BREAKING SURF
| The Pub Intranet |
| Peer Pressure Porn Filter |
| Cuba-ism |
| Court Portraiture |
| Digital Photography Tips |
| The Making of "Pretty Big Dig" |
| A Brief History of Anime |
| Extremely Alternative Music |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Visually Fly through/Dive into/Navigate a Thesaurus |
| Extra! Extra! Front Pages Online! |
| The Iconocastic Look at Trends |
| Eat Your Words, Literally |
| The Straight Doper's E-Zine |
| Historical Snowflake Photos |
| MYSQL 4.0 Declared Production Quality |
| Freenet 0.5.1 Released |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
While there's little we can add to the 24-hour media coverage, we can recommend sites which may supplement your channel surfing. Try the Where Is Raed blog, written by a Baghdad native. Americans may find it worthwhile to dip into non-US news sources. Start with the BBC, whose correspondents are blogging from the field in their War Diaries. The French perspective can be had at Le Monde which is following the Iraq crisis "heure par heure" - in French, of course, but you can find a translation service online. Many daily Arabic newspapers in English are available to the dedicated netsurfer. Finally, the Iraq Body Count project is using published, presumably reputable media reports to keep a running count of possible casualties. How, 12 years ago, did we follow a war without the Net?Where Is Raed: http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2002/conflict_with_iraq/default.stm
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3462--313400-,00.html
Arabic papers: http://www.arab2.com/n/a/non-arabic-daily-newspapers.htm
Iraq Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
Modern wars attract journalists like corpses attract flies. Two reporters, at least, are recording their comments, experiences and thoughts in blogs from Iraq. Kevin Sites works for CNN; Christopher Allbritton is an independent journalist, dependent on donations, trying bravely to bear up under a new style of reportage, one responsible directly to the readers. Allbritton solicited donations to pay his way to Iraq, and contributors have ponied up more than $6,300, which may seem a lot, but as Wired points out, high-tech news coverage is costly. Contributors get copy and pictures ahead of anyone else, although whether Allbritton, still trying to get to the region, will keep ahead of other journalists already in place remains to be seen. Wired focuses its story on Allbritton. The two men's blogs are worth looking at.
Sites: http://www.kevinsites.net/
Allbritton: http://www.back-to-iraq.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58043,00.html
Cook's Anti-War Speech Wins Unprecedented Standing Ovation in Parliament
The issue in question is moot by now, but this is already being regarded as one of the great parliamentary speeches of modern times. Robin Cook was the leader of the UK House of Commons and a cabinet member in Tony Blair's government. He resigned his position March 17 over Blair's aggressive Iraq policy. In his resignation speech to the House, he outlines his reasons for not supporting war, though he is careful to say that he wants Tony Blair to continue as Labour Party leader. The speech brought the entire House of Commons to attentive silence - rare indeed in the raucous House - and eventually to an unprecedented standing ovation from the members. Even though Tony Blair managed to get a majority to support his Iraq war policy the next day, Cook's speech is still worth listening to as a superb example of modern political debate by a superb rhetorician. The BBC has an article on and streaming RealVideo of the speech; you can also get the speech in MP3 format from People For Internet Responsibility (PFIR).BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2858957.stm
BBC Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/events03/ukpol/hoc/cook17mar.ram
PFIR: http://www.pfir.org/cook-resigns.mp3
Reuters Launches Neverending Iraq War Video Feed
News provider Reuters has launched a free video service to cover the war in Iraq. The company has about 150 reporters covering the conflict. According to the company's press release, the service will provide "direct access to front-line footage of the war in Iraq." This is a bit of an experiment for Reuters, and if it works out, it says it will do this again in association with other significant world events - although this is intended to be a paid service in the future. The Iraq video feed is available on their home page.Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/
Press release: http://about.reuters.com/pressOffice/pressreleases/index.asp?pressid=1139
SARS: OK, So Now We Have Plague and War...
The World Health Organization (WHO) rarely issues alerts - the last one came out about a decade ago - but it did so this week to warn of a mystery respiratory ailment dubbed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that is known to have claimed at least nine lives so far. Presumably, the alert was issued because nobody knew exactly what was going on, though since then a probable virus family (Paramyxovirus) has been identified. The illness has appeared and spread rapidly. More alarmingly, SARS doesn't appear to respond to known antibiotics or antiviral agents. Thus far, the illness has been reported in 11 countries, mostly in southeast Asia; the pathogen probably originated there. Is it bioterrorism? The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) doesn't think so. Check out its excellent SARS resource.WHO: http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/
"Bloom County" Being Published Online
The zillions of fans who loved Berkeley Breathed's late, lamented "Bloom County" comic strip will be pleased to note that My Comics Page is republishing the entire series online. The strip is being posted at the accelerated rate of one week's worth of strips every two days. You'll have to shell out $10 for a one-year subscription to My Comics Page, but the "Bloom County" strips alone are worth that. The My Comics Page site also gives you access to over 90 comic strips, numerous editorial cartoons, and even a couple of animations. It's a great bargain if you love comics. Breathed's home page has more information about "Bloom County".My Comics Page: http://www.mycomicspage.com/free/comics_new.html
Breathed: http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/
Spam Wars: Report Pinpoints Origins of Harvested Spam Addresses
A six-month study by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has tried to empirically determine where spammers get the e-mail addresses they use. The study involved 250 test addresses posted to Web sites, Usenet newsgroups, discussion forums, and even domain registrars. All together, the addresses received about 8,800 spam messages over the six months, and 97% of the spams went to the addresses posted on Web sites. Addresses posted in an obscured manner (e.g. "editor at netsurf dot com", HTML encoded) received no spam whatsoever. Apparently, the address scrapers don't handle such addresses at the moment. Other conclusions are that removing addresses from Web sites reduces the volume of spam fairly fast and that commercial sites generally honor opt-out choices. Of 31 major commercial sites tested, only five did not respect the opt-out choices promptly - Priceline.com was the worst offender in this regard. During the course of the study, the CDT's own Web server was itself the target of a brute force e-mail spam attack. The PDF paper has all the numbers and graphs.http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.pdf
The Definitive (Subjective) Desktop Environment Comparison
Eugenia Loli-Queru looks at five different operating systems in this somewhat subjective but discussion-worthy comparison. She examines the desktop environments of Windows XP, BeOS 6, Mac OS X, and two open-source Unix desktops, KDE and Gnome. For each environment, Eugenia writes about the look and feel, usability, consistency, speed and stability, and the underlying technology. Many of the pro and con arguments about these environments come down to religious wars, or simply to what you may be used to, but this comparison is worth reading because it tries to cut across so many different areas. Will it affect your choice of desktop? Probably not, since many of them are so intimately tied to the operating system, but at least you'll have an idea of what's on the other side of the fence.http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3064
Social Network Insights from InFlow
The importance of being able to map and visualize social networks may not seem obvious at first. "So what, another piece of management software to make consultants rich," may be your reaction. In reality, it can be a profound way to learn what works and what needs fixing. Valdis Krebs has been honing his InFlow software for 15 years. In 1995, he had his big breakthrough when IBM agreed to license the software, and now it's used by many major corporations. InFlow lets organizations find out who communicates with whom, and to map where the information flows, how decisions are made, and who the real experts are in any group. Collecting the data to feed the program used to require surveys, but now e-mail and other electronic transactions can be used to produce its sometimes visually stunning results. InFlow identifies patterns from what seems at first to be just a mass of incoherent data. Potential applications range from the obvious business uses to political analysis and intelligence or counter-intelligence. Most organizations have probably barely scratched the surface of what this potent software has to offer. A new Discover article exposes a fascinating technology well worth looking at.InFlow: http://www.orgnet.com/
Discover: http://www.discover.com/apr_03/feattech.html
The Internet Censorship Explorer
The Web-based Internet Censorship Explorer (ICE) utility lets you find out instantly whether a URL is being blocked by a censorship firewall in a given country. The simple service uses open Web proxy servers in the specified country to check whether you can access the URL. In covering the story, Wired approaches ICE with an ethical point of view. Is it ethical for an academic research organization to do port scans? That question may be moot, as ICE answers that "the ICE browser does not port scan anyone, it issues a request for a URL to a proxy server and returns the results to the user. There is no scanning of any kind." Furthermore, is it OK to use open, possibly misconfigured proxy servers in another country to do censorship research? Wired poses interesting questions, questions with which ICE project director Ronald Diebert has wrestled before coming up with a clear statement of the effort's ethical principles.ICE: http://opennetinitiative.net/oni/ice/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58082,00.html
Deibert: http://opennetinitiative.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=10
Security Leaks about Security Leaks
This tale of leaked confidential reports of security problems in Sun Microsystems software illustrates again the tension between advocates of early and full disclosure and those who wish to embargo such information. The leak apparently sprang from the Internet Security Alliance, a closed consortium of companies that pay money to the US government's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to receive such warnings before the public learns of them. Some researchers speculate that this leak may have been a form of protest against CERT's policy of disclosing information to paying clients earlier than to the Net community at large. As one security commentator points out in this Wired article, "The pre-release vulnerability info flow is a juicy and obvious target" for hackers.http://wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58106,00.html
Spam is getting worse, in case you hadn't noticed. By the end of the year, spam will account for nearly 50% of all Internet e-mail traffic. It costs US businesses roughly $10 billion to counter the onslaught of junk. This fascinating Washington Post article talks about current efforts to fight spam, but the point is that laws don't seem to help. Even a ban on spam in Delaware hasn't stopped the flood of in-box garbage. The article also has some tips on what you can do to alleviate the problem at the personal level. CNET reports on the Mar. 14 JamSpam, at which tech businesses meet to discuss the problem. The depressing fact is that a solution to the spam problem doesn't appear on the horizon.
Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17754-2003Mar12
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1032-992759.html
JamSpam: http://www.jamspam.org/
Fake Salacious Puma Ads Rile Puma, Puma Riles Bloggers
Puma, the athletic apparel company, is quietly fuming over parody ads that have been popping up online. The ads feature Puma gear in a context that isn't much to the company's liking: while not explicitly pornographic, the situations depicted are implicitly X-rated. Felix Salmon posted the ads at MemeFirst, which Puma subsequently served with a cease-and-desist order, but it appears that there's really little Puma can do beyond that. Its best option might be to ignore the ads, and hope that they quietly fade away. On the other hand, given a recent New York Times (NYT) story regarding the emerging trend of porn-star marketing, some folks understandably harbor the disquieting notion that the whole fuss may be a contrived marketing ploy by the athletic wear manufacturer. A Puma rep didn't help matters when he stated that blogs aren't media outlets, and therefore aren't subject to First Amendment protections. Unsurprisingly, that little take stirred up bloggers all over the place. You need to register to get NYT articles, but it's free to do so.Salmon: http://www.felixsalmon.com/000150.php
MemeFirst: http://www.memefirst.com/article.php?story=20030309192954666
NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/24/business/media/24ADCO.html
Is hydrogen the answer to our current energy problems? Could we build hydrogen-powered cars and move towards a hydrogen-based economy? This Wired article is a manifesto for converting automobiles to hydrogen fuel. The author calls for an Apollo-scope project funded by the government to free the US from its addiction to foreign oil. The benefits of liberation from OPEC are self-evident, but whether or not this ambitious plan can be sold in Washington remains to be seen.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/hydrogen.html
Circumventing Google's Local Censorship
Anti-censorship celebrity Seth Finkelstein gives some practical advice about how to get around Google's country-specific censorship. Attentive readers of NSD know that for pragmatic business and legal reasons, Google censors its search results depending on which country it thinks you're located in. Finkelstein identifies how Google excludes certain search results, then shows how you can compare your search results with what the rest of the world sees by using Google's country specific searches. Let's hope that Google does not "fix" its service so that you can no longer do this.http://sethf.com/anticensorware/general/google-censorship.php
Prompted by a British poll that found a quote that nearly no one on the left side of the Atlantic has ever heard of to be the most memorable of all time, the folks who buzz through the Plastic discussion began submitting their own choices. An impromptu selection of the best movie quotes of all time just kinda grew. Often, the poster provides a link to reviews or sales of the film the liner came from. That's hardly the only draw. Links to thoughtful pieces on the state of film making help considerably, as do links to things like living wages and hyphenation. It looks as though anything's up for grabs, here, which makes the Plastic site so addictive to some. You may want to start here:
http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=03/03/14/20203395;sid=03/03/14/20203395
Bats, Balls, Wickets, and a Cup
Leg spinners, fast bowlers, all rounders, paceman, swing bowlers, googlies - what's going on here? It's a bit of a sticky wicket figuring those things out if you're not into cricket, a long, slow game for sunny afternoons that's amazingly one of the great successes of the British empire, a flourishing colonial export that firmly took root in many countries around the world. Cricket powerhouse Australia is through to the final, which will be held Mar. 23, competing against the winner of the India/Kenya semi-final. The 2003 contest is being held in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Despite the quick pace of modern life, the game still attracts a huge following worldwide. The game has deep but murky roots, tracing its uncertain origin to games played hundreds of years ago. Coverage on BBC and on the official World Cup site is impressive and thorough. The US is pitching to host a few games when the World Cup comes to the West Indies in 2007.Cricket World Cup: http://www.cricketworldcup.com/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/cwc2003/default.stm
Yahoo Launches Streaming Video Service
Yahoo has launched a video streaming services called Yahoo Platinum. The service costs $10 for the basic monthly subscription, or $17 for a special sports package. Programming will consist of stuff like news and "exclusive never-before-seen video from your favorite reality shows." Oooooooh, we can't wait.... Most programming seems to come from the major cable and media networks. Think of it as an online version of cable video service. Unless Yahoo can offer compelling footage - now, maybe naked "Survivor" would do it, or perhaps specific sports content - it's not clear why you'd want to subscribe.http://platinum.yahoo.com/
ONLINE CULTURE
A slick British pub called the Progress Bar has installed a wireless network that allows patrons to post photos on a big screen. And before you ask: yes, any content deemed inappropriate by the bartender can be deleted when it shows up on a monitor. A wireless network in a bar is not big news in and of itself, but there are several points of interest here. First is the ability of patrons to upload images via WiFi or Bluetooth networking technologies from their phones or laptops. Second is the use of an innovative mesh computing box created by an English outfit called LocustWorld. The cheap, low-maintenance, Linux-based mesh boxes can automatically organize themselves into a network of up to 100 machines. Last but not least is the comment by the bar owner about providing free networking to his patrons: "It made sense to give them wireless access to the Net so they can work and drink at the same time." Aside from the obvious appeal of drinking and working, free wireless access in public places is well on the way to being a ubiquitous business service, like toilets. The BBC has more.Progress Bar: http://www.innprogress.com/
LocustWorld: http://www.locustworld.com/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2861749.stm
Moral masochism knows no limits. An organization called NetAccountability (motto: "The first line of defense against online temptation") is preaching a porn-filtering method based on peer pressure. The thinking is that you are less likely to visit morally objectionable sites if your close family and friends, your morality buddies as it were, see what you've been looking at. NetAccountability has you install software that allows your morality buddies to see where you've been surfing. Presumably, if they see you head for sinful sites, you'll be the target of their moral outrage and possibly further cult programming. Needless to say, the method appeals primarily to Christian religious types. Wired has the story.
NetAccountability: http://www.netaccountability.com/main/index.cfm
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57962,00.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
When you think of Cuba, what images come to mind? Many of us in the western hemisphere think of a cigar-smoking dictator and mass political unrest. But one photojournalist points out that Cuba is a country where the people are extremely friendly and the culture is rich and vibrant. The proof is in the over 470 images captured by Dan Heller. Through Heller's lens, you'll experience a different kind of Cuba than that depicted by American media. Choose from 41 different galleries of varying subjects, from houses and cemeteries to art and baseball. Heller's images are beautifully executed and seem to tell stories of their own. Take a moment from your day to browse, and you'll soon be daydreaming of tanning on the beaches of Havana.http://www.danheller.com/cuba.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Americans get to see the car chase, the DA's press conference, and often the whole trial on prime-time TV, whereas the British make do with a sketch. Elizabeth Cook is a court artist who attends the UK's most notorious trials, and because UK law forbids even drawing in court, Cook stares at the criminals, the judges, and the lawyers in court, then sketches them later from memory. Some of her work is here on her fascinating little Web site. It's a real rogue's gallery, with mass murderers like Rosemary West and Harold Shipman rubbing shoulders with disgraced politician/novelist Jeffrey Archer and former Peruvian dictator General Augusto Pinochet. The little tableaux she creates are surprisingly vivid and in many ways encapsulate the drama of the trial process much more vividly than a televised court session can ever hope to.http://www.courtartist.co.uk/
You bought a digital camera hoping that microchips would smarten up your shots. For some reason, though, your photos still suck.... Hang in there. Photography writer Derrick Story, managing editor of computer-book publishers O'Reilly Network, offers good advice and a clever trick or two in his Top Ten Digital Photography Tips. His short, illustrated suggestions are likely to help experienced users as well as beginners. Story explains how a simple step can often solve a problem. Need to reduce glare and reflections out of doors? Try shooting through your sunglasses. We'd never thought of that till we read it here. Story makes a good case for shooting at your camera's highest resolution and thus for buying a lot of extra memory. (You didn't expect to stop spending once you bought a camera, did you?) His Outdoor Portraits That Shine tip may be the one that brings you the most compliments. Slow Motion Water is intriguing. Tolerable Tripod may be the easiest to implement (buy a tripod). We wish he had more free articles like this; it tempts us to buy his book. Comments by other readers are posted at the bottom of the page.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/10/22/digi_photo_tips.html
The Making of "Pretty Big Dig"
Meet Anne Troake, professional dancer, filmmaker, and choreographer, who has brought her talents together to create a piece of film unlike any other. Her latest endeavor, "Pretty Big Dig", combines the dainty movements of dance with the bulk of serious construction equipment. The award-winning piece showcased the giant steel monsters moving uncharacteristically to some classical waltz compositions. Although you won't find the full film here, you'll get a glimpse at the production, the players, and the piece in a behind-the-scenes short. Discover the intricate details of choreographing a trio of excavators to move in synchronized fashion. Experience the trials and tribulations of Troake's directorial undertaking, as she instructs three construction men in the art of dance. Beyond marvelling at the truly unconventional subject matter, you'll be in awe and amazement at the graceful motions of these rigid beasts. After you see this, you'll never see a construction site the same way.http://zedstatic.cbc.ca/users/g/grantg/files/ANNETROAKE2.mov
Japanese anime introduced the world to a new kind of animation, one that was decidedly grown up. With storylines that dealt unashamedly with such taboo topics as death, sex, and violence - not to mention a healthy dose of that particular Japanese aesthetic - it was clear from the beginning that this was not your typical Disney fare. If you're interested in how it all got started, you can check out this site, which follows the development of anime from its beginnings with Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" series (which introduced American audiences to the medium) down through modern day hits like "Akira" and "Ghost in the Shell". It's a fairly detailed, though not exhaustive, overview of the art form, and as such should be perfect for beginning fans looking to get a brief history lesson on the subject.
http://www.rightstuf.com/resource/resource.shtml
This site is aptly titled Odd Music. Hear the sometimes enchanting (and sometimes quite otherwise) sounds of music and instruments that rival none other. A tour through the gallery offers audio clips of some truly bizarre sounds. Listen to the beer bottle organ as it pipes out a classic Beatles tune, or experience the rockabilly sounds of the cigar box guitar. Relax to the soothing sounds of the Native American flutes or kick out the jams to the wild reverberation of a six-foot-tall instrument made from junk, the Rocket Launcher. While the gallery doesn't offer sounds for every instrument, it does provide a detailed description of each noisemaker along with images. A tour through the rest of the site offers other goodies to explore, such as a discussion group and an online shopping portal with books and music. Next time the youngsters in your life are banging those pots and pans, remember this site. One day, the sweet melodies of the Kitchen Steel Band could be touring the country.
http://www.oddmusic.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Cosmopolis
The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen
The Wellstone
Mathematics of the Securities IndustryVisually Fly through/Dive into/Navigate a Thesaurus
The Visual Thesaurus moves beyond traditional synonyms to display over a dozen of the relations that exist between words and meanings. By exposing these meanings, a powerful reference tool for writers and students of the English language is created. Sadly, we found no results for netsurfer, but more common terms produce a moving chain of words that are lexically related. More closely related words are displayed in a larger font. All links slowly move around the screen, which mimics how your mind can wander from one concept to another as you think. A history list is maintained so you can trace your exploration process. Differently colored nodes mark different word types such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. The Visual Thesaurus relies on Java-based technology designed to create dynamic interfaces to information systems with non-conventional methods of navigation.http://www.visualthesaurus.com/index.jsp
Extra! Extra! Front Pages Online!
Today's Front Pages is an online collection of more than 200 newspaper front pages from 29 countries. This is a great place to browse if you travel abroad, are curious about other cultures, or want to see how President Bush is playing in, say, Kingston, Jamaica. A thumbnail photo is linked to a larger image and a PDF of each front page, and it's easy to jump in and out of a publication. A more targeted approach is to hit the Page List button at the top of the home page to display an alphabetical list of newspapers. Comparing headlines will take you a little longer than browsing at a newsstand. It's fascinating just the same. Besides, how many newsstands carry papers from 29 countries? Your only disappointment, perhaps, will come when you read to the breakpoint of a tantalizing story and can't view subsequent pages, although you can jump to the Web site of that paper. We predict that spin doctors and other public relations people, along with journalists and students, will frequent this topical site, which is part of the Newseum project of the Freedom Forum.http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp
The Iconocastic Look at Trends
Trendwatchers, mark this spot. Iconocast is where you find the important tidbits. Ad spending in business-to-business (B2B) mags dropped 21% in the first half of last year because most decision makers are looking to the Web and not the B2B mags for information. What else is hot? Stingray leather, plasma screens, digicams, time compression. A-la-carte distribution, rather than containerized distribution. How the heck does this Michael Tchong guy know all this stuff? You can sign up for delivery of the weekly Iconocast trends newsletter, straight to your in-box. Or look at some of the material onsite. The founder of MacWeek has always been a trifle ahead of the curve.http://www.iconocast.com/index.html
In Japan and Brazil and points in between, everyone's getting in on the fun of the fourth annual International Edible Book Festival. On Apr. 1, they sit around and talk, have some tea, and at 4 p.m., they eat the books. No joke. Mind you, these books are composed of food products and designed by local artists, for the most part. If you find this all too fanciful to be believed, check out the gallery to see the variety of foodstuffs produced in past years. If you're tempted to get in on the fun yourself, the creators of the site want you to remember to get photos before you begin eating and then upload them to the Web so they can link to them. Guess this is one day the "no food or drink in the library" sign can be ignored.
http://www.colophon.com/ediblebooks/
Upon hearing that the Straight Dope community has created their own e-zine, our first thought was, "Boy, we bet that's funny." It's not, but then again, it's not intended to be. Teemings is a Web site that highlights the abilities of the collective of fans of the always amusing Cecil Adams and his cadre, fans fondly referred to as the "teeming millions". Teemings is a forum for their respective literary, commentary, and even culinary fortes. Some of it is amusing, too. Fantasy lovers should be sure to check out, "What if 'The Lord of the Rings' had been written by someone else?", which sticks Frodo in plots as diverse as those by Mario Puzo and Lewis Carroll.
http://www.teemings.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
One of the earliest pieces of information about snow that every child learns is that no two snowflakes are alike. That discovery was made in the small rural town of Jericho, Vt. by Wilson Bentley, a self-educated farmer who adapted a microscope with a bellows camera. After years of trial and error, he became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal, in 1885. His pioneering work in the area of photomicrography brought him to world attention but he spent all but one of his winters after the discovery in his own hometown, continuing his work. He eventually captured images of more than 5,000 snowflakes, each one unique. This site records his work via a virtual tour of the Snowflake Museum. You can also check out the current weather in Jericho or play the Match the Flakes game (requires the Flash plug-in).http://snowflakebentley.com/
SOFTWARE
MYSQL 4.0 Declared Production Quality
MySQL AB, the company that makes the popular low-cost/free database software, has declared version 4.0 to be production quality. This version is a major rewrite with many new features that bring the database feature set closer to the complex industrial strength offerings from companies like Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. Which is not to say that it is not already a powerful piece of software. Many popular Web sites have been using MySQL with great enthusiasm for years. Version 4.0.12 is now the latest production version, having undergone months of widespread testing in the user community.http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-4.0.html
The distributed peer-to-peer information distribution software - it's not really a file-trading network - has been upgraded to version 0.5.1. By all accounts, this version is much more stable than earlier versions, which were notable for their lack of performance and the awkwardness of their user interfaces. In 0.5.1, many bugs have been fixed and performance has been improved substantially, but some of the user interface aspects are still awkward. Treat it as beta software if you want to play with it.
http://freenetproject.org/tiki-index.php