By: Taban Khajehnassiri
The man who invented the first wheel was an idiot, the man who invented the other three, he was a genius.
It was somewhere on the Net, in a site full of quotations I first read
about an entertainer called Sid Ceasar who once declared that "The man who
invented the first wheel was an idiot, the man who invented the other
three, he was a genius." I believe it is somehow a joke, but it is true on
the other hand as far as I know. Sometimes on the Net we face web sites
placing a big placard in the main page claiming that they are the FIRST in
that business. They say we are the first Newsletter ... the first
e-magazine in whatever ... the first web site with Free stuffs ... and so
on . On the Net, each and every time, I recall Sid Ceasar's above
quotation and it force me more to surf for the one 'who has invented the
other three wheels!'
But in the case of some Iranian web sites, there is
another thing forced me to dedicate this editorial to : Again,
unfortunately, it seems that we are reinventing the wheel! And that is
really something when we think! When you look at the web, you'll see many
things in common and repeated. Sometimes they are deferent but in their
roots, for instance, again various downloadable Farsi Fonts and with different character sets.
In
the old age of DOS, Iranian computer companies experienced it and now we
are facing this problem again on the web. In my font folder, I have no
room for any new font! And still we know and we see new web sites coming
to the net with their new stuffs: "The first Iranian wheel Site!" ... Let
me give you an example here, two years ago, in a report I read 'using more
than two or three animated gifs on a site, reduces your visitors, because
it take too much downloading time for the viewers, too much processing
time for the CPUs'.
We wrote it in our national magazines and in our BBS's
and even publish it on the web, but it was not effective. And this is why,
we decided to write directly via the Internet to our webmasters and web
users to note these things. I am sure they know and somehow I think
writing about this may not increase our subscribers, but what can I do? I
should write! What is your opinion? Let us know and we will mention it
right here in the editorial of WEBFAQT WEEKLY NEWS.
This Article published first electronically as an editorial of WWN September 4, 1999.