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BREAKING SURF
The judge has ruled. Microsoft is to be broken up into two companies. Unless, of course, they successfully appeal the ruling. The story is all over the news, and we really don't have much to add except to point you to the ruling itself.http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-final2.html
List of Top Ten Security Exploits
Take this list seriously indeed. Online security organization SANS has released this list of the top ten security exploits used by hackers to gain access to online sites. The list is based on a consensus of well known security experts and organizations, a gathering of names which make up an elite who's who of the computer security community. These are all well known exploits which many sysadmins either don't know about or don't know how to fix. Yet fixes and strategies exist for all these hacks, and this resource gives pointers for dealing with them. Bottom line: these are the most dangerous holes in your network - get your sysadmins on the case to fix them.http://www.sans.org/topten.htm
If you're relying on strong PGP cryptography to protect your files, pay attention to this. A flaw in PGP 5.0's command line versions on Linux and BSD Unix variants will, under certain circumstances, limit the randomness of the keys you generate, which means they can be broken more easily. ComputerWorld has the article while SecurityFocus has the text of the advisory. PGP versions 2.x and 6.5 are not affected by this, nor are ports to other operating systems.
Article: http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/000526E30E
Advisory: http://www.securityfocus.com/templates/archive.pike?list=1&date=2000-05-22&msg=20000523141323.A28431@olymp.org@olymp.org
Worm Spam Targets Wireless Phones
Another Net first this week, with this report of an infection which specifically targets cell phones. It's not destructive, it just sends a derogatory message to its recipients. It's also not a true wireless worm since it does not infect the actual phone devices. The text of the message dissing a Spanish phone company was transmitted to a Short Messaging Service gateway, which sent it on to thousands of random cell phones in Spain. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call this a wireless worm spam. F-Secure has further details.http://www.f-secure.com/news/2000/news_2000060601.html
There Are Worms in Our Gnutella
Users of Gnutella, the Napster-esque file swapping software, have been targeted by a nuisance Visual Basic Script worm that insinuates its way onto their hard drives as any of 23 .vbs files: Pamela Anderson movie listing.vbs; collegesex.vbs; Battlefield Earth.vbs; and so on. The usual sophomoric taunt about how much more intrusive the inventor could have been accompanies the worm. The worm can spread only when users execute the code by double-clicking one of the files. Although the virus seems innocuous to data, it stirs up fears about the privacy vulnerability of Gnutella users. Is this just a benign hacker prank or a form of guerilla warfare against file sharers? ZDNet has more on this latest pitfall in the life of busy file swappers.ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2581605,00.html
Madonna Song Leaked, Shows up on Napster
This kind of thing has happened before, but this seems to be the first time that Napster has been involved. Not much to it, just that large chunks of Madonna's title song from her upcoming album, Music, have found their way onto the Net and have been made available via Napster. Naturally, legal threats are already flying. This article has some sparse details.http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/11162.html
MP3Board Sings a Song of Suing
MP3Board isn't happy with the way the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA) has lashed out wildly with legal threats. The company, which runs a Web site that lists sites with MP3 music files available for download over the Net, has lobbed one back, with a pre-emptive suit asking for an end to the RIAA's attempts to shut its service down, and for the courts to rule on whether providing links constitutes copyright infringement. MP3Board is tired of the RIAA's bullying tactics and disputes the notion that systems that merely identify file-sharing sites must ensure all these files are free of copyright infringement. MP3Board argues it's just an information conduit, not a piracy enabler, and that shutting it down would amount to an infringement on free speech. The suing business gets interesting, the outcomes get important. Tune in to the San Jose Mercury News and Wired for the details.Merc: http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/top/docs/mus060300.htm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,36778-2,00.html
Solar Storms Hitting Earth: Sizzle or Fizzle?
Some massive solar activity this week might result in an increase in aurora displays, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Aside from the coolness of all this solar power hitting our planet, you should note that we are in the middle of a solar maximum. Every 11 years, the sun reaches a peak in activity, with numerous sunspots and many solar flares that have the potential to disrupt electronic equipment in space and even on the ground. You can track this kind of activity at SpaceWeather.com, which offers the latest data and news from various spacecraft dedicated to keeping tabs on our space environment.http://www.spaceweather.com/
Well, parts of them, at least, in Bookface's interesting experiment in online reading. And online reading is what it is, because the agreement you accept when you register says no printing, downloading, or saving. Bookface would like you to believe the experience it offers is a virtual version of flipping through the pages at a book superstore, only without the double latte. In an admittedly brief browse, we didn't find any recent titles available in their entirety, only fairly short excerpts, so it seems Bookface's idea is a bit of a fiction just now. Classics are here in full, though. We found the Java interface slow, although once a text loads you can move through the pages pretty rapidly. You can browse through all the typical subject headings here, or use a search engine. The reading area on your monitor falls well short of anything like a whole page, especially if you use the largest of the three font options. The freight you pay is banner ads on your screen, but so far nothing more intrusive than that.
http://www.bookface.com/
HavenCo, a data storage group, is preparing to launch the "world's most secure managed colocation facility" on an artificial island moored six miles off the coast of England. In 1967, the island, an abandoned World War II anti-aircraft platform, was occupied by a retired British army major and his family and renamed the Principality of Sealand. Over the years, various governments have questioned Sealand's sovereignty (the British Home Office still does not officially recognize it) but the royal family remains there, legally independent, protecting its homeland. HavenCo wants to create a data haven on Sealand where corporations and individuals can store information without fear of seizure or reprisals. The only rules are no child pornography, no hacking, and no spamming - otherwise, store and serve what you want. For those of you thinking, "Hey, this sounds like that book by Neal Stephenson," - well, yes, it does, kinda, and Sealand passports and currency are available. Our UK readers might think this sounds a lot more like Radio Caroline. The New York Times (NYT) has more.
HavenCo: http://www.havenco.com/
Sealand: http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/factfile.html
NYT: http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/04have.html
Business.com: Flippin' Huge B2B Portal
The pundits say business intelligence is the next big thing, and Business.com wants to be everyone's first stop for business information and industry news and analysis. Right now, it's a directory surrounded by a number of services that aren't quite working yet - like a big new house with no furniture. Still, in the race to provide critical business information, Business.com is staking out a huge (and very American) piece of the business to business (B2B) and retail marketplaces. It has an impressive frame, now all it needs is some impressive content, and that's the expensive part. Keeping in mind that the venture capital firm backing the site paid $7.5 million for the domain name alone and that the folks running the site are no slouches, we expect that content to show up soon.http://www.business.com/
A Shockwave course in complex math, some international affairs, a bit of way-back American history, King Lear, butterfly gardens, soaring planes, and a comic book periodic table. Yep, a new issue of Netsurfer Education is out, soon to publish twice monthly. Who knew learning could be so much fun? Subscribe if you dare.
NSE: http://www.netsurf.com/nse/
Subscribe: http://www.netsurf.com/nse/subscribe.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Spam Wars: Behind Enemy Lines - Fact or Fantasy?
A computer-savvy Web site owner gets spammed, then uses his defensive hacking skills to track down the spammers and infiltrate their computers. He extracts all sorts of privacy busting and incriminating materials from the alleged spammers' machines and posts it on the Web, exposing the two for the shady crooks they really are. Throw in a few mildly nude pictures of the spammers supposedly extracted from their laptops by our protagonist and you have all the ingredients of a rip-roaring online soap. Is any of this true? Most savvy hackers point to the lack of verifiable technical details on the hacking and the too-good-to-be-true story, and cry foul. Whatever the truth of the tale, this is still a compelling Net story, if for no other reason than it works as the ultimate anti-spammer revenge fantasy.http://belps.freewebsites.com/index.htm
SURFING SITES
Sissyfight, if You're Girl Enough
"I had three self-esteem points left and I decided to lick my lollipop. Then three girls teased me and I lost four self-esteem points, which humiliated me right out of the game...." Just another quote from Sissyfight 2000, the wildest and woolliest girl gang-fightin' playground on the Net. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the jungle gym, some bully starts to beat you up, mentally and physically, trying to make you cry. As Sissyfight says, "Someone has to be Empress of the Universe, right?" Make friends, make enemies, make a mess, but whatever you do, remember Sissyfight 2000 is a social game to give you that much needed rush of blood, and it's all in good fun. No guts, no glory, as you scratch, grab, and tattle your way to the top.http://www.sissyfight.com/
We're a bit startled here. Trailer-parker Gregg and his "family" and "friends" aren't the most attractive people in the world, but we're thinking that perhaps if they wore more clothing - lots more, including big hats and maybe surgical masks - they might look less like some of us after putting the NSD to bed at some grisly hour. Let's be honest here. This page, a fake, pokes fun at people for their looks. That's mean. On the other hand, these people are anonymous, which is less mean. But most importantly, the pages are just too freaking hilarious. Insulting to some, scary to others, enjoyable to many - and that's enough we suppose. Many of the same pictures, by the way, can also be found at Fugly, with some hit-or-miss, but always more erudite commentary.
Gregg: http://welcome.to/mytrailerparkpage/
Fugly: http://www.fugly.net/
"Snacks are one of the few things in life that can turn an enemy into a friend, a traitor into an ally, a cheap bastard into a cheap bastard with snacks." Now, a site about snacks is not the place to start rationalizing, but we can think of a few more, like beer or a trunkload of Cuban cigars. Anyway, the Writers and Artists Snacking At Work (WASAW) check out the peaks and perils of the workday food graze found in vending machines, convenience stores, and Good Humor trucks to save you from wasting your time on what they distractingly refer to as "bile in a bag". Regardless of your basic snack drive - in a rush, brainless with hunger, or boredom - this site's better than the "petrified dung" crust of a Choco Taco. Then again, you're just going to go for the quickest and closest snack, anyway.
http://snacks.cyberpunks.org/
Learn the intimate secrets of a mating pair live (well, almost live) on the Net. See exactly where little owls (owlets to those in the know) come from. Find out what happens after the egg breaks. It had to happen, the cinematic invasion of the privacy of a family of Northern Barred Owls. This charming photo essay uses both still photos and good quality video to follow Ward and June (really) as they move into the neighborhood in 1997, and begin raising a family or two. Owls are social creatures and watching them raise and provide for their owlets is fascinating. They don't even seem to notice the OwlCam. The family's fourth season on the Web is well underway.
http://members.aol.com/owlbox/owlhome.htm
The Orphanage of Cast-off Mascots
There are no Navy goats, Army mules, or Democratic donkeys here, no, sir. Live mascots may get fired, and their fans sometimes run them out of town, but they're not ignored. That's not so for the 21 unfortunate mascots in this online orphanage. They're history, gone from human memory, kaput. You're not likely to recall even one of them (Comfy and Minty - the Mentholatum twins?). Most served as advertising personas for food and household products for years, suffering the slings and arrows of a cruel competitive world, only to be discarded when the products they so loyally worked for ceased to sell. These mascots paid the ultimate price, but live on (with original art) on this site. Can you find it in your heart to adopt a few? They're very low maintenance.http://www.lileks.com/institute/orphanage/index.html
Television's 50-year history has matured its representation of the single dad. The TV Single Dad Hall of Fame has collected a remarkable assembly of information about the representation of the lone father, mostly in American TV, though there is some attention to the shows of other countries. The site compares programs of the 1950s and 1960s to those of later decades, with specific description and details about each program. The site even gives the reader a glimpse at the upcoming Fall 2000 television schedule. Before you offer a show to add to the list, peruse the list of rules that qualify something for acceptance including the "Grandpa Munster Mortgage Act". The Hall of Fame has been lauded by entities like TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly. A visit this coming Father's Day would be well timed.
http://www.tvdads.com/
It's no longer the sole-draining task of each and every man, woman, and child to track down missing non-shoe footwear. The Bureau of Missing Socks follows aggressively on the heels of organizations like state bureaus which try to deal with the effective stocking of fisheries and the like. Officials of the Bureau of Missing Socks proudly stretch funds as far as they'll go in searching for the solution to this long-hosed riddle. The Bureau maintains a database in which you can share the disappearance of your own sock, in hopes that someone will happen upon some darning evidence. Dig through the holes of your elastic memory to try to figure out where the "Other One" may have gone. Worried you won't find it? S'OK, don't sweat it.
http://www.funbureau.com/
Spend a couple of minutes with Drea Leed, and she'll have you convinced she can help you make your own Elizabethan corset. Her Custom Corset Pattern Generator provides step-by-step directions; armed with a tape measure and some initiative, you can be making your own snug-fitting corset within minutes. Not only that, but she can tutor you in the ways of making your own wooden busk (that thin bit of extra-strength reinforcement that goes in the front of the corset), should you be so inspired. She provides an annotated list of mail-order houses for those of us interested in boning but not willing to wrestle a whale for it.
http://www.dnaco.net/~aleed/corsets/corsetpage/
Become a Cunning Linguist, a Phrase a Day
Do you want to be multilingual? Do you have a lot of time to reach your linguistic goals? The Daily Linguist will send you an e-mail each day with a single useful phrase in both English and your selected foreign language. The phrase will appear in your selected language and also come spoken aloud in a .wav file. If you prefer, you can just visit the site for each day's phrase. You can view the site in English, Spanish, German, Italian, and French. You can be tutored, slowly, in any of those languages plus Hindi; the site promises more choices soon. A selection of translation links and chat rooms for folks studying different languages helps round out the pages.http://www.dailylinguist.com/
Similar to other ask-the-self-proclaimed-expert forums, AskAnything has one distinct difference: it offers a chat forum, allowing people to ask other relevant questions, break down any issues, and explore results to reach a more satisfying result. With a global community of experts covering a huge range of fields, it lets both parties set up a specific time to deal with any issues they decide are relevant to the question and nut things out one on one. Even jaded old us found it cool, and it would have to be pretty good to rival New Scientist.
http://askanything.com/
The Virtual Mayor of London is an optimistic urban experiment born of deep disgust. Assuming humans in public office will continue to fail miserably, it creates an egoless virtual mayor, and portends a truly democratic city government through the use of internet technology. VirtualMayor.com attempts to air local news and public policies in a truly open, non-partisan forum and to register opinions concerning land use, transportation, and other urban issues specific to individual communities. At this beginning stage, the site reads like a utopian technocrat's grand thesis. Once John Q. Public steps in, ego and all, it'll be interesting to see how the site grows.
http://www.virtualmayor.com/
Got a wedding or other party coming up? Find a musician or band for your event at OnlineWeddingMusic.com, a searchable database covering the US and Canada. Although the site points out the problems with setting font size in style sheets, and no matter how you word it, a site's not optimized for anyone if you're using bitmaps on it, the idea is a good one. The links often include RealAudio samples of musicians' work and their playlists... or would if you don't get a 404 error. Once the glitches and a couple of runtime errors get worked out, this will be a site to return to. The idea is good and with a bit of fine tuning, it'll be a wonderful resource.
http://www.onlineweddingmusic.com/
Often, after the wedding comes parenting, so.... While some advice at ParentSmart seems based on grades ("How Does Your Child Measure Up?"), much of the information here is sensible, considerate, and relaxed: "Stay close to your children, talk with them and keep lines of communication open, learn how they see things and what they are worried about." Dealing in everything from the similarity between the risks of drugs and rock-climbing to seeing things from a child's perspective, ParentSmart taught even one of our offspringless reviewers something about school violence. In sum, you get detailed articles with a top-notch search facility.
http://www.parentsmart.com/
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The World's Most Dangerous Places
A Viking Voyage: In Which an Unlikely Crew Attempts an Epic Journey to the New World
Gnarl!
Oracle8i DBA HandbookONLINE TRAVEL
Travel writing is often more about checking in and checking out than about exploring the world. Kamat's Potpourri site so vibrantly explores India, a collection of the world's oldest cultures, that it leaves the virtual visitor with a heightened curiosity that turns the next trip to the corner grocery into an excursion. Even if you don't have the cash to dash off to India, spend a few minutes pondering a collection of essays on women's roles through Indian history, or read Sages, Sadhus and Swamis, an essay on the holy men of India. Or the much misunderstood erotic art tradition. Or the amazingly developed popular art of Rangoli. Travelers with plane tickets will find calendars and timely information to make a trip much more rewarding.http://www.kamat.com/
Mexico on Top of the World is an expedition up the awesome Mount Everest, and the raison d'etre behind this site. A history of the famous mountain and its precarious summit here meet descriptions of the technology used by team members and an introduction into the science of adapting to extreme heights. In addition, the site offers pictures of their gear, fun and well presented activities for children, and even a biography of each member of the expedition. Perhaps most intriguing to read, however, are the diaries from the earlier 1997 and 1999 journeys, as well as a nearly daily log and set of pictures from their current Everest 2000 expedition. All of the information across the pages of the site is available in both English and Spanish.
http://www.everest2000.net/
When you go to most diners, you have that eerie anachronistic feeling of slipping through some secret portal in time. With the sip of a malted, you can be in the 1950s again (or for the first time), far from the maddening increasingly wired world. Unless, of course, you live in New Jersey and frequent the White Mana diner, in which case, all your coworkers can watch you eat lunch on the Diner Cam. Not only are the directions to the restaurant online, but so are customers and a 360-degree panoramic view of the interior of the restaurant (which requires the iPIX viewer or Java). Visit it today to grab a quick byte.
http://www.nj.com/dinercam/
It's a beautiful day outside, but your boss won't let you off to play a few rounds with your buddies. What better way to exact revenge than to check out golf Web cams on the company's time. We can't condone such activity, but far be it from us to hold you back if you happen to be tempted by a Web page with a view. The British Open Golf Championship will be held at St. Andrews July 17-23, which would make those days the perfect time to point your Java-enabled browser in the direction of their webcam to catch (with pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities) that first tee-off on the Old Course from the cam's exclusive vantage point on the roof of the Old Course Hotel Resort and Spa.
http://www.standrews.com/golf/y2kgolf/webcam.cfm
See Ancient Jerusalem in Three Dimensions
Have you ever wondered what the cities of 2,000 years ago actually looked like? The movies are no help; their goal is entertainment, not accuracy. And ruins are ruins. Unless you're an archeologist, you really can't see today what was then. The Holyland Hotel, in Israel, has made an ambitious attempt at showing visitors what Jerusalem looked like 2,000 years ago. They've created a 1/50th scale model of the city. You don't have to visit Jerusalem to see it, either. iPIX images let you roam the models and see things as you wish to see them. It's a great idea, reasonably done. If only the model had miniature people and real smells, it'd be perfect.http://www.inisrael.com/ipix/java/holyland.htm
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
As if you don't have enough distractions, here's yet another humor e-zine. You'll find the irreverent, in-your-monitor sort of attitude you've come to expect from the soapbox which is the Net. The standard disclaimer applies: the rants you'll find on the page are probably not intended for general audiences.http://www.egulphy.com/
Worldsport.com offers an "interactive community for sport" but unlike many pro sport sites in North America, its emphasis is international. Think rugby, tennis, faustball, orienteering, pelota vasca, wushu and 200 more. Guess we need to get out more.
http://www.worldsport.com/
Software Version Tracking for Win/Mac
We can thank Ted Brockwood for well organized software updater sites that are extremely easy to use. The home pages give manageable lists of the latest shareware, freeware, and some commercial releases, plus links to related news. Downloads are direct, with no ads to get in your way.Windows: http://www.windowstracker.com/
Mac: http://www.versiontracker.com/
Three Swedes have a URL redirection service with a domain name easy to remember: has.it. Neat. There are some conditions, but free is free. That's easy to remember. By the way, rules.it, knows.it, shows.it, and does.it are also up for grabs.
http://www.has.it/
There's something seductive about the word "free". Win money, win a trip, free phone answering, free clothes, the mere mention of untethered possession makes some folks drool. SavvyDeals can placate this need, and help discover many ways to finally use the space in that spare room.
http://www.savvydeals.com/
l33t-5p34k is tH3 coD3d 4lPh48E+ U5ed 8Y $oME hackers 4nD 9Am3Rs th4T r3Pl4c35 l3T+ers w1+H nuM83R5, 4nD u$ES 0+hEr 51MPl3 TR4n5phORM4+IOn5. +Hi5 51T3 l3+5 j00 R34D 4ND crE4+3 eLI+3-Sp3Ak r3@d1ly. hOW3v3r, U51nG +hE +r4N$L4+0r R3Kw1r3S 50M3 pRiOR 84$1c 3L1+3-5Pe4K KN0WL3d93. 45 W3lL i+ $H0uLd.
http://www.geocities.com/mnstr_2000/
SOFTWARE
Plan 9 Operating System Released as Open Source
Plan 9 is a radically new concept in operating systems developed by Bell Labs. It traces its heritage to Unix, also born of Bell Labs, but includes a number of advanced features reflecting the latest thinking in operating system design. Notably, Plan 9 is entirely network-centric, making communication the central function of the computer. It extends the device model of Unix by naming and accessing all system resources as if they were files, and provides for resource partitioning mechanisms via flexible name spaces. The designers set out to "build a UNIX out of a lot of little systems, not a system out of a lot of little UNIXes." The press release has rough details while the Plan 9 paper provides a great architectural overview.Plan 9: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/
Release: http://www.bell-labs.com/news/2000/june/7/2.html
Paper: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/9.html
Yahoo Quietly Beta Testing Media Player
Looks like Yahoo wants to enter the software business. It's making this beta media player available to the public, but without much fanfare. It's your standard player application for Windows, letting you play CDs, MP3s, and online streaming content. Download it and check it out for free here.http://player.broadcast.com/