Good collection of DNS tools. Want to learn more about a particular domain? Just type it into the top box on the page and click on the button that says, "Do Stuff". :)

SamSpade.org - Learn more about any internet domain

Need web-based access to WHOIS, reverse lookup, ping, tracert, spam database lookup, IP routiong info and more? Check this site out for several useful networking tools.

Neat. This one goes on my "IP Private Detective" list, along with samspade.org

DNS Stuff: DNS tools, WHOIS, tracert, ping, and other network tools.

This page contains a chart displaying best-guess subscriber numbers (as of April 2003) for a dozen different massively multiplayer games. It's focused towards graphical MMOGs that are popular in the U.S. (it doesn't include text-based MMOGs or any of the monster Korean games), but is still some interesting data.

Related factoids that I acquired from E-3:

- Star Wars Galaxies, opening next month, has had about 500,000 people visit its website and apply to be beta-testers.

- Of those 500,000 visitors to the SWG site, 10% were female

- EverQuest reports that its own subscriber-base is 16% female

It'll be interesting to see how the SWG numbers convert into subscribers!

Massively Multiplayer Online Games - An Analysis of Subscription Growth

The Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters has 4 sections of code on it. The first three have been solved. In 1999 there was a big media splash as Jim Gillogly announced his solution, which had been obtained via a computer attack. Part 4 (the last 97 characters) is as yet unsolved.

I wish I could say that I'd solved Part 4, but I haven't (yet). What I *did* do this week though, was come up with a new solution technique for part 3 which I believe to be the "pencil and paper" method that the original authors of the sculpture intended to be used. It's a way of eyeballing the code, such that anyone with access to the ciphertext ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptoscode19.htm ) could quickly make a grid and check the letters off to get the entire message. -- no elaborate mathematical formulae or number-crunchers required.

I've written to Gillogly and a couple other cryptographers to check my work. If anyone else would like to take a look in the meantime, I've got a page describing the technique which is posted at my Kryptos site:

Elonka's Solution to Part 3 of Kryptos

Very cool. If you have QuickTime installed on your computer, you can click and scroll for a 360-degree panoramic view from the top of Mount Everest.

All of the view, none of the oxygen deprivation. ;)

Mount Everest. 360 degree panorama from the top

Satirical "commentary" about the Fellowship of the Ring, from a different perspective on Good and Evil.

In this commentary, Frodo is a Mohammed Atta character being sent on a suicide mission, the elves are militaristic genocide-mongers who are promoting an orc apartheid, the Black Riders are "misunderstood", the orcs are fighting a war of self-defense against the invading Fellowship, and Gandalf is a dictator attempting to control the media . . .

] This takes me back to the media's involvement in all
] this, and the way the media is being controlled by
] Gandalf, such as when he covers Saruman's palantir in
] Orthanc. This is the stone that allows one to see, and
] thus communicate with, different cultures.

Question everything. ;)

'Unused' Commentary on The Fellowship of the Ring - Is peace with the orcs possible?

Decius wrote:
] ] A set of four glass ramps positioned in a square clearly
] ] show water travelling up each of them before it pours off
] ] the top, only to start again at the bottom of the next
] ] ramp.
] ]
] ] It is a sight which defies logic, and has become probably
] ] the most memorable image of this year's show.
] ]
] ] Mr Dyson says his inspiration was a drawing by the Dutch
] ] artist MC Escher (he of Gothic palaces where soldiers are
] ] eternally walking upstairs, and of patterns where birds
] ] turn into fish).

Neat! I wonder if there's a movie of it on the web somewhere. I'd like to see it in motion.

RE: BBC NEWS | UK | How does Dyson make water go uphill?

Rattle wrote:
] ] Reporters Without Borders today protested against the
] ] detention of six French journalists on arrival a week ago
] ] at Los Angeles international airport to cover a video
] ] games trade show and their forcible repatriation after
] ] being held at the airport for more than 24 hours.
] ]
] ] "These journalists were treated like criminals -
] ] subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up
] ] and fingerprinted," Reporters Without Borders
] ] secretary-general Robert Ménard complained in a letter to
] ] the US ambassador to Paris, Howard Leach.

I assume by "video games trade show", they're probably referring to E-3, so I'll throw in my $0.02 here. The latest numbers on the show, btw, are that there were 62,000 attendees. I know from personal experience that there were many international visitors (Cambodia, Hong Kong, Netherlands, etc.). I also specifically asked the attendee from Hong Kong whether he'd encountered any special procedures upon arrival in the U.S., and he said no, it all went quite smoothly, and there were no health checks on the U.S. side whatsoever -- but that leaving Hong Kong there were elaborate SARS-screening measures in place, including some sort of x-ray/scope device that scanned his entire body, and an "ear thermometer" to check his temperature.

One important consideration about attendance at E-3, is that since it's a highly-coveted event that is industry-only, meaning that it's not open to the general public, there are routinely many people who try to get in claiming that they're press or industry, even if they're not. For example, one common tactic is for someone to take a part-time job at a Blockbuster store somewhere, then use their Blockbuster credentials to request an E-3 pass, and then quit the job once they got the pass.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there were people coming in from other countries who claimed to be press, but weren't, and then got caught at the airport when they couldn't provide a proper press visa. What *does* surprise and concern me about this article though, is the fate of the companions whose paperwork was in order. In both described incidents, there were a couple people who successfully passed through immigration, while their traveling companion was detained. Then, when the "cleared" people asked the authorities about their companion, the cleared people were detained, searched, and deported as well?? That doesn't sit well with me, unless it comes out that the "cleared" people were bogus press as well, and when they tried to social-engineer the system to get their companion through, their paperwork was examined more closely and the flaws were discovered.

I've never heard of any of the people or press sources that were cited in the article, so I can't offer an opinion on whether or not they're legit. I'd be interested in reading an objective account of the situation though.

RE: Reporters sans frontières - Six French journalists detained on arrival at Los Angeles, sent back to France

Requires Java.

Visual Google Browser. Type in a URL, and it displays a visual representation of that URL and all the other URLs that are related to it (somewhat similar to visualthesaurus.com, if you've played with that).

Extremely cool to look at and play with.

TouchGraph GoogleBrowser V1.01

] COPENHAGEN (AFP) -- A former Iraqi army chief who in
] March escaped house arrest in Denmark where he was
] suspected of committing war crimes is in Iraq and is
] politically active, his son told Danish daily Politiken
] on Tuesday.
]
] Nizar Al Khazraji, a former head of the Iraqi armed forces, fled
] Denmark on March 17, reportedly with the help of the CIA. He had
] been under house arrest in Denmark since November 2002 on charges
] of taking part in chemical weapon attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the
] 1980s.

Now we get to find out what "politically active" means . . .

Postscript: More information on this story is here:
 http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030521/2003052117.html

According to his son, former Iraqi general Khazraji is now back in Iraq