I A C T Cover Page

This entire site is dedicated to the world's computer users and consumers working toward higher standards in computer software, hardware and services. To help people reach those positive goals, an organization named IACT-- The International Alliance for Compatible Technology-- was founded on the Internet.

Welcome to the Cover Page, where you may enjoy easy access to all sections of IACT's website. The Cover Page has 3 areas where you'll find essential information and hyperlinks...

     (*) Highlights  - new announcements & project notes
     (*) 24x7 Update - gateway to our "24x7 Reports"
     (*) Site Index  - links menu for our entire site

...and btw, the Site Index links are included in nearly every document footer, so it's easy for you to move from one page to the next, in any sequence.

For an alternative way to navigate, try our Site Overview page with concise descriptions plus convenient links for each section of this website.

Because the documents here are designed to be compliant with international HTML standards, you may use any compatible browser of your own choosing. Be sure to visit our website's Design and Accessibility page for our p.o.v. about browser-specific tags, open standards, sticky frames [plus our frames Escape Button], ActiveX, Java and Internet-related issues.

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR

COMPATIBLE TECHNOLOGY

Highlights

More room, faster access!

IACT has launched a new larger site at www.iact.net, offering you maximum reliability, accessibility and performance. We'll be phasing out this old site here in the next several weeks, so be sure to start switching your bookmarks & links to the new www.iact.net domain.

The IACT Quarterly Newsletter

(Btw, the next issue is scheduled for publication in October. See our Editor's Desk if you're interesting in contributing your own commentary for the Newsletter, or a technical article for our "24x7 Reports" section.)

Issue #8 offers four new commentaries:

: - From the operating systems we install to the kind of e-mail messages we post, our choices in technology will reflect our personal ethics. What ethical rationales do we have for pirating copies of Microsoft Windows, for distributing MP3s encoded from music CDs, or mass-mailing unsolicited messages? Tim O'Connor grabs these moral dilemmas by the horns in... The Ethics of Choice.
: - Amid the greed of corporations such as Amazon.com, MP3.com and Microsoft, plus IP lawsuits from all sides, authors and artists may get caught between the rocks of "innovative marketing" and the hard places of "unlimited distribution" of their works on the Internet. Where do consumers fit in, and how can their own rights to access and fair use be protected? Read Nothing to Sing about: Themes on Internet Authoring & Publishing to find out how the balance of protections and freedoms can be restored.
: - Encryption software like PGP along with the strongest algorithms from Blowfish and IDEA may be the most cost-effective and dependable security packages you can find. Is it because they're designed from the ground up to be platform-independent and compatible with a slew of applications? In Encryption from a Multi-platform POV, Toni Onetti-Fernandes explores popular as well as lesser-known encryption technology, much of it freeware.
: - Why do some computer companies want us to believe that their proprietary formats are "standards" and how can using true open standards help us save our data and money? You'll find the answers here in Time for a Standard Operating System, where Edward Mortimer shares his ideas for a standardized, modularized operating system. With a standard o.s., users and programmers would be able to mix and match modules according to the best price, performance and interoperability features, and not merely because of brand name or one vendor's monopoly power.

Enjoy reading IQ Newsletter Issue #8.

		And get in the IACT spirit -- with the IACT Icon It's square but cool! Use our new "IACT Icon" at your own site for exchanging links with IACT. You'll find the 90x95 IACT-ICON.GIF and the original 90x30 Button, plus the ready-to-go code, over at our Team Spirit page.

24x7 Update

IACT's 24x7 Reports

The third and final part in our series on Internet standards, "Scribbling on the Internet Wall" takes up at the point where Part II, the "Keys to the Millenial E-Mailbox," had left off in the discussion of the most popular Internet activity-- electronic mail. While Part II had focused on accessibility and compatibility issues, this update emphasizes the use of standardized methods such as Blind Carbon Copy, or BCC, for guarding your privacy and security while also minimizing spam.

And if you're like a lot of netizens, you're wondering where Internet technology will take you in the new millennium. IACT may have some answers for you in "Connections and Directions on the Internet,":

: * Find out who is defining and enforcing Internet standards. Find out, too, why unclear definitions and weak enforcement may put us in real danger of losing Internet compatibility and interoperability.
: * Many World Wide Web users are denied access to information and services because the Web content is delivered through closed proprietary formats and vendor-specific code. Have large organizations, e.g. the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium, taken action to keep the Internet accessible and open, by stopping the proliferation of proprietary formats such as ActiveX and FrontPage Extensions?
: * The IETF and W3C each have their own important histories and accomplishments. How did those organizations get started, who are their current members and leaders, and how do people like us contribute to and join them?
: * Extensible Markup Language has arrived. Will HTML be totally replaced by it? Let's compare XML to HTML as well as SGML, and take a closer look at the learning curve, costs and potential benefits of XML. Plus, we'll see if Java-based XML parsers, made by Sun, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM et al, can comply faithfully with the official XML specification.

Be sure to pass along this IACT website address of <http://pages.cthome.net/iact/> to your least & most favorite computer journalists, and share it also with your friends and colleagues who rely on the Internet.

INDEX


The IACT Cover Page
- about our organization and site -
"Who's Who"	Our Declaration	Sign-On Form
About Membership	Design & Access	Site Overview

- features, projects and links pages -
Supporters' sites	Team Spirit	Open Standards
Free Expressions	IQ Newsletter	Action Projects

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I A C T Cover Page

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