While definitely one of the most over hyped concept/products in the last
year, Marimba=92s Castanet still does warrant some attention. Marimba, a
company founded by 4 former members of Sun=92s original Java development
team, has been the first to develop a concept/product that has raised both
debates of what the net should be as well as what the net possibly will be:
a product Marimba calls Castanet.
Castanet is broken down into two parts, the tuner and the transmitter.
Essentially, a company, organization, or whomever can buy a Castanet
Transmitter software package and then "transmit" over a network (local,
wide, or the Internet) content in the form of Java applets in more called
"Channels". Users can also download free Castanet Tuners and "tune" to
these channels and receive whatever information is being broadcast
(currently only Java applets really, but Marimba has high hopes for the
content that organizations will want to provide, for currently, Java
applets can be pretty much anything (games, art tools, chat rooms, word
processors, etc.), but Marimba hopes for far more later on as bandwidth and
technology allows). =20
Do the terms look familiar? Channels, tuners, transmitters=85yes, Marimba
has recently been criticized by the usual pundits for perhaps wanting to
turn the net in a TV like passive-medium. Don=92t think however that Marimb=
a
is the only company with this idea, they were just the lucky ones with the
first demos.
On a side note, an interesting use of the web as an artistic medium can be
found at http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/wi23/anton.home.html
This demonstrates what can be done with the web, that can=92t really be
equaled in either print, television, or other.
--- Christian Baekkelund
In-Reply-To: 3.0.32.19970206114647.006c6588@po7.mit.edu