Outline/Quotes

Ed. - Editorial comments

Desktop Science: Screen Captures

Ed. - If all else fails - fake it.

Increase the ROI from Your Intranet

Internext

Outline/Quotes

CGI Corner

When you see, on a Web site, things such as access counters, imagemaps or dynamic pages, you can be almost sure that they've been created using CGI technology. What are CGIs (common gateway interface)? How do they work? This is the first of a series of articles dedicated to CGIs.

State of the Internet: A Crisis Looms

The Internet is at a crossroads in its rapid development, and decisions made today about how it will develop further, what we want it to do on business, technical, political and social levels will shape its development for many years to come. Just as the engineers of the machine age were looked on to bring order to industrialization, the Internet technicians of today are those who can bring order to the Information Age. But as our Boardwatch's Jack Rickard frequently points out, getting ISPs together is like herding cats.

Outline/Quotes

The winners for the CADALYST Annual Design Visualization Contest were announced. This year's CADALYST Image Awards, a.k.a. the CADDIES, drew entrants from all over the United States, as well as Australia, Bahamas, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, and Lebanon.

Ed. - Well, we thought the Emmys were big...

Let the Seller Beware

Communicating with customers used to be easy. They called, you answered. Then along came electronic communications to make things easier. You know, faxes, emails, voice mails, the web. Is it any easier now? Well check here for some cures to the communication blues.

An Argument Contra Censorship

Mark E. Kraynak argues that Internet content regulation is not feasible. He highlights the ignorance of the U.S. Government in this area as well as congressional staff members. As far as he can tell, the misconceptions of our politicians stem from an old paradigm for communications regulation. New electronic media reverse this model. We agree.

Ed. - You can't stop us, you can only hope to read the next issue.

Linux: Upstart OS Gets Some Respect

It's free, it's hot, and it's threatening Windows' market share. Witness the evolution of Linux, the most promising new operating system around. More than Steve Jobs, Scott McNealy, or Larry Ellison, this Finnish programmer and his trusty Linux operating system have the best shot at breaking Microsoft's death grip on the computing industry.

Ed. - We like it so much, that  we immediately added a couple of Linux-based magazines to our list.

Digital Cameras: Seeing is Believing

The revolution is over. Digital cameras are a reality for consumer and professional use. And it’s about time, some would say. In the professional realm, digital cameras got off to a slow start since being introduced 17 years ago. Now there is a digital camera for every use, from low-end point-and-shoot cameras costing under $300 and suitable only for online transmission, to SLR cameras, to high-end studio cameras costing as much as $50,000 and capable of capturing high-resolution images suitable for poster work.

Ed. - As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words, or is it dollars?

HTML 4.0 vs. 3.2

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was created to help define Internet publishing standards, ensuring that everyone would actually be able to see the content. Well, when the browser wars started heating up, and the tactics got more slimy with each new release, there was a need for a revision. Enter, version 4.0, designed so that browsers can "just get along."

Ed. - Great idea, but you know eventually  browser creators will find something new to fight about.

USB Easy as Child's Play?

It's a jungle back there. Back behind your PC, that is. Cables, wires, plugs, AC adapters, old sandwiches. The reason for the chaos, of course, is that every external device, be it modem or mouse, has its own special connector. While this may be an ego boost for the peripheral, it's definitely a headache for you and me. Fortunately, a solution to your connection woes may be at hand. The Universal Serial Bus (aka USB) is poised to emerge as the premier connection scheme for the PC and the iMac.

PeopleSoft Catches E-Comm Wave

Hoping to cash in on the electronic commerce wave, PeopleSoft Inc. announced a strategy based on enterprise resource planning (ERP) at its annual users conference in San Francisco last week. The strategy is composed of several development and partnering initiatives, including outsourcing, aimed at making companies more productive and bolstering customer confidence.

Holiday Cards Made Easy

Advice columnist "Dear Abby" recently printed a letter from "Hurt Momma," whose grown son was sending her computer-generated greeting cards instead of store-bought ones. "A card printed by a computer is cold, with no heart, no feelings," complained Momma. Our dear friend, Dear Abby reminded Momma that her son's one of a kind cards require as much effort as going to story to buy one. Well here are some tips to make it easier.

Aural Fixation

More and more, games are using higher-resolution audio, and some games have even incorporated Dolby Surround for ambient effects. The question is, should you replace your audio plumbing or just get new speakers - or both? Listen up as CGW takes an in-depth look.

Silverman: Home Networking Becoming `Next Big Thing'

"Home networking" has gone from being an object of derision to becoming the hottest topic in the tech industry, the official Next Big Thing in personal computing. Add to the fact that data moves 70 times faster and can connect any TV to a PC and turn that TV into the equivalent of Gateway's Destination PC/TV or Compaq Computer Corp.'s now-discontinued PC Theatre. With Ambi running, you can surf the Web, play a round of Quake II deathmatch, work on a spreadsheet or print a document from the comfort of your living room sofa.

I'm Dreaming of a Silicon Christmas

As with any other field, the holiday gift season is a very busy time of year for the computer industry, with people buying software, add-on gadgets, and even complete systems. This month, the Computer Paper test lab offers a few suggestions for those looking to purchase a complete system to put under the tree on Christmas morning. And the Editor's choice is...

The Perfect Olive for the iMac Martini

The Web is supposed to be interactive, but for all too many people ungifted in either wealth or time, the interactivity of browsing Web sites and surfing the net, reduces itself to mere virtual button pressing and the filling in forms. This was until Golive CyberStudio Personal Edition entered the picture. The Golive system can make even novices look like professional web designers.

Microsoft Drops Java From Mac And Unix Versions Of IE

Microsoft Corp. will drop its support of Java in future versions of Internet Explorer for the Macintosh and Unix, a Microsoft spokesman said. But users of those versions of the browser can still access Java by instantly downloading Java Virtual Machines (JVM) made by other companies, such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Apple Computer Corp. and Symantec Corp.

Packard Bell First to Slash Prices

While word of new low-cost systems from IBM, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard has been spreading for weeks, Packard Bell got the jump on them all with front-page positions on weekend circulars from Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA. Packard Bell hit after-rebate prices ranging from $599.99 at CompUSA to $899.99 at Circuit City for systems bundled with monitors and printers. The dramatic move by Packard Bell, coming on the eve of the holiday sales season, made it clear that the company will be a contender this year and that word of its downfall may have been premature.

It's No Longer Who You Know

Anyone can get a good computer deal, so view "insider" offers with a careful eye. Of course, it never hurts to ask any vendor if it can do better, as some are making more than others. Determining what the market can and will bear is essential to smart shopping. But it might be more important than ever to do your product and pricing homework, despite less bargaining among vendors. If you don't know the market, you are more susceptible to some of its market hype.

Logging into the Future

Internet service providers (ISPs) are likely to provide network management and telecom carrier-type services to enterprises in the future. Some predict that there will be over 1,000 new ISPs operating in North America by 2003 to tap into the new revenue opportunities. The continuing worldwide deregulation of telecommunications will benefit ISPs and eventually lead ISPs to displace telephone companies to provide some measure of telephony services.

The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia on October 22, asserts that the "Child Online Protection Act" will violate both the free speech and privacy rights of Internet users. The case is being litigated by EPIC, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Compliance with the Act would require websites to obtain identification and age verification from visitors, a feature of the law that threatens online privacy and anonymity.

PC Customer Satisfaction

It just might be that the start-ups are now the old reliables. Think back a few years to when a couple of mail-order PC makers named Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway took on the big channel-oriented systems vendors such as IBM, Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. It was so easy to write off the mail-order guys as cheesy, inexpensive and not worth the trust of the corporate buyer. Well, that common wisdom doesn't work today. In Computerworld's annual Customer Satisfaction Survey on PCs and notebooks, Dell and Gateway came up aces, and it wasn't just a matter of price.

MITI Meets EC

The Asian economy is tanking, the yen is wavering, the public is screaming for blood. Can electronic commerce be the shot in the arm that Japan Inc. has been looking for? MITI seems to think so, and is spending some serious yen to get the ball rolling.

Confidentiality Using Authentication

Within the next ten years, the use of the Internet in both communication and commerce will greatly increase. As a result, the U.S. Government has begun to regulate these activities online. This article gives a basic overview of how confidentiality can be achieved without the use of encryption.