September 1, 2001
IBM DeveloperWorks: The Principle of Least Astonishment.
When users are astonished they usually assume that they have made a mistake; they are unlikely to realize that the page has astonished them. They are more likely to feel that they are at fault for not anticipating the page. Don't take advantage of this; making users feel stupid is not endearing.
Information Week: Artificial Intelligence To Hit The Mainstream.
OpenCyc product manager John De Oliveira says the work Cycorp is doing is focused on furthering development of Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the Semantic Web, a future incarnation of the Web in which content will be interpreted and manipulated by computers rather than simply read by humans.
Information Week: NTT To Deliver Streamed Video To Cell Phones, PDAs.
NTT DoCoMo and PacketVideo Corp. have jointly developed technology for converting streamed video for delivery to cell phones and PDAs over third-generation wireless networks. The live-video-distribution technology will debut Oct. 1, when NTT launches its hotly anticipated 3G service...
Network World: Satellite satisfaction?
The first-generation consumer satellite data links, which providers call one-way links, let you receive data over the satellite link, but required a phone line to send it. These next-generation links operate two-way, so you don't need a phone line.
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