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Non-Tech : Binary Hodgepodge -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (472)	7/5/2002 9:40:19 PM
From: ~digs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6763

Dot-com shutdown pace slows, signaling shakeout is ebbing Friday July 5, 2:54 pm Eastern Time ; Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- In a sign that the Internet sector may be nearing the end of its brutal shakeout, the number of shutdowns and bankruptcies by dot-com companies in the first half of this year fell 73 percent from the same period last year, a new report from Webmergers.com shows. At least 93 Internet companies closed their doors or filed for bankruptcy protection in the first six months of 2002, down from 345 such casualties during the same period last year, according to the San Francisco research firm that has been keeping a tally of shutdowns. June, which had 13 shutdowns, marked the sixth consecutive month in which the number of shutdowns came in at less than 20. That's a considerable contrast from the 16-month period preceding January, when casualties averaged 44 a month. Since January 2000, when the Internet froth was at its peak, at least 862 dot-com companies have failed, according to Webmergers.com data. E-commerce and content companies -- many of which were business-to-consumer concerns that were quick fatalities during the first wave of the Internet shakeout -- dominate the Internet company failures to-date. Of the 862 shutdowns, 368, or 43 percent, are e-commerce companies, while content companies have a tally of 217, or 25 percent. Infrastructure, Internet access and professional-services companies account for 16 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent of shutdowns, respectively. Over the past two months, shutdowns were dominated by Internet-content providers, infrastructure companies, Internet-services providers, and other providers of dial-up and broadband Internet-access service. As companies disappear, many people would prefer to forget the excesses of the dot-com frenzy, when start-ups, often based on little more than a PowerPoint presentation, scooped up millions from investors before collapsing. Webmergers.com has found, though, that a number of individuals are interested in remembering tales of such excesses. The research firm, along with the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, last week launched an online archive designed to create a permanent record of the dot-com era. The Web site, businessplanarchive.org, encourages former Internet executives, employees and investors to submit e-mails and other items from both failed and successful dot-com companies. So far, more than 400 individuals have registered with the site and its researchers have been promised hundreds of business plans, says Webmergers president Tim Miller. In one case, an East Coast venture capitalist who was about to destroy 1,500 business plans called up researchers and offered instead to ship them to the Business Plan Archive, says Miller in his latest report. biz.yahoo.com

To: ~digs who wrote (472)	7/27/2002 11:38:10 PM
From: ~digs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6763

----------- Embassies of the World World travelers can put all the world's embassies at their fingertips by making a quick stop at EmbassyWorld.com, an easily searchable database of embassies and consulates worldwide. Select a world location from A to Z or search by either Whose Embassy? or In What Location? to go right to the embassy's own web page. embassyworld.com ------------ Reef Expedition Tour the Atlantic Ocean's largest coral reef without muddying up your boots at the World Wildlife Fund's Expeditions in Conservation: The Mesoamerican Reef. Home to more than 65 species of coral and 500 species of fish, the reef stretches 450 miles from the Yucatan Peninsula to the coast of Honduras. Visitors can read about the expedition, take an underwater tour of the reef via ReelPlayer Media, view photos of the diverse inhabitants - from the manatee to the red-footed booby - meet the scientists and learn the science via a spectacular underwater journey. For 20 years, the Fund has been working to ensure the survival of this vast eco-region. The site tells how you can help. worldwildlife.org ----------- Flash Miniature Golf Those clever boys at Harvard have found a way to burn piles of tuition dollars under cover of their mouse and monitor, as they try to beat par at the Mini Putt, an addictive Flash miniature golf game residing on the Harvard University server. The course is simple and the play is solitary - no chance of accidentally clubbing an 8-year old on this virtual course -- but mini-putt conventions like a windmill hole are honored, and you get a full 18-hole play. Dotted lines help players gauge angles and stroke power, and a sunk ball gives a satisfying rattle as it circles the cup rim. A scorecard shows par for each hole and keeps track of your progress. people.fas.harvard.edu ------------ Teaching with Historic Places The mind-numbing drill of memorizing dates is banished at Teaching With Historic Places, where history students read letters from Civil War soldiers to understand the Battle of Gettysburg or design and market a new car after studying Thomas Edison's "Invention Factory." Ancient ruins, Presidents' homes, main streets and battlefields are brought to the classroom via real properties listed in the National Park Service's registry of historic places, using primary source material to enliven social studies, geography, civics and other subjects. A rich mine for teachers, the site offers free downloadable lesson plans, teachers' guides, worksheets and tips on how to lead students to unearth local history in their own communities. cr.nps.gov -------------- The Skeptic's Dictionary Disbelievers will find a home at the Skeptic's Dictionary, a comprehensive critical survey of questionable therapies, eccentric beliefs and dangerous delusions, from werewolves to Yeti, urine therapy to unicorns. skepdic.com ------------- National Security Archive Seekers of the unvarnished truth about international affairs might want to start at the National Security Archive, founded in 1985 by journalists, scholars and a public interest law firm who used the Freedom of Information Act to acquire what has grown into the world's largest non-governmental library of declassified documents. Using the latest digital indexing technology, the holdings include more than 2 million pages in over 200 collections, easily searchable by keyword. The physical archive in DC handles more than 2,500 info requests yearly, but the web site makes it easy to get the inside scoop on US decision-making from original documents, read news on such past policies as our inaction during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, or join the Archive e-mail list. gwu.edu ----------- A Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons The computers that were supposed to free us up for more leisure activity have instead become great big time-suckers, so much so that serious users have created hieroglyphics for a hurried generation - the shorthand way to express emotions. Translate that deep thought your ICQ buddy is expressing by going to the Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons. pcworld.com ----------- News Context Between immigration and stem cell research, it's not easy being an informed voter these days. Get help at NewsBatch.com, where an administrative law judge has taken on the education of the citizenry to fill the knowledge gap with summaries of key policy topics. The site includes illustrations with linked charts and maps: immigration, for example, links users to a pie chart that shows preferential job categories and a graph of immigration patterns since 1820. References to key Congressional votes and how similar issues are tackled by other nations help give the broad view. Based on news and research materials and government statistical sources, the site is a boon to students as well as responsible voters. newsbatch.com ------------- Best of History Websites Good history info on the web is as vast as history itself, so visitors will find a trip to Best of History Web Sites useful preparation for the tour. A portal created for students, history educators and history buffs, the site rates all the other history sites to make it easier to find the most useful and accurate among them. Created by a former Harvard prof and current history teacher, the site has reviewed links to over 700 of the most stimulating history-related web sites, with a focus on those offering multimedia technologies. Categories cover pre-history to 20th century, links send you to lesson plans and multimedia resources, and a special section on technology rates articles that help integrate computers into the classroom. besthistorysites.net ------------- Source: tricksandtrinkets.com