Peter Sinclair: Heaven or hell a click away

I have always written on the assumption that readers of the Business Herald are, in general, sexually experienced.

But let me draw the attention of those of you who aren't to Everybody's Sex Files website, recently drawn to mine by Auckland Sexual Health Service ("...we care about all of you, not just your bits." How rare that is).

Take the Sex Quiz and their nosy Sex Poll; let a cautionary link called Something Catchy introduce you to nine loathsome conditions you don't want to know about, let alone catch (no graphics, please, I'm feeling faint already).

Sex tip of the week may completely renovate your love-life - I don't wish to go into this week's in any detail, let me just say that yes, guys, one does hang lower so don't worry about it.

You see, what I'm vainly trying to do here is stem the tide of incoming web-addresses; for the trickle of 1997 (when I began writing Web Walk) has become the flood of 2000.

Let's select some of the better specimens and chuck the rest out, for bookmarks get stale - some even arrive stale, exercises in tarnished PR-speak (you know who you are), or worthy but vaguely off-putting sites like the web address above, or the Anti-Defamation League's new guide to hate symbols, logos and tattoos which claims "to help parents and teachers identify warning signs in their communities."

I don't know about you, but if there's one thing I hate it's swastikas in my inbox before breakfast.

This one sounds useful - www.interest.co.nz - "a new internet website bringing you a comprehensive listing of all New Zealand's retail interest rates. "All retail interest rates ... in New Zealand for call and savings accounts, term deposits, mortgages, in easy-to-read, easy-to-print formats." There's a consumer's guide to technical terms as well.

Onward. "Listorama ... a leading innovator in Business to Consumer and Business to Business e-commerce empowerment applications has launched Flyask, the first mobile toolset of next-generation shopping and information services... " It's a wap (wireless application protocol) site. Zzzz

But there's no escape. "Ticketek.com is the first New Zealand company to launch a fully transactional Wap site. wap@ticketek.com offers a new and exciting way to buy tickets from your Wap-enabled mobile phones ... "

Invasive and proud of it: "Predictive Networks is using artificial intelligence to map out the kind of person a consumer is and the kinds of ads he or she might want to see." There's a logical fallacy rattling the bars of its cage right there.

At least SafeMessage is striking a blow for privacy, email on the same peer-to-peer principle as wildly popular song-sharing software Napster. It sends encrypted messages directly from computer to computer with no intervening server, letting the sender send email which self-destructs sometime after arrival, you can even stop the recipient copying, saving, forwarding or printing the message out.

Sounds a bit like Disappearing, reviewed in Web Walk last February - also erasable, but server-based, allowing it to be integrated with Microsoft Outlook ...

Well, is that it?

No, that is far from it. My file still bulges with web actresses, all looking at me for a bit of attention like spaniels; but it is time for a spring-clean.

With infinite regret, I watch my index finger creep towards the delete key, as if it has a will of its own.

* petersinclair@email.com

Bookmarks


APPLAUSE TO: SciTech Daily

When Christchurch's Dr Denis Dutton set up his award-winning cyber-temple of high culture, Arts and Letters Daily, he suggested that Peter and Vicki Hyde, who hosted it on their Californian server, create a similar site focusing on science - Vicki was then editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.

For 18 months they have run it with great success but without payment. Now, following Dr Dutton's example with A&L Daily, they have successfully negotiated a sale - to America's Closer to Truth, which produces TV series featuring some of "the best minds on the planet" in portentous debate.

The price? Vicki: "It made us very happy indeed, given the current exchange rate."

Advisory: the Hydes will continue to manage the site for two years - keep calling.

LINKS


Everybody's Sex Files

Anti-Defamation League's hate symbols

www.interest.co.nz

Flyask

Ticketek

Predictive Networks

SafeMessage

Napster

Disappearing

SciTech Daily

Arts & Letters Daily

New Zealand Science Monthly

Closer to Truth