| JUST OUTTA BETA
| Beyond the Firewall
| Fight for Your Right to Live
When Network Associates rolls out its security product code-named Honey Pot, hackers will have to deal with more than firewalls and intrusion-detection systems. Honey Pot sets up a mock network superficially identical to the target system. The idea is to lure hackers to the decoy, waste their time, and gather information about them.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: fall. Network Associates: +1 (408) 988 3832. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
It's AD2999, and war has become not only an effective means of winnowing the world's population, but also an exciting form of televised entertainment. In this new prime-time spectacle, opposing armies take to a battlefield to fight for survival and stardom. Such is life, or death, for the players of WarTorn, developed by the Australian firm Eyst, and it promises to be the best real-time strategy game since Bungie's Myth.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: September. Impact Interactive Publishing: +61 (2) 9674 7399. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Web surfing with a PDA requires patience, extra hardware, and a good deal of imagination. That's because today's handhelds lack the horsepower needed to combine complex HTML and graphics into neatly formatted pages. Thus, existing PDA browsers are slow applications unable to handle common Web features such as JPEGs, SSL encryption, and image maps.
ProxiWeb, a new browser for the PalmPilot, manages these resource-sapping tasks with ease, using just 100K of RAM. Made by the Berkeley-based start-up ProxiNet, the product uses a proxy server that intercepts and digests pages before your Pilot ever sees them. When you request a page, the server reformats the HTML and converts any pictures to 2-bit grayscale images. After the proxy does the heavy lifting, the processed data is transferred to the Pilot, which handles the lightweight task of simply displaying the Web page.
Using proxy servers to cache and convert complex data will also speed up surfing on other thin clients, such as set-top boxes, pagers, and mobile phones. And with a handheld PC version of ProxiWeb nearing beta, the proxy market has begun to heat up: Browser veteran Spyglass recently started licensing a similar technology called RemoteMosaic. But for now, ProxiNet enjoys the enviable position of being first to market.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: late summer. ProxiNet: +1 (510) 649 3600. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Web business-models rarely cross over to other communications mediums – if only because there aren't many proven moneymaking ideas on the Net. But the Seattle-based outfit Network 3H3 believes that advertising-supported phone service, akin to the concept pioneered by free email services such as Hotmail, can be used to offer customers discounted rates.
Network 3H3, which conducted a pilot test in Seattle a couple years ago, plans to roll out Tele-Helper in several national markets this month. Customers dial in to a Tele-Helper phone number, listen to a five-second advertisement, and then place calls through the company's network. In exchange for enduring the brief pitch and filling out a lengthy questionnaire, dialers get free voicemail, caller ID, and caller-ID blocking, as well as free or discounted long distance service.
While it's unclear whether consumers want to trade cheap service for a mild inconvenience and a loss of privacy, marketers are sure to love Network 3H3. Because the customer survey covers everything from a caller's TV-viewing habits to financial-investing patterns, advertisers will be able to tailor their hard sells to specific individuals.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: September. Network 3H3: +1 (206) 515 2000. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
The Legend of Zelda is legendary not only because it promises to be the most visually immersive game for the Nintendo 64, but also because its ever receding release date has become a bellwether of the fate of the platform itself. Designed by renowned artist Shigeru Miyamoto, the fantasy-adventure title finally appears to be nearing market. The wait should be worth it: Using 256 megabits of memory, it's by far the largest and most ambitious game released for the N64.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: November. Nintendo: +1 (425) 885 7529. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
In The Language of Mathematics, Keith Devlin takes readers on a tour of the numeric underpinnings of everyday life. The dean of the School of Science at Saint Mary's College explores, among other things, the means by which airplanes fly, TV stations broadcast, and stock markets fluctuate. 576 9400.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Release: October. W. H. Freeman and Company: +1 (212) [an error occurred while processing this directive]
