Thom Stark's Articles, Columns & Tutorials

Here are the original (i.e.--unedited) versions of my IBM developerWorks It Came Out of the Sky, Boardwatch Magazine @internet and Internetworks Magazine Web Technologies columns, along with a selection of my other articles, interviews and such -- including an explanation of why I won't be appearing in future issues of Boardwatch..

It Came Out of the Sky Columns

(Note: All of my It Came Out of the Sky columns originally appeared in the Wireless interest section of IBM's developerWorks Web site.)

From: 2002; 2001

2002

"The Plumber's Friend" summarizes the legal and technical issues that affect the design of extended-range wireless networks. "E Pluribus Unum" looks at the ethics and philosophy behind community wireless networks. "Danger, Opportunity, Form and Function" discusses the evolution of wireless handsets.
2001 "An Interface Only a Mother Could Love" bemoans the dismal current state of wireless handset UIs. "Think about the Children" explores the expectations for a booming wireless youth market. "A Myth Is as Good as a Mile" debunks the shibboleth that Bluetooth data streams interfere with 802.11b. "Will We See 3G? I Say 'Nosirree!'". "Through a Scanner, Darkly" was a condensed version of my interview with security enfante terrible Peter Shipley. "WEP2, Credibility Zero" says it all. "Shut the Door, They're Coming in the Windows!" addressed the endemic security lapses of 802.11b LANs. My maiden effort was "The Awful Truth about Bluetooth". @internet Columns From 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 2001 My November, 2001 column, "Into Your Tent I'll Creep" was my last column for Boardwatch -- so, of course, the new content czar, David Kopf, left it out of the magazine. <shrug> It's his loss. From October, 2001, "Free Dmitry?". From the September, 2001 bonus issue, "The Light at the End of the Tunnel". From September, 2001, "The Thirteenth Labor". From August, 2001, "You Shouldn't Have". From July, 2001, "Don't Bank on It". From the June, 2001 bonus issue, "IP Freely". From June, 2001, "Best-Laid Plans". From May, 2001, "Second Impressions". From April, 2001, "How Do You Sleep?". From the March, 2001 bonus issue, "United We Stand". From March, 2001, "You See by My Outfit". "But She Has a Great Personality", was CENSORED by Randy Goldner, the Publisher of Boardwatch -- read it and see why. My first column of the new millenium, "Character Under Construction -- Pardon Our Dust", was something of a requiem for the death of CLEC Magazine -- and an abject apology for the journalistic sins I committed in my January, 2000 column. 2000 From December, 2000, "The End of the Game". From November, 2000, "Private Eye". From October, 2000, "A Shock to the System". From September, 2000, "Come September". From August, 2000, "What Dreams May Come". From July, 2000, "House of Cards". From June, 2000, "Little Shop of Horrors". From May, 2000, "The Wrong Box". From April, 2000, "The Star Chamber". From March, 2000, "Promises, Promises". From February, 2000, "The Days of Wine and Roses". From January, 2000, "The Day the Earth Stood Still". 1999 From December, 1999, "Wicked Games",. From November, 1999, "Crystal Blue Persuasion". From October, 1999, "Pigs on the Wing". From September, 1999 "Boris the Spider". From August, 1999 "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash". From July, 1999, "Jimmy Olsen's Blues",. From June, 1999, "The Man in the Mirror". From May, 1999 column, "Heard It On the X". From April, 1999, "Won't Get Fooled Again". From March, 1999, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". From February, 1999, "I Go to Rio". From January, 1999, "The Shape of Things to Come". 1998 From December, 1998, "Games Without Frontiers". From November, 1998, "2B or Not 2B". From October, 1998, "Secrets and Lies". From August, 1998, "What Is and What Should Never Be". From July, 1998, "For What It's Worth". From June, 1998, "VRML: Still Not Ready for Prime Time". From May, 1998, "Multicast Your Fate to the Wind". From April, 1998, "I Read the News Today, Oh Boy..". From March, 1998, "Ask Not What Your Users Can Do for You". From February, 1998, "Where the Data Is". From January, 1998, "The Right Tools for the Job. 1997 From November, 1997, "Wrap It Up (or They'll Take It)". From October, 1997, "Conventional Wisdom". From Septemper, 1997, "It's a NAT URL". From August, 1997, "A Tale of Two ISPs". From July, 1997, "Canning Spam". From June, 1997, "How Hard Is CIDR?". From May, 1997, "What's in a Namespace?" was the first of my @internet columns for Boardwatch Magazine. "Perls of Wisdom" was the first of my post-LAN Times @internet columns. 1996 "Plugging in to Web Technology - Carefully" was the last of the @internet columns I wrote specifically for LAN Times. I refused to submit it to them. From May, 1996 "32-Bit Tools of the Internet Trade" was mutilated in form and tone, thanks to then-new Hands-On Section Editor Doug Van Kirk. I left LAN Times over his high-handed arrogance -- and got the last laugh when it folded on his watch. This is the original, unedited column. From April, 1996, "Internet Help for Win95 Migration" From April, 1996, "Appropriate Use Policies for Internet Access" From April, 1996, "The Net's a Fine and Private Place" From March, 1996, "Should You Host Your Own Web Server?" From March, 1996, "What's Included in Server Side Includes?" From February, 1996, "A Walk Through the MIME Fields". From February, 1996, "Internet Media Types Are a Real MIME Field". From January, 1996, "HyperText Transfer Protocol--The Glue that Binds the Web". From January, 1996, "Looking Ahead to 1996". 1995 From December, 1995, "'Tis the Season II". From December, 1995, "CGI: Gateway to the World Wide Web". From November, 1995, "HTML: The Language of the World Wide Web". From November, 199, "You've Got to Know the Internet Territory". From October, 1995, "Internet Business Benefits". From October, 1995, "Best of Breed Internet Applications". From September, 1995, "Is Virtual Reality the Future of the Web?". From September, 1995, "Basic NCSA Web Server Security". From August, 1995, "Internet Resource Roundup". From August, 1995, "It Pays to Advertise a Web Site". From July, 1995, "Casting Your Net on the Web". From June, 1995, "Fishing for Information on the Internet". From May, 1995, "Equal Time for Windows NT,". From April, 1995, "Getting Online via NetWare". From March, 1995, "Is the Internet Safe?". From February, 1995, "Read All About It!". From January, 1995, "The Constant of the Internet is Change" Web Technologies Columns My last Web Technologies column, Numbering the Beast, never made it into Internetwork Magazine, because Cardinal Business Media, its owner, pulled the plug on it the day I submitted the column. My second Web Technologies column, "IP Multicast: Push in the Right Direction. My first Web Technologies column, from January, 1997, "Auguries and Portents". Other Articles, Interviews, Rants and Raves My angry farewell to Boardwatch Magazine, "Good Night, Sweet Print". My interview with legendary hacker Peter Shipley. My scathing review of A. Brian Bosworth's scholarly hatchet job, "Conquest and Empire -- the Reign of Alexander the Great" for Amazon.com. My modest tribute to the late, great Art Hoppe. You've probably never heard of the five men whom I profiled in Baordwatch's December, 2000 cover story, "They Might Be Giants". And that's a real shame. My wife and I attended Burning Man 2000. I wrote about the experience for the November, 2000 issue of Boardwatch. My interview with Sir Dystic, a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow and the developer of BackOrifice, the Trojan horse remote-control program for Windows 9.x/NT was Boardwatch magazine's September, 1999 cover story. The New Domain Name Game, my article on the International Ad-Hoc Committee's proposal to expand the Internet's top level domain namespace. Internetwork Magazine, which commissioned it, folded before it saw print, but picked it up for its June, 1997 issue. The complete transcript of my interview with Marc Andreessen of Netscape Communications, Inc., from May, 1995, "The Great Netscape". (Copyright© 1995-2002 by Thom Stark--all rights reserved)