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BREAKING SURF
The 2001 Nobel Prizes have been announced. As usual, the Nobel Web site has extensive information about winners and their work. The Physics prize went to the discoverers of a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensation, Chemistry to researchers on chirally catalyzed reactions, Medicine to the discoverers of cell cycle regulators, and Economics for analysis of how financial markets deal with incomplete information. The prizes for Literature and Peace will be announced on October 11 and 12.http://www.nobel.se/
The annual Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded last week at Harvard. We here at NSD are proud to have recognized at least one of the winners with an article of our own, before the harsh glare of Ig Nobel Prize for Biology fame came down upon his head. That would be Buck Weimer, inventor of Under-Ease charcoal filtered underwear, whom we covered in NSD 7.22. This year's ceremony featured winner Peter Barss, who discussed his ground-breaking - er, skull-breaking research into injuries due to falling coconuts and was punctuated by a wedding - yes, a real, live, legal wedding - between two geologists. The official site has the winners and links to their achievements and the Boston Globe piece illustrates the pervasive sense of decorum that surrounds the evening.
Igs: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2001#ig2001
Globe: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/282/science/Ig_Nobel_night_includes_nuptials%2B.shtml
The sunk Russian submarine Kursk has been recovered by a Dutch salvage company. After the sub has been secured in Roslyakovo harbor, near Murmansk, it will be checked for radiation leakage and investigated to determine the cause of the explosion that sank it. Western intelligence sources believe that the disaster was caused by an explosion of one of its own torpedoes. Two Web sites cover the salvage, which is also being lightly covered in the general media. The Dutch Mammoet salvage company has details on how the salvage was accomplished and the Russian Strana site has the latest news, both in English.
Mammoet: http://www.koersksalvage.com/
Strana: http://kursk.strana.ru/english/
Is Enforced Social Conformity the Price of Widespread Surveillance?
Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, concern over the use of public surveillance technology had been growing. Since then, proposals for face recognition technology, biometric scanning (doesn't that sound so Star Trek?), and more cameras in public spaces have come thick and fast. But just how effective are those measures in reducing the risk of terrorism? That's the question addressed in this lengthy feature story. It turns out that an experiment in ubiquitous surveillance has been unfolding in Britain over the last decade. The country is blanketed by an estimated 2.5 million surveillance cameras. Police use the cameras to deter crime, though there is some controversy about exactly how effective they are even at that. It turns out that the cameras do have the effect of enforcing social conformity to a degree which would make many people uncomfortable. And, of course, the camera operators like to watch girls and spy on couples making out. This thoughtful and insightful NY Times article (free registration required) deserves your attention.http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/magazine/07SURVEILLANCE.html
Since the revelation that the Sept. 11 terrorists probably used the Net to pass hidden information with a process known as steganography, interest in this form of cryptography has intensified. StegoArchive.com has an overview and lots of links on the subject, and at ZDnet, computer security expert Bruce Schneier explains how the terrorists might use this method for an electronic dead drop. On the technical front, Dartmouth's Technology Research News (TRN) reports on a new method for detecting steganography in digital images, while University of Michigan graduate student Niels Provos describes a new method that defends against such steganalysis. Provos has also developed a program called Stegdetect to detect steganographic information in images, and describes his experiments in searching for steganographic content on eBay. We wouldn't be surprised to see steganalysis distributed-computing schemes soon applied to the problem of intercepting terrorist communication.
StegoArchive.com: http://www.stegoarchive.com/
ZDnet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2814256,00.html
TRN: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/press/trn01/trn01.html
Niels: http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/stego
Jihad Web Sites Feel Impact of Anti-Terrorist Campaign
It's no secret that some Web sites advocate extremist tactics against the West and the US specifically. It's also no secret that Western authorities have been keeping tabs on such sites. In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, several of them have closed, whether by choice or due to host decision, and the dragnet of arrests of suspected terrorists has brought in a few people with links to some of these Web sites and forums. This ZDNet article looks at how such sites are faring these days. Some banished sites have been resurrected elsewhere and others - still operating, still radical, and still perfectly legal - have borne the brunt of hate mail and threats. Large hosting providers and organizations that provide tech support have responded by cooperating with authorities or by distancing themselves from such sites in the face of threats.http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2816661,00.html
Follow-Up on bin Laden Bank Hacking
Last issue, we reported on hackers who claimed they broke into a bank where Osama bin Laden reportedly has some of his money. MSNBC is throwing cold water on the idea that this kind of hacking could be successful. The story talks about bank system structure and security, past intelligence actions against financial assets, and the difficulties of using traditional hacking techniques against high-end banking systems. International cooperation in tracking down al Qa'eda funds is apparently not as rosy as it could be. The article quotes one bank investigating consultant as saying that "a large number of banks are not cooperating and never will. Most of the non-US/UK-chartered offshore banks/fund/investment groups are clammed up." It's good background material on the unseen part of the war.NSD 7.33: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/nsd.07.33.html#BS3#BS3
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/638639.asp?cp1=1
In covering the war in Afghanistan, CNN has raised the profile of a new bit of technology that can transmit pictures and voice from areas without phone connections. The Talking Head satellite videophone provides those grainy 15-frame-per-second feeds of CNN reporter stand-ups outside Kabul. In case you're interested, here's the Web site of the manufacturer, which provides all the technical specs. Poynter.org also talks about how such technology is changing the nature of reporting from the field.
Talking Head: http://www.7e.com/content/products/
Poynter.org: http://63.208.24.134/Terrorism/al14.htm
What do the following have in common? A picture of a tourist on the observation deck of the World Trade Center with an incoming jet in the background. Nostradamus predicted the attack on the towers. Israel knew about the attack and warned Jewish employees. These and other notions are bunk, sheer bunk, all of them, unfounded myths - but you didn't need to be told that did you? Some people need to find blame or reason or some grounds on which to base the unfathomable, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have stirred up such fabrications and urban legends - and the Internet quickly blows them all over the world on its electronic hurricane. The San Francisco Chronicle and PC World have stories, complete with links to other places to track down hoaxes - Snopes is a good one.
Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/03/BU213143.DTL
PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,64044,00.asp
A Research Project on the Funniest Joke in the World - No Joke
The search for the psychology of humor is on in the UK - and it has a long way to go. Laugh Lab is "a huge experiment to find the world's funniest joke". In the Lab, you can rate the jokes that are already in the library. Results vary.... You can also contribute jokes, and founder Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire expects at least 1,000 a day to roll in, with publicity. He'll need them. In an interesting twist, one person will be designated to listen to the funniest joke in the world while scientists scan his or her brain for electrical activity patterns. Nature has more. By the way, have you heard this one?: "Wenn ist das Nunstruck geht und Slotermeyer? Ja, Bayerhund das oder die Flipperwald gespurt!"Laugh Lab: http://www.laughlab.co.uk/
Nature: http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-17.html
Funniest Joke In The World: http://home.worldcom.ch/fliardet/Fun/funniest.html
Scientists at the Sanger Centre have sequenced Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes Black Death, the plague that wiped out about a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. The breakthrough should allow researchers to develop more drugs to combat the disease, which even today claims up to 3,000 victims annually. On the other hand, as ABC News reported a few months ago, another team of British researchers has challenged the belief that the Black Death was bubonic plague spread by infected fleas and suggests that it was actually an Ebola-like virus transmitted directly from person to person. For further background, Discovery has a meandering and oddly lively history of the Black Death, while Insecta Inspecta has a thorough, more straightforward - and far more gruesome - treatment.
Sanger Centre: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Info/Press/011004.shtml
ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/blackdeath_010730.html
Discovery: http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/blackdeath/blackdeath.html
Insecta Inspecta: http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Black.html
If you thought AIDS was no longer a major problem, think again. A UNAIDS report makes it clear that the disease may yet emerge as a major pandemic in Asia. Although Thailand has instituted procedures to contain the disease, other nations, especially China, won't discuss the disease openly. An outbreak of HIV/AIDS is expected to greatly tax Asia's various national health care systems and economies. Cultural factors, such as married male homosexuals who engage in heterosexual sex, mean that the disease is poised to break out of high-risk populations and move into the general population. Education and public information campaigns might change the course of the illness. The New York Times has more, but requires registration.
UNAIDS: http://www.unaids.org/hivaidsinfo/statistics/MAP/index.html
Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/international/asia/05AIDS.html
Napster's dead, school has started, and over three billion files were swapped over file-sharing networks in August. Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) continue their Sherman's March through the Georgia of file-sharing networks - this month, legally besieging FastTrack, MusicCity, and Grokster. Unlike Napster, these three peer-to-peer (P2P) systems offer no easy lawsuit target, and there are many more than three. The music industry wants to introduce its own pay-to-play systems in the near future and it has to stop the freeloading or these new systems will never succeed. Strikingly, the RIAA and its technical advisors seem to be having trouble understanding how the P2P systems work. Dotcom Scoop, in a behind-the scenes look at industry strategy, and associated documents make it clear that FastTrack's encryption as well as its mode of operation are especially confusing to the RIAA. It remains unclear whether the RIAA will prevail over P2P as it did over Napster. Wired covers the latest lawsuits.
Dotcom Scoop: http://www.dotcomscoop.com/riaa1003.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47296,00.html
Despite the silly, hype headline ("Security: Meet the world's baddest cyber cops"), this article has its good points. It focuses on Charles Neal, a 20-year veteran of the FBI who these days works as a high-powered security consultant for major online businesses, notably the now bankrupt but still huge Exodus. Charles talks about his experiences and some of the real-world problems in Net security. For example, many firms don't bother reporting break-ins for business reasons even though doing so might help overall Net-wide security. He also discusses hacker automation tools, criminals for hire, and corporate liability. This good non-technical article provides a glimpse into security issues among the big online players.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20260720,00.htm
Trick or Treat? Credit Card Fraud Costs Online Merchants
Credit card fraud on the Net is increasing and becoming simpler for those seeking to swindle e-commerce sites. As a result, MasterCard and Visa, which dominate the credit card industry, rule that sellers are responsible for the cost of contested charges unless they have a customer's signature or a copy of the credit card. In a virtual environment, e-merchants cannot secure either signatures or copies of the card and so are vulnerable to the cost of credit card fraud. Visa and MasterCard, according to some merchants, have little incentive to change their policies since they make money regardless of what happens to the retailer. Whatever the solution, one thing seems certain: authenticating identities online is going to become a very big business. CNet has more.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7417493.html
Yahoo Serious vs. Yahoo, Seriously
Australian actor/director Yahoo Serious is appealing a decision by the Australian Trade Marks Office that allowed Yahoo to register the name as a trademark in a number of areas, including the entertainment field. Yahoo Serious, whose magnum opus is the movie "Young Einstein", argues that he is known best as just "Yahoo", with widespread name recognition since long before the other Yahoo was ever thought of. The entertainer adopted his name in 1980, but originally attempted to use a barcode as a signifier, a move that, if successful, would have undoubtedly yielded him quite a few more court challenges. IT News has the news.Serious: http://www.yahooserious.com/
Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/
IT News: http://it.mycareer.com.au/breaking/2001/10/04/FFXY8O9GDSC.html
The Most Powerful Women in Business
Fortune has released its "The Power 50" list of the most powerful women in US business, and while it appears that women won't soon be free of Windexing the glass ceiling, there are glimmers of progress. Despite the presence of only six female CEOs among the Fortune 500 companies, Fortune takes comfort in the fact that the few women who do manage to climb the corporate ladder are scaling higher than ever. Several of the Power 50 head businesses with annual revenues of $20 billion or more - a first, according to Fortune. Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina continues to occupy the Power 50's top position. Internet sector listees are conspicuously absent, with the notable exception of eBay's Meg Whitman, at number two. Fortune also compiled an international list this year, topped by the UK's Pearson publishing company CEO Marjorie Scardino.http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=204383
Given the depressed tech market, it's probably not the best time for Microsoft to roll out its new Pocket PC operating system, but the new offering is a significant move for the company and its partner Intel. Palm has found its niche as an organizer, and Microsoft is performing its usual embrace-and-extend routine to push corporate purchasers upmarket to higher priced offerings that use its more razzle-dazzle software, which offers greater versatility. By all accounts, however, the new system is more a nice step forward than a revolutionary product. ZDNet's got a brace of articles, reviews, and comments on the new system and new PDAs. There's little need to go elsewhere for the latest on these increasingly versatile little gadgets.
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/default.asp
ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/specialreport/0,12737,6021546,00.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Anti-Porn Fake Porn Pages Suck In Porn-Seekers
Many have decried the prevalence of pornography on the Web. Gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes (ironic, no?) only takes one so far, and anti-porn crusaders have finally come up with a tool to fight the nemesis: cloaking technology, offered to the masses. Get Some Real (GSR) and its co-conspirators make fake porn sites, which are tweaked to achieve high placement in Web search engines. The anti-porn pages show up higher in the search engine results, leading to hits and ever higher rankings. These pages redirect porn-seekers to the GSR site, which tries to get porn lovers to direct their attention to the real world and real people instead. The scheme aims at casual surfers, not the porn merchants - although by diverting the user, GSR may harm the merchants a tad. GSR explains the technology in perhaps too much detail; maybe they consider it so bullet-proof that the porn merchants can't circumvent it. Wired has a short bit on this, worth the read.GSR: http://www.getsomereal.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47326,00.html
Next time you see them arriving at the neighbors, lugging in big monitors, PCs, and game controllers, not to mention the beer and chips, you'll know what's going on. LAN parties are considered the ultimate in gaming action. Those who have attended one say they are more fun than playing multi-player games over the Internet. Somehow, seeing your opponent's knees shake as you move in gloatingly for the kill adds to the pleasure. Christopher Wong tells how to do it successfully in his practical and comprehensive guide to the ins and outs of holding LAN parties. There's a lot more to it than you might imagine. Follow this guide and there's no reason why yours can't be the best party ever. It's all you need to know.
http://www.onepc.net/index.php?view=docs&doc_id=75
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Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat
Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology
The Atlas of Cyberspace
The City of SoundsvilleSURFING SITES
The Israeli Response to the Munich Olympic Terror
Our older and/or informed readers will know of the terrorism that befell the Israeli Olympic team at Munich in 1972. The Israelis tracked down those terrorists who escaped, and killed them. It took years and was neither neat nor pretty. It might be a decent model for America's current anti-terror campaign and even if not, it is instructive. The Israelis used independent covert action teams for all but one spectacularly bloody assassination. Alexander Calahan recounted this history in a Master of Military Studies thesis for the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. This site reprints that thesis in its entirety. The text is as stark as its presentation. Unlike most Web sites, this one has no images, no navigation menus, no banner ads - just facts and conclusions. It's a thought-provoking and interesting read for these times.http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/calahan.htm
The motto of Radio Free Nation is "If you have a story, we have a soapbox." Normally, that invitation would bring the loonies right out of the woodwork. If reading loonie fiction is your pastime, alas, you'll need to go elsewhere. This site allows virtually any subject, but imposes standards on the writing quality. You won't often find New York Times quality, but rarely does the prose sink to the level of the National Enquirer or New York Post. Every day, 10 stories, generally related to current events, are featured. Most are based on other articles or start by agreeing or disagreeing with other material. Links to the base or source material are always provided. Users have the opportunity to comment about all articles. The response system only gets moderate use currently but it works well, and will hopefully spread to other news sites.
http://radiofreenation.com/
If you're thinking about "America's New War", this is one place to drop by for an alternative view. On one hand, these good folks don't quite grasp the fact that war has been declared between Islamic fundamentalist terrorists and the rest of the world. On the other hand, there is a significant possibility that this conflict could escalate into global warfare. This is one "Justice, Not War" site that actually provides links to some solid information in regard to the latter possibility. It raises the idea that, following the takedown of bin Laden and his al Qa'eda buddies, the situation will phase upward into global conflict as the US takes on the other "rogue nations" involved in supporting terrorism. These folks hammer the US, but then, they also hammer Russia and China, so they're at least equal-opportunity bashers. Some thoughtful insights are presented here, amid some that aren't so well thought-out. However, if you happen to be of a conservative bent with a heart murmur, this really isn't your place.
http://www.fpif.org/
Road Rage Venting and Good Driver Compliments
Ever wanted to report a bad driver or warn the public about some weirdo on the road? AboveAverageDriver.com (AAD) is building an online database of driving incidents in the US and Canada through public participation. You can let off steam and expose a cretin, praise a Good Samaritan, or do some research. Those with mild curiosity might want to skim through the Latest News or Best News, or browse the jokes, quotes, and rants. Those with more focused interests can post messages in any of seven forums. You can search for incident posts by plate number or color, make, or model of vehicle; recent reports; good deeds; bad deeds; and "Unnatural act". Sign up for free membership, and you can find out whether anyone has reported your license-plate number, as well as become a forum moderator or content editor, customize content, enter contests, and join a mailing list. Whatever you do here, your fellow site visitors will appreciate civility.http://aboveaveragedriver.com/
We all wish for things - gizmos, policies, alternatives - that should exist but don't. To give voice to such wishes and spur invention on a nonpartisan basis, ShouldExist invites submission of solutions to local problems and global needs. Here are a few of the ideas we found on a recent visit: Air-dropping handhelds "with embedded educational content and tests, which reward by paying off digital cash" in the Middle East; mass production and distribution of bacteria that clean up oil spills; public DNS service; collection of medical data through sewers "during an outbreak of a disease epidemic or bio-terrorist attacks in an urban environment." The site lacks a browsable index, so you may have to use the search box to find some of these ideas. It's too early to tell whether this site has fostered a real breakthrough or invention. One hopes that pragmatists with good intentions will turn its idealism to public improvement.
http://www.shouldexist.org/
Die-hard fans of Mel Brooks have doubtless long been aware that there's a Web site devoted to him, but we're here for the rest of the world. The site features biographical information, some pithy quotes - "Humor is just another defense against the universe" - career highlights, interviews, and of course, Mel's movies. The movies section presents material that probably passed right by most of us: In "Young Frankenstein", for example, the housekeeper's name is "Frau Blucher". Blucher is German for "glue", hence the sound of horses whenever her name is spoken in the film. You're dealing with true comic genius when it takes years for you to discover some of the best punch-lines. The interviews alone are well worth your time. This man is amazing. If you haven't yet, discover him now.
http://www.tmbhs.com/tmbhs/
We talked about the excellent Teoma search engine - which has since been bought by Ask Jeeves - a few months ago (NSD 7.28), but we neglected another new search engine. Like Teoma, WiseNut also feels like Google, in its stripped-down, no-frills interface and its quick-draw results return. The list of results groups pages from the same site under one result, which is useful when webmasters have been particularly outstanding in meta-tagging all their site's pages. WiseNut has introduced an organization system called WiseGuide, a sort of index that groups pages into categories and subcategories. It might reconsider the layout and design of the WiseGuide section, though. Our reviewer completely ignored the black of the master categories, not realizing that the results in the gray bar were subcategories. Of course, that might be the point - to get you to your actual results more swiftly.
http://www.wisenut.com/
Has the excitement gone out of your relationship with your search engine? Do you find yourself performing meaningless searches with strange engines, seeking to recapture the old thrill? If so, it's time to make a date with AlterVistas, the search engine for bizarre sites. But be warned, AlterVistas is fine for a one-night search, or even a wild weekend of unexpected results, but it isn't the search engine you want to bring home to mother. Search "love" for example, and the results will turn up such sites as Monkey Style, Planet Ketchup, Cows Anonymous, and Renta Midget. Don't blame us for what happens when you go looking for love in all the wrong places.
http://www.altervistas.com/
Strange, fascinating, fun. These words not only describe Apartment, the site, but can also be used to design an apartment therein. This nominee in the Arts category of the last Webby Awards has users type text in order to construct apartments, which in turn form blocks and then cities. The words you choose determine what rooms are added to your apartment blueprint; the word "pleasure", for example, goes into the bedroom, whilst "pain" furnishes the office. At any time, users can choose to save their apartment to the database, view all existing apartments, or begin a new apartment, and, if you have a graphics card and the Cortona VRML client (free), you can view a surreal 3D version of the space.
http://www.turbulence.org/Works/apartment/
Wrongly Accused of Copyright Violation under the DMCA?
Whatever you think of 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), many big companies think of it as a fine competitive sledgehammer to use on smaller companies. That's because of the DMCA's notification procedure that forces ISPs to remove allegedly infringing material from a Web page immediately and without the need for any judicial approval. Whether the material is really in violation is irrelevant and might or might not be decided at some later date. The ISPs simply can't wait to remove the material, so this bludgeon is being applied with ever increasing frequency. It has long seemed that there's no defense against this tactic - not truth, not proof of proper use - but this Web site offers a glimmer of hope. The counter-notification letter outlined here should stop the allegers in their tracks. It's certainly worth a try. Be sure to grab your copy of the instructions before some large, greedy, megalith corporation tries attacking this site with the DMCA.http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,23008,3323985,00.html
As personal pages go, this is one interesting place to hang. Apparently created by a guy in the Netherlands, it opens with an animated silhouette of a man typing furiously away on a computer system. It always opens with the line, "I'd like to apologize for all this.", and then it enters the latest train of thought. And it's a runaway train. The thoughts, images, and animations combine to form a kaleidoscope that you can spend hours staring into. Generally, when you visit somebody's personal home page, you find photos of the kids and the dog. Here, you find artistry.
http://www.nobodyhere.com/justme/index.html
Quick. Think of something in Pueblo, Colo. Did you think "that place with the pamphlets" a.k.a. the Federal Consumer Information Center? We don't know how happy the Pueblo Department of Tourism is about the new ad campaign, but we think it's worked pretty effectively - unless you maybe thought of Under-Eases first. The Federal Consumer Information Center has put together a special package of booklets called "Coping with Crisis", including "Helping Children Cope with Disaster", "Travel Smart", and "Being a Blood Donor", in case you want to do your homework before confronting the nurse with the needle. You can read them all online or send away for them to arrive in your mailbox for a small fee.
http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
ONLINE TRAVEL
Wired's Compendium of Web Sites about Afghanistan
The neat thing about NSD is that we can usually rely on somebody else to do much of the heavy lifting. We just need to point you in the right direction, thus saving you (and us) from aimlessly wondering the Net in search of nuggets in the dirt. In this case, let us tip our hats to Wired, which has put together a nice compilation of links to information about Afghanistan. The timely and diverse link collection has goodies like the Afghanpedia, the Lonely Planet travel guide, Women of Afghanistan, a 20-year-old pre-war photo collection, and even a link to an Afghan cookbook.http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47243,00.html
"Public information should be made public," and "Understanding information is power." Those are the beliefs behind Understanding USA, a Flashy online book that tackles immense subjects with various degrees of success. If you've ever converted a spreadsheet into 3-D charts or maps, you're bound to admire the sweep of statistics condensed into demographic nutshells. Many of the illustrations are complex and have to be viewed at full size to be understood, but it's worth the effort. In the section entitled Population & Becoming President, for example, we learned the population of metropolitan Chicago is greater than that of 21 states, and in Health & Costs, we discovered that the three fattest cities are New Orleans, Norfolk, and San Antonio, in that order. Information Technology tells us the human brain can make 20 million billion calculations per second. In spite of the national cerebral potential, USA: An Annual Report ends with a socio-economic report card in which the US gets an overall grade of C-. Curiously, we spent considerable time here without learning who Richard Saul Wurman is, although the site's logo states "Richard Saul Wurman's Understanding."
http://www.understandingusa.com/
Take Me Out to the Cheese Roll
If you're into oddness and travel, 2camels.com is a good way to spend some of your lunch hour. It can guide you to some of the more off-beat celebrations in the world. Although the site isn't updated too often, if at all, it's a fun little site if you're looking for a quick blurb on some unique entertainment. Each event is marked with curious icons that depict the nature of the event, including icons meaning "loud and lewd" and "downright demented". Unfortunately, you can't search by icon. On one page, the owner claims, "I can't spell and up until a month ago I thought punctuation was a small chain of alternative record shops within the greater London metropolitan area," but we didn't see much evidence of it, possibly because this site has a whole fleet of authors writing for it.http://www.2camels.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
If you're a guitarist or a bassist looking for rock music tablatures, this site can help you out. From CCR to Marilyn Manson, this site runs the gamut, breaking out the guitar tabs and chords and the bass tabs into three separate files. There's also a rock music lyrics collection on the site.http://www.rockmagic.net/
If you're 10 to 15 years old, you'll love this virtual postcard place. Cards feature such things as an animated guy running up behind another animated guy, kicking him in the butt, and standing as the other guy falls over. The headline proclaims that you've been sent a virtual kick in the ass. Fun stuff, for sure.
http://www.riponsomeone.com/
SOFTWARE
MP3 rippers and players are a dime a dozen, and most are worth about that. The Musicmatch shareware package is several standard deviations above the average. It's an excellent MP3 player and ripper (the best ripper our reviewer has seen). It also handles audio CDs and Windows Media files. There's an excellent built-in integration with the CDDB (a CD database). All the expected extras are included, such as skins and a complete cataloguer. You'll enjoy the extras but get Musicmatch for its performance. There are Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. They're basically similar although the Windows version has one flashy feature lacking in the others: Radio MX. Radio MX asks for some basic music taste info and then selects and streams a custom radio program for you. A skip control and ratings let you refine this feature. You get a week free and then it's just under $5 a month or $40 a year.http://www.musicmatch.com/
Details of AOL Communication Protocols Revealed
While many hacks have victimized AOL over the years, until now nobody has really put together a description of its communication protocols in detail. A new document goes into gory details about how the AOL client talks to the AOL servers. At press time, AOL has yet to react, but it's reasonable to assume that the information will result in more hacking activity against the system. Slashdot has the discussion of the protocol and implications.Protocol: http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/theaolprotocol.htm
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/01/10/09/1826205.shtml