182 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
182 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 6, no. 12
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December 1995
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The Library
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1995/cc95.6.12.html
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Contributors:
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Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
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David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
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Electronic Publishing
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Bank, David. "The Java Saga" WIRED 3.12 (December 1995):
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166-169, 238-246. -- A fairly detailed description of the
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five year development of Sun Microsystem's object-oriented
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programming language, Java. Growing out of a project to
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build a 'simple computer for normal people' to control
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everyday appliances, Java, originally known as Oak, is now
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poised to become the "DOS of the Internet." After unsuccessful
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bids for interactive TV and CD-ROM development deals in 1993,
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Java seems to have found its niche in the Internet. Java is
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platform-independent and secure, enabling a distributed
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computing environment that Sun hopes can challenge the software
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monopoly currently held by Microsoft. Sun is giving away Java
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and the HotJava browser and licensing it to huge players like
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Netscape hoping to make Java the standard before competing
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technologies (most notably, Microsoft's Blackbird) arrive on
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the scene. [Note: On Dec. 7, Microsoft announced its intent to
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license Java] -- CJC
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Stowe, David W. "Just Do It: How to Beat the Copyright Racket"
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Lingua Franca 6(9) (November/December 1995):32-42. -- If one
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can call an article on copyright "entertaining" then it is
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an adjective that I will apply to this one. Stowe's irreverent
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writing style and copyright permission anecdotes make this an
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engaging as well as informative read. But if you are looking
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for permission to put up electronic copies of articles, don't
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look here for it. He's talking about scholars quoting
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(reasonably, not wholesale) from published works in their own
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academic publications. -- RT
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Networks and Networking
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Atkins, Robert. "The Art World & I Go Online" Art in America
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83(12) December 1995: 58-65, 109. -- The author offers a guide
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to international art resources in digital media. The guide is
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also an analysis of different media employed to deliver art
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information (or in some cases native digital art itself), as
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well as evaluation of content. Many specific sites and
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projects are mentioned to allow follow up on the reading with
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the reader's own tour through the cyber galleries of cultural
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heritage information. -- RR
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Cortese, Amy. "The Software Revolution" Business Week
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(December 4, 1995):78-90.
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[http://www.businessweek.com/week49/bw49toc.htm] --
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If this cover story is to be believed, the future of
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software will be program components delivered on demand
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to stripped-down PCs connected to the Internet. The
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technologies that are promising this future include Sun
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Microsystem's Java computer language and Netscape's
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Navigator Web client. Those who stand to win in this
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scenario include small developers and software houses who
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are unable to break the hold that Microsoft has on the
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market. Those presumed to lose big include Microsoft, which
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has any number of individuals and smaller corporations
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ecstatic over Java's possibilities. No matter what happens
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to Java, it seems apparent that there is a sea change toward
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a different software paradigm -- one that the industry has
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been moving toward with the development of such things as
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OpenDoc (Apple sponsored) and OLE (Microsoft). But the
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Internet may be poised to deliver that paradigm (applet by
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applet) in a manner unpredicted by most and feared by some.
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-- RT
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Courtois, Martin P., William M. Baer, and Marcella Stark,
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"Cool Tools for Searching the Web" ONLINE 19(6) (November/
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December 1995):15-32. -- One of the most difficult choices
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facing a user of the World Wide Web is which search tool
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to use from among the couple dozen that are available.
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Although hampered by the long publishing cycle of print
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publications (the article lacks information on Inktomi and
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Excite, both recently released search tools), this is an
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excellent and thorough review of seven Web search tools.
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Besides the handy chart of features, the authors provide
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some excellent sidebars (including one on sites that offer
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"one-stop" searching of multiple tools) in addition to the
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descriptive text. Anyone wanting to know more about the
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different Web search options would do well to sit down
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with this article and their favorite Web client. The URLs
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alone are well worth tracking down this article. -- RT
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Optical Disc Technology
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Beiser, Karl. "Getting From There to Here: Remote Access
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in the Internet Era" ONLINE 19(6)(November/December 1995):
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105-108. -- Speaking from personal experience as the
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coordinator of a statewide CD-ROM union catalog project,
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Beiser outlines various problems and strategies related
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to providing remote access to DOS CD-ROM products over a
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TCP/IP wide area network connection. Among the options
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considered: EA/2+OS/2, TSX-BBS, Linux with DOS, UNIX+BBS,
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Major BBS, and BBSnet. -- TR
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Notess, Greg R. "Using CD-ROMs with the Internet" ONLINE
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19(6) (November/December 1995):40-44. -- Notess explores
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two ways CD-ROM can be used in conjunction with the
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Internet for information prospecting: 1) a CD-ROM can
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accompany a book with any in-text URLs, and 2) a CD-ROM
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can be used to store a major Internet index and search
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engine. In regard to the former, readers have the best of
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both worlds. They can "curl up in their favorite chair to
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read about interesting sites on the Internet, but when it
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is time to get on the Net, they can pop the CD-ROM in its
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drive and jump easily to the actual sites described in
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book." The most popular Internet index and search engine
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on CD-ROM is the SuperHighway Access CyberSearch CD-ROM
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which combines the small Lycos database of Internet
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resources and Frontier's SuperHighway Access Web browser.
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The upshot of the CD-ROM over the online version is there
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are no lines, no wait or unexpected network crashes. Of
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course the major drawback to both of these innovative
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online/CD-ROM hybrids is update frequency. Unless they
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are updated regularly, the information fast becomes
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obsolete, rendering the discs useless. -- TR
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General
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"Constant Craving" The Economist (November 11, 1995): 81-82,
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94. -- This article, in the Science and Technology section,
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addresses recent research in mass storage and long-term
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storage of information. Especially with digital information,
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formats and strategies for long-term information storage &
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preservation of substantive amounts of data plague information
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specialists. There are many ways to tackle the problem: talk
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about mechanisms for refreshing data periodically, software
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based solutions such as SGML for certain information formats,
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and hardware storage solutions that are stable. This article
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covers the latter, with formats from multi-layered information
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in semi-transparent cubes read by laser, to micro-etched metal
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which does not even require a computer or software, just a
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powerful magnifier. -- RR
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 6(12) (December 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of
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California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
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of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this
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publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
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product.
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[URL:http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/]
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To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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listproc@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]"
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with your name. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use
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by computerized bulletin board/conference systems, individual
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scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the
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journal to their collections at no cost. An archive site is
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maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites
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[URL:ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires
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permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following
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ways:
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // (510)642-8173
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