BREAKING SURF
| Porn Sites Hiding Behind Clone Blogs |
| A New Weblog Every 11 Seconds |
| Google Code Jam Winners |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age |
| Send the RIAA All Your Stolen Music |
| The ASCII Matrix |
| Test Your Bandwidth |
| Genetic Algorithms for Compiler Optimization |
| PostgreSQL 7.4 Released |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
Scummy creeps with Web smarts are systematically trying to steal account numbers, passwords, and PINs from banking customers. That's not earth-shaking news, exactly, but Secure Science Corporation has methodically dissected one such recent scam aimed at Citibank customers and the level of detail in the resulting SecurityFocus article is grimly fascinating. The would-be thieves started with an e-mail that asked customers to click on a Citibank link to verify their e-mail address. Customers who did so ended up with a genuine Citibank Web page in their brower window, but with a small pop-up window that asked for their log-in info. Anyone who submitted that info actually sent it to Russian scammers. The story shows in forensic detail the Web tools that bad guys use to implement schemes like this, and the inevitable electronic fingerprints they leave. Fortunately, wary customers did have some warning signs in the initial e-mail to go on, including hash-busters (those nonsense letters meant to fool antispamware), spelling mistakes, and non-idiomatic wording indicative of foreign origin. Although the story itself is scary enough, attempts to alert Citibank to the scam are downright terrifying, suggesting that the company itself has been scammed and simply won't discuss the matter. Of course, Citibank is not the only target of criminals who want to use stolen banking information, so customers of other financial institutions should watch for similar attempts at fraud. The moral of the story: while it may be a wonderful Internet ocean, there are sharks out there - but then you knew that.http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1745
The Story of Sept. 11 from the al Qaeda Point of View
Der Spiegel has a front-page story on Operation Holy Tuesday, which most of the world knows as 9/11. The article notes that it's now possible to precisely map the events that led to the attack. One of the top planners of this event was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pakistani number-two man in al Qaeda. Mohammed has been in custody for about nine months; his associate Ramzi Binalshibh has been detained for 14 months. Between them, the story of the Sept. 11 attacks has come out. Osama bin Laden personally selected the suicide pilots and the planes that they would commandeer. Binalshibh was the go-to guy who served as the link between al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the nexus of the operation in Hamburg, where the major participants of the plot were recruited in 1999. Terror proposals bounced between sending a small rented plane into CIA headquarters to a grand plan of ten hijacked aircraft; bin Laden pared the scheme to organizationally manageable size. This is one well-researched and damning article.http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/0,1518,271523,00.html
World Trade Center Memorial Design Finalists
Having chosen what to rebuild at the site of the World Trade Center disaster (see NSD 9.09), the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) is holding the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition (WTCSMC) to come up with a memorial to the lives lost in the Sept. 11 attacks. From 5,201 design submissions, sent from 63 nations and 49 states, the LMDC has whittled the field of designs to eight, each of which includes the required elements of delineation of the tower footprints, recognition of every individual killed in terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the earlier bombing on Feb. 26, 1993, and a final resting place for unidentified remains. The final design options are available for public viewing. All play with light, water, air, and earth to some extent to commemorate the victims. The LMDC Web site has designers' statements, preliminary renderings of the proposed sites, and animated presentations. All the designs make powerful statements, but we're partial to Inversion of Light and Reflecting Absence.WTCSMC: http://www.wtcsitememorial.org/
NSD 9.09: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.09.html#BS2
Team Produces Virus from Scratch
Remember Craig Venter, the man who challenged the US government's effort to map the human genome? He and his research group have announced the creation of a synthetic virus from scratch. Their bacteriophage cannot affect human cells, but it is the closest anyone has come to creating life. Technically, viruses aren't alive, but that isn't stopping journalists from calling them life. Venter's team did the work in under two weeks, whereas a team that synthesized the polio virus and published in 2002 took three years. The more recent work has sparked concerns about terrorism and biological warfare, but Venter is doing the research under the auspices of a government program that seeks to use bacteria to make hydrogen and eat up greenhouse gases. Read the Nature article first, then the press release from the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA).Nature: http://www.nature.com/nsu/031110/031110-17.html
IBEA: http://www.bioenergyalts.org/news.html
Top Science Hoaxes and Top Science Priorities
What lets people swallow scientific hokum? Fifty years after Piltdown man, the clever hoax remains intriguing and baffling, number one in a list of top ten science scams brought to you by the Guardian. Other popular fantasies include crop circles and perpetual motion machines, which resurface every few years to catch a new crop of the gullible each time. One contrast to clever pranksters is the US Department of Energy's (DoE) 20-year plan to fund big-ticket science facilities. After self-congratulatory opening rhetoric, the plan presents clearly and convincingly the US's priorities for ensuring it has the big rigs and funding needed to lead in the most critical fields of science. A rigorous evaluation identified 28 candidate fields of research. Atop the list is fusion research, followed by ultrascale scientific computing. This kind of systematic attention to the long term is a welcome approach, even if it means that some worthy programs don't make the cut. The DoE has a Press release and a PDF doc of its complete plan.Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1083411,00.html
Press release: http://tinyurl.com/vv0p
Plan: http://www.sc.doe.gov/Sub/Facilities_for_future/20-Year-Outlook-screen.pdf
Prince Charles, Publication Bans, and the Modern World
It would be easy to give in to tabloid instincts and go for the crotch in covering the whole Prince Charles scandal frenzy, but we'll take the high road and point you to a Slate piece that points out the absurdity of outdated legal mechanisms for controlling the flow of information in a modern, wired world. British media are going through amusing contortions in avoiding liability in reporting on the recent legal actions involving Prince Charles. The story in question is based on some tedious allegations of sexual hanky-panky between the Prince and one of his valets. A British court barred the British media from reporting the details, but news organizations elsewhere in the world are happily plastering the Web with the stories. Not surprisingly, the info is crossing the Channel to the scepter'd isle and making the laws look silly. As it happens, all indications are that the British public, to its credit, is not particularly interested in the story.http://slate.msn.com/id/2091148/
Browse the News through News Images
Sometimes it's just too much effort to read all the news. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get some kind of visual overview of what's going on? To some extent, News-Images lets you do exactly that. It's a simple collection of thumbnail images from articles collected from news sites around the Web. The images are sorted by theme, each like a newspaper section. If you click on Entertainment you'll get a page full of entertainment-related images - which on Nov. 19 was packed with thumbnails of Michael Jackson, each leading to an article on his most recent legal complication. It's a simple idea well executed, and probably doomed by copyright provisions.http://www.news-images.com/
Microsoft has launched the MSN Newsbot portal as a direct challenge to Google's popular news search engine. At the moment, Microsoft's beta focuses on news of interest to folks in the UK, France, Italy, and Spain. Behind the scenes, MSN Newsbot analyzes news stories from about 4,000 sources and sorts them for users based on numerous factors such as when the story was created, how many people have viewed it, and how many sources cover it. If you have an MSN Passport account, you can get somewhat personalized news feeds based on your reading habits. The site exhibits some humorous glitches, though. A story about the European Microsoft antitrust case was illustrated with a picture of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. MSN Newsbot's technology is apparently provided by San Francisco-based Moreover Technologies.
MSN Newsbot: http://newsbot.msn.com/
Google News: http://news.google.com/
Moreover Technologies: http://moreover.com/
On the Road to Successful Open Code
Have you ever thought about what it would take to turn the open-source model into a real challenger to proprietary software? Jordi Carrasco-Munoz's intriguing article in First Monday tackles precisely that question in explaining how an open-code market might work. He lays out in detail a coherent and persuasive scheme for developing a regulated marketplace that embraces the principles of open-source computing while using market forces to ensure that development efforts address real user needs. The mechanism Carrasco-Munoz describes is far from a utopian impossibility, but the open-source movement must embrace standards and regulations and become business-like - it's critical that an organization act as intermediary and perform vital functions such as translating customer needs into terms a developer can use and ensuring that the development work actually meets specifications. An organizational middleman would also maintain a comprehensive database of software to ensure that work isn't duplicated. Developing free software is ultimately a problem, as it provides no mechanism for rewarding innovators and no means for customers to ensure their needs will be met. Only by marrying the power of the marketplace with the enthusiasm and innovation of developers in an open-source environment is there a chance to supplant the dominance of proprietary software. It's a pretty neat paper, with far more detail than our brief synopsis can hope to cover.http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_11/munoz/index.html
If blogs are hot, sex blogs are hotter. Don't be shocked, there are many sex blogs. Most, from our experience, provide way too much information, but the market is there. Now, the people who brought you the Gawker celeb blog and the Gizmodo gizmo blog have produced Fleshbot, a porn blog. Fleshbot wants to discuss porn in a literate fashion and make it cool rather than trashy. Nevertheless, you really shouldn't read the site at work, but you can read the Wired article on it. We know that by writing about the site, we are participating in Fleshbot's viral marketing. The site may have something there - maybe you can make porn cool for people who don't live with their parents.
Fleshbot: http://www.fleshbot.com/
Gawker: http://www.gawker.com/
Gizmodo: http://www.gizmodo.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61163,00.html
In the movies, a loved one occasionally receives a letter from a soldier already dead. Now everyone can take advantage of that cinematic cliche. For just $10 for three years, you can maintain a Mylastemail.com account that will e-mail anyone you choose after you die. It's a great way to passive-aggressively avoid a face-to-face confrontation yet tell someone exactly what you think of them. Should what you think change, Mylastemail.com lets you update your final messages. You can save five messages and pay an additional $5 for five more. The service learns of our death either through a document left for the trustee to return or through a - dangerous - triggered autorelease.
http://www.mylastemail.com/
Pages of Presidential Candidates, Redux
You might expect that candidates mounting major megabuck campaigns for major elected maga-offices like President would put some of that cash into hiring bright folks who know a lot more about tech than we do. You might expect that. You'd be disappointed. Last week, we reported on the software that the servers of various Presidential candidates are running. Like a moth drawn to flame, here we go again, this time to direct you to an analysis of Presidential candidate sites and how fast and accessible they are. How do they perform? According to OptimizationWeek.com, poorly. Welcome to American politics.NSD 9.44: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.44.html#BS7
OptimizationWeek.com: http://www.optimizationweek.com/reviews/president/
This BusinessWeek story, riddled with DoubleClick ads, claims that online advertising is rebounding from the dotcom bust with a vengeance, although also with considerably more wisdom. While this doesn't mean that you can look forward to fewer pop-over/pop-under/spam ads, the focus now is on paid-search revenue, which accounted for nearly a third of all online receipts during the second quarter this year. This sector of the online advertising industry had been all but toe-tagged during the dotcom bust but has shown some life, garnering a 14% revenue increase during the quarter - that's around $1.67 billion. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has more on the story.
BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2003/nf20031112_6573.htm
IAB: http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2003_11_11.asp
ONLINE CULTURE
Porn Sites Hiding Behind Clone Blogs
As he's very careful to point out, Adam Gessaman's girlfriend noted some odd traffic on his blog. Gessaman investigated further and found a number of new, seemingly legitimate blogs that were ripping off blog designs and adding trackback links that lead to porn sites. Why would they do this? These sites steal blog interfaces to look innocuous yet maintain lots of links to a porn site, presumably increasing page rank in Google and thus drawing visitor traffic. Gessaman and others who noticed the same thing have done some sleuthing and discovered quite a bit about the origin of these blog clones. Gessaman is updating his blog as the investigation unfolds and the blog community debates how best to deal with the problem. Most ire seems directed at the theft of design rather than the attempt to increase porn traffic.http://www.idly.org/2003/11/14/porn_sites_hiding_behind_blogs.php
The Technorati Web site is a blog aggregation service that provides search services and all sorts of data about blogs and their links. The site is close to a year old, and has grown from a lone computer in a basement to five servers. Even so, it's having trouble keeping up with the growth of the blogosphere, which is where the story lies. David Sifry, Technorati's principal, provides some statistics about the size of the 1.2 million-plus blog universe that Technorati has to deal with. His data show that, on average, a new weblog is created every 11 seconds, and on average a blog is updated every 0.86 seconds.
Sifry: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000313.html#000313
Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/
Google has announced the winners of its Code Jam 2003, a real-time coding competition at which contestants downloaded a Java "arena" and had to solve a bunch of programming problems while competing against other programmers. Google treated the 25 finalists of some 5,000 contestants to a trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. to duke it out for a $10,000 prize. The winner was Jimmy Mardell, 25, of Stockholm. He gets the big money, and probably a job offer from Google. Canada's Christopher Hendrie, 27, gained the number two spot. The San Jose Mercury News sets the scene at the finals.
Mercury News: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7269666.htm
Google Code Jam: http://www.google.com/codejam/
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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.
For more selections, check out: Netsurfer Books: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/ Netsurfer Library: http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
Black Earth: A Journey through Russia after the Fall
Wasteland of Flint
Spidering Hacks
A Right to Be Hostile: The Boondocks TreasurySURFING SITES
"Truth, War & Consequences" is 90 minutes of investigative reporting that has won rave reviews from people who, well, review television. This episode of PBS's Frontline examines why the US went to war with Iraq, what went wrong, and what's at stake. While much information can be gleaned merely from the links that address these questions, you may want to watch the show; in addition to broadcast, the show is available online in RealPlayer and Windows Media formats. You may also want to delve into the teacher's guide, so you can see what high-schoolers are learning today. There's a lot of information in the site, and PBS does a good job of organizing it into something that will fit your time - that is, if the site doesn't make you adjust your schedule to fit it. First-rate journalism like this isn't that easy to find these days. Given the most recent spate of car-bomb attacks in Iraq aimed at those who have been primarily engaged in reconstruction, you may be forgiven for wondering if the terrorists have been watching and learning from this.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/truth/
Uncle Sam's Guides to Life, 1910-1970
Stand tall. Eat wholesome food. Avoid constipation. Your parents weren't the only ones who hoped you'd live the good life by following a few simple principles of advantageous conduct. Indeed, Uncle Sam himself was a master of advice for self-improvement. A visit to American Social Hygiene Posters, a site maintained by the University of Minnesota Libraries, will prove a hoot to adolescents with attitude. It's also likely to draw more than a few smiles from adults with even mild historical interest in women, physical fitness, and military education. We lack space to list all the searchable categories of these US government hygiene and advice posters, which date 1910-1970. We bet many first-time visitors will flock to posters on prostitution, reproduction, and similar subjects. Here's a sample: in 1922, the American Social Health Association distributed a poster entitled "Outdoor Life", which listed lots of good fun and constant employment among other essentials to "help a boy break the habit called 'self-abuse'" which may "seriously hinder a boy's progress toward vigorous manhood." You'll find plenty to make you wonder how much attention previous generations paid to the peculiarities of such encouragement. It will probably be hard to forget this site the next time we watch today's equivalents - anti-smoking, anti-drug and other public-service ads - on TV.http://special.lib.umn.edu/swha/IMAGES/home.html
Bizarre Albums and Bizarrer Album Covers
The proprietor of Bizarrerecords.com, who simply calls himself Dork, is a collector with a difference. He would go to thrift stores and garage sales with other collector nerds and watch them select the lamest discs (religious disco exercise records, for example) from boxes of records, sneer at them, and then toss them back in the box. But these very albums were the records that Dork would seek out and buy. He has amassed quite a collection of them - well over 250 - and amazingly he has never spent more than $2 on any one disc. Well, perhaps it's not so amazing when you consider that his collection is made up of such classics as "Understand Your'e Swede" (sic), "Actual Distress Calls of a Baby Cottontail", and "The Coming War with Russia According to the Bible". There is a picture of each album cover here, and there are sound files and snippets for liner notes for some of them. They are all classics in their own way and it's hard to pick a favorite, but the Ministers Quartet's "Let Me Touch Him" takes some beating.http://www.io.com/~dork/records/sleeve.html
The 1970s are often remembered for that particular genre of music called disco. Often overlooked is another of that decade's popular genres, glam rock. Pay homage to the history of UK glam as presented by one unwavering fan. Begin your tour by exploring an overview of glam. Next delve back into the year 1970 for a look at the beginnings of this music genre with one of its pioneers, T-Rex. From there, explore some of the best known glam bands to emerge over the next five years. You'll remember such classic glam rockers as Sweet, Slade, and, of course, David Bowie. Whether you're a fan of this musical genre or appreciate the history of music as a whole, this comprehensive and well designed site will have you reminiscing of days when all that glittered wasn't necessarily gold.
http://www.doremi.co.uk/glam/
Stanley "the Danceman" Tobiason III started a video journal a couple of years ago, and in his first post couldn't think of anything to say, so he just broke it down and busted a few moves. The Net community liked what it saw, linked to his journal, and so began the adventures of one man and his boombox. It really is very simple: the Danceman films himself dancing. Occasionally he is alone in his home, but the fun starts when he hits the streets, puts his boombox down on the ground and cuts loose. Public reaction is mixed; on rare occasions he encounters a degree of hostility, often bemused indifference, but usually people seem to enjoy what he is doing. Most fun is when people join in. The Danceman currently has almost 50 movie files onsite in various formats, as well as some JPEGs. Sure, this is the vanity site of a self-confessed exhibitionist, but it's great fun all the same.
http://www.watchmedance.com/
A Proactive Approach to Cliche Best Practices
Traditional newsmedia and blogs are rife with cliches. As a matter of fact, that's confirmed by Cliche Challenge, which monitors the cliche situation on the Web. It's a popularity measurement, a top-170-or-so list of Google references tracked in the past three months. Nitpickers may not consider some of the words and phrases here cliches, and they'd be right. (The adverb "additionally", for example, topped the list at 15,800,000 instances on Nov. 13.) Just about everyone, though, can agree on favorite fallbacks such as "wake up call", "reality check", and "outside the box". Writers, bloggers, and broadcasters may benefit from even a brief visit. Ditto advertisers - big time. Cliche Challenge might even help the man in the street clean up his language in his search for a level playing field. At the end of the day, with the emphasis that news and entertainment media put on instant recognition, that's a pipe dream - now, more than ever.http://prorev.com/cliche.htm
I Now Pronounce You Man and Pet
The love between man and animal is something the Internet actually covers in quite some detail, but most of those sites will get you fired if you look at them at work. This site covers a more wholesome, more committed kind of relationship between humankind and our furry (or scaly, or feathered, etc.) friends, and indeed spells out that perverts are not welcome. No, this site is all about celebrating a different kind of love, and in fact acknowledging and dignifying it with the status of marriage, albeit a status not recognized by church or state. For just $7.95, you can marry your pet online and receive a certificate to commemorate your happy union. For $30, you get the same deal, but with a T-shirt thrown in so you can show the world your love. For $200, you get the deluxe package: certificate, T-shirt, and a hand-embroidered personalized wall plaque to remind you of your special day. Any of these weddings will entitle you to be featured on the Previously Wed section of the site, where you can browse photographs of other happy couples.http://www.marryyourpet.com/
Trivial Pursuit, Online and Multiplayer
Visit this online rendition of the classic board game, Trivial Pursuit. Tap into your fountain of useless facts and quotable quotes to compete with users worldwide in a bid to be the brainiest of them all. Choose friendly tournaments of fun or more competitive tournaments for cash. Connect with other players through the online multiplayer edition. Just like the board game you remember, Trivial Pursuit online pits players against one another in a bid to collect pie pieces by answering knowledge testing questions. The multiplayer is fun, but more resembles a quiz show that requires speed as well as smarts than the classic Trivial Pursuit. You can try out this online gaming service free for a limited time or become a premium club or tournament member for a low monthly fee.http://www.trivialpursuit.com/
Yesterday's Office is a virtual museum of office equipment and technologies ranging from pencil sharpeners to typewriters to staplers and everything in between. Most of the items come from the mid-1800s to about 1960, although a few are newer. There are no computers or automated equipment on display here. Some items are just exhibit items, some are offered for sale to collectors. The history is fascinating and the site is fleshed out with historical pages of great quality on office buildings, office interiors, and more. This is a complex site where most visitors will be lured into a long visit.
http://www.yesterdaysoffice.com/
More on Diebold Voting Machines
Diebold, maker of ATMs and other automated machines, is a major player in the move to electronic voting machines. The company is very secretive about its software, and has strong ties to the Republican Party. In particular, two recent Senate races were tabulated on Diebold machines with surprising results that favored the Republican candidates. All may have been kosher, but Diebold has set up a system that can't be tracked or verified independently. The huge collection of e-mails and memos available through links here makes for very frightening reading on the future of American democracy.http://www.why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html
WWYS is a modern version of those devils who used to travel around the world and get the innocent to sell their souls for a pittance. The intent here is far less evil. It doesn't appear that the actual Satan or whoever is involved. The offer here is alleged to be on behalf of a consortium of upstanding global corporations. They claim to possess a new and absolutely painless soul extraction technology. The primary purpose of the WWYS site is to allow you to gauge the current value of your soul. This is accomplished by means of a well-designed questionnaire. Our reviewer was chagrined to learn the low value of his soul. It wasn't sold.
http://www.wewantyoursoul.com/
Plug'n'Pray Software Religion Kits
The modern religion, for some, is a matter of convenience, business, or survival. Sometimes a new religious identity is needed in a big hurry. Prior to Holy Corporation's Plug'n'Pray kits, changing religions was an involved process. You had to seek out skilled teachers in your desired religion and spend a lot of time. There's no privacy in that sort of thing. Now, with the Plug'n'Pray kits, you can, with speed and in privacy, learn all you need to become a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Hindu. Other religions are planned for future release. Warning: if religious humor isn't your piece of cake, don't visit. You won't be helped here.http://www.plug-pray.org/ENG/Home.html
Many of us were shocked the first time we saw an adult who wore orthodontic braces. Our collective shock may have worn off, but adults with braces still have much to cope with. Self-esteem, preparedness, and pregnancy are but three topics addressed at ArchWired, a community site for adults who might want to think twice before they scuba dive or smooch. Whether you wear braces now, are contemplating hardware for your choppers, or have a friend or relative with braces or pre-brace jitters, ArchWired is likely to increase your appreciation for the special concerns of adults with braces. Its background articles and survival tips (physical and psychological), along with photos and forums, may help you (excuse the pun) brace for the prospect of a mouth of metal. On a recent visit, we also found the results of a haiku contest, links to soft-food cookbooks, and Stories from Readers. Check out this site and you'll have a new appreciation of chomping at the bit.
http://www.archwired.com/
Go Daddy Web Domain Registration and Hosting
When you need to register a domain, you have a choice of registrars. The big names are expensive ($35 a year at Network Solutions) but reliable; many of the cheaper registrars don't have the same track record or the reliability. Go Daddy is one of the big guys and is the cheapest source for domain registrations and basic Web-hosting that you're likely to find. The basic yearly registration is $8.95 (less a dollar until Nov. 30, and depending on TLD). Go Daddy's management tools are the best available and the company is responsive to questions and problems. No, this is not an ad - we just thought you should know.http://www.godaddy.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age
Tell this site your age and out pops a list of people and what they'd accomplished by that point in their lives. The selections are equal parts depressing and uplifting in a "Thank God I'm not them!" kind of way.http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/
Send the RIAA All Your Stolen Music
We know you feel bad about downloading all those MP3s from the Net. Maybe you should just consider sending them back. Yeah, that's it. By e-mail, snail mail, or even by fax....http://www.sendthemback.org/
What would "The Matrix" look like in ASCII art? Here's a glimpse of that particular mind-warping reality. It's the rooftop fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith from the original movie.
http://abstract.cs.washington.edu/~renacer/ascii-matrix.html
Are you really getting bandwidth even close to what your ISP promises? It's easy enough to find out; just take a quick hop to the Bandwidth Speed Test. It's free, fast, and accurate - comparable in result to measures we've seen elsewhere.
http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
SOFTWARE
Genetic Algorithms for Compiler Optimization
One of the perennial problems of software engineering is finding the best compiler optimization settings for your program. For any given compiler, there are a horde of options that have different effects in different combinations - there are 27,021,597,764,222,976 possibilities for the GCC compiler alone. Applying them correctly is somewhat of a black art. Scott Robert Ladd wrote ACOVEA (Analysis of Compiler Options via Evolutionary Algorithm), a program that implements a genetic algorithm to find the best options for compiling programs. "Best", in this case, is defined as those options that produce the fastest executable program from a given source code. The software is not limited to analysis of GCC, though that is its first application, but can also be applied to other compilers and programming languages. ACOVEA is also useful for testing combinations of flags for bad interactions and for testing the reliability of the compiler. Coyote Gulch Productions has the theory behind ACOVEA and links to the actual software.http://www.coyotegulch.com/acovea/index.html
This is the latest release of the popular open-source database server. PostgreSQL is increasingly catching up to MySQL as the open-source database of choice, particularly for high-end users concerned with sophisticated database operations. Many of the major improvements of this release increase PostgreSQL's already impressive performance. Most of the other new features are rather esoteric and of interest only to high-end database users and those who want to run a database on IPv6 networks.
http://www.postgresql.org/news/160.html