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BREAKING SURF
Two smart, popular pop-culture e-zines effectively ceased publishing this week. Both Feed and Suck were part of parent company Automatic Media, which basically ran out of cash. Feed and the bratty Suck were some of the oldest surviving independent zines on the Net, going live about a year (1995) after our own Netsurfer Digest debut (1994). Feed founders Stefanie Syman and Steven Johnson have a brief note about the situation, tinged with very muted optimism. Both sites are still up, and Automatic Media's other property, Plastic, is still operating with volunteer workers. Slashdot has the discussion of this sad development.Letter: http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1723
Discussion: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/06/13/0520244&mode=thread
Automatic Media: http://www.automatic-media.com/
Feed: http://www.feed.com/
Suck: http://www.suck.com/
Plastic: http://www.plastic.com/
Corporate Consolidation and the Web
Jupiter Media Metrix reports that consolidation is rapidly sweeping up all the eyeballs and concentrating them on the Internet screens of just a handful of companies. Jupiter's latest survey of Internet users shows a dramatic decline from 11 to just four companies that control half of the total user minutes, with an even more precipitous plunge from 114 to 14 in the number of organizations that attract 60% of user minutes. AOL Time Warner, with 32%, is the single most dominant outfit, smothering the Internet with its tight embrace. Jupiter identifies three factors driving this trend to dominance of the few. One is media consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. A second is higher spending on content and marketing by the emerging winners. The third is that classic driving force: economies of scale. The result probably isn't healthy - but it's, also, probably inevitable. Still, with publications like Netsurfer demonstrating with every issue the plethora of great independent places to visit, there's still hope for the small independent places.http://www.jup.com/company/pressrelease.jsp?doc=pr010604
Pop-up Ads Muddy Internet Audience Measurements
There's such a huge proliferation of pop-up ads generated by commercial websites that they're distorting the traditional monthly traffic reports. When one of those ads pops up, it typically connects to the site of the company that paid for the offending ad. This artificially boosts the number of hits for that site. The sites with the deepest pockets can buy a lot of ads and wind up on top of the various Net traffic rating lists. CNet has the story about how this technology enabled X10.com to climb the charts, noting that a "stunning" 95% of its Web traffic for May was generated by pop-up ads. In case you haven't noticed, Netsurfer doesn't allow pop-up ads on its site.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6289949.html
Gagged Researcher Edward Felten Challenges RIAA
We've covered the recent attempt by the RIAA to prevent Princeton University Professor Edward Felten and his colleagues from publishing their research on digital watermarking technology (NSD 07.13). Now Professor Felten is challenging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was used by the RIAA to block the presentation of his work. He's asking the court for a declaratory judgement to prevent any enforcement of the act. The key provision of the act prescribes severe penalties for attempting to research and circumvent copyright protection technology. The EFF has a page with all the lawsuit and case details.http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA/
What do George Bush, Roger Clemens, Eminem, Rudy Giuliani, and Rupert Murdoch have in common? Believe it or not, they're all on Don Hazen's list, The 13 Scariest White Guys in America. It's a fairly decent rant as rants go, although personally we'd have chosen different candidates for most positions on that infamous list of 13. Verbally assailing targets right and left, Don lays into what he sees as the rise of the bully in American politics, specifically what he calls Scary Power, the stuff that he claims clings uniquely to certain white guys. Women and folk with other skin color can be scary, he admits, but not big time scary like these people. Don's diatribe is rife with clichés, full of myths itself, and scary in its own ignorance and distortion. Still, sometimes you just have to get it out of your system. Some go out into the woods and scream, others jabber on the Internet. Somehow, we don't think Don's a Republican.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10949
Knowing just who owns what in terms of intellectual property can be a nightmare for authors and others trying to secure permission to use copyright material. Now the US Copyright Office has come to the rescue with a simple tool to search for ownership of rights in three major categories: serials, documents, and registered works such as films, music, software, and works of art. The search process is easy and effective, covering works registered since 1978, with some 13 million search terms available. CNET has the story, the Library of Congress the tool.
Library search tool: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/search/
Story: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6185249.html
Blogging or Web logging has been around since the early days of the Web. Weblogs offer a vital, creative outlet for alternative voices. While conventional media haven't exactly faded away in the meantime, as some thought they might, blogging is an increasingly potent, credible and creative force for individual expression. It allows people to reach out beyond their immediate geographical confines and find an audience, no matter how small, on any subject under the sun. The lure of blogs is their creative freedom; no one else has a say in what you say and how you say it. And, it's becoming easier for anyone to join in with relatively simple and inexpensive tools for self-publishing. Diversity of viewpoint is another important rallying cry. There's a lot to be said for blogging, and three interesting, expressive bloggers do it well here, providing thoughtful, intriguing and diverse points of view about the phenomenon. We should shamelessly but briefly blow our own horn a little here and point out that in some ways Netsurfer is a blog, and perhaps the oldest of them all.
http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=585
Japanese Prime Minister's E-Zine
The popular new Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has launched his own e-mail e-zine, Lion Heart. According to press reports, over a million people have registered for the free e-mail delivered issue. As far as we know this is the first instance of a national leader using that method of mass communication. At press time, we were unable to find an English translation of the publication online, which we find astounding. You'd think that the major US media would rush to provide copies of what is clearly an important political statement by an important world leader. Go figure. Meanwhile here is the Reuters story on Wired.http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44528,00.html
Future of the Book in the Digital World
The vision of the digital book has been with us since at least the days of Vannevar Bush in 1945. Over 50 years later, the future of the book in the digital world is far from clear. An extensive new paper by scholar Clifford Lynch looks at the competing forces shaping the book as it enters the 21st century. The paper covers issues such as the tension between intellectual property rights and the desire to disseminate knowledge widely. It also addresses censorship issues, the need for a critical mass, standards, and the added capabilities of the digital medium, all of which will shape the future of books. A very thoughtful and exhaustive overview of the digital publishing and what it all means for the future of the book.Paper: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_6/lynch/index.html
Vannevar Bush: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm
The Journal of Technology Law and Policy has an article by Ethan Preston that delves into the legal view of property rights in cyberspace. Of particular interest is the author's discourse on the use of metaphors in law. The word "fence" crops up a lot and the article seeks to draw analogies between real world property and the amorphous nature of cyberspace. The piece goes on to discuss privacy expectations in the context of property - e.g. walls and barriers - as another component of legal thinking about the Internet. A lengthy and scholarly article of interest to the Net legal community.
http://grove.ufl.edu/~techlaw/vol6/Preston.html
Smart Tags: New Controversial Microsoft Technology
The technology essentially lets users mark up words in various Microsoft XP documents with attributes such as links to websites. So far so good, but it turns out that it also allows developers to add web links to third-party content displayed in the upcoming version of Microsoft Explorer. For example, your favorite Yahoo Web page might show up in the new Explorer with Smart Tags all over the text leading you to MSN content. It's also not yet clear how safe the technology is given that it can lead the user to offline websites. CNet has an overview of the technology and concerns about how Microsoft is again trying to integrate Web browsing technology into its operating system - a practice that led to the current monopoly lawsuit against the company. Newsbytes has another piece that discusses how the feature could run afoul of copyright law.Smart Tags: http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/oQuickSmartTags.aspx
CNet: http://cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6210768.html
Newsbytes: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166676.html
DDoS Victim: A Look from the Inside
What does it look like from the inside when your site is subjected to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack? This lengthy and technical piece from Steve Gibson talks about how his site was attacked and how he dealt with the problem. According to his story, eventually he managed to reverse engineer the attacking software and get in touch with the authors. It's a great techno sleuth story, but some caveats are in order. For example, one of Steve's main points revolves around his statement that spoofing IP addresses is not possible from WinNT/95/98/Me machines. This is false and undermines some of his arguments and warnings. Such quibbles aside, it's still a very good piece of reading, particularly for sysadmins. While we're at it, let us point you to a link with some practical advice on stopping DDoS attacks.Steve Gibson: http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm
Stopping DDoS: http://www.antioffline.com/stoppingdos.html
An Experiment in Micro-Advertising
That's the title of this brief but tantalizing study by Danny Yee. Danny writes book reviews and wants to see some traffic at his site. He placed similar advertisements on both Google and a small weblog site called Robot Wisdom. The Google ads generated about six clicks-through and not too many page views per visit. The Robot Wisdom ads generated around 75 clicks-through and many more page views per visit. The write-up also has links to a comparison of advertising performance between Google, GoTo.com, Lycos, and About.com search engines, and a success story with Google's AdWords program. Good info for online publishers. Now, how many clicks-through do you suppose is an item in Netsurfer Digest worth? Let's see if Danny notices a bump in traffic.Experiment: http://danny.oz.au/design/publicity/experiment/index.html
Search Engines: http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1396
AdWords: http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1408
Web Accessibility for the Disabled Now Required for Government Websites
A new US Government regulation requiring federal information systems to be accessible to people with disabilities goes into effect on June 21. The rule, known as Section 508, will effectively mandate that the huge mass of government websites must convert to being accessible by the disabled. For example, sites must now be compatible with screen readers for the blind. The impact is even greater since now the huge business segment that provides Web technology and services to the government must cater to that requirement. This in turn is creating a whole new business in developing software that can help in building and converting websites to be disability-friendly. Even private firms are affected since they must live under the threat of a lawsuit in litigation happy America if they don't conform to the rules. CNN has the story.http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/06/15/web.site.accessibility.idg/index.html
SETI@Home: Cracked and Performance Stats
There are two news stories involving SETI@Home this week. First, there's this account of the service being hacked, resulting in the theft of tens of thousands of e-mail addresses. The crack led to a spam attack on the site and its users, as detailed in the MSNBC story. In other news, W. Brad LaJeunesse and Robert E. Molyneux did a study on how long it takes to process one work unit of SETI@Home data on different types of hardware. The results are complex and subject to caveats, but certainly of interest to both users and programmers working on the project software.Crack: http://www.msnbc.com/news/580466.asp?cp1=1
Stats: http://www.magusaptus.com/seti/setires1.html
US Attorney General Ashcroft's Views on Online Obscenity, Pirates
Briefly, he wants to vigorously prosecute both. The Attorney General testified before Congress last week and addressed his intention to help states prosecute online obscenity under existing laws. He also spoke up on his willingness to be more aggressive in pursuing copyright violation cases. Note that, under US law, it's illegal to share your software and music with members of your family. Your nude photos online may also be illegal in Utah. Excerpts from Ashcroft's remarks can be found on cluebot.com.http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/06/08/2143247
ONLINE CULTURE
Roll Your Own Blackout: Call for Bush Protest by Turning Out the Lights
This is a perfect example of a meme virus that uses e-mail and the media as the medium for spreading itself. Yep, as you always suspected, Netsurfer is really nothing more then a meme virus culture dish. The idea behind Roll Your Own Blackout is simple. To protest the Bush administration's energy policy, you're requested to turn off your lights and appliances on the evening of June 21, 7-10PM in all timezones. Pass it on. Naturally, everybody will be looking for the power dip on that date. At least here, at Netsurfer World Headquarters, in blackout plagued California, you can find those data on the California ISO System (CISOS) status page or the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) page.RYOB: http://rollyourownblackout.com/
CISOS: http://www.caiso.com/SystemStatus.html
LBNL: http://energycrisis.lbl.gov/
Books on Their Own: If You Love Something, Let It Go
Frankly, we were horrified by the concept. We spend a lot of money on books, and we refer to them often. So the idea of just releasing the books into the wild was pretty repugnant. But, as we got to thinking about the concept, it didn't seem all that nefarious after all. In fact, it seems almost ideal for inexpensive trade editions - heck, we could see extending the concept to magazines, as well. Seems like a great way to rid oneself of back issues of Scientific American as well as the odd titles like Primary Colors. How often are you going to re-read those things? This better option gives them wings. Register your books here, then leave them at bus stops or wherever. Check back from time to time to see if anybody's picked them up and hit the website to relay their experiences. The idea is to make the world one big library, while freeing you of unneeded clutter. And then there's that warm, fuzzy feeling it should generate for you. It got us all choked up, for sure; excuse us, we have to go find a bunny to hug.http://www.BookCrossing.com
As dot.com boom/bust stories go this one is perhaps not so unusual if it weren't for the numbers involved. Greg Raifman went form comfortable middle class to being worth almost a billion dollars and back to where he started in about eighteen months. This well written and lengthy story charts Greg's rise and fall in the archetypal dot.com story arc, managing to paint a character portrait of an ordinary guy who briefly flew in the business stratosphere. While there, check out the link to Fortune's Billion-Dollar Losers Club on the first page of the story. One hapless member, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor, managed to lose a staggering $13.53 billion.
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=202750
Given that China has the majority of the world's population within its borders, it's important to keep up with how that population is adapting to the Internet - or perhaps how the Internet will adapt to that population. This article in Salon chronicles the gradual change in both the Chinese Internet industry and how its youth culture uses the new medium. In particular, the article highlights the culture clash between the early Net pioneers - mostly Western-educated entrepreneurs - and the new generation, which disdains the Western influence. The early big-money venture-capital funded group is mostly out of business now, while the younger generation is flying under the radar of both large Chinese business and the Chinese government. Good slice of history piece.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/05/30/china_web/index.html
The End of History for the Net Music Revolution
The pessimistic conclusion of this Salon feature is that the record labels won the online music wars and that consumers lost. The article is a historical overview of the entire online music story, starting with the flurry of startups during the early days of the Web - sites such as Emusic.com, Napster, Nullsoft, MP3.com, SonicNet, Scour, and IUMA. The ending is today, when all are either gone, sold to music labels, or sinking under the weight of lawsuits. If you haven't been following the story closely, this will tell you what has happened over the course of the last few years.http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/06/01/digital_music/index.html
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You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide To Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes & Cultural Myths
Hack Attacks Revealed: A Complete Reference with Custom Security Hacking Toolkit
Writing Erotica
Tora! Tora! Tora!SURFING SITES
Giving Pearl Harbor the Respect It's Due
An excellent supplement to - critics might say, substitute for - the movie Pearl Harbor is National Geographic Society's multimedia memorial site, Remembering Pearl Harbor. Fans of the movie may head first to NG's Beyond the Movie section, which features interviews with the director, co-producer, and stars Alec Baldwin and Cuba Gooding, Jr. Those who like to debate what really happened before and during the day of infamy might start with NG's multipage FAQ, which answers common questions about the surprise attack. One of the two most notable components of this site, though, is an interactive, chronological attack map ("target by target") with voiceover and links to interior photos and details. It's cool, though somber. Veterans and their families will appreciate the multifaceted approach here. Some may gravitate instead toward Memory Book, a collection of firsthand accounts by survivors of the surprise attack. NG reinforces the argument that there is not one history. Rather there are histories.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor
The Pacific Theater Remembered in All Its Horrendous Detail
According to Japanese figures, of the 50,000 POWs they shipped, 10,800 died at sea. The transports were called hellships, and with good reason. It's one of a number of facts to be gleaned from an ambitious website that makes a good stab presenting material from the American and the Japanese sides during the long WWII contest in the Pacific theater. It skips the often-treated Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki attacks, focusing rather on case records, maps, memos, and depositions relating to events between the attacks. The full stories can never be uncovered and understood; the magnitude of the war simply exceeds comprehension. And, those who served through WWII are, at last estimate, now dying at the pace of approximately ten per day. The site acknowledges that it can never offer a complete picture, but it does go a long way toward fleshing out details. War is a brutal business. If you hadn't internalized that idea before, you will after a visit here.http://www2.gol.com/users/winjerd/Pwcmp1_a.htm
For some reason, meat seems to be a popular substance for abuse on the Net. Doubtless, it will be just a matter of time before the Feds step in. It wasn't too long ago that we clued you in to the disgusting goings-on at the stinkyhome website. That one dealt in rotting flesh; this site aims to keep it fresh. They are, after all, wearing chapeaux made of meat. Judging from the photos, there must be something to it. These Austin boys seem to attract women like, um...we were going to use a fly analogy, here. You'll want to keep visiting, as their do-it-yourself meat helmet construction page is supposed to be up Real Soon, Now. We can hardly wait.
http://kraybill.net/meathelmet/index.asp
Beginner's Guide to World Dictatorship: We Get By with a Little Help from Our Minions
Could you succeed where all have failed? If you're cooking up ultimate power, here's the basic recipe. This site explores the pros and cons of the most current popular techniques for squashing the rest of us like bugs. Truly a beginnerıs guide for lords of all that they survey, thereıs little or no classified data here. Itıs a good place to start, but it doesn't seem likely that you'll achieve that world domination that your crave even after mastering everything on this site. The pro/con tables should be sufficient to let you decide on your chosen technique for bestriding the world. Donıt miss the reader suggestion sections. There are some very creative would-be despots out there, and for some reason theyıre willing to share their ideas with you. Our reviewer particularly likes the plan for using pollen to exert personal control over the entire world.http://www.envy.nu/dictator/
What is it about the very ostentatious very rich? Never mind, dumb question. One of the largest and most visible concentrations of extravagance is the eastern end of Long Island. The amount of money spent here, mostly to impress the neighbors, is either very large or obscene; take your choice. The Nuke the Hamptons site lets you vicariously express your true feelings about the Hamptons. Even if you're wealthy enough to afford the Hamptons or for some strange reason like the place, visit this site for its incredible web technology. This site doesnıt look or act like any other site you've
ever visited. Brilliant. http://www.nukethehamptons.com/launch.html
Do you ever find yourself parked in front of the television, unable to wrest yourself from the clutches of some pointless documentary like the Secret Life of the Food Court at the Mall of the America or The World's Funniest Ritual Sacrifices? What's Inside Jeremy's Wallet is the Internet equivalent. Plumb the depths of Jeremy (Ryan - now you have to marry him, too) Wilson's psyche as you go on a tour of the leather he keeps in his back pocket for special occasions. Marvel at the gleaming new driver's license; covet the Suspect Video card. Okay. Let's be honest. You're not going for the cards (unless you're trying to break into one of his accounts, in which case you should know that all the numbers have been changed to protect the not-entirely innocent). You're going for the witty observations made by the host, almost like Weakest Link only the Wallet commentary involves actual intelligence.
http://www.inforamp.net/%7Exeno/wallet/main-page.html
I'm Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. Ghukfvin
Clay Enos and Stephan Ghukfvin are doing something unique. They're photographers in New York. (Obviously, we haven't come to the unique bit yet.) They're undertaking to, in their own words, "produce the most comprehensive and beautiful visual record of the people in New York City". This mission includes taking their gear to where the people are, instead of expecting the people to come to them. With their mobile photo studio, they visit neighborhoods and boroughs to find New Yorkers in their natural habitat, as it were, asking them for a moment of their time. If you're on a high-speed connection, the best way to see exactly what's going on is to view the video, which is 15MB of context. They're hoping eventually to publish their efforts as a series of books. Flipping through the photos proves that, with the right lighting, everyone is beautiful.http://www.streetstudio.com/
ONLINE TRAVEL
Cuba: No Longer 90 Miles off the Coast
Is Cuba ready for capitalism? Clearly, it's ready for that capitalistic triumph of Web technology, the portal. CubaWeb has a look and feel that will be familiar to many. One banner ad in the vacant TV section inveigles us, "Haga negocios en Cuba" - "Do business in Cuba". Whether you prefer its Spanish or English version (our Midwestern reviewer spent more time browsing the English), you'll have no problem navigating standard fare such as News and Media, Politics and Government, Culture and Art, or Tourism and Trips. You're unlikely to find anything politically incorrect on this site, although we find no statement that CubaWeb is run by the government. (Want speeches by Castro? They're in your face.) You will find a few inconsistencies. For example, the cultural section has fine, colorful Flash effects, and there's a database-driven national telephone directory, but the section on Cuban women is in Spanish only, and the only source of news appears to be the National News Agency. Still, anyone with an interest in Cuba should spend time here. FLOTSAM AND JETSAMSpanish version: http://www.cubaweb.cu/esp/main.asp
English version: http://www.cubaweb.cu/eng/index.asp
How Many Times Do You Use the Word "I"?
The Wordcounter.com site is very simple and can easily make you, yes you, a better writer. Paste in any text and get immediate word frequency feedback. It's fast, it works and it's very useful.http://www.wordcounter.com/
Thatıs surrogate as in stand-in, not the other kind. When you have to be there and you really donıt want to or canıt or whatever, you can rent a stand-in relative-type person. All sorts of people are available for every need. The concept is right on target; the website is highly professional. The rates are a bit vague, but hey. Is this site really for real? Try it before you decide.
http://www.rent-a-relative.com/
SOFTWARE
Parlis.com is introducing a new approach to letting you do online instant messaging. Its client works without any special software to install before you can take advantage of it. Instead, go to any computer that has a Web browser and visit Parlis.com's site. After an initial registration, you'll be able to log in from anywhere to talk to those that you'd like to reach who are also set up with Parlis. By using an ASP server and making your browser run a JavaScript client, Parlis distinguishes itself from other instant message services. Unlike ICQ or AIM, it's not accessed with a separate application, and also doesn't connect to the other servers. Available in both English and Spanish, the Parlis messenger will also send files to the people in your contact list, or send text messages to mobile phones.http://www.Parlis.com
MP3Pro Audio Standard Released
Thompson Multimedia has released the follow-up to the massively popular MP3 audio standard. The new standard provides all the usual upgrade benefits: more audio in smaller file space with better quality. The standard is not open and developers will need to pay royalties for using it. The PR has more details and links to demo software (Windows only so far).http://www.thomson-multimedia.com/gb/06/c01/010614.htm
OggVorbis Decoder Version 1.0 Released
Seeking to steal a bit of thunder from the MP3Pro announcement, the OggVorbis team is releasing the first nonbeta version of its fully open source audio decoding software and format. The software has been getting more and more popular among the open source and Linux crowds and is likely to give MP3 a run for its money as the next-generation popular audio format.http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html
Many people think that the browser wars are long over, and Explorer won. AOL doesn't yet seem to know this and it's still cranking out new versions of Netscape. This new update to the 6.x line of browsers features faster performance, a less cluttered interface, and the usual slew of bug fixes. CNet has a brief review.
Download: http://www.netscape.com/browsers/
Review: http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227883-8-6249661-2.html
OpenBSD 2.9 is the latest version of what many consider to be the most secure and stable Unix operating system on the planet. Features include much improved filesystem performance, OpenSSH version 2.9, support for Apple Titanium PowerBook G4, better documentation, better driver and hardware support, yadda, yadda, yadda. Read more and download at the website.
http://www.openbsd.org/29.html