Slate's Bizbox
readme: Policy made plain.

By Michael Kinsley
Posted Sunday, March 23, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET

A Tough Decision

You might notice in the next few days, we hope, that Slate's pages are being served up to you a bit faster. (Well, this Thursday we were still serving up Wednesday's edition for a good part of the morning, but that's a different story.) The reason for the increased speed is new Web server software. This is the software we use to deliver pages to you.

We knew it was time to upgrade, but we faced a dilemma: Which new server software should we choose? The software business is viciously competitive, of course, and we didn't make our choice lightly. Deputy Editor Jack Shafer headed an investigative team of editors, writers, developers, and a demographically correct cross section of Slate readers (83 percent male, 77 percent college graduates, 3.9 percent cross-dressers, 17 percent purchasers of a toaster or other electrical appliance in the past three months).

Our ServerSearch TM team traveled the globe in pursuit of the very best software for serving you, our readers. In an Eskimo village near the Arctic Circle in Alaska, they sampled server software made with whale blubber, as the natives have been doing it for thousands of years. In China, the team met a 6-year-old boy who has developed server software based on Confucian principles and the sayings of the late chairman Deng Xiaoping ("Better a pig with HTML than a donkey who knows DOS"). In Silicon Valley, they were wined, dined, and offered bribes by slick twentysomething CEOs of companies with names like Fraudicom, EgoSoft, and Greed Systems PLC.

Back here in Redmond, the team rigorously tested each piece of software on genetically engineered laboratory mice. Could the mice design a Web page with working hyperlinks? Did they develop cancer or brain tumors? Did they turn into Internet bores? The software was then exposed to extreme conditions: zero gravity, below-freezing temperatures, peanut butter in the disk drive, elderly grandparents with their first computers, etc.

Finally, the team reassembled for a retreat at a luxury resort in Maui. Human-resource facilitators were brought in to conduct trust games. An acupuncturist was hired to alleviate the stress of this momentous decision. Several team members dropped out and had to be replaced by alternates. At a marathon all-night session, it took 73 ballots before a consensus emerged. Bleary-eyed but triumphant, the team emerged into the moist Hawaiian dawn to announce the winner to the awaiting world.

"We have chosen," Shafer declared, "Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0. There were many fine competitors. But in the end we decided that Microsoft's product had the edge in ease of use, elegance, and--above all--job security."

"Whew!" said Bill Gates. "That was a close one."

Slate's Schedule

For new arrivals to our site (welcome!) and for regular readers who are a bit confused about our schedule (and who can blame them?), here is how it works. Slate posts new material every weekday. Monday through Thursday, we "go to press" with the next day's edition at about 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST). Friday, we publish the weekend edition at about 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST). In general, arts and cultural articles are posted early in the week, and newsier and political stuff is posted Thursday and Friday. "The Week/The Spin" is updated throughout the week, the "Diary" has a new entry daily, and contributions to "Dispatches & Dialogues" are posted as they arrive. "The Fray," our reader forum, is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Most articles remain in the current contents list for a week. All past articles, features, and columns remain available in "The Compost."

"Slate on Paper," our specially formatted print-out version of Slate, is e-mailed to readers Friday around midday. It also can be downloaded from our site. Those services are free. An actual paper edition of "Slate on Paper" can be mailed to you (call 800-555-4995), but that costs money and can take a few days to arrive.

Is all that clear?

--Michael Kinsley

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Michael Kinsley is a columnist for Time and the founding editor of Slate.
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