I agree with the "less is more" philosophy regarding
ornamentation on the Web pages.
I want speed and dependability. These are related.
The longer it takes to download a page, the greater
the chance of a stall. The more graphics and Java code
in a page, the greater the chance of some browser
incompatibility and a hang-up - in addition to the
interminable delay. Finally, the more stuff that the
server has to spit out for each user, the greater the
chance of it being overloaded. And the Datek servers
ARE being overloaded at the critical time just after
the market opens, which is typically the time of the
greatest price volatility of the day, and the best
opportunity for some trades. I've been unable to get
a response some mornings, until a good 15 minutes
after the opening.
In general (not Datek in particular) the graphics artists
designing Web pages have gone nuts. The tools have gotten
better, the servers more powerful, the standards more
elaborate, but the modem speeds and typical throughput to
the end-user have remained about the same.
Result: all access, including WWW is getting slower and slower!
Example: I've about had to give up using CompuServe because
of the graphics bloat. It used to be nice running their
CIM user interface under DOS. Now it takes forever just to
check my email.
Hint to investors: the name of the game in the future is
BANDWIDTH. Whatever company can provide it or the equipment
for it is going to experience some explosive growth. Just
don't ask me who... there's too much going on with the
cable companies, satellite companies, data broadcast, etc.
for me to make any guesses.
So for Datek: until the multi-megabit or gigabit BANDWIDTH
for end-users arrives to support almost instantaneous
real-time transmission of all the graphics, please don't
get rid of your old servers! |
