December 1996
Fast Web Graphics
Imaging for the Internet
By Ho John Lee
The FlashPix file format and the PsiFi Web protocol, key elements of the the Imaging For the Internet (I4I) inititative, allow you to view and print high-quality photographs and images while using network bandwidth efficiently.
Optimizing Web Graphics
By Andrew King
Andrew presents tools and techniques you can use to create the smallest possible graphics files without losing resolution. Andrew also looks at the JPEG-versus-GIF debate, color palettes, color reduction, and more.
Portable Network Graphics
By Paul Atzberger and Andrew Zolli
The Portable Network Graphics (PNG) standard improves GIF with support for true-color images, alpha-channel blending, built-in gamma correction, and royalty-free compression. More importantly, PNG is coming to a browser near you soon.
Automating Web-Site Maintenance, Part 2
By Paul Helinski
In his second installment of this three-part series, Paul presents two more additions to your Web toolbox—Trakkit and Tickler. Trakkit reports the "click trail" of your visitors, and Tickler builds an email list as people sign in with their preferences, and automatically notifies them when you add or update content.
C O L U M N S :
Webmaster's Domain
Lincoln D. Stein wades through the plethora of help files, technical specifications, and white papers to figure out what this ActiveX hoopla is all about.
Doing Justice To The Web
This month, Catherine Sansum Kirkman goes through the bookmarks that will keep you current on the law of the Net.
HTML Coding
Laura Lemay believes the "next big thing" in Web design will be real HTML page layout. In the meantime, she examines the style-sheet debate and shows some page-layout tricks using new Netscape extensions.
Virtual Worlds
Andrea L. Ames begins a new project to build a small home world using textures, anchor, sensors, animation, and more.
Programming with Perl
You haven't seen a random program until you've seen Randal L. Schwartz's, which "knows" which random items have been recently selected and biases older items with a higher probability of being selected.
Java Alley
Bruce Eckel backtracks a little as he examines how garbage-collection techniques can improve Java performance to near-C++ speeds.
D E P A R T M E N T S :
Insite
Since Business Wire launched their site last year, the Web has become business as usual. Christopher Elliott speaks with Michael Lissauer about the design and development of Businesswire.Com.
Lab Note
The latest version of PhotoImpact, a power tool for graphics and image editing under Windows, contains a very special list of new Web extensions. R. Shamms Mortier shows you how to put these extensions to work.
Special Report
Between exhibitors, sessions, and panels, this year's SIGGRAPH '96, held in New Orleans this past August, was bigger than ever. But as Sue Wilcox descibes it, the real star of the show was interactive 3D graphics.
The Home Page
Editor in Chief Michael Floyd asks "Who Trusts Trusted Agents?"
News & Notes
The Next Step; The Third Dimension.
The Last Page
Michael Swaine unreels the "Fish Story."
