BREAKING SURF
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| Doom 3 For Linux Released |
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BREAKING SURF
The backers of the Ansari X Prize are hoping to capitalize on the publicity generated by SpaceShipOne's recent win of that $10-million prize. The World Technology Network (WTN) wants to build on its success by applying the concept to technologies other than space flight. The WTN plans to launch a series of technology prizes to promote research into "the greatest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century." Allow us to snidely hint that the search for a cure to run-on sentences be at the top of that list - check out the humdinger below the "About the WTN X Prize" headline. The WTN seeks advice. What challenges should it select? How much money should the prizes offer? Under what rules? You can submit comments at the WTN's sparse Web site.http://www.wtnxprize.org/
In dribs and drabs this week, the Nobel committee has been releasing the names of this year's prizewinners. The Peace prize went to Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and the first woman from Africa to be so honored. In the sciences, winners were honored for work on discoveries related to the strong interaction in Physics, protein degradation in Chemistry, and smell receptors in Medicine. Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the Literature prize.
http://nobelprize.org/
MacArthur Foundation Chooses 2004 Fellows
The MacArthur Foundation profiles the nearly two dozen new MacArthur fellows on its Web site. Each fellow wins a grant worth a cool $500,000, no strings attached. Recipients range from a nanotech specialist to a debate coach to a health-care leader working to address the needs of Native Alaskan families - and that's just the start. There's something for everyone here, and each story is inspiring. That's what the grants are all about: incubating excellence.http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm
The Level of Presidential Debate
General opinion holds that John Kerry won the first Presidential debate, though the impact of that victory on voters is debatable. What is not debatable is the dumbing down of political dialogue - and we're not just talking about the simplification of complex issues into sound bites. YourDictionary.com's linguists have analyzed the verbal level of famous political dialogues, from the Douglas-Lincoln debates (q.v.) through all modern televised debates up to this year's first Bush vs. Kerry. They found that the reading level of the language used in the debates has over time declined from a 12th-grade reading level to the high 7th grade. In their first debate, Bush scored Grade 6.8 and Kerry made Grade 7.3. You can judge those performances for yourself with transcript and RealVideo available at CNN. For your comparison pleasure, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has transcripts of other modern Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates all the way back to the first Kennedy-Nixon clash.YourDictionary.com 1: http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/presart1.html
YourDictionary.com 2: http://www.yourdictionary.com/about/presdebate04.html
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/
CPD: http://www.debates.org/pages/debtrans.html
Google News: Google Print, Gmail Upgrades, SMS Searches
The big news from Google this week was its introduction of Google Print, which lets you search the text of books. The function puts Google squarely in competition with Amazon.com's A9 search engine - now both use Google Web searches and search inside books. Google Print uses what Gervase Markham calls a clue-barrier to implement digital-rights management, and he describes how to circumvent it. Brute-force methods, like screenshots and printing, work just as well. Gmail's new features include an officially supported Gmail notifier that will let Windows users know when new e-mail has arrived. The site also boasts improvements to contact lists, specifically adding a search capability similar to that on the messages themselves, e-mail forwarding, and the ability to save drafts. Google proper has also released an SMS-phone-enabled search service, best described in Google SMS's own words: "Send your query as a text message and get phone book listings, dictionary definitions, product prices and more. Just text. No links. No web pages."Google Print: http://print.google.com/
Markham: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/006657.html
Gmail: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about_whatsnew.html
Google SMS: http://www.google.com/sms/index.html
Google is proud of the fact that it hires ubergeeks. It's almost as if Google has some kind of standardized test that geeks could pass to earn a really cool job there - call it, say, a Google Labs Aptitude Test. Well, there is. The test is four pages long and, yes, it does include essay questions. Once you have completed it - good luck! - you can send it in to the given address and hold your breath until they call you. There's no indication that this is a joke, though some of the questions make us question the validity of the offer - "Please fill (this space) with something that improves upon emptiness," for example. This concludes our Googlesurfer Digest broadcast day.
http://www.google.com/googleblog/2004/09/pencils-down-people.html
Chemical & Engineering News Reviews the Movies
The New York Times reports that Chemical & Engineering News (CEN) is livening up its Web site with movie reviews. Readers are still adjusting to the shock but on the whole, response has been positive. Of course, the slant is scientific, as you'd expect from the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. That perspective means CEN had a decidedly different take on "The Day After Tomorrow" from that of mainstream critics, who generally weren't impressed by the environmental disaster movie. CEN, however, awarded the movie four stars. Although the reviewer judged most of the events physically and thermodynamically impossible, she liked the way the movie compressed into mere days climate changes that would probably take decades or longer in the real world. The reviewer graded the movie higher because not all characters were unrealistic stereotypes - the bearded scientist portrayed by Ian Holms reminded the reviewer of similar types she encounters at global-warming conferences. The publication doesn't always fawn however. Another recent movie, Godsend, was given only a single star, for its monstrous portrayal of genetic engineering.http://pubs.acs.org/cen/reelscience/
EarthLink Jumps into Phone Business
Pity the poor phone companies. First, online Voice over IP (VoIP) companies like Vonage went after their business and now the US's second largest ISP is chasing a slice of the phone-service pie. EarthLink this week announced the availability of free online calling, although it's only free if you already have EarthLink's high-bandwidth service and want to call Internet phones on networks like SIPphone, Free World Dialup, and EarthLink itself. The service is basically no different from all the other Internet phone offerings out there, with all the usual features like voice mail, three-way calling, an online call log, and so on. You can also use the service on the road from your laptop. EarthLink also has a VoIP service called EarthLink Unlimited Voice which connects to the traditional cell and land line systems. That's available for $30 per month and offers unlimited calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. What's it all mean? Per-minute charges for phone service are on the way to the dustheap of history. In short order, full phone service will be thrown in for free with your Internet connection.EarthLink: http://www.earthlink.net/extras/onlinecalling/
Unlimited Voice: http://www.unlimitedvoice.com/
The young embrace nearly all new technology first and provide most of the market for innovation. Older people are slower to adopt new things and to abandon older ways of doing things. Harvey Bingham, a 72-year-old information accessibility consultant, wants companies to work on getting older people to embrace computers and the Internet as fully as he has. He thinks industry needs to put more effort into finding ways to make technology easier to use and more appealing for older people. The Internet offers far more than just e-mail and online shopping. As examples of benefits the Net can offer seniors, CNET cites mostly medically related technology, such as dreamy medical miracles via information sharing and the chilling notion of remote access to caregivers. As 6,000 Americans turn 65 each day and older people usually have more money than younger people, seniors form a large and attractive potential market. However, with huge numbers of largely untapped young people in emerging countries such as China, India and Russia beckoning online marketers, how much work will actually go into addressing seniors?
http://news.com.com/2100-1046_3-5385220.html
What the Dotcom Bubble Got Right
The dotcom bubble may be history, but what lessons can we draw from its irrational enthusiasm? Paul Graham worked at Yahoo when Yahoo's stock was worth $200 a share. He's a prominent software developer and when he writes something, you should read it. That also goes for this, his essay on the bubble. We liked Graham's discussion of nerd culture and its cultural and economic ramifications. Also of interest is his claim that some 26-year-olds are ready to run the world. We wonder about that one....http://www.paulgraham.com/bubble.html
Podcasting is the art of automatically downloading an audio program to your iPod. You can glue your iPod to an RSS news reader with the help of some helper software, and that will allow you to automatically download chosen audio files to your iPod whenever you sync with iTunes. Engadget has a quick guide that also shows you how to create your own Podcast feeds, and includes pointers to feeds you can subscribe to. At the moment, it's all a bit kludgy, involves several software packages, and only works on the Mac, but the idea is so compelling that you can expect more integrated software to turn up soon. Maybe you'll be the one who writes it. Wired has more.
Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/entry/5843952395227141/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,65237,00.html
The Return of the Browser Wars?
Are the browser wars back? If you're still using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), you might want to read this informative CNET series on IE and its challengers. CNET clearly identifies what's wrong with Microsoft's underdeveloped browser and with the company's belief that the browser is part of the OS rather than a stand-alone application. As a result of its stance, Microsoft has produced very little browser development - consumers will have to wait for Longhorn to see anything different. In the meantime, go read this series and do it with Firefox. Your PC will love you even more for closing all those security holes.http://news.com.com/2009-1032_3-5388995.html
10th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
Fans of text adventure games will want to check out the Interactive Fiction Competition, now underway. Some 36 short games are available for download. Play them, pick your favorites, and vote on various prizes, including the coveted Golden Banana of Discord, given to the game whose votes have the highest standard deviation. The contest demands that the games be playable in under two hours. You'll need to download two files, for either Windows or Mac, and you'll have hours of fun text-based gameplay at your disposal. The annual contest is organized by the denizens of the rec.arts.int-fiction Usenet newsgroup, which is worth visiting for fans of good storytelling in general. Games from past contests are also available through links on the Web site.http://ifcomp.org/
Tech Activists Form Political Action Committee
IPac is a new political action group dedicated to reining in US intellectual property (IP) laws. The group believes recent IP legislation has exceeded the bounds of propriety, and hopes to reverse the legislative trend of bowing to corporate interests. IPac is obviously a work in progress. It claims to be nonpartisan and this issue doesn't really follow party lines, yet IPac's founders all fall squarely within the Democratic Party fold. The group itself supports six candidates, three Republicans and three Democrats, including the American public's IP-rights champion in Congress, Rep. Rick Boucher. CNET has a brief article on the effort.IPac: http://ipaction.org/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5388708.html
Third Annual Boobie-Thon for Breast Cancer
Bloggers all over the Net are publicizing the Boobie-Thon, an online charity event that raises money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Bloggers of both sexes have submitted photographs of their breasts, both bare and covered. You can ogle the covered boobs on the public Web site, but if you donate you can get access to the racier "pay-per-boob" site. At press time, the Boobie-Thon has raised some $7,000 and has surpassed last year's haul. Their cups runneth over.Boobie-Thon: http://www.boobiethon.com/
Komen Foundation: http://www.komen.org/
ADMINISTRIVIA
It's that time of year again, when moms tune up their sewing machines and even autoparts stores deck out in orange and black. Yes, Halloween is on the horizon, and we at NSD are already quaking before the horror of slapping another Halloween issue together. But you can help. Send us your most terrifying, disgusting, and petrifying bookmarks and we'll try to whip up something as tasty as a pumpkin pie made with real kin. Send your contributions to mailto:pressroom@netsurf.com and go pumpkining.ONLINE CULTURE
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The Inner Circle
Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River
Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy
A First Course in String TheorySURFING SITES
Five Days as a Hostage in Iraq
You think your life sucks? We think Scott Taylor wouldn't mind trading five of his days for five of yours. In "Hostage in Iraq: Five days in Hell", the Canadian journalist tells how he spent five days in Iraq as a hostage. Although the narrative reads like a Stephen King short story, it really happened. There's a saying that the worst day of fishing beats the best day of working, but after reading this account, your space in the cube-farm will feel extra safe and enjoyable.http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_243.htm
The Face of Tomorrow is an innovative experiment that explores issues of globalization and identity. The project takes a series of photographs of a locale's inhabitants and combines the basic elements of all the faces to create one new face that represents that location's average facial features. The name of the project derives from the supposition that the genetic blending of the inhabitants will eventually lead to a shared average look - and as the folks who study this kind of thing know, averaged faces are nearly universally appealing. The originator, Mike Mike, developed the idea after visiting London and noting the wide diversity in the look of that city's people. Upon returning to his native Istanbul, he noted a lack of diversity in appearance. While the project boasts only the handful of cities that Mike has visited, guests to the site will still find his photography and technique intriguing. As with any artist, Mike is seeking sponsors, to help him further globalize his project.
http://www.faceoftomorrow.com/
How far is it from Edinburgh to Cardiff? When did the English Civil War break out? How long does light from the sun take to reach Earth? These are the sort of questions you might not know the exact answers to, although you might venture a roughly accurate guess. This slightly Anglo-centric Estimation Quiz tests not only your knowledge, but how well you know your powers of estimation. The quiz takes a few minutes and allows you to give an exact answer to any question, which will earn you maximum points if correct, or set yourself a margin of error which will score you fewer points but allow you to score even if you don't have the exact answer. The quizmaster, Chris Lightfoot, draws some conclusions about the way people have answered the questions, which makes for fascinating reading, though which started to go over our functionally innumerate reporter's head when it strayed into the realms of statistical analysis.
Estimation Quiz: http://roughly.beasts.org/
Lightfoot: http://ex-parrot.com/~chris/wwwitter/20040828-the_weirdness_of_crowds.html
Debates between political opponents have long been an important feature of democracies. Well before the time of television and political blogs, Stephen Douglas took on Abraham Lincoln in a series of debates in Illinois. At stake was Douglas's Senate seat, which he had held for 15 years. The seven debates took place Aug. 21 to Oct. 15, 1858. Contrary to what you might imagine, Lincoln did not in these debates offer ringing declarations of brotherhood towards blacks. For him, ending slavery was an issue of morality and not equality. Prophetically, he warned that the divisive slavery issue had to be settled one way or the other nationwide. Douglas held that each jurisdiction should make its own decision on slavery and rejected the notion that the subject could critically affect the country. Douglas had opposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state and so most slave states ironically backed Lincoln's opposition to Douglas. In 1858, Illinois voters elected a Democratic legislature that would return Douglas to the US Senate, although Lincoln's Republicans earned a majority share of Illinois's popular vote, scoring a moral victory. The Douglas-Lincoln debates have been digitized and are fascinating historical documents, giving clear insights into political thinking at a critical time in US history.
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_053800_lincolndougl.htm
If pushed to name a town from the Old West, many cowboy fans will mention Deadwood, S.D. thanks to its connection with Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill. Now South Dakota is celebrating the social history of that town and the surrounding region in a new Web site that documents the frontier era of 1860-1880. The site presents cultural documents, like the progressive entry requirements for women seeking agricultural education, proclamations about Indian reservations, and correspondence between Christian missionaries. The story isn't told just through text, though. You can also watch a magic lantern show (thanks to Flash), see contemporary postcards of the town, and even play with interactive maps to see the area's population boom. Any fan of John Wayne is going to love the details of daily life here; all the site needs to add is a way to make you a virtual sheriff.
http://www.dakotaexperience.org/
The Very Real Economics of Thurston Howell III
What could possibly tie a TV show like "Gilligan's Island" to gold and currency theory? This brilliant essay fleshes out those links a bit. On Gilligan's Island, the castaways end up with a working economy based upon the patently worthless paper that millionaire Thurston Howell had inexplicably decided to bring on a three-hour tour. Oddly, the same sort of phenomenon played out in Iraq's Kurdish territories - and even briefly in Baghdad itself. We generally consider paper money to have value because it is backed by the power of government - in essence, it has value because a government says it has value. Yet on Gilligan's Island, and later in Iraq, a lack of government backing didn't alter a currency's value because the individuals involved were culturally acclimated to making exchanges with slips of unbacked paper. The reason seems to be that limited supply of the paper ensures a degree of economic stability within the cultural entity in which bargaining occurs. Got that, little buddy?http://mises.org/fullstory.aspx?control=1595
It took millions of people to make the US what it is today. Of course, some stand out amidst the others. In November, PBS will run a four-part series called "They Made America" which features 12 American innovators who embody, as the Web site states, "a culture of reinvention." PBS categorizes these important figures in four groups: Revolutionaries, including Robert Fulton, who popularized the steamboat, and Lewis Tappan, who pioneered credit ratings; Newcomers, including British immigrant Samuel Insull, apprentice to Thomas Edison and builder of the world's largest power plant, and Ida Rosenthal, who invented the Maidenform bra; Gamblers includes Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie doll; Rebels offers CNN founder Ted Turner and Russell Simmons, "marketing maestro of hip-hop". It's quite an assortment of folks. The Innovators Tournament features these innovators with others such as George Eastman (founder of Eastman Kodak), Walt Disney, and the Wright Brothers. A submission form for comments suggests that PBS will post readers' views after the broadcast. Overall, the focus is education rather than entertainment. This site is likely to be a good resource for teachers.
http://www.pbs.org/theymadeamerica/
How many weeks ago did we say we'd try to avoid Wikipedia? Forget that - it's too much fun. We found this handy list of company-name etymologies there, and it's too much fun to take a principled, skeptical stance. Who knew that Adidas was named for founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler? (We did, although we admit we didn;t know Adi was short for Adolph). Or that Fiat is an acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory Cars of Turin; not "Fix it again, Tony")? Or that Starbuck's is named for a character in "Moby Dick"? Somebody must. Company names have inserted themselves so thoroughly into everyday language, what with that there global economy and the ubiquitousness of advertising that goes along with it, that it behooves us to comprehend the origins and background of the names and brands we bandy about. If nothing else, it's cool trivia. Here's your chance to really impress your friends with some arcane knowledge - and mightily bored they'll be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies
The Art of Cooking for Engineers
Cooking for Engineers isn't about making dinner for engineers, it's about teaching engineers to cook. It's a combination recipe book and blog. The underlying structure is a blog, but so much has been added that to call this site simply a blog would be a major error. As expected on an engineer's site, the recipes are solid, tasty, and very, very well diagrammed. Nothing is too spicy, though. The ingredient and preparation charts work well. Most other recipe sites and cookbooks would benefit from a similar presentation. The articles and additional sections are a mixed bag. Sometimes they're well done and interesting and other times they're just the result of a trip to the market with a camera (such as the Ingredient Dictionary). The recipe comments are typical low-quality blog comments. Stick to the recipes and equipment articles.http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
To the Person Who Found the Camera
Ever lose your digital camera? Ever wonder what someone thought of all those pictures you had taken outside the context in which you had snapped them? Brian Sack wrote a thoughtful and utterly hilarious letter to whoever found his digital camera at the restaurant at which he left it. Sack's explanation for the camera's 17 stored images of a cat's anus is illuminating. Beware the cats' drummer. That ain't candy.http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000172.html
We probably think about our hair more than we would be prepared to admit. We worry about whether we're balding or graying, we spend far too much money on hair-care products and hairdressers, and many of us laugh at the misfortune of others on mullet Web sites. But what do we actually know about hair itself? The UK's Natural History Museum has an online exhibition that might answer some questions. You can see videos of hair actually growing (with time-lapse photography, not in real time), take a close look at its microscopic structure, or use virtual hair cut-outs to try out a hairdo before you let your barber loose on your head. There's even a game for kids which has them racing their own head louse through a head of hair answering questions to get past obstacles. Now, back to the mullet sites....
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hair/
The Revolution and Evolution of Video Games
The Video Game Revolution will make you feel nostalgic for the days spent camped out in front of the tube as you mastered Pong. The site is based on a PBS show, first aired Sept. 8, that draws on the history of the video-game industry to expound on the social implications of modern interaction with the medium. It includes a timeline of chief events, some online quizzes, and short video clips of interviews with all sorts of people. In the timeline, this ironic statement is made: "In these pre-arcade days, the game is placed in bars and taverns." With the advent of venues like Jillian's and Dave & Buster's, the game has moved back to bars and taverns, but now the game is the chief draw instead of the drink.http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/
By now, we're used to toy collectors who display their collections online, but Loren Javier's virtual toy chest is slightly different - he collects action figures, dolls, and other assorted toys of Asian and Pacific Island ethnicity. He has hundreds of toys, from Mowgli McDonald's Happy Meal toys to GI Joe's Japanese sidekick, Quick Kick. Javier offers photos of most, along with entertaining descriptions and factoids - did you know, for example, that while there are Barbies from several different parts of Asia and the Pacific, there is only one Ken, Hawaiian Ken? Javier has an ethnicity guide to the toys, reachable through a link stowed away on the About the Toy Chest page. The size of Javier's collection is testament both to his commitment and to the fact, as he points out, that the Asian community, often under-represented in contemporary popular culture despite being the third largest minority in the US, is making itself more visible in the mainstream.
http://www.lorenjavier.com/toychest/asian/
Old-School Wargamers Head Online
Unless you were a full-fledged devotee of the hobby, you may not have realized that the 1970s were the apogee of the board-wargaming era. Game companies such as Simulation Publications Inc. (SPI), Game Designers Workshop, and Avalon Hill produced hundreds of games (or "simulations" as we aficionados preferred to call them) in which opponents could re-fight the famous and not-so-famous battles and campaigns of military history, and even a few that never took place, but could have. The folks at HexWar have made it possible for old warhorses to re-create their glory days by developing out-of-print SPI games and making them available for online play. Joining to simply download the games is free, but you'll have to subscribe if you want to play against an online opponent. Since these games are turn-based, you and your partner needn't be online at the same time. Our reviewer immediately signed up for a game of Napoleon at Waterloo - and is getting his virtual butt kicked. Anyhow, all of you old wargamers should take note: board wargaming is back and back big!http://www.hexwar.com/
The Jargon of Reality Television
Last month, Slate's Kevin Arnovitz posted a short but revealing article for those of us unfamiliar with reality-TV production jargon. Arnovitz worked this past summer as a writer-producer on a political reality series he doesn't identify. His "Virtual Dictionary" will help you get with the program if you don't know a challenge producer from a date producer. The latter would seem to have a job ripe for romance, with responsibilities that often include coaxing confessions from participants, cultivating jealousies, and getting participants wasted sufficiently to make the sordid miscues essential to a dating show. A noble profession indeed! You can probably guess what "story" and "money shot" mean and why they're important in the biz, but if you don't know how to cap them off in your own series, Arnovitz will help you sort out pre-cap, mid-cap, and recap while you and your friends are sequestered - the better to capture OTFs with pelcos or whatever. We like his teaser and hope Arnovitz will shed more light on reality TV in future prose.http://slate.msn.com/id/2106572/
Where Political Cartoons Meet Sims
In an effort to "make us think about what is going on in the world", Newsgaming.com presents a pair of political simulations that touch on the War on Terror. We have no qualms saying the Madrid game is devoid of worth - both in terms of gameplay and meaning. A crowd with T-shirts that memorialize massacres (we hesitate to put Baghdad in that category, however) holds candles that you must keep lit by clicks, without confronting the nature of the massacres, as if the people who died there were victims of an earthquake. The more interesting "game" is September 12th, a sort of virtual Fallujah or Gaza, where you rain rockets (no need to guess whose rockets they are, is there?) down into a crowded Arab town to kill terrorists, but every time you hit a civilian, other civilians weep and turn into terrorists. The message is clear: the more we confront and combat terrorism, the more we will be targeted and killed by the terrorists we consequently create. On the FAQ page, the creators freely admit that the games are biased, as if we couldn't figure that one out.http://www.newsgaming.com/index.htm
Controversy surrounds Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11". Its success has political pundits speculating on its impact on the upcoming election. A new film tries to head off any damage Moore's film may have on Republican success in November. The new film, "Fahrenhype 9/11", tries to debunk Moore's theories. It surprisingly features noted Democrats like Dick Morris, Ed Koch, Ron Silver, and a host of others. While "Fahrenhype 9/11" hasn't garnered as much hype as its target, it's still likely to heat up debates. At the movie's official site, you can watch the trailer, read more about the featured speakers in the film, and order the DVD and its companion book.
http://www.fahrenhype911.com/
In the same way that critics of vegetarianism dub that cuisine "rabbit food", the critics of ecology-aware consumers dub them "treehuggers". The Treehugger site turns the term into something positive. At Treehugger, green buyers can check out the latest in goods designed to be both stylish and eco-friendly. Products range from the unusual hi-tech solar-powered backpack to the simple Heatherwick jointed plank that unfolds into a table or stool. The prices of the goods for sale here range widely - some of these items are concept pieces from designers testing the ideals but not the affordability of such products. We liked the brown-paper wall tiles although they might not work in the shower, and bookworms are sure to love the shelf created from discarded hardcovers. Take a look, these people are proving that worthy aims do not always equal dull designs.
http://www.treehugger.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
NSD favorite Rob Cockerham noticed the new Atkins menu at the TGI Friday's restaurant chain. He put together a mocking replacement and with the help of volunteers insinuated it into restaurants across the US. A cube of butter, a few bacon slices, and PhotoShop: mmm, meatalicious!http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/menu/menu01.html
The first rule of Pillow Fight Club is "No dry humping!" - no, wait, wrong club and wrong rule number. Pillow Fight Club rules are simple: tell everyone; turn up with a pillow; fight at designated time; and no collateral damage. It's based in London.
http://www.mobile-clubbing.com/pillow.html
Filling that all-important void in the "death by dessert" genre is Roulette Chocolate, a game in which 11 players get tasty chocolate bullets and one poor sucker gets a chocolate bullet filled with hot chili pepper. This is probably best played while inebriated, but what isn't?
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=604
So You Want to Date a Stripper?
Here's some (hard won?) advice on dating a member of the ecdysiastic workforce. The advice addresses many special problems involved with being involved with a one of these special artistes.http://www.identitytheory.com/insight/bruns9.html
Here's the new iMac G5, disassembled in anally obsessive detail. The site has many aesthetically pleasing photos, and links to several other Apple products treated with equal attention to dismantlable detail. Warranty? What warranty?
http://www.kodawarisan.com/imacg5/imacg501.html
We don't really need to say anything except: "Yes, I'd like to put a box of 20 .303 174-grain full-metal-jacket ammo on this here card, please."
http://www.sanrio.com/main/card/card.html
What if each computer operating systems were personified as cute anime-style girls called OS-tans? The Internet was just made for such profound ruminations. Wikipedia has far more info than you really want about this particular odd corner of Net culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan
The God FAQ is surprisingly pithy and concise, considering the complexity of the subject and the amount of brainpower dedicated to pondering the issue.
http://www.400monkeys.com/God/
The Net's Most Accurate English-to-English Translator
A triumph of artificial intelligence, the dictionary never gets it wrong. There are also versions in six other European languages.http://dict.harlanlandes.com/
Three words: naked-body spelling.
http://www.petardas.com/pornonombre/index.php
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SOFTWARE
Linux gamers can rejoice now that Doom 3 has been ported to their operating system of choice. Anybody who wants to play in Linux has to download the files from Id Software, then copy some game files from legitimate Doom 3 Windows CDs. As is typical with such ports, this one has some issues with specific hardware configurations, so read Id's FAQ. You can also download the Doom 3 multiplayer server and a demo of the game.Id: http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/doom/
Doom 3: http://www.doom3.com/
Linux distribution releases are a dime a dozen, so why does this one deserve our space? Well, with the demise of Red Hat's retail box releases, Novell's SUSE distribution has assumed the mantle of main commercial consumer distribution. As such, it is highly visible and will be installed by many people new to Linux. That's not a bad thing, since the SUSE Linux distribution is a consumer-friendly and capable Linux package, coming in both a Personal and Professional edition that differ mostly in the number of applications included in the box. SUSE comes with excellent support and good documentation, and is a good first choice for people who want to try Linux for the first time. You'll find more on what's in SUSE 9.2 on the Web site.
http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/index.html
This deceptively simple concept is just way cool: drag a map, or any image, into MapMemo to establish a background map. Then drag files from your desktop to a spot on the image, and the file is automatically associated with that chosen hotspot. You can go back to the literal image map later, click on a hotspot, and the associated file will open. There's all sorts of meta-data mumbo-jumbo associated with the map's hotspots, and you can navigate, create layers, and store related information. According to the MapMemo Web site, most people seem to use it to associate files with actual geographic maps. This is very cool donation-ware, for Mac OS X only.
http://www.mapmemo.com/
Some Notes on Cell Phone Predictive Text Technology
When you type text messages on your cell phone, the phone uses a predictive algorithm to guess what word you're typing and save you some key presses. This Web page presents a quick analysis of the technology, usually called iTap. It turns out that the number of word collisions - i.e. the number of possible words which may be formed using a given set of starting letters - is quite small in English. This enables algorithms such as iTap to quickly find the word you want to enter on your phone keyboard with almost 97% accuracy.http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itprnn/itap/