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BREAKING SURF
Costume designer, author, and illustrator Edward Gorey passed away April 15 in a Hyannis, Mass. hospital after a run-of-the-mill heart attack. Who'd have guessed? His books and illustrations - morbid, dark, and typically depicting the bizarre and playful demise of small children - drew a cult following among millions worldwide. His black and white, baroque Edwardian illustrations evoke a haunting black humor perhaps best exemplified by the popular "Gashlycrumb Tinies", in which each letter of the alphabet represents the name of a child suffering an odd death. If you look, you can see much of Gorey's influence in contemporary American Gothic. Salon has an homage. Greg Forschler has an excellent Gorey site, as does the more anonymous Goreyography.Salon: http://www.salon.com/people/bc/2000/02/15/gorey/index.html
Greg: http://www.fearofdolls.com/gorey.html
Goreyography: http://www.goreyography.com/west/west.htm
Classified History of CIA Coup in Iran
The New York Times has obtained an important historical document, the classified history of the 1954 CIA-orchestrated coup which overthrew Iran's government. This was the CIA's first successful overthrow of a foreign government during the Cold War and lessons learned were used in later operations. The document, written by one of the coup's chief planners, is still classified. The Times obtained it from a former official who kept a copy. The document, in Acrobat PDF format, comes with extensive commentary and a backgrounder on the history of that age. It makes fascinating reading, particularly since the repercussions of that coup still resonate today. You'll need a free sign-up to access the Web site.http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html
Fearful UK ISPs Censoring Web Sites via Prior Restraint
Prior restraint is a fancy legal term that means censoring speech before it has been uttered. A recent civil court case in the UK has resulting in drastic prior restraint fallout for UK Web site owners. Outcast magazine's ISP took down its Web site because a rival magazine complained about an article that had not even been published. The ISP demanded a written letter from Outcast, pledging that it "did not contain any defamatory content and asking for a written guarantee that it never would." UK ISPs have feared lawsuits ever since a recent court settlement which found Demon Internet liable for content posted by one of its users. Outcast's rival in effect used the legal situation to force the magazine off the Web with what appears to be nothing but innuendo. Slashdot has the complete story, examined through an interview with Outcast's publisher and a reply from the ISP. A follow-up editorial paints a good overview of the big legal picture and associated links.Story: http://slashdot.org/features/00/04/05/174207.shtml
Overview: http://slashdot.org/yro/00/04/17/0056200.shtml
Rash of Balkan Domain Name Takeovers Hits Network Solutions
Wired is running a series of articles about illegal domain takeovers that have plagued Network Solutions (NSI) in the past week. Due to the names and content of the sites affected, some have speculated that the takeovers are part of some weird Balkan info-war in which pro and anti-Serbian factions steal domains from each other. The episode points out holes in NSI's domain name information authentication processes. Not surprisingly, NSI is reluctant to talk about it. Familiarize yourself with the issue in case your domain ever gets hijacked.http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35708,00.html
In Japan, if you link to a site that has been found to break the law, you can be considered guilty of abetting the crime. That's the upshot of a recent ruling by a judge in Osaka. The defendant designed and sold FL Mask, image processing software that lets users view porn without the photomask employed by Japanese porn sites to hold image explicitness within legal limits. But that's beside the point. The judge considered that the FL Mask site linked to a site that had already been found guilty of contravening Japan's porn laws and ruled that the defendant was also guilty of aiding and abetting the linked-to site's crime. Got it? If this all seems Byzantine and preposterous, try to clarify it at AsiaBizTech's site, which as far as we know neither contravenes any law nor links to either offending site, but what would happen if it did?
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/99001
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has released its third annual global review of encryption policies and it seems things are looking up for cryptography and privacy advocates. The requirements of e-commerce and Internet security as well as individual privacy issues have led to a global relaxation in the regulation of cryptography, to the point where cryptography may largely be manufactured and sold freely. Two points should not surprise anyone: one, global support for key escrow has waned so much, governments either have abandoned the scheme or neglect to enforce it; and two, the countries that persist in strongly regulating cryptography generally have little or no respect for human rights. All is not rosy for privacy advocates, however, as some governments are still trying to figure out how to let law enforcement legally conduct surveillance and/or break into buildings and computers to recover encryption keys. Check out how your country stacks up against the world.
http://www2.epic.org/reports/crypto2000/
Every year, the Pulitzer Prizes celebrate the best and bravest in American writing and journalism. While the $5000 cash prize comes in handy, the prestige is each winner's main asset. The Pulitzer Web site reveals this year's winners and nominated finalists and provides a searchable list of all prize winners since 1917, information about Joseph Pulitzer and the history of the prize, guidelines and rules, and - handy if you figure only you recognize your own genius - entry forms. Most of the 21 categories of awards involve journalism, but there are also prizes for drama, fiction, general nonfiction, history, biography, poetry, and music. Books that strike our fancy include "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)" by Stacy Schiff, and "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II" by John W. Dower. Amazon has them, naturally.
Pulitzer: http://www.pulitzer.org/
Vera: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375755349/netsurferdigest
Embracing Defeat: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393046869/netsurferdigest
Ananova is a computer-generated character designed to read the news. She is the creation of an English news agency, and initially reads the news in online feeds from their site. Eventually, the company plans to feature her on TV in an obvious ploy to save money and avoid contractual disagreements with human newsreaders. We predict the rapid formation of newscaster trade unions, which will lobby to outlaw virtual job stealers. The news site has video feeds featuring Ananova and the A Files link reveals all the information you want about the technology behind the news babe.
Ananova the News: http://www.ananova.com/
Ananova the News Babe: http://www.ananova.com/a-link
World's Biggest Game of Tetris
It's art, it's technology, it's just mind-bogglingly cool in a geek kind of way. A bunch of engineering students at Brown University in Rhode Island have created the world's largest game of Tetris by stringing computer-controlled lights on the side of a building. The setup contains 11 custom-built circuit boards, a 12-story data network, a Linux PC, and over 10,000 Christmas lights strung up on a 14-story campus building. Bystanders can play the game, which is visible for several miles in the surrounding community. Videos of La Bastille, as it is called - a South Park movie reference for those wondering - can be found on the site, along with photos of the construction and a brief history of the project.http://bastilleweb.techhouse.org/
SURFING SITES
Maledicta - the very name has such a nice ring about it. Dr. Reinhold Aman's work on the very raw edges of the language is both scholarly and intensely funny. The home page accurately warns: "This Web site specializes in uncensored language research protected by the First Amendment. If you are under 21 years of age, immature, a legal scumbag, a shallow journalist, a p.c. creep, or offended by words, just go away." Nothing is sacrosanct. All points of view are equally likely to be offended and insulted. Reinhold does have his strong biases and makes no attempt to avoid them. There's a lot here for everyone, masochists as well as linguistics scholars. Expect surprises, pitches to buy hard copy Maledicta products, and great samples.http://www.sonic.net/maledicta/
You can thank the Texas Department of Corrections for what may well be the most tasteless non-porn site on the Web. Learn the details of all current and past death-row denizens by viewing scanned copies of their death-row bio sheets. Many even have photos. See what everyone unlucky enough to take the final walk picked for their last meal. That's only the start; there's more than anyone should or would want to know about executions in Texas here. It's all official State of Texas material presented for your edification.
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/stats-home.htm
We have yet to fully uncover the extent of the damage inflicted by the terrible Chernobyl nuclear accident; our generation may not live to see the full repercussions. So we are not quibbling in the slightest when we say that it takes forever for the Chernobyl Journal to load. Perhaps it was our connection, but more than likely it is simply the immense amount of data that must load before the page is completed. After reading a number of these magazine articles, research papers, and links, we can say one thing for certain: these pieces should be required reading for everyone, not just those who happen to live in the Ukraine.
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/flytrap/250/newseng.htm
Hendrick Hamel wrote in 1666 of a land not yet known to most of the world. The inhabitants of Korea had become comfortable maintaining a private society, and exerted a conscious effort to maintain that solitude. Their world changed dramatically on August 15, 1653, when a shipwreck deposited 32 survivors on an island off the coast of Korea. Crafted by Henny Savenije, a professor of English in Korea, this remarkable collection of information from Hamel and others gives clear imagery and insight into the experiences of the ship's survivors. Site visitors can learn of the ten-month internment of the ship's passengers and their travels around Korea, and feel the true thrill of discovery. Following Hamel's original 17th century manuscript, you stop being a reader and become an adventurer.
http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/
World War II, What, When, and Where
Maps, vital to military operations, are equally vital to anyone interested in the history of military operations. This Web site presents World War II maps and drawings that were created and published during the war. Most were clearly intended for newspapers and magazines and have a healthy dose of propaganda built in. All have a vintage look and feel. Most are big, and since the originals have deteriorated, some text can be hard to read. That's only a minor distraction. A site bonus is the full text of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 (which formally concluded World War I), along with maps, charts, photos and cartoons related to it.http://ac.acusd.edu/History/WW2timeline/Maps.html
Do-It-Yourself Historical Interpretation
How did people really live long ago? The DoHistory site uses modern interactive techniques to teach you how to use historical records and documents to explore the lives of people long dead. The methodology is a case study drawing heavily on the research used to create "A Midwife's Tale", both the book and the PBS film. The site provides all the source material you need to explore the life of Martha Ballard, the subject midwife. That alone would be nice, but not too practical. What makes this Web site useful is the wealth of places, both on the Web and off, where you can search for your own source material. One warning: the film clips, while interesting, require recent versions of QuickTime and are huge (one is 27 MB). They can be skipped as they add little to your learning process.http://www.dohistory.com/
Ask Jeeves is reputedly more versatile than most search engines, with the sometimes fallible ability to answer natural-language queries. Anyone who has used AJ often will appreciate the satire behind FNwire's "Interview with the Search Engine". A journalist held a natural-language conversation with Jeeves and attempted to decipher its imperturbable replies. Jeeves' feedback gets bizarre, and reminded us of early Hollywood robots that can't make head or tail of plain speech. We posed the same first question to Jeeves and received the same response as FNwire, but some of the other questions led to different answers, which if you know how Jeeves works (see NSD 6.13) is not a surprise. We have a long way to go together, the Jeeveses of this world and we, before man and machine really understand each other.
http://www.fnwire.com/features/satire-jeevesinterview.html
Hoaxes are intriguing beasts, lying in wait for even the most cynical of netizens. CNet took a look back on the best so far. eBay auctions, in particular, appear to be fertile ground. Francis Cornworth tried to auction his virginity ($10 million before eBay pulled the plug) while others have tried to offload testicles, cocaine, an old boyfriend, and even eBay itself. If that's not enough, have a gander at the archive categories: Most and Least Believable, Creepiest, Truest, and Most Insidious. Some people just have too much time and a great big slab of mischief. Even old familiars like the Good Times warning find a home here. Argh! It is nice to know even bright sparks like Eric Idle get suckered sometimes though.
http://home.cnet.com/techtrends/0-1544318-7-1580533.html
Were the words "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" part of your childhood? In case you don't know, Underdog is an intrepid canine crime fighter who first reached America's TV screens in 1964. Amazingly, he still lives. He's now at home in cyberspace, where his Web site offers games, Underdog history, Underdog news, a page devoted to helping locate missing children, information on selected historical underdogs (Chuck Berry?), and lots more. While the site is clearly designed for younger users (and can serve as an excellent model for Web sites aimed at young users), those of us old enough to hide the comics when we read them will be equally charmed and delighted.
http://www.theunderdogshow.com/default.htm
New Mexico's Chile Pepper Institute has the hottest information on the hottest basic food group. Unlike the advertiser-driven hot sauce and salsa sites, there's no bias or pitch here - just the facts. Attractive graphics - if you like chiles - and occasionally unreadable typography (yellow type on a gold background??) hardly distract from the wealth of information for chileheads. If you've ever wondered what Scoville units really mean or how to calculate the Scoville value of your homegrown beauties, check the Information on Chile Pungency link. You'll also find production statistics, growing advice, and academic papers here, but neither recipes nor details about specific branded products. A very hot site.
http://www.nmsu.edu/Research/hotchile/
If you're looking for a cooking site with a zesty, retro flavor, try Out of the Frying Pan, a recent entry in the world of culinary code. Recipes come with step-by-step instructions often accompanied by photos. There's special assistance for those of us who piss off our gourmet guests when we hand them that thing you use to flip pancakes after they ask us for a spatula. Gadgets a-Go-Go takes the terror out of a trip to Williams-Sonoma by demystifying the tools of the trade, one at a time. The site also features wine and cocktail recommendations, as well as a unique little section called "Cooking with Rock Stars."
http://www.outofthefryingpan.com/
Keep track of your favorite Web-things with Spyonit, which takes a pretty simple idea and makes it work. Spyonit uses webcrawler technology to search for keywords you specify when you register. When these keywords appear on a Web site, Spyonit sends you notification. It's like an active search engine. We suspect the new financial news spies will become popular. One of the neatest things about this site is that it will deliver results in almost any way you choose. NB: Red Herring's Rafe Needleman has a spy set up to alert him whenever he is mentioned on a Web site. Hi, Rafe!
http://www.spyonit.com/
Job Hunting? Get Your Feet Wet
Once you start looking for a job, the number of job sites on the Web can overwhelm you quickly. Here's another: WetFeet.com. Webbish name, superb site. WetFeet offers lots of company profiles, discussion boards on individual companies, and links to corporate employment sites and insider reports on potential employers. (You have to pay for these insider reports.) A lot of research went into this site to help you do your own research. In addition to features found on other job sites - salary surveys, relocation tools, advice on how to write a resume - you get overviews of, and outlooks for, a large variety of careers, along with the "Inside Scoop on Hot Industries" (consulting, financial services, Internet, law, and technology). There's also a section for professional recruiters. Some WetFeet pages may take a while to download because of their elaborate but excellent formatting and wealth of information. OK with us. It's worth it.http://wetfeet.com/asp/home.asp
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Amphigorey
The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet
American Psycho
The WallONLINE TRAVEL
Down in the Hills o' Brown County, Indiana
Few things in life are quite as compelling as a simple black and white photograph. Is it the photographs or the ageless subjects that so draw our attention? In the case of the photos of Frank M. Hohenberger, the argument could certainly go either way. Hohenberger was a Brown County, Ind. photographer and newspaperman who spent the best years of his life recording the life, customs, and scenes of the hills of his state, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mexico. The complete photograph collection at the Lilly Library totals 8,300 prints and 9,400 negatives and a great number of those photographs are now available online. It is a simply superb collection.http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/lilly/hohenberger/index.html
It's refreshing to see the Phoenix-feathered nature of the Internet, as ventures rise and fall, only to rise again. In the wake of Channel A's demise (back in the Ice Age in Internet time), Vietmycorner is having a go at the Asian American niche market. Instead of leading with editorial content (as Channel A did to start with) or retail sales (as Channel A did in its twilight months), Vietmycorner focuses on the Vietnamese and Asian-American online community itself, with pen pals, discussion forums, surveys, classifieds, and e-cards numbering among the more prominent features. Sections focusing on the arts, women, and relationships written by staff writers and pulled from other sources cap off the content. The whole ensemble has a warm, welcoming, and, most importantly, human feel to it.
http://www.vietmycorner.com/
If marveling at the natural wonders of the world is your thing, then hunt down some serious bandwidth and look at this collection. Yann Arthus-Bertrand, an aerial photographer, has for the past four years traveled the world to capture some of the most spectacular views imaginable. The Web site, which although beautifully constructed loads slowly with a modem, displays many of his gorgeous photographs together with some context. You can view slide shows or download graphics, and spinning globes help you track certain photos. The exhibition exists in hard copy as well, and is on a world tour.
http://home.fujifilm.com/efa/
Get up, Go out, Cycle 15,000 Miles
In a clarion call to armchair travelers everywhere, Emmanuel Gentinetta's Web site tells the frankly inspiring and at times touching story about his pan-American bike ride from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. He became the youngest and fastest person to complete the 15,300 mile trip, taking just 261 days, despite a few setbacks, including when his traveling companion decided to abandon him and return to California on day three. The companion doesn't merit another mention - an intriguing story to be told there, no doubt! The adventure evolves into a story as much about family and friends as about the cultural changes Emmanuel sees. Photos, maps, and the trip reports make this an effective site that should at the very least see you logging off the computer and pumping up those tires, even if it's only for a trip to the 7-Eleven.http://www.bikeitsolo.com/
For three years producer Harry Marshall and his team faced sweltering heat, insect swarms, swollen rivers, and flooded forests, all to try and capture on film the dense tropical rain forest of Amazonia. The companion Web site for the series is as detailed and comprehensive as we've come to expect from PBS and includes the seasonal deluge of Waterworlds, the creatures of Life on Land, and the conservation efforts of the Sacred Ground.
http://www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/
The Hackers' Guide to Myrtle Beach
Hackers Anonymous is not for computer criminals but for amateur golfers. It's the irreverent brainchild of Fatz and Beno, who are not two brands of antacid but two male duffers in North Carolina. They want to "revolt against golf writing that is dull as asphalt, bland as Velveeta, and informative as fudge." Our reviewer likes fudge, has started to golf, and confesses he's never played any of the courses reviewed on this informative site. Talk about refreshing. You won't hear TV commentators repeat with hushed reverence the sort of analysis you find in the review of Brick Landing: "There is so much marsh, so much water, that playing here is like taking the Bogart role in a remake of The African Queen.... 'Brick Landing' is what happens in the hacker's shorts as he contemplates his drive." That won't get Fatz or Beno into a PGA tournament, nor will it help your game, unless you decide to golf elsewhere. Thumbs up. Wait, down. No, up....http://www.hagolf.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
If the World Spins around Microsoft, It Needs to Change Direction
An amusing bug report from Microsoft support reports that in their Explorapedia World of Nature v1.0 product the display of the Earth spins in the wrong direction. Folks, some days the material just writes itself.http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q131/1/09.asp
Postmodernism run riot or just a bunch of weird stuff? These and oh-so-many other questions are left singularly unanswered here. Click for yourself, and just keep on clicking.
http://superbad.com/
Where BS Doesn't Mean Breaking Surf
This is a best-of-breed initiative with seamless content. It leverages a revolutionary interface with cross-platform distribution channels - sorry, terribly sorry. But if you like e-culture BS, this is the place to wallow.http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
Creative cartoons and puzzles don't only manifest themselves in newspapers or magazines. The Kaz series of cartoons let you laugh at experiences like usually stressful visits to the doctor's office. The Kaz "HeadLine" word puzzles challenge the human dictionary and trivia expert alike.
http://fun.kaz.com/
If you don't have a ticket to ride, maybe it's time to check out RideBoard.com, a matching service for road travelers. The thousands of people traveling in a particular direction, and those who would do the same if only they had a ride, now have a place to meet.
http://rideboard.com/
Ballistic Parachutes: Airbags for Planes in Distress
Airplanes don't last long when they hit the ground in ways other than those intended. This Web site proposes and offers, quite seriously, parachutes for planes. Naturally they're big parachutes, and neither weightless nor cheap. Even diehard skeptics might come away thinking the idea could work.http://www.dropzonepress.com/
Whatever you're searching for, you're bound to find it among SearchPower's 2,500 search engines in over 300 languages. The city guide provides city specific information on over 1,800 US cities, and also offers a comprehensive country search.
http://www.searchpower.com/
An index of literally hundreds of bookmark managers, some better than others, but most offering access from anywhere, for free, to your bookmarks, as well as scope for editing, sorting, and search. Not much more to say, really.
http://www.webwizards.net/useful/wbbm.htm
SOFTWARE
WebCheck's Desktop Web Searches
You've just written an outline or business proposal. Or perhaps you have a spreadsheet or presentation, and now you need to find information on the Web to support it. Enter WebCheck, a utility that recognizes popular file formats, including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ASCII, RTF, and HTML. The preview version is free. Download it and install it, then drag-and-drop any text - a selection or an entire file - to the WebCheck utility on your desktop. WebCheck finds relevant contextual information on the Web and delivers it through your browser. It's essentially a rugged stand-alone search engine. Nifty. You'll need some flavor of Windows - 95, 98, NT 4, or 2000 - and works best with either the Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browsers.http://www.webtop.com/webcheck/
CORRECTIONS
Frank Trotter, president and CEO of Everbank.com, was perturbed enough to write us over our E*Trade article last issue. We wrote, "Look for the other major online brokers to rush out their own banking services any day now," in reference to E*Trade's combined banking/trading services. Frank points out that Everbank.com has had such a combination since its launch in January. Ever the corporate toadies, we here supply you with its URL.http://www.everbank.com/