The Victorian Internet It's a familiar story: A new high-tech "web" materializes seemingly out of nowhere and takes the entire world by storm. Barriers to communication are obliterated as city after city becomes wired, allowing people to send nearly instant messages to one another—even to "chat" online. Vast fortunes are created and destroyed as entrepreneurs wage fierce competitive battles, and scam artists fleece gullible investors. Subcultures form their own communities, with private codes and customs. Buying and selling of goods online becomes commonplace, and governments try—and fail—to control the new network, as it proves a hotbed for criminal activity and other forms of "subversion."

GO NAPSTER! Embattled online music-swapping company Napster has a simple message for the courts and for the record industry: Downloading songs online without paying for them is legal.

Adding an IE Favorites Icon Every Web browser has unique characteristics that distinguish it from the others. One of the interesting features of Internet Explorer 5 is that it will add a custom icon to the favorites of readers who bookmark your site.

Giant Fish Net Snags Gamma Ray Bursts Jul 02, 2000 — A virtual net cast from here to beyond the sun and over to the asteroids is now harvesting its first fish, gamma-ray bursts big enough for keepers.

The Ten Commandments for HMOs If you're thinking of joining an HMO, or of changing from one HMO to another, send out the "TEN COMMANDMENTS for HMOs" . Ask the HMO to respond with answers. If they don't answer, or if you don't like the answers, DON'T JOIN that HMO. Do the same with another HMO until you find one that answers your consumer concerns.

Does your fridge know how much you weigh today? (2/26/2000) Dave Barry essay on "smart" appliances. ROTFL

Senate Passes New Patients' Rights Bill Excerpt: "The legislation passed yesterday contains the Ashcroft external review provisions ensuring that patients get care when they need it, and that medical decisions are made by independent physicians of the appropriate specialty, not by insurance claims adjusters. His provisions would also mandate that HMOs abide by strict timetables and face penalties for non-compliance with findings by independent physician reviewers." (Sen. John Ashcroft's Office, via US Newswire)

Extra fat means more happiness, better sex - One of the world's most revered scientists has developed a theory that fat people are happier than thin ones. James Watson, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist who was jointly responsible for discovering the structure of DNA, believes that plumper women are also likely to enjoy a better sex life than their thin counterparts. Watson, who directed the successful human genome project, has moved into the controversial science of body image. He recently told an audience at University College London that his research suggested extra pounds had the biological effect of making a woman well-rounded in character and better in bed.

Eye-Trek Product Overview Eye-Trek opens up a whole new world of entertainment to you. Although only the size of a pair of sunglasses, Eye-Trek presents video and TV-films impressively large, as if you were watching a 52" screen from 2m distance. Now you can see films, videos or concerts in cinema format. Accompanied by full-bodied stereo sound that you receive via the integrated headphones, you have the sensation of being part of the action. No matter where you may be at the time - lying on the sofa or sitting in the garden.

The History of the Web circa 1994. "The World-Wide Web (W3) is a way of viewing all the on-line information available on the Internet as a seamless, browsable continuum. Using hypertext jumps and searches, the user navigates through an information world partly hand-authored, partly computer-generated from existing databases and information systems. The Web today incorporates all information from information systems such as Gopher as WAIS, as well as sophisticated multimedia and hypertext information from many organizations.", Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Nielsen, Arthur Secret, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland.Here's a screenshot of TBL's browser editor.

XML for Beginners Have you wondered why everyone is talking about XML but been afraid to ask? Dick Baldwin provides a gentle introduction with his series of articles. First up, a discussion of structured documents, rendering, and why you should care about XML.

Banned Books On-Line Welcome to this special exhibit of books that have been the objects of censorship or censorship attempts. The books featured here, ranging from Ulysses to Little Red Riding Hood, have been selected from the indexes of the On-line Books Page. (See that page for over 10,000 more on-line books!)

Another day, another DoubleClick privacy PR disaster DoubleClick has been caught mucking around with personal privacy - again. The world's biggest online ad sales house has been caught gleaning email addresses and other personal information from Web site customers - without the knowledge of Web sites.

Fool.com: Planet Hollywood Will Change When Shaq Replaces Schwarzenegger (Top 5 List) June 29, 2000

Giving Amazon the Finger and othe technological tidbits from the New York PC Expo.

How does a yacht sail upwind? It's easy to understand how a yacht sails downwind, with the wind whistling from behind. The breeze pushes against the sails and the yacht surges ahead. But how is it that wind from abeam (the side), or off the bow, can propel a boat forward? You may never have seen it presented as simply as this.

Ananova - Da Vinci parachute design holds up in test A British daredevil has proved that a parachute designed by Leonardo da Vinci actually works by using it from a height of 10,000ft.

A List Apart: Rated XHTML Being a web developer is a tough job. Not only do you have to steer clear of the traps and pitfalls the popular browsers think up for you on a daily basis, you also have to keep at least half an eye on all kinds of developments that may (or may not) have an impact on your job. Having hardly mastered style sheets and DHTML, new techniques clamor for attention. Which ones are important right away? Which ones can you dismiss for now?

It's Not Your Father's IBM It goes without saying that this is not your father's IBM hosting this event. But the Geek Spa party, which is slated to cap IBM's relaunch of its WebSphere commerce development platform, is definitely a Big Blue event.

International Rectifier Interesting interview with the CEO of my current employer.

Interactive Genome Guide... COOL! As you are reading these words with the cells in your eyes, please pause and lift your right index finger and touch the tip of your nose. Notice the smoothness of operation. Millions of cells in your body participated smoothly in that motion. Each of us is an electrochemical machine -- animal -- being -- composed of cells. What gives life to our cells?

CNN.com - Health - Milestone in human genetics to be announced Monday - June 23, 2000 (CNN) -- In a major step toward a new era of gene-based medicine and disease treatment, two research centers are expected to announce on Monday that they separately have sketched a map detailing the secrets of human genetic structure.

CNET.com - News - Personal Technology - IBM thinks small with 1GB hard drive for handhelds For perspective, that means the difference between a maximum of 16 high-resolution images on a 16MB CompactFlash card and almost 400 for the Microdrive. The Microdrive is also cheaper than the CompactFlash: A 128MB CompactFlash card costs about the same as--or more than--the 340MB Microdrive. The new drive also can serve as a data-exchange accessory to notebook computers, desktop computers and printers, the company said. IBM claims future applications may include wearable computers, electronic books, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers used to guide automobile drivers, smart phones and electronic wallets.

CLICK 'N HELP You've probably seen the The Hunger Site. You click on the button, and they donate food. Now there is the The RainForest Site. Click the button, and you save 12 sq. feet of Rain Forest. There is also Clear Land Mines which allows you to help pay for the removal of landmines from around the world.

Microsoft Internet Explorer High Encryption Pack Microsoft has released a new version of IE, v5.01 SP1. According to the website, provides the latest updates and security fixes to the Internet Explorer technology. Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 can be installed as an upgrade to existing versions of Internet Explorer, or on computers with no previous Internet Explorer installation. If you are running Windows 9x or Windows NT 4.0, installing Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 will upgrade your computer to 128-bit encryption. If you are running Windows 2000, installing Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 will not change the current level of encryption on your computer.

Fortune: 6.26.2000 The Hot Idea of the Year Shuttering Napster won't save anyone's bacon. Tons of music already trade free via Gnutella, and since Gnutella is a technology, not a company, it can't be sued and it can't be closed down. Even if it could be, similar services are popping up. This stuff is irrepressible....A peer-to-peer network can move faster than the Web because users search for data on countless numbers of hard drives simultaneously. The information can be much more timely, too, since it comes straight from a computer that might have been updated only a few seconds before you launched your search. And peer-to-peer services can even anticipate precisely where to find what you're looking for on the basis of your past pattern of requests, making for faster and more efficient searches and downloads.

Who ever said that mousing shouldn't be comfortable? This company makes MouseRug - woven "mouse pads" that look like classic Persian, Navajo, and other style rugs. They use a specially treated micro fibre. A friend claims he hasn't had to clean the ball and rollers in his mouse since he started using a MouseRug. Of course I haven't had to clean a mouse ball or rollers either since switching to a Microsoft IntelliEye mouse. It doesn't have a ball or rollers. I may still get a MouseRug, they look interesting.

I Spy With My Super Eye Now, if you only could fly, your comic book fantasies would be complete: The University of Rochester has introduced a shortcut to superhuman vision. Using technology developed by astronomers who wanted a better look at the stars, researcher David Williams has developed an optical system that dramatically improves the vision of people with even 20/20 eyesight.