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Here are a few more links for more information about HTTP and some neat things that are being done with it...

• Get the latest dirt from the World Wide Web Consortium.
• RFC 2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1 ( text, PostScript, PDF)
• Berkeley's TranSend service is a cluster of workstations working together to act as a massive HTTP proxy. This proxy "transforms" Web pages based on clients settings. Was the basis of the ( now-commercial) Top Gun Wingman Web browser for the PalmPilot.
• The Anonymizer acts as a proxy that strips out all the unwanted/unneeded header lines that your Web browser sends.

I had started hacking together an HTTP/1.1-compliant proxy in perl that did on-the-fly compression if the client supported it, but I never got around to completing it. Initial results were impressive, especially when it was paired with a caching proxy like Squid or a CacheFlow box. Of course, with DSL and cable modems getting more widespread use, people like myself that are still pinned to a 33.6k connection are being left behind.

Caching/compressing/proxying is still in widespread usage outside North America (most notably Australia and European countries). Their problem was (is!) outrageous access prices and relatively slow overseas connections, so they've been using caching for a long time to help solve it. The US and Canada have solved their "problem" of Web pages not instantaneously loading by throwing more bandwidth at it...

Here are a few more links for more information about HTTP and some neat things that are being done with it...

• Get the latest dirt from the World Wide Web Consortium.
• RFC 2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1 ( text, PostScript, PDF)
• Berkeley's TranSend service is a cluster of workstations working together to act as a massive HTTP proxy. This proxy "transforms" Web pages based on clients settings. Was the basis of the ( now-commercial) Top Gun Wingman Web browser for the PalmPilot.
• The Anonymizer acts as a proxy that strips out all the unwanted/unneeded header lines that your Web browser sends.

I had started hacking together an HTTP/1.1-compliant proxy in perl that did on-the-fly compression if the client supported it, but I never got around to completing it. Initial results were impressive, especially when it was paired with a caching proxy like Squid or a CacheFlow box. Of course, with DSL and cable modems getting more widespread use, people like myself that are still pinned to a 33.6k connection are being left behind.

Caching/compressing/proxying is still in widespread usage outside North America (most notably Australia and European countries). Their problem was (is!) outrageous access prices and relatively slow overseas connections, so they've been using caching for a long time to help solve it. The US and Canada have solved their "problem" of Web pages not instantaneously loading by throwing more bandwidth at it...

but Vertigol can search for this package on (for example) http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/.

Here you can find an iwheel rpm.

You *do* run Red Hat, don't you? If not, use alien or something.

To make it work, you'll have to make a few changes to your XF86Config file (add the line "ZAxisMapping 4 5" to the Pointer section for your mouse).

After that, just run imwheel and stuff should just magically work. Run "imwheel -k". Read the docs in /usr/doc/iwheel* for more info.

http://www13.w3.org/People/Gettys/

Will my windows license be transferrable? the simple answer (caveat: last time someone asked this question and i looked) - is no.

but i may be wrong. ...i will check this out soon. the main reason i used opera is standards. opera has worked hard to comply with w3's standards. plus having mdi allowed me to have multiple sites open w/o having multiple browsers....

Use shadow passwords. That way, a malicious web writer can't grab the encrypted passwords and try to break them. It's easy: "pwconv" is the (only) command to run if your system is relatively modern (this may be somewhat specific to the Linux implementation of the shadow password system?).

If you need to protect the users from each other, you might consider:

• Using Apache's suexec system. However, some people say that the system is so complex that there is risk of actually decreasing security due to misunderstandings; your milage may vary.
• If you use PHP, consider running it in 'safe mode'

Some general purpose Linux/unix related security links:

• The Security-HOWTO
• Kurt Seifried's Linux Administrators Security Guide (LASG)
• The IPCHAINS-HOWTO (packet filtering)
• The Firewall-HOWTO (rather out-dated)
• The World Wide Web Security FAQ

Finally: Keep your system up-to-date with the latest official patches. Consider joining the BugTraq mailing list.

In any case, I'd rather go for svg, but this is because I'm more of a programming type than a point-and-click oriented designer. If flash were opensourced, of course it would be better for developers, but isn't it important to make things compatible? By this I mean compatible with CSS, XML, XSL and all that. Also, I'm not sure but there must be benefits to having vectors and animations native rather than in a plug-in...?

Mr. Berners-Lee also had harsh words to say about the application of patent law and intellectual property rights, suggesting that an ethos of "whatever you can get away with" will inhibit the adoption of common standards, essential to the continued growth of the Web.

Cats are more independent. You could start making software for a cat by making Oneko, the X cat, more responsive to its environment and give it more emotions than boredom. Not that its boredom can't be useful, as PURR-PUSS uses boredom as a trigger to try a more creative action, while learning [Andreae] by trial and error.

There is also a lot more stuff on adaptive behavior and machine learning out there.

When writing pages, the author does NOT control the final image, the customers client does that. As web page editors, we can only suggest the presentation elements.

When I teach courses on HTML, I pound on about HTML validators, such as http://validator.w3.org/ for correct (ie valid) HTML, and http://www.cast.org/bobby/ for accessibility issues (such as EM instead of I)

In my opinion, no WYSIWYG editor produces HTML that is valid for both HTML level 4 and accessibility!

By all means, use these tools, but be aware of the issues that they raise, and learn the coding so that you can correct their mistakes.

Amaya is a result of a project called Opera at the INRIA research institute in France, which is studying user interfaces for the editing of structured documents. (They also produced the thot editor and GRIF, a successful, commercial SGML editor.)

It may not meet everyone's needs, but is definitely work checking out, if only to see structured document editing done properly. Amaya also supports MathML, and has some preliminary support for Java and plugins.

I totally disagree. Yes, the majority of /. readers use Linux, but that hardly makes it Linux oriented. Last I checked slashdot ran stories on Linux, *BSD, BeOS, MacOS, and Windows (to make fun of). I think the /. community transcends operating system. As do many of the users. How many sigs have I seen bragging about how many OS's are on one harddrive.

Just to keep this on topic, I use a text editor and HTML Tidy. HTML Tidy is a great little program that checks and corrects your code and will do indenting if you want (and its cross platform). You can get it at http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy.

Skippy

I use the WWW Consortium's own editor, Amaya. Amaya is buggy, it crashes every once in a while. Amaya does keep its work saved in temporary files, so you can usually pick up right where you left off.

Amaya's bugs are more than made up by the fact that it generates very clean and portable HTML. That's what I consider more important than anything else.

The specifics on the prior search can be found at http://www.w3.org/1999/04/P3P-P atentBackground.html

For instance:

Intermind's patent is entitled "COMPUTER-BASED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD USING METADATA DEFINING A CONTROL STRUCTURE." Intermind has said that

The essence of Intermind's top claims are that two nodesa sender and receiver have persistent storage, communicate over a network, and exchange a control structure defined by metadata (e.g. an XML file) which describes: 1) how to transfer updated information from the publisher to the subscriber, 2) how to transfer feedback information (and updates to that information) from the subscriber to the publisher, and 3) how to process the exchanged information by reference to the control structure. In addition, at least the receiving device must be able to process the metadata using instructions external to the control structure, i.e. process instances of a communications object.

"About Intermind's Communications Patents," http://www.intermind.com/materi als/patent_desc.html

...telling him I was pretty dismayed by his implications that Marc alone invented the WWW and wrote Mosaic. Should we consider lucky that he didn't write about Marc creating Windows, MacOS and Linux?

Regarding the WWW idea, a (probably reliable) account can be found at http://www.w3.org/WWW/. I also found out some design documents dated 1989 (how old was Marc our hero then? 14?).

Don't get me wrong: Marc is a VIP. It's just that what I've read sounded plain wrong.

Many, many bright people contributed to build the computers and tools we use today. Some of them are remembered of, some of them are not, that's life. But I would feel more comfortable reading an history that doesn't look like it has been somehow rewritten...

Here's a more important news story. Read this press release and see if you can help the W3C by finding prior art to overturn a patent.

Thanks

Bruce

Not many references in that article. Shouldn't a Slashdot article have at least one HTML link per paragraph?

w3c validation and weblint don't favor this page at all. I'm sure a DOCTYPE declaration could eliminate a bunch, but, still...

• Displayed with fgcolor = bgcolor.
• Not displayed due to proprietary HTML extensions.
• Not displayed due to required, obscure plugin. (Plugin frequently NOT avail. for my platform)
• Unprintable due to choice of fgcolor or bgcolor.

Additionally, with the current state of technology and the growing number of handicapped persons using the web there is no reason why the ADA should not be applied to web pages.

The WAI Quick Tips Reference Card is short, clear, and allows unlimited personal expression even if followed to the most extreme levels.

One important thing to keep in mind while developing a page: Text to Voice synthesizers used by the blind find the reading of multi-column tables to be difficult at best.

Don't rely on your editing tool to provide a well formatted page. MS-Word WWW Wizards and FrontPage both produce some of the most indeciferable HTML I have ever tried to read. Netscape Composer removes hard coded CRLFs in the file so server based authenticators are munged. While a WYSYWYG editor speeds up development there is still no substitute for a final hard code look at your code with a text mode editor (VI, EMACS, DOS Edit, Windows Notepad, etc...)

D. Keith Higgs
CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library

Web Accessibility Initiative by W3C

Accessibility by Web Design Group

best accessibility meme: gracefully degrading pages

PNG is supposedly better than GIF and JPG, yet
still the web is dominated by GIF images.

Since when is PNG a Microsoft format?

An old version of the PNG specification is here. The credits list this document, at least, as being (c) MIT.

PNG was specifically created to be a .GIF-like format that people could write encoders and decoders for without having to pay royalties to anyone. It was invented because Compuserve raised a stink over image processing programs using the .GIF format, which it owns, without paying them royalties. PNG is also technically superior on a couple of points. We'll see what happens.

Even if 'window' was used in GUI terminology pre-MS, unless a company specifically named their windowing system "Windows" prior to MS, the trademark claim is still valid. Instead, "window" was used to describe one aspect of the GUI, rather than the entire GUI system or the whole OS. Here's an example: the Linux trademark fiasco. Because "Linux" had already been the name of the OS/Kernel for years prior to the guy from NJ trademarking it. This is what proved his claim fraudulent. If you can find a pre-MS GUI product named "Windows", then someone can take MS to court over it.

Anyways, the article itself didn't say anything about trademark. as long as MS doesn't claim "Open Source", they're in the clear. "open source" as a phrase is not trademarked. They may be stupid often enough, but they know well enough that use of a trademarked term will have to go hand-in-hand with complying to the terms of use of said trademark.

IANAL. I am not infallible. I admit that I could be wrong about this. Corrections (with evidence, counterevidence, etc.) Welcome.

There's a lot of interesting things out there. In particular, I think XML and DOM could be the basis for a very good component framework in which powerful components would be easy to write, and would integrate nicely without a lot of hassle. I'm looking at RDF as a piece of this.

But, as far as I can tell, the problem that RDF solves is a bit different than the one mentioned in this article. RDF is a way of representing documents as graph structures, allowing individual files to contain both local and external pieces without everything getting tangled up.

The problem of representing metadata unambiguously is a tricky one, but is not yet solved. The RDF spec presents an interesting outline about how this might be done, but it doesn't quite tell me what I need to do to get my own Web pages to be correctly meta'ed. If I were a library, then the Dublin Core would start to give me the specific markup I needed, but that's just for libraries. What do I use do as metadata for my free software efforts?

It seems like the combination of XML plus XML-NameSpaces plus Dublin Core plus all the other recommendations, specifications, and standards analogous to the Dublin Core but for domains other than libraries might cohere into a workable metadata system for the Web, but on the other hand, the complexity and fuzziness of specification could very easily prevent the beast from flying.

When you're dealing with software, precise specification is key. Some metadata standards have succeeded pretty well in this regard - take MIME content types, for example. If you have a JPEG image, you know that the content type should be "image/jpeg". But the XML crew hasn't even managed a consistent namespace name for HTML 4.0 (I've seen "urn:w3-org-ns:HTML", "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" and others).

For those hoping for a more technical discussion of RDF, I recommend the Mozilla page on RDF and of course the specification itself.

Sorrry, that mantra doesn't hold water in this discussion. Tim Berners-Lee is single-handedly responsible for the creation of the World Wide Web. While working for CERN he invisioned an Internet service/protocol based on a worldwide hierarchy of hyperlinked pages (the concept of which was around before he came up with it) and went on to CREATE the HTML specification, the HTTP protocol, and the Universal Resource Locator (URL). He also wrote the first web browser, and in NeXTStep at that. Therefore he did invent the World Wide Web. Don't believe me? Ask the W3.

Will

• Collaborative Filtering Workshop (Berkeley, 1996)
• Adding Comments to the Web (read it all, including the FAQ )
• W3C's Collaboration/Annotation page (seems dormant).

Check the W3C's current working draft for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

``During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.''

The Internet, originally called ARPANET, dates to 1969, when the Defense Department began funding the project. Gore, then 21, was still eight years away from joining Congress.

Gore aides say their boss has a rightful claim, having promoted the Internet and government funding for the project while in Congress.

I figured he would say something like "Oh, I really meant..." but instead his aides are saying he really did invent the internet. No, not in those words, but they said he "has a rightful claim."

He plainly said, "I took the initiative in creating the internet," implying that he had something to do with the creation of the internet. "Promoting" and getting "government funding" for the project are so far removed from creating the internet that his aides' assertion that he is correct is an insult to the American people.

I like Gore much more than Dole or Bush, but to come out with an in-your-face lie like this is simply unacceptable. The fact that he stuck with his claim instead of apologizing is really a blow against him.

Plus, I don't see how any of his "promotion" or "government funding" had anything to do with the internet at all. The internet caught on because of Tim Berners-Lee's wonderful world wide web.

Truly politics at its worst. I guess next year will be a lesser-of-two-evils campaign for me.

``During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.''

The Internet, originally called ARPANET, dates to 1969, when the Defense Department began funding the project. Gore, then 21, was still eight years away from joining Congress.

Gore aides say their boss has a rightful claim, having promoted the Internet and government funding for the project while in Congress.

I figured he would say something like "Oh, I really meant..." but instead his aides are saying he really did invent the internet. No, not in those words, but they said he "has a rightful claim."

He plainly said, "I took the initiative in creating the internet," implying that he had something to do with the creation of the internet. "Promoting" and getting "government funding" for the project are so far removed from creating the internet that his aides' assertion that he is correct is an insult to the American people.

I like Gore much more than Dole or Bush, but to come out with an in-your-face lie like this is simply unacceptable. The fact that he stuck with his claim instead of apologizing is really a blow against him.

Plus, I don't see how any of his "promotion" or "government funding" had anything to do with the internet at all. The internet caught on because of Tim Berners-Lee's wonderful world wide web.

Truly politics at its worst. I guess next year will be a lesser-of-two-evils campaign for me.

XSL is an XML application that maps other XML applications to HTML-like appearances ("block element", "list", and such). It makes XML browsers possible.

1. The page dos not error-free run through:validator.w3.org Hu!? Even /. fails!?
2. It is not LYNX-clean (no ALT-Attribs etc.)
3. It is too slow (more than 30 seconds from Europe)
4. It's not user-friendly, not "clear" enough

1. Read the alertboxes
2. use a 14.400 Modem to simulate over-sea connections (this is no joke!)
3. use tidy to clean up Your pages
4. try with LYNX before publishing!

This is getting REALLY tiresome.

Attention: Before you call your product a web
browser:

1. Go here.
2. Read.
3. EVERYTHING.

Netscape is no better.

Re: Gecko-BFD

It takes getting sold to AOL before you start
to care about your browser being %100 compliant
with the W3C's recommendations and that Communicator,
even Navigator, is a fat, bloated, buggy piece of shit?!!!

Fucking losers.
I am glad I never spent a cent on a browser from
either company.

Actually </p> is (and always has been) optional. The HTML 4.0 spec says:

You can omit the end tag, which is then implied by the next block-level start tag. It is also implied by the end tag of the element that encloses the P element.

ACTION:

MS Product and Corporate Questions: Waggener Edstrom at (503) 245-0905
MS email contact info is at http://register.microsoft.com/regwiz/regwiz.asp

The USPTO phone number is 800.786.9199 (800.PTO.9199). They say they are "not yet equipped to handle general email correspondence". What a shock.

US Asst. Attorney General for Antitrust: Joel Klein.
* "If your comments relate specifically to the Antitrust Division's suit against Microsoft Corporation, please direct your correspondence to Microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov". Seems like this qualifies, eh?
* Other DOJ email contact info is at http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/emails.htm
* DOJ Antitrust phone contact info: http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/phoneworks.htm

Vice President Al Gore (cheerleader for hi-tech and, um, less distracted than others at the White House)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Mail/html/Mail_Vice_P resident.html
Or email direct at vice.president@whitehouse.gov

US Senate Commerce, Science, And Transportation Committee
John McCain, chairman: John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov
http://www.senate.gov/~commerce/
508 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510-6125
(202) 224-5115
http://www.senate.gov/committees/committee_detail. cfm?COMMITTEE_ID=419 -- lists all members, with links to their homepages.

The House Committee on Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2927
Commerce@mail.house.gov

House Committee on Science
2320 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-6371

Bogus Patent petition:
http://ethepeople.com/affiliates/national/fullview .cfm?ETPID=0&PETID=98938 &ETPDIR=affiliates/national

INFO:

W3C copyright terms: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice

W3C software license: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-softw are.html

"Microsoft Awarded Style Sheet Patent"
Reprinted from The Bulletin: Seybold News & Views on Electronic Publishing, Vol. 4, No. 19, February 4, 1999
http://webreview.com/wr/pub/1999/02/05/style/index .html
This article apparently broke the story.

Wired News: "MS Wins Patent for Web Standard" by Chris Oakes
2:05 p.m. 4.Feb.99.PST
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/17 741.html

WEB STANDARDS PROJECT CALLS FOR CLARIFICATION OF WHETHER PATENT GIVES MICROSOFT CONTROL OVER TWO KEY WEB STANDARDS
(press release: Feb. 4, 1999)
http://www.webstandards.org/patent.txt
(Also discussed at http://webreview.com/wr/pub/1999/02/05/style/index 2.html)

At this writing (11:30pm PST Feb. 5), nothing on this story has appeared in/on:
* C|Net
* ZD Net and all related publications/sites
* CNN
* NY Times, et al.
* Seattle Times (www.seattletimes.com)

ACTION:

MS Product and Corporate Questions: Waggener Edstrom at (503) 245-0905
MS email contact info is at http://register.microsoft.com/regwiz/regwiz.asp

The USPTO phone number is 800.786.9199 (800.PTO.9199). They say they are "not yet equipped to handle general email correspondence". What a shock.

US Asst. Attorney General for Antitrust: Joel Klein.
* "If your comments relate specifically to the Antitrust Division's suit against Microsoft Corporation, please direct your correspondence to Microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov". Seems like this qualifies, eh?
* Other DOJ email contact info is at http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/emails.htm
* DOJ Antitrust phone contact info: http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/phoneworks.htm

Vice President Al Gore (cheerleader for hi-tech and, um, less distracted than others at the White House)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Mail/html/Mail_Vice_P resident.html
Or email direct at vice.president@whitehouse.gov

US Senate Commerce, Science, And Transportation Committee
John McCain, chairman: John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov
http://www.senate.gov/~commerce/
508 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510-6125
(202) 224-5115
http://www.senate.gov/committees/committee_detail. cfm?COMMITTEE_ID=419 -- lists all members, with links to their homepages.

The House Committee on Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2927
Commerce@mail.house.gov

House Committee on Science
2320 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-6371

Bogus Patent petition:
http://ethepeople.com/affiliates/national/fullview .cfm?ETPID=0&PETID=98938 &ETPDIR=affiliates/national

INFO:

W3C copyright terms: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice

W3C software license: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-softw are.html

"Microsoft Awarded Style Sheet Patent"
Reprinted from The Bulletin: Seybold News & Views on Electronic Publishing, Vol. 4, No. 19, February 4, 1999
http://webreview.com/wr/pub/1999/02/05/style/index .html
This article apparently broke the story.

Wired News: "MS Wins Patent for Web Standard" by Chris Oakes
2:05 p.m. 4.Feb.99.PST
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/17 741.html

WEB STANDARDS PROJECT CALLS FOR CLARIFICATION OF WHETHER PATENT GIVES MICROSOFT CONTROL OVER TWO KEY WEB STANDARDS
(press release: Feb. 4, 1999)
http://www.webstandards.org/patent.txt
(Also discussed at http://webreview.com/wr/pub/1999/02/05/style/index 2.html)

At this writing (11:30pm PST Feb. 5), nothing on this story has appeared in/on:
* C|Net
* ZD Net and all related publications/sites
* CNN
* NY Times, et al.
* Seattle Times (www.seattletimes.com)