BREAKING SURF
| The Tip Jar Experience |
| Moblogging |
| Linkify Your Blog |
| The Winer Number and the Blogomeme |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Ready to Save the Universe |
| Staplerfahrer Klaus |
| New Canadian Forces Ribbons |
| OpenBSD 3.3 Released |
| FreeS/WAN 2.0 and Opportunistic IP Encryption |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
Mortality Report Says SARS More Deadly than First Thought
The first major study of SARS mortality has just been published in the Lancet. This report is the first to analyze statistically significant data: the 1,425 cases in Hong Kong. The report found that patient age is strongly associated with the outcome, with those older than 60 particularly vulnerable. Researchers determined SARS mortality two ways that differed in statistical assumptions about phases of the illness. Patients younger than 60 have a mortality rate of 6.8% or 13.2%, depending on the method used. Patients older than 60 years and die 43.3% or 55.0% of the time. Either estimate is shocking. The 1918 influenza pandemic had an estimated mortality rate of 2%-3%, and wound up killing 21+ million worldwide. You can see why medical scientists are so worried about containing the spread of SARS. You'll need free registration at the Lancet to read the paper.http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol361/iss9368/full/llan.361.9368.early_online_publication.25595.1
Apple Music Store Sells a Million Songs
"In less than one week we've broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world," said Apple's Steve Jobs in an almost ecstatic press release. Apple is trumpeting the fact that its iTunes Music Store has sold over one million songs in its first week of operation. Apple also noted that over half the songs were purchased as albums, - significant because there was some worry among the music companies that such a service would kill album sales. The music-buying patterns also show that there is a great deal of public interest in a wide breadth of musical styles and bands - not that that's news to anybody who follows the music file-trading scene. This press release might just be rather historic.Apple: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/may/05musicstore.html
Music Store: http://www.apple.com/music/store/
If you thought recent talk of nuclear proliferation was just so much leftover Cold War dross, read this New York Times Magazine article by Bill Keller. During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union learned how to control their arsenals of mass destruction, but times can get tense as new nuclear powers, including Pakistan, India, and the always ambiguous North Korea, have to learn those lessons themselves. What is striking about the proliferation of nuclear weapons is how brazen it has become. Pakistan is littered with statues that commemorate the nation's first nuclear tests. The traditional approaches to non-proliferation, arms control and treaties, are being aggressively challenged by the practice of active counter-proliferation, the strategy that lay behind Gulf War II. Obviously, not all accept the method. Keller lays out the arguments taking place within the US administration over restricting the growth of nuclear nations, and looks at why such weapons develop in nations that can ill afford these expensive devices. Given that this debate will have profound consequences for the resolution of the crisis on the Korean peninsula, this is a must-read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/magazine/04NUKES.html
Keeping Reporters Honest in the Internet Age
The moral of this story is that on the Internet, everybody can see you're messing with the truth - especially if you're in the business of reporting it. On Apr. 30, the Associated Press (AP) newswire carried a photo showing Iraqis protesting the killing of civilians by American soldiers. The Iraqis in the photo carried a banner which read "Sooner or later US killers we'll kick you out." The AP article accompanying the photo, despite the photographic evidence, said the banner read "Sooner or later US killers we'll kill you." Big difference between "kick you out" and "kill you", but perhaps only the result of a truly unfortunate typo. It happens, and Occam's razor dictates that incompetence or inattention trumps conspiracy. But the story runs deeper. The AP ran five versions of this article and only corrected the text in the last version on May 1. Four days later, only 11 outlets had picked up the corrected story, whereas 50 continued to run incorrect versions. How many people now have the impression that those Iraqis were waving bloodthirsty banners?http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/ap-banner.htm
Beyond Model Rocketry: Do-It-Yourself Cruise Missiles
We love it when someone we've already covered takes the next step. We looked at Bruce Simpson's home jet projects in NSD 8.12. Now he's undertaken the construction of a cruise missile, with a budget of a mere $5,000. Already, Simpson has cobbled together most of the guidance and control systems from various online sources. While Simpson offers the nitty-gritty details only to paying subscribers, his site makes one thing clear: you don't have to be a nation-state to have a cruise missile. You may want to check out his progress, which you can do for free. Please don't try this one at home - especially if you are American. Simpson is in New Zealand, and we suspect that any Americans trying such a stunt would get an unwelcome visit from more than one authority in the US's current climate of hypersecurity.Simpson: http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/
NSD 8.12: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.12.html#SCI4
Last month, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) charged four students with copyright infringement for sharing copyrighted music online, the first time the RIAA has gone directly after individuals rather than organizations. The case has now been settled out of court, with each student agreeing to pay from $12,000-$17,000 over four years, although none has admitted to any wrongdoing. Settling in this way was obviously a practical matter for the students, who otherwise would probably have faced ruinously expensive legal bills. Howard Ende, a lawyer defending one of the students, referred to the RIAA's action as legal intimidation, which seems about right to us - and you can't deny it worked. Flush with victory, the RIAA has warned that future defendants may face less magnanimous settlements. CNET has details. CNN offers a transcript of an interview with Jesse Jordan, one of the defendants. Jordan also presides over ChewPlastic, a communal blog. We doubt this settlement will curtail much personal file-sharing, although it may curb large-scale operations. Need we repeat our mantra about inappropriate business models? Nah, you know it by now....
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-999332.html
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/06/ltm.03.html
ChewPlastic: http://www.chewplastic.com/
Long-time readers will recall that SAIC is the company that once owned domain registrar Network Solutions, buying it in 1996 for a mere $4.6 million and later selling most of its interest for about $3.1 billion. You may also recall that SAIC is primarily involved in spy science and technology. The US's three-letter spook agencies (NSA, CIA, FBI) buy equipment and consulting services from SAIC. Lately, SAIC has been concentrating on sophisticated data-mining technology - think scanning e-mail, the Web, and cell-phone traffic. They've even put some of their technology to work on winning government contracts. In addition to analyzing winning and losing bids, the company keeps a database of painstakingly researched proposal phrases that are likely to influence procurement clerks and win lucrative contracts. Business 2.0 has an informative profile of this highly secretive and influential company and its founder, Bob "Dr. B" Beyster. Oh, yes - SAIC still owns a stake in Network Solutions's new owner, VeriSign, and presumably has access to all its domain registration data.
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,49068,00.html
Simple HTML Code Crashes Microsoft Web Applications
This simple HTML code will crash Explorer, Outlook, Frontpage, and all the Microsoft programs that use the shlwapi.dll library to render Web code. How simple? Well, since it's already been widely circulated, here it is:<<html>>
<<form>>
<<input type crash>>
<</form>>
<</html>>
At press time, there was no fix available. BugTraq has the notice. Click on the Subject to get more info from the discussion thread.
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/319360
Jamie Zawinski is a programmer famous mostly for his contributions to the Netscape and Mozilla browsers. He's also known for colorfully speaking his mind. This week, Zawinski has thrown up an entertaining rant about cascading style sheets (CSS), the specification that was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of Web page layout. Zawinski's title is "CSS Is BS". He points out the terrible awkwardness of pixel-based layout, the vagueness of the specification which leads to a mess in browser implementation, and the problematic handling of font sizing. Basically, his rant concludes that table-based layout is still better in many ways. Zawinski's post inspired some cogent discussion from other webheads about the whole philosophical concept of CSS and the twisty little corridors of its implementation. Jamie also states, perhaps not without justification, "Web designers, and especially blogging web designers, are self-important fuckheads." Discuss.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/193866.html
EarthLink to Deploy Challenge-Response Anti-Spam Effort
EarthLink has proposed an anti-spam system that works by requiring a reply from senders of e-mail to new EarthLink correspondents. If you send an EarthLink customer an e-mail for the first time, EarthLink will then send you an e-mail that asks you to verify in some way that you are a genuine human being as opposed to an automated spam-spewing program. For example, EarthLink could ask you to type in a number from an image and send it back. Once verified, your e-mail will be sent to the destination, and you will never have to verify your identity for that correspondent again. This kind of challenge-response e-mail verification already exists but is not widely known or popular with users. As noted in this Washington Post article, the concept is not foolproof since spammers could probably develop technology to circumvent it in short order. Challenge-response would also cause problems for mailing list operators and e-commerce sites that rely on automated e-mail. EarthLink apparently has plans to deal with this, making the system voluntary for its users and presumably configurable to avoid this kind of problem.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22390-2003May6.html
Just when you thought that pop-up ads couldn't get any more annoying, along comes a whole new genre. Ad Age has reported on a new ad format in which the ads fill your monitor as you click between the pages of a Web site in your browser. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently announced a standardization of Web ads, in an effort to make them cross-compatible among Web sites and to ease their path online. Despite such advertising research and development, it remains unclear how and how well Internet advertising even works. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen indicates that text ads seem to be more effective than any other online format, but that they too may be doomed to indifference.
Ad Age: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=37727
IAB: http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2003_4_28.asp
Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030428.html
Ancient is relative, but with his readers, David Strom of Internet Week has turned up some software applications that qualify for relic status, in the online world at least. The oldest functioning software they found is an accounting program written for a Radio Shack TRS-80 and still in use after almost 25 years. The owner of this hoary but still useful piece of coding is Telford Cruikshank, who owns a car dealership in West Virgina. He bought the program in 1985 and runs it on a two-floppy IBM PC. When it comes to software longevity off the desktop, however, nothing can touch mainframe-based applications. Many of these have been tweaked over the years, but continue in use because they work well and users are familiar with them. The Internet Week article features many technical curiosities that show that the latest upgrade is often far from necessary, and links to Web sites with more on aged applications that still work fine. Some Slashdotters have been spouting "Me too!" in an eagerness to reveal their own archaic apps.
Internet Week: http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9400202
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/03/05/02/1732201.shtml
What do these titles have in common: Madonna's "Sex"; Thomas Mann's "Joseph in Egypt"; and Carl Sagan's "Murmurs of Earth, the Voyager Interstellar Record"? If you guessed that they are all out of print and in high demand (no thanks to the blatant clue provided in the headline), pat yourself on the back or something. BookFinder (which we first looked at in NSD 4.30) is a book metasearch engine, which means it consults many booksellers when you use it to search for new or out-of-print books. It has put up lists of the most in-demand out-of-print books, based on what its users searched for between July and December 2002. BookFinder presents its top ten in each of ten categories, including arts and music, biography, children's books, and so on. The lists have some surprises, both in terms of what's there and what isn't, and aren't even entirely foolproof, as at least a couple of the sought-after titles are available in paperback. As for us... - well, we think we have some of these titles on our shelves here, somewhere....
BookFinder: http://report.bookfinder.com/
NSD 4.30: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v04/nsd.04.30.html#BEZ6
US-Aussie Libel Case Goes to UN
In 2000, Barron's reporter Bill Alpert wrote some uncomplimentary things about Australian tycoon Joseph Gutnick, and received a libel lawsuit from Gutnick in return. Gutnick filed in an Australian court, even though the article appeared in an American magazine with limited Aussie distribution. Alpert and the Dow Jones company, his boss and co-defendant, lost the original case and every subsequent appeal. The defendants claim that Australian courts have no jurisdiction over what appears in American media - by no coincidence, Aussie libel law is slacker than that of the US. Having that argument dismissed by Aussie authorities, Alpert has asked the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into whether or not Australia is violating his civil right to freedom of speech. The outcome may have repercussions in the online world. CNET has the story.http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-999525.html
Just how big is Big Brother? Well, one indicator might be the sheer number of federal wiretaps authorized during 2002. Although the site is occasionally slow and overburdened, be prepared for some surprises when you open the graphs and tables in this annual report of the US Courts. Big Brother isn't big, he's gigantic.
http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap02/contents.html
DDoS Attack Drops SCO Web Site
SCO Group, which owns the intellectual property rights to Unix, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM in March, in which it claimed that IBM incorporated Unix code into Linux without permission. SCO has been taking some heat for that, most recently in the form of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that crushed its Web site for a few hours. SCO claims to have no idea who was behind the attack, but it's a safe bet that a lot of Linux adherents are in the crosshairs now. CNET has a story on the DDoS attack and on the lawsuit.Lawsuit: http://news.com.com/2100-1016-991464.html
DDoS: http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-999584.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Roger Williams wrote a SF novella entitled "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect". Recently, he posted it online along with a PayPal tip jar, and asked for donations from satisfied readers. His effort was noted in several tech-friendly sites such as Kuro5hin and Slashdot, and Williams also did a little advertising. After three months, Williams summed up his experience with the tip jar and with other reader feedback. He did pull in some tip money, about $760, but he said that the take compares unfavorably with the traditional advance for publishing such a book (about $5,000) and that his results were probably better than average. Williams has supplied another good data point from which to judge the Internet as a literary distribution medium. As for the book itself, it has a reasonable plot about an artificial intelligence entity and its interaction with post-Singularity humanity. You can read it online - and don't forget to tip. "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect":http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/
Williams: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/27/195833/305
Singularity: http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html
Let us introduce you to a new term: moblogging. Does it mean an unruly crowd of lumberjacks? Nope. Is it a Web-oriented sequel to "Mo' Money"? Nuh-uh. Moblogging means mobile blogging - essentially using a mobile phone, often with phonecam, to update online blogs while on the move. The online heart of the movement is the aptly named Moblogging.org. Using mobile phones and other tools to file blog entries seems to be the next big wave, and the first international moblogging conference is already planned for July 5, in Tokyo. Moblogging doesn't seem to have a great potential as a killer app, but it may fill a niche. News on the move, or boring egocentric drivel on the hoof? Probably a bit of both.
http://www.moblogging.org/
Tangent declares that what it offers is like sex for Web sites, so you just know there'll be a lot of poking around going on there. Tangent's idea has merit. It offers a way to link your blog to other sites, based on common interests and content. You use Movable Type or other tools to update your blog through Tangent, which parses through your text and adds links where relevant - your blog ends up fairly quickly with links to related content. The Tangent links are subtle enough not to ruin your own look and feel, but effective enough to be worthwhile. See the Endquote blog for an idea of how it works. It's a cool idea, but now that Tangent has thrown sex into the marketing mix, just how long will it be before the porn merchants run it all into the ground?
Tangent: http://www.tangent.cx/
Endquote: http://endquote.com/
The Winer Number and the Blogomeme
Here's a blogomeme that surely deserves to be propagated. If you've been flamed by Dave Winer, your Winer Number is 1. If not, you probably still have one since you probably associate with any of a large number of persons he has flamed. Incidentally, we'll also take credit for originating and propagating the concept of "blogomeme" as a meme. Hmm, a meme about a meme. Oooh, have we perhaps invented recursive memetics? Don't you just feel an overwhelming need to quote us in your blog now?http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/04/21/whats_your_winer_number.html
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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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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
The Colour Out of Space: Tales of Cosmic Horror
Hiding in Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert CommunicationSURFING SITES
Do Sept. 11 and its aftermath - anthrax, Afghanistan, airline bankruptcies, Iraq - overwhelm you? Many of us still feel bewildered by it all. The Alliance for Lifelong Learning (which consists of University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Yale University) maintains a research portal called Understanding September 11 that provides much more than sound bites. One of a series of Learning Guides, this site has a modest, even dry, look and feel in excellent counterpoint to its grim variety of subjects. Designed for academic communities and open to the public, it provides easy access to in-depth articles, reports, and multimedia lectures, along with links to transcripts of Presidential speeches and other source materials. It's a much-needed place for international viewpoints, with balance and authority, on the past, present, and future of terrorism and political upheaval.http://www.allianceforlifelonglearning.org/er/lg/911.shtml
In a moment of insight, some librarian types at Millikin University realized that while the world is fraught with research on Peeps, those irresistible bites of marshmallowy goodness, there's a sad dearth of research by Peeps. The librarians set out to start rectifying that with Peep Research: A Study of Small Fluffy Creatures and Library Usage. They followed the Peeps around their Staley Library, observing the Peeps' behaviors, good and bad, and commenting on them. They note that "the Peeps experienced extreme difficulty controlling the (microfilm) forward/reverse knob while attempting to read the screen." Once again, anthropomorphic food is foiled by the lack of an opposable thumb, or, indeed, thumbs of any kind. The entire tongue-in-cheek episode is quite an amusing bit of Internet fun, but we must admit we're anxiously awaiting research by strawberry Pop-Tart blowtorches.
http://www.millikin.edu/staley/fluff/peep_research.html
You've heard numerous truck driver's gear changes - even if you have never heard that term before. It's the musical technique also known as modulation, where the artist shifts the song up a key, usually between choruses and often at the beginning of the repeat-till-fade section. Still unsure what we're talking about? Then listen to some of the linked MP3 snippets on this site - a good place to start would be Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror", which contains one heck of a clunking, gearbox-stripping change of key, said by experts to be the greatest gear-change of all time. The 77 files at the site are arranged by year, title, and artist in the site's Hall of Shame, and each is accompanied by a brief and often hilarious description, sometimes with links to further reading and listening. We sense that Siegfried Baboon, who runs the site and provides the write-ups, has an ambivalent relationship with the phenomenon; on the one hand he describes it as appalling, unimaginative and formulaic, and yet he writes about the breathtaking gear-change in Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" with reverence, awe, and not a little love.
http://www.gearchange.org/
Consumer Complaints from the Scepter'd Isle
Mr. S. Bargery from the south of England ordered his sofa and sideboard from Southampton-based Bo Concept last November. Twelve weeks was how long Bo Concept said it would take to deliver. Today, six whole months later, he has jack to show for it. "Take my advice and avoid this company like the plague," he advises, clearly at the end of his tether. The UK-based Clik2Complaints site has plenty more stories just like this. It's little more than a balls-aching whingefest, really, but if you approach it right, it's a scream. Skip the Lighter Side section of the site - the site's trying to play for laughs with a few "Credit card applications - What they REALLY mean!" jokes that the office clown has probably already mass-forwarded you anyway. No, we recommend the consumer complaints, each one from a genuine bona fide English whinger. They really are great. There's one from a flaky woman bleating about some online Tarot reader not honoring her money-back guarantee. You can't make this stuff up.http://www.clik2complaints.co.uk/index.html
In his journey from peanut farmer to lackluster President to Nobel Prize winner, Jimmy Carter has successfully shrugged off the stigma of his failed Presidency to become a much admired diplomat and human-rights proponent. This site, a companion to the PBS "American Experience" documentary about Carter, features a good deal of information in its own right, with coverage of some of the major events during his Presidency (the Iran hostage crisis and Camp David peace accord among others), a timeline of Carter's life, photo galleries, and information on the ex-president's vaunted humanitarian efforts. It's probably best viewed as a companion piece to the film (check those local listings for reruns), but if you're interested in the legacy of this fascinating man, this might be a good place to start.
http://www.pbs.org/amex/carter/
Screenwriters are something of a mystery. They write and work in obscurity (usually), while the public-relations machines make sure big-name actors and directors get play in the public eye. The versatile Michael Reaves gives, on his Web site, glimpses into his career as a screenwriter and best-selling novelist, including an amusing confession of how he botched the assembly of the Emmy statuette he won in the early '90s for writing and storyediting ("Batman: The Animated Series"). Much of the site consists, predictably, of his credits. His one-page autobiography, though, provides revealing and illustrative details: "There's nothing like an afternoon spent playing in 115-degree temperatures to fire the imagination." Reaves's strength is science fiction and fantasy. Word has it visitors have downloaded his animation scripts and sold them on eBay. Right now, Reaves is working on two Star Wars novels. His site is a welcome change from the standard entertainment industry line.
http://www.mindspring.com/~michaelreaves/
Was there ever a greater crime deterrent than HBO's "Oz"? Six long seasons of police corruption, vicious shankings, and anal rape was enough to scare us straight for the rest of our natural lives. The distinguished prison drama (which recently ended its run) was the brainchild of Tom Fontana, whose personal Web site features a (rather infrequently updated) diary and scripts from the show, and some of the writer's other well known projects (including some stuff that never made air) such as "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "St. Elsewhere." The only real pet peeves we have are that Fontana hasn't updated his diary since April (we guess he has more on his plate than your average blogger) and that there isn't much to look at besides the aforementioned diary and TV scripts. Still, if you're a fan of "Oz", you'll find plenty of valuable insight into the series here.
http://tomfontana.com/
Here's a stumper to lay on the stat-obsessed baseball fan in your life: in what ballpark did the 1875 Keokuk Westerns play? If your target answers "Perry Park", chances are they regularly visit Retrosheet, which lists just about every single baseball minutia on record, going all the way back to the modern game's inception in 1871. Here you'll find play-by-play descriptions, year-end standings, player transactions, boxscores, information on ballparks, and even a special compendium of some of the weirder plays in baseball throughout the years, like when Ed Abbaticchio hit an inside-the-park homerun in 1909 by knocking the ball into Forbes Field's horse-diving tank. Though staring at the staggering amount of baseball stuff here can prove wearisome for non-fans, it still proves more riveting than any Tigers/Devil Rays game.
http://www.retrosheet.org/
It's NHL playoff season and what better time to explore this site than during the battle for the Stanley Cup. At this site, you can explore what it calls the Net's "largest repository of hockey data". We believe it. Browse through the many archives and statistics available including draft picks, logos, and trading cards. Each category is further broken down by year or team. Become a walking hockey mastermind by absorbing little known facts and stats, such as the one-game wonders, those players who played only one game in the NHL. Navigation is simple and the search functions are effortless. This is sure to get hockey fans through the long, cold, lonely summer.
http://www.hockeydb.com/index.html
It's great drizzled over French fries or smothering a charbroiled burger, as any kid will tell you. As one of the all-time classic condiments, ketchup has earned this Web shrine called Ketchup World. Discover ketchup like you've never known it before. If you're a ketchup fanatic, this site is guaranteed to be a favorite. Slowly ooze your way through this online menu of ketchup from around the world, one that's sure to satisfy even the most discerning condiment connoisseur. The site sells the familiar thixotropic tomato spread in varieties from around the world, including Jamaica, Germany, and Pakistan. Add a little spice to your palate by purchasing something with a bit more heat. If you're more adventurous, try the Not Quite Ketchup section, where you'll find River Run Green Tomato Ketchup from Vermont or Baron Banana Ketchup from St. Lucia. Now we know why they call the purveyor of this site the Ketchupman.
http://www.ketchupworld.com/
We all know that it is prudent for our physical health to exercise our bodies regularly. To stay alert and mentally fit, your mind needs exercise, too. Try out some of these brain teasers, which are sure to flex your brain muscles. If solving a brainteaser such as "acriml" isn't your style, check out some of the other games that are sure to keep your mind active. Choose from titles such as Hangman, Word Scram, and Invisible Maze. Whether you just want to add daily mental push-ups to your regime or you've just got a few minutes before your next sales meeting, this site is a mental gymnasium that your mind will thank you for.
http://www.billsgames.com/brain-teasers/
Those two words are guaranteed to set the pulse of every barn enthusiast galloping. The exquisitely cleverly named Barn Again site offers restoration tips and images of some great restored barns in the BarnTours section. You can swap ideas with other barn owners in Barn Talk, or read barn-related articles from Successful Farming magazine. Hot dang, you can even nominate your own barn for a Barn Again! award. Barn-tastic is the only word we can think of to describe this - well, barn-tastic site! Just remember to delete the cache after you come here. You remember what happened after you went to that last barnyard site.
http://www.agriculture.com/barnagain/
"The place where people and their pets sit, stay, and listen," the site claims. Well, that pretty much covers the theme of this place - it's PetRadio.com, a talkfest that plays pretty much to pet lovers and marketers. If you're a pet enthusiast or dealer, you'll likely find something here to catch your attention. They have a lot of RealAudio streamcasts available, including "The Horse Show", subtitled "Radio for America's Horse Lovers" (uh, no - we won't go there twice in one issue). Other pages feature humor, books, and cat-assisted music. Product reviews? The site has some of those, too - but nothing on cat-assisted music.
http://216.87.26.28/petradio/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Borrowing a camcorder from your school's AV department: free. One metal pole: $20. Forgetting to remove the tape when you return the camcorder: priceless.Original: http://www.waxy.org/random/video/Star_Wars_Kid.wmv
Enhanced: http://www.waxy.org/random/video/Star_Wars_Kid_Remix.wmv
What is the worst that can happen when you employ an idiot to drive a fork-lift truck? Ponder that question, then take a look at this hilarious short German film. Admit it, you weren't even close.
http://www.sunpoint.net/~uliina/video/staplerfahrer_klaus.wmv
Canadians are often considered dull and drab, and that's just the military's dress uniforms. American uniforms are dressed with so much fruit salad, they send the envious Canadians into depression. The International Plastic Modellers Society of Canada has rectified the situation.
http://www.ipmscanada.com/fun-medals.html
SOFTWARE
OpenBSD is widely acknowledged as one of the most secure modern operating systems. This release makes it even more secure as OpenBSD deploys new stack and memory-protection technology. This basically makes it very difficult if not impossible to carry out buffer overflow attacks, probably the most common form of security breach out there. The latest release also further tightens down program-execution permissions, secures the X window server, and offers an enhanced thread library. There are also the usual improvements in performance, documentation and pre-built application packages.http://www.openbsd.org/33.html
FreeS/WAN 2.0 and Opportunistic IP Encryption
Opportunistic encryption is a good thing. The phrase refers to software which encrypts Net traffic whenever it's possible to do so, in a manner completely transparent to all your applications. For example, whenever you connect to another machine, no matter if it's to exchange e-mail, browse the Web, or engage in chat, your software will encrypt your traffic automatically. The catch, of course, is that the other machine must be able to do the same thing in reverse - which is where the virtual private networking tool FreeS/WAN comes in (for Linux users, anyway). Once installed, a relatively painless process, it will query DNS servers to find out if the machine you want to talk to supports its protocol. If it does, FreeS/WAN will encrypt all traffic to that machine. The major drawback is that you must have the ability to add entries that contain your public cipher keys to your DNS. The Slashdot discussion touches on this and other technical issues that make opportunistic encryption both desirable and still slightly problematic.FreeS/WAN: http://www.freeswan.org/
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/03/05/03/158211.shtml