Just Outta Beta
Community Building Blocks
Starved for adequate tools, many Web-focused firms have moved beyond traditional design work into software engineering. The Apache Group's Web Server and Dimension X's Liquid Reality are two potent examples of compelling products developed out of necessity. Lot 11 Studios, a year-old start-up in Hermosa Beach, California, is the latest shop to shrink-wrap its proprietary code.
Lot 11's new product, Núcleo, includes a suite of small server-side applications dubbed modules. These Web site building blocks - say, an email program, an instant messaging app, or a threaded discussion engine - are used to create fully customizable online spaces. And because Núcleo is object-oriented, these tiny apps can act independently or be strung together in any number of combinations.
Recently, Núcleo was used to construct Stork Site (www.storksite.com/), a place where prospective parents post their experiences, send private advice to friends, and hold online discussions. Since all of the applications reside on the server, expectant moms and dads need only a browser, without fancy plug-ins or peripheral applications.
This summer Lot 11 plans to release a new module, an online Web publishing system used to shepherd online material through the site creation process. Regulating access to content as it's laid out, copyedited, and produced, the module also manages all of the site's other components, from HTML to Java applets and streaming audio.
Lot 11 got its start designing Web sites for individual clients. Simply by virtue of being online early on, the company built tools that were unavailable elsewhere. This trend is noteworthy: the firms crafting the most persuasive Net applications aren't the big corporations that brought you feature-maxed wordprocessors - they're the tiny shops that are bringing online communities in line.
Kenji Morrow
Release: summer. Lot 11: +1 (310) 937 8030.
Withdrawal Method
Withdrawal Method MoneyClip, InteliData's portable smartcard caddy, is shaped like a 3.5-inch diskette. Simply insert a smartcard, pop the contraption into your floppy drive, and start banking. Combined with security, server, and home banking software, this invention turns your PC into an ATM, with ecash only a download away.
Release: fall. InteliData: +1 (703) 834 8500, www.intelidata.com/moneyclip/.
Track Record
Digital dollars burning a hole in your wallet? Partnered with the New York Racing Association, You Bet! will deliver online wagering over closed networks to your home live during horseracing events.
Release: fall. Interactive Broadcasting Corporation: +1 (310) 444 5553, www.youbet.com/.
Red Alert
The new PC game Flying Nightmares 2 sends you into combat at the controls of a Cobra helicopter or a Harrier jet. Developed with US Marine Corps pilots and driven bya new graphics engine, the combat is ultrarealistic.
Release: fall. Eidos Interactive: +1 (415) 547 1200.
Muscle Pictures
In the new book Hot Rod, photographer David Perry rolls out a sepia-toned tribute to the subculture that revolves around drag strips and detailed cars. From the chop shops of East Bakersfield to the salt flats of Bonneville, Perry's lens work captures pure pedal-to-the-metal greed for speed. And souped up with a leadoff short story by renowned author Barry Gifford, this book truly hauls ass.
Release: August. Chronicle Books: +1 (415) 537 3730.
Talk is Cheap
A 30-minute phone call from San Francisco to Paris conventionally costs about US$20. Using Lucent's new Internet Telephony Server, the same call should set you back only 30 cents. The server, of course, uses voice compression to send phone and fax calls over IP networks. Since the call to your ISP is local, the bill should be, too - assuming your service provider isn't also your long distance carrier.
Release: late summer. Lucent: +1 (908) 953 7514.
Moonraker
Comets and meteoroids may have periodically deposited water on the Moon. So NASA's Lunar Prospector will carry a neutron spectrometer, built by Los Alamos National Laboratories, to seek out faint traces of ice. A large supply could be the key to colonization. "If we see water, I suspect the land rush is on," says project leader Bill Feldman.
Release: September. Los Alamos: +1 (505) 667 7000.
