OXFORD
ONLINE
With the help of an $820,000 grant from Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen's Virtual Education Foundation based in Washington
state, venerable Oxford University will soon be offering certificate-granting
Continuing Education courses over the Internet. The courses will not
be part of a full degree program. An Oxford administrator says that
the courses "are designed around a completely new concept of online
tutorial support within reach of the distant learner." Special tutors
will supervise students using e-mail, Internet class discussions,
and audio conferencing. (AP 20 Jul 98)
STARTING
LINE-UP FOR DIGITAL BASEBALL CARDS
Baseball cards are morphing into multimedia format, with two sets
of stars available from Silicon Valley startup CyberAction and Major
League Baseball Properties. The sets consist of four stars each,
and each card can be "clicked" on to reveal full-motion and audio
clips, player stats and personal data. The initial sets feature
sluggers Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr., Tino Martinez and Matt Williams,
and pitchers Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and Randy
Johnson.
(Broadcasting & Cable 13 Jul 98)
DEEP
CRACK
Using a homemade supercomputer, a team of about a dozen researchers
spent less than $250,000 to crack the government's data encryption
standard code (D.E.S.) in record time to win a $10,000 prize in
a contest sponsored by RSA Data Security Inc., a Silicon Valley
company. The effort was led by John Gilmore and Paul Kocher and
financed by Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based
civil liberties and privacy organization. To unscramble a D.E.S.-encoded
message, the team's computer (called "Deep Crack" in an allusion
to IBM's famous chess-playing "Deep Blue") tried 17,902,806,669,197,312
keys, or about 25% of all possible combinations. Deep Crack's success
is being cited as proof that the government's encryption policies
are inadequate. Cryptography consultant Bruce Schneier says, "The
real news here is how long the Government has been denying that
these machines were possible." (New York Times 17 Jul 98)
TEEN
PROGRAMMERS
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the number of computer
programmers and system analysts age 16 to 19 increased from 9,000
in 1996 to 16,000 in 1997. Doug Marcey, a 17-year-old student at
George Mason University takes two classes a week at the university
while he earns "about $25,000" working for a local software developer.
Unlike some youngprogrammers who drop out of school, Marcey intends
to complete his degree: "A lot of high school kids can do systems
administration, but not a lot of kids can be software engineers."
(Computerworld 13 Jul 98)
DOGBOT
Engineers at Sony's D21 lab have developed a robotic dog, complete
with 64-bit central processing unit, 8 megabytes of memory, and
a supersensitive camera "eye" that enables it to obey motion commands-if
you stick your hand out, Dogbot will sit. The robot is reconfigurable,
so that the owner can swap out limbs or even the head, and each
module is "intelligent"-equippedwith its own motor and control chip.
Toshitada Doi, head of the D21 lab, says he thinks there will be
a consumer market among children for the dogbots sometime around
2000. (Business Week 20 Jul 98)
TAPSCOTT
URGES COMPANIES TO FUND HOME COMPUTERS FOR WORKERS
Technology guru Don Tapscott, author of the new book Growing
Up Digital, says that one step that responsible corporations
should take to close the "digital divide" between the information
haves and have-nots is to provide all of their employees with computers
at home: "This proposal is not na�ve. It makes good business sense
to increase fluency of human capital in the knowledge economy."
(Exec Sum 98)
HORROR
MOVIE SCRIPT: WEB EATS HOLLYWOOD
Motion
Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti thinks the
World Wide Web is a threat to his industry, and worries that the
popularity of movie and entertainment sites on the Web pose the
danger of "the invasion of the copyright snatchers"-the intellectual
property thieves who represent "a hazard to America's most wanted
commodity. . . . If these creative enterprises are not protected
from poachers, it will haunt us and shrink computer choices."
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution 17 Jul 98)
SUN
DREAMS OF JINI TO PROVIDE MAGIC COMPUTING FABRIC
Sun Microsystems has announced a product called Jini, which uses
Sun's Java programming language to allow "distributed computing"
across potentially millions of digital computing devices, including
palm-size computers, mainframes, telephones, TVs, stereos, kitchen
appliances, automobiles, heating and air conditioning systems, etc.,
etc. University of Pennsylvania computer scientist David Farber
says: "We now have all the ingredients to build a distributed computing
fabric which approaches science fiction. You will be able to sit
with your laptop, and it will be able to reach out across the network.
And for the moments you need the power, it will become the largest
supercomputer in the world." (New York Times 15 Jul 98)
IS
WEB-POSTING "PRIOR PUBLICATION"?
Scholarly journals have varying policies when it comes to publishing
works that have already appeared in electronic form on the Web-an
issue that is increasing in importance as scholars post drafts of
articles, called electronic preprints or e-prints, for comment by
colleagues around the world. "We now need to think about what we
mean by a finished piece of writing in ways we didn't have to before,"
says the editor of American Historical Review. The proliferation
of e-prints could make it difficult to determine which version of
an article is the "authentic" one, say some editors, but it appears
that e-prints are gradually gaining favor, with more and more journal
publishers agreeing to publish articles that previously appeared
in e-print form. "We do think that the preprint-server concept is
very much the wave of the future," says Mark Mandelbaum, director
of publications for the Association for Computing Machinery. ACM
is finalizing plans for its own e-print server, which will serve
to speed up the process of peer review, says Mandelbaum.
(Chronicle of Higher Education 17 Jul 98)
ISPs
HAGGLE FOR CASH UP-FRONT
Internet
service providers, increasingly dissatisfied with the all-you-can-eat
business model, are beginning to offer customers discounts for prepaying
their Internet bills. BellSouth.net and Mindspring Enterprises both
have recently started offering customers an alternative plan that
reduces the monthly cost of an Internet connection to $17.95 or
less. In both cases, they'll waive the initial set-up fee for new
customers, too. "It's something competitors offer, and we look at
it as an acquisition tool," says BellSouth.net's director of product
marketing. "But more than that, it's a way to reward customers who
have proven they're going to stay with the service for more than
a year."
(tele.com Jul 98)
MAKE
BIG $$$$ ON INTERNET COLLECTING FROM SPAMMERS
A Seattle man has collected $200 from a company that violated Washington
state's new "anti-spam" law banning unsolicited commercial e-mail
that misrepresents its source or provides misleading header information
that suggests the material comes from someone else. The law applies
only to e-mail received in or sent from Washington state.
(San Jose Mercury News 16 Jul 98)
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NEW
STUDY ESTIMATES COST OF CAMPUS COMPUTER ATTACKS
A new study of 30 hacker attacks and other computer problems, conducted
by researchers at the University of Michigan, found the cost of the
attacks varied widely, depending on the incident. Most of the attacks
affected few people and cost less than $15,000 each to fix, but in
a few severe cases, repair costs topped $100,000 and service was disrupted
for more than 1,000 users. The study was one of the first to attempt
to put a price tag on university computer problems, which include
hacker attacks, accidental data losses, power outages and thefts of
computer equipment. The
researchers found that the way an institution dealt with the problem
had as much to do with the final cost as the nature of the attack.
For instance, the more people who were involved in solving the problem,
or the longer a problem was allowed to continue in an effort to nab
the perpetrator, the more expensive the incident was. The study's
leader, Virginia Rezmierski, says the data provide a starting point
for more research that could lead to guidelines on how a university
should react to such threats.
(Chronicle of Higher Education 17 Jul 98)
EDS
AND HACHETTE SWAP TECHNOLOGY FOR "CONTENT"
The
Dallas, Texas-based C20 Internet consulting and services division
of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has signed a $30-million deal to
develop, launch and manage Web sites for Hachette Filipacchi New
Media, which produces thirty publications, including Road & Track,
Travel Holiday, and Eating Well. There will be no
up-front transfer of money. Instead, the consulting firm will get
a share of revenue generated from Hachette's sales of accessories,
vacation packages and cookbooks made over the Internet. Hachette
president Jim Docherty says, "We were paying them for awhile to
develop and host our sites, but then a lightbulb went off in both
places. We had the content and advertisements, but not the technology.
And they had no content. This way, they don't pay for content, and
we don't pay for technology. Everybody makes out on the deal. To
have a whole room full of programmers isn't my view of a long-term
profitable picture. This lets us stick to publishing." (Computerworld
6 Jul 98)
CIA
WARNS AGAINST "INFORMATION WARFARE"
CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Government Affairs Committee
recently that China and several other nations are developing "extraordinary"
information warfare capabilities, and warned that everyone-from
foreign nations' intelligence and military forces, to industrial
competitors, to everyday citizens-are at risk. According to Tenet,
"It is clear that nations developing these programs recognize the
value of attacking a country's computer systems both on the battlefield
and in the civilian arena." National Security Agency head Lt. Gen.
Kenneth Minihan concurred, saying "We are seeing the tip of the
iceberg. Even when attacks are detected and reported, we rarely
know who the attacker was." (Information Week 6 Jul 98)
INFORMATION
AGE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS
Asked about the impact of computers and the Internet on society,
Vanderbilt University management professor Donna Hoffman says: "Will
we really transform society through the use of computers and the
Internet? Well, the jury is still out. I certainly think the potential
is there, but it will be realized only if we can get access in the
hands of everyone. Otherwise, we are not likely to see revolutionary
changes. And we will still have the schisms and chasms in society
where there will be sectors of society in which people are able
to partake of the wonderful riches online, and at the same time
other groups are effectively excluded. I don't think there will
be much evidence of the transforming powers found in creating new
sources of value until we have people online who we never thought
would come online. If we're serious about change, we need to be
thinking of getting entire countries-the developing countries and
societies-online."
(Exec Sum 98)
TINY
TURBINES TO POWER LAPTOPS
Scientists at MIT's gas-turbine lab predict that sometime around
2000 engines the size of shirt buttons will begin replacing the
batteries now powering handheld computers, cell phones and camcorders.
Lab director Alan Epstein says a turbine-driven power pack could
be made about 25% smaller than today's lithium batteries and last
twice as long between refuelings. The MIT model resembles a miniature
jet engine and runs on butane. The U.S. Army, which is funding the
research, is planning to use the new engines to power GPS receivers,
night-vision goggles and other military gear. (Business Week
13 Jul 98)
THE
WIRELESS REVOLUTION
The Yankee Group telecommunications research staff predicts that
by 2005 wireless phones will account for 20% of worldwide phone
traffic, up from 4% in 1997. Evidence of this trend? BellSouth reports
that in Louisiana 15% of its wireless customers don't have a regular
phone and 65% use their wireless phones at home, up 56% from last
year. (USA Today 10 Jul 98)
FINGERPRINT
I.D. SYSTEM
Compaq is introducing a Fingerprint Identification Technology.
The system, which is about the size of a deck of cards and plugs
into the office computer, will allow an employee to hold his or
her finger to a camera for matching with a stored print map of the
authenticated fingerprint in order to convince the computer to allow
access. The technology was developed in collaboration with San Bruno,
California-based Identicator Technology; similar products are already
on the market, but Compaq's is relatively cheap at $99. (USA
Today 8 Jul 98)
ONLINE
COUPONS USED OFFLINE
Manufacturers, retailers and direct marketers are increasingly using
the World Wide Web to offer coupons that can be printed out and
used in stores. The advantage of this method of coupon distribution
is that it allows merchants who keep customer purchasing histories
to target their customers with great precision. Marian Salzman of
Young & Rubicam says: "This is going to be very sophisticated consumer-sleuthing.
The degree of intelligence that you can compile this way is really
mind-boggling." (Computerworld 6 Jul 98)
NO
MORE MEDIA ELITE
The economist and journalist Robert J. Samuelson says that new communications
and computer technologies threaten the incomes, social importance
and political influence of the so-called "media elite" who run the
TV networks and large newspapers. One evidence for his statement
is a survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press, showing a startling eclipse of TV networks' nightly news
programs, which in 1993 were regularly watched by 60% of Americans
over 18, compared to only 38% in 1998. Similarly, Internet use has
soared: in 1995, 4% of adults went online to get news once a week,
compared to 20% today. (Washington Post 8 Jul 98)
IS Y2K BUG A DATE PROBLEM OR A MATH PROBLEM?
Although his solution doesn't work on every system menaced by the
"Year 2000 problem" (in which software coded with 2-digit dates
in the year fields will cause incorrect calculations when the 20th
century yields to the new one), entrepreneur Allen Burgess had a
breakthrough insight: "I woke up in the middle of the night and
had the idea. It's not a date problem. It's a math problem. We had
to find and fix the math." So Waltham, Massachusetts company Data
Integrity developed a Y2K tool (called the Millennium Solution)
that is being used by Citibank, Credit Suisse, First Boston, NationsBank,
and the U.S. Interior Department. One part of the Millennium Solution
searches for math in a software program; if a two-digit date is
found to be part of the math calculation, the Millennium Solution
uses a trick of addition to get the calculation to work correctly.
For example, to calculate age in 01 (i.e., 2001) of a person born
in 67 (i.e., 1967): 01 - 67 = minus 66. Add 50. Add 50 again. Correct
answer: 34 years old. (USA Today 7 Jul 98)
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