|
Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Education E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| Open Source Sex |
| GIF Me a Home... |
| Double-Click Meets Click-Whirr |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| The Register |
| Celeritas Odit Moras |
| Internet Society |
| Bad Ads Make Kate Mad |
| Interactive Modern Physics |
| Massive New Archive of Mars Images |
| The Geography of Io |
| Views of the Solar System |
| Skol: To Discovery Health Online |
| Ask the Dentist |
| At the MIDI Hop |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
|
Don't just count clicks! Monitor dozens of categories of information, online and in real time. Get the serious tool for website management -- get NedStat Pro! |
eBay: http://www.ebay.com/
Bidders Edge: http://www.biddersedge.com/home.jsp
Response: http://www.biddersedge.com/newspr.jsp
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1948171.html
Dr. Dre could muster only 230,142 names, but he swallowed his pride and delivered them to Napster in the latest salvo in the Napster wars. As with the better than 300,000 Napsterers named by Metallica, these folk were greeted by a cheery little message telling them their access to Napster was being terminated at Dr. Dre's request. CNet reports that more than 30,000 users appealed the Metallica-incited ban, those affected by Dr. Dre's action can opt for the same remedy, which involves signing a legally binding document. CNet also suggests that detection depends upon file names, not actual contents (cough, cough).
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1956958.html
FTC Requests Tough Privacy Laws
You can view online the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report to Congress, "Privacy Online: Fair Information Practices in the Electronic Marketplace", in PDF format. You'll find the majority report (3-2), dissenting commentary by Commissioner Swindler, and the partly concurring, partly dissenting opinion by Commissioner Leary (we're not making up the names, honest!). A news release summarizes the report for those living today's fast-paced, can't-stop-to-think lifestyle to whom we cater. In essence, the FTC wants Web sites to adopt tougher privacy standards. It argues that self-regulation has achieved some success but notes that currently only 20% of Web sites come up to snuff. The report concludes that legally controlling the collection of information online is the only way to guarantee basic consumer protection and privacy. Swindler wants a continuation of self-regulation; Leary wants to extend protection to the offline world as well and is - um, leery of legislation.Report: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/05/index.htm#22#22
Release: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/05/privacy2k.htm
Creditus Interruptus: Amex Pulls out of Porn Sites
The big money on the Internet is in porn, or so the saying goes. True or not, American Express wants no part of it. The company has decided to deny credit card merchant status to online porn sites. American Express claims the high rate of fraud and chargebacks - when people pay for a site with the American Express card then repudiate the charges, leaving the merchant in the lurch - have forced it to make this move. These same problems don't seem to faze Visa and Mastercard, which deploy robust anti-fraud technology and rake in millions from transaction fees at porn Web sites. This Wired piece has more background.http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36608,00.html
WebBrain, a new search engine using Netscape's Open Directory Project database, paints a picture of your search results as well as returning the traditional list. When you perform a search, it presents "broad concept" results as elements orbiting the search criteria. You can navigate parent, child, sibling, and jump categories while remaining visually oriented to your original criteria. When you select a category, the elements reorient themselves appropriately and display their new relationship. It's cool. Not limited to search engines, WebBrain can be ported to corporate intranets and other uses. We're that much closer to true multidimensional search engines and the jacked-in visual cyberspace of William Gibson (and we'll wonder how we ever got along without them).
http://www.webbrain.com/
Apache Today Magazine Launched
Fans of the Web's favorite server software will be happy to hear that the Apache Web server now has its own webzine. The primary content consists of stories and editorials on using Apache in all its fully featured glory, backed up with a long series of press-release-quality items covering typical open source/webmaster related news. A free registration will earn you numerous features that let you customize the webzine's content and presentation appearance. Naturally, the 'zine's Web site uses the open source favorites of PHP, MySQL, Linux, and, of course, Apache itself.http://apachetoday.com/
The Gizmoz ViralCasting Network
Most of us grew tired of flashy animated Web gimmicks long ago, but Gizmoz aims to bring 'em back. In what looks like an insidiously clever way to get some buzz in the biz, Gizmoz offers tiny Java applets that can reside on a Web site or be embedded in e-mail. The applets can carry images, video, audio, or text, and recipients can easily pass them on to others like a volunteer virus - or any e-mail, for that matter. Gizmoz users subscribe to content that is updated automatically from the Gizmoz Web site. We're not sure whether this is contagious or benign but it's certainly clever, and whatever the outcome, there are all kindz of thingz to chooze from. Wired explains it a bit better than we can. Oh, well.Gizmoz: http://www.gizmoz.com/site1/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,36484,00.html
Salon's Business, Sex, and Shopping
Taking a run at Heinz with respect to proffered varieties, Salon has upped the number of its special sections to 17. Yes, Salon is branching out, extending its brand of witty writing and cutting commentary into business, shopping, and sex. The business section focuses on personal finance, what's happening on the Street, entertainment, and the media. When we looked, we saw quite a bit about challenges to the music business. In Sex, you can find oral sex, Viagra, how to drive her wild with household items - well, maybe just articles about those things, but still pretty eclectic and salacious stuff. The shopping section relies on reviews of such things as books, movies, and even wine, supplemented by offers from affiliated suppliers. It's all somewhat frank and edgy.Business: http://www.salon.com/business/index.html
Sex: http://www.salon.com/sex/index.html
Shop: http://www.salon.com/shop/index.html
AOL 6.0, America Online's next upgrade now in alpha test, has been leaked to the Net. Techpages.com at one point let anyone download the alpha version and screenshots of it, but that has ended with AOL's blocking of AOL 6.0 from accessing the service. Project details were posted at various AOL enthusiasts' Web pages (apparently, there are such things as AOL enthusiasts). AOL has issued the inevitable threats of investigation and legal wrangling, while those who have acquired the upgrade have voiced the classic reproaches about corporate security. That security blanket called CNet covers the story.
Techpages: http://www.techpages.com/aol6.htm
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1956865.html
An old e-mail virus in a new wrapper is making the rounds. W97M/Resume.a@mm, or Killer Resume, is a variant of the Melissa virus and has a file attachment commonly called EXPLORER.DOC. If this attachment is opened, the e-mail sends itself to e-mail addresses found in Microsoft Outlook. When the user closes the document, the virus then tries to erase personal and critical files on the hard drive. Sounds bad, but it's really old news, as Rob Rosenberger rants again in an ode to the overblown virus scare industry. And to all the Janet Simonses out there who really are looking for jobs: sucks to be you.
FBI warning: http://www.nipc.gov/alert00-045.htm
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1960645.html
Rob: http://kumite.com/myths/opinion/thoughts/#000528#000528
NSD travels in fine company. We like to think we can be compared to the BBC, CNet, and Dr. Dobb's Journal - and we can. All of us fell for the same hoax, that potato-powered Web server we featured last issue. We done been duped! To be fair (specifically, to ourselves), the idea is not as ludicrous as you might think, which is why the hoax worked so well. All you need is either roomfuls of wired potatoes or a few spuds specifically bred for the task by Duracell. The Register and its readers - as some of our readers did - expose our gullibility. Special thanks to NSD reader D.A. Barham for the inspiration for the headline.
Hoax: http://totl.net/Spud/
Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/000526-000020.html
ONLINE CULTURE
An unusual piece in Salon magazine tackles the links between, of all things, sex and the open source movement. Author Annalee Newitz brazenly starts off on her knees at an orgy and goes on to discuss how the open/free code geek crowd also happens to be into open/free sex culture. The main flag (pole?) bearer of Annalee's point is none other than free software crusader Richard Stallman, who expounds on the joys of non-monogamous relationships. The article strives to debunk the myth of the sex-starved geek, painting instead a picture of a kinky hacker happily cruising from sex party to sex party. We suspect the real truth is somewhere in between, but the article is certainly worth reading, not least for its audaciously titillating opening.http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/05/26/free_love/index.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
A member of the Internet.com family of Web sites, Gif.com is a well-organized site devoted to GIF and JPEG graphics, with helpful guides on related topics such as Flash movies, for Web artists and developers. The Image Acquire section contains reviews of digital cameras, the Hewlett-Packard Scanjet 4100Cse, and OmniPage Web. Software tutorials cover Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Fireworks, and other popular Web graphics packages. The gallery and review sections hold promise, but when you drill down you find them thin - a disappointment when you consider that much larger collections of art and reviews are available on many personal graphics sites. You can submit graphics for the gallery through an upload form; as the site suggests, read the terms and conditions before you submit. If "A" is top grade, we'd give this site a B until its gallery grows.http://www.gif.com/
Double-Click Meets Click-Whirr
Photographers are largely self-employed, rugged individual types, and ProfessionalPhotography.com attempts to connect a community of professional contacts and resources. How-to articles cover basic craft and business issues, plus tips on using Photoshop and digital imaging gear. Sign up for a free vanity e-mail address with a professionalphotography.com suffix and torture your friends.http://www.professionalphotography.com
BOOKS & E-ZINES
|
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.
|
XML by Example
The Light of Other Days
A Mediterranean Feast
SKIN TWO CD-ROM Volume 1
http://www.theregister.co.uk/index.html
With the pace of the modern world (that headline means "speed hates delay"), we often find ourselves with woefully inadequate amounts of time set aside for mind expanding experiences, and we're not referring to drugs. Arts and Letters Daily offers punchy briefs on the news of the day in literature, philosophy, psychology, and humanity in general, culling some of the choicest articles and editorials for its single online portal. Readers don't even have to scroll to have their eyes graze the names of Jacques Derrida, Harold Bloom, and Walter Benjamin. Discussion of Sartre's comeback, fuzzy logic, and Harry Potter are also included. If you don't find at least three blurbs which pique your interest, we'll give you your money back.
http://www.cybereditions.com/aldaily/
What constituted a small group of computer enthusiasts in the 1980s has blossomed into a global demographic of the 21st century. Millions of people now make up a new Internet society that is still evolving. The Anvil e-zine provides new and unusual perspectives on the issues shaping this community. Monthly, readers may learn a bit about technology current or forthcoming, or see that communication may change from the old to the new: pornography's metamorphosis from magazines on the upper shelf and videos behind beaded curtains to a direct stream that can impede employee productivity is but one example. Comic pieces accompany the detailed stories to educate and entertain Anvil's readers.
http://www.anvil-media.com/
ChannelSeven.com's Kate Kaye gets inflamed about inane and absurd advertising, and she's quite happy to share with all of us the problems she sees daily in broadcast, text, billboard, and online advertising. Each rant includes a few paragraphs leading the reader into the Land of Advertising Foibles, pointing out the ironies and hypocrisies and then moving on. Be forewarned that Kate often assumes you're in her head with her, which makes her dialogue sometimes difficult to follow for those of us who aren't. It certainly helps if you have a job in the advertising industry.
http://www.channelseven.com/newsbeat/kateclips/index.shtml
SURFING SCIENCE
It sounds kinda dry, doesn't it? A journey through modern physics sounds almost as entertaining as, say, a lively jaunt through rudimentary differential equations. But take a look before you discount it completely; a name shouldn't always imply a likely disinterest for the content. The folks at the University of Colorado at Boulder have put together an entertaining way to help you learn while enjoying your grand tour. Suitable for children and adults alike, their well-crafted applets bring your screen to life with interactive demos. Go around a human hand seeing the bones beneath the skin, cook marshmallows, or decipher the display on your laptop computer. As you follow a conversation between two people on the pages, you are in control of what you see: touch the buttons, turn the dials, move the beam in the TV. Those who elect to not read every page will still play with the toys!http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl
Massive New Archive of Mars Images
NASA has released over 25,000 images of Mars to the Internet. Mars Global Surveyor, now orbiting and mapping the planet, took the pictures as any good tourist would. The archive spans one Martian year and is divided into three sections: narrow angle; wide angle; and global images for context. This is the actual raw material of planetary science, so who's to say that some random netsurfer won't discover something exciting here? Have fun.http://barsoom.msss.com/moc_gallery/index.html
The May 19 issue of Science contains five major reports about the structure of Jupiter's violent moon, Io. In conjunction with the Science reports, NASA has released a gallery of new photos of the moon taken by the Galileo spacecraft. NASA says, "The reports describe giant, erupting plumes migrating with lava flows, red and green deposits that change as unstable sulfur compounds condense from huge plumes, and mountains that may split and slide sideways for hundreds of kilometers." Not a place to take your next wilderness adventure, to be sure. Meanwhile, Galileo has just finished a close encounter with Ganymede, as noted on the probe's home page.
Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/
Io: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/release/press000518.html
Galileo: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
We're keen on outer space, and this site gives you some of the basics and some nifty little tidbits with which to woo your friends over the dinner table. Or at the dinner table, if you have more conventional friends. Did you know a comet tail stretches millions of kilometers long as it approaches the sun, or that Ceres, the largest asteroid, is more than 1,000 km in diameter? If you're not up to a world tour of impact craters from Winslow, Ariz. to Wolfe Creek Australia, you can just stay at home and play some of the puzzles. We did.
http://planetscapes.com/
Skol: To Discovery Health Online
The expanding Discovery cable empire has buttressed its lesser known Discovery Health Network with vast online resources. Catchy but solid writing gives headline news, simple advice for dabbling safely in alternative health care, alerts about ineffective or dangerous fads, and of course, teasers of shows on the cable network. One of the most useful pages on the site is the Reference Room, which links to a Q and A with doctors from Johns Hopkins University, organizations such as the NIH and the AMA, plus online medical dictionaries and encyclopedias. Don't look for insight or detail at this site but it's very well organized, fun to read, and it'll point you in the right direction to find out more about what ails or what interests you.http://www.discoveryhealth.com/
What is the best age to treat a child for missing teeth? Can my son go scuba diving while he wears braces? Should I pull my daughter's loose tooth? The archives of Ask the Dentist answer such questions, and if you can't find your query, you can take advantage of the chat feature moderated by Kim Loos DDS, who practices dentistry in California. Or send her a question with an online form. Seemingly everything you'd want to know about pediatric dental health is covered in about 1,800 questions and answers. Quick sampler: "What age to start brushing children's teeth?" "Can your toothbrush make you sick?" "Hypnosis for young dental patient?" "Is novocaine harmful in early pregnancy?" Don't faint. Go prepared. The first link here will take you to the archive; the second, to the hard-to-find Ask the Dentist form.
Archive: http://www.parentsplace.com/expert/dentist/
Form: http://www.parentsplace.com/parentsplace/askTemplate/0,3321,1655-15142-521-expert-GENERAL-1,00.html
CORRECTIONS
In NSD 3.40, we brought you "Big Band MIDI", which looked at Barbara Brenner's collection of - yes - Big Band MIDIs dedicated to her father. Barbara wrote to say she's expanded her collection to include that Rock 'n' Roll the kids listen to, along with more swing, jazz, and pop. Since she included a $10 bill in her e-mail, we thought we'd give her the extra coverage. Hope she doesn't get sued.http://www.geocities.com/brenkohn/