I said back on …

I said back on May 31 that we should probably expect the Internet to fracture into two separate networks: a Microsoft one and a non-Microsoft one. Now the Smart Tags issue has people thinking this same thing. This is probably exactly what Microsoft wants. They’ve realized that they can’t compete with the open-standards based Internet, so instead of competing they simply will supplant it with their own proprietary technologies. Unfortunately, this means that we’ll likely be right back where we started and will be building two versions of our sites: one for the Microsoft Internet, with Smart Tags, .Net services hooks, etc. and one for the non-Microsoft Internet. Sigh…

Despite the controversial nature of ORBS, I did notice an increase in spam this past week, which is probably directly related to the shutdown of ORBS. This is an excellent article, as always, from Salon’s Damien Cave.

This NY Times article about the signage at the NYC airports is pretty good. What they are really talking about is called wayfinding, a specialized field of study that ties information design, graphic design, and environmental engineering together. Most large public building projects like hospitals and airports spend several years working with architecture firms that specialize in wayfinding, mapping out foot traffic paths, creating uniform signage, and studying how people will find their way about a large building complex they are not familiar with. I have always been fascinated with how some of the core principles of wayfinding have mapped almost directly to that of the information architecture of large web sites. How do you find your way in an unfamiliar building? How do you find your around an unfamiliar web site?

Here is another excellent Greg Palast article about the untold story of how the Presidential election was decided by the decisions of the Florida government.

Linux.com Security: Introduction to Port Scanning

Hypocrite. Dave Winer, over at Userland allegedly threatens to sue a company over the use of the word “Radio” in their product. Userland also has a product that uses the word “Radio.” Now, Dave is working on a new piece of software called Smurf Turf. Somehow, I doubt that I.M.P.S., the trademark owner for all things Smurf, will approve of Dave’s new name and the use of a Smurf likeness in the logo. Perhaps Smurf Turf is a code name, and the software will eventually be named something else. We’ll see. Update: Dave confirms it’s a code name. Anyway, just giving Dave a taste of his own medicine. Tastes pretty nasty, doesn’t it Dave?

O’ReillyNet: .NET on Linux: Will they or won’t they?

Tim O’Reilly: Lee Gomes on Jxta

Posted by Cameron Barrett at June 10, 2001 04:24 PM

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