Entries Tagged 'Internet' ↓

Via a text ad appearing at the top of my own pages I learned that Forte had released Agent 2.0. Agent, a Usenet newsreader, is the oldest Windows application on my PC. It has been with me from Windows 3.1, OS/2, NT and now Windows XP. My use of Usenet has declined as the massive influx of John Q. Public killed the quality of most newsgroups. The flame war may be an art but it is one that bores me.

But I’ve always liked the company and the product so I gave them $15 for an upgrade to a product I bought when I still spent most of my time at the DOS command line. The upgrade seems minimal. My major want, support for multiple news servers in one instance of Agent hasn’t been added. Or graphics viewing. Though they are on the roadmap for the next release.

Even though I don’t have much need for Agent my pleasure in the product made me happy to contribute a small amount to its development.

Forte, Inc.

Originally posted 2004-03-02 12:54:36. Republished by Old Post Promoter

I think we’d have to boycott almost every company of significant size if we were to make the logic of boycotting Yahoo consistent.

The CEO of Web hosting site Freewebs says Americans should boycott Yahoo over the company’s cooperation with the Chinese government, which has helped put several antigovernment bloggers in jail. Shervin Pishevar asked Yahoo CEO Terry Semel this week whether he would have “cooperated with Nazi Germany.”

Should you boycott Yahoo?

Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley

What are consumer expectations when something is free? Realistically, consumers subconsciously assume free means free, and while that might be the initial intent rarely is it the case.

What Exactly Does Free Mean?

Very few things these days are free in the real sense of the word. There are very few free items that do not have any strings attached.

Why do Companies Offer Things for Free?

Companies or individuals may promote a free offer or service for any number of reasons. From branding to ad revenue, companies often use “free” to attract attention or interest. As a consumer, it is important to realize what “free” might really mean.

Reasons Things Are Free:

Linking

Continue reading →

Author: Ms. Aditi Singh, M.A. (Psychology), M. Phil. (Medical & Social Psychology)

MODELS OF IAD

Clinical research on behavioral addictions has focused on compulsive gambling (8), overeating (11), and compulsive sexual behavior (12). Similar addiction models have been applied to technological overuse (24), computer dependency (25) and obsessive video game playing. These theories include psychodynamic and personality explanations, socio-cultural explanations, behavioral explanations, and biomedical explanations (26). Not all explain any addiction perfectly and some are better than others at explaining Internet addiction.

Diathesis-stress model

A dispositional model or diathesis-stress model of addiction might help in understanding IAD. Certain people, due to a variety of factors, may be predisposed (diathesis) to developing an addiction to something, be it alcohol, heroin, gambling, sex, shopping, or on-line computer services. If the right stressor, or combination of stressors, affects the person at a critical time, the person may be more inclined to develop an addiction.

Behavioral explanations

Continue reading →

Author: Ms. Aditi Singh, M.A. (Psychology), M. Phil. (Medical & Social Psychology)

What is Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD)?

The World Wide Web is informative, convenient, and fun. There are varying opinions on the subject of Internet addiction. Recent reports indicate that some on-line users are becoming addicted to the Internet in the similar way that others became addicted to drugs, alcohol, or gambling, which resulted in academic failure (1,2), reduced work performance (3) and even marital discord and separation (4). As the Internet increasingly becomes part of our lives, Internet addiction disorder has received much attention. The term Internet Addiction Disorder was coined by psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg. Those who are addicted to Internet may withdraw from social and interpersonal interactions other than those on the Internet. Their family relationships and academic or occupational functioning may deteriorate.

Internet Addiction Disorder: Myth or Reality?

Continue reading →

Francesca Rosella an Italian designer who runs a company called CuteCircuit has developed a special t-shirt for those of us in long distance relationships. May prove popular among people who use online dating services.

The T-shirt simulates the missing partner’s breath, touch and heartbeat.

The ‘F+R Hugs’ T-shirt has fitted sensors that the designer claims realistically simulate a partner’s caress.

It is based on information on body temperature, heart beat and touch transmitted by mobile phone.

Hugging T-shirt invented

Moment I saw the Google Web Accelerator mentioned I went and installed it.

Later on I got a couple of proxy server errors though I don’t use one. Though the GWA may set itself up as one.

This morning any attempt to visit a website brought nothing but proxy errors. I had to rush on to work so I didn’t look into it.

Same problem when I got home. Turned off the Web Accelerator and the problem vanished.

There are problem settings I could fiddle with but my Time Warner Cable modem is fast enough for what I do which is almost all text (no music, movies, games).

Once Google’s engineers have worked on it some more I’ll give it another shot.

For more informed comment on the tool read these comments.

Yet more: Google Web Accelerator: Hey, not so fast – an alert for web app designers

An Introduction to ROR (Resources of a Resource)

Author: The Add Me Team

*** What is ROR? ROR (Resources of a Resource) is an XML format for describing the content, objects, and structure of websites in a generic fashion so search engines and other web applications can find and understand information more easily.

For example if your website is selling products, ROR enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images, availability, affiliate programs, etc. Or if your site or blog provides information on a given topic, it allows you to describe how this information is organized (sitemap, topics, categories, new information, archive, blogroll, etc). ROR also provides terms for documenting objects such as contacts, articles, newsletters, feeds, images, audio, links, reviews, privacy policy, copyrights, and more.

*** ROR File ROR information can be easily added to your website by adding a ROR File called ror.xml. ROR is actually quite simple. It is built on top of RDF, the W3 Resource Description Language (http://www.w3.org/RDF). If you are not familiar with RDF, don’t worry, we won’t go into any details here.

With ROR, all objects are represented by a <Resource> tag, and can optionally have a <type> property to determine the type (or class) of the object (e.g. Product, Article, etc). The other properties are determined by the type you choose. Here is a simple example of a Product object described by ROR:

Continue reading →

Author: Jesse S. Somer

Web sites are places to get to know and understand each other as real people. Web sites are not just places to sell things; they are a medium where people can get insight into other people’s lives. Take the musician Xavier Rudd for example. I recently saw this guy play at a concert and had never previously heard his music. He was really cool, literally blowing me away with his many skills, beautiful music, positive energy, and humble attitude. So being thus affected, I decided to check out if he had a website on the Internet. After finding his site (http://www.xavierrudd.com/) I automatically got to become more acquainted with the man, not as a fan looking up to a so-called ‘star’, but as a human being receiving real insight into the workings of another individual in our global human community.

Continue reading →

Author: Ieuan Dolby

The World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW came across as a veritable information highway where documents, data and info could be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over. The potential behind the web is enormous and even now the scope is not fully utilized. The possibilities for growth, for extended usage, are available and enormous yet the system is stagnating and it is very possible that people will soon turn away. The average person seeking information may well return to old-fashioned libraries and the good old book to find the information that they require if the face and image of the WWW is not altered very soon and in-line with customer demand.

The ability of any user to gain information from the Internet is enormous, simple and with positive results. But the information received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be with aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the website involved.

Continue reading →