scriptwriter pen names? A worthy bookmark, master.
http://www.geocities.com/carpet65/
While the Recording Industry Association of America is busy suing MP3.com and other digital music purveyors, member Virgin Entertainment is trying to use the Net to promote new music directly to consumers. Virgin JamCast uses push technology to automatically download tunes in the background while the JamCast member is surfing, chatting, or otherwise occupied. It's not big news, but it is ironic, and experimental. The promoter who used to push records at radio stations can now directly "push" the consenting consumer.
http://www.virginjamcast.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 affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Beowulf
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
Inversions
Afterburnhttp://www.snarkbite.com/
So you're not famous. So you're not doing the chat show circuit. So you don't have a Web site that's been appropriated by some lunatic out to make you an international celebrity. But you may still be interesting - it's a possibility, anyway. Tom Mangan, a Californian journalist, finds these people - or they find him - and he asks them seven questions. This online project builds on a series of interviews Mangan did with fellow journos a couple of years back. And amazingly enough, it is interesting. Very interesting. Academics would no doubt call it online oral history, but to the average joe on the e-street it's a great insight into fascinating lives.
http://www.sevenquestions.com/
If there's a Swiss army knife of e-zines, it's probably E-zineUniversity, a multifaceted resource for marketers and publishers who need to know how to create and nurture an e-zine. Author/entrepreneur Kate Schultz provides a comprehensive set of free online courses to improve editorial, managerial, and other skills for those with e-zine plans. She has practical advice on distribution and a step-by-step approach to managing mail lists. If you can stand monoculture, you can build business and lifestyle e-zines through online templates that organize your publication details, welcome notes, instructions, and classified ads for subsequent editing and distribution on your own. The Resource Directory links to e-zine news, tools, and services. A biographical page for each visiting professor who contributed material is a nice touch.
http://www.ezineuniversity.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
Astronomers and astrophysicists who do research with the Hubble Space Telescope collaborate in the Hubble Heritage Project, a wonderful collection of images captured with that big eye in the sky. The Space Telescope Science Institute, run (for NASA) by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, chooses images from a public archive of almost ten years of research. Although you get technical details on image processing and even instructions on how to make print-outs for posters or photographs, undoubtedly the stars of the site are the images themselves. The four galleries focus on galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. Between March 21 and June 6, Hubble Heritage Project will poll the public to determine which celestial objects the Hubble should observe. "The target must be an object not previously observed with Hubble." So much for Jupiter's Great Red Spot and NGC 1999.http://heritage.stsci.edu/
Before modern toilets, people would wander out in the cold and dark to go to the privy, the private drop toilet out in their garden. Outhouses often housed medical supplies much as our modern bathrooms hold toiletries; furthermore, anything you or your kid dropped in the toilet was considerably more likely to remain where it fell than it would be today. Scott and Dan uncover the artifacts left behind in outhouses of yore in their urban archeological digs. Besides accidentally lost artifacts, they also find old bottles and weird objects that people often simply threw away as rubbish - not much recycling back then. Scott and Dan document their explorations on this site and offer lots of information about their surprisingly pleasant hobby.
http://www.geocities.com/~privymaster/
This is one of those sites that holds more information on a topic than a shelf at the local library. Based around the curiosities of language, this site provides two essays a month that deal with the idioms of linguistics, from the difficulties of verb tenses ("there is no simple match between our tense forms and the time meanings we have in mind") to sign language to the history of writing (it took around 100,000 years to start scratching out what we were saying). This site will thrill anyone interested in why we say and write things, and how we express ourselves when we do so.
http://home.bluemarble.net/~langmin/
This site provides basic health information along with a Q&A section. You can pose a question and expect a reply within a few days. The replying doctor's credentials will be part of your answer - the site takes advantage of a bank of available physicians. Unless you ask otherwise, your question might show up on the site, which provides a wealth of information for users. The available Q&A Archives health info comes in an easy to browse alphabetical index that covers everything from Allergies to Weight Loss, although it's kind of skimpy at the moment.
http://www.askthedrs.com/
SOFTWARE
We don't really care much for vaporware - and this is surely vaporware - but there's some relevant news in this pre-announcement from AOL's Netscape division. In a major win for the open source movement, Gecko - the open-source browser layout engine which came out of the Mozilla project - is slated to be used in software from heavyweight companies such as Sun, RedHat, NetObjects, and Nokia. In other news, Netscape 6 is going to use an XML-based user interface language called XUL. This means that the interface is going to be entirely specified by text configuration files, as opposed to being hard-coded. This will be the first major corporate product to use this technology, again developed by the Mozilla effort. The press release has considerable detail, of interest to corporate software strategy types.http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000320/ca_netscap_1.html
Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux
This fully featured office suite from Corel launches this week and makes big news in Linux circles. WordPerfect Office is the third major office suite, after StarOffice and Applixware, to be released for Linux. The stakes are high as the packages vie for control of the Linux desktop with the common goal of beating Microsoft. The suite comes in standard ($109) and deluxe ($159) versions; the latter includes the Paradox database and more media content like photos and clip-art.http://linux.corel.com/news/march_20_2000.htm