THE ORIGINAL HACKERS
I'm not talking about computer hackers, but hack drivers, particularly the New York City breed of cabbie.
You know how everyone thinks New York cab drivers must have hundreds of real-life stories about what goes on in the back seat? Or about the celebrities they pick up? You know how they're all rising actors still in their pre-off-Broadway phase - driving at night, auditioning during the day?
Well, it's mostly urban mythology. Most New York City cabbies are career drivers. It's all they do. But they do have neat stories.
At least one of them, Peter Franklin, is Net savvy and he's here to do his part to perpetuate the myth of the colorful New York City philosopher/hack driver. Mr. Franklin is already known to New Yorkers because of his one-minute cab stories on the all-news station WINS in the Big App.
His page has a cyber cab simulator that lets you experience the thrill of crashing your car (your mouse actually) into a real NYC taxi. The cab crumples at the part you click and his face appears, honoring you with a real NYC taxi driver insult such as "Your mother's so dumb she sits on the TV and watches the couch."
I just wish I had a dollar for every real NYC cabbie I have had to teach how to get to JFK.
Roadmap: The Gabby Cabbie http://gabby.com/index.htm.
The Gabby Cabbie came to my attention from Chris Stamper's Stamper's News Nuggets one of the more interestingly written of the numerous World Wide Web and Internet tip sheets that float around the Net.
Politically, it pulls slightly to right-of-center and will occasionally quote something from Washington's better daily newspaper. I sure can't fault his attitude. Subscribe for free by sending an e-mail to
listserv@listserv.syr.edu with the Subject line blank and the text reading subscribe nuggets yourfirstname yourlastname.
FIND YOURSELF
Maybe you're a person who is active in several of the science-fiction-oriented discussion news groups on the Internet's Usenet.
It's hard to remember where you posted that piece of deathless prose you wrote cataloging the weaponry of starships belonging to the Federation, the Klingons, Romulans and Ferrengi in "Star Trek" episodes.
Was it in rec.arts.sf.starwars or was it rec.games.netrek? Or did you post it to
rec.arts.startrek.current? You type the keywords "photon torps" into the DejaNews search engine for news groups, and hit the button.
DejaNews sorts through more than 4 gigabytes of news-group postings in a few seconds and spits out your post from the first week of last October, a piece titled "Trek Combat Tactics and Strategy."
It also gives the name of the news group, the message topic and the e-mail address of the author. The listings are hyperlinked so you can click on the title and read the message itself.
In addition, you will see a list of everything that person has posted to any other news group throughout the entire Net.
Are you getting the implications?
Suppose someone wants to know what dark subcultures you inhabit during the wee hours away from your suit-and-tie day job. They type in your name or e-mail address and watch it scroll.
So again the lesson is this: Never put anything on the Internet that you don't want to end up in your personnel file.
If the FBI learns about DejaNews from my column, I demand a finder's fee and immunity for my next six crimes.
Roadmap: To indulge the investigative reporter in you, go to http://www.realchange.org.
RE: ANAGRAMS
I learned something new this week. There are an awful lot of people out there who are very into anagrams.
In the wake of last week's item on the Web's anagram generator, one of the more amusing e-mail notes came from Mike Morton (mike@morton.com), a Hawaii software author who is famous among his ilk for his anagram of the name "Ronald Wilson Reagan." It re-sorts into "No, darlings, no ERA law."
Mr. Morton, who wrote his own shareware anagram generator, Ars Magna ("an anagram for anagrams"), informed me that, sadly, "Washington Times" can be rearranged into "Ha, I'm tossing Newt!"
Say it ain't so.
The much-touted "information superhighway" was re-cast by Mike into "New utopia? Horrifying sham." For himself, "Michael Morton" prefers the anagram pseudonym "Mr. Machine Tool."
Roadmap: For those who missed it last time, an anagram generator is available on the Web at http://csugrad.cs.vt.edu/*eburke/anagrams.html. Substitute a tilde for the asterisk (*). Go ahead, become addicted. I have.
Out the com port, through the modem, down the fiber, into the server - nothin' but Net. Send your interesting sites to
moffitt@ix.netcom.com.
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