NEW $100 DOLLAR BILLS HIT THE STREET
It seems that the venerable green $100 bill is the favorite target of enterprising crooks who can afford a color copier and some fancy paper. The new $100 bills are full of interesting security features that make them a bit harder to counterfeit. The US Treasury has helpfully put up this site which shows a picture of the new Franklin $100 bill and explains the security features, including the cool color shifting ink. For you creative types, it's a great opportunity to grab the graphic and use it as background tile for your latest "Make Money Now on the Net!" Web page. Neat, informative site. "http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/whatsnew/newcur/"
TAIWAN THUMBS ITS NOSE AT CHINA ONLINE
The recent elections in Taiwan, saluted by the Chinese with live munition fireworks, are not likely to make the relationship between those two states any less tense. We'll leave the analysis of global realpolitik to the experts, but what is of interest to us is the way tiny Taiwan dominates the territory of cyberspace propaganda. This page show a good example of pro-Taiwan Web protest. It's a citizen of a small, techno-savvy state against a behemoth that traditionally seeks to control all forms of expression. Not surprisingly, a quick check of the Web indices shows no similar pro-Chinese pages. The Nando Net site has an excellent chronology of the entire recent unpleasantness. Protest: "http://www.taiwanese.com/" Nando: "http://www.nando.net/newsroom/nt/morechina.html"
NETSURFER HELPS CALIFORNIA LEAD IN ONLINE ELECTION TECHNOLOGY
While the California primary election was somewhat a moot issue as far as the US presidential nominations were concerned, it did break some new ground in election technology. Santa Clara County, which has jurisdiction over the heart of techno-mad Silicon Valley, wanted to present its election results on the Internet as soon as the ballots were counted and deposited in their computers. They chose Netsurfer to set up the automated live election results Web site. We're happy to be part of an effort that enables the public to access their government data directly and avoids the often skewing filter of mass media. We're also happy to be a small part of the democratic process. Often maligned, but better then most alternatives. If you're curious, here's the site. "http://claraweb.co.santa-clara.ca.us/rov/primary.htm"
Compuserve is upping the stakes in the online battle with this new flat rate hybrid proprietary and Net access service. For $17.95 per month you get a family oriented package which lets you customize up to six individual accounts and provides different views for adults and kids. It's aimed squarely at the at-home consumer market. Breathless press release prose like "Wacky, colorful cartoon characters help kids navigate the exciting offerings" makes us cringe and want to explain to our kids about wacky marketing hype and the real world. If you have a large family, however, this may be just what you need. Frightening concept: WOW! for teens will be available this fall. "http://www.compuserve.com/index/wow.html"
QUAKE GAME BETA DEMO AVAILABLE
Id Software, the guys who did Doom, finally have a beta of their long anticipated Quake game available. Need we say more? Id has a list of mirrors from which you can download the 4+ MB demo. Don't even bother trying it from their own overloaded archive and be prepared to wait, anyway. "http://www.idsoftware.com/mirrors.html"
VULNERABILITY IN NCSA/APACHE CGI EXAMPLE CODE
It seems that one of the example programs which is bundled with the free NCSA and Apache Web servers has a serious security flaw. Specifically, the included "phf" program can cause you trouble. Webmasters will find more information at the CERT site. "ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.06.cgi_example_code"
NEW SERVICE OFFERS REMOTE MONITORING OF SITE ACCESS STATUS
It's called Netcraft Network Examination and it's designed to give site administrators a clear picture of how their network appears to the outside world. For a fee, they will periodically run a suite of tests to check the security of your site from the outside. Seems pretty useful, considering they let you try it out for free before you buy. "http://www.netcraft.com/security/"
WIRED, CBS NEWS, AND UP TO THE MINUTE STREAMING VIDEO
The CBS News overnight program "Up to the Minute" has snagged a team of editors from Wired magazine to co-host a short feature called "Wired on UTTM" every late, late Wednesday night. Not momentous news, but it gives us an excuse to tell you about the Web site for the show. They use a new broadcast technology called VDOLive to deliver continuous streaming video and audio feeds to netsurfers with player software. The player runs on Windows platforms, but Mac and Unix versions will be out shortly. Even more interesting, their server software, which lets you feed your own video out over the Net, is available right now for Windows NT and various Unix platforms (including Linux). Also note the nice design of the VDOLive site. VDOLive: "http://www.vdolive.com/" UTTM: "http://uttm.com/"
The "Christus Rex et Redemptor Mundi" Web site offers, among other biblical and religious links, a tour of one of the planet's greatest works of art: the Sistine Chapel. The collection of 325 downloadable images from the 500-year-old church beautifully depicts biblical events such as Genesis and the life of Moses. Most famous of them all is Michaelangelo's repainting of the ceiling. Obviously, this is an image/bandwidth intensive site, but the sheer quality of the paintings captured more than compensates for the download time. "http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Tour.html"
Photojournalist Dan Habib spent four years profiling eight teenagers who came from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and with diverse sexual orientations. This impressive site is one of the project's outputs. Each teen is presented with striking photos and an accompanying revealing self-narrative. The site design is lean yet effective; it has the slick professional feel that is more often found in coffee-table art books than Web pages. Intelligently presented with an introduction, overview, and even questions for discussion, the site should be mentally (versus erotically) stimulating for anyone considering culture and sexuality. "http://www.intac.com/~jdeck/habib/"
VISUAL FX ARTIST PROVIDES GLIMPSE INTO WORLD OF SPECIAL EFFECTS
You may recognize scenes from Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Pink Floyd's Take It Back video, or other projects. Included are JPEG images and at least one MPEG (from the Pink Floyd project). Rob Bredow lets us in on the fascinating equipment and techniques he uses to produce his outstanding visual effects. We only wish more stuff were available. Check out the descriptions of effects for the Outer Limits and The Adventures of Peter Rabbit. "http://www.geopages.com/Hollywood/1234/"
For the fractal-mad, this collection maintained at France's National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts offers a choice selection of dizzying fractal abstractions created by fractal fanatics from around the world. Images are neatly catalogued with thumbnails - a very good thing as the images run from 100 to 400 kB. Also available at the site are nearly 150 fractal animations in a variety of formats (MPEG, FLI, FLC, and QuickTime). There's even software to let you create your own masterpieces. One drawback: the site can be fairly pokey at times, which can be depressing when you're trying to snatch a 5-MB animation. If you happen to swing by when things are slow, follow the link to Hydra, a 2D and 3D fractal explorer residing at Silicon Graphics. It's fast, it's cool, it's fractal. "http://www.cnam.fr./fractals/"
Trust the Canadians to come up with a National Gallery site that is clear, easy to understand, and presented in French and English. Information on the History of the National Gallery of Canada, tours, exhibitions, and events are all there. You can become a member, peruse the bookstore, or visit the Contemporary Photography Museum. All the paintings are presented in expandable thumbnails in full color. And, no, it is not all Group of Seven. "http://national.gallery.ca/"
Bob Andelman, contributor to both Business Week and Newsweek, is the author of this weekly media mega-page - that's one very long page with tons o'links and plenty o'graphics. Bob snipes, comments, quotes, and jokes about print magazines, television, and celebrities. This is a smart publication that manages to be amusing and informative at the same time. Bob (aka "Mr. Media") also hands out his Web sites of the week. If you like what you've read, there is an archive of all back issues through 1994. Go into the "Attic" for a huge annotated linked list of all previously discussed sites. For the addicted, a free e-mail text-only version is available. It's one of our fave sources. "http://www.mrmedia.com/mrmedia/"
This spunky page has lots of choices. Try Spouting Off about the topic at hand this week - a good chance to tell the world your thoughts. If short and cryptic is more your scene, the Random Tagger might be preferable. Write a haiku or just weird out your friends. Read articles about topics like how the editors got tattoos for a good story or "Why I Hate Valentines Day" (one of the highest suicide rates of the year), or browse lots of music and film info. Youth culture, you know. "http://www.cadvision.com/spank/"
Are you fat? So what? That's the attitude at "Fat!So?" the angry fat person's haven. Be forewarned: if dimpled derrieres depress your day, don't dawdle here. Each missive on fat is indicated by a bare bottom, some pretty, some... well, you be the judge. If you're tired of being tired of being fat, stop in for a brain snack. "http://www.fatso.com/"
You can just about hear that familiar jungle yodel when you swing through the Virtual Bookshop's homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan. One of the most creative and prolific hack writers of all time, Burroughs's oeuvre is catalogued in detail by the online Edgar Rice Burroughs Bibliographic Reference. The site links to a collectors' organization (Burroughs Bibliophiles) and if you're inspired, you can purchase one of ERB's works via the Virtual Bookshop (how about that first edition "Chessmen of Mars" for $3,750?). For no other reason, the site deserves a visit simply to read Burroughs's "How I Wrote the Tarzan Books", a hilarious, inspiring bit of prose for any proto-scribe. "http://www.tarzan.com/"
Autovoyeurism is strange and so is Steve Mann, who literally lets us in on his vision with a VR-style helmet camera that's a huge improvement on his old space helmet version. As part of a thesis, he apparently sees the world through the electronic images he shares with us. We invade his Christmas, his "private" dinners, and his bike trips, none of which are terribly enthralling. Were he to do something of a more exciting sort, like skydiving, rock-climbing, or bearbaiting - anything other than his friends and house - we'd have much more fun. So would he. Good idea, though we're still not sure why. "http://www-white.media.mit.edu/~steve/netcam.html"
Indiana Jones notwithstanding, archaeology can be dirty, backbreaking work with rewards measured in potsherds. You can avoid the heat and labor yet enjoy the rewards, albeit vicariously, via the DigSite, which presents and documents an archaeological dig currently underway in Wadi Natrum, Egypt. The dig is a Coptic church dating from 385 CE (that's Common Era, the nonparochial version of AD) and the page is generously spiffed up with photographs and explanations of the work. "http://www.scriptorium.org/TheDigSite/"
THE ART IN EVERYONE - LITERALLY
At times, medical illustration may gross you out, but this difficult craft educates and saves lives. The upgraded Medical Illustrators Home Page showcases the work of "Illustrators in Residence" who prove they've studied computer science and pop culture (or at least endured more than one graphics boot camp) as well as anatomy. "Genesis of an Atheroma", for example, might make you think it's an artist's conception of clone asteroids approaching a huge spaceship. Other sample images look so real, they seem photographic with rich color and texture and nearly surreal precision. How can human infirmity look so interesting, if only for a moment? "http://www.mednexus.com/med_illustrator/"
The Exploratorium has a number of interesting areas to visit on their Web site. You could begin in the Learning Studio where you can browse online exhibits, check up on weird winter weather, scope out the Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions, and check out dozens of other science areas. If you like cutting up frogs, you'll love the step-by-step cow's eye dissection primer, including info on how to get your very own cow's eye. This is a content-rich science site, so plan to stay awhile, or make it a bookmark. "http://www.exploratorium.edu/"
CHICAGO'S MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
Remember when you were a kid and you went on a field trip to a big museum and it was full of really cool things to see and do and you just couldn't wait to get home and tell somebody all about it? Well, here you go again. The really neato Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is up and running on the Web. Although you won't find full-fledged exhibits on display, you can learn what's new, what collections the museum has to offer, and what educational resources the institution can provide. "http://www.msichicago.org/"
The Mayo Clinic sponsors an online health network and newsletter. The graphics may be virtual, but the information provided can help you improve your health for real. The page links to the most recent newsletter. The February health letter featured articles on everything from hemorrhoids to homeopathy to gourmet cheeses, as well as a medical essay on asthma. The "Find It" utility is worth checking out - you can search the contents of back issues, health education information, and for special events. "http://healthnet.ivi.com/"
NONPARTISAN FIREARM VIOLENCE CONTROL
This page deals seriously with firearm violence, its cause, and how to prevent it. Chock-full of statistics, safety tips and grief/trauma help, it would be the perfect resource if you're involved in firearm violence or see the need to be prepared. Handy hints and a no-nonsense approach from several angles make this page a good protection and prevention hotspot. "http://norden1.com/~jfrisk/index.html"
SCHOOL OF WISDOM MOVES TO NEW CAMPUS
This site, which features a Joseph Campbell mythology class, a Women of Wisdom discussion group, and Laws of Wisdom classes and workshops, has moved to a new URL. "http://ddi.digital.net/~wisdom/school/welcome.html"
MOAN AND GROAN GETS A NEW ROOM
The Moan and Groan Page lets you read the missives of dissatisfied software and hardware consumers as they bitch about their experiences. It's now at: "http://www2.tsixroads.com/Moan/default.html"
Netsurfer Digest Home Page: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
Netsurfer Digest FTP Site: ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsd/
Subscribe WWW form: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/subscribe.html
Subscribe E-mail: nsdigest-request@netsurf.com
Include one of the following commands in the BODY of the
message:
HTML Format version: subscribe nsdigest-html
Plain ASCII version: subscribe nsdigest-text
Submission of Newsworthy Items: pressrm@netsurf.com
Letters to the Editor: editor@netsurf.com
Advertiser and Sponsor inquiries to: sales@netsurf.com
Netsurfer Communications: http://www.netsurf.com/
General Information: info@netsurf.com
NETSURFER DIGEST © 1996 Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
NETSURFER DIGEST is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.