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ADMINISTRIVIA
Full Netsurfer E-Zine Text In Mailbox for Paid Subscribers
We've gotten quite a bit of feedback from our subscribers since switching to paid subscriptions on what they would like to get for their money. The most requested feature was to get back the full issue of the Digest in their mailbox again. Originally we went to the login model (sign in to our Web site to read each issue) due to the usual worries about potential piracy. However, we do listent to our readers, so we'll give this method a try. Starting with this issue we will send the full text of our e-zines to our paid subscribers. You won't have to log in to read the issue. You will still have to log in to access search results from old issues and for occasional special content. We'll see what happens, and if we run into piracy problems we reserve the right to switch back. Enjoy.BREAKING SURF
The 11th Annual Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Awards were presented Apr. 17 at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in San Francisco. This year, Dan Gillmor, Beth Givens, and the DeCSS authors got the coveted nod. Gillmor, a tech journalist, was honored for his role in identifying and addressing with clarity important Internet issues. Beth Givens, founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, was recognized for her relentless efforts to guard the privacy rights of consumers. The authors of DeCSS were hailed for their stubborn refusal to be fenced in by the deliberate constraints of DVD technology. The public face of DeCSS, Jon Johansen, accepted the award on behalf of all its authors. Norwegian authorities, egged on by the Motion Picture Association of America, have charged Johansen with criminal hacking; his trial starts in June. The awards are a chance to thank those who help ensure a little more choice in our lives in an area where companies seem to have abandoned the notion that the customer is always right.http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html
The Atlantic Monthly is up to its old tricks, shedding light in its inimitably entertaining and thorough way on an intriguing subject. Computer modeling is useful for all kinds of practical things, from the safety of nuclear reactors to the design of sneakers. Here, Jonathan Rauch asks if modeling silicon societies can help us understand the organic variety. Rauch's sprawling article introduces us to some of the personalities behind the newly emerging science of artificial societies and shows that the new frontier in complexity studies already provides glimmers of insight. Real cities, real societies, and real social behavior appear to follow some of the same simple but potent rules that apply to life in general. In a world where government action often produces results at odds with intentions and where terrorism's dark smoke threatens civilization's light, the study of synthetic societies may lead to programs and actions that work. Read it, print it out, send it to your friends - and check out the animations and Rauch interview.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/04/rauch.htm
Last week, we told you that the Chandra X-Ray Observatory discovered what may be a star composed entirely of quarks. This week, NASA posted a picture of the star in question, an object with the catchy name of RJX J185635-375. The picture itself is not that exciting - the star is a pink smudge in a colorful nebula - but the caption has several good links to the latest scientific observation reports, which give new estimates for size and distance. Hardcore physics groupies will enjoy the quark matter details, while everybody can enjoy the neat and informative Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) site.
RJX J185635-375: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020414.html
APOD: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
The Nigerian 419 scam, an oldie and recurring goodie, gets a lot of press - for good reason, it turns out. According to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, a joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, victims reporting monetary loss in 2001 due to that scam lost more than any other swindled group: almost $6,000 a person. Versions of the scam may have brought con artists a bigger windfall, but were the cause of only 15.5% of the 16,775 reported complaints of online fraud, and only 0.6% of those complainants (151 people, if our math is right) had actually suffered monetary loss. Fraud victims reported online auction fraud nearly three times as frequently, and reporters suffered loss - an average of almost $400 - nearly four-fifths of the time. Ah, springtime. When better to talk about fleecing the sheep?
http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/strategy/IFCC_2001_AnnualReport.pdf
GeekPAC Tries to Join the Copyright Legislation Fight
Until now, most recently enacted copyright laws and legal decisions have armed corporations against consumers. However, the most recent and all-encompassing proposal, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act (CBDTA), has led some powerful companies to jump into the trenches on the side of consumers. In a corporate version of not-in-my-backyard syndrome, tech allies like Intel, Gateway, and the Consumer Electronics Association have rallied against the legislation. The line is drawn in the sand (say, around Bakersfield, Calif.) with Silicon Valley on one side and Hollywood on the other. The line isn't clear cut - you'd think that AOL Time Warner would side with Hollywood, but its CEO has testified against the CBDTA (once called the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act; SSSCA). The open-source community is predictably against the CBDTA and two media figureheads have established GeekPAC, a political action group, to help counter the heavyweight Recording Industry Association of America, Disney, and Motion Picture Association of America as they seek to legislate the redesign of the personal computer as a copyright enforcement device. It might be a great idea, but do geeks have the political savvy to pull this off? CNET has more, and links from there delve into the CBDTA/SSSCA mess.GeekPAC: http://www.thelinuxshow.com/otc.htm
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-881936.html
Legal Battle over Battle.net's Attack of the Clone
Gamers have a hard time getting respect, but this kind they can do without. Vivendi Universal Games has sued an ISP over the distribution of a neat open-source program called Bnetd that allows players of Vivendi games, including Starcraft and Diablo, to play online without logging into the company's central Battle.net servers. Battle.net servers are often busy or inaccessible, and Bnetd lets gamers create and host their own network. Vivendi's main concern is that, unlike Battle.net, Bnetd doesn't try to confirm that players are using legit, unpirated copies of the games. Unlike lawsuits brought under the aegis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and similar laws - which are legally valid although morally abhorrent to many - this suit tries to crack down on a third-party application that uses none of Vivendi's content or code (or doesn't have to, anyway). Whether Vivendi's legal tack is wise or not remains to be decided. The Bnetd site has the correspondence give-and-take that led up to the suit filing. Wired has more and Slashdot has discussion.Bnetd: http://www.bnetd.org/
Wired: http://wired.com/news/games/0,2101,51747,00.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/08/1510201&mode=thread
Google and the Church of Scientology, Round Two
As we reported in NSD 8.12, the Church of Scientology (CoS) complained that Google had indexed a Web site that infringed on the church's copyright and that, as laid out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it would hold the search engine legally liable. Google at first blocked the entire site from appearing in search results, then, amid considerable hue and cry from Web-savvy folks, reconsidered and now lets through most of the site. Google has also released CoS's DMCA complaints for viewing, and the letters reveal to all the contested links. With an eye to future actions of this sort, Google expanded its DMCA page to inform owners of potentially blocked sites how to file a DMCA counter notification that legally forces the search engine to reinstate blocked links. Linux Journal has a few more details.CoS letters: http://chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi
Linux Journal: http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5997
Google DMCA page: http://www.google.com/dmca.html
Google Cracks Down on Automated Queries
Google's acceptable use policy clearly states that its current search service can't be used to make computer-generated automated queries (though the service has released software user interfaces which would make this easier in the future - see "Google Releases Programming Interfaces", below). Whenever Google detects such abuse, it will block the IP addresses of the offending ISP, as happened to Comcast and its users last week. This CNET article discusses that specific case and details other threats to the purity of Google search results, such as Google bombing, automated ranking discovery software, and massive Web page interlinking. The article gives a good overview of the sophisticated ways people try to manipulate Google's search rankings, and how the company fights such deception.http://news.com.com/2100-1023-883558.html
Well known user-interface guru Jacob Nielsen contends that most Web site designs for kids are based on pure folklore about how kids supposedly behave. He rounded up 55 American and Israeli kids and pointed them at 24 different Web sites as he observed just how they browse. One of the surprising findings was that the kids had greatest success accessing streamlined adult Web sites like Yahoo and Amazon and fared badly on sites specifically aimed at kids, which often had convoluted and complex user interfaces. The kids basically give up if confronted with complexity and moved on to other Web pages. Nielsen has a useful summary of the report with an overview of other findings. The full 128-page report is also available for $125.
Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020414.html
Supreme Court Rules Virtual Child Porn Ban Violates First Amendment
The 6-3 US Supreme Court ruling in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition holds that language in the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 is unconstitutionally vague and far-reaching. The law banned explicit material where participants "appear to be a minor" or material which "conveys the impression" that a minor was involved. This was to apply also to computer-generated images without the involvement of real humans. The ban on computer-altered child porn based on original photographs of actual minors was not challenged and still stands. The opinion is available as a large PDF file from the Supreme Court or in HTML format from Cornell, which also offers a concise syllabus of the ruling.Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/01pdf/00-795.pdf
Syllabus: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-795.ZS.html
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's theories about early human explorers have been proven mostly wrong. Which is not to say they were unimportant. Heyerdahl proved several times that relatively early sailing technology could cross oceans, and sparked a vigorous debate which led to important research on how humans actually did diffuse across the planet. His first expedition, crossing the Pacific on the primitive boat Kon Tiki brought him worldwide fame. He died of cancer at age 87 this week after a life of science and adventure, becoming perhaps the most famous Norwegian ever. This Web page has details about his expeditions and many related links.
http://www.greatdreams.com/thor.htm
Tying an Information Noose around Terrorists
In a five-page memo addressed to the heads of US legal and anti-crime agencies, Attorney General John Ashcroft requests greater coordination and information sharing to combat terrorism. Specifically, he wants to see terrorist information expanded in law enforcement databases, coordination of foreign terrorist information, the establishment of systems for sharing information securely, and the ability to analyze terrorist data across information systems. The aim is to avoid pockets of isolated information and make sure the collective knowledge of the entire law enforcement infrastructure is available to all officials responsible for protecting the country against terrorism. It's a sensible goal, but the bureaucratic instinct to protect fiefdoms and turf can confound even the noblest initiative. Ashcroft's objective will probably require more than a memo to achieve.http://www.politechbot.com/docs/ashcroft.info.sharing.041102.pdf
The Tech World Wants a Bite of the National Security Pie
National security is the domain of the new killer app. In the wake of the tech financial implosion and the Sept. 11 terrorism, Silicon Valley is turning towards new sources of venture capital: the Pentagon; the Office of Homeland Security; and the CIA's venture capital initiative. This New York Times Magazine article makes it clear that personal privacy is going to suffer as the US begins to build integrated databases with little forethought as to who should have access to the data and what data should be collected. Politicians want a technological fix to the problem of homeland security, and the tech industry is eager to sell one. Oracle's Larry Ellison believes that his company's strategy of integrating disparate databases is exactly what the nation should do - comments that are as revealing of one potential strategy as they are typical of Ellison's egotistical tendencies.http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/magazine/14TECHNO.html
The World Wide Web Consortium's Voice Browser working group is beavering away at a variety of specifications intended to help make the Web more accessible to more people through a wider variety of devices more often. VoiceXML, speech synthesis, speech recognition, and touch-tone grammars are just some of the areas they are working on. One important objective is to make the Web available through telephone sets, which are far more ubiquitous and portable than computers. Another is to develop a new mark-up language called SSML specifically for voice applications. Voice browsers will allow verbal interaction with Web content, sometimes supplemented by keypads and small displays, for hands-free and eyes-free operation. Success in these areas should add substantially to the importance of Web-based applications and transactions in daily life. The links provide lots of technical details.
Voice Browser: http://www.w3.org/Voice/
SSML: http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/
Conception of the Xbox - Making Babies Is Easier and More Fun
How do you innovate in a big company with an established corporate culture? That's what this Red Herring article on the origins and development of Microsoft's Xbox console is really about. Of course, the article introduces you to Seamus Blackley and his team, but it does so solely as a means to show you how only Blackley's championing of the console within his company brought about the Xbox. Whether this corporate culture is a good thing or not is something you have to decide.Red Herring: http://www.redherring.com/insider/2002/0411/2270.html
Xbox: http://www.microsoft.com/xbox/
Windows XP Search Assistant Leaks Info to Microsoft via Internet
An article in the Register exposes information leakage from your Windows XP machine to Microsoft. Every time you do a search with Microsoft Search Assistant, your machine connects to Microsoft and fetches some XSL stylesheet files. The files are harmless, and Microsoft says that it does not collect any information from your searches, but the connection does expose some information to the company - specifically, your IP address at the very least. If you believe Microsoft, there is no immediate privacy threat, but that doesn't mean there's no problem. For example, spyware could intercept these access attempts and report them to a third party. A Trojan horse program could redirect these connection attempts to a server in a distributed denial of service attack. There's also the issue of your operating system making connections to the Internet without your knowledge. it's not a pretty picture any way you look at it.http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24815.html
Proposed IBM/Microsoft Framework for Security of Web Services
IBM and Microsoft have teamed up to propose the course of security in Web services. Web services, the next hot online concept, basically means providing information and computational resources via the Net. For example, the new Google programming APIs (see "Google Releases Programming Interfaces", below) let its search engine provide search results to other programs without having to go through HTML, thus making Google a Web service. The IBM/Microsoft white paper addresses a plethora of security issues, such as authentication, privacy, and secure communications channels. It's all built on standards such as SOAP, WSDL, and XML encryption. As always with such large corporate initiatives, it's probably way too complex for actual implementation and not much is likely to come of it, but it is a good point of departure for discussion.http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-secmap/
Anti-SUV Campaign Hits below the Belt
Give Amy Alkon points for chutzpah. She hates SUVs, so she printed up a bunch of business cards that said SUV owners have small penises and provided a phone number. Then she and some friends started leaving the cards on SUVs. Boy, did she get calls. She has included some of the alleged responses in a Los Angeles New Times article. A few lawsuits are winding their way through American courts over such undesired leafleting, but regardless, some of this stuff is amusing. If you're like us, you'll find it worth a visit.http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/2002-04-11/sidecar.html/1/index.html
New Patches for Old IIS Problems
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) systems continue to take security hits, as the Redmond, Wash. giant has revealed the software has eight new security problems. Of course, Microsoft won't admit to problems until it has decided the patches work. Some folks seem to feel this approach rather leaves you with your knickers down. The Register has a brief overview.http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/24795.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Google Poetry and the Price of Words
Christophe Bruno continues the tradition of exploring the power of Google by running an experiment in poetry and advertising. He decided to sign up for a Google AdWords account ($5 sign-up fee) and started running non-sequitur poetry ads. Each poem was linked to a common word, and would appear on results pages for searches run on that word. Yes, Bruno did harvest some clicks, about 12,000 in all, but that's not the story. Google automatically - and quite politely, we might add - decided that his ads were not performing well enough, reduced their frequency of appearance, and advised Bruno to improve his ads - effectively restricting his poetic endeavor based purely on economic principles. In a moment of insight, Bruno recognized that in the world of word-linked ads, specific words have specific economic value. For example, the word "free" is worth $7,569.23, while the word "freedom" is only worth $1.88. Read Bruno's account and ponder his insights about economy, censorship, and the value of your words. AdWords: https://adwords.google.com/select/mainBruno: http://www.iterature.com/adwords/
Amazon's Jeff Bezos Responds to Authors Guild on Used Book Sales
Last week, we reported on the Authors Guild's complaint that Amazon sells used books alongside new copies. This week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos fired back, writing a letter to Amazon's used book affiliates in which he argues that the sale of used books actually helps the entire book industry. The situation echoes the Napster debate. Bezos's campaign seems to be working - CNET reports that the Authors Guild has received about 4,000 e-mails in favor of Amazon.Bezos Letter: http://forums.prosperotechnologies.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=am-sellannounce&msg=157.1
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1017-883663.html
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Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship
Year Zero: A Novel
Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
Applied Microsoft .NET Framework ProgrammingSURFING SITES
When Good Library Information Science Girls Go Bad
This week in NSD, Tara Calishain does the Internet. That's right - she's got quite the reputation... for knowing the ins-and-outs of search engines, databases, and the latest content management tools. Since October 1998, Calishain has been putting together ResearchBuzz, a weekly newsletter that briefs her audience on the latest trends and tools out there for folks who just can't get enough organization with their Internet. We picture Calishain as a junkie of The Container Store, since she's got keenly honed skills for putting everything in the right place and realizing when something's not in its spot. For folks who crave even more, the ResearchBuzz Extra provides, for an additional fee, an article every week "about a different aspect of Internet searching." We can't evaluate it; we didn't opt in. We like our sock drawer messy.http://www.researchbuzz.com/
Refdesk.com's Superb Reference Portal
Seems like it's reference-o-rama at NSD this week.... Refdesk.com calls itself the single best source for facts on the Net, and we'd have to say it's certainly in the running. This portal offers many search options, including Web, references, dictionary, and white pages, all from one convenient, well laid-out location. News headlines, and one-click access to a dozen news services, together with links to health, science - heck, you can jump straight to the atomic clock or the Old Farmers' Almanac from this place - all add up to one of the most enabling of the many jumping-off points on the Web. You may want to make it your browser's startup page.http://www.refdesk.com/
You May Already Be a Lipstick Librarian
Do you ride a Vespa to work, your sidecar weighted down with volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary, just in case? Do you stash extra bottles of your favorite nail polish behind the Xs in the card catalogue because everyone uses the online one now anyhow? You just might be a lipstick librarian, beloved by the fashion community for your brains, worshipped by the nerds for your inimitable style. Linda Absher states, "Anyone who wears the image of a duck, a pig, a bunny-rabbit, or any combination thereof, on their clothing" is automatically out of the running, but we are forced to assume Ping, Snowball and any critter from Watership Down are exempt from this ruling as long as this article of clothing is worn in the spirit of casual day and does not ruin an otherwise fab designer outfit. We can only hope that her prediction of a comeback for spandex is off the mark.http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com/
Movies as Tools for Teaching Morals
Movies as teaching tools? We're not talking about instructional films you saw in health or civics class. We're talking Hollywood, mostly. Teach with Movies aims to help teachers teach kids about positive qualities such as trustworthiness, respect, and responsibility by providing learning guides to popular movies, many of which you can rent on video. "Apollo 13", listed in the Cultural Heritage index, is a good example. Selection criteria suggest why you might want students to watch it ("Each of the astronauts, in his own way, is a positive male role model.") and what to watch out for ("He is trying to pick her up by comparing docking a spacecraft to sexual intercourse."). The meatiest and probably most useful features are background and discussion questions. The latter focus on character development and ethics as well as cultural heritage. You may find yourself at odds with some selections on the long list of films this site does not recommend as teaching tools, but really, this site is likely to interest film buffs who have no intention of teaching.http://www.teachwithmovies.org/index.html
"Due to the nature of the site, the content has not been censored, and some people may feel it might warrant an adults-only rating...." Think this applies to TV comedians, the news, or - good heavens! - NSD? Listen up, especially if you're a parent or teacher. The Online Dictionary of Playground Slang will prove a revelation to many, even though most of its entries are of British origin. Whatever your own origin, gentle reader, we guarantee you'll find words and phrases in this large dictionary you've never heard before. Were Shakespeare writing today, it's a good bet he'd lace dialogue with slang like "sex lord", "bagpuss", "sheepshagger", and other delicate compliments. You can submit entries to this site curated by one Chris Lewis, who "has qualifications in Psychology and Computing", and has its own newsgroup (free.odps). Are you egg bound? Got Molson muscle? Check it out, but please, no badger gassing.
http://www.odps.cyberscriber.com/
Cheap, Imaginative Games - BYOD
If you've got one board game (with the exception of Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and a handful of others which show up in your life before you can count), you've got a little marker for each player and a set of dice. Every additional game you bring home adds to your stash of board game detritus. That's where Cheapass Games comes in. You buy a game from them and you get the rules and anything that's unique to the game (board, cards, storyline), but from there you're on your own. Basically, you're paying for their imagination, which is what we should be rewarding in the gaming industry, not the ability to package six-sided dice. With such names as Unexploded Cow ("Travel to exotic France, meet interesting cows, and blow them up.") and Starbase Jeff ("You can learn a lot about a guy when you shoot him into space."), there's more than enough imagination at the company to go around. We just wish they still made Huzzah.http://www.cheapass.com/
Are You Prepared for Anything?
We can think of many good reasons to spend time at WorstcaseScenarios.com. Say you want to become a Hollywood actor or stuntperson - you need to know how to take a punch and fend off a shark. Say your office is on fire - you have to jump out the window into a dumpster without injury and perform an emergency tracheotomy with your ballpoint pen on a co-worker whose parachute failed to open. Maybe you have no parachute but have to jump off a bridge or cliff into a river. You want to become a skydiver, Navy SEAL, demolition derby driver, bodyguard, surgeon, or lifestyle consultant. In fact, there may be no better site to visit when you're stuck in quicksand and need to ram a car. Shell out a few bucks, and you'll also get survival gear and tips on travel, dating, and sex. You never know when you'll need an online survival guide. We took an uppercut, our parachute never opened, a ballpoint got stuck in our trachea, and Jaws is coming around for another attack, so pardon us while we flail and heave our laptop and bid adieu until our next review....http://www.worstcasescenarios.com/
Lost somewhere in the educational eddies and backwaters in Colorado, there lives a guy named David Gray with a passion for early television, fast food, and the Happy Meal in particular. The intrepid Gray has plugged along, without apparent thanks or recognition, to create a page devoted to the forgotten Mayor McCheese. Noting that the McDonald's character served faithfully as head of McDonaldland from 1970 or so until his sudden and disquietingly unexplained disappearance sometime around 1990, Gray explores the circumstances of the disappearance and offers some low-quality sound clips from vintage 1970s ads as a token of remembrance for the lost leader. He thoughtfully includes a gallery of images as well.
http://rintintin.colorado.edu/~grayd/McCheese.html
The Hurdle's Screenwriting Contest
Perhaps the biggest hurdle that aspiring screenwriters face is getting the right people to read their scripts. The Hurdle seeks "to bring together independent screenwriters, studio executives and movie lovers in general in an online meritocracy" by means of an annual competition based on peer review. You join the community, submit an anonymous screenplay, review at least three anonymous screenplays by other members, ponder feedback on your own script, and hope yours is one of the top 50 that studio execs get to read. Twenty of those 50 will be auctioned, with proceeds to go to the author. The top 20 screenwriters receive an invitation to a gala to be held Dec. 21, 2002, in Los Angeles. This year's submission deadline is Aug. 31. You can submit more than one screenplay. As you might expect, there's a submission fee, and if your script gets auctioned, The Hurdle Ltd. takes a 20% commission. Get the rules, submission tips, and other details at the official site. Have a good jump!http://www.thehurdle.com/
A good many people use the Net to earn part or all of their income. Others use it as a virtual street corner from which they ask passers-by for spare change, or a spare 20-dollar bill. This site is among the latter. But it's creatively done, and it's really kind of - well, cute. That's what hooks you and reels you in. This guy wants to buy a car, but he's a broke Australian student who needs a major cash infusion. Naturally enough, he'd like you to tell all your friends about his site. Unfortunately for him, we found it. And when you spend as much time as we do, whacking our way across the Web, your friend tends to be whatever delivery guy from Safeway.com is dropping off this week's 30 cases of soda. And actually, we're not all that sure about him.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~moistfish/
ONLINE TRAVEL
Montreal's a pretty cosmopolitan place, judging from the content to be found on the site devoted to its subway system. It's not surprising that you can take the trip in French or English - this is Quebec, after all - but content is also available in Spanish, Italian, and Esperanto, and that multiplicity of tongues is unusual for any site, but understandable within the city's polyglot context. If you want to participate in the discussion forums, however, you'd better be up on your francais. Montreal is referred to as the francophone metropolis of North America for good reason. Train lovers will find enough in here even without the forum (who knew that the trains use rubber tires, rather than steel wheels?). Layout, history, FAQs and photos are all combined to generate an aesthetically appealing visit to this part of Montreal's underground city. You can get to know the topside of the city as well, via links to other resources. The live cams are particularly interesting; presenting not only a snapshot, but a map showing its location. If you're planning a visit to Montreal, or if you just (ahem!) happen to live there but never get away from the computer much, this site's worth your time.http://metro.paip.net/
Irmingard Anna Kotelev has a way with a lens, and she has pointed hers at Venice's Carnival festivities. Share her view of Venice through the glass eye of the camera at the Carnival of Venice 2001 site, which captures the unique flavor of the experience which is Carnival. The photos are luscious, filled with texture and color. We can only hope that a 2002 photo album is forthcoming. Plus, this site also wins our special Netsurfer award for the most creative spelling of etiquette. See if you can catch it.
http://www.aurumxxl.com/carnival.htm
SOFTWARE
Google Releases Programming Interfaces
Google has done a great service for the Web community by releasing a set of programming applications for accessing its search results. Now you can write programs that can read Google search results directly, without having to parse a Web page. The interfaces use the SOAP and XML standards as communication protocols. Your program will need to provide a license key with each query. At the moment, the license can be obtained from Google for free. Implementations in several programming languages are already available. This is still beta software, but is creating quite a buzz in the development communities.APIs: http://www.google.com/apis/
Implementations: http://www.soapware.org/directory/4/services/googleApi/implementations
One of the spam-defeating methods that evolved in the spam wars is the concept of a spam trap. You set up a Web page with some fake e-mail addresses, then watch for spambots that would send e-mail to those addresses. Once you have the spambot's IP address, you can take action ranging from simple banning to more drastic measures. Neil Gunton has developed this elaborate spam trap, usable in Linux, Apache, mod_perl, Perl, and MySQL. It's not trivial to set up, but it does seem to do the job. Neil describes his system on this Web page. Sysadmins and Linux literate individuals who are looking for a sophisticated, and sometimes elaborate, technical solution to the spam problem will appreciate it.
http://www.neilgunton.com/spambot_trap/