BREAKING SURF
| Welcome Back to the "Digital Deli" |
| Dewi's Railway, Trains & Trams Page |
| Geographical Waypoint Info for the Web or GPS Devices |
| Scottish Vocabulary Quizzes |
| Route 66 and Vintage Postcards |
| Ze Masterfully Stuffed Site of Ze Frank |
| Trends in Modern Logo Design |
| The Greatest Album Covers that Never Were |
| Blues Heaven |
| Free Lessons from the Berklee College of Music |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Supply the Text, It Guesses the Sex |
| GloFish |
| Dig that Iron Age Chariot |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
Well, Somebody Made it to Mars
As everybody knows, the NASA Mars rover named Spirit has landed successfully and is transmitting unprecedented high-resolution images back to its handlers. Given the failures of Martian probes sent by the US and other countries during the last few years, this success was just about necessary. If you happen to have a pair of old red/blue cardboard 3-D glasses lying around, put them on and treat yourself to three-dimensional images of the Martian surface. Face it, this is as close to being there as you're going to get, unless some young future astronaut is reading NSD. NASA's Web site has been swamped with hits, as you might imagine. Be patient, and prepare for even more activity if the Jan. 24 landing of the sister rover Opportunity succeeds as well. For the time being, NASA has taken offline the full 12-megapixel image of the Martian surface and video content - meaning that you'll want to bookmark the page if you haven't already, then return in the coming weeks as demand tapers off. There's still a lot of interesting stuff besides the images to peruse. Particularly intriguing is the configuration of the spacecraft itself, which is composed of two separate systems apart from the rover: the Cruise Stage and the EDL System (Entry, Descent, and Landing). The complexity of the systems employed to successfully deliver the 420-pound Rover to the surface of Mars is briefly presented, but serves to hammer home the logistics involved in delivering a working payload to the surface of another planet.http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Drive the Mars Rovers, Analyze Actual Martian Data on Your Desktop
Maestro is a publicly available version of the software tool that NASA scientists are using to plan and direct the operation of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. After you install Maestro, which works on pretty much any operating system, you can download the actual data that Spirit has sent home from the surface of Mars and explore the environment. Maestro lets you view pictures taken by the cameras, assemble mosaics from single images to generate larger panoramas, and create color composite images from the data and filter them in various ways. Perhaps its most spectacular feature is the ability to map the images onto a 3-D model of the landscape around the rovers. Maestro is not just an image manipulation program, however - you can plan the rover's movement and instrument activity in the landscape and see the results on the 3-D photo models. It's a sophisticated and complex piece of software but don't expect commercial polish. It is fun to play with, especially given that you have real Martian data to do it with.http://mars.telascience.org/
While Opportunity crosses interplanetary space, Spirit gets ready to prowl on Mars, and the increasingly desperate hunt for signals from Beagle 2 continues, another space mission, with a very different objective, has been performing flawlessly. The Stardust mission is an ambitious and risky attempt to snare particles from comet Wild 2 and bring them back to Earth. Stardust recently survived the most dangerous part of the mission, approaching to within 240 km of the comet nucleus and capturing particles that will be returned to Earth in about two years. As an added bonus, the spacecraft's navigation camera took the best pictures yet of a comet, revealing the expected rugged, irregular shape and pockmarked surface of the 5-km-wide body. The comet is far away from the most active part of its orbit near the sun, making the hazardous flyby possible. Even so, Stardust needed special "Whipple" shields to protect its solar panels and body from damaging space debris and comet dust. The mission is a complex one that involved several Earth flybys to give the spacecraft the right trajectory and approach velocity for its mission. As usual, NASA does the mission proud in terms of online resources, with lots of detail for those who wish to probe deeper.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/
An Insider's View of Therapeutic Human Cloning
Readers of the print version of Wired will have already had a chance to peruse the magazine's inside look at a therapeutic human-cloning experiment. The rest of us can check out the online version of the article. Reproductive and therapeutic cloning appear to share the same path up to the division of the egg into a 16-cell morula. It's extremely difficult to grow an egg to morula stage, but once it reaches that point, a morula could be implanted in a uterus where it would grow into a full-fledged clone, in theory. Morulae can also be a source of stem cells, cells that have the ability to grow into any kind of tissue found in the body. That's the therapeutic side of cloning research; stem cells can become liver cells, brain cells, nerve cells - whatever a sick or wounded human would need. Potential uses include replacing cells in brains damaged by Alzheimer's disease, regrowing bone damaged by osteoporosis, and regenerating severed spinal cords. Wired offers a look at a successful effort to advance the science of therapeutic human cloning to a level never before achieved.http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/clones.html
Forbidden Thoughts and What to Say
What can't you say? What ideas or beliefs are taboo and how did they get that way? Paul Graham's thoughtful essay on this idea is worth reading and discussing. For Graham, the test of appropriateness is what would a time traveler have to know in order to avoid being found out during his travels? That is, what social and intellectual faux pas would the traveler have to know to avoid? For example, a visitor to Berlin in 1942 might want to remove his yarmulke first. Graham wants to understand how we police our own thoughts and how we might fight against this self-censorship. This is well worth reading, even if you find yourself disagreeing with some of his examples. It is hard to disagree with him on one basic point: there are some things each of us would never discuss with others.http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
Extinction Risk from Climate Change
A recent paper in Nature is generating sensational headlines in the media. "Scientists predict widespread extinction by global warming" notes the New York Times. "Warming to doom many species" says CNN. The paper is actually a sophisticated exercise in scientific estimation. Researchers looked at the current climate envelopes of 1,103 animal and plant species. They then looked how such climate envelopes would change based on various future climate models and derived estimates of how those species would be affected. As you can imagine, and as the scientists readily admit, the whole exercise is subject to many uncertainties. The study is a good stake in the ground that calls attention to yet another facet of anthropogenic (oooh, big word!) climate change, but expect to see some vigorous debate about the actual numbers.http://www.nature.com/nature/links/040108/040108-1.html
The Pew Internet Project has released a report that summarizes three years of survey data about who uses the Internet in the US and what they use it for. Overall, the Internet continues to infiltrate lives, but the penetration seems to have plateaued recently with 63% of Americans over 18 online. On the other hand, more than 75% of those aged 12-17 are online. Women have caught up to men in Net use. Income and education lead to online access and parents are much more likely to use the Internet than non-parents. Younger people like the Web for instant messaging and downloading music. Overall, a third of users download music files. Email is the most widely used feature, but the use of the Internet for financial transactions - purchases, auctions, and banking - has grown faster than any other sector. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in finding health information, with women more likely to do this than men, and an increase in the use of the Internet for finding religious material and visiting government Web sites. About 25% of all Americans remain disconnected from all this online activity, never having used the Internet and not knowing many others who do. The report has lots of details, well worth digging into.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=106
Cringely's Predictions for 2004
Robert X. Cringely is the kind of guy who first looks at how well he did last year - after a reader complained long ago that he didn't - before spouting predictions for the year we've just moved into. He awards himself an 80% score for 2003 and he figures his multi-year average is around 70%. That makes him a pretty savvy prognosticator, one worth paying attention to. So, just what does he think is in store for '04? Cringely isn't expecting anything too radical in terms of tech. Don't expect spam to disappear - it ain't gonna happen. Microsoft will make a run to lead the game console market but will fail. Linux will either grow under the aegis of a new organizational structure or it will start to die. The SCO threat over intellectual property will turn out to be a grand scam that only served to enrich the promoters. We'll also see the start, finally, of digital convergence, driven by consolidation and increased competition - in other words, everyone wants a piece of everyone else's business. Cringely makes predictions about Dell, HP, Sun, Wal Mart, Apple, Cisco and many other favorites. Although there's nothing revolutionary on his technical radar, it's the nature of such beasts to sneak in under it and surprise.http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040101.html
Community Sites Need Better Security
Are you a fan of social network sites such as Tribe.net or LiveJournal? If so, you should prepare yourself for some security problems. Although the sites are cutting edge with respect to the development of community, they rely on very 20th century, inadequate notions of privacy and security, says an article at SecurityFocus. For example, one hacker at LiveJournal took a user's private diary entries and posted them in public. Curiously, the sites claim that their communities self-police member activities, but that doesn't guard the front gate, only the living room. Such an approach also doesn't provide much of a defense against hacking and identity theft. Users will probably not continue to tolerate lackadaisical security, and this article has some ideas on what to do about the problem.http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7739
RIAA Legal Approach Fosters Adoption of Network Encryption
Suing users is working for the RIAA, but the music industry's approach has had some unexpected consequences. Clay Shirky argues that the most important of these is the growing use of sophisticated encryption by all classes of users as they seek to maintain their privacy. Decentralized networks are growing in popularity and sophistication, and so is encryption, which is also becoming more transparent and user friendly. Shirky, who is also quoted in the SecurityFocus article above, links to some encryption sites for those interested in pursuing the topic. In its desire to treat digital music like a physical CD, the RIAA has ironically done what the cypherpunks were unable to do - make encryption part of everyday life.http://www.shirky.com/writings/riaa_encryption.html
Apple's AAC Music Format Decrypted
Jon Johansen has done it again. First, the Norwegian programmer cracked the CSS encryption scheme used on DVDs so that he could play movies on his Linux PC. With the legal trouble spawned by that action finally over (for now), he has turned his attention to Apple's AAC encryption, used by Apple to sell music at the iTunes Music Store in and only in the US. Johansen cracked the Apple itunes encryption so he can play the music on his Linux PC - in Norway.... What is Apple going to do? And what will the RIAA do? And to think that the Norwegian government only recently gave up trying to prosecute him for cracking the DVD encryption. This guy is on his way to becoming the patron saint of file sharing. The Register has the story.http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34712.html
"We're looking for the ad that best explains what this President and his policies are really about - in only 30 seconds." That's the goal of this political ad contest sponsored by the sharply partisan MoveOn.org Democratic organization. As you can imagine, all 14 short films that made the finals are anti-Bush. While Bush-bashing was certainly one of the main aims of the organizers, they also wanted to bring some "new talent and new messages into the world of mainstream political advertising," to counter what they see as the stale political ads created by the few dozen Washington political consultants who currently hold a monopoly on this esoteric artform. The finalists are worth watching no matter your political preference. Many of them show professional production values and the messages are indeed much more pointed than you are likely to see from the major Presidential candidates. You can also participate by voting for funniest ad, best animated ad, and best youth ad.
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/
On Israel, Zionism, and the Palestinians
Benny Morris is well known is certain circles for his radically left-wing approach to Israeli politics. The former kibbutznik is a professor of history in Israel who has published several books on his country's charged past. Because Morris dared publish accounts of Israeli atrocities in the 1948 War of Independence, he was virtually blackballed in Israeli academia. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has an interview with Morris in which the historian and the man seem to diverge. Morris the historian feels it is important to accurately note the events of the past, good or bad. Morris the man, who has been attacked for the works of Morris the historian, allows a more personal perspective into print. Far from maintaining the line of the radical left, Morris is far less idealistic and far more fatalistic. He approves of the expulsions of Arabs from Israeli territory in 1948, and feels they didn't go far enough. This interview, which caught the interviewer off guard as much as it does the reader, personifies the inner turmoil of Israel in one man. It's a fascinating read no matter what your opinion might be.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/380986.html
Windows XP: Surviving the First Day
You get your shiny new computer pre-loaded with Windows XP. You turn it on, hook it up to the Internet, and, after playing around with it for a few minutes, you do the right thing and use Windows Update to download all the latest security fixes. Dream on. In the few minutes it took you to get around to using Windows Update, your computer has probably been probed from the Net and possibly already infected. The Net is so rife with automated worms that new computer users are faced with exposure to infection before they can download the security patches to keep the worms out. Fortunately, the folks at SANS have created this guide to surviving the first day of Windows XP ownership. They say the "steps outlined in this guide should be seen as minimum due diligence to make it through the first day of using Microsoft Windows XP." Borrow a computer to browse the pages, we guess.http://isc.incidents.org/presentations/xpsurvivalguide.pdf
Analysis of Spam E-Mail Addresses CD
Dutch spam fighter Rejo Zenger managed to obtain two CDs full of Dutch and Belgian e-mail addresses that had been advertised by spammers for spammers. He analyzed the collection of addresses and produced some statistics about the almost 11 million addresses on the CD. After removing duplicates, the CDs provide roughly 6.2 million unique addresses. A couple thousand of those are invalid (with bad syntax or bad domains) or undesirable for spam in the first place (role account addresses like "abuse"). Zenger breaks down the numbers for these and other categories, such as spam-trap accounts. He did not attempt to verify how many of those addresses were actually active, though such a statistic could be rather useful.http://rejo.zenger.nl/abuse/emailcd.php
Burning Man Finds His Way to Microsoft Flight Simulator
The annual Burning Man event is generally held in Black Rock Desert, but a version of it has recently entered the virtual realm - although you'll need Microsoft Flight Simulator to see it. Andrew Johnstone has designed the Virtual Playa to place the Burning Man site, called the Playa among cognoscenti, in the Microsoft Flight Simulator software. Johnstone provides free plug-ins and development tools that permit users to design their own additions to a virtual Burning Man festival. The annual Burning Man pilgrimage attracts around 30,000 each year; Johnson's tools may allow these folks to pay homage to the Man year 'round. Wired has a brief story and links. We can't help wondering if Johnstone will eventually satisfy that segment of the flight sim community that would love to send a heat-seeking Maverick missile up the Burning Man's tailpipe in Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator.Wired: http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61732,00.html
Virtual Playa: http://www.virtualplaya.org/
VeriSign Certificate Expiration Causing Problems
E-commerce Web sites pay companies like VeriSign to obtain small bits of code called SSL certificates. These certificates let those sites establish encrypted connections with their customers' Web browsers and ostensibly give assurance that the company is in some way legitimate. All this works because before issuing a certificate, VeriSign cryptographically signs it with its own certificate - establishing a chain of trust, as it were. Unfortunately, this week, some of VeriSigns own certificates expired. Alert readers of Slashdot noticed all sorts of mysterious problems on the Web - inability of certain sites to establish secure connections, security warnings in Java applications, problems with older versions of Internet Explorer, long Microsoft Word start-up time - which they traced to this problem. It's just another pitfall in relying on a third party for an essential part of your business infrastructure. Slashdot has the colorful technical details.http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/08/1849245.shtml
ONLINE CULTURE
Welcome Back to the "Digital Deli"
"Digital Deli" was published 20 years ago, so it's old news. But it's on the Web today, so it's new news. AtariArchives.org presents the whole enchilada here, free for personal perusal. It's worth a trip in - the book was written with the then-dominant word proccessor Wordstar, in conjuction with Apple II systems and dot-matrix printers. Somehow, they got it organized and published. "Digital Deli" is a free trip down memory lane for many of us. And a great history lesson for those of you who weren't yet even a gleam in Mommy and Daddy's eyes when this saga began to unfold.http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/
ONLINE TRAVEL
Dewi's Railway, Trains & Trams Page
Dewi Williams, proprietor of Dewi's Railway, Trains & Trams Page offers a serious and wonderful collection of tales and photos by a true lover of railed transit. Williams and his wife, Eufron, have been all over the world, always exploring and documenting their experience with the local railed vehicle systems. The page has a selection of fascinating accounts with many clarifying photos. While it helps to be a fan of railed vehicles, most everyone will enjoy the site. For example, our esteemed editor says about one photo: "This photo is so cool (to me). The brick tower in the background still stands and is part of a fire station. The property next to it is still a gas station. My (and my kids') elementary school is one block left of the fire station. Where the tracks are, however, is now a huge excavated trench with a freeway in it."Dewi's Railway, Trains & Trams Page: http://dewi.ca/trains/
Editor's choice: http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_09.jpg
Geographical Waypoint Info for the Web or GPS Devices
PublicGIS lets people find their way just about anywhere in the world. Users access large databases of waypoints that are either downloadable to GPS devices or visible on an on-screen map. Unless you're already familiar with waypoints, the interface takes some getting used to, but it's well designed. The site acts as a geographical Yellow Pages, a waypoint search tool, and a forum to exchange waypoints with others. It provides an on-screen way of measuring the distance between two points. It also functions as a unified interface to many kinds of waypoints from government and industry. If you need to know where something is, or how to get there from anywhere, this site is a gateway to that information.http://publicgis.com/
You think that the people in Scotland speak English with a brogue? Hah. Think again. Three simple JavaScript quizzes will humble all but true Scots. The third one will even trip up some of them, too. The Web coding is a bit odd, as the three different quizzes each appear as Quiz 1, but there really are three here; just take them in order. Also, the JavaScript used to create the quizzes only works in Internet Explorer (at least on a Mac - and does anybody on Windows use anything else?). The definitions are all too brief; we're left wondering how exactly some of these terms came about. At least with Cockney rhyming slang, there's a little reason to go with the rhyme. Some of the answers seemed a bit questionable, but the authors are Canadians who have been in Scotland since 2000. Maybe they're still learning the language.
http://www.animationgrove.co.uk/quizzes/quizzes.html
Route 66 and Vintage Postcards
The open road has never been presented quite like this. Explore this online dedication to Route 66, motels, and vintage cars through the dying art of postcards. The creator of this site, Laurel Kane, shares her collection of postcards and experiences traveling Route 66 to visitors of this site. You'll view nostalgic postcards and get a glimpse of some of the featured places as they look today. Kane also shares her voyeuristic nature with a page called "What's on the back?" There, visitors can peek into the personal lives of strangers as they read messages scrawled on the backs of postcards. Other postcard collectors out there will be thrilled to find a page listing Kane's cards for trade.http://postcardsfromtheroad.net/index.htm
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Ze Masterfully Stuffed Site of Ze Frank
You may remember from a couple of years ago a link to a funny video called "How to Dance Properly", in which some lanky guy pulled off dance moves called things like "Smackin' that Ass" and "Ride the Pony". We remember it, but we can't find in our archives.... Regardless, the dancer-instructor was Ze Frank, and he's got a whole site full of weird, wonderful, and downright hilarious stuff, including the goofy dancing. There's a ton here: videos; interactive games; presentations.... Frank's a man of many and considerable talents who inspires a committed following. We're hard-pushed to pick a favorite here, but it's between a stunning cartoon called "Therapy" and a Pre-Date Confidence Builder, in which Frank helpfully answers questions such as "Does this outfit go together?" and "Is my butt too big?" and sends you off on your date with advice like "Use your butt like the magic wand it is - wave it around" ringing in your ears.http://www.zefrank.com/
Graphic Design USA published "15 Trends Taking Shape in Logo Design" back in April 2003, but since we only recently noticed it, here y'all are. The article briefly identifies 15 of the current hottest trends in cutting-edge logo design. Companies routinely spend millions on their logos, which are, after all, the image by which they are known to most people. A great logo can upstage a great product. Companies regularly update their logos, and this guide will explain why some of today's logos work or, as the case may be, don't work. This is a fairly technical article, of greatest interest to graphic designers and corporate logo buyers but it's nicely done and everyone will come away with a better understanding and greater appreciation of logos and why some of your favorites have changed recently.
http://www.gdusa.com/feature/4_03/trends.php
The Greatest Album Covers that Never Were
You only have to look at the album covers of Nevermind by Nirvana or the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to realize that an album's cover art has always been an integral part of conveying the essence of the band's music. Greatest Album Covers that Never Were is the project of music archivist Michael Ochs and graphic designer Craig Butler, who invited over 100 established graphic and fine artists to create imaginary album covers for their favorite bands and musicians. Some artists have created a cover for an existing album, such as Daniel Shrier's version of The Clash's Combat Rock, while some have gone a step further in creating an entirely new fictitious album. Russian designer Vladimir Paperny has done just this with Elvis - Live in Red Square, a recording of a concert that never happened, though Paperny no doubt wishes it had. The 50 or so works were originally exhibited at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in May 2003, but you can see them all in this online gallery.http://www.theartrocks.com/tgactnw/gallery.html
Blues World is an awesome collection of resources for the blues enthusiast. The site offers album reviews, articles, e-mail discussion lists for collectors, and links to record labels and publishers. The blues is such a massive, sprawling subject that it may be best to bookmark this site and come back here every now and again, say, to read about cantankerous steel-guitar genius John Fahey, or to follow a review of the seven-CD box set "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton", or to check out what records or memorabilia are currently being auctioned. The site is run by Joel Slotnikoff, a blues record collector who has been buying and selling records for decades. Hardcore blues enthusiasts interested in buying and selling record collections can contact him at the site; others may want to pour themselves something warming and just browse around.
http://www.bluesworld.com/
Free Lessons from the Berklee College of Music
Folks who have grown away from their music over the years or those who have always had a musical bent but never had an outlet should try out Berklee Shares from the comfort of their homes or, perhaps, work. Berklee College of Music has gotten its faculty to provide free lessons online in MP3 and PDF formats. Importantly, music lessons come not only by flavor of instrument but also in the business of professional music itself, with classes labeled promisingly, "Deals with Off-Line and Online Record Labels" and such. Somehow, we suspect that even a thorough journey through these lessons is not exactly the same experience you'd get at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, but, then again, this is 1) online and 2) free. Move to Boston if you want the real thing.http://www.berkleeshares.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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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/ |
American Sucker
The Knight (The Wizard Knight, Book 1)
Absolute Friends
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition
Supply the Text, It Guesses the Sex
The Gender Genie is an engine which purports to identify the sex of any author by using an algorithm to analyze the usage of a number of identifiable feminine and masculine keywords that allegedly occur more frequently in women's and men's writing, respectively. Supposedly, it's correct 80% of the time, although our brief tests revealed more error than that. According to the first passages we fed into the Gender Genie, Dickens was female, Shakespeare was female, and Virginia Woolf was male. We then noticed that the creators focused on works published after 1975, so we tried more recent popular authors, as well. Anne Rice registered as female with one passage and male with another, but John Grisham came up as clearly male. Among NSD staffers, only Regan Avery was identifiably female. In case you're interested, there's a 2:1 chance that the King James version of the Bible was written by a man, but Eve could have told you that.http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.html
SURFING SCIENCE
Your genetically engineered pet may be closer than you think, and not just if you own a sheep farm. GloFish, available at your local pet store, are zebra danios with a gene that turns them fluorescent, like some corals or jelly fish.You may have seen GloFish in the news in December, when California banned the fish. Although they were originally created with an on-off switch for the fluorescence, so that they could help detect environmental pollutants in waterways, the pet version is always on. Apparently one of the original indicators was a "stress-responsive promoter", which we imagine could be useful in the workplace. When one of your co-workers starts glowing, it's time to leave the meeting.http://www.glofish.com/
An Iron Age chariot burial has recently been discovered in West Yorskshire, England. An account of the discovery is presented at Oxfprd Archaeology. The iron tires survived; other components were identified by soil-stain analysis. Also recovered were the skeleton of a male in his 30s, along with some brass harness gear. In essence, the folks who buried this dumped the guy and his cart into a large hole in the ground, then held a big eating party. Archaeologists love this stuff, and the Brits here attempt to infect you with their enthusiasm. A small photo gallery is included in the site.
http://www.oxfordarch.co.uk/pages/chariot_burial.htm