BREAKING SURF
| The World's Largest Computer Screen |
| The (In)Famous Internet Fridge |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Googlefight |
| Google Demystified |
| Real-Time Proof of Continental Drift |
| AOL Releases New Software, Discontinues Pop-Up Ads |
| PGP 8.0 Encryption Software Beta Released |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Illegal Art and the Copyright Term Extension Act
How can art be illegal? In the age of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), it's all too easy for materials that should have entered the public domain to remain in corporate hands, but the problem extends to parodies of corporate logos and other re-used forms of copyrighted material. The Illegal Art Exhibit is a real-life traveling art exhibit that pushes the envelope of such gray-area use of copyrighted material. It also maintains a Web site with links to relevant news and views, and it's not a bad place for background on things like the Bono Act, which passed through Congress in 1998 more or less so that Disney could retain full rights to the "Steamboat Willie" cartoon and Mickey Mouse. Larry Lessig argued this past week before the US Supreme Court the unconstitutionality of the CTEA and summarized his arguments in his blog. Check out the Opposing Copyright Extension site for more, including the text of the CTEA. Finally, Illegal Art's electronic end user license is one of the funniest things you will ever read.Illegal Art: http://www.illegal-art.org/
Lessig: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2002_10.shtml#000531
Opposing Copyright Extension: http://www.law.asu.edu/HomePages/Karjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/
With some 20 million page views a month, Wired News is a busy place, so its new makeover is a big deal for designers and readers alike. Thanks to the use of XHTML and cascading style sheets and the elimination of all tables, the new site loads more quickly and displays properly in just about all browsers, including early versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer. Pages now display well on PDAs, cell phones, and TV Net consoles as well. Older folks and the visually impaired will appreciate that font sizes need only be adjusted once per visit to have all Wired site pages display the larger font. Hinting at its origin, the site's now more colorful, too - remember what Wired, the magazine, looked like? The new design isn't just better for users: for site administrators, the lean, efficient design means quicker, easier maintenance. A lengthy DevEdge interview with Douglas Bowman, the man responsible for the new design, gives powerful arguments in favor of the new approach and provides interesting lessons for anyone else contemplating that route. Wired itself announces and explains the changes.
Wired announcement: http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55675,00.html
Wired explanation: http://www.wired.com/news/explanation.html
DevEdge: http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/wired-interview/
The Red Hat Linux Security Patch We Can't Legally Tell You About
One of the stupidities of DMCA legislation in the US is that you can't discuss certain security issues without facing the threat of jail time. The absurdity of this position is perfectly illustrated by a recent patch for the Red Hat Linux distribution. Red Hat is in the unenviable position of having to provide a serious security patch that was developed outside the US. Because of the vagaries of the DMCA, it is against American federal law for an American entity, like Red Hat or even us here at Netsurfer, to tell you what the patch is fixing or how it fixes it. The good people who developed the patch are using a Web site (TheFreeWorld) that makes visitors jump through legal hoops to find out what the patch is. The Web site basically tells US users to go away, and places all responsibility on American downloaders if they choose to ignore the dire and brain-dead legal consequences. The Register explains it much better than we can in our limited space.Patch: http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2002-158.html
TheFreeWorld: http://www.thefreeworld.net/
Register: http://www.theregus.com/content/4/26656.html
You've probably don't much wonder what exactly is floating around Uranus, but astronomers do. They've discovered small irregular bodies out there, hard to find and hard to track with even the largest optical telescopes. The finds are not unexpected. Uranus has rings, and Saturn, the more famous ringed planet, is orbited by many such moonlets. Skygazers have discovered most of Uranus's moonlets with ground-based active optics like the Subaru Telescope in Japan. Hubble's all well and good, but it lacks the resolution needed for this kind of work. You can find some images - no telescope needed - at astronomer JJ Kavelaars's page announcing the discovery. Why is this important, rather than simply curious? The objects are said to provide information about the state of the solar system during its early evolution. Plus, we get to write "Uranus" a lot.
Kavelaars: http://salish.dao.nrc.ca/~kavelaar/Uranus/faint/
Uranian Irregulars: http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/gladman/urhome.html
Subaru: http://www.subaru.naoj.org/Latestnews/200202/Uranus/index.html
Bibliotheca Alexandrina Opens Officially, Finally
This week marked the official opening of an ambitious new library in Egypt, a direct intellectual descendant of the famous ancient Library of Alexandria. The library actually opened in April but the official opening was postponed due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the time (see NSD 8.16). The still somewhat sparse library Web site is now online and provides plenty of information about the multifaceted library and cultural complex but not much in the way of access to actual library materials, with one exception. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina houses Internet materials donated from the Internet Archive, presumably serving as back-up for that important collection of digital content. You can browse the Internet collection via the Wayback Machine interface on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina site. The site also offers an extensive scholarly write-up about the ancient library that will interest fans of ancient history. Credit Egypt for backing such a great project.Bibliotheca Alexandrina: http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/
NSD 8.16: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.16.html#BS2
Ten New Cracking Good Wallace and Gromit Short Films
The popular claymation film series created by triple-Oscar-winner Nick Park is about to release ten new short films. The adventures of cheese-loving Wallace and his resourceful dog Gromit are a delight on many levels, not least of which is the technical wizardry allowing Park to breathe gloriously happy life into lumps of colored clay. The first film of the "Cracking Contraptions" series is called "Soccamatic" and can be viewed online now. The rest will be released later this month on DVD, or you can catch them online on Atom Films for $10. When you visit the official Wallace and Gromit site, you can opt to click on British, American, Japanese, and Rest of World pages. The British site has additional material such as discussion forums and longer articles. The American site leads you to Atom Films and streaming videos, including a trailer for the whole series. Best enjoyed with a plate of Wensleydale, naturally.http://www.aardman.com/wallaceandgromit/
The Onion occasionally does some actual reporting beyond making up funny stuff - shocking but true. Here's a deadpan serious list of celebrity answers to the question "Is there a God?" Some of the answers are funny, some are silly, some just plain weird, and some are just not answers to the question. We were impressed by the spread of celebrity, from well-knowns like Conan O'Brien to obscure but talented folks like Nick Lowe. Surprisingly, or not, the most serious philosophical answer comes from comedian Emo Phillips, who used to be quite a bit stranger than he is now. It's also impressive how confusing the question can be.
http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3837/avfeature_3837.html
The hype brigade is running full-out on the iBiquity radio technology recently approved by the FCC. Clear Channel, Viacom, ABC, and Ford are all backing this technology, which promises to deliver high-end sound at low-end prices. Radio stations could conceivably be retrofitted with the technology for as little as $75,000, which would supposedly let them transmit CD-quality sound over FM wavelengths and FM quality over AM bands. Better yet, stations can use a separate channel within their spectrum to offer additional info, such as stock quotes. Of course, we'll all have to buy new radios or maybe computer radio cards to receive the content. CNET has a short take on the tech; iBiquity offers up some press releases, as well as actual information. For the good stuff, click on the Technology/Regulatory button, and read the White Papers pages. Dive into the structure of the coming digital broadcasting evolution.
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1033-961666.html
iBiquity: http://www.ibiquity.com/
MSNBC's disturbing expose casts serious doubt on the legitimacy of much that goes on at eBay. Although many complaints of eBay dealer fraud soon dissolve into smoke, MSNBC has uncovered several instances with irrefutable evidence of seller wrongdoing. Most eBay hucksterism involves shilling or phantom bidding: the seller or his cronies bid to jack up prices. More strikingly, a group of stamp experts has amassed evidence that a ring of stamp dealers is systematically altering stamps to increase their apparent value. Despite numerous complaints, eBay has done nothing to - ahem - stamp out the practice and the crooks continue to operate with apparent impunity. Shilling, phantom bidding, and altering stamps are not only against eBay's own rules, they are illegal practices. It's time for action, eBay. Sellers aren't the only ones who break rules, however. Deadbeat bidders, who win auctions but don't pay up, may make up as many as 10% of all winning bidders. ChannelAdvisor, an auction management company, says it has developed a service to block known deadbeats from online auctions. Get on their blacklist and your days of bidding will be over. CNET has that.
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/809148.asp
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1017-961312.html
Does what you read say something about you? Knowledge of your choice of reading material allows an online bookseller such as Amazon to tailor book recommendations to you, but such information might also allow a third party to determine your political and other inclinations. Amazon, in its new privacy policy, claims it will never sell its customer info as a stand-alone asset. Nevertheless, EPIC and Junkbusters, two online privacy advocates, want Amazon to let its customers edit their information, and have written a joint letter to various state attorneys general. Amazon will let you know what kind of information it's gathering but doesn't see why it should let customers see or delete that data. Privacy advocates, and the Massachusetts attorney general, noted that the ability of consumers to edit their own information would greatly enhance their ability to protect their privacy. Various stories address these issues in varying degrees of detail. Start with the MSNBC piece and work your way down.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/468496/103-5580710-9982239
Junkbusters: http://www.junkbusters.com/amazon.html
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/818648.asp
Wired: http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55647,00.html
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1017-961136.html
Land's End Takes a Bite out of E-Commerce
New York, Paris, and Milan vie for honors in haute couture. That a favorable e-commerce report about Land's End appeared in the venerable New York Times is a tacit compliment to the Wisconsin-based (and now Sears-owned) catalogue/online retailer. Land's End offers a Web-based facility for custom-made pants that has exceeded everyone's expectations, including its own. You key in your measurements, and a Land's End program sends calculations to a manufacturing plant in Mexico. Two to four weeks later, you get your custom pants. Cost: around $61. According to one senior vice-president, 40% of the chinos and jeans that Land's End sells on the Web are custom orders. The company hasn't even had to advertise its personalized pants service; in the beginning, its only marketing effort was a mention in its mail-order catalogues. Word of mouth helps, too, of course. No doubt other online retailers are hurrying to get into the act. (Sears must be pleased, although the Times article is a bit vague on how the parent company plans to exploit this success of its recent acquisition.) Why waste time shopping at a mall and dealing with alterations?http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/30/technology/30ECOM.html
Sendmail Download Security Compromised in an Odd Way
People who downloaded the Sendmail e-mail server software between Sept. 28 and Oct. 6 had a 10% chance of receiving a hacked version of the program. Sendmail is by far the most popular e-mail server on the Internet. That somebody managed to hack the main distribution site and insert an infected version is highly unusual given the high profile and reputation of the Sendmail project. The hacked version of the server only hijacked about one of every ten download requests, a puzzling tactic that may have been meant to mask the security breach. A Trojan horse in the compromised version opened a covert communication channel to a specific server which has since been configured offline. Needless to say, things are all cleaned up now but the attack method and its high-profile target are still newsworthy. CNET has the story, and CERT has the security advisory.Sendmail: http://www.sendmail.org/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961469.html
CERT: http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-28.html
Some folks don't much care for the latest tweaks to the enormously popular Google search engine. Some feel the new algorithm produces irrelevant search results - a real killer for any search engine. Google clearly has a fight on its hands, as bloggers are recommending alternative search sites like the impressive AlltheWeb, which NSD first looked at more than three years ago. Wired has a short article about the dust-up.
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55597,00.html
NSD 5.21: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v05/nsd.05.21.html#SS1
Google: http://www.google.com/
AllTheWeb: http://www.alltheweb.com/
China Bans Minors from Net Cafes
China has set rules that bar minors from going into Internet cafes after Nov. 15. Chinese state media have apparently been railing against such cafes for poisoning the minds of urban youth with unapproved Net content and computer games. The new rules are at least partly a reaction to a deadly Net cafe fire that killed 25 youths this summer, which unleashed an avalanche of critical media coverage. It's not clear how effective the rules will be, given that before the blaze even the Chinese authorities stated that about 90% of the Net cafes in Bejing were unlicensed and unregulated. CNET has a brief note.http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961734.html
Feeling wealthy? Check out the latest version of the Forbes 400, which lists the 400 richest Americans, and see where you rank. Gates, Buffet, Allen, and Ellison are one, two, three, and four, respectively. Bernie Ebbers is off the list, although it remains to be seen if he might end up on another potential list - the Top 400 Longest Corporate CEO Jail Sentences. Besides the list there are some excellent articles, especially the one on divorce among the super rich. Who knew Warren Buffet was lucky in stocks and love?
http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/rich400land.html
ONLINE CULTURE
The World's Largest Computer Screen
The happy hackers of Project Blinkenlights have struck again and created a giant computer display by wiring up a French building. The 520-pixel display consists of a 20 by 26 matrix of the building's windows, resulting in a screen with an area of 3,370 square meters. You can play games on it by calling it up on your cell phone. Rather, you could, since the project only ran until Oct. 5, but we bring it to you anyway because... - well because it's the World's Largest Computer Screen. The story has cool pictures and videos as well as technical details on how they did it.World's Largest Computer Screen: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2620409458.html
Project Blinkenlights: http://www.blinkenlights.de/index.en.html
The (In)Famous Internet Fridge
Yes, you can really buy an Internet-connected refrigerator. It costs $8,000 and has a built-in screen and speakers for multimedia display, an Internet connection, and sophisticated self-diagnostic capability. The melodiously named LRSPC2661T 26-cubic-foot Multi-Media Refrigerator is made by LG and is available at the geek retail center of the universe here in Silicon Valley, Fry's Electronics - walk-in retail only, not online. You'd think that at that price, you could get it in more than one color.LRSPC2661T: http://www.lgappliances.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?id=6
Fry's: http://www.frys.com/
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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War of Honor (with CD-ROM)
Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes
The Soups of France
Mac OS X for Unix GeeksSURFING SITES
Fred Phelps, Preacher of Hatred
Fred Phelps is a self-made preacher. He's so far outside the mainstream of anything but raging hatred that no true religion dares go near him any longer. He's also very sure of himself and very focused by his hatreds. Phelps also feels that everyone should be as hate-filled as he is. His specific hatred is gay people, and you may have heard of him for his anti-gay demonstrations. His skills include gaining publicity through outrageous behavior and plain old-fashioned bullying (mostly verbal, sometimes physical). Jon Bell, a reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal, wrote a long article about Fred that was never published, thanks to Phelps-supplied pressure. The matter wound up in the courts and the article, now book-sized, was entered as evidence. The judge sealed that evidence but, fortunately, copies exist and one is available, at least for now, at this site. No pictures, but fascinating text. Phelps is a monster.http://blank.org/addict/
Until recently, we thought the most audacious convergence of Lego and music was an animated music video for the band White Stripes. This has been superseded by Henry Lim's full scale working harpsichord. Built of over 100,000 pieces of Lego, the instrument is fully working. Every bit of it, except the wires, is made out of Lego. Lim's site is richly illustrated and includes audio and video links. The photos are all linked to larger images. All the Lego pieces he used are listed along with a link to specs and purchasing options. His descriptions of how he got the actions, stringing, and lid mechanism are precise; you could build the instrument yourself from his instructions. How does it sound? Like a harpsichord made from Lego - what else?
Working Lego Harpsichord: http://www.henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html
White Stripes Lego music video: http://www.explodingcigar.com/article190.html
Ali Davis is many things: clerk, First Amendment feminist, amateur anthropologist, and writer of one of the funniest journals on the Net. Sure, the journal is mainly observations of her working day, but being a porn video store clerk, there is little straightforward about her work. There's a wealth of potential for humor in porn, but Davis rarely plumps for the obvious - much of the humor stems from what Davis refers to as the polite fiction of the porn rental process. From the clerk's perspective, this means that while most renters of porn use it for one purpose and one purpose alone, there's no reason to believe that the particular customer you are serving will use it in that manner. Who knows, he might be writing a thesis on representations of gender in film or, heck, he might not even get round to watching the movies at all. But sometimes that polite fiction breaks down, such as when the customer returns the tape in a state that makes its unspoken use quite obvious. Then, he is handed the paper towels and told to clean off the tape in full view of whoever else is at the counter. Decency prevents us from writing further, and probably should have stopped us a few sentences earlier.
http://www.improvisation.ws/mb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4475
Involuntarily Detachable Penises, and Belief Thereof
This article from Kuro5hin examines the belief in Koro, or genital theft, a belief that's more prevalent than you'd think. It's thought the word comes from the Malaysian word for tortoise, presumably because of that reptile's ability to retract its head into its shell. In one episode, three American males reported penis-retraction beliefs after heavy cannabis consumption. In another, a woman in Nigeria was recently almost lynched by a mob convinced she had stolen a market trader's penis. In western Africa, genital theft is usually attributed to sorcery and black magic, whereas in the Guangdong province of China (hehehe, dong), it is blamed on Hu Li Jung, a beautiful penis-stealing fox spirit. While Freud's belief that castration anxiety was an important part of personality development has fallen out of favor among present-day psychologists, the article suggests that it is easy to see how sufferers of Body Dysmorphic Disorder might form unlikely beliefs in penis theft.http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/16/81843/6555
James Dunnigan first made his name in military history and wargames (of the pre-computer era). He's written several accessible books about war, "How to Make War" being a classic already. He now edits the best general US military information and analysis site we've found. This site is not dry, nor is violence ever glorified. Every page at StrategyPage is worth a visit. Senior editor Al Nofi's short articles have only improved over the years, and all contributions are high quality. The news section is good, the analysis sections top-notch, and the Gallery and Humor pages goldmines that will occupy many visitors for hours.
http://www.strategypage.com/
Never mind keeping up with the Joneses - today, you need to keep up with the terrorists. The Council on Foreign Relations, which strives for nonpartisanship, usually runs fairly close to the political center (with an occasional slight drift to the right). It runs the Terrorism: Questions and Answers site where it posts well over 100 detailed and comprehensive FAQs. The site's organization is excellent; wherever your interest, finding the relevant FAQ is a snap. The breaking news analysis (click on Beyond the Headlines) is also presented in question-and-answer style and is kept well up to date. What you won't find here is much propaganda (a tiny bit is inevitable) or extreme views.
http://www.terrorismanswers.com/home/
If you're one of the many people who suffer from road rage, take some time for therapy at this Web site. It's a light-hearted look at driving in Atlanta from the perspective of a self-proclaimed road-rage sufferer. After years of frustration on the road, the proprietor of this site has found a way to laugh it all off. You'll find snapshots and video clips of drivers at their worst. These aren't just bad drivers, these are bad drivers who do dumb things. The photo galleries - we like "Park much or just read about it?" - prove there's a dumb driver for every occasion. Maybe, just maybe, you'll catch a glimpse of a license plate you recognize. Yes, this site makes no attempts to disguise the license plates of the guilty. At the end of the day, it's all for jest and should not be taken too seriously. Perhaps a cranky driver may learn a thing or two about road manners.
http://www.tardsite.com/
"It is our philosophy that although often considered politically incorrect, these and similar industries and products...will continue to experience significant capital appreciation during good and bad markets. We consider these industries to be nearly recession-proof." So runs the Vice Fund Prospectus. As a capitalist manifesto, it's not quite as snappy as "Greed is good", but the Vice Fund does exactly what it says on the tin - it will put your investment ($2,500 minimum) into gambling, tobacco, alcohol, and defense industry stocks. The S&P 500 may have dropped 27% between June 1999 and June 2002, but booze stocks yielded 34% growth in the same period. The Tobacco investing page mentions, as required, the potential risks. Emphysema? Bronchitis? Cancer? Death? Heck, no: potential litigation. Click on the link for Aerospace and Defense (a cute little gunsight icon) and the argument for investment in this sector is spelled out in three words Osama bin Laden. Make winners out of sinners.
http://www.vicefund.com/
If you're interested in medical science, the Web site of the Civil War Medicine Museum is worth a look. It exhibits medical artifacts and documents related to 1861-1865 and tells the dramatic story of the inventive physicians, devoted nurses, and courageous patients. It chronicles the establishment of a system to transport wounded soldiers which is still in use, the use of horses and mules, how and why amputations were so common, and what a field hospital looked like. It was common for medical personnel from North and South to treat the wounded from the other side. The site offers details of school tours, opening times, directions, publications, events (the October event is entitled "Battlefield Embalmer"), excellent research links, and an online museum store. You can pick up a reproduction bleeding bowl for a few dollars or a poster of gruesome medical instruments which would be prefect for the medical student in your family.
http://civilwarmed.org/
The initiation ritual known as hazing takes on new meaning at this satirical Web site, where you can read testimonies of the sacramental rites of cheek stuffing, snow sitting, cat taunting, and car racing. Visitors are encouraged to help stop these and other potentially lethal practices through a variety of tips. The site suggests you slow your car when a haze participant is racing it and recommends only providing enough nuts to comfortably fit in a participant's cheeks. Conspiracy theorists will thrill at the investigation into the SIB and its crucial role in these often-dangerous antics. If you love these furry and apparently masochistic creatures, this site is a must visit.
http://web.wt.net/~psherr/squirrel_hazing.htm
One thing the Net does is allow lawyers to chase ambulances that haven't even shifted into drive yet. Sue-It.com is the online portal of a law firm that hopes to get a piece of the litigation action once Segway scooter users start to sue and be sued. No one should overestimate the remarkable creativity of human stupidity, say the lawyers, commenting that the Segway may well be deemed to be an attractive nuisance, leading some to abuse it in the sort of behavior made infamous by MTV's "Jackass". According to the Web site, Sue-It.com will be able to not simply cash in on the forthcoming deluge of Segway litigation, but also to act as something of an industry watchdog. Sue-It.com even expects its client base might include Yellowstone National Park rangers who have had the misfortune of encountering angry bears while patrolling on their Segways.
http://www.sue-it.com/index.html
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Type in two search phrases and see which one wins by getting the most hits. For example "netsurfer cool" (7,310 hits) beats out "netsurfer lame" (187 hits). Of course, we knew that.http://www.googlefight.com/
Google Information for Webmasters doesn't tell you how to improve your rankings, but it does describe (sort of) how those rankings are achieved. There are also many helpful hints on various other Google performance issues. If you're in charge of a public site, this is information you should know.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
Real-Time Proof of Continental Drift
If you want to test the theory of continental drift, be prepared to spend a very long time watching the webcam fixed on where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet. It may take a few thousand years but if you're patient, the proof will slide before your eyes. Warning: avoid the slow-motion mode.http://my.en.com/~danp/pixs/cams/cd-cam.htm
http://www.catsplay.com/
SOFTWARE
AOL Releases New Software, Discontinues Pop-Up Ads
The new version 8.0 of AOL's software does not mess much with the look and feel of the previous version, although it does feature some minor interface tweaks. A couple of new toolbars link directly to AOL's popular content and add functionality. Another new feature lets users customize the content on their welcome screens to produce Web pages that resemble the My Netscape or My Yahoo news portals. The company also announced that it will no longer serve up AOL pop-up ads to its members. This consumer-friendly move will reportedly cost AOL about $30 million in revenue this year. We also direct you to a Salon article that notes the diminished traffic on the alt.aol-sucks newsgroup and opines about the struggling business: "It can't be a good sign for America Online that even its most ardent detractors don't care enough about the company to count the myriad ways in which it may suck."AOL: http://www.aol.com/
Salon: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/10/15/save_aol/index.html
PGP 8.0 Encryption Software Beta Released
PGP was once the most popular encryption tool on the market, but it lost a lot of momentum due to neglect by former owner Network Associates and the rise of open source alternatives like GnuPG. PGP Corporations purchased the software and is getting ready to release version 8.0 in late November. Meanwhile, it is making available a beta version for general testing. The PGP 8.0 beta software will expire and disable itself Dec. 6. Due to export restrictions, users in certain countries cannot download the software; our readers in Iraq (are there any?) are out of luck. Serious encryption users will definitely want to check this out.http://www.pgp.com/beta80.php