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>>> August 20, 1998 Lifestyles of the drunk and disorderly It's Sunday evening and Hard Copy isn't on for another 24 hours. You need a fix of celebrity dirt and you need it now. Where do you go to satisfy that craving? Let me recommend a hit of the Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com). Using the Freedom of Information Act and court files, TSG offers up actual documentation of celebrity arrests. There's lots of material, from the LAPD report chronicling the drug/booze rampage that landed Christian Slater in the slammer, to Bobby Brady's DUI charges. Also of interest is the U.S. Custom's Cavity Search Criteria, a flowchart for performing body cavity searches. Updated twice weekly, TSG also offers a contest: guess which celebrity's name is blacked out on a police report and win a prize. |
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>>> August 13, 1998 It's crap-o-rific! Got several hundred hours to waste? Visit Geocities (www.geocities.com)--the place where nobody is somebody and bad taste reigns. This site hosts thousands of free personal sites. Anyone can get one; you just have to let the company put ads where they want. They've devised such a simple, template-driven way of assisting the creation of web pages that even a monkey could do it. The main site is structured like a city; the first thing to do is head for the "Neighbourhoods" (which are topic-based: Nashville is country music, Heartland is families, pets and hometown values, etc.) and then "Suburbs." Next, prepare for white trash roulette! The individual sites are identified by numbers so you've just got to click and hop into this inexhaustible gallery of Americana's worst. Enjoy! -Catherine Leconte |
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>>> August 6, 1998 Bells and whistles Macromedia is on the "edge that cuts." In the past few years it has established itself as the software maker for Web graphics. With Director and Flash, it has introduced the most mind-boggling animation tools imaginable. If you've surfed, you've heard of Shockwave (Macromedia's file format). To see the most spectacular uses of their wares, check out http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/gallery/. This gallery highlights the best of Shockwave. Dynamic, interactive and at times downright magical, this showcase won't disappoint you. Brace yourself for the amazing and don't forget: you'll need the plug-in (available on the site). --Catherine Leconte |
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>>> July 30, 1998 Too much time to kill Admit it! You aren't above it. The temptation to rubberneck is uncontrollable! It's not about the misfortune of others... it's more like reading a Stephen King novel. We instinctively want to freak ourselves out. Even the information superhighway's got its own roadkill (very punny, I know). And www.policescanner.com is just the hit you're looking for. You can listen to police scanners from the LAPD and NYPD, as well as the Dallas and Plano (!?), Texas police departments. All the audio streams quite well through RealPlayer. However, listening to scanners takes a lot of patience: for every five banal hours of listening, you'll be lucky to get a minute and a half of excitement. You kinda have to think of it as background noise: boot your browser and hope for municipal mayhem. --Catherine Leconte |
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>>> July 23, 1998 Web TV is for real! Getting tired of summer reruns on the idiot box? Maybe you just need to swap tubes. If you want a taste of Asian culture without Fant-Asia's line-ups, check out W Vision (www.w-vision.com). Billed as "the Internet's first real TV station," W Vision gives you five channels of Japanese TV, including anime and music videos. The site itself is mostly in Japanese, but if you understand how to use a remote control, you're in business. Or, for something more blooper-esque, visit Wild Feed TV (www.wildfeedtv.net/wftv/index/html), which has a collection of off-air satellite transmissions. Here you can see what newscasters and politicians do in the moments before the public is supposed to be watching. Hey, NBC threatened legal action, so it must be good. While both sites are fun, they may test your patience: W Vision requires three plug-ins: RealPlayer, VDO Live and Shockwave Flash; Wild Feed TV requires QuickTime and it takes a good 15 minutes to download a small clip. --Emru Townsend |
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>>> July 16, 1998 Blowing bubbles for Jesus Christ The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the various missionaries who travelled Africa, Asia and the Americas to convert heathens to the Word of God--they were all a waste of time. All the slaughter, torture and condemnation from fiery pulpits could have been avoided if they'd just called up Life Line Inc., or checked their Web site (http://www.xyz.net/~biblegum). Life Line appears to be a company which specializes in what might be termed "evangelical confectionery." Life Line, you see, understands that the way to make someone a believer is to appeal to their sweet tooth. Their flagship product is Bible Gum, ordinary chewing gum contained in a small carton. Inside the carton is a "complete, referenced verse from the King James version of the Bible." According to them, "when the carton is unfolded, the verse is revealed, for the privilege of the holder." Individual servings, tins and even vending machines are available. It's not a bad concept, but it could use a little finessing: there should be Bible trading cards or, at the very least, Bazooka Jesus comic strips. --Emru Townsend |
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>>> July 9, 1998 Quelle bummer! Has your company reached the magic number? According to the Office de la langue française, once you hit the 50-employee mark, you've got too many employees for mere English. Overnight, for the sake of either protocol or politesse, people suddenly find themselves writing memos and other correspondence in French. Or at least they're supposed to. Beyond the legalistic thorns in your side, the more basic problem is that many people discover a newfound talent for illiteracy. Does your French grammar have a certain pathetic "je ne CKOI"? Enter "Sans-Faute/Grammaire," a brilliant little program that checks your French spelling and grammar. A limited version is available for free at www.bcdl.com (a souped up version costs about $75). By either cutting and pasting or using the program-specific macros, you'll be writing like Molière in no time. The only downside is that they have yet to release a promised Windows version. Qué sera sera... --Catherine Leconte |
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>>> July 2, 1998 Boarding Gates It seems everyone has at least one reason to hate Microsoft. Lord knows there's no shortage. The company struts around buying almost everything and decimating everything else. It really makes you feel for the "little guy." Hell, it makes you feel like the little guy! Tyranny aside, Microsoft does, occasionally, give the public something pretty cool. Expedia (http://expedia.msn.com/) is the Microsoft Network's travel centre. While it offers gobs of destination information, the truly great thing is that you can shop for plane tickets. By simply entering a rough itinerary the search engine will find you a handful of the cheapest fares available. You can then book your ticket online. It also regularly features seat sales to various locations. If only this didn't imply that Microsoft knows your whereabouts... --Catherine Leconte |