BREAKING SURF
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BREAKING SURF
Aljazeera's English Site Relaunches
The Aljazeera news network gained fame at the start of the current Iraq conflict, not least because its Web site collapsed under assault by hackers and massive traffic shortly after it launched in March. In fact, a couple of months ago, John William Racine II pled guilty to charges of falsifying his identity and redirecting Aljazeera traffic to his own Web site. Aljazeera also lost its contract with Web-caching giant Akamai for unknown reasons. Despite all this, Aljazeera relaunched its English site this week. News junkies will appreciate its decidedly Arabic perspective on the news. Some call it propaganda, but it can't be anything less than a useful data point for understanding the big picture. Call us pessimists, but it would probably be too much to hope that some idiot won't try to bring it down again. CNET has more.Aljazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5070518.html
An Experiment in the Right to Sell Used Digital Music
US copyright law affirms the right of first sale, which essentially means that the owner of a lawful copy of a work can "sell or otherwise dispose of" the copy. George Hotelling is testing whether or not this right applies to songs he purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store. He purchased a song called "Double Dutch Bus" (Devin Vasquez's remake of the Frankie Smith classic) from iTunes for $0.99 and attempted to auction it on eBay solely to test the legal issue. He promised to dispose of his copy as soon as the sale is made, and to donate the sale price to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. At press time eBay had already yanked the auction - after the sale price topped $10,000 - pointing to its policy of not allowing the sale of non-tangible items. This certainly does not resolve the issue and there are already reports of people auctioning other iTunes on eBay. The iTunes Music Store's terms of service don't say anything about resale of songs but do note that the songs are licensed for "personal, noncommercial use" only. So far, Apple hasn't said a word about this. Slashdotters have, though, as has CNET.Slashdot: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/09/03/1823202.shtml
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5071566.html
Cracks Develop in the RIAA Facade
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the RIAA campaign against file-sharers has managed to put a 22% dent in the amount of file-sharing going on, but you'll hear no champagne corks popping at label headquarters. Shipments of recorded music for the first half of 2003 dropped by nearly 16% from 2002. Furthermore, sales of the top ten albums have fallen by nearly half. We don't expect the RIAA to trumpet that this means that file-sharing induces sales, although studies in the past have concluded that (see the variety of NSDs below). Universal Music Group may be cluing in to the consumer, however - it has just announced that it will expect nearly all its top CDs to sell for less than $13. CNN has the announcement.Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/m9z8
NSD 8.16: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.16.html#BS3
NSD 8.24: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.24.html#BS8
NSD 9.07: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.07.html#BS7
CNN: http://money.cnn.com/services/tickerheadlines/djh/200309031515DOWJONESDJONLINE001239.htm
Microsoft to Change Internet Explorer after Losing Lawsuit
Eolas recently won a $520-million lawsuit against Microsoft for infringements on its patent on certain kinds of Web links. What's a half billion to Microsoft, you might think. More importantly, Microsoft's reaction may have a widespread and significant impact on numerous Web sites. The patent roughly covers embedding objects in Web pages that may actually reside on other network sites. To make a long story short, Microsoft will have to change the way Internet Explorer works to comply with the patent ruling. This worries W3C, the Web standards body, because changes may render many sites suddenly incompatible with Internet Explorer and, perhaps more importantly, because it may affect the Web standards themselves. The details of the issue are technical, but professional Web developers should be aware of the situation. W3C has a Web page that summarizes the issue and a mailing list for related discussion.W3C: http://www.w3.org/2003/08/patent
Mailing list: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-plugins/
Google Pulls Links from "Kazaa Lite" Search Results
Sharman Networks, which owns the Kazaa file-sharing network, has asked Google to remove URLs from its search results for "Kazaa Lite" under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The URLs point to sites which carry Kazaa Lite, an unauthorized version of Kazaa that does not contain the spyware included with the Sharman Networks version. Kazaa Lite is a popular alternative to the official version, created by users who don't like the spyware associated with Kazaa installed on their computers. Google complied with the Sharman Networks request, but presents a link to the copy of the DMCA complaint that contains the banished URLs. Hilariously, two of the three Sponsored Links - text ads - on the Google search results page offer downloads of Kazaa Lite.Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=kazaa+lite
Have a Holiday Inn Towel Tale?
Holiday Inn towels are big and fluffy and way too many people like them enough to lift one. Holiday Inn takes it with commendably good promotional humor, and declared Aug. 28 to be Towel Amnesty Day - "About the towels, we forgive you." Although the date has passed, the fun is not over yet. If you happen to have somehow acquired one of Holiday Inn's towels, the chain wants you to share your story about how you got it and what happened to it. For every story submitted, Holiday Inn will donate $1 to charity. Eventually, it will pick 25 of the best tales and give their authors - what else? - a special edition Holiday Inn towel. The contest runs until Sept. 30. Hats off to whoever made an end run around the lawyers and came up with this clever and amusing promotion.http://www.priorityclubpromotion.com/hi/towels/
The term "location-based computing" conveys neither the technology's full power and magic, nor the potential hidden menace. WhereWare, as this detailed article in Technology Review calls the marriage of location-finding technology and mobile telephony, is most advanced in Europe and Asia. Korea and Japan, in particular, are surfing the adoption curve on this one. Technology Review reveals the struggle among competing technologies, how each works, and the potent set of potential applications. Among the obstacles to widespread adoption are accuracy concerns, especially inside where concrete and steel obstruct signals, and the lack of established standards. Privacy concerns dominate the con side of the debate. In Asia, assisted GPS has become the de facto technology and experts predict it will eventually become the global standard for outdoor applications such as finding your friends or direction services. Indoors, variations in Wi-Fi signal strength seem most capable. Seamlessness in transitioning from outdoors to indoors is a challenge, however, limited not by technology but by business issues. The technology may not suit everyone, but soon being alone or lost could become quaint, antiquated notions in a populace that is permanently electronically interconnected.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/pfeiffer0903.asp
MIT Open Courseware, a Year Later
Wouldn't it be great if you could tell your friends that you took courses at MIT? Now, through the wonders of the Web, you can, sort of. MIT famously announced in 2000 that they would put all their courses online, available to anyone with Web access. The project has been going on for a year and the results are already impressive. As this Wired article makes clear, students everywhere are using the site to supplement their own studies. Some people are also interested in pirating the MIT materials and creating an e-university. No matter how useful the materials are - and they are useful, so check them out - reading the stuff is no substitution for attending the class at MIT. A major difference is the absence of a social network of classmates with whom you can work to solve problem sets. MIT wants third parties to bring the project some interactivity, but no one has yet pledged to pick up that ball. Regardless, the courses are a treasure trove of materials for both students and teachers and are well worth exploring, even if you never do the homework. Wired has an article.MIT Open Courseware: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit_pr.html
The annual Hugo Awards for the best SF have just turned 50 years old. This year, the winning novel is "Hominids" by Robert J. Sawyer, the best novella is "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman, and the best new writer is Wen Spencer. The Torcon 3 site has details about the awards and a FAQ which explains some of the quirks of this year's ballot - for example, why "Coraline" was not in the Best Novel category and why Ted Chiang declined the nomination for his novelette "Liking What You See: A Documentary". Yes, it's all SF geek stuff, but you certainly can't argue with the fine quality of the nominees - great reading every one of them.
Torcon 3: http://www.torcon3.org/ballots/index.html
"Hominids": http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0765345005/netsurferdigest
"Coraline": http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380977788/netsurferdigest
US Sponsors Web-Blockade Busting in Iran
The Iranian government has long been nervous about allowing its citizens unfettered Internet access and requires all Iranian ISPs to block some 15,000 addresses on an official blacklist. The US government, however, is paying Anonymizer, which provides electronic privacy services, to provide Iranians with a proxy service so that they can surf free of official limits. The proxy service connects initially to the Voice of America site but from there users are free to head anywhere they want, except for porn sites. We suspect Iran will soon add the new proxy service's IP address to its blacklist, but Anonymizer intends to switch IP addresses promptly to stay ahead of the state censors. In a related move, the US House of Representatives recently passed a bill to establish an office of global Internet freedom to provide citizens everywhere with the means to bypass state imposed filters on access. The Register has a brief item on the subject.http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32567.html
Spam Blacklist Servers Under Attack
Blacklist servers, which host lists of spamming domains so that ISPs may block their traffic, have come under distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks recently. A Boston Globe headline menacingly notes that "saboteurs" have directed the attacks, but the folks responsible are almost certainly the spammers, doing their best to fight back. Spammers have mounted DDoS attacks before, but this one seems more concentrated than past efforts. Some security experts and anti-spam advocates have suggested that spammers may even be responsible for recent computer-worm outbreaks. The worms install "zombie" programs on vulnerable computers that can be remotely ordered to launch such attacks. The attacks did convince the administrator of the SPEWS blacklist to take the place down, reports MSNBC. The folks at Slashdot have opinions on the phenomenon.Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/08/28/saboteurs_hit_spams_blockers/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/959094.asp
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/28/1832215
The Criminal Complaint against MSBlaster Variant Author
Earlier this week, the FBI arrested 18-year-old Jeffrey Lee "Teekid" Parson and charged him with unleashing a version of the MSBlaster worm. The worm's Trojan horse payload would install itself on infected computers and allow Parson to control them. As the worm infected computers across the Net, it reported back to a Web site owned by Parson, which enabled the FBI to catch him quite easily. Just how easily is shown by the copy of the criminal complaint against Parson archived at the Smoking Gun Web site. The FBI had little trouble following the metaphorical little arrows from Parson's site to his home and the seven now-impounded computers on the premises. If you're curious how the story played out from the FBI's point of view - and it's a pretty good if somewhat predictable story - here's your chance.http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/sobig1.html
The annual Burning Man fest has been a feature of geek culture for a number of years now and the latest has just ended. The festival celebrates installation art and hedonism on whole new levels. One week each year, around 25,000 people head out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for the event, yet at the end of the event, there is normally no evidence left to indicate that it ever happened. This year was a little more eventful than usual, with two aircraft crashes and a celebrant killed by an art car. Attending Burning Man is not inexpensive, and you must come prepared to take the whole ride. That means no day trips and sightseeing, and you'd better pack good survival stuff. They don't call the place a desert without reason. You can still catch the webcast of the burning of the Man. And you might want to consider your plans for next year, around this time.
http://www.burningman.com/
Clear Some Space on Your Shelf of Gross Stuff...
What do you do when you pull down some ceiling tiles as part of a renovation, and the grossest bra you could imagine falls out of the ceiling and smacks you in the head? This is the 21st century, folks - you put it on eBay. The "Weird Gross Bra That Fell Out Of My Ceiling" auction awaits your bid, but hurry - the auction ends 11:30 a.m. (PDT), Sept. 6. At press time, one eager collector has pushed the asking price to $51.01. Even if you're just an eBay window-shopper, you'll enjoy the listing. The seller has quite a sense of humor, and the supporting info posted is fun to browse. If you do bid, be aware of this warning: "Yes, I charge a small handling fee for this thing. If you had to handle it, you'd charge a fee too."http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2948761136
Interactive TV via Text Messaging
Attendees at this year's Game Development Conference, held last week in London, learned that in Finland, the Philippines, and Poland, viewers can interact with TV shows and influence the on-screen outcome by sending text messages from their cell phones. It's the start of a new trend to convert viewers from passive couch potatoes into active participants who interact with the shows they watch. So far, the pioneering applications have been limited to games and simple contests but we suggest it's only a matter of time before it enters the world of reality TV. The BBC has a brief text message about the situation.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3182641.stm
Cars Outnumber People in the US
There are now more cars than people in the US. It had to happen sometime. The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics has put the 2001 National Household Transportation Survey online. The results are available in a variety of formats, but a quick way to absorb them is to read the executive summary. What's striking is that the US love affair with the automobile shows no sign of slowing down. If anything, the affair is even deeper and more serious than suspected. At least now we know why all those one-person houses have two-car garages.http://www.bts.gov/products/national_household_travel_survey/highlights_of_the_2001/
Webcaster Alliance Sues RIAA over Fees
Does the RIAA have any friends, anywhere? The Webcaster Alliance, a guild of smaller webcasters, has finally made good on its threat to sue the RIAA over the royalty rates the industry wants to charge Internet radio stations. As you may remember, webcasters protested the US Library of Congress's rates last summer, after which the RIAA and some webcasters came to a second agreement. Some webcasters who were left out of that settlement are now suing for livable fees, but the RIAA believes it has already settled the issue. CNET has the news.Webcaster Alliance: http://www.webcasteralliance.com/docs/WA_complaint.pdf
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5069102.html
ACM SIGCOMM Conference Papers Online
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has just wrapped up its annual Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) conference. The result is a bunch of technical papers that provides hours of orgasmic reading for anybody heavily into Internet networking issues. Highlights include a paper on low-rate TCP denial-of-service attacks, another on classifying such attacks, a paper on using quantum cryptography in practice as opposed to in the lab, a paper called "Greening of the Net" which tackles the "controversial subject of energy consumption of networking devices in the Internet", one on scaling Gnutella-like peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, and a paper on efficient P2P information retrieval (i.e. a better P2P search engine). It's very technical stuff, but highly relevant modern networking research.http://www.acm.org/sigcomm/sigcomm2003/papers.html
This'll blow your socks off. In the month after Netsurfer HQ installed a new spam filter July 27, Netsurf.com had rejected 433,263 spam messages - an average of 12,743 per day. That's not counting the stuff rejected because it didn't have a valid domain record. You think you have spam problems? Hah! Well OK, maybe if you're some big corporation or something you probably have it worse then us, but still...
ONLINE CULTURE
Is E-Mail Dead as a Publishing Medium?
As you may imagine, the answer to that question is of great interest to us. Over the last two years, we've watched e-mail become more and more problematic as a publishing medium, to the point where you should really feel lucky if our e-zine actually reaches your mailbox on a weekly basis. The issue, of course, is spam. Spam is making e-mail publishing a perilous activity these days, not only because it places technical barriers in the way of content trying to reach interested readers, but also because it taints the whole e-mail delivery medium with the sour smell of penis-enlargement ointment. Who's going to sign up if they suspect that all subscriptions lead to spam? Steve Outing of "Editor and Publisher" magazine addresses this very issue in a first-rate editorial. In Outing's view, the saving grace of online publishing is RSS, the automated syndication technology. We have our doubts about the suitability of RSS to replace the mutual convenience - for reader and publisher - of e-mail delivery, but the issue may be decided for us by the ever-increasing volume of spam. It's an essay worth reading for both publishers and e-mail content subscribers, such as yourself.http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/features_columns/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1963664
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TiVo Hacks
Astonish Yourself!: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life
American Roulette: How I Turned the Odds Upside Down - My Wild Twenty-Five-Year Ride Ripping Off the World's Casinos
CarlucciSURFING SITES
Yale's Holocaust Witness Archive
Far too many people deny the reality of the attempted extermination of all of Europe's Jews during World War II. They can, by means of convoluted and frequently false logic, explain away most of the physical evidence - at least in their own minds and in the minds of their too-numerous believers. Witness testimony is far harder to deny, especially in the quality and quantity that exists in Yale's Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. There are only nine excerpts online, but that should be enough for most people. They are very difficult to view or listen to because of the emotions the subjects express. There are over 4,200 video testimonies at the actual archive, all of which can be viewed by the public at Yale. This is a moving site.http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/
The Smithsonian Center for Museum and Education Studies
It's easy to feel intimidated by the world's largest museum complex, especially if you're a teacher or parent planning to explore it with kids. Whatever your role as an adult - instructor, chaperone, tourist - you'd better visit Smithsonian Education, official gateway to the vast educational resources of the grand old institution in Washington, D.C. To help you make the most of your trip, the Smithsonian Center for Museum and Education Studies has divided its wide-ranging, impeccably imposing site into a section each for educators, families, and students. Educators can ponder lesson plans in four broad categories (art and design, science and technology, history and culture, and language arts). One outstanding feature here is the search facility, which lets you find lesson plans in a list, by grade level, by keywords, or in the Resource Library, where you can also search by media type and museum. The Smithsonian Institute has 16 museums, but 14 other destinations are included in the museum search. Talk about a maze of riches! Parents would do well to browse both the Families and Students sections for exhibit guides, planning materials, and interactive features. There's plenty here to nurture curiosity.http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/
Forbes's Richest Fictional Characters
Forbes, famous for its rankings of richest humans, has now turned to ranking fictional characters. It bases its list of the top 15 richest characters from international fiction loosely on books, legends, and cartoons. Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" policy sees him slipping in at number 14. Homer Simpson's boss, C. Montgomery Burns, is listed with a net worth of $1 billion at number 11, and the competition intensifies further up the list. J.R. Ewing is struggling with oil prices given current events in the Middle East but still manages a worthy ninth place. Don't discount non-humans - Scrooge McDuck is worth $8.2 billion, good for fourth place and good news for his nephews should they figure in his will. However only one man gets the ultimate accolade of infinite wealth and hence grabs the top spot. Can't guess? It's Santa Claus, of course - how else could he afford all those presents every year?http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/400fictional.html
Videos Show How Everyday Things Are Made
If you've ever been interested in manufacturing or if you just like watching incomprehensible numbers of jelly beans flow by, watch Stanford University's How Everyday Things Are Made. Mark Martin makes it feel just like a college classroom, complete with the obligatory less-than-exciting bits during which you can stretch and drink something caffeinated. You'll spend quite a bit more time stretching if you're not on a high-speed connection, since the video clips on offer here can be long. Martin talks through each unique manufacturing process and then shows the corresponding video. We have to admit, we probably would have paid more attention in chemistry class if our Erlenmeyer flask had been filled with cocoa beans.http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
The Adventurous Pleasures of Statesmen
Inspired by an old black-and-white photograph of Enoch Powell on a pogo stick, Jason Whiley, a politics student in the UK, launched a quest to find out which politicians have ever done such things, partly to settle a debate with his father who contended that politicians in recent times are far too boring. Whiley was willing to accept substitutes like roller blades, skateboards, and go-karts, but he was insistent that politicians were more adventurous than their usually bland besuited exteriors would suggest. Amazingly, he was right. He got a better rate of response to his polite letters of enquiry than any House of Commons committee ever got from a reluctant witness. Norman Tebbit admitted to white-water rafting, Maggie Thatcher roller-skated, Liam Fox rode the wing of a biplane, and Neil Kinnock enjoyed driving a tank at high speed. Sadly, Whiley still failed his politics exam.http://www.statesmanorskatesman.co.uk/
An Annotated Life in Annual Pictures
Even if you don't know who Miles Hochstein is, a visit to this site will have you feeling like you've known him for years. Here you'll be privy to the life of Hochstein as documented online, including age progression photos and anecdotes of his years. Begin by getting acquainted with some of his relatives in the Ancestors page. Next, take your tour through Hochstein's Autodocumentary page for a detailed account of his life from birth to present. Finally, to enable your full understanding of Hochstein the man, browse through the many pages of musings, quotes, thoughts and other concerted ideas. This Web site is exceptionally organized and well designed, which adds to the appeal of sticking around to delve into Hochstein's very public private life.http://www.documentedlife.com/
Primate Programming Inc. (PPI) is not some plot borrowed from "The Manchurian Candidate" aimed at placing a controlled pope in power. No, this is an outfit of temp coders, eager to help you out for peanuts. Need some help with .NET system documentation? Try Eileen, fresh off a recent engagement at VISA International, and a value at 65 cents an hour - or maybe she really will work for peanuts. Technically, the coders at PPI probably think a debugging process is more properly known as social grooming, but that's a nit-picking detail. Unix or other open-source projects will probably want to pass on PPI's services. Apparently, the employees will not share source code and can be very territorial when programming.
http://www.newtechusa.com/ppi/main.asp
When we think of martial arts, most of us think of karate or some other means of self-defense with an Oriental twist. Fencing might not pop into your head, but that European martial, too, has plenty of tradition. The Armarium is a compelling collection of historical source materials on rapier skill and swordplay. The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts holds this deep site in an expert grip. It has ranged far and wide to provide point-by-counterpoint background on both butchery and finesse. Check out this passage from "Pallas Armata: The Gentleman's Armory": "If thine adversary lie open within, then stringere him within, as soon as he makes a thrust at thee without, then thrust him over the Secunde or weakest part of his Rapier with a Tertz, and with thy Hilt go low." Ouch! If appetizers like that leave you wanting more, go for the main course - a slew of texts and illustrations from medieval and Renaissance instructors sure to interest researchers from academia and Hollywood.
http://www.thehaca.com/manuals.htm
In the face of imminent danger, are you Obi-Wan Kenobi or Wesley Crusher? John Hubbard has created "Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?", a quiz that should help wayward Internet travelers figure it out. Honestly, this reviewer finds it highly unlikely that there are as many Galadriels and Aragorns wandering around the Net as this quiz claims there are. Perhaps more likely, there are more people who wish they were Galadrielesque or Aragornish than those who want to be Gollum, although on that theory, Han Solo should have scored a lot more frequently. Actually, Han Solo probably scored quite a bit, but we're talking about the quiz here, not what he did in the lounge of the Millennium Falcon. On the other hand, you only have one chance to be a character from "Blade Runner", "Dragonlance", "The Matrix", or "X-Men", so choose wisely, young padawan.
http://www.tk421.net/character/
Lego Star Wars Ships from C-Wing to S-Wing
The Star Wars Alphabet Project is the work of serious Lego enthusiast Jon Palmer. Palmer designs and builds SF starships and robots out of Lego, and he even takes commissions, running from $5-$10 for the smaller 'bots to $1,000 for a small fleet of some of the ships from the Alphabet Project. This collection seems to be a series of Lego models of classes of ship which weren't actually in the Star Wars films, but could have been. So there's the I-Wing, an elegant Republic fighter and the menacing Sith Q-Wing Eviscerator, complete with retractable landing gear and dinky female Dark Lord pilot, Darth Hexus. At first, you might be tempted to scoff at Palmer's nerdy obsession, but the more time you spend here, the more fun it gets. The imagination behind the creations and the level of detail in their execution is truly impressive. There are currently 15 models in the series but Palmer plans to add five more. We're hoping enough craft are added soon to let us blow a grand and spell "bite me" in model Lego starships.http://www.fbtb.net/jon/
Exhibit of Historical US Currency
The staid Federal Reserve Board has created a Web site that shows all the paper currency ever issued by the US government (except for current issues - no need to tempt the greedy with color copiers). There's also a good selection of state and private currency and special issues like military scrip. The illustrations appear to be full size and full color. If you like money, you'll like this Web site. Don't miss the section on the artistry and imagery of the bills, which not only shows enlarged details but also explains what the symbols mean and why they were chosen.http://www.frbsf.org/currency/index.html
Most people simply throw away or recycle their empty wine bottles, but not Art and Betsy Stratemeyer. Perhaps under the influence of one glass too many, they decided to begin a wine label collection as an online project. You can view labels from Australia to Germany and most countries in between, many of which visitors have donated to the site for their particularly unusual or artistic nature. There's no restriction on type of wine and there's a separate gallery of labels from the Mouton Rothschild vineyards. This collection could be useful if you are better able to remember "that wine with the tree on the front" than a lengthy chateau name after good glass of plonk. We preferred the section on homemade wine labels, where you can check out the gun-and-vine label created for one home vintage or the Monty Pythonesque foot of Suckfizzle wine from Western Australia.
http://www.stratsplace.com/labels.html
A Big, Fat, Overflowing Bucket of TV and Film SF
It always amazes us that so many of the folks who are glued to their TVs are also glued to their computers so they can read about TV. Lovers of video SF can sate their multimedia passion at the SadGeezers Guide to Cult Sci Fi. This monster site seems to have just about every feature a chat, forum, or feedback fanatic could want. Ambitious? Jump into SadHoo, a huge database with six main categories. The Film Review category alone has a 40-page menu where you can sort entries by title, date, rating, or popularity. You'll find nooks and crannies to explore and opportunities to submit reviews, news items, airdates. Those with but passing interest in SF will likely feel overwhelmed, as might even mild fanatics. How can you find, let alone absorb, it all? "Buffy" and "Farscape" fans might start by following the Guides link in the upper lefthand corner of the busy home page, which at first seems to have more links than anthills have ants. Diehard fans may want to frequent Sci Fi News Archives. News such as "Viacom sued for ruining Star Trek" (July 2003) teases the curiosity of those who love to be teased.http://www.sadgeezer.com/html/index.php
Just when it looked like you could only participate in sports if you had an expensive pair of trainers, a club membership, and a full-time coach to advise you on banned substances, we've found roofball. It's unlikely to feature in the Olympics in Athens in 2004 but you never know when it could catch on. This game, which promotes hand-eye co-ordination, was invented by several pairings of youthful players in the 1970s and now it is being revived to save us all from sloth. Roofball is a sport for at least two players and uses only an old tennis ball and a roof - hence it is portable and international. It can be adapted for up to six players on a round-robin basis. Beginners can master the various shots quickly and full details of the more difficult shots and rules are available in the online FAQ. Now, get bouncing!
http://www.roofball.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
This is probably highly blasphemous to Muslims, but good satire inevitably offends somebody. And you have to admire the anonymous author's willingness to flirt with death.http://allahakbar.blogspot.com/
Family Trees with a Bias Toward European Royalty
This site is actually a blog, but it lists, with basic data, over 700,000 names, many of whom were European royalty. The name-linking common in most family trees isn't here so tracing lines can be difficult. This site is an excellent starting point for research, but you'll need to go elsewhere to get full pictures.http://www.e-familytree.net/