skulk: To lie or keep in hiding, as for some evil reason. To move or go in a mean, stealthy manner. |
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Skulker Michael Cohen
WebSkulker mentioned last Thursday that Microsoft had free software for PC's to let you read books online, but that most of the books in this format cost about as much as real books on paper. Bookface.com is a service that lets you read hundreds of books on your PC totally free, in the hope that you will like the text and will purchase the book. WebSkulker agrees with their premise that reading books on a PC isn't all that comfortable and a real book on paper is better, so they are hoping that you will only read part of the book online and then purchase a copy. But most of the books are available in their entirety so you could read the whole thing online if you wanted to. The reading is done in a Java application that prevents you from copying or printing the text. WebSkulker hasn't tried to skulk around this, but wouldn't be surprised if some jr. skulker came up with a way of retrieving the entire text of the books.
Jr. Skulker NevarMore suggested this site about Internet privacy. It has background information and very specific, practical, advice about cryptography, steganography, anonymous and private email, IRC and Usenet messaging, anonymous web browsing, and that sort of thing. The site also talks about how to collect information about others and from their computers, but only of course to explain what other people might do to you and how to defend yourself. You would never, of course, skulk your fellow jr. skulker.
http://mivox.com/essays/text/petition.html The first link is to the Online Software Museum which at the moment doesn't seem to have much software except for emulators of four old operating systems: Altair Basic (the original language written by Bill Gates and the original Microsoft company), CP/M, Data General's RDOS, and UNIX. Using the Telnet program on your PC, this site lets you sign on to what appears to be a real computer running one of these operating systems, although if you read far enough into the site's documentation, you realize that everything is emulated. Nevertheless, you can experience what it was like to be the operator of one of these old systems. The second link gives credit to people who helped write the Software Museum site, but more importantly it has links to other virtual museums about computer history. The third link is to a petition that you jr. skulkers might want to sign requesting software publishers to donate their years-old products to the public domain so that people who run antique machines can legally download and run antique software on them. Thanks to Jr. Skulker Opp for telling us about the Software Museum.
For you jr. skulkers who can't make it down to Los Angeles for the Democratic convention, you can be there virtually in the guise of an LAPD motorcycle officer. "Unruly protesters are blocking traffic. It is your job to move them off the street. Use force only if necessary... HAHAHA!"
What is a cat?
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