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Gypsy & Willy - The Original Libertarian Bloggers

How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?

Gypsy & Willy

No. 261

The Web is One Big Site...

March 6, 2000

...and it's ALL MINE!

That's right. The boundary between sites is completely arbitrary and artificial. The World Wide Web consists of individual HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) pages, various types of images and widgets...sound and video clips, animations, JAVA programs, etc....all linked together with URL's...Universal Resource Locators. The word universal gives the show away. Every URL is functionally like every other URL. A request is sent to a server to download a particular URL and that request is or is not fulfilled. Of course, the health of the Web itself is crucially connected to most these requests being routinely and quickly satisfied.

Consider the notion of a Web "portal." Companies like Yahoo!, Netscape, AOL and Microsoft are heavily engaged in competition to make THEIR web sites the starting point for most surfers. Calling these Web pages "portals" obscures the fundamental fact that EVERY Web site that has at least ONE link to another page is probably a "portal" to the Web! That is, starting ANYWHERE is just a couple of clicks away from anywhere else. The browsers themselves have built in search engine connections that facilitate this operation. So, if you have a Web site, YOU have a portal.

"But," you say, "those other portals have specialized content and search engines that makes them very valuable for finding particular things on the Web." Leaving aside how easy it really is to find "particular" things on the Web with a search engine or by browsing through endless nested lists of categories, we would like you to note something else. You can, if you wish, have links on your portal to all these other portals, making you only one click away from whatever they do provide. But, there are other alternatives. Since a request to a search engine is just another URL, you can construct these URL's at your site or even "hard code" them into search requests. For example, the words Paleontology Project are linked to a search for these terms in the Alta Vista site. Clicking on them does exactly the same thing as entering these words as a search request on the Alta Vista home page.

Similarly, images on other people's pages have URL's. So, if you want them to appear on your page, like the image to the left of this paragraph, you simply code an image request into your page. The bad news is, since this image resides on someone else's server, it is there or not at the whims of the owner of that server. This is, however, also the good news, since downloading it does not stress your server. But, aren't we violating CNN's trademark and copyright by doing this? We don't think so. After all, CNN not only placed this image at an addressable URL, but their server is the one downloading the copy. We have done nothing more than put that address in our page, much like we might publish a phone number. We have, as a matter of courtesy, also included a link to CNN's home page...which is tied to their logo, but that is another matter entirely. We feel that such courtesies smooth the way for the Web to remain as it is...belonging to EVERYONE.

Another way you can incorporate other's content into your own portal, although a somewhat more complicated way programmatically, is to make a link to a freely available service posted on the Web by somebody else. Thus for example, the word French is linked to a site which will translate this very page you are reading into French (or another of several languages) using a machine translator which they sell.

But, that's not all. By interposing a program between their translation and the download, it is possible to alter all the links on the translated page ON THE FLY so that subsequent pages, linked to that page will ALSO be translated into French! Note when you click on the word "French" in the last sentence, not only is this page translated into French, but we have also given credit to Systran as well by inserting a banner at the very top of the page that links to their site. We suggest you continue on browsing from this page, by clicking on some of the links, to experience the full effect of this "recursive" programming.

This last type of programming can be used for other tasks. Some pages put code in them to attempt to prevent you from putting a frame around their page. For example, Roger Ebert's reviews in the Chicago Sun Times online newspaper are "protected" in this way. However, since downloads can be intercepted, examined line by line and altered, if so desired, it is possible to remove the protection code on the fly and thereafter fully frame Mr. Ebert's page with your own references. Click on "Mr. Ebert's" in the last sentence to see this. You will be taken on a "guided" tour of several entertainment sites. The frame is necessary so that the navigation buttons are always visible. By the way, Ebert's is the last site on the tour (hint: click on the "last" button).

Finally, these techniques can also be used to perform mischief. Since you can intercept a site's source code and alter it as it downloads, it is possible to replace images with your own...or those from other sites...to remove undesirable content, as above, or to insert some of your own content. There are no limitations as to what can be done...you can insert a JAVA applet, some JAVA Script code, images, sound, whatever. here are some links to try to see what can be done.

By the way, the site from which the image of Ms. Clinton was taken is called Pottyticians and has more examples of the same...

Talk to you later...


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To contact Willy or Gypsy and comment on what they have written...or anything else...write to willy@dreamagic.com or gypsy@dreamagic.com.


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