I got this from one of my young cousins, and liked it. :)

"When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl."

This is the website of the St. Louis "Rocky Horror Picture Show" cast. It's a good place to check to find out the time and locations of the next event. As of January 2003, "Rocky Horror" shows once a month at the Des Peres 14.

Samurai Electricians - St. Louis Rocky Horror

] "On Nov. 21, U.S. Air Force officials got their hands on
] the ultimate global video game. Thanks to a system
] upgrade by defense contractor Lockheed Martin (LMT ),
] flyboys (and girls) could hop onto a special Air Force
] network from any PC equipped with a Web browser and
] special military encryption and authentication software.
] Once on this network, they could call for air strikes,
] direct reconaissance planes, or plot the movements of the
] most powerful flying force on Earth -- all from their
] laptop in a café (or, more likely, at a secured
] facility). "All you need is Internet Explorer...""

Ender's Game, anyone?

The Network Is the Battlefield

] "If having two discs filled with amazing special features
] wasn't enough, the four-disc Extended Edition of The
] Fellowship of the Ring features two very cool Easter Eggs
] that just add to the awesomeness of the set."

On Disk 1 of the 4-disc set, go to "Scene Selection", then "Council of Elrond," then press the down arrow to get to a special "ring" icon at the bottom of the screen. Select it to get a very funny spoof of the Council scene. :)

LotR DVD Easter Eggs

] "A U.S. anti-terrorism program that forces tens of
] thousands of Muslims and Arabs to report to the
] government for fingerprinting and photographing expands
] to include Saudis and Pakistanis next week, raising new
] cries of ethnic and religious discrimination."

This program concerns me greatly. On the one hand, I *do* think it's a good idea for us to get a better sense of who and how many immigrants from Al Qaeda-linked areas are in the United States with expired or incomplete paperwork. On the other, I think it's wrong to immediately arrest anyone whose paperwork isn't in perfect order, especially when (1) they're voluntarily registering to indicate there's a problem, and (2) those paperwork problems are frequently the fault of our own government!

Also, with the growing sense from many Islamic communities that they're being perceived and treated as the bad guys, regardless of whether or not not they've done anything wrong, this kind of persecution is *not* helping matters.

Controversial U.S. Anti-Terror Program in New Stage

As a member of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), I have the privilege to nominate games for the annual awards. If there's any game in particular that you'd like to recommend to me this year, please let me know. Caution though: I'm not interested in suggestions such as "This game was really cool," or "Everyone I know plays this game." I'm more interested in things such as production values, best original game character, excellence in audio, level design, and so forth.

If you'd like to throw in your $0.02, please have comments to me, either by posting a reply here or sending an Email to elonka@aol.com, by January 20th, 2003.

Thanks!

Elonka :)

Game Developer Awards - Nominations Open

] "An experiment in language and interface, Plumb Design's
] Visual Thesaurus is both an artistic exploration and a
] tool to explore, study, and analyze the structure of
] language. By displaying the interrelationships between
] words and meanings as spatial maps, the Visual Thesaurus
] translates language into a visible architecture. "

Type in a word, and you get an artistic representation of how that word is connected to other words, each of which you can click on to see how *they* are connected... A great tool, and a very pleasing visual interface, too. It's neat to see what it attaches to more obscure words, but to really see it blossom like a flower, type in one of those small slippery words such as "do" "have" or "go".

Added note: You must have Java installed to see the cool visual effects.

Visual Thesaurus

Excellent collection of info on where to report different types of spam, from child porn to Nigerian 419 to bogus stock opportunities and fraudulent prescription drug sales. I ran across it while looking for the Email address to forward the latest 419 scam email to (419.fcd@usss.treas.gov).

Spam Reporting Addresses

This is an hour-long audio interview (29 Meg MP3 if you'd like to download) that showed up on the "Unknown Player" gaming site this week. In it, the host and I talked about a variety of subjects, ranging from gaming to cryptography to politics and current events. The sound quality isn't particularly great, but if you'd like to learn more about me and my history and other miscellaneous eccentricities, feel free to give it a listen. Or not, your choice. ;) I can think of many better ways to spend an hour!

Audio Interview with Elonka Dunin

As I keep telling my newly-online friends and relatives, "When it comes to chain letters on the internet, just say no."

This particular version of that message seems to actually be getting through to some of them. *Hearing* it as well as *reading* it evidently makes it easier to understand.

The Internet Soapbox