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Netsurfer Digest: Vol. 05, #14

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May 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM5/8/99

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<A NAME="TOP">NETSURFER DIGEST</A>
 More Signal, Less Noise
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Volume 05, Issue 14 
Thursday, May 06, 1999 
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BREAKING SURF
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<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS1">Lucasfilm Puts ISPs on Notice</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS2">Look but Don't Touch?</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS3">The Noble Prizes of Internet Marketing</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS4">Chernobyl Author Found</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS5">Engineers for Sale</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS6">Banners Beat Billboards</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS7">RealJukebox Offers Free Music</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS8">Court Settles Trademark Scuffle</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS9">Pssst! Wanna buy an infringed patent?</A>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<A HREF="#BS10">Return of the Foci</A>
</TD></TR>
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<A HREF="#BS11">Rating the Online Broker Ads</A>
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<A HREF="#BS12">Letters to the Editor</A>
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ONLINE CULTURE
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<A HREF="#OC1">Welcome to AOL, Here's a Pink Slip</A>
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<A HREF="#OC2">Pipe Dreams of the Wired and Bored</A>
</TD></TR>

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THREAD WATCH
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<A HREF="#TW1">Littleton: The Sad State of Being a Teenager</A>
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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<A HREF="#AO1">Textile Art</A>
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<A HREF="#AO2">Modern Mixed Media</A>
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<A HREF="#AO3">Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera</A>
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BOOKS & E-ZINES
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<A HREF="#NBR">Netsurfer Recommendations</A>
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<A HREF="#BEZ6">Columns from a 16-Year-Old Idiot Savant</A>
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<A HREF="#BEZ7">Intimate Exhibitionism</A>
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<A HREF="#BEZ8">Joyce to the World</A>
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<A HREF="#BEZ9">Ode to a Sonnet - and Dissonnet</A>
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<A HREF="#BEZ10">The Book of Bitterness</A>
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<A HREF="#SCI1">Is That a Singularity, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?</A>
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<A HREF="#SCI2">Darwin Explains It All</A>
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<A HREF="#SCI3">Engaging and Entertaining Intellectual Fodder</A>
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<A HREF="#SCI4">We Have Seen the Future, and It Is Copper</A>
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SOFTWARE
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<A HREF="#SW1">Red Hat Linux 6.0 Released</A>
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<A HREF="#SW2">Free Antivirus Software for PCs</A>
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<A HREF="#SW3">IBM's XML Web Site, C++ XML Parser, XML Search Engine</A>
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<A HREF="#SW4">Unix GUI Controls SETI@Home Client</A>
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BREAKING SURF

<A NAME="BS1">Lucasfilm Puts ISPs on Notice</A>

Lucasfilm attorneys have sent ISPs a form letter intended to serve as
notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that illegal
copying of copyrighted material relating to "Star Wars: Episode I - The
Phantom Menace" will not be tolerated. Most interpret the DMCA to hold that
such letters of notice should come after, not before, a copyright
infringement. Lucasfilm attorneys disagree and defend their pre-emptive
letter. Meanwhile, the new Star Wars movie boosts Net traffic and clogs
servers as movie-related items go on sale online and Apple enjoys a
powerful cross-marketing deal that has four new Phantom Menace commercials
posted on the Web, in QuickTime only. CNet has more sentences.
 

Notice: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35967,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35967,00.html</A> 
Lucasfilm: <A HREF="http://www.lucasfilm.com/">
http://www.lucasfilm.com/</A> 
Merchandise: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36033,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36033,00.html</A> 
Commercials: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36019,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36019,00.html</A>

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<A NAME="BS2">Look but Don't Touch?</A>

Let's see if we have this right. It's OK for GeoCities to sell keyword
ad space to porno sites, but not for anyone to have salacious content
on a GeoCities Web page. Hmmm. We suspect this may be more traffic
management than moral scruples. Meanwhile, a shadowy group called Seven
Words wants domain name registrars to allow domain names with rude
words in them, and has gone to court to assert its constitutional
rights to free speech. Are we supposed to take this seriously? We say
naked, stripped bare hucksterism, pure and simple.
 

GeoCities: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35922,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35922,00.html</A> 
Seven Words: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36003,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36003,00.html</A>

<A NAME="BS3">The Noble Prizes of Internet Marketing</A>

The Fifth Annual Tenagra Awards for Internet Marketing Excellence have been
announced and there are no surprise winners. eBay, Lego Mindstorms RoboTour,
Broadcast.com, the Industry Standard, and Danny Sullivan have all won for
achievements in 1998 that made a fundamental impact on the way marketing,
public relations, and advertising are done on the Internet.
 

<A HREF="http://awards.tenagra.com/">
http://awards.tenagra.com/</A>

<A NAME="BS4">Chernobyl Author Found</A>

Reported to have caused damage mostly in Asia, the Chernobyl virus came
from the desk of a Taiwanese university student. According to CNet, police
in Taiwan questioned 24-year-old Chen Ing-hau but won't charge him unless
someone comes forward to make a formal complaint. Chen, now in military
service, has expressed remorse and offered to help victims remove the virus
from their computers, cold comfort to anyone who has lost data as a result
of his work. Data Fellows has the Chernobyl virus details.
 

CNet: <A HREF="http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35849,00.html">
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,35849,00.html</A> 
Virus: <A HREF="http://www.datafellows.com/v-descs/cih.htm">
http://www.datafellows.com/v-descs/cih.htm</A>

<A NAME="BS5">Engineers for Sale</A>

Need a team of engineers? Wired reports that a group of 16 Silicon Valley
Internet service engineers put itself up for auction on eBay at just over
$3 million, then got cold feet and pulled the plug. Perhaps because of
nasty e-mails? The folks at eBay claim they don't know. Another four-man
team from San Francisco tried it for $400,000, but didn't sell in a one-day
auction. We can't help wondering what's next.
 

<A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/19420.html">
http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/19420.html</A>

<A NAME="BS6">Banners Beat Billboards</A>

There may be a lot of folk vying for Web advertising revenue, but it's sure
not loose change any more! That's the conclusion of the latest report on
Internet advertising released by New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers
for the Internet Advertising Bureau. Online advertising revenue in 1998
totaled $1.92 billion, 112 percent more than 1997, easily beating outdoor
advertising revenue of $1.58 billion. Consumer, computing, financial
services, telecom, and new media categories led the field. Considering the
youth of the medium, the growth is heady indeed.
 

<A HREF="http://www.iab.net/news/content/1998results.html">
http://www.iab.net/news/content/1998results.html</A>

<A NAME="BS7">RealJukebox Offers Free Music</A>

Chuck D and Public Enemy are finally getting their wish - their music will
be available free for download. RealJukebox, available from you know who as
a free beta download for Windows, allows users to retrieve, play, and
manage personal music collections. A number of the larger music and
distribution companies have promised to support RealJukebox by making music
available. Public Enemy's single "Do You Wanna Go Our Way???" from their
new album is available now, as is music from about 60 other artists.
 

RealJukebox: <A HREF="http://www.real.com/products/realjukebox/index.html">
http://www.real.com/products/realjukebox/index.html</A> 
Press: <A HREF="http://www.real.com/company/pressroom/pr/99/rj_debut.html">
http://www.real.com/company/pressroom/pr/99/rj_debut.html</A>

<A NAME="BS8">Court Settles Trademark Scuffle</A>

Can you use the trademark of a competitor in a meta tag? Not if it might
divert potential customers of the trademark owner to your site, a US Court
of Appeals has ruled. West Coast Video wanted to hide the term "moviebuff"
in the HTML code of its Web site, but Brookfield Communications, which owns
the trademark, objected. In siding with Brookfield, the Court set down
rules which should help keep the Web useful as an information tool. The New
York Times has the story, and we wonder about "buffmovie".
 

Ruling: <A HREF="http://www.vcilp.org/Fed-Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/9856918.htm">
http://www.vcilp.org/Fed-Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/9856918.htm</A> 
Times: <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/cyber/cyberlaw/30law.html">
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/cyber/cyberlaw/30law.html</A>

<A NAME="BS9">Pssst! Wanna buy an infringed patent?</A>

Patent Enforcement and Royalties Limited (PEARL), listed on the Alberta
Stock Exchange (not exactly the world's most conservative), offers you the
chance to buy into a portfolio of infringed patents. Why buy damaged goods?
Well, these guys appear sober and serious, and the business concept is
intriguing - they acquire stakes in infringed patents and then use their
"Patent Enforcement, Litigation Management, and Negotiating Acumen" to
obtain financial settlement, which they share with the patent owner. Read
all about it at their site, then dust off that infringed patent and call
them.
 

<A HREF="http://www.pearlltd.com/">
http://www.pearlltd.com/</A>

<A NAME="BS10">Return of the Foci</A>

A long time ago in an era far, far away, NSD readers would periodically
receive a publication called Netsurfer Focus in their e-mailboxes. Written
in the entertaining and informative Netsurfer style, Focus nevertheless
pushed a couple of envelopes (especially the one on length) by delving into
pithy topics in detail. But in the last few years, we have only been
repackaging existing material. No more. We've been hard at work on a
trilogy focusing on online trading/investing. Coming soon to a computer
screen near you, this is neither spam nor menace, but our own small
contribution to your summer entertainment. In the meantime, you can find
reruns at:
 

<A HREF="http://www.netsurf.com/nsf/index.html">
http://www.netsurf.com/nsf/index.html</A>

<A NAME="BS11">Rating the Online Broker Ads</A>

Since the first financial Web sites crawled out of the primordial Internet,
online trading has become a national sport. Although the number of accounts
has rocketed, the empire of the future has yet to evolve. To bring
customers into the fold, online brokers are mounting advertising campaigns
with hundred million dollar war chests. Netsurfer Focus brings our own
twist to the broker derby by rating the big guys - by their television ads.
See where your broker ranks on the Fear-Greed Scale and discover the winner
of the First Netsurfer Focus Eyeballs Award for Best Television Advertising
by an Online Brokerage.
 

<A HREF="http://www.netsurf.com/nsf/v04/01/index.html">
http://www.netsurf.com/nsf/v04/01/index.html</A>

<A NAME="BS12">Letters to the Editor</A>

In which we take you on a tour of Linux vs. NT and sundry other items, some
sweet, some sour.

<A HREF="http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.05.14.html">
http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.05.14.html</A>

ONLINE CULTURE

<A NAME="OC1">Welcome to AOL, Here's a Pink Slip</A>

Everybody knows Marc Andreesen. Fewer know Dave Titus, or that he designed
Mozilla, the little animated lizard that used to appear where the comets
now fly in Netscape Navigator. Dave's page tells what he's been up to since
penning the green critter. Drop into the pages of some of the other quiet
legends in the history of Netscape, like Jamie Zawinski's personal spot.
Well, he may not be so quiet. He's got his own Usenet fan-group,
<A HREF="news:alt.fan.jwz.">alt.fan.jwz.</A> and you'll learn why at his pages. We featured a tidbit
of his in our last Halloween issue. Former Netscape employees, and voyeurs,
will enjoy Ex-Mozilla.org, which includes a guestbook that reads like a
graduating high-school senior's yearbook: I'll miss it, be sure to keep in
touch. See what life's like for the brilliant and burned-out.
 

Dave: <A HREF="http://www.davetitus.com/">
http://www.davetitus.com/</A> 
Jamie: <A HREF="http://www.jwz.org/">
http://www.jwz.org/</A> 
Ex-Mozilla: <A HREF="http://www.ex-mozilla.org/">
http://www.ex-mozilla.org/</A>

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<A NAME="OC2">Pipe Dreams of the Wired and Bored</A>

The 2600 (that's a place, not a number) people who designed Hacked Sites of
the Future took the source code of some major Web sites and have hacked
them privately, on their own site. Set up by wannabes to show off what
they'd do with popular sites if they could hack them, it's the Mad magazine
of the Internet, with none of the Secret Service and NSA intervention that
would occur if they actually had cracked the sites. The "hacked" sites run
the intellectual gamut from scatological humor to the subtly hilarious
slogan on the Microsoft hacked page: "Where did you want to go again?"

<A HREF="http://www.2600.com/hacked_pages/prop/index.html">
http://www.2600.com/hacked_pages/prop/index.html</A>

THREAD WATCH

<A NAME="TW1">Littleton: The Sad State of Being a Teenager</A>

Most of the high-profile reputable sites that dealt with the Littleton
massacre chronicled just the facts or ventured into thinly disguised
editorializing on the blameworthiness of violent movies and television,
video games, trenchcoats, and/or Marilyn Manson. Jon Katz's "Voices from
the Hellmouth" column/thread at Slashdot took a different tack. Here,
correspondents examined the emotional and physical violence done to
outsiders in homogenized high schools. Take a long hard look at the
first-hand stories from victims of the latest variation of the witch hunt.
You'll find some smart observations and some sad chronicles, although the
posters themselves may be largely unaware of just how sad. Several of the
reports come from teenagers so enervated by being teenagers that they don't
even have the wherewithal to be angry. On a brighter note, Katz's "Hope in
the Hellmouth: Looking Ahead" does hold - well, hope that situations can
improve.

Voices: <A HREF="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/25/1438249">
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/25/1438249</A> 
Hope: <A HREF="http://slashdot.org/features/99/05/03/0518209.shtml">
http://slashdot.org/features/99/05/03/0518209.shtml</A>

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

<A NAME="AO1">Textile Art</A>

Looking for a carpet for the study? Don't look here. If, however, you want
to buy an exquisite wall hanging or tapestry from the 17th century, this is
the site for you. The Textile Gallery, in the posh Mayfair region of
London, has mounted an online exhibition of beauty and grace in textile
form. You can browse the gallery, enjoy the exhibition, and explore the
thumbnail images for lavish details and more pictures of any piece that
takes your fancy. Mayfair includes the most expensive and exclusive real
estate in London and everything on show is an original one-off piece of
work - you know the saying: if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't
afford it.
 

<A HREF="http://www.textile-art.com/index.html">
http://www.textile-art.com/index.html</A>

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<A NAME="AO2">Modern Mixed Media</A>

The Smithsonian Institution, the Buckminster Fuller Institute, and Kodak,
among others, have permanent installations of highly detailed, immersive
3-D wall-mounted images called PHSColograms. (Art)n Laboratory, a
collective of artists reaching for the future of photography, pioneered the
format. The new medium combines photography, 3-D rendering, painting, and
sculpture to create virtual photographs that require 3-D glasses for proper
appreciation. The site clearly and concisely explains each step of the
complicated process and provides images of finished examples.
 

<A HREF="http://www.artn.com/">
http://www.artn.com/</A>

<A NAME="AO3">Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera</A>

This is a fan site. Don't expect art criticism or even a gallery of Diego
Rivera's paintings. Expect the sort of charming exuberance you get from
those who are in love with beauty and passion. Nineteen-year-old fan
Kimberly Masters has posted excerpts from Rivera's surreal autobiography -
stories about how he made friends in the forest with wild animals at the
age of four, became a man at nine by making love to an 18-year-old woman,
became a cannibal at 18 by consuming the flesh of dead women - stuff like
that. Quotes about Rivera from his wife, artist Frieda Kahlo, complete this
small homage to a great artist.

<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/fkahlofan/rivera.htm">
http://members.aol.com/fkahlofan/rivera.htm</A>

BOOKS & E-ZINES
<TABLE CELLPADDING=10> <TR> <TD WIDTH=468 BORDER=2 BGCOLOR="#BFFFF4">
 

<A NAME="NBR">Netsurfer Recommendations</A>

Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order
at a hefty discount from our affiliates Amazon.com and Beyond.com, and send
a few pennies our way as well.

<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380973464/netsurferdigest">
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT HSPACE=10 BORDER=0
SRC="http://www.amazon.com/covers/0/38/097/346/0380973464.m.gif">
Cryptonomicon</A> 
Neal Stephenson 
Avon Books (Trd); ISBN: 0380973464 
The much anticipated new novel comes from the author of the bestseller "<A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553562614/netsurferdigest">Snow
Crash</A>". The action alternates between WWII and the present, dealing with
data havens, unbreakable codes, and Nazi gold. It's a huge, technically
bloated monster of a book, but hey, that's exactly what the cyber-SF crowd
loves. Not light reading, but definitely fun for Neal's fans. Incidentally,
there's a link to an interview with Neal Stephenson at the Amazon book site
(click on the cover image).

<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312856830/netsurferdigest">
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT HSPACE=10 BORDER=0
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A Deepness in the Sky</A> 
Vernor Vinge 
St Martins Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0312856830 
Another eagerly awaited novel, this time from the author of Hugo Award
winner "<A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812515285/netsurferdigest">A
Fire Upon the Deep</A>". The action takes place in the same future, but
some three millennia earlier. The details of the story are not that
important for the purposes of this recommendation - read the synopsis at
Amazon for that. What is important is that this is a big, grand, and
satisfying modern space opera from a master of the art form.

<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000I924/netsurferdigest">
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Who Else!</A> 
Jeff Beck 
Sony Music; ASIN: B00000I924 
Jeff Beck does weird things to guitars. This is an eclectic album, with
numbers ranging from techno to ambient, even to Irish/Celtic melodies,
always woven together with that amazing electric guitar work. What the
album lacks in thematic coherence, it more than makes up with sheer
originality and the subtle and even eerie sounds of Jeff's guitar. Strap
down all your friends and force them listen to this. This is what absolute
mastery of an instrument sounds like.

<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000HXLL/netsurferdigest">
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT HSPACE=10 BORDER=0
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Sai-So: The Remix Project</A> 
Kodo 
Red Ink; ASIN: B00000HXLL 
The legendary Japanese Taiko drummers of Kodo engaged several cutting edge
DJs to remix tracks from one of their classic older albums, <A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000020FE/netsurferdigest">
Ibuki</A>. The result blends traditional Japanese Taiko and modern techno
hip-hop. We're great fans of oddball hybrids - frequently some of the
most interesting work around - and this album does not disappoint.
Recommended perhaps slightly more for fans of DJ-mix dance music then
for Taiko traditionalists, but definitely way cool stuff.

<A HREF="http://www.beyond.com/AF31458/PKMM100561/prod.htm">
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT HSPACE=10 BORDER=0
SRC="http://www.beyond.com/images/common/gtinteractive/joyofcooking_box.gif">
Software: The Joy of Cooking for Win95/98</A> 
 
GT INTERACTIVE 
The classic cookbook translated to CD-ROM. Sure you can get some recipes
from the hardcover book, but try to find a counter which will bear up under
2,500 recipes, 1,500 articles, and 900 illustrations. More interesting are
such features as menu planning, meal scaling, shopping list printing, and,
yes, even complete integration with the Palm Pilot. Now techno-geeks truly
have no excuse for their bad eating habits.

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<A NAME="BEZ6">Columns from a 16-Year-Old Idiot Savant</A>

Self-described "16-year-old idiot savant" Marty Beckerman isn't Dave Barry,
but the fledgling humor columnist doesn't mind the comparison. Of course,
Dave Barry was never fired from his hometown newspaper for misrepresenting
himself as a "real" journalist and asking punk rocker Henry Rollins if he
"would do another nude scene right now". Temporarily deprived of his print
outlet, Beckerman has cultivated a faithful and growing cadre of e-mail
subscribers. Although coming from a decidedly high-school perspective,
Marty's wit is surprisingly incisive, his youthful mirth infectious. Still,
he can at times get repetitive or immature. You'll either like the package
or you won't.
 

<A HREF="http://www.alaska.net/~beckerma/">
http://www.alaska.net/~beckerma/</A>

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<A NAME="BEZ7">Intimate Exhibitionism</A>

Gone are the days when diaries were strictly personal affairs, when our
fears and passions were penned surreptitiously and stored under lock and
key. Members of Illumine's small community of diarists have chosen to share
their observations, from the intimate to the banal, with the entire world.
Tony alternately lauds and condemns news makers in his Heroes and Half-Wits
column. Nita contemplates whether any body part is "so vital and so
maligned" as the feet. Bryon opines, "I was taught to fear sex, alcohol,
and cigarettes. I should have been taught to respect them." Each author
engages the reader uniquely; the journals vary widely in format, content,
and frequency of entries.
 

<A HREF="http://illumine.cx/">
http://illumine.cx/</A>

<A NAME="BEZ8">Joyce to the World</A>

Faith and begorra, it's a bloomin' James Joyce Web site! And it's a site to
soothe the soul of all Joyce admirers. Online versions of the man's key
works, his biography, essays, a discussion board... you can even search the
site for specific topics. Here's a test - if you can't identify the source
of this quote, you need to study this site ASAP: "The object of the artist
is the creation of the beautiful."
 

<A HREF="http://www.jough.com/joyce/">
http://www.jough.com/joyce/</A>

<A NAME="BEZ9">Ode to a Sonnet - and Dissonnet</A>

The Face of Love site features both sonnets and what the author calls
"dissonnets". He defines the latter as somewhat of "a deliberate burlesque
of the sonnet as to form and/or content, usually both." Love in all its
forms - careless, carefree, careful, cruel - is the multi-faceted topic.
Not for those who prefer pictures to words.
 

<A HREF="http://www.skyhouse.org/sonnets/">
http://www.skyhouse.org/sonnets/</A>

<A NAME="BEZ10">The Book of Bitterness</A>

"Unflinching accounts of a world that doesn't work" - this summarizes the
whole of this depressingly unhappy Web site. The sheer unfair way of the
world, the way justice so often fails to emerge, and the miserable lives
some people lead -such are the subjects of this collection of essays.
Ranging from self-pitying whining to acidly brilliant social comment, the
works either hit or miss - you may select a wonderful, emotive piece of
writing that has you nodding furiously at the screen in agreement, or some
dour piece of work that finds 37 ways to say "but that's not fair". If you
get the latter - well, life isn't always fair, is it?

<A HREF="http://www.sealander.com/Bitter_Book.html">
http://www.sealander.com/Bitter_Book.html</A>

SURFING SCIENCE

<A NAME="SCI1">Is That a Singularity, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?</A>

Computers, among other miracles, allow nudniks like us to join vicariously
in the visions of high-powered scientists. The International Numerical
Relativity Group lets us see what would happen were we to approach a black
hole. Complex gravitational lensing effects appear effortlessly on our
screens. The site also provides much more sophisticated mathematical models
and analysis tools to those capable of understanding them. Perhaps as a
concession to the German scientists, the site is written in a sort of
tortured Teutonic English. For example, at one point in the black hole
distortion, a light source "enlightens the backside" of an object, letting
you know there's a spiritual dimension to this whole thing. It lets us
mortals know that these crazed mathematical physicists are only human after
all.
 

<A HREF="http://jean-luc.ncsa.uiuc.edu/">
http://jean-luc.ncsa.uiuc.edu/</A>

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<A NAME="SCI2">Darwin Explains It All</A>

Works from E.O. Wilson's "Sociobiology" to Robert Wright's "The Moral
Animal" examine the evolutionary substrate of our day-to-day brains. But
simply understanding how things came to be is not enough for some people.
They have to fervently believe it, and proselytize for it, and denounce
those who do not believe. In the past, the Science That Compels Belief was
anything from General Semantics to Catastrophe Theory. Now William Spriggs
brings Trotskyite intensity to Evolutionary Psychology. Everything from
adolescent criminality to the implications of spellcheckers gets filtered
through Evolutionary Psychology on this site. Even the most Andy Rooneyish
of Mr. Spriggs's observations has its roots in Evolutionary Psychology.
Read it, and believe.
 

<A HREF="http://www.evoyage.com/">
http://www.evoyage.com/</A>

<A NAME="SCI3">Engaging and Entertaining Intellectual Fodder</A>

Gathering under the rubric that life can come with instructions, Serendip
brings together forums and resources in an intellectual inquiry into life
and how it is lived. Unlike some other sites with the same lofty goals, the
accessible, readable Serendip offers depth and content. Several interactive
sections take the user step by step through certain intellectual
curiosities. Topic focuses include Brain and Behaviour, Complex Systems,
and Guest Exhibitions. A great site to sit down and spend some serious time
with.
 

<A HREF="http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/">
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/</A>

<A NAME="SCI4">We Have Seen the Future, and It Is Copper</A>

You have to admire someone who hitches his wagon to an element, even if it
is as self-serving as the Copper Development Association. It's impossible
to conceive of a passion more essential - elemental, if you will. At Copper
Topics, you can examine everything from a rare 1921 Rolls Royce Silver
Ghost made almost entirely out of copper to a gigantic copper shrimp that
decorates a restaurant. Copper in industry, copper in commerce, copper in
our daily lives: it is all here. It was in use before the Bronze Age, and
will probably never go out of style.

<A HREF="http://cutopics.copper.org/">
http://cutopics.copper.org/</A>

SOFTWARE

<A NAME="SW1">Red Hat Linux 6.0 Released</A>

The most popular and robust Linux release is available on CD-ROM or via Net
download for from $40 to $80, depending your options. Major new features
include Kernel 2.2, better support for multiprocessing, more hardware
drivers, two user interfaces (KDE and GNOME), full RAID support, a jazzed
up Red Hat Package Manager, and Glibc 2.1. Linux newbies will find this the
best version to get started with, since the $80 version comes bundled with
generous phone support.
 

Release: <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/corp/press/current_redhat60.html">
http://www.redhat.com/corp/press/current_redhat60.html</A> 
Buy: <A HREF="http://store.redhat.com/commerce/">
http://store.redhat.com/commerce/</A>

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<A NAME="SW2">Free Antivirus Software for PCs</A>

A big name firm, Computer Associates, has made a personal version of its
InoculateIT software available for free on the Web, with no catch as far as
we can tell Obviously, Computer Associates will want to move you up to its
pro versions eventually, but for the moment, functional, easy-to-use free
anti-virus software is yours for the taking.
 

<A HREF="http://www.cai.com/antivirus/personal/">
http://www.cai.com/antivirus/personal/</A>

<A NAME="SW3">IBM's XML Web Site, C++ XML Parser, XML Search Engine</A>

The more we look at XML, the more enamored we are of its capabilities. But
XML needs more tools, and IBM is certainly doing its part to fill the void.
Big Blue's new site has plenty of related technical content as well as two
real jewels, freebie C++ and Java XML parsers. Look under Tools for this
and other goodies. The other notable bit of content is the XML search
engine that lets you find XML documents, document type declarations (DTDs),
style sheets, press releases, tutorials, Web pages, and bulletin board
postings anywhere on the Web.
 

<A HREF="http://www.software.ibm.com/xml/">
http://www.software.ibm.com/xml/</A>

<A NAME="SW4">Unix GUI Controls SETI@Home Client</A>

TkSeti makes searching for alien radio signals even easier. The interface
software can monitor, start, and stop running SETI@Home clients and send
you various notifications. A cool program for a cool project.
 

TkSeti: <A HREF="http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~macdonal/tkseti/tkseti.html">
http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~macdonal/tkseti/tkseti.html</A> 
SETI@Home: <A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/">
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/</A>

<A NAME="SW5">Eddie 1.0 - Distributed Server Control, Monitoring, and Balancing</A>

This impressive Open Source effort lets you control and monitor a
distributed, multi-server Web site. If you're running a bunch of Web
servers, this free product will help you do things like failover, load
balancing, and monitoring of your servers. The software works on Linux,
Solaris, and FreeBSD (WinNT soon).
 

<A HREF="http://www.eddieware.org/">
http://www.eddieware.org/</A>

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Publisher: Arthur Bebak
 
Editor: Lawrence Nyveen
 
Contributing Editor: 
Production Manager: Bill Woodcock
 
Copy Editor: Elvi Dalgaard
 

Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
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<LI>President: Arthur Bebak
<LI>Vice President: S.M. Lieu
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Writers and Netsurfers:<UL>
<LI>Sue Abbott
<LI>Regan Avery
<LI>Kirsty Brooks
<LI>Marshall Camp
<LI>Judith David
<LI>Joanne Eglash
<LI>Alex Jablokow
<LI>Michael Luke
<LI>Elizabeth Rollins
<LI>Kenneth Schulze
<LI>Gavian Whishaw
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