Software:Pythia 2.5 WWW Client released
Mark Kluepfel
(2.5) of the Pythia WWW browser is now available for free download
at http://pythia.com. By popular demand, this demonstration
copy is NOT sitelocked to pythia.com: you may use it to visit any
WWW site. Appian Interactive Corp. appreciates all constructive
feedback on our products. The features in the current release
are direct results of customer and other suggestions.
We have collaborated with one of our major customers, Ontario
Investment Services, to create a proper demonstration of how Pythia is
being used.
After you've obtained a copy of the Pythia browser from our web site,
we encourage you to point it at http://ois.on.ca/oisdemo.
This small volume demonstrates fast SQL database queries (3 sec), with
results returned as picklists, and bar, line, and pie charts. This
site is a Pythia WWW server linked to a Sybase RDBMS, operating on a
DEC Alpha over standard Internet links. The demo shows less than
one-half of one percent of the entire OIS volume.
What is Pythia?
Pythia is a set of software products which extend the existing WWW
by adding new tags for
* relational database queries (dynamic SQL)
* charts (pie, bar, line, scattergram, reports)
* inline imagery (GIF/BMP/JPEG), video (MPEG, AVI, Quicktime), audio
(WAV)
Can I buy Pythia?
Pythia is not available to end-users. Our apologies to all individuals
who have contacted us, but Pythia is designed for use by OEMs
who require a cutting-edge WWW browser which can be customized or
integrated with existing software products. An interesting OEM, for
example is Digiphone (http://www.ikon.com/digiphone) which is
integrating Pythia with an Internet voice telephony product.
What are people saying about Pythia?
"[Pythia] is at least a year ahead of the competition." (OCRI)
"Pythia [is] the future of HTML". (DEC Users Group)
"[Pythia] is similiar to the HTML-based Netscape browser, but contains
more features -- including the ability to run video [inline] and
generate charts through a database". (Technology in Government)
Our favorite quote was posted to the USENET newsgroup
'alt.comp.infosystems.www': "If you thought Netscape was extending
HTML, you should check out [Pythia]: it's not for the faint of heart".
Pythia & other WWW browsers
Our product is NOT a replacement for Netscape or other freeware
browsers. Pythia doesn't support 'ftp', 'gopher', 'telnet' or other
obsolete protocols. Pythia is a high-end product, based on the
proposed
HTML 3 specification and our proprietary extensions. It works best
with well-formatted, HTML 3 compliant WWW sites, and a PC with at
least 8 MB of RAM and an advanced display (16K colors). It does a
decent job of displaying conventional HTML pages, but its real
purpose is to work with Pythia-enhanced WWW sites such as the OIS.
Advance Apologies
Each time that we announce a new release, pythia.com is swamped by
requests for downloads. If you find the delays unacceptable, please
retry or contact us for mirror site information.
The price of the demo is FEEDBACK!
The whole Appian team looks forward to your reviews and comments
on our efforts. If you have installation problems or difficulties
visiting specific WWW sites, please contact us with details at
sup...@pythia.com.
If you are an organization interested in licensing Pythia, please
contact in...@pythia.com or Rick Crutchlow (613-225-4242)
to request a full demo and doc set. Again, please be patient.
Mark Kluepfel
m...@pythia.com