Thursday, July 29, 1999

IMPP mail list: AOL technical staff will actively participate in the working group.

Thanks to Lawrence Lee for digging this up.

News.Com: "AOL said it's willing to work with companies to link its IM program with their networks as long as the connection is secure. Microsoft's MSN Messenger program asks people for their AOL usernames and passwords, which AOL says jeopardizes the security of members' data, such as billing information." The group includes Marc Andreessen, Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Joy (Sun), Rob Glaser (Real Networks), Eric Schmidt (Novell).

Jakob Nielsen: Metcalfe's Law in Reverse.

One more time!

DaveNet: Elderly White Male Pundits.

Marcia Harris sees a notable lack of clear thinking in reponses to Dvorak's article.

Be-Opera Now in Beta. Free 30-day trial. Screen shot.

This is definitely the hot link of the day. From the Borland Museum website you can download antique versions of Turbo C and Pascal. It's as if Philippe Kahn wrote the copy himself. Those were the good old days. Borland sure knew how to market software! It's incredible that they've captured this on the web.

WSJ: Net firms do it for free.

NY Times: The Walkman Turns Twenty. "In the United States, Sony has offered models called Freq and Psyc. Aimed at teen-agers, the Psyc line clips to a belt or backpack. Some Psyc models are molded of the same translucent blues and greens as the iMac computer."

Wired editorial on Dvorak. "'I am computer geek!' he is yelling, 'hear me roar!' Dvorak, secure in his elderly, white male punditry, understands this in a way that sandal-wearing, veggie-munching Steve Jobs doesn't." I liked Dvorak's piece. It was a refreshing change from PC-as-Usual.

I sent this letter to the editor of Wired in response to their editorial.

USA Today: Feds To Seek Microsoft Breakup?

I downloaded and installed Microsoft's instant messaging client. My email address is davewiner@hotmail.com. Not sure if that's all you need to contact me via chat. Question, since Microsoft is a proponent of open APIs, is the API for their client open? Can I write a server for it? What's the protocol?

From this posting on an IETF mail list, it's clear that Microsoft's Instant Messaging software is no more open than AOL's.