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Tales from the Terminal RoomOctober 1999 Issue No. 3 |
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Please Note: This is an archive copy of the newsletter. The information and links that it contains are not updated.
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Tales from the Terminal Room ISSN 1467-338X October 1999 Issue No.3 Editor: Karen Blakeman Published by: RBA Information Services Tales from the Terminal Room (TFTTR) is a monthly newsletter, with the exception of July and August, which are published as a single issue. TFTTR includes reviews and comparisons of information sources and search tools; updates to the RBA Web site Business Sources and other useful resources; dealing with technical and access problems on the Net; and news of RBA's training courses and publications. In this issue:
Dialog Launches Information PortalsDialog has an unerring ability to make itself the topic of conversation at any gathering of information users, be it a conference and exhibition or an electronic discussion list. They recently sent out a letter to DataStar users informing them that as of 1st January 2000, there will an Annual Service Fee of 300 SFR (USD 240) and a Usage Prepayment of 900 SFR (USD 660). Customers who have a fixed price plan will not be invoiced the Usage Prepayment but will be billed the Annual Service fee. In the ensuing discussions on the LIS-UKOLUG and BUSLIB-L mailing lists, many people announced that they would be discontinuing their DataStar subscription and it emerged that, for a variety of reasons, a number had already cancelled their Dialog subscription. So what are the alternatives? It really does depend on your subject area so there are no hard and fast rules, but only a few have managed to find all of the databases that they currently use on a single alternative host. Most are happy to go for, say, 80-90 percent on one host and go direct to the database providers for the rest. With Dialog's launch of its pay-as-you-go portals, however, one may still be able access the "missing" databases but without having to make a regular usage commitment or pay minimum monthly or annual charges. Dialog in collaboration with Netscape has launched a suite of what it calls "professional Internet portals" targeted at business, science and technology markets. You can access the portals through the Dialog home page at http://www.dialog.com/ or go direct to: http://custom.netscape.com/business/ for Business These are different from the Power Portals - officially launched on 25th October - that can also be accessed from the Dialog home page. To use the Netscape based portals, you do not need a Dialog account. Anybody can use the Netscape portals and pay for articles on a "pay-per-view" basis via credit card. The Power Portals are a customisable Web interface to Dialog Select for existing Dialog customers only. Each portal has several sections: for example the Business portal is subdivided into Business & News, Government, and Intellectual Property. As soon as you select one of these subdivisions it becomes clear that this is just another interface to the Dialog Select service. This means that former DataStar users who have cancelled their subscription will not find DataStar unique files here. In fact, anyone seeking European information will probably be disappointed as Dialog Select is heavily US biased, with just a handful of European and Asia-Pacific Rim databases thrown in. At this point the screen splits into frames. There is no No-Frames option and you must accept cookies in order to use the service. A menu of subjects stays in the left hand frame, for example Business & News is divided into Business News, Business Research, Company Financials, Company Product Lines and Demographic Data (US only). You work your way down through the menus until you arrive at a search screen. The databases for each topic or subject are predefined and, with a few exceptions, if there is more than one you cannot choose which to include in your search. This can be extremely frustrating if you have a favourite database. For example, for Chemical industry news you may prefer to use just Chemical Business NewsBase, but you are forced to search Business and Industry, PROMT, World Reporter, Trade & Industry Database and Business Dateline as well as CBNB. (There are links to brief notes on each of the databases and sample records). When it comes to the actual search, the options vary depending on the subject and the databases involved. They are very simple, so do not expect to be able to carry out the sophisticated searches possible with the command line system but you can use Boolean operators. In the Chemical Industry News topic, for example, there are boxes in the search form for words in the title, company, entire text. You can limit your search to full text articles only or to full text and article summaries. For the date range, in this case you can only specify whole years but in other topics, for example Company News you can select a day and a month as well as the year. The results are displayed 20 per page and show title, date (usually day, month and year but for some it is just a year), source and cost of the full article. I have found that the display does not always work. On a couple of occasions only results 1-4 were shown but there was a link to the next 20. When I clicked on this, I got results 21-25, and so on. I have tried to reproduce this but cannot identify the cause. It seems to be browser independent and happens at random. To display one or more documents in full, you check the boxes next to the articles and then click the Purchase Selections button. It is all or nothing on this service. You cannot, for example, choose to have selected financials from a set of UK company accounts as is possible with the full command line service. You have to purchase the full record. Payment is by credit card through a secure server. PricesIn terms of pricing the main advantage of these portals is that there is no minimum spend, no connect time charges and no dreaded DialUnits. Although the charges for each document and the total cost of your purchases are clearly stated on your results screen, it would be handy to have a printed list of prices so that one can compare the costs of Dialog with other Web services *before* going online. There is a price list organised alphabetically by database name but it is split over several pages. Charges for the "Open Access" portals are 20 per cent higher than if you are a "member". A member is just another name for a full Dialog subscriber, which means that you would be subject to the minimum monthly charge of USD 75 per user ID. ConclusionDoes the service offer value for money? It depends on what you are looking for. Company financials are horrendously expensive compared to what is available elsewhere on the Net. But it may be the most cost-effective place to search if you want, for example, company accounts for UK limited companies. For News articles - and for the UK there is only the Times/Sunday Times and the Independent - there are far more sources on the FT Global Archive (http://www.ft.com/) and at a lower price (USD 1.50 for an article from the FT compared with USD 3.30 on Dialog). When it comes to trade and industry news, Northern Light at http://www.northernlight.com/ is an alternative source with prices for some publications being roughly the same in both, but higher on Dialog for other more specialised files. I might certainly have been tempted to use the Dialog Portals to search PROMT but you cannot select it as an individual database and you cannot use any of its coding systems - event codes, product codes etc. The major obstacle for me, though, is the method of payment. I have been using a credit card for payments over the Net for some time; I regularly access and pay for information on ft.com and Northern Light with no problems whatsoever. However, having been the subject of several billing errors on my former DataStar and Dialog accounts, I am reluctant to hand over my card details to Dialog until I am certain that this system is more reliable. If you do decide to go ahead and purchase documents, print out a copy of the final costs for your records. Karen Blakeman RBA Business Sources on the Net(http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/) A lot of sites on our Business Sources pages were added or updated in October so we are abbreviating the list for TFTTR. The full list can be found at http://www.rba.co.uk/new/news.htm Country Information (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/country.htm) Russian East European Area-Related Internet Resources (REEIWeb) (http://www.indiana.edu/~reeiweb/inter.html)
Slavophilia - Slavic and East European Resources (http://www.slavophilia.net/)
Transitions Online: The Ultimate Source on Central and Eastern Europe
and NIS (http://www.ijt.cz/) AccessAsia Crossroads (http://www.accessasia.com/xroad/mainmenu.html)
Change of URL: BISNIS (Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States) is now at http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/ Slowwwenia has moved to http://www.matkurja.com/ News Sources (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/news.htm) This is Money (http://www.financialmail.co.uk/) Company Directories (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/country.htm) Northern Ireland Companies Directory (http://www.ednet.ledu-ni.gov.uk/)
Swiss Firms (http://www.swissfirms.ch/) Swiss Central Business Names Index on the Internet (http://www.zefix.admin.ch/)
Swedish Export Directory (http://sed.swedishtrade.se/e/) China Business World (http://www.cbw.com/) India Web Services - Web Directory (http://www.indiawebservices.com/directory/) Web India Business Directory (http://webindia.com/) khoj: The Great Indian Search Engine (http://www.khoj.com/) National Centre for Internet: Indian Sources On Line (http://www.indiansources.com/)
Stock Markets and Company Financials (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/stocks.htm)
Corporate Information (http://www.corporateinformation.com/) FactMerchant (http://www.factmerchant.com/) 10K Wizard (http://www.tenkwizard.com/) Japan Financials (http://www.japanfinancials.com/) Khoj Business Quotes (http://www.khoj.com/business/quotes/index.html)
These things are sent to try us!Accessibility of Web Sites....or "How to make it as difficult as possible for people to view your Web site!" AltaVista re-launched on Monday 25th October with a completely new look. At first, I thought that the new home page was laid out in a fixed width table because I had to use the horizontal scroll bar in order to view the right hand side of the page. (I use Netscape 4.6 by the way). When I looked at the source code, I realised that the problem was due to the way in which AltaVista uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The page works OK in Internet Explorer 5 and in Netscape 4 with CSS switched on. I normally use Netscape 4 with CSS disabled because so many sites use minuscule fonts in their CSS, and I object to having to peer at the pages through a magnifying glass! If you are using Netscape 2 or 3, Opera, or Internet Explorer 3 or 4 you will have to employ both your horizontal and vertical scroll bars to see the whole of the new AltaVista home page. Compared to some other appallingly designed sites, this ranks as a minor irritation. But it is indicative of the lack of consideration shown to Net users who do not want, need or are unable to install the most up to date software. There are plenty of ghastly sites on the Net in terms of design and the application of "bleeding edge" technology, but the worst I have ever seen is one that has been put up by a UK county council. For the purpose of this article, I shall call them X-shire. (The curious amongst you can email me if you want to know more). X-shire's home page demonstrates a wide range of design disasters that surface in a variety of combinations depending on your browser and on what functionality has been enabled or disabled. With Netscape 4, JavaScript enabled and Macromedia Flash installed, the visitor is presented with a screen that says "Loading.....". What it is doing is downloading a Shockwave file and after several minutes of twiddling your thumbs you finally see a page with a big graphic and four menu options. The information under the four options is straightforward text with a few static images. So why the hi-tech wizardry? I honestly do not know. There is nothing on this site that requires it, and it would have been much easier to write standard HTML pages. For anyone who does not have the latest browser, or has some of the functionality switched off, this site is a no go area. If JavaScript and Java are switched off you see a blank page. If you are one of the masses of people who still use Netscape 3, then you will see a dark blue background, and if you are very lucky and have excellent eyesight you might be able to see some slightly lighter blue text that says:
[I could not find stereo digital audio anywhere on this site] Instructions for downloading the Macromedia Flash plugin are in lime green and tell you to click on the logo. The logo is missing from the screen, but you can click in the general area of the logo to initiate the download - having first dealt with a JavaScript Error Alert. The line at the bottom of this page says 'Your experiences on the Web will never be the same again.' You bet they won't! If you are on a corporate network, at best you will find that your firewall blocks downloading and using the plug-ins in question. At worst your IT department will be down on you like a ton of bricks and may revoke your Internet Access. Netscape 2 - and yes, some people do still use it - gives an even more interesting page. It is the same blue text and dark background and says:
Now hang on a minute. What on Earth has Bloggs Direct - another name change, I'm afraid - got to do with X-shire Council? Nothing. This screen appears to be a standard page that the designers have set up to be displayed by Netscape 2 and they forgot to customise it. Line 2 says "You appear to be using Internet Explorer 3". Wrong. I was using Netscape 2. Nothing happens if you wait as instructed and if you do click 'here', the link, which is to an IE4.ASP page, results in a blank screen. I tried Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) with trepidation. It gave me an error message telling me that an Active-X Control on the page was not safe followed by a blank page. (I have set up IE5 to prohibit use of unsafe controls) Finally I tried Opera 3.6, admittedly with plug-ins switched off. The site gave up on Opera altogether and told me to download Internet Explorer or Netscape. I did wonder if this site had been specifically designed as a demonstration to show how NOT to design web pages, but since the UK Government's site has links to it, I have to conclude that it is genuine. Unfortunately, the example above is not unusual in the way it uses unnecessary gadgets and gizmos. And I must confess that up to a few months ago, I was becoming more and more pessimistic about what the future holds for us. More inaccessible pages, more dancing graphics, more sites proclaiming 'Best viewed with browser X'. Frankly, this is a disgraceful state of affairs. Why should anyone be forced to download the latest 20 MB bloatware in order to look at information that occupies a handful of Kilobytes? And what about those people who use voice or Braille systems to access the Internet? Things are beginning to change for the better, though. The recent makeover of the CCTA UK Government Web site at http://www.open.gov.uk/ was a pleasant surprise. The site now has a clean crisp single front page with links to fast loading pages. All that is required to navigate the site are the hypertext links at the top of the page. The default is a no-frames version [Hurrah!!!] and there is sparing use of graphics throughout. I have tried hard to find a browser that cannot cope with the new site and have failed dismally. Even the very first public beta version of Netscape Mosaic can make sense of it. This site works so well because it complies with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/). This is a new design standard that advises on how to enhance the usability of a User Interface standard and includes a checklist with specific technical implementation instructions. It is heartening to see the UK Government publicly embracing initiatives such as WAI. If we are honest, though, it is not the fact that WAI compliant pages can be accessed with low spec PCs or voice and Braille systems that will make Web designers think about following suit. It is the burgeoning use of small mobile handsets that will have the greatest influence. If your target audience is using mobile phones such as the Siemens S25 for surfing the Web, the easiest way to ensure that they can make sense of your pages is to comply with the WAI guidelines. But whatever the reason, encouraging Web designers to adopt this approach can only benefit both providers and users of Web based information. Karen Blakeman TrainingNovember 5th, Business Information on the Internet November 16th November 25th URL of this page - http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/1999/oct1999.shtml TFTTR Contact InformationKaren Blakeman, RBA Information Services ArchivesTFTTR archives: http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/index.shtml Subscribe and UnsubscribeTo subscribe to the newsletter fill in the online registration form at http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/index.shtml To unsubscribe, use the registration form at http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/index.shtml and check the unsubscribe radio button. Privacy StatementSubscribers' details are used only to enable distribution of the newsletter Tales from the Terminal Room. The subscriber list is not used for any other purpose, nor will it be disclosed by RBA or made available in any form to any other individual, organisation or company.
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| This page was last updated on 28th October 1999 | 1999 |
