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BREAKING SURF
Copyright Cops: Guilty until Proven Innocent, and Then Some
Salon has the hair-raising story, recounted in first-person by the victim's girlfriend, of an Internet user erroneously accused by the Motion Picture Association of America of uploading a movie to a Usenet newsgroup in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The accused wasn't near a computer when the alleged violation took place, yet his ISP, Time-Warner, summarily suspended his account, as required by the DMCA. A day later, the accused was able to prove that the real violator had spoofed his IP address, but before restoring service, Time-Warner required from him a signed promise that he wouldn't upload copyrighted material, even though he had done nothing wrong Ominous stuff.Salon: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/23/pirate/index.html
DMCA: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR:
Australian Excite as Your Net Nanny
The days when your ISP becomes your censor have arrived, at least Down Under. The Australian ExciteAtHome broadband provider is apparently randomly checking what its customers download by snooping their traffic. If it decides a customer is downloading protected content, it terminates that account without warning. There's some speculation that the policy is simply in place to limit bandwidth usage among customers. The policy is written into Excite's Acceptable Use Policy, so an informed consumer can decide not to use their service. What's really at issue is that this behavior creates a precedent for other ISPs, which may eventually be codified as law. The vast majority of ISPs in Western countries cringe at the prospect of becoming content censors, so Excite's behavior is not likely to be popular in the industry.http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2093559,00.html
Face Recognition Technology in Commerce - Not Quite Yet
The English division of Borders bookstores did a head-spinning about-face this week after a public backlash to its announced plan to use face recognition technology to track customers in its book stores. Store cameras were to feed their input into a database of known shoplifters. Presumably, that's just a step away from tracking regular customers in order to identify repeat visitors or trying to match faces with reading interests for purposes of targeted marketing. The negative publicity and reaction led the company to rescind a two-store trial of the FaceIt software, pending a review of legal and human rights issues. Incidentally, check out the sinister eye on the FaceIt site.Borders: http://www.bordersgroupinc.com/
Plan: http://www.sundayherald.com/18007
Rescind: http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO63359,00.html
FaceIt: http://www.faceit.com/faceit/
Can Public Information Be Too Public?
How public should public information be? In the days of paper records and physical archives, it took shoe leather and patience to find things in public records. Now that many such records can be browsed and searched online, however, debate has arisen between those who think this easy access, too, is in the public interest and others who believe ordinary people have become too vulnerable to invasions of privacy. In New York City, voter registration information is posted online to encourage citizens to register and find out where to go on voting days. Some argue it may have the opposite effect, deterring those who don't want to reveal where they live. New Jersey makes the addresses of publicly registered professionals such as accountants and nurses available online and is one of 30 states that offers an online registry of sex offenders. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state's actions on the grounds that making this kind of public information widely available is imprudent and an invasion of privacy. The New York Times takes a detailed and well-balanced look at this important topic.http://archive.nytimes.com/2001/08/24/nyregion/24VOTE.html
Supposedly, you have to experience Burning Man to understand it fully as a rich cultural experience but even so, there's a lot for armchair visitors to see and learn from its impressive Web site. Some 25,000 people joining together for a week of cultural celebration and self expression without rules (well, hardly any) sums it up, if it can be summed up at all. They build Black Rock City on an ancient lake bed called the playa and try to leave no trace of human activity when it ends. A daily newspaper, the Black Rock Gazette, keeps attendees apprised of happenings among the theme camps and art installations. The Web site not only stirs up excitement about this year's event, on right now, but also describes and illustrates some of the things that happened in previous years. It's a unique institution, although ephemeral, which is part of its charm, and altogether cool and intriguing.
Burning Man: http://www.burningman.com/
Archives: http://zpub.com/burn/
On Aug. 25, 1991, a young Finnish computer science student sent a message to the comp.os.minix newsgroup informing them of a new and free operating system he'd written for Intel 80386 AT computers. The student, Linus Torvalds, wanted to know what sorts of features others might want. The OS would become Linux, the open-source challenger to Microsoft's dominance of the PC OS marketplace. Linux has come a long way in 10 years; users never have to see anything resembling a Unix command and can select any of several graphical shells for the system. Remarkably, the OS remains free and developed by programmers who freely share their ideas and code within a community of like-minded individuals. In ten years, Linux and open source in general have become thorns in Microsoft's side; it remains to be seen if the open-source OS's adolescence will really try Microsoft's patience.
Linus: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/
Linux.org: http://www.linux.org/
History: http://www.linux10.org/history/
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-6947032-0.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,46295,00.html
Those tracking the salvage of the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine will be interested in the official online news channel devoted to the lifting operation. This excellent site includes daily updates, historical background, video files, an interactive layout of the Kursk compartments, Barents Sea weather reports, and even a 3-D model of the Kursk operation that allows viewers to follow the stages of the operation in real time.
http://www.kursk141.org/
Spacecraft Galileo has shot some of the sharpest images of any of Jupiter's moons during its recent flyby of Callisto. This moon is about the size of Mercury, and, unexpectedly, it appears that the landscape is eroding there. The spacecraft relayed some cool images. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Galileo is that, like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going. It doesn't know when to quit. Its mission has been extended three times. Launched in 1989, Galileo will finally become an ex-probe with a 2003 suicide run directly into the Jovian atmosphere. Set up your lawnchairs!
Galileo: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/
Images: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/callisto/
Dead at age 86 is the first director of the Cambridge Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, noted author and scientist Sir Fred Hoyle, who coined the expression "big bang" in the 1950s, as a term of irony. The astronomer was a vigorous proponent of the rival steady-state model of the universe as infinite, eternal, and continuously expanding while maintaining a constant density. Hoyle, who once said "I don't see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible," also championed the idea of panspermia, the biogenetic theory proposing that space is awash with microorganisms capable of development and therefore possibly the origin of life on Earth as well as certain diseases such as AIDS and BSE. The Guardian has an obituary, and Cosmic Ancestry, a panspermia site, offers a five-year-old interview with Hoyle.
Guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/physicalscience/story/0,9836,541270,00.html
Cosmic Ancestry: http://www.panspermia.org/hoylintv.htm
Netsurfer's Microsoft Antitrust Reading Library
As the cameras rolled through 1999, the Microsoft team didn't look invincible, onscreen or off. In the New Millennium, it was not relevant, in one piece or two. But what goes around comes around like a recycled Christmas fruitcake. While sock puppets, Aeron chairs, and butterfly ballots with chads fade into obscurity, the US-Microsoft tango has again picked up the beat. Through a trail of Judge Jackson's bombast, divestiture remedies gone pffft, and filings and counter-filings, Microsoft emerges, pushing every trick in the book to get Windows XP to the masses in October with its built-in advantages to Microsoft intact. With the delivery of the XP gold master last week, here's our updated reading list on the last two-and-a-half years of the Microsoft antitrust case and on what may yet evolve. Our byword here is depth of coverage, so go ahead and browse.http://www.netsurf.com/nsf/lib/stacks/ms_atr2/index.html
Here's more news about advertising software which defaces your Web pages with colored hyperlinks to advertisers sites. MSNBC has a story not unlike our own, earlier coverage of that issue. As expected, a strong backlash to this kind of advertising has emerged, dubbing the plug-ins and programs which do this "scumware". Sure enough, Scumware.com tells you how to detect these programs, how to disable them, and how to complain to advertisers who use them. There's also a list of good-guy advertisers who have discontinued the use of such advertising. This should be of concern to all content producers, since the programs wreak havoc with your carefully color-coordinated Web pages, possibly violating your copyright in the process.
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/618966.asp
Scumware.com: http://www.scumware.com/
Columnist Robert X. Cringely has a nice piece about how you can set up your own DSL connection between two locations. He basically explains that you need to convince your phone company to sell you what's known as a "dry pair" of copper wires between the two locations. Most phone companies charge about $15-$45 per month for this. Pop on a couple of cheap DSL modems on each end and you basically have a private T1 line at considerably less than the $500 typically charged by the phone company. He also goes on to discuss some neat hardware from Linksys which makes 802.11b wireless networks more secure and finishes off with some "first get a million dollars..." type advice on how to easily get into the DSL business.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010823.html
This article provides an overview of the volunteer-based wireless grids that are springing up in various cities. The availability of cheap wireless components based on the 802.11b wireless standard is making it a breeze to set up such networks. The free and open networks are driven as much by ideology as technology, espousing an open source/open access philosophy. The article talks about the network creators' motivations, the reactions of the wired telcos, and even about some fledgling commercial start-up ideas in the field.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/08/24/010824hnfreewireless.xml
Do you wipe the hard drives before you donate or sell your old computers? You should, of course, but if you do, you're very much in the minority. By one estimate, only 25% of businesses take this necessary step before disposing of outdated or surplus systems. What's the big deal? Try identity theft, for one, as many human resources systems keep track of employee Social Security numbers and other personal data. We picked one up a while ago that had memos, employee performance reviews, disciplinary actions, strategic plans, and even financial data on it - and that was just one old desktop unit from an office. This kind of stuff can prove dangerous in the wrong hands. How many of those sold at auction end up in poorly controllable far-flung parts of the world? If we're living in the Information Age, we aren't handling it all that well.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/08/23/BU212518.DTL
Does Suffering a Crack Make You Liable?
You own an online trading firm and suffer a massive denial-of-service attack. Furthermore, the attack takes place on a volatile trading day, say, one of the triple witching hours. Your customers cannot get through to trade. Are you liable for their potential losses? Is your ISP liable? These are questions that lawyers are just beginning to address, in theory. This article in the New York Times (free registration required) makes it clear that the black hats are going to help only one party in the end - American lawyers. It is incredibly ironic that those who would punish particular companies will only enrich those who bill by the hour. We wonder when the first lawsuits will be filed.http://archive.nytimes.com/2001/08/24/technology/24CYBERLAW.html
There's No Such Thing As a Good Worm
Win32.All3gro.A is the name of a new worm that tries to help you in all the wrong ways. The worm claims it will clean up the bad worms on your hard drive, but all it does is mess up your files. If you see it or get a file attachment labeled "antivirus.exe" and a subject line stating "New Antivirus Tool", don't open it. Of course, you should not be opening attachments from people you don't know, but in case you forget, just delete the file. You will save yourself some time and effort. Remember, there are no good worms.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6962764.html
Let-Me-Stay-For-A-Day.com Update
In NSD 7.10, we introduced you to Ramon Stoppelenburg, the Dutch student who travels the world while staying with hosts he solicits on the Net and reporting his adventures on his personal Web site. Ramon's three-month-old project, to hitchhike as far as possible while finding bed and board via the kindness of strangers, has recently been reported on CNN and Wired and has garnered nearly 2,000 invitations from people in more than 65 countries, as well as, apparently, a request to appear on the Tonight Show. So far, the clever wayfarer has toured his native Europe with sponsorships for necessaries and casual expenses, but he's looking for free passage across the Atlantic. Clearly, this young man will go far.Ramon: http://www.letmestayforaday.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,46155,00.html
Google bought DejaNews back in February, and acquired millions of Usenet posts as part of the package. Now Google is asking for help in getting its hands on pre-1995 Usenet material, especially the NetNews CDs that were issued commercially. Google already has numbers 6 to 31, covering the period March 1992 to January 1993, but it wants to get hold of many more. Google will pay a finder's fee for any of the CDs they don't already own. If you can help them, or know someone who can, give them a shout.
http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/archive_hunt.html
Intel has just released the 2-GHz version of its Pentium 4 processor. This now becomes the top of the line CPU for new machines. The Tech Report puts the new beast through its paces for you, including a good tutorial on what the clock speed numbers really mean, which is not what certain marketing types would lead you to believe. Tech Report:
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2001q3/pentium4-2ghz/index.x?pg=1
Pentium 4: http://www.intel.com/pentium4/index.htm
ONLINE CULTURE
Kevin Mitnick: hacker; cracker; vandal, according to those who busted him; jailed; barred from using computers, cell phones, and PDAs for a few years. Kevin was thought so dangerous that he was imprisoned four-and-a-half years without a trial. He was even denied a bail hearing because, he says, a federal prosecutor told a judge that Kevin could start a nuclear war by whistling into a telephone. Kevin's critics note that while he did little major damage, he went berserk if you tried to catch him - messing with your phone service, your credit records, your job. The recent interview on TechTV is fascinating enough, but check out the other links as well. Takedown is done by the man who finally tracked Kevin down and Free Kevin Mitnick is Kevin's official site, although not run by him.TechTV: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,23008,3343816,00.html
Takedown: http://www.takedown.com/
Kevin: http://www.freekevin.com/
Hole in the Wall near Slum Leads to Cyberspace
A clever experiment in child psychology has played out in a Delhi slum. Sugata Mitra, an R&D director at an Indian technology company, installed an online computer outside his Delhi office so that it faced a slum, and watched what happened. The computer initially showed the home page of MSN.com. The local non-English-speaking slum kids discovered the computer and within days figured out how to surf the Net. They discovered paint programs and games. Within two months, they had also discovered MP3 files and started downloading music, which, we suppose, might mean that music piracy is driven by nature, not nurture. The experiment has been repeated in other locations with similar results.http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1502000/1502820.stm
Ballot Stuffing at MTV Total Request Live
MTV's Total Request Live is a simple show with a simple premise. Fans vote for their favorite bands, online or via phone, and the most popular bands' videos get played on the show. Consumer democracy in action? Not quite. As with most things involving big money - and music is big money - some shenanigans appear to be going on behind the scenes. This Salon piece talks about how music companies try everything they can to get their bands on the show, from offering prizes to fans for pumping up the votes to advising them on how to beat MTV's vote filters. In effect, the record labels are doing some fairly sophisticated social engineering attacks on MTV's network.http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/28/trl/index.html
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The CEO of the Sofa
Naked Came the Phoenix: A Serial Novel
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Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick ObscuraSURFING SITES
At first glance, Google lovers may think the Teoma search engine is a rip-off. Its initial page has a similar look and feel. It's also Google-fast. Give it a try - you're likely to find it addictive. Teoma is excellent for browsing. You get three types of search results: Web Pages, which are finds based on your search terms (like you get with most search engines); Web Pages Grouped by Topic, organized in directories; and Experts' Links, a list of similar results in related subjects. For example, a search on "golf" produces directories of links for golf course, junior golf, vacations, travel, schools, and other golf-related sites. Our reviewer found 1,350,000 matching Web pages (of course, he visited only a few hundred thousand of those). Experts' Links listed off-the-cart-path golf sites. Boolean searches take a little longer but produce equally inviting results. Check the Phrase Match box for close and exact matches. Google may be our first love, but we're adding Teoma to our favorites. CNet has a close look at Teoma and other upstart start-ups.Teoma: http://www.teoma.com/
CNet: http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-6985191-0.html
Ten Big Myths about Copyright Explained
The ease of copying content on the Internet has led to widespread misuse of content. Why bother thinking or creating content, when it's right there, a click away? Of course you can use it, right? The e-mail telling you where to find it also gave you permission to use it as you wish. Why you could even copyright the results. But why bother - everything on the Net can be used by everyone. This site is an essay by Brad Templeton about a touchy subject among Internet content creators. Rip-offs are the rule these days, and this site at least explains many of the widespread "truths" (there are 11 here, not 10) that turn out to be not true. Even the less-than-literate should get most of this essay. Of course, they'll just copy it as their own work but, hey, it's the best try at explaining this not-so-little problem so far. The subject here is current US copyright law, but there are links to Australian and Canadian copyright law sites.http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Ever wonder why a burning house or political scandal gets covered in the first minute of the evening TV news when another event - say, hundreds dying in an African civil war - is pushed past the second or third commercial or not covered at all? If so, this bit's for you: "You be the editor" may sound like a RPG for bored student journalists but it's actually an MSNBC project that lets you scan a list of ten news stories and choose a lead article and four others to cover. Your choices generate a hypothetical MSNBC cover with graphics and headlines. You can compare your top five stories (not, alas, at a glance - reading is required) with those of MSNBC staffers. This exercise is the result of a workshop for professional journalists that "was meant to stimulate discussion about news values, not to mirror a typical news day." Aspiring journalists and others may find it revealing.
http://msnbc.com/news/606989.asp
In 1985 and 1986, FBI agents listened in on telephone conversations between New York mobsters Federico "Fritzy" Giovanelli and Frank "Frankie California" Condo - and now you can, too. WMOB, "The Wiretap Network", offers transcripts and audio files of the aging gangster chums exchanging recipes and health tips, complaining about their wives, their boss, their blood pressure, and trading gossip on just about everything but mob business. The collection of conversations effectively constitutes a wiseguy comic opera with 14 "episodes" that focus less on threats of "sleeping with the fishes" than the chemical perils of fart spray and the relative gassiness of cabbage soup. Great fun.
http://www.wmob.com/
Whether you're seeking that long-lost, elusive recipe, recommendations on Carolina barbecue, or advice on the best way to pit an olive, eGullet has the goods. With its stellar list of food-expert moderators and enthusiastic posters, this message board offers over 400 topics in 25 areas ranging from restaurants and dining to food media, wine and spirits, and of course, cooking. One can browse and search eGullet as a guest, but to post and check new entries you must register. Registration is relatively painless, however, and once registered, you have the right to express yourself as passionately as you wish on the relative merits of cheese boards - the site founders believe in free speech and minimal intervention, describing themselves as "eGulletarians".
http://www.egullet.com/
Love the so-called reality TV? Alrighty, then. We, and Mary, have reality Web for you, here. As personal Web sites go, this one is egregiously comprehensive. Mary, who put this up for the eligible bachelors among us, seems physically attractive enough, but an informal vote among the NSD male contingent concludes that her mindset just might send guys running for the hills. Exhibit A: "When I love a man, I love him with my whole heart; my life revolves around him, and I like it that way. I'm capable of a happy, lasting marriage with the most solid commitment, the greatest mental and emotional intimacy, and the deepest feelings of love." Translation: she's looking for husband number four. And let's just say that Mary doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with Dr. Jocelyn Elders. How lucky do you feel, boys? There's a wealth of material here, and it should prove illuminating for the prey of the species (that'd be you, guy, with the deer-in-the-headlights expression). And let this be a lesson to you, ladies!
http://www.maryromantic.com/index.htm
So Bubeleh, How Much Are You Worth?
The site name, Human for Sale, is either overoptimistic or highly offensive, or maybe both. Fill out a detailed questionnaire and submit it to the data-mining company that's behind this site and get a return e-mail with a big dollar value that's allegedly just yours. Men score higher than women, and young seem to be worth more than old. You can't what-if your results, as once your e-mail address is used, it's locked out. Of course, if you have multiple email addresses.... The privacy statement is reasonable, as long as it's honest. There's no way to know nor tell, but no one here who's gone through the process has noticed a spam flood to the submitted e-mail account, yet. Human for Sale is cute, but it's mostly a way to mine your personal data. Of course, you can always be less than truthful.http://www.humanforsale.com/
We like discovering a site that's too good to be true. We had our suspicions about FoundDogTags.com, a venture purportedly started by Florida businessmen Rob Stiff and Jim Gain after a trip to Vietnam turned up US military dog tags for sale in back-alley markets. They came back with more than 600 unique pairs, the details of which they posted on their Web site. According to the site, over a dozen have been returned to the individuals who once carried them - who confirmed their veracity - or to a serviceman's family. Course, that's posted on the site, but if they have us snowed, they also have AP snowed, so our gullibility is in elite company. We're also aware that Vietnamese cottage industries produce fake military memorabilia like hotcakes. Go to the site and decide for yourself.
http://www.founddogtags.com/
Getting It off Your Chest, Anonymously
Conveying cuts and kudos from the craven and cowardly is Just a Tip, a site that allows users to compliment or criticize others with an anonymous e-mail. Fed up with your neighbor's excess ear hair? Go ahead and get it off your chest, with absolutely no fear of being punched in the nose - and what's it doing on your chest anyway? If you ain't no good with words, that's OK; Just a Tip even helps you articulate and customize your constructive criticisms. Choose from various entries in 16 categories of tips (habits, hygiene, workplace, etc.), answer some additional questions about the subject, then fire away. Give Just a Tip your e-mail address, and they will even forward any response the recipient may care to make.http://www.justatip.com/
You knew the studio would run this site up, and you knew we'd look in on it. That's what we're here for - we do the work, so you don't have to. We don't know why we hadn't before now. Still, the place has some cool stuff to offer - like a video of a bunch of sweaty undergrads digging up a T. rex somewhere in Montana. And it's well done, in either QuickTime or WMP formats. This footage alone is worth the visit. The rest of it is the usual trailers and movie-related games and trivia, with links to buy movie tickets. With lots of flash and other stuff, the place can keep you active for hours, assuming you have a decent supply of adrenaline.
http://www.jurassicpark.com/
LiveWave makes broadcast TV and broadband equipment. Its gear can be remotely controlled, and has many features that make top-of-the-line webcams. The LiveWave site offers a few webcams run using LiveWave gear: Boston's Logan Airport; downtown Boston traffic; two popular nightclubs; and more. Visitors can take turns controlling the camera angles, focus, and zoom. These are not typical webcam sites (no naked people, for example) but impressive technology displays. The rest of the site is devoted to high-end broadcast products, with the webcams an interesting sideline.
http://www.livewave.com/index.asp
Some of the best sites on the Net feature mindless entertainment and little more, and this quick-loading gem is one of them. There's not a lot of seriousness here, folks - we're talking great photos of a road-killed jacket, mittens, and other stuff. Granted, it's neither as entertaining nor as appetizing as flattened fauna, but there's a lot of weird stuff to be found on our roadways, and this is as good a place as any to begin your documentation tour. Heck, they even clean the gear up and schlep it off to homeless shelters, the dears.
http://www.pavementgear.com/
ONLINE TRAVEL
You might know about some of the special collections in the libraries and museums around the corner, but what about the ones in the next town over? If you had to research your region, would you know where to find the most suitable records? North Carolina's ECHO project, co-sponsored by Duke University Libraries and the State Library of North Carolina, attempts to do just what it stands for: Explore Cultural Heritage Online. They're traveling around the state, taking it upon themselves to find out what every permanent collection in North Carolina has in it, plus how it is supported, preserved, and accessed. This is going to be a tremendous boon for those seeking North Carolina resources. For other states, this procedure's successes and failures will provide a basis on which to build similar initiatives.http://www.ncecho.org/
You are stationed in an exotic locale, you have a maid and a cook and your friends back home are green with envy. You should be excited and grateful but you just feel lonely, confused, and worthless. Who could possibly understand? Author Robin Pascoe's ExpatExpert site addresses the culture shock of moving overseas from the point of view of the diplomatic wife, with advice on health concerns, family life, social challenges, resources, and answering the inevitable question, "Who am I now?" The site is rich in helpful links and bright with humor, especially in the Irreverence section, which brims with essays such as "Foraging for Food" and "The Testosterone Traffic Project". As a bonus, visitors are treated to regular online installments of Pascoe's new novel "Goodbye Room No. 3". We like this professional, well-produced site, but be aware that it strongly focuses on the sorts of experiences diplomatic wives, specifically, are likely to have.
http://www.expatexpert.com/
I'm Nick, and I'll Be Your LA Tour Guide
Want to see LA without fighting traffic? Let Nick fight it for you at L.A. Avenue.com, where he reports his travels across Los Angeles County in his capacity as a tour guide with a van cam. Hollywood, San Gabriel, Cucamonga - you name it, and Nick has probably been there, building up resources on his site. The nice look-and-feel images of local beaches might prompt some kid in Kansas to hop on a bus. You can find most of the meat in Nick's monthly cam archive. His tight design and regular viewing hours (Nick goes live from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time) led us to expect more content, but hopefully, that's coming.http://www.laavenue.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Quick Area and Country Code Finder
Area codes change faster than you dial, but this handy page helps you figure out which area and country codes will work today. Search by code or place. One caveat: if you search by city, pick the nearest big city, since that's all this site knows.http://freeadsweb.com/areacodelist.asp
Where the heck do you go to buy videos? Isn't Amazon so last century? For inexpensive VHSs and DVDs, along with amusing reviews, try Skinnyguy.com. You can rent "Lost in Space" for $3.79 at Blockbuster or buy a used copy here for a few pennies more and never pay late fees. It's easy to get lost in here. You'll enjoy every minute.
http://skinnyguy.com/
Click the Refresh Button, It Might Help
There it is again, that ubiquitous, earnest, lengthy "Page Cannot Be Displayed" error message. Maybe you typed in the wrong URL, maybe your browser security level is to blame, maybe the server is down - or, maybe, just maybe, The Page Is Too Stupid. This is the error message we've always wanted to see.http://www.somethingawful.com/nointelligence/
E-postcard sites may seem a dime a dozen, but Mediabuilder's Postcardmaker.com gives you more options than many. You can even schedule cards to be sent later, so you can prepare a batch before a holiday or special occasion.
http://www.postcardmaker.com/
Traditionally, hurtling cows are associated with trebuchets and tornados, but now you can have the fun of flinging a cow from your living room with Media Farm's Flying Cow game. We preferred the classic version (requires MSIE 4.0 or higher) to the new Flash version with the smart-mouthed farmer.
http://www.flingthecow.com/
SOFTWARE
Microsoft Releases Security Tool for Win NT/2K
Microsoft Personal Security Advisor helps you lock down your system to make it less vulnerable to hackers. Unfortunately, this tool only works for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional, leaving the vast majority of Win 95/98/Me users in the lurch. The tool will scan your system and give you a report on things like missing security patches, weak passwords, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express security settings, and Office macro protection settings. The report has details about problems, instructions on how to fix them, and links to more online info.http://www.microsoft.com/technet/mpsa/start.asp
New Version of Secure Linux Prototype from the NSA
Not surprisingly, the National Security Agency, known far and wide for its mission to eavesdrop on the world, is interested in secure operating systems. In fact, they're interested in making sure their charges in the US government use secure operating systems. Very sensibly, they've decided to contribute to the creation of a secure version of Linux, a smart move given the popularity of the free system in government circles. They've just released the latest version of SELinux, essentially a research prototype of the Linux kernel and some utilities designed to demonstrate the value of mandatory access controls to the Linux community. It's based on kernel 2.4.9 and uses Linux Security Modules. You can download the source to make sure there are no back doors, but as always, caveat emptor.http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/news.html