May 12, 1999
TechWeb: Berners-Lee Says Patents Obstruct An Open Web.
"We have to change the ethos," he said. "When the person from the patent department comes around and asks if you have invented anything, just say you have invented a lot, but nothing that hasn't been invented before. Now just go away, and let me do my job."
- Useit.Com: From December 27, 1998; Predictions for the Web in 1999.
Companies that don't claim their stake in the future will wake up in five years and discover that their competitors own all the patents they need to be on the Web.
- NY Times: From December 27, 1998; Behold the Technology Patents! Behold the String of Lawsuits!
"Regrettably, the only way to look credible in this game is to play hardball," Quinn said. "The name of the game is to take no prisoners."
Harvard Business Review: Welcome to the Experience Economy.
Economic offerings, not forms of intelligence, comprise the substance of buying and selling, and we argue that experiences represent an existing but largely unrecognized form of economic output.
CBS MarketWatch: Apple sets stage for e-commerce.
Sherlock II, for example, according to Jobs, will let users comparison shop across multiple e-commerce outlets straight from the computer's desktop (and bypassing the portals).
News.Com: Will Apple become an e-commerce portal?
So far, Apple executives are playing down the idea that they are seeking new revenue streams outside of selling hardware and software.
Red Herring: Rooftop sees the Internet on your chimney.
Rooftop's supporters say that wireless Internet technology will enable ISPs to beat most telecom companies to the market for Internet access at rates from 100 Kbps to 500 Kbps...
News.Com: Study: Data privacy policies fall short.
More Web sites are posting privacy policies, but most of the notices are inadequate...
Business Week: Roger Black Has Designs on the Web.
...Black feels developers are only beginning to analyze people's "clickstreams" -- the paths they take, the buttons that intrigue them, where they get lost, what words turn them off.
Wired News: A Real Dilemma for Webcasters.
Still, when RealNetworks recently began promoting a new version of ad-blocking software, some of its clients were aghast. After all, Webcasters depend on banner advertising to survive.
PC Week: MIT's LCS: A Whiff of 'Oxygen'.
Dubbed "Oxygen," this effort is designed to create the environment that will be as important to our lives as the element.
PC Week: Listening to customers can be dangerous.
As tempting as it is to listen to customers' concerns, you can learn the hard way that many of them don't really know what they want.
Webmonkey: Designing Web Sites for PDAs.
...but to really fulfill the promise of the PDA, Web sites need to be made available. Beware: no content, no PDA party.
News.Com: Redmond bids for Swedish Net firm.
Sendit was founded in 1994 and its main product is Internet Cellular Smart Access (ICSA) which gives users access to the Internet and email through mobile telephones.
News.Com: Net number system at a crossroads.
And the perceived scarcity of addresses is just the beginning. As more computers connect to the Net, the databases that map the numbers are growing larger and becoming unwieldy.
News.Com: Shortage of CE color screens may drag on.
"All these different segments of growth occurred at a time when the industry chose not to expand..."
News.Com: Visa, Mastercard try to revive SET.
Authentication is SET's strong suit, but the way it's done is cumbersome, which is the chief knock against the payment protocol.
TechWeb: PGP Creator Squashes Key Recovery.
[Phil Zimmermann] "Not only can we keep key recovery out of PGP, but we can extend that to other products that are not in our purview. So, there is absolutely no danger of key recovery ever getting into PGP."
ClickZ: CEO E-Biz Survival Kit.
People who've got more business experience in their little finger than a whole room of 20-something cyber-entrepreneurs, but somehow had a major blind spot when it comes to taking the business into the next century.
MSDN Online: The Essential Bookshelf for Good UI Design.
To follow is my short list of recommended books and resources to use as a starter kit for anyone who wants to make useful products or Web sites.
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