October 1, 2001
Ask Tog: The Airport Experience.
Like most interface issues, it would appear at first glance that the users of the system must necessarily accept significant inconvenience. Like most interface issues, a deeper analysis shows little, if any, inconvenience is really necessary.
Crypto-Gram: The Attacks.
Bruce Schneier. Rarely do you see an attack that changes the world's conception of attack, as these terrorist attacks changed the world's conception of what a terrorist attack can do. Nothing they did was novel, yet the attack was completely new. And our conception of defense must change as well.
The Register: The free Web's over, as W3C blesses Net patent taxes.
A belated storm of protest has greeted a move by the W3C to bless fee-bearing patents as official web standards. The proposal would allow patents, such as the notorious GIF image format, to become web standards, thus giving the patent owners the right to exploit them commercially.
Red Herring: Will telcos clean up after Exodus?
Now that Web-hosting powerhouse Exodus Communications has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, what lies ahead for the data center business? While Exodus restructures, the door is opened to all kinds of competitors, notably the companies that own the networks.
Technology Marketing: Affordable 802.11a Products to Debut.
Actiontec Electronics of Sunnyvale, Calif., has announced it will release 802.11a wireless networking equipment in November. Based on chipsets by Atheros Communications, the equipment will cost little more than today's wireless LAN gear -- yet it will run five times faster.
EE Times: Demos don't hide rough road faced by MPEG-7 spec.
A handful of Japanese companies have demonstrated their own versions of MPEG-7 applications software, but industry watchers caution that much work remains to be done to jumpstart the market for MPEG-7, which provides a standard method of describing digital multimedia content.
|
