|
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 |
| California Cybercafe Violence |
| Want a Free Suck? |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| News of Mother Russia |
| Canajun Slang |
| Webmaster Tips and Resources |
| That's Not DeCSS! |
| New Home for Vermont Teddy Bears |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
OUR AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
Click on the image
Winter Gear
REI
Time to gear up for winter sports before global warming turns it all
into so much slush. We like REI, which has an excellent selection of
outdoor gear for every season. As long as you're browsing around there
(and hopefully buying something to earn us our comission) don't forget
to check out their first rate REI Adventures which arranges worldwide
travel trips, and their REI Outlet store which discounts a wide variety of
items.
Skagen Stainless Steel Pocket Watch
The Sharper Image
Valentine's Day is not that far away, and it's never too early to think about
potential gifts for ones significant other, either as payment for past sins
or downpayment on future ones. Or maybe just because you really, really like them.
How about this neat yet affordable pocket watch? It's got a stainless
steel case only 1/4" thick is water resistant to 100 feet and comes
with a 16" chain. If this is not quite right check out some
other great watches available at The Sharper Image.
Beetle CD Stereo with FM Tuner
The Sharper Image
Now this is kind of cool. A radio and CD player hidden in this small
model of a VW Beetle. Envision this on the nightstand in your - or your
friend's - bedroom. Makes a decent gift for the person who has
everything, or perhaps those who have little but strive for funky
interior decor.
Motorola T289 TalkAbout Radio
The Sharper Image
These rechargable two-way radios are on sale right now through the end
of January. They feature iVox technology lets you talk without
pressing buttons or wearing a headset, a two-mile range, and an 11 hour
rechargable NiMH battery. Check them out at $100 off the original
price. Good post-Holiday deal.
BREAKING SURF
AOL Sues Microsoft over Browsers
Just when you thought the browser legal wars were over for good.... AOL, parent of Netscape, is going after Microsoft. AOL's lawsuit contends that Microsoft used its monopoly power - an accepted fact proven in Microsoft's anti-trust suit - to illegally gain market share in the browser market. Think of it as a private version of Microsoft's ongoing federal monopoly trial, which many people feel hasn't achieved much of anything. AOL is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction that would prevent Microsoft from bundling a browser with its operating systems. CNET neatly summarizes the history and issues behind the lawsuit, and reports on some reaction.Lawsuit: http://news.com.com/pdf/ne/2002/01/Complaint_Netscape_FINAL.pdf
History: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-820227.html
Reaction: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-820564.html
This year's Superbowl, the annual rite of American football, is building on the continuing success of its online gateway. Last year saw record traffic numbers on the Superbowl Web site, and this year the organizers are trying to make the Web site an integral part of the traditional TV viewing experience. For example, viewers will be able to vote for most valuable player late in the game, and viewer votes will be worth 20% of the final tally, with selected media professionals making up the remaining 80%. Shouldn't the audience vote by itself be the basis for a separate award? No matter. The fan-friendly Web site offers news, trivia, a fantasy league, and, of course, the requisite NFL shop.
http://superbowl.com/
The volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has sent lava flows through the nearby city of Goma, destroying half the city and killing roughly 100 people. Goma's 400,000 residents have abandoned the city and three-quarters of them are said to have fled westward into neighboring Rwanda. Some reports claim that a new volcanic cone is emerging even closer to the city. Compounding the problem is the fact that Goma sits at the edge of Lake Kivu, a lake with a dark past of its own. The lake harbors great quantities of methane gas and intermittently burps the stuff up from its depths, which in the past has resulted in numerous deaths by suffocation. Now, there's concern that trapped methane, exposed to three-foot-deep rivers of lava, could explode. CNN and Congo Daily have the news. Volcano World and the Electronic Volcano have some stale info on volcanoes in general, but Volcano World does have pictures of Nyiragongo and its 1994 eruption.
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/01/19/congo.volcano/index.html
Congo Daily: http://www.congodaily.com/
Volcano World: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html
Electronic Volcano: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/
Nyiragongo: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/africa/nyiragongo.html
Gravastars? We Were Just getting Used to Black Holes
Do black holes really exist, or are they a misinterpretation of astronomical data? Certainly, when the notion of black holes was first broached, Einstein didn't think much of it. Over the years, conundrums aplenty have accumulated to challenge the view that the superdense matter at the heart of most galaxies, including our own, exists in the form of black holes. Two US astronomers have suggested an alternative theory to explain these regions of high mass and seething radiation. Emil Mottola and Pawel Mazur suggest that the cores of high-mass stars going supernova undergo a kind of quantum phase transition which creates a countervailing force that halts the gravitational collapse well short of the naked singularity state. What is left is a gravitational shell, a stationary shock wave in space, compact, dark, and cold. They believe this explanation is a much better fit with our current understanding of the fundamental nature of the universe. Now, it's up to the astrophysics community to decide if this weird new idea should displace the weird old one.http://www.cosmiverse.com/space01170204.html
Life will find a way, as millions of movie-goers recall from "Jurassic Park". Scientists are finding that life finds its way into the most inhospitable places, such as the dry, cold Antarctic underground and a deep geothermal spring in Idaho. The Antarctic samples, discovered a few inches beneath the frozen surface, include fungi and Penicillum bacteria. The dry, ice-free valleys of Antarctica more closely resemble the surface of Mars than any other environment on Earth, giving hope to the belief that similar life might exist or have existed on the Red Planet. In Idaho, researchers discovered archaeans (biochemically distinct single-celled organisms) in the Lidy Hot Springs that flourish without either sunlight or oxygen and use the hydrogen in the spring's water to fuel their metabolism. The archaea release methane as waste. Similar organisms may live either on Mars or under the Jovian moon Europa's frozen surface, but we'll never know unless we go there. The BBC focuses on Antarctic life; the Wired piece addresses the hot springs organisms.
Archaea: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1765000/1765792.stm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49797,00.html
The Online World, Sociology, and Six Degrees of Separation
You probably have heard of the sociological concept of six degrees of separation, that you can be linked to anyone in the world through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend, through the play or 1993 movie that shared the name. It should be old news but it isn't, and research continues to look at the phenomenon. Some research has begun to focus on the online world, which can document the process more concretely. The Electronic Small World Project (ESWP) requests volunteers for an online research survey. It takes about 15 minutes. A separate project that also calls for subjects, the Small World Research Project (SWRP), is an e-mail version of Stanley Milgram's original research. Volunteers have to try to contact a random human being through acquaintances. Wired has a story.ESWP: http://smallworld.sociology.ohio-state.edu/html/homepage.html
SWRP: http://smallworld.sociology.columbia.edu/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49343,00.html
Once the stuff of science fiction, military exoskeletons are slowly making the transition to reality. With funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an engineering firm called Sarcos is attempting to build a functional exoskeleton that will allow future soldiers to lift as much as 400 pounds, run faster, and jump over fences. As Discover reports, an immense amount of research remains, including the development of a power source. Muscles run on carrots, one designer observes, but an exoskeleton must possess a portable fuel source that won't quickly run down. If and when these problems are solved, Sarcos or another successful company will probably have a queue of eager customers - in addition to the military, construction firms and the disabled might embrace these suits as well. Some posters at Slashdot imagine running the 50 miles to work in the exoskeleton while using the carpool lane. They can dream.
Discover: http://www.discover.com/feb_02/feattech.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/02/01/16/1347201.shtml
A stellar cast of technical seers has scryed the future in a Business Week article with six links and six prognostications. The links are stories in their own rights, describing the prognosticators, their achievements or pedigree, the place where they work, and their ideas about the future. Although no one can ever predict the Mule, the tipping point, the place in the future where something suddenly fizzles brightly and unexpectedly, Business Week's tech prophets take us right up to the point where it starts to get fuzzy. The topics encompass molecular computing with its key advantages over electronics, the quest for routine coding and reliable software, applications of smart chips, production and uses of designer materials, product design, with special emphasis on portability, connecting technology and the human body more intimately, and human computer animation indistinguishable from reality. There's a lot to chew here for futurists.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2002/tc2002014_7011.htm
We're always suspicious when artists talk about art instead of just doing it. Since September, however, artists have had a lot to talk about in terms of how to express their own feelings and thoughts after the traumatic events of September. Quite a bit of that discussion, Wired reports, is being done through the National Coalition Against Censorship's Art Now Web site, which provides a online place for artists and others to connect and collaborate. The site registers artistic responses to the events of September and tracks attempts to censor works or performances deemed likely to offend. It's all part of an important element in our post-attack response - to preserve independent thinking, freedom of expression, and diversity of viewpoint, and not succumb to mind-numbing jingoism. The Art Now site provides links to many thoughts, views and impressions and represents a stunning archival commemoration. Wired has more.
Art Now: http://www.ncac.org/projects/art_now/commemorating.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,49617,00.html
"Starballz", an anime porn movie, liberally abuses just about every aspect of US popular culture, including and especially "Star Wars". But would you ever confuse George Lucas's wholesome amalgam of old serials, "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Hidden Fortress" with a porn cartoon? No you wouldn't - and neither did Judge Claudia Wilkens, who ruled against Lucasfilm's request for an injunction against the film. As a result of the legal action, Lucasfilm has exposed "Starballz" to far more publicity than the $60,000 film might otherwise ever have received. The movie's site presents a less-than-gracious press release and some PG-13 .wmv clips - an odd precaution considering the blatantly pornographic banner ads on the site. CourtTV has a less biased note.
Starballz: http://www.starballz.com/
CourtTV: http://www.courttv.com/people/2002/0118/starwars_ap.html
China Mandates More Online Restrictions
China is continuing its policy of authoritarian crackdown on Internet use. In the latest sweeping set of restrictions, the country's ruling powers have mandated that Internet service providers monitor e-mail and Web sites for subversive content. This latest set of regulations dashes hopes that China would ease up in such matters after being admitted to the World Trade Organization. It's worth noting that these Chinese regulations resemble some of the US government policy proposals in the early history of the Net. We present two takes on the story, from SiliconValley.com and Wired.SiliconValley.com: http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/004019.htm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49855,00.html
Can New Online Ad Measurements Help?
A hundred and fifty years ago, there were relatively few standards in place. Then, a simple agreement on standardizing the thread design of the humble screw and nut set the stage for the explosive growth of Western economies. The standard permitted large-scale manufacture and assembly, and standardization emerged as a dominant force in the New Economy of the early 20th century. In the fallout of the latest recession and its disastrous toll on the New Economy of the late 20th century, some are advocating standardization for ways to measure Internet advertising. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), an Internet ad advocacy group, is promoting its definition of key metrics for use in determining the relative success of online campaigns and is hoping that such use will breathe new life into the flagging online economy. Standardization has worked miracles before, but will it do so again in this nascent environment? Wired has a brief story.IAB: http://www.iab.net/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49757,00.html
Business Week reports that spending on online advertising fell by 5% to $4.1 billion in 2001. That's not good news for NSD or other companies far and wide, including mighty Yahoo which reported its fifth quarterly loss in a row. Blame the fall-off in spending partly on the whole economic downturn thing and partly because advertisers still don't really understand the medium. That may be changing, however. Although the Internet can deliver mass audiences, what it's really good at is connecting communities of people who share specialized interests. By focusing on such interest groups and concentrating on sectors such as cars, technology, drugs, and travel where online ads seem to click, advertisers are beginning to learn how to make the Internet work for them. This article describes several companies that have gotten a pretty big bang for their online advertising buck.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2002/nf20020117_0493.htm
The Transition to Online Pay Services: More Stories
The trend to start charging for formerly free online services continues with this account from Wired about the experience of Babylon, a language translation company. After trying the ad-supported business model, the company finally bit the bullet and converted to a subscription service. Apparently, the changeover was not particularly traumatic, indicating that the online audience has become realistic about the need for real income streams. The article also mentions several other companies and software projects which are successfully switching from free to paid services, something we ourselves hope to do in the near future. As a counterpoint, another Wired article talks about a new study in which 47% of European users say they would not pay for content. This may or may not mean much - it's not unheard of for people to say one thing and do another. For example, the story contrasts this result with the large amounts of money people are spending on cell phone gizmos like ring tones and logos.Transitioning: http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,49646,00.html
Europe: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49916,00.html
Windows Media Player Supercookie Defeats Privacy Standard
Microsoft made much of adding privacy standard support to its latest browser, Internet Explorer 6. However, at least one person has figured out how to easily circumvent the standard with Microsoft's own technology, specifically a unique identification number embedded in every Windows Media Player, which is included with every version of Windows. Basically, some simple JavaScript code can grab the unique code and use it via cookies to uniquely identify a user's tracks across Web sites. The privacy standards were designed to allow users to turn off this kind of cross-site cookie identification. This Web site has the technical details and a demo.http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/supercookie.htm
Chess Programs Go Head to Head
The fourth annual Internet Chess Club tournament for online, chess-playing software is underway, with 46 different programs competing. The central server is located in New York, but competitors are scattered all over the world. You can watch replays at the official site and pick up some pointers for when you next play your favorite cyber grandmaster. A Slashdot discussion teases apart the topic of coding chess programs fairly well.Tournament: http://www.vrichey.de/cct4/
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/02/01/18/0132201.shtml
Yahoo Launches Premium Search Service
Continuing with its strategy to charge for more services, Yahoo is launching a new subscription search service to be called Premium Document Search. For prices ranging from $1 to $4, or $5 per month, you will be able to search over 70 million documents compiled from over 7,100 sources. At press time, it's not clear what those documents were and why they would command such a premium, but we suspect the product will include academic periodicals and other for-pay magazines. ZDNet has more.Premium: http://premium.search.yahoo.com/search/premium/splash
Story: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-820413.html
ONLINE CULTURE
A murder has led to a moratorium on new cybercafes in the Los Angeles suburb of Garden Grove, Calif. The cafes are popular with local youths, some of whom belong to gangs. The intersection of gangs and places where local kids hang out late into the night has resulted in outbreaks of violence and, finally, a murder. The city council has banned new cybercafes from opening for 45 days and has established restriction on use of the facilities by minors. It's not clear if the gang violence is related to any online conflict, but both Sacramento Bee and New York Times (free registration...) stories note that the places are used predominantly to play "video games".Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/1511868p-1588587c.html
Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/22/national/22CYBE.html
Reacting to the many unfavorable rulings against domain holders of protest domains (e.g. SomeCompanySucks.com), a free-speech lawyer is planning to give out free "sucks" domain names to all comers. Ed Harvilla and some unnamed partners own a number of domain names, such as bizsucks.net, comsucks.net, edusucks.net, and orgprotest.org. They plan to allow anybody to prepend a host name to those domains and thus preserve the playing field for the "sucks" domain crowd. This MSNBC article has good background on the story, including how the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization rulings have resulted in many sucks domains biting the dust. You can register your own "sucks" domain at the Free Speech Center.
Free Speech Center: http://www.freespeechcenter.org/
Story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/691648.asp
|
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.
 For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
The Classic Years
Network Troubleshooting Tools
Kiln People
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War onSURFING SITES
For each of the last 27 years, Lake Superior State University has issued a List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The lists are drawn from user suggestions. Unfortunately, some words make the list year after year, which means that while this banished list is important, it isn't important enough yet. For 2002, there are approximately 30 words and phrases singled out for the honor of inclusion. They range from a no-brainer like the faith-based surgical strike to the athleticism shown by users of the killer app of car-jacking.http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current/default.html
Miniatures of every kind have always fascinated people. Sometimes, as in the case of patent models, they show what maybe can be created. In other cases, as in miniatures paintings and the six musical instruments that are the heart of this site, they are simply astounding works of art. The extraordinary feature of Paul Gentile's instruments (five stringed instruments and an incredible saxophone) is their size, one-seventh actual size. In all respects they are exact recreations of the selected originals. Everything works, but since sound is a function of size as well as craft, they don't sound like the originals. They're sure to amaze and please modelers, miniature collectors, and everyone who appreciates fine craftsmanship.
http://www.gentilecollection.com/
The Science and Teaching of Diving
Divers and would-be divers: don't panic when you hit the seemingly unnavigable home page of Diving Myths and Realities. Scroll down. This guy knows diving. University of Michigan molecular scientist/scuba instructor Larry "Harris" Taylor (who learned to dive at age 30 to overcome his childhood fear of water) has a large personal site that discusses and illustrates both the science and the teaching of diving. If you aren't interested in Harris himself - a prolific author with almost 100 diving certifications such as diver medic, marine electronics, and full cave diver - check out some of his 30 illustrated articles. You're bound to learn something. You'll also find a photo gallery, editorials, and a monstrous page of links. Harris preaches the value of knowledge and fitness with enthusiasm and depth. Parents, especially, might want to read "Why I Do NOT Train Kids". For adults, Harris has a different approach: Let the endorphins flow!http://www.mindspring.com/~divegeek/
Zona, the Girdle Zone ("zona" is Latin for belt or girdle), has a subsection called the Foundations of Fashionable Thought, which follows the portrayal in popular media of the controversial undergarment through the years. This study in the evolution of the girdle sometimes reveals more about period thoughts about women than about what they chose to wear. The roundtable discussions that allow visitors to chime in with commentary are surprisingly refreshing for online discussion. There's not a single "Me, too!" to be found. You'll find lots of pictures of women in girdles on the site, most of which are from advertising campaigns. For the most part, although they're only in their underwear, the women are wearing more than you'd see them in on a beach today.
http://www.geocities.com/~girdlezone/fashion.htm
To kids, there are three terrific things to love about snow: school closings, snowball fights, and snow architecture/engineering, which includes tunnels burrowed into the side of a snow bank and above-ground snow forts. For those enthralled with the third of that list, there's a handbook for snow architecture online at the Snowfort Zone that focuses on the safety aspects first and provides some inspiration in the online photo gallery of past creations. At the writing of this, one was still standing, and those in Canada might want to drop by to stand in the shadow of the structure's magnificence.
http://www.geocities.com/mrmusicman79/
The index page here features an arresting downward spiral into a matrix of zeros and ones, surrounded by a series of pulsing buttons, each of which takes you further into the mind of the site's creator - wherever that goes. He seems to look at everything from the Anasazi to rhinos to collective consciousness, and the links are pretty esoteric. Click on the Beatles, and a link to vegetarianism appears, which also lets you click through to rhinos, hippos, and a description of how long the site's author has been a vegetarian. There's a ton of content here, some of it cool photos and MP3s and other bits presented as little nuggets of info, such as that the human brain holds between one and seven terabytes of information - far more than the best available hard drives. Unfortunately, the site is marred: we stumbled across a link, buried in the layers, to porn sites. Be forewarned.
http://fusionanomaly.net/
Now, That Sounds Like a Good Idea
Creativity Pool invites the world to contribute original ideas for human improvement. Its purpose is enlightenment, although the site rules state that it's for entertainment: "If you plan to earn money with your idea or invention, please go somewhere else." Hey, sounds like the Net. In the architecture section, one contributor suggests that window screens could filter air or sound. The environment section has suggestions for water-fueled auto engines and an extraterrestrial dump. Other sections contain suggestions for a doorless refrigerator, a device for people who can't bend far enough to put on socks, configurable ear plugs, and artificial ears and tails for cat owners who want to communicate with their pets. OK, maybe they aren't all such hot ideas....http://www.creativitypool.com/
For $10, Paperless Archives will send you a CD-ROM with 11,400 pages of documents - court transcripts and government reports - about the terrorist activities of the world's most wanted man (or, perhaps, corpse), Osama bin Laden. Among the highlights are testimony of former al Qaeda thief and turncoat Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl and a report by the Judge Advocate General of the US Navy on the USS Cole attack. For teasers, visit Paperless Archives' Osama bin Laden page, which displays screenshots of four black-and-white federal documents one can easily imagine lie buried in file cabinets of the CIA. It's pretty scary when horrific acts are condensed, as they must be at some point, to cut-and-dried bureaucratic prose. But you won't have to trudge through the first screenshot. This page of an interview with Al-Fadl has some of the immediacy of dialogue in, say, a film documentary, Sixty Minutes, or NYPD Blue. Paperless Archives might sell more CDs were it to post more interview pages like this on its Web site.
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/
The content here may not be all that fresh, but we can just about guarantee that if you start reading, you'll spend quite a bit of time here. This site belongs to a Denver-based law firm headed by uppity women. According to the announcement, the firm was founded in 1991 by two bitches from Hell and a short, fat guy, and the opening sentence on the home page puts things right into perspective: "Powers Phillips, P.C., is a small law firm located in downtown Denver, Colorado within convenient walking distance of over fifty bars and a couple of doughnut shops." Other site components include descriptions of practice, suspicious awards, and more. You may want to sign up to receive notifications of new issues of the BFH Newsflash - BFH standing, of course, for "Bitches from Hell". Lawyers with humor! Who'd have thought? Now we're on a mission to find IRS auditors with whoopie cushions.
http://www.b-f-h.com/index.html
The Early 18th Century in North America
DigitalHistory.org is an ambitious project that hopes to eventually chronicle all of 18th century American history. The site is a start, no more, and the available content concentrates on military history prior to the American Revolution. The site is aimed toward re-enactors and military buffs. There's a nice military glossary, and excellent regimental histories of units on both sides of the French and Indian War. This is a period often glossed over in American histories and it's nice to see it getting a more complete treatment.http://www.digitalhistory.org/
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) works to increase assistance to the small family farmers who form the bottom 90% of farm subsidy recipients. Making excellent use of the Freedom of Information Act, the EWG site begins with a list of current farm subsidies on a state by state basis. Peruse the listings for a while and it becomes obvious that US farm policy is a benefit program for well off farmers, and little more. The rest of the site digs deeper and suggests remedies and possible courses of action.
http://www.ewg.org/
Help Feed a Hungry Ex-Dotcommer
Joe went to work for a dotcom at the age of 20, and four years later found himself out the door, his stock options worth almost nothing. Frustrated, Joe created this site to support himself through the downturn. And beyond. He doesn't particularly want to go back to a job, and you can help him out by donating a steak and gourmet coffee. Just click on the button. So far, he's collected around $27.79, so he should be in good shape. You can buy a darned good steak for that kind of cash. Obviously, this is a parody of the click-and-feed Hunger Site. Nothing wrong with that.Joe: http://thehungrysite.com/
Hunger Site: http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites
Silenter uses a proxy server to hide your IP address and other computer-specific information from sites you don't want anyone to know you visit. Unlike Anonymizer, Silenter has no commercial version (at least, not at the moment), so it doesn't keep prompting you to upgrade for bucks on visits to X-rated sites. (Look, we had to test it for popular use, didn't we?) Better yet, you can choose to filter out cookies, banner ads, and scripts. You may still get unwanted popups from your target sites, and streaming video may be stripped out, but you can't expect complete fidelity, can you, if you're going to peek?
http://www.silenter.com/
ONLINE TRAVEL
The Russian News Network is both easy to use and comprehensive, although some links take you to the European Internet Service, a paid-subscription-only outlet. You can, however, access news pertaining to Russia through links to a variety of American sources, and the St. Petersburg Times material is in English as well. If you'd like to practice your Russian, many free links disseminate news in the native language. There's a helpful link to a Russian-English dictionary here, in case you need some help.http://www.russiannewsnetwork.com/
Americans all too often take their northern neighbors for granted. They often even believe they speak the same language. A trip north soon puts that silly notion to rest. If you like potatoes, many of the best come from Carleton County, a part of the province of New Brunswick right near Maine that has its own special inflections. The Dooryard.ca site is a visual and oral dictionary of the language that often confuses visitors (including and especially Canadians from west of the province). Navigation is simple, and the examples are both colorful and clear. Every example can be heard spoken aloud by a native Canajun speaker.
http://www.dooryard.ca/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Both beginners and pros will find well presented info at Webmasterology.com, particularly in the Articles/Tutorials section, which ranges from basic set-up and design to PHP coding. We were less impressed with the lists of third-party resources, but the good more than outweighs the flaws.http://www.webmasterology.com/
CORRECTIONS
As a few unfortunate - or, in some cases, perhaps fortunate - NSD readers found out, a link in the Wired article we presented in last issue's "DeCSS Coder Indicted in Norway" that had led to the DeCSS code was somehow hijacked to send the clicker to a series of gay porn images. One reader wondered whether the anti-DeCSS forces might be employing its own counter-hackers. We asked Declan McCullagh, the author of the Wired article, for comment but received no reply. Curiously, the link was removed from McCullagh's article and replaced with a placeholder tag of "(download)".New Home for Vermont Teddy Bears
With Valentine's Day looming, we thought it would be worth noting that the famous Vermont Teddy Bear Company has a new Web picnic. Its online store is now hosted by Yahoo. The company sells teddy bear toys dressed in goofy outfits, appropriate to various holidays and themes.http://store.yahoo.com/vtbear/