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The Smoking Gun

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28-432: The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most of the site's content revolves around historical and current events, although it also features documents and photos relating to out-of-the-ordinary crimes and people. The website

56-407: A classic website , a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a company and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and navigation menus. Static websites may still use server side includes (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing

84-528: A structured document . The core element is a text file written in the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This specifies the content of the page, including images and video . Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) specify the presentation of the page. CSS rules can be in separate text files or embedded within the HTML file. The vast majority of pages have JavaScript programs , enabling

112-448: A wide range of behavior. The newer WebAssembly language can also be used as a supplement . The most sophisticated web pages, known as web apps , combine these elements in a complex manner . From the perspective of server-side website deployment, there are two types of web pages: static and dynamic . Static pages are retrieved from the web server's file system without any modification, while dynamic pages must be created by

140-463: A cable television series called The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest... . The series was originally known as World's Dumbest Criminals , but was re-titled World's Dumbest... and began covering other topics. William was a cast member on the show alongside Smoking Gun writer Andrew Goldberg. They left the show after season 1. As of January 2011, the program was re-titled again to truTV Presents: World's Dumbest... In June 2014, The Smoking Gun

168-638: A collection of mugshots of current and historical celebrities. The cable network truTV , formerly Court TV , purchased The Smoking Gun, as well as the website Crime Library , in 2000. A series of the same name premiered on Court TV in 2005, which featured some of the site's stories and assorted sketch humor, using string puppets. This series was later moved and shown on Adult Swim . The site published its second book, The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun , in October 2006. From March 2008 until January 2011, on truTV , The Smoking Gun sponsored

196-848: A common menu bar across many pages. As the site's behavior to the reader is still static, this is not considered a dynamic site. A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files). There are a wide range of software systems, such as CGI , Java Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages and ColdFusion (CFML) that are available to generate dynamic Web systems and dynamic sites . Various Web application frameworks and Web template systems are available for general-use programming languages like Perl , PHP , Python and Ruby to make it faster and easier to create complex dynamic websites. A site can display

224-474: A large series of static pages. Early websites had only text, and soon after, images. Web browser plug-ins were then used to add audio, video, and interactivity (such as for a rich Web application that mirrors the complexity of a desktop application like a word processor). Examples of such plug-ins are Microsoft Silverlight , Adobe Flash Player , Adobe Shockwave Player , and Java SE . HTML 5 includes provisions for audio and video without plugins. JavaScript

252-971: A milestone confirmed by Netcraft in its October 2014 Web Server Survey and that Internet Live Stats was the first to announce—as attested by this tweet from the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Berners-Lee—the number of websites in the world have subsequently declined, reverting to a level below 1 billion. This is due to the monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites. The number of websites continued growing to over 1 billion by March 2016 and has continued growing since. Netcraft Web Server Survey in January 2020 reported that there are 1,295,973,827 websites and in April 2021 reported that there are 1,212,139,815 sites across 10,939,637 web-facing computers, and 264,469,666 unique domains. An estimated 85 percent of all websites are inactive. A static website

280-534: A number of descriptions of criminal or otherwise outrageous incidents. In 2010, the site revealed financial irregularities in Yéle Haiti , a charitable foundation set up by rapper Wyclef Jean , soon after he publicized its successful fundraising for disaster relief following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti . As reported by The New York Times , the foundation had failed to file several years of tax returns. Later it

308-525: A server. These protocols offer a simple directory structure in which the user navigates and where they choose files to download. Documents were most often presented as plain text files without formatting or were encoded in word processor formats. While "web site" was the original spelling (sometimes capitalized "Web site", since "Web" is a proper noun when referring to the World Wide Web), this variant has become rarely used, and "website" has become

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336-450: Is a document on the Web that is accessed in a web browser . A website typically consists of many web pages linked together under a common domain name . The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of paper pages bound together into a book. Each web page is identified by a distinct Uniform Resource Locator (URL). When the user inputs a URL into their web browser , the browser retrieves

364-492: Is also built into most modern web browsers, and allows for website creators to send code to the web browser that instructs it how to interactively modify page content and communicate with the web server if needed. The browser's internal representation of the content is known as the Document Object Model (DOM). WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a modern JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics without

392-602: Is called a web browser . The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1989 by the British CERN computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee . On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for anyone, contributing to the immense growth of the Web. Before the introduction of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), other protocols such as File Transfer Protocol and the gopher protocol were used to retrieve individual files from

420-516: Is generally non-interactive. This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors. Similar to handing out a printed brochure to customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent, standard information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner may make updates periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos, and other content and may require basic website design skills and software. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as

448-495: Is one that has Web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client Web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML); Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly used to create the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also be considered "static" content if it plays automatically or

476-492: The Web 2.0 community of sites and allow for interactivity between the site owner and site visitors or users. Static sites serve or capture information but do not allow engagement with the audience or users directly. Some websites are informational or produced by enthusiasts or for personal use or entertainment. Many websites do aim to make money using one or more business models, including: Web page A web page (or webpage )

504-407: The current state of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing situation, or provide information in some way personalized to the requirements of the individual user. For example, when the front page of a news site is requested, the code running on the webserver might combine stored HTML fragments with news stories retrieved from a database or another website via RSS to produce a page that includes

532-435: The latest information. Dynamic sites can be interactive by using HTML forms , storing and reading back browser cookies , or by creating a series of pages that reflect the previous history of clicks. Another example of dynamic content is when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input a search request, e.g. for the keyword Beatles . In response, the content of the Web page will spontaneously change

560-560: The navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page . The most-visited sites are Google , YouTube , and Facebook . All publicly-accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web . There are also private websites that can only be accessed on a private network , such as a company's internal website for its employees. Users can access websites on a range of devices, including desktops , laptops , tablets , and smartphones . The app used on these devices

588-401: The necessary content from a web server and then transforms it into an interactive visual representation on the user's screen. If the user clicks or taps a link , the browser repeats this process to load the new URL, which could be part of the current website or a different one. The browser has features , such as the address bar , that indicate which page is displayed. A web page is

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616-593: The seller's address in an exchange, members would threaten the seller, saying that they would go to their house to rape them and murder their children. In 2006, the site uncovered widespread fabrication in James Frey's alleged memoir A Million Little Pieces . This investigation led to a public rebuke of Frey by talk show host Oprah Winfrey , who had previously endorsed Frey's book as part of her Oprah's Book Club . Frey's book, describing his alleged years of drug and alcohol abuse and subsequent recovery, contained

644-612: The standard spelling. All major style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook , have reflected this change. In February 2009, Netcraft , an Internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995, reported that there were 215,675,903 websites with domain names and content on them in 2009, compared to just 19,732 websites in August 1995. After reaching 1 billion websites in September 2014,

672-522: The use of plug-ins. It allows interactive content such as 3D animations, visualizations and video explainers to presented users in the most intuitive way. A 2010-era trend in websites called "responsive design" has given the best viewing experience as it provides a device-based layout for users. These websites change their layout according to the device or mobile platform, thus giving a rich user experience. Websites can be divided into two broad categories—static and interactive. Interactive sites are part of

700-419: The way it looked before, and will then display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs, and books. Dynamic HTML uses JavaScript code to instruct the Web browser how to interactively modify the page contents. One way to simulate a certain type of dynamic website while avoiding the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis is to periodically automatically regenerate

728-522: Was found to have illegally diverted funds to the personal use of Jean and some of his family. In 2019 Jean admitted irregularities at the charity. Website A website (also written as a web site ) is one or more web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server . Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce, entertainment, or social media . Hyperlinking between web pages guides

756-446: Was founded in 1997, by William Bastone ; his wife, Barbara Glauber, a graphic designer; and Daniel Green, a freelance journalist, formerly of The Village Voice , and the son of Stephen L. Green . Most of The Smoking Gun's content is obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies , and from public records such as court documents. The site has used those requests to assemble

784-712: Was sold back to William Bastone . The Smoking Gun began to conduct investigations of criminal activity and publicize its results. In August 2009, the site outed members of Pranknet , a virtual community notorious for tricking hotel and fast-food restaurant employees into setting off fire alarms , engaging fire-suppression systems, and engaging in humiliating acts. The group, whose members include two convicted child molestors , also engaged in threatening telephone harassment , placing fake Craigslist ads and shouting racial epithets and obscenities at people responding to them. The group members responded to Craigslist ads placed by young mothers selling household goods, and after gaining

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