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BREAKING SURF
NASA Releases First Pictures from New Hubble Camera
When was the last time deep-space photos made your newspaper's front page? The new Hubble Space Telescope camera, installed last March, has started snapping away and this week NASA released the first set of photos. As usual, they are quite spectacular. The new camera packs a whopping 16-megapixel imaging chip that doubles the Hubble's previous image area and resolution and increases sensitivity fivefold. The four pictures released show distant colliding galaxies and spectacular dusty nebulae in a variety of resolutions, suitable for desktop backgrounds.http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2002/02_074.html
Klez Worm Catches the All-Too-Numerous Unwary
Look, it's simple. DON'T OPEN E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS. Got it? It doesn't matter if it's from your dad, your boyfriend, or your dog. Don't open it. Period. If you have Outlook or Outlook Express and you don't know how to stop it from automatically opening attachments, use something just as free and more professionally coded, like Eudora. The latest versions of the Klez worm change the "From" field in infected e-mail, so it always seems to arrive from someone you know, sometimes masquerading as a game or even as an undeliverable e-mail. Wired looks at the confusion the spoofed headers have caused, CNET looks at the proliferation of the worm, and Symantec offers a free tool that will root Klez infections out of your Windows computer.Eudora: http://www.eudora.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52174,00.html
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-894706.html
Symantec: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.removal.tool.html
Cringely Wants SIDS Research Help
Noted tech reporter Robert X. Cringely recently suffered the horrible tragedy of losing his 74-day-old son to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) as the child slept in his lap. Hoping to understand how exactly his son came to die so young, Cringely immersed himself in SIDS research. He discovered that after an initial burst of results in the 1980s and early 1990s, the SIDS research community has made little progress towards finding a cause or preventive measures. To jumpstart SIDS research, Cringely envisions a massive baby-monitoring project that would gather data to help predict and prevent SIDS. In his Apr. 25 column, he wrote: "I need your help. I need hardware engineers, software engineers, I need people experienced with biomedical sensors and sifting mountains of data. I need folks who make tiny processors and RAM chips. I need people who know more about this stuff than I do. Yet they must also be people who are willing to believe that there is an answer, since the medical establishment seems to have given up." Chip in. His e-mail is on the Bob's World page.http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020425.html
Fans Tell Fox to Bite Their Shiny, Metal Ass
The Fox network in the US has a reputation of hosting low-brow entertainment and we recently read a remark that commented on how Fox will put just about anything on TV - except "The Tick" and "Futurama". Those two shows were, for us, some of the highlights on Fox this past winter, when they could be found. Fox cancelled "The Tick" and has mistreated "Futurama", often pre-empting it for football or reruns. In an attempted coup de grace, Fox has declined to order new episodes. "Futurama" creator Matt Groening, also the man behind Fox's popular "The Simpsons", wants to continue making his new show, but won't take it to another network. In a Financial Times (!) article, Groening complains about Fox's attitude, and nearly 120,000 fans have signed an online petition to save the show. Check out the unofficial site listed below for more info.Financial Times: http://specials.ft.com/creativebusiness/FT3GRP48M0D.html
Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/futufu/petition.html
Unofficial: http://www.gotfuturama.com/
Thinking about Copyright, Circa 1841
On Feb. 5, 1841, Thomas Babington Macaulay spoke to the English House of Commons on copyrights. Why should you in 2002 read what he said? Two reasons. First, his speech outlines ideas that grew into the conceptual foundation of copyright law in the West over the next century. Anyone interested in the current debates about intellectual property needs to absorb this background to be an informed participant. Second, and in some ways even more interesting, Macaulay's speech highlights the vastly different nature of political speech then and now. It's intellectual, persuasive, and long, unlike modern rhetoric that aims low, peppered with slogans and sound bites. Jolly st nick, who posted this speech on Kuro5hin, deserves kudos for not only unearthing it but also for explaining its content and style to the modern reader. Fair warning - you'll have to engage your brain as you read this.http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/25/1345/03329
Did You Enjoy Having Privacy When You Had It?
Welcome to the war on terrorism. Sorry about your rights, but you don't have those antiquated things any more. Waving with the PATRIOT Act, police and intelligence agencies are drowning telcos and ISPs in subpoenas for subscriber lists, routing patterns, and other goodies. It might be time to invest in a paper company. There's a whole lot of paper being passed behind your back, and at least one privacy expert says that things that used to require a judge's approval don't, in these times. In a Newhouse News Service article, Albert Gidari claims that the number of subpoenas is roughly doubling each month. The telcos and ISPs are feeling the pinch, as it costs time and therefore money to comply with these things. But the pinch isn't measured just in dollars and sense. In the US, guarantees of privacy formerly taken for granted are pretty much gone. Think you're just another anonymous user of a public library? Think again. Heck, we won't even order pizza delivered.http://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1a041002.html
Ordinary Essays on Intellectual Property Law
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently held an essay contest; so did WIPOUT, an organization dedicated to changing the current intellectual property regime. The winners of the WIPOUT contest make for good reading and their essays expose the salient and ridiculous features of some intellectual property law. What is especially clear is that as intellectual property law begins to constrain our daily lives, it might be possible to succeed in changing these laws. The essays are especially appealing because they are written for and by ordinary people, not lawyers. Read them for a great deal of interesting thought about intellectual property and how it should change.WIPO: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/releases/2002/p311.htm
WIPOUT: http://www.wipout.net/winners_eng.htm
Study Shows Few Like Passport, Screen Name
A recent survey has confirmed what many suspected: online customers don't want to sign up for Microsoft's infamous Passport or AOL's Screen Name services. Gartner questioned over 2,000 consumers on two separate occasions and found that 38% don't trust Microsoft and 29% don't trust AOL with personal and financial information. Gartner figures there are about 25 million Passport users - far fewer than Microsoft's claim of 200 million users - of whom 11 million are unaware they are even signed up. It also estimates that by next year, the typical Passport and Screen Name users will only access about three Web sites a month using the services, a far cry from the busy future Microsoft wants. These services are supposed to make life easier for users, but it seems that customers value security more than convenience. The only way companies offering these services are going to drastically expand the number of users is to weave the services so tightly into the fabric of the Web that users have no choice. Of course, Microsoft has a history of that kind of coercion. CNET and Gartner have the details.CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-892808.html
Gartner: http://www4.gartner.com/5_about/press_releases/2002_04/pr20020417a.jsp
Most of the cookies that password-protected Web sites use to identify visitors expire after a short period of inactivity, but some sites allow users to bypass this automatic protection to avoid having to log on on subsequent visits. Leaving cookies like this makes you vulnerable to someone who may have a hand in your cookie jar, Wired tells us. After reports of problems with Hotmail accounts involving stolen cookies, Wired tested the widely used e-mail service and found that its cookies stay active on the user's PC unless the user clicks the sign-out button or reboots the computer. Security experts say it's relatively easy to steal cookies, which are stored unencrypted in a fixed location on all computers. Aside from general online security, the only way to minimize the risk of cookie misuse is to shun those convenient keep-me-signed-on blandishments that Hotmail, eBay, and other sites provide and to use the log-off button when leaving the site. Sure, that means you'll have to log on each time, but that's better than finding someone else using your account.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52115,00.html
Spyware is software that uses your machine or records information about your online activity without your knowledge. Ad-aware finds spyware on your computer and removes it. RadLight, a media player, finds Ad-aware on your computer and removes that, generally without your knowledge. DoubleClick, the ad company, used spyware and was called on the public carpet in an episode that shed a little light on the issue, but running Ad-aware makes you realize just how many people and firms are interested in your online life. This is evolving into an arms race, much like the battle between radar-detector-equipped motorists and the police that began in the 1980s. That war is still going on, and there's no reason this one will end any sooner. A Salon article (which stole our headline, harrumph!) expands on what we told you last week.
Salon: http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/26/anti_spyware/index.html
NSD 8.16: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.16.html#BS6#BS6
The Internet Society has released a memo from Internet guru Vint Cerf, currently a WorldCom senior vice-president, who reminds us of the idealistic promise of the Internet and warns us we need to ensure the promise is fulfilled. Some of the hazards he identifies include a lack of privacy protection, overcomplexity, incompatible international laws, high costs, and overregulation. There's nothing really new here but the message provides a useful, brief refresher with some statistics that illustrate the low global penetration of the Internet. If anyone else had said all this, we might just shrug it off, but Cerf still has cachet, although some Slashdot commentary is typically weary, disrespectful, and cynical.
Cerf: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3271.txt
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/26/2139249
Here's a job only the Internet could make possible: Google researcher. You read right: you, too, can enter the world of highly skilled netsurfers and answer questions from those who find the Net's vast abundance of information just too difficult to navigate. It works like an auction. People pose questions for a 50-cent fee, but can offer to pay more for an answer. The stable of Google researchers pick and choose which questions to answer, so questions that pay more become more attractive. Researchers earn 75% of the payment, and have one hour to provide an answer after accepting a question. After an hour, other Google researchers will be able to enter the fray and compete for the funds. So much for homework.... Application: https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=apply FAQ: https://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html Guidelines: https://answers.google.com/answers/researcherguidelines.html
A silly bit of analysis involving searching Google for phrases such as "bill gates sucks" and "blessed are the cheesemakers" sparked a half-silly discussion on Slashdot. Scott Ennis measured the number of results that these phrases returned in intervals of three, six, and 12 months and made some wildly unscientific conclusions about the rate of decay of the Web. The data and analysis are hardly scientific and probably reflect Google's internals more than anything else, but Ennis did galvanize the Slashdot crowd to discuss the actual nature of Web decay in its typically irreverent fashion. We actually have a link to a real study on the subject, courtesy of the latest Netsurfer Science, in which we present a study of link rot on scientific Web sites - worth repeating here.
Ennis: http://helen.lifeseller.com/webdecay.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/30/0428244.shtml
Link Rot: http://www-class.unl.edu/biochem/url/broken_links.html
Still have 5-1/4" inch disks but no drive to hold them? Or a back-up tape without the machine that made it? Or maybe you've conveniently used loose accounting practices to hide debt in off-shore partnerships and kept the information on a machine of a type that you believe is unused throughout the Western world? If you need help rescuing data, you might want to call Lee Tydlaska, who owns his own computer museum and is a player in the growing field of computer forensics. This Salon article has all the details, plus a great portrait of a guy who turned his hobby into serious money.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/22/computer_forensics/index.html
The Nebula Awards, given out every year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, are some of the most prestigious awards in SF literature. This year, the winners included Catherine Asaro for the novel "The Quantum Rose", Jack Williamson for his novella "The Ultimate Earth", Kelly Link for the novelette "Louise's Ghost", and Severna Park for the short story "The Cure for Everything". Best script went to James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, and Hui-Ling Wang, the authors of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". You can read the novella and short story at the Web site, as well as excerpts from the novel.
http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2002/winners01.htm
Interview With Chess Grand Master Vladimir Kramnik
This ChessBase News interview of Vladimir Kramnik, the young Russian who shocked Garry Kasparov by deposing him as world champion in December 2000, is wide-ranging and candid. Sadly, Kasparov is perhaps best known now for his stunning loss to IBM's Deep Blue chess program. In October, Kramnik plans to pit his own organic brand of chess against another contender of the silicon variety in a showdown against the latest version of Fritz in Bahrain. Kramnik sees the contest as one between creativity and brute calculating power, and believes that a skilled human player can devise tactics to defeat even the fastest computer. Even so, he knows he'll have to be at his very best to do it. Kramnik believes the Internet has had an overwhelmingly positive influence on chess, but says that face-to-face matches between people are still what it's all about. His comments show that the maneuvering and posturing that goes on over tournaments and championships can be as tactical as the game itself.http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=255
You just might recall that we moved to a subscription format a little while ago. GameSpot, one of the premier information resources for gamers, recently went pay, too. It eloquently reasons why in this editorial; one reason is that it felt that many of its ads have tended to annoy rather than inform. GameSpot wants to get away from that as much as you do. We particularly liked its assertion that it has "the technology, knowledge, and will to create the ultimate gaming service - we just can't afford to give it away for free to the millions of people who visit GameSpot each month." Like us, GameSpot will offer a limited set of free services; reserving access to all content to those who feel that they can support the providers of that content with a few dollars of their hard-earned cash. Ad-free is good. Whacking the monkey isn't.
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/flat/0,11963,2862235,00.html
Bill Gates Testimony Transcript
This item's headline is pretty much explanation enough. Bill Gates recently testified in the Microsoft monopoly trial. Gates, basically, is arguing to save his company, so it would be naive to think that he really believes everything he says here. Consider it a carefully crafted document created by his lawyers to make the most favorable impression in the courtroom and the trial record. Of interest to people who have, shall we say... issues, with Microsoft and are following the trials with baited breath.http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/mswitness/2002/billgates/billgates.asp
Latest Issue of Netsurfer Science
There's the link rot, a gloomy report on world hunger, moths, tadpoles, seahorses, Joseph Lister and the Surgeon General, some cool medical antiques, a bunch of math, and an absolutely first-class set of sites on the amazing consequences of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Don't miss a word in the latest issue of Netsurfer Science. Paid subscribers can add themselves to the NSS mailing list by logging in and updating their profiles. Everybody else will have to caugh up the $20 for an annual subscription.NSS 5.03: http://www.netsurf.com/nss/sub/v05/nss.05.03.html
Profile: http://www.netsurf.com/profile/
ONLINE CULTURE
There won't be a huge Webby Award ceremony like last year, but even though the dotcom economy is moribund, the Webbies go on. There are 150 Web sites nominated in 30 categories, and a further section where you can nominate Web sites for the People's Voice Awards. Last year, several nominees declared bankruptcy before the winners were announced. The irony continues this year with at least one of the selections (Beliefnet) already in Chapter 11. Many of this year's nominees are back from previous years - which probably says something about the limited number of well crafted sites. But it's fair to say that all of them are eminently worthy of netsurfing. Have fun.http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html
The Operating System Sucks-Rules-O-Meter
Religious zealots stand by their opinions with a strong heart. Fans of musicians will travel to the ends of the earth to make sure their artist is suitably popular with all of their friends. But neither group can hold a candle to operating system advocates. This site shows the results of periodic searches on AltaVista for operating system names, followed by "rules", "rocks", or "sucks". Many of the results give insight into the unconscious grouping of computer users. The long-standing feud between Linux and Windows users is made immediately obvious in the color-coded results, with lots of green and red laid out almost as you'd expect. Others, including the AmigaOS, Mac OS, and even VMS, round out an interesting mix of opinions on what's being put on computers today. A comparison of the 1998 and 2000 data from the meter is an intriguing look at how opinions and choices have changed over the years.http://srom.zgp.org/
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Route 66 A.D.: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (4th Edition)SURFING SITES
Universities draw big-name speakers to their lecture halls all the time, but if you're not a student or a local in-the-know, the luminary presence probably passes you by. Fortunately, UC-Berkeley has been recording their lecturers since the 1940s, and it's providing a select few of the lectures in RealAudio format online. The speakers list includes Aldous Huxley, Robert Oppenheimer, and Robert Frost, to give you an idea of the span of specialties among some of the greatest minds of the 20th century.http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/audiofiles.html
Lurking in the shadows of the Web far from the bright lights of major portals is an unassuming little site devoted to a light bulb. Yes, you read it right - a light bulb. No, not a brand of bulb, or even a variety. A single particular bulb. You can see pictures of this bulb, read about its history - the works. Now, while a site devoted to any old standard incandescent 60-watter would make a marvelous zen experience, the key word here is history. This site celebrates a four-watt wonder that has burned more or less continuously in a fire station for over a century, and the little hand-blown, carbon-filamented gem is therefore listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest known working light bulb. If you happen to be in Livermore, Calif., you can visit the bulb during normal office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Even if you can't make the trip in person, you can still check it out via the Bulbcam.
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
A Nuclear End to Existence, Maybe
If the domain name alone doesn't send a message, a visit to this technologically sophisticated site will drive the point home. That point is that nuclear weapons are really, really bad. They have the potential to end our existence. Material presented in support of this view includes a description from a survivor who was at ground zero of the Hiroshima bomb, movies that dramatize the effects of thermonuclear detonations, educated speculation as to the outcomes of such detonations, and much more. It's a sobering presentation, overall, but the focus on nukes seems - well, overblown. The site's historical timeline, for example, notes millions of deaths (mostly civilians) due to war in each decade. The US bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, although horrific, nonetheless accounted for only a small percentage of wartime carnage in the past century (and arguably may have saved more lives than it destroyed), but this detail is rather conveniently downplayed. It would be wonderful if all war ended today, but that seems unlikely. The goal of the site - world peace - is laudable, and the site is dark, brooding, and well designed. However, it seems reasonable to ask just how great a threat to life nukes really are, given that they have been used only twice during the 57 years of their existence.http://www.endofexistence.org/
The Illustrated Guide to Breaking Your Computer
A tradition among system administrators is to perform a ritual sacrifice on a computer that has reached the end of its useful life - usually one that has been nothing but trouble. This ceremony might include tossing it from a rooftop or bashing on it with a hammer. The Illustrated Guide to Breaking Your Computer offers a great way to accomplish sweet revenge against a tool that was the source of so much frustration. The guide walks you through the destruction you can wreak on a system from its keyboard to the motherboard. Each step is detailed with pictures showing the right way to let out your hostility. Drives can be attacked with hacksaws, and printed circuit boards are very helpful in studying the effects of extreme temperatures. Follow the suggestions of the guide regarding safety to avoid the shrapnel as you enjoy yourself. The resonating crash of a hammer against your monitor is surprisingly satisfying.http://members.aol.com/spoons1000/break/index.html
Everyone in the motorized world has memories of clunkers, and thanks in part to David Letterman, most of us enjoy a good top-ten list. You get the best of both at Car Talk's worst-car-of-the-millennium countdown. We don't want to spoil all your fun, but we'll tell you both the VW Bus and the Chevy Vega rank. Who's responsible for these monstrosities? Blame Paris: "From a historical perspective, it's a shame that the French spent their Marshall Plan dollars on automaking." Blame Detroit: "The only useful purpose this car served was as the model for the car used in National Lampoon's Vacation." This site's a trove of funny putdowns by disgruntled owners. Next time a friend asks your opinion of a used car she's thinking of buying, you can impress her with warnings such as "That's an engine surrounded by four pieces of drywall." Sounds a lot more revealing and helpful than tech talk about compression ratios, torque, and horsepower.
http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Worst-Cars/results1.html
The United States National Park Service, in cooperation with several other public and private-sector partners, is in the process of digitizing information about the US Civil War. Some links don't work, but information relating to the regiments of the Union and Confederate armies, descriptions of 384 battles, and many other details are expected to go online shortly. The ambitious project hopes to make information presently stashed away on millions of documents in secluded basements accessible to all interested parties. This is a massive undertaking, and a huge amount of information is already available here.
http://165.83.221.5/cwss/
Lifestyles of the Crass and Tacky
Here be humor, and not just your standard tired collection of Internet jokes. These are stories of appallingly poor etiquette from real life, which makes the reading all the more devilish. Most of it seems to revolve around issues related to weddings - apparently, these are the kinds of circumstances in which the really tacky elements leap to the forefront. Greed, ingratitude, paranoia, and general incivility are represented here in large measure, so there's something for everyone. What a feast! Dessert is extra.http://www.etiquettehell.com/
Somehow, we suspect nudists are unlikely to rule the world, so Nudist World Domination is something of a dream. This modest site actually aims to debunk myths and open minds, to help the uninitiated understand what nudism and naturism are all about. (Frankly, we're still not sure whether the distinction consists of more than a swimsuit, say, or G-string.) It's also for nudists. Its bent is intellectual but not heavyhanded, and perhaps a bit titillating. You won't find cheesecake here unless you count the group portrait of the Australian women's soccer team that accompanies a press release calling for a return to nude Olympics. In-the-buff buffs are likely to enjoy the variety of features here, including news pages that focus on current issues. Overall, the message seems to be that, whatever your proclivities, it's often best to embrace the naked truth.
http://www.nuwd.org/index.html
Baldness is dichotomous. It can be sexy and authoritative - just ask Yul Brynner, Telly Savalas, or Moby. On the other hand, some people prefer a full head of hair. The worst baldness-related hair issue, by far, is people who are pretending they aren't. Proof abounds at Combovers.co.uk, a collection of photos of middle-aged men, mostly, whose cranial thatch has cost them dignity and esteem in the remorseless gaze of two male site creators and predominantly male contributors. You might detect a streak of nastiness in the ostensibly lighthearted captions. The unpleasant implicit message is you're damned if you comb and damned if you hide. Among the worst-coiffed celebrities pilloried here are Prince Charles and Al Gore. It's unfortunate that, like Woody Harrelson and Elton John, they're grouped with Adolf Hitler.
http://www.combovers.co.uk/
ONLINE TRAVEL
If you're going hiking west of the Mississippi and you're interested in the flora, be sure to check out Reny Parker's wildflower site before you go. She has over 1,000 color photos of flowers in Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, organized not only by location but also by common name, botanical name, family, and (most useful for those of us with a brown thumb) color. The layout of the site is a little bulky. Everything seems to be just a little too wide for our browser windows, which makes the content pop around on the screen as tables expand and contract to accomodate the design. Fortunately, you're going to look at the photos, not the site, and once you get used to it, it doesn't really detract from the experience.http://www.renyswildflowers.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
The Weblog Life Cycle Flow Chart
Created to educate new webloggers, this chart illustrates the typical life cycle of a weblog. Note that information flows in, but nothing seems to flow out. The accuracy of the model is uncanny.http://www.faisal.com/images/weblog-lc.gif
This Flash toy will let you have a little fun with Dubya. You can have him say something moving and patriotic while the flag waves in the background or you can customize him to your heart's content, complete with flying pretzel background.
http://www.oddcast.com/host/bush_host.php
SOFTWARE
You, Too, Can Run a University
At least a virtual one. Virtual U is billed as a "fun computer simulation tool for university administrators, students and other interested users who want to simulate and practice managing a university." Yes indeed, it's the perfect gift for all those kids who say "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a university administrator!" Running a university is surely no picnic, what with all those pesky students getting in the way of a properly run institution. Snide comments aside, the game does have a serious purpose. A university is a complex system with complex problems in asset allocation, people management, and political policy. This game, a teaching tool really, is designed to help understand those systems with the eventual goal of using such models for forecasting and management simulation. Read remarks by Jesse Ausubel, program director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, about the origins of Virtual U, and the letter from Virtual U designer William Massy to get a handle on the serious side of the game.http://www.virtual-u.org/
Plan 9 is an experimental operating system from Bell Labs whose goal is "to build a UNIX out of a lot of little systems, not a system out of a lot of little UNIXes." The idea is to create a centrally administered and cost-effective system using cheap modern microcomputers as its computing elements. This latest release is a major overhaul of the operating system at every level, and focuses on security and greater flexibility for working with modern user expectations. The release notes have extensive details for adventurous sysadmins.
Plan 9: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/index.html
Notes: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/release4.html
Paul Prescod is not impressed with Google's recently released programming API to its search engine. He takes Google to task, saying that the choice of method (SOAP and HTTP POST) is technologically inferior to a pure XML, HTTP, and URI-based interface. Prescod takes a complex venture into software architecture, but we bring it to you because, given the involvement of Google, there's a high probability that this will set precedent for how these things will be done in future with other Web services. A discussion suitable for readers literate in Web standards follows the article.
http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2002/04/24/google.html