Month: March 2000 (Page 3 of 5)

Mark Hurst passed along an interesting item from his own weblog at goodexperience.com. He criticizes the idea that computers should be designed to interact with people on an emotional level — for instance, responding with friendly noises when you hug the computer, I guess.… Read the rest

AOL is about to roll out the next version of Netscape Navigator, as the company struggles to figure out what to do with its browser, portal, and all. Most pathetic hope: the browser’s open source model will make it easy to create custom versions of the browser for the media giant’s many different brands.… Read the rest

The good news: The queen of all dictionaries, the OED, is finally making itself available over the Internet. The bad news: The OED is no Encyclopedia Britannica, giving itself away for free: You’ll need to pony up at least 1,000 UK pounds to buy access.… Read the rest

Here’s an interesting article on an early Unix BBS in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that dates back to 1983. Predating the Web by seven years, M-Net still boasts a healthy community who regularly frequent its Unix shell-based bulletin boards and live chat rooms.… Read the rest

“Digital divide” at least 30 years old: Internet founding father Robert W. Taylor wrote presciently in 1968 on whether a nationwide network would be a force for good or evil: “For the society, the impact will be good or bad, depending mainly on the question: Will to be ‘online’ be a privilege or a right?”… Read the rest

GE beginning to migrate its proprietary EDI systems to IP-based networks:
GE aims at reinvention as Net trading platform… Read the rest

WAP! Take that! The honeymoon is over for the Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP. This standard aims at providing a consistent transport for getting Internet data to wireless devices, such as cell phones. But some folks — particularly content providers — are upset at WAP’s requirement that they rewrite their Web pages in WML, the Wireless Markup Language.… Read the rest

Do B2B marketplaces, like the one being put together by Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler, have the potential to become anti-competitive behemoths? Maybe so, according to this report from The Industry Standard. And the magazine may have a point. A Tweney Report subscriber wrote to me this week, saying he was considering taking a job with another automotive exchange, one that would compete with the one being set up by the Big Three.… Read the rest