Stan writes:

> The "www" isn't superfluous by definition ... although in practice it
>  isn't needed at many sites.  The need, or lack of it, is determined by
>  each site, independently.

Actually, some sites use the two different names (e.g.,
http://www.aics-research.com and http://aics-research.com) for two different
purposes. One site that I know of that does this is the American Museum of
Natural History. The public "front door" to the Museum's site is:

     http://www.amnh.org

while the site for visiting scientists is:

     http://amnh.org

There's clearly nothing secret about the second name -- but it does direct
you to a completely different set of web pages.

Wirt Atmar