Technology

Friday, May 24, 2002

• More on the Webbys

Here's some other sites that stand out from the nominees for the Webby Awards to be announced June 18:

Idealist.org
This is the site to visit if you're interested in jobs or volunteer opportunities in the nonprofit sector. The listings are impressive. A search for Rhode Island volunteer opportunities produced 18 requests for help. They ranged from a Web designer for the American Sail Training Association in Newport to tutors for the Rhode Island arm of Literacy Volunteers of America.

No More Tests.com
I happen not to agree with the viewpoint offered by Students Against Testing, but this site demonstrates how a simple, well-designed site can be effective tool for advancing your cause.

Copyright Website
Think somebody is ripping off your Web site? You may want to visit this site to learn what your rights are, read about famous copyright cases and explore intellectual property issues raised by the Web and digital technology.

Friday, May 17, 2002

• On the Webby nominees

I've been checking out this year's Webby Awards nominees. Some of the big name nominees come as no surprise: ESPN.com, Google, National Geographic, and BBC News.

But there are a number of gems I never visited before. I haven't finished checking out all of the nominees yet, but here's some of what I like:

Beliefnet.com
This is an impressive site regardless of your spiritual bent. It's a full-service religion portal with links and information on nearly every faith. Where else are you going to find celebrity interviews with Bono and George Bush exploring their spiritual sides?

There's also a timely section on the Catholic sex abuse crisis that includes some interesting bulletin board opinions posted by users.

On a related note, I don't understand the nomination in the same Spirituality category for the Vatican Web site. That's not a statement on my part about the church or its handling of the sex abuse crisis. I just have never liked the Vatican site.

RTE Interactive Radio
RTE is the national broadcasting service of Ireland. I worked there as a college intern many years ago. That was way before I heard about the Internet or knew how to use a PC. It was a great time, but based on the technology I saw at the time I never would have guessed it would become a Net broadcasting pioneer. My only complaint: I couldn't call up Ceol Net, a live stream of traditional Irish music.

U.S. Army Basic Training
For me, this was the biggest surprise among the Webby nominees. I've visited military Web sites in the past as part of my work and found most pretty dreadful. This one combines multimedia with an attractive design to create an effective recruiting tool aimed at Net-savvy teens. This recruiting site follows six recruits through basic training. The Army knows Flash.

More to come on the Webby nominees.

Cast votes for your favorites as part of the Webbys' People Choice Awards.

• Napster not dead yet? Today's headlines contain this turnaround: Bertelsmann to acquire Napster

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

• Online tolls go up in Worcester

Our friends up the road in Worcester at Telegram.com have announced plans to restrict most of its news content to paying customers beginning June 1. Good luck to them, but my personal opinion is it will be a losing proposition. There are too many other alternatives out there for Telegram.com users. (Note: I originally posted a link to a story about the decision, but the story disappeared from the free section overnight. It is available only through the paid archives now. Here's the link for those willing to pay $1.95 for the article.)

What is particularly interesting is that Telegram.com and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette newspaper are owned by the New York Times Co., which also owns the Boston Globe and boston.com. What if anything does the Telegram move say about where those news sites are headed?

• The Napster death watch

Let's all gather around and say our goodbyes. The end is near for Napster. Nobody should be surprised given its long and very public decline brought on by a music industry stuck in the past. Still, this is a dot-com worth mourning.

``From boom to bust, it had the most potential,'' analyst Sean Badding told the Associated Press.

AP reported the company is running out of cash and may soon file for bankruptcy.

On Tuesday, the company's CEO resigned and the remaining 70 employees were given an unappetizing choice, according to Wired News.com.

And as of this writing -- 6 p.m. Wednesday -- that Napster link noted above is coming back with a "page cannot be displayed" response.

• On a personal note

Here's a story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that touched me. No Net angle whatsoever. It's about a medical experience some readers may relate to. I had a somewhat similar experience last year, but fortunately for me the ending was much better. Warning: This is not light reading.

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Friday, May 10, 2002

• PC bigots in D.C.

For the last six years, I've been a PC guy. My first home computer was a Mac, but I quickly left it behind and, like many PC users, I've whispered a few derogatory comments about Mac fanatics. Lately, however, I've been reconsidering my position and given some thought to broadening my tech horizon and buying an iBook notebook.

That is why a Wired News story about the technology bureaucrats doing their best quash Mac loyalists on Capitol Hill caught my eye. One of the last Mac holdouts is the systems administrator for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the first member of Congress to have his own Web site.

"Instead of seriously considering my suggestions, (the SAA has) tried to ruin my reputation," Ngozi Pole complained to Wired News. The SAA in this case is the Sergeant at Arms office in the Senate, which makes technology recommendations to senators.

A spokeswoman for the SAA ignored requests for an interview on the subject with the Wired News writer. Too hot to handle, I guess.

• Wasting away on the Web

I'm sure all you NetRunner readers finish your work before checking in here. A Canadian academic, however, has reached the shocking conclusion that computers and the Net are great time wasters that encourage procrastination.

"If you walk into a computer lab in any university and look over students' shoulders, they're not burning up the word processors or the spreadsheets -- they're doing Hotmail, or surfing the web or playing games," Carleton University professor Tim Pychyl told Shift Magazine, a Canadian publication covering the "digital culture."

• The blogger as journalist or information manager?

One take on the blogging phenomenon from Salon.com: "Often dismissed as self-obsessed 'vanity sites,' the bloggers actually have an important collective role to play on the Web. But they're not challengers to the throne of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. They're challengers to the throne of Google."

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Wednesday, May 8, 2002

• The courthouse beat

What do the Buddy Cianci trial and the Microsoft anti-trust case have in common? Not much, you say? Think again.

In both cases, no electronic devices are allowed in the courthouse unless you're a lawyer. Boston Globe tech columnist Hiawatha Bray took note of the ban in a column last week when he almost got tossed out of the Microsoft trial.

In addition to cameras, federal court rules ban electronic devices, such as cell phones, PDAs and laptop computers -- unless you're a lawyer. On top of that, there are a number of other rules established specifically for the Cianci trial.

In U.S. District Court in Providence, the Cianci trial is an impressive technological showcase. The prosecutors are armed with a laptop containing digital copies of thousands of documents and hours of surveillance audio and video. The jurors view the evidence on expensive flat panel screens, and the judge follows a court stenographer's recording of the testimony on a monitor on the bench.

And audio and video feeds from the courtroom are piped into another courtroom set up to handle the overflow of reporters and spectators.

But if you're a reporter covering the trial, it's a step back in time. In theory, I should be able to provide near-instant updates of the trial using a laptop or a PDA equipped with a wireless modem.

Instead, I'm covering a 21st-century trial for the online medium just as if this were 1950: Calling up my editor and dictating a few paragraphs I've written by hand in my notebook.

Darling, give me rewrite!

• Another Wi-Fi discovery

In my continuing effort to learn more about Wi-Fi Net access, I've stumbled across a terrific weblog -- 802.11b Networking News -- that will be of interest to both novices and experts alike. Despite its techie name, the site is valuable to newbies like me with explanation of Wi-Fi technology and what kind of equipment you need to set up your own wireless network. I particularly liked its review of books on Wi-Fi technology. And it informed me where to go to get a Big Mac, large fry and wireless access.

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Monday, May 6, 2002

• A return to action

I'm trying to resume steady blogging this week during lulls in coverage of the Buddy Cianci trial. Stay tuned.

Melissa's maker heads to jail

I haven't quite figured it out yet, but there's something telling in the fact that it has taken more than three years to sentence the creator of the Melissa virus. In Net time, judgment day for David L. Smith last week was anything but quick and speedy. Those of us who work and play on the Net have long since moved on. For me, it was two jobs ago and before I staked my career on the Web. This long after the fact, I'm tempted to say his sentencing seems pointless, but then I realize it may send a message to other would-be nitwits.

Here's a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey on the matter.

• Fit to print?

NetRunner makes The New York Times.

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