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Congratulations to jr. skulker John Cunningham who submitted the first (and only so far) answer to the challenge in yesterday's issue to explain the weird effect on web page http://bodin.org/koolefant/ .  If you haven't tried it yet, go to that web page with both Netscape and Internet Explorer and try to explain what's going on.  Even though we have a winner, we won't publish the explanation until later this week to give others a chance to play with it.

http://www.techdeals.net

WebSkulker's friends know that he often says "It's only money" when he buys an expensive new toy.  But on the other hand, he is a cheapskate in that he likes to find things for free or at a discount price.  Jr. skulker Mario helps out by finding a site that gives the latest bargains, giveaways, specials, and rebate offers from all around the web every day: TechDeals .   The author has a good sense of humor and a healthy curiosity about technology so the site sometimes has more than bargains.  For example, be sure to read the explanation of the format of the new Sega Dreamcast's GD-ROM disks.

He has an entry dated 9/14/99 saying: "Heh, webcams remind me of a site I once went to where a hacker described how he hacked into someone's box, and hijacked their webcam. He then sent some sort of instant message to the victim, describing what the victims room looked like and what he looked like, then took a screenshot of the victim's expression with the hijacked webcam...some of the funniest shit I've ever seen."  On 9/15/99 he has an entry giving the URL to that hijacked webcam and you have just got to look at it!

http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/

http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/get.html

WebSkulker has used the Microsoft Office suite for years and has already upgraded to Office 2000, but if he had seen this free suite from Sun called Star Office, he might not have bothered.  Sun is going after Microsoft by giving away totally free an office suite that is as comprehensive as Office 2000.  It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager (like PowerPoint), draw program, photo editor, graph generator, equation editor, database manager, and a complete Internet suite including web browser, email, news, and ftp clients, and an HTML editor.  The Sun programs can read and write Microsoft formats so in theory you can use the documents, spreadsheets, etc. you already developed with Word and Excel.

The download size is 65 MB so you had better have a DSL line or cable modem; you can also order a CD for $9.95 shipping and handling.  WebSkulker's favorite thing about the free Star Office:  it is available for Windows 95/98/NT as you would expect, Linux and two other Unix variants, even OS/2.  But guess what?  THERE IS NO MAC VERSION!

http://www.webprovider.com

https://joker.com/domain/index.html?lang=EN

WebSkulker mentioned Joker a couple of days ago as the first discount domain registration company.  You don't have to pay $70 for the first two years to register a domain name such as "yourdomain.com",  Joker will do it for $42 for the first two years.  Couple that with the free web hosting at Webprovider and you can afford a real web site with your name on it, not some silly long URL like you get with Geocities and that sort of free hosting service.

There is a catch to Webprovider: your free web site will have an ad imposed on it just like Geocities, but at least it will have your name as the URL so it is a much better deal for a free site.  For only $4.95 per month, Webprovider will remove the ads and at that point they are exactly like any other full-service web hosting service except for the amazing low price.  $0.00 or $4.95, Webprovider gives you Telnet and FTP access to your site, CGI scripts, FrontPage extensions, logs, backup power, even tape backups of your files.

A minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates.  Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.  Saint Peter addresses this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"  The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi-driver, of Noo Yawk City."  Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi-driver,  "Take this silken robe and golden staff and Enter the Kingdom."  The taxi-driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff.

Next it's the minister's turn. He stands erect and booms out, "I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last 43 years."  Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom."  "Just a minute," says the minister. "That man was a taxi-driver and he gets a silken robe and golden staff. How can this be?"

"Up here, we work by results," says Saint Peter.  "While you preached, people slept; while he drove, people prayed."

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