] Though Webster publishes a slang dictionary, it could
] potentially take years for a new word or phrase to enter
] its pages. Now, with the power of the Internet, it can be
] in a dictionary in a matter of hours. This page depends
] entirely on your contributions. Click on the "Submit" tab
] to submit slang words or phrases you've heard.

It looks like all submissions are edited by hand, and it hasn't been updated since January 2003, but still, it's a fun resource.

Online Slang Dictionary

] I landed in Los Angeles at 11:30 PM, and it took me
] another hour to get to my hotel. The city was booked, and
] I was lucky to get a reservation where I did. When I
] checked in, the clerk insisted on making a photocopy of
] my driver's license. I tried fighting, but it was no use.
] I needed the hotel room. There was nowhere else I could
] go. The night clerk didn't really care if he rented the
] room to me or not. He had rules to follow, and he was
] going to follow them.

] The only way to change security is to step outside the system
] and negotiate with the people in charge. It's only outside the
] system that each of us has power: sometimes as an asset owner,
] but more often as another player. And it is outside the system
] that we will do our best negotiating.

Excellent essay by Schneier in this month's "Crypto-Gram" newsletter, about how to fight the system.

Bruce Schneier: 'How to Fight'

Impressively thorough description of the different types of transposition techniques that can be used in basic cryptography.

Transposition Systems

] Rubi-Con Defaced?
]
] 7-22-03
]
] So there I am, 11:25 at night,when I get a call.
]
] "Have you see www.rubi-con.org?" they ask.
]
] "No, not recently" I say.
]
] In a letter on Rubi-Con's home page there is a claim that
] Rubi-Con and myself have been in some sort of legal
] battle, and that I have somehow forced Rubi-Con of
] business.
]
] Seeing how this is the first I have heard of it, I am
] going to assume that Rubi-Con got their web site rooted
] and defaced by someone trying to stir up trouble in the
] underground. If they had spent any time looking at
] defcon.org they would have realized that we have been
] listing Rubi-Con in our Upcoming Conventions calendar
] since their first show, and that some of the DEF CON
] organizers help with Rubi-Con as well as with ToorCon.
]
] We support the community, not divide it.
]
] To summarize: There has never been any litigation between
] us. If there had been, it would be public record, etc.
]
] Nice hack.
]
] Jeff Moss

See http://www.rubi-con.org for their "legal battle" letter. My guess is that they weren't hacked, but posted it themselves, as a way of getting attention. They claim "very public legal battles" with Defcon, but there's never been any such thing (google it yourself).

For more info about RubiCon claims, check here (but keep in mind that much of this may be false as well):
http://rubi-con.org/2002/aftermath/rijilv.txt

Def Con v. Rubi-Con

] Automatically searching 10864 news sources every 5
] minutes

Google News v. NewsNow comparison:

Google:
- Indexes 4500 sources
- Only indexes English language sources
- Does full-text searches

Newsnow:
- Indexes 10,000 sources
- Indexes multiple languages
- Only does headline searches (unless you subscribe to business services)

For example, I searched on both sites with a search term of "Tuwaitha":

- Google returned 310 hits

- NewsNow returned 4 hits, 3 of them in German-language sources.

So, the (free) NewsNow site looks to be not as useful as Google because of the "headline only" search. Then again, the access to multiple language sources is kinda keen.

YMMV

NewsNow: U.K. News Portal

] Executives at Amazon.com are negotiating with several
] large book publishers about an ambitious and expensive
] plan to assemble a searchable online archive with the
] texts of tens of thousands of nonfiction books

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it could be really useful to find out if a particular piece of information that I'm looking for is in a book somewhere (especially if I can't find it elsewhere online). On the other hand, one of the most frustrating things in the world is to get a search engine hit on some info I need, only to find out that I'm then expected to buy an entire book in order to see the one page I'm interested in (which may or may not even have exactly what I was looking for in the first place!). It sounds like Amazon is considering some sort of limited "context" searching though, so it might still be useful.

Something else that doesn't get mentioned in the article, is how libraries fit into the mix. I haven't yet found a good "all libraries in the country" database yet, but there are a few good starts out there, where I can type in the title of a book, and get a listing of every library in a certain area that has that book available. A natural next step, would be for libraries to offer the full text of all of their books online to their local communities... Are Amazon and Google and book publishers going to protest that when it happens? I dunno . . .

New York Times: Amazon plans to allow full book searches

This is an incredible movie. See it. Take kids. If you don't have kids handy, go see it by yourself. Yes, it's *that* good.

Five out of five stars.

Movie: Whale Rider

Very handy FTP client, available for a variety of operating systems. Nice docs, too.

NcFTP Software

] Krekelberg said the company has so far hosted 18 "Bambi"
] hunts in undisclosed locations around Las Vegas. In each,
] a hunter faces off with two women dressed in nothing but
] sneakers, each of whom receive $1,000 and can earn up to
] $2,500 if they make it through the hour without being
] struck by the paintball

Of course, there are all kinds of groups trying to protest and get it shut down, but I actually think it sounds kind of fun...

More information here:
 http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid7486/

'Naked Bambi' Hunts in Nevada

Magic Eye picture of Dobbs.

3-D Dobbs