Site of the Week -- May 1, 2000
aptain Jean-Luc Picard sends the Enterprise hurling toward interstellar destinations with a motion of his hand and one word: "Engage."
If only it were that easy.
Warp Drive When? explains just how mind-bogglingly difficult it is to travel between the stars, and how humanity might--just might--be able to do it. Written by Marc Millis, the leader of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program, the site uses an easy, conversational tone to review the challenges and misconceptions surrounding interstellar travel.
The subjects covered are right out of modern science fiction: wormhole travel, warp drives, negative energy drives and more, but there's none of the technobabble that accompanies the average episode of Star Trek.
Instead Millis goes out of his way to make his subject understandable and to be as honest as possible in assessing current and future star-flight technologies. His news is not all that good--the barriers to interstellar travel are immense, and the technology to overcome them may be beyond humanity's reach. But it's not all bad either. Science's limited understanding means that there could be many methods of interstellar travel just waiting to be discovered.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- April 24, 2000
The Official X-Files Web Site is one of the few professional sites whose style and substance approach the depth of the series it seeks to promote.
Undoubtedly aware of the fan sites against which it competes, the good-looking site is saturated with information. Its major sections mirror those of fan sites: episode guide, discussion boards, actor and character bios, fan club and news. But where the X-Files site succeeds--and where other pro sites usually fail--is in the extras. The site's designers have access to information fans can only dream of, and they use it wisely.
In the Vault, fans can find interviews with Gillian Anderson from the set of "all things," conversations with the Lone Gunmen about "First Person Shooter" and other audio-video nuggets. The individual episode write-ups are bland--there's none of the passion found on amateur sites--but again, it's the extras that will attract fans. Almost all of the write-ups include stills and video clips, and many of the later-season ones include goodies like research links and staff/actor Q&As.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- April 17, 2000
here are a lot of comic books to read out there, and
Psycomic, "The Final Word on comics," wants to
help comics lovers take it all in.
Psycomic seeks not only to satisfy diehard
fans--whose input it more than welcomes--but also to be
useful to anyone looking for an introduction to the
world of comic books. Yet, while the site's
ambitions are both exciting and
impressive--with news, reviews,
columns, forums, fan art, interviews and a
retailer database--they are still somewhat unrealized
and poorly organized.
The information, a great deal of
which is very good and substantive, is scattered across
many and various pages. A number of the site's main features (like
its database of comic book titles) are still under construction. And while
Psycomic does have a decent amount of comics-related
graphics and pictures, its overall aesthetic design is
nothing to write home about.
It'll be interesting to see what Psycomic becomes once it's
finished getting itself together; it certainly has
the potential to be very cool.
-- Matthew McGowan
