Just Outta Beta
Cypherpunk Hide and Seek
Release:Spring
President Clinton's key recovery encryption plan makes no sense. The policy, which continues to criminalize the export of cryptography stronger than 56 bits, causes considerable consternation in the software community for two very good reasons. One, ecommerce can't be constrained by national boundaries. And two, if US companies don't offer good crypto, you can be damn sure that foreign corporations will leap at the chance to lock up international markets.
C2Net wants the world to know that the encryption algorithms built into popular browser and server software are crippled by US export controls - the strong-encryption versions are available only to citizens of the US and Canada. In response, the Oakland, California-based company has begun to offer strong crypto to foreign customers, helping secure online commerce from theft and invasion.
C2Net's business plan is a simple, profitable, and legal hack on US encryption policy. By developing its technologies without American programmers - using only foreign coders and distributing through a British firm known as UK Web - C2Net has bypassed the regulations that prevent US companies from selling strong crypto overseas.
C2Net has already released Stronghold, a commercial version of Apache's server software with uncrippled SSL. Recently, it unleashed Safe Passage Web Proxy, which encodes messages as they travel from a browser to a server. And, in the second quarter of this year, C2Net plans to unveil a similarly strong crypto proxy for POP-based email. The result will be end-to-end full-strength cryptography for foreign Web shoppers and Net instigators alike.
"The Clinton administration is fighting a losing battle against the desire of both individuals and corporations," opines C2Net vice president Douglas Barnes. "The president has appointed David Aaron as special envoy on cryptography to lobby for worldwide draconian regulations, but any country that adopts these regulations is basically sending jobs to other, more sensible, countries." Just like C2Net did.
Jesse Freund
Release: Spring. C2Net: +1 (510) 986 8770
Pynchonesque
Release:April
Famed for his integration of technical language and scientific metaphor, Pynchon presents his latest antihistorical tome, Mason & Dixon, an account of the surveyors best known for drawing the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Henry Holt: +1 (212) 886 9200.
X Marks the Du-oh!
Release:April
Mark Monmonier's new book, Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America, explores the hazard-zone map and its relevance to the public. While the author champions the way maps can be used to determine hazardous areas, he also delves into the dangers of relying on them to do so. Earthquakes, toxic waste, and street crime can be charted, but the conclusions drawn from those cartographies are subjective.
University of Chicago Press: +1 (773) 702 7740.
Out of Sight
Release:Spring
Ten million people are plagued by blindness as a result of retinitis pigmentosa. Recently, scientists have developed a chip that can be implanted in the eye, activating the nerve ganglia and restoring sight. This spring, Professor Wentai Liu will ship the 2-millimeter-square silicon wafer to doctors interested in testing it out.
North Carolina State University: +1 (919) 515 7347.
Gone Maiming
Release:May
Wanna play kick the can? With a zombie's head? The new game Blood promises gore galore. Choose from a variety of nasty weapons - aerosol can and lighter, voodoo doll, or flare gun - and watch the ghouls come alive with endearing responses, like lovely arterial spurts.
GT Interactive Software: +1 (970) 522 1797.
A Long Way to Go
Release: April
Ameritech plans to become the first RBOC to offer long distance service, if the FCC approves its application. What will the FCC, beset by stays challenging the agency's interpretation of the Telecom Act of 1996, do - and how will this affect the shape of telecom? We'll soon find out.
Ameritech: +1 (312) 750 5205.
The Great Beyond
Release:May
Blue, an adventure lifestyle magazine from Raygun visionary David Carson, has been dubbed National Geographic with a rock-and-roll soundtrack. The inaugural issue heralds a new kind of travel writing - in an article on illegal immigration, a reporter swims across the Rio Grande.
Blue: +1 (212) 777 0024.**
