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Internet Babylon
Along with all the incredible things I somehow missed over the last few years (e.g., the Amazing Mahir), Holden brought to mind a number of wonderful yet somehow forgotten memories (e.g., All Your Base Are Belong To Us). Then there's all the great stuff that, like so much on the Internet, no longer exists but which provided tons of laughs at the time (e.g., Evil Bert). And I never tire of the great web creations that keep on giving, such as the phenomenal Star Wars Kid parodies.
Unlike most of us, Holden didn't just wander willy-nilly all over the Internet -- well, maybe he did, but he put together a well-organized book that breaks his subject down into six parts spread across twenty chapters. First up is "The Rich and (In)famous." Here you can read all about the online doings of celebrities, serial killers, has-beens and wannabes. Holden will lead you to the Partridge Family Temple, introduce you to the unique musical stylings of Star Trek actors, and even point you to refreshers on Manson Family Values.
Next up is "The Afterlife." On the Internet, nothing truly dies. You can explore the mysterious deaths of Elvis and other celebrities, become a knowledgeable amateur sleuth hot on the trail of Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac killer, and other inhuman monsters, help look for ghosts via webcam in haunted buildings, and even watch a body decompose inside a coffin. (Actually, that last idea fell through, but it's sure to happen eventually.) Of course, you might want to get religion before you take your own one step beyond, and the Internet puts a wide variety of "religions" at your fingertips. With the good comes the bad, and the Internet does, unfortunately, have a dark underbelly of criminality and evil; in the section "Bad Boys and Naughty Girls," Holden gives you the scoop on famous hackers and their exploits, viruses and their creators, and the cretins who curse us all with unwanted spam. He basically takes you on a guided tour of the dark side of the World Wide Web.
As we all know, the Internet has revolutionized politics, and Holden devotes three fascinating chapters to political intrigue, scandals, and government secrets online. In the past, politicians could keep their perverted behavior secret from the public, but the Internet has changed all that -- just ask Bill Clinton. In this online age, rumors and scandals can be spread across the entire world in a matter of minutes, and Holden shows us how the Internet has at times shaped the content of traditional journalism (as well as supplying us with some of the funniest jokes and parodies known to man).
Anyone who browses the Internet soon learns that there are people out there who will do anything to get attention, and those with some sort of self-styled mission will stop at nothing to get their points across. This is the realm of flame wars, denial of service attacks, as well as really, really silly web sites you can't believe anyone would ever think of creating. The unlikeliest of Internet heroes are honored in this section: the Amazing Mahir of "I Kiss You!!!!!" fame, the Star Wars Kid (one of my personal favorites), and even one of the little guys - the man who invented the Smiley symbol. It all wraps up with a look at "Big (And Not So Big) Business." Remember the Pets.com Sock Puppet, who enjoyed much more success than Pets.com ever did? That's just one dot-com disaster story; here, you will learn about some of the worst Internet business plans ever put together.
Believe me, I have only scratched the surface of the material covered in this book. Internet Babylon is chock full of fascinating, oftentimes hilarious stories (and pictures) of the continually surprising sites and sounds the Internet has brought to life. You'll learn a little bit about the creation and evolution of the Internet, but mostly you'll revel in all the crazy online manifestations Holden holds under the microscope.
Let me close with a word of warning. I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen some pretty disgusting things in my life; I like to think I'm tough enough to stand anything. Thus, I ignored Holden's warnings about some of the more disturbing web content that can be found out there and rushed right off to one aptly-described shocking site. Let's just say I'll never be able to watch weight lifting again. I know you will want to take a gander at many of the sites Holden refers to throughout this book, so I just want to advise you to proceed carefully: as this fascinating book proves, you can find absolutely anything out there online, and some of it ain't pretty.
You can purchase Internet Babylon: Secrets, Scandals, and Shocks on the Information Superhighway from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
At least one teaser link would have been nice
Sure, anyone can bounce around the net looking for weird stuff. However, cataloging it in a coherent fashion represents quite a bit of useful work, if for no other reason than that there's so much of it.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Is yer friend. Who needs a book to find it all?
But the Star Wars kid movie hacks was quiet something - amazing actually.
If an internet oddities book doesnt cover the basics like Little Stalker Boy, it's full of garbage I've seen 100 times and not worth purchasing, much less thumbing through. For the article author, some guy who claims he lives on the web, he sure seems "wowed" by some pretty tired crap.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I always figured that since my own geek 'world training' included digging into the "what's the grossest thing I can find/think of" territory, that other geeks would do so at some point or another. To me these images; tubgirl, goatse guy, weight lifter, cab driver range from one type of extreme to another, but they aren't nearly as disturbing as some of you make them out to be. "Want to claw my eyes out", "Made me nearly puke", "Slept in a cold sweat"... those kind of comments make me think you folks have been very sheltered. Talk to an EMT, a combat medic, a ER nurse, some nursing home staff. Understand that us meatpuppets (as Bender likes to say) are easily broken. Sometimes that happens accidentally, sometimes by consentual intent, sometimes by malicous acts by other people. Or perhaps I'm the one that is being naive and this is all just being politically correct.. "Oh yeah, we are supposed to be grossed out by this, lets see how shocked we can act"