The Internet Digest is a publication for Webmasters, HTML programmers, Corporate Web Page Designers, Netsurfers, and anyone interested in learning more about the internet. Internet Digest is a convenient way for you to stay informed of valuable resources on the Internet. Internet Digest Focuses on helping you with page design basics, and explaining HTML and how the Web works, and the technical aspects of running, administering, and marketing WorldWideWeb sites.
THIS WEEK TOP STORY
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AT&T Offers Free 1-Year Internet Access To Homes
AT&T is offering local telephone dial-up Internet access and as a special one-year trial offer will give its residential customers free access to the Internet for the next year. Its WorldNet Service at a flat monthly rate of $19.95 for unlimited access by AT&T customers, including business customers.
Under the trial offer, AT&T consumer long-distance customers who enroll in AT&T WorldNet Servicein 1996 get their first five hours a month of Internet use free for a year, with no minimum subscription
fee. It will offer two plans for non-AT&T consumers, with one priced at $4.95 a month for the first three hours of access and $2.50 for each additional hour, and a second unlimited service plan priced at $24.95 a month with no further hourly charges.
AT&T says its offer of five hours of free Internet access for its residential customers generated a huge response--so much so that those wanting to talk to a representative were told to call back. In a six
hour period following Tuesday's announcement of the pricing and availability of the AT&T WorldNet service, the company logged 5,200 calls with 3,500 orders for free browser software.
Oracle $500 Network Computer
Chief executive and founder, Larry Ellison, predicted a sales mark of more than 100 million NCs in the year 2000. UUNET, USA Networks Show TV On Internet
UUNET Technologies and USA Networks to provide simultaneous broadcast of USA's Sci-Fi Channel programming over both cable television and the Internet. Viewers will be able to see clips of science fiction programming from USA on the network's Web site, called "The Dominion," which runs on UUNET's computer network. Internet Commerce Growing At 400% A Year
Sales of goods and services over the Internet computer network this year are expected to reach $255 billion, a fivefold increase from 1995, a new study says. Steve Young, director of INPUT's Electronic Commerce Program Sprint Offers Dial-up Intranet Service
Sprint says it will offer commercial Intranet dial-up service using a dedicated,
native Internet protocol-based system. Sprint Intranet Dial Service will provide customers with dial-up access to corporate Intranets, the so
called "private Internets." New Info Speed Record: 1 Trillion Bits A Second
Three separate groups of researchers have succeeded for the first time in transmitting information at a rate of 1 trillion bits a second through an optical fiber. The achievement is the equivalent of transmitting the contents of 300 years' worth of daily newspapers in a single second, or conveying 12 million telephone conversations simultaneously through a wire made of glass. Scientists said that while there might be no need to transmit so much information over a single fiber in the foreseeable future, the techniques demonstrated in the experimental transmissions would be applied commercially in a few years to provide cheaper and more voluminous communications. The experiments were carried out by Fujitsu Ltd., the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., and a team from AT&T Research and Lucent Technologies, both of which were formerly parts of Bell Laboratories. Apple Computer to kill its eWorld online service on March 31
According to a memo distributed to content providers. "Apple has made the decision not to move eWorld to an Internet-based service, but rather to discontinue the eWorld online service and greatly expand Apple's presence on the Web," the memo said. Online subscriber lists keep growing and growing
Subscriptions to online services soared tonearly 15 million in 1995, according to Electronic Information Report's Year-End Online Subscriber Survey. The industry posted a net gain of more than 5.7 million subscribers last year, according to the survey. Driven by the explosive popularity of the World Wide Web and the increasing number of newbies dipping a toe into cyberspace, consumer services increased 86.8% to reach 11.4 million subscribers at the end of 1995. America Online was the leading consumer service, finishing the year with 4.5 million subscribers, a 200% gain from 1.5 million subscribers at the end of 1994. AOL had grown to 5 million by February and has predicted it will have 10 million customers by the end of 1997. Among business services, the report said, Lexis-Nexis was king with 744,000 subscribers,followed by Dow Jones News Retrieval with 233,000. Internet Explorer 3.0 to hit alpha
Microsoft will start seeding developers with alpha copies of Internet Explorer 3.0, the final release of Version 3.0 will ship in the third quarter. The Redmond, Washington, company signed a letter of intent in December to license Sun Microsystems' Java programming language. Fill out FedEx forms online
Federal Express may soon be able to process their shipping requests via a new FedEx Web site. The company, which already lets customers track packages from its Web site, will soon add the capability to fill out package shipping information online and print the airbill from a standard laser printer, complete with bar-coded label. The service, called interNetShip, would mean the end of having to fill out individual FedEx airbills for each package shipped.
Pepsi World http://www.pepsi.com/
A revolutionary entertainment-based Web site that combines breakthrough technology with powerful content. The site features movie previews, original interactive games, Net-promotions and much more. Pepsi World appeals to a broad spectrum of interests, while still maintaining the niche it needs to appeal to the "hard-core" Web user. The Real Kramer http://www.bway.net/~kramer/
The Kramer the character's based on, who will share his inside information and treat you to some of his famous Pizza. Find out what's actual, what's factual and what's fantasy in the world of Seinfeld. The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com
The New York Times has an Internet edition. "I Love Lucy" on Web http://www.mtwinc.com/~brettsch/Trivia/
Take the "I Love Lucy" Trivia Challenge which features a new question about the classic sitcom each day. It's the Adventures of America's Favorite Loser! http://www.calpoly.edu/~ttokuuke/loser.html Yes, he's a loser! He's a loser, and he lives
upstairs! Oooooooh .... he's a loser, yes, he's a loser, and he's a neighbor of mine! (sing-along)
Status codes http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/HTRESP.html
The values of the numeric status code to HTTP requests are as follows. The data sections of messages Error, Forward and redirection responses may be used to contain human-readable diagnostic information. Internet Errors Explained http://www.cnet.com/Resources/Tech/Advisers/Error/
For a more user-friendly explanation, you can point visitors or users to Internet Errors Explained from c|Net, which displays an unintimidating, easy-to-follow presentation. Lycos Inc http://www.lycos.com
Lycos rolled out a new search service designed to help users track down World Wide Web sites. The new service, dubbed a2z, is incorporated into the company's existing Web site. It features 16 search categories. The service also allows users to sort responses from search queries based on the popularity or quality of Web sites. Sites are ranked by popularity by the number of other sites that have hot-linked into the site. The company uses reviews generated by its Point subsidiary, acquired in October 1995, to rank the quality of each site.
Mac Navigator with Java
Netscape is one step closer to adding a Macintosh version of its Netscape Navigator 2.0 browser complete with support for Java applets. The company posted a Beta 1 version of the Java-compatible browser for the Power Macintosh to its site this past Saturday. The beta runs only on Power Macs. The beta copy is currently available from a Netscape ftp server accessible from the company's Web site. The company may move the software to another ftp server. Colors of the Web http://www.sgi.com
Silicon Graphics Inc. announced a new technology called Cosmo Color, aimed at controlling the color of images delivered via the Web. The SGI technology works only on its WebFORCE line of Web servers, using Java- aware browsers on the client end. SGI will have a demonstration of the technology next month on its Web site. Creative Media Cauldron Releases Java Tools for Web Development http://www.brainlink.com/~cauldron/
nternet surfers can sample the growing Plug-In Playlets componentware suite, which currently consists of tools for Streaming Animation, Hot Button Panels, Temporal Imagemaps, and Invisible Download. The site opens with a streaming animation of the Cauldron "friend", featuring progressive playback of frames as they are downloaded. The Hot Buttons feature multiple graphical and sonic states on rollover. The Temporal Imagemap is an innovative twist on multimedia interaction. It presents a series of navigational choices over time, instead of space. Invisible Download is a solution for graphics-intensive sites. It allows the developer to specify that graphics will be downloaded to the user's machine before they are requested. The HotJava Browser version 1.0 alpha3 http://www.javasoft.com/hotjava.html Hack Chat http://alamak.speakeasy.org/hackchat.html
This chat is very simple but easy to install on your homepage. It requires perl and that the web server allow cgi in your web directory. You need to have a homepage and a web account on a machine connected to the internet full time to make best use of Hack Chat. Texture Mapping in VRML 1.0 http://www.ywd.com/cindy/texture.html
This page is to describes how textures ought to work if you follow the VRML 1.0\ spec, not necessarily how they actually do work. Many of the browsers out there only support part of the spec, and a few probably don't support it correctly. The examples posted here have been tested with WebSpace 1.1 for SGI which seems to support the spec fairly well. WebGround - Free background textures http://www.ip.pt/webground/ Go Net-Wide... http://www.shout.net/~whitney/html/gopublic.html
Direct Links to Web Site URL Submission Forms for Essential Internet Resources
Putting your site on the Internet map - By Jeffrey Frentzen http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/navigator/0219/nav0219.html Survey Says: More Time Online, More Likely To Buy http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/daily/960223c.html The Big Book http://www.bigbook.com/
Appropriately describes itself as "a new kind of Yellow Pages." In addition to phone numbers for 11 million businesses around the country, you'll find an interactive street-level map,
World Wide Web advertising revenues totaled $4.5 million In January, a 4.2% drop from $4.7 million in December, according to Electronic Marketplace Report (EMR). Although advertisers continue to flock to the Web, the revenue downturn signals that they may not be convinced they're getting their money's worth. "It's still difficult to measure the effectiveness of advertising on the Web. Many advertisers are dropping out from month to month if their expectations are not met," said Karen Burka, EMR editor. EMR surveys the leading ad-supported Web sites each month, estimating ad revenues based on average ad rates and total number of advertisers. In January, 13 leading Web sites had estimated ad revenues of $3.8 million.