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| His Voyages to Faraway Places |
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| Are You a Player? |
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| Demoney's Back and It's Gonna Be in Trouble |
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BREAKING SURF
Clearly the biggest story this week, the Olympics are underway. While the official Olympic site has the official stuff, any number of other sports-oriented media sites offer good coverage as well. Try old standbys ESPN or Sports Illustrated (SI), or official American broadcaster NBC's NBCOlympics.com site. Given the widespread criticism leveled against the network during the last Olympics, one can only hope that this time around the televised games will have less soft-focus fluff and more sports. For a great local take on the games and the local issues impacting Sydney, you can't do better than the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC, not to be confused with the US network). Last but not least, the BBC lives up to its journalistic reputation with a fine site full of insightful and informative stories.Official: http://www.olympics.com/eng/
ESPN: http://www.espn.go.com/oly/summer00/index.html
SI: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/
NBC: http://www.nbcolympics.com/
ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/news/olympics/default.htm
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/olympics2000/default.stm
Even though the Olympics are upstaging the launch of a new version of the world's most popular operating system by the world's biggest software company, it's difficult to ignore it. Operationally, Windows Me does not really differ much from Windows 98, but it does have a core with less of the old 16-bit technology and a bunch of chrome in the form of better support for digital media, home networking, and Internet connections. Apparently in keeping with Microsoft tradition, it's also a bit slower then Windows 98. CNet has a reasonably thorough though a bit dated review of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the new operating system.
Windows Me: http://microsoft.com/windowsme/
CNet: http://www.cnet.com/software/0-2111110-7-2154338.html
Apple Paris Expo: New Notebooks, OS X Beta
The Expo is over by now but the aroma of press releases lingers on. Big news for Macolytes is the first beta of the new Mac operating system OS X - for only $30. The new OS is built on a Unix core, wrapped in a brand new user interface technology called Aqua. Too many goodies to list here, so check out the OS X Web site for all the details. The other big news was the release of the new iBook models - faster, stronger, able to leap taller applications, the usual new model advances.Expo: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2000/09/parisexpo/
OS X: http://www.apple.com/macosx/
iBook: http://www.apple.com/ibook/
Security as a Business Problem
Bruce Schneier has been thinking about security. Schneier, well known as the author of the definitive "Applied Cryptography" book, based a paper on material in his new book, "Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World". He argues that "the historical security model of threat avoidance is flawed, and that it should be abandoned in favor of a more businesslike risk management model." He points out that sometimes it is cheaper to accept and insure the risk then to try to throw money at preventing it. Toward the end, the paper turns into an ad for the services of Schneier's company, but meanwhile it does make some important points about security policy from a business perspective. Not too technical, reasonably short, and worth reading.Paper: http://www.counterpane.com/window.html
Secrets and Lies: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471253111/netsurferdigest
Old Man Murray (OMM) has a hilarious take on the subject. OMM is a well known Web site in hard-core gaming circles - you know you've made it with the game geeks when the official release of Quake has your logo engraved on a dungeon wall somewhere. In any event, OMM's illustrates exactly why modern adventure games have become extinct with a beautifully baroque example of twisted and moronic adventure game logic. A fun morsel. As long as you're there and looking around, check out OMM's new logo advising parents of impending objectionable content. Brilliant.
Dead Games: http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/doa/page1.shtml
OMM: http://www.oldmanmurray.com/
This week, Amazon sent out an apology-laced letter to all of its registered users informing them that they're changing their privacy policy. As a result of the new policy, EPIC, a widely known proponent of strong online privacy rights, decided to discontinue its relationship with Amazon. As near as we can tell, the updated Amazon policy makes it clear that they may share information about their users with third parties. Amazon is basically covering its legal ass in case it gets bought out or merges with somebody, and the user info transfers ownership. Toysmart ran into a problem recently when it wanted to sell its customer database and clearly Amazon's lawyers wanted to be sure they would not wind up in the same ugly legal mess. EPIC explains why they bailed on Amazon, Amazon has the privacy notice, and CNet has the Toysmart story. As most of you know, we are an Amazon affiliate and plan to remain so both for the convenience and the revenue - nothing to hide here, move along, move along. Depending on where you stand on this issue, make your purchasing decisions accordingly.
Epic: http://www.epic.org/privacy/internet/amazon/letter.html
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/privacy-notice
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2549755.html
Music-Sharing Student's Computer Equipment Seized
In just a run of the mill crime story, somebody tipped off the RIAA that an Oklahoma State student had been running an FTP server with publicly available MP3 files. The campus cops swooped in and seized the guy's computer. As long as they were there, they also helped themselves to his monitor, keyboard, two CD burners, scanner, and printer. The RIAA is not messing about, kids.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2783386.html
Amazon Pricing Differences Just a Test Glitch
Last week, we reported that Amazon was presenting different prices on the same item to different consumers. After a bit of an uproar, the company came back with the soothing news that it was all a mistake, the result of some price testing. Amazon says it has a policy of notifying and crediting users who bought at the higher price in these kind of situations. CNet has details on how it all played out.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2761393.html
DeCSS Gallery of Post-Post-Modern Intellectual Property Art
Quick recap: DeCSS can decode encrypted DVDs. A New York State judge recently ruled that not only can't you use it, you can't even link to Web sites which display its source code. The ruling clearly stripped First Amendment protection from program source code - a decision at odds with some other rulings. The whole thing will wind up in the Supreme Court, but for the moment people have been busy demonstrating the absurdity of that particular legal opinion by embedding DeCSS program code in all sorts of clearly expressive media. The DeCSS Gallery, maintained by the academic David Touretzky, shows why you can't ban source code. It can be a graphic, an essay, a T-shirt, a dramatic reading, and even an academic paper in the form of a Web page displaying all of the above. It can even be a song, which MP3 chose to ban due to "inappropriate content" - corporate cowardice at its most craven, though not unexpected in light of the legal spanking MP3.com has recently received for running afoul of copyright laws. The DeCSS source code was also recently mass posted to Usenet comp.* newsgroups.Gallery: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/
MP3.com story: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2771353.html
Eating from the Tree of Napster
According to Media Metrix, Napster use doubled in the wake of the recent ruling against its legality. Call it the forbidden fruit effect. Millions of people heard it was illegal and bad for them - well bad for "the community" or something - and promptly made a beeline for the music trading service before the men in suits shut it down. Is it just us or does this kind of remind you of the drug war? This is your brain. This is your brain on Napster.... Media Metrix has the detailed numbers.http://www.mediametrix.com/press/releases/20000911.jsp?language=us
Strolling along our local trendy avenue last week, we noticed our first pumpkin decorations taped up in a store window. That's strange, we thought, Halloween is months awa... - oooooh, no, it's not. Great googly moogly, it's the middle of September already! Where does time fly? When we were young.... Take this rant as a heads up to get your recommended Halloween sites into NSD's press room early at: pressrm@netsurf.com
Either wind and rain or a wrathful grammarian deity sent a vital NSD cable Internet hook-up into a coma for some 20 hours recently, which allowed us to devote some time to cleaning out our e-mail gutters of soggy, moldy reader e-mail. With this issue, we offer oldies but goodies on global warming, information thievery/trading, and humor as well as the regular assortment of accolades and brickbats. This collection covers letters referencing up to NSD 6.30
http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.06.32.html
ONLINE CULTURE
A pessimistic essay from Suck points to the recent spate of American legal rulings against the Internet and warns the geeks that winning fights for freedom is not a forgone conclusion. The essay cites recent rulings against domain names as property, DeCSS linking, and legislative blows in the form of DMCA and UCITA laws. The response from the Net community? "Posts, lots and lots of posts... megabyte upon megabyte of masturbatory rage and self-indulgent self-righteousness." You can see where this is going. A well written opinion piece on the complacency of Net culture.http://www.suck.com/daily/2000/09/08/
Smurfs in Revolt: Online Volunteers Losing Perks Due to Lawsuits
Numerous online communities rely on volunteers for all sorts of services. Nowhere is this more true than in online gaming communities where volunteer players police behavior, advance the plot, help newbies, and provide local color. In return, volunteers usually get some freebies from the online services. However, due to a lawsuit filed in New York against AOL, the days of such volunteers may be numbered. Former AOL volunteers have sued the company, saying that AOL's reliance on their services was, in effect, employment. Accordingly, they claim they should be paid at least minimum wage. Yeah, we know: welcome to the bizarre world of the US legal system. In the shadow of this lawsuit - still unresolved - various online services are only warily providing perks to volunteers in case they run afoul of litigious insanity. This article has the whole sordid story, with a slant to the online game community.http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?name=smurfs
SURFING SITES
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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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Survivor: The Ultimate Game
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
Natacha Merritt Digital Diaries
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition Step-Up Upgrade from Windows 98Talking to Her Husband Is Like Talking to a Wall
Now here's something you don't see every day - the Berlin Wall giddily festooned with chubby little hearts. In NSD 3.35, we introduced you to Eija-Riitta Eklof, a woman in love with and engaged to the guillotine in her living room. In photos, she swooned over Fressie's sleek lines and seemed oblivious to the smarmy indiscretion in his intimations of intimacy with her, revealed on his own page. We noted then that "the reasons for Eklof's fascination with guillotines are unexpected - considerably less obvious and ultimately much more fascinating than amateur psychobabble might suggest." Apparently, though, size does matter and loquacious Fressie, the erstwhile guillotine of her dreams, just couldn't measure up to the potent implacability of the Berlin Wall; more than that, Eklof now reveals she and the big guy have been a couple since 1979. Madame Guillotine no longer, she signs her notes from the both of them, Eija-Riitta Eklof-Berliner-Mauer and The Berlin-Wall. In new photos, Berlin-Wall seems indifferent to his wife's presence. (Could they really be married?) We repeat, these are unsettling pages for the essential loneliness and separateness that they reveal. We're still thankful we're not living in Frau Eklof-Berliner-Mauer's socks.http://www.algonet.se/%7Egiljotin/eij.html
The Institute for Druidic Technology
If "The Palace" evokes images of Cinderella for you, Jim Bumgardner's name probably won't ring any bells. He's the guy who created the Palace, quite possibly the definitive Internet avatar chat world five or so years ago - in other words, eons ago. Bumgardner also has a little parody site called the Institute for Druidic Technology, which investigates what would have happened if the ancient Celtic civilization was secretly developing computer technology. From an exhibition of flint mice to explaining Stonehenge as a mainframe, the whole thing is, as Jim readily admits, "all rather silly", a refreshing change for a technological world which all too often takes itself a bit too seriously.http://www.jbum.com/idt/
"Some people think we will transcend all that nasty physical stuff. Other people, who still think that nasty physical stuff is a lot of fun, hope it will just get better and aren't much interested in the New Age without it." How to Talk New Age is peppered with just such insights, a refreshingly smart site which pokes fun at the whole scene. Learning the machinations of Shirley McLaine and the Sufis of the Middle East, we had a lot of fun here. We also learned the real reasoning behind Yin and Yang, Zen, and how to tell a good vibe from bad.
http://www.well.com/user/mick/newagept.html
The World's Problems Made Clear
You might expect a site with a name like Evilplots.com to provide boring, conspiracy-heavy, agenda-driven content. Nothing could be further from the reality you'll find. The consistently well crafted (or well edited) articles here cover a wide range of opinions. The features challenge you to think about issues in many ways. The selection and balance are excellent, and the give and take between the editor, writers, and readers adds additional spice. Some sections exist only for your amusement. Don't miss the regular Idiots Abound section. This site is a great read top to bottom - everything here is worth your time. We just hope it will continue to be updated.http://www.evilplots.com/
Remember the Slag Brothers? Rock and Gravel are back, along with all their colleagues and unbelievable stunts from Wacky Races, like the Banana Splitz, a TV show of your youth that you may have subconsciously locked away. If you've ever had disturbing dreams about Penelope Pitstop or thought Dirk Dastardly should have gotten a break, check into this Wacky Races site and relive the excitement of those early Saturday mornings when your parents were sleeping off a hangover and you had the house to yourself. We discovered that the spin-off series, the Perils of Penelope Pitstop (shameless digression) gave Penelope a makeover, dropped her car (the Compact Pussycat), and segued the Anthill Mob from a distinctive Seven-Dwarfs-Meet-the-Mafia racing gang into Keystone Cop-like protectors. Rufus Ruffcut, Sawtooth, and all the others can be found at the Wacky Races site, but we're just too distracted by Pen's straight-legged running style to talk about them.
http://www.hotink.com/wacky/
Welcome to the mysterious island of Itland, and the adventures of Banja the Rasta. If you're a fan of games like Monkey Island, you'll fall right into this world. As a game Banja is quite good, with great music, stylized graphics via Flash and enough convolutions to keep you interested. As a concept, however, it's brilliant. The game itself changes with your choices and with the choices of other players, and integrated chat rooms and message boards make the wee island a community. Banja operates completely in Flash 5, so expect download waits unless you have a broadband connection. New episodes appear every month. You know, Japanese animation is called manga, but Banja's genre, featuring reggae music and a main character with natty dreads, might have to be called ganga. Banja may also be the future of gaming, and the Internet.
http://www.banja.com/
If you've ever had the desire to thwack a public relations person upside the head to see if it would stop the gibberish, Whack-a-Flack is right up your dark alley. A Shockwave game, the interface allows you to send paper airplanes made of press releases right back at their originators, hitting them for points and fabulous prizes - if you consider a wonderful sense of gratification to be a fabulous prize. In order to begin whacking, visitors must select a PR agency from a drop-down menu, which may end up compiled into a clearly not-too-scientific "according to 500 journalists, the worst tech PR firm is..." survey. Even if you're not a journalist, the whole thing is a lot of fun. We'll take this opportunity to again point out the best list of proper PR practices you can find: The Care and Feeding of the Press.
Whack: http://www.whackaflack.com/
Care: http://www.netpress.org/careandfeeding.html
In an election year, especially, it's important to note that activists as well as politicians use the Web to further points of view. Robert Teesdale's site quite plainly supports power in the hands of the people over the hands of the government. Among other things, he proposes a Constitutional amendment to outlaw the forced implantation of tracking and monitoring devices in the human body. Other pages here contain personal essays, editorials, and message-board replies on various social issues. In September, Teesdale urged site visitors to oppose the Million Mom March in Denver. He anticipates bulletin-board discussion of gun control, American hegemony, and gay rights, among other topics, on his site and has statements on other hot-button issues, yet despite his convictions, Teesdale avoids explaining why he doesn't run for office. Does this have something to do with libertarianism, distrust, lack of financial backing, or the fact that the Web is a better platform than a soapbox? You've got to wonder.
http://www.teesdale.com/
ASL stands for "age, sex, location" and it's a classic question asked of online chatters. At this site, you can create a page in fewer than five minutes that will present a brief profile of yourself to answer that question. We popped into the 20 Most Popular Persons to check out the vibe, and discovered it's dominated by women. Sonja the popularity leader's entry, like most pages here, is written in Dutch. Further down the list, Frenzy had a pic of himself on a boat - but he's looking away from the camera, the mysterious scamp. This database lets people in scattered areas meet, or lets the online conversationalist find someone close - although right now, "close" almost has to mean in the Low Countries - avoiding the need to cough up for the phone bills when things get racy.
http://asl.to/
It Is Our Mission to Have the Most Compelling Mission Statement
Conventional wisdom says if an organization has a unique and compelling mission statement, venture capitalists and other investors will rush to anoint it with cash. Maybe, maybe not - but the hope keeps huge amounts of time and brainpower tied up in the creation of finely crafted mission statements. Having seen way too many, we'd have to say that a mission statement is often a terrible waste. Rather than expending resources on creating a mission statement, just visit this one-page Web site and reload it until you see the mission statement that's just perfect for your enterprise. It will generally appear in your first five tries, and, with luck, will make you rich. All you need is the product and the organization.http://www.bright.net/~flounder/mission.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
In the US, air raid shelters were a 1950s phenomenon, Cold War paranoia turning apartment house basements and suburban backyards into peanut-butter-laden hiding places. In England during the summer of 1940, air raids were a daily reality. Germany sent the war across the Channel, and Stephen Johnson's site documents the vast network of passages and concrete dug under Plymouth that gave that city's citizens refuge. At least 100 still exist, carved into park land and under public courtyards, some built to handle more than 1,200 people. Johnson shows details of construction, pictures of the crude wooden benches and lighting, even graffiti and what he calls "people's things"; the odd shoe and scraps of paper that were left behind. It's a detailed and somehow chilling testament of the times.http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/StephenJohnson1/forstp~1.htm
Our first thoughts were, "Captain Morgan? Not another rum commercial...." Our next thought was, "So, where is the rum?" These are the voyages of Captain Morgan, who skippers a "Cape Size" carrier ship (it's big, really big), carrying upwards of 168,000 tons of iron ore from exotic ports like Vitoria, Brazil and Baoshan, China. The ports are exotic, the voyages a curious combination of expectation and remarkable unremarkability. You keep waiting for things to happen, but they never do ("The weather around The Cape can be anywhere between fantastic and foul. As it was we had great weather and a flat sea..."). The photos are nice, but if you're waiting for the movie of the Captain Morgan story, keep waiting. The Perfect Calm?
http://users.iafrica.com/c/ca/captainm/
Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand
The non-profit Akha Heritage Foundation is more interested in seekers with pure motives than in tourists in search of diversion - although they'd accept a check or a box of medical supplies from anybody. Donations of time and money go to ease the lives of the Akha tribes who for millennia have thrived in the mountain jungles of northern Thailand. As the jungle and the rice paddies disappear, the people are slipping into material, spiritual, and cultural impoverishment, and the government is shipping them to cities. The Akha Heritage Foundation Web site shows how you might help by visiting a village and building a well, a community center, or a medical clinic. And if you've got an extra Hummer in your driveway, ship it on over for the roving medical clinic.http://www.akha.com/
Nation-Specific Search Engines
The Twoclickaway people, who developed a useful worldwide newspaper search called Last Minute News, have built a portal called Last Minute Search (LMS), which provides access to country-specific search engines for more than 130 countries. Unlike the news site, LMS is about as plain vanilla as it comes, with a dropdown menu on the front page that sends the searcher to a country page that offers choices for whatever searches are available. Someone querying about Kenya, for example, only gets Africa Online, while searches about Mexico give a choice of 20 engines. This isn't a meta-engine (each search must be done separately), and it's not a complete listing (LMS shows two search engines for the United Arab Emirates and we know of six), but if you need a quick check of targeted information, LMS is a painless choice.http://www.lastminutenews.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
These just plain fun short games let you guide Barney through a minefield, bash Bill Gates, or just learn how to walk (there's a tutorial). A couple of lessons teach how to animate; presumably, more will follow. You'll need Flash to get down with these.http://www.idleworm.com/
Chirping crickets, menacing footsteps, and slamming doors came up loud and clear through the FindSounds search engine. Parameters let you specify the quality of the audio and the format. Most of the links seem to lead to 8-bit samples, and unbelievably, our search found no cash register sound effect. Ka-ching.
http://www.findsounds.com/
Builder-Find.com seeks to match Web contractors - developers, programmers, and graphic designers - with potential employers. Employers submit job offers. Builders submit bids. The site claims that "within hours you'll be receiving bids in your e-mail."
http://www.builder-find.com/
SOFTWARE
Amid the endless coverage of the Olympics will television stations provide news on the Indie Games? Will there be moving vignettes on the lives of the participants, controversy over the teams competing, and allegations over the use of illegal substances? We somehow doubt it, unless the illegal substance is silicon-based. The Independent Games Festival highlights "independently developed computer-based games from around the globe". For all our flippancy, there will certainly be stiff competition for the companies hoping to be the next Interplay, Electronic Arts, or Sierra. The site discusses the submission process (Sept. 22 deadline) and promises to cover the nominees, judging, and eventual victors.http://www.indiegames.com/
Time to Master XML and Mozilla
Whether you like it or not, XML, with its extensibility, is going to replace HTML. The Mozilla open-source project has the potential to join XML as a primary application creation tool. Both are advanced enough to be worth learning today. This Czech-based Web site is an excellent place to start your education. It has a large number of tutorials and lessons (with more added regularly) on all aspects of XML and Mozilla coding. There's some basic material, but the bulk of the material is aimed at people already familiar with advanced HTML coding and other programming languages. The tutorials are well designed and teach what they claim to.http://www.zvon.org/
CORRECTIONS
Well, crap. The GOLEM article should have ended: "...netsurfers among us." No, it wasn't further irony, we just screwed - but thanks for giving us the benefit of the doubt. You know, professionally-wise, this is turning out to be a summer best put down and backed away from slowly. The GOLEM URL follows.http://golem03.cs-i.brandeis.edu/index.html
Demoney's Back and It's Gonna Be in Trouble
We covered Demoney's list of Windows hints in NSD 6.30 ("They Do Windows"), then had to guess why it shut down shortly thereafter in NSD 6.31. Now we can tell you it's back, and ready to be taken out again.http://www.demoney.com/www/