| Volume 1, Number 7 |
July 1997
|
| A Quarterly Report Covering China’s Information Technology Developments |
| Published By CBV Communications & Technologies ?Systems Integrators / Information Technology Consultants |
| If you work for Dow Jones or Reuters, you won’t appreciate this article. Most everyone else will thank me for writing it. Those of you who have been surfing the Web and thinking that you were in information heaven should know by now that surfing is no fun when you spend all your time waiting for waves.Would you be interested in a free Internet service that downloads CNN and other news con- tent to your hard drive during the day without interrupting your work? Don’t worry, this isn’t a trick question. | take advantage of it benefits. If you are not using your PC, PointCast’s news updates will still be downloaded and displayed on your screen saver. Imagine that you’re in a long meeting (any meeting that lasts over 20 minutes ) and that your laptop screen is strategically positioned between you and the person across your desk. Ten minutes into the meeting, CNN pops up as your screen saver and you are reading about how Patrick Ewing came back from a potentially career- ending injury to lead the Knicks to the NBA Championships. | |
| Avoiding the "Lull" between Web
Sites is the concept behind the Web’s
"Push" tech- nologies that act more like television stations
than Web Sites. The service that I use,Point- Cast,is one of the companies
who developed this Push technology.While you are browsing the Web
or working in other applications such as
MS Word, PointCast automatically "channels" or downloads information
to your hard drive. When you have a free moment, you
can conveniently and quickly check the hour’s top new
stories. Clearly, channeling and distributing the
Web’s vast content to the user will be
the next phase in Web development.
Push technology is not new but it surprises me how many people in Shanghai have yet to |
PointCast continues
to add channels to its already broad selection of content.
You can select which channels you wish to view. The company
currently broadcasts: CNN, The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, CMP’s Tech- Web,
Weather Channel, CNNfn, Wired, ESPN, and
others. One of PointCast’s major advantages
is that there is no charge for downloading its software
from the com- pany’s Web Site. Once
the software is downloaded, you are ready to go.
In addition to PointCast, there are other Push software companies including Backweb and Wayfarer which are more focused on the business user. PointCast’s software can be downloaded from the company’s Web Site at www.pointcast.com. |