- chemweb - imperial.ac.uk

Privacy on the Web
by Rzepa, Henry 28 May '96

28 May '96

A little discussed feature of the web is the privacy (or more accurately lack of it) that one has when "browsing". Because it is so little discussed, I though I woud set the ball rolling with one or two observations a) Every "HTTP" transaction leaves a trace on the server log, and I think most people do realise this. What they may not realise is that one can also leave information such as the OS, your machine type, the browser you use etc. What the server webmaster does with this information is the crunch. I suspect that many commercial web sites do a great deal of analysis of such logs. We certainly looked at who was browsing the ECTOC conference, but I think that commercial publishers in particular value the client profiles they can obtain by looking at server logs. True? (well, if it was, they presumably would not confess in public!) b) Some Web sites are a little more pro-active in information gathering. In return for some "free gift" such as software, one has to part with an e-mail address, postal address etc. Of course one does this in the knowledge it might be used, and sometimes indeed a package comes in the post a week or so later bearing information of a greater or lesser usefulness. Perhaps this is a business model of the Internet that we will also see more of in the future? What do people think? c) The least well known mechanism for garnering information about the user is the Persistent State Cookie. This is implemented at the server side using some CGI program or script, and supported at the Client side by e.g Netscape. Its a way of remembering some state requested by the user and writing it in the user's local file base, normally into a file called Cookie or "Magic Cookie". Next time the user connects to a site, the server can retrieve the information in this file (via the browser) and act accordingly. At its simplest, a Web page can request you identify your Browser. Next time you connect, it will know this, and take you to the correct page immediately. At its darkest, a visit to site (b) can interrogate the Cookie file created by site (a), and let site (b) know who you have visited previously. If of course the user deletes the cookie file between visits, this mechanism is stopped, but HOW MANY DO? (PS there are programs that can do this automatically. I run one for example on my Mac). There are security aspects to cookies; see http://home.netscape.com../newsref/std/cookie_spec.html However, this is largely written in programmingspeak, and not easily comprehensible. It is not obvious to me what sort of information could be stored in cookie headers, or garnered by Javascript or whatever (ie SMILES strings?) Where I do worry is that Netscape does not seem to implement any mechanism for switching the persistent cookie state off. Anyway, I think that "privacy" on the Internet should be a bigger issue. I know some people will say that by "browsing", you loose all rights to privacy, but as I think I indicate above, there are various levels of potential infringement Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

Chemistry Web Multimedia
by Karl Harrison 27 May '96

27 May '96

I know this isn't in the true sense of intellectual chemistry, but I have edited the classic game Space Invaders to give it a chemistry feel and added the ability to score against everyone on the web. Which is the most interesting part and its cross platform ability. The game now called Catalyst Invaders is produced using Shockwave plug-ins and it is only 80K in size (similar to large GIFs and molecules). Links to the shockwave plug-in are found at my site, if you need them. The web address for anyone interested is : http://www.ncl.ox.ac.uk/shockwave/invaders.html Have fun, Karl -- Dr. Karl Harrison IT Coordinator and Training Officer Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford South Park's Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, UK. Telephone: +44 (0)1865 270834 Fax:+44 (0)1865 272690 World-Wide Web URL: http://www.ncl.ox.ac.uk/it/karlharrison.html ____________ e-mail: karl.harrison(a)icl.ox.ac.uk __________________ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

Our Molecule of the Month: Helicoidal Graphite
by Rzepa, Henry 24 May '96

24 May '96

This is now available as http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/motm/spiral.html Its one of the most amazing molecules I have ever seen! And it does look rather good in 3D!! Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

ChemWeb and ECHET96
by Nick Lynch 24 May '96

24 May '96

Free ChemWeb structure drawing software - Now available from Cherwell Scientific Web Site ChemWeb, the free structure drawing program for Windows and Macintosh, is now available from the Web site of Cherwell Scientific at http://www.cherwell.com/cherwell. Following the successful launch of ChemWeb by the developers SoftShell, (http://www.softshell.com) Cherwell Scientific are pleased to announce the same service to their customers. Thousands of users have already downloaded ChemWeb. For anyone planning to use or create Internet resources it is a valuable tool. With the forthcoming Electronic Conference on Heterocyclic chemistry, see http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/ectoc/echet96/.index.html , ChemWeb is the ideal tool for presenting your work on the Internet. ChemWeb is a free structure drawing program that makes it easy to draw chemical structures on a Windows or Macintosh computer. The program is a complete structure drawing application, with chemistry-specific drawing tools, commands to calculate mass, formula, and composition for structures, and a pen tool for drawing. Designed for electronic publishing, ChemWeb creates all output in GIF format making it easy to communicate chemical information via the World Wide Web. The GIF format is completely independent, and can be used with any Web browser . ChemWeb can be downloaded free from Cherwell Web Site at http://www.cherwell.com/cherwell Best wishes Nick --- --- Nick Lynch PhD | e-mail: nick(a)cherwell.com Commissioning Editor | Phone: +44 (0)1865 784812 Cherwell Scientific Publishing | Fax: +44 (0)1865 784801 Oxford OX4 4GA, UK | http://www.cherwell.com/cherwell --- --- ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

http://pioneer.pointcast.com/
by Rzepa, Henry 23 May '96

23 May '96

This is an interesting concept. Pointcast comes as client and server. The server will broadcast information on a regular basis to anyone who has the client installed. The client can set a filter to only allow certain catagories through. I believe it fires up through the Web browser (believe, because only a Windows version is available, a Mac version is due "soon"). This could prove a mechanism for conference organisation, perhaps a somewhat more structured listserver etc, maybe even for the chemweb forum!. Because it broadcasts effectively a URL, chemistry can be integrated using the normal mechanisms. Some sections of the community think this is the all time "killer" Internet application. I prefer to reserve judgement. Still it might have some uses for chemistry. If anyone tries it let us know! Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

"Best of Internet Chemistry 1996"
by Rzepa, Henry 23 May '96

23 May '96

As part of the Comp division "Chemical Intranets" symposium at the Orlando ACS meeting this year, Steve Bachrach, Tom Pierce and I will be presenting the "Best of 1996" awards, in the form of an electronic Poster. This follows the great success of our 1995 awards! To ensure a democratic process, we have been encouraging everyone to register their vote! To do so, connect to http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/vote.html Quite a few people have voted already, but we need everyone interested in Chemical Internet activity to register their votes! By the way, we can detect multiple voting, and it will not count! One vote per person!! Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

Re: CAS Abstracting of chemistry on the Web
by yanmd＠mms.sbphrd.com 21 May '96

21 May '96

On May 21, 9:10am, Rzepa, Henry wrote: > Subject: CAS Abstracting of chemistry on the Web > Because this is setting a new precedent, I am circulating a mail from > David Weisgerber of CAS regarding the ECTOC Web conference. > > Any comments? > > "Yes, we did receive the ECTOC-1 CD-ROM. We ended > up selecting 66 of the 77 papers and posters for abstracting and indexing. > Eleven were not judged to contain sufficient information. I think this is the critical observation, and one that bears consideration. A ready criticism of electronic publishing, as in an electronic conference or a web page in general, is the ease with which low information content documents are 'published'. For this medium to preserve high information density I think one needs examine the eleven that were rejected by CAS and determine if similar content should be rejected in subsequent electronic conferences. I think there may still be a place for such postings, but perhaps with a distinction made between them and the rest. Regard them as data on scratch space, volatile. Henry, could you elaborate on those eleven papers? -- M. Dominic Ryan (610)-270-6529 SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals ryanmd(a)mms.sbphrd.com King of Prussia, PA ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

2 1

Re: CAS Abstracting of chemistry on the Web
by Armel Le Bail 21 May '96

21 May '96

Any comments ? If you insist. Power abuse. Give the power to a monkey, the next week everybody will eat banana, exclusively. Who has the power to do that at CAS ? At 09:10 21/05/1996 +0100, Henry Rzepa wrote: >Because this is setting a new precedent, I am circulating a mail from >David Weisgerber of CAS regarding the ECTOC Web conference. > >Any comments? > >"Yes, we did receive the ECTOC-1 CD-ROM. We ended >up selecting 66 of the 77 papers and posters for abstracting and indexing. >Eleven were not judged to contain sufficient information. > >Currently, the records can only be found in the CAplus file since the indexing >has not been completed and the abstracts have not been published in the >printed CA weekly issues. The following is a typical record: > >AN 1996:246763 CAPLUS >TI A new synthetic route to the illudin and pterosin family of sesquiterpenes >AU Padwa, Albert; Curtis, Erin A.; Sandanayaka, Vincent P.; Weingarten, > M. David >CS Dep. Chem., Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA >SO Electron. Conf. Trends Org. Chem. [CD-ROM] (1996), Paper 1. > Editor(s): Rzepa, Henry S.; Leach, Christopher; Goodman, Jonathan M. > Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK. > CODEN: 62TKAB >DT Conference >LA English" > >Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; >rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. >URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) Armel Le Bail, Laboratoire des Fluorures URA CNRS 449 Faculte des Sciences, Universite du Maine, F-72017 Le Mans, France Tel: (33) 43 83 33 47 Fax: (33) 43 83 35 06 Email: armel(a)fluo.univ-lemans.fr or armel(a)ONE.univ-lemans.fr Home Page: http://fluo.univ-lemans.fr:8001/ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

CAS Abstracting of chemistry on the Web
by Rzepa, Henry 21 May '96

21 May '96

Because this is setting a new precedent, I am circulating a mail from David Weisgerber of CAS regarding the ECTOC Web conference. Any comments? "Yes, we did receive the ECTOC-1 CD-ROM. We ended up selecting 66 of the 77 papers and posters for abstracting and indexing. Eleven were not judged to contain sufficient information. Currently, the records can only be found in the CAplus file since the indexing has not been completed and the abstracts have not been published in the printed CA weekly issues. The following is a typical record: AN 1996:246763 CAPLUS TI A new synthetic route to the illudin and pterosin family of sesquiterpenes AU Padwa, Albert; Curtis, Erin A.; Sandanayaka, Vincent P.; Weingarten, M. David CS Dep. Chem., Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA SO Electron. Conf. Trends Org. Chem. [CD-ROM] (1996), Paper 1. Editor(s): Rzepa, Henry S.; Leach, Christopher; Goodman, Jonathan M. Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK. CODEN: 62TKAB DT Conference LA English" Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0

WebElements (periodic table on the WWW) new version
by M.Winter＠Sheffield.ac.uk 17 May '96

17 May '96

This is to announce a new beta version of WebElements, the periodic table on the WWW. The URL is http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/ This version contains some new data including data on radioisotopes. There is more textual information (historical, biological and general, etc). It is pretty well the final beta version and the differences between this new version and the final version will consist only of corrections to data (of which there are very many). Work is already under way on version 3 which will contain many new enhancements including much more textual information and downloadable schemes, molecule files etc. Suggestions for other features for WebElements 3 are welcome. Dr Mark J Winter (Deputy Head of Department, Director of Studies) Department of Chemistry, The University, Sheffield S3 7HF, England tel: +44 (0)114 282 4498 fax: +44 (0)114 273 8673 e-m: M.Winter(a)Sheffield.ac.uk web: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/staff/mjw/mark-winter.html CU-SeeMe: mac043078.shef.ac.uk ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

1 0