More Signal, Less Noise
Monday, February 07, 2005
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NETSURFER DIGEST
More Signal, Less Noise |
Volume 11, Issue 05 Monday, February 07, 2005
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NETSURFER LINKS
 BREAKING SURF
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BREAKING SURF Chains of Affection: Structure of Adolescent Sexual Networks "Chains of Affection" is a newly published study that mapped the romantic and sexual networks of almost an entire high school over the course of 18 months. The map is based on data from a health study conducted in 1995, when researchers interviewed 832 of approximately 1,000 students at an anonymous Midwestern high school. The researchers distilled the data from the larger study, mapped the relationship networks, and analyzed the connections in minute detail. One of the most surprising findings was that, unlike many adult networks, the high schoolers had no core group of sexually active people. Instead, their relationship networks consisted of long chains of connections with few places where students shared partners with each other. This kind of research has important implications for understanding not only adolescent behavior, but also the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in school communities. As fascinating as it is, the paper based on this study is long and complex; if you prefer a summary of the high points, read the excellent OSU Research News story."Chains of Affection": http://www.sociology.ohio-state.edu/jwm/chains.pdf OSU Research News: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chains.htm Distributed Climate Prediction Project Posts First Results Climatology is a computer-intensive discipline and climate-change predictions can be hobbled by the inability to devote enough CPU time to model all possible climate variables and variations. One way around this is to enlist other people's computers in a distributed computing project, which is what Climateprediction.net chose to do (see NSD 9.37). The project enlisted some 90,000 participants who used their own computers' free CPU cycles to run climate simulations. The project scientists have just published the first results, based on 62,492 runs that produced a total of 4.6 million years of data, in Nature. These initial results have shown the researchers how sensitive climate models are to slight changes in approximations. Ultimately, this will help scientists better determine how the climate might respond to a range of scenarios. A byproduct of work like this is a wider understanding of climate studies and greater insight into how science really works, aspects that the project team deliberately emphasizes. That's a good thing in itself.Climateprediction.net: http://climateprediction.net/newsb.php NSD 9.37: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.37.html#SCI2 NSD 10.15 led off with the announcement of the beta of Amazon.com's A9 search engine. Now, the Google-powered site has added some 20 million pictures of businesses to its Yellow Pages component in what it calls block view. Users can now see photos of store fronts in ten US cities, with more to be added as fast as Amazon.com's fleet of trucks with digital cameras, GPS, and other high-tech goodies can rack up the miles. The company compares the service to being in the neighborhood, walking down the street and seeing the store fronts. You can indeed start browsing at an address and virtually walk down a street. CNN reports that A9 hopes to eventually let users find a business, look at it, and call it with VoIP technology. It's a neat example of how competition in the online world creates choice and innovation. NSD 10.15: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v10/nsd.10.15.html#BS1 A9: http://www.a9.com/-/company/YellowPages.jsp CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/01/27/amazon.a9.reut/index.html That's a question the British Computing Society (BCS) has addressed in a series of conferences and subsequent reports called "Grand Challenges for Computing", in the fields of research and education. Grand challenges are those that might take dedicated researchers decades to resolve; David Hilbert's famous Hilbert's Program in 1921 and President Kennedy's vow to go to the moon stand as great examples. Even though many of Hilbert's problems remain unsolved, solutions to others have driven the development of mathematics and various technologies, such as the digital computer. Today's grand challenges seem more subtle. One BCS challenge in education is the development of strategies to prevent students from dropping out of graduate programs after only a year. Another is the improvement of the public image of computing. On the research side, the questions are certainly grand, including the development of computer techniques to make simulations of living things so sophisticated that they might replace living things. The BCS offers the brief reports, while the Grand Challenges for Computing Research (GCCR) page describes the process. BCS: http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Awards/Events/GrandChallenges/conferencereports Hilbert's Program: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hilbert-program/ Kennedy: http://www.rice.edu/fondren/woodson/speech.html GCCR: http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/Grand_Challenges/ Artifacts from the Origins of Cyberspace on Auction Auction house Christie's will be hosting an auction that features numerous documents from the history of computing, networking, and telecommunications. The documents are part of the Jeremy Norman & Co. library, a collection of papers, books, and other works that touch on virtually every aspect of computing. Some highlights of the sale include: a signed edition of Karel Cepek's seminal play "R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots" which introduced the word robot into the world's vocabulary; original scientific papers by some of the founding fathers of computing such as Claude Shannon, Norbert Wiener, and Alan Turing; and artifacts like the magnetic tape from the Univac 1 computer and a 1966 Brainiac Electronic Brain kit. The whole collection is expected to fetch in the neighborhood of $2 million. Jeremy Norman's History of Science site has many details about the auction, the items, and upcoming live preview events. Christie's has the lot numbers and bidding information. The auction will take place Feb. 23, and, yes, you can bid online.History of Science: http://www.historyofscience.com/index.shtml Christies: http://www.christies.com/promos/feb05/1484/overview.asp Einstein@home Wants Your Help to Search for Gravitational Waves Following in the footsteps of SETI@home, even copying its oddly uncapitalized title format, Einstein@home is another new distributed-computing project. Its researchers are trying to detect the signature of gravitational waves in data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). LIGO consists of two widely separated observatories in the US, each made up of 4-kilometer-long L-shaped vacuum tubes through which laser light is transmitted. The passage of gravitational waves from, for example, the collision of two neutron stars is expected to create interference patterns in the laser light, which the scientists can then study. Problem is, most of the data from such a device is pure noise - from thermal effects, geologic movement, and researchers tapping their feet to iPod tunes. Einstein@home will help sift out the signal from the noise. You can download and install the Einstein@home screensaver on your computer and help find the signature of gravitational waves in the mountain of data generated by LIGO. Nature has the story.Einstein@home: http://www.physics2005.org/events/einsteinathome/ LIGO: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/ Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050131/full/050131-7.html Bret King knows too well just how ugly addiction to methamphetamine can be. A jail deputy, he's seen the ravaged faces, observed the deranged behavior, and heard the tragic stories of many meth addicts. Now, he hopes to show Oregon high-school students the before and after photographs he has collected of some of the victims, along with a few key videotaped personal histories. Brain scans show that meth use destroys brain cells, gradually impairing judgment and producing psychotic behavior. Blood pressure and pulse rate increase and body temperature can rise to dangerous levels. As well, appetite diminishes to the point of vanishing and teeth fall out. All of this should be deterrent enough, but Bret hopes that frightening young people with the pictures of what happens physically to those who use the drug will succeed where other approaches have failed. The Oregonian has the news and a photo gallery of a few sad cases. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/110423869622151.xml You have an RFID-equipped car key and no one can start your car but you, right? After all, the RFID technology and encryption establish a secure connection between your key and the ignition system - without that, no ignition. Alas, it's possible to hack this system, or any similar RFID-based communication, if you're willing to engage in a close encounter with the RFID holder. Get close enough with a remote reader and in fewer than 15 seconds you can capture the encrypted RFID signal. You can take the captured signal, process it, and within hours - the time depends on how many decryption cards you've deployed - you can spoof the security systems. Most RFID encryption is based on small keys that a dedicated cracker can easily decrypt. So far, the process has only been demonstrated by a research team, which has posted its proof, in text and video, at RFIDAnalysis.org. The New York Times, via CNET, has more. RFID Analysis: http://rfidanalysis.org/ CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5555802.html New Mac PowerBooks, PowerBook Review from a PC Guru This week, Apple announced enhancements to their laptop PowerBook models, with lower prices, faster processors, more standard memory, and faster DVD burners. Fans of the PowerBook don't need to be convinced that they are good value for the money, but if you're a Windows user who is considering one, what kind of user experience are you in for? In a case of serendipity, we have Anand Shimpi of AnandTech to thank for a timely and detailed account of what it's like for a Windows guru to switch to a Powerbook on the road. You might remember Shimpi as the author of an account of his switch to a Mac desktop for the first time, which we noted back in NSD 10.41. Anand is a pretty hard-core Windows user, and his requirements are probably more stringent than those of most casual laptop carriers, but this latest review of the PowerBook is an excellent starting point for those contemplating buying one for the first time.Apple: http://www.apple.com/powerbook/ AnandTech: http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2326 NSD 10.41: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v10/nsd.10.41.html#BS5 Top Brands, According to a Few People Brandchannel readers have voted, and Apple is the clear leader in terms of global brand impact. The iPod phenomenon really helped, coupled with the easy-to-use iTunes Music Store model for selling music. Google finishes second in this widely quoted survey, whose results were calculated from fewer than 2,000 willing participants in 75 countries. Statistically, this means very little - but it's fun, so what the heck. The top four brands in Asia are all hardware companies, led by Sony. The top brand in Latin America is Cemex, a Mexican cement company, followed by three purveyors of alcohol and a bakery. North America, on the other hand, recognizes tech (Apple, Google), inexpensive consumer goods (Target), coffee (Starbucks), and movies (Pixar). Pixar, you'll recall, is Steve Jobs's other baby. Love him or hate him, the mock-turtlenecked one has got it goin' on.http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=248 Volkswagen Polo: Small but Explosive Ad Volkswagen has been taking serious heat over an unauthorized ad that shows a suicide bomber detonating himself in a Volkswagen Polo - only to have the sturdy car contain the blast. Volkswagen, unsurprisingly, is seriously ticked off - the ad displays such high production values, it looks like a genuine ad or viral marketing campaign - despite the marketing slogan of "Small but tough". Bore Me has the ad. Volkswagen was so cheesed, they lodged a criminal complaint against the ad's creators, Dan Brooks and Lee Ford, who have since publicly apologized. CNET has the story, which the Urban Legend Reference Pages (a.k.a. Snopes) site expands upon - it also has the ad itself.CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5557310.html ULRP: http://www.snopes.com/photos/commercials/vwpolo.asp Most people who pay attention to that sort of thing already know that spammers typically send out spam either directly from their own servers or from computers they have hijacked remotely with worms and trojans - spam zombies - which relay spam without the knowledge of their owners. A new version of the proxy software many spammers use is changing the way in which those spam zombies operate. Rather than sending e-mail directly from the infected computer, spammers have begun to relay the e-mail through the mailservers of the ISP that provides service to that highjacked user. According to Spamhaus, AOL reports that over 90% of its incoming spam comes directly from other ISP mail relays. This is a serious threat since such distributed spamming is difficult to block. Spamhaus recommends that ISPs limit the outgoing e-mail from IPs of broadband customers, separate incoming and outgoing SMTP servers, and demand that all customers use e-mail authentication (SMTP-AUTH). http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=156 Link spamming is the practice of posting spam links in online forums or blog comment systems. The problem is so bad that Google recently unveiled a way to help blog authors deal with it (see NSD 11.03). The Register has a lengthy interview with one of the people responsible for link spamming. The anonymous spammer talks about the economics of the practice, its history in view of attempts by Google and blog authors to stamp it out, and his attitude. It's apparently nothing personal against bloggers and posters, the spammers are just targeting a weakness in the system to make a living. The piece is worth reading for insight into this particular aspect of spam, which according to the spammer is not about to end just because Google introduced some technology to counter it. NSD 11.03: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v11/nsd.11.03.html#BS3 Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/link_spamer_interview/ Analysis of Torrent Distribution The people behind Monkey Methods are building a torrent search engine, and so have gathered plenty of data on where torrents live. They've analyzed the data to answer some key questions. How centralized are torrent files anyway? Do torrent sites follow the 20/80 rule? How long is the distribution's long tail? Monkey Methods concluded that torrent files are concentrated indeed, with a few sites hosting large numbers of torrent files. The analysis also found that the long tail of the bell curve stretches pretty far, with 87% of sites hosting fewer than 100 torrents. Note that this data was gathered before last December's legal crackdown on centralized torrent-distribution sites by the media industries, an assault which resulted in the closure of several popular sites. Along with providing more detailed data analysis, Monkey Methods discusses why the data shows that site closures are unlikely to hurt torrent trading.http://monkeymethods.org/pubs/is-bittorrent-dead-centralization-analysis.htm Here's a map to give one pause. It's a geographical depiction of the location of the 18,507 registered sex offenders in the Los Angeles area - that's one for every 890 residents. This raises the question of whether Los Angeles is more sexually offensive than other areas of California. John Watson generated the map from data available at California's Megan's Law Web site, which reveals the identities, locations, and crimes of the state's registered sex offenders in a friendly MapQuest-like interface. You can duplicate the effort for any region of the state for yourself with a little browsing. As a bonus, Flagrantdisregard zoomed in and provided a map of sexual offenders living around and, in one case, in Disneyland. It's not a Disney character - his name is Elpidio Hernandez Hernandez. We would like to know, however, if he pulled a "Blues Brothers" in booking and gave a fake address. Flagrantdisregard: http://flagrantdisregard.com/?p=344 Megan's Law: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/ Microsoft Sorta Opens Office Formats If you're developing products to run under Windows, you have to examine the Microsoft XML schemas, the file formats that let your users share files with each other and other Microsoft products. Both the EU and Massachusetts have demanded that Microsoft open its file format so that users of non-Microsoft software can also easily read and trade files. A simple example of the difference is the open HTML standards versus closed text-document standards, which differ in file formats. BetaNews, however, reports that Microsoft hasn't really opened its formats, despite its announcement. Slashdot has the expected spirited debate.Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/office/xml/default.mspx BetaNews: http://www.betanews.com/article/1107211516 Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/01/024208 Those freedom-lovin' folks at Google have put together a new API for Google AdWords, which should let advertisers more closely tailor their ads for their desired customers. As usual, CNET offers a brief story with links. If you're an advertiser, or somebody looking to battle the stuff, you may find the Google page more informative. CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5554676.html Google: http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/ ONLINE CULTURE As we mentioned recently, only some 5% of netsurfers use RSS aggregators, but that number is expected to grow quickly. Mitch Wagner thinks RSS is going to hit mainstream any second now, and to help us through the transition he presents a quick overview of the technology. RSS is, in essence, the old, highly-touted push technology - remember PointCast? - dressed up with clean new underwear and everything, and ready to play full-time on your system. The difference, now, is that you get to control what's pushed. The term "aggregator" refers to how the RSS software checks multiple Web sites of interest to collect specified content of interest into an easy-to-digest format. Wagner's TechWeb article explains the technology and looks at some of the major pay and free players in the world of RSS aggregation, making it easier for you to make informed choices if you'd like to delve in.http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=57700173 Net Predictions Past and Present We all watch the weather forecast, gamblers like to think they can spot a winning horse, and day-traders love to predict market moves. There's something about human nature that loves predictions - just look at the sad perennial popularity of Nostradamus or astrology. So it comes as little surprise that Web users like to speculate about the future of the Internet. Imagining the Internet is an historical collection of such predictions, by experts and average Joes. The predictions of any particular moment reveal contemporary preoccupations as well as hopes for the future. Past ideas have included a further liberation of women via the Web as well as concerns over security and civil liberties. We liked Tim Berners-Lee's idea of minicomputers arriving free in our cereal packets, even though we're still waiting. Between the wild notions, you may glimpse pockets of the future, but at the very least you'll be entertained by the varied visions.http://www.elon.edu/predictions/ The GUIdebook takes its clever name from the abbreviation GUI, pronounced "gooey" and standing for graphical user interface. The site says it's "dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces" and it lives up to its tagline. For the older visitors, it's an evocative romp through the computing of the past; for the younger, it's a primer on how far user interfaces have come over the last 25 years. Check out GEOWorks once again. Listen to the evolution of the Critical Stop noise over the years (although that's more an AUI - auditory user interface, or "owey"). The site has, not surprisingly, its own clean interface that's easy to navigate, making it a joy to experience. http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/ Does the history of Windows illustrate intelligent design or evolution? The answers to this important question are not clear from the detailed visual and text history found on this non-official Windows history site. The bulk of this historical timeline is screen shots of the many varieties of Windows operating software. There's also quite a bit of explanatory text, some of which is original and some of which is taken directly from Microsoft documents and publications. There's not much in the way of critical analysis. That's left up to the viewer. Our reviewer saw evolution in action; most at Microsoft, we suspect, believe in intelligent design. http://www.neowin.net/articles.php?action=more&id=53 ONLINE TRAVEL Aerial Photos of 1906 San Francisco We have become accustomed to regularly viewing high-quality aerial photographs, to say nothing of the satellite images we see so often on the Web and on TV. The use of aerial imagery in the wake of the recent tsunami disaster is a prime example. The roots of such photography go back 100 years and one of its pioneers was able to record the effects of one of the US's worst disasters: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. George Lawrence was a self-taught photographer from a northern Illinois farm who had demonstrated his expertise in the new field by taking a series of aerial photos in Chicago with a camera he designed himself. By mounting his cameras on a series of special kites designed to flying advertising banners, Lawrence was able to record the damage caused by the fires that followed the earthquake. He snapped a series of stunning panoramas a few days after the quake from around 2,000 feet up. The pictures became a worldwide sensation; nothing like them had ever been seen before and their aerial perspective dramatically displayed the extent of the devastation. This reprint of an article from Landscape magazine tells the story of Lawrence and his cameras and displays the photos that shocked the world in 1906. Even today, they remain a sobering sight.http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/lawrence/landscape.html Traveling the US with a Garbage Can Crazy Kent is a man on a mission. His bizarre quest to visit all US states while carrying his favorite garbage can on his back has already brought him onto the TRL show on MTV and his legions of fans - there's a scary number of them - are following his progress online and via live chats. He's made it to more than half the 50 states since he undertook the task in 2002 and he's delighted that the idea that sprouted from his wondering how to make people smile has worked out so well. The garbage can (of the lighter plastic variety) has even played host to rock stars and comedians. It's hard to believe that this will catch on as a popular adventure holiday but Crazy Kent certainly makes it look fun. If you see a guy with a green garbage can strapped to his back in your city, check closely - it may not be a council worker.http://www.crazykent.com/ There are many blogs out there and a few are actually interesting. The Slush blog comes from Antarctica. Not only does it supply cool information about the cold down-under, it also offers great photos among the blurbs. Where else can you learn about a starfish that lives to 90 years of age and walks around on two legs? And link to a razor-sharp image of it? It's just too bad the layout functions poorly with some browsers. http://nerdling.net/slushpile/ The Boston Public Library has put together an online exhibit called Sports Temples of Boston, a tribute to the city's sporting past. The site presents each locale with a brief history and a selection of its photographs and assorted ephemera, including admission tickets and baseball cards. It's an interesting diversion for anyone interested in Boston or the history of American entertainment. http://www.bpl.org/sportstemples/ ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 100 Pics Define the Hour, Every Hour Don't you sometimes wish, with all of the images that bombard you over the course of any given day, that you could freeze the images that matter most for a particular time? Well, 10x10 is a cool new tool for just that purpose. It's an "often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous but always fitting snapshot of our world," or so it claims. Running without human intervention, 10x10 collects hourly 100 images from news sources around the Web to create a kind of picture postcard of the events, people, or ideas that shape a specific moment in time. Clicking on the pictures brings up the related news stories. The images date back to November 2004, and you can view the interactive montages for every hour since then. By scanning the RSS feeds from a number of leading international news sources, analyzing the words in the texts that accompany the images, and automatically choosing the 100 most important words and pictures, 10x10 builds and archives a constantly evolving record of our world. While the images and pictures don't always seem to match, the overall results are fascinating. Highly original, 10x10 is certainly worth the time you take to explore its possibilities.http://www.tenbyten.org/ If you've ever wondered who handles your snail mail, this project might shed a little light. The concept is simple: adhere a disposable camera to some sturdy cardboard; write a polite message on the board that asks whoever handles the package to take a picture: and mail it. Don't forget to put an address and return address before taking it to the post office. Cameramail details this ongoing project and presents photographs from four of five attempts at sending the camera in the mail. It also provides helpful tips on how to send your own camera through the mail. http://kvh.threebunnypress.com/projects/cameramail.html Saltburn Productions presents satirical programming in this online portal of wacky and completely outrageous broadcasting. The site has nine productions, which include the documentary "Amazing Consiglios" and the hard-hitting news serial "Who is Herbert Wiggins?". Also take a look at trailers of two episodes of "Gribbet", a gritty drama about the life of a picture of a small rodent on a stick. Saltburn offers its visitors a hilarious look at the lighter side of broadcasting. You're sure to get a laugh. http://www.saltburn.tv/ BOOKS & E-ZINES
http://www.misterpants.com/library/harmonleon/ Leite and Friends' Food Writing and Recipes David Leite makes our mouths water. Well not the man himself, although we're sure he's a lovely guy - it's the way he writes about food that gets our tastebuds tingling. He has a passion for food from various cultures and the skill to write about it in voluptuous detail. Even better, he's gathered contributions of articles, reviews, and recipes from other food writers of equal enthusiasm. The resulting goulash goes by the title Leite's Culinaria. The next time you're stuck for inspiration for dinner, drop by the site and prepare to be inspired. If you're a real glutton for pleasure, you could even volunteer to test recipes for the site. Those with extra time to burn should check the Food History section for articles with a bit more meat on their bones than traditional recipes. Don't expect to leave the well organized Recipes archive without a desire to ignore any diet advice your mother has been hinting at recently.http://www.leitesculinaria.com/ For well over a century, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle chronicled the history of the Brooklyn community. For a time, it was edited by Walt Whitman. Microfilms of around half of the publication - the entire run from 1841 to 1902, some 147,000 newspaper pages - have been digitized and now are available for online viewing. The nicely presented archive can be searched by date, keyword, or subject, although certain browsers may find it hard going. It goes without saying that this is a remarkable primary resource for historians and researchers - well, maybe it doesn't go without saying, 'cuz we said it - but it's also addictively fascinating for anyone interested in local, national, or international history. Better still, check in if you want to read a newspaper that makes no mention whatsoever of Paris Hilton or Michael Jackson. http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/ SURFING SCIENCE Welcome to the World of Biology News Biology News is a blog run by a Ph.D. student in bioinformatics who is studying AIDS in particular. Bioinformatics is a relatively new development, and has to do with attempting to manage the storage, organization, and indexing of the barrage of genomic sequencing data that has become available during the past few years. The confluence of biological data and information science has spawned this new field of bioinformatics. Give Biology News credit - it's trying to stay abreast in the currents of new data, and is probably doing a lot better than you can. He can't do it all, though. While he's bringing you up to speed on insect pheromone communication, he's missing new material that shows why some people seem to be immune to insect bites - and the financial implications this involves for the makers of DEET and other products. This is an interesting effort nonetheless, so if you have any scientific bent in you, we suggest bookmarking the thing and checking back regularly.http://www.biologynews.net/ The home page of this kids' site is content poor at first blush, amounting mostly to exhortations to subscribe to Dig's print mag. Ah, but a click on the links can really take you somewhere - usually into the past, where archeology tends to lead. The content at Dig is meant for kids, as is the magazine, which comes from the Cricket magazine family. The Fantastic Factoids section is a rotating gallery of nifty chunks of archeology derived from past issues. When we visited, we learned that "getting the short end of the stick" isn't exactly a new phenomenon - it's derived from early Roman pranksters' bathroom humor. http://www.digonsite.com/facts/index.html Wednesdays in our reviewer's elementary school were notable not only because Wednesdays the students had fried chicken and tater tots, but also because they were the day they spent lunch at their desks and watched episodes of either National Geographic or Nova. Teachers' Domain seeks to provide that sort of resource to all children who have access to the Internet, 24 hours a day. Produced by WGBH in Boston, Teachers' Domain has the rights to video clips of science television shows, including Nova and Zoom. Resources are arranged by grade level and topic. The only thing missing is the ketchup. http://www.teachersdomain.org/ SOFTWARE Sunbird is the Mozilla Foundation's cross-platform, stand-alone calendar software, and the project has just released its first public version. This typical calendaring application lets you do all the usual calendaring things, including sharing your calendars and exporting them to Web servers that support webDAV. If you like the Mozilla suite of applications (Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla), then you will probably also like Sunbird. Sunbird builds are available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris.http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html CORRECTIONS In last issue's "Ice Storm" article, we described the event that caked parts of Geneva in ice as, yes, an ice storm. Alert Swiss reader Roger Holberton writes to inform us that it wasn't actually an ice storm, but a combination of frigid weather and high winds that whipped up water from Lake Geneva and deposited it as ice on nearby portions of city. Consider yourself corrected. Holberton was kind enough to supply links to even more fantastic photos of the phenomenon. Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt has a gallery of pics and le Matin has an article in French an ice-enclosed MG, which took seven hours to defrost.Kleine-Ahlbrandt: http://www.pbase.com/kleine/geneva Le Matin: http://www.lematin.ch/nwmatinhome/nwmatinheadactu/actu_suisse/petit_bolide_de_nouveau.html |
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