(((((((((((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER )))))))))))))))))
AUGUST 9, 1999
_____________________________SPONSORS_____________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Keynote, WROX Conferences, and UKIBI
__________________________________________________________________
Now with over 75200 subscribers
http://www.webreference.com <- link to us today
http://www.webreference.com/new/ <- archive, subscribe/unsubscribe
New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. SOFTWARE REVIEW: Photoshop 5.5
2. SOFTWARE REVIEW: Fireworks 2 vs. ImageReady 2
3. MOTHER OF PERL: Monitoring Internet Services with Moniker
4. 3D ANIMATION WORKSHOP: A Challenging Model
5. NEW LINKS: Search Resources
6. INTERVIEW: Adobe's Doug Meisner and Karen Gauthier
ImageReady/Photoshop Program Managers
7. OTHER VOICES:
* Dr. Website Makes Perl Jam - webdeveloper.com
* There's Gold in Them There Log Files! - wdvl.com
* Web Server Review - vqServer - serverwatch.com
8. NET NEWS:
* Why Microsoft Hates AOL
* Drugs.com goes for $823,456
* Who's behind that dot-com?
* Online Postage Battle Heating Up
* NBC Answers Net2Phone's Call
* Will Hackers Exploit Y2K Confusion?
* Linux Products Flood In
* RealNetworks Turns Up Volume on RealJukebox
* Domain Registration Test Phase Extended
Looks like we let an old Webmonkey Fireworks 1 vs. ImageReady 1 review
slip through last week. Consider it required reading. We'll make up for it
this week with extensive coverage of Adobe's new offerings, including
reviews and an interview with the product managers of ImageReady 2 and
Photoshop 5.5. See our own comparison of FW1 vs. IR1 see:
http://webreference.com/new/980615.html
Like what you see? Get our front page e-mailed to you every business day
with our HTML newsletter. Just send an e-mail to:
subscribe-html@webreference.com
Spread the word! Feel free to send a copy of this newsletter to your
friends and colleagues, and while you're at it, snap a link to
WebReference.com.
*****************************************************
DID YOU KNOW - As much as $4.35 billion in e-commerce sales in the U.S.
may be lost each year due to slow download speeds!
==> For a FREE 1-week comparative performance appraisal of your web site,
visit http://www.keynote.com/adv/wrn.html <==
Find out how your customers experience doing business on your site from
over 80 locations worldwide! FREE from Keynote, the Internet Performance
Authority. http://www.keynote.com/adv/wrn.html
******************************************************
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. SOFTWARE REVIEW: Photoshop 5.5
Adobe has webified Photoshop 5.5 with a host of useful Web-oriented
features and improved GIF/JPEG/PNG optimization. We explore what's new in
Photoshop 5.5, and delve deeper into the case of the "Lossy GIF." By Andy
King.
http://webreference.com/dev/graphics/photoshop.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. SOFTWARE REVIEW: Fireworks 2 vs. ImageReady 2
We compare these two graphics animation powerhouses using our trusty
animated guinea penguin. Adobe has leap-frogged the competition with its
new "Lossy GIF" feature that gives dramatic reductions in file size with
little or no loss of image quality. By Andy King.
http://webreference.com/dev/gifanim/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. MOTHER OF PERL: Monitoring Internet Services with Moniker
Aggravated because your Web server has decided to take a break? Upset
because your mail server forgot to work? Let Mother of Perl help. In this
issue, we develop Moniker, a monitoring program that don't take no lip.
Just give Moniker your server's name and address, and it'll watch 'em
closer than butter on a hot biscuit.
http://webreference.com/perl/tutorial/6/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. 3D ANIMATION WORKSHOP: A Challenging Model
A one and a two, and a one and a two... Practice makes perfect when it
comes to a really difficult modeling project like making a photorealistic
violin. It requires both strategy and instinct. This column shows how
these are refined through experimentation and planning to create perfect
artistic harmony.
http://webreference.com/3d/lesson72/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. NEW LINKS: Search Resources
Feeling a little lost on the waves of the Internet? Looking for That
special someone or special place? Search before you surf using our handy
list of people/business Webcrawlers.
http://webreference.com/internet/search/peoplebus.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****************************************************
Wrox Press - Professional Web Developer Conference
16 - 18th September 1999, Washington DC
http://www.wroxconferences.com
Position yourself at the cutting edge of Web programming
Understand the technologies that are defining the future:
XML, ASP, ADO, CDO and Site Server.
****************************************************
6. INTERVIEW: Adobe's Doug Meisner and Karen Gauthier
ImageReady/Photoshop Program Managers
To find out more about the new Web features in Photoshop 5.5 and
ImageReady 2 we talked to Adobe's Doug Meisner and Karen Gauthier,
the Program Managers of ImageReady and Photoshop.
WR: I heard from one of your engineers that you used our animated
penguin as a test image?
Doug: Yes, it was one of the images we used as a test file. Our
engineers go to WebReference frequently to see the latest develoments.
WR: How would you differentiate Fireworks 2 from ImageReady 2?
Doug: That's a big one. Let's talk about Lossy GIF. It's a nice
cheater feature that relaxes that lossless rule so you can get
significant savings.
WR: How does the Lossy GIF work?
Doug: We want to be a little fuzzy on that, to not make it too
easy on the competiton. We are allowing errors to occur in the GIF
encoding.
WR: Looking at the individual frames it looks like you are also
doing pixel differencing.
Doug: Yes, and bounding box optimization. There's an option to turn
them off in the animation palette.
Doug: Here's an important tip to tell your readers: when loading an
existing GIF file, the palette is set to "Custom" to preserve the
original color palette. When tweaking images you'll want to reset
the palette to *selective* or perceptual prior to reducing colors.
WR: Explain the perceptual palette.
Doug: It's based on how human eye sees color (for example, our eyes
are more sensitive to green gradations than blue, so we assign more
colors there).
WR: What is your selective palette?
Doug: The selective palette starts with the perceptual palette but is
more sensitive to flat color areas and avoids these being merged
with other colors. It's generally best for Web use. The perceptual
palette is best for smooth-toned images like photographs.
WR: Tell us about the Web snap feature with adjustable Web snappiness.
Doug: This automatically shifts palette colors which are close to a
Web-safe color to the Web color, minimizing browser dither when images
are displayed on 256-color systems. A slider is provided so you can
decide how strongly to do this shifting. It sets a threshold for how
close to a Web-safe color the palette colors must be before being
shifted.
Doug: We pulled Imageready's optimization code into a plug-in used in
Photoshop's "Save for Web" in the file menu.
Karen: The two products are one now. Our objective is to evolve the Web
features from IR into PS as appropriate.
Doug: We found there was an incredible overlap between the users.
WR: Do you plan to add LZW interframe optimization?
Karen: I better let doug take that one.
Doug: The programmers found that the Lossy GIF far outweighed the
gains that we'd get from LZW.
WR: Yeah, LZW optimization can give you about 2%.
WR: What kind of savings do you get from the Lossy GIF feature?
Doug: You can get 5-50%, generally photographic noise increases the
amount you can get. The slider controls the degree of error we
allow the algorithm to introduce, and it's a nonlinear effect.
It sets a tolerance threshold; up to a certain point you won't
notice it and after a threshhold you will.
WR: What's difference between ImageReady 2 vs 1?
Doug: Greatly expanded slicing - you draw rectangles for each slice
and we add the "auto-slices" required to create an HTML table. We
also support rollovers, including automatic support for "secondary
rollovers" in which areas outside the triggering slice change on a
rollover.
WR: Is it still pixel-based?
Doug: Yes, fundamentally we are raster based.
Karen: Shapes were introduced in 2.0, they create a new layer and
can be dragged around like an object.
Doug: The addition of Shapes, Layer Effects, and Styles makes IR2
much more vector-like than IR1.0, letting you efficiently add
bevels, drop shadows, gradients, and re-edit the graphics.
Karen: It is very easy to do buttons now.
WR: Yes, everyone wants to do 3D rollover buttons now.
Doug and Karen, thanks for your time.
Douglas Meisner - ImageReady Program Manager
Karen Gauthier - Photoshop Product Manager
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
******************************************************
Do you want stickier members?
Add a FREE e-address book to your site. Your members get self-updating
address books. Explosive viral marketing. Customizable to your site's
look and feel. Easy to use and synchs with PDA and PC/Mac based address
books. PLUS, free hosting & 100% of the ad revenue. Learn more and
register today at: http://affiliate.ukibi.com
******************************************************
7. OTHER VOICES: Dr. Website Makes Perl Jam, There's Gold in Them
There Log Files!, Web Server Review - vqServer
>Dr. Website Makes Perl Jam
Dr. Website, scourge of computer viruses and bacteria everywhere, returns
with the scoop on how to use the Windows command line and tweak forms
submissions with JavaScript.
http://www.webdeveloper.com/drweb/19990715-drweb.html
>There's Gold in Them There Log Files!
Every Web site has a different set of goals, but there's one thing we all
have in common: We want more traffic! This article is not about any one
traffic-building technique. It's about using your Web server log files to
direct your efforts and measure your success.
http://wdvl.internet.com/Internet/Management/
>Web Server Review - vqServer
If you're running a small Web site from your office or departmental
computer, chiefly for file-sharing purposes -- then vqServer is worth
checking out.
http://serverwatch.internet.com/webserver-vqserver.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8. NET NEWS: Why Microsoft Hates AOL, Drugs.com goes for $823,456,
Who's behind that dot-com?, Online Postage Battle
Heating Up, NBC Answers Net2Phone's Call,
Will Hackers Exploit Y2K Confusion?, Linux
Products Flood In, RealNetworks Turns Up Volume on
RealJukebox, Domain Registration Test Phase Extended
>Why Microsoft Hates AOL
Is it a war of products or a war of words? Microsoft's Internet strategy
increasingly consists of jabs at America Online, the online service king
that Microsoft has never been able to topple.
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,12189,00.html
The Industry Standard, August 9, 1999
>Drugs.com goes for $823,456
Bidding for use of the Internet address Drugs.com jumped wildly every few
minutes before an auction closed with an offer of $823,456. The business
that submitted the winning bid Friday wanted to remain anonymous, but will
be revealed in about a week. Hey, I've got a couple great domains... :)
http://www.greatdomains.com
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560625089-6a9
Infobeat/AP, Aug 8, 1999
>Who's behind that dot-com?
Looking behind registered domain names can often reveal much about
corporate strategy
http://www.msnbc.com/news/296852.asp
MSNBC.com, Aug. 8, 1999
>Online Postage Battle Heating Up
Four companies planning to provide electronic postage services Monday won
final certification from the U.S. Postal Service and will soon learn
whether consumers will be willing to head to the Internet to avoid
standing in lines. Stemps.com took out a full page ad in the NYTimes this
morning.
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,1087,4_178101,00.html
Internetnews.com, Aug. 9, 1999
>NBC Answers Net2Phone's Call
NBC Monday signed a strategic partnership with Internet telephony firm
Net2Phone Inc. to offer the telephony services from its properties:
NBC.com, Snap.com and NBC Interactive Neighborhood.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,1087,3_178711,00.html
Internetnews.com, Aug. 9, 1999
>Will Hackers Exploit Y2K Confusion?
Y2K experts hired to help could wreak havoc instead. As federal officials
warn that year 2000 programmers could covertly introduce malicious code or
install trapdoors, security experts urge organizations to scan their
networks for sabotage before January 1.
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,12186,00.html
Computerworld, August 9, 1999
>Linux Products Flood In
Corel's desktop version will highlight introductions at next week's
LinuxWorld show. Corel and IBM are among the horde of firms expected to
use next week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo to launch or demonstrate new
products based on the popular open-source operating system.
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,12146,00.html
IDG News Service, August 6, 1999
>RealNetworks Turns Up Volume on RealJukebox
RealNetworks today said that it will begin selling an upgrade to
RealJukebox, its popular free computer software for recording digital
music.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-40252,00.html?st.ne.140.head
News.com, August 9, 1999
>Domain Registration Test Phase Extended
Network Solutions and the Commerce Department have agreed to extend the
testing of a competitive system for registering the most popular form of
domain names by another five weeks, and to allow another 52 accredited
registrars to join in the trial. News.com, August 6, 1999
That's it for this week, see you next time.
Andrew King
Managing Editor, WebReference.com
update@webreference.com
Lanie Anderson
Assistant Editor, WebReference.com
landerson@internet.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sponsoring the WebReference Update is a cost effective way to reach
thousands of qualified buyers. E-mail enarsu@internet.com to find out how.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also on Internet.com .... http://www.Internet.com
Guide to Internet Access and the WWW http://www.boardwatch.com
The best Web sites every moment http://www.coolcentral.com
The Reference Desk for Web Marketing http://www.cyberatlas.com
The latest Internet news http://www.internetNews.com
How to do e-commerce on the Internet http://e-comm.internet.com
The Leading Business Internet Magazine http://www.internetworld.com
Java applets: freeware and shareware http://www.javaboutique.com
A free cut & paste JavaScript library http://javascriptsource.com
The definitive high-tech encyclopedia http://www.pcwebopaedia.com
Boost your site's search placement http://searchenginewatch.com
ServerWatch ratings and reviews http://www.serverwatch.com
Download Internet apps 4 WIN 3.x/95/NT http://www.stroud.com
THE list of ISPs with 3,000+ http://www.thelist.com
The Web Developer's Virtual Library http://www.wdvl.com
Web server software comparisons http://www.webcompare.com
WebDeveloper, resources and tips http://www.webdeveloper.com
The developer's guide to webmastery http://www.webreference.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To SUBSCRIBE to the WEBREFERENCE-UPDATE:
1. subscribe@webreference.com or
webreference-update-text-on@list4.internet.com
To UN-SUBSCRIBE from WEBREFERENCE-UPDATE do NOT reply to this message,
instead:
1. unsubscribe@webreference.com or
webreference-update-text-off@list4.internet.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Copyright (c) 1999-2000 Jupitermedia Corp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEBREFERENCE-UPDATE is powered by Lyris(R)
http://www.lyris.com