The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 52

D12 THE GAZETTE. MONTREAL. WEDNESDAY. MAY 13. 1993 VISHOURVVEBSITEaL- http:www.montrealg32ette.com Red-hot URLs rr i 4 4 The News Every day, our Web site wilt give you a selection of articles from today's Gazette.

Montreal Forum The Gazette's Web site is the place to meet Montrealers from all over the world and talk about the Habs and, of course, politics. Entertainment Listings If you're planning a night out check here first For festival information visit our Coming Events section. Classified Montreal's biggest classified ad section is now available in electronic form. Keeping track of URLs (World Wide Web addresses) that you see in The Gazette can be a major pain. Even if you have a pen handy you have to enter them into your browser.

Miss a period or a backslash and you get a cheeky BEEP from your computer. There's an easier way. Most URLs you see in The Web Page, and in other Internet-related columns in The Gazette, can be found on our Web site, all hot-linked and clickable. Point your browser to: http:www.montrealgazette.com 0 CLASSIFIEDS WEB PAGE EDITOR: PETER COONEY 987-2441 Game shows kids how to deal with cyber-cookies JENNIFER DITCHBURN Canadian Press I OTTAWA For kids, the word "cookie" FJ conjures up visions of chocolate chips, I raisins and nuts. For the marketing Internet Each time the child is faced with an opportunity to offer information to a Web site, a friendly alien lands to ask the player how he or she will proceed, and later to award safety stars for the correct answers.

The interactive game will be made available to Canadian elementary schools and through educational product catalogues over the next few months. Industry Minister John Manley said the CD-Rom falls into his department's strategy to keep Canadians informed about privacy protection on the Internet The federal government recently released a discussion paper and wrapped up a consultation period on the subject as part of a plan to table new legislation. "We believe that one of the most effective and tion that people either unknowingly or knowingly leave behind. "In our society we don't usually let a young child loose on a busy street or into an unfamiliar public park without first giving them some information on how to protect themselves. Often we venture with them the first few times to give them some tips.

This is a similar approach," said Jan D'Arcy, co-creator of Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three Little Cyber-pigs. "We believe the same logic should apply to the cyber environment If they're invited into a commercial environment then they'll have some practical basic skills." The CD-Rom follows the adventures of the cy-berpigs as they look for a new clubhouse on the efficient ways to combat the inappropriate or illegal use of personal information on the Internet is to have well-informed users," said Manley, whose department partially funded the project with Stentor, an alliance of Canada's original telephone companies. "It's especially important to teach children about their personal information, because they may be even more vulnerable in an online environment" Ottawa elementary school student, Jehan Tal-lim, 10, says she spends a lot of time on the Net but has already been warned about providing personal information when prompted on line. "When you go into the Nintendo one, they ask you stuff like you could win a prize if you fill in your name and address, but we never do that" minds behind thousands of Web sites it's a tool to collect their personal information. The non-profit Media Awareness Network is hoping to teach children how to protect their privacy on the Internet through a CD-Rom adventure game that takes them through some of the pitfalls of dealing with commercial sites.

Cookies refer to sophisticated computer programs regularly used by companies and Web designers to track what people do on a given Web site and to gather their crumbs bits of informa Are Dace? we in SETI can make you a part of the search for extra-terrestrial life Cancer sites offer vast information and news KIRK LAPOINTE Hamilton Spectator It feels like they're already here. There is Netscape: SETIhome LJ a long parade of extraterrestrial sion shows, books, magazines, clubs, and Location jhttp ssl.berkeleij edu the tabloids can always throw in a space story if it's a slow celebrity week. The tone of these things makes it easy to believe that your next door neighbours really are from Uranus. It's one thing to fantasize about contact with space aliens, it's another to do something about it The Searching for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETT) League is a non profit organization whose name explains exactly what they do. Their Web site (www.setileague.org) asks the key ques- tion "Are We Alone?" HAMILTON The news spreads quickly these days, thanks in some measure to the Internet The recent announcement of a breakthrough in cancer therapy on research on mice, in a limited study, with some time before definitive results on humans touched off a firestorm of interest It became almost impossible to get to the World THE GOOD STUFF The League has 500 members in over 30 countries.

They are astronomy professionals, mathematicians and other nerdish types who are devoted to the search for friends in Wide Web pages heralding the research so busy were the servers housing the sites. DAVID But the promise and hope provided by the early results on endostatin and angiostatin in arresting the development of blood vessels from tumours ZGODZINSKI (and thus the tumours themselves) is chronicled all over the Net fflsv, six v-tfifi fart rtto aTPfsi The companies that produce those drugs, En- treMed Inc. and Angiogenesis Research Industries have solid Web sites to outline what the early studies found. But well beyond their sites are significant, intel ligent guides for cancer patients and researchers. For years, long before the Net became a common communications device, the medical community shared resources and thinking along the comput er network.

As a result, it is possible to get a full fledged news site, Cancer News on the Net, the Cancer Wire, Medicine Online, the WebDoctor service for space. Some high-powered technocrat millionaires fund the organization. These people are not flakes. The Web site explains the goals of the League, along with explanations of radio astronomy and some of the work that has already been done. There's a page with descriptions of some of the anomalies that League members have spotted thus far, accompanied by visual images of the signals.

SETI has come up with a new project where volunteers can become personally involved in the real search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It's called SETIHome, and if all goes well, it will begin functioning in the fall. SETIHome has its own site, to be found at http:setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu with details on this remarkable project People will be able to download analytical software and then help to analyze data obtained by SETI from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the largest in the world. Every volunteer will download a tiny portion of the many gigabytes of astronomical observation data that will be gathered daily. While they are not in use for other purposes, the volunteer PCs will analyze the data for anomalies The software will act as a type of screen-saver, displaying how the specific analysis is progressing, or if the volunteer prefers, how the over-all SETI search in space is going.

You can download the SETI(ajHome software the medical community, the Achoo wire for consumers, Cancer magazine, and several other ser vices with the latest in research, therapy, support, policy and other advice. The large institutes and organizations have above-average sites, including the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the Canadian Cancer Society. More broadly, there AVsh SETI is searching for intelligent life in the universe and they need your computer. are services like the International Cancer Information Centre and the Guide to Internet Cancer Resources that point to further reading. Some cancer sites: EntreMed Inc.

www.entremed.com Angiogenesis Research Industries Inc. www.angiogenesis.com Cancer News on the Net www.cancernews.com Cancer Wire www.rwneill.comcancer.html Medicine Online www.meds.com WebDocton Oncology www.gretmar.comwebdoctoroncology.html Achoo www.achoo.com Cancer Magazine journals, wiley.comcancer National Institutes of Health www.nci.nih.gov American Cancer Society www.cancer.orgframes.html Canadian Cancer Society www.cancer.ca International Cancer Information Centre wwwicic.nci.nih.gov Guide to Internet Cancer Resources www.ncl.ac.uknchwwwguidesclinksl.htm and do trial runs on your PC. You can also join the mailing list You will be asked to donate some money to the cause (or help find donors). The League is also looking for people to help with their Web site. When the project gets off the ground, so to speak, you may become one of the volunteers who participates in the actual search by analyzing the radio data.

SETIHome is a practical, and idealistic way of getting involved with beings from space. There are others on the Web who are practical and less altruistic. As a matter of fact, they have made a business out of the public's fascination with space creatures. The products they sell are basically conversation pieces. The UFO Abduction Insurance Company has one of the more interesting business plans I've seen on the Net Their site (www.ufo2001.com) with the bold introduction "Beam Me Up, I'm informs you that the company has been in business since 1987.

They do not say how says the site. Of course, if it doesn't work, the last thing you're going to worry about is getting your $19.95 back. If you're into alien kitsch, like UFO key chains and playing cards and bumper stickers, there a number of Web sites that sell these things (Yes Father's Day is approaching). One of the better selections I found was at a Web store called Parallel Universe (www.ufo-hyway.com). There is even alien apparel.

For some reason, space creatures tend to wear T-shirts and tank tops. Outer space and cyber space were made for each other. People who like to use their imagination to think about the vast reaches of the Universe are more than likely the kind of people who like to reach out through the expanses of the Internet and communicate with others who get the feeling that they don't quite belong here. EnwUDavidZgtxlzlnskiatdavidzcam.org many premiums they have had to pay out The company doesn't turn down anyone, regardless of pre-exLsting conditions. UFO Abduction Insurance actually has an image of a claim for UFO abduction that they say they have approved.

Trouble is, they can't seem to locate the claimant Lawrence Spatz. They will sell you a single $10 million U.S. lifetime policy for $19.95 U.S., and they take credit cards. The Cascade Marketing company has a site (www.ufodetector.com) where you can order one of their "UFO Detectors." You get an alloy "Detector Frame" and a "Detector Core" as well as an operations manual, all for $19.95 U.S. (evidently a standard price for space stuff).

The company "guarantees" that you will be able to detect any UFO's landing within 75 miles of the detector. "This is a guaranteed early warning system." TV talk-show host aiming to get Canadians talking online ers and subject specialists," explained Michael Pilmer, director of Southam New Media. "We plan to host regular online chats as part of our mandate to offer Canadians a comprehensive and entertaining online experience." Anchored by a powerful search engine that provides access to more than 110 million Internet and Web documents, Canada.com bills itself as having the largest scorch capacity of any Canadian online service. publishes The Gazette, has recruited Bullard for a live online chat session on Friday, beginning at 8 p.m.. The chat will allow fans and TV viewers to question Bullard via their home computers.

Bullard is the host of 0wn Mike, the hit Canadian talk show which airs nightly on the CTV television network across Canada, as well as on cable TV's Comedy Network. Earlier this week, CTV officials announced a commitment to 40 weeks of Dullard's show for Southam Newspapers pri TORONTO Canada's largest newspaper jt4 I chain is set to broaden its Internet pres iL ence this week as it launches its first on line chat session. And popular Canadian talk-show host Mike Bullard has been tapped to get the ball rolling. Canada.com, the recently launched national Web site of the Southam newspaper chain, which next season. Friday's chat session accessible on the Internet through www.canada.com is the latest venture of Canada.com, a Web site launched by Southam's New Media division last month.

According to officials, the online chats will be a regular part of Southam's new Internet activities. "Web chats are rapidly expanding the reach of the online community and allowing Internet users access to celebrities, politicians, newsmak 4.