Tales from the Terminal Room

November 2000 Issue No. 15

Archives

.

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:

• Netscape 6 launched - was it worth the wait?
• Preview of Online Information 2000
• Business Sources on the Net - new and updated sites
  • Top 10 Business Sites
  • Direct Marketing
  • About Global Business
  • Country Information
  • Statistics
• Gizmo of the Month
  • Update on Ad-Aware

Netscape 6 Launched - Was it Worth the Wait?

TFTTR regulars may recall that I did a brief review of the alpha version (then called Netscape 5) in the February 2000 issue. The final, official release of what is now called Netscape 6 has at last been announced. Some things have changed since the early versions of "5", others have not.

Installation

First of all, they have kept the modular design so that you can choose which components of Netscape and plug-ins to install. A significant improvement over 4.x is that you do *not* have to waste hours removing those wretched AOL Instant Messenger and Feedback thingies that kept popping up in the default 4.x installations. Even Java is a separate module but a colleague of mine, who decided not to download that part of the package, found that N6 insisted on telling him that Java was not installed and to go and download it immediately!So perhaps not as modular as one had hoped.

Although, it allows you to forgo the pleasures of Instant Messenger, it still installs various AOL bits and pieces including a desktop short cut. But that is to be expected as AOL own Netscape. If you don't want the AOL bits, you can easily remove them after installation.

The installation itself was an experience and a half. If you cannot wait for it to appear on a magazine cover CD, then you can download it from http://home.netscape.com/download/ or from one of the many mirror sites across the world. If you use the Smartupdate/download system you may be fooled into thinking that the whole thing is a mere 241K in size. It isn't! That is just the initial installation file that lets you choose the components for download. To cut a long story short, because my personal firewall software objected to the behaviour of SmartUpdate, I ended up downloading the full 25MB file onto my PC and carrying out the installation from there.

Personalisation

Once installed, the first thing that you will probably want to do is change the overall appearance of the thing. (Go into Edit, Preference, Appearance). Netscape now supports "skins", or "themes" as they prefer to call them, and I'm afraid I find the default "Modern" one absolutely ghastly. If you want to stick with the old Netscape 4 appearance, there is a "classic" theme and there are several more themes that can be downloaded from the Netscape Web site. You might also want to spend some time personalising the toolbar and deciding on whether or not you want a "sidebar" a la Internet Explorer.

Using Netscape 6

Netscape 6 is very slow to start up but once loaded it accesses and displays most Web pages much more quickly than Netscape 4.x and Internet Explorer 5.5. An annoying change for me, even with the "classic" theme appearance, is the rotating horizontal, blue barber's pole in the status bar that indicates that your Web page request is being processed. A minor point - possibly I will become accustomed to the new feature. A definite minus, though, is that there is no longer an option to "stop animations".

There is a new cookie handling facility which behaves in much the same way as many of the cookie managing utilities. If you want to have control over which cookies are written to your machine, first go to Netscape's Edit, Preferences, Advanced and in the Cookies section check the boxes for "Enable all cookies" and "Warn me before storing a cookie". Each time a site tries to set a cookie, Netscape asks you if you wish to allow the cookie. You can choose to reject or accept it and tell Netscape to "remember" your decision. It is hard work at first but after two or three sessions, you should have built up a substantial database telling Netscape which cookies can be set and which cannot.

There are also form and password management options that enable you to store and save standard form details and IDs and passwords within Netscape.

For your bookmarks, there is an Import IE Favorites option but on the down side, you can no longer "drag" the URL of a site directly into your Personal Toolbar. You have to bookmark the site in the ordinary way and then move it into the Personal Toolbar from within the bookmark manager.

The Translate option under View, Translate takes you to the Gist-in-Time service and automatically inserts the URL of the page you are viewing into the relevant box. With an English language page displayed it looks quite promising. In the "translate from" box there are English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese: in the "translate to" box you are offered Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. I assume that the absence of English from the latter box was because the service had worked out that the original page was in English. However, the language pairs that are available change depending on the language of the page you wish to translate. A German page for example can only be translated into English. This appears to be a very limited service, so it is back to AltaVista's Babelfish for me.

Was it worth the wait?

To be honest, I would rather have waited a little longer until they had sorted out more of the remaining bugs (or perhaps these are "features"?). The handling of Cascading Style Sheets is much improved over N4.x, so many Web page designers will be heaving a sigh of relief, but it still behaves idiosyncratically with some pages. Some of that may be due to "non-standard" design on the pages concerned but on a few of the others, a quick look at the source code of the pages suggests that the fault probably lies with Netscape 6.

Another problem is that many third party utilities for example cookie managers, ad filters, do not yet work with Netscape 6.

If you are a Web designer, it is worth downloading a copy so that you can check how your pages behave in the new browser but, because of some of its erratic behaviour, I would recommend double checking then using a comprehensive validator or Opera.

If all you want to do is surf the net, then stick with your current browser and wait until more of the bugs have been exterminated.

Preview of Online Information 2000

National Hall & Olympia 2, London UK 5-7 December 2000

December in the UK is "Online Month". Although it only lasts for three days - 5th-7th December this year - exhibitors and conference participants spend weeks, if not months, preparing for the event and then collapse for a week afterwards in a state of exhaustion. For visitors, it can be equally taxing - especially if combined with Christmas shopping!

The event includes a conference (full details of content and fees are available on the Web site http://www.online-information.co.uk/) and a free exhibition. The exhibition is *HUGE* so it is best to prepare for your visit beforehand rather than wander aimlessly around the halls. Information overload quickly sets in and many people get lost.

As well as a pre-registration form you will find information on exhibitors, a floor plan and details of the Information Trails at http://www.online-information.co.uk/. The trails bring together services according to the type of information that they provide. There are 10 in all e.g. Accountancy & Finance, Sales & Marketing, Scientific, Technical & Medical and the stands are colour coded. You will find, though, that some exhibitors have listed themselves in all of the trails even if the subject is not directly applicable to them. Nevertheless, the trails are a useful way of narrowing down your list of "things to do and see".

Below is information on some of the services that are being launched or updated at Online. It is a purely personal selection that has been gleaned from the mountain of press releases I have received and from information on the Online Information Web pages.

If you find yourself totally confused and bewildered by it all, and really haven't a clue where to start, the UK Online User Group is again staffing two help desks (Stand 16 on the Ground Floor, and Stand 405 on Level one).

Bureau van Dijk new and enhanced products, Stand 98 Ground Floor

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) are launching several new products and enhancing existing ones.

NOMINUS
This is a new comprehensive analysis of the UK share register, created in partnership with Argus Vickers. It covers share ownership of all PLCs registered and quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and provides information on the shares owned by individual and corporate fund managers, nominee accounts and the beneficial owners. Using NOMINUS, share ownership can be analysed in various ways. These include displaying the ownership of a company down to 0.05%.
URL: http://nominus.bvdep.com/

ICARUS (Instant Company Analysis and Reports for the US)
A new US company database published on the Internet and providing access to profiles of all US companies with a turnover of more than 5 million USD. The service combines BvD's software with Dun & Bradstreet's information on 250,000 companies. Users can subscribe to ICARUS or use credits on a pay-per-view basis that can be used anywhere in the BvD Suite (http://www.bvdsuite.com/). Free trials are available.
URL for ICARUS: http://www.icarus.bvdep.com/

FAME upgrade
FAME, a database of UK and Irish companies, has been enhanced by the inclusion of a daily Reuters News service, the addition of a more detailed shareholder module and a link to the new BvD product NOMINUS. The new detailed shareholder module in FAME comes from BvD's DASH database, with information provided by Dun & Bradstreet.
URL: http://www.fame.bvdep.com/

Enhanced Internet version of EIU country data
An enhanced Internet version of the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) CountryData is now available. There are changes to the functionality of the software, increased data coverage and new elements within EIU CountryData. EIU Country Outlook provides a two page country summary covering topics including country overview, domestic politics, international relations, policy trends, international assumptions, economic growth, inflation, exchange rates and external sectors. In addition, two new optional modules will soon be available on EIU CountryData. These are EIU CityData, which measures the cost of living based on 300 variables in 125 cities around the world, and EIU Country Indicators, which supplies data on market size and dynamics, including demographics and social indicators, household income and consumption, infrastructure and competitiveness.

Priced services
General URL for BvD products: http://www.bvdep.com/

Emerging Markets Online, Stand 45, Ground Floor

Business Monitor International is launching Emerging Markets Online(EMO). EMO offers original, same-day comment and interpretation of key financial, economic and political developments across 100 emerging markets world-wide. Daily reports are backed by BMI's country analyses and forecasts covering macroeconomic performance and political risk. There are also country data and forecasts from BMI's proprietary databases, plus background and regulatory information.
Priced service
URL: http://www.emerging-markets-online.com/

Free legal portal from Butterworths LEXIS, Stand 167, Ground Floor

Butterworths LEXIS Direct has launched a free legal portal designed specifically to meet the needs the High Street Lawyer. LAWDIRECT is a free content area built around the company's popular Law Direct product, which was previously a subscription-based service. LAWDIRECT provides coverage of UK legislation, as well as European legislation and quasi-legal materials (e.g. White Papers). Additionally, summaries of articles from the major legal journals will now also be included in the Daily Update service. The Daily Update will include in-depth articles on the law and legal life, legal news coverage, general news, sports news and financial information.
Free service
URL: http://www.butterworths.com/

Italian company information from Cerved, Stand 281 Gallery

Cerved Spa, a well known Italian provider of value-added financial and business reports on Italian companies, will be launching CERVED BRIDGE, the English version of their online information services. Available through the Internet, CERVED BRIDGE enables users to identify potential clients, track existing ones, and manage financial risks. Value-added reports include company profiles, directors information, balance sheet, profit & loss account and ratios, copies of the original official financial statements as images and benchmarking.
Priced service
URL: http://www.cerved.com/

Euromonitor, Stand 40, Ground Floor

Euromonitor will be showcasing their Global Market Information Database (GMID), an Internet-based business reference system providing key intelligence on countries, markets and companies. It offers market statistics and forecasts, country data, information sources, company profiles as well as in-depth market analysis.
Priced service.
URL: http://www.euromonitor.com/

Leatherhead Food Research Association, Stand 2, Ground Floor

Leatherhead Food RA conducts research and training, and is an established information provider for the food and drinks industry. At Online they will be launching FoodlineWeb, a new Food and Drinks information database available via the Internet. The database contains up-to-date information on Food Science and Technology, Market Intelligence and Legislation, and also contains a daily news feed taken from the day's stories as reported in the UK National Press.
Priced service.
URL: http://www.lfra.co.uk/

Biotechnobase.com from Elsevier, Stand 134, Ground Floor

BIOTECHNOBASE collects citations and abstracts from thousands of publications across multiple disciplines. BIOTECHNOBASE.com is intended to provide both information specialists and end-user searchers with fast, easy access to biotechnology literature and offers linking to full text and other information sources. The service will be updated daily, with about 2,000 new records added each week. There will be complete coverage of 280 core journals plus selective coverage from more than 3,000 journals in related fields. More than 1.3 million bibliographic records from 1980 to the present will be included, links to full text, molecular sequence numbers and CAS Registry Numbers, and an automatic e-mail alerting service. Sectors covered include: agri- and horticulture; bio-pharmaceutics; foods and beverages; human and animal healthcare; environmental protection and control.
URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/spd

Information Resources

Top 10 Business Sites http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/top10/
This is a new section with a list of 10 business sites compiled by delegates attending our Business Information on the Internet course. At the end of the day, we ask delegates to nominate what they consider to be essential sites and key starting points. A vote usually has to be taken as twelve to fifteen sites are often nominated. The list will no doubt vary from course to course, depending on the type of work and sector in which the delegates are employed.

Direct Marketing http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/marketing.htm

Another new section on the RBA site is one covering direct marketing and priced mailing label services.
Sites currently listed are:

Direct Marketing Association http://www.dma.org.uk/
Telephone Preference Service http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/
Fax Preference Service http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/
Email Preference Service http://www.e-mps.org/

Marketing.File http://marketingfile.com/
A collection of mailing label lists with a bias towards UK and Ireland. The lists are divided into Business to Business and Business to Consumer, and further categorised by sector or type, for example Drinks Trade, Aviation & Defence, Smaller Companies. Each list can be searched by a number of criteria depending on its structure and coverage. You have to register to use the site and pay for records that you retrieve.

Dun & Bradstreet UK http://www.uk.dnb.com/homepage/index.htm
The full priced Direct Marketing Service, which you can use to generate mailing lists, is under a "Buy Lists and Labels" link. Charges for single use of the data are 11 pence per name and address label, 22p for telemarketing information and 44 pence per full record. Twelve month multiple use is charged at 22 pence, 33 pence and 55 pence respectively. Payment is via credit card, or if you are going to be a regular user you can set up an account with Dun and Bradstreet.

CountyWeb http://www.countyweb.co.uk/
Information on businesses and doing business by county in the UK. For each county you can view the top 1000 companies. They are automatically ranked by turnover but you can choose to sort them alphabetically by name or by number of employees. The marketing section database is the Dun and Bradstreet Direct Marketing service with a slightly different interface.

Generl Sources http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/general.htm

About Global Business http://globalbusiness.about.com/money/globalbusiness
Provides assessed links to over 700 international business sites on a wide range of business topics including company profiles, business news, company rankings, multinational organizations, mergers and acquisitions. A few of the sections, for example company disclosures, are US biased but the majority of the site is International in coverage. I find the Company Rankings particularly useful.

Company Directories

The Company and Telephone Directories section has been split into Company and Telephone Directories (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/directs.htm), which concentrates on general and country specific directories, and Trade and Services Directories (http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/trade.htm).

Country Information http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/country.htm

Emerging Markets Online http://www.emerging-markets-online.com/
Priced service from Business Monitor offering comment and interpretation of financial, economic and political developments across emerging markets world-side. Priced service.

World Audit http://www.worldaudit.org/
Country statistics and reports from a variety of organisations covering civil liberties, press freedom, human rights.

Statistics and Market Research http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/stats.htm

UNICEF Statistics http://www.unicef.org/statis/
Statistics organised by country and giving population, GNP, fertility rate, immunisation levels, infant mortality, literacy rate.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees http://www.unhcr.ch/
Information about UNHCR activities and refugees. Extensive collection of statistics including "at-a-glance", numbers and graphics detailing the refugee situation world-wide and by country, and asylum applications in Europe.

Gizmo of the Month

Update on Ad-Aware

An updated version of Ad-Aware, Ad-Aware 4, has been released by Lavasoft. Ad-Aware is free and checks your PC for advertisement and tracking systems. Many "free" software packages use these to help pay for the development of the software but fail to tell you exactly what information is being tracked. In some cases, the tracking system remains even after you think you have removed the main program.

Ad-aware 4.0 checks for the following advertising systems: Adware, Alexa, Aureate v1.0,2.0 and 3.0, Comet Cursor v1.0 and v2.0, Cydoor, Doubleclick, DSSAgent, Flyswat, Gator, TimeSink v1.0 and v2.0, Web3000 and Webhancer.

To check whether or not a piece of software is truly freeware or advertising supported, Lavasoft offer a free weekly updated database called Ad-search that can be downloaded onto your PC.

There is now also Ad-aware Plus, which is the regular Ad-aware application plus Ad-watch. Ad-watch runs in the background on your PC, waiting for spyware that tries to install or modify your registry. If spyware is detected, Ad-watch triggers an alarm, unloads the spyware module and launches Ad-aware.

Further information on all the above Ad-aware products can be found on the Lavasoft site at http://www.lavasoft.de/

TFTTR Contact Information

Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
UK Tel: 0118 947 2256, Int. Tel: +44 118 947 2256
UK Fax: 020 8020 0253, Int. Fax: +44 20 8020 0253
Address: 88 Star Road, Caversham, Berks RG4 5BE, UK

Archives

TFTTR archives: http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/index.shtml

Subscribe and Unsubscribe

To 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 Statement

Subscribers' 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.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

• to Share - to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to Remix - to make derivative works

• Attribution. You must attribute the work to Karen Blakeman, and cite Tales from the Terminal Room as the source and include the year and month of publication.
• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
• Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.