BREAKING SURF
| Abandoned London Underground Stations |
| Ghostly Lost America |
| The World's 500 Best Hotels |
| New York Public Library Digital Image Database Project |
| National Geographic Image Collection |
| Philip Glass Music Engine |
| Star Wars Origami |
| We Didn't Start the Fire |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| The Blog of Samuel Pepys |
| Introduction to Bloggery |
| A Slashdot of Health Culture |
| Watching Microsoft |
| Tell Stories, Digitally |
| Mining Past Science Fiction for Future Science Fact |
| The Skinny on Lice |
| "O" Is for Otolaryngology |
| Back Pain |
| Apache 2.0.44 Released |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
Googling Reveals Astroturfing of Political Propaganda
One of the many reasons Google is a terrific service to humankind is that it makes political propaganda much harder to disguise. Some creative Googling this week revealed that a thinly disguised bit of political propaganda managed to infiltrate a surprisingly large number of worldwide media outlets. A Republican National Committee Web site allows its members to generate a form letter and send it off to any number of newspapers, masquerading as an original contribution from the writer. This practice, known as astroturfing, is frowned upon by most reputable newspapers who would rather publish genuine letters instead of such artificially generated spam. In this case, many worldwide media outlets were taken in and published a form letter that praised President Bush for "demonstrating genuine leadership" on economic policy. Google, of course, makes such practices trivially easy to reveal. The Inquirer has two stories, and the Failure Is Impossible site has more details about this incident and astroturfing in general.Inquirer 1: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7308
Inquirer 2: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7320
Failure Is Impossible: http://failureisimpossible.com/dosomething/sod.htm
RIAA Wins Court Ruling in Seeking Identity of File Sharer
In an important test case, a judge has ordered Verizon Communications, an ISP, to disclose the identity of one of its customers to the RIAA. The RIAA alleges that the customer has been sharing hundreds of copyrighted music files over the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. Verizon will appeal the decision. The proceedings are being closely watched as another test case of the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Verizon does not want to be put in the position of enforcer in the intellectual property wars, an opinion supported by every ISP in the land. The ISPs want the law to say that they are just common carriers and not responsible for the actions of their users, similar to the way that phone companies aren't responsible for phone fraud. The RIAA wants ISPs to help enforce intellectual property laws. It's a bit more involved than this, but fortunately the CNET story has a good overview of the issues.http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981449.html
Music Industry Really is Flooding P2P Networks with Junk
Some say the recording industry is dead but just hasn't figured it out yet. Don't call for the hearse yet, however - it keeps fighting back lamely but gamely. It has adopted several approaches to thwarting peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, and the Register has a short article about Matt Warne, who claims to have been part of the industry effort to spoof flood file-sharing networks with junk files. Industry servers would offer properly titled MP3s that consisted of silence or noise or maybe just an endless loop of 15 seconds' worth of music. Companies such as Overpeer, hired by RIAA, are known to have engaged in the practice. Wired has the scoop on that.Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28919.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57112,00.html
Portion of ReplayTV Support Site Closes to Avoid Legal Threat
As fellow marketers of digitizable entertainment, the entertainment studios of the MPAA have faced challenges similar to those faced by the RIAA. They have determined that one of those challenges is the ReplayTV TV recorder. As part of the lawsuit against SONICblue, the company that makes ReplayTVs, Chad Little gave a deposition. Little hosts Planet Replay, a site at which ReplayTV users can - er, used to be able to share TV programs. Little, fearful of both drawing a lawsuit onto himself and being forced to submit his visitors' private info, has closed the file-sharing portion of his Web site. While you read Wired's disheartening story, ponder that the MPAA at first fought the existence of the VCR, only to find that in the end, they made more money from that device than they did at the box office.Wired: http://wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57271,00.html
Planet Replay: http://www.planetreplay.com/sharing_011603.php
Danish Deep Links Tussle Continues
Newsbooster is fighting, still in court and now with technology, the Danish Newspaper Publishers Association over the right to link to articles at Danish newspaper sites. Last July, a Danish court ruled that Newsbooster could not link to newspaper articles but had to link to an online news site's front page, going against the basic premise of the ol' WWW (see NSD 8.27). While awaiting a final ruling, Newsbooster has found a clever way around the legal prohibition on those deep links. It has released an app called Newsbrowser, which does exactly the same sort of news searching that Newsbooster does, but does it from a user's own computer instead from Newsbooster's legally vulnerable Danish servers. Newsbrowser is available in Danish only, because right now only Denmark has a legal restriction on deep links in place. Several rights groups hope the trend stops right there. Wired has a tad more.Newsbooster: http://www.newsbooster.com/
NSD 8.27: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.27.html#BS7
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57230,00.html
Superbowl: Sports, Ads, Gambling, and Recipes
Recipes? Yep, it's all a part of that grand American spectacle, the spiritual descendant of the decadent Roman Circus. American football will conquer the mindshare of a good portion of the US population this coming Sunday. Many people will be watching the spectacle as much for the advertising as for the sport, something reflected in the beefed-up servers of the entertaining Superbowl-Ads Web site. Gambling will also make an impact, with some estimates putting the amount of money changing hands on the outcome in the billions, and at least some of it passing through foreign bookies like Superbowl.uk.co. And the recipes? Dan Gordon, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Gordon Biersch Brewing Company has a few for your Superbowl party. Television, gambling, food, and beer - it's a very Simpsonesque event, isn't it?Superbowl: http://www.superbowl.com/
Superbowl-Ads: http://www.superbowl-ads.com/
Superbowl.uk.co: http://www.superbowl.uk.co/
Gordon Biersch: http://www.gordonbiersch.com/beer/sbrecipes.html
Top Ads of the Last Two Decades
Here's an ironic juxtaposition.... While replay TV and Tivo users record and rewatch TV to avoid commercials, Adweek presents the top 20 ad campaigns of the past 20 years. From Absolut's ubiquitous bottle to Wendy's famous "Where's the beef?", advertising has become part of our culture. Adweek's editors have chosen what they think are the best ads of Adweek's 20-year lifetime. Especially interesting is the story behind Apple's famous 1984 Superbowl commercial. Contrary to popular conception, it ran more than once and Apple almost didn't go through with it. The list is revealing in other ways as well and well worth reading.http://www.adweek.com/adweek/creative/top20_20years/index.jsp
Closer Looks at North Korea and Kim Jung Il
Most of us don't know very much about the Hermit Kingdom, North Korea. However, the more one learns, the greater the revulsion. These two MSNBC articles examine two different aspects of the regime. The first deals with the North Korean camps - some larger than the District of Columbia - that house roughly 200,000 men, women, and children. That's right, children. Should you utter an inappropriate phrase, the state punishes you, your family, and two generations of descendants. Although smaller than the Soviet or Chinese gulags, North Korea's is the only one known to keep children captive with their parents and grandparents. The abuses are hard to comprehend. A second article depicts the odd lifestyle of Kim Jung Il, the North Korean leader. He has cut back to half a bottle of red wine a day as his nation starves, but he really wants his nuclear weapons. After reading these stories one has to wonder why the US government is not more outraged about this loathsome and gruesome regime.MSNBC Gulag: http://www.msnbc.com/news/859191.asp
MSNBC Kim: http://www.msnbc.com/news/855119.asp
Lee Felsenstein has teamed up with a former Vietnam-era bombloader to produce a bicycle-powered computer designed to access the Net. In February, a villager in northern Laos should be pedaling his way from a life without electricity directly into the 21st century. Felsenstein has some inventing background - he designed the first portable computer, the Osbiorne 1, introduced in 1981. The pedal-powered computer is a low-maintenance system, incorporating wireless antennas nailed to trees. Designed to survive monsoons, the low-power Linux system has the potential to allow remote villagers to view weather forecasts, learn market prices, and perhaps communicate with family members abroad. This is a cool setup, and this San Francisco Chronicle article is worth checking out. Who knows? You may have odds and ends sitting in your garage that could help others.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/17/MN86676.DTL
Spam Wars: Better Bayesian Filtering of Spam
We wrote about Paul Graham and his promising experiments with Bayesian spam filters in NSD 8.32. Graham continues to work on his filters and has just published a progress report that discusses the improvements he's been able to make to his algorithms. The upshot is that he now has a very effective spam filtering system in place. The article and enclosed links are required reading for anybody working on a technical solution to spamming. What's more, Paul also reports tongue-in-cheek that he's made another important discovery. He writes "The first discovery I'd like to present here is an algorithm for lazy evaluation of research papers. Just write whatever you want and don't cite any previous work, and indignant readers will send you references to all the papers you should have cited." We hereby dub this Graham's Lazy Research Algorithm, thus effectively immortalizing him in digital form - at least among our readers.Graham: http://paulgraham.com/better.html
NSD 8.32: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.32.html#BS5
ACLU Predicts Orwellian Future
It's starting to look like George Orwell only got the year wrong. Otherwise, the total surveillance society is around the corner, argues the ACLU in a recent report entitled "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society". All that separates the US from this dismal future are the Constitutional protections that are slowly eroding in the wake of Sept. 11. The report also makes it clear that you cannot hope that "database inefficiencies" will save your liberty. If only half of what the report predicts comes to pass, it will be a very different America.http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11612
Bad Week for Bugs: Linux, Mac, AOL, and Microsoft Problems
Looks like nobody was spared this week. Linux and other operating systems were hit with a security bug in CVS, the archiving and versioning software widely used by developers. Mac users were hit with bugs in Keynote, Apple's answer to Microsoft's Power Point presentation software. Microsoft itself warned of security problems in Windows NT and Windows 2000 domain controllers. Finally, AOL was hit with problems in its Web mail software resulting in the possible compromise of some hundreds of accounts. CNET has the roundup of all these stories.http://news.com.com/2009-1001-981842.html
Game Servers Can Magnify Denial-of-Service Attacks
A security company has discovered a rather troubling vulnerability in online game servers for such popular multiplayer games as Medal of Honor, Quake, and Half Life. The inherent nature of such servers can be used to anonymously magnify a denial of service attack by tricking them into sending a flood of data to the victim machine. Even the relatively pokey traffic from an attacker's modem connection can be magnified into a crippling flood of data, and an attacker's broadband connection has, of course, greater potential for damage. It's worth noting that this is strictly a saturation-of-bandwidth attack, and not something which will result in a break-in. PivX Solutions has technical details.http://www.pivx.com/kristovich/adv/mk001/
ONLINE CULTURE
GeoURL: Site Your Web Site on Earth
The blogosphere is abuzz with the opening of this new Web site that lets you associate your physical coordinates with just about anything online. GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. It allows you to find URLs by physical proximity to a given location. Bloggers have taken to GeoURL in a big way during the few weeks that it's been active, advertising their physical locations with wild abandon. The idea is that you can find other bloggers - or any other resource with a URL for that matter - in your physical vicinity. The benefits of GeoURL are obvious but few if any people are writing about potential privacy issues. After all, you don't want to worry about your house being picketed by a bunch of zealots in penguin suits, like the guy at 47.6275, -122.2423 (that's north latitude and west longitude). Unless your address is already public, it may be prudent to be a bit vague about your location when adding your own resources to GeoURL.http://geourl.org/
Graphing the Growth of Weblog Updates
Blogger Tim Jarrett is collecting data on the growth of weblog postings over time. His data comes from the popular weblog change tracking service at Weblogs.com. Jarrett has found that the blogosphere is growing at about 2.8 blogs per day. Another blogger, Doc Searls, has christened this figure the "diameter of the blogosphere". Jarrett's raw data are available for public download if you're inclined to do your own analysis. We suspect that if they're not doing so already, the major Web performance tracking firms like Nielson/NetRatings will begin to monitor this kind of statistic soon.Graph: http://www.jarretthousenorth.com/2003/01/08.html#a1633
Doc Searls: http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/01/17#blogBigger
Weblogs.com: http://www.weblogs.com/
Frontiers of Blog Culture: BlogGroupies and Inner Circle Syndrome
Will Femia writes in the MSNBC Blogspotting section about two blog-cultural issues which we thought we'd pass on. First, there is the question of blog groupies - do they exist? Will's answer is that yes, there are certainly fanatical blog-specific devotees, although we're dubious about the designation "BlogGroupies". Femia goes on to explore the issue of the Inner Circle Syndrome (ICS), first noted in the Big Pink Cookie blog. ICS "deals with situations that arise when a blogger's audience grows considerably beyond the circle of online friends, leaving some readers to feel like outsiders, and the blogger to feel out of control." Yep, we're back to those pesky high-school cliques again, albeit all dressed up in HTML. Femia's entry has relevant links along with his thoughts on both phenomena.Femia: http://www.msnbc.com/news/809307.asp#030106
Big Pink Cookie: http://www.bigpinkcookie.com/archives/week_2002_12_29.html#004479
Let's say you're looking for a long lost friend. Let's say the bastard owes you money - but we digress. So you're looking for your friend, you've exhausted all the usual methods of looking him up online: the directories, the phone lists, the credit and arrest records, the sex boards.... What do you do next? Simple, just mention his name in your blog. Mention it a lot. Maybe mention it on some Web pages you create, which ask him to contact you. Eventually he'll Google himself - let's face it, everybody does it - and bingo! He'll find your entries and will contact you. At least that's the theory behind the art and science of Google calling, as coined by Jeff Jarvis. Give it a try, but don't expect the bastard who owes you money to fall for it.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_01.html#000580
Dennis Mahoney wrote 100 thrilling blog entries in a day in an act of stunt blogging at its finest. Naturally, this set off a world-record-attempt frenzy. In fact, there's a club. We're fairly sure the ultimate winner will be some guy who posts his electroencephalograph (EEG) brain-wave values every 0.5 seconds.
Mahoney: http://www.0format.com/archive/000215.php
The One-Hundred Club: http://www.jimformation.com/misc/100.php
EEG: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/g2699/0001/2699000111/p1/article.jhtml
The Rise of Political Spamming
Probably the most prominent declared Democratic challenger in the presidential election of 2004 is Sen. Joseph Lieberman, late of the ill-fated 2000 Gore-Lieberman ticket. Unfortunately, the good senator got off on the wrong foot with e-mail users, as his campaign spammed his declaration to a large number of them shortly after he jumped into the race. It turns out that he's not the only one. This CNET story gives several other examples of political spam, and not only in the US. The story cites a recent instance when the UK Ministry of Defense spammed about 100,000 users after buying an e-mail address list. As the American political season heats up, it's inevitable that hapless voters are going to be slammed with an ever-growing amount of political spam. Our only hope is to call the politicians on it and never let them forget that they are sending this junk on our dime.http://news.com.com/2010-1071-981258.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
Abandoned London Underground Stations
London has the largest and most definitely the oldest subway system in the world. It has evolved since the 1860s, and during the course of that evolution some stations were abandoned - or as the British say, disused. To abandon an underground station, all the authorities need do is to close the surface entries and turn out the lights as they leave the station for the last time. Hywel Williams's Disused Stations on the London Underground site is a work of love by a disused station expert. Williams has been to most, if not all, of these stations and he provides full histories and fascinating photos. Be sure to check the introductions to the deep and cut-and-cover sections. They're excellent history.http://www.starfury.demon.co.uk/uground/
Recently, we came across a somber slice of Americana that reminds us of war photography. Lost America may evoke sadness, nostalgia, or indifference, depending on your affinities for failed real-estate developers and others who leave permanent wreckage in their wake. Photographer Troy Pavia, a freelance designer in the San Francisco Bay area, is drawn to settings many passersby overlook or avoid, such as drive-in movie theaters, diners, and trailer parks. He seems to have a particular affinity for junkyards and abandoned vehicles. Hazards such as broken glass, barbed wire, and deep mud seem obsessions of his. One bizarre photo depicts a tree-hugged Buick, one of about 50 cars embedded in a riverbank along a one-mile stretch to prevent erosion. (Attention, Stephen King: Does this sound like the basis for a sequel to "Christine"?) Pavia focuses at night, most often, on the remnants of bygone landscapes in the middle of nowhere, with curious - some might say, lunatic - dedication and the cumulative deadpan of an apocalyptic SF movie.
http://www.lostamerica.com/lostframe.html
A subsidiary of American Express, Travel and Leisure has put together what it suggests to be the top 500 hotels in the world. We'll have to take their word for it; our favorite spots somehow seem to have missed the cut. What, are you insane? Of course we won't tell you where they are.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/tl500/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
New York Public Library Digital Image Database Project
The New York Public Library (NYPL) already offers 30,000 images in its online digital image library, and promises that by 2004 this will grow to some 600,000. The currently available online feast is the Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection, and it's free and wonderful. Images present and to be added come from the NYPL's four research libraries and include prints, maps, photos, drawings, rare books, and various graphics. The key to this exciting collection is the excellent search and browsing capabilities built into the site. Searches yield pages of thumbnail images that link into larger images with complete catalogue information and a link to an even larger image. Copies of any image can be ordered in various formats for prices ranging from $25-$55. Uses other than personal or research must be approved by the copyright holder via the NYPL and are subject to a use fee.http://digital.nypl.org/igatedemo/
National Geographic Image Collection
If you're looking for some stunning photography to enhance an advertising campaign or Web site, your search must include the National Geographic Image Collection. Never before has obtaining images from one of the world's most renowned collections been easier. Simple registration with the site allows you access to view over 10,000 images from the National Geographic archives. You can purchase the rights to some truly breathtaking imagery with a click. Be sure to review the terms and conditions of purchasing rights before proceeding. This online image warehouse is sophisticated in its ability to track purchasing rights, so that you'll never have to worry about a competitor using the same image in a campaign. Every marketer, promoter, and advertiser will surely want to bookmark this site. Registration is quick and best of all free. Even if you're not ready to purchase, it's worth the time to register and draw some inspiration from these amazing pieces of art.http://www.ngsimages.com/
Why is IBM sponsoring research into a database that lets you slice, dice, fold, spindle, and ruminate the entire body of Philip Glass's work? Because someone at IBM has a very cool job indeed. This is an astonishing bit of interface work that brings us right back to how cool the Web can be. It's not too surprising that one can navigate the Glass pieces by the title, year written, or length, but navigating the particular sections of each piece by the parameters of joy, sorrow, intensity, density, and velocity is both exactly right and rather trippy. A small amount of text background on each piece helps define each composition, but what really makes this interesting is that you get served the actual, and seemingly complete, piece of music that the interface calls up. Every interface developer should take a look at this example of high-end GUI design. For fans of Philip Glass, as we happen to be, this is a sheer treat. Next, we're hoping for the Brian Eno music engine.
http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/
Philip Schultz, the proprietor of this Star Wars origami site, assumes his paper-folding padawans will have some knowledge of the basics of origami, but if you know nothing, don't worry - just let go of your conscious self and use the Force. Stretch out with your feelings, and may the A4s be with you. Or you could just follow the Basics link to some basic instructions like we did. Star Wars Origami is a delightful little site, even if you think it's unlikely you'll be folding yourself a Destroyer Droid or X-Wing fighter. The diagrams are clear and the instructions and hints humorous - "Tends to splay like roadkill with regular paper" - and some of the detail is fantastic, such as the little R2 unit on the Naboo Fighter. Or you could just come to marvel at the fact that people spend time folding paper Star Wars stuff.
http://www.happymagpie.com/swdiagrm.htm
Take a break from your day to enjoy this entertaining Flash music video of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". Created by Cal Tech student Ye Li, this video is visually stunning with its subtle background color changes and numerous images of the subjects present in the lyrics of this classic tune. Over 120 images are displayed, as well as the occasional subliminal message. Li's wit and sincerity are prominent throughout, as his personal messages direct the audience through the animation and along a virtual journey through time. You'll be glad Li stole five minutes of your life, as he aptly claims - not to mention breaking dozens of copyrights. When you're done, click the Home link for a selection of other Flash videos created by not only Li, but fellow Flash junkies as well. These other videos don't have the same panache as his Billy Joel adaptation, but may provide some visitors with comic relief.
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~yel/Fire.html
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Pandering
The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium
Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual
Four Samurai Classics (Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro)Pepys: http://www.pepysdiary.com/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2621581.stm
In case you haven't noticed, and it's not as if we're not doing our part to keep you au courant with such things, blogs are all the rage. PBS's Blogosphere is a good introduction to the online diary phenomenon and will have you conversing knowledgeably about this ultimate form of vanity publishing in no time at all. By lowering the cost and difficulty of self-publication, the Internet has given voice to, well, anyone, which raises the question of who will read the stuff if everyone is busy blogging? Still, blogs are important, providing voices and opinions rarely heard and dealing with issues that mainstream media often ignore or overlook. With no one to please but themselves, and with no commercial or corporate sensitivities to respect, bloggers can be as ridiculous or as honest as they please. While it strains a little too hard to be clever, Blogosphere does a good job of explaining bloggers and blogging. Blogorama, a RealPlayer video clip, is particularly interesting.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/mediamatters/303/blogs.html
OK, so online culture has passed its early days, and the glory days, and the implosion days, all of which smelled of day-old hype. With all that behind us, we're beginning to see the Net's real effects on how we live, and which online cultural models resonate with the public. The Slashdot model represents a dynamic method of balancing a community-based site type, with a portal/media site type. The community inputs and references the content, and supplies an internal ranking system that forces the best quality content to the top and buries the rest. Even if site visitors don't wish to participate in the content generation process, they will still find the site useful and fresh. Kinosis uses Slashdot's open-source Slashcode to organize around healthy lifestyle topics. Addressing exercise, food, hardware, interviews, lifestyle, medical issues, and reviews, Kinosis aims to be a community for everyone looking to improve their health. This is all a bit granola, perhaps, but this is what the Web is like now that we're over the hangover from the bubble party.
http://kinosis.com/
If you love to hate Microsoft, or hate to love Microsoft, or fall anywhere in between, Mary Jo Foley's Microsoft Watch is something you'll want to bookmark. Microsoft's moves unfold here well before they hit any of the major media. This is rather like a one-stop shopping area, but the product is current information. You can try it for free, but they'd prefer that you'd subscribe, of course. The onsite links alone are surprising; they feature Microsoft aficionados, Microsoft detractors, insider info, and more. One of the interesting facets is that the available material doesn't deal just with Microsoft products and services - it also looks at the competition, like an article on Apple's new Safari browser.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/
The Center for Digital Storytelling is a non-profit group that seeks to encourage and support "people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives." Through workshops and case studies, it explores what it takes for normal people to bring their stories to life in an online medium. Visitors can browse case studies to find out what it's all about. If you want to learn more, check out Principles and Methods, which you can access from the About Us page. There are five pages of them. That's more than Enron ever had.
http://www.storycenter.org/
SURFING SCIENCE
Mining Past Science Fiction for Future Science Fact
Speculative/science fiction is replete with technological achievements originally considered futuristic if not impossible, including Mars landers and space stations. To identify other innovative concepts and technologies for actual development, The European Space Agency commissioned Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications (ITSF), a study of past and present SF, by two nonprofit organizations. The official ITSF Web site includes a mission statement, links to space-science news, an international SF writing contest (the deadline for registration is Feb. 28), and an online brochure. This brochure is the heart of the site. It covers propulsion techniques familiar to "Star Trek" fans (warp and antimatter drives, for instance), power supplies, and technologies such as terraforming and nanotechnology that have already started to enter the popular consciousness. Hardcore SF readers may find the site a yawn. Many visitors unfamiliar with much of the science behind SF, however, will likely get the desired impressions: that much of the future is closer than you think, and that someone is working on it. There's a submission form for those who want to bring attention to external documentation of relevant ideas and technologies. Onward and upward!http://www.itsf.org/index.php
Does the thought of head lice make your skin crawl? It should if you have kids who go to school, especially if their school has a no-nits policy. Harvard School of Public Health has a no-nonsense FAQ that gives you the details of these little parasites that have fed off humans for millennia, and how to deal with them. Research indicates that the lice really only are transmitted through direct head-to-head contact, and only very rarely through shared brushes or hats. Lice infect grade-school children more often than adults, teens, or younger kids and Caucasians more than other ethnic groups. An infested person usually has fewer than a dozen active head lice on the scalp, but can carry hundreds of eggs. Doesn't that just make you want to scrape your scalp with a fine comb right now? Head lice outbreaks are increasing in number, but they do no real harm. The site suggests that infestations "present an opportunity for parents to spend the needed time with their children in order to find and remove the offending insects." There's nothing like good ol'-fashioned primate grooming!
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html
Your ears, nose, and throat are pretty important, and connected. If you have a medical problem in that area, your family doctor might refer you to an otolaryngologist. ENTNet.org is the official site of the American Academy of Otolaryngology (AAO). Its section for healthcare professionals is chock full of resources such as meeting listings, statistics, and practice management news. There's also, of course, a password-protected section for AAO members. Non-members like us can still appreciate the Public and Patients pages. If you're dying to find out about injection snoreplasty (surgery to reduce snoring), cochlear implants that restore partial hearing, or other special treatments, this site's for you. Check out Surgery of the Nose if you're contemplating a nosejob. Got allergies, a sinus problem, motion sickness? Basic information is easy to find. We are reassured by the FAQ on nosebleeds, and we are glad to see otolaryngologists agree with parents on an important point: "Children are prone to inserting various objects such as peas, beans, cherry pits, beads, buttons, safety pins, and bits of plastic toys into their noses."
http://www.entnet.org/
If you suffer from back pain, or know someone who does, this site is a must visit. You'll find everything you need to know about back pain and how to manage it. Articles are written by a group of multidisciplinary medical specialists and are reviewed by a member of the Medical Advisory Board before being posted on the site. Not only can you obtain information on back and neck pain, such as background on common surgical procedures and explanations of pain medication, you can also search by state for a doctor who can treat your spinal condition. In addition, you can review articles relating to ongoing research. If you can't find the information you're seeking, you can contact a spine specialist through this site and receive feedback on your question via e-mail. A small marketplace directs visitors to outside sources where they may purchase products that can help alleviate back pain. This site is an invaluable resource for the millions of Americans that suffer from a too-common ailment.
http://www.spine-health.com/
SOFTWARE
This version of Apache is mostly a security and bug fix release. In particular, this release addresses three important Windows security vulnerabilities, so if you're running Apache 2.x on Windows you'll want to grab it. Also, beginning with this release, the developers will make an effort to retain forward compatibility in the configuration and module interfaces, so that upgrading the 2.0 series should be much easier on users and module writers. Read the announcement for more details.httpd/Announcement2.html