Cranezilla --Mark Crane's collection of rarely annotated links

Sudan Bank Hacked, Bin Laden Info Found - Hacker A group of U.K.-based hackers has cracked computers at the AlShamal Islamic Bank in Sudan and collected data on the accounts of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization and its leader Osama bin Laden, Kim Schmitz, a flamboyant German hacker/businessman, has claimed.
Schmitz, who has offered a $10 million reward for the capture of bin Laden, told Newsbytes that the information has been turned over to the FBI. Bin Laden, a millionaire Saudi exile whose base is now Afghanistan, is suspected of being the driving force behind the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with hijacked planes.
Newsbytes could not confirm Schmitz's claim. An FBI spokesman in Washington declined to confirm or deny the story, saying that the agency's policy is not to comment on information and leads it is receiving.

Real-Life Cyborg Challenges Reality With Technology Footsore visitors to the Austin Museum of Art in Texas may have been tempted by a recent installation called SeatSale, a plain wooden chair with a scrolling electronic sign and a credit card reader. But the chair has something else special: at the spot where a cushion normally goes are dozens of sharp metal spikes.
"Weary travelers no longer need to stand for hours on end," a sign says. "Use your government-issued photo ID card to download a free seating license."
Sliding a credit card through the slot makes the spikes retract, but it also commits the user to certain terms and conditions. "If you don't agree to these terms and conditions, remain standing," the device says.

Whooping It Up
In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity.

BY ELISABETTA BURBA

Saturday, September 22, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT

BEIRUT--Where were you on Sept. 11, when terrorists changed the world? I
was at the National Museum here, enjoying the wonders of the ancient
Phoenicians with my husband. This tour of past splendor only magnified the
shock I received later when I heard the news and saw the reactions all
around me. Walking downtown, I realized that the offspring of this great
civilization were celebrating a terrorist outrage. And I am not talking
about destitute people. Those who were cheering belonged to the elite of
the Paris of Middle East: professionals wearing double-breasted suits,
charming blond ladies, pretty teenagers in tailored jeans.
Trying to find our bearings, my husband and I went into an American-style
cafe in the Hamra district, near Rue Verdun, rated as one of the most
expensive shopping streets in the world. Here the cognitive dissonance was
immediate, and direct. The café's sophisticated clientele was celebrating,
laughing, cheering and making jokes, as waiters served hamburgers and Diet
Pepsi. Nobody looked shocked, or moved. They were excited, very excited.

An hour later, at a little market near the U.S. Embassy, on the outskirts
of Beirut, a thrilled shop assistant showed us, using his hands, how the
plane had crashed into the twin towers. He, too, was laughing.



http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001194

Oh my.

# posted by craniac @ Tuesday, September 25, 2001 |

what I think you mean

Uh oh, those are some dangerous words there, Rogers. I think I can handle telling people what I mean all by myself....you know, with my "power" and everything.

"MetaFilter's too crowded. Nobody goes there any more."

MetaFilter, for me, has been disappointing because it's not what it was supposed to be (based upon my understanding of what Matt initially wanted the site to be and my observations of the site's first few months). (Matt, you should correct me if I'm wrong on any of this...)

MetaFilter was designed primarily to be a group weblog and for the first months of the site (not counting those months at the very beginning when it was just Matt posting), it functioned very well like that. The community, such as it was at the time, brought good links and intelligent commentary to the site. You could read an entire day's output in a few minutes. People seemed to care about keeping the quality high and the noise low. It was a group weblog, it belonged to every member equally, there was a sense of ownership.

Gradually (but almost completely at this stage), MetaFilter changed into something else: a watercooler conversation with 10,000 participants. MetaFilter became a discussion board with a weblog tacked on the front of it...a place to have conversations about things. In the shift from weblog to conversations and with the addition of several thousand more people, the linking aspect was de-emph

TAP: Web Feature: Three Things We Learned. by Jeff Faux. September 20, 2001. One result is that the U.S. is the only major nation that leaves airline and airport security in the hands of private corporations, which by their very nature are motivated to spend as little as possible. So the system was tossed in the lap of lowest-bid contractors who hired people for minimum wages. Training has been inadequate and supervision extremely lax. Turnover was 126 percent a year and the average employee stayed in airline security for only six months. Getting a job at Burger King or McDonald's represented upward mobility for the average security worker. In an anti-government political climate the airline corporations were able to shrug off the government inspections that consistently revealed how easy it was to bring weapons on board. The competition for customers sacrificed safety to avoid any inconvenience. How else to explain the insane notion that a 3-1/2 inch knife blade is not a weapon?

Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | Revealed: British plan for Afghan onslaught BRITISH troops will lead an international coalition alongside America to wage war on Afghanistan in the next 10 days as security and intelligence sources indicated last night that the net was tightening on Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the terrorist attacks on America.

Samsung SyncMaster 570b Review - Page 2 There is something about having an electron gun always pointed and fired towards me that frightens me. In addition, having a LCD display on your desk definitely adds to the wow factor of your workspace.

Slashdot | MS FrontPage Restricts Free Speech II (It's True!) "Several readers have told me their EULA for FrontPage 2002 does not contain the no-disparaging-MS term, or that the term only applies to the FrontPage logo or to the Web components like the MSNBC news headline component. Just to be sure, this afternoon I went down to the store and bought a copy of FrontPage 2002 myself. In the box was the "Microsoft Frontpage 2002" license on a four-page folded sheet, titled "End- User License Agreement For Microsoft Software."

Independent News Imad Mughniyeh, head of special overseas operations for the Lebanese group, Hizbollah, and Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, a senior bin Laden aide, were named as two terrorists capable of planning the atrocities. Jane's, the respected defence publisher, quoted Israeli intelligence sources as believing the two men led the suicide assaults. Officers from Aman, the Israeli military intelligence operation, were also said to have named Iraq as having sponsored the onslaught.

These will be replaced by terror cells inside the territories, less dependent on command centers and financing from across the border. Their members, like most of the recent knife-wielding assassins, will act more on an individual, spontaneous basis and will show strong suicidal tendencies. Many will be Islamic fundamentalists. The rise in incidents involving firearms and in headline-seeking attacks on civilians using knives and similar weapons has three major causes: There's a climate of rebellion among young Fatah cadres. They oppose Palestinian participation in the peace process, object to the leadership represented by figures like Hanan Ashrawi and are appalled by the corruption and impotence of the various PLO-funded institutions in the territories. (The East Jerusalem daily Al-Fajr is currently running a series of articles on these issues.)
The pro-Fatah leadership in the territories has virtually lost control of the organization's youth wing, which has spawned groups such as the extreme Black Panthers. These groups are now seeking their own channels to PLO operatives abroad. There are widespread calls among the young for a renewal of unrestrained violence and an end to the peace talks. Participants in those negotiations have been subjected to threats and vilification, and some fear for their safety. Although the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the territories were decimated by mass arrests by the Shin Bet in 1991, the PFLP apparently succeeded in creating a fairly solid...

Bin Laden Weakened, Officials Say Bin Laden Weakened, Officials Say
By David A. Vise and Lorraine Adams
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 11, 2000; Page A03
Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's terrorist network has been seriously weakened by arrests on three continents, infiltration by confidential informants and electronic eavesdropping by intelligence services, according to U.S. and foreign government officials, law enforcement sources and terrorism experts.

Get a REAL job. When the cells aren't aware that they're working for the CIA, or think they're working for someone else, they can be put to other devious uses. For example, if the CIA controlled a cell which thought it worked for the PLO, they could send it on a terrorist mission with the intent that they be caught. This would have a two fold advantage for the CIA, first, the PLO would be blamed (providing a good opportunity for the U.S. government to expouse propaganda against the PLO), and secondly, it would allow the CIA to commit a terrorist attack with extremely little risk of exposure -- to achieve a greater level of interference in the affairs of foreign governments.

I'm going to start a company. Our sole function will be to travel to your place of business, open your inbox, and delete all but the latest 10 messages.

Because, I have 400 messages right now filling my inbox and I'm afraid there's something valuable in there.

Pellant: BSA 240 Review

The Beeman P3 / Weihrauch HW40PCA Air Pistol Shooting the P3 is a pleasure, it fires with a satisfying POP, which sends the pellet on its way at around 400 fps plus or minus depending on the pellet. This is plenty for plinking and informal target work. The accuracy of this gun for the price is astounding, from a rest the P3 will shoot ragged single holes at 10m and a bit beyond. I have had very good results with the following pellets:-RWS CO2 target, Eley Wasp, Crosman Premier and Bisley Practice. Shooting single handed you notice a very slight muzzle flip that is reduced by its built in compensator. Two handed shooting is catered for with the comfortable trigger guard being a point of contact for the other hand.

"truth in advertising" - julep cigarettes Fun Small Print:
"Should you CUT DOWN now? Why cut down on the relief and enjoyment of extra smoking now, when you feel you need it most? Even chain-smokers find that new Julep Cigarettes banish unpleasant oversmoking symptoms. Unlike ordinary cigarettes, Juleps sparkle up your mouth, refresh your throat, keep your breath clean, inviting. With Juleps, you end over-smoking jolts, you enjoy every puff, and you smoke all you want. If smoking is one of your big pleasures, smoke Juleps!

Google Groups Posting From: grokosaurus@yahoo.com (G. S.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot
Subject: moving data from palm m100 to handspring visor
NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.165.113.117
Message-ID: <839599e4.0109181607.9b5f6f5@posting.google.com>

I recently sold my palm m100 (purchased by work) and got a refurb
handspring visor. I thought I'd share my experience (or lack thereof)
because I couldn't find instructions anywhere else.

Here's how I moved data into the handspring from the palm:

1. copied the user folder from c:\palm to the desktop

2. uninstalled all palm software from desktop

3. Installed handspring desktop

4. opened desktop, and from respective applications (to do ,
addresses, memo) imported files ending in ".dat" from the folders
todo, datebook, memopad, address

5. realized that all of my data imported as unfiled. Cursed my luck,
and used mass transit to move things around

Actually, I originally installed the handspring software into c:\palm,
but some leftover palm conduits made my handspring go into a blank
screen, which was only remediable by doing a hard reset. Ugh.

Salon Newsreal | Terrorism experts question U.S. air strikes BY HARRY JAFFE , JEFF STEIN AND LORI LEIBOVICH | The bombing of six supposed terrorist sites in Afghanistan and the Sudan Thursday by U.S. forces may have given some Americans a sense of revenge -- and temporarily diverted some public attention from President Clinton's deepening sex scandal -- but a number of foreign policy experts believe it will serve only to embolden Middle East radicals bent on further terrorist acts against the United States.

CNN.com - HUD offers mortgage relief for terror victims - September 17, 2001 Specifically, he asked lenders not to start or threaten foreclosure for at least 90 days, while the families are recovering from the financial problems caused by the loss of a family member.

A single tear runs down my face.

From the Washington post:

In Delray Beach, Fla., librarian Kathleen Hensman said Mohald Alshehri, who is listed as a hijacker, and another Middle Eastern man came into the library within the past month wanting to use a computer with Internet access. She said the men appeared to be on edge and watched her to see whether she was monitoring their use.

Wonderful Words

some hugh nibley stuff in here.

Important google tip:

If you are searching deja.com, you have to include your own email address like so:

I could be wrong. You for sure have to "sort by date" to see your latest usenet posting.

A heroic last stand
Joan says, “I think it does that one person can make a difference, that one person in this country has the opportunity to change this world and make a difference.”
Richard says, “Jeremy was a patriot.”
United Flight 93 was the only one of four hijacked planes to take no casualties on the ground. Now, a widow at 31, Lyz says she is not angry and she has no regrets.

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things "We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time."

From "sept11info"

First of all, consider that the destruction of the WTC amounted probably to (tens of
?) thousands of lives and several trillion dollars in property lost. Why was this
possible? Partly because of the extreme centralization that is common to the
industrial era. The Trade Center towers were really a monument to an age that is now
behind us -- an age of extreme centralization common to the industrial era.

We must take this as a lesson that we need to become much more decentralized (more
like Jell-O, if you will). The way to achieve that is to quit building huge brick
and mortar monuments that exemplify the industrial age (such as the Trade Center,
the Sears Tower, etc.), and improve our technology and information infrastructure.
Since we will be building that information infrastructure from the ground up (more
or less) we have an opportunity to do it right. By that I mean, we can incorporate
security safeguards and reliable backup systems. Then we can operate in a truly
decentralized manner that would make terrorist attacks much less devastating and
therefore much less desirable (from the terrorist’s point of view).

Last war post of the day:

>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 13:43:25 -0400
>Subject: nukes in NYC
>
>I don't know if anyone has done the calculation, but the energy
>on board (fuel + kinetic energy) a fully loaded 767 moving at 400
>mph is on the order of a kiloton, which is the yield of a typical
>tactical nuke. That is the scale of attack that NYC suffered.
>
>herb

I, Cringely | The Pulpit And I, too, am just another man with a hammer. My gig is technology, and I keep thinking there must some way to use it to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. The terrorists grabbed Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft because they are very different aircraft, yet share a single type certificate from the government. This means that the cockpits are identical. Learn to fly a 757 and you can fly a 767 too, making for a much larger pool of available aircraft with enough fuel capacity to take out the towers. But having a common type certificate also means the planes have the same autopilot systems, both of which include autolanding capability.

Why, I find myself thinking, can't we build a system that takes over control of the autopilot, locks out flight crew and hijackers alike, and lands the plane at the first sign of trouble. Well, we could, but it opens a whole new area of vulnerability -- hijacking autopilots. Forget I said anything.

Dave Winer's Scripting News Weblog People don't sacrifice themselves for no reason. Let's find out what it is. And if we did something wrong (no doubt we did) let's apologize, ask for forgiveness, and then ask how we can do better. It's clear now that when we screw up we're going to feel it.

My sense is that terrorism becomes self-enforcing at some point, especially a Jihad, and "I'm sorry" just won't cut it.

CNN.com What are your feelings now about Tuesday's terrorist attacks?

Shock
Sorrow
Anger
View Results

What are they thinking???

I will not spend the day reading about the bombings. I just can't absorb anymore, and it's not going to help anyone.

Top Stories from Wired News Now research published in the journal Science shows that the key to tough moral judgments is emotion, not analytical reasoning. Princeton University researchers scanned volunteers' brains as they pondered ethical questions -- producing images where emotion-related areas of the brain literally lit up. According to psychologist Jonathan Haidt, "we carry out our lives as though our moral judgments are based on reason," but the study, he said, illustrates that people act on "gut feelings and make up reasons post hoc."

EBay Cancels Auctions of Attack-Related Items "I didn't understand what they were doing until I asked one man," said Jacobs, 42, a financial analyst. "He told me that he wanted to sell the stuff on EBay. I couldn't believe it. It made me so angry, I slugged him."

Terrorists Trained by U.S. Aviation The Times said authorities believe 27 suspected terrorists received pilot training.

The Rhetoric of War

Full text from adequacy.com:

Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. However, we must also consider if this is not also a lesson to us all; a lesson that my political views are correct. Although what is done can never be undone, the fact remains that if the world were organised according to my political views, this tragedy would never have happened.




Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.
Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

Countries which I like seem to never suffer such tragedies, while countries which, for one reason or another, I dislike, suffer them all the time. The one common factor which seems to explain this has to do with my political views, and it suggests that my political views should be implemented as a matter of urgency, even though they are, as a matter of fact, not implemented in the countries which I like.

Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. But we must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me. Please, I ask you as fellow human beings, vote for the political party which I support, and ask your legislators to support policies endorsed by me, as a matter of urgency.

It would be a fitting memorial.

Ade "Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. However, we must also consider if this is not also a lesson to us all; a lesson that my political views are correct. Although what is done can never be undone, the fact remains that if the world were organised according to my political views, this tragedy would never have happened."

A template for all of the editorializing we will be seeing.

CNN.com - A witness to the destruction - September 12, 2001 There were people passing (me) with bruises and bleeding, and some people being carried down. But what was marvelous is, we were on the right side and here were firemen carrying maybe 30, 40 pounds of load going upstairs. Where we were trying to escape, they were going to it.

I think I'll wait to donate blood until the planes are flying or there's some way to transport it where it's needed. How long does blood keep anyway?

CNN.com - FBI questioning 'several' people as probe intensifies - September 12, 2001 The son-in law of the owner of one of the houses said a Middle Eastern family lived in the house. The son-in-law said he thought the man was enrolled in a nearby aviation safety school because he wore the uniform of the Piper school.
The family, the son-in-law said, moved out over the weekend.
The wife, he said, dressed very modestly in Middle Eastern style clothing, covering her face and hair.

CNN.com - FBI questioning 'several' people as probe intensifies - September 12, 2001 The son-in law of the owner of one of the houses said a Middle Eastern family lived in the house. The son-in-law said he thought the man was enrolled in a nearby aviation safety school because he wore the uniform of the Piper school.
The family, the son-in-law said, moved out over the weekend.
The wife, he said, dressed very modestly in Middle Eastern style clothing, covering her face and hair.

From an email list:

"Some of the questions our seven year old son asked:



--That's the kind of plane I fly on when I visit Grandma and Grandpa,

right?



--So all of those guys must have planned this together, right, mom?



--What does it mean that they'll have "to pay"?  Will this cost them a

lot of money?



--*Who* has to pay, and with what?  



--Why would anyone want to hurt all those people?



--Isn't it weird not to see any airplanes in the sky?  Do you think we'd

get in trouble for flying a paper airplane?



--I get to watch the news, right mom?



--When is President Bush going to talk to us?  (This just after he'd

watched the whole brief speech.)



--Do you need a hug?



--Do you think Lindsey (his little sister) understands what's going on,

or is she too young?



--Is New York City close to us?  How close?



--What would we do if this happened here?



--What is that noise?  Can you close my window?



--Is everything going to be okay?



Good questions, I thought.



Kathy at C.O.D.

Where Was U.S. Intelligence? Haberly, formerly stationed on the East German border to track and translate Russian and East German communications, said many signs foretold the devastation at the World Trade Center on Tuesday.
"You can even look at some of the things said at the (World Conference Against Racism) last week in Durban, to point out that we no longer should be focused on Cold War enemies and instead should be focused on those who are most antagonistic towards the United States, and that is the Middle East," Haberly said.
Retired General Wesley Clark, former supreme NATO commander, told CNN that the attacks were not exactly out of the blue.
"We've known for some time that some group has been planning this," he said, adding that "obviously, we didn't do enough" to prepare for such an attack.
"It takes an incredibly diverse, skilled and robust organization with a lot of money to track these types of threats," said Don Ulsch, of the Ulsch Group, a security consultancy organization in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

"Dear Jerry,
Following is a message which my one of my best friends passed along with permission to distribute to those who might be interested. It fills in the details that I missed in my original conversation with him and attempted to relate to you.
Tom has given me permission to distribute the message - please feel free to post it if you deem it appropriate.
Sincerely,
Art Russell Major, US Army (Retired)
Message Follows:
Today was a tragedy for all of America and to my family, a very personal one. Lynn and my Niece Liz's husband, Jeremy Glick was on United flight 93 this morning. When the Hijackers took control of flight 93. Jeremy called my niece who in-turn conferenced him to 911. Jeremy relayed to the police what was happening as the hijacking unfolded. As our niece Liz listened, Jeremy told the police there were three Arab terrorists with knives and a large red box that they claimed contained a bomb. Jeremy tracked the second by second details and relayed them to the police by phone. After several minutes of describing the scene, Jeremy and several other passengers decided there was nothing to lose by rushing the hijackers. Although United Flight 93 crashed outside of Pittsburgh, with the loss of all souls. Jeremy and the other patriotic heroes saved the lives of many people on the ground that would have died if the Arab terrorists had been able to complete their heinous mission.
Please offer your prayers for all of those who perished or were"

BroadwayStars.com" I think I lost about 100 friends today. I can't count them. I keep breaking down. I don't think that I have ever been so sad and cried so much. I don't know if I will ever be the same. But I am home now. Thank you to everyone for the notes."

CamWorld: Thinking Outside the Box 1:39 AM: Reports are saying the hijackers used knives and box-cutters to hijack the four airplanes that ended up being used as giant flying bombs. Apparently, knives up to four inches are allowed to be carried on board. Unsubstantiated reports now say that the hijackers used plastic-handled devices with razor blades stuck in them. They also started killing stewardesses to lure the pilots from the cockpit in order to gain control of the plane. The knives were constructed from pieces hidden in shaving kits.

Computing Made Good, Easy Many Windows users do not understand why plain text is important. They are content to shuffle text between applications, and happily let e-mail pile up in their inbox. And in the Windows world, forget about automating away repetitive tasks -- it's way too difficult, no matter how much tedium it saves users. The Active User Paradox is alive and well.

DailyPennsylvanian.com - In eyes of experts, a new age has dawned "It is generally true that when there's a threat or an attack, the Pentagon appropriation goes through like a greased pig," Norton said.

Index of /WTC

Slashdot | Further Updates On Terrorist Attack An Anonymous Coward seeks more information about an interview that Washington area readers may be able to provide: He writes: "Fox News channel 5 (local around 6:30ish E.S.T) this evening had an interview with a witness about what he saw at the Pentagon the moment of impact. His interview was the basic 'I was in my car looked to my side..blah blah' but then he said something totally unexpected. He observed a second airplane immediately swing behind the first in a follow like manner and swoop down on the Pentagon only to pull up at the last second, out of the smoke cloud, and fly away. His description of the plane was pretty detailed, saying it was propeller-driven ... He stated everyone around him who were also outside their cars saw the SECOND Airplane following the first and it was also going in."

Collapse of the World Trade Center The planes compromised the structural tube and the fires that followed, likely fed by jet fuel, probably burned to temperatures beyond the integrity of the fireproofed steel, which is designed to withstand 1,500 to 1,600° F heat.

Wrap Me Up in It he said he was in midtown in the street when a construction worker radioed in and then broke down, saying into his walkie-talkie, "do you know how many men we sent to the towers this morning?" after that, he couldn't speak through his tears.

Liberty and safety in conflict: it.mycareer.com.au, General "It would be helpful for everybody if lots of people made decisions not solely based on what's the easiest thing to do today," Gillmor says.
"My deepest worry is citizens have actually concluded they're willing to sacrifice their liberty for this illusion of safety."

Attack on the United States A London-based Arab newspaper, Al-Arab, reported that international terrorist Osama bin Laden had warned three weeks ago that he was planning an attack "against American interests" and threatened that it would be a big one.

Technology Review - Free the Encyclopedias! What does Nicole Kidman have in common with Kurt Godel? Both are the subject of entries in Wikipedia, a free-wheeling Internet-based encyclopedia whose founders hope will revolutionize the stodgy world of encyclopedias.
What makes Wikipedia different from, say, Encarta (in addition to a name that hints of fruity drinks capped by paper parasols) is that anyone can contribute to it.

BBC News | UK | Chess legend 'plays the web'

Bobby Fischer comes out of hiding. Sort of.

Techno Magic Courtesy of People How does this miraculous technology work?
"It's a complex, massively parallel, organic, manual net driving, cybernetic text-input system, commonly referred to as a human being," explained Robert Lincoln, Copytalk's VP of marketing.

We are throwing a tupperware party tomorrow. I am at the point in my life where I have become "post-cool" and have no shame whatsoever. Here is a fun excerpt about the birth of tupperware:

"Wise, a single mother from Detroit, pioneered Tupperware's famous "Hostess Parties"; where a hostess, usually a housewife, gathered a dozen or so women in her house and demonstrated tupperware. In these parties Wise grafted the selling of tupperware onto the American traditions of sewing circles and quilting bees. And she tapped into the psyche of the new suburban housewife: The parties took advantage of the isolation, envy, even neurotic sense of social obligation among suburban women in the 1950s. A feminist called these parties a "form of organizational parasitism analogous to ... colonialism which [used] ... the existing tribal structure ...."

But within this "tribal" system Brownie Wise was so successful that by 1954 Tupperware sales topped fifty four million dollars - and made her the first woman on the cover of Business Week. And today there is a tupperware party somewhere in the world every two point two seconds. "

I've got two palms at work. I sold one, and sent the other in for repair/exchange, so I've been without a pda for about four days. I'm carrying my two most vital pieces of information in my wallet: my long distance card code, and my schedule of research observations. All of the other data exists on a desktop, and I've only been inconvenienced once when I had to walk across campus to get an installation code. I could have put that info on a server somewhere I suppose. I think after a couple of weeks of this it would get more annoying, not sure.

Of course, the handspring with 8meg that I bought on Ebay is supposed to arrive today so we'll never now.

insound - mp3s

Slashdot | American Gods It's about the soul of America, really. What people brought to America; what found them when they came; and the things that lie sleeping beneath it all."

CNN.com - Fred Dust: Designing for Dilbert - August 28, 2001 It's this kind of observation, for example, that revealed to Dust that certain students at Stanford University -- for whom he designed a learning lab space -- never went to the library to study, although they told him that's where they always went to hit the books.