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December 1998 Archive

infosift

Jeff Veen applies his renowned design acumen to personal sites. [12.1.98]

As is typical with AICN, you'll have to wade through a lot of rambling to get to the good stuff, but they've got the inside scoop on Hollywood's bungling of the Sandman movie. [12.1.98]

In commemoration of World AIDS Day, a new online gallery of works by HIV-positive artists makes its debut. (DHTML and JavaScript, IE 4 only.) It kind of seems contrary to the day without art, doesn't it? [12.1.98]

If banner ads fail, can there be any hope for original content on the Web? [12.1.98]

It's the first of the month, which means it's time for a new Smug. [12.1.98]


Swatch Internet Time may have Negroponte's seal of approval, but I have a feeling it's just going to become the Esperanto of timekeeping. [12.2.98]

The backlash has begun. You may not be able to get one in your local toy store, but through the magic of Shockwave, you can now virtually dismember a Furby. (Thanks Lance.) [12.2.98]

The day without art site seems to have disappeared from my DNS, so I've moved my banner to its own page. [12.2.98]

Salon interviews the man some call "the greatest game designer in the world." [12.2.98]


This is getting interesting. Diamond strikes back against the RIAA with an anti-trust suit. [12.3.98]

A misprint in a news story sends a non-Internet stock through the roof. [12.3.98]


As the makers of Tetris go after their myriad imitators, I'm thinking: Didn't Apple demonstrate 10 years ago that you can't win this case? [12.4.98]

What would you name the new international space station? (Anyone who answers "Babylon 5" is automatically disqualified.) [12.4.98]

Finally, science has found a way to rid us of the most persistent scourge of modern life: smelly peas. [12.4.98]

Mr. DiCaprio, meet my railgun: R.M.S. Titanic maps for Quake II. [12.4.98]

If stranded on a desert island, which would you prefer -- television or Net access? (Hint: only one lets you call for help.) [12.4.98]


Chuck D. doesn't mince words in his appraisal of the music industry's reaction to MP3. "As far as the industry [goes], fuck 'em all. Now they're all fucking scared. The means of distributing the fucking product [is] in anyone's hands." [12.7.98]

Is it time to put a journalistic code of ethics in writing? [12.7.98]

Like many others at Comdex, I was wowed by Microsoft's ClearType -- I thought it was the first real technological innovation in the company's history. I guess I should have known better. Turns out it's actually an incremental revision of a technology Steve Wozniak invented 20 years ago. [12.7.98]


Fed up with being left off those other lists, women of the Web get a list of their own. [12.8.98]

Sometimes finding the right person for that hard-to-fill Web development position is a simple matter of asking the right questions. [12.8.98]

A couple of years ago, CNET spun off its major services as separate domains. Now it's reeling them back in. (It's probably a good idea -- the revenue from selling off the news.com domain alone should sustain the company for a few more quarters.) [12.8.98]

Geek alert: Courtesy of NASA, you can now keep tabs on the current state of warp drive research. (Thanks Sabren.) [12.8.98]

I don't know about you, but I'm doing all my holiday shopping at Archie McPhee. [12.8.98]


Next year, ease-of-use finally comes to the Internet. I'll believe it when I see it. [12.9.98]

In other space propulsion news, Deep Space 1's ion engine is up and running. [12.9.98]

Steven Johnson ruminates on how Apple's Sherlock technology integrates advertising into the OS. [12.9.98]

Microbes ate my underwear! [12.9.98]


Hello Kitty was never like this. [12.10.98]

Will BBC Online give CNN a run for its money? [12.10.98]

I guess when you have a patented business model -- and therefore little likelihood of competition -- listening to your customers just doesn't matter much. [12.10.98]

Can't find that perfect gift? The Brunching Shuttlecocks are here to help. [12.10.98]

First Lego Mindstorms, now the Rio MP3 player: Janelle gets to play with all the cool toys. [12.10.98]


Word's getting around about Apple's "Consumer Portable" plans. [12.11.98]

Maybe celebrities could use a modified "personal" version of this rig to keep the paparazzi at bay. [12.11.98]


The music industry tries to put the genie back in the bottle as it introduces a new format to challenge MP3. [12.14.98]

Grand theft auto, 21st Century-style: PalmPilots vs. flamethrowers. [12.14.98]

You've seen it in a two-inch QuickTime window. Maybe you've even seen it on a full-size movie screen. Now, how much would you pay for your very own copy of the Episode I trailer? (And once you bought it, how much would you pay for a projector so you could watch it?) [12.14.98]


The "killer app" for Internet content providers was always supposed to be highly targeted advertising. But what if television beats the Web to market? [12.15.98]

So you've got 180 television channels at your disposal, but you don't want to spend three hours surfing for that one can't-miss show. Lucky you: TV Ultra will show you the way. [12.15.98]

Because you demanded it: the world's largest (and probably only) archive of TV test patterns. (With audio!) [12.15.98]


While the political hand-wringing goes on, human cloning research may have reached a major milestone. Unless this is just the cold fusion of the '90s. [12.16.98]

If you use Sherlock to find books on Amazon.com, Apple gets a percentage. [12.16.98]

Unsavory doings behind the scenes could sink the promising Hotline collaboration technology before it really gets started. [12.16.98]

If you're a professional athlete, appearing on "Sesame Street" could ruin your career. [12.16.98]


The folks at Killer Fonts have expanded their library of handwriting fonts beyond modern-day serial killers to include murderers of note from history, including Genghis Khan and that bank robber guy, what's-his-name. [12.17.98]

I don't think the current growth in technology reporting can be sustained. When the key issues (horsepower and bandwidth) get sorted out, public interest will drop precipitously. [12.17.98]

Well, I hate to say it, but Internet Explorer 4.5 looks pretty nifty. The "Page Holder" feature alone would radically change the way I use all my favorite web logs. [12.17.98]


I know what I want for Christmas. [12.18.98]

The jokes about the parallels between the iMac and the New Beetle have been going on for months. I'm a little surprised it took this long for someone to put two and two together. [12.18.98]

With the curious exception of ESPN, all your favorite Disney content sites (Mr. Showbiz, Family.com, ABCNEWS.com, et al.) have moved under the go.com domain. [12.18.98]

The latest developments merely confirm the aura of corporate greed and deception that has surrounded the Divx format since its inception. [12.18.98]


Nick Usborne says the current quantity-over-quality content strategies prevalent on the Web won't cut it in '99. (Well, duh.) [12.21.98]

RLE calls Go "a brand without a product." [12.21.98]

They taught us in school that life on Earth started out in the oceans and gradually made its way to land. Leave it to the whales to do everything the other way around. [12.21.98]


I'm not really sure what it has to do with technology, but Salon 21st has a thought-provoking review of Richard Dawkins's new book. [12.22.98]

The Economist has an excellent overview of the changes digital technology will wreak upon the publishing industry, from e-books to just-in-time printing. [12.22.98]

If you read a lot of tech-oriented Web sites, you know there's nothing more yawn-inducing than computer product reviews. Street Tech is out to change all that. [12.22.98]

If you're having trouble bringing people into your site, bring the site to them. [12.22.98]


Zap's on-again, off-again Net plans are back on again. [12.23.98]

I know it's hard to imagine, but all those Furbies out there are about to become even more valuable. Legal pressure from the makers of the "Gremlins" movies is forcing Tiger to redesign this year's hottest toy. [12.23.98]


You know it's a slow news day when Wired starts running astrological profiles of industry bigwigs. [12.28.98]

I guess even chip designers get bored from time to time -- there are doodles in the margins of your favorite microchips. [12.28.98]

Everyone's weighing in with their predictions for the new year. Here's one from me: 1999 will be the year Suck breathes its last. [12.28.98]

It's a bad day to be a football coach. The unemployment rate for this line of work has suddenly skyrocketed to over 23 percent! [12.28.98]


Thirty years later, people are still trying to build a better mouse. [12.29.98]

Looks like you can't get kicked out of school for your personal Web site after all. Now if only we could get employers to acknowledge the same rights. [12.29.98]

If it weren't for this ruling, a hard drive crash could inadvertently condemn some people to eternal damnation. [12.29.98]


While online shopping doesn't seem to be putting a dent in real-world sales, the unseen beneficiaries may be shipping companies like FedEx and UPS. [12.30.98]

New Scientist offers some insights into the mechanics of the Long Now Foundation's Millennium Clock. [12.30.98]

Have you heard of these things called personal Web pages? Apparently they're some hot new trend or something. (Tell that to Justin.) [12.30.98]

Now that's what I call protection. [12.30.98]


The upcoming SimCity 3000 is probably a little too realistic for my taste, but the prospect of a SimCity Classic Java applet is quite enticing. [12.31.98]

This book-cover collage puts a nifty twist on a classic poem. (Imagine what this guy could do with Shakespeare.) [12.31.98]