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The News – 11/09/00
Is the Web a Good ASP Platform?
Here’s a good way to get some
publicity: Do what the new ASP named 7 (stupid name alert) did. Challenge
the assumption that the Web can provide decent quality of service and be
reliable enough for application delivery. Instead, 7 will run leased lines
to the businesses it serves. The UK ASP launched this week.
Naturally, other ASPs are up in arms,
but Sun more or less agreed that some apps can be delivered reliably over
the Web. A poll
of European IT directors by Rhetorik found that 70 percent were concerned
about security, and more than half worried about reliability of ASP
applications.
It’s an interesting debate, and one
we’ll hear more about as more and more companies move their businesses to
the Web.
Silicon.com original story
Silicon.com followup story
News Websites Not Up to Election Pressure
Drudgereport.com, MSNBC.com, and Voter.com all had problems handling
the volume as voters flocked to the Web for the latest news. There were
similar problems four years ago, and the sites had vowed they’d handle it
this time.
Silicon.com
Who does Microsoft turn to when they want to run their business
application? AS/400.
This is such poetic justice. Dr. Frank Soltis, the IBM
engineer who has been called "the AS/400's Elvis," (you know,
fat, puffy, drug-addicted – I guess that’s what they mean) related the
story of a software company that turned in their 23 AS/400s and fired up
1,200 NT machines to replace them. Now that company is back on AS/400,
having despaired of getting the NT solution to work. The company?
Microsoft. It’s just too good to be true.
Midrange Computing
Secure Music Delivery On the Way?
The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) issued a $60,000
challenge to hackers to try to break six proposed security schemes for
secure digital music delivery. The group claims that three of the
technologies survived the challenge, while two of the other three were
hacked successfully.
SDMI did not reveal the identities of the successful schemes,
but San Diego, Calif.-based Verance Corp. claimed its watermarking
technology was one of the challenge survivors. And Princeton University and
Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) claim to have defeated the four
technologies using digital watermarking, contrary to SDMI’s claim. The
Princeton/PARC group claims SDMI is using a technicality, the fact that the
group reserved the right to publish their results and thus were ineligible
for the prize, to avoid acknowledging their success.
Political much?
eMarketer
Get Ready for Wireless Ads, But Watch Out For Norm
This article by Dan Briody is alarming in a couple of ways.
First, he details plans to bombard us with ads on our wireless phones
(analysts predict a $750 million wireless advertising market by 2005), and
he allows that he’d welcome them if they’d knock $20 off his phone bill.
But even more alarming is his tale of visiting the restroom at
a tony New York restaurant only to be assaulted by an audio ad featuring
Norm MacDonald. Truly terrifying: Are we not to be given a moment’s peace?
Even more depressing is the news of a European study that found
that users are receptive to the idea of wireless ads. Of course, the study
was done on behalf of cell phone vendor Ericsson, but 40 percent of 5,000
Swedish subjects found the advertising compelling, and 20 percent wanted
more information after viewing the ads.
Where’s the mute button?
Red Herring
Listen to the Web
Hear the wave. InternetSpeech introduced its NetEcho service
that will read you Web pages over your phone. Now we’re getting somewhere.
This service promises to trump more limited offerings like TellMet.
But will the audio Web change the way Web pages are designed?
Are your pages audio-friendly? Could this be the demise of overly Flash-y
pages? Stay tuned. (Incidentally, competing voice portal Talk2’s site is
fronted by a Flash animation. Ironic?)
PC
World
Ad Age
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