z Easy on the Eyes: A company by the name of Tenax Software Engineering has come up with a nifty trick for folks who read a lot of email - or, for that matter, anything else on a computer screen. Instead of reading from left to right, Tenax's Vortex software pushes words at you in rapid fire, one at a time, in up to 100-point type. You'd think it wouldn't work, but it does, especially for those who have grown up with videogames and MTV. Tenax claims the system reduces eyestrain and has the potential to increase reading speed. To check it out for yourself - turn your eyes toward www.halcyon.com/chigh/vortex.html. z That's Annoying: Speaking of email, the state of Maryland has resuscitated a proposed law that would make it illegal to send "annoying" or "embarrassing" email. The idea generally is this: the law protects peace-loving citizens from unprovoked annoyances in other public spaces, so why not on the Net? Violators could get up to three years in jail or a US$500 fine. Maryland's attempt to rope the digital realm into the same legal jurisdiction as f2f arguments in a public square is probably doomed to failure, but at least the state is wired enough to have the full text available online at mlis.state.md.us/1997rs/billfile/HB0778.htm. z Meanwhile, in Other Courts: As we've previously reported, the NBA has been fighting with Motorola over the right to broadcast real-time basketball scores to Motorola's pager customers. Initially, the NBA won, but in January it lost on Motorola's appeal. Now the NBA plans to appeal to either the full appeals court or the US Supreme Court. Watch this space for updates. z Your Ad Ear: Gratistelefon, a Swedish company, recently began offering its users free telephone calls throughout the country, supported by advertising. This is how it works: you phone a free number, then put your addressee's number into the system. You get an ad while it connects you. Your first minute will include aten-second ad, your next three minutes bring another ten-second spot, and so on, for the rest of the call. A two-town trial generated 30,000 calls a day, according to the Financial Times. For the trial, advertisers paid about five cents per call for the privilege of whispering in folks' ears. z Wise Words Recently Found Floating Round the Net (tip of the hat to New York Times columnist Denise Caruso): "Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network." The speaker? WWW creator Tim Berners-Lee. z Email Growth: According to Forrester Research, email usage in the United States has grown from 2 percent of the population in 1992 to 15 percent in 1997. Five years from now, Forrester predicts the figure will be 50 percent. z No Point: Sun chief Scott McNealy apparently figured out the secret to corporate productivity. He banned Microsoft PowerPoint, that ubiquitous presentation tool favored by sales execs and managers. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, McNealy put it this way: "We had 12.9 gigabytes of Microsoft PowerPoint slides on our network. And I thought, 'What a huge waste of corporate productivity.' So we banned it. And we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since.... Now, I would argue that every company in the world, if they would just ban PowerPoint, would see their earnings skyrocket. Employees would stand around going, 'What do I do? Guess I've got to go to work.'" z
ELECTRIC WORD
Easy on the Eyes
