Please comprise the following topics in your critique of the selected article:
1) A brief introduction and overview of the article.
2) Describe how the article either supports or disproves material . State your point of view.
3) Summarize your thoughts and offer suggestions in support of your opinion.
4) Final paper should include article link or reference, follow APA guidelines and be a no more than two pages in length.
Abstract:
Novell Inc's Information Access and Management Group plans to deliver a beta release of its Ferret browser shell and Corsair engine, aimed at browsing networks and the Internet. The two products may initially only be available on a development kit CD ROM in Dec 1995. Novell's original plans to release the beta version in Aug or Sep 1995 were delayed by reorganizations and corporate shifts. Ferret and Corsair are functional but still consist of pre-beta grade code that requires more development. Both technologies were solid enough, however, to be part of a demonstration of the company's Nested NetWare/Powerline technology at Fall Comdex 1995. Corsair includes an add-on feature called My World, which enables users to create a graphical front end with network-connection hot spots.
Full Text :COPYRIGHT 1995 ZDNet
Novell Inc.'s Information Access and Management Group, delayed by reorganizations and corporate shuffling, now plans to release a beta version of its network browser engine and shell next month.
The Ferret browser shell and the Corsair engine, designed to browse networks and the Internet, may be available at first only on a development kit CD ROM, Novell officials said. The company still plans to make a version of Corsair available for free on the World-Wide Web, however.
Novell had originally hoped to ship the beta in August or September but was delayed because of reorganizations within the Information Access and Management Group and the rest of the company.
The Corsair and Ferret technology is functional but is still pre-beta grade code that needs further development, said Lou Leporace, product line manager in Novell's Internet Commerce Division.
The engine and shell, however, were solid enough to use in a demonstration of the Nested NetWare/Powerline technology earlier this month at the Comdex trade show.
The demonstration, which provided an example of how Ferret and Corsair would work, featured a bit-map graphic of a home, running in the Ferret shell. A user would click on hot spots in the graphic--doors or windows--to launch a command over the network. The command would turn on the corresponding lights in the house.
The ability to create a graphical front end with network-connection hot spots is an add-on feature to the Corsair package called My World. The feature was formerly called Virtual World.
The December SDK will include sample My World templates but will probably not include a full set of tools for creating new templates.
Novell is enabling the technology to let users draw bit maps with popular graphics packages and attach hot links to the graphics, just as Hypertext Markup Language lets Web developers attach commands and links to hot spots in documents, according to Leporace.
Novell eventually plans to include support for SunSoft's Java run-time libraries in Corsair, although that support will not be included in the December release.
Novell's approach--having a detachable search engine that plugs into a variety of front ends--might not be optimal for the general-purpose user, but it would be good for custom uses, one analyst said.
"If you're looking to build custom front ends for internal corporate use or kiosks or TV sets, this isn't a bad approach," said Rick Villars, an analyst with International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.
Source Citation:Leach, Norvin. "Novell digs out Ferret and Corsair for beta testing." PC Week 12.n47 (Nov 27, 1995): 120(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. COLUMBIA SOUTHERN UNIV. 7 Feb. 2009