Forwarded by Negativland.
>Precedence: bulk
>
> "In less than an hour, the 35-year-old New York Web developer wrote a
>program that strips out Salon's tables, ads and graphics and leaves just
>the raw text. Visitors to test.angel.net/nic/salon.cgi will find a
>"deboned" version of Salon that loads as fast as a brief e-mail message."
> Deboned Pho. What a concept! from this week's Industry Standard
>Just the Text, Ma'am Frustrated by the eternally slow Internet,
>tech-savvy news junkies are peeling away Web sites to get to the juice:
>Words.
>By Mark Frauenfelder
>Every time Salon.com (SALN) announced a redesign, Nic Wolff got excited.
>Finally, he hoped, the online magazine would do away with its messy
>graphics and streamline the site to what he really loved: the stories.
>But with each elaborate redesign, he was disappointed. So an impatient
>Wolff took it upon himself to do what Salon's staff couldn't seem to:
>make the site quick and easy to use.
>In less than an hour, the 35-year-old New York Web developer wrote a
>program that strips out Salon's tables, ads and graphics and leaves just
>the raw text. Visitors to test.angel.net/nic/salon.cgi will find a
>"deboned" version of Salon that loads as fast as a brief e-mail message.
>
>Wolff's program is one of a growing assortment of tools that let Web
>users satisfy their insatiable need for speed. While cable modems, DSL
>and T1 lines have sped things up, many sites are still overloaded with
>graphics, ads and animation that bogs down even the fastest connection.
>Using programs with subversive names like Leanweb and Sitescooper, or
>linking to the secret Web addresses of wireless news services, tech-savvy
>Web surfers are going retro and getting their news fast, simple and
>ad-free.
>The battle for an unencumbered Web dates back to October 1994 when
>HotWired.com introduced banner ads on its homepage. Programmer Axel Boldt
>returned fire with NoShit (later renamed WebFilter), a program that could
>strip the banner ads from any site. As ads have proliferated online,
>newer programs like Wolff's have become even more efficient at removing
>graphics.
>Recently, the popular PDA news service AvantGo (AVGO) has become an
>unwitting ally of Internet speed demons. The company sets up no-frills
>Web pages for news sites (including TheStandard.com) for Palm (PALM)
>users and likewise for maverick Web surfers who want to read a
>fast-loading version of, say, the Wall Street Journal or the Onion. While
>AvantGo specifies that its partners must block outside access to their
>bare-bones pages, many partners' Web sites, including the New York Times,
>don't comply with this requirement.
>While only a few technically adept Netizens are privy to this trick, it's
>only a matter of time before it catches on. Jorn Barger proselytizes for
>the deboning movement as it's sometimes called on his popular Web
>log RobotWisdom.com. Barger, who provides a link to the deboned Salon on
>his site, says, "It's mind-boggling that supposedly Internet-savvy media
>sites slow their pages down with more than 100KB of dead weight."
>This wave of renegade Web site customization is something Scott Rosenberg
>worries won't go away soon. As Salon's senior VP of editorial operations,
>Rosenberg knows about the stripped-down Salon but admits he's basically
>powerless to do anything: "The Web is an open platform. There's no way to
>technologically prevent it that I'm aware of."
>But Rosenberg still wishes Wolff would leave well enough alone. "We have
>obviously built our own homepage a certain way based on some editorial
>choices and some business needs," Rosenberg protests. "And that's the way
>we'd like our readers to encounter it."
>So, do these speed readers feel guilty? About as guilty as a TV junkie
>furiously clicking past the commercials. Jim Leftwich, a designer in Palo
>Alto, Calif., links to a stripped-down version of Wired News on his
>personal Web site and professes little sympathy for sites that slow his
>surfing: "It's simply a necessary evolutionary adaptation within the
>attention economy."
>.....................................................
>Jim Coffman
>Director of Business Development
>jcoffmanATimojo.net
>www.imojo.com
>www.mediathings.com
>631-864-1515
>cell 917-863-2145
>IMOJO, Inc
> ----- Original Message ----- From: Griffin, Jim <griffinATonehouse.com>
>To: <marvinATmarvster.com>; <phoATonehouse.com> Sent: Wednesday, February
>14, 2001 2:18 AM Subject: pho: RE: Poll: HTML Email on Pho
>> Not offended in the least.
>>
>> I like the market approach, thinking it the best way to handle most
>>matters,
>> especially archives and web pages and polls and similar matters. In other
>> words, this much -- a mailing list and soup in LA once a week -- we can do
>> right, and more than this others will have to handle. And the beautiful
>> thing is that they do, running brunches in other cities and informally
>> holding them at conferences and making documentaries and so forth.
>>
>> Indeed, what little residual sympathy I have for HTML is my simple disdain
>> for rules and government, an argument I've heard echoed by others. If it
>> precludes any good speech, I'm likely against it. Communication and
>> community inherently bring risk of infection, risks minimized through
>> precautions and common sense.
>>
>> On the other hand, the attachments and HTML raise the risk of participating
>> in our discussions, chilling expression in its own way.
>>
>> On balance, I'd do away with HTML and attachments, but have for now chosen
>> to ban the latter once we can determine how to separate the two. If the
>> Phoundation wants HTML gone, too, I'll add that to the restrictions on our
>> OneHouse servers.
>>
>> Ultimately, the Phoundation decides, though I get to set some
>>parameters for
>> our OneHouse networks which serve Pho. The Phoundation's role, above all
>> else, is to preserve Pho's fundamental character and take
>>responsibility for
>> its continued existence. Like the typewriter keyboard, it wasn't decided to
>> move fast or take precipitous action, though it can when needed.
>>
>> Some have criticized the Phoundation for not moving faster to embrace
>> archives or web-based interfaces, for example, but each adds an element of
>> asynchronicity and chill for some participants, concerns that should dampen
>> the alacrity with which we move, if we move at all. The cross-section of
>> diverse Phoundation members has maintained what I am continually told
>>is one
>> of the most interesting places around, though no one disputes it is like
>> drinking >from a firehose.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Marvin Sanders (E-mail) [mailto:phoATmarvster.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 11:15 PM
>> To: phoATonehouse.com
>> Cc: griffinATonehouse.com
>> Subject: Poll: HTML Email on Pho
>>
>>
>> Hi Pholks,
>>
>> I have used my world-class coding skills to put up a poll on the HTML
>>email
>> issue. (It's certainly better than doing it on-list, right?) Please vote if
>> you feel so inclined and I'll post the results next week. After that, it's
>> up to the powers that be to make a decision.
>>
>> The poll is here: www.marvster.com/phopoll.htm
>>
>> It's really a simple question of whether we want attachments *and* HTML
>> email blocked at the source, or whether we want to self-police. If they're
>> blocked we don't have to be as vigilant before that morning Diet Coke; if
>> they're not, the past few days have made it clear that stuff can happen
>> despite our best intentions.
>>
>> Jim, if I've overstepped by doing this I won't be at all offended if you
>> want the page killed. Just thought a little data would make your decision
>> easier.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Marv
>>
>> *Of course, since I trust you all implicitly there are no fraud
>>controls. So
>> kids: One vote per person, please. (It could also have something to do
>>with
>> the fact that I haven't the faintest idea how to cookie people and prevent
>> double dipping.)
>>
>>
>>
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>This is the pho mailing list, managed by Majordomo 1.94.4.
>>
>> To send a message to the list, email phoATonehouse.com.
>> To send a request to majordomo, email majordomoATonehouse.com and put your
>> request in the body of the message (use request "help" for help).
>> To unsubscribe from the list, email majordomoATonehouse.com and put
>> "unsubscribe pho" in the body of the message.
>>
>
----------------------------------------------------
Rumori, the Detritus.net Discussion List
to unsubscribe, send mail to majordomoATdetritus.net
with "unsubscribe rumori" in the message body.
----------------------------------------------------
Rumori list archives & other information are at
http://detritus.net/contact/rumori
----------------------------------------------------
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
N© Detritus.net. Sharerights extended to all.