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| A Mailbox Full of Public Comments on the Microsoft Settlement |
| "Scumware" Bedevils Google |
| The Story of Plastic, Part II |
| Special Valentine's Editon of Netsurfer Books |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| A Man, a Plan, a Canal |
| Planning a Trip to a Hotel California? |
| And This Is Niagara Falls in the '30s... |
| Little Fimo Clay Figures Are People, Too |
| Base-Bull Caps and Other Hats of Meat |
| QuikStat Web Page Counter and Stat Compiler |
| Near Boston? Like Dogs? |
| Mozilla Moseys Along |
| PostgreSQL Database v7.2 Released |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
OUR AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
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Moet & Chandon NV Champagne Brut Imperial
wine.com
Add to the romance with champagne. Moet & Chandon transforms the
Champagne region's unique grapes, soil, and microclimates into the
world's most famous celebration wine. Pale yellow with shades of green
and thin bubbles, this champagne has a distinctive nose of fresh lime.
Very ample on the palate with a subtle finish. The ideal champagne to
start your dinner with a happy, sparkling note.
Vindel 8 oz.Champagne Flute - Set of 6
wine.com - $59.99
Enhance your champagne in these finely crafted glasses. Made with 24%
lead with Micro-Crystal Dispersion using a special glass-blowing
process, the result is a glass with more surface area, bringing out the
complex flavors and bouquets. Each flute is also shaped to direct the
flow of wine to the "taste zone", showcasing each wine's style and
variety.
Wine Appreciation Guild Champagne Bucket
wine.com - $39.99
Elegant in black with ring handles, this bucket fits standard champagne
bottles and brings a distinctive touch to your Valentine Day's table.
Stuffed Sole with Scallops & Crabmeat
a la zing - $19.99
A seafood delight for 2 that won't be forgotten. Hand0-rolled sole
fillets, wrapped around a delicately seasoned blend of scallops and
crabmeat, this is the perfect combination of flavors. Julienned
carrots glazed with a light sauce of maple syrup and whole green beans
with red peppers complete this delicious meal for light eaters.
Filet Mignon Feast
a la zing - $29.99
A hearty feast for two! Fork tender and delicious, Omaha Steaks filet
mignons are accompanied by potato shells filled with a luscious blend
of whipped potatoes, sour cream, cheddar cheese and bacon. A medley of
roasted vegetables in a delicately seasoned butter sauce rounds out the
treat.
David Glass New York Cheesecake
a la zing - $13.99
End your meal on a high note with this incredible cheesecake. A rich
concotion of cream cheese and sour cream sits on a unique crust of
graham crumbs, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Each mouthful is
sensuous and full of possibilities.
David Glass Chocolate Truffle Cake
a la zing
This sumptious truffle cake is both elegant and intense. Made of the
finest fresh ingredients, it packs a punch of bittersweet chocolate
laced with expresso and hints of Grand Marnier. Nibble. Savor.
Devour. Love and chocolate, how can it be better?
Valentine Chocolates Shop
BODEGA Chocolates
Select from heart shaped boxes in red and gold filled with traditional
and "Demi" fudge truffle bars and Caramelo Delicias. Add a
take-me-with-you cuddly bear to provide a touch of whimsy.
CD Shower Companion
The Sharper Image - $149.95
Sing in the shower with Mariah, Willie, or Luciano. This stereo CD
player can go with you into the shower, outdoors, and anywhere else in
your house. It comes with a digital tuner with 10 presets and single
CD player and a wireless IR remote control. And the ramp-up alarm wakes
you with a buzzer, radio or any CD track.
Car Cell Phone System with Digital Recording
The Sharper Image - $99.95
Turn your cell phone into a hands-free car speakerphone and capture
what you just heard with the Hear It Again recorder. Hear It Again
records and stores the last 20 seconds of conversation. The system
stores four memos and can record a 30-second "forward" voice memo. It
plugs into car's lighter socket, and, as a bonus, continuously charges
the cell phone's batteries.
Leatherman Juice CS4 Multitool
The Sharper Image - $79.95
Swiss Army knives pale beside this rugged 14-in-1 tool from
Leatherman. Take care of daily needs with the serrated scissors,
can/bottle opener, corkscrew and straight knife. Or take off your
glasses and become SuperMechanic with needlenose pliers, extra-small,
small, medium/large and Phillips screwdrivers, saw, wire cutters,
hard-wire cutters, and handy lanyard. Anodized glacier blue aluminum
handles completes the superhero image.
Winemaker's Corkscrew
The Sharper Image - $79.95
Uncork any bottle with a confident, debonair flourish. Just hold the
bottle's neck between the two comfortable handles, and press the top
lever down. The non-stick steel worm burrows into center of cork. Lift
lever back up and Presto! Even the most stubborn or fragile corks slip
out effortlessly. Bravo!
Skagen Stainless Steel Pocket Watch
The Sharper Image - $99.95
Pocket watches are back. Skagen combines tradition with technology to
create a stylish, brushed stainless steel watch only 1/4" thick. The 1
1/8" face, charcoal gray with luminous arms and number markers,
displays the day discreetly at 6:00 o'clock. The watch comes with a
generous 16" chain and spring-loaded clasp. Japanese quartz movement
and water resistant to 100 feet.
Women's Watch with Diamond Mesh Strap
The Sharper Image - $99.95
Delight her with this elegant women's watch from Skagen of Denmark.
The slim, charcoal watch with its minimalist styling is paired with a
shimmering mesh strap. Both case and band are hypoallergenic, with a
scratch-resistant mineral crystal face. Japanese quartz movement and
water resistant to 100 feet.
"Talking Pictures" Photo Album for 24 Pictures & 24 Messages
The Sharper Image - $29.95
The "Talking Pictures" photo album preserves the sights and sounds of
cherished memories. A 10-second message is digitally recorded for each
of 24 4x6-inch photos bound with a soft, leather-like cover. Make it
a gift to cherish by filling it with photos and personalized
recordings. Flash memory preserves recordings, even when changing
batteries.
Ionic Hair Wand 2.0 and Ionic Conditioning Quiet Hair Dryer Combo
The Sharper Image - $69.95
Pamper your hair by blow-drying? The Ionic system actually conditions
hair by smoothing and tightening its protective cuticle layer. The
Ionic Conditioning Quiet Hair Dryer features a mighty 1,875 watts of
power and three heat/speed settings. The Ionic Hair Wand 2.0 adds
styling versatility.
Foot Spa with Remote Control
The Sharper Image - $119.95
Soothe and restore tired, aching feet with a luxurious soak in the
heated foot spa. Complete spa treatment includes vibration massage,
jet-action bubbles or water jet, pumice, gel pads, and more. Create a
symphony of pampering treatments via the wireless, programmable
remote.
Body-Fat Analyzer/Scale
The Sharper Image - $99.95
You're not overweight - it's all muscle. Body fat percentage matters,
and now measuring it is as easy as stepping on a scale. This device
uses harmless bioelectric current to measure body fat and displays
total weight and estimated body-fat percentage. Make it a joint
effort: keep track of two regular users by pre-programming information
with the built-key keypad.
Lighted 5x Travel Mirror
The Sharper Image - $49.95
What's handier than a slim mirror with adjustable lighting for day and
evening? Optical-quality, distortion-free mirror is perfect for
applying makeup, checking the 5 o'clock shadow, and everything in
between. 5x magnification makes it easy to use even without wearing
glasses. Just 2" thick when folded, it's a perfect gift for someone
who travels - or who just has a cluttered bathroom counter.
Scooter Mania Sweeps The Country!
BREAKING SURF
Netsurfer Starts Charging for Subscriptions
Well, we finally did it. Starting this week it costs $20 per year to get full access to all Netsurfer content. If you have not yet seen the announcement letter we're mailing out to all our readers you can find it at the link below. There's also a longer writeup of how we came to start charging money for our content which should answer all your questions. It's a good story, at least in our humble opinion. If you have not yet done so, we hope you will decide to spend the money and subscribe. Thanks, and now we return you to our regularly scheduled programming.Announcement Letter: http://www.netsurf.com/subs_letter.html
Why We Did It: http://www.netsurf.com/why_subs.html
First Annual Google Programming Contest
Google wants programmers to play with 900,000 Web pages and come up with cool ideas. No, not anatomically impossible suggestions. What Google wants is a program that "does something interesting with the data". You get to decide what. The winner gets $10,000, a visit to Google HQ in Silicon Valley, and possibly the opportunity to run the winning program through Google's full multi-billion-document directory. The contest is no cake walk and the winner will earn that ten grand. Google stipulates that your code should be in C++, run on Linux, and scale to multiple machines and billions of pages, and you'll have to give Google perpetual non-exclusive rights to the code. If you're a decent programmer and you're not salivating at the prospect, check your pulse to make sure you're still alive. Deadline for entry is Apr. 30, so you'd better get cracking.http://www.google.com/programming-contest/
For obvious reasons, we're following the experiences of other online content providers who switch from free to for-pay business models. This article discusses the transition at the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica's Britannica.com. According to an article in an Emory University marketing e-zine, Britannica.com's conversion to paid subscribers has exceeded expectations. The article quotes the ubiquitous experts, and gives some hard subscriber and revenue numbers for another content site, Consumer Reports (600,000 and $19/year respectively). It's another data point for Web sites contemplating the switch. We're tickled by the approach of the Weekly World News (WWN), which has temporarily replaced its Web site with a rant that asks online readers "to buy the paper at least one stinking week out the year."
Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/
Emory: http://knowledge.emory.edu/articles.cfm?catid=4&articleid=432&homepage=yes
Consumer Reports: http://www.consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp
WWN: http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/
For 17 days starting Feb. 8, athletes will skate, ski, sweep, slide, and shoot for glory, gold, and the global experience. In Salt Lake City, Utah, slipperiness will be the order of the day, whether in clothing or on surfaces. It will be a place for friendships, new and renewed, and intense rivalries, not least in hockey. The US women's team hopes to hold onto its Olympic championship against its only real rival, the once-dominant Canadians who want to reclaim their throne. On the men's side, NHL superstars (for the most part) will vie for supremacy on their national teams. The official Web site has all the resources and links you'd expect, complete with visitor info, schedule of events, ticket ordering, accommodations info, athlete bios, and, of course, a place to shop online. The three rather dull mascots, Powder, Copper, and Coal - no, were not making this up - are modeled on the hare, coyote, and bear, and rooted in native lore. Hey, if anybody has the time, could you pick us up an olive drab Timpanogos Cave baseball cap? The official NSD beast ate ours.
Olympics: http://www.saltlake2002.com/
NSD beast: http://members.tripod.com/~elvi/crash.html
NBC paid a great deal of money for the rights to televise the Olympics and they are going to make it easy for Americans to follow the games on TV with NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC plus on the Web at MSNBC.com. The main MSNBC.com Web site is easily navigated and has quick links to the television coverage. We'll see if it can stand up to extremely heavy traffic composed of everyone who needs to know who Katie, Matt, Al, and Bob Costas are going to interview. Actually, the site is more than just a TV shill. If you have questions about all the winter sports you don't even know exist - skeleton, anyone? - this site will have the answers and many pretty pictures.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/OLYMPICS2002_Front.asp
US Olympic Team - Definitely Not Monks
"Definitely not a monk" - so reads a description of skier Shannon Bahrke on the US Olympic team site. And this 21-year-old Gold-Cup-winning mogul queen is one to watch during this competition. She's one high-energy bundle. Besides the athlete and games background lurking here, you can also access the predictable US Olympic Committee online store (they only accept VISA, so all you other cardholders will just have to content yourselves with just a gander at the $43 sweatshirts and whatnot). Everything else is pretty low-grade; it just won't hold attention very long. Even the Canadians can do better than this, eh?http://www.usolympicteam.com/
Shuttle Radar Tomography Mission Maps
A Shuttle Radar Tomography Mission (SRTM) flew February 2000 on STS-99 and collected gobs of data, some 12 terabytes worth, which are being processed into digital elevation maps. Early data sets, covering parts of the US, are now available online, along with information about the mission's purpose and some pretty sizzling videos and animations. You can download the actual data if you want, but you'll probably be content to view the detailed SRTM images, which are breathtaking but not really all that speedy with dial-up connections. We also liked the 18-MB mission launch video, which has lots of info to complement the sheer gee-whiz awe of the visual stuff. Less bandwidth greedy versions are also available. There's also a stunning 12.4-MB animation of a California fly-by. Once the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has finished converting the North American data, the folks there will start work on other continents.Maps: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
Press Release: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2002/02-015.txt
Rules for Space Tourists and Other Crew
Prompted, we suspect, mainly by Russia's interest in the space tourism business, NASA has posted a PDF report with rules for selecting crew members for the International Space Station (ISS) and for grounding unsuitable would-be tourists. The nine-pager provides a broad framework that governs the attachment of temporary staff to the complement of each ISS crew. All participants in space flights are considered crew members, but there are two classes of crew, professional astronauts and space flight participants, the latter category made up of teachers, engineers, scientists, journalists, filmmakers, or tourists. It's up to each participating space organization to vet members of its crew allotment, but it must certify that all crew meet the established standards.http://www.nasa.gov/hqpao/isscrewcriteria.pdf
Supercomputing Mac Clusters - It's Easy as One, Two...
It's been years since a computer with a single processor topped the list of the world's largest supercomputers. These days, it's all about parallel processing, with a trend towards inexpensive parallel processing, a field that's been mostly dominated by Linux systems. It appears, however, that Apple's new G4s can play that game at least as well, especially when set up with a simple parallel-processing management application - which is where Dauger Research comes in. Its Pooch software automates the distribution of parallel computing jobs to multiple Macs. The software is so easy to use, kids have been setting up multi-node computing clusters with all the power of supercomputers once found only in government labs. All you need are a few G4 Macs (which can still be used as standard desktop computers), some ethernet cables, and Pooch and its one-page manual, and you too can model a nuclear explosion. Wired has the story, Dauger has the software, Slashdot has the discussion.Top Supercomputers: http://www.top500.org/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,50078,00.html
Dauger: http://www.daugerresearch.com/
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/01/31/1757228&mode=thread
Peter Jackson is the happy man at the sharp end of a lot of compliments for his work on the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. The first installment is getting rave reviews not only from the hard-to-please Tolkien fans but also from critics and the public at large. Scott Rosenberg argues persuasively in this Salon piece that Jackson's work was not just a balancing act between trying to please the die-hard fans and the public in general. That conventional view misses the elements with wide popular appeal that were already present in the books, and which Jackson skillfully plucked to the delight of all his audiences. Rosenberg lavishes praise on Jackson's work, making this in many ways another glowing review but one worth reading for the way it explores the conceptual techniques Jackson used to make the movie. If you're a fan of the man himself, try the Peter Jackson Fan Club.
Salon: http://salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/02/06/lotr_movie/index.html
Fan Club: http://tbhl.theonering.net/index.shtml
Deceptive Image Linking Violates US Copyright, Trademarks OK in Metatags
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals issued two important rulings this month. First, the court ruled that if you link to an image from another Web page in such a way that the image appears to be on your Web site, you are breaking the law. The case arose when a photographer Les Kelly sued search engine Ditto.com over how it displayed the images it found. The court says thumbnails are OK, but specific links to the full image are not legally allowed. In another ruling, the court said that Playboy Playmate Terri Welles has the right to put "playmate" in the meta-tags describing her Web site and that such use does not violate Playboy's trademark on the term. Importantly, the court recognizes the utility of online searching and how Welles's use of this meta-tag contributes to that goal: "Searchers would have a much more difficult time locating relevant Web sites if they could do so only by correctly guessing the long phrases necessary to substitute for trademarks." You'll find both February 2002 rulings on the court's Web site, listed as "KELLY V ARRIBA" and "PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES V WELLES".http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf
Trillian (named after the Douglas Adams character) is a Windows application that allows the user to access a multitude of instant messaging (IM) systems from one screen. You could log into ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and even IRC. Sounds great, but one company keeps throwing rods into the cogs. Must have been Microsoft, you say? Nope - it has been none other than our good buddies at AOL. It looks as though the company that cries the loudest over Microsoft's allegedly monopolistic practices wants to set up a messaging monopoly of its own. Of course, that's just one of many possible interpretations. Read the CNET article, and make up your own mind.
Trillian: http://www.trillian.cc/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826625.html
US Consumer Fraud Stats and Info Available Online
Identity theft is a serious crime in the information age. To help fight it and other forms of fraud, the US Federal Trade Commission, with other US, Canadian, and Aussie agencies, has tapped its fraud database and turned it into Consumer Sentinel, an online resource for consumers, government, and law enforcement. The statistics on this site are compelling and the information reveals the multitude of online scams. There are over a dozen different Mamet plots on this site; pay attention and maybe you won't become a victim.Press release: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/01/sentinel.htm
Consumer Sentinel: http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/
Getting Out the Word on Investment Fraud
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has seeded the Web with hoax Web sites. You may have heard about the first one to come to light: McWhortle Enterprises. The SEC has set up these sites to tempt investors who might be susceptible to fraud and gently teach them a lesson. Potential investors who click all the way to the part where they're supposed to cash in find themselves directed to a page explaining the fraud and the practices that hucksters commonly employ. If you're gonna be a dork, at least it's nice not to lose any of your hard-earned cash in the process. Admirably, this educational project received 150,000 hits over three days - and cost a mere $50.McWhortle: http://www.mcwhortle.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1017-826434.html
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/01/30/investing.hoax.ap/index.html
Spam You Can Trust - Just What You've Been Waiting For
Trusted Sender is a new scheme aimed at dividing e-mail ads into good and bad camps. Responsible commercial sources would obtain use of Trusted Sender certificates so that you could tell them apart from the riffraff spammers. TRUSTe and ePRIVACY Group more or less developed the idea and got Microsoft, Doubleclick, and Topica on board. This is a solution, but for the wrong problem. It's not that we don't trust spam, it's that we don't want it at all. The US Federal Trade Commission is starting to look at the spam situation, a look long overdue and hopefully more to the point than Trusted Sender. This could be great news for those of us tired of endless streams of unwanted messages. Not likely, but one can always hope. Pick your way through the InfoWorld and CNET stories.TRUSTe: http://www.truste.org/about/TrustedSenderReleaseFINAL.html
InfoWorld: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/01/31/020131hnspam.xml
CNET 1: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826747.html
CNET 2: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-827511.html
Got the Guts for "Ultimate Machine Combat"?
Do you like "BattleBots" and "Junkyard Wars"? If so, the producers of the latter have a new show for you: "Ultimate Machine Combat" in which 30 teams are going to compete to build the ultimate combat vehicle. The top three competitors, with drivers, will enter the arena - and only one will emerge!!! You know the drill; as the competition heats up, the parts are going to fly. It may be the new gladiatorial combat, or it may be the robot fair from AI; it will undoubtedly have high ratings. Will Pam Anderson be part of it?http://www.ultimatemachinecombat.com/
Games Domain has cut through the clutter, ignored the bargain bin, and gone straight for the best, most entertaining games of 2001. The site categorizes PC games by genre, such as first person shooter, RPG/adventure, racing, simulation, sports, and strategy. For console games, Games Domain counts down the top 20 (only three, we note, are for the Xbox). Each winner and nominated game comes with a short review. If you've been wasting your time not playing these games, these pages will help you catch up with the latest releases and zero in on a game or two to try.
http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/awards2001/index.html
Pew Seats Faith within the Online Community
The Internet may be faith's best friend. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, nearly 3 million people have surfed the Web in search of religious information over the past year. That's up a million from the previous year. However, those who surf with the most faith are those who participate the most in the offline world as well. Whether or not the Net is bringing more people to spirituality is unclear, but what is clear is that many religions are busy building sites in cyberspace. By the way, if you can write a better headline, you're welcome to this job.http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=53
ONLINE CULTURE
A Mailbox Full of Public Comments on the Microsoft Settlement
The US Justice Department solicited e-mail comments about the Microsoft antitrust settlement and apparently got quite an earful. About 7,000 messages were in favor of the settlement, 15,000 were opposed, and about 7,000 were unhelpful opinions like "I hate Microsoft". By law, the Department must respond to every one of the comments, including the 1,000 or so spam messages. Even to the one lonely piece of porn they got. The Justice Department deemed only about 3,000 of the messages to be useful, but all have to be published in the Federal Register (the porn should liven it up a bit). Due to the volume of comments, the department wants to do it on CD-ROM. Wired has more.http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/0,1551,50290,00.html
As we reported last issue, Google has reiterated that it does not pester its visitors with pop-up ads. However, some of the search engine's users have found that they still get the annoying windows popping up after a search. The culprit appears to be a Windows program called FlashTrack that monitors what you type in search engine boxes and pops up a related ad. Nobody's sure how FlashTrack gets distributed, but it could be hitchhiking on top of popular music sharing or other shareware/freeware programs. Flashpoint Media, the company behind FlashTrack, claims 3 million "users", though one wonders how many know they even have it. Wired has the story.
FlashTrack: http://www.flashtrack.net/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50264,00.html
Flashpoint Media: http://www.flashpoint.bm/flashpointPort.php
Last week, we mentioned a good history of the pop-media site Plastic running in Online Journalism Review. Here's part two. Good reading, good history.
http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=688
Special Valentine's Editon of Netsurfer Books
Yes, there are the obligatory hearts, cupids, chocolate, wine, and roses. But there's also Elvis, Tom, and Audrey. There are seductions galore, and naturally quite bit of sex. For those of you gaggin right about now, there's also the Curmudgeon's Garden of Love. All this and more in our special Valentine's Day edition of Netsurfer Books. Check it out.http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/sub/v04/nsb.04.01.html
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A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis
The Mysterious Island
Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius
Selkirk's IslandSURFING SITES
When Europeans first came to what is now called the United States and Canada, they met the First Nations. The people of the First Nations have been called Indians, among other things, but they are now more commonly and more accurately referred to as Native Americans. This site tells their stories. These content-rich pages can easily ensnare you into spending the time to explore the crannies of this place. Did you know that the Comanches split off from the southern Eastern Shoshoni prior to refining their skills as horsemen and warriors? We didn't, either. And how come they only have 4,400 acres of land, when they were promised three million acres in an 1867 treaty? Comanche raids were paramount among the factors responsible for the formation of the Texas Rangers during the 1840s. Who knew? Abenaki to Winnebago, the histories of the First Nations make fascinating reading.http://www.tolatsga.org/Compacts.html
When we think of slavery, the image that many of us conjure up is that of nefarious white Dutch and British slavers trading in the misery of helpless black Africans. This comprehensive media database illustrates that the issue wasn't quite that simple. Domestic slavery was indigenous to Africa - Africans owned other Africans, and the practice was common. One illustration from the 1870s depicts women, captured in the Congo, being driven to the east coast for sale to Arabs. Featuring hundreds of photos and drawings, the site documents the slave trade from Africa to various points around the globe, from Surinam to Rio de Janeiro to Virginia. It's a sobering look at life a mere 140 years ago.
http://gropius.lib.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/index.html
Archived Films at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has achieved some recent fame for its Wayback Machine archive of Web sites (see NSD 7.38), but it has much more to offer. The site also hosts historical films donated by the Prelinger Archives. These high-quality digitized movies are free for the downloading. Burn them to your DVD and watch them in the comfort of your home theater - the RIAA won't be on your tail. Due to copyright law, you can't watch movies from 1964 on, but because the films you can snag are all in the public domain, you can remake and play with them however your creative juices urge. Cut that scene, add this in, make your own "Forrest Gump"-style classic! These films are all in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 formats, with a few QuickTime movie files tossed in for good measure. Playback instructions are provided for Windows and Mac OS users. There are over 950 films here, and the site is well worth visiting; access to history does matter.NSD 7.38: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v07/nsd.07.38.html#OC1#OC1
Archive: http://www.archive.org/movies/
Cookbooks in print and on CD make nice gifts, but how many do you need? Probably one or two fewer, now that you know about the dream cuisine on tap at RecipeSource, an online archive of 70,000 free recipes categorized by region, ethnic group, and type of dish. Jump right into Basque, say, or Italian. Or muffins, beverages, and spices. The home page, designed to make your mouth water, is a site map that makes it easy to see how you can discover cuisines and dishes you never knew existed. Singapore curry puffs, anyone? Want chili? There's Jenny's, Jess's, Kahlua, Karen's, Kathy's, Kay's, Kevin's, Lady April's, Mad Mike's, Margo's, Mariquita's, Mom's, and lots more. Yum, but what makes this recipe site unique is its pedigree; it is the new incarnation of the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes (SOAR), the venerable collection of Usenet recipe postings started in 1993 (hey, that's venerable for this medium) and first posted on the Web in 1995. Food alone may not bring universal understanding, but the world is richer for RecipeSource.
http://www.recipesource.com/
John's Nautical & Boatbuilding Page is a nautical portal as vast as the seas the subjects sail. The home page is a mix of enormous lists of links and articles that cover an extremely eclectic subject mix. While the articles are good, the link lists are comprehensive and great. Wherever your nautical interests lie, there's sure to be some information about it on this site. The subject matter ranges from canoes and kayaking through commercial shipping to all sorts of warships. Pages are devoted to sea-related books (invaluable!), tools, maritime photography, and marlinespike seamanship. Expect to spend considerable time exploring this multilayer site. There's only one thing missing, but it's a major omission: there's no site search engine. If ever a site needed one, this is it.
http://www.boat-links.com/index.html
Paper is a miraculous material. It's vital to the world we live in, even more so as computers also grow in importance. It's also elemental and natural. There's no great trick to making paper, yet papermaking is a true art - and an ancient one. You'd expect to find a great deal of paper making information on the Web and you'd be correct. Dieter Freyer's Buttenpapier - Handmade Paper site offers the Webguide to the World of Handmade Paper, which lists a huge number of resources in several languages (Freyer is Austrian). The categories are useful, and the subcategories work well, too. The sites selected are devoted to all aspects of papermaking and paper art (e.g., origami and papier-mache), not just handmade paper. You'll only find links here, but if you're interested in paper, you won't find a more useful site.
http://members.vienna.at/difr/emain.html
In NSD 7.40, we covered part one of Nick Carroll's fascinating concept for the use of an anti-keyword "exword" tag, which would make Web sites more accessible to the visitors they seek while turning away irrelevant searches that would otherwise dredge up your site in a search engine. This very literate and convincing white paper has links to back-up data. A newer paper, "The Anti-Thesaurus Part 2: Expansion of Proposal for Increasing Search Relevance" is also well worth the time of all Web developers and webmasters. Even ordinary mortals can profit from the paper's lucid explanations of Web searching. The knowledge gained will help you craft better searches.
NSD 7.40: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v07/nsd.07.40.html#BS3#BS3
Part Two: http://www.hastingsresearch.com/net/07-anti-thesaurus-part2.shtml
Lifestyles of the Broke and Laid-Off
Odd Todd's this guy, see? He's been, like, laid off for seven months, ya know?. Understandably, he doesn't want to go flip hamburgers for a living or something. Sitting around his apartment honing his Flash skills is more mentally (not to mention fiscally) challenging. We've never seen fudge stripe cookies animated quite so well, and we're glad to see that someone else considers them a delicious part of a nutritious breakfast. Go view his Flash documentary of a day in his life and then give him a job. Preferably something rewarding and in his field. At least, get a chuckle out of the flick.http://www.oddtodd.com/
Michael Kelly's Page of Misery
The opening screen of Michael Kelly's Page of Misery presents a man we assume to be Michael Kelly flattened against a wall with an army of fingers pointing straight at him. Click on any of the links, and you'll soon see why. This Brit has attitude, and he isn't shy about displaying it. Like any writer, he obviously has his good times and his bad, but his site showcases it all. Some is fairly raunchy, some brilliant. His diatribe on why he hates the Mormons is short but quite amusing, as is his take on smoking aboard airliners these days - "If anyone hears any ticking shoes, let us know," the stewardess asks. Prowl through here, and chances are good you'll find something tasteless to tickle your funnybone.http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/
Most Shakespearean insult servers online take Elizabethan adjectives and combine them with random nouns to create excellent sounding gibes, although ones probably never voiced to another human being, even in jest. Chris Seidel has taken such a set of words, added his own choice phrases to it, and then added the words of the Bard himself so that in amongst the random insults one may receive one penned 400 years ago, along with the name of the play in which it can be found. It makes you glad you're not on Will's bad side. The headline quote, by the way, comes from "Troilus and Cressida".
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
Perhaps the world's most controversial passageway, the Panama Canal has inflamed the rhetoric of politicians, enriched nations, and long been a popular subject of novels and films. A slick Flash introduction takes you into the official Web site of the Central American engineering marvel, maintained by the Panama Canal Authority, which has created an attractive balance of history, operational details, and outstanding Flash illustrations. Teachers will find this site an excellent supplement to classroom discussion. Journalists will appreciate the Virtual Newsroom. Shipping companies can check tide tables, transit statistics and other notices. A webcam follows activity at the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side, near Panama City, and a radar weather map is updated every 10 minutes. The interactive photo gallery is pretty snappy. This is not some dull collection of flat pages posted by indifferent bureaucrats. On the contrary - this informative site is mighty impressive from standpoints of technology and content.http://www.pancanal.com/
Planning a Trip to a Hotel California?
You may have heard that more Californians leave California than people move there. If the events of Sept. 11 still make you nervous, furthermore, you may think long and hard about a visit to the Golden State. In fact, even if you live in California you may think twice about leaving town.... Hence the need for California, Find Yourself Here, an official state Web site. It's both a public-relations tool and a research resource for travelers in search of discounts. One main section, California Finds, lists travel packages in each of 12 regions. To get details about any vacation deal, you follow external links to other sites. An introductory image map makes it easy to use, as does another main section, What's New in California, which has a paragraph each about openings, exhibits, and other attractions described in detail on linked sites. The Airport Information section has travel advisories (such as "Checking bags at off-airport sites is prohibited.") and links to the Web sites of major airports in California and other large airports in the United States. Curiously, we find not a single celebrity endorsement here. Where's Hollywood when you need it?http://www.findyourselfincalifornia.com/
And This Is Niagara Falls in the '30s...
Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Me. is "dedicated to preserving the moving image history of northern New England" from professional studio work to amateur camera operators. It focuses on the "historical value of home movies" beyond, presumably, the value your parents find in showing you buck naked as a toddler to your significant other. Unfortunately, no film clips are available online - only still image captures from the films. Still, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of a place.http://www.oldfilm.org/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Little Fimo Clay Figures Are People, Too
This site's called Sloan Adventures in Fimo. Fimo, we know, is a modelling clay, the material the little adventurers here are presumably made of. We don't know who or what Sloan is, but we can empathize with this little gang as they face down the perils of living in a big person's world, like monsters, and bingo.http://www.geocities.com/wondertones/fimosloan.html
Base-Bull Caps and Other Hats of Meat
Hard-core vegetarians will think the Hats of Meat site is just sick, sick, sick. So might some people with more generalized diets, especially those who take to heart their parents' admonishments not to play with their food - never mind wear it. In addition to pics, the site helpfully provides a QuickTime how-to video.http://www.hatsofmeat.com/HatsofMeat/index.html
QuikStat Web Page Counter and Stat Compiler
A few Web page counters compete to measure your Web page stats for free and one of them, QuikStat, recently came to our attention. QuikStat seems as good as any and better than most. We're considering using it on some of our private pages.http://www.quikstat.com/
Sometimes, we find a great little resource that is so specialized, only a small handful of readers will derive any value from a visit, no matter how fine a site it is. This is one such site. If the headline attracted you, have at it.
http://www.dogkiosk.com/
SOFTWARE
Specifically, Mozilla has released build 0.9.8, with address book improvements, new language support (Hebrew and Arabic), fancier theme handling, tweaks to file downloading, and some enhanced content formatting options - in other words, the usual bug fixes and feature tweaks to this open-source browser.Mozilla: http://mozilla.org/
Release Notes: http://mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.8/
PostgreSQL Database v7.2 Released
Most of our readers don't really have much use for a database engine that can handle more than a billion entries. However, that after a year of work a new version of PostgreSQL has been released is actually newsworthy. This database is one of the two major free or low-cost databases available to the public (the other is MySQL), and it is in many respects the most sophisticated. This stable, enterprise-class piece of software perfectly illustrates that the collaborative open-source model can produce tools that rival anything done by large commercial efforts. If you actually do need a low cost, large scale database, then this version is eminently worth evaluating.v7.2 News: http://www.us.postgresql.org/news.html
PostgreSQL FAQ: http://www.ca.postgresql.org/docs/faq-english.html
PostgreSQL: http://www.us.postgresql.org/