TRUE HACK OR LAME PUBLICITY GIMMICK?
The site in question is one of those fairly boring promotional Web sites for a new movie called "Hackers" from United Artists. Well, the LA Daily News reports that the site got hacked big time, with intruders defacing graphics, changing text, adding links to hacker sites, and making snide comments about the hapless promo. According to the paper, UA decided to preserve the hacked site for your perusal in an effort to capitalize on the publicity. Yes, go to the movie site and right there is a link to the supposedly hacked version. Do we believe this really happened? Could it perhaps be some Hollywood publicity flack's wet dream come true? You probably can guess the answer. "http://www.digiplanet.com/hackers/index.html"
Netscape's IPO shares were in tremendous demand, to the point that the company upgraded from an original offer of 3.5 million shares at $11 to 5 million shares at $28. Don't hold your breath if you want to get in on the action, since that price was available only to the IPO insiders and investment bankers. The shares hit the market at $71 and, after heading up a bit as a result of rampant speculation, settled in the mid-$50s. Note that the company has yet to earn a profit. In other news, AT&T has signed a deal with Netscape to distribute their browser as part of the new AT&T WorldNet Internet services. Here's the IPO PR and a graph of Netscape stock. PR: "http://www.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease34.html" Stock: "http://www.secapl.com/secapl/quoteserver/nscp.html"
MICROSOFT NETWORK PRICING AND WEB SITE
The kids from Redmond are ready to storm cyberspace in about two weeks, and they aim to do it at $4.95 per month. That price will buy you 30 days or ten hours, whichever comes first. The word is also that they'll suspend subscriptions after the first half-million to work out the bugs and consolidate. Wise move. Early reviews of content are lukewarm, but then AOL and Compuserve have had a few years to accumulate their goodies. The Web site is worth a visit just to say you've been there, but only if you have patience for the extensive graphics. This appears to be the weak point of the whole enterprise, with complaints of slow access not only via the Web but directly by modem. "http://www.msn.com/"
HOTWIRED OFFERS NON-PASSWORD ACCESS
HotWired has announced a new program to give access to basic services to non-members. Until now, the techno-trendy site could only be accessed with a password and account name - freely available, but still a bit of a hassle. Non-members can't post in discussion areas, can't search the site, and can't participate in the online auditoriums. The move comes either in response to slowing growth in new member sign-ups or a horde of people who keep forgetting their passwords. In fact, HotWired does produce some of the most innovative original content around. The move to barrier-free availability is a smart move, if only to attract more exposure for their advertisers. But then, we've known that all along.... "http://www.hotwired.com/"
Rumors are flying that Sears is looking to dump its investment in Prodigy (IBM owns the other half). Prodigy lags far behind AOL and Compuserve in features and subscribers, though it has recently become profitable. Sears is may be pursuing this option as part of its divestiture strategy to dump businesses which are not part of its core retail business. "http://www.prodigy.com/"
WALL STREET JOURNAL OFFERS MONEY AND INVESTING GUIDE FOR FREE
This site offers a free preview of what will eventually be a commercial service. What's interesting about this particular online outing is the great content, for which the Wall Street Journal is so justly famous. Visitors can find continually updated coverage of top business and finance stories from around the world, as well as the Journal's various columns and features, available the night before they're printed. There are past articles and various business archives, too. The drawback? A very nosy subscription signup form, which asks everything but your blood type. Nevertheless, for business junkies this is mainline material. "http://update.wsj.com/"
MULTIMEDIA WIRE VS. DISNEY LAWSUIT LAID BARE: LEGAL PORNOGRAPHY?
What else would you call a site lovingly dedicated to a lawsuit? Multimedia Wire has sued Walt Disney for copyright infringement over alleged rampant faxing of its electronic newsletter dealing with media, technology and entertainment (see the Books & E-Zines article below). The suit alleges Disney distributed the newsletter within its internal offices without paying additional subscription charges. The site has all the elements designed to drive the legal voyeur to heights of judicial engorgement. You have a court filing, alleged internal Disney documents, a FAQ, and a primer on copyright law. Ironically, Disney is known as a vigorous defender of its own intellectual property. "http://www.mmwire.com/lawsuit.html"
For the record, the places to commune with Deadheads in mourning Jerry Garcia are the rec.music.gdead newsgroup and the IRC channel "gdead". On the Web, the Silicon Forest Media site tribute is a good starting point with links to other tributes also available. "http://www.rockweb.com/rwi/jerry-tribute/"
MANIPULATE THE WEB - VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE WEB SITES
W3-Studio, a Web site design company, is hosting the Global Awards for Excellence in Web Design, and is inviting just about anybody with a terminal to nominate pages that have favorably impressed those surfing the Net. The 12 categories include Most Innovative, Best Search Engine, Best Educational Site, and others. Voting is by e-mail. The deadline for nominations is September 1, 1995, and notice that we didn't suggest anything at all to our very loyal readers. "http://www.river.org/~isaac/global.html"
DATA HIGHWAY: POLITICS AND RELIGION
We visited the alt.politics.datahighway newsgroup to see what was cooking in that particular pot. Not surprisingly, the discussion mostly revolves around U.S. political issues, which reflects the U.S.-oriented datahighway metaphor. We found many threads about the fate of recent online content legislation; this is a good site to keep up with these developments. The other big thread clump had to do with the ongoing story of internal Scientology documents posted on Usenet in the face of their attempts at legal intimidation. Check misc.legal for more on the latest in the Scientology case, including a recent police raid connected with the story. Look for threads with the words "Lerma" or "Fishman".
WHAT MALE BODY TYPE LIGHTS YOUR FIRE?
The denizens of alt.slack have requested more female input in order to more fully round out their discussion of ideal body types. Once again the proudly bizzare SubGenii inhabiting that newsgroup have taken on one of the Great Questions of our times. One branch of the original thread includes a debate on the finer points of breast augmentation. The responses range from thoughtful discussion of the aesthetics of beauty to a piece-by-piece amalgamation of the perfect female body. Did you find the pun?
A data-driven sculpture, moving along a track, will crash through the wall of the building it's kept in unless an extensive dialogue about it occurs in art newsgroups. This is the concept behind TS4, a "telematic sculpture" created by Richard Kriesche for the Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale of Venice. Any discussion of the sculpture will automatically cause a break in the constant flow of pure data that moves the piece along the track towards its ultimate destination. Visiting the Web page will also cause a break. The site includes video updates, a real-time projected date of crash, and discussion of Kriesche's previous telematic sculptures. The English text is slightly awkward, and leaves you wanting more info than is provided, but what chutzpah! Only you can save the pavilion wall! "http://iis.joanneum.ac.at/kriesche/biennale95.html"
Containing over 20 full-color reproductions, the Cusimano gallery is well worth a visit. Many reproductions include the artist's description of the work. An unusual addition is a glossary of the imagery used in the paintings. The repeated images of apples, horses, running men, and aqueducts become more easily understood within the context of each painting. It seems to be rather important to Cusimano that we understand his art, which is derivative of Dali and Magritte, but modified with its own particular images. A history of the Italian-born Canadian artist is available, as are links to other surrealist artists on the Web. "http://205.189.144.7/archiavv/default.htm"
CUSTOM DESIGNED FURNITURE AND WOODWORKING SHOWCASE
Steve Postma of Boston, Mass., offers this Web showcase for the furniture he designs and produces. Obviously a Steve-of-all-trades, Postma has built an attractive home page as well as the nine beautiful handmade pieces on display. Steve says his custom furniture has been placed in American embassies and Four Star hotels, and though we can't confirm that, his work is of sufficient quality to make us believe his claim. Also on hand are a guest book, a comments area, and links to related sites of interest. "http://www.channel1.com/users/postma/"
COMMERCIAL ART SITE MAKES THE GRADE
The Wentworth Gallery Web site is well thought out and easy to browse. The stylized navigation menus link you with various areas of their site, such as gallery events, artists, locations, online ordering. A useful feature is the division of links into different artistic styles, including impressionist, seascape, whimsical, and Renaissance. As far the commercial side of things goes, they offer a wide selection of original oil paintings, limited edition serigraphs, lithographs, and sculptures from artists around the world. The site can boast of a good selection and good presentation, something not enough commercial sites manage. "http://wentworth-art.com/"
MMWIRE is a slick weekly publication, based on the Multimedia Wire news service, that deals frankly with the unbridled expansion of the multimedia industry. Surfers can browse industry news, upcoming conferences and trade shows, and a commentary section moderated by industry professionals. As a bonus, MMWIRE is creating a developers talent pool for the multimedia industry, to be offered free. Applicants will fill out what amounts to an online resume, allowing interested companies to easily locate them. This service and the professional look and feel of MMWIRE make it a must both for novices and for old hands in the multimedia programming, gaming, and art industries. "http://www.mmwire.com/index.html"
ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S NET ODYSSEY
"Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software." - Clarke's 69th Law. The quotation comes from a WWW site dedicated to Arthur C. Clarke, a man known for his accomplishments in the world of science fiction as well as science fact. This unofficial home page covers Clarke's life from his discovery of geostationary orbit in 1945 (a principle which makes modern satellite communications possible) to the books and movies born of "2001:A Space Odyssey". The site also contains links to other SF Web pages relating to the author's works, and a fascinating interview with Clarke that appeared in Wired Magazine concerning his outlook on life, death, and the future he so vividly writes about. "http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/ACC.Homepage.html"
SF BOOK PREVIEW A SPOT TO VISIT
The way to pique someone's interest in a book, movie, or work of art is to give them a peek at the work itself. A glimpse of a few paragraphs worth of William S. Hodges's new science fiction novel, "The Interpreter", performs that function admirably. While Hodges isn't quite Arthur C. Clarke (yet), after reading the preview we couldn't decide whether to order the book - details are there, of course - or wait for the movie. Either way, it promises to be great entertainment. Read for yourself. "http://www.thesphere.com/TheInterpreter"
YALE RECORD FINALLY ONLINE AFTER 123 YEARS
The Yale Record, a Yale University humor magazine, is now available via the Internet. The Record, in existence in paper form since 1872, is one of America's oldest and best known humor publications, boasting past members like former NBC chairman Brandon Tartikoff and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, who first fleshed out his characters in a Record comic strip. Issues currently available are limited (three!), but the staff promises to HTML-ize more issues "when we figure out what the hell we're doing." "http://minerva.cis.yale.edu/~jgfoot/record/issues.html"
INTELLIGENCE PROJECT HAS GLOBAL SCOPE
What's going on in South Africa? What's happening in the Middle East? The Online Intelligence Project can point you to answers to these and many other global questions. This is a great place to visit if you're interested in international relations and commerce, the United Nations, and general news around the world. Daily bulletins and newsfeeds, some lagging by a few days, keep you up to speed no matter where you are. "http://www.icg.org/intelweb/index.html"
The Consumer Information Network (CIN) has created a specialized e-mail system designed to enhance the lives of Netsurfers. CIN offers subscribers monthly mailings on what it considers the four basic life groups: health, software, travel, and wealth-building. CIN keeps close track of trends in the aforementioned areas, and subscribers to this free mailing list service can receive anything from travel cruise options to rebate coupons for personal health care software. CIN also provides links to selected sites dealing with personal, physical, and financial growth. "http://www.iis.com:80/cinet/" E-mail: clubs@clark.net
Astronomy buffs have a great ally in NASA's Cool Web Site of the Week. There are so many interesting sites at NASA, they have an ongoing contest for the "coolest of the week" page, which also includes each previous week's still cool sites. When we popped in, the cool site was the Solar Data Analysis Center, with an incredible array of images, specs on the spacecraft involved, and even little bios of the scientists involved, with e-mail addresses in case you have any nagging questions. With all the solar info we saw, it's hard for us to imagine there's anything left to ask. Leave plenty of time to peruse this page. It's worth it. "http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/nasa/Cool.html"
Remember when Mount St. Helens blew her top? She stunned the state of Washington and the world 15 years ago, on May 18, 1980. Better late than never, this attractive online tribute provides nearly 1,500 images. Viewers can safely tour the mountain/volcano before, during, and after the eruption; soak up information on related plants, animals, and people; and even link up with - you guessed it - other volcanic sites on the Net. Have a blast. "http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/msh/msh.html"
Everyone's heard of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison, but does the name Philo T. Farnsworth ring any bells? Or, should we say, light any tubes? Courtesy of the National Online Music Alliance comes this interesting serialized account of the life of Philo T. Farnsworth, the 14-year-old Idaho farmboy who conceived electronic video in the early 1920s and delivered the first operative model in 1927. Although Farnsworth is hardly known today, his pioneering work paved the way for all video to come, including what you're staring at right now. Pay your respects. "http://www.edge.net/noma/philo"
The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) has set up a Co-ordinated Heliospheric Observations Data (CHOD) Web site, showcasing virtual reality (VR) data models based on the findings of past and present unmanned space probes, such as the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. The three-dimensional (3-D) representations of the data sets are available both in GIF and in the new Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) formats. To fully appreciate the data sets collected you need a VRML browser such as Webspace, since ordinary browsers are incapable of reading the VRML format. This is the Crest of the Inescapable Wave of the Future (CIWF). A Webspace beta version is also available from Template Graphics Software for several platforms. Normal: "http://coney.gsfc.nasa.gov/Mathews/vrml/vr-coho/coho.html" Webspace: "http://www.cts.com/~template/"
The Department of Radiology at University Hospitals of Cleveland have designed a Web site to focus on developments in diagnostic imaging. There's an impressive collection of X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans as well as the less common PET and SPECT images. Medical professionals will soon be able to obtain continuing education credits by answering questions based on presented cases. Aspiring docs and techs can browse info on study programs and faculty. Though highly technical and intended for a limited audience, artists might find inspiration in these unique views of the body. "http://chaos.uh.cwru.edu/uhweb1.html"
MIKE COMET AND CYBERPOLL URL CORRECTIONS
The correct URL for Mike Comet's art page, as reported in issue #26, was incorrect so use the one below. Also the National Cyberpoll URL should have been spelled with only one "l". Mike Comet: "http://inswww.ins.cwru.edu/php/comet/comet.html" Cyberpoll: "http://www.rtis.com/nat/pol/cyberpoll/"
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