BREAKING SURF
| BBC Tests Search Engines |
| Another Type of Link Rank |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Google Scholar Plug-in for Firefox |
| OTR's Encrypted Chat |
| See Ya Next Year |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
The New York Times is a tough place for us to cover, since the paper removes content from free viewing after a week. We're going to try to hurry you to the Dec. 12 edition of the New York Times Magazine, however, because it's packed with coolness and well worth the hassle of registering if you haven't already. The issue is the magazine's take on the "Year in Ideas" and it looks back on 2004's contribution to thought. Stephen Hawking is one of the great thinkers, and the interview with the physicist alone is worth pointing you toward. There's so much here that you can literally spend days going through the stuff - but hurry. You may feel protected by your firewall and antivirus software as you browse, but reading the first article of the magazine's list, "Acoustic Keyboard Eavesdropping", will reveal that you're not as long as there's a microphone in the vicinity. Keystrokes can be logged by sound (we covered this some time ago), thanks to the fact that each keypress yields a slightly different sound. With a parabolic microphone and software, your neighbor could be capturing your passwords. Even worse news is on the horizon.http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html
Google To Index Major Book Libraries
Google has gone wilder than we ever dreamed - it plans to scan all or parts of several libraries' holdings into its digital space. A small number of major libraries have agreed to participate by varying degrees. Harvard University Library (HUL) has agreed to a limited scan of just 40,000 volumes. Michigan's and Stanford's will reportedly permit scanning and integration of all their content, while the New York Public Library will permit Google to scan and integrate material no longer subject to copyright protection. Oxford University will permit scanning of anything published before 1901. As one librarian has noted, "This is the day the world changes." Google promises in a press release to respect copyright law and links to a sample of the future. HUL offers a FAQ and MSNBC has a brief report.Google: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.html
HUL: http://hul.harvard.edu/publications/041213faq.html
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6709342/
The Case of Dioxin-ed Candidate
The hero of the orange revolution in Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, has been diagnosed with dioxin poisoning. If you pay attention to the news, you know that dioxins can make your face look like it suffered an attack of micrometeorites, but what else do they do? Certainly, dioxins are not good for you - they affect the liver and digestive system and may lead to cancer. Dioxins are a mix of hundreds of chlorinated compounds produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of certain plastics and pesticides, and can be produced by incineration. Individual dioxins vary widely in toxicity. PCBs and Agent Orange, ironically, are perhaps the most notorious members of the dioxin family. Dioxins are pervasive chemicals, so trace amounts are not at all uncommon. Because they are highly soluble in fat, they tend to accumulate in the food chain and can be ingested in meat and dairy products. Yushchenko's body tissues contain amounts some 6,000 times higher than normal, so it seems that someone has been slipping him something. The question is, who? CNN has more, while the EJnet serves up the goods on the chemicals.CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/12/12/dioxins.ap
EJnet.org: http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin
The World's Smallest P2P Application
Ed Felten, known for his opposition to the anti-copyright-circumvention DMCA, has written a 15-line Python program called TinyP2P that is a fully functional peer-to-peer (P2P) file-trading application. The point of the program is not to be the smallest possible P2P client ever - we know you can do it in fewer lines using Perl, as shown in the very first user comment on Felten's Freedom to Tinker weblog. Rather, Felten wrote the program to point out the absurdity of trying to legislate P2P systems. If you can put it on a T-shirt, you can't legislate it, as has been amply proven by past attempts to outlaw strong encryption systems.Felten: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000738.html
TinyP2P: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/tinyp2p.html
Firefox Ad Runs in the New York Times
Firefox's two-page black-and-white ad ran in the New York Times Dec. 16 and featured the names of the 10,000 donors who made it possible. This is part of a campaign by the open-source community to encourage adoption of the Firefox browser in preference to Internet Explorer, which has been riddled with bugs and security problems during its existence. As the ad points out, Firefox has been downloaded more than 10 million times and has been steadily gaining market share at the expense of Internet Explorer over the last few months. The Mozilla Store is selling a large poster of the ad. MozillaZine is hosting a discussion about the ad and its potential impact.Ad: http://www.mozilla.org/images/nyt_ad_large_2004.png
Mozilla Store: http://www.mozillastore.com/products/stuff/nytimesfirefox/
MozillaZine: http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=5781
Taking a cue from Google's minimalist user interface, Yahoo has introduced this straightforward search interface for its new video search. The search works fairly well, generally returning relevant video hits, although the number of items returned is generally low. For example, a search on "Jon Stewart" returned only 61 hits, despite the fact that video clips of his "The Daily Show" are widely scattered online. This is still a beta test, so maybe final results will be more comprehensive. Yahoo invites video-content providers to submit their material to the index using the Media RSS standard. We should also note that the service does not directly index the script or frames of the video, but rather the general or sometimes specific subject of the clip.
Yahoo Video Search: http://video.search.yahoo.com/
Media RSS: http://tools.search.yahoo.com/mrss/mrss.html
Despite the vaunted antispam provisions of ISPs, most e-mail is spam, typically of the "don't let your kids see your e-mail" variety, laced with sophisticated phishes. Much of this unsavory and dangerous stuff comes from China. According to one estimate, 68% of the links in spam messages lead to Chinese servers. Ironically, China tries to rigidly control the Internet experience for its own population, blocking sites, controlling cybercafes, and monitoring activities relentlessly. When it comes to spamming foreigners, however, the authorities couldn't be less interested in halting the practice. Why is China such a haven for spammers? One reason is that it now has the sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure that spam operations require. Until the National People's Congress starts to care about stopping the problem, the torrent of unwanted e-mail will keep growing. The Asia Times Online reports that while the Internet Society of China waffles on about education and discussion, these are mainly a smokescreen for inaction.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FL14Ad02.html
Companies usually frown on unauthorized mucking about with their brand or brand message. It remains to be seen what Apple will do about George Masters's brilliant homemade homage to the mini iPod. The 36-year-old science teacher spent his spare time creating a 60-second animated ad over a five-month period. Set to the Darling Buds' 1990 tune "Tiny Machine", Masters's piece is a masterful, infectious commercial for a product that clearly delights. It took a while after Masters posted his ad to his own Web site, but the blogosphere plugged in and netsurfers have viewed the video hundreds of thousands of times, at least. Wired has a story and access to the ad. This classic example of fan-based support for a product has garnered many admiring comments from ad professionals. Wired also gives some pundits the opportunity to talk presciently and knowingly about things viral, consumer evangelism, and other hot and trendy stuff.
http://wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66001,00.html
iTunes Music Store Accepts PayPal, Gives Away Songs
Looks like eBay has made a deal with Apple, since the iTunes Music Store (Apple) will now accept PayPal (eBay) payments to buy music. Perhaps most notably, if you sign up for iTunes using PayPal before Mar. 31, you'll get five free songs. Reuters has a few more details about the deal and PayPal has the free song info. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/general/UsePaypalOnITunes-outsideReuters: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=7057283
If you suffer from gadget madness, you know that the cutting edge of high-tech gadgetry is only available in Japan. Why? This thoughtful and funny SF Gate column explains why so much of Japan's best consumer electronics never makes it across the Pacific, except for a very few specialty shops, and why this might not be so bad. For those of you who lust after only the latest, the article concludes with a list of seven of the leading-edgiest Japan-only gadgets.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2004/12/09/gadgetgap.DTL
People who have Bluetooth-equipped mobile phones appreciate them. After all, isn't it great to use a cordless headset? In Europe, Bluetooth phone technology is immensely popular, "ubiquitous" Wired calls it, and familiarity breeds attempts at hacking. Wired details the various ways in which your Bluetooth phone and VoIP setup can be compromised in just a few seconds. A simple demonstration of the ease with which one could harvest phone books and other personal information led the British government to ban active Bluetooth devices in the House of Parliament. The security holes are easily fixed once found, but once again hardware companies are taking advantage of users as paying beta testers.
http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/phreakers.html
Stamp Machines Take Your Photo
A Freedom of Information query from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has revealed that self-service postal machines take photographs of customers who use them and retain the information for up to 30 days. The document in question is a redacted description of the Automated Postal Center Self Service platform - basically a touch-screen stamp machine - which lays out what data it collects and how long it keeps it, among other details of the system. We all know that most ATM machines take photos of customers, but this is as far as we know the first example of a vending machine doing this. Presumably, the pictures may aid investigations of threats such as mail bombs and anthrax letters. The document is posted on an EPIC page that deals with postal privacy in general.EPIC: http://www.epic.org/privacy/postal/
Document: http://www.epic.org/privacy/postal/postalapc.pdf
http://webcomicsreview.com/examiner/issue041213/top2004.html
MarketingSherpa has an insightful article that describes how Salon's subscriptions now produce 50% of the Web site's revenues. However, you are going to have to pay $5 to read the article. Oh, hilarity! For free, we can add that NSD's own venture into paid subscriptions saved our bacon, so thank you. Humor aside, the article was free shortly before press time, and may still be worth the $5. It lays out the strategies Salon uses to make its subscriptions pay and to make its subscription renewal strategies work. If you own a weblog or other content site then you may be interested in reading the piece, even for five bucks. We'll also toss in a nod to MarketingSherpa, which features reasonably useful case studies in online marketing, freely available for 10 days after publication. A useful bookmark for online marketeers.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2867
The 366,187 votes cast have determined the winners of the 2004 Weblog Awards. You can do your browsing on the 2004 Weblog Awards page, but we must question the rather odd choice for Best Blog Design. Among all the nominees in that category, is Cold Fury really that good-looking or was the vote stacked? You be the judge.
http://2004weblogawards.com/archives/fullpoll.php
ICANN Approves .jobs and .mobi TLDs
ICANN has taken a first step toward making two new top-level domains (TLDs) available for registration. The process of selecting approved registrars and putting in the technical infrastructure to run the TLDs is likely to drag on into late next year. Both new TLDs are sponsored by commercial backers who have business interests in promoting the new namespace. The .jobs TLD is sponsored by Employ Media LLC, which wants to use it in the human resource management community, while .mobi is backed by Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone Group Services for mobile-phone use. The announcement itself is terse boilerplate. It's also worth mentioning that ICANN gave the nod to .post and .travel TLDs back in October.http://www.icann.org/minutes/resolutions-13dec04.htm
ONLINE CULTURE
We live in an era of rapid search-engine evolution. How much is searchable and how easily that data can be searched changes daily. Even the basic working design of the major search engines is not static. Interfaces change seemingly as you look at them. Most people learn one iteration of one search engine and then stick with that "brand" as it evolves. Knowing the best search engines for different tasks and being willing to use the right tool for each job will result in more search satisfaction. This BBC review looks at the five biggest and best search tools. A series of searches thoroughly tested each product. Speed was important, but arranging the results for easy use was equally important. No matter which search engine you use most and no matter what your level of search expertise, these reviews can lead you to better overall searching. Let us note one quibble: no one screen links to all five tested search engines.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4003193.stm
Search mavens are familiar with how Google uses link rank to influence search results. Now an outfit called PubSub has created another link-rank algorithm, which it describes as follows: "LinkRanks are a measure of how many pages link to each particular site, with more weight given to fresher links and to links from a wider variety of pages." It's not immediately clear how this information is useful, other than as a vanity feature - you can look up your own domain and find out how linked you are. (Before you ask, Netsurf.com is the 78,266th most linked domain at press time, up from 82,062 the day before). PubSub has a detailed explanation of its algorithm for calculating link rank, of interest to people who are curious about the structure of the Web and what information can be extracted from it.
http://www.pubsub.com/linkranks.php
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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/ |
Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind
Lyrics: 1962-2001
The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America
Uncorked: The Science of Champagne
Forensics for Dummies
SURFING SITES
The interesting Defense and the National Interest site has a fascinating article by Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld on Israeli general and minister Moshe Dayan's visit to Vietnam in 1965. Dayan went to Vietnam as a journalist, but was treated as no journalist ever was. His views on the planning and conduct of the war are piercing. He even went on a Swift boat sortie and came away impressed with the people and equipment - and totally unimpressed with what they were trying to do and what they actually did. Van Creveld tries to extend Dayan's views to the current situation in Iraq. That might be a stretch, but Dayan's comments on Vietnam in 1965 will make you think hard about the many potential similarities between then and now.http://www.d-n-i.net/creveld/why_iraq_will_end_as_vietnam_did.htm
Operation Truth Gives Troops a Place to Relate
Operation Truth is dedicated to providing troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan a place where they can air their dissidence with the prescribed line. The mere name and mission may lead you to suspect that the site is horrendously partisan, but while it does vie for a certain viewpoint, it mostly fails and it does host a bunch of cool stuff. Troops have posted photos and videos you likely won't see elsewhere - and it's not all antiwar. You can watch Iraqi kids and soldiers playing in a video clip or follow a link to a New Engalnd Journal of Medicine article on military medicine. And really, where else can you adopt a sniper? And just in time for Christmas!http://www.optruth.org/
Virtual Monkeys Attempt to Bang out Real Shakespeare
You know the oft-quoted claim that infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters over infinite time equals Shakespeare? AardAsNails Software has produced the Monkey Shakespeare Simulator (MSS), a Java applet that simulates lots of monkeys, billions and billions of monkeys. The engine uses a random-number generator with an exponentially expanding number of virtual monkeys to test the theory. Visit the page and contribute some CPU cycles to help out. The MSS record for longest coherent string at press time is 23 characters from the beginning of "Timon of Athens". For why an experiment like this is best run virtually, check out the amusing RFC 2795.MSS: http://user.tninet.se/~ecf599g/aardasnails/java/Monkey/webpages
RFC 2795: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2795.txt
History of Sears and Its Catalogue
In many ways, Sears and its catalogue built the US. It certainly filled the nation's houses. From the day in 1886 that Richard Sears first sold a few watches to the present, Sears has worked hard to provide consumers with what they wanted. Now, the company is extending its service by opening its archives online as an exhibition of its history and influence on interior design. In addition to catalogues, the company has gathered images of its famous Sears homes from 1908-1940. The mere fact that you could order an entire house from a catalogue is insane and merits investigation, particularly if you believe that you now live in such a house, as the site shows you how to identify its buildings. Even the Great Depression failed to stop the Sears steamroller, as the company opened stores that sold tombstones and tractors. They just don't make stores like that anymore, but is that why we have Internet shopping at our fingertips instead?http://www.searsarchives.com/
The Morris Museum's Memorable Mechanical Music Machines
Murtogh Guinness, of the Irish brewing family, collected mechanical musical instruments, music boxes, and automata. During his lifetime, he assembled perhaps the most diverse and extensive collection of these instruments in the world, ranging from 16th-century music boxes to elaborate mechanical musical figurines from the early 20th century. The collection has recently been awarded to the Morris Museum in New Jersey which is exhibiting some 60 of the pieces, highlights of which can be seen on the museum's Web site. The site features both audio and video files so you can hear the delightful music the instruments produce and see, in the case of the more elaborate automata, how the mechanisms work. Additionally, the museum presents articles about the history of the artifacts, the Guinness collection itself, and a biography of the man behind this bizarre and charming collection.http://www.morrismuseum.org/static/collections/guinness/guinness.html
The Great Depression forced many Americans into a homeless life. These men, and most were men, were often penniless as well as homeless. A nickel was a lot of money. Some of the more talented and enterprising hobos, as the migrants in search of work were called, discovered a way to make a nickel worth more than five cents. The American nickel of the time was the buffalo-head nickel introduced in 1916. One side had a large buffalo image and the other an Indian. With a sharp knife and time - and there was plenty of free time - the images could be carved into radical new designs. A nice result could buy a night's lodging or more. Some of these modified coins still exist and there's even a market in modern hobo-nickel recreations. This Hobo Nickels site is more than worth the trip.
http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/4044/hobo.html
For Folks Who Really Like the Sand Which Is There
For some, sand is but an occasional nuisance in their shoes. For others, apparently, it is a serious hobby. We don't know any sand collectors - or, for that matter, anyone who collects any form of soil for fun. But if the International Sand Collectors Society (ISCS) and its Web site are an elaborate hoax, call us fooled. To those who want to get down and dirty, to those who find the hourglass less satisfying than its contents, the ISCS offers photomicrographs of varieties of sand, a how-to on becoming a collector, and a bibliography (including the Library of Congress and Playboy) of society exposure. The About Us page may give you a sense of scope and intent: "ISCS members vary widely in age, occupations, and sand interests. To some, the hobby is strictly a unique, informative, and relaxing pastime with opportunities to exchange sand samples with members if they so choose." We can think of worse parties. The dues are reasonable and if you join, you get the newsletter with the unavoidable name, the Sand Paper. If you prefer to exchange sand in lieu of business cards, check out the site and polish your shovel.http://www.sandcollectors.org/ISCSHomeIndexx.html
Google, as you may have noticed, is sending digital tendrils in all directions. One took root in Orkut, Google's invitation-only community site. Orkut has expanded to Orkut Media, which features a weekly update of blog-like musings, photos, and more by Orkutians. It's interactive, but while all can read, only Orkutians can post. Repeating columns include advice on love and sex and stuff, some rants, and some genuinely thought-provoking material. What ever happened to the ugly rock star? Do we call the newest generation "Generation F" because they're force-fed or fed-up? We also enjoyed the recent look into a Costco shopping experience, and you will, too. We've all been stuck in shopping-cart traffic. Stores should employ traffic cops: "OK, lady. Yes, you, the one pushing the cart with your elbows while blabbing on a phone. Pull over. NOW!" We're somewhat shocked that Orkut Media hasn't yet been overrun with Brazilian Portuguese, the way Orkut has.
http://media.orkut.com/
Close Encounters of the Dolphin Kind
Human fascination with dolphins is explored in Dolphins: Close Encounters, an online resource from PBS's "Nature". Topics covered include dolphin communication, human and dolphin interaction, and the controversy surrounding dolphins in captivity. In addition to these main themes, PBS offers a page with loads of information on where to find out more about these remarkable creatures. Dolphins: Close Encounters offers an objective study of controversial topics concerning dolphins and allows visitors to garner their own opinion based on several different resources presented. Educators, nature enthusiasts, and dolphin lovers will find this site a worthwhile visit that presents tantalizing educational tidbits about one of the planet's most incredible inhabitants. By the way, we can tell you from first-hand experience that dolphins feel like concrete wrapped in a rubber wetsuit.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/dolphins/
If you think you've seen it all on the Web, think again. Members of Live-Shot will soon be able to hunt from the comfort of their homes. Although still in development, Live-Shot hopes to let members use their computers and Net access to hunt a variety of game. We may need to emphasize that the hunters will shoot living, breathing creatures that roam a secluded ranch in the Texas hill country - not virtual facsimiles. Live-Shot membership costs $15 per month. Members can now buy target-practice shoot sessions of ten shots in 20 minutes for $6. Hunts will cost $150 plus a harvest fee. Full details are disclosed on the Web site. Although visitors are not permitted to view any of the video streams available to members, guests can watch a short demo video for a peek at this innovative twist on an age-old pursuit.
http://www.live-shot.com/species.shtml
Just about every adult we know drinks coffee, and many like to talk about the stuff. Your appreciation of a good cup should grow with visits to INeedCoffee, a richly informative site for coffee addicts and occasional connoisseurs. Even the titles of recent articles, such as "Shade Coffee at the Altar of Sacrifice", got us up for extended browsing. The site's major aspects are the expected recipes, health issues, and history. What you're likely to end up talking about are specific discoveries. For example, you can organize your coffee details on your Palm with the Barista free software. You do keep a coffee log, don't you? Bone up on recipes for, say, pepper coffee steak, espresso-flavored beer, and Tom's black bean coffee chili. Learn how to roast coffee beans on your stovetop. Enjoy coffee poetry, cartoons, and art. Sign up for coffee feeds - virtual - on the Coffee RSS page. Romance, business, and agriculture all play a part in the global craze for morning brew and all permeate the site. This is serious stuff.
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/
Natalie MacLean knows her wine and loves it, too. Her passion for the fruit of the vine shines through the articles on her Web site. Her biography section groans under the weight of awards she has received for her writing on wine-related topics. When you read her, you'll see why. Her knowledge of viniculture is excellent but she steers clear of pretension and tackles hard issues like encouraging our children to eat well at their schools, how to match wines to frozen dinners, and how to buy wine as an investment. If you like a goblet of the grape-stuff, get reading; MacLean has something to teach you whether you think you are novice or expert. If you need more, sign up for her free newsletter - and make sure you have some cash on hand to splurge on that tasty little Merlot from the secret vineyard she'll advise you about.
http://www.nataliemaclean.com/
Though you may not share the opinions or viewpoints of the Practical Hippie, you'll probably find something here to pique your curiosity. The site offers opinions on health, the environment, politics, and just about any topic that causes the great unwashed to be passionate, pensive or peeved. The creator of the site, Margaret Collins, is an independent researcher, activist, and librarian. She shares her viewpoints in the form of essays, articles, and weblogs on her online soapbox. Subjects she has covered thus far include globalization, declining sperm counts, the butter versus margarine debate, Paris Hilton, growing sprouts, bottled water, and a plethora of other topics. The Practical Hippie is a fun romp through some of the most controversial topics and a definite pantry of food for thought.
http://www.practicalhippie.com/
Nerds are not known for their toned, muscular physiques; perhaps it's the long hours behind the monitor or at the joystick that leave little time for hitting the gym. But help is on hand for the nerd with the need for exercise in the shape of Meatcity's handy online exercise manual. The workout regime is designed with the nerd lifestyle in mind, and many of the exercises incorporate the mouse, the keyboard, and the monitor so the gym-shy geek can remain at the workstation. Why not try a little keyboard kung-fu, dance-mat pop-up-ad blocking, or light-saber fencing to tone up those seldom used muscles? Before long, your friends will be talking not about your Buffy memorabilia, but about your memorable buffness.
http://www.meatcity.co.uk/nerdgym/gym.swf
Everyone knows why women are so much worse than men at parking cars. Their sense of distance has been distorted by men continually misinforming them how much ten inches is. This cool little game pits men and women against each other in a park-off of the sexes. The idea is simplicity itself: tell the game your gender, switch the engine on, and then use the cursor arrows to maneuver your car into parking spaces. That's it. The idea may be simple, but execution is another matter. There are three levels of difficulty, but in each our reporter pinballed the car around the parking lot gracelessly, mounting the curb and trashing the cars around him. You are assessed on your parking accuracy and your number of crashes, and for all our reporter knows, if you progress satisfactorily then you are in line for some goodies.
http://adverts.freeloader.com/zurich/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Miss Digital World Winner Announced
An online jury of artists has anointed Katty ko, designed by Flavio Parra, the icon of digital beauty as Miss Digital World. You have to register to see more than a thumbnail of this virtual girl - who, we hasten to add, is not nude in either image or video. Sorry, boys, those are the rules.http://www.missdigitalworld.com/MDWContest/showpage/16
Forget Lego Mindstorms, you can build an actual computer out of Lego. It's not quite a functional CPU, but is a collection of logic gates, the fundamental building blocks (get it?) of the real thing.
http://goldfish.ikaruga.co.uk/logic.html
The 100 Oldest Currently Registered .Com Domains
Most of these domains belong to large corporations, some of which you would not associate with the early Internet - for example, Boeing.com or Alcoa.com. The very oldest domain still in active use is Symbolics.com, registered Mar. 15, 1985.http://www.jottings.com/100-oldest-dot-com-domains.txt
It will be hard to understand the joke if you haven't been through some programming classes and/or work experience, but if you're in the industry, you'll appreciate the entirely abstract humor.
http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Evolution_of_a_Programmer.html
Each time you load this page, it checks Google Suggest for the most popular keywords starting with each letter of the alphabet. We'd be shocked if any ever change in the short term.
http://labs.patrickgaskill.com/googlealphabet/
Boobies for Peace Advent Calendar
There's nothing objectionable here, unless you have serious issues with the effects of gravity and inertia on the structures of the female body. And if you do, well, we can't help you anyway. We've previously seen most of the featured clips in forum icons.http://www.musthavetoys.com/advent/
Why You Spend $28,000 on a Grilled Cheese
Diana Duyser sold her now-famous ten-year-old grilled-cheese Virgin Mary on eBay for $28,000. You can now try your hand at creating your own divine cheese sandwich at this online sandwich generator brought to you by none other than the company that bought the original: GoldenPalace.com.http://www.goldenpalace.com/grilledcheese/welcome.php
This little ditty has some extremely offensive language but what exactly would you expect of gangsta geek rap? This MP3 by Cellophane takes on all of current computing in a distinctly non-corporate style. We're not joking about the potentially extremely offensive lyrics.
http://thirdcoil.com/~cellophane/storage/04/11/wtti.mp3
Got a message for that guy going 20 mph in the fast lane? Or maybe you want to express an opinion to the idiot who cut you off near the exit lane? Don't strain your voice or risk injury to your middle finger. Use these handy and expressive Road Rage Cards instead.
http://www.roadragecards.com/
We all know people who jabber loudly on mobile phones in public are rude, but you can be polite and hand them these clever pre-printed cards that point out exactly how rude they are.
http://www.draplindustries.com/archives/000594.html#000594
SOFTWARE
Google Scholar Plug-in for Firefox
Peter Binkley has put together a cool little addition for the Firefox browser that lets you locate the full text of articles in Google Scholar, which saves you the bother of links to publisher's sites ordinarily provided. Not only that, he tells you how to modify and rebuild the package to point to your own link-resolver, rather than his default use of the University of Alberta. Don't let the look of this intimidate you; there's not actually a lot of geeknobabble to be found.http://www.ualberta.ca/~pbinkley/gso/
A team of crypto researchers has created a system that allows encrypted, authenticated private chats with specific desirable features not available with existing encrypted chat systems. In crypto-jargon, the system provides deniability and perfect forward secrecy. Deniability means that that third parties cannot crack your private conversation with your IM buddy, and perfect forward secrecy means your conversations remain forever private and undecipherable since encryption keys are used once and eliminated, unlike in traditional encryption systems like PGP which keep keys around. The researchers have implemented Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) as a plug-in to the popular chat client Gaim. OTR works and is easy to use. You can download it on the Off-the-Record Messaging site, which also has a technical paper that explains the details of the system and its real-world vulnerabilities. Anybody who needs to chat privately on or off the record should take a look.
OTR: http://www.xelerance.com/mirror/otr/
Paper: http://www.xelerance.com/mirror/otr/otr-wpes.pdf
ADMINISTRIVIA
Look for NSD to reappear the first week or so of January with NSD 11.01. Now, go on, scram and enjoy yourselves over the holidays.