Occasionally you hear about the people who are being leftbehind in the personal computing revolution. It's become almost acliche to talk about "data haves" and "data have-nots."
But maybe it's a little more complicated than that: maybethere's a group in between that we might call "data have-lesses."That's people who own computers, but not the zippiest or thebrawniest. In computing's Grand Prix, we're sputtering along in theequivalent of old VW Bugs.
Yes, we.My computer at home is from those bygone days of the early1990s, an aging Macintosh with a modem that transmits a mere 14,400bits a second. Awesomely powerful, compared with the Apple II+ Ibought back in 1982. But when it comes to moving around the WorldWide Web, it's pretty anemic next to the machine on my desk at work.This divided lifestyle is getting more and more frustrating.Last week, for example, I found a couple of sites I thought wouldthrill my children.One, Mayaquest (www.mecc.com/maya97/ news/news.html), issponsored mainly by the Learning Co. and Apple Computer Inc.Children who go there have been able to follow a real archaeologicalexpedition in Central America, reading the explorers' logs andlooking at pictures taken along the way. The other, www.Bonus.com,calls itself a Web "theme park" that offers young visitors no fewerthan 500 activities.Both of the sites looked splendid on my machine at work, whichis connected directly to the Internet. But when I brought my6-year-old, Sam, downstairs to check out the sites on our homemachine, disaster struck. Mayaquest was so rich in graphics that itwas taking forever to load, and my own personal lab tester didn'thave the patience for that kind of pixel punishment."BO-ring!" he announced, and began to head off to findsomething to wreak havoc on. "Wait!" I said, and tried to go toBonus. That screen showed up immediately -- but instead of games andfun, the message read, "Unfortunately, your Web browser doesn'tinclude some essential features that are necessary" for viewing thesite.That home machine has served me well, and it's going to haveto serve me for a time still. When you have three children, they'rethe ones who get the toys -- not you. Between college funds,straightening teeth and work on the house, there isn't a lot leftfor fancy new computer hardware.I don't think I'm alone. Michael Rogers of Newsweek callsmachines like mine "civilian hardware," and there's a lot of uscivilians out there. We'd like more, but we're getting by with whatwe have. And the people designing Web sites, for the most part, areignoring us. They, after all, are often working with top-of-the-linemachines and fast Net connections, as their profession -- and pride-- require. They probably never see what their masterpieces looklike on my machine.This is not smart. The story goes that rock-and-roll impresarioPhil Spector used to listen to the music he produced on a tinnylittle speaker -- the kind of equipment much of his audience had tolive with. He knew he couldn't afford snobbery. Can the computerindustry? I don't think so; it's not as if commercial Web sites canafford to turn away potential customers.And if you think I've got a grievance, think for a momentabout Kirk Reiser, who is blind and runs services for handicappedstudents at the University of Western Ontario.People who can't see can nonetheless use the Web. One popularway is to use an old-fashioned text-based browser called Lynx inconjunction with a program that reads text aloud. With that setup,you don't need eyesight to go from site to site. The information isread to you.As you might guess, there are fewer and fewer sites that useLynx. "The amazing thing is so many people totally ignore anyone butimage-based users," Reiser said. "I don't think it takes much forsomeone designing a Web page to keep blind people in mind."I'm not asking that designers give up their fabulous graphicsand dancing doodads. But I would like a low-graphics alternative --the sort of thing offered by a number of sites, including the WhiteHouse's gateway to government information (www.whitehouse.gov).Yes, I could turn off the part of my browser thatautomatically loads pictures -- but since many Web site creatorsdon't take the trouble to write good, descriptive labels for theimages they use, I waste even more time trying to figure out what todisplay and what's not worth the effort.What about it, designers? How about an Internet for the rest ofus?John Schwartz's e-mail address is schwartzj@washpost.comPLACES TO GOTune in to this year's Computer Bowl, the high-tech triviagame played by computing's moguls to raise funds for the ComputerMuseum in Boston. You'll need a computer that can play sound andRealAudio software, which you can download from Progressive Networks(www.realaudio.com/products/player/ download.html). After you'vegotten the software, fire up your 28.8 or faster modem and visit theComputer Museum's site at www.tcm.org/events/bowl.html. The showbegins at 8:30 p.m. Friday and ends at 10:05 p.m.
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