|
Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Education E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf, RIP |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Ravaged Afghanistan |
| Tokyo Food |
| Burning Man 2001 Photos |
| The Magic of Acadia National Park |
| Moby in Manhattan |
| You Put Your Right Brain in... |
| Free Diplomas Not Worth the Paper They're Printed on |
| LaBrea Tarpit Traps Net Worms |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Anti-Terrorism Act: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The US Congress is currently debating anti-terrorist legislation which, whatever its merits, not surprisingly has several sections which may infringe on civil rights. The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 would expand wiretapping authority, permit indefinite jailing of suspects, and, in some cases, even prohibit the discussion of terrorist acts. What's more troubling is that the act includes a grab bag of non-terrorist related provisions, such as the creation of a national DNA database, and that it defines hacking as a terrorist activity on par with blowing people up. To their credit, American legislators are somewhat cautious in response to public pressure, but clearly this situation bears watching. Wired has the latest story at press time, EFF has links to the relevant legislation, while SecurityFocus has a piece on the particularly troubling hacking issue.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47086,00.html
EFF Alert: http://www.eff.org/alerts/20010921_eff_wiretap_alert.html
EFF Legislation: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/
SecurityFocus: http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257
Help Build a Web Archive of Attacks
History, unable ever fully to reconstruct the whole body of events, must often pick at the bare bones of facts, the flesh of detail long lost. To prevent this from happening with the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, efforts are underway to preserve Web sites, pages, and links related to them. Capturing what would otherwise disappear is important for us and for future historians, to ensure that there will be no blurring of memory, no fading of recollection. These are events that cannot, must not, and will not be forgotten. The Internet Archive, webArchivist.org, and the Library of Congress are defining and preserving the Web record of the attacks. Their JavaScript tool lets surfers forward relevant URLs to webArchivist.org with a click whenever they visit what they believe is a save-worthy page. The archivists are especially interested in non-US sites and sites by individuals that indicate how they feel, what they think, what they experienced. CNet has more.CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7215828.html
webArchivist.org: http://webarchivist.org/
Yahoo! News has closed the security hole that allowed a hacker to rewrite its articles using just two tools: a browser and an IP address. Yahoo News was informed of the hack by SecurityFocus, which posted the tale on its Web site. That's the good news, but how much material at trusted online sources is vulnerable to such hacks? It could be a substantial amount. This sort of thing has happened before and there's even a term for it: "subversion of information attack". It reminds us of George Orwell's "1984", in which armies of people are dedicated to rewriting news and history to conform to the view of the ruling Big Brother. It could be fairly trivial to alter an article on a major news site to attribute, say, a terrorist attack to, say, Jerry Falwell, rather than Osama bin Laden. The possibilities are infinite, and there are clearly holes that need to be plugged. SecurityFocus has details.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/254
MSNBC's "The Week in Pictures" Has Attack Photos, Video
MSNBC's excellent The Week in Pictures site showcases photojournalism work on an ongoing basis. This week, Sept. 13-20, it features a pictorial essay about the Sept. 11 attack. The photos are organized in a slideshow with audio commentary. In addition, the site offers several videos of the attack and the aftermath. Beyond this particular content, this is a good bookmark in general, especially for users with high-speed connections who are interested in photography and photojournalism.http://www.msnbc.com/modules/theweekinpictures/default.asp
We've been a bit ambivalent about the usefulness of weblogs, because there's more than a fair amount of junk being blogged. However, as this CNet article makes clear, a number of blogs provided complementary information to that offered by the mainstream media after the Sept. 11 attacks. Links are provided to some of the best blogs currently on the Web.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1272-210-7242676-1.html
This amazing piece of history was recently rediscovered and restored from oxidized and sticky audiotape. This is audio tape from Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the Moon. You've probably never heard this before, and the technicians were surprised to be able to recover so much clarity. These are the voices of the people doing the grunt work of monitoring the sequence of events leading up to Neil Armstrong's quirky "One small step for man...." The flight director loop is on the left channel; the voices from the right are air-to-ground. It's astonishing to listen to the controllers guiding the craft down. You need RealPlayer to listen in, and it's well worth it as the controllers try to decide whether to let the craft stay on the moon, or lift off again immediately. BBC has the story of the rediscovery and restoration of the tape, and it's quite well done. You will, however, probably want to bookmark the Project Apollo Archive. It has pretty much any Apollo resource you'd want.
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1552000/1552367.stm
Archive: http://www.apolloarchive.com/
The Mars Suit: All Dressed Up and No Place to Go
It may be a long time coming, but when astronauts have their first date on Mars, they won't have to wonder what to wear. Three Mars expedition concept suits are being worked on by different development teams. If this seems excessive, consider the challenges. Unlike space suits now in use, a Mars suit will not have the advantages of functioning in a microgravity vacuum, and so must: eliminate carbon dioxide and withstand the windblown Martian dust; have only about half the mass of current space suits; protect against radiation; and offer mobility. A Mars suit might even have to last years before replacement. Additionally, developers would like to integrate computerized communication and information into the design. Scientific American has a story on the current state of the evolution of Mars couture, along with a description of the space suits currently in orbital use.http://www.sciam.com/explorations/2001/091001marssuit/index.html
Deep Space 1 Encounters Comet Borrelly
A space probe originally designed to test several new spacecraft technologies has successfully returned data from its encounter with a comet. The high-risk mission succeeded despite the passage of the probe through the comet's coma and some equipment issues with the aging craft. Check out the recent mission logs - using the DS1 Mission Log Archives link - for an account of some of the problems the scientists had to overcome. Preliminary results appear to be excellent. Photos and other details at the Web site.http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/
If you use Hotmail, you have a Passport, Microsoft's authentication service. In theory, Passport allows you to keep your log-in identity and personal information, such as shipping addresses and credit cards, in a single, secure online space. Microsoft wants to leverage this information as part of its HailStorm Web services project, but has run into a problem: other companies. Rather than simply demand that other companies use Passport, Microsoft is going to offer companies the ability to access and store Passport data, meaning that even if you don't use Passport directly, you will still have a Passport entry created in your name so that you won't have to re-enter all your personal information when using Passport-enabled sites. However, it remains unclear just how many people are using their Passport for anything other than logging onto their Hotmail accounts. This may be a solution in search of a problem.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5097203,00.html
License Prohibits FrontPage Users Bad Mouthing Microsoft
It pays to read the fine print. The latest version of the license for the Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Web editing software has some stunning restrictions. The license reads: "You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of these parties, violate any state, federal or international law, or promote racism, hatred or pornography." Given that porn and thrashing Microsoft are probably the most popular activities on the Net, it would seem that the company is in imminent danger of losing most of its Web editor market share as law-abiding Web authors abandon its product in droves. Ahem. Slashdot has the story.http://slashdot.org/articles/01/09/21/1438251.shtml
File-Sharing App Ratings, Post-Napster
InfoAnarchy reviews the current popular file sharing applications, sans porn-sharing apps and any programs that force you to install spyware (installed applications that connect on their own to outside servers to upgrade themselves or retrieve ads). The author grades applications on several aspects of form and function, and notes the sorts of downloads they are best for. Not surprisingly, Morpheus scores high, but so do WinMX, DirectConnect, and even eDonkey2000. Gnutella scores lower. The review was designed for a general audience, and while it omitted programs that aren't available on Windows and those with a small user-base or an "unremarkable" feature set, the site has a resource list that pretty much covers the field.Review: http://www.infoanarchy.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/9/16/34639/2874;sid=2001/9/16/34639/2874
Resources: http://www.infoanarchy.org/?op=special&page=resources
AOL Instant Messenger Vulnerable to New Hacking Tools
The hacking community has become aware of a security hole in AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM) that allows hackers to take over AIM accounts. Several pieces of software, such as "AOLThief" and "AimThief", automate the exploit. The hole has apparently been known for months but, according to this Wired story, AOL, instead of fixing the problem, has tried to get the hacking programs removed from Web sites and issued the bland comment that "We are aware of the issue, and we continue to assess this report."http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,47072,00.html
Some $3.5 trillion in stock market value evaporated as the tech bubble burst. Fortune magazine asks "Where did the money go?" and supplies an answer, at least in one example: pre-IPO players in the once-spectacular Internet Capital Group(ICG), which two years ago had a market cap of $60 billion. Because of a regulatory quirk, ICG investors were required to reveal their names and proposed stock sales, so Fortune tracked them down and asked them to talk. Many did, allowing Fortune to put together a solid before, during, and after picture of ICG's rise and fall, and finally, for one sample company, solve the case of the missing trillions.
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=203981
eBay wants to raise $100 million in 100 days for Sept. 11 disaster relief and is doing it how it knows best, via Auction for America. All involved are waiving their usual fees. However, the Auction for America has annoyed some eBay regulars. Charity auction participants are required to pay shipping, whereas common eBay practice has the buyers forking over for that cost. Furthermore, some serious merchants who use eBay claim that larger firms can flood the market with items and drive down the price for everyone. As well, those participating in the charity must use the Billpoint payment system rather than the more popular PayPal. eBay claims its the only way they could ensure all costs were waived but PayPal disputes that. It's sad how good impulses can cause bickering and discontent, but it does look as if eBay should have thought a little harder about how to go about supporting this cause.
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7217630.html
Auction: http://pages.ebay.com/auctionforamerica/
VeriSign Limits World Trade Center Domain Names
CNet reports that VeriSign began yanking certain sites from its domain name broker, GreatDomains.com, following the terrorist attacks. "We have been delisting sites we find to be offensive in light of the events of last week," said a VeriSign spokesman, but "offensive" is subjective and it seems that the delisting is not comprehensive. The company confirmed that twintowers09112001.com had been removed, yet world-trade-center.tv and wtcjetcrash.com remain available, as do similar domains. The difference, evidently, is that the sites that have been allowed to remain offer possible suggestions for site uses, including fund collection and news updates.CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7228509.html
VeriSign: http://www.verisign.com/
GreatDomains.com: http://www.greatdomains.com/
As of last weekend, .info domain names are resolving and accessible on the Internet. Thus we bring you our first .info NSD item, which just happens to be Afilias, the company that administers that top-level domain. It has released a slightly modified schedule for the rest of the rollout, including the period during which it will entertain trademark challenges to .info domain names. The company will go through its queue of requested names until Oct. 1 to decide who gets multiply requested domains, at which time it will be able to accept registrations in real time.
http://www.afilias.info/
If you are running Windows without the requisite security patches, your ISP may cut off your service. Given that the Code Red worm constantly searches for vulnerable machines, the worm can seriously degrade a network. Some ISPs, especially broadband services, are simply cutting off users who fail to patch their software. Your machine is not simply your own problem, it's a network problem.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47037,00.html
It is an ill wind that blows no good. China has opened up access to such sites as the Washington Post and the Boston Globe in a move apparently driven by a need to provide information about the Sept. 11 attacks. CNN.com remains inaccessible to the Chinese, but the NY Times is easily read. Alas, Chinese readers cannot search on Falun Gong at either search engines or the news sites.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47017,00.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf, RIP
Back in 1998, an offhand comment on Howard Stern's radio show catapulted Hank Nastiff to his 15 minutes of fame as thousands of the show's fans voted for him in People Online's Most Beautiful People contest. Hank won by a mile, beating out the likes of Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio (see NSD 4.14). Hank passed away a couple of weeks ago and Patrizia DiLucchio, who was the online editor for People at the time, wrote this story about her role in Hank Nastiff's brief celebrity. It's a decent obituary for Hank, with an unexpected and somewhat dispiriting detour into the nature of Ms. DiLucchio's underwear.NSD 4.14: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/v04/nsd.04.14.html#OC1#OC1
Story: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/09/10/angry_dwarf/index.html
|
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.
|
Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Super-Cannes
War in a Time of Peace
The Simpsons - The Complete First SeasonSURFING SITES
Perhaps the best way to introduce you to this conceptually amusing Web site is to direct you to the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" movie clip. Nobody could create a better commercial for what is basically a product promo site. The Lego & Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set provides everything you need to make Lego movies in one package: a USB video camera; Lego pieces and dinosaurs; and Windows (only) editing software. The Web site encourages you to submit your Lego movies - we presume it'll only post G-Rated ones, but you can always submit your epic to the several existing Lego porn sites (we won't bother with links, just go search Google). Meanwhile, the site has numerous movies from budding directors for your enjoyment. Very cool. Monty Python:http://www.lego.com/studios/screening/movie.asp?title=montypython Lego Lego
Studios: http://www.lego.com/studios/default.asp
How about naked soldiers for the holidays? Can't find that lovable Dean Martin hand puppet or cymbal devil monkey you've always craved? Want to put out a moose cream dispenser or nude liquor jug for Santa? Disturbing Auctions can direct you to these goodies and plenty of others you might have overlooked, or sought in vain, at eBay or Yahoo. Browse here for the boss, spouse, or child who has everything. Bet they don't have novelty ghost poop, a wienermobile pedal car, or a frog purse. Boy, wouldn't they all get a kick out of your thoughtfulness! Join the mailing list for updates. Submit your own findings. Or hang out at the Disturbing Auctions Daily subsite, where regulars link to and debate the merits of auctions like the leggy half of a doll, cherub flying pigs, flaming nipple shields and other treasures we'd never known were up for grabs. Sorry, bidding for the burned-out pancreas bean bag is over.
http://www.disturbingauctions.com/
The Real Martial Arts of Japan
Just what are the koryu bujutsu? Yeah, that question's been bugging us as well. Whacking through the Web undergrowth, we found an excellent place to jump-start our car of knowledge, which runs on fuel of martial arts of traditional Japanese samurai. The breadth of information presented here is fascinating. Judo, kendo, and aikido - well known today - are apparently modern arts based upon warrior traditions, but which developed after the Japanese warrior class disappeared. The original, traditional martial arts, the koryu, developed to ensure victory in battle and were largely taught one-on-one, from master to student, while the newer systems are transmitted to larger groups as a means of furthering individual development. The current popular forms represent, essentially, the McDonaldization of the arts. The koryu were designed to aid Japan's feudal warrior class, not for mass consumption. If you have any interest in martial arts, or Japanese history and culture for that matter, you'll find this place riveting. With articles, a comprehensive book list and other links, it's a place to get pleasantly and informatively lost in.http://koryu.com/index.html
Arab. Muslim. If those two words make you think immediately of the World Trade Center and Pentagon atrocities, you need to re-think things. There are millions of Muslims in the US alone, but non-Muslims may not know all that much about them. This site is generally geared toward Muslim discussions of marriage and family issues, and as such, it's a great way to get to know the culture. The description of the Bedouin marriage customs, for example, provides a glimpse behind the veil and kaffiyeh to the people themselves. Unfortunately, the recent atrocities have disrupted the flow of events here, as these good people are placed into the position of grieving on the one hand, but having to look over their shoulders on the other. Do stop by. Introduce yourself. We're all in this together.
http://zawaj.com/
Orson Welles, with a Crumb-Crisp Coating
The Digital Playroom sound production site has a darkly hilarious underground audio file of an old British recording session in which a cranky Orson Welles fights a War of the Words in a voice-over narration for a frozen-foods television ad. With a distinct Touch of Evil, Welles pulls no punches in expressing his salty disgust with the advertising copy and the cowering producers ("What is it you want? In the depths of your ignorance, what is it you want?"). An archived Harper's article has a transcript of this amazing artifact.Audio: http://www.dplay.com/audio/Orsonplay.htm
Transcript: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1111/1801_300/62298085/p1/article.jhtml
Peace, Love, and Strawberry Pie
Whether you remember them fondly or you've only heard about them from your parents, drive-in restaurants were apparently the place to be in the 1960s. Twig Gravely has created a site dedicated to Virginia's most popular chain, Lendy's. It started out as a Shoney's, and for a period of time some of the restaurants were licensed to sell both Big Boy and Kentucky Fried Chicken products. Where else could you listen to Jivin' Jackson, a local radio DJ, as he broadcast live from a tower on the roof of the restaurant while you ate in your car? Even the booths and the stools at the bar inside came equipped with phones for remote ordering, despite your presence inside the restaurant. Many of the photos on the site offer then and now comparisons when you click on them, and it's fascinating to see what we consider architectural progress.http://members.home.net/lendyz/
Quia's Superb Educational Quizzes and Activities
Parents and teachers who pride themselves on their online savvy had better spend time at Quia, and not only because students can learn a lot here by themselves. Quia consists of games and quizzes based on math, vocabulary, and other subjects, with templates that help you customize academic activities of your own. Before you create your own interactive pedagogical masterpiece, you might want to browse Public Directory, a collection of 600,000 activities in many languages (including Armenian, Basque, and Zulu) on a variety of topics. Overwhelmed? Look for the Top 100 icon and learn what makes an activity popular. Teachers with Web-enabled computers in the classroom might want to administer and grade their own quizzes here. Quia offers a premium service for a subscription fee. The rest is free. Much of the interactivity is based on Java. Kids, this site is another great reason why your parents should give you access to the Web at home.http://www.quia.com/
If you've ever seen the kids' Nickelodeon, you're probably familiar with shows in which kids get vats of green oatmeal and the like dumped on them. This is kind of like that, only with a twist - they take it out to the streets, where they stop passers-by and negotiate with them. Imagine cruising down the avenue and having somebody walk up to you, camera crew in tow, and offer you $500 to turn your butt into a cake. Or negotiating with you so aggressively that eventually you're agreeing to drink a jar of pasta sauce, followed with a chaser of turkey gravy. They've got about 40 episodes in the can so far, with more on the way. You can even submit ideas for future bets. Although the site claims you need a beefy processor, it nonetheless performed well on two of our systems with less horsepower, so you don't really have to be state-of-the-art to enjoy some really weird streaming video.
http://www.ibetyouwill.com/
If your best friends have four legs, you'll enjoy the offbeat collection of articles at Dogs in the News and Cats in the News. We're pointing you to the index page that lets you choose a language version (German, French, or English). Their parent site "promotes the adoption, rescue and welfare of millions of unhappy dogs." Apparently, the happy ones are outta luck. By the way, if you take anything away from these sites, let it be that there are many more newsworthy dogs than cats. Canine snobbery aside, at the dog site, a sobering letter from the human half of a dog rescue team that worked at the World Trade Center rubble bears perusal.
Dogs: http://www.dogsinthenews.com/
Cats: http://www.catsinthenews.com/
A Peace Corps Redesign with Designs on the Future
If you've been to the Web site for the Peace Corps before, visit them again. They've redesigned to make their site more compelling for the next generation of volunteers. A personal testimonial takes up most of the front screen now, which leads to a full story about how working for the Peace Corps changed someone's life. The site is easily scannable, with recent news headlines right above the horizon and below it a quick site map so that nearly everything on the site is one click from the index page. The content is divided by target audiences, so the mother of a volunteer would go to a different area than a volunteer who has completed his or her service and returned home, and both would arrive at an area with information tailored especially to their needs.http://www.peacecorps.gov/
ONLINE TRAVEL
"Pariah Nation: A Journey through Afghanistan" is a five-part MSNBC special that reveals a country whose recent history has left it battered by the Soviets, ruthlessly misgoverned by the Taliban, and suffering from a prolonged drought. The Taliban, which rules with the barrel of the gun and the bludgeon of extremist religion, is widely despised. Despite fear of the Taliban's Orwellian-sounding Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, whose members patrol in dark-windowed 4x4s, its decrees are often ignored. This is a clear-eyed yet often sympathetic look at a war-torn, religion-ravaged, and drought-devastated basket case of a nation with millions of refugees and much of its population existing at bare subsistence levels. One caution - the site has a navigation problem with its links to the full story option.http://www.msnbc.com/news/afghan_front.asp
If you love Japanese food (and if you don't, we're not sure we can remain friends), or if you're planning a trip to Tokyo, do yourself a favor and visit the Tokyo Food Page, a site that emulates the food it celebrates in its simple, elegant presentation and high-quality content. The site's main entree is its eminently searchable database of over 1,000 Tokyo restaurants (with zipped archives for Palm Pilots), while side dishes include a guide to Japanese specialty dishes, a sushi vocabulary primer, recipes, culinary shopping guides, and features such as the food photo gallery, a look at Japanese microbreweries, and a visit to the wonderful Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. The Tokyo Food Page also offers a wireless site version for Japan's millions of i-mode cell phone users. What we wouldn't give for a plate of ikura and unagi right about now....
http://www.bento.com/
Burning Man 2001 is a minimalist portfolio both cryptic and colorful. Patrick Roddie, a self-taught photographer from Belfast, Northern Ireland who supports himself with photography and Macintosh repair, was at the event and offers an online gallery of his photos, which you can send as free postcards by e-mail. Apparently, Patrick spent a lot of time around semi-nude young adults - not that there's anything wrong with that. Some of these photos depict genitalia or all-but-bare derrieres. The "burn" pictures are of guess what, but we enjoyed the "stuff" pictures most. Those with a fetish for human anatomy might enjoy the 180 hips (clothed or naked or in between). Till next year....
http://webbery.com/bm2001/
The Magic of Acadia National Park
This place is well named. The focus here is on Acadia National Park, in Maine, and the photography is breathtaking. The site delivers links to the usual - dining and lodging spots in and around the Bar Harbor area - but also provides a map of the park. The main feature here, the photography, offers dozens of photos that are striking in their intensity, clarity, and composition. Treat yourself to some great scenes from this gem of a national park. If you like nature or photography in general, you'll want to pay a visit.http://www.acadiamagic.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
It seems that music star Moby is living in Manhattan these days, and has been documenting his experience of the World Trade Center disaster on his Web journal, just like a lot of other folks. It's like writing's in his blood or something.http://www.moby-online.com/cms/viewalldiary.asp
You Put Your Right Brain in...
Unique Projects is an adorable little site that caters to your creativity. It has complete instructions for a series of projects, with the cost of materials, length of time to complete, and the difficulty level identified for each. Projects include a Zen garden, cloth envelopes, and a wine rack.http://www.uniqueprojects.com/
Free Diplomas Not Worth the Paper They're Printed on
Get a free degree or three - complete with transcript and recommendation letter - at AAAardvark University, "the world's first fake university", or any of 70 other fictitious academic factories. The results are masterpieces of understatement and cheaper than the real thing.http://www.boxfreeconcepts.com/
SOFTWARE
Tom Liston has created a clever program which traps connections from computers infected with Net worms such as SirCam, Code Red, and Nimda. The remote infected computers are effectively held open indefinitely, hopefully slowing down them down and slowing the spread of the worms. It's a clever bit of programming, though probably not very effective in the long run because next generation worms can reasonably easily evade this type of trap. A white paper on the site has technical details.http://www.hackbusters.net/LaBrea/