/ 25 September 2002

PCs bugged by the FBI and Bloem-born Tolkien

Still waiting for someone to lay criminal manslaughter charges against our President for his stance on HIV-AIDS – seeing as some might say he’s directly and indirectly causing more deaths than Apartheid ever did? Come on all you vengeful lawyers, put your tongue firmly in your cheek, make headline news around the world, save some lives AND humiliate our Prez by filing charges. What a cool combo!

In the interim though, here’s a site to force your kids to browse through, with lots of useful data on aspects of teen sexuality, AIDS and sexual etiquette: try What U Do.

So you’ve been to what laughingly passes for medical practitioners locally, and are curious about what’s been prescribed to you and why. For those medical geeks who don’t have a copy of ye trusty old Jacobson’s Pharmacological book, (to browse through when looking for an unlegislated-against high) – try this site which provides a fair amount of info on commonly prescribed medication – Pharmacology Index.

Having fun with the ‘other’ Big Brother. Some folks went walking in New York, and began mapping all the surveillance cameras they could find – 2 397. Now they’ve made an online interactive map, allowing the paranoid (and hunted) to find routes through the city which avoid as many cameras as possible. Take a look at the shape of things to come at NSCP and IAA Map.

And staying briefly with ‘the city so great they named it twice’ – New York – the US continues to sell the idea that they’re not in deep financial trouble, and that despite suspension of civil liberties, secret trials, a crashed stock exchange and a frenzy of patriotism, everything’s fine. I wish it was. Take a look at New York Miracle.

Then for a more reality-based take on the US, via a wealth of fascinating articles by gonzo journalist James Campion, click on the ‘articles’ link at Reality Check.

Bloemfontein’s biggest claim to fame still isn’t being exploited online, despite the imminent launch of Bloem-born JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to a worldwide audience of probably tens of millions of fans. Take a look at Lord of the Rings UK.

Then be deeply frightened by the official (gulp) Bloemfontein Online. And a biog of Tolkien can be found at JRR Tolkien.

Game stuff you just have to have for Xmas. Remember the old iD Software classic, ‘Wolfenstein’? Well, powered by a massively tweaked Q3 engine, the game is back and provides an amazingly addictive single player and multiplayer experience. Time to kick some Nazi butt again. Tiptoe to Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

More cool Xmas things for those two or three of you who still believe in paying for music, books, movies and software. The ultra-cool Pink Floyd are back with a new release – take a look at the stylish and data-packed official site for About Echoes.

Then if you don’t like the idea of the FBI being able to infect your computer with a trojan to report back every keystroke you make, read the following info and links carefully, because it’s about to happen.

Longtime readers will know about the FBI’s attempts pre the 911 Attack to snoop on netizens by installing a piece of secret software at ISPs, called Carnivore. Well, now they’re going a step further to decrypt encrypted data, using the questionable tactic of remote key-logging of users’ PCs – presumably by infecting PCs with a non-traceable Trojan program. Go to Magic Lantern.

Then for some info on how the makers of Norton Anti-Virus – Symantec – and others are willing to help the FBI sneak their virus undetected onto netizens PCs, go to AntiVirus Makers And FBI Dirty Secrets. For even more reports and articles on this sneaky development, take a slow browse through Wired, Register and Open AntiVirus.

Then if your PC is oddly slow, and you’ve done the defragging and fixed all the registry errors you can think of, take a read of a useful article about enabling DMA on your disk drives, which may be the answer: Enabling DMA.

Until the next time, if our President and lawyers don’t get me.

Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.