NEW INTERNET STOCK INDEX STARTS TRADING ON AMEX
The American Stock Exchange and Ziff-Davis have put together a set of 37 Internet-related companies in a new options index to be traded under the symbol IIX. The companies include Internet service providers, commercial online services companies, Internet tool companies, multimedia publishers, and networking companies. A sprinkling of potentially related companies, in fields such as video conferencing and interactive television, has been thrown in to keep things interesting. The index is available on the Web and updated daily at: "http://www.zdnet.com/~intweek/daily/mp951018.html"
You never know when you'll need to remember who won the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, particularly this year when the choices are rather obscure. This elegantly spare site has the scoop on all the prizes awarded this year, as well as a great deal of background material on the Nobel prize process. Check out the picture and transcript of Alfred Nobel's will or use the spiffy search facility to sift out Nobel laureates by various criteria. There's also background information on everything from how the prizes are chosen to where they are given. Alas, no formula for making dynamite. "http://www.nobel.se/"
NETSCAPE OFFERS $1000 FOR SECURITY BUGS
In a refreshingly capitalistic effort to bulletproof their software, Netscape is offering a thousand big ones to any hacker who spots a security bug in it (Microsoft, are you listening?). It's all part of their new cleverly named "Bugs Bounty" program, which makes us wonder if Warner Brothers will sue. Wouldn't that be a hoot? So grab a copy of the Netscape 2.0 beta (yep, it's out there), hitch your CPUs, and start hacking. Netscape 2.0: "ftp://ftp.netscape.com/2.0beta/" Bugs: "http://www.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease48.html"
JAVA PROGRAMS REPOSITORY ANNOUNCED
Gamelan is a joint project of Sun Microsystems and EarthWeb LLC that makes available a clearing house for applications written in the currently very hot Java language. A quick peek at this brand new site showed about 250 resources ranging from 3-D Tetris to an animated "Under Construction" sign to a simulated nuclear power plant which you can meltdown all by yourself. It's a treasure trove, particularly in view of the fact that you'll be able to use all the applets with the new Netscape 2.0 browser. A must site for developers and cool software afficionados. "http://www.gamelan.com/"
NUMBER OF DOMAIN REGISTRATIONS DOWN
In the wake of the newly imposed charges for domain registrations, the rate of registrations has taken a significant dive. According to Network Solutions, Inc., the company which administers the process, the number of new domains registered has plunged from 5,000 per week to a mere 1,300 per week. Who'd have thought $100 would make that much difference?
This item is not really about electronic mailing lists, but the principle is the same. In what has the makings of a landmark case, a Virginia resident has filed suit against US News & World Report challenging the right of the magazine to sell or rent his name to another publication without his express written consent. Virginia law protects people from having their name used for commercial purposes without permission. It's easy to see the connection to e-mail lists, particularly in view of the rumor that there is a company culling addresses from Usenet postings and offering them to all comers at a price. The details of this case can be found at: "http://www.epic.org/privacy/junk_mail/"
NET USER DEMOGRAPHICS AND ONLINE SERVICE RETENTION RATES
Two interesting statistical studies here. The first, by Inteco, found that about 6.2 million people have signed up and disconnected from the larger popular online services. They determined that of the big three, Prodigy had the biggest cancellation rate, followed by CompuServe and America Online, which retained the most users. Independent ISPs, with the highest retention rate, beat America Online handily. The other study, conducted by GNN, found that 5.8 million U.S. users have a direct connection to the Internet. The GNN site has extensive demographic results in spiffy bar-chart graphics, and is the more informative. Intco: "http://www.inteco.com/uspr/pr951006.html" GNN: "http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/survey/index.html"
QUEBEC: SHALL THEY STAY OR SHALL THEY GO?
As some of our readers (and writers and editors!) are acutely aware, the Canadian province of Quebec will hold a referendum at the end of October, asking: "Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign, after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership, within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?" How's that for nebulous? Regardless, a new nation may soon be born, and as good global citizens we should at least try to have some idea about the issues at stake, if only to make informed bar bets (polls run 50/50 on decided voters, but our money's on No - a longer version failed in 1980). Not surprisingly for such a cyberspatially progressive piece of the planet there are Web sites pro and con. Yes, they are both available in French and English. No: "http://www.comite-non.qc.ca/" Yes: "http://www.quebec-oui.org/"
We played a little trick in #31, in the "Internet Relay Chat Info" article. We told you "gullible" wasn't in the dictionary, and that you could confirm that by looking it up. Some of you wrote to tell us you chuckled; some of you wrote, helpfully, to inform us that the word was in several dictionaries and that ours must be out of date or defective. Who'd have thought this tiny item would lead to the second largest surge of mail we've ever gotten, after the Cleveland fiasco, and a small measure of fame in the UGA Humor List, as well. For those who don't know, it's a practical joke. You see, "gullible" means "easily fooled" and so those who go look for the word in the dictionary adequately provide a living example of the definition, and - oh, never mind.
OF GIFTS AND FLAMES: PUBLIC NEWS GATEWAY FOLDS AFTER A DECADE
The public mail to news gateway at cs.utexas.edu has been quietly and happily serving the Net community for a decade, run as a labor of love by the sysadmin. It was reliable, free to everyone, and had many users, even fans. But now the gateway is no more. That in itself may not be big news but the tale of how it all came about is a modern morality play cutting to the very bone of the Internet gift economy. The elements involve many problems from malicious or ignorant America Online users, a service cutoff to the aol.com domain, and a spectacular flame from a disgruntled AOLer which broke the camel's back - despite a belated apology. The recriminations and fires still rage. It's too complex to cover here, so we urge you to hit the source in the news.admin.misc newsgroup. Look for threads with the topics of "cs.utexas.edu discrimination charged" and "USENET mail gateway retires". And mourn the end of innocence.
TAKE THE TIME TO TALK OF TIME TRAVEL
Is time travel possible? Has it already happened in the future? A couple of threads in alt.sci.time-travel delve profoundly into the physics of the topic, while a couple of others take an approach best exemplified by this quote: "What do you suppose happened to the dinosaurs? Probably wiped out by American 22nd century big game hunters." Boy, even in the future, life is Americanistic. There's also a lot of debating the relevance of mathematics and the various paradoxes used to illustrate the genre. What we want to know is, if time travel into the past is possible, where is everybody? Or are time-travellers hidden, just having fun with us - to use a topical allegory - planting bloody gloves in the criminal investigations of our lives?
FINELY GROUND GOTHIC AND CYBERPUNK
The Grinder Books and Recordings Web Site, spotlighting gothic and cyberpunk art and music is, at least for the time being, mainly a showcase of the works produced by site authors John Bergin and Gareth Branwyn. It promises to be far more once the ubiquitous "under construction" is banished from the pages. Currently, you can tour Bergin's recent work, "From Inside", a gory, dark graphic novel that takes the reader on a train ride through a post-apocalyptic hell, nicely showing off Bergin's talent in the process. Be forewarned; there's plenty of bandwidth-clogging graphic art on this site, but the results, especially the image map on the main page, are worthwhile. Grind away, webheads. "http://www.emerald.net/grinder/"
BEAUTY #2 IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Beauty #2 is a virtual exhibit in the form of a walking tour through the halls of the Power Plant, a Toronto gallery showcasing the art of ten up-and-coming young artists. In Canada, and in several other industrialized nations, private and public funding for the arts has sharply declined, forcing artists to either adapt or abandon their pursuits. The Beauty #2 exhibit is one such adaptation, emulating a walk-through of the exhibit with either a clickable floor plan or clickable images of the gallery's corridors and staircases. As funding drops, more artists may turn to the Internet as the e-gallery of the next century, and the high-quality Beauty #2 exhibit might be a preview of things to come. "http://www.rogers.com/Beauty2/powpl1.htm"
GREAT BIG PROFESSIONAL IMAGES WITH SOUND
Rob's Nest is a dreamscape of images and sound. The opening image map is both clever and beautiful. In the portfolio section, you'll find plenty of interesting digital images, as befits a professional artist's home page. The bonus here is that each is accompanied by a sound file (in both .au and .wav formats). The only downside arises if you have a slower modem; most of these files are huge. The animations range anywhere from 1.5 MB to 4.1 MB and most of the graphic images are larger than 100 kB. The backgrounds are nifty, too. "http://geoweb.tamu.edu/~rgn7128/"
If you miss the old-fashioned daily comic strips and like a little edge to your humor, drop in on the Art Comics. With over half a dozen strips, updated daily, there's something for everyone. There are plenty of back issues, too. We must say, however, that some of these cartoonists could benefit from a visit to the next site. "http://www.cais.com:80/artcomic/index.html"
Next time you've got that yearning to be artistic, stop by David Hickson's instructive art page for a quick lesson on how to create your own impressive computer illustrations. His latest lesson is a step-by-step guide to drawing human lips. You'll need a program like PhotoShop or Corel Draw to participate and full access costs almost US$10 a month, but the freebies merit a visit as do the uploaded pics, especially for cheapos like us. "http://www.ultranet.com/~hixdave/index.html"
If you're sick of all the great content and up-to-the-picosecond news available on the Net, check out the Weekly Web News, a Web tabloid that comes out once every month-and-a-half or so. The premier issue brought us the "First Internet Babies Born!" and described the surprising results arising from the actions of two consenting adults on the IRC #phonesex channel. The second issue has a humorous piece about a Web page that allows remote control, "from accelerator to clutch to cigarette lighter", of an actual Mercedes 500e running on the German autobahn. Easily perused in its one-page format, you might stop by here when you tire of news:rec.humor.funny newsgroup. "http://www.geopages.com/RodeoDrive/1044/"
The Utne Reader has long been culling relevant bits of information from the alternative media and compiling it on paper with thoughtful and thought-provoking commentaries. Now, the bi-weekly Utne Lens is doing the same for cybermedia, with cybermedia. Beautifully done, this Web page tries to help us define the new information age and how it is changing all our lives. Interviews with prominent culture-makers, comments on them from other knowledgeable sources, and a cafe for moderated discussions are all part of the Lens. In fact, there is so much room for your own responses, it could be called the first interactive e-zine. "http://www.utne.com/"
INTERACTIVE SHORT STORY EXPLORES NEW MEDIA
Using hypertext to present multiple individual narratives, "LX" is the story of four professional young people whose paths cross during the course of one day. A fictional and plot-based "The Spot", they tell the stories from their own perspectives on separate Web pages. With control over the narrative, readers can change viewpoints or follow characters to other scenes. Interestingly, memories and media are shown to influence the way each character sees certain events. "LX" is a subset of Flames, a British e-zine. We liked it a lot. "http://www.gold.net/flames/"
APPALACHIAN TRAIL JOURNAL INTRIGUES AND FASCINATES
Take journalists from five newspapers up and down the American East Coast, give them seven months to hike the 2,158 miles of the Appalachian Trail, relay style, and build a Web page for their weekly reports and photos. What do you get? A story that builds as writers let down their guards and reveal themselves in the act of transformation; vicarious thrills and hardships; a sense of following along as friends tell their tale and show their photos; a treat in the form of a Web page. It's over now, but this is great stuff - read it from the beginning. "http://www.nando.net/AT/ATmain.html"
We covered Mother Jones in a previous incarnation, but that radical rag has now got its MoJo Wire working in cyberspace. The electronic version of the venerable magazine offers current news, peaks at back issues, an ongoing, take-no-prisoners investigation of Newt Gingrich's financial supporters and Live Wire, a spot for discussions leaning left of left-of-center politics. Worth a visit by all good liberals who hear their mother calling. "http://motherjones.com/"
FASCINATING YET REPULSIVE FORENSIC PHOTO GALLERY
Let us first say that viewer discretion is most certainly advised. Children and other sensitive folk should avoid visiting Dan's Gallery of the Grotesque, a museum of forensic exhibits and sickening images that reflect the very worst of the human condition. After touring Tasteless Treasures and America's Least Wanted (which includes post-tragedy photos of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman), you can peruse the Dead Files and Necrotica. Then again, once you've seen John Bobbitt's severed penis, you might just want to go home. Gross!!! "http://www.zynet.com/~grotesk/"
THE VISIBLE MAN - IN SLICES 1 MM THICK.
One poor guy, frozen and sliced into 1-mm-thick slices (called cryosectioning), and scanned. Sound delicious? We thought so. In fact, it's pretty interesting, you can chose between fresh or frozen, and the cross-section of his foot was, well, just what we needed at 2 am. It's also a lot less nauseous than Dan's Gallery of the Grotesque. Thanks go to the National Library of Medicine, not to mention the guy who donated his body. "http://www.nlm.nih.gov/extramural_research.dir/visible_human.html"
Much of your doctor's diagnosis depends on what you tell him. Hence the Interactive Patient, where physicians, medical students, or anyone else can simulate examinations. With interactive forms, you establish a medical history by asking the electronic patient about his symptoms, perform an exam, request lab reports and X-rays, make a diagnosis, and choose treatment. And wait. Results are e-mailed to you. The process will seem familiar to game enthusiasts, but this form of education is serious. Who knows? Your GP might benefit from a visit. "http://medicus.marshall.edu/medicus.htm"
FLINTS AND STONES, MEET THE FLINTS AND STONES....
Leave it to Fred and Barney to inspire the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to establish an exhibit with the intent of dispelling the image of Stone Age people as "grunting, hairy, knuckle-dragging primitives" (hey, they drove cars on TV). The award-winning Flints and Stones: Real Life in Prehistory exhibit has leaped over to Webspace where its original, cartoonish graphics steer you through a visit with Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Good spot for the kids and curious, but beware, pages occasionally load over what seem to be archaeological timespans - not for the impatient. "http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~nantiq/"
A LITTLE MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE CAN BE BIG COMFORT
The Medical Reporter, a monthly e-zine, aims to educate the average consumer about both their own health and relevant medical policy issues. The mag is nicely concise, with pointers to other sources for more information. October's issue has information, in plain language, on skin and breast cancers; making the home safe for young and old; and degenerative arthritis. Check out September's issue to find out what it is they're looking for when you give a urine sample. There's a lot to be learned in a few minutes' perusal, and that alone makes this e-zine worth a read once a month. "http://www.dash.com/netro/nwx/tmr/tmr.html"
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