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BREAKING SURF
On June 7/8, observers on Earth will be able to see Venus cross the disk of the Sun. The transit of Venus is a historically nostalgic event for astronomers since the planet's transits in the 17th century led directly to the first good estimates of the size of the Solar System. The idea of using the transit and some trigonometry to measure the distance from the Earth to the Sun was first proposed in 1663 by Scottish astronomer James Gregory, and independently developed by Edmund Halley again in 1677. The 1761 transit had scientists travel to the far corners of the Earth to observe the event and determine an accurate value of one astronomical unit - the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This year's Venus transit will be well covered on the Net, so you can catch the hours-long event no matter where you are. Two Web sites, one at Norway's Astronomy.no and another at the San Francisco Exploratorium, give you the history, timelines of the impending transit, and details about their coverage of the event. We probably don't have to tell you not to look at the Sun without eye protection, right?Exploratorium: http://www.exploratorium.edu/venusEC/index.html
Astronomy.no: http://www.astronomy.no/venus080604.html
On June 11 the Cassini spacecraft will encounter its first major science target in the vicinity of Saturn. A close flyby of the planet's moon Phoebe should enable Cassini to capture pictures with a resolution of up to 15 meters per pixel. Phoebe is one of the more mysterious moons of Saturn, orbiting at a high inclination and in a retrograde orbit. This probably means that the moon is a captured body, possibly a wayward Kuiper belt object. All of Cassini's instruments will be furiously gathering data during the encounter, hopefully leading to an excellent characterization of this rather oddball moon. The next major mission milestone is July 1, when Cassini will enter into an orbit around Saturn. NASA has all the details.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/approach.cfm
Most people are aware of the work done during World War II by cryptoanalysts at England's Bletchley Park who broke German ciphers. Few, however, know that the codebreakers at Bletchley Park invented some of the earliest computing machines to help with their tasks. One of the most complex and most secret of these early computers was called Colossus, and it was used to break the German army's Lorenz cipher. Colossus was so secret that it was dismantled at the end of the war and how it worked remained classified well into the 1990s. As part of this year's D-Day anniversary hoopla, the BBC has publicized a decade-long effort to rebuild Colossus in all its vacuum-tube and paper-tape glory. The BBC story is thin on technical detail, but Tony Sale's "Lorenz ciphers and the Colossus" Web page has the technically exciting history of the original, and an account of the equally tough rebuild effort he headed.
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3754887.stm
Sale: http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/index.htm
Universal Limit on Computation
In a seminal paper published in Nature in 2000, Seth Lloyd established some limits on the size and speed of computers based on constants of nature and quantum physics. Ars Technica has a decent geek-friendly summary of Lloyd's work. This week, Lawrence Krauss and Glenn Starkman extended Lloyd's work by incorporating the latest findings about the expansion of the universe. Astronomers have recently observed that this expansion is accelerating. Krauss and Starkman show that this in turn "can produce a universal limit on the total amount of information that can be stored and processed in the future, putting an ultimate limit on future technology for any civilization, including a time-limit on Moore's Law." As you can imagine, both papers are pretty technical - but if you know what an integral is, you can probably follow them, even if you have to move your lips as you read. If you're wondering, the maximum possible information you can process in an expanding universe is 1.35 x 10^120 bits, which implies that Moore's Law is only good for about 600 years or so.Lloyd: http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9908043
Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/01q2/limits/limits-1.html
Krauss and Starkman: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0404510
The Bumpy Road ahead for Microsoft
Between 1991 and 1999, Jeff Reifman was a technology manager at Microsoft, and a Windows loyalist. Five years on, he has switched from Windows to Mac OS X. He criticizes Microsoft's strategic and tactical mistakes. He sees how open-source products can threaten the Microsoft dominion. Reifman eloquently states his case without rancor or bitterness in an article in Seattle Weekly. He thinks Microsoft has peaked, and has nowhere to go but down as it succumbs to innovative projects like Linux and Google. Some 80% of Microsoft revenue comes from Windows, Office, and Web servers, but viable free alternatives exist for each. Along the way, Reifman points out what Apple has done right - he's no Ellen Feiss, but is a reasonable, detached observer and user. While Reifman makes some good points, it's hard to argue against the amount of cash that Microsoft can throw at any obstacle.http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0422/040602_news_microsoft.php
GAO Reports on US Government Data Mining
The General Accounting Office (GAO) reports that 52 American federal agencies deploy, or plan to, data-mining to uncover hidden patterns in information from a variety of sources, both public and private. Presently, the US government uses 131 operational mining programs, with another 68 planned. Although 65 programs are meant to improve service and performance, another 53 look into criminal activities. The mining looks at credit reports, credit-card transactions, bank-account numbers, and taxpayer ID numbers among other sources. The GAO's 71-page report, "Data Mining: Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of Uses", is available on the Web as is a synopsis of highlights. American government agencies have increasingly deployed data mining since the Sept. 11 attacks and the advent of the War on Terror. This development has raised concerns in some circles regarding the use of database technology and governmental data mining to conduct mass "dataveilance" in order to identify "...individuals who might fit a terrorist profile". It may not be Orwell's vision, but it seems a disconcertingly close approximation.Data Mining: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04548.pdf
Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04548high.pdf
Exploring Extent of US Military's Netsurfing Filters
Russ Kick over at the Memory Hole noticed that US soldiers apparently could not access his Web site, which is a repository of often embarrassing government material obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests - you may remember that Kick is the guy who published the photos of coffins returning from Iraq. After Kick posted this observation on his MemoryBlog, the story took on a life of its own among bloggers. Many people poked and prodded behind the Web scene to determine what kind of content filter the US government deems appropriate for those who risk their lives in its defense. The Internet Censorship Explorer (ICE) blog has revealed some details about the filtering software the military uses, while a reader at BoingBoing plans to ask his sister, who works in a military hospital, to test if any general news Web sites are also blocked.MemoryBlog: http://www.thememoryhole.org/memoryblog/archives/000161.html
ICE: http://ice.citizenlab.org/archives/2004_06.html#000020
BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/02/more_on_blocked_site.html
It's been 60 years since the Allies hit the beaches at Normandy, and the old soldiers are passing away at a rate of nearly 1,200 each day. It was long past time for the US to honor World War II veterans with their own memorial, but better late than never. The effort to build the memorial, led by Tom Hanks and former US senator and World War II veteran Bob Dole, was impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the stories of the veterans that are coming to light this anniversary. The official National WWII Memorial site offers pictures and some history, but why not hunt down those veterans still living near you and listen to their stories firsthand this summer? Otherwise, this site serves as a good way to plan your next trip to DC.
http://www.wwiimemorial.com/
The Latest Thinking about Passwords
The password is an old technology and its shortcomings as a security mechanism for fallible humans are well known by now. But ensconced technology marches on, and password technology is at least getting more sophisticated. For example, Wired writes about two-factor password technology, which is becoming more common in certain banking and commercial settings. "Two-factor" means that in addition to giving your standard password, you must also give a second, more random password generated by something like a scratch card or an electronic pseudo-random-password-generating gizmo. Meanwhile, researchers are trying to make complicated random passwords easier to remember by tapping into the brain's native imprinting abilities. They do this by having people briefly study a collection of random words or images. Later, an individual must identify a random subset of those words or images in order to gain access. Researchers report 70% to 90% accuracy in recall using such methods. Technology Research News (TRN) has more details.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63670,00.html
TRN: http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/060204/Recognition_keys_access_060204.html
We all know by now that the movie "Troy" ain't "The Iliad", but does that matter? Some think that leaving out all the boring bits about the gods and a certain form of male bonding is a good idea, while others cringe at the gutting of the tale. While no one except the most desperate of students would watch "Troy" to study Homer's tale, given that it doesn't even stay true to the basic plot, it's possible the movie will stimulate interest in the historical Troy. For that, we have a fix, a quartet of sites about the famous city. Archaeology magazine asks whether there really was a Trojan war - the answer is "yes, but...." Mortal Women of the Trojan War tells the story admirably briefly and focuses on the major female characters. Project Troia is an ongoing expedition to study historical Troy in northwest Turkey. This cooperative project began in 1988, although many other have examined the site since Heinrich Schliemann uncovered it in the 1870s. Finally, Plastic has a brief film review followed by much robust commentary. There's enough there to outlast the movie time-wise, not to mention financially.
Archaeology: http://www.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html
Mortal Women of the Trojan War: http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html
Project Troia: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia/eng/index.html
Plastic: http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=04/05/27/00594766;sid=04/05/27/00594766
Michael Moore assured his "Fahrenheit 9/11" much publicity when he complained about Disney's exercising its contractual right not to distribute the film in what he implied was a politically inspired attempt to censor him. The film, a sharp political stab at President Bush, subsequently went on to win the Palme d'Or prize at this year's Festival de Cannes, and has become one of the hottest summer movie properties in recent history. And it's a documentary. With a new distribution deal in place, the film will open June 25 in the US, and the film Web site has just released the obligatory trailer - then took it down due to overwhelming response....
http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/
Joanne Rowling has revamped her Web site. You probably know her better by her nom de plume, J.K. Rowling. Previously, her site was just a collection of links to her publishers. It's now a much more personal thing, stuffed with her own comments. The attractive Flash site harbors some riddles that may entice you to spend far too much time there, but there's a text version for those who prefer things that way. Book six of the Harry Potter series, Rowling informs us, is well underway, but still at the stage where Rowling needs a big chart to keep track of who is whom and what has happened to them. She says - oh, she's a tease - that you'll be able to ferret out little details about what happens in the book if you look very carefully at the site and have lots of patience. She certainly has a solid grasp of how to keep her myriad fans coming back for more. Book seven is already looming large in her mind - she has no intention of going all Star Wars and writing a prequel, so there'll be no book about Lily and James Potter. We wonder what she will do for an encore. Is she just a seven-trick pony?
http://www.jkrowling.com/
Small Games on a Big Scale, and the Evolving Game-Server Business
Most of the time, when people - well, we - write about online games, it's about the graphically dazzling megablockbuster hits like EverQuest or the more modest but technically refined multiplayer games like WarBirds (the original item read Battlefield 1942, but virtual flyboy Laurie changed it on me! - A). But it turns out that there's also a huge market for electronic versions of humbler, more traditional games like chess, bridge, or Word Whomp Whackdown. The classics, and modern turns based on them, attract older players in the millions and generate healthy ad profits for the hosting services that offer them. Wired has a good feature about that game genre, the players it attracts, and the money it generates. As games start to turn profits as reliable as anything this side of porn, the established big-iron computer makers like IBM and Sun are trying to grab a piece of the unfolding online game revolution, particularly in the flashy massively multiplayer game worlds. They are providing server hosting services to the game publishing companies, using technologies swiped from missile defense programs to set up huge, rentable server farms. CNET has that story.EverQuest: http://eqlive.station.sony.com/
WarBirds: http://www.totalsims.com/
Battlefield 1942: http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/1942/us/home.jsp
Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/gaming.html
CNET: http://news.com.com/Tech+giants+go+for+the+games/2100-7343_3-5226069.html
Deconstructing Celebrity iTunes Playlists
The iTunes Music is trying a new tack: celebrity playlists. General reaction so far: tacky. Tabloids can be humiliating, but they only reach so far, usually merely skin deep. The celebrities' playlists amount to digital tabloidization of a deeper kind, coming as they do from the core of the musical soul - sometimes. Like a paparazzo's photo, these glimpses seem to have circumvented public-relations management, and we are richer for it. Slate discusses the celebrity iTunes playlists of musicians in particular, and why they suck. It appears that musical stars have no more discriminating music tastes than your run-of-the-mill dork, and often less. In terms of suckitude, the clear winner is Beyonce, who chose songs by her sister, her former group, or herself for eight of her 14 songs. Slate notes, "Even famous people can make you wince when they write from the heart."http://slate.msn.com/id/2101245/
Can You Make It as a Comic-Strip Artist?
Remember those ads that claimed that if you could draw the pictured turtle or mouse, you had artistic talent that only further schooling by mail could develop? We never applied, and now we're not drawing animation for anyone. However, you really might have artistic talent. Are you currently producing a Web comic? One that you think has potential, even the potential to serve as a real job? Remember, real jobs pay money and let you, the hungry artist, have an occasional meal with meat. If you think your comic is good enough to secure you rent and food, read this thoughtful discussion of all that is involved in making a comic strip pay. Don't dance on the boss's desk quite yet.http://www.applegeeks.com/articles/051904/
This new online store has a cool collection of unusual pet accessories - that's cool accessories for standard pets, not accessories for pet cheetahs, for example. The site highlight is probably the Cabitat, a sleek and curvy cat shelter, but it also sells goodies for dogs, birds, and fish. The Cabitat comes in a choice of colors, has a removable carpet, and with its curves and portholes looks like a snug place for a cat indeed. One of the birdfeeders looks like something from "The Jetsons". The BiOrb is a globular fish bowl with far more space than most. Dogs will appreciate the beds, dinnerware, and toys. Even if you're not in the market for any of this, you might want to browse just to notice how clever design can transform mundane objects into things of beauty and functional form.
http://www.postmodernpets.com/
Web Still Waits for Audio Search
Search engines are great at finding that text you want, but their spiders can't as easily catalogue the audio and video content of the Web. As most of National Public Radio (NPR) content is audio, the network has been looking for ways to rectify the shortcoming. One method it has adopted is the use of StreamSage to transcribe its broadcasts on the fly. StreamSage gets the programs into text format quickly, and the text is more likely than audio to be crawled over and indexed by spiders. The approach has a downside, as StreamSage, like any voice-to-text converter, can sometimes garble the words. NPR uses StreamSage as a starting point, then later posts human-transcribed material in its place. Until search technology catches up, it's one way to get audio content out on the generally text-based Web.http://news.com.com/Search+engines+try+to+find+their+sound/2100-1032_3-5221267.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Design Eye for the Usability Guy
Do your Web pages suffer from design issues? Do they need some sparkle or some rules to become more user-friendly? If so, it's time to turn to the Web-design guys! Andrei Herasimchuk has put together a Fab Five of Web design gurus, including himself, to take a crack at redesigning the recent effort of the king of Web-usability gurus, Jakob Nielsen. Watch as the Fab Five remake a Nielsen page that advises how to create a solid list of links with a minimum of fuss or muss. By the time you finish their brief, but always funny commentary and view the makeovers, you'll know more than you might care to about Web style and design.http://www.designbyfire.com/000094.html
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations
Transmission
Sherlock Holmes in Babylon and Other Tales of Mathematical HistorySURFING SITES
Manuscript Treasures of the British Library
The Treasures section of the British Library's Web site is its showcase for rare and beautiful manuscripts of the kind that one can occasionally view, but never browse, in the rare-book collections of libraries and museums. Three items - the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, and Caxton's Chaucer - are reproduced in their entirety, while other manuscripts are on view in sufficient quantity to give one a proper feeling for the work. The treasures are suitably diverse, and include a 14th century Jewish Haggadah, Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook, and the Diamond Sutra - a Chinese Buddhist text from 868 and the world's oldest known printed book. Thanks to the Internet, anyone can enjoy the stunning images and scripts that were once available only to scholars. The books are displayed via a special Shockwave viewer that incorporates audio commentary and a zoom feature. An old article from the Guardian has more on the project.British Library: http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures.html
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1197316,00.html
Amazing Historical Ship Plans and Renderings
The Dreadnought Project is an extremely ambitious attempt to model naval warfare of the early 20th Century on a home computer. It's in its early stages, but among the work so far accomplished is the digitization of about 160 sheets of German warship plans. For all the horror and havoc warships create, they are frequently objects of mechanical beauty. Their plans are true works of art, as lovingly and carefully created as the finest of masterpieces. A glance at these huge files shows that clearly. The ship plans range in time from 1874 to 1944 and in size from small patrol craft to U-boats to battlecruisers. The site also has amazing 3-D renderings of ships and parts of ships. The renderings - from superb plans, naturally - are accurate (well, except for the chickens on the bridge and searchlight platform of HMS Acheron). No matter your feelings on war and ships of war, don't miss this art.http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/
A Bouquet of Medieval Urban Info
Describing various aspects of life in urban Medieval England, Florilegium Urbanum is an online collection of translations of original Latin and Anglo-Norman documents. Divided into four sections that focus on government, community, lifestyle, and economy, and led off by an introductory essay, the collection includes traveler descriptions, legal documents, church and town council records - in other words, all the records and witnesses of daily life. Here you'll learn of the problems encountered by law enforcement before there were regular police forces, the sorts of questions that faced administrations, the legal status of women, and much more. The texts contain expressions and names linked to notes, a glossary, and other Web sites. Florilegium Urbanum is a superb primary source resource for those doing research, and a danged engrossing read for those with a passion for glimpses of everyday life in times long past. Parts of the site are still under development, so we have even more to look forward to.http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/flor00.html
What do you get when you cross a Methodist church service with the Internet? You get Satan hijacking the pulpit and a certain amount of rowdy behavior in the pews. The well established Ship of Fools religious site has initiated a new project after its successful online nativity play and biblical reality show. The site has launched a virtual-world church service where religious leaders such as the Bishop of London discuss things like the Tower of Babel before a fully interactive congregation of many faiths who can kneel and pray just as they would in a brick-and-mortar house of worship. In any church, there will be some dissent, and perhaps the Ship of Fools expected that not all their guests would be at their Sunday bests. The open pulpit policy encourages conversation and debate - even by those who pretend to be Satan. Despite a certain amount of unsuitable language, the online church welcomes thousands of souls each day. Could this be the future of worship?
http://shipoffools.com/church/
In light of its weighty subject, Godchecker could easily have become a dry academic compendium. Instead, this encyclopedia of deities uses humor, multiple lists, and links to satisfy visitors with short attention spans. As you might guess from our headline, the site resembles the Dungeons and Dragons book of pantheons. Students with open minds will enjoy the Godchecker Holy Hit Parade, a top-ten list with a voting form and attitude. Other classical figures appear here as well. Heracles, for example, is described as: "Not a God to start with. Just an old-fashioned heavy. The Sylvester Stallone of Greek mythology, in fact.... But as a reward for all his trials and tribulations, he was offered a grudging kind of immortality and a share of the film rights." This light-heartedness is bound to keep many reading and learning. Best of all is the site's vast reach - to 11 pantheons with more partially completed - although some of the entries could use more meat or ambrosia or whatever.
http://www.godchecker.com/
Metafilter gets a lot of weird stuff, but as jaded as we are, we were still amazed that somebody asked whether a young man armed only with a knife could consistently win fights against a grizzly bear. The short answer, by Metafilter consensus, seems to center on an "are you nuts?" theme. Among the answers we enjoyed while following this thread: "No, the bear would consistently kill the fucking shit out of you. Wait, if you critically wound the bear while it's killing the fucking shit out of you, so it dies afterwards, do you 'win'? In that case, go for it." Years ago, Art Linkletter hosted a television show called "Kids Say the Darnedest Things". So do Metafilterers. If you're tempted to test the question, and you see a bear up close and personal, it's a safe bet to guess that you'll be wanting a little protection between your skin and those claws and teeth. Keep an eye on eBay - Troy Hurtubise's (see NSD 7.42) Ursus Mk VI might come up for auction again, although the Mk VII just sold.
Metafilter: http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/7028
NSD 7.42: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v07/nsd.07.42.html#SCI5
eBay 1: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=60345&item=3814121772
eBay 2: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=60345&item=3816981759
The Great (and Not-So-Great) Pyramids of Linderoth
We are fans of Jeff Linderoth, and not just because he can use the word "stochastic" in a sentence. We are fans because he is man enough to admit that he loves human pyramids. He is not afraid to embrace his love of man's inherent stackability. When not building human pyramids or convincing others to build them he apparently teaches Discrete Optimization at Lehigh University, which we appreciate because we hate it when our optimization gets all mixed up in somebody else's optimization, like in those old Reese's commercials.Human Pyramid Page: http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/%7Elinderot/fun/humanp.html
Discrete Optimization: http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Ejtl3/teaching/ie418/
You know George Mallory's words better than you know him, we suspect. He's the guy who, when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, replied, "Because it is there." The answer to the question "Why dig a huge hole in your backyard?" for the guy who dug said hole is, "Why not?" The response is somewhat in the same league as Mallory's, except in this case the progress is downward rather than upward. In an age when steam shovels don't even run on steam anymore, this hole enthusiast made do with a shovel and some paw work from his Belle dog. He recorded the progress on the appropriately named Web site, the Hole. After he finished digging, and kitted the whole with window, roof, and camouflage suitable for some backyard hunting, our hero took the next obvious step. He camped out, ate a snake, and got the hole connected to the Internet. If you're keen to have your own hole, you can either buy a shovel or consider purchasing the original, which unfortunately now needs some bailing thanks to the water table.
http://www.cp-tel.net/pasqualy/hole/index.html
Andrew Composes Songs from E-Mail
At Songs to Wear Pants to, the purveyor simply known as Andrew writes songs from visitor-submitted e-mail. Drawing lyrical inspiration from the content of the e-mail, Andrew crafts a musical odyssey that conquers just about every subject sung in just about every genre. Topics have included toenails, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the first 50 digits of Pi. Although you might not see Andrew win any Grammy awards, his songs certainly evoke emotion from his audience. Usually that emotion falls somewhere between a mild chuckle and rolling-on-the-floor laughter.http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/
For many, chocolate is the perfect food. But "because life is too short for anything but the best chocolate!", Chocophile.com will help you find the peak of the peak. Photographer, author and amateur chef Clay Gordon has poured time, talent, and taste into his gourmet chocolate guide and blog. Gordon's goal is ambitious, he aims to raise the appreciation of chocolate to the level wine enjoys. Gourmands will find reviews of chocolatiers, articles, and a discussion board rich in resources. For a quick introduction, jump to the C List or Chocolates by Rating. Apart from the occasional visit to Richard Donnelly's shop, we're not chocolate connoisseurs, so we're content to let Gordon guide us in the sophisticated milieu of refined cocoa beans. His expertise extends beyond his site to offer professional services such as retail-concept consulting and corporate gifting programs to hoteliers, wedding planners, and restaurateurs. You can also buy samplers of rare chocolate through the company's online Chocolate Co-Op. Yum!
http://www.chocophile.com/
The off-limits domain of handbags and purses is exposed at this peculiar Web site dedicated to letting the cat, and everything else, out of the bag. Bag Ladies lets you browse collections of handbag contents that visitors have submitted. The enigma of what women (or men) carry in their purses is solved as they submit photos of their handbag contents. As you might predict, the bags contain a plethora of cosmetics and other staples such as wallets, cell phones, and keys. Perhaps the most unusual contents of a single display at the site belong to "mr X". This site is a fun romp worthy of a look. You may even find yourself tempted to upload your own personal purse (or manbag) contents for the rest of the world to see.
http://www.bagladies.nl/
Most of the world has decided that the metric system works better than the Imperial measurements still used in some large English-speaking nations. The metric system not only covers common physical qualities like length and mass, but also extends to all manner of physical objects. There are metric standards for screw threads, socket wrenches, and even paper. In the US, the most common paper size is 8.5 by 11 inches, known as letter size. The metric equivalent is called A4. Its proportions are based on the famous Golden Mean of design, and as a result it is pleasing to the eye. Indeed, all metric paper sizes are based on the Golden Mean. The International Standard Paper Sizes site explains ISO 216, the official rules for all metric paper, clearly and concisely.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html
The Germans just love decorating their gardens with little statues of gnomes - small figurines from which Disney's Seven Dwarves draw inspiration, no doubt - but the activities of the gnomes for sale at this German site certainly wouldn't have made the cut for Disney's "Snow White". These little garden enhancers expose themselves, engage in overt sexual activities, and kneel, suitably bound, before dominatrices. There's even a gay gnome couple, not that there's anything wrong with that. The Web page is a chuckle or two, and if you're interested in decorating your own garden with these perverted pygmies, you should know the prices run from 15 to 90 Euros. We just hope your neighbors don't have any impressionable children.
http://www.zwergen-power.com/pi1806098330.htm
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
How many hours do you spend having stupid conversations with your girlfriend? How much do you spend on taking her out to dinners/drinks? Answer a few more questions like that and this handy calculator will tell you the cost of having sex per event. A wife calculator is in the works.http://www.costofsex.com/
How to Make Friends by Telephone
Allow time to answer, apologize for wrong numbers, and, dear God, use a normal tone of voice. Some things just don't change, as evidenced by these historically compelling tips from a phone etiquette manual circa the 1940s.http://contactsheet.org/articles/2003/04/23/how_to_make_friends_by_telephone.html
Exhilarator takes single-panel comics, separates the art from the cutline, and slaps together random pairings from the two piles. It's an exercise in the absurd, and absurdly can always seem to make at least a little sense.
http://www.monochrom.at/erheiterer/index-english.htm
This mini-script shows what the "Troy" movie should have been. It's much funnier than the real thing - and that's saying a lot - and it doesn't suck two-and-a-half hours out of your life.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleolinda/99710.html
Movie Scenes You Didn't Get to See
Worth1000.com hosted a Fark-esque PhotoShop fest. Self-explanatory and entertaining, in a high-bandwidth kind of way.http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=2879
Make Your Own Iraqi Kid with Sign
That photo of an American soldier posing with Iraqi children who hold a makeshift cardboard sign has been circulating for a while. Visit this site to write your own message on the cardboard and hours of politically incorrect hilarity ensue!http://www.ryano.net/iraq/index.php
"There's no place like 127.0.0.1"
Hey, this door mat is soooo cool! Gee, can you tell that some of us are geeks? $50 from ThinkGeek. But wait, shouldn't it be "There's no place like index.html" TM © ® ?http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/6806/
Is Your Web Page Good or Evil?
Worried that the forces of evil may be wreaking havoc on your favorite Web page? Visit the Gematriculator to rate the good and evil content of a page using the power of numerology.http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/
SOFTWARE
Windows Media Player 10 Technical Beta
Microsoft has released the new Windows Media Player and is looking for feedback on any technical bugs you can find. Please, no mad laughter from the hacker gallery. So what's new in the update? Apparently, Microsoft is embracing online music services in a big way, as it has shown screen shots of integration with Napster, MusicNow, and CinemaNow. The integration involves a new digital-rights technology that aims to give online media retailers more options for controlling how you can consume their wares. Microsoft is also touting how the new Windows Media Player can sync with all sorts of portable music devices. This obviously targets Apple's iTunes/iPod symbiosis, though Microsoft is rather late to the table in this particular game. The software is available for download, for Windows XP only.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx
CORRECTIONS
Leif Ericson Viking Ship Sails to New URL
Listen: You have heard of the Danish kings in the old days and how they were great warriors. You have heard of a well built ship in the land of Pennsylvania (see NSD 6.36). The ship has landed in the new URL.NSD 6.36: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v06/nsd.06.36.html#SS13
Ship: http://www.vikingship.org