Rough Drafts

Redherring.com – Shop Talk: Marine industry proves big B2B challenge- March 21, 2000

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. It would be much better, M

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 br

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. Oxford English Dictionary goes online

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. M-Net’s software also wound up being used by t

“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 r

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

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 r

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 h

A more critical report on Jeff Bezos’ patent position from Wired News, which points out that his suggestions aren’t all that new. In fact, some people have been demanding shorter patent periods for several years now. Amazon Calls for Patent Fix

Think you’re a pretty good Web designer? How about a real challenge: Design a Web page under 5KB — including HTML, graphics, the whole bit. Now enter the contest: the 5k award

No word on whether Macs are also susceptible to satanic possession: THE REGISTER: US preacher finds demon-possessed PCs