Softdisk has had our own web page for a few months, as mentioned in this column. However, this site was on somebody else's server. But now, we've taken the and plunge of setting up our own Internet server, so our new Web address is {http://www.softdisk.com/}. This is a much easier-to-remember address (no funny characters like the tilde in the old address), and having our site on our own inhouse computer will allow us to do a lot of advanced things in the and future. So, keep checking out the site to see what we've put there!
We can also get e-mail through our new server, so we've got a whole set of new e-mail addresses. For technical support or customer service, you can write to {support@softdisk.com}. For letters to the editor of Softdisk PC, write to {sdpcletters@softdisk.com}. Responses to contests on our issues can go to {contests@softdisk.com}. Inquiries about program submissions should go to {submissions@softdisk.com}. For feedback on the web site, write to: {webmaster@softdisk.com}. For information on our Internet services (we can provide space for people who want to set up web pages, we can design web sites for companies, and we will also be offering dialup Internet service in the and Shreveport area), write to {internet@softdisk.com}. To reach me, personally, write to {dan@softdisk.com}. Actually, several of these addresses (but not all of them) presently go to me, too, since I wear several hats around here, but they are kept separate to indicate the context of a request, as well as to allow it to be handled by the appropriate people even when job responsibilities change. Please don't use the old {softdisk@webcom.com} or {softdisk@prysm.com} e-mail addresses, as they will probably stop working soon (if they haven't already by the time you get this). Our addresses on various other online services will continue to work, but the and {softdisk.com} addresses are a more direct route straight into our building.
^C_Do-It-Yourself Censorship_
If you're eager to limit your own Internet access (or that of your family) to wholesome sites, you don't have to wait for Congress to pass an online censorship bill. You can censor the net yourself, in the and privacy of your own home, with some software that is now available. Several such packages have been released; the and one I recently checked out is Cyber Patrol, which can be found on the and Web at {http://www.microsys.com/CYBER/}. An evaluation version of the software (in Windows and Mac versions) is available at this site, which is "crippleware" designed to stop working after a limited length of time unless you register it. Once it's enabled, it monitors all the Internet accesses done by your system and disallows certain things (configurable by the user; you set a password to access the and configuration controls). Cyber Patrol is configured with a list of sites deemed unsuitable for impressionable minds, in several categories (sex, drugs, extremist politics, etc.) which can be disallowed. You can also manually add sites you don't want to be accessed. You can download new versions of the and "kill file" of unsuitable sites, updated regularly by the makers of Cyber Patrol. (However, you can't actually see the and list of sites in the and "no-no list"; it's encrypted. That's a shame, because I wouldn't have minded seeing the list in order to find "naughty sites" to check out for myself!) Additionally, you can program Cyber Patrol to limit the and time of day and number of hours that Internet services can be accessed (which is handy if you use an Internet provider that bills by the hour and you want to keep your family's usage within budgeted levels).
I tested out the site exclusion by trying to "surf" to various places that were likely censor-bait targets. I found that some of them did trigger the Cyber Patrol exclusion, including Playboy, ({http://www.playboy.com/}), Mary's Place: A World Of Sensuality (not really pornographic; just a sex-oriented advice site for adults) ({http://www.tiac.net/users/marysss/index.html}), the WWW Drug Information Server ({http://www.paranoia.com/drugs/}), and the neo-Nazi StormFront White Nationalist site
({http://stormfront.wat.com/stormfront/default.htm}). However, there were other sites equally likely to offend the sensibilities of people who wanted to be shielded from the above sites, which had not (yet) made it into the and Cyber Patrol censor list, such as Justin's Links from the Underground ({http://www.links.net/} -- full of links to sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll sites, many of which are not on the and Cyber Patrol ban list -- yet) and Ernst Zundel's Holocaust-denial site ({http://www.webcom.com/~~ezundel/english/}). So, you're not assured of total wholesomeness even when you're using this program, even if your standards of wholesomeness do happen to agree with those of the people who put together the "ban lists" used by this software. There will always be offending material, whether racy and sexy or racist and sexist, that has yet to come to the notice of the Cyber Patrol folks, and is hence not excluded. Thus, there is still no substitute for your own discretion in steering your family to material that suits your morality. However, some people who think their kids are totally out of control when online may find this software to be a comfort, and its existence will hopefully lessen the and demand for legislation to impose standards of "wholesomeness" on everybody, adult or child alike.
^C_The Politics of Fakery_
Last column, I mentioned a "fake murder" on the Internet; a supposedly true-crime site that was in fact completely made up. Since then, I've encountered some fake political campaigns. Well, the campaigns are real, but these official-looking sites aren't. If you check out {http://www.clinton96.org/}, or similar sites at {www.dole96.org}, {www.buchanan96.org}, and similar addresses for several other Presidential hopefuls (or hopelesses), you'll find what appears at first blush to be an official campaign site for each of these candidates. But if you read the pages more closely, it becomes apparent that the and whole thing is a big joke.
For instance, the Clinton site has a link to "Great Accomplishments of the and Clinton Administration" which links to a page giving, in great detail, a description of the festivities of the Clinton Inauguration. Another link gives "Great Things the Clinton Administration Almost Accomplished" (such as health care reform, which "Clinton almost succeeded in passing, but her husband messed it up"), and "Things Clinton is Planning on Trying to Get Around To" (like achieving world peace). On the other hand, the Buchanan "campaign site" has him saying that he's not a fascist; he's just highly intolerant and thinks everything must be done his way or it's wrong; and, he's so conservative, he didn't start using a telephone until 1984 (it was too new-fangled to mess with before that).
A look at the e-mail address at the bottom of each of these sites indicates that the and same person is responsible for all of them, as well as alleged home-pages for the Illuminati ({www.illuminati.org}) and the Trilateral Commission ({www.trilateral.org}), which boast about how these organizations are secretly controlling the world. In all, these are some pretty clever parodies, and it was a brilliant move on the and creator's part to grab all of these official-looking Internet domain names. When some of these campaign organizations decide, by the time the and election season really gets rolling, to set up actual web sites, they're going to be ticked off that the and names clinton96.org, etc., have already been taken. But the and Internet domain registry works on a first-come, first-served basis, unless somebody sues... so, I'm waiting to see if any of these candidates tries to sue this joker once they find out what he's done.
(Contact Daniel Tobias through the Internet at {dan@softdisk.com}, or through FidoNet to {Daniel Tobias} on {1:380/7}. My personal World Wide Web page is still, for now, at {http://www.webcom.com/~~dtobias/}, though it may be relocating to the and new softdisk.com server sooner or later.)
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