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March 1999 Archive

infosift

Can Y2K hysteria be good for the economy? [3.1.99]

Positioning its upcoming PlayStation 2 as (yet another) set-top convergence appliance, Sony declares that entertainment applications, not business ones, will determine who succeeds Wintel as the next dominant platform. Sounds great, but where's the Net access? Update: Woohoo! Screenshots! [3.1.99]


The open source model has worked wonders in the realm of software design -- but will it work for chips as well? [3.2.99]

More nefarious things you can do with the Pentium III ID scheme: Intel's trying to persuade (i.e., pay) Web developers to build sites that lock out non-PIII users. (Or PIII users who've disabled their chip ID.) [3.2.99]


As Net veterans run screaming from the cacophony of public forums like Usenet -- and try to dodge the pitfalls of public mailing lists -- they find refuge in invitation-only mailing lists. [3.3.99]

Cartoon Network has quietly begun offering original Web-only programming. (You guessed it -- Shockwave required.) [3.3.99]


Through painstaking mathematical analysis, scientists at Cambridge have "discovered" six new ways to tie a necktie. [3.4.99]

You've heard all about the day traders -- now here come the night traders. Can 24-hour markets be far behind? [3.4.99]

Apparently the Indian Parliament is overrun with cats. [3.4.99]


TechWeb offers an interesting look at making Linux work with (and on) Macs. [3.5.99]

The ACLU has joined the fight to stop Intel from shipping Pentium IIIs with ID numbers. [3.5.99]


CyberGold, the folks who will pay you to look at ads on the Web, now say they've solved the micropayment problem with a system that won't require client-side software. [3.8.99]

Amazon's reader reviews have become quite a source of entertainment for the Web community, but I imagine it won't be long before they bring about the kind of legal headaches Yahoo is now suffering. Update: Ditto. [3.8.99]

Both Joe DiMaggio and Stanley Kubrick appear on a list of Enneagram Fives: "abstract, stingy and schizoid." [3.8.99]


Today's Salon examines the gap between the 19th-Century standards of the U.S. Patent Office and the 21st-Century business models of Internet entrepreneurs. [3.9.99]

If you wanna have that Millennium Baby, the magic date is just a few weeks away -- and the place to be is romantic Norway. [3.9.99]

Getting yanked from the shelves at CompUSA is probably better publicity than In Formation Magazine ever could have dreamed of. [3.9.99]

After months of nay-saying, RealNetworks may finally be coming around on MP3 support. [3.9.99]


The recent spate of message-board lawsuits may be the tip of a larger privacy iceberg as portals begin to accumulate a whole lot of personal information about their users. [3.10.99]

There was a time when smuggling munitions overseas was hazardous, exhausting work. Now, thanks to the Internet, it's as safe and easy as a single click. [3.10.99]

I don't know which line in this ZDNet article on the relaunch of byte.com is more absurd: the new editor going on about "the lower economic pressures of the online medium" (tell that to Kinsley) or Jerry Pournelle proclaiming that the new site will "fill a void that has been sorely missing." (Huh?) [3.10.99]


How do you accidentally put a controversial new feature into an existing microprocessor? Ask Intel. [3.11.99]

Strange bedfellows and all that: Republicans side with geeks in lambasting Al Gore for some ill-chosen words. [3.11.99]


The impending Microsoft reorg may be a strategy to make any government-ordered breakup of the company more difficult. [3.15.99]

Despite pleas from the development community urging browser makers to get with the program, early reports on the 5.0 releases indicate we're still a long way from WORA. [3.15.99]


Laurel's new Windowseat TV page is a niche portal with style. [3.16.99]

Free advice for ClickChoice: If you're going to go to all the trouble to swipe somebody else's intellectual property, at least make sure it isn't so easily traced. [3.16.99]

Remember when they added blue diamonds to Lucky Charms? The order of the universe has been set askew once more, this time with Monopoly pieces. (And speaking of monopolies, is it just me, or has Hasbro become the Microsoft of toys?) [3.16.99]


Ethics, schmethics -- bring on the rat babies! [3.17.99]

Reporting from SXSW, our friends at ZD cite AICN and ChickClick/Estronet as proof that independent publishers can make a buck on the Web. [3.17.99]

Sabren's new toy tests for compliance with one of my favorite Silly Ideas, E-Prime. [3.17.99]


For Kevin Mitnick, after four years in prison awaiting trial, it appears endgame is at hand. [3.18.99]

File under "if you can't beat 'em": After lots of press blaming Mattel for the demise of Purple Moon, the Barbie Empire buys out the recently shuttered girl-game upstart. [3.18.99]


No real surprises among the Webby winners. Blame it on Internet time: It took 40 years for the Grammys to backslide into predictablility and irrelevance; the Webbys did it in three. [3.19.99]

It's a new taste sensation, with just a splash of client-server refreshment. [3.19.99]

Despite the teasing, Zap has held true to its original vision: Identify a proven Web success, then crank out a me-too knockoff. [3.19.99]

Time to turn loose the shopbots on the phone companies. [3.19.99]


How's this for a classic New Economy paradox: The more content Slate gives away, the more subscriptions they sell. [3.22.99]

The NY Times has put together a Star Wars deep background page encompassing more than 20 years of coverage, from pre-release hype to Vincent Canby's (5/26/77) review of the first film to latter-day think pieces on the Deeper Meaning of the series. [3.22.99]


Print is dead! Long live print! [3.23.99]

According to the SEC, Bill Gates's Social Security Number is 539-60-5125. (Thanks News.com!) [3.23.99]


Fortune magazine looks at the past, present and future of the Web consulting business. [3.24.99]


As the .com namespace becomes more and more crowded, finding good names for new sites becomes a real challenge. [3.25.99]

If successful, the record industry's shoot-the-messenger approach to controlling MP3 could have serious implications for the rest of the Web. Should we allow Web publishers to be sued for who (or what) they link to? Update: The RIAA's European counterpart went ahead and did what the U.S. group was merely threatening to do [3.25.99]


At least I'm not the only one who gets peculiar stares because of my Newton. Let's see your PalmPilot do this! [3.26.99]

If I had to pick a public figure to throw a pie at, it probably wouldn't be Jesse Ventura. I value the integrity of my skeleton too much. [3.26.99]

I've been toying with Mozilla M3 and, well, it just doesn't seem as fast as they say. The big blue N takes me back a ways though. [3.26.99]


Call it "buzzword convergence": The latest proposed remedies in the Microsoft trial include auctioning off or open-sourcing Bill's cash cow. [3.29.99]

You'd think a hundred megahertz would buy the P-III a real performance edge over the G3, right? Wrong. [3.29.99]

I always thought those candy-colored iMacs looked good enough to eat. [3.29.99]

I'm glad I didn't read Salon's Futurama review until today -- they gave away all the best parts. [3.29.99]


Soon we won't remember that it was ever otherwise: The Internet finally reaches gender parity. [3.30.99]

Buried in this horribly designed Business 2.0 cover story is this interesting factoid -- Amazon's baseline browser is Netscape 1.22 (ca. 1995)! I just had to see it for myself. [3.30.99]

Rival Web design houses Adjacency and Studio Archetype could be in for a rough ride should new owner Sapient decide to merge their operations. [3.30.99]

Scott Rosenberg is in top form in his review of billg's new book. So many good lines I couldn't pick a favorite -- just read it, willya? [3.30.99]

Newcity.com brings together nearly 40 alternative weeklies from across America plus Web-only original content. [3.30.99]

1977 was never like this: Our compulsive friends at theforce.net have cut their own unofficial Phantom Menace trailer from footage that aired recently on 60 Minutes. [3.30.99]

Further proof (as if we needed it) that drinking goes well with almost anything. (Sorry about the pop-up.) [3.30.99]


I'm a little groggy this morning; I stayed up way past my bedtime last night pondering Neal Stephenson's remarkable essay In the Beginning Was the Command Line. [3.31.99]

It seems strange to me that in all of the hullabaloo about Melissa, almost no one has pointed out a very simple way to protect yourself: don't use Microsoft products. [3.31.99]

IBM says they'll pull their ads from Web sites that don't post clear privacy policies for users. [3.31.99]