Net Surf
Light, Air, and Literacy: Salon Continues the Dance
I was threatening to surf my last surf. I had had it up to here with technodweebs blabbering on in dweebspeak as if all the world were wired and the only things worth discussing were what's on the Internet and how many gigahertz and kilowatts you absolutely have to have if you don't want to become Roadkill on the Information Superhighway. Just when I was thinking that they've all lost the forest for the trees and wondering how come I'm the only one who remembers that the Internet was supposed to be a swell tool but just a tool, along comes Salon, the World Wide Web's only site that seems to grok this. Or, as David Talbot, one of the founders, puts it, "We are inspired by the creative potential of the Internet, but unlike many other Web sites, Salon is not a technocult. As refugees from the atrophying world of newspapers and magazines, our primary allegiance is to written communication, to the power of the word. We think of digital technology as an exciting means to an end, but not the end itself."
Sure, a lot's been written about this site already, but readership is up 30 percent and climbing, and Salon has just gone daily. We feel it bears mentioning that Salon, the first arts and culture e-zine to emphasize writing, has the smarts and finesse of The New Yorker and Harper's without the tree-killing. The design is stylish and refreshingly low tech, with charming illustrations instead of photographs and lots of white space. Edited by Talbot, Salon features an impressive array of writers who discuss matters of no technological consequence whatsoever. Past issues have featured the words and thoughts of Amy Tan, Shelby Steele, Camille Paglia, and Alexander Cockburn - who discuss the death of liberalism and the purpose of art, the demise of Hillary Clinton, Bosnia, Seinfeld, racism, Bruce Springsteen, and Newt Gingrich. Interviews and reviews abound alongside cartoons and mind twisters. There's a place to chat with people who have an actual life, and, yes (sigh), there is a place to spend money (you can buy many of the books and CD-ROMs by clicking an order in to Border's).
Salon has just been awarded Best Web Designers by the Cool Site of the Year people, and Talbot believes that Salon - while not a media juggernaut like Time-Warner - has made a name for itself because it doesn't rely on plug-in hoopla. "It's not a boys-and-their-toys site," stresses Talbot. "Bells and whistles are fine, but they're not what drives the Internet. Good content and interactivity are what drive the Internet." Furthermore, Salon offers the best discussion forum on the Web, according to Talbot, because it isn't a free-for-all. "There's no frat-house atmosphere," he says, pointing out that the level of discussion is more intelligent than most sites. One reason: its readership is equal parts male and female. The prevalence of women - as both browsers and writers - ensures a certain degree of quality and decorum.
With only a handful of sites out there that value substance over style, Salon is a breath of literate air in this computer-crazed world. - Erika Milvy or www.goplay.com/961010/adv/movies/erika.html
Hated It!
Whoa! There are some wacked-out and hateful peeps out there. And the Harvard Law Library wants you to know it. Keeping a neighborhood watch on the Net, The Harvard Law School Library's Guide to Hate Groups on the Internet offers a glimpse of the sites that are deemed the most pernicious and dangerous on the Net today. Technically speaking, the site's pretty bland and devoid of any Java- or Shockwave-enabled visuals, but none of the horror is lost in translation: here you'll find links to revisionist, neo-Nazi, antigay, and Christian nationalist sites (the traditional baddies), as well as a few you might not expect - the Jewish Defense League, an anti-Christian group, and the Nation of Islam. Also featured are a clearinghouse of hate-watch groups worldwide. Don't miss the rundown of "white-power music" and supporting labels, the who's who of online hate, and the list of scholarly papers and articles about this chilling, flourishing phenomenon. You won't find all of the hate here, but, regardless, it's like planting your chin on Number Four sandpaper - a difficult education, yet an important one. hatewatch.org
Shopping at the Speed of Kitsch
When aliens take over the Sherman Oaks Galleria, it will look exactly like Shopper's Paradise. GlamOrama transforms the act of shopping into a gleeful postmodern romp, dripping with pop culture icons, alien-abduction buzz, and some basic Shockwave gimmicks. The site deconstructs our fin de si�cle obsessions and deftly reminds us that life is short, and, dammit, you need a Boxing Nun.
Exotic new technologies abound, including AutoDrink (stick out your tongue and receive a customized cocktail recipe), SnagOmatic shopping (see a tchotchke you like? Hit the Snag button and the details of your coveted item will be organized for later purchase activation, though your browser must support Magic Cookie technology), and fingerprint DNA scanning. (Determine your Alien Influence Quotient; who knows - you may be ripe for abduction!) Lush graphics and lots of clickable toys earn this site high marks for depth and good old-fashioned interactivity.
While visiting, don't miss the Blue Suede Room, WorldEye News, and the Online Wedding Chapel, where honest-to-God ceremonies are being performed right now. In a word: keeewwl. www.glamorama.com/shop/welcome.cgi
The Virginator
Sure, we all know the Pope and Mother Teresa are virgins, but a lesser-known fact comes from the Society for the Recapture of Virginity (or SRV): orgasms experienced by recovered virgins are 200 percent stronger than those of nonvirgins. SRV, along with Razorfish Productions, has unleashed the Virgin Recovery System, or VRS 3000 - an Internet product that enables even the most Don Juanesque among us to experience that fresh-flower innocence of virginity, again and again and again. After entering your stats into the revolutionary VRS 3000 (including the exact sound you heard while making that first whoopee), bam! It's like it never happened.
While you reformed Casanovas and Madonnas may not be able to hold your virginity in your hands, you will be able to fondle the personalized certificate sent to you by SRV, as well as wear the Get It Back badge of pride.
"Close friends think I lost weight or got my hair cut. They can't tell what's different. It's my little secret," boasts a satisfied user. So go on - get it back! www.razorfish.com/bluedot/srv
Browse the Book of Love
Adaweb has introduced its latest Web art project, simply titled LOVE. Using Frames and Livescript (both downloadable from the site and supported by Netscape 2.0 and higher), LOVE presents a webbed maze of seven stories, each containing seven pages, told through images and words. Add your name and that of the one you love to the Love List, take a provocative peek inside of the mind of the Marquis de Sade, or witness love's many happy endings. Each story series is navigable in five directions (via arrows), making it an enjoyable challenge to view the site's 49 pages. Heterosexual love is most often represented here, but the group has taken care to acknowledge the homosexual community in the introduction.
Maximize your view pane and rev up your video subsystem (to a resolution of 1,024 by 768, if you've got it), but above all remember ... as in real life, LOVE sometimes stops when you don't expect it to. http://adaweb.com~adaweb/influx/GroupZ/index.html
The Ore of Urban Folklore
Richard Gere's gerbil? Walt Disney's frozen corpse?
Like the stories it enshrines, The Urban Legends Archive is just a little too good to be true. Several classics are here, and a few interesting facts can be found out with some authority. But there's no graphic appeal whatsoever, and many accounts peter off into bibliographies (yawn), state laws (zzz), or even federal regulations (she's flatlining!).
And yet, as with any good car crash, it's difficult to look away. The promise of a truly breathtaking legend overcomes the uninspired packaging. You just have to check under that next heading. You just ... have ... to know ... www.urbanlegends.com
Where Do You Want to Go Today?
Here's a great way to roam the world right from your dingy little veal-fattening pen. Wanna check the windsurfers on Maui's north shore? Get a bird's-eye view of Paris, Chicago, or San Francisco? How about simply having a good laugh at those poor fools kvetching in their cars as they inch their way across the George Washington Bridge at rush hour? Whatever your pleasure, just point your browser to a WebCam clearinghouse such as the EarthCam site or the more pedestrian Leonard's Cam World www.leonardsworlds.com/camera.html. We recommend a jaunt to the telerobot site in Perth where you can mirthfully watch as you pick up or knock down blocks with a robotic arm (telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au/cgi-win/telerobt.exe).You'll be amazed what an infinitesimal act of destruction in a place thousands of miles away where it's already tomorrow can do for you. Better than Bob!
As Permanent as an Electron
There's this great thing about the Net: just when you think you've seen it all, up pops something like Virtual Memorials. What greets you on the opening page seems like a poor man's Myst - an image of rolling green hills under a deep blue sky is tucked within the pages of an open, dusty volume that's bookmarked with a long-stemmed rose. (Heh. Your Monty Python mind will embellish it with digitized images of dead people lying in coffins and fending off gargantuan hedgehogs.) Even so, you'll be surprised. The memorials are tastefully done - they're even respectful. virtual-memorials.com
Thanks to the Wired 5.01 Surf Team
Colin J. Lingle cjlingle@seanet.net
John Makulowich john@trainer.com
Sean Makulowich makulow@cais.cais.com
Marissa Raderman maraderman@aol.com
Ted Roberts ted@wiredmag.com
