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Bits And Bytes Online Edition Volume 2 Number 03
"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute
somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book."
- Groucho Marx
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BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS ONLINE EDITION:
B B I T S B B Y Y T E S =THE ELECTRONIC
BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS =NEWSLETTER FOR
B B I T S B B Y T E S =INFORMATION
BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS =HUNTER-GATHERERS
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Volume 2, Number 3 (HAPPY YEAR OF THE RAT!) (April 4, 1994)
(I MADE A MISTAKE LAST TIME)
======================================================================
(PARTIAL) CONTENTS =
True Confessions = PDA NEWS: New Newton, General Magic =
Lost in Cyberspace = BUSINESS BRIEFS: Prognosis, Piracy =
FUTURE TECH: = Virtual Suppliers =
House of the Future, = Selected Cool Guides to the Dataverse =
Holographic Data Storage = Animals and the music that moves them =
DIY grocery checkout = New and Improved <<ACCESS>> section =
======================================================================
[EDITORIAL]: True Confessions
This is the last thing I'm writing for this edition of B&B. I've been
putting it off since this is not a pleasant thing I have to report. As
I've mentioned before, this is pretty much a one man operation, if you
don't count all the fine people whose thinking and writing I excerpt
from in every issue. Ultimately, responsibility for any errors must
rest squarely on my shoulders. And I have made one doozy of an error.
In Bits and Bytes Online v2#1 (January 31, 1994) I opened with the
following:
I programmed three days
and heard no human voices.
But the hard disk sang.
- Jay Machado
There's only one small problem with the above. I didn't write it.
The real author is Geoffrey James, author of The Zen of Programming,
The Tao of Programming and Computer Parables. (All available from
Info Books at 310/394-4102) Without going into the details, I found
the haiku in an a 10-year old notebook of mine, and mistook it for one
of my efforts. I was writing oriental-themed material at the time,
staying up all night computing, heavily into my mystic phase if you
really must know. I collect quotes, so I normally attribute them to
their authors. This one was not properly labeled, alas. I own 2 of
James' books, and I suspected that the prose in question sounded a lot
like his, so I pored over the books I had. Turns out it's in the one
I don't own, though where I saw that book I'll never know. I am very
careful to attribute text to its sources here in B&B, and for me to
make this massive an error is quite embarrassing. So correct your
copies as I have corrected mine, and please accept my apologies.
======================================================================
It's a Kind of (General) Magic (Jay Machado)
As a swimmer in the sea of (too much) information, I await with baited
breath the latest and greatest of the emerging breed of computer-based
personal organizers. Be they a handheld PDAs or some software-based PC
incarnation, the promise is that these intelligent front ends will
help us organize our hectic lives and find the information we need
(primarily by filtering out all the stuff we don't need to see, I
suspect). By using neural nets and rule-based reasoning technologies,
the software will learn to anticipate our needs, actively seeking out
and bringing to our attention useful facts that might otherwise be
lost in the flood of incoming data.
Unfortunately, in the real world the promise of PDAs has far
outstripped the reality of what these devices are capable of: they
are difficult to use, and the wireless infrastructure needed to make
the devices truly useful is still "under construction," to put it
kindly. "They are beta [test] products being sold as commercial
products," says Alan Reiter, publisher of the Mobile Data Report. The
Apple Newton is the best known example of this demon brood from
development hell [see NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES section for an update
on a new Newton model], and it's sluggish sales reflect this. But
there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon, brought to us by people who
revolutionized personal computing once, and may be standing on the
verge of doing so once again.
10 years ago, Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld (along with a talented
team of programmers and techno-wizards) created the Macintosh
computer. With it's now familiar GUI interface and (relative) ease of
use, it changed the way we interacted with our computers, and it
changed our expectations of what a computer could *do*. In January
their company, General Magic, demo'd their latest endeavor, a powerful
new operating system called Magic Cap, to an enthusiastic audience at
the MacWorld Expo. Designed to run on a variety of PDA-type devices,
the program will eventually be ported to other platforms as well, like
PC and Mac. Initially, the system will reside on devices to be sold by
Sony and Motorola (both General Magic partners) in late summer;
eventually the system will be ported to other PDAs platforms (like
Newton?) and to microcomputer platforms as well.
In an article in the April 1994 issue of WIRED, Atkinson describes
the forthcoming devices as ones that people will "welcome into their
lives and enjoy, as opposed to something they submit to and suffer
with. ...here will be our measure of success: What happens if I ask
you ten years from now to stop using your personal communicator? The
idea is that you will say, 'This is core to how I live. It's like my
glasses and my watch and my wallet.' Not using it would seem as
disempowering as not using the telephone does today."
Pre-release hyperbole you say? I don't think so. If I could include
graphics I'd show you Magic Cap's main screen -- one quick glance and
you'd know how to start using the tools provided. Magic Cap uses a
place-based metaphor for it's OS, and those places are reassuringly
familiar: the 3 main on-screen environments are the desk, the hallway,
and main street.
Let's take a look at the desk. The point of view is what you'd see if
you were seated in front of it. On the wall is a clock and in and out
baskets. To your right is a filing cabinet. On the desk proper is a
phone, a rolodex, a postcard with a pencil lying next to it, a notepad
and a date book. There are two drawers, one sports a paper and
envelope icon, the other a calculator icon. Most of the functions are
pretty apparent: to make a call, tap the phone icon. To send a short
note, click on the postcard -- your address list pops up so you can
choose the intended recipient(s). Nice touches abound, many of them
hidden away in the OS, unobtrusively working their, uh, magic:
Postcards and letters can be stamped with virtual rubber stamps -- the
stamps not only look cool, but they can contain embedded scripts that
perform special functions, such as an URGENT stamp, or a return
receipt requested stamp. Your inbasket can contain rules for
prioritizing and dealing with incoming messages, beeping you directly,
for example if the incoming message is from your boss and/or
significant other, but sending your junk mail to a garbage can. Ease
of use is the key here.
That's a quick tour of the desk. Now let's get up and stretch our legs
for a spell. We'll mozy on down the hallway, the second of Magic Cap's
primary spaces. The hallway (which you can decorate to your taste,
contains as many rooms as you care to set up: a game room, or a files
storeroom, the Zen Room, or the Love Grotto (don't ask). Again, the
metaphor seems intuitive to me; it maps naturally to the task at hand
as long as you've had some exposure to the "point-and-execute" type
interfaces. And, hey, who hasn't? Magic Cap doesn't try it's hand at
handwriting recognition either, although you can write and draw on the
screen with a stylus.
It's getting pretty stuffy in here, so let's head outside to Main
Street, the final primary "place" in the Magic Cap scheme of things.
Here's where things *really* start to get interesting. The different
buildings that appear in your downtown area will depend on what files
from software companies and service providers you choose to allow on
your system. Tower Records could have a shop here, with access to
their catalog, and a listening bar. You'd link up with their service
over the net -- whatever form that connection might take, the process
would be invisible to you. You'd just *be* there. Or you could head
over to the Electronic Newsstand to pick up a copy of your favorite
e-zine: Bits and Bytes Online Edition, right?
The graphics, designed by Susan Kare, who also perfected the look
of the Mac Interface, are elegant but simple. Magic Cap is intended to
run on handheld PDAs and phone-like devices initially. But as the OS
is ported to more sophisticated platforms, I expect to see some pretty
funky downtowns to develop. And imagine this: throw in some multimedia
capabilities, a virtual reality front-end, and Magic Cap is good to
head on into the 24th and a half century. It reminds me of the
Metaverse in Neil Stephenson's great novel Snow Crash (reviewed in B&B
v1 #4 and now out in paperback). Let's all plan on getting together
for a massive vr block party when this all comes together. I'll bring
my James Brown Records.
Hear me now and believe me later: I've saved the best part for last.
The other major component of the General Magic OS is the Telescript
communications software. This was created by Jim White, who developed
the X.400 international message transmission standard in wide use
today. Here's how Telescript works: instead of being a static slabs
of data, each T-script message is a software agent that can actively
execute its appointed task(s) as it goes out into the net. An example
of how this might work: You need to book a flight to Atlanta. You fill
out a travel-request form (actually a Telescript "macro") and an
agent goes to book your flight, perhaps checking with several airlines
for the best rate. The agent sends you back the flight information,
which is automagically added to your schedule. The original agent
stays on the airline's server, waking up on the day of the flight,
where it can send you gate information or information about last
minute changes in the schedule. Or let's say you want to acquire mass
quantities of PRODUCT X (and hey, who doesn't?) but only if the price
is right. Again, your agent will scour the dataverse, sending you
messages when your criteria are met. There are some interesting
applications here for information hunter-gatherers. Magic Cap *good*.
There are possible problems too. The resemblance of agents to computer
viruses is all too apparent. And how long can an individual agent stay
active? I can imagine the nets clogged with forgotten agents. I'm sure
the system is designed to take these possibilities into account.
Agents can be verified for authenticity and traceable (uh-oh) to their
senders, both necessary steps if these agents are authorized to
transact business on your behalf. Each agent has a "permit" so you
can't send out a million of the things by accident.
So when does all this wonderful tech reach the streets? The first
Magic Cap equipped device, Motorola's Envoy, will start shipping
later this year. It will be able to communicate with Windows and Mac
machines, fax machines, public and private email systems, and other
Envoys. It has 2 PCMCIA card slots for expandability, and infrared
and wireless communications links that will let it work with wireless
LANs and cellular services. This summer, AT&T will unveil their
PersonaLink service based on Telescript technology. This service will
fully support Telescript agents and provide a 'place' for businesses
wishing to do business with t-script agents to set up shop. Third
party developers are already planning Magic Cap apps. Mead Data
Central will offer daily news summaries, America Online's services
will be available, and Intuit Inc. will offer Pocket Quicken, an
electronic checkbook. Around midyear, eShop Inc. will begin shipping
software that will enable stores to build virtual versions of
themselves on your main street. The first virtual malls won't be far
behind. Virtual versions of stores like L.L. Bean, Williams-Sonoma and
Land's End are already on CD-ROM, and the online versions won't be far
behind when the infrastructure is in place. Magic Cap provides an
important component of that infrastructure.
Other operating systems want to do what Magic Cap and Telescript will
do, but the General Magic OS has been under development for 4 years,
and it's here now. None of that would matter if it was not a well
thought-out system. Magic Cap has all the earmarks of a classic to me:
the interface is elegant and intuitive, and ease of use was built in
from the ground up. I'm sure there will be some rough spots around the
edges, and other technologies need to mature a bit more to take full
advantage of all the possibilities, but this has all the makings of a
a new standard to me. I don't want to turn into a trend mongerer, but
this is one technology I think is poised for takeoff. But then again I
was wrong about the comet -- it missed. I'll keep you posted.
(SOURCES: G. Christain Hill and Jim Carlton, "Getting Personal," WSJ
2/11/94, p. R6. Steven Levy, "Bill and Andy's Excellent Adventure,"
WIRED 2.04, Feb '94, p. 103)
======================================================================
NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
=> FIRST PENTIUM CLONE CHIP SHIPS. NexGen's NX586 is a fully binary
compatible clone of Intel's Pentium chip -- the first one to reach
the marketplace. Four small U.S. hardware vendors -- Tangent
Computer, Computek International, Adisys Corp. and Lucky Computer
Co. -- will be announcing systems using the chip, systems that are
expected to start at around $2000. An industry analyst said that
this was the first time Intel had competition so early in its
product cycle. This development should keep Pentium prices firmly
on their downward course. (SOURCE: Computerworld 3/14/94, p. 14)
=> NEW NEWTON RELEASED. The MessagePad 110 is the next generation
Newton device from Apple. Due to ship in April, the handheld PDA
features improved battery life, an improved operating system,
including options for fine-tuning the handwriting recognition,
and a 38.4 Kbps infrared communications link. That's twice as fast
as the one in the original Newton, which incidentally has been
renamed the MessagePad 100 and which can now be had for only
$499 (list). (SOURCE: InfoWorld 3/28/94, p. 29)
=> FORWARD... INTO THE PAST. This is too cool, in a retro sort of way.
S.H. Pierce and Co.'s new software takes your QuickTime animation
and turns them into color or b/w flipbooks. Oh, you heard me right.
The Flipbook software comes with a special paper that's easy to
assemble into your very own flipbooks. "For when you're tired of
being wired" is how the ad puts it. Indeed. The ad's on page 21 of
the April '94 WIRED. <<ACCESS>> S.H. Pierce (617/338-2222)
=> PICK YOUR CITY VIA DISK. A software version of the best-selling
"Places Rated Almanac" allows you to pick your ideal city,
factoring in, for instance, your tolerance for crime against your
desire to have more access to fine arts. The computer crunches the
numbers and comes up with your dream city. (SOURCE: St. Petersburg
Times 11/1/93, p. E2) (E/P)
=> ET PHONE HOME. Sprint has begun marketing a voice-activated long-
distance calling-card service which allows a customer to dial a
number by speaking the desired person's name rather than punching
a bunch of buttons. As many as 10 numbers can be stored in the
system. (SOURCE: WSJ 1/6/94, p. B4)
======================================================================
Lost in Cyberspace (Dan Kennedy)
... there's a dark side to the emerging electronic village,
acknowledged almost as an afterthought amid the glowing financial
projections and the futuristic technobabble. And that dark side is
this: As information becomes increasingly decentralized, there's a
danger that consumers of that information -- all of us, in other
words -- will become more and more isolated from society and from
each other.
What's being lost is the sense of shared cultural experience -- the
nationwide community that gathered to watch, say, the Vietnam War in
the 1960s, or the Watergate hearings in the 1970s. With 500 channels,
he [Media analyst Les Brown, a former TV reporter for the New York
Times] fears, people will choose news programming that suits their
political biases -- if they choose any news programming at all.
(Originally published in The Boston Phoenix (May 7, 1993), this
portion was extracted from the Utne Reader, Jan/Feb 1994 issue,
p. 104)
======================================================================
THE ONLINE WORLD
=> ONLINE SALONS. The magazine industry is discovering electronic
publishing in a big way. In the last 6 months of 1993 almost 100
magazines have signed up with online services, and others are
joining up at the rate of 1 or 2 a week. Those taking the plunge
are relieved to find out that their online versions are not cutting
into newsstand sales. The real popularity of these services is not
reading, but talking. Users are eager to make their opinions be
heard, to participate in online forums and discussions, and to send
letters to the editor. Some magazines have been overwhelmed by the
number of responses. Among the well-known magazines on various
online services: Time, Newsweek, U.S. World and News Report, Omni,
Consumer Reports, WIRED, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic,
The New Yorker, The Economist, and National Review. The Electronic
Newsstand (on the Internet, see <<<ACCESS>>> section) contains
excerpts from many of these (and subscription information also, of
course) (SOURCE: Deidre Carmody, "Magazines Create On-Line Salons",
NYT 12/20/93, p. D6)
=> JOURNAL OF INFORMATION NETWORKING. A new journal on networking is
being published in Great Britain. For info: colin@uk.ac.salford.
=> ELECTRONIC JOURNALS. The Association of Research Libraries has
published the third edition of the hard-copy Directory of
Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Scholarly Discussion Lists.
For info: ann@cni.org.
=> NETNEWS FILTERING SERVICE. Attention net.surfers: Surf's up! The
Stanford Netnews Filtering Service, a personalized netnews delivery
service, recently went online. You subscribe to the service with
profiles that describe your interests. Netnews articles (from
newsgroups available to our local news host) that match your
profiles (based on content, regardless of which newsgroups they
fall into) will be sent to you periodically via email. Only the
first 15 lines of a message are sent to you, and if you like what
you see, a simple command to gets you the whole file. After you
receive useful articles, you send positive feedback to the service
to improve your profile. You can also adjust the frequency of
delivery, the volume of articles, and the length of subscription.
The service is free, FREE I tell you! I use it regularly, and have
gotten some good hits on the database, as well as some mysterious
ones: My profile on the National Information Infrastructure has
yielded postings from the rec.woodworking newsgroup. Go figure.
To receive instructions for access by email, send a message with
the word "help" in the message body to: netnews@db.stanford.edu
Netnews can also be accessed via Mosaic:
http://woodstock.stanford.edu:2000
Questions, comments to tyan@cs.stanford.edu
======================================================================
Lost in Cyberspace II (Gerald Grow)
We may be overlooking the obvious here. Media separate as much as they
connect -- perhaps more. Only as media help people overcome separation
can they compensate for the extra separation any medium introduces
between a person and the world.
30 years, when I was a teenage ham radio operator I met many middle-
aged men who spent hours every evening straining to make contact with
fellow strangers from remote parts of the globe. But never spoke to
their own wives, living in the same house with them.
Email decenters us from the immediate reality of our lives. So does
the newspaper. ("12 Die in Plane Crash in Thailand," you read, while
not talking to your family across the breakfast table.) We live in a
hypermediated age, a time when direct, immediate experience of the
basic realities of life is rare enough to require special meditative
training. We know more about Opra, Michael Jackson, and Tonya
Harding's E-mail than we know about our neighbors.
A neighbor I liked died two weeks ago. Almost no one in the
neighborhood knew he was sick. Or even that he died. Yet we all read
the paper every morning. Many of us are on internet, read magazines,
receive the mail, watch television, listen to radio.
Have media so far brought America together? Anywhere? Any time?
No. So what makes anybody think an electronic newspaper is going to do
it better?
This is not a despairing question, only an attempt to find the pulse.
If we in journalism do not find the pulse, I fear that, one evening
around 1998, seventy-seven million baby boomers may suddenly,
independently all decide to stop using electronic media altogether,
stop reading newspapers, let their subscriptions lapse, and yearn for
direct human contact instead.
How -- to repeat the question -- can our media become centripetal
enough to overcome the powerful decentering centrifugal forces
inherent in their nature?
[Gerald Grow (ggrow@freenet.scri.fsu.edu), Professor, Division of
Journalism, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee FL 32307. This message
was reprinted with Dr. Grow's permission from his posting on the
online-news mailing list.]
======================================================================
ANNOUNCEMENT: Compter Mediated Communication Survey via WWW
The Decision Analysis Lab of Stevens Institute of Technology, in
conjunction with SmartChoice Technologies Corporation, is undertaking
a Computer Mediated Communication Survey to gauge the impact that CMC
has had on the workplace. It will be accessible from Sunday, March 20
until Saturday, April 2. You need to be using a WWW Browser with forms
support to take part in the survey.
The URL to access the survey is:
http://copeland.smartchoice.com/~dbelson/survey.html
Contact dbelson@vaxc.stevens-tech.edu with questions or problems.
======================================================================
PRIVACY
=> CANADIAN SUPER SNOOPER. A super-secret branch of the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service has awarded three contracts to a
Montreal firm to make equipment that can quickly isolate key words
and phrases from millions of airborne phone, fax, radio signals and
other transmissions. The hardware has the "Orwellian potential to
sweep through ... and keep records of all conversations," said one
CSIS critic. President Clinton on the line, Mr. Prime Minister.
(SOURCE: CTV National News, 01/31/94) (E/P)
=> THE TESSERA CARD. The Defense Department reportedly plans to employ
the Clipper technology in a device known as a "Tessera Card."
Someone at CPSR checked the dictionary and found the results to be
kind of frightening: "Terrerea n. Lat. (pl. tessereae). Literally,
"four-cornered". Used to refer to four-legged tables, chairs, etc.
Also, a single piece of mosaic tile; a single piece of a mosaic.
_Pol._: An identity chit or marker. Tessereae were forced on
conquered peoples and domestic slaves by their Roman occupiers or
owners. Slaves or Gauls who refused to accept a tesserea were
branded or maimed as a form of identification." (From Starr's
History of the Classical World and the Oxford Unabridged)
Unfortunate choice of names -- or was it? (SOURCE: CPSR ALERT
Volume 3.04, 2/15/94)
=> AIDS DATA STOLEN. Police are investigating the theft from a Miami
hospital of 3 PCs and several diskettes containing confidential
records on about 7,000 South Florida residents infected with HIV.
The South Florida AIDS Network databases are protected by access
codes and passwords; the agency has backup diskettes of all the
stolen data. (SOURCE: Andres Viglucci, "Aids Records Stolen From
Jackson", The Miami Herald, 12/4/93, p. lB) (E/P)
======================================================================
Not Exactly the Jeffersonian Ideal (John J. McCormick)
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said that the government that
governs least govern best.
With that in mind, it's unfortunate that the Clinton administration
has decided that government -- not the people, not private industry --
will control encryption standards in the United States.
The administration's policy endorses a National Security Agency-
developed standard known as Clipper, based on a chip that, once
embedded in a telephone or data terminal, can scramble a conversation
or document so it can be deciphered only by the intended recipient. By
the recipient and federal agents, that is.
Officials say they will require law enforcement to receive approval
from two government agencies before they gain access, and to comply
with all legal protections against unlawful wiretapping.
But the business community remains skeptical. "We're not sure how
secure it is," says Brian Moir, an attorney who represents large
telecom users opposed to the policy.
"Another problem is that the government says the standard will be
voluntary," says senior editor Mary E. Thyfault. But, she notes, the
sheer size of government contracts and government-defined export rules
will make Clipper a de facto standard.
It's no surprise that security and privacy experts and key computer
executives are fighting the plan. But the rest of us should be
concerned whether Jefferson's words are falling on deaf ears.
(John J. McCormick is the editor of InformationWeek. This piece
appeared as an editorial in Information Week (2/14/94, p. 2)
======================================================================
FUTURE TECH
=> HOLOGRAPHIC DATA STORAGE. IBM scientists predict that holographic
technology will make it possible to store the entire Encyclopedia
Britannica in a space the size and thickness of a penny.
Holographic memory systems can stack data 40 "pages" deep, as
opposed to computer disk and magnetic tape, which line up data on
flat, single-layer tracks. The deeper "pages" can be read by
tilting the angle of the laser beam used for reading the data.
(Investor's Business Daily 1/20/94 p.4) (E/P)
=> PHOTOS DON'T LIE, DO THEY? The 1993 front-page photo of Yitzhak
Rabin and Yasser Arafat shaking hands wasn't the first of its kind;
Life magazine in 1988 showed Arafat greeting then-Prime Minister of
Israel Yitzhak Shamir. The latter, of course, was a computer-
manipulated fake. Such tricks can now be played more easily with
image-processing software, raising concerns that doctored photos
may be used more frequently. The day is fast approaching (or maybe
it's here) when photographs will no longer be admissible as
evidence in a court of law. (SOURCE: William T. Mitchell, " When
Is Seeing Believing?", Scientific American, February 1994, p. 68)
=> SMART LIVING. Entergy Corp. of New Orleans wants to wire 440,000
homes into a high-tech electrical service. The system will use
minicomputers in each home to communicate with computers at the
power company, and will be able to direct appliances in the home to
operate at the most energy-efficient times and levels. Bills
itemized by appliance will help customers (and manufacturers? - ed)
track energy usage and patterns. Entergy is also offering its
existing fiber optic network, used for internal communications, to
companies ready to provide information services and entertainment.
Sprint has already signed up to connect customers to long-distance
service, bypassing local phone companies. (SOURCE: Washington Post
12/28/93 D1) (E/P)
=> HIGH TECH SUPERSTORE. Infrared devices designed to gauge the flow
of shoppers into stores are being installed in shopping centers in
London and other major UK cities. Such a system can also help
retailers count the number of times shoppers pick up and put down
products by firing an infrared beam across individual shelves to
find out precisely which are the most eye-catching parts of the
store. (SOURCE: London Sunday Times, 10/24/93) (E/P)
=> DIY GROCERY CHECKOUT. The portable personal shopper is a handheld
scanner that allows patrons to scan their own groceries as they
shop and have a printed receipt ready when they reach the checkout,
speeding up the grocery-shopping process. The device can be
attached to the shopping cart for convenience, and you can change
your mind and deduct an item from your inventory. Shoplifting and
less than honest customers could be a problem. (SOURCE: Newsweek
12/13/94, p. 73M)
=> THIS IDEA REALLY SUCKS. It sounds like it's out of a sci-fi novel,
but it's for real. Officials in Osaka, Japan, a city plagued by
industrial and auto emissions, announced plans for test a giant
vacuum cleaner that sucks dirty air through a filter of soil rich
in pollution-eating microorganisms. And in Mexico City, scientists
began testing mobile air-filter units they hope will Hoover
pollution particles out of the capital's filthy air. (SOURCE:
"Disregard That Giant Sucking Sound", Newsweek 2/28/94, p.8)
======================================================================
The Magic of the Internet II (Peter H. Green)
It is relatively simple and inexpensive to gain indirect access to the
Internet's electronic mail services through popular online
information services like CompuServe, America On-Line and MCI Mail,
which are known as Internet "gateways." But woe to the individual
executive or computer novice who wants to tap directly into the rich
depths of the Internet.
Despite all the recent hyperbole praising the Internet as the
precursor to the national data highway, establishing a direct
connection to the Internet is about as easy for a novice as traveling
a muddy road on a pogo stick, with traffic signs written in Unix.
It will almost certainly get easier as more commercial Internet
service providers spring up to meet the growing demand from businesses
and as increasingly powerful computers and software make it possible
to hide the Internet's Unix command system behind graphical, point-
and-shoot interfaces like Mosaic (a free software program developed
with Federal financing by the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications) or even Microsoft Windows. (SOURCE: "A Growing Internet
is Trying to Take Care of Business", NYT 12/12/93, p. F7)
======================================================================
<<<ACCESS>>> NETGUIDE: The Guide to Network Resource Tools
This guide makes a handy one stop reference to many of the tools in
use on the internet today. There are chapters on: exploring the
network with gopher and WWW; searching databases with WAIS and ASTRA;
finding resources with archie, WHOIS and NETSERV; getting files via
trickle and ftp; and interest group activities with listserv and
netnews. The following tools are also covered: WHOIS, X.500, Netfind,
BITFTP, Listserv, Prospero, Mailbase, Relay, and IRC. For each tool,
the guide provides a general overview and details on availability,
intended audience and basic usage with examples.
The Guide to Network Resource Tools is available electronically from
LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET in Postscript and plain text format by sending
the command GET NETTOOLS PS (postscript format) or GET NETTOOLS TXT
(plain text format) in an email message. The Guide is also available
via anonymous ftp as follows:
site directory file
ns.ripe.net earn earn-resource-tool-guide.ps
earn-resource-tool-guide.txt
naic.nasa.gov files/general_info earn-resource-tool-guide.ps
earn-resource-tool-guide.txt
=======================
<<<ACCESS>>> NETGUIDE: Business Sources on the Internet
Business Sources on the Net (BSN) was created by 7 business librarians
as a comprehensive guide to business sources available on the
Internet. After months of soul searching, many discussions about the
content of the guide, and finally a whole lot of net-surfing, the
Guide was finished, and finding business information on the net got
a little easier.
BSN is organized by subject. Each section is a separate file,
available via anonymous ftp to KSUVXA.KENT.EDU in the Library
Directory. BSN is also available via GOPHER to REFMAC.KENT.EDU 70
under its full name. There are nine files available to the public.
Information on other business subjects is being compiled, and will be
made available in later editions of BSN.
Subjects covered in this edition: (name of file in parenthesis)
- Introduction, Internet Guides and Common Definitions (BSN.INTRO)
- General Business Sources (BSN.General)
- Economics (BSN.Economics)
- Foreign Statistics, Economic Trends and International Management
(BSN.Statistics)
- Corporate Finance and Banking (BSN.Finance)
- Human Resources and Personnel Management (BSN.Personnel)
- Management Science, Statistical Methods and Productions and
Operations Management (BSN.Operations)
- Accounting and Taxation (BSN.Accounting)
- Management and Management of Public and Nonprofit Organizations
(BSN.Management)
- Computers (as they relate to business) (BSN.Computers)
Inquiries about BSN may be directed to the editor,
Leslie M. Haas (lhaas@kentvm).
=======================
+ THE WIRED ONLINE CLIPPER ARCHIVE - features crucial essays written
for WIRED by John Perry Barlow and Brock N. Meeks, and lots of
other clipper material, pro and con. send email to:
infobot@wired.com, containing the words: "send clipper/index"
on a single line in the body
+ A.WORD.A.DAY LISTSERVER
This server will email you a daily message containing an
english vocabulary word and its definition. Subscribe by
sending a message to: wordsmith@viper.elp.cwru.edu with the
subject line: subscribe <your full name here>
/\
/ \ + UNPLASTIC NEWS - an eclectic occasional collection of
/ /\ \ weird and neat stuff (email tt2@well.sf.ca.us for info)
/ / \ \
/ / /\ \ \ + NET RESOURCES FOR CONSULTANTS (and you know who you
/ / / \ \ \ are): alt.computer.consultants (Usenet newsgroup)
/ / RANDOM \ \
< < <ACCESS> > > + UFO BBSs: keeps list of worldwide MUFON net BBS
\ \ \ __ / / / USA: 901/785-4943
\ \ __ / /
\ \__/ / + NETNEWS FILTERING SERVICE (netnews@db.stanford.edu)
\ __ / Send message with "help" in the body for directions
\__/
\/ + ELECTRONIC NEWSSTAND (Gopher: gopher.internet.com 2100)
(mentioned in THE ONLINE WORLD section)
+ FLOPPY DISK MANUFACTURERS. In the March 1994 issue of
WIRED Magazine, Simson L. Garfinkle, senior editor at
NextWorld magazine was kind enough to gather together contact
information for the major manufacturers of floppy diskettes.
All major brands have lifetime warranties. Just throw your
defective floppies in an envelope with a note saying "bad
sectors, please replace," and send it back so the manufacturers
can honor their guarantees.
=> 3M Data Storage Products, PO Box 709, Weatherford, OK 73096-0709
(ph) 800/328-9438, 405/772-5500
=> BASF Corporation Information Systems, Computer Media Warranty
Claims, Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730-1471 (ph) 800/356-9006,
617/271-4000
=> Fuji Computer Division, Fuji Photo Film USA, 555 Taxter Road,
Elmsford, NY 10523 (ph) 800/755-3854, 914/789-8390
=> Sony Magnetic Products Customer Relations, Sony Corporation, 1 Sony
Drive, Park Ridge, NJ 07656-8003 (ph) 800/222-7669, 201/930-1000
=> Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., Floppy Disk Warranty
Claims, 1 Parkway North, Suite 500, Deerfield, Il 60015
(ph) 800/843-2108, 708/945-1500
======================================================================
BUSINESS BRIEFS
=> PROGNOSIS FOR SOFTWARE. Cutthroat competition in PC software is
predicted for 1994. Bundled software -- "suites" -- and networking
software will be big sellers, and companies are also expected to
focus on software for rising numbers of home computers, many with
CD-ROM drives. HOME EDUCATION SOFTWARE is hot and getting
hotter, according to the Software Publishers Association. Home
education software sales for the first three quarters of 1993 were
up 46% from the same period in 1992, outpacing all other categories
except databases. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates predicts that by the end
of the decade, 50% of his company's revenues will come from home
sales -- a ten-fold increase from the current level of activity.
Fueling the upward trend in both software and hardware is a DECLINE
IN TECHNOPHOBIA among buyers, according to the president of Merrin
Information Systems Inc. (SOURCES: The Heller Report 1/94 p.11,
Business Week 1/10/94 p.82, Investor's Business Daily 1/6/94,
Fortune 2/21/94 p.101) (E/P)
=> PROGNOSIS FOR HARDWARE. PC sales, up 25.8% from 1992 will continue
to boom, according to Business Week's Industry Outlook 1994, with
units sold growing around 10% in the coming year. The home market
for PCs is growing at a rate almost three times higher than the
overall U.S. PC market. The new PowerPC, Alpha and Pentium chips
will turn desktop machines into "the new mainframes," according to
an industry research analyst. Sales of the new high-powered PCs
will be slow at first, as companies absorb the 486-based systems
they purchased in 1993. MAINFRAME sales are expected to decline,
although mainframe makers are hoping for a new lease on life,
spurred on by Bell Atlantic's recent order for three new
supercomputers and the software needed to build the first segment
of the information superhighway. The mainframe industry is
anticipating that hundreds of video servers (refitted mainframes)
will be needed to manage the interactive TV services of the future.
(SOURCES: Business Week 1/10/94 p.81, 1/24/94 p.92. Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 2/3/94, p. C2) (E/P)
=> ONLINE PROGNOSIS. Forrester Research predicts that the commercial
on-line service market will be a $3 billion industry by 1998, up
from today's $530 million. (SOURCE: WSJ 2/3/94, p. A1)
=> SOFTWARE PIRATES RULE OVERSEAS. To understand the gravity of the
software piracy problem, take a look at what happens overseas. In
Cuba, there is a National Software Interchange Center, where all
kinds of software are available to any Cuban -- free (kind of like
what goes on in many American offices, I suspect). In China and
South Korea, 90% of all software is thought to be pirated; in
Italy, the number is 80%. (SOURCE: Suzanne P. Weisband and Seymour
E. Goodman, "Subduing Software Pirates", Technology Training,
November 1993, p. 30)
=> VIRTUAL SUPPLIERS. We've heard about the virtual corporation, the
virtual boss, and the virtual office. But what we have now is even
more real. It's taking shape each time buyers put together systems
with multiple vendors: the virtual supplier. (SOURCE: Jeff
Anderson, "Revealing The Virtual Supplier," Infomart Magazine,
First Quarter 1994, p. 10, quoted in Information Week 1/31/94, p.
56)
======================================================================
What's Wrong With this Crazy Old World Anyway?
"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be
reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and
controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the
nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work,
instead of living on public assistance."
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC
======================================================================
IN BRIEF...
=> A KINDER GENTLER ATOM BOMB. The Air Force's ICBMs will soon be
fitted with new cooling systems to eliminate their use of CFCs,
which deplete the Earth's ozone layer and contribute to global
warming. The ICBMs, however, will continue to carry up to 10
nuclear bombs, each capable of wiping out an entire city. (SOURCE:
The ZPG Reporter (Feb 1994) ->> Bill Love <love@internet.com> ->>
bert@netcom.com)
=> FREE SEX. The backlash against the information superhighway
metaphor is already building... "It's a moronic term," complains
Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future. A Denver publisher
says, "If they say `information highway', they figure people will
read it. It's like saying, `free sex.'" (SOURCE: WSJ 2/1/94, p. A1)
=> AI BATTLE LINES. There are two factions in the artificial
intelligence community, and they're at war. The pure-science types
scorn the make-a-buck practicality of the commercial faction, while
the commercializers ridicule the scientists' tendency to
investigate such esoterica as "How much of a bird is Tweety?"
As the battles continue, AI has never been more cleverly, and
profitably, woven into applications in corporate America. And some
generate a whopping return on investment. (SOURCE: Lew McCreary,
"AI-dentity Crisis," CIO, September 1993, p. 34)
======================================================================
Bits and Bytes Bookshelf: Selected Cool Guides to the Dataverse
The Internet Yellow Pages - by Harley Hahn and Rick Stout [Osbourne/
McGraw-Hill, 1994. 450 pp. $27.95]
Net Guide - by Peter Rutten, Albert F. Bayers III, and Kelly Maloni
[Random House Electronic Publishing, 1994. 364 pp. $19)
- These books are similar in intent, but different in execution: they
aim to be subject-organized guides to the richness of the online
world. NET GUIDE logs over 4,000 cybersites by address and
description in more than 150 subjects, from financial management
to paganism and the occult, from football to fantasy role-playing.
Net Guide covers not only Internet resources but also forums and
services on various online services like AOL, Delphi, Genie, Fidonet
and even some of the larger (or cooler) BBS systems popping up
everywhere these days. According to NET GUIDE's creators: "It's 1954
and your family has just bought a television set! Along with
millions of others up and down Maple Street you want to know one
thing: what's on? Now that same question echoes out in Cyberspace.
As the Net becomes an entertainment as well as information medium, a
program guide becomes an essential tool and a must-have part of the
experience." The quote in the ads for this book says that "NET GUIDE
is the `TV GUIDE' to Cyberspace!" They got that right. The NET GUIDE
folks have also started an online service. NET GUIDE Online is an
Internet-access provider that uses the NET GUIDE database to create
an easy navigation tool for the Net.
The Internet Yellow Pages takes a similar approach, but focuses
exclusively on Internet resources. It's big, and it looks just like
the yellow pages we all know and love. It's written by the same guys
that wrote the most excellent book The Internet Complete Reference
(reviewed in B&B V2 #1). That's a big plus for it. Look for Bits and
Bytes Online Edition on page 61. Another big plus. #:-> Buy many
copies of this heartwarming book! I did.
There's a great quote from Penn Jillette (the big one of Penn and
Teller) near the front of the book. I am quoting it here in it's
entirety as it is most apropos: "This is a great book to skim
through while you're downloading files from the Internet, and then
you'll find other files you have to download, and faster than you
can double grains of wheat on the squares of a checker board you'll
have no life, and soon after that you'll have no time to read the
stuff you downloaded before you had this goddamn book." I can relate
with Mr. Jillette's predicament.
UNFORTUNATELY, I have a bone to pick with the editors of the
Internet Yellow Pages: they got one of my email addresses wrong. The
other one was correct, but there was no mention of my listserver
access. Fearing that there would be other errors I picked 10 items
at random from each book and went out and verified that the
information was correct. Both books passed that little test. Both
are fun to browse through, and would make useful additions to any
budding internaut's bookshelf. Any paper-based version of a
net.resources listing is going to be out of print almost instantly.
But they make good starting places. Send updates directly to the
authors just to help keep them honest.
Covert Culture Sourcebook - by Richard Kadrey [St. Martin's Press,
1993. 216 pp. $12.95]
- "Nothing interesting ever happens at the center. Everything
interesting is at the edges. Sparks kick up when opposing edges
meet. Sometimes hot edges fuse, creating something wild and new --
the birth of a hopeful monster. That's covert culture." (from the
introduction) If you are looking for something different, the Covert
Culture Sourcebook will point you the best in truly alternative
music, books, videos, zines, fashions, software, technology, and
"tools for living". The material is reviewed, and contact information
is given. I found all kinds of neat stuff I fully intend to check
out when I get a chance, which (keeping in mind Penn's principle)
may be in the year 2525).
======================================================================
SOUND BYTES
=> CHICKENS PREFER CLASSICAL MUSIC. Chickens rank second in farm-
animal intelligence, as evidenced by their favorite composer, who
is Vivaldi. This was discovered by a farmer who noticed that
chickens were clucking happily in the hen house when he played a
classical-music tape. In Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," chickens
much preferred the "Spring" movement to "Winter."
CD> MUSIC REVIEW: Material: Hallucination Engine. Bill Laswell's
floating musical ensemble has made some great music, but this is
their best work to date. This record really swings, it almost
swings TOO MUCH. If you are a fan of house/funk/techno/ambient/
fusion/jazz/rock/world music -- and who isn't? -- and of
adventurous music in general, this is what happens when you put a
roomful of world-class musicians together, ignore labels and
boundaries, and let them PLAY. Eclectic, essential music. Even the
chickens will groove to this one. (Axiom Records)
=> ELVIS TOPS COW CHARTS. One herd studied by scientists produced more
milk while listening to the King. This was supported by another
study, which showed that cows generally prefer rock'n'roll to other
music.
CD> MUSIC REVIEW: Elvis Costello: Brutal Youth. If you're a fan but
miss his work with the Attractions, put this new CD on and you'll
think you're in a time warp. Costello's songwriting is in fine
form, and the band plays like they never skipped a beat. Some new
Costello classics here. (Warner Brothers Records)
=> AND, HEY, HOW ABOUT THOSE BEATLES, finally getting back together
after all those years. Is technology great, or what?
======================================================================
"God only knew. If there was a God. And if there was a God and he
knew, he was not talking. And even if he did know and was talking,
no one would have been listening. Not here. Not now."
- Bernice Richmond, winner of this year's International
Imitation Hemingway Competition.
======================================================================
### ADMINISTRIVIA ###
IN THE FUTURE. Next up is our Information Superhighway mega-issue.
We got a *lot* of mail with your favorite information superhypeway
cliches. I will print the best (and worse) of them. We will also
discuss BIll Gate's ambitious (to put it mildly) plans for a worldwide
network of satellites. Keep watching the skies! B&B v2#4 will be in
your emailbox around April 18th. Hear me now and believe me later.
HEY SYSOPS! If you are archiving B&B on your BBS, please drop me a
note. I'd like to mention your BBS in B&B.
LETTERS. We welcome submissions and commentary. All mail sent to the
editor or to B&B will be treated as a "letter to the editor" and
considered printable, unless you tell me otherwise.
(E/P) This symbol on some of the news items indicates that the source
for this article was the EDUPAGE newsletter. EDUPAGE is a bi-weekly
summary of recent news items on information technology. To subscribe,
send e-mail to: listproc@educom.edu
containing the message: SUB EDUPAGE firstname lastname.
<<<ACCESS>>> BITS AND BYTES ONLINE EDITION
BY LISTSERVER:
Subscribe to B&B by sending email to listserv@acad1.dana.edu
text: SUBSCRIBE bits-n-bytes
To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@acad1.dana.edu
text: UNSUBSCRIBE bits-n-bytes
Retrieve back issues by sending email to listserv@acad1.dana.edu
text: send <filename>
in the body of your mail message, no subject.
Example: send bitsv1n1.txt
Issues 1-9: The file name is in the form: bitsv1n1.txt
Issues 10- : The file name is in the form: bits1n10.txt
(Remember to disable or delete your signature, as this will generate
an error message) (I'm not sure if all the back issues are available
yet. Watch this space)
ONLINE ACCESS.
B&B is available for downloading on America Online in their telecom
files area, and in CompuServe's telecom forum library, and on various
fine BBS systems all across this wunnerful wunnerful world of ours.
BBSs like the MICRO BBS in Denver, CO (303) 752-2943.
INTERNET ANONYMOUS FTP SITES:
ftp.dana.edu in /periodic directory (DOS Users go here)
ftp.eff.org in pub/Publications/CuD/BNB/bnb????.gz
(where ???? is volume & number, e.g. bnb0116.gz) (UNIX users go here)
INTERNET GOPHER ACCESS.
gopher.law.cornell.edu
in the Discussions and Listserv archives/Teknoids directory
gopher.dana.edu in the Electronic Journals directory
======================================================================
= BITS AND BYTES ONLINE, an electronic newsletter for information- =
= based lifeforms, is printed using 100% recycled electrons, and =
= is intended for distribution IN THAT MEDIUM. =
= Contact the editor for reprint permission. =
======================================================================
= Jay Machado = (Copyright 1994 Jay Machado) *unaltered*=
= 1529 Dogwood Drive = ELECTRONIC distribution of this file for =
= Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 = non-profit purposes is encouraged. =
========================== The editor is solely responsible for the =
= jaymachado@delphi.com = editorial content or lack thereof. =
========================== Bits and Bytes contains no artificial =
= ph (eve) 609/795-0998 = colorings, flavorings or preservatives. =
========================== Please refrigerate after opening. =
======================================================================
=============== End of Bits and Bytes Online V2, #3 =================
======================================================================
