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| Postal Experiments |
| A Series of Small Walls |
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BREAKING SURF
Rice feeds half the world. It's understandably big news that its genome has just been mapped, the first plant crop to have its DNA sequenced. Using shotgun sequencing, agriconglomerate Syngenta unraveled the genetic secrets of the world's most important cereal crop in collaboration with Myriad Genetics. With conventional methods of plant improvement no longer adequate, Syngenta plans to apply the information to develop varieties of rice that can boost production enough to meet the rapidly growing demand. The company also expects significant spillover into sequencing of major cereals such as wheat, corn, and barley. Findings from the rice research will be made available to the academic community through collaboration agreements and will be available royalty-free for applications involving subsistence farmers in the developing world.http://www.syngenta.com/en/media/article.asp?article_id=126
Those of you who follow the evolution of privacy policy in our society will be interested in this LA Times story. Apparently, the crowd at this year's Super Bowl was scanned with automated face recognition technology. As people entered the turnstiles, cameras digitally photographed them and the photos were compared against a database of known felons and terrorists in real time. The article quotes law enforcement sources as saying that the camera identified 19 people with criminal histories, "none of them of a 'significant' nature".
http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/todays.topstory.htm
If you want to watch something at the Super Bowl other than football or faces, you can always turn to the commercials. Although in our opinion this was a weak year for Super Bowl commercials, a couple of winners stood out from the pack. Wanna see them again? Or, if you live in overly protective Canada, for the first time? (Canadian broadcasting laws require Canadian ads to cover American ads on shows that are simulcast on either side of the border - even on American stations.) We liked the "Pepsi: Rollercoaster" and "Doritos: Tennis" ads the best, but for even more fun, visit last year's ads.
http://superbowl.adcritic.com/
The sheer fun of it and the respect and admiration of your peers - that's the motivation behind the almost annual International Obfuscated C Code Contest. Here you'll find this year's IO triple-C winners (and links to previous years going back to 1984). Whether the place baffles or intrigues you probably depends on whether or not you program. We suspect you need to to really get this stuff and to appreciate its subtleties and innate coding beauty. Categories such as Best Abuse of User, the heralding of fine examples of compact obfuscation, and the phrase "safe forum for poor C code" give some indication of the range of perverted standards here. Giving an award for Worst Abuse of the Rules is a nice touch. But what do you say of good entries that lost? That they were too good, or not bad enough?
http://www.ioccc.org/index.html
The IE 6 Preview Microsoft Didn't Want You to See
Microsoft wants to know who leaked a beta version of their IE 6 browser software to The-Ctrl-Alt-Del.com and FileClicks sites. Supposedly available only to testers who signed non-disclosure agreements, the software showed up at the two software enthusiast sites long enough to allow CNet to reach some conclusions about its features. One ugly finding is a Netscapesque portalization of the browser, with its annoyingly close integration between browser and other company software and Web sites. CNet has a screen shot and other tidbits about the supposedly secret future weapon in the Net wars.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4638824.html?tag=tp_pr
In an effort to combat spam, eBay is discontinuing the practice of disclosing the e-mail addresses of auction participants. The new policy will also discourage people from communicating outside of eBay channels to avoid paying auction fees. Apparently, this is a big problem, with certain sellers undercutting auctions by offering their own products at prices below the winning bids. The company is setting up its own mail servers to serve as a buffer between auction participants. Opinion about this move is divided. Some users like the move because it will cut down on spam, while others are skeptical that eBay will be able to provide effective communication via their middleman e-mail service. Some people have raised concern over eBay having access to the content of the mail between users, though the company says they won't read it. The actual announcement of the policy can be found on the eBay announcement page - scroll down to 01/29. ZDNet has reactions.
eBay: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2680861,00.html
Group Action against Sony Is Next RPG Campaign
If you're a dedicated EverQuest player and are among those who recently had their auction deleted from eBay or another auction site at the request of Sony, then you may be interested in dropping by Gravityspot.com to join a class action suit against Sony Computer Entertainment, Verant Interactive, and others. Sony and Verant, the publisher and developer of EverQuest respectively, have become more vigilant in their quest to halt trading in virtual items such as magic capes, powerful swords, and even characters for real world money. At first, they started banning known real-life item farmers from the virtual world of EverQuest. Now, Sony is actively asking auction sites to close down auctions with EverQuest content, and rumor has it that Verant is even suing some sellers. The idea of playing an online role playing game for fun and profit is just too good, isn't it? CNet has more.Gravityspot.com: http://www.gravityspot.com/classaction2/default.htm
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-4619051.html
N2H2 Aggregates Data on Schoolchildren Surfing
N2H2 sells Web-filtering software that blocks in-school access to sites deemed pornographic or too violent, but MSNBC reports that N2H2 also records the surfing habits of users and sells the data in aggregate form. A typical user attends kindergarten through high school. Company officials claim they only sell user data in a collected form, so no individual could be singled out, but some school officials and others still aren't comfortable with the idea, maybe in part because the US Defense Department is purchasing the data for untold reasons.N2H2: http://www.n2h2.com/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/521884.asp
BountyQuest Announces Cash Winners of Prior Patent Art Search
BountyQuest works with companies and others who seek to invalidate patents. Disputing a patent takes a lot of time and money, and it's cheaper to post a bounty for information which will help overturn a patent than to do such a search yourself. Consequently, BountyQuest has been giving away as much as $10,000 to people who can come up with examples of prior art that can invalidate a patent. In its latest crop of announcements, BountyQuest has rewarded winners for evidence of work that precedes patents for downloading music via the Net, electronic tickets, database copying, and network routers. There are some neat stories here, and a chance to get some real money for anyone who's been involved in engineering.http://www.bountyquest.com/winner/winnermain.htm
Verio Stands Firm against MPAA over DeCSS
In a refreshing reversal, Internet service provider Verio has refused to remove or block access to Cryptome, a site that has posted the DVD encryption cracking program DeCSS. The Motion Picture Association of America has succeeded in the past at shutting down sites that post the code, but Verio prefers to let the parties involved work it out rather than instantly cracking down on a site under threat of a lawsuit. The ever helpful CNet fills us in.Cryptome: http://cryptome.org/
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-4587946-0.html
Major Security Problems in BIND
CERT has released a strong advisory regarding BIND, the software which basically runs the Net's domain name system. At least four different holes in the software can allow crackers to break in to the system or launch successful denial of service attacks. New versions of BIND fix these holes and all sysadmins are strongly encouraged to upgrade. Read the advisory for details.http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2001-02.html
Speaking of Which, Bugtraq Gets a BIND Trojan
In an example of social engineering, a cracker posted a program on the Bugtraq Web security site that supposedly showed examples of how to exploit recently discovered bugs in the BIND domain name server software. However, when the program was run, it launched a denial of service attack against security firm Network Associates (NAI). Fortunately NAI had already patched a hole in its Web site and the attacks from all the downloaded trojan horses did not significantly impact the site. Wired has the details. Bugtraq is hosted at SecurityFocus.com. Look for threads entitled "That BIND8 'exploit' attacks NAI".Bugtraq: http://www.securityfocus.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41563,00.html
Little Known Security Hole in Windows 2000 Encrypted File System
The whole point of an encrypted file system (EFS) is to hide files from view. However, the Windows 2000 EFS implementation apparently suffers from a fatal flaw. Before a file is encrypted, Windows 2000 EFS makes a backup copy of the file, which is subsequently deleted. However, as most Windows hackers know, it's trivial to recover deleted files from Windows machines with a low-level sector editor. To be fair to Microsoft, it acknowledges this behavior in the documentation, and the company suggests that users don't encrypt files but create encrypted folders. Still, how many people are likely to read the directions that closely? There's a good thread discussing this issue in the BugTraq archives available at Neohapsis.http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2001-01/thread.html#324#324
ONLINE CULTURE
A positively brilliant feat of hacking brought to light a little known but exciting war between DirecTV and a dedicated cracking community. Lots of people want free satellite TV service and a thriving underground trades in the information and hardware that enable free reception of the encrypted DirecTV satellite signal. Over time, the advantage has swung back and forth between DirecTV engineers and crackers as the latter rapidly reverse engineer the company's new encryption technologies and feed the not-so-black market. Last month, some sharp engineers at DirecTV initiated an absolutely beautiful hack that slowly trickled data into DirecTV receivers and on a designated date assembled itself into a program which disabled all cracked hardware. This engineering elegance of the highest order has won widespread admiration in both legit and underground engineering circles. Slashdot has the background story of the hack, and HackHU (look through Older News) follows the hour-by-hour details as crackers deal with the situation.Slashdot: http://www.slashdot.org/articles/01/01/25/1343218.shtml
HackHU: http://www.hackhu.com/news.htm
Last summer, when it seemed Napster would bite the dust as a result of legal assault, there was a surge in the use of Gnutella, a peer-to-peer file-trading network which does not rely on centralized - and legally vulnerable - servers. Since then, the Gnutella network has both thrived and fragmented. For a time, Gnutella was overwhelmed with traffic and almost useless but that has changed with the introduction of numerous technical changes to Gnutella and the host of software clients used to connect to the network. Two good links bring the Gnutella story up to date. ZDNet has a broad overview of the current situation and efforts to roll out Gnutella 2. O'Reilly has a more in-depth article about the current technical state of Gnutella, discussing fragmentation of client designs, efforts to make the network scalable, and the lack of standards. The rapidly mutating beast is becoming more and more technically sophisticated.
ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2679303,00.html
O'Reilly: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/01/25/truelove0101.html
George Bush, Expletives, and Google
Wanna hear an amusing tale of search engines gone wrong? For a time, if you typed the words "dumb motherfucker" into Google's search engine, the top result would be a site selling President George Bush merchandise. No, this was not the work of some disgruntled Google employee, but rather an anomaly in Google's indexing algorithms. An article in HugeDisk e-zine once published an article that linked to the Bush merchandise site with the phrase "dumb motherfucker". Google uses links to qualify sites in its database, and so the search engine would come up with this top link. A cautionary tale of technology run amok or an eerie oracle from the depths of the Net? You decide, with Wired's help. Oh, it doesn't work anymore, so don't bother trying.Google: http://www.google.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41401,00.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
It's rare that a site sucks us in and blows us away, but from the very second we dropped through the portal, it was obvious that we weren't in Kansas any more. Even at the entry, the effects are attention-grabbing without being overpowering. Click on The Outer Limits, then the left-most red-and-blue orb, read the history, then settle in for an outstanding Flash movie. You can't access all the content in The Outer Limits section but more is promised and, quite frankly, we can't wait. The special effects are amazing, and the detail, in terms of history and working documentation, is of a quality seldom found anywhere let alone coherently presented. Had enough? Trust us - you haven't. Pop into the Web Design section for, among other things, a cogent presentation on the pluses and minuses of Flash, the Ten Commandments of good site design, and more. Had your fill yet? Like the Alice's Restaurant Thanksgiving Dinner That Couldn't Be Beat, more and more servings follow. Check out the gallery. You can get lost in either the analogue or the digital content. Take a few hours out of your day; give the place a visit. We're pretty sure you'll bookmark it.http://www.zoran.nl/
Movie lists tend to generate controversy, especially in the season of Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Moviegoers with long memories will find much to explore, rediscover, ponder, and debate through the US National Film Registry. This retro page of instant-recognition links lists the 25 films each year that the National Film Preservation Board (established by the Library of Congress) has chosen since 1989 to preserve on the basis of cultural, historical, or esthetic importance. Each title is linked to its record in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which provides writing credits, plot summaries, cast profiles, and other background. Students in film school may want to save this list for quick retrieval. If video rental stores had Web access, this site would make an excellent launchpad.
Registry: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Unofficial/Movies/NFR-Titles.html
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/
The resourceful Norwegians at Twoclickaway, who have already graced us with Last Minute News and Last Minute Search, have entered the art information business with Last Minute Art, a search engine whose quite literal results are limited to direct references. A search here for glass artist Dale Chihuly, one of the most mentioned artists online, came up with only his Web site; a query of "Guggenheim" brings up the various museum sites and nothing more. But if you need to locate specific items, it certainly lets you find them without wading through acres of other mentions.
http://www.lastminuteart.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Fast Food Nation
It's Your Money: The E*TRADE Step-by-Step Guide to Online Investing
O Brother, Where Art Thou? [SOUNDTRACK]http://www.nupedia.com/
You don't have to be a photographer to enjoy Kodak eMagazine. Eastman Kodak stuffs an impressive combination of galleries and features into this new monthly. For example, "The Clinton Years: Snapshots of a Presidency" is a well-constructed, if not exciting, collection of black-and-white photos by Kodak-sponsored White House photographer Robert McNeeley. January's prominent feature on fashion and portrait photographer Victor Skrebneski is slick, though a little buggy in our reviewer's IE 5.0 browser. Photographers may gravitate to Tips of the Month, which has a subtle and predictable focus on film, not digital, photography. Many visitors will likely prefer to cruise the Features archive, a varied treasure trove of enjoyable exhibits. Check out Eric Meola's retrospective "Last Places on Earth".
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/magazine/
The Travel Photo Workshop Newsletter
Photojournalist Kenneth Wajda uses his Travel Photo Workshop Newsletter to disseminate fine writing and practical advice. His first two issues (December 2000 and January 2001) contain several articles apiece. We wanted to read "The Case against Digital Cameras" (December), but the link to that was broken. The reassuring tone of his "Waiting for the Light" piece in the January issue will appeal to nascent photographers: "The light makes the photo.... You have to wait for the light. It makes the picture. You just have to be there to capture it." Your powers of discrimination may well benefit from other short essays such as "What's a Good Negative, Anyway?" and "Slides for Maximum Impact". We look forward to February's offerings, including "Fantastic Portraits without any Fancy Equipment." Despite its navigational glitches, this newsletter has a nice look and feel that complements Wajda's insight.http://kennethwajda.com/Newsletter/index.htm
SURFING SCIENCE
The Annals of Improbable Research has a published a story we love but about which the United States Postal Service (USPS) probably has differing feelings. Irrepressible investigators probed the limits of USPS tolerance by mailing odd, visibly valuable, smelly, unwrapped, suspicious, heavy and other types of objects, and recording delivery success or failure, delivery time, and postal staff comments. Oh, the insatiable, irresistible thrust of science, the thirst to experiment, and the quest to reduce chaos and uncertainty to measurable parameters - it thrills us! To their credit, the USPS withstood the deliberate abuse well, and investigators concluded that "the USPS appears to have some collective sense of humor, and might in fact here be displaying the rudiments of organic bureaucratic intelligence." We're not suggesting you ignore the manual, as these fearless investigators did, but it's nice to know that those who toil for the Eagle service are tolerant of transgressors. Pushing the envelope, indeed!http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/postal-6-4.html
Eddie Izzard has a wonderful piece in "Glorious" in which he describes how archaeology doesn't fit into the speed of modern society. We don't want to see people with brushes meticulously dusting away thousands of years of sediment; we want massive bulldozers tearing through the layers of dirt, sending skulls and shards of pottery flying until we reach what every archaeological dig finds - a series of small walls. Go to Archaeologica to find out where the latest small walls have been discovered and read about the complexities of foreign policy when it involves countries that no longer exist.
http://www.archaeologica.org/
It cost Uncle Sam $56 per housing unit to compile the US census in 2000, up from $31 in 1990. Those are two of many facts reported by econometrician and former Census Bureau official Warren Glimpse, Ph.D. on his Census 2000 Data Access and Use site. Visitors are assumed to have some familiarity with bureaucratese - you won't find snappy USA Today highlights here. Under the heading "Why this Web site is Important to You", we learn that information here "is for and from the perspective of the data user." In essence, Doctor Glimpse has skewed his site for statisticians, librarians, school and city officials, and other researchers who need to make sense of year 2000 census data. Fortunately, if you have difficulty, you can send a question to him through his "Ask a Question" form on the home page.
http://www.proximityone.com/cen2000.htm
SOFTWARE
The Apache Group has announced the release of the 1.3.17 version of the Apache Web server. This release primarily fixes bugs, addressing some broken functionality present in the 1.3.14 release and various Win32 issues. More information and download links are available at the Apache Web site.httpd.apache.org/
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
GiveSpot.com is a portal site enrobed in context. The site consists of a series of volunteer and philanthropy links the creators have evaluated and categorized, but it incorporates those links into areas of similar interest, such as a feature on how to get a job in a non-profit agency. A paragraph will explain one tactic, then provide a few links, outlining what makes each site unique. There's even a link for donating blood online; we can just imagine the lancet coming out of the mouse to see if your iron content is sufficient. The technology isn't there yet - fortunately.http://www.givespot.com/
What would you think if with one click you could plant a tree, donate vitamins, or save the rainforests? That's the design of the Daily Donation page, which provides free donations to 48 charities with a single click of the mouse. It may be animal-friendly, but it's not entirely browser-friendly. To take advantage of the page, you must be using a browser that supports inline frames, but you probably are. (The site claims you need Netscape 6, but Netscape 4 worked fine for us). Said frames, on the results page, let you see the ads of the sponsors who are enabling the donations.
http://www.wiseup.org/donate/