Jeudi 29 août 2002

Ooops! WordPerfect Gets New Life in Deal With 2 PC Makers. Just as WordPerfect, the once-popular word processing software, was at risk of slipping from the computer world's consciousness, it is set to appear on millions of new screens. By Bernard Simon. [New York Times: Technology]   8:25:05 PM  Permalien

Colin Powell: la colombe de la Maison-Blanche Powell: Bush's loyal dissenter [Christian Science Monitor] Comme d'habitude, un excellent article du meilleur quotidien au monde, le Christian Science Monitor, sur le rôle décisif que peut jouer Colin Powell dans la politique étrangère américaine. Étrange de constater que les militaires de sa trempe sont souvent les meilleurs amis de la paix et d'une solution non-militaire. Il faut dire que ceux-ci connaissent véritablement le vrai pouvoir des armes... 8:13:54 PM  Permalien

Une réponse de Google à Monsieur Anti-Google Google Responds - Comments on Mr. Anti-Google Articles. Responses to the Salon, SearcheEngineWatch, and SlashDot articles about Google-watch.org. [WebmasterWorld] 8:04:37 PM  Permalien

SPIP 1.4 Finalement, après plusieurs mois d'attente, la nouvelle version de SPIP (1.4), un outil de gestion de contenus dynamique et automatisé en français et à code source libre (licence GPL), est à la veille de voir le jour. Formidable! Mais de plus, certains spipeurs ont même réalisé un outil d'assistance SPIP pour Dreamweaver qui fonctionne très bien. À vos fureteurs les spipeurs! 6:35:10 PM  Permalien

Monsieur Anti-Google Watching Google Watch. Salon.com: Meet Mr. Anti-Google, an article about the man behind Google-Watch (unfortunately it seems his server is down). The article mostly matches my experiences with him (although he's been rather rude to me). I'd like to note that it would be easy for Google to store only the user's preferences in their cookie ("I like English but not SafeSearch"), but instead they also store an identifying code ("I am user 575245214585"). I tend to think Brandt should focus on building a better web site than complaining to Google about things. Maybe I'm just thick but I couldn't figure out what namebase did from their front page (archive cache). They also ask Google not to cache their pages, which makes them hard to use when the server is down (like now). I agree with his contention that PageRank isn't a "democracy" but I don't think we'd want it to be either. PageRank is a meritocracy, where you get the best page, not the most popular. I think that's what we want. I'm sympathetic to the fact that Google has become extremely important and I do think they should be far more open to the public (I'd even go so far to say that they should be come a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation -- I'm sure they'd get plenty of donations) but the fact is that building a search engine isn't all that difficult. As Raph Levien has said, Google's competitors have been kind enough to just go in the corner and die. If you think your system will get better results than Google's, go build it and show us like Page and Brin did at Stanford years ago.... [Google Weblog] Et la discussion qui s'ensuit sur Pssst! 6:33:21 PM  Permalien

Crédibilité sur le Web The Web Credibility Project: Guidelines - Stanford University. Reading Spartaneity drew my attention back to Stanford'sWeb Credibility Project where you can read detailed explanations of and research behind these guidelines: Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site. Show that there's a real organization behind your site. Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site's credibility. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site. Make it easy to contact you. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose). Make your site easy to use [~] and useful. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently). Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers). Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem. Most of these seem to boil down to (a) showing the human beings behind the site, and (b) taking your site seriously and demonstrating your commitment to its quality. [Radio Free Blogistan] Ce qui répond, soit dit en passant, à la mission de bien de carnets. 6:30:53 PM  Permalien

Apple Newton: alive and well and kicking Bien avant le Palm et le Pocket PC, régnait sur le monde des assistants numériques personnels, l'Apple Newton. En avance sur son temps, le Newton est toujours considéré comme un précurseur. Et encore aujourd'hui, les aficionados du Newton refusent de le laisser disparaître. Vous en désirez un? Pas de problème. 6:12:07 PM  Permalien