May 7, 1999
TechWeb: Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems.
[Donald Norman] Instead, future systems will be designed "by psychologists and social scientists working in combination with engineers and technologists," he said he predicted.
Web Review: Why do so many Web sites suck?
Michael Swaine. Web site design produces a product that you can't hold in your hands, that can be altered in seconds, and that probably will be changed in a day or so and completely replaced in a few months.
Editor & Publisher: Milestone on the Road to Digital Paper.
Steve Outing. With digital display devices that don't punish our eyes, the information revolution might actually lessen our use of real paper.
TechWeb: NSI Retools For Better DNS Service.
The goal: near 100 percent uptime that will let millions of prospective e-businesses securely and instantly access the database.
Webmonkey: The Web Accessibility Initiative.
The issues coming out of this ongoing civil rights struggle are almost identical to the issues facing the Web authoring community at large.
Wired News: Sites Must Retool for Disabled.
"But technology and new computer languages, like XML, are emerging so quickly now that a more useful approach would be to work with and adapt the new technology to enable the users, rather than restrict the old technology, which seems disabling..."
XML.Com: The Evolution of a Privacy Standard.
Soon all major Web sites will be expected to post both a human and machine-readable description of their privacy practices online.
Industry Standard: Excite Does a Little Portal Trendsetting.
But last week Excite signed a deal with Seattle-based Punch Networks to get the capability to publish and share personal files, such as text documents, spreadsheets and graphics, via the Web.
Interactive Week: 3Com Cuts The Wires.
This summer, 3Com plans to launch Palm.net, a combination wireless data service and portal site for its Palm VII handheld device.
Freedom Forum: Video games hit mainstream with advent of virtual property.
Jon Katz. The idea of virtual property is radical, almost completely unforeseen by the legions of futurists and cyber-theorists studying the Internet.
Industry Standard: Does Big Brother Live in Redmond?
Good intentions or not, Microsoft's software dominance creates troublesome privacy issues.
Web Review: The Emotion Engine.
"What you see in the Playstation II is a workstation-class computing platform; you'll definitely see additional functionality and applications besides just playing games..."
Red Herring: Will cable crimp Internet advertising?
With the accelerated rollout of digitally compressed content, cable is beginning to offer advertisers targeted delivery of TV ads.
News.Com:Idealab may buy PointCast.
Idealab not only would contribute money to the company, but provide management expertise and allow PointCast to do business with the other Internet companies in its portfolio.
News.Com: Slate expands with multimedia, e-commerce.
The political- and social-satire magazine will highlight the Microsoft brand name with links to the company's MSN network of Web sites...
PC World: Electronic Books for All.
Electronic Book Exchange (known as EBX) is a comprehensive e-book standard developed for book publishers, sellers, distributors, libraries, and consumers alike...
ZDNN: AltaVista opportunity slipping away?
"They're spinning their wheels. You haven't seen the kind of changes you would expect if they're trying to pull the sites into a portal."
| 