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Bits And Bytes Online Edition Volume 1 Number 04
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BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS
B B I T S B B Y Y T E S ONLINE EDITION
BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS VOL 1, NUMBER 4
B B I T S B B Y T E S 8/3/93
BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS
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"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have
plenty of messenger boys."
- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876
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Peter Drucker I: The Future of Labor and Industry
International economic theory is obsolete. The traditional factors of
production - land, labor, and capital - are becoming restraints rather
than driving forces. Knowledge is becoming the one critical factor of
production. ... Knowledge has become the central, key resource that
knows no geography. It underlies the most significant and unprecedented
social phenomena of this century. No class in history has ever risen
as fast as the blue-collar worker and no class has ever fallen as
fast. All within less than a century. ... Now we have a Secretary of
Labor [Robert Reich, see B&B v1 #1] who openly declared, in "The Work
of Nations," that the blue collar worker doesn't matter. And the
unions accepted him. ... Abandoning people and products is the
necessary handmaiden of organizational survival. In the early 70's,
the last round of military cuts in the California bay area caused
massive unemployment; but that became the fertile ground in which
Silicon Valley blossomed. ...it makes more sense for you to make
obsolete your own products rather than wait for your competitor to do
it. ... I've always believed that success is the worst enemy of
change, and failure its best friend. [Just look at IBM - JM]
****
[Peter Drucker is considered the father of modern management. In the
1950's, Drucker realized that success in business would be determined
by how well managed an organization was, not how large or well
financed it was. He coined the term "knowledge worker" long before the
information age became a cliche. To this day Drucker's writings and
opinions are avidly sought by readers of The Wall Street Journal and
the well-informed CEOS of corporations around the world. The previous
comments were excerpted from an interview with Drucker by Peter
Schwartz in WIRED Magazine 1.3, the July/August 1993 issue, still on
your newsstand and highly recommended. Peter Drucker is 82 years old,
and his most recent book is "Post Capitalist Society"]
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Brazil, Where The Worker Is King
Semco, a Brazilian manufacturer of pumps and industrial equipment,
lets most employees decide their own working hours and salaries.
(Some workers earn more than their bosses.) Employees set productivity
and sales targets, and they decide how to share out bonuses. They also
have unlimited access to the company's books. There are no manuals or
written procedures, and no controls over travel and business expenses.
Peer pressure prevents abuse of freedoms. "All we're doing is treating
people like adults." The company has 300 employees and has helped
start another 200 in independent businesses. As owner, Ricardo Semler
demands healthy dividends. His book, "Maverick!" (Century, Warner
Books, 272 pages, $22.95) is just coming out, but the Portuguese
version has been on Brazil's bestseller list for 199 weeks and has
sold 460K copies. (Source: The Economist, 6/26/93, p. 66)
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The Advantage Law of Information
Getting information to the people who need it when they need it will
provide the two key components for an organization's success in a
chaotic world: speed and flexibility. The organization that can
predict customer needs, respond to customer desires, and react to
customer problems the fastest will come out on top. The ultimate goal
is to reduce overall cycle time for informed action. (Source: Frank J.
Ricotta Jr., "The Six Immutable Laws of Information," Information
Week, 7/19/93, p. 63)
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The Aurora Tests: Taking a Test Drive On The Information Highway
Participants in the Aurora research network tests report that they
have successfully begun transmitting data and video signals across the
high speed network backbone. The first transmission, on May 7, 1993: a
brief series of numbers and fragments of alphabet. Nothing more
inspiring than "012345....". Still, what mattered wasn't the meat of
the message, but the motion. Those digits moved at record-setting
speed: 2.6 gigabits-per-second. And how fast is that? Fast enough to
send the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica from Philadelphia to Boston
in a quarter of a second, University of Pennsylvania researchers said.
That's *fast*. Trying the same thing with a home computer and modem
would take 3 days. These tests are one of 5 other high speed test
networks being tested under the auspices of the National Science
Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under a
1990, $15.8 million contract to university supercomputer centers.
Participating phone companies and switching manufacturers are
providing equipment and switching services out of their own pockets
at a cost far beyond the level of government funding. "The goals of
these test beds are to figure out how to build these networks and what
to use them for," said Dave Sincoskie, executive director of computer
networking research at Bell Communications Research Inc. Video signals
are now being sent over these connections. I personally know someone
affiliated with the U of P and can report that he used the video
hookup to watch the PC lab being cleaned at night from the privacy of
his home. Science marches on! Hey, you missed a spot... Seriously
though, these test beds may be the first pieces of the National
Information Highway, with uses in medicine, telecommuting, business
teleconferencing, new forms of entertainment, and uses far beyond what
anyone can imagine right now.
(Sources: Computerworld 4/12/93, 7/5/93, Communications Week 7/5/93,
and The Philadelphia Inquirer, date unknown)
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Chaos Theory
In almost every organization, the information from which all business
decisions spring resembles less an orderly strand of genetic material
than a chaotic, unsolved jigsaw puzzle. To a technologist, perhaps,
the percentage of business information that is safely, rationally
computerized is frighteningly small. Instead, the stuff from which
strategies are built floats more or less freely through the corporate
air and waits for a leader to recognize it. (Source: Thomas Kiely,
"Key Pieces Of Information," CIO magazine, 6/1/93, p. 49)
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United States In The Grip of Technophobia
A study released Monday by Dell Computer found that more than half of
all Americans are still resistant to taking advantage of technology in
their everyday lives. The survey showed that one-fourth of all US
adults have never used a computer, set a VCR to record a television
show or even programmed their favorite stations on a car radio.
32% of adults are intimidated by computers and worry about damaging
one if they use it without assistance; 25% of the adults "miss the
days when we just had typewriters," and more than one-fourth would not
use a computer unless forced to. The study is part of an ongoing
effort by Dell to "techno-type" users into one of several broad
categories that will help people understand what computers can do for
them and how they can go about finding their perfect PC match. This
fear of technology is seen as an obstacle that must be overcome to
achieve broad consumer acceptance for computers and computer-enabled
devices in the US. The study shows that teenagers are more technically
aware than adults, with 92 percent of all teens surveyed saying they
are comfortable using technical gadgets such as answering machines,
VCR's, CD players, and computers. Both adults and teens agree on two
key points: First, that using computers can save them time, and
second, that computer terminology is too confusing and hard to
understand. (Dell: 314/982-9111) (Sources: St. Petersburg Times
7/27/93, p. E1, Newsbytes 7/26/93, and Informaion Week 8/2/93, p. 46)
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Inside The Programmer's Mind
Last among the essential personality traits for programming, we might
add a sense of humor. The computer "Doth make fools of us all," so
that any fool without the ability to share a laugh on himself will be
unable to tolerate programming for long. It has been said with great
perspicacity that the programmer's national anthem is "AAAAHHHH!"
Then we finally see the light, we see how once again we have fallen
into some foolish assumption, some oafish practice, or some witless
blunder. Only by singing the second stanza "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha," can we
long endure the role of clown.
(from The Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerard M. Weinberg)
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Mind Over Matter
Will computers soon be able to read your mind? At Fujitsu Ltd., that's
exactly what researchers are trying to get their machines to do, as
they continue to develop a computer that reads and obeys signals
associated with thoughts and body motions. Thus far, they have created
a computer-assisted robot hand that can mimic the motions of a human
hand by analyzing the tiny nerve pulses sent from the brain to the
finger muscles. They hope in a few years to have marketable brain-
controlled artificial limbs that would be much less cumbersome than
what's currently available. Meanwhile, N.Y. State Department of Health
researchers have developed a system that enables users to move the
cursor by mental action alone. Psychologists with the University of
Illinois have created a way of allowing people to type simply by
spelling the word out in their mind. None of this is parapsychology;
it's pure science.
(Sources: Tampa Tribune 7/27/93, New York Times, 2/9/93)
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NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
Schizophrenic PC To Debut
The DUET personal computer, just announced by NuTek U.S.A. Corp.,
is essentially two computers in one. It is a 2 chip machine, based on
the Intel 486DX and the Motorola 68030, both running at 33 MHz. In a
nutshell, this machine can run Macintosh and IBM PC software
simultaneously! The standard configuration includes a keyboard,
monitor, 8 MEG of RAM, 160 MEG of storage on 2 hard disks. 2 expansion
slots for each system are provided. This system may provide the answer
for users torn between the 2 systems, both of which have their
strengths and weaknesses. I have not seen any reviews of this machine,
which has a base price of $2,995. The concept is intriguing though.
(NuTek USA: 408/973-8799) (Source: Datamation, 7/15/93, p. 68)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Apple to Release Talking Macs!
Apple Computer plans to announce a new line of mid-priced Macs today
that talk, recognize voice commands and read text back to the user.
The computers will be available next month. (Miami Herald 7/29/93 C3)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Time Magazine To Go On-line
Using America Online, Time magazine will be the first general-interest
magazine to provide an electronic forum allowing readers to hold
discussions with the magazine's reporters and editors and to read the
text of entire issues of Time electronically before the magazine is
available on newsstands. (Source: New York Times 7/26/93, p. C6)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Prodigy To Offer Internet Connection
Prodigy is alpha-testing a gateway to the Internet, but few users are
authorized to use it yet. The charge is $.15 per 3K characters
received, with a 60KB limit per message (or 250KB for internal binary
transfers). (Source: needje@msen.com, 7/26/93)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A short-wavelength laser from IBM will allow optical disks to hold
five times as much data. (Source: New York Times, 6/2/93)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Faster 486 Outpaces Pentium
The Pentium chip is taking a backseat at Intel in favor of DX3, a
revved-up version of the i486 microprocessor. The chip, which runs
internally at 100 MHz is expected to give near-Pentium performance at
a much lower cost. In effect, the DX3 - not Pentium - will be Intel's
high-volume, high-performance chip through the first half of 1994.
(Source: Michael Fitzgerald, "Faster 486 Could Overlap Pentium,"
Computerworld, 7/19/93, p. 1. )
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= Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum =
= tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only =
= 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1 1/2 tons. =
= Popular Mechanics, March 1949. =
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Mainframe On A Chip
Last week B&B reported on a luggable mid-range AS/400 computer
developed by IBM, hailing it as a marvel of miniaturization. Well,
never mind - IBM has outdone *themselves* this time. It seems they
have been showing off a mainframe add-in card for its Intel-based
model 195 and 295 multi-processor servers. The card includes a shrunk
down (and much cooler) IBM 390-class CPU and 16 megabytes of mainframe
memory. It can run anything IBM's low- and midrange System 390
machines can run without modification. That includes all your
favorites: the Customer Information Control System (CICS), the DB2
relational database and the Time Sharing Option (TSO), as well as the
MVS and VM operating systems. Running under the multitasking OS/2 2.x,
the card handles all I/O and can, for example, control your mainframe
system tape drive if you need to download any of your existing
software. When can you buy this truly downsized mainframe? IBM won't
say, but the engineers working on the product say they expect it to be
ready for purchase by year's end. (Source: Datamation, 7/15/93, p. 16)
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Bits and Bytes Bookshelf: Summertime Science Fiction Suggestions
Man does not life by technical non-fiction alone. It's summertime, and
maybe you want to relax by the pool with a good science fiction novel.
These are all books I have read and enjoyed, but they were also chosen
with an eye to giving you a glimpse of some of the possible futures
that the information age may bring upon us.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson [Bantam Books, 1992. $5.99]
-In the near future, Americans excel at only a few things: music,
movies, microcode (software), and delivering a pizza in under 30
minutes... Things are run by the franchises and Burbclaves, the
latter having their own citizens, constitutions, laws, and cops.
Much of the action takes place in the Metaverse, a virtual reality
universe in which the coolest have the best rendered avatars. A
founding programmer of The Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club,
the book's protagonist Hiro is down on his luck and lives in a
spacious 20-by-30-foot U-Stor-lt near the Los Angeles Airport. Snow
Crash is a computer virus that is striking down hackers everywhere!
Thrills aplenty, and some interesting thoughts about where we *may*
be headed. "Snow Crash is a fantastic, slam-bang-overdrive,
supersurrealistic, cosmic-spooky whirl through a tomorrow that is
already happening." (Timothy Leary)
Earth by David Brin [Bantam Books, 1991. $5.99]
-A microscopic black hole has accidentally fallen into the earth's
core, threatening to destroy the planet within 2 years. "Earth" is an
edge of the seat thriller, a kaleidoscopic novel peopled with extra-
ordinary characters and challenging new visions of an incredibly real
future: global computer networks that put limitless information at
everyone's fingertips, an environment ravaged by the greenhouse
effect, a quiet revolution by the politically powerful elderly.
(From the back cover)
Islands In The Net by Bruce Sterling [Ace books, 1988. $4.99]
-Bruce Sterling, who has been quoted in B&B, is a great sci-fi writer.
Read anything by him and you will not be disappointed. I choose this
one in particular because it has much to say about some very likely
aspects of the future. The book, set in the not too distant future,
imagines a world where the power is in the hands of mega-national
corporations (not a major stretch here), with a worldwide computer
(and human) network (hence the title) at their commands. The
protagonist and her husband both work for one of these corporations,
and their lives become swept up in a power struggle that will change
their lives and their relationships with each other in ways they
can't begin to imagine.
Neuromancer by William Gibson [Ace Books, 1984]
- The novel that launched the cyberpunk movement. A great read if
you don't take the science too seriously. An engrossing mix of film
noir darkness and "high-tech electric poetry... an enthralling
adventure story, as brilliant and coherent as a laser. This is why
science fiction was invented." (Bruce Sterling) Virtual reality is
represented via the Matrix, a worldwide computer net that people log
onto by plugging their brains into it. Corporate databases are
represented as bright geometric structures; artificial intelligences
roam the dataverse, and maybe, just maybe, *something else* is
lurking in the matrix, something new, yet ancient as the cosmos.
Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology edited by Bruce Sterling
[Ace Books, 1988)
- The place to start for an overview of the talents of the various
authors of the cyberpunk movement. "...filled with surreal visionary
intensity. They are often sexy, occasionally lewd, always
frightening, are filled with with black humor, obsessed with the
interface of high-tech and pop underground, and always fascinating."
(Fantasy Review)
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Does Dick Tracy Know About This?
Japan's major calculator maker, Casio, has come up with a wrist watch
that has a built-in remote control unit. This unique device will be
released on August 17 at a cost of 9,500 yen ($85). Like the new breed
of universal remote controls, the wrist watch controller can control
most audio visual devices such as TV sets, stereos and video players.
It uses infrared technology just the same as regular remote control
devices. The remote controller can control multiple audio devices and
supports a TV's power on/off, channel selection, and volume control.
Regarding VCR operation, it supports power on/off, fast forward/
rewind, play, stop, and channel selection. The controller is the size
of an ordinary wrist watch. No more playing hide and seek with your
remote controls! Besides these advanced functions, the wrist watch
also has the standard features you'd expect, such as a stopwatch, an
alarm clock and a calendar. The removable battery lasts for about a
year and half. Casio expects this remote controller to be a big hit
in Japan. The firm is planning to ship 100,000 units per month.
(Newsbytes News Service, 7/7/93)
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===============================================
= (Copyleft 1993 Jay Machado) Unaltered =
Jay Machado = *electronic* distribution of this file for =
1529 Dogwood Drive = non-profit purposes is encouraged. =
Cherry Hill, NJ, 08003 = The opinions expressed herein are pretty =
ph (eve) 609/795-0998 = darn kooky when you get right down to it. =
= Caveat Lector! =
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