__________________________________ZD Net Update_______________________________ v. 1 #2 11-13-95 Welcome to ZD Net Update, the free E-mail newsletter created especially for registered users of Ziff-Davis Interactive's ZD Net/World Wide Web edition. ZD Net Update is a bi-weekly bulletin that alerts you to new and exciting developments on ZD Net. In this issue:
ZD NET COMDEX/FALL '95 COVERAGE KICKS OFF ZIFF-DAVIS PREMIERES ZD INTERNET LIFE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB TRUE INTERACTIVE REALITY ARRIVES ON ZD NET ANNOUNCING SNAP SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX PROBLEMS MEASURE THE HEALTH OF THE NET WITH THE INTERNET INDEX
* * * * * * * * * * ZD NET COMDEX/FALL '95 COVERAGE KICKS OFF Comdex/Fall: It's been called the Greatest Show on Earth, and for good reason. All this week the ZD Net Special Report http://www.zdnet.com/~zdi/comdex/filters/main.html will provide continuous updates from the trade show, complete with daily news updates, expert commentary, and Live Chats. Follow PC Magazine's Technical Excellence Awards, cybercast as a virtual 3D world. Get the skinny from PC Week's Spencer F. Katt party. And learn all about the new products that have attendees buzzing. For all the sights and sounds of the show, ZD Net is the place to be. * * * * * * * * * * ZIFF-DAVIS PREMIERES ZD INTERNET LIFE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB This month marks the debut of ZD Internet Life (http://www.zdnet.com/zdil/), the first interactive magazine designed from the ground up around a Web site. Combining a magazine, a Web site, and a CD ROM, ZD Internet Life is focused on using the Internet for fun, profit, and personal growth. The editorial staff is headed by Bill Machrone, ZD Internet Life's Editor-in-Chief, Ziff-Davis's Vice President of Technology, and one of computer journalism's most respected stars. It also includes Web doyenne Angela Gunn and Associate Editor Lisa Holzer. Together with expert reviewers, ZD Internet Life's staff picks "The Best" sites and provides a top-to-bottom listing of "The Rest" of the sites that address a given topic under the categories of fun, profit, and personal growth. Readers who visit the Web sites will be able to add their opinions to an online database of site reviews. The content of the Web site is a superset of what will appear in the magazine and on the CD ROM. In the words of the ZD Internet Life editors, "ZD Internet Life is a Web site with an accompanying magazine. In other words, what you see right here is a lot like what you'll see on your local newsstand three months from now. Make sense? Welcome to the future of publishing." * * * * * * * * * * TRUE INTERACTIVE REALITY ARRIVES ON ZD NET Blast off into the future with ZD3D (http://www.zdnet.com/~zdi/vrml), a new interactive virtual reality area on ZD Net. Designed to serve as the preeminent source for interactive virtual reality on the Internet, ZD3D provides users with a rich and evolving virtual reality site, direct access to other 3D Web sites, and a wealth of news, events, articles, and commentaries focusing on virtual reality. ZD3D's design is based on Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), a technology standard created by Tony Parisi and Mark Pesce that makes 3D environments on the Internet accessible through a standard PC. Users will feel as if they're actually strolling around 3D Web sites at will, obtaining information in the form of graphical, three-dimensional metaphors. In building the area, ZDI obtained the support of both Pesce and Parisi, who will contribute exclusive VRML commentaries and updates to ZD3D. In addition, Parisi helped ZDI build the ZD3D site through Intervista Software, his VRML technology and consulting firm. When ZD Net users click on ZD3D, they're given several options, including hot news; Parisi and Pesce's commentaries; the WorldView VRML browser from Intervista Software and other VRML browsers; and Terminal Reality, ZD3D's interactive virtual reality experience. The WorldView browser can be downloaded for free, enabling users to access the Terminal Reality world and launch to the other 3D Web sites available there. Once in, users navigate through a virtual airport, complete with departure gates to other interactive 3D Web sites, a central newsstand, and advertisements on walls and vehicles. Users are transported to 3D sites via a wide range of vehicles, including rockets, jets, ships, buses, and trains. Over the next six to nine months, ZD3D will include 3D chat, animated objects, and 3D sound. Experience the brave new world of virtual reality on the Web. Experience ZD3D today! * * * * * * * * * * ANNOUNCING SNAP SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX PROBLEMS Just don't have enough time to design your own home page? Relax, help is on the way. The ZD Net How To Design Your Own Home Page SnapSolution http://www.zdnet.com/~zdi/software/snapsol/snapmain.html provides all the knowledge you need to stake a claim on the World Wide Web and to put up your own site for the whole world to see. This informative, entertaining guide offers a step-by-step tutorial, using programs chosen from the thousands of files in ZD Net's shareware libraries as well as colorful screen shots illustrating the key points. SnapSolutions offer hands-on, step-by-step advice on how to make your life more productive using shareware. Appearing each month, SnapSolutions will focus on both computing and non-computing goals alike. The next two SnapSolutions will help you create our own screen saver and holiday greeting cards. SnapSolutions: shareware at its best. * * * * * * * * * * MEASURE THE HEALTH OF THE NET WITH THE INTERNET INDEX Got an extra couple of grand burning a hole in your pocket? Maybe it's time you invested in the Internet. Introducing the Inter@ctive Week Internet Index, or @Net Index, http://www.hydra.com/interactive_week.html a collection of 37 Internet-related companies that give investors a formal measure of the performance of the emerging Internet industry. The @Net Index, which trades under the symbol IIX, was developed by Inter@ctive Week and the American Stock Exchange to better measure the performance of businesses associated with the Internet. It does this by focusing on select Internet service providers, commercial online service companies, Internet tool companies, multimedia publishers, and networking companies. The @Net Index also includes providers of technology expected to shape the future of the Internet, such as videoconferencing and interactive television. The @Net Index is a bona fide investment vehicle; options contracts on it will trade every business day on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. Investors will trade options based on the direction the index takes, over time. Initial expiration months are November and December 1995; January, April, and July 1996. The @Net Index closed Oct. 17 at 215.04, up 52 percent since the beginning of 1995. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 28 percent for the same period. For more information about investing in the Index, call (800) THE-AMEX or check out the AMEX's Web site at http://www.amex.com. The Inter@ctive Week Web site (http://www.zdnet.com/~intweek) provides trading updates. * * * * * * * * * * ZD Net Update is the official newsletter of ZD Net/World Wide Web Edition. It is compiled by Tom Schmidt (tom_schmidt@zd.com). 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