net.weblogs.com
net.weblogs.com: an exercise in freeform discourse.
June 2000
« May 2000 | Main | July 2000 »
June 28, 2000
June 27, 2000
suffocate
"suffocate is an independant platform for online art and expression... the web is all about limitations, and limitations are the source of creativity."
June 25, 2000
Freenet
"Freenet is a large-scale peer-to-peer network which pools the power of member computers around the world to create a massive virtual information store open to anyone to freely publish or view information of all kinds. Freenet is:
* Highly survivable: All internal processes are completely anonymized and decentralized across the global network, making it virtually impossible for an attacker to destroy information or take control of the system.
* Private: Freenet makes it extremely difficult for anyone to spy on the information that you are viewing, publishing, or storing.
* Secure: Information stored in Freenet is protected by strong cryptography against malicious tampering or counterfeiting.
* Efficient: Freenet dynamically replicates and relocates information in response to demand to provide efficient service and minimal bandwidth usage regardless of load. Significantly, Freenet generally requires log(n) time to retrieve a piece of information in a network of size n."
June 19, 2000
flash interstitials
I can't help but feel that Flash interstitials (like those one finds at HillmanCurtis.com) are like holographs stuck on book covers. All the little flashing squares and pomo imagery and industrial sounds are wonderful, but they don't seem to add very much to the user experience. Did the Web kill cool multimedia? Have we actually taken a step back from the mid-1990s, when there were interesting projects on CD-ROM? - href="http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/2199">Discuss at Metafilter
June 16, 2000
design rip-off 1
I like this Web site but its design is just a tad too similar to this one.
canadianized health
Today I saw an ad on TV complaining that American health care is being "Canadianized." All I can say is that I wish these Americans would stop lying about the Canadian health care system. While most Canadians seem to agree that our health system is a bit of a mess, we also seem to agree that we don’t want the American system, thank you very much.
The US market-driven medical system spends about 14% of its economy on health care, while Canada's cost is about 9% of GDP. Both countries' health care costs stood at about 7% in 1971, when the Canadian system converted to the public system and the US decided to stick with a market-driven private system. Yet the Canadian system covers everyone; the American system doesn’t. Private delivery of health care means money is lost to the profits investors demand (as much as 15%), higher executive salaries, higher marketing/advertising costs, and lost economies of scale.
Why attack the Canadian system? Part of the answer lies in the fact that to the American health care industry, Canada is just one huge, untapped market that they would love to have access to.
June 14, 2000
Dave Winer's The History of Weblogs
Dave Winer's "The History of Weblogs": A brief review of Weblog history, as well as links to news stories about them.
June 10, 2000
dg
June 8, 2000
Napster Tells Offspring To Stop Selling Bootleg Merchandise
Napster Tells Offspring To Stop Selling Bootleg Merchandise. Napster Inc., makers of controversial MP3 file-sharing software, slapped pop-punk band the Offspring with a legal order Friday (June 2) to stop selling merchandise imprinted with the Napster logo, a source close to the band confirmed ... A day
earlier, another source in the Offspring camp said that if Napster issued a cease and desist order, it would "expose a huge hypocrisy."
June 6, 2000
Cancer on the Web called Flash
Macromedia Flash is a vector graphics platform that has superseded Shockwave, DHTML, and Java to become the way to make complex interactive elements on a page. Most of my work is very specifically managing low-bandwidth, content-rich sites, and Flash has long been on my banned list.
Yes, I know that Flash is a better format than GIF for small animated page elements. And Flash is also an excellent platform for creating interactive elements that are difficult to make in DHTML: things like map drill-downs, diagrams, and all sorts of animations.
The problem is, hardly anyone uses Flash for these things.
What one finds instead are "Flash-only" sites: lumbering behemoths that load slowly, cannot be searched, and that break the back button and other elements of the standard browser interface. Flash only sites are islands in the Web, but they aren't the Web.
Yes, I know many designers love the freedom Flash gives them. They like to take over the screen, redefine the interface, and add creative motion to their sites. I say go for it, but like anything that is challenging, prepare for rejection and misunderstanding. All the things that make Flash wonderful make a Flash-only site, in a Web context, unusable.
Some people on the Flash side see the danger. CHris MacGregor at Flazoom has written a short essay called A Cancer on the Web called Flash. It's a nice reality check for Flash and strict Web designers both. Writes Chris:
Recently I have been seeing a lot of Flash sites that are very nicely designed but so far away from a good web experience that I began to wonder just what was up with the designers of those sites. Do these hot shots even care about the people who are visiting the Flash sites that they create? In the case of Manhattan design firm Kioken the answer is no.
Fuji TV Shuts Down Iron Chef Fansites
Fuji TV Shuts Down Iron Chef Fansites: At /. Psiwave writes: "Following the growing trend towards corporate ineptitude, Fuji Television has smacked every fansite of that oh-so-popular Japanese food-fighting show, Iron Chef, with a cease and desist order. Since June 1st, IronChef.com, IronChef.net and every other fansite of any merit has been ordered to remove all Fuji-owned IC graphics and sound (though none of these sites are for-profit). It seems that rather than embrace the show's growing (and somewhat fanatic) Internet fanbase, Fuji is hoping to alienate and disillusion it."
June 3, 2000
Virus Bulletin 100%
"The Virus Bulletin 100% Awards recognize those products best able to detect viruses known to be 'in the wild'. Unlike some other similar-sounding schemes, Virus Bulletin uses the most up-to-date WildList in its tests. This means that products that are 'up with the game' are the the ones most likely to be granted VB 100% awards."
June 2, 2000
Magnetic Poetry Comes to Flash
Magnetic Poetry Comes to Flash: "Why is your Web browser like a refrigerator? Is it the standard inner workings? I'd say probably not. Ability to freeze, perhaps? No, not that either. The correct answer is, of course, it can display the Magnetic Poetry-like Word Tiles game! Drag-and-drop poetry appears in various forms on the Web, but it's time to add a little Flash to ad hoc grammar and half-formed sentences."
June 1, 2000
starbucks sues a citizen
Hot water: Starbucks sues a citizen. "Last spring, the 33-year-old San Francisco cartoonist was sued by Starbucks for copyright infringement. Dwyer's mistake? He messed with the Seattle java giant's squeaky-clean trademark."
