Conference Center

Topic 25 of 108: tech news 98

Tue, Dec 15, 1998 (09:24) | Paul Terry Walhus (terry)
Here's the topic you've all been asking for, tech news. So, I've secured
permission from ronks@well.com to reprint his really cool news
commentaries from time to time. This topic may get crosslinked here and
there.

57 responses total.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 1 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Dec 15, 1998 (09:24) * 63 lines

IBM To Publish Source For Sendmail Alternative

The article isn't clear on whether they will treat their new Secure
Mailer
program as freeware, but they will apparently make the source available.
It
goes on to say they published source for a compiler last week, that they
are
making software work with Apache, and they plan to sell DB2 for Linux.
Anybody know wonder what compiler they mean? IBM hopes Secure Mailer
with
its modular architecture will displace sendmail, which was "written as a
large, monolithic piece of software", a Bad Thing.

Sun, Oracle Mount Another Challenge To Windows

Having not gotten very far with the thin-client NC, their current plan to
slay the giant of Redmond rests on a combined Solaris-Oracle server that
is
meant to reduce "the need for a full-blown desktop operating system" for
Internet and database functions. Sun is also reported working on an
"ultra-
thin client" called Newt; no really, that's what it says.

Denise Caruso On The Internet Stock Bubble

Her article is mostly about the effects of instant share-price updates
and
the legion of day traders it has spawned, but she also notes a side
effect
of the meteoric rise of stock prices on high-tech companies. At some
point
the prices may be seen as so inflated that the incentive power of stock
options, now used to lure employees, will diminish if people figure a
return
to sanity is imminent. But repricing the options at a lower level might
spook the investors who presently hold the stock, creating a kind of
self-
fulfilling prophecy of decline. As they say, letting go of the tiger's
tail
is the hard part...

Microsoft Monopoly - A Wrong Without A Remedy?

With the possibility that Microsoft will be held to have violated
antitrust
laws, the question naturally arises of what to do about it. (A motion of
censure? Oops, wrong Bill.) The article for some reason fails to
discuss
breakup a la AT&T except to call it a "major economic policy decision" as
though that eliminated it from consideration, and concentrates on API
access. This poses real problems of how to ensure access, which is
something the government definitely does not want to police in detail.
One
possibility suggested is the Java model, where Sun announced it hired
Price
Waterhouse to "guarantee the fair, impartial distribution of Java APIs".


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 2 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Dec 15, 1998 (21:09) * 28 lines

Credit Card Companies Wake To Internet Potential

In advertising news, companies like Visa and Mastercard are said to be
just noticing that the Internet is the best thing that happened to them since
the invention of plastic. Up to 2.5% of an e-commerce site's gross revenue
goes to the card firms, and this year's sales are expected to reach $40
billion.

Visa says it expects to handle $13 billion worth of Internet transactions
this year, one percent of its total business; in five years they project
they will do $100 billion worth, or 11% of their total. They are
contributing heavily to ad campaigns for e-commerce firms. But for some
reason American Express is not jumping on the bandwagon; they did a
one-day radio media tour and a few spots and they promote some businesses on
their own site, but they have fallen behind Visa and MCard.

Accountants Demand To See Quarterly Reports

In accounting news, the Big Five (formerly the Big Eight, then the Big Six)
say they have agreed not to audit and approve their clients' financial
reports where the client publishes unreviewed quarterly reports. Up till
now, the auditors just saw the annual figures, and several companies
would pile all their special charges on the fourth quarter to manipulate the
public's view of their performance.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 3 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Tue, Dec 15, 1998 (22:23) * 1 lines

I hate it when that happens.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 4 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Dec 16, 1998 (14:06) * 45 lines

Supremes Rule On Antitrust

Not part of the Microsoft brouhaha, but likely to be cited in cases
involving the complex and ever-changing relationships of high-tech
companies
is a decision this week by the US Supreme Court. Nynex was taking bids
for
the removal of old switching gear; they agreed with one of the bidders,
AT&T, not to consider bids from a third company called Discon. Discon
sued,
calling the agreement a boycott. The court agreed that boycotts are "per
se" unlawful restraints of trade, meaning that lack of harm to
competitors,
benefit to the public, etc. are irrelevant to the violation. But they
also
held that a contract between a purchaser and a supplier is not a boycott;
that requires an agreement between competitors. The judgement was
unanimous.

Canadian Merger Bid Dropped

Open Text has abandoned its hostile takeover plans to acquire PC Docs, a
major document-management software company. OT is still buying up other,
more willing companies as it expands from Internet search tools to
intranet
management software.

Microsoft Buys Into Qwest

They acquired 1.4% of Qwest for $200 million. Their goal is apparently
to
use Qwest's IP-based wide area fiber optic network and marketing staff to
offer Internet applications based on Windows NT. Qwest will create a
department to sell NT Web-hosting facilities. Their CEO assures everyone
there is no conflict with their September deal to offer "Netscape
Contact",
a consumer service based on you-know-what for management of e-mail,
faxes,
and voice mail over a Web site, since the MS deal is focused on large
corporate customers.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 5 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Dec 21, 1998 (12:46) * 49 lines

Merchants' Servers Seize Up With Holiday Traffic

Replicating the mall experience down to the long lines of people waiting
to
buy things, but presumably without meaning to, several Internet shopping
sites have broken down under the volume of browsers (in both senses) and
customers. Barnes & Noble and Macy's suffered slowdowns, and IBM and
EBay
just flat out collapsed for days at a time according to the report.

New Radio Technology Could Revolutionize Wireless Systems

At least for short ranges. Described as "ultrawide band radio" and
"digital
pulse wireless", it seems to be a kind of Morse Code for the millennium.
The current technology, from a company called Time Domain, just emits
on-off
pulses (1's and 0's, basically) 40 million times a second at very low
power
across the entire radio spectrum (the article doesn't cite actual
wavelength
boundaries). While it doesn't go very far before attenuating, it can go
through solid objects without multipath interference , making it useful
for
(say) a wireless LAN inside a building. By comparison, an existing
protocol
called "Bluetooth" transmitting at 2.4 gigahertz can send a megabit per
second to a receiver 30 feet away from a 100 milliwatt transmitter.
Ultrawide can send 1.25 megabits to a receiver 230 feet away from a 0.5
milliwatt transmitter. Time Domain predicts it can raise the rate into
the
billions of bits per second. Because it broadcasts in frequencies
reserved
for other uses, the FCC has to decide if the technology fits into an
exception for "incidental emitters" like arc welders, hair dryers, and
PCs.

Patent Granted For Trees In Graveyards

Mac Truong received patent 5799488 for trees "grown from seed or seedling
in
a nutrient composition featuring...ashes derived from the remains of a
deceased human". His concept seems to be for using the tree as a kind of
gravestone (gravewood?) in a "memorial forest".


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 6 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Dec 31, 1998 (05:23) * 109 lines

Computer Vs. Network Debate Revived

The old argument of whether the "system" is a group of computers
connected
to each other, or a network with computers as mere nodes on it, is coming
back again with a few differences. Instead of mainframes and minis, the
Goliaths are PCs, and the proposed paradigm of the "post-PC era" is a
network of information appliances that includes cell phones, pagers,
handhelds, and chips embedded in cars, coffeepots, etc. IBM calls it
"pervasive computing" and they just created a group to track it and make
sure they aren't left behind (again); their strategy is to supply the
components like chips and mini-disks to OEMs. IBM is convinced that
bandwidth is not a bottleneck, since their view is not of downloaded
movies
but of messages transmitted between the ubiquitous gizmos. Donna
Dubinsky,
a co-founder of Palm Computing and now of Handspring, says sub-$100
handheld
devices will necessarily disconnect from the PC and become "an extension
of
the network, not the desktop". Post-PC evangelists point to the example
of
mainframes, which are actually handling larger volumes than ever, but are
no
longer the object of attention, investment, software development, and
more
importantly are no longer high-profit items. Microsoft and Intel not
surprisingly dissent from predictions of PC doom: they acknowledge that
the
PC needs to get cheaper and easier to use, but Microsoft SVP Craig Mundie
says we are really entering the "PC-plus era" with the new devices
"complementary to the evolving personal computer". Place your bets...

New Products and Services

Annette Pappas received patent 5,713,081 for three-legged pantyhose with
pockets. The purported advantage of this garment is that the occupant
can
tuck the third (and for earthlings, unused) fabric leg into its
associated
pocket, retaining it for instant - well, rapid - deployment in the event
one
of the other two legs develops an unsightly run.

Russel D. Harmon has cornered the market on Internet sales of cremation
urns; his company DiscountUrns.com has just bought out rival
Urnsdirect.com.
His latest product is $29.95 faux urns made of particle-board and painted
to
look like expensive hardwood, which he observes are completely
biodegradable
(just like their inhabitant). He also plans a crematory in Washington
where
customers can set their loved ones on fire, perhaps before stuffing them
in
a cheap faux urn. Talk about lack of respect for one's elders...

Topic 99 [biztech]: In the news for 1998
#909 of 909: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue Dec 29 '98 (09:09) 32 lines

Internet Upstarts Pass Elders

Not only is AOL bigger than Disney in market capitalization now, but the
runup in any stock with "net" or ".com" has put Ebay five times ahead of
Sotheby's, Amazon ahead of Borders and Barnes & Noble combined, and
Charles
Schwab ahead of venerable Merrill Lynch. Two weeks ago Merrill was
reported
considering the purchase of Schwab to bootstrap itself onto the Internet,
but Schwab's price seems to prohibit such a move for now. Besides that,
Merrill's 14,000 brokers might object to being displaced by a server in a
closet. Schwab's success is all the more remarkable since it is not
really
a startup like some of the other net firms with astronomic P/E ratios,
but a
25-year old company in an mature industry. And yet, by moving from a
plain
discount broker to an online house, it managed to maintain its 30% market
share and counter its per-trade profit drop (from $63 last year to $53
now)
with a corresponding increase in the number of trades. The result is
that
Schwab now trades at 65 times its expected 1999 profit to Merrill's 16,
and
is worth more on the market despite having one-seventh of Merrill's
revenue.

Stocks In The News

It may be the serious money is vacationing this week with many
institutional
investors out of town. As one analyst put it, individual day traders who
are "sitting at home after having their turkey dinner are going to move
the
stocks". Anyway, a company called Active Apparel rose 820% yesterday
(229%
for the year) after announcing they would sell "women's activewear" over
the
Internet; presumably with pictures which would at least boost their
traffic.
And Skymail, a company that publishes those crumpled catalogs you always
find in your airline seat pocket, took off upwards by 183% (611% in 1998)
when they said their internet sales were up sevenfold this year.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 7 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (04:55) * 36 lines

Acer Delays Stock Offering

After its share price fell 13% last month, the Taiwan PC maker said it
might
hold off on a $200 million issuance of stock it had planned since July.
Taiwanese stocks have not done well in general, reaching a 30-month low
last
Tuesday.

Cisco To Announce New Network

They may use the current Consumer Electronics Show to describe their
plans
for a high-speed multimedia network to offer data, phone, and video
services
on a single line. Initially it will be available to TCI cable
subscribers,
though Cisco claims an alliance of 32 telephone, cable, and ISP firms.

Bell Atlantic Smooths Path For Competition

They say. The FCC requires local phone companies to demonstrate their
market is competitive before it will let them offer long distance
services.
So far nobody has passed the test, though not for lack of trying. Now
Bell
Atlantic has trotted out a competitor to offer a testimonial: Royce
Holland,
former head of MFS, now CEO of Allegiance Telecom, says a new system lets
a
Bell Atlantic customer switch carriers in one week instead of six. It
remains to be seen if this will impress the FCC.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 8 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (04:55) * 57 lines

Economists Discount Bubble Theory In Current Stock Bonanza

On the excuse that economics is a technology and the stock market is
certainly a business, I wanted to recap an interesting article from this
week's meeting of the American Economics Association. Members' concerns
that the extraordinary rise of the market since the end of 1994 would turn
into a bust grew through the first part of 1998, and increased when share
princes plunged in August and September. But its recovery since the Fed's
rate cuts has led to a restored confidence among economists that the market
is fairly valued for the current unique environment and that prices are
robust, with the Fed both ready and able to sustain confidence if a panic
should develop. They point to a combination of job creation, rising output,
and falling unemployment, which in other times has resulted in inflation,
but not now. Some of this price stability is due to coincidence (falling
oil and computer prices), but others are likely to endure. These include
lack of wage pressure (outside of the basketball industry) possibly related
to the growing use of contract workers, increased job mobility, and the
preference of aging baby boomers for security over an increased salary.

AT&T - AtHome Deal Reported Close

They are expected to announce today that AT&T will provide the long-distance
portion of AtHome's cable modem service with around 15,000 miles of fiber
optic lines. AT&T should benefit from a credible move out of its voice
services into Internet data communication, an area where it's seen to lag.
The initial deal is for $100 million, but AtHome has other options that
could bring AT&T more revenue if exercised. AtHome gets not only to connect
its cable modem subscribers to fiber optics, but has opted for flat rate
pricing to replace the per-unit cost of its existing Sprint contract, a
change seen as worth 5% in its operating margin. AT&T's win at the expense
of six other bidders came for an odd reason: AtHome required the ability to
use Wave Division Multiplexing, and most of the other bidders tie WDM to
Sonet which is suitable for voice transmission (which AtHome didn't need)
and adds to the cost. Old voice carrier AT&T was able to avoid this somehow.

Hayes Closes

The former king of modems is shutting its doors. They declared bankruptcy
twice, most recently last October, and have been trying to find a buyer and
reorganize. But its lenders (to whom it owes $42 million) declined to keep
it alive any longer in the absence of likely purchasers. So the company is
now one with Nineveh and Syquest.

H-P Moves Into Low End Printers

Like Intel and Compaq before it, they have discovered that the low-price
market is growing too large to ignore. So they created a subsidiary called
Apollo Consumer Products (named after a former acquisition, I think) to sell
sub-$100 color printers and eventually other stuff like scanners, cameras,
and even PCs. The company estimates that sub-$100 printers will grow in the
years 1998 to 2000 from 1.5 million sold to 5 M (5% to 11% of the market),
and sub-$150 printers from 8 M to 17 M (22% to 38%).


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 9 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (04:56) * 43 lines

Intel Debuts More Cheap Chips

With the market for sub-$1000 PCs grown too big to ignore, Intel is gearing
up to compete more effectively with AMD and Cyrix/National Semi at the low
end. They just introduced 336 MHz and 400 MHz Celeron CPUs at $123 and $158
per, for orders of a thousand or more. And they reduced the prices of
existing Celerons (Celera?): the 300 MHz is now $71 and the 333 MHz $90.

Network Solutions Seeks Cash

The company, now owned 72% by SAIC, will lose its monopoly on registering
Internet names this year and probably wants to diversify. Their 2-for-1
split and a secondary offering of 5 million shares should reduce SAIC's
stake to 45%, and an analyst says it should qualify the stock for pooling
type mergers, which may be advantageous in accounting terms. Except they
better hurry, because the FASB is thinking of disallowing the pooling form
of merger.

Intuit CEO Urges AT&T-Style Breakup Of Microsoft

William Harris surprised Microsoft's attorneys yesterday by testifying in
the resumed antitrust trial that the Windows operating system gave MS
"market power [which] should not be used to leverage into other markets".
Why this surprised them is beyond me, but they criticized him on the stand
for not telling them in advance he was going to say it, and asked him if the
government had put him up to it. He said no. He also suggested that the
court "make a distinction between operating systems and other applications",
which probably also astounded Microsoft's attorneys with its novelty.

Spyglass Misses Revenue Goals, Expects Quarterly Loss

The company that once seemed to have a lock on the web-browser market is now
reduced to selling "programs that link television sets and copiers(!) to the
Internet". And they didn't sell as many of those as they hoped, because
they blame slow sales for an expected 15-cent-per-share loss. Their stock
declined 31% on the news. Surfing the Net with your copier is just not an
idea whose time has come yet; interesting notion though.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 10 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (04:58) * 22 lines


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 11 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Jan 12, 1999 (08:38) * 356 lines

Wireless Computing Success Still In The Future

Xerox's 1972 concept of the Dynabook, a portable computer connected to a
network by radio, was never executed by them; and its more corporeal
successors have yet to achieve critical mass in the marketplace.
Wireless
e-mail is useful to some people, but apparently not to a wide enough base
of
consumers necessary to support a business. While there is some hope that
if
they build it, users will come and a suitable killer app materialize, the
evidence to date offers little support. As Geoff Goodfellow, the founder
of
Radiomail, puts it "this is a zero billion dollar industry"; the article
says he sold the company to Motorola after failing to secure a profitable
market. Motorola is now trying to position it for corporate niches.
Another example: Paul Allen's Metricom offers unlimited Internet access
at
20 KB/sec for $30 a month in Seattle, San Francisco, and DC; after three
years it has only 20,000 customers. Next into the arena: 3Com's Palm VII
(for people with two extra fingers?), which should cost around $800 and
offer Internet access at 30 cents per kilobyte. Apple is rumored ready
to
move also, with an AT&T alliance to connect both laptops and even desktop
systems to the Internet without wires.

katie sez:
the theory is small pipe wireless spread spectrum radio modems to isps
who connect to big pipe backbone via fiber or satellite. avoid local
telco copper entirely. The washdc metricom users i have talked to are
wildly happy with their wireless connections.

LA also has a start up wireless but their monthly rates are
little improvement over isdn/dsl, which is really a rip off.
http://www.interwireless.com/

http://www.metricom.com/

if metricom actually delivers at 28.8kbs, it will be
a huge improvement over 9kbs which is the best speed ever i have
gotten from USWest pots, usual speed is 1 to 3kbs as measured.

Intel Debuts More Cheap Chips

With the market for sub-$1000 PCs grown too big to ignore, Intel is
gearing
up to compete more effectively with AMD and Cyrix/National Semi at the
low
end. They just introduced 336 MHz and 400 MHz Celeron CPUs at $123 and
$158
per, for orders of a thousand or more. And they reduced the prices of
existing Celerons (Celera?): the 300 MHz is now $71 and the 333 MHz $90.

Network Solutions Seeks Cash

The company, now owned 72% by SAIC, will lose its monopoly on registering
Internet names this year and probably wants to diversify. Their 2-for-1
split and a secondary offering of 5 million shares should reduce SAIC's
stake to 45%, and an analyst says it should qualify the stock for pooling
type mergers, which may be advantageous in accounting terms. Except they
better hurry, because the FASB is thinking of disallowing the pooling
form
of merger.

Intuit CEO Urges AT&T-Style Breakup Of Microsoft

William Harris surprised Microsoft's attorneys yesterday by testifying in
the resumed antitrust trial that the Windows operating system gave MS
"market power [which] should not be used to leverage into other markets".
Why this surprised them is beyond me, but they criticized him on the
stand
for not telling them in advance he was going to say it, and asked him if
the
government had put him up to it. He said no. He also suggested that the
court "make a distinction between operating systems and other
applications",
which probably also astounded Microsoft's attorneys with its novelty.

Spyglass Misses Revenue Goals, Expects Quarterly Loss

The company that once seemed to have a lock on the web-browser market is
now
reduced to selling "programs that link television sets and copiers(!) to
the
Internet". And they didn't sell as many of those as they hoped, because
they blame slow sales for an expected 15-cent-per-share loss. Their
stock
declined 31% on the news. Surfing the Net with your copier is just not
an
idea whose time has come yet; interesting notion though.

Economists Discount Bubble Theory In Current Stock Bonanza

On the excuse that economics is a technology and the stock market is
certainly a business, I wanted to recap an interesting article from this
week's meeting of the American Economics Association. Members' concerns
that the extraordinary rise of the market since the end of 1994 would
turn
into a bust grew through the first part of 1998, and increased when share
princes plunged in August and September. But its recovery since the
Fed's
rate cuts has led to a restored confidence among economists that the
market
is fairly valued for the current unique environment and that prices are
robust, with the Fed both ready and able to sustain confidence if a panic
should develop. They point to a combination of job creation, rising
output,
and falling unemployment, which in other times has resulted in inflation,
but not now. Some of this price stability is due to coincidence (falling
oil and computer prices), but others are likely to endure. These include
lack of wage pressure (outside of the basketball industry) possibly
related
to the growing use of contract workers, increased job mobility, and the
preference of aging baby boomers for security over an increased salary.

AT&T - AtHome Deal Reported Close

They are expected to announce today that AT&T will provide the
long-distance
portion of AtHome's cable modem service with around 15,000 miles of fiber
optic lines. AT&T should benefit from a credible move out of its voice
services into Internet data communication, an area where it's seen to
lag.
The initial deal is for $100 million, but AtHome has other options that
could bring AT&T more revenue if exercised. AtHome gets not only to
connect
its cable modem subscribers to fiber optics, but has opted for flat rate
pricing to replace the per-unit cost of its existing Sprint contract, a
change seen as worth 5% in its operating margin. AT&T's win at the
expense
of six other bidders came for an odd reason: AtHome required the ability
to
use Wave Division Multiplexing, and most of the other bidders tie WDM to
Sonet which is suitable for voice transmission (which AtHome didn't need)
and adds to the cost. Old voice carrier AT&T was able to avoid this
somehow.

Hayes Closes

The former king of modems is shutting its doors. They declared
bankruptcy
twice, most recently last October, and have been trying to find a buyer
and
reorganize. But its lenders (to whom it owes $42 million) declined to
keep
it alive any longer in the absence of likely purchasers. So the company
is
now one with Nineveh and Syquest.

H-P Moves Into Low End Printers

Like Intel and Compaq before it, they have discovered that the low-price
market is growing too large to ignore. So they created a subsidiary
called
Apollo Consumer Products (named after a former acquisition, I think) to
sell
sub-$100 color printers and eventually other stuff like scanners,
cameras,
and even PCs. The company estimates that sub-$100 printers will grow in
the
years 1998 to 2000 from 1.5 million sold to 5 M (5% to 11% of the
market),
and sub-$150 printers from 8 M to 17 M (22% to 38%).

Acer Delays Stock Offering

After its share price fell 13% last month, the Taiwan PC maker said it
might
hold off on a $200 million issuance of stock it had planned since July.
Taiwanese stocks have not done well in general, reaching a 30-month low
last
Tuesday.

Cisco To Announce New Network

They may use the current Consumer Electronics Show to describe their
plans
for a high-speed multimedia network to offer data, phone, and video
services
on a single line. Initially it will be available to TCI cable
subscribers,
though Cisco claims an alliance of 32 telephone, cable, and ISP firms.

Bell Atlantic Smooths Path For Competition

They say. The FCC requires local phone companies to demonstrate their
market is competitive before it will let them offer long distance
services.
So far nobody has passed the test, though not for lack of trying. Now
Bell
Atlantic has trotted out a competitor to offer a testimonial: Royce
Holland,
former head of MFS, now CEO of Allegiance Telecom, says a new system lets
a
Bell Atlantic customer switch carriers in one week instead of six. It
remains to be seen if this will impress the FCC.

Topic 115 [biztech]: In the news for 1999
#22 of 47: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu Jan 7 '99 (09:20) 20 lines

Apple's return from the grave is not such new news any more (it's been in
the black for five quarters now), and the stories about the latest Macs
seem
to focus most on the colors (will they really help sales, or will
merchants
find a customer wants a red one and they only have blue ones). There is
an
article about how Apple doubled its market share in 1998 to 10% on the
strength of the 800,000 iMacs sold in the last five months: of those, 32%
went to new computers users and 13% to former PC users. (The remaining
55%
presumably were already Mac users, or maybe switched from Unix or MVS.)

More On The Netcom Sale

Apparently ICG Communications, a "new local phone carrier", bought Netcom
last year (for $284 million) in hopes of running a retail ISP, but was
disappointed with the results. So they sold the US customer base to
Mindspring for $245 M, and plan to sell the foreign subscribers shortly.
They will keep the hardware base including 45,000 modems. What a local
phone company will do with 45,000 modems is unclear; a new age sculpture?

Today's SJ Murky
gives
details of the Netcom deal.

Xerox Moves Away From Copiers

That's like saying Procter & Gamble is getting out of the soap business.
Actually they are trying to drop the older analog copiers which represent
50% of their sales today, and move toward digital office equipment
devices
including printers and some copiers.

Amazon Moves Into Distribution

After rival Barnes & Noble said it would buy the largest US book
distributor
two months ago, Amazon looked at distributor #2 but apparently decided
instead to expand its own distribution system with a "huge, highly
automated
warehouse" near Reno. An analyst pointed out that they should be able to
add the distributor's margin to their own with this expansion; it seems
to
be a natural path for small catalog companies to rely on distributors at
first, then take over the process as they grow. And Amazon is growing:
its
share price reached $160 yesterday, up a bit from the $8 of a year ago
despite the absence of any profit to date, and fourth-quarter sales were
$250 million, up from $66 M a year ago.

AOL Phrase Case Not Over Yet

I just found the article on the AOL vs. AT&T Worldnet case from Tuesday's
paper. It turns out the judge in the Federal court for the Eastern
District
of Virginia on December 24 merely denied AOL a temporary restraining
order
and a preliminary injunction to block Worldnet from using the phrases
"You
have mail", "Buddy list", and "I M" before the trial starts. Buddy list
and
IM are used in AT&T's "AT&T I M Here" instant-messaging service. AOL had
apparently claimed the phrases were too close to its own "You've Got
Mail"
and its AIM AOL Instant Messaging service. It's rare for a judge to
grant a
TRO unless the other party can show irreparable harm, since the motion
comes
before the trial and presentation of evidence; a motion for a preliminary
injunction allows for a brief rebuttal by the other party and is
sometimes a
bellwether for how the court will rule on the merits but not always. The
case will now go forward on the regular schedule, meaning it could be
months
before a final ruling.

I saw the zaniest Reuters reporting I've ever seen, on the Web at:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,30666,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh

It's titled and leads:

Zapata hooks up with Amazon, stock soars

Fish oil firm and reincarnated Internet startup Zapata
said today that it will market Amazon.com products on its
future Web site in return for referral fees.

It goes on to claim that the deal will net Zapata's Zap! subsidiary "fees
ranging from 5 to 15 percent of the sale price on more than 1.1 million
book
titles, CDs and videos." Now, last time I looked, that was the same deal
being offered to any and all of Amazon.com's 100,000+ affiliate sites.

The article claimed (or implied) that this led to a jump of $2.625 (to
$14.75) for Zapata. What next? "Zap! to adopt 8-bit bytes?" "Zap! to
employ rotary disk devices for long-term storage?"

I still think the best guide to the stock market is Mackay's
"Extraordinary
Popular Delusions And The Madness of Crowds". 158 years after it came
out,
his insights are still valid.

Silicon Valley Tapers Off

An annual economic report says that growth abated, perhaps due to the
Asian
slump. 19,400 new jobs were created in 1998 compared with 62,000 in 1997
and IPOs were down to 32 from 73. On the rise: venture capital invested
in
the area grew by 14% in 1998, and the percentage of freeway miles
considered
maximally congested went from 26% to 31% (at that pace the area will
completely seize up by 2012 unless more people move to Chico).

Ascend To Sell Stratus

Ascend Communications of Alameda, which bought Stratus Computer for $800
million in October, is selling its Enterprise Computer division for $100
M
to middle east investment group Investcorp. The news seems to be that a
financial company is interested in a high-tech firm: other buyers like
Kohlberg Kravis are said to avoid these companies because of their
earnings
unpredictability and the short product life cycles. Ascend reported that
several potential buyers expressed an interest in Stratus; they plan to
sell
off a couple of Stratus software divisions shortly.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 12 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Jan 13, 1999 (10:59) * 47 lines

Math Algorithms Patentable: Supreme Court Declines Appeal

The high court decided without comment not to hear an appeal in the case
of
State Street Bank vs. Signature Financial. Signature developed financial
software that included a mathematical formula for calculating mutual
funds
investments. State Street claimed the formula was not eligible for a
patent, and the trial court agreed, but the federal appeals court for the
Federal Circuit reversed and said math formulas used in business could be
patented if the produced "a useful, concrete and tangible result". Since
the Fed Circuit handles all patent appeals, the decision applies across
the
country.

Samsung Sells AST

They bought AST Research in 1995 for $377 million and sold it this week
for
$12.5 million to Beny Alagem, a former head of Packard Bell. Samsung
will
keep a 35% interest, perhaps until it finds a bigger fool. AST's debts
exceed its assets by $400 million; Mr. Alagem has wisely contracted not
to
assume those debts.

$399 PC Announced

A Fremont company called Emachines with Korean financial backing plans to
offer sub-$400 systems through Circuit City and mail-order retailers.
They
claim to have already shipped 180,000 of their sub-$500 Etower PCs in the
last month and a half of 1998.

Microsoft Buys Into Banyan

MS will spend $10 million over three years for a 7.5% stake in Banyan. It
is
surmised they want Banyan's directory management technology; if they have
trouble creating the Active Directory feature of the upcoming Windows NT,
a
Forrester Research analyst says they "will switch from build to buy".


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 13 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jan 14, 1999 (06:23) * 73 lines

Eternal Airplane Under Construction

A lightweight plane that runs entirely on solar power is still a ways
away,
but NASA's "Centurion" approaches it. A 206-foot wide flying wing that
weighs 1175 pounds empty, its solar cells will generate 31 kilowatts and
its
intended altitude is 100,000 feet; so far it has been tested only at low
altitudes with lithium batteries so as not to damage the expensive solar
array in the event of a crash. Plans are to extend the wing to 250 feet
and
have it flying high within two to three years. Besides scientific
applications, the planes could replace some communications satellites;
they
can fly at lower altitudes without having to move at orbital speeds. The
payload increases from 100 pounds to 600 pounds if the Centurion flies at
80,000 feet instead of 100,000, and a successor already on the drawing
board
called Helios is planned for 50,000-70,000 foot altitudes; but NASA plans
to
shoot for 100,000 feet because the model could then be used in the
Martian
atmosphere(!). Still to be addressed: how to replace those bags of
peanuts.

Lucent To Buy Ascend for $19.3 Billion

The deal (if approved by Ascend's board) would give each shareholder
0.825
shares of Lucent for each Ascend share. Negotiations between the two
have
been underway for about 18 months. The report is that Ascend needs a
bigger
partner to compete effectively, and Lucent needs Ascend technology to
compete with Cisco.

SBC Plans Big ADSL Offering

By the end of this year (just in time to fail with a Y2K bug), they will
offer high-speed ADSL connections to 9.5 million customers, including 8.2
million residences.

Intel, Seagate Prosper

Intel's quarterly profit was up 18% to $2.1 billion, largely on sales of
high-margin high-end processor chips like the Xeon and the Pentium II.
Revenue rose 17% to $7.6 billion, but they lowered their cost of goods by
$16 million, apparently through the introduction of an 0.25 micron
manufacturing process. Seagate showed a $104 million quarterly profit
compared to a $20 M operating loss a year ago; their revenue increased 8%
to $1.8 billion, partly due to a "41% rise in computer sales in December".

Liquid-Hydrogen Gas Station Opens In Germany

"Early business was slow" according to the report; I can imagine. Still,
the Shell Oil subsidiary that opened the station in Hamburg claims "Long
term, it replace oil and gas" since hydrogen engines get 70 percent fuel
efficiency compared with 23% for gasoline engines. Car makers are said
to be developing hydrogen powered vehicles; no doubt the Geo Challenger and
the Chrysler Hindenburg are just around the corner, so to speak.

E*Trade Opens Internet Investment Bank

Called E*Offering, it will underwrite stock offerings through sales over
the net; they claim efficiencies over brick-and-mortar investment banks that
let them charge 30 percent less.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 14 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan 15, 1999 (06:07) * 41 lines

The Web's New Sugar Daddy
by Polly Sprenger

3:00 a.m. 15.Jan.99.PST
REDWOOD SHORES, California -- Oracle put US$100 million up for grabs
Thursday in an attempt to convince promising technology startups to build
software for its new Internet database.
Speaking to a group of venture capitalists, the managers of the new Oracle
Venture Fund described how the world's biggest database software company
wanted to become more friendly with investors and the companies they
nurture.

"Our top-line mission is to make a pot of money," said David Roux,
investment committee member of the fund. "But we also want to raise our
profile in the financial community."

In August, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced the company's new database,
Oracle 8i, and described it as a product geared toward the Internet.

At the time, Ellison said he intended to position 8i as a new computing
platform to rival operating systems like Windows NT and Sun Solaris.
Encouraging new software developers to base their products on 8i is part
of that strategy.

Oracle 8i was originally slated for release in December 1998, but still
hasn't come out.

As more businesses move their computing systems to the Internet, Oracle
hopes to make its products the foundation -- much like Microsoft operating
systems are the foundation of desktop computing.

The Oracle Fund also will help young companies by lending them its
prominence in the information technology market, Roux said.

He said the target investment range was $2 million to $5 million for each
company the fund invests in.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 15 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jan 15, 1999 (06:19) * 22 lines

AOL To Offer ADSL To Bell Atlantic Customers

They estimate that by the end of the year, 7.5 million customers in the
BA
service area will be able to access the Internet via ADSL for about $40 a
month, $20 over the base AOL charge. BA is said to charge about $60 a
month
for "full Internet service over ADSL", and cable modem providers about
$40.

Big Transatlantic Cable Planned

George Soros' Global Telesystems Group and Bermuda's Flag Telecom plan a
$1
billion cable to link New York with Britain and Europe beginning some
time
next year. Estimated capacity is 1.28 terabits a second, described as 25
times the total of existing transatlantic cables.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 16 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Jan 19, 1999 (12:16) * 40 lines

Philips, Sony, Sun In Home Automation Venture

Reaching out to establish a rival to Wintel plans, the three companies
plan
to use Sun's Java-based "Jini" protocol and the Home Audio Visual
Interoperability (HAVI) architecture to create devices for consumer
automation of home electronic appliances such as VCRs. Microsoft and
Intel
have created a Universal Plug and Play Alliance (with Compaq, Dell, and
H-P)
to promote their own standards, which not surprisingly are PC-centered,
while the Jini-HAVI groups sees TV remotes and other gizmos as nodes.
The
two groups are expected to do battle over which protocol is included in
TCI's new set-top boxes.

NBC's Snap Aims Service At Highly Connected

Those without ADSL or cable modems need not apply to Snap's "Cyclone"
service (they may come to regret that name if they expand to Germany),
which
is designed solely for users with major bandwidth. It looks like at
effort
by a second-tier company (the article says "also-ran") to carve out a
niche.

At Home To Buy Excite For $6 Billion

Speaking of cable modems, this deal would give At Home a major portal and
end the reported bidding for Excite by Yahoo and Microsoft. At Home,
worth
$10.4 billion, has 330,000 customers and Excite ($3.5 B) claims 20
million
"registered users". Since AT&T is buying TCI, who owns much of At Home,
they are expected to benefit as well.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 17 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Jan 25, 1999 (10:59) * 21 lines

Linux Users Demand Refund

Not from Red hat, from Microsoft. Instead of automatically clicking on
the
"I Agree" button that says they capitulate to every demand MS makes on
them
as a condition of using Windows, some have decided to follow the
instructions to "contact the manufacturer for instructions on return of
the
unused product(s) for a refund". Although Microsoft wrote the language
of
the agreement, MS spokesman Tom Pilla says as far as his company is
concerned buying the computer with Windows pre-loaded constitutes an
agreement to use it and disqualifies users from a refund; another PR
triumph
for Redmond's Goliath seems to be in the making. [irony alert]
More details said to be available at


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 18 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (12:24) * 41 lines

Microsoft Buys Into British Cable TV

They will sink a half billion US $ in the third largest cable service
in Britain, a company called NTL Inc.

Lycos CEO Denies Sale rumors

Robert Davis says "what we're most committed to is the independence of
Lycos", but "if there's a partnership out there that respects that ...
we'd be interested in it." Whatever that means.

Sun In Big Jini Push

A full-page ad headlined "Maybe all your toaster needed was someone to
talk to" features a printer that says "Pleased to meet you", a washing
machine that replies "Charmed, I'm sure", and a wristwatch that can
only come up with an inarticulate "Wussup?". Not what you'd call a
killer app.

Intel Withdraws Chip-ID Publishing Plan

Big news on the privacy front today is Intel's retreat on its design
for the Pentium III that identifies the chip serial number to outside
agencies, like Caller ID or a hardware cookie burned into the PC.
Latest announcement is that the feature will not be activated by
default, but will need to be turned on by the user.

Undisclosed Buyer Bids on Name thespring.com

An undisclosed Silicon Valley startup is bidding on the name
thespring.com according to an undisclosed source at Austin, Texas virtual
community-ecommerce site, the Spring (http://www.spring.net). The source
said that the buyer is backed by some high powered venture capitalists.
The buyer is an ecommerce startup and is shrouded in mystery and intrigue.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 19 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (18:48) * 1 lines

okay, give us more on that last part!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 20 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (18:51) * 4 lines

Yep, got a call today. We in negotiations for thespring.com but don't
worry, we're keeping spring.net which is our main name anyway. Basically,
well, talk to me in inner.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 21 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (19:10) * 1 lines

gotcha


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 22 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (21:21) * 3 lines

See, you find out who reads tech news by throwing in an occasionally show
stopper.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 23 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Wed, Jan 27, 1999 (18:45) * 1 lines

I'm here for ya!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 24 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Feb  9, 1999 (14:47) * 57 lines

Global Electronic Linking Of Stock Exchanges Proposed

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Paris Bourse, and the Singapore
International Monetary Exchange are in talks to offer futures and options
trading over a 24-hour a day network, to be called the Globex Alliance.
Other exchanges are expected to be invited in later.

AT&T To Expand Local Phone Service Over Cable

Besides the deals last week, AT&T is talking with the third through the
fifth largest cable TV companies: Mediaone, Comcast, and Cox
Communications.
They have 13 million customers, and could offer service to another 7 M
homes their facilities pass by. AT&T hopes to enlist them in its drive
to
offer local telephone services over coaxial cable.

USA Networks Likely to Buy Lycos

Barry Diller's company includes the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster,
Citysearch, and ISN First Auction. It is reported in a deal to buy
Lycos,
the 4th most visited Internet portal site. The combined company would
have
a market value of $18 billion and be called USA Lycos Interactive
Network.
Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, but whatever. The interesting thing
about this deal seems to be that instead of basing its revenue model on
advertising, it looks toward profits from selling directly to buyers.

PC Prices Fall To Zero

A Pasadena company descriptively named "Free PC Inc." plans to give away
Compaq computers and a no-charge Internet connection, in what may be the
ultimate price cut. They'll make it up in volume, ha ha. No actually
they
figure they'll make it up with ads, with the computer will display as
long
as it is turned on, whether it's connected to the Internet or not. In a
curious wrinkle, anyone who wants one of their PCs must visit the
company's
web site , which is likely to require a computer up
front.
Then they have to answer a battery of demographic questions about their
age,
education level, income, interests, etc., and the company will decide if
they are gullible enough, er, suitable to receive the $600 retail
computer.
A key investor in the operation is one Barry Diller, who is obviously not
ready to abandon the advertising revenue model entirely.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 25 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Feb 15, 1999 (19:27) * 53 lines

International Wireless Standard In Trouble

In the beginning according to the article, there was analog cellular, the
first generation of wireless telephones. Then came the second
generation,
digital PCS (personal communications services); Europeans promoted a
standard called GSM (global system for mobile communications) over the
American standard in a way that left some hard feelings. In the words of
an American trade official their strategy was "get it to market first,
mandate it as a pan-European standard, and make sure it's not compatible
with existing wireless networks in North America." Now it's time for
Generation Three, and the battle lines are drawn. San Diego-based
Qualcomm
has long promoted CDMA (code division multiple access), over the
objections
of Sweden's Ericsson who already has a large base built on TDMA (time
division blah blah) which is compatible with GSM. Tests showed CDMA,
originally designed for military applications, adapted to commercial use
better than expected. Just as Qualcomm was feeling justified in its
judgement, Ericsson sued them for patent infringement over the technology
in October 1996; the slow-moving case is supposed to go to trial this
April
in Texas. Ericsson appears to have fought CDMA until it proved the
better
way, then claimed they own the rights to it. Anyway, Ericsson is now
ready
to use it, but in a form that is not backwards-compatible with the
existing
US service, since they don't have a piece of that. Qualcomm is crying
foul, demanding that the protocol be compatible, and has enlisted as
allies
the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, the US Trade
Representative, and the chairman of the FCC. The European commissioner
for
telecommunications has merely replied that American standards will be
forbidden in European systems, Qualcomm has counter-sued Ericsson over
their own patents, and the ITU...oh, I forgot to mention about them.
They
are scheduled to meet in six weeks "to forge a consensus on the next
generation of wireless phones". Ha ha; they might as well try to forge a
consensus between Mac and Unix and Windows users. In fact, they have
already given up trying, though they will still meet for many fine
lunches
and dinners at a Malaysian beach resort and spa; instead they say they
will
not move "until the property rights are settled". These are the rights
that have been sued over since 1996, remember, and haven't even come to
trial yet. Most analysts are pessimistic on any resolution of the issue,
and expect instead that the two incompatible standards will continue on
separate paths and a single global standard may not emerge for years.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 26 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Mon, Feb 15, 1999 (21:43) * 1 lines

ooh, this sounds like fun...


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 27 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Feb 19, 1999 (08:38) * 93 lines

Compaq To Portalize Altavista

With all-in-one sites like Excite and Lycos looking like the wave of the
future, Compaq plans to beef up the Altavista search site it got as part
of
the DEC deal with two acquisitions. They just bought shopping.com for
$220
million, and for $300 million a company called Zip2 that apparently
partners
with local newspapers to create Citysearch-type directories on the Web.

Digital Watermark Standard Agreed On

Up to now two rival formats have been competing to be chosen as the
standard
by which copying of digital video recordings and broadcasts could be
prevented. IBM and NEC supported one, and Hitachi, Pioneer, and Sony the
other. They have now settled on a single format and expect DVD recorders
with watermark-detection circuitry to be available in a year. A binary
code
will be stored in every frame of a recording; supposedly it will survive
compression and conversion to any other digital format, and should only
give
a false positive once in over seven years of solid recording. They
didn't
say anything about degrading picture quality, though.

I recommend Google (http://www.google.com) heartily.

Applications Seen For Slow Light

The speed of light in a vacuum is 186,171 miles a second, but it is
slower
when it passes through materials of different densities. By using a very
dense material called a Bose-Einstein condensate, a team of scientists
have
slowed it down to 38 miles per hour and hope to get it down to 120 feet
per
hour. The technology is very far from commercial deployment - for one
thing, the condensate needs to be cooled to fifty billionths of a degree
Kelvin (above absolute zero), which most freezers are not built for - but
the physicist in charge says that within ten years major applications may
be
available. Examples given include "optically switched logic gates" and
noise filters for optical communication systems. The refractive index of
the material can be raised to 100 trillion times that of optical fiber;
potential applications include devices that upshift long-wavelength light
such as infrared into the visible spectrum, in color.

World Economic Network Detailed

This is not strictly high-tech news, but it should be of interest anyway.
The N Y Times has been running a seriously excellent four-part dissection
of
global economic interdependence that describes how the Thai, Indonesian,
Korean, Russian, and Brazilian currency crises came about and how both
technology and politics created a ripple effect among them. The
multi-page
stories ran Monday through today, and can be found at

Definitely worth reading if you're interested in the subject.

Firewire Consortium Formed

Apple, Compaq, Matsushita, Philips, Sony, and Toshiba have agreed to
jointly
license their connection technology called Firewire (doesn't it also have
an
IEEE designation?) and promote it as a standard PC interface. It is
described as already in heavy use in Macintoshes, camcorders, and VCRs.

Microsoft Says AOL Uses Internet Explorer Out Of Spite

In a curious sort of conspiracy theory Microsoft says that AOL, who just
bought Netscape, has renewed its contract to use Internet Explorer, but
did
it to harm Microsoft. Their theory according to Brad Chase is that "If
they
switched to Netscape, our market share would drop to 30%; that would make
IE
the underdog and would be inconsistent with AOL's desire to help the
government in this case." Just think how happy MS must be that IBM just
announced it will ship Linux on its servers, joining H-P and Dell. (IBM
says it is even looking at putting Linux on laptops, no doubt to please
MS.)


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 28 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Fri, Feb 19, 1999 (08:43) * 1 lines

no doubt...


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 29 of 57: wer  (KitchenManager) * Mon, May 24, 1999 (12:09) * 34 lines

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 21 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation -- Holding its commencement exercises on the Internet, Jones International University: The University of the Web (JIU) celebrated its first graduation ceremony as a fully accredited academic institution. The graduation ceremony, which includes a web cast of the degree conferment and web pages for each graduate, is archived at http://www.jonesinternational.edu/graduation.

JIU's 1999 graduates are:

1. Bob Bone of Independence, MO, who found that JIU was the most
feasible way to complete a masters degree as the owner of a company
and father of four;

2. David Chavez of Palmdale, CA , who has five years' experience in
marketing and public relations and needed a degree in business
communication to achieve his career goals;

3. Joan Crittenden of Waldorf, MD, who learned effective communication
skills and how to make a Web page for her employer while attending
JIU;

4. Noreen McGahn of Brigantine, NJ, a school nurse and health educator
who's on-the-job performance has greatly improved from JIU's rigorous
coursework;

5. and Rosemarie Slocum-Rubenstein of Minneapolis, MN, the founder and
president of a physician search consulting firm, who believes her JIU
education has helped her to run a more effective business.

About JIU

Founded in 1995 as International University, JIU exists entirely in cyberspace. The online educational environment enables JIU to offer degree and certificate programs to students around the world. The cyber classroom environment also provides more flexibility to students, who may not be able to attend classes on campus because of geographic distances, work schedules or personal commitments. Earlier this year, JIU received accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which is
esponsible for the accreditation of colleges and schools in 19 states. JIU is the first online university to receive accreditation from a nationally recognized accrediting body. For more information, visit JIU's campus on the web at http://www.jonesinternational.edu/ or call 1-800-811-Jones.

SOURCE Jones International University: The University of the Web (JIU)

[Copyright 1999, PR Newswire]


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 30 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (16:33) * 1 lines

John should know about this place. I shall email him with the information.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 31 of 57: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Nov 20, 1999 (12:39) * 2 lines

I did and he lamented that all they offered was a BA and MA in communications
neither of which would help him.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 32 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (11:16) * 24 lines

Yahoo introduces email bug after attack
By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 8, 2000, 5:35 p.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/category/0-1005-200-1545407.html
In its haste to recover from yesterday's "denial of service" attack, Yahoo inadvertently introduced a bug into its Web-based email system that is
causing some messages received through the service to be delivered empty and unlabeled.
Some messages appeared stripped of their headers, showing up in the in-box with the subject "(none)" and lacking any information about sender,
recipient or subject when the message was opened. Those messages, however, did contain the body of the email text.
Other messages weren't as lucky, showing up devoid of any content or labeling.
Yahoo said the problem arose out of efforts to restore the flow of information between its various services and applications following the denial of
service attack.
In a denial of service attack, Web sites succumb to heavy bombardment of bogus requests for information. When the targeted server responds,
the attackers' system steps up the barrage by sending more requests. The affected Web site struggles to keep up with the mounting number of
requests, slowing performance for users or ultimately crashing the system.
The assault on Yahoo was followed today by attacks on Buy.com and eBay.
A bug accidentally introduced during Yahoo's denial of service cleanup caused some Yahoo Mail messages to become garbled, according to the
company.
But a company representative said no information was actually lost, and Yahoo engineers are at work restoring headers and bodies to those
email messages. Users who deleted those mysterious messages should retrieve them from the Trash folder pending the restoration of data, the
representative said.
Users who have deleted blank messages and subsequently emptied their trash appear to have lost their email for good.
Yahoo would not estimate when the fix would be complete.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 33 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:17) * 5 lines

The San Jose Mercury News has some good coverage on the Microsoft Antitrust case: http://www.sjmercury.com/business/microsoft/trial

Apparently both sides are making their closing arguments today. I'm certainly no fan of Gates and Microsoft, but I have to say I think they're wasting their time arguing about whether Internet Explorer(aka Exploder) is part of the OS or not.

To me, the real crime is Microsoft's predatory licensing agreements with PC manufacturers. I understand that Microsoft won't license their Windows operating systems to PC manufacturers if they install competing software products (like Netscape) on new PCs. For one company to dictate what software gets installed on new PCs is unbelievable!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 34 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:19) * 1 lines

I see you have found the rest of Spring. Now, make a hotlist which does not quit. Mine has all but about 5 conferences on it. Thanks for posting this and for your comments. Somehow, Mocrosoft has lost sight of the American right to choose.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 35 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (12:55) * 3 lines

Microsoft has always found ways to buy or crush competing (and usually better quality) products. It will be interesting to see what happens with this case.

I don't want the government to dictate what features can be included in products, and I don't know if breaking up Microsoft would really be the best thing (what good did it really do with AT&T, now that all the baby bells are merging again??). All I know is that Microsoft should be punished for blocking competing products from reaching consumers.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 36 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (13:00) * 1 lines

I agree with you both in substance and sentiment. It is not an easy thing to deal with, but it should not have been allowed to dictate to a world-wide communications meduim for as long as it (he) did.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 37 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (13:51) * 42 lines

AMD Unveils First 1 GHz Chip Before Rival Intel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The No. 2 computer chip maker Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD.N) on Monday unveiled the first 1 gigahertz (GHz) computer
chip, beating its far larger competitor Intel Corp. (INTC.O) to the punch to
claim industry bragging rights.

Advanced Micro said it had begun shipments of its 1 GHz AMD Athlon
processors, an announcement that analysts had been anticipating this week.
Intel also is expected to follow shortly with its own announcement, perhaps
later this week.

``Achieving production of the gigahertz processor is the chip industry's
equivalent of breaking the sound barrier,'' Steve Lapinski, director of product
marketing in AMD's Computation Products Group.

Analysts, however note that these chips will not be available in big volumes
after they are launched, and that only a handful of personal computer makers
are likely to announce products designed for one gigahertz processors.

``I don't think there is a big push from an OEM (original equipment
manufacturer) perspective. It's just bragging rights,'' said Ashok Kumar, an
analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, said.

Advanced Micro said it would immediately begin shipping its chips to its two
lead partners, Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ.N) and Gateway Inc. (GTW.N)

Compaq said on Monday it will sell computers with AMD's 1 GHz chip with
prices starting as low as $2,000 up to $3,300, with the typical price around
$2,499. Customers can begin placing orders March 9, with express shipment
putting the computers available in users hands within 4-5 days, or 7-10 days
with regular shipment.

Gateway said Computer machines will begin pricing at $2,999 and products
will be shipped within eight to 10 days.

AMD also said it plans to begin shipping the high-speed chips to all other
computer makers in April.
AMD priced its 1 GHz Athlon processors at $1,299 in 1,000 unit quantities. It
also announced the availability of a 950 MHz chip at $999 in 1,000 unit
quantities and 900 MHz Athlon processors priced at $899 in 1,000 unit
quantities.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 38 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (17:31) * 21 lines

This story would fit just about anywhere on the Spring, but I thought I's clear the cobwebs out of here today:

Granny Missing? No Worry With Satellite Tracking
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese companies have solved the problem of straying
senior citizens track them by satellite.
A device for finding old people unable to take care of themselves uses a
satellite-based global positioning system and a cellular phone network.
Local governments in Tokyo and Japan's Kikuchi City plan to test the device,
developed by a group led by trading house Mitsui & Co ``We are definitely
expecting a market to develop for the system,'' a Mitsui spokesman said.
A transmitter attached to the body or on clothing beams coordinates of the
person to a local server. Concerned relatives just need to send a request by
portable terminal and up pops the runaway's location on a computerized map.
Systems already exist in Japan for finding lost people but they rely on
technology for personal handyphones a type of mobile phone and do not work
well if the escapee jumps on a train or takes to the mountains.
And the idea is not simply pie in the sky given the graying of Japan's
population. Already there are an estimated 1.88 million elderly people in
Japan suffering various degrees of senility.
The device will be tested later this year with a planned launch in early 2001.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 39 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Mon, May  8, 2000 (23:13) * 2 lines

Interesting...there was something else about GPS technology in the news recently. It sounded like GPS-based communicators are on the way to being available commercially.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 40 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Mon, May  8, 2000 (23:24) * 1 lines

Wouldn't that be nice!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 41 of 57: SCIENCE! (sprin5) * Fri, May 12, 2000 (07:07) * 1 lines

The big news has been the new accuracy of the GPS, which used to be a few hundred feet off, now Mickey, our local "Czar of the GPS" notes that he can watch himself change lanes on his GPS. They were once skewed off accuracy intentionally for fear terrorists would use them to drop a missle down a smokestack somewhere.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 42 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:16) * 3 lines

Beware of smokestacks and air conditioning ducts (which seem to be out favorite targets from the footage taken in the Libyan altercation. (I think I need one to find my house male in Walmart since he is my ride home...)

I had heard from my geek son that they were getting VERY precise!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 43 of 57: SCIENCE! (sprin5) * Mon, May 15, 2000 (09:25) * 1 lines

You could use them to find your car in a parking lot now.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 44 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Mon, May 15, 2000 (10:36) * 1 lines

Indeed! Can kids, Granny or wandering spouse be far behind?!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 45 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Fri, May 19, 2000 (13:03) * 11 lines

I went searching for some information on GPS, and found some urls that look interesting:

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/gps.html
http://gps.laafb.af.mil/
http://www.gpsworld.com/
http://www.navtechgps.com/
http://www.gps4fun.com/
http://joe.mehaffey.com/

I wonder how long before wireless phones and GPS merge?


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 46 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Fri, May 19, 2000 (20:42) * 1 lines

Ok Ginny!!! Thanks! Haven't they merged them yet? Perhaps I saw one on a report from a Hi-Tech show, but I am almost sure someone has one almost ready to put on the market!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 47 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Fri, May 19, 2000 (23:32) * 4 lines

Navtech has an analog cell phone with GPS powered maps for $400; http://www.navtechgps.com/supply/navtalk.asp

They also have a "World Phone" that uses GPS to place a call anywhere in the world, but that costs $2850; http://www.navtechgps.com/supply/Wphone.asp


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 48 of 57: What's happenin' in the news? (sprin5) * Fri, May 19, 2000 (23:48) * 1 lines

How can a gps be used to make a call?


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 49 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Sat, May 20, 2000 (00:47) * 1 lines

Not that - it is a combo deal which fits in your pocket - at least the one I saw was like that.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 50 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Sat, May 20, 2000 (00:51) * 1 lines

Wow, I was right! They are out there for people with lots o' cash. You can locate yourself and call the AAA and guide them to it if our car breaks down?!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 51 of 57: SCIENCE! (sprin5) * Sat, May 20, 2000 (06:00) * 1 lines

Lots' o cash, alright, for this Mission Impossible looking cellphone in a briefcase.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 52 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Sat, May 20, 2000 (19:10) * 1 lines

But, Terry..it is SO Cool...! I expect to hear your acquisiton of same in the next few permutations. Competition should bring the prices into more realistic range - I hope!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 53 of 57: Ginny  (vibrown) * Tue, May 23, 2000 (11:52) * 1 lines

Sounds like that World Phone uses the satellite to reach areas that don't have cell towers, but I don't have a clue how it works.


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 54 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Tue, May 23, 2000 (13:42) * 1 lines

It's not with smoke and mirrors anymore, but it has to contain an uplink and a downlink - the reason for the attache case attached, I imagine. Just like a satellite game live from Hilo to Texas!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 55 of 57: Marcia  (MarciaH) * Wed, Jun 28, 2000 (22:03) * 62 lines

PENTIUM IV
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 28, 2000, 9:00 a.m. PT

Intel will call Willamette, its next-generation processor, the Pentium 4.

The Pentium 4 will succeed the Pentium III and in many ways will be a
landmark release for the chipmaker. For one, Willamette, and a related chip for
servers
code-named "Foster," will feature an entirely new architecture, which will
give the company room to innovate or tap new features.

For more than five years, new Intel microprocessors have
relied on the same basic architecture. The Pentium Pro, which came
out in October 1995, effectively features the same "P6"
design as the Pentium II, the Celeron, Xeon processors and the Pentium
III.

Although the P6 architecture has enjoyed a good
commercial life, the architecture is reaching its performance limits. One of the
reasons Advanced Micro Devices has been able to put so
much pressure on Intel in recent months is that its Athlon chip features
a brand-new architecture with plenty of untapped
headroom. This has permitted AMD to raise the clock speed almost at will.

Pentium 4 will debut at an initial speed of 1.4 GHz,
according to Intel. Rather than increase speed in 33-MHz or 50-MHz
increments, the chips will jump by 100 MHz at a time. In
other words, the next step up will be a 1.5-GHz chip. As with the earlier
Pentium generations, the Pentium 4 will likely be split
into sub-brands.

Another feature will be a 400-MHz system bus, roughly
three times as fast as Intel's current system bus. The system bus serves as a
data conduit between the processor and the rest of the
computer. The faster it is, the better. When combined with Rambus
memory, Willamette computers are expected to establish
new levels of desktop performance, analysts have said.

The chip is expected to debut late in the third quarter
or early in the fourth quarter. Paul Otellini, general manager of the Intel
Architecture Group, said in April that Willamette
computers would be available for the peak buying season in 2000. An Intel
spokesman said "hundreds of thousands" of systems will
ship this year.

Many predicted that Intel would use the Pentium 4 designation. The only thing
that may catch notice is the shift from Roman to Arabic numerals.

"They've got a lot of brand equity in Pentium," said analyst Nathan Brookwood
of Insight 64. "I would be surprised if it was something else."

Chairman Andy Grove said earlier this year that it could be expected that the
company would leverage the Pentium brand name in some fashion.

"Pentium is one of the most recognized brands in the world, and it has strong
equity with users," said Erik Reid, senior brand manager at Intel, who added
that the
color scheme of the chip will be blue and orange, rather than blue and green.
"We wanted a bold contemporary look for the new badge."


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 56 of 57: Stacey  (stacey) * Fri, Nov  1, 2002 (15:52) * 1 lines

Funny to read these early posts... the first 1 GHz chip!!! Pentium 4!!!


 Topic 25 of 108 [news]: tech news 98
 Response 57 of 57: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Nov  1, 2002 (20:37) * 2 lines

The business conference (also the news conference) has some recent tech news.
We get it from Ron Sipherd, whose tech tidbits are excellent.

news conference

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