|
Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Education E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine Netsurfer Library E-Zine Netsurfer Robotics E-Zine Netsurfer Focus E-Zine |
| The Lineage of Richard Garriott |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Entering Buttock, pop. 300 |
| A Photo Tale of Two Cities |
| Unusual Road Signage |
| ...And the Boy Scout Said, "It's OK. He Took My Backpack." |
| Lookandfeel New Media's Awesome Flash Intro |
| A Small-Fry Food Site |
| Picture Search Engine |
| Opera 6.0 Browser Released |
| XBox Internet Gateway |
| Evolution: Outlook Killer for Linux/Unix |
| The uServ Project |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
OUR AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
Click on the image
Hot+Cold Snack Box
Sharper Image
A versatile, personal electronic mini "fridge" keeps drinks and snacks
cold or hot. Pop one on your desk and no more sharing the corporate
fridge and having your bananas smell like soy sauce because your
co-workers are into Chow Mein.
RoboCub Walking Talking Robot with Wireless Remote Control
Sharper Image
Walks, talks and sings "I'm a little robot, da-da-da...". The eyes and
mouth light up as it spouts dozens of random phrases. What's not to like?
Holiday Dinner Wine Package
Wine.com
Six decent wines that are sure to please everyone during your holiday dinner,
along with up to 14 recipe cards, a wine aroma wheel, a food and wine
pairing pocket guide and a varietal/main dish advisor. An easy and affordable
way to avoid having to make wine choices for your holiday meal.
Millenium Truffle Bars
Bodega Chocolates
Mmmmmmm, truffles.... They're expensive, but really, really delicious.
Handspring Visor Edge
Handspring
It's the thinnest, coolest Palm OS PDA on the market. Plenty of power
and really easy to stuff in your shirt pocket or purse, something you
can't always easily do with the other PDAs. No business person or student
should be without one these days. Expandable too.
Scooter Mania Sweeps The Country!
BREAKING SURF
The hype was almost laughable, as was the sight of helmeted morning show anchors teetering on top of it. The broad outlines of IT, a.k.a. Ginger and now known as Segway, were deduced months ago. It is a gyroscopically balanced, high-tech - and expensive - single-axle scooter. The premise of this little gizmo tooling along the sidewalks of New York or Los Angeles is pretty silly. The pedestrians in New York would pummel it into junk for getting in the way and in sprawling Los Angeles, a Segway wouldn't even get you to the neighborhood supermarket in decent time. On the other hand, a Segway's fit within more modest applications, such as zippin' around the endless aisles of the local Wal-Mart, cruising the stately walkways of a campus, or in use as a courier/postal vehicle, are quite likely. Segway won't replace your car or even your bike, but it could take the place of your family Vespa. The truly innovative aspect of the little gizmo is the sophisticated computer programming behind its control system. That part truly pushes the state of the art in adoptive systems and deserves some attention. The rest is hype and techno toy lust.http://www.segway.com/
Only Paul and Ringo are left. The death of former Beatle George Harrison has fans, and even the Queen of England, in mourning. CNN has a detailed discussion of Harrison's life and work, and of his relationships with his former colleagues. It also supplies many photos of the various impromptu mourning sites at Strawberry Field in Central Park and Abbey Road in London. Albums, Songs, and Lyrics (ASL) has a complete discography and the lyrics to all of Harrison's compositions. Salon has several excellent articles, including an appreciation of Harrison's famous Bangladesh benefit concert.
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/harrison/index.html
ASL: http://web.mit.edu/scholvin/www/harrison/harrison.html
Salon 1: http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/12/01/harrison_kam/index.html
Salon 2: http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2001/12/01/beatle_george/index.html
Bangladesh: http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/12/01/harrison_concert/index.html
Potential Green River Serial Killer Arrested
Police in the Pacific Northwest knew they had a serial killer in the area as four dozen women went missing and many turned up dead, at first along the Green River south of Seattle, in the 1980s. For 17 years, investigators have sought the Green River serial killer. Although they had a list of many suspects, they lacked solid evidence. Modern DNA technology has finally led to the arrest of Gary Lee Ridgway, one of the listed suspects. In 1987, under court order, Ridgway chewed on a piece of gauze to provide a saliva sample. New forensics technology has matched the DNA in the saliva to that found with three of the victims. For the true-crime drama of the course of the investigation, spend some time at the Crime Library. Salon has the latest update - the news of Ridgway's arrest.Crime Library: http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial3/greenriver/
Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/12/01/green_river/index.html
When Lights Go Out on Broadband
ExciteAtHome was the biggest broadband supplier in North America, but last Saturday, some 850,000 customers of AT&T, which used its facilities, found themselves suddenly unable to go online. AT&T and Canadian broadband companies Shaw and Rogers had been scrambling for days to migrate their clients to alternative services but were caught off guard by the sudden service suspension made possible by a judge, who ruled that ExciteAtHome could pull the plug to pressure cable companies to renegotiate contracts. With whom, exactly, the blame lies isn't entirely clear. The sad dark ending is the legacy of a corporate marriage between Excite and AtHome marked by boardroom intrigue, widespread executive bickering, unfavorable contracts with cable companies, a complex ownership structure, and the absence of a clear business direction. AT&T owns 23% of the company but would like to buy the rest, and vows to restore service to affected customers as soon as possible. It's an unexciting end for a bright dream - but it surely ain't no way to run a railroad. CNET's coverage is extensive.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-201-8020240-0.html
Free Speech Advocates Lose Again
In two separate rulings, courts have ruled in favor of content providers and against opponents of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In the first case, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York confirmed a prohibition against posting links to the DeCSS computer code, the program that allows DVD movies to be decoded. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), on behalf of Web publisher Eric Corley, spearheaded the original court challenge against the Motion Picture Association of America and the appeal of the first decision. In the second ruling, a New Jersey judge determined that legal threats by the Recording Industry Association of America haven't in fact stopped Princeton University professor Edward Felten from publishing anything about the industry's music protection technology. The EFF says it will probably appeal this decision.DeCSS on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-202-8011238.html
DeCSS on EFF: http://www.eff.org/Cases/MPAA_DVD_cases/
Felten on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8010671.html
Felten on EFF: http://www.eff.org/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA/
Toad Hall Kisses Cypherpunks Goodbye
A weary Cypherpunks co-founder John Gilmore has kicked the famous mailing list off his Toad Hall Web site. Established in the early '90s as a forum for the discussion of privacy and digital cryptography, Cypherpunks has been a spawning ground for web activism on these issues, and a locus for many of today's noted cryptographers, including Adam Shostack of Zero-Knowledge Systems and Lance Cottrell, developer of the Anonymizer, both of whom attribute much of their early progress to the list. But as popular fora are apt to do, and as those dedicated to cryptoanarchy are almost sure to do, Cypherpunks grew unwieldy and chaotic, and "degenerated," says Gilmore, "to the point where I have no idea why more than 500 people are still receiving it every day.". SecurityFocus has the story.SecurityFocus: http://securityfocus.com/news/294
Toad Hall: http://www.toad.com/
Online Genealogy Data Sparks Fear of Identity Theft
The existence of a database of 24 million California birth records on a genealogical Web site has led to concerns that the data could be used for nefarious purposes, such as identity theft. The State of California sells the database on CD-ROM for about $900, and at least two online companies, the RootsWeb genealogy site and the PeopleSearch background search company, have bought a copy and allow access to it online. After the San Jose Mercury News (SJMN) revealed that this data is online, people reportedly flooded RootsWeb with requests to be removed from the database. CNET reports RootsWeb has removed the entire database from any online access.RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/
PeopleSearch: http://www.peoplesearch.com/
SJMN: http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/hottopics/security/priv113001.htm
CNET: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8055175.html
Matt McClung is the man in charge of computer security for the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. This Wired article talks about his formidable task and notes that he thinks that potential hacking threats have been somewhat overhyped in the media. As you might expect, McClung reveals no details about the security arrangements other than typically reassuring the reader about the existence of firewalls and intrusion detection systems. The article states that the Olympic network consists of 4,500 PCs and 500 servers that handle such tasks as athlete accreditation, medical services, transport management, and, of course, distribution of event results. McClung cites reliability as his primary concern, particularly in light of the lessons from the unhappy experience with an integrated computer system put together by IBM for the 1996 summer games.
Winter Olympics: http://www.saltlake2002.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48665,00.html
This Year's Supercomputer Rankings
The 18th Top500 list of the world's most powerful computers was recently released. Taking top honors is the IBM ASCI White system, used by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to model nuclear weapons. That supercomputer covers an area the size of two basketball courts, is powered by 8,192 copper microprocessors, and contains six trillion bytes (or 6 TB) of memory with more than 160 TB of hard disk storage capacity. ASCI White is nearly twice as powerful as number two on the list, the Terascale Computing System, a machine at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center consisting of 3,000 Compaq Alpha processors. The list has links to all the machines and a summary of the ever-increasing trends in supercomputing capacity.http://www.top500.org/lists/2001/11/
RealNetworks Introduces Music/Multimedia Subscription Service
The new RealOne service from RealNetworks costs $10 per month and boasts access to over 2,000 radio stations, programming from a number of major television network outlets, and a revamped RealPlayer geared to cross promotion of consumer content. The service has debuted to lukewarm reviews and a pronounced lack of interest among consumers. RealNetworks is hoping to capture some of the vast online music-trading audience, but it will be a hard sell. There is so much free music out there that the idea of paying $10 per month for it - especially for the students who make up the bulk of online music consumers - is not appetizing. As someone once said, free is a very low price. The service's non-portability and the monthly download limits help crank down its appeal.http://www.real.com/realone/plus/index.html
Multimedia Messages to the Troops
Compaq, Sorenson Media, and Digital Island have created a program that lets family members post three-minute video messages for American military personnel overseas. The project, outlined on the Give Thanks America site, also offers members of the general public a chance to record and post onsite 30-second messages of appreciation to rescue personnel and service people. Compaq will send mobile units to selected cities to record the video messages. Intended message recipients will receive e-mails containing an embedded, clickable "video ticket" that will route them to the hosted video. An overview at the site details the process.http://www.givethanksamerica.com/
CNET offers this collection of articles about Windows XP and what it means to you. There are reviews of the operating system and the Microsoft Plus add-on, some information on look-and-feel, implications of Microsoft's Passport technology, usage tips and tricks, and more. If you've wondered about whether to upgrade this may be a relatively gentle way to figure out what you'll be getting into.
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-6688749.html
ONLINE CULTURE
The Lineage of Richard Garriott
Richard Garriott is well known in gaming circles as Lord British, the creator of the wildly popular Ultima and Ultima Online game series. Garriott is no longer associated with Ultima these days, having cashed out of the franchise some years ago. Salon is running this feature about Garriott's latest ventures, including the American introduction of an online game called Lineage: The Blood Pledge. The game is wildly popular, with over three million players, in Asia, where game conflict sometimes spills into real life, spilling real blood. It's not a sure bet that this Asian fad will take the West by storm, given the vast cultural gulf between Eastern and Western game culture. (Check out the Wired article on Boong-Ga Boong-Ga. Or, rather, don't.) The Salon story also talks about another game Garriott is developing, a more spiritual/philosophical outing called Tabula Rasa, and about his belief that current online games leave a wide-open market opportunity for competitors by virtue of limited gaming models.Ultima: http://www.uo.com/
Salon: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/12/04/garriott/index.html
Lineage: http://www.lineage-us.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48438,00.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.
|
The Problem of Evil: A Reader
The Far Side Last Impressions 2002 Off-the-Wall Calendar
Programming Jabber
Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion
Return to Castle WolfensteinSURFING SITES
There's a certain class of people - average intelligence or above, competitive, and thirsty for self-approval - that loves solving puzzles. These folks have bought at least one copy of Games magazine at some point, have at least dabbled with various crossword puzzle manifestations, and stayed up all night, or consecutive nights, to complete The Fool's Errand that first time they learned about it. If you belong to this group, allow us to apologize and prepare to kiss the rest of your work day goodbye, for here is your next obsession and it's called Reflections. Like so many superb puzzle games, it's simple in concept and infinite in play. You have a game board with a laser and some light bulbs. Your job is to light the bulbs with a limited tool chest of lenses and mirrors while avoiding obstacles. It's online, it's free, and if it sounds too easy, remember that thought on boards 11, 17, and 23. Have fun.The Fool's Errand: http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?id=422
Reflections: http://www.input-entertainment.de/laser/laser.html
This concept started as an artist's what-if. What if, Gebhard Sengmuller thought, there had been a way to record television before the introduction of video recorders in 1958? He decided to invent just such a technology and came up with VinylVideo, a fully functional and completely archaic way to record video on vinyl records. The Video on Vinyl site tracks the offbeat idea through development and into product as if it were an ad campaign. The site's logic is persuasive, but even if you get hooked you can't really buy the system, despite the promises - besides, prices are well over the top. The playback device - because for all the hoaxery involved in the pitch, the technology is very real - is composed of an ordinary turntable and a standard TV, connected through some sort of interface box. The first VinylVideo production was the infomercial that touts it. It's technology, it's art, it's alternate history, it's a joke - it's worth a look.
http://www.vinylvideo.com/
If you're interested in portable computing, low-power computing, portable webcams, and similar items that populate geek hog heaven, try this excellent stop. Look inside Alison's pants and marvel at the chat capabilities that the tiny system affords. The place to be is not Alison's pantscam itself, but the opening page. The photos and links are the guts of this site, and it's an impressive bit of work. The discussion of wireless design and layout, one of the links on this page, is particularly interesting, illustrated, and eminently readable.
http://www.pantscam.com/
The official-sounding International Central Services Toaster Museum looks and feels like a slick, professional corporate site, but it is merely the means by which one wacky guy from Germany celebrates and pursues the best thing he's ever come across - the humble toaster. At prices sometimes topping $2000 for a single model, though, the 400 toasters exhibited here are not really all that humble, and some of the designs seem more like Tesla inventions than the kitchen appliances that banks once gave away. The permanent exhibit is searchable by toaster characteristic, country, or company, and the site also includes a special exhibit of "the rarest and craziest toasters on earth". If you agree that the toaster is the best thing since sliced bread, pop in; the creator is putting together a worldwide forum of toaster collectors, and wouldn't you feel like a crumb if you missed that?
http://www.central-services.de/toastermuseum/
Ouija boards aren't always called Ouija boards, you know. They are also called talking boards, witchboards, spiritboards, or mystic boards. By whatever name, the Ouija format and subject matter have allowed artists and manufacturers to create some bizarre and beautiful board designs since the appearance of the first homemade versions in the mid-1800s. The Museum of Talking Boards has a nice image gallery of boards through the decades, plus as much information as can be conjured on the subject short of consulting the spirit oracle. Ouija history, superstition, directions, and - cough - theory are all here, as well as lists of appearances by the talking board in books and movies, and much more. Consult the site map for a complete list since not everything is linked from individual page menus.
http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/
The pundits at Seethru really, really think the Internet is crap, which is why they decided to do an e-zine all about it. Describing the effort as "a filter to strain out the floaty hairy toenail plug of... pointless fat tissue that is the Web these days," the Seethru editors gleefully point out the hairiest, most adiposal sites they can find, then devote the rest of the zine to more quality content: sex, drugs, and MP3s. Amusing and satirical in a sort of wee Brits do Salon way, Seethru offers lots of quizzes, tests, games, guides, and lists ("12 Web Weirdos", "7 Spoof Porn Sites", "Quiz: Are You a Lesbian?"), as well as a weblog, an MP3 music log, impertinent e-greeting cards, and random rants and commentary. This isn't really the place to go if you are looking for a reinvention of the Web, but you'll probably find something here to entertain you in the meantime.
http://www.seethru.co.uk/
Venting about Microsoft's latest and not greatest is not only healthy, but wise: as you read other people's comments and discoveries, you can learn more about your own software and equipment. As expected, most of the recent gripes at this gripe collection concern WinXP, but nothing is ever totally spared here. The entries fall into two distinct categories: sour grapes, often posted by the utterly clueless; and serious information, generally taken from or in the form of links to the mainstream computer press. The second category is obviously the most useful, but the gripes of the clueless are worth reading for their humor (and if you don't get it...). Our reviewer has a gripe with this site: it has incredibly dense text and is hard to read. This is the world of hypermedia.
http://www.computergripes.com/
The Irish claim that whiskey is the water of life, but most of the world bestows that honor on beer. Beer, among the most ancient of refreshing beverages, is found the world over (save in strict Islamic states) and is consumed in vast quantities. In recent years, beer has expanded from its traditional commodity role, adopting a high-end boutique air. The RealBeer site leans toward the boutique beers and ales, although it has a good deal of general beer and ale information. In 19 states, Americans can buy beer via the Net and have it delivered to their door. RealBeer's strength and major drawback is that it's primarily a well-designed e-commerce operation. If the product or products you're interested in are carried, you'll find a lot of information about them; if they're not carried, they simply don't exist as far as the site is concerned. That offers a lot, but leaves out even more.
http://www.realbeer.com/
Especially during the holiday season, we often find ourselves pulled too many directions at once. FranticWoman.com tries to tackle these from a particularly female point of view, offering Direction, Balance, and Hope as their three main categories of advice and aphorism. The site appears to be built around a Franklin Covey-esque seminar the site founders have created and called the Seven Habits of a Highly Frantic Woman. We had a difficult time finding our way through the flower navigation that seemingly sprouts all over the page, plus we thought it was a bit trite. Presumably the FranticMan.com site would be made of sticks and snails and puppy-dog tails.
http://www.franticwoman.com/
Dogs Playing Poker and Other Online Games
GameScene is the home of many online Shockwave and Flash games. They're fun, fast, and free, but don't expect virtual reality video and CD-quality sound. If you're a fan of five-card draw poker, try playing Dogs Playing Poker with Rex, Puddles, Fido, and Spot. The game mechanics are simple and intuitive and the dogs play pretty much like dogs. They bluff way too much, never actually cheat, and that's about all you need to know. You should win. The Shockwave Arcade has more advanced action games. HyperJet Racing is a good example of what can be done in action games. There are so many games in so many categories that every game player will find something here.http://gamescene.com/
ONLINE TRAVEL
We don't know whether the people are friendlier in the neighborhood of Cock Heads than they are in Crotch Crescent, nor whether it's better to be from Bushy Bottom or Dungy Head, and given our druthers, we'd probably choose not to be a native of Breasty Haw. We've had the chance to consider these, and many other alarming possibilities, thanks to Amusing UK Place Names, a humorous stroll through the eccentric nomenclature of the British countryside. Do follow the map links here to fully relish the geographic significance of, say, Buttock, which we find is only a hop-skip-and-jump from Lower Black Moss, just down the way from Big End.http://www.jump-around.com/tools/place-names/
Just when we thought we couldn't take another blog in any shape or form, along comes something to surprise us. Two photographers, one in New York and one in Amsterdam, have collaborated to create an excellent photolog that juxtaposes themed photos of the two cities. Updated nearly daily, the photo duets are strong, visually appealing, and striking in their ability to simultaneously highlight difference and similarity in these two intriguing cities. Occasionally poignant, often humorous, sometimes just downright gorgeous (see "Orange"), this is a delightful bright addition to an Internet meme that has begun to seem very tiresome at times. Bravo.
http://www.nycasd.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Road signs are important cultural indicators. They tell us where things are and where they were. They can also be unintentionally funny. This Web site offers well over 100 examples of silly signs, located mostly in the northeastern US. The worst examples here are funny enough to make anyone smile.http://www.signslanguage.com/
...And the Boy Scout Said, "It's OK. He Took My Backpack."
This idea's time came Sept. 11, but the domain came only Sept. 18. Live above the 10th floor? Work in a high-rise? Stow an Executivechute in the closet, just in case. The training doesn't involve an actual jump, however, and if we get bonked by some idiot with a runaway parachute, we're going to be miffed.http://www.executivechute.com/
Lookandfeel New Media's Awesome Flash Intro
You may never need these design services, but the site's Flash intro manages to combine cleverness and originality without being overpowering. Speaking of fun, be sure to visit the Area 14 section in the Portfolio link. That gravity toy is a great time-waster!http://www.lookandfeel.com/
This small site belongs to a chef who, after 20 years in the business, talks of continuing to grow. We find that attitude refreshing. Brian Johnson offers two dozen recipes here, with more to come - all original. There's a great looking recipe for flank steak, and he makes extensive use of the grill. We love that.
http://awesome-chef-recipes.tripod.com/
Right now, it lags Lycos, but Picsearch can contend in the picture search engine wars, especially if it focuses on its unique aspects. Advanced search lets the user choose animated or static images, black and white or color, or picture size. "Family friendly" filters keep the gratuitous nudity to a bare minimum.
http://www.picsearch.com/
SOFTWARE
The Opera Web browser runs a distant but respectable third, behind Internet Explorer and Netscape, in popularity. This latest release makes it an even more attractive alternative to the big two and should boost its share a bit. The 6.0 version features speed enhancements, more sophisticated searching integration, a multi-window interface option, and a number of Web browsing information management features. This release is for Windows. A Linux version is in beta, and a Mac version should follow shortly. You can try an ad-supported free version before you buy, and the non-ad version will cost you a reasonable $39. The Reviewer's Guide has a good summary of features.Opera: http://www.opera.com/
Guide: http://www.opera.com/press/guides/reviewer/
Some clever Linux programmers have cobbled together software that lets you hook up several Xbox game consoles over the Internet. Microsoft did not ship Xboxes with built-in multi-unit Net connectivity, but the company did include a rudimentary local network capability. This programming team created bridge software that extends the Xbox network through your Net connection so that you can play Halo online against anybody with a similar set-up. The FAQ has comprehensive information on what it takes to get the set-up to work for both Linux and Windows PC owners.
http://www.xboxgw.com/xboxgw_faq-v101.html
Evolution: Outlook Killer for Linux/Unix
Maybe that headline is a bit presumptuous, but the free Evolution software suite is certainly a worthy Unix competitor for Microsoft's reigning (and vulnerable) Outlook mail client. Evolution is an integrated e-mail, calendar, task, and contact management suite for Linux and SunOS. The slick GUI-oriented package boasts support for an impressive array of standards, including synchronization with the PalmOS. Ximian, the open source developer of Evolution, will shortly offer a module that will allow the package to integrate with Microsoft's popular groupware Exchange server. This means that Linux boxes will be able to share mailing lists, calendars, and other groupware features with typical Windows-based corporate networks. Overall, Evolution looks like a functional and impressive package. It will not replace pine or mutt in the hearts and minds of hardcore Unix e-mail users, but it's a perfect solution for desktop users who cut their teeth on Microsoft technology.http://www.ximian.com/about_us/press_center/press_releases/evolution1_0.html
An interesting project from IBM aims to introduce an alternative to paid hosting services for publishers of personal or other Web content who find cost an issue. Using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and existing standards, the project has came up with a piece of software that allows you to publish content without the bother of setting up your own Web server - something that can be problematic not just technologically but sometimes organizationally (say, behind a corporate firewall). Indeed, the main aim of this technology appears to be to simplify the act of publishing in corporate environments, and it presents an alternative to the e-shuffling of large files. The code is not yet available, but a paper describes the system in some detail. The paper notes that such software might support a viable, low-overhead business that would provide network services to P2P clients.
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/bayardo/userv/