BREAKING SURF
| Craigslist: the Movie |
| When Standards and Personalities Collide |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| The Cost of War |
| Dude, Where's My Gay Car? |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
|
|
|
BREAKING SURF
Nanotech Batteries Feed on Blood Glucose
Scientists at Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory in Japan have developed a device that can use blood glucose to create electricity. It's not too efficient yet, but it is a small first step to cyborg domination of the planet. Seriously, many potential uses of the technology spring to mind. Such a device could power a pacemaker or other implant. It could greatly aid diabetics who have trouble maintaining a consistent level of blood glucose. The low-carb diet crowd would flip over such a thing. And the potential uses of the resulting electricity boggle the mind. The Slashdot crowd has a lot to say on the matter, some of it in jest but much serious discussion as well. The initial tiny article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/science/03/08/04/2224201.shtml
Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/03/1059849278131.html
American Action Market Spoofs(?) Pentagon's Policy Analysis Market
Over the last two weeks, the proposed Policy Analysis Market, designed to trade futures on possible world developments, briefly flared and died in the arms of the US government - but you can't keep a good idea down. This week comes news of the American Action Market (AAM), designed to trade futures based on the actions of the US government itself. More specifically, AAM will supposedly trade real money futures in two broad areas: "What will the US government do next?" and "What is informing the US government's current behavior?" Sounds great, maybe even plausible, but we suspect it's a mildly convincing hoax. Check out the FAQ and note the very partisan political nature of the example contracts. The contracts will also be ostensibly made using "trading language specially designed for the realities of military aggression, corporate clientelism, information manipulation, and complete lack of transparency (i.e. secrecy)." Hardly the stuff of an unbiased and objective futures market. Wired has some non-skeptical background.American Action Market: http://www.americanactionmarket.org/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59879,00.html
New Google Service: News Alerts
Google News Alerts are e-mails automatically sent to you by Google when there's news about a topic you're interested in. You specify keywords likely to appear in newsstories and Google will find and deliver matching news to you as it appears online. You need to sign up on the Web page and confirm your e-mail address before you can receive the alerts. Google limits the service to 50 alerts per address. You can choose to get them once per day or as often as articles show up in the news feeds. It's an experimental feature, and somewhat inflexible in managing your alerts, but definitely worth knowing about.http://www.google.com/newsalerts
New Google Search Operator: "~"
Google has launched a new search operator that lets you run searches that can find a synonym of your indicated keyword. Place the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of the keyword you want to search on. For example, if you search for "~food" you'll get results for "food", "cooking", "nutrition", and so on. Google has a page that explains its advanced search operators.http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
Spam Wars: the Warriors and the Staggering Statistics
MSNBC is running a major multi-part feature on the spam wars. The series approaches the spam issue from many angles. The latest article, the second, focuses on the people deeply involved in the battle, the spammers and the anti-spam fighters, who both sometimes use extreme methods, up to and including death threats. The initial article discusses the "staggering" statistics of the problem, noting that sometime earlier this year the amount of spam outstripped the amount of legitimate e-mail on the Net. Future installments will talk about those who profit from spam, spammer methods, and how lawmakers are trying to deal with the issue. It is and will be worth reading, even if you think you know the story already.http://www.msnbc.com/news/SPAM_front.asp
A security flaw on a spammer's Web site has exposed a log of orders of penis-enlargement pills to public view. The info showed that, over four weeks, some 6,000 people placed orders for the pills at some $50 per bottle for a gross income of roughly half a million dollars. Do the math to see why spammers are harder to squash than cockroaches. An insider from the company that owns the Web site, Amazing Internet Products, tipped Wired about the exposed log files, which also showed the numerous complaints from the spam recipients. Wired marvels at the fact that many people who should have known better were undaunted by the fact that the order site was not encrypted and contained no contact information for the company. Salon also covered Amazing Internet Products, and uncovered an association with a young neo-Nazi who turned to spam in the late '90s. If this weren't all so depressingly real, it would surely be the stuff of screaming tabloid headlines.
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59907,00.html
Salon: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/07/29/spam_nazi/index_np.html
Pew Survey on Online Music-Sharing
The Pew Internet and American Life Project just released another of its remarkably detailed reports. This one addresses the problem of copyright and online file-sharing, especially with respect to music. Put simply, these findings are not going to please the RIAA. Of the 35 million people who download music files, 67% do not care if the material they download is protected by copyright, another 27% care but continue to download, and 6% feel they don't know enough to have a position. Although college students continue to form the majority of file-sharers, adults ages 30-49 also download regularly. File-sharing among those over 50 remains negligible. The report is full of tasty statistics, but the overwhelming message is simple - the old model for the distribution of music is broken and might prove impossible to put back together. The RIAA and the motion picture industry are no doubt seriously studying this report.http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=96
Universities Looking at File-Sharing Alternatives
College students dominate the ranks of file-sharers and university networks are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the volume and legal consequences of file transfers. What's a school to do? How about legal, school-sponsored downloading? That's the gist of this article about an attempt by universities to work with the music industry to provide a cheap and legal alternative to copyright-breaking networks. University administrators asked about the possibility of a legal unlimited peer-to-peer school network but the labels turned that idea down. None of the existing legal music services meet the requirements that the universities desire. Proposals are coming in and venture capitalists are certainly interested in ways to capture the college market, but no solution is immediately apparent. Another problem is payment. How are universities going to explicitly explain that part of the annual cost of an education is going to support music downloads? Indirectly, it's happening now, but itemizing it is a whole other proposition.http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5059030.html
How to Avoid Being Sued by the RIAA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a little blurb here on how to avoid being sued by the RIAA. The information is timely, if you happen to have a heavy peer-to-peer (P2P) presence, as RIAA is initially targeting what are referred to as "supernodes", i.e. systems that have a lot of content for distribution on the FastTrack P2P system employed by Kazaa and Morpheus, among others. The EFF provides excellent information, but seems to fear that P2P tech is endangered by the activities of RIAA. It's an overblown case, as the tech isn't being threatened, only its misuse. Still, if you believe yourself to be at risk, this is a comforting read.http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php
Collaborative Journalism Crosses the Pacific
In NSD 9.20, we told you about OhmyNews, a three-year old collaborative newspaper in Korea with 26,000 subscribers. The idea has crossed the Pacific and landed in the US in the guise of RedPaper, presided over by editor Mike Gaynor, who describes it as an online information market. A market it is, as downloads of articles and data will cost you a tiny sum, usually between ten and 50 cents per. At the moment, there's no insider info or water cooler news, and the Breaking Eye Witness News is mostly material that's days old, but RedPaper's range varies broadly. Some of the most popular downloads are copies of legal papers filed in the Kobe Bryant rape case (which go for a whopping $2 a pop). So far, more people are willing to pay to fill their bellies than to fill their minds, judging by the relative popularity of recipes. RedPaper only started up in early July, so it's early yet but, so far, it appears from the number of posts and downloads that this is not the way to fortune or fame. Much of the material sits there untouched, which must be worse in some ways than getting an impersonal rejection slip in a SASE. Wired has a brief piece.NSD 9.20: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.20.html#BS4
RedPaper: http://www.redpaper.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59807,00.html
Consider living in a country where owning an unauthorized modem can land you in jail for 15 years. Such is the land of Burma, where there are only two authorized cyber cafes and the military regime of the country tightly controls Net access. You can't access any anti-government Web sites, porn, or free e-mail services like Hotmail. To use e-mail, you must buy accounts from a tightly controlled and tightly monitored government service. The Guardian has a good overview of the Net situation in Burma, and about how the Net is an indispensable tool for opposition groups outside the country. The CIA World Factbook has everything else.
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,13373,1003751,00.html
CIA World Factbook: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bm.html
HavenCo is the maverick Internet host based in Sealand, which occupies a World War II anti-aircraft fortress located in the North Sea a few miles off England. Sealand declared itself a sovereign nation in 1967 and is effectively ignored by the UK, and so can ostensibly provide security and privacy for Web sites that might run afoul of the censorship and other laws of more conventional governments. Ryan Lackey, former chief technology officer of HavenCo, recently claimed that the company is having exactly the problems it was established to avoid. According to Lackey, the self-declared Prince Roy of Sealand is getting cold feet about hosting HavenCo and its controversial clients. He says royal family interference and a lack of customers threaten HavenCo's existence. HavenCo disputes the stories and points out that Lackey no longer works there. It's hard to know whom to believe, but the CNET story points out the difficulties of setting up a working Internet haven.
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5059676.html
HavenCo: http://www.havenco.com/
Sealand: http://www.sealandgov.com/
Bill Maher became well known as host of the long-running TV debate program, "Politically Incorrect". The program was cancelled amidst vague rumors that the network was unhappy with some of Maher's politically incorrect remarks about the events of Sept. 11. Maher now has a new show on HBO, "Real Time with Bill Maher", and has started a weblog of his own. Fans may be interested, but frankly the content is thin and most of the attempted humor falls flat, particularly given the high quality and entertainment value of much other political blogging going on.
"Real Time with Bill Maher": http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/
Maher: http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/blog/
Transhumanism and the Deep, or Not So Deep, Future
Given that humanism seems under attack most days, you might wonder what Transhumanism might mean. This article from the Village Voice gives a sense of just what some people are imagining. The author attended a recent meeting at Yale University and discovered that some people worry whether or not cyborgs will have rights and how to ethically address one's stored consciousness after it has been uploaded to a machine. Transhumanists believe that the future must be post-human since our bodies are too soft and dumb to survive interstellar travel. Given that the Earth has an expiration date, the transhumanists argue, only through interstellar travel will any remnant of humanity survive. And they want to shape that remnant. It's all very serious, save for one small problem: despite their optimism, many of the transhumanists appear to believe that all this change is imminent. As one scientist quoted in the article observed: "Some of these transhumanists are pretty far out of touch with what's going on in the labs. When I tell them that, I feel like I'm smashing their dreams." In a sense, that's the key issue, making dreams real. But whose?http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0331/baard.php
A Kuro5hin member has some intriguing ideas about distributed protests. He suggests that a protest that's thin on the ground but covers a huge area would be more effective than one that's heavily populated but has a relatively small footprint. In this plan, all protesters carry the same message but spread out so that everywhere non-protesters go, they find someone with the message. Viral e-mail can get such a protest organized and fix the timing. The Kuro5hin post includes suggested rules for minimizing trouble with police and making a protest effective. Flash mobs anyone? Some wonder whether this is a potent new tool in the arsenal of concerned citizens or just a way for every flake with a cranky cause to make trouble for ordinary folks. Critics use the phrases "viral idiocy" and "distributed lunacy". There's more discussion at the Kuro5hin site, with many pointing out that all protests really do is inconvenience the public and get the protestors branded as loonies or anarchists. If you want to change the system, join it, they suggest. Hmmm, where have we heard that before?
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/7/31/14152/8115
Good ol' reliable Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is 20 years old. In the tech world, that's geriatric, and SMTP is showing its age. Built back in the days when the Internet was new, SMTP has one fundamental flaw that's since been uncovered and exploited: its inherent integrity. SMTP believes that you are who who you claim to be. Such innocence has no place on today's Internet, where the motto has become "Trust No One". As a result, a lot of folks, including many of the contributors to SMTP, are suggesting that it's time for a complete overhaul. Suzanne Sluizer, who co-developed SMTP's immediate predecessor, suggests that a new protocol be started from scratch, as fixing problems is generally tougher than doing a complete redesign. Technological bandages haven't helped pin down e-mail identity all that much, but others aren't so sure a remedy doesn't already exist. By tweaking the DNS database, they suspect, spam could be halted almost entirely by eliminating the ability to spoof addresses. Obviously, balances need to be struck. CNET has a brief but thorough description of the current state of affairs.
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5058610.html
Microsoft to Embrace and Extend Usenet?
Microsoft appears to have a growing interest in Usenet, surprising since the conventional wisdom is that Usenet is at best a spam-filled backwater of the Net, mostly of interest to hard-core techies and porn-seekers. According to PCWorld, Microsoft researchers are working on a concept called the Community .Net Server, basically a hyped-up newsreader that makes it easier to find discussion threads of interest and cuts out spam. Microsoft's interest in this kind of technology makes sense because it can also be applied to e-mail messages, something of great interest given the increasing amount of even legitimate e-mail people have to deal with these days. Microsoft Research exhibits its nascent technology at an experimental Web site called Netscan.PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111820,00.asp
Netscan: http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/Static/Default.asp
If you couldn't get your boss to send you to this year's SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego, you can at least read about it here. Each year, the conference assigns a crew to report on the proceedings and provide a taste of what it's like to go to one of these computer-graphics shindigs. The coverage is a bit spotty and sometimes frustratingly short, but if it doesn't put you right down amidst the buzz on the convention-center floor or into a seat at one of the packed presentations, it does at least make you feel as if you've touched the thing, if only at the edges. From the best booth at the exhibition to the convergence of computer graphics and movies, from writer's blog to the art gallery, the young reporters provide their take on what's been going on.
http://www.siggraph.org/conferences/REPORTS/s2003/
"Gigli" Rhymes with "Really", as in "Really Bad"
It's been quite a while since a high-profile movie with two very-high-profile stars has garnered such a juicy collection of bad reviews. "Hopelessly misconceived exercise in celebrity self-worship." "If you're going to skip one film this year make it Gigli." "Rarely has a movie that doesn't star Madonna achieved such a skin-crawling mixture of deluded preening and bungled humour." "Gigli makes a bid for that rare honor: The movie so bad it's good. It falls short." Ouch. One is almost moved to feel sorry for stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, until one realizes that the publicity can only help their careers, perhaps not as movie stars but certainly as tabloid royalty. At press time, there were already four pages of morbidly entertaining bad reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Gigli-1124237/
The news you've been waiting to hear has arrived: AOL 9.0 is out! Optimized for broadband, this upgrade is touted by AOL CEO Jon Miller as allowing each person to create the online world that they want. Wonderful. CNET rates the upgrade as an 8 on a scale of 10, but even its review notes that navigating the interface is akin to going on a scavenger hunt. Others have been considerably less kind. AOL Time Warner has a glowing release.
AOL: http://www.aolbroadband.com/aolbb/nb/index.adp
CNET: http://www.cnet.com/internet/0-3762-8-21358167-1.html
Press release: http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/newmedia/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=55253298
ONLINE CULTURE
You probably already know about Craigslist, the community Web site filled with an eclectic assortment of ads for all sorts of things, from employment to free kittens to sex hook-ups. It started in San Francisco but has now spread to 23 metropolitan areas. An independent movie outfit called Zealot Pictures decided to make a movie about the people who use Craigslist. On Aug. 4, people posting on the San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist could check off a box saying they were willing to be in the movie. Zealot producers are sifting through the 1,881 submissions and will pick the people they want to film. The film will eventually be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. Naturally, much of the production staff for the film found their jobs on Craigslist.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59922,00.html
Movie: http://www.zealotpictures.com/film_craigslist2.html
Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/
When Standards and Personalities Collide
Many people in the weblog community are aware of the raging debate over the future of the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. RSS is a simple mark-up language that can describe the content of weblogs and online news sites, useful in syndicating the content and running search queries on its metadata. Currently, several slightly different versions of RSS exist, and none is capable of doing all the things developers and users want it to do. Naturally, the herd instinct is to unify RSS under one standard and make it a bit more flexible - which is where personality issues enter. The gatekeeper of the RSS standard is Dave Winer. Winer decided to freeze the technology, putting him squarely in conflict with a coalition of users and developers who are trying to evolve and unify RSS and similar mark-up systems. The debate illustrates how the typical standard development process, rather than being a dispassionate analysis of technology, is inevitably intertwined with personalities and egos. CNET has a lengthy and in-depth story.http://news.com.com/2009-1032_3-5059006.html
|
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.
For more selections, check out: Netsurfer Books: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/ Netsurfer Library: http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
The Big Bang: Nerve's Guide to the New Sexual Universe
Fat White Vampire Blues
Singularity Sky
Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++SURFING SITES
Copyright, the RIAA, and Historical Analysis
A substantial part of the RIAA's fight against peer-to-peer music-swapping networks involves copyright issues, and the RIAA arguments rely on statistics based on sales and other imprecise numbers. One amateur analyst has cast a technical eye at the statistics related to copyrights and provides a fascinating and surprising look at copyright in America. The results don't make RIAA look too good. The main point for most readers will be that the RIAA seems to be as statistically competent as Homer Simpson. That won't surprise statisticians, but should make everyone more skeptical of RIAA claims.http://www.fairforshare.com/ari/
An Illustrated Catalogue of ACME Products
When it comes to innovative design, breadth of product range, and customer satisfaction, one company dominates the cartoon landscape like no other. This company has, despite a dubious safety record, achieved its pre-eminent position through the most aggressive campaign of product placement and celebrity endorsement imaginable, although this should not detract from its achievements. We are, of course, talking about ACME and its subsidiaries, the company behind the goods and services supplied to Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, and other stars of classic Warner Bros. cartoons. This site displays the full ACME product range, from anvils and X-ray machines to do-it-yourself tornado kits and ultimatum dispatchers. Sadly, ACME has yet to embrace e-commerce, which is bad news for anyone looking to buy a strait-jacket-ejecting bazooka online.http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/acme/acme.html
Harrison Ford's Digit-al Accomplishments
The conflict between saying, thinking, and doing is what constitutes drama, and given that over 50% of communication is thought to derive from body language, an actor who masters it is well on the way to mastering his craft. From time to time, a truly exceptional actor comes along who can portray practically the full range of human emotion with just one part of his or her anatomy. Roger Moore could do it with just one eyebrow, and John Holmes is held in high esteem by devotees of Stanislavsky, but these two pale in comparison with Harrison Ford and his finger. This site is devoted to that finger, and amply demonstrates the great man's digit's breathtaking range. We did however notice a glaring omission - Ford's finger's finest hour, when Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty breaks it in "Blade Runner", is inexplicably missing.http://www.apartment42.com/fingergallery.htm
A Short Course in Advanced Sign Language
When you learn a new language, chances are you'll want to learn the practical things first, like how to order a meal, how to ask for directions, and how to tell the time. This is no different if the language you are learning is sign language, and it's all very useful. But we are human, our lives are complicated, and we often need to extend our communication skills beyond mundane practicalities. This Web site is a handy primer in sign language for those situations where you need to articulate the more arcane desires and emotions. This is the place to come if you want to know how to use sign-language to score drugs, solicit group sex in a gay bath house, or describe an incident of spousal abuse. Each phrase is illustrated by a helpful diagram with an accompanying description of the signs, though you could probably guess the signs for some of the phrases, for example "Please may I inspect your prostate?", without them.http://www.coldbacon.com/photos/fudtz-signlanguage.html
Surprise, surprise! Some folks dislike the Net! Rein in your sensibilities for a moment while we touch on a site called "The Internet Is Shit". The disgruntled author of this large-text, short op-ed does not identify himself and neither is there any facility for reply. Despite these faults of anonymity, one can understand a person's disappointment with the Net's high promise and frequent shortfall. "The Internet is not the sole basis upon which you can determine existence," the author states. "It sounds simple but people are starting to forget." Things, and people especially, can and mostly do exist outside Google's embrace. Since 1995, we're told, we've all lost our sense of wonder. "We have failed our own creation and given birth something truly awful [sic].... The evangelists have done their job.... Now it's the job of the congregation to revolt.... If we truly understand that the internet is shit then maybe we'll go back to looking elsewhere to check our information instead of just Google. Maybe journalists will do proper research again." Ah, the good old days, when libraries were crowded, e-mail was e-mail, and war correspondents could file reports from bars where sources spoke English.
http://www.internetisshit.org/
Life and death, war and peace, and method and metaphysics are pretty large subjects, but they're only a small part of what you'll find at Virtual Religion Index. This excellent but inconsistent text-based directory, created and maintained by the Religion Department of Rutgers University, is "a tool for students with little time." We first peeked into Ethics and Moral Values. That's where sex lies. Alas, the link to Pope Pius XI's 1930 encyclical on chastity within marriage, "Casti Connubii", was broken. A few other pointers proved corrupt, too. Fortunately, the link to "Brothels, Baths & Babes: Prostitution in the Byzantine Holy Land" was valid. We enjoyed our visit.... Refreshed and with dutiful curiosity, we checked out other areas such as Buddhist Tradition, Judaic Studies, and Psychology of Religion. Overwhelmed by the variety of resources in those sections, we also explored Greco-Roman Studies, which proved our reviewer's favorite, blessed as it is with meaty fare such as the Perseus Project and Greek Mythology Link. Links to the Cult of Dionysos and Women's Life in Greece & Rome were broken. One hopes the fraying facade of this site will undergo speedy restoration.
http://religion.rutgers.edu/vri/
Visit this site for a comparative look at things that have little in common with one another - other than being compared on this site. Here you'll choose between two random objects, people, events, or whatever else is served up on this Web platter. Select your preference of the two, then view the results. Choose between such things as Boston Garden and a German gummy toilet rat or Mickey Rooney and a greasy bag from Chili's. The comparisons are often obscure; however the items featured are wacky, silly, and downright funny. For more details on the featured comparisons, click on the "More info on this pair" button to the left of your screen. Further details include a breakdown of voting statistics and a line graph showing the progression of the featured pair since inception on the site.
http://www.whatsbetter.com/
How Big a Threat Are You to the White House?
In today's seriously security-conscious environment (that's SSCE to the pros), it's good to know where you stand in the eyes of the powers that be. It might be time for a lifestyle change. This simple test is much more sophisticated than it looks (in that it told us that our reviewer was rated not much of a threat at all). The questions elicit your true personality and relate them to current scales of threat assessment. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete the test and it could save you years of potential confinement. All that's missing is a link to airline ticketing sites for high-threat-level testees.http://tinyurl.com/go4y
Check out this online gallery of a tarot deck inspired by '80s pop culture. A joint project by Megan Leigh Dorko and Amber Dorko Stopper (no, really), this tarot deck is a brilliant odyssey through a decade of pop music and coming-of-age movies. Browse the deck by majors, courts, or pips (classes of cards). Each card within the deck is displayed with a description that is representative of that card's meaning. Some noteworthy examples include Ferris Bueller as the Fool, Annie Lennox as the High Priestess, David Bowie as the Emperor and Morrissey as the Hermit. To view a larger image of a card, simply click on the thumbnail.
http://www.notsoswift.com/amindandacard/80starot/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
How much do current US military operations in Iraq cost? Get a running tally, based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, here. The figure goes one way: up. To drive home that point, you can compare the ever-increasing cost to those of public education and other ways to spend a lot of federal cash.http://www.costofwar.com/
As a consequence of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence et al v. Texas, these ten cars are now lawful in the Lone Star State.
http://channels.gay.com/style/auto/package.html?sernum=496