Scandal of the moment is the revelation that ISP Excite@Home has been monitoring the net usage of some of its clients with a view to terminating their accounts without notice if they are found to be downloading any pirate software or copyright material. Users are saying it is an invasion of privacy and have accused Excite@Home, which is half-owned by Optus, of "policing" their activities. The users are caught on the back foot, however, since the right randomly to monitor activities is written into the user terms and conditions with the ISP. So the message is as old as the technology is new: always check the fine print. And of course, the other message is: always respect copyright.* * *
Just how smart are you? If you have never had an IQ test taken, this is your chance. It is a serious test - 38 questions against the clock. It takes about 13 minutes:
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Geoff and Kiran are married. Very married. Seven times now and they have not finished. This Canadian couple is travelling the world getting married in different cultural environments. They started in Adelaide of all places, and their first wedding ceremony was Adnyamathanha. They went on to marry in Japan, Thailand, Borneo, Ethiopia, Ireland and Scotland - travelling extensively in between and keeping a stunningly detailed online journal complete with pictures, observations and interactivity. They have three more months on the road and are wonderfully worth following:
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You'll need to set some time aside for it, it is not fast to load and it does not function on clunky old machines. But once Jurassic Park is up and running, it is a mighty 3-D game which will keep you running and bamboozled for hours seeking tools on beaches and in gorges and dark caves with lurking dinosaurs. There are even virtual prizes to win. It'll keep the youngies occupied as they wait for the release of Jurassic III.
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For students of nature young and old, the CSIRO, which is based in Adelaide, has launched a website featuring a section on Educational Resources. It is a whizzy site although an Acrobat Reader is essential to deliver all the PDF files. But the information therein is profound. For those not needing edification, there is the sheer pleasure of the 1000 plus images of the picture gallery. My swoon was the insect section, although I was a little peeved that the creatures were not more specifically identified:
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For hands-on environmental learning there is the Samphire Nature Trail - a wonderous boardwalk facility at Middle Beach which is blue crab heaven about 40km north of Adelaide. It offers intimate observation of samphire, saltbush, seagrass, mangrove and the accompanying life of the coastal ecosystem. It's an impressive Coastcare project and guided tours can be arranged.
http://homepages.picknowl.com.au/jewoodward/default.htm
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They've been calling 2001 "the year of the worm" because those vandalistic little email files have just kept coming. The latest one is "Troj_Apost.A" which operates through Outlook Express claiming, in the subject line: "As per your request!" The message says: "Please find attached file for your review. I look forward to hear from you again very soon. Thank you." The accompanying Reademe.exe file, if opened, will copy itself into into the system and send itself off to everyone on your address list. So far this little nasty has not been serious, probably because everyone has wised up to unsoliticed exe files and refuses to open them.* * * *
Good news. There are two excellent new search engines which have been created as a response to the increasing commercialisation of some of the long-established search engines. Google remains supreme, but these newies are chasing its tail and are looking very good indeed. Teoma is still in Beta testing, but is looking slick:
Wisenut seems slightly more advanced and, like Teoma, claims, as it amasses web data, to specialise in "relevance". So far it has almost 1500 million web pages under its belt - and is not finished:
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There's nothing like curling up in front of the fire with the kids and the computer. Bedtime Stories is books aplenty online - superbly illustrated and presented in large read-aloud print. Everything from Alice in Wonderland through to stories about children and their pets. Funny stories, whimsical stories, true stories, silly stories... It's a treat.
http://www.the-office.com/bedtime-story/
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If you don't have time for all that reading, well, there's a place for that, too. Book-a-Minute condenses whole tomes to few words. Since they are all so very short, there are lots and lots of books on the website - from Tolkein to the Hardy Boys. It's a hoot:
http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/
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The Maze is a you-beaut, bells and whistles government website for young South Australians. It aims to show them the way through the maze of government services and life skills. There's a wealth of information - from personal rights and assistance to travelling exchange programs.
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For chess fiends, here is a merry mecca. The US Chess Federation with all its championships, events and news.
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Conventional websites never seem to be quite ready for a major crisis. They quickly run out of bandwidth when besieged by millions of hits. Even the mighty CNN website was inaccessible during New York's terror day of September 11, 2001. So netizens found other ways to collect and exchange information and feelings. Some made forums:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sept11info
http://forums.craigslist.org/?forumID=35
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Some organised ways to find out who was dead and who was alive:
http://safe.millennium.berkeley.edu/
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And, interestingly, from the Boston Coop, comes a wiki, an interactive open forum which works on the blogger principle. This one is full of philosophy, patriotism and a little religion:
http://www.bostoncoop.net:8080/SeptEleven
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Manhattan companies turned to the net, too. The Marriot Hotel's website kept evacuated guests informed about the status quo and when they would be able to collect their left-behind belongings while affected businesses used their netsites to communicate their arrangements and the status of their staff.
http://www.sidley.com/news/pub.asp?PubID=1025329112001
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Meanwhile, with CNN, NBC and the American news sources back in business, it is the Nostradamus sites which are in overload. The American Nostradamus Society clearly did not have this ninth month terror, purported to be the beginning of WWIII, in mind since by last night it was still focused on ""terror from the sky in the month of July" prediction - which was thought to apply to 1999 but didn't happen:
http://www.nostradamususa.com/
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Nostradamus's predictions are highly crytpic, which is why no one ever predicts his predictions until after they have happened. This is made clear on the Skeptics website:
http://skepdic.com/nostrada.html
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New York webcams, placed to showcase the glory of Manhattan, now look down on the still-smoking devastation:
http://209.186.105.66/skycam/cam6.jpg
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The view from satellites was heartbreaking, too. Nasa has a collection of images showing the smoke plume coming from Manthattan:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/WTCplume.html
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Theories are still being explored as to just how the hijackers made their way through security in such a well co-ordinated attack. This may give a few clues. It comes from Marshall Brain's very useful tech teaching website - and this the section exploring exactly how airport security works:http://www.howstuffworks.com/airport-security.htm
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Nimda has been one devastating worm - bringing down major servers all over the world and infesting domestic machines. Nimda is "Admin" backwards - a cheeky hacker snipe at the system administration people who cop the brunt of its infection. It is to be noted that it is not only email-borne but also through some infected websites, so it is important to download a protective patch. It only takes a moment and anyone can do it - so do it. Symantec, the virus experts, will direct you:http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.nimda.a@mm.html
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For a clear impression of just where the Twin Towers stood and how the rescue logistics are taking place in New York, this Interactive Relief and Rescue Map is most enlightening:
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Another perspective on the critical state of the world is to be found in the Middle East - and it is as well that we read and note it. This is Middle East Newswire:
http://www.middleeastwire.com/newswire/
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Intelligence for individuals is the theme of the Stratfor site. It is an authoritative American examination of strategies and events - at present, of course, centred on the movements involved in alliances and defence operations.
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With war in the air, it seems an apt time to reflect on wars gone by. Here is a site dedicated to those awarded the Victoria Cross, the most distinguished of Britain's recognitions for gallantry:
http://www.chapter-one.com/vc/default.asp
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The kids are in college, the wife has a life of her own, so the Digital Nomad is fulfilling his life's dream - hitting the road long-term, with a digital camera and a laptop. He's worked out that he can do all his finances online and make withdrawals from 430,000 atms around the world and, after two years of planning, he is off - already across the Pacific and in NewZealand, heading our way. His website is a bit fussy in navigation, but his journal, itinerary, survival strategies and more are all there, regularly updated:
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"Confidence of creating deliciousness. This tastiness cannot be carried even by both hands." This is the promise of Choco Bouchee Snack Cakes from Japan - one of many quaint Japanese labels collected on Eric D. Snyder's entertaining website of the long name - wemadeoutinatreeandthisoldguysatandwatchedus. The site is dedicated to offbeat quotes, bad writing, peculiar use of the English language and assorted oddities.
http://www.wemadeoutinatreeandthisoldguysatandwatchedus.com/
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This Aussie travel site was a good one even before it was improved. Now it has been bulked out and embellished and enhanced - full of good holiday ideas not only for visitors, but for those of us who want to have some adventures close to home:
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A tool for parents, this website explains a lot of movie and media content, outlining the ratings and content so that adults may make decisions about what they feel is appropriate for their young:
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Not as damaging as viruses but nonetheless an internet irritant are the endless chain letters which spam cyberspace. Most recently is the !0000 mail sent by zillions of well-meaning people as a way of stopping virus mails from spitting out of Microsoft mail applications. This is not a hoax, however, according to the experts, it is not the best advice in the world, especially since some senders have "improved" the trick making it even less useful. !0000 may work in some cases - and you may learn how on About.com's anti-virus page:
http://antivirus.about.com/library/weekly/aa082801b.htm
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Spam, generally is a time and bandwidth wasting phenomenon, be it chain letters or unsolicited sales pitches. But some of it is positively criminal - such as the bogus disaster relief appeals which have been springing up. It has been estimated that we waste several dollars a month in ISP charges simply getting unwanted pitches and raves. SpamCon is dedicated to reducing this nuisance:
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The idea of pilots carrying firearms has generated dissent within the profession. It is among the curly workforce issues dealt with at LabourStart, the primary meeting spot of trade unionists on the net:
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Meanwhile, teachers at Muslim schools are having their problems dealing with the worrying spinoffs of the Attack on the USA. Their cause is among the many represented on another powerful Australian workers' website:
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An enlightening perspective on the moderate Muslim feelings in the wake of the Attack is to be found on this quaint website, officially devoted to Muslim weddings and women's issues, but in fact a broad forum on modern Muslim life:
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New laws being hurried through by Congress in the US are causing some concern among the proponents of privacy online. They say that investigations of terrorism may have far-reaching effects on civil liberties. Their reservations are to be found on EPIC - the Electronic Privacy Information Centre website:
http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_8.19.html
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There is always something good cooking at the Bakehouse. It has become one of the busiest theatres in town. And one of its specialties is Sundays and soup. The $6 admission for Sunday playreadings includes a choice of four soups with bread roll along with guest speaker and a moved play reading by leading Adelaide actors.
http://www.bakehousetheatre.com/
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Winners of the Engineering South Australia Awards this year are ISite, the 3D laser imaging specialists - and one of those well-kept South Australian excellence stories. This company has been around since 1999 when it springboarded from Maptek. It develops and provides laser imaging applications for worldwide use - from movie sets and mining to counter terrorism operations and nuclear accident assessment. This known, one may expect to hear more of its activities in the very near future:
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