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"What if a user falsely claims a site to be dead?" Well, what if it took 100 different IPs to claiming it to be dead before it really was considered dead?

The correct way to handle this situation is how the search engines already do - when a link is reported dead, they just make a request to the link. If it generates an HTTP 404 response code, or the site is down, it's marked actually dead.

I'm not convinced this is always a good idea, though - I've worked for a guy who would battle for top positioning on the search engine with a few competitors. When either of them noticed that the other's site was down, they'd submit the other site as a dead link. I like google's Cached page mechanism, which allows you to view sites that are currently unreachable. Great for when you need docs from a site which happens to be down at the time.

How about a button in browsers that enables you to mark a page as a dead link?

Of course, you'd need to use this technique with a search engine who takes dead link submissions. Eg., Altavista and its "Add or Remove a Page" link here: http://web.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=addurl

Sorry, I forgot to include the standard link to babelfish. We shouldn't think that everybody knows what we know...

considering that the Bundeswehr (according to NATO plans) was supposed to be at the forefront of defense against the 7000+ warsaw pact tanks that could have invaded western europe, i would consider it a major military organization.

also, as one poster said (unfortunately modded down to 0) standing man power was 500000+ (now down to 280000 or so). mobilization levels within 3 months were 1000000+, i think.

in addition, it is a little known fact that the federal republic of germany has, in fact, nuclear weapons. Check out this article (babelfished).

There is a German Tornado strike bomber squadron that is assigned to carry American B61 nuclear bombs. Officially, these weapons are still under US control, but that is probably just a formality.

1. The PEG-N700C is going to be released in the US later this year: http://yahoofin.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5136591.h tml?tag=pt.yahoofin.financefeed..ne

2. Does anyone know what the color depth of the screen is? I'm assuming that it's 8-bit, because Sony would be flaunting the color depth if it were 16-bit. I've run the fish over all of the pages on Sony's PEG-N700C site, and I can't find any mention of the color depth at all. I just find it really hard to believe that Sony would release an 8-bit color screen when Handspring has had 16-bit color for months.

Infoseek? I'd totally forgotten about them. Weren't they eventually acquired by the Go network? Well, no matter, I quickly stopped visiting once the decline in quality became evident.

As for search engines, not that anybody cares, but... these days I like to use 1) Google, 2) Northern Light (a lot of people don't know about this one but it tied for top honors with Google in PC Magazine's test of search engines), and 3) Altavista for it's incredible flexibility. Although, at one time, I did use Yahoo, it's transition into a portal kind of turned me off. Not to mention the little period where their search engine just generally sucked. And, although they do use Google now, it just seems like Google does a better job at being Google than Yahoo does. Go figure.

On a related note, did anybody else ever use Magellan?

--------------------------------------

Actually, no. Way back in the day, Yahoo! was a web directory. They offered a modified grep to search their directory, not the contents of the pages in their directory.

They added search functionality in a partnership, first with Open Text (my beloved OTI...sigh...), then with Alta Vista, now with Google. [ There may have been others in the mix...I got away from search engines for a while...sigh...;-) ]

I just checked with
with altavista's link:somesite function to no avail...

Linux rocks!!! www.dedserius.com

Here's the link: [click]

It doesn't come out as being too intelligible.
Thus sprach DrQu+xum.

http://world.altavista.com/

put in
http://www.peanuts.gr.jp/pslinux/beginnings.html
as the webpage and choose japanese to english.

Do you monkey-porn lovers really want your neighbors to have even the slightest chance of seeing what you keep on your hard drive?

30 GB of "Shopping the web for goat.cx " and you'd be lucky if they didn't weld your front door shut, with you trapped inside ...

Here's what came back

Your basis everything belongs to us, it is

With entirely there is your foundation which belongs to our that

With to our having your foundation completely that it belongs

http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?cn=med

Google and Deja have had different corporate cultures since day one: deja has positioned itself as a bloated portal, wheras google has prided itself on being sleek and lean with inobtrusive ads. Deja tried to be everything to everyone, whereas Google tried to be the useful tool that users reached for when they wanted to get a specific task done.

These are completely incompatible philosophies, so which one can we expect to win out? I'm afraid Google might decide to become more bloated as a result.

But more important than that is how Google will respond to other criticism leveled at Deja in the past. There has been a petition floating around for the past six months demanding that Deja reopen its pre-1999 usenet archives to general access. Can we expect Google to comply with these wishes, now that the archives are in their hands? Or will corporate expediency force them to maintain so many of Deja's odious practices?

This acquisition will be a key test of how open-source culture can survive in the face of extensive funding. Companies like RedHat and TurboLinux have done so with more or less success, but their markets, no matter how much linux users may trumpet their operating system's virtues, have always been constrained to a small number of zealots who are willing to go along with some corporate changes as long as their operating system is improved at the code level. Google, however, is bigger than all the linux companies combined in its user base. It's aimed at the average internet surfer.

How long can we expect Google to stay the same search engine we've always reached for? How long until we have to switch back to Altavista or embrace the next young upstart who can provide what we want and need without the bloat?

In fact, many of the Japanese games, are non-zero sum. Karaoke, of course, where even tone-deaf people like me can have a great laugh, arcades with Dance Dance Revolution where a score is kept, but it's not really the point, to the newer versions based around Para-Para (think of John Travolta dancing in Saturday Night Fever!) which are just so much fun to do in groups.

I think I'm going to start translating all my posts through the fish

Final case | Friday January 12, 2001

In the heading proto, it is presented to you in " before first " the final case of the divxproject...

Photographs Photographs!!! | Friday January 5, 2001

You will find in the Proto heading the first photographs of the FIRST PROTOTYPE (I insist well on this word...) As well as the software of DivXproject-Landscape-00 reading turning on a tele 70cm...

Protoype of reading | Tuesday January 2, 2001

With the occasion of the realization of the prototype of reading of the divxproject the site opened a new heading: " proto "

You will find there the specification of the prototype as well as the premieres photographs (somewhat boned...)

Later will be added the various tests as well as the 2 protoype, that of recording...

GOOD YEAR!! | Monday January 1, 2001

The team of DivXproject wishes you a good year!!

To crown the input in this new millenium... I announce to you that the module of reading (divx, dvd, vcd, mp3, audio) of the Software SDivXpro beta 1 is finished, we carry out from now on the tests...

Large a Thank you with Jesus-Christ (Programmer of the software) who carried out a remarkable job!!

Hardware of DivXproject finished | Dimache December 31, 2000

Veiled, it is made... The Hardware part of DivXproject is finished (see the hardware page)

It misses just some information such as for example the program of the PEAK or others... But this will be completé as soon as the proto is finished.

**time-out** moreover plus when the test be finish and that the apparatus function correctly it there have at disposal on the site a card of realization detail step by step...

Hardware/Software | Saturday December 16, 2000

The Hardware page was updated with the complete description of parts PC used, the diagram and the program C of display LCD as well as the remote control IR of our divxproject.

On the software page the first screenshot of SDivXpro beta 1 software like its brief description

Excuse to us...! | Saturday November 25, 2000

I received several concerning messages the divxproject saying to me that this site was the apology for the hacking of the dvds..

I excuse myself some, because it was not the goal of the project... I would correct without more delaying the pages and would remove the references to the hacking...

The Goal of this project is simply to replace our good old men video tape recorders... it is all!!

I thank you for your comprehension...

Hardware | Saturday November 25, 2000

We are for the moment choosing the hardware which would correspond best to our requirements...

It will progressively be supplemented its advance on the hardware page...

Update | Friday November 17, 2000

Update of the site in particular of the infos on the project.

Web site | Monday November 13, 2000

Realization of the Web site

Obtaining the domain name www.divxproject.com

Realization??? | Friday November 10, 2000

All went very quickly...

In a few hours the principal functions and means of realizing was already thought...

It is just now enough to put it on paper.

Genesis | Thursday November 9, 2000

The divxprojet was born quite simply around part of tarots between friends....!

We are in IUT of electronics.

While playing we spoke about DVD VCD and DIVX... a friend asked to me whether there were not on the Net the plans for a reader VCD of show...

For my part, I do not have knowledge of it... I is thus tell to him why the VCD which is heavy and of bad quality...

Best it would be a recording reader DIVX of show...

Veiled how us the idea came...

Contact: Webmaster@divxproject.com

Copyright © 2000 DivXproject

All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without authorization.

All rights reserved

- legal Information -



I had a feeling you were going to say that.

You can also see AltaVista's Brief History sixth paragraph). Archie FTP, AltaVista HTML.

Since AltaVista's founding in 1995 our company has evolved impressively. In January 1999, we became a wholly owned subsidiary of Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ). Compaq purchased Shopping.com in March and Zip2 Corporation in April of that year. Then in August of 1999, CMGI, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) acquired 83% of our outstanding stock from Compaq, and Shopping.com and Zip2 became wholly owned subsidiaries of AltaVista. Later that same year, AltaVista acquired Raging Bull, bolstering our financial expertise while adding a new community element to the AltaVista network. With this combination, AltaVista has integrated a broad range of commerce, content and search services under the AltaVista domain.

Today, we are expanding our services even further through strategic partnerships with leading best-of-breed content providers and aggressive international expansion. As always, AltaVista remains committed to providing our users with the best of the Web from a single, trusted source. As AltaVista continues to develop new and greater ways to reach our objectives and fulfill users' needs, our view from above promises to look ever more comprehensive and accessible.

AltaVista is a majority owned company of CMGI, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI).

For a good laugh, check out CMGI's company profile on yahoo.

Northern Light strikes me as doing the best job of returning relevant results, going so far as to thoroughly categorize the results by topic. Also has a greater portion of the web indexed than any other engine. The downside is that there is a bit of lag time in adding new domains to the bot's indexing runs...

Google is pretty good at giving relevant results, but it misses a lot of sites. AltaVista is rather thorough, but not very good at relevancy ranking.

These observations are simply based upon my own experiences with these engines, so your mileage may vary. When performing intensive searches, I generally use all three, but I'll often start with Ask Jeeves, which is easily the best meta-search engine out there...

Might wanna use the fish unless you know german.

It's often difficult for two people who speak the same language to express themselves clearly enough to be understood by the other. It takes great care and effort to express something so clearly that there is no possible misunderstanding.

Two examples in the same language to consider for translation:

1. Here's an admittedly complex example:
   • In my nearly 20 years' experience in software quality assurance, I've seen all kinds of problems arise in requirements documents, functional specifications, and actual applications where the author was uncertain about what was intended or, though clearly understanding what was intended, was unclear in expressing that intention, and so ended up expressing something that was either undesirable or even impossible; this caused the result to be flawed, at best, or unusable, at worst.
2. Here's another expression of those concepts:
   • I work in software quality assurance.
   • I have performed this work for nearly 20 years.
   • I have seen problems in requirements.
   • I have seen problems in functional specifications.
   • I have seen problems in actual applications.
   • Authors sometimes do not fully understand their intentions.
   • Authors sometimes do not clearly express their intentions.
   • etc.

Which of these do you think would be more easily translated by an automatic device?

Another example, using two languages:

1. In English:
   • I am hot.
2. This can be expressed in German as either of:
3. • Est ist mir heiss. (It is, to me, very warm.)
   • Ich bin heiss. (I am sexually excited.)

Interaction between the speaker and the translation device

What I've seen here on /. so far suggests this interaction with the device:

1. Person 1 says something.
2. The translator translates what was said.
3. The translator "speaks" what it translated.

It makes sense, to me, to have the translator express its difficulty and to ask the speaker to rephrase the statement. There are a wide variety of books and grammar checking tools to help writers detect and correct common mistakes. There are readability tools to assess the grade level of a document based on the length of sentences and the number of syllables in the words. These tools could be used to help recognize the ambiguities, and to have the translation device request help from the speaker.

Commercial Possiblities:

Why must the device be self-contained? I'd see great value in having the users employ cell-phone-like devices to communicate with a central translator. (We already use the same concept with X-window where the input and output can be on a machine which could be far from the machine doing the processing.) This approach has many advantages:

• All of the computing power need not be carried around by the user.
• Upgrades can be handled centrally.
• The device becomes much simpler to develop and maintain.
• Longer battery life is possible.
• Much more computing power can be used to perform the translation.
• Larger and more extensive dictionaries can be used.

NOTE: There's an obvious disadvantage in a military situation where the troops would rather not broadcast their location to the enemy when they are trying to communicate with a local. Hence, the desire for portability. But us common folks are not under such constraints.

From the article (paraphrased by the fish): the company had a spat [Babelfish link] with M$ a few months ago about a supposed illegal Windows 98 license. M$ seems to have suspended sale of OEM licenses to them, so they needed to find another way to sell PCs loaded with Windows.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all, I like the idea. What they're really talking about is continuously recycling Windows licenses. Rather than everyone pitching their Windows license when they pitch their old PC, the license could now be sold to someone else.

Of course, this is bad news for M$. Windows 95 is still a pretty decent consumer-level OS: unless you're going up to Win2k there's no real reason to upgrade beyond service packs (e.g. 98 & ME suck ass, NT sucks at multimedia). So this means that Germans could protest M$ snail's pace "innovation" by re-buying license for their old OS. Beautiful.


question: is control controlled by its need to control?
answer: yes

From the article (paraphrased by the fish): the company had a spat [Babelfish link] with M$ a few months ago about a supposed illegal Windows 98 license. M$ seems to have suspended sale of OEM licenses to them, so they needed to find another way to sell PCs loaded with Windows.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all, I like the idea. What they're really talking about is continuously recycling Windows licenses. Rather than everyone pitching their Windows license when they pitch their old PC, the license could now be sold to someone else.

Of course, this is bad news for M$. Windows 95 is still a pretty decent consumer-level OS: unless you're going up to Win2k there's no real reason to upgrade beyond service packs (e.g. 98 & ME suck ass, NT sucks at multimedia). So this means that Germans could protest M$ snail's pace "innovation" by re-buying license for their old OS. Beautiful.


question: is control controlled by its need to control?
answer: yes

From the article (paraphrased by the fish): the company had a spat [Babelfish link] with M$ a few months ago about a supposed illegal Windows 98 license. M$ seems to have suspended sale of OEM licenses to them, so they needed to find another way to sell PCs loaded with Windows.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all, I like the idea. What they're really talking about is continuously recycling Windows licenses. Rather than everyone pitching their Windows license when they pitch their old PC, the license could now be sold to someone else.

Of course, this is bad news for M$. Windows 95 is still a pretty decent consumer-level OS: unless you're going up to Win2k there's no real reason to upgrade beyond service packs (e.g. 98 & ME suck ass, NT sucks at multimedia). So this means that Germans could protest M$ snail's pace "innovation" by re-buying license for their old OS. Beautiful.


question: is control controlled by its need to control?
answer: yes

Second ... I really disagree with your assertion that the US looks down on people for speaking poorly more than ANY other "industrialized" country in the world. Don't you seem so worldly?

France (notably Parisians) has a terrible reputation for being snobby and uncivil towards those who do not speak French properly ... even towards those that have tried for years to learn their language.

Look at it this way ... English with an accent sounds cool. If I hear a woman speaking with a Spanish or French or German or justaboutanyother accent ... I think it's sexy. I don't think I'm alone there. My entire family is Argentine ... and they speak with funny accents ... people like it! However, when we go over there, and the natives hear how my family members' accents have changed, or how off my accent is, they laugh and make jokes and DEFINITELY notice. Now, as for those who aren't Argentine trying to speak the language ... it sounds ugly ... and tons of people think so. It's almost as if Spanish only sounds good if a native speaks it ... with no real accent ... again, I do not believe I'm alone here ... especially among the natives.

This device is likely to rock. I'd love to be able to get along better in any non-English speaking place ... it'd also be nice to hear what people were saying about you, too. Also, I'm sure that there'd be tons and tons of mildly humorous webpages and late night talk show host skits with slightly messed up translations when it makes it to market.

One more thing, want good chances to get hard looks in just about any other country besides the US? Talk like a loud American. Yes, just the accent brings about bad looks and conversations about lousy US foreign policy. Go tell them those folks they're xenophobic and prejudiced and lighten while you're at it you damn hippy.

-Christian

The text in the article is a section of the press release translated from English to French and back from French to English with the Fish.

Except Adams, in H2G2, called it a Babel Fish.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

Problems:
Acceptance of criminals: "pay this tax, just as if you are a criminal." It is ridiculous. Paying automobile insurance is one thing, because nobody never predicts to have an accident, different from taxing the people's deciding to do something illegal. Shit. Who will it help? Who is this supposed to profit? Artists? Bullshit again - they are already screwed, just as they always were, and will continue to be. Not that every musician is exploited, but a great number are, and they will not see one one hundredth of these profits.
Business model. To the core, the government is taxing a population in order to continue supporting an out-of-date business model. If true competition were present in industry, the companies would seek to rather improve their business plans rather than ask for handouts from the government. It is not my work to compensate for imbeciles of the failed management procedures: should stupidity be painful?
-Shoeboy (not so anonymously)

1. 
   You are a bit without value of droppings of babboon. Your ask the question of Slashdot was the bit of cut-downs the most without value on which I ever laid some eyes. If I meet you ever I will give a kick your donkey. No, draft who, I will rape your donkey. And you will appreciate it. Have a pleasant day.
   
   

Well, someone better be up at night, because all the kernel hackers sure are. Making the kernel, utilities, and the X Windowing System better, every day. While Microsoft integrates the animated Office helper into its next version of Windows 2000, and plans to increase OS licensing fees. I especially like how you are forced to connect to Microsoft in order to use this next version of Windows

1. The Hooksett Banner Archives, April 22, 1999
April 22, 1999. This week's stories: (click on the headline to jump to story) Pembroke Academy boys recycle clutter and junk into nitrogen-powered...
URL: www.neighborhoodpub.com/banarchive042299.html - bytes

from THIS Altavista query?

1. The Hooksett Banner Archives, April 22, 1999
April 22, 1999. This week's stories: (click on the headline to jump to story) Pembroke Academy boys recycle clutter and junk into nitrogen-powered...
URL: www.neighborhoodpub.com/banarchive042299.html - bytes

from THIS Altavista query?

Cool. He got it to boot on a Dreamcast. But what about my Knitting Machine?

Some screen shots and images of Pitfall games. :)

try altavista text mode, it loads a little faster for me actually.
http://www.altavista.com/query?text=on

• AltaVista'z Warez Search Engine
• Google'z Warez Search Engine

31ee7e1y Yours,

Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc

• AltaVista'z Warez Search Engine
• Google'z Warez Search Engine

31ee7e1y Yours,

Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc

Alternatively, use the text only version. It still has banner ads, though.
av text search

Try RagingSearch if you like AltaVista but don't like all the web portal nonsense:

ragingsearch.altavista.com

Courtesy of the Babel Fish Can at least get a rough idea... The innomadas ends corresponding to this Sunday measure the time of history, writing: They have discovered beds of the Mars ocean. They refer the scientists of the NASA who trust the information of the global Mars topographer, that has transmitted the detailed panels of the rock which they would have been possible to only create by the sedimentation. A complete warning waits for the next week of the NASA -- it would not be pleasant if release/versión simply the news as they happen rather that that creates the events of the news?

These internal chararistics, together with the frequent code-switching between Spanish and English common to all Hispanic variants in the USA, can render chicano totally impenetrable to monolingual Spanish speakers.

It's certainly true in the Southwest, where you routinely hear this "code-switching" en las calles and with the ubquitous cucina-help chavalines washing sus dishes sucios, if tu takes my meaning aquí. :-) There is a fascinating beauty that comes from being able to freely intermix two languages in one conversation and even in one sentence, where words and syntax skip back and forth.

You can hardly fault tejanos for their curious code-switching or their rampant Spanglishization. You may flinch at hearing how in Texas then rentan something instead of alquilándolo, or talk about driving their troques instead of their camiones. (The former is especially annoying, because la renta is one of those faux amis that already has a meaning quite different in Spanish than the English cognate would suggest!) Then again, when you listen to Texans speak English, you might be a bit unnerved there, too. :-)

Agonizing purists tell you that you simply cannot salvar dinero--that you can only ahorrarlo, of course, and that buffers must be guardados, as their souls are not in peril. :-)

If you want people to know a language, a literature, a history, and a culture, then you have to teach that to them!

I tried to use Bablefish to translate a letter to a friend about a girl I met in Cuba, and when I translated it back, it looked like this:

""I met a nice girl"

became:

"Satisfice agradable a una muchacha"

which (re-translated) means:

"I satisfied pleasant a girl"

Uh... I hope I satisfied her, but that's not what I was trying to say exactly...

This will help you to preserve your Spanish language - weird but wired.

- English (Australia)
- English (Canada)
- English (Ireland)
- English (Jamaica)
- English (New Zealand)
- English (South Africa)
- English (U.K.)
- English (U.S.)
- English (Zimbabwe)
...damn that word processor... it wont accept my "Thou"'s...what the hell happened to English (Shakespeare)?

Give Google a try too

Modify the search terms to include the app you're looking for but include several others to be sure you've got a crackz site.

I discuss this in Modern Technology and the Death of Copyright

Yours,

Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc

A quick search on Altavista for xcmsdb.c gives the untarred X source code (delete spaces in the URL by hand otherwise it won't open. If only slashdot would fix that bug. If only more sites would keep the whole untarred X). Look in the datafiles sub-directory therein for examples (delete spaces in URL) of the data formats used to specify the forward and inverse color-correction matrices. You can load one of the example files onto the root window using xcmsdb sample2.doc. Check the data loaded ok using cmsdb -query

Calibrated color is now set up!

Specify all your colors for any X program in a device-independent color space like CIE XYZ, and you'll automatically get calibrated colors on the monitor (assuming your monitor matched the data in sample2.doc). The colors can be specified by command-line options or in X resource files. To use the example of the previous poster, try xterm -bg CIEXYZ:0.371298/0.201443/0.059418 &. Leave that xterm running in the background. Remove the calibration: xcmsdb -remove. Start another xterm as before, and notice the slightly different appearance of the background color: xterm -bg CIEXYZ:0.371298/0.201443/0.059418 &. Ignoring the hard part of creating the calibration data, that's a quick tour of color calibration in X!

Too bad it breaks on this insider story. The story is mostly about Russian business - it talks about the OS only in the very beginning.

I am viewing /. on Amaya right now and I must say that it looks awful compared to its usual Netscape apperance. I checked a bunch of other sites (most notably altavista and netscape which look absolutely abysmal, and slashdot and Yahoo!, which looks quite poorly coded). Even the w3c's website looks a little different. I think webmasters who are a little to liberal in their coding practices need to re-evaluate the ease of producing nice, clean HTML. Of course, I am a guilty party as well, but this seems to be a serious and widespread problem.

----------------------------------------------

If you're serious about a "modeless" interface, it is hard to get less "modal" than a shell command line.

The Perl guru Rick Klement (who really likes to build specialized Tk GUIs) once commented that the reason you never see any real advances in GUIs is that the programmers who set out to develop new GUIs usually start by writing a GUI for an IDE and then quickly realize that command line interfaces are better than GUIs for for IDEs. User configurability of a GUI environment is, in a sense, user programmability. Therefore, one has to wonder whether the power given up by a GUI really buys your users enough to make up for the loss compared to, say, better text-based facilities.

For example, more flexible and forgiving parsers with better command line generation tools (a simple example being command histories with arrow keys retrieval in shells) can go along way toward simplifying text entry in computer-understandable form.

Recently, Dan Brumleve has been showing some simple extensions to Perl at Perl Mongers meetings that make writing Perl statements lines more natural and powerful -- like the determiner "it" meaning the default variable "$_" so you can say things like "store it" and the interpreter knows what you are talking about. He's put in a variety of adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.

Other, equally simple extensions to the parsing of a general language can make it a lot more flexible, accessible and forgiving. Automated composition assistants could pop up when they think they can help you compose text for the command line.

Graphical interfaces are ideal for interacting with numeric continua (continuous spaces), but most abstract information is in the form of rules or natural laws derived from observations of continua. Humans are always trying to abstract their sensory perception into such codified knowledge so they can more parsimoniously speak of their inner worlds, which reflect their private interpretation of shared sensory information, to each other.

The fact that they want to stop their cash bleed on the hardware should have been very apparant to anyone with eyes when they raised the price of the i-opener back up to $399 instead of the $99 that they had offered for some time. Anyone with a basic grip on economics should have known that it was going to happen way before that.

Basically they are a software company that everyone kept treating like an appliance company. In a July interview on Raging Bull president Kent Savage had to go to pains to get this point across,

Cyber: But isn't a large part of Netpliance's premise to sell that hardware, the I-opener?

Savage: No, not at all. We did that because we had to. We're a market maker and a first mover, and we had to innovate in order to reach this market.

It's really predictable and sad the way that the geek community has so heavily focused on the device. Unfortunately, it was really nothing too special technology-wise and the interesting things that NPLI was up to was its interface and "OS-agnostic" software package. Also it's client-server infrastructure kind of resurrected 'push' in a market and environment where it almost starts to make sense.

The "i-opener experience" is not nearly as stupid as it sounds, if you step outside of your "master of the source" persona and pretend you are on the other-side of the digital divide for a second. Sure, I prefer to navigate the net with Enlightenment as my interface of choice, but I doubt most of the flashing-12:00-on-the-VCR crowd would. The i-opener interface is just clean and as simple and dumbed-down as you can get, which is great for the market they were targetting.

They signed major strategic relations with big cable companies a long time ago (check the press releases on their web site), and their client software is well suited to be rolled out as an adjunct to set-top boxes and appliance offerings from telcos like At&T. It's curious what difficulties they might be going through negotiating "managed services" contracts with these companies because if I was running the company I would have made this shift in business plans a long long time ago. However you feel about it, they'll probably be around for a while yet, especially if they can convince US West or AT&T subsidize the hardware side of things instead of blowing all their IPO capital on it.

Kalin

Metamuscle - Building better bodies through hypertext. Slashdot for bodybuilders.

I'm sorry, but you're an idiot and you don't know what you're talking about

Just some of the sites using css.

1. Altavista - There is a big whomping style block right at the top of the source.
2. AskJeeves - There is a linked CSS document, plus a style block definition.
3. Adobe - Even has javascript to customize style sheets according to platform and browser.
4. AOL - 4 lines into the source and look! a style definition.
5. AT&T WorldNet - You have to wade through some javascript, but you'll see it.

That was just the A's. Please think before you spout such blatant misinformation as this.