- From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 08:05:28 -0500 (EST)
- To: Brian Kelly <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk>
- cc: WAI <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Brian, I don't want to dismiss out of hand the idea of content-negotiation and capability negotiation as a way to improve network performance. I am just concerned by the more common use of it, which is to send out a page aasying "Your browser can't handle this site. Get a better browser." The development of P-3 only sites is an example of this. Negotiating capabilities to send a cut-down version of an image to small-screen devices, for example, can reduce needless bandwidth load. This is good for accessibility, although it also raises accessiblity concerns (the problem arises when IE does the content and capability negotiation, unaware of the fact that the user has a screen reader which changes the whole profile). Charles McCathieNevile On Thu, 4 Mar 1999, Brian Kelly wrote: I have to disagree (with the instant dismissal of use of the Pentium III unique ID.) Machine-understandable definitions of client capabilities is a good thing. Unfortunately transparent content negotiation hasn't really taken off (although the W3C website does use TCN for sending PNG to PNG-conformant browsers, otherwise it sends GIF). With the grown in network-aware PDAs, mobile phones, etc, there is renewed interest in protocol solutions - as an example see the "Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): A user side framework for content negotiation" Note at <URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-CCPP > I would argue that the accessibility community should be lobbying for such developments to take their needs into consideration (and I think you have much to gain) rather than dismissing it out of hand. Brian ------------------------------------------------------ Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ Homepage: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly.html Phone: 01225 323943 FAX: 01225 826838 ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org> To: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-hwg@idyllmtn.com> Cc: WAI <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 3:06 PM Subject: Re: Pentium III-only sites coming >Well, I guess that's another black mark in Australia's copybook. Hopefully >we do more good than bad though (smile). > >Whether the idea dies the death it probably deserves, or expands into the >nightmare that people seem to fear, depends on how many people buy Pentium >3 machines, and whether they then play in teh sites or just write comments >saying they wished the money had been psent making their computer cheaper >instead. (and leave the site alone. Unfortunately I haven't worked out how >to have my cake and eat it. Yet.) > >Oh well. Interoperability won't be built in a day. (Although I sometimes >wonder whether a bit more thinking would have eant that it could...) > >cheers > >Charles > >On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Kynn Bartlett wrote: > > At 01:30 p.m. 03/02/99 EST, Lovey@aol.com wrote: > >Please note the following article I was sent today. > >Pentium III-only sites coming > >By DAVID FLYNN | INTEL is working with several Australian content providers to > >establish Web sites that are not only optimised for PCs based on the Pentium > >III processor but restricted to Pentium III machines. > > Sounds like a really dopey idea. About as dopey as the identity > tracking on Pentium IIIs. I predict that this idea is dopey enough > that it will die just from being dopey once the Pentium III marketing > rush is over. > > You know, using the same technology I suppose one could always > EXCLUDE Pentium IIIs as a way of protest. > > -- > Kynn Bartlett <kynn@hwg.org> > President, Governing Board Member > HTML Writers Guild <URL:http://www.hwg.org> > > >--Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org >phone: +1 617 258 0992 http://purl.oclc.org/net/charles >W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI >MIT/LCS - 545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139, USA > > --Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org phone: +1 617 258 0992 http://purl.oclc.org/net/charles W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI MIT/LCS - 545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139, USA
Received on Thursday, 4 March 1999 08:17:34 UTC