After Dark Online 1.0 for Windows 95 is a free Internet news delivery service that provides "channels" (or "information-based screen savers") of clickable news stories, stock quotes, sports scores, and feature articles. Sources include DBC Financial News, Sports Illustrated Online, USA Today, and the WSJ Interactive Edition. or . [Tim Miranda , net-hap, 10/11/96.]

(The first address is a result field from a search engine query. Quite a few of these ugly URLs have been showing up lately, and I don't trust them to be stable.)

Over 200 websites now use Apple's meta content format (MCF) description, allowing Mac and Windows users to "fly through" the site's contents. MCF will also help developers access distributed databases. Download Apple's HotSauce (formerly Project X) plug-in from to browse the sites listed in . [Network News, 11/23/96.]

Apple's MCF is a simple, text-based format that defines objects and their properties. There are no restrictions on what properties are described for each object, nor are there requirements that all properties be described or that all relationships between objects be included. It's like HTML in that respect: any tags that a browser doesn't recognize will be ignored. HotSauce knows about parent/child relationships between objects, and where things might appear in a 3D fly-by, but not much else. See for details, or for similar "meta" capabilities in HTML. Other MCF tags will be defined later, as programmers invent useful "header" information for files and datasets. It will be up to the owners of the datasets to supply the tag info, just as mailers now supply message headers. MCF's inventor, Apple's R.V. Guha, is working to have MCF declared an IETF standard. [Matt Deatherage , MDJ. TidBITS, 11/25/96.]

Virage is offering a demo of their image lookup function, on . The software tags each image with a 1KB feature vector based on shapes, textures, and colors. [Forbes, 12/2/96, p. 240. EDUPAGE.]

Microsoft has introduced a Java Virtual Machine for Windows 3.1, plus an online gallery for Java code. . [Network News, 11/16/96.]

Plugged In! provides a complete guide to browser plug-ins available for Macintosh. Plug-ins provide 3D/VR, animation, music and sound, speech, video, etc. . [Rhythmic Sphere, Inc. , net-hap, 11/6/96.]

If you're looking for Mac software or accessories for Christmas, check the special 12/12/96 issue of TidBITS for recommendations and sometimes discounts. For instance, it suggests two excellent HTML reference books: Dean Scharf's "HTML Visual Quick Reference" (Que), and Elizabeth Castro's "HTML Visual Quickstart Guide" (Peachpit Press). Both are under 200 pages and under $17. A score of HTML books are in print, but most are much longer and more expensive. or . (HTML tutorials and reference works can be found on the Web, of course. The subject is really not very complex.)

HotWired Network's Webmonkey service offers HTML tutorials, critiques of new browsers and plug-ins, demos of new technologies, and the interactive advice column Geek Talk. . HotWired also offers a Packet service, with daily Net-related columns by Ned Brainard, Michael Schrage, Simson Garfinkel, Andrew Leonard, and on Fridays a 30-minute RealAudio interview program. . [, net-hap, 8/16/96.]

Quicksite is a web editing tool from DeltaPoint. You can get a free 30-day demo copy from . [WEBster, 10/15/96.]

Q&D Software Development offers its WebForms, WebMania, and Bookmark Magician as Windows shareware, at . [, net-hap, 10/3/96.]

Need to implement your own database server? AVS is a new mailing list about the Unix version of Digital's "AltaVista for Intranets" search software and the AltaVista Software Developer's Kit. Send a "subscribe avs your_email_address" message to . [Joe St Sauver , comp.infosystems.www.misc, 10/15/96. net-hap.] (Questions about obtaining AltaVista software should go to .)

The OakNet News is a free web magazine for website owners and developers. . Sign up with Phil Tanny for the emailed newsletter version. [c.i.www.browsers.misc, 10/12/96. net-hap.]

iGuide Net Reviews -- formerly inSites -- reviews over 25K websites. . [, net-hap, 5/9/96.]

For links to cooking/food sites via major search engines, see . [, net-hap, 8/30/96.]

The Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library (EEVL) is a gateway to over 1,300 engineering resources, esp. those in the UK. or . [Roddy MacLeod , c.i.www.announce, 9/17/96.]

Other eLib projects include biz/ed for business education on the Internet ; OMNI, the Organizing Medical Networked Information, ; and SOSIG, the Social Science Information Gateway, . See the eLib HomePage at . [Scout Report, 9/20/96.]

Research resources for graduate students -- scholarly reference sources, search engines, methodology tutorials, etc. -- have been compiled on . [Robert S. Butters , net-hap, 11/19/96.]

Penn State (University Park): CS&E department head.

Yale U. (New Haven, CT): profs. in HCI, databases, visualization, digital libraries, computational biology, etc.

Brandeis U. (Waltham, MA): prof. in HCI, distributed systems, databases, visualization, etc.

Kent State U. (Kent, OH): profs. in distributed DB/OS, visualization, etc.

UFlorida (Gainesville): profs in data mining, distributed DB, heterogeneous IS, etc.

UCentral Florida (Orlando): prof. in NLP, IR, learning systems, etc.

UTexas Pan Am. (Edinburg): prof. in AI, IR, OOP, interactive systems.

Northwestern U. (Evanston, IL): profs. in HCI, distributed systems, hypermedia DB, VR, etc.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta): profs. in interdisciplinary research.

MITRE (Reston, VA): technical manager in IR, NLP, HCI, KBS, digital libraries, DB systems.

Charles River Analytics (Cambridge, MA): research engineer in AI, agents, HCI, cognitive engineering.

MA: quantitative analyst in data mining, NN, FL.

Daptyx, Inc. (Cupertino, CA): lead SE in adaptive technology, AI, ML, IR.

US Dept. of Agriculture (Grand Forks, ND) : postdoc RA in FL, NN, chaos, cog.sci for nutrition analysis.

UCambridge/Isaac Newton Institute (UK): 6-month fellowship in NN, ML.

Hampshire, UK: sr. SE in neural computing, speech recognition.

Robert Gordon U. (Aberdeen, Scotland): RA/GRA research in IR. (12/20/96 deadline.)

Ecole des Mines de Nantes (France): researcher in motion-control, animation and VR.

UUlm (Germany): RA in KR for autonomous vehicles.

Ubilab (Zurich, Switzerland): researcher in IS, DB, IR, KB, distributed systems.

Griffithe U. (Brisbane, Australia): postdoc in constraint DBs.

DreamWorks SGK, a Hollywood studio, is getting $300M from South Korean investor Miky Lee. Other Korean groups are also investing in Hollywood. (The profit from Jurassic Park alone would be equivalent to exporting 60K Hyundais.) DreamWorks also has $492M from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. [Evelyn Iritani, LA Times. SJM, 8/25/96, 1E.]

Like the spaceships and aliens on Babylon 5? NewTek is now shipping their 3D animation system: LightWave 3D for Power Macintosh. [iNews. NewtNews, 8/13/96. Bill Park.]

Early tests of networked games with chat capabilities indicate that they're highly addictive. (My kids love killing each other in networked Marathon.) A hand of bridge or a game of checkers may stretch to an hour, but that's OK. Some games -- including a multiplayer Asteroids -- lend themselves to nightly tournaments with a player hierarchy that is constantly tested. "It was a chance to blow them up, but it's become a community." Gamers log on every day, or for 15-hour binges (on the free beta version). [Jennifer Tanaka, Newsweek, 8/12/96, p. 58.]

If you've developed a net game, Random Access, Inc., wants to hear from your. Contact , (800) 910-1190 or (770) 804-1190. [Team One , net-hap, 7/29/96.]

The world's largest bookstore is . [Mac*Chat, 2/21/96.]

"365 Days of Amazon Book Reviews" is free Windows software that offers a book review and up to 30% discount every time you start your computer. . [Michael Ricci , net-hap, 10/9/96.]

The Ecola Bookstore Guide lists over 300 local retail booksellers with active websites, plus a guide to technical and university bookstores online. . [, net-hap, 9/24/96.]

Or try Book Web, for info from the American Booksellers Association. . [Victor Tobias , BESTWEB, 8/20/96.]

For women's bookstores -- or feminists' bookstores -- check the list at . [Scott P. Kerlin , AERA-GSL, 12/8/95. net-hap.]

Strategies for obtaining books are listed by librarian Marylaine Block, in Book Bytes . [, net-hap, 10/18/96.] (Interlibrary loan can get almost anything, in a few days to weeks. And humor books are likely to turn up at remainder houses or remainder tables in bookstores, since they often go out of print quickly.)

Over 200 free online editions of computer and Internet books can be found in the Online Electronic Publishing Collection, at . [, net-hap, 11/18/96.]

The Alexandria Virtual Library Web Site provides free online reading and searching of current computer and business books, available in hardcopy from online booksellers. . [Chas. Cooper , net-hap, 11/4/96.] (The site also hosts a book discussion group.)

Sandcat Inc. specializes in elegant, unique, or hard-to-find books, plus other one-of-a-kind merchandise (e.g., from estate sales). . [, net-hap, 7/31/96.]

Blake's Books offers used and out-of-print scholarly books, plus special library services. Over 40 online catalogs and a searchable database. . [, net-hap, 11/27/96.]

Bookfinders International offers free search for out-of-print books, plus antiquarian lists that you can browse. 100K UK titles. . [, net-hap, 7/28/96.]

Book Express Inc. lists 1.8M titles in print, 900K titles out of print. Search by ISDN, grade or age level, etc. . [, net-hap, 8/596.]

When you use Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) to search for out-of-print books, you can store a search to be run every day until a match is found. . [, net-hap, 8/5/96.]

Booksearch Online can add you to the antiquarian Books Wanted or For Sale lists, for a modest fee. Database searches are free. . [, net-hap, 9/24/96.]

Other out-of-print book sites and dealers are listed on Bibliophile Bookshelf, . [Errol Porter , net-hap, 3/4/96.]

Thomas Kuhn, author of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" and the coiner of "paradigm shift," died on 6/17/96. His passing was noted only in the NYT and The Boston Globe. Like Karl Popper, "Dr. Kuhn changed forever the way we think about the nature and production of organized knowledge. What more, one wonders, do you have to do to get an obituary in the Los Angeles Times?" [John Naughton, Observer, 6/96. Terry Labach, QOTD, 11/27/96.]

-- Ken