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Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Education E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| Routing Around Big Brother in Manhattan |
| E-Mail from Afghanistan... or Not? |
| Arterial Motives: Injecting Science into Art |
| Story People Narrative Art |
| Fractal Worlds |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Arianna Huffington - an Eloquent Surprise |
| Bookfinder or Mood Ring? |
| O'Reilly? Not Really |
| A Desert Rat's Diary |
| Salutation to the Sun (and Not the Microsystems Kind) |
| Mapping the Earth's Gravity GRACEfully |
| Clinical Lab Tests, Translated and Made Understandable |
| Pharmacology Index |
| New Wind Chill Calculation |
| Early PC Operating System CP/M Now Open Source |
| Mozilla 0.9.6 |
| Furry Companion Animals |
| Ping by Pigeon Achieved |
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BREAKING SURF
Hubble Detects Atmosphere Component on Extrasolar Planet
Hubble detected the atmospheric spectrum of an extrasolar planet in transit across the face of its star, designated HD 209458, some 150 light years distant. The planet is estimated to be about 70% the size of Jupiter and orbits very close to its sun with each orbit lasting only 3.5 Earth days. (That's cool. Remember when you could only use terms like that in science fiction?) Scientists found the spectral signature of sodium in the planet's atmosphere, and will look for other gases in future observations. The observation most importantly provides yet another method to detect extrasolar planets. This work proves that the spectral signature of a planet can be distinguished from the background of the star it transits. Besides NASA's press release, you'll find lots of good graphics and info on the project's Web page.NASA: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2001/h01-232.htm
Project: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/38/
There is certainly no shortage of Web sites about Afghanistan these days. National Geographic has put together this one, which emphasizes that organization's particular expertise in geography, photography, and narrative. The site features photo essays, plus several longer written pieces, notably Sebastian Junger's account of his March visit with the recently assassinated (Sept. 9), now legendary Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. The site also features an extensive bibliography, useful to students and scholars, though mostly consisting of offline printed resources. Also playing on National Geographic's strengths is an informative and frequently updated map of the country with several views, including the recent military situation, satellite views, ethnic views, and environmental features such as drought and vegetation. You'll find several good maps of Afghanistan for sale here, certainly a great resource for teachers.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/landincrisis/
Great Idea: the Search Engine Anti-Thesaurus
Webmaster and deep-thinker Nicholas Carroll has researched a concept that strikes near and dear to our hearts: the anti-thesaurus. As a webmaster, Carroll isn't happy with netsurfers who are unnecessarily drawn to his sites in the pursuit of non-existent content; it clogs his bandwidth and serves no purpose for the surfers, either. His solution is easy and elegant: a metadata tag that specifically excludes selected terms from search engine hits by the simple expedient of defining the terms as non-words. His discussion is brief but thorough, and well worth reading. Widespread implementation of his suggestion has the potential to improve the lives of surfers and webmasters alike.http://www.hastingsresearch.com/net/06-anti-thesaurus.shtml
Google Finding Confidential Data Online, Testing User Site Rankings
Search engines are grappling with a privacy problem when they troll the Web to assemble their databases. Search engine spiders are increasingly stumbling on confidential data such as passwords, credit card numbers, and even classified documents. The first CNET article specifically mentions Google's advanced search form, which allows the user to search for specific file types. The article also notes the well known hacker practice of searching for sites that are running CGI programs with known vulnerabilities. Clearly, the search engines are not the problem here - it is up to the webmaster to make sure that no sensitive or insecure documents make it onto the publicly accessible Internet. Another CNET article reports that Google is testing a system that will let users rank Web sites, and some are concerned that spammers may abuse such a system to make their pages show up at the top of searches. Google has a forum where webmasters can discuss such issues.CNET 1: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7946411.html
CNET 2: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7986789.html
Forum: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=google.public.support.general
FBI Developing Enhanced, Remotely Deployed Carnivore
According to heavily censored papers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, MSNBC tells us, the FBI is developing more powerful snooping technology. Currently, the FBI's Carnivore computer snooping can't decrypt encoded messages, which lets informed bad guys hide their plans. The new technology, called Magic Lantern, records keystrokes and transmits the data to agents waiting to unscramble intercepted messages. The use of keylogging isn't new - the FBI previously employed it to get evidence against accused mobster Nicodemo Scarfo - but the ability to infect a target computer with the snooping software via e-mailed computer virus or by exploiting common computer vulnerabilities is. Even in today's permissive climate for anti-terrorist activities, privacy advocates have expressed nervousness at the thought of more powerful snooping software and its potential for indiscriminate and inappropriate use. So far, the FBI hasn't responded to repeated requests for comments or further information on the new software.http://www.msnbc.com/news/660096.asp
Commercial Anti-Virus Companies Won't Detect FBI Snoopware
It seems that both Network Associates (McAfee AntiVirus, PGP), and Symantec (Norton AntiVirus) may purposefully avoid detecting any back doors that the FBI secretly installs on your computers. Reports to that effect have surfaced this week in the wake of public knowledge about FBI projects to develop such software (see above). Network Associates has denied any contact with the FBI, but Wired says its statement does leave some wiggle room for future non-detection policies. Symantec has a firmer policy on the matter and, according to the Register, categorically states that its software would not detect such official snoopware "if it was under the control of the FBI, with appropriate technical safeguards in place to prevent possible misuse." If you have something to hide, you may want to consider something like OpenAntiVirus as an alternative to the commercial anti-virus tools.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,48648,00.html
Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/23057.html
OpenAntiVirus: http://www.openantivirus.org/
Cybercrime Treaty Signed, Not Yet Ratified
The Convention on Cybercrime treaty that was recently finalized by the Council of Europe has been signed by the representatives of 30 nations. The treaty will come into force as soon as five states, at least three of which must be Council of Europe members, have ratified it.Treaty: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/projets/FinalCybercrime.htm
Council: http://press.coe.int/cp/2001/875a(2001).htm(2001).htm
Are you a broadband customer? If so, you might be the victim of "dark address space", according to this SecurityFocus article. A three-year study that analyzed core Internet routing tables indicates that over five percent of the Internet's routable address space lacks global connectivity. This dark address space most often results from accidental misconfiguration or route filtering by network operators who seek to ease the load on their equipment, but why cable modem customers seem more likely to fall into these dark holes remains a mystery. The study also revealed the existence of the more sinister "murky address space", blocks of supposedly unused Internet address space that are sometimes hijacked to launch denial of service or spam attacks.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/282
Badtrans Repeats the Sircam Experience
No matter how much we nag, people still insist on using foolishly designed e-mail software like the Outlook family and as a result the Net is still subject to outbreaks of worms like this new variant of the BadTrans worm. Just viewing the file sent with the e-mail - even in Outlook's preview pane - will infect you. Sophos describes how the virus works and provides instructions on how to remove it. MessageLabs offers some quantitative analysis.Sophos: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32badtransb.html
MessageLabs: http://www.messagelabs.com/viruseye/report.asp?id=86
Star Wars Episode II Related Videos Online
As you can imagine, the traffic on the official Star Wars Web site went through the roof after the movie trailer for "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" went online earlier this month. Nielsen/NetRatings reported that 342,000 unique visitors stopped by in the week after the trailer went online, up from 159,000 the previous week. The Episode II video section has the trailer plus several other clips, notably part one of the three-part mockumentary "R2-D2: Beneath the Dome", an amusing history of the plucky little robot's rise to fame from humble beginnings as a star-struck astromech in a small town in England.Star Wars: http://www.starwars.com/
Episode II Video: http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/video/
Dome, Part I: http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/video/r2_btd/r2_btd1.html
The Hardware in Microsoft's Xbox
Anandtech has a keen eye for technology and here removes the case and examines the innards of the Xbox. Illustrated in detail, this long, intriguing article analyzes the hardware choices and design trade-offs of the new game machine, and fathoms the possible upgrades the technically sophisticated might attempt. The article reviews the CPU, hard drive, DVD drive, graphics chip, and other components of the new console, and compares the new contender to the Playstation 2. Most of us will only ever see the outside of this new toy but it's fun and potentially useful to know what's happening inside. Anandtech even tells you how to dismantle your own Xbox, complete with the caveat that doing so voids the warranty. The article concludes that the new game console is impressive from a hardware perspective. The question is whether developers will design games to take full advantage of its architecture. Stay tuned for Anandtech's look at Nintendo's new GameCube.http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1561
Its time to head back to Castle Wolfenstein. Those who fondly remember the first games, Castle Wolfenstein (for the Apple II) or Wolfenstein 3D (the first first-person shooter), may or may not have their own copy of this new game already - a Mac OSX version is only in beta, but the Windows version is on the shelves - but those who don't might find this first-person shooter mighty entertaining. Where else will you be able use the Quake software engine to take on Nazis and genetically engineered monsters, and help win World War II all over again? Online play keeps the fun dynamic. If you know or love a gamer, this is a must-have game.
http://www.activision.com/games/wolfenstein/home.html
A number of developers are spending a lot of time and money trying to define the next generation of computer interfaces. Concepts vary, but developers generally assume that the familiar desktop interface is all but dead. Alternative approaches include the Scopeware approach, which relies on automatic time-stamping. Scopeware states that the most recently accessed files should be closest at hand. Although operating systems already implement this approach to some degree, Scopeware is more ambitious in scope, hence its name. Some 3-D alternatives arrange the material in your system along the lines of the navigable Web - easy enough to deal with in close but, as one Slashdot critic noted, more and more of a "rats' nest" the further back your perspective. Other factions advocate dumping the PC-as-Swiss-army-knife approach altogether, in favor of task-specific appliances. Maybe we're too nerdy, but we favor the KISS concept: Keep it simple, stupid! The history of computing is littered with cool concepts that nobody adopted. Technology Review has a three-page article, Slashdot features discussion, and Nooface follows user interface issues in general.
Technology Review: http://www.techreview.com/magazine/dec01/tristram.asp
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/01/11/20/0624240.shtml
Nooface: http://nooface.net/
Full Disclosure vs. Secrecy in Security Bugs
Security expert Bruce Schneier weighs in on the "bug secrecy vs. full disclosure" debate that has heated up since Microsoft recently announced its intent to lead a charge against publication of software security exploits. Schneier describes the "Window of Exposure" that determines the evolution of a security vulnerability over time, and compares the timeline from the discovery of vulnerability to the release of a vendor patch in cultures of full disclosure and bug secrecy. His conclusion? Schneier says, historically, the Window of Exposure is shorter when vulnerabilities are published. ZDNet has his comments, and you can find a complete explanation of the "Window of Exposure" in a Cryptogram newsletter from September 2000.ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2824251,00.html
Cryptogram: http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0009.html
The O'Reilly Book Sales Economic Indicator
If you program, you probably own a few titles from the O'Reilly publishing house. In a new twist, O'Reilly posits that the sales of its books might serve as a leading economic indicator, comparable to the NASDAQ or semi-conductor billings. Although the data is limited to O'Reilly titles, the underlying thesis seems to have a certain logic. Put simply, individuals invest in themselves to take advantage of coming growth when they think the economy is going to grow. Hence, they buy books to learn skills that might make them more employable at higher wages. If those same people don't think the economy will grow, they avoid such purchases. Whatever its merit, it does give new power to the old question, "What are you reading these days?"http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/webservices/2001/11/16/indicator.html
Free Software Is a State of Mind
What exactly is free software? Is it simply that the cost is zero? Or is it a moral and political mindset as well? Lawrence Lessig has argued that code is law, a perspective that Bradley Kuhn and Richard Stallman embrace in an elegant manifesto on the meaning of free software. Slashdot has a fairly good and sensible discussion of the text. Given the recent proposed settlement in the Microsoft case, users may find this all quite interesting and educational.Manifesto: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/freedom-or-power.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/01/11/22/2347224.shtml
Well, we're at it again. We're launching another e-zine. This one is all about things robotic, in our usual inimitable Digest style. Why robotics? Well, this past year has seen an amazing upsurge of interest in robotics, mostly because of those cool battling robots on television. Of course, Japan has been robot mad for decades (anybody remember Astroboy?) and the West has been increasingly importing Japanese robot culture at prodigious rates. Just take a look at your neighborhood toy store shelves and you'll see that robots are definitely in. So, long story short, we figured we'd get in on the action and decided to do an e-zine. Here's the first issue. It's a prototype with a distinctive new look, so squint your eyes and ignore the glitches. Check it out and if you like it subscribe.
NSR: http://www.netsurf.com/nsr/
Subscribe: http://www.netsurf.com/nsr/subscribe.html
We've been bringing you short little book recommendations for several years now. They're not so much reviews as little blurbs about books which we think are cool or interesting. By now we've accumulated quite a number of them, so we decided to gather them all in one place in a convenient searchable database. Thus we proudly bring you Netsurfer Library. Check it out, browse around, look for your old favorites, and see which books have been our best-sellers. Enjoy.
NSL: http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/
ONLINE CULTURE
Routing Around Big Brother in Manhattan
In addition to censorship, the Internet also seems to route around surveillance. Two civil liberty organizations have collaborated on an interactive map of surveillance cameras in Manhattan. A dedicated group of volunteers from the NYC Surveillance Camera Project (NSCP) walked the streets of Manhattan and mapped camera locations, finding 2,397 of them, at last count. The folks at the Institute of Applied Autonomy (IAA) then took that data and made an interactive map that lets you plan a route between any two points in the city that will avoid as many cameras as possible. While on the IAA site, check out the two robot projects: Little Brother, which distributes activist pamphlets; and GraffitiWriter, which can be used to write messages - presumably ones subverting the current social order - on the pavement.NSCP: http://www.mediaeater.com/cameras/
IAA Map: http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee/
E-Mail from Afghanistan... or Not?
"I could still see the dust of the pick-up trucks carrying the Taliban out of my village, and some friends and I went and dug up the boards of a chicken coop where I had hid the computer." Thus speaks Junis, according to Slashdotter Jon Katz. Katz says he received a fascinating e-mail from this Afghani geek who hungrily is soaking up Western entertainment and technology in a village outside of Kabul via his newly liberated Commodore. "Now he's furiously trying to download movies he's missed," writes Katz, "and is mesmerized by open source and Slashdot." But Slashdot readers who don't quite buy the story of the computer in the chicken coop have cried "fowl". "Exactly how does an Ubergeek in Afghanistan use an ancient Commodore to download and play movies?" they ask, and "when did DSL/broadband get into Kabul?" Was Katz had? Or is he having on Slashdot readers? Will Junis speak up, or will Katz be banished to the doghouse? Stay tuned.http://slashdot.org/features/01/11/17/204207.shtml
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Arterial Motives: Injecting Science into Art
PaperVeins is a multimedia collaboration with an interesting focus - the artistic treatment of relationships between the human body and medicine, society and technology. Slick and good-looking in that "artsy-flashy-where's-the-back-button?" kind of way, the site is minimally presented as an art museum with seven floors of exhibits. Site navigation is less than explicit, but wander around and you'll stumble over some strange and beautiful things, some fun interactive experiments, and quite a bit of satire, especially in the Portrait gallery of faux Web sites such as Clones R Us and the "Pop!" page allegedly documenting the world's first male pregnancy. The latter site, at least, has taken in more than a few gullible Net travelers.http://www.paperveins.org/
"He discovered his reset button early on & there were not many things that bothered him all the rest of his days just because of that." Thus spins one anecdote from Brian Andreas's long-limbed, bright baubles of narrative whimsy called Story People, creations who tell tales of crayon pirates, clock crimes, and other adventures in living. There are dozens of these small, lovely, loosely drawn stories in the form of modestly-priced art prints at his site, as well as sculpture, books, and furniture pieces. Brian's talent for mining the human soul and his engagingly eccentric artistic style have earned Story People a cadre of enthusiastic fans and render the site a pleasure to peruse, even if one isn't in the market for art.
http://www.storypeople.com/
This Pandromeda corporate site should be on your short list of must-see fractal world sites. Many of the worldviews are startlingly realistic. Although Pandromeda is clearly hawking its MojoWorld software, it does offer some freebies here. One not to be missed is the Transporter software, which allows visitors to explore a number of virtual worlds. Whatever your platform, you need some serious horsepower under the hood. Oh, and be prepared to give up at least 200 MB of hard-disk real estate for this little set of voyages. No wonder Intel chose to showcase the product as Technology of the Future at this year's Comdex. Intel's job is putting the horses under the hood; this stuff puts the horses to work. Git along, little dogies!
http://www.fractalworlds.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
Language and the Internet 
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Skipping Christmas
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior
Being a Man in a Woman's World
Making Babies: The Science of PregnancyArianna Huffington - an Eloquent Surprise
Arianna Huffington became well known in the '90s as a friend and eloquent spokesperson for conservative causes. Her columns, always finely crafted and as enraging to her foes as they were comforting to her friends, have left strict dogma behind as they've drifted slowly but surely to the center and even past that to the liberal left. Her personal Web site, with its excerpts of her books and archives of her columns, illuminates and explains her recent political past. The how and the why are both here - but surprisingly, it has nothing to do with sharing a bed with Al Franken on "Politically Incorrect". If you're interested in or care about current American politics, this site is a must read. And if all you care about is well crafted written essays, it's also an excellent place to visit.http://www.ariannaonline.com/
In the mood for a happy, but frightening and violent, yet optimistic novel to while away the long winter nights? Does "Footsucker" by Geoff Nicholson sound about right? The Book Forager is a fascinating little toy that provides book recommendations based on user preferences indicated on up to four of ten sliding scales. Slide the scale somewhere between two extremes on a variety of criteria such as beautiful/repulsive, funny/serious, happy/sad, or even short/long and Book Forager will search its index of over 1,000 books for a proper fit. Additional choices allow one to specify character, plot, and setting preferences, and for a long, unpredictable "quest" novel, featuring an Asian heroine and set in the Baltics, Book Forager suggests "The Shift" by George Foy.
http://www.branching-out.net/forager/
Parody and satire, done well, are the highest of arts. What could be higher praise for a parody than the permission, if not endorsement, of what is parodied? That's exactly the case at the O'Really site. Here you can check out such classics as "Writing Word Macro Viruses", "Practical Unix Terrorism", "Tracing Spammers", and more. Full descriptions are naturally available. Our reviewer would pay full price for that last title. The style is classic O'Reilly, but the closest these titles come to print is the cover art on T-shirts. Unix jocks might be especially interested in "Why You Can't Find Your UNIX System Administrator". Old-time NSD readers will recognize the bofhcam.org domain, and newer readers are encouraged to check it out.
http://bofhcam.org/co-larters/index.html
"Struan's War" is a book of gorgeous photos and text compiled by New Zealand Division gunner Struan MacGibbon in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. It's not simply a chronicle of war and destruction. Large sections are devoted to recreation, troop entertainment, and sightseeing. MacGibbon's photos make excellent Web fodder. On paper, they must be spectacular. The site only offers 13 photos with long captions and while it's an ad for the book, it's an amazingly tasty sample.
http://www.ngaiopress.com/struan.htm
Salutation to the Sun (and Not the Microsystems Kind)
When we say it's painful just to look at a site we're often commenting on its poor design and layout. At Yoga Journal, there's none of that. The design and layout is spectacular and clean, but the implausible featured poses on the front page hurt just to look at. This companion site to the magazine of the same name, however, is probably frequented mostly by those already involved in yoga, and these contortions probably look far more achievable to practicers of the art. The site has lots of content, including an Ask an Expert column, a spotlight on a specific studio, a list of poses (with Sanskrit and English nicknames), and a special section for those new to yoga.http://yogajournal.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
Mapping the Earth's Gravity GRACEfully
To obtain the most accurate gravity map of the Earth so far, NASA and the German Agency DLR plan to launch twin satellites aboard a Russian rocket next February. The satellites will be linked via a radio beam that will allow their separation to be finely measured. As they pass over different parts of the Earth, the subtle impact of slight variations in gravity on their orbits will show up as variations in the distance between the two spacecraft. A new gravity map will be produced each month of the five-year mission. Knowing the Earth's exact gravitational field brings weight to bear on a lot of other subjects including the geological history of the planet and a series of important environmental questions. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) project site offers technical details including the math and physics behind the method while the BBC has the lay story.GRACE: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1668000/1668872.stm
Clinical Lab Tests, Translated and Made Understandable
Many doctors don't speak English, even in English-speaking environments. They speak medicalese. When the tell you they're sending you for a PSA along with an EBT, they probably can't explain the whys and whats of the tests, although, to be fair, it hurts their chances to do so if you haven't studied any biology. Fortunately Lab Tests Online can explain what will be happening, why it will happen, and, most importantly of all, how to interpret the results. The site, from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, is completely non-commercial. Users can search for tests by name, by specific condition, and by screening tests appropriate to an age group. If you deal with health care, you'll agree that this is one of the most useful medical sites we've found. All medical professions should also use it, so that ordinary people don't have to.http://www.labtestsonline.org/
RxList doesn't replace professional advice, but lets users check the accuracy of medical advice and prescriptions. Prescription errors and unforeseen drug interactions are serious medical problems. Consumers are forced to rely on doctors and pharmacists to get everything right. RxList lets you double-check the professionals. See if you actually got what the doctor ordered by searching for a description of the pills or tablets. Instead of the generic instructions now supplied by pharmacy computers, read the source material. Check the interaction warnings yourself. Drugs can be searched for by name, keyword, and imprint code. There's a glossary of medical terminology and enhanced data on the 200 most-prescribed drugs. The site also covers Western herbs, homeopathics (feh!), and Chinese herbal remedies. Medical warning: Avoid the incredibly lame RxLaughs area.
http://www.rxlist.com/
For those in North America, we have an update: winter's here. You'll want to check out the new wind chill temperature index that the US National Weather Service implemented on Nov. 1, although further refinements to the model won't be in place until sometime next year. The new model drops the wind speed altitude from three stories up to face level, meaning five feet up from ground level. The new wind chill factor means that a temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind speed of 15 mph equates to 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Better bundle up! Under the old system, the wind chill effect under the same conditions produced an even lower measurement - nine degrees Fahrenheit. Ain't modern science a marvel?
http://ggweather.com/windchill.htm
SOFTWARE
Early PC Operating System CP/M Now Open Source
Cast your mind way back to 1974, when the CP/M operating system was born in the dark recesses of the Digital Research corporation. This very first generic operating system for microcomputers is significant for being the ancestor of the DOS operating systems that made Microsoft the giant it is today. Following the recent death of Tim Olmstead, who maintained the unofficial center of the CP/M universe called the Unofficial CP/M Web Site, the company which held the license to the software has released it into the wild Net. In the long run, old software never dies, it simply goes free. A fine bit of software nostalgia. NewsForge has details.NewsForge: http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/11/23/171225
CP/M: http://www.cpm.z80.de/
You've got to admit that there's a certain weird fascination in watching the Mozilla browser version numbers creep up toward 1.0. Kind of like watching the odometer on a classic car creep up on 1,000,000 kilometers or something. The project is years old and the software is actually reasonably good at this point, but darn it, they still haven't made the 1.0 mark. The notes say that milestones 0.9.7 and 0.9.8 will focus on performance enhancement, and stability of the mail and news functions.
http://www.mozilla.org/
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
The Furry Critter Network offers descriptions and links to basic information about pets. The framework includes shelters and rescue organizations, which at the moment are sparsely represented. There's some useful information if you're seeking a new companion. One drawback is that few serious breeders will take the site seriously as it offers ads for stud services and online animal sales. Both practices are frowned on by many. If you stay on the data side of this site, it'll prove helpful.http://www.furrycritter.com/
CORRECTIONS
CNET tech writer Stephen Shankland wrote in to tell us that among the list of joke RFCs we looked at in NSD 7.37, one - RFC 1149, the Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers - has in fact been implemented. Stephen was kind enough to point us to his own article on the achievement, at the URL below.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5825807.html