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COM NET NEWS Vol. 1 No. 3
COM NET NEWS
Vol. 1 No. 3 June
>From the Editor
Thanks to everyone for their kind words concerning COM NET
NEWS--the readership is growing significantly with each issue. One
comment was received from an individual asking that articles from
Edupage and other such newsletters not be reproduced here, as he
already saw them. Unfortunately, everyone cannot be pleased all of
the time. These types of articles are reproduced because I believe
that they should be of interest to the readership. Not all, and in fact,
most of the COM NET NEWS readership apparently do not
subscribe to these newsletters. One of the problems with the
explosion of information that is now available via print media, radio,
television, and computer networks is that there is way too much for
everyone to read and sort through. The purpose of this newsletter is
to help fill the need for selective reporting of news of interest to the
CNN readership. However, you can help define its content by
indicating to me your preferences and dislikes. Please feel free to let
me know what you think so that CNN can better serve you.
Richard W. Bryant, Editor
RW Bryant Associates
P.O. Box 1828
El Prado, NM 87529
Tel/fax: 505-758-1919
rbryant@hydra.unm.edu
***************************************************************
***************************************************************
HOW ABOUT A 9% RETURN ON DIRECT MAIL?
A Northern New Mexico entrepreneur who conducts summer
workshops covering various artistic media such as painting,
sculpture, pottery, etc., recently reported a 9% return on a direct
mailing to America Online subscribers. First, a search was made of
the profiles of AOL users looking for individuals who had indicated an
interest in the arts. After sending about 300 very low-key messages
to these individuals, within a few days, about 9% requested the
printed brochure. Not bad considering the typical return on direct
snail mail is 1%.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SLOW TO PROMOTE THE
GRASSROOTS
In its report last year, "Making Government Work: Electronic
Delivery of Government Services," the Office of Technology
Assessment (OTA) recommended the federal government stimulate
grassroots citizen involvement in all stages of electronic delivery from
planning and pilot-testing to implementation and evaluation. The
report recommended a "mandatory set-aside" from project or agency
budgets to assure a proper amount of funding for such citizen
participation. The report also suggested the establishment at the
Office of Management and Budget and the General Services
Administration of "service to the citizen" or "grassroots community
involvement offices." These offices would help coordinate electronic
delivery initiatives with other federal programs that include
grassroots involvement in some form. Six months later, little has
been done to implement this suggestion, and no legislation has been
proposed to establish a mandatory set-aside. Fred Wood, OTA Project
Director of the study, said in an interview last week, "One thing that I
feel has not received the attention that I think is appropriate is this
grass roots empowerment idea. There is some activity in this
direction, but nothing systematic." Source: Summary of Electronic
Public Information Newsletter.Vol. 4, No. 9; May 6, 1994.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO PUT THE NATIONAL
TRADE DATA BASE ON THE INTERNET
A year after putting its Economic Bulletin Board (EBB) on the
Internet, the Office of Business Analysis (OBA) of the Department of
Commerce is moving to make its granddaddy of databases~the
National Trade Data Base (NTDB)~also available over the Internet
in June. Up to now, the NTDB has been available from the
government on CD-ROM. According to Ken Rogers, Director of
Information Product Development, the EBB has some 3000 files, as
opposed to 160,000 files in the NTDB. He said just keeping the NTDB
current is a formidable task. To start, only a part of the NTDB will be
accessible over the Internet in a gopher architecture. Rogers
cautioned searching a database the size of NTDB by gopher "will not
be pleasant." The agency plans later in the year to install "Inquery", a
search and retrieve software program developed and licensed by the
University of Massachusetts. Inquery is like a WAIS, but according
to Rogers, far superior. "We think the U of Mass product is better it
has been developed for more commercial applications and in
computing tests between this and other tools the Inquery system
always wins," Rogers said.
Source: Summary of Electronic Public Information Newsletter.Vol. 4,
No. 9; May 6, 1994.
UPDATE ON ITALIAN FIDOBUST
"The crackdown needed to be done, software piracy has become a
National sport in Italy. Unfortunately, the operation rapidly became
too wide for our forces: right now, here in Pesaro we are only three
Prosecutors, quite busy with penal trials, in court all day long. We will
try to do our best withthe less possible damage for the entire
community." Here are the explanatory words of Gaetano Savoldelli
Pedrocchi, the Pesaro Prosecutor who is managing the investigations
that last week led to a nationwide crackdown on Fidonet Italia BBSs.
During the operation - confidentially known as "Hardware 1" - more
than 60 (some sources go up to 130) Bulletin Board Systems have
been visited and searched by police officials. In the central and
northern part of the country, several Fidonet nodes were closed and
dozens of operators were charged of "conspiracy with unknown for
distribution of illegally copied software and appropriation of secret
passwords."
Some figures say the seizures included more than 120 computers,
300 streamer-cassettes and CD-ROMs, 60,000 floppy disks, an
imprecise number of modems and other electronic devices. In some
cases, police officials sealed off rooms and garages where the BBSs
were operated or closed all the hardware they found in a closet.
Several Fidonet operators (generally students, professionals, small-
company owners) lost their personal data because every magnetic
support was "suspected to carry pirated software."
Aimed to crack a distribution ring of illegal software run by two people
using the publicly available Fidonet node list, investigators searched
and seized every single site of the list - even those that had never had
any contact with the two suspected. Also, many operators not
inquired by police were forced to immediately shut down their
systems, searching for possible illegal software covertly uploaded on
their BBSs. As a consequence of such indiscriminate operations, the
real, very few pirate boards had the chance to quickly hide their
businesses - sources say.
"I do not believe this scenario," said the Pesaro Prosecutor in an
interview by SottoVoce Magazine. "We acted after precise
information about the activities of a specific data-bank; if some
operators have nothing to do with the charges, we'll verify it as soon
as possible."
Questioned about further investigations against BBSs users, the
Prosecutor said: "We'll see later....at the present, users can sleep
peacefully. Otherwise, I cannot imagine how many people should be
investigated. I do not want to criminalize the entire population. Even
if the inquiry has become so vast, this is not a subject of vital
importance for our country. It is mostly a fiscal and bureaucratic
issue, a matter of small-scale but spread illegality." However, rumors
say other inquires are currently underway in other cities, and even
the Criminalpol is working on similar issues.
Assisting the investigated people, some lawyers already asked for the
immediate return of the confiscated materials, while others suggested
to wait for better times. In any case, it will probably take months
(years?) before receiving official answers regarding the seizures.
Struggling to re-open in some way their systems, Fidonet operators
are also working to get the attention of mainstream media on the
issue - with little success, so far. After an article published by La
Repubblica, two localnewspapers, Il Mattino and Il Giornale di
Brescia, run brief reports on May 15, both centered on "a wide
software piracy ring cracked by police officials".
But, the real activity is happening inside and around electronic
communities. MC-Link and especially Agora' Telematica (the biggest
Italian systems) are doing a great job, offering space for news,
opinions and comments - also acting as connection links between the
decimated net of BBSs and worried individuals scattered in the
country. Here is just one example: "....police officials seized
everything, including three PCs (one broken), a couple of modems
(just fixed for some friends), floppies, phone cables, phone-books. Now
Dark Moon is off, hoping to have at least one line available in a few
days, maybe at 2400. I fear that more raids will soon follow
elsewhere. So, please, stay alert..."
A catching dynamism flourishes from the BBSs linked to Cybernet.
Although some of them are currently not operating, a special issue of
the Corriere Telematico was just released over the net and their
printed voice, Decoder Magazine, will soon distribute news,
testimonies, comments on "Operation Hardware 1".
PeaceLink has set up a defense committee-news center in Taranto
and its spokesperson, Alessandro Marescotti, will sign an article for
the next issue of the weekly magazine Avvenimenti.
Promptly alerted, the International online community gave good
response -quickly redistributing the news over the Net and sending
supportivemessages. Here is an email from Michael Baker, Chairman
of Electronic Frontiers Australia: "To that end I am writing to offer
assistance to anyone in Italy who wants to set up such an
organisation. Recently I (along with others) have set up Electronic
Frontiers Australia, and I am now its Chairman. Other national EF
groups have been, or are being, set up in several other countries
(Canada, Ireland, Norway, UK and Japan)....if there is anything we
can do to help, please ask."
Shifting toward politics, on May 19, the first working day of the new
Italian Cabinet, six Members of the Reformers group presented a
written question to the Ministers of Justice and Interior. After a short
introduction about telecom systems, the document gives an account
of the facts and asks three final questions to the Government: "if it
will intend to open an investigation to verify if the raids ordered by
the
Pesaro Prosecutor's office were prejudicial to the constitutionally
guaranteed freedom of expression; if it is not the case to set up a
better and greater team of computer experts in order to avoid further
random seizures of electronic devices that lead to shut down the
BBSs; if it is not the occasion to confirm that current legislation does
not charge system operators with objective responsibility for users'
activities on telecom systems."
Although the Fidonet sysops community (about 300 people) is still
quite uncertain regarding its future, many of them feel the urgent
need to overcome a sort of cultural and social isolation that clearly
surrounds the telecom scene in Italy. At the moment the main issue
is how to raise public interest and political pressure to obtain clear
laws in support of civil rights in the electronic medium. Ideas and
proposals are developing from several electronic laboratories, such as
the Community Networking conference on Agora' Telematica and
Cybernet.
"We underestimate our strength; if we could just be able to set up an
Italian Association of Telecom Users we could put pressure on
political and legislative bodies...Overwhelm newspapers, radio and tv
stations with faxes, letters, phone calls...We must attract common
people, through hundreds of tables and events in the streets more
than online, even if we do not have a Kapor to support us...There
should be press-conferences in several cities, with the presence of
investigated people along with famous persons, politicians...What
about a 24-hours silence from any system in the country with
simultaneous events in each city and village where a BBS operates?"
The situation is rather fluid and in e-motion. Stay connected!
Source: Bernardo Parrella (berny@well.sf.ca.us) Tue May 24 01:50:10
1994
==========================
>From Edupage, a summary of news items on information technology,
is provided three times each week as a service by Educom -- a
consortium of leading colleges and universities seeking to transform
education through the use of information technology.
To add your name to the Edupage distribution list, send e-mail to:
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For archive copies of Edupage or Update, gopher to educom.edu or
look at our WWW server: URL: http://educom.edu/.index.html. To
communicate with Edupage or Educom, send mail to
comments@educom.edu or info@educom.edu.
BARBARIANS AT THE CYBERGATE
The New York Times reports hostility and aggression are spreading in
cyberspace, and network experts are worried about the future of the
electronic community. A rash of newcomers in the last year or two
has undermined the tradition of rational self-government and the
democratic exchange of ideas. Commenting on the recent incident
where two lawyers advertised their services to Usenet groups and
were subsequently vilified, a University of California at San Diego
professor observes, "If such events become routine -- and there's very
little technical or legal reason why they won't -- then the whole net
will
basically collapse through flame-wars, the closing of e-mail discussion
groups to outsiders and whatever." (Tampa Tribune 5/15/94 B2)
CYBERPORN IS PROSECUTED
In two recent cases in Oklahoma and Texas, courts have convicted
defendants for using electronic bulletin boards to distribute obscene
material. In the Oklahoma case, defense attorneys argued that state
obscenity laws don't apply to electronic devices such as CD-ROMs,
claiming that what was on the disks was actually binary code. In the
Texas case, U.S. Secret Service agents seized computers and
electronic equipment from an electronic publisher. (Wall Street
Journal 5/27/94 B3)
WILL COMMUNICATIONS GIANTS CONTROL DIVERSITY?
By luring 12 major TV stations to leave their networks and sign up
with Fox, Rupert Murdoch has expanded his global print and
electronic communications empire -- demonstrating, says one
reporter, that power is concentrating in the hands of those with the
money, the experience and the programming, leaving them "poised to
control the still-to-be-designed information and entertainment
delivery systems of tomorrow." (New York Times 5/29/94 Sec.4, p.1)
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, THOSE DONUTS CAN
HEAR YOU
Many retail stores, restaurants and food outlets, such as Dunkin'
Donuts, are using audio monitoring as a surveillance technique to
prevent employee or customer theft; the practice is so new that
many advocates of consumer privacy have not yet heard of it. (New
York Times 5/28/94 p.6)
BIG SAVINGS ON TELECOMMUTERS
The director of marketing for AT&T Virtual Office Solutions says,
"For every dollar spent, we saved $2," on their telecommuting project.
With approximately 8.000 employees functioning in the virtual world,
managers report productivity up 45% and office space savings up
50%. (San Francisco Examiner 5/29/94 C5)
NEW USES FOR HIGH-TECH TRAINING
The Clinton administration plans to use expensive computer
simulators developed for the Pentagon to train tomorrow's workers in
subjects ranging from physics to manufacturing. (Business Week
6/6/94 p.44)
SNAIL MAIL AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?
Canada's postal corporation is making preparations to join the info-
highway. Its chair predicts that stamped mail likely will become
extinct as electronic information replaces regular mail, delivering
services by TV, telephone and computer. (Toronto Globe & Mail
6/03/94 B3)
EUROPE URGED TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO INFOBAHN
The president of the European Union says that the benefits of more
EU participation in the information society could include alleviating
the union's chronic unemployment problem, which now stands at
about 20 million people. (Wall Street Journal 6/3/94 A5A)
INTERACTIVE LEARNING CURVE
Apparently very little of the expertise in traditional merchandising,
cost control and customer service translates into the electronic
marketplace. "Opening an electronic store is completely different
from a retail store or catalog... It took us six months just to figure
out
how to present our product effectively," says one merchant.
(Investor's Business Daily 6/3/94 A3)
TROLLING IN PUBLIC DATABASES
The government routinely scours its 4,000 databases looking for
welfare cheats, draft dodgers, tax cheats, etc. The Clinton
Administration's proposed Health Security Card, a "smart card" with
personal information on individuals, would create a huge new
government database with medical records on every citizen.
(Investor's Business Daily 6/2/94 A1)
ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT BENEFITS
The federal government will start delivering public assistance benefits
electronically over the next five years, and a nationwide system will
replace welfare checks and food stamps by 1999. Following a pilot
program in Maryland that reduced welfare fraud by 47% in the first
year, it's expected that the new system will net $195 million a year in
savings. (Wall Street Journal 6/1/94 A8)
MECKLERWEB SEEKS CYBER-ADS
Mecklermedia has launched a new service on the Internet aimed at
providing a "politically correct" forum for companies that want to
share information about their products and services. MecklerWeb
provides each sponsor company 10 to 15 megabytes of space in
exchange for a $25,000 annual fee, and user access to the site is free.
"Our audience comes into MecklerWeb voluntarily. It is not
unwanted, unsolicited e-mail," notes project manager Chris Locke.
Try http://www.digital.com/demo.html. The permanent address will be
: http://www.mecklerweb.com/demo.html. (Advertising Age 5/30/94
p.18)
INDIA SOFTWARE SHIPMENTS SURGE
India's computer software exports totaled $330 million in the year
ended March 31, up 47% from a year earlier. The country's software
industry is increasingly moving from lower-end products toward more
sophisticated, higher quality applications. (Wall Street Journal 6/1/94
A10)
FUTURISTIC FUNDRAISING
Entrepreneurs can go online to find investors for their ventures
through companies like Technology Capital Network and American
Venture. Start-up businesses buy a listing describing their function
and needs, and investors pay to search the database for new
opportunities. "It's still an unconventional way of raising capital, but
that doesn't mean it's not a fantastic idea," says Paul Saffo of the
Institute for the Future. (Wall Street Journal 6/2/94 B1)
NEW INTERNET TRADE ASSOCIATION
Suppliers of Internet access software and services have formed a new
trade group -- the Internet Business Association -- to be
headquartered in Washington, DC. (San Francisco Chronicle 6/1/94
B2)
WIRING AFRICA
The head of a UNESCO effort to revive the Pan African News
Agency says, "For years, the main obstacle to real development has
been the statement, `We have to feed the people first.' After all, who
can withhold food? But if you want the people to feed themselves, you
have to have a different view. Say you go to a small village. People are
hungry. Is the priority an electronic mailbox...or 1000 kilograms of
corn? What we've learned, over the past 20 years, is that the mailbox
may well be the priority." (Wired June 94 p.60)
>From Canada The Traffic Report
Information Highway Secretarait. Vol. 7 June 2, 1994.
ONE STOP SHOP FOR BUSINESS
The business service center is up and running in Fredericton,
providing one-stop shopping for businesses in the capital region.
Participants include the Department of Economic Development &
Tourism, the Capital Regional Development Commission, the
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Industry Canada. The
objective is to give businesses a single point access to programs,
services and regulations. Contact: Andre Charon (506) 444-6156
THE TELEGRAPH JOURNAL GOES ONLINE
Newspapers in New Brunswick have long used the telephone system
and computer modems to transmit stories from bureaus to the
editorial offices. But until now, they haven't been seen searching for
story ideas on the Internet. Telegraph Journal reporter Jacques
Poitras is the first. He's already done some research using NB*Net's
news groups and says he's looking for more story ideas. Contact:
Jacques Poitras jpoitras@nbnet.nb.ca
TRAVEL INFORMATION ON A DISKETTE
Aquilla Destination Marketing of Saint John launched its
computerized travel information system at a gathering of Meeting
New Brunswick this week. The Windows-based guide features color
coded New Brunswick maps and other graphics, such as meeting floor
plans and hotel locations.Hundreds of the diskettes will be mailed to
meeting planners and associated businesses outside the province. The
guide will be updated annually and distributed free of charge. Contact:
Beth Kelly (506) 633-1224
AUTOCAD ON THE HIGHWAY
Ten students have graduated from the first ever distance education
course of the well-known AutoCad computerized drafting software.
The course was designed and delivered by the Moncton Community
College in conjunction with TeleEducation New Brunswick. The
project impressed AutoDesk, the owner of the software, and the
community college is becoming an authorized AutoDesk training
centre in order to deliver the course across Canada. Contact: John
Hanusiak (506) 856-2169 or 1-800-263-4403
U.S. CARD OR BIG BROTHER IS GETTING CLOSER
Ever Feel Like You're Being Watched? You Will...
Digital Media has learned that the Clinton administration is debating
not if, but how, to create a card that every American will need in order
to interact with any federal government agency. Combined with two
potential executive orders and the Postal Service's designs on putting
its stamp on personal and business electronic transactions, the card
could open a window on every nuance of American personal and
business life.
The wrangling among the administration, the U.S. Postal Service, the
Internal Revenue Service and Department of Defense, emerged into
the public eye at this April's CardTech/SecureTech Conference. The
gathering of security experts was convened to discuss applications for
smart card and PCMCIA memory card technologies in business and
government. The Postal Service, at the conference presented a
proposal for a "general purpose U.S. services smartcard," which
individuals and companies would use to authenticate their identities
when sending and receiving electronic mail, transferring funds and
interacting with government agencies, such as the I.R.S., Veterans
Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.
President Clinton is also considering signing two executive orders that
would greatly expand the government's access to personal records,
including an order that would allow the I.R.S. to monitor individual
bank accounts and automatically collect taxes based on the results,
said sources close to the White House. The collection service will be
presented as a convenient way to avoid filling out a tax return. The
White House did not respond to requests for comments about this
report.
The Post Office: We deliver for you. The Postal Service's U.S. Card
would be designed to use either smart cards (plastic cards with an
embedded microprocessor carrying a unique number that can be read
by a electromagnetic scanner and linked to computerized records
stored on a network) or PCMCIA cards, which can contain megabytes
of personal information. (You've probably seen this type card in
AT&T's "You Will" ad campaign, which shows a doctor inserting a
woman's card in a reader in order to access a recording of a
sonogram). The Postal Service said it is considering AT&T and other
companies' smart card technologies.
In a slide presentation at the conference, Postal representative
Chuck Chamberlain outlined how an individual's U.S. Card would be
automatically connected with the Department of Health and Human
Services, the U.S. Treasury, the I.R.S., the banking system, and a
central database of digital signatures for use in authenticating
electronic mail and transactions. The U.S. Card is only a proposal,
Chamberlain insists. Yet the Postal Service is prepared to put more
than a hundred million of the cards in citizens' pockets within months
of administration approval, he said.
"We've been trying to convince people [in the different agencies] to do
just one card, otherwise, we're going to end up with two or three
cards," said Chamberlain. He said in addition to the healthcare card
proposed by President Clinton last year, various government agencies
are forwarding plans for a personal records card and a transactions
(or "e-purse") card. Chamberlain said the I.R.S in particular is
pursuing plans for an identity card for taxpayers.
Don't leave home without it. Though he did not name the U.S. Card at
the time, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon suggested that the
Postal Service offer electronic mail certification services during
testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee in
March. The proposal is clearly intended as a way to sustain the
Postal Service's national role in the information age, since it would
give the agency a role in virtually every legally-binding electronic
transaction made by U.S. citizens. For instance:
* When sending or receiving electronic mail, U.S. Card users would be
able to check the authenticity of a digital signature to screen out
impostors.
* Banking transactions (notably credit card purchases) that depend
on authentication of the participants identities and an audit trail,
would be registered in Postal Service systems.
* Veterans, or for that matter college students and welfare recipients,
could check their federal benefits using the identification data on their
U.S. Cards.
* Visitors to an emergency room would have instant access to
medical records at other hospitals, as well as their health insurance
information.
These examples may seem benign separately, but collectively they
paint a picture of a citizen's or business's existence that could be
meddlesome at best and downright totalitarian at worst. Will buying a
book at a gay bookstore with a credit card that authenticates the
transaction through the Postal Service open a Naval officer up to
cour marshal? If you have lunch with a business associate on a
Saturday at a family restaurant, will the IRS rule the expense non-
deductible before you can even claim it?
"There won't be anything you do in business that won't be collected
and analyzed by the government," said William Murray, an
information system security consultant to Deloitte and Touche who
saw Chamberlain's presentation. "This [National Information
Infrastructure] is a better surveillance mechanism than Orwell or the
government could have imagined. This goddamned thing is so
pervasive and the propensity to connect to it is so great that it's
unstoppable."
Deep Roots; Deep Pockets; Long History. Chamberlain said the
Postal Service has been working for "a couple years" on the
information system to back up the U.S. Card. He said the project was
initiated by the Department of Defense, which wanted a civilian
agency to create a national electronic communications certification
authority that could be connected to its Defense Messaging System.
Chamberlain said the Postal Service has also consulted with the
National Security Agency, proponents of the Clipper encryption chip
which hides the contents of messages from all but government
agencies, like law enforcement. The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's Ames Research Laboratories in Mountain View,
Calif. carried out the research and development work for Clipper.
"We're designing a national framework for supporting business-
quality authentication," said John Yin, the engineer heading up the
U.S. Card-related research for NASA Ames' advanced networking
applications group. "This is not specifically with just the Postal
Service. We'll be offering services to other agencies and to third-party
commercial companies that want to build other services on the card."
For example, VISA or American Express could link their credit
services to the U.S. Card.
Yin, who works on Defense Messaging Systems applications, said his
group has collaborated with "elements of Department of Defense" for
the past year, but would not confirm the participation of the National
Security Agency, a Department of Defense agency. The NSA is
specifically prohibited from creating public encryption systems by the
Computer Security Act of 1987. Yin also would not comment on the
budget for the project, which other sources said was quite large and
has spanned more than two years.
A false sense of security? According to Yin, the cards would allow
individuals or businesses to choose any encryption technology. "It's
not our approach to say, 'Here's the standard, take it our leave it,'" he
said.
"We're not trying to create a monopoly, rather it's an infrastructure
for interoperability on which a whole variety of services can be built."
Yet, NASA, which is a participant in the CommerceNet electric
marketplace consortium will "suggest" to its partners that they adopt
the U.S. Card certification infrastructure, he said.
The reality is that government agencies' buying power usually drives
the market to adopt a particular technology -- not unlike the way the
Texas Board of Education, the largest single purchaser of textbooks in
the U.S., sets the standard for the content of American classroom
curricula. Since, the administration has already mandated use of
Clipper and its data-oriented sibling, the Tesserae chip, in federal
systems it's fairly certain that the law enforcement-endorsed chips
will find their way into most, if not all, U.S. Cards. Even in the
unlikely
event that one government agency should weather the pressure and
pass on the Clipper chip, it's still possible to trace the source,
destination, duration and time of transactions conducted between
Clippered and non-Clippered devices.
"Most of this shift [in privacy policy] is apparently being done by
executive order at the initiative of bureaucracy, and without any
Congressional oversight or Congressional concurrence, " Murray said.
"They are not likely to fail. You know, Orwell said that bureaucrats,
simply doing what bureaucrats do, without motivation or intent, will
use technology to enslave the people."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Digital Media has filed a Freedom of Information
Act request for Clinton and Bush Administration, Postal Service,
NSA, Department of Defense, NASA, I.R.S. and other documents
related to the creation of the U.S. Card proposal.
-- Mitch Ratcliffe
Copyright 1994 by Mitch Ratcliffe and Seybold Publications.
Mitch Ratcliffe
Editor in Chief
Digital Media: A Seybold Report
444 De Haro St., Ste. 128
San Francisco, Calif. 94107
415.575.3775 office
godsdog@netcom.com
The above article was resent-From: Sam Sternberg
<SAMSAM@VM1.YorkU.CA> communet@uvmvm
To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET
<COMMUNET@UVMVM.BITNET>
QUICKTAKE 100 DIGITAL CAMERA REVIEW
I recently got the opportunity to use the new Apple QuickTake 100
digital camera. The new Apple camera lists for $799, but has been
advertized at a lower price. The unit works well with both Macs and
Windows-based computers. The one-pound camera operates easily,
simply, and plugs into a computer with a simple cable, supplied with
the camera. It has a built in flash, with two settings. The QuickTake
100 has two resolution settings. At high resolution (640 by 480 pixels)
eight color images can be taken. And, at the low-resolution setting
(320 by 240 pixels), 32 images are possible. Once the pictures are
taken, they can be easily downloaded as PICT, TIFF, or Quick Take
format files. The camera memory is then cleared and more images
can be captured. The 24-bit color images are reasonably good for
many applications. The resolution may not match your Nikon, but for
the price and the ease of use, the QuickTake 100 is not a bad deal.
The simplicity with which snaps can be taken allows use by most
anyone. Some may complain because the unit has a fixed-focus lens
that ranges from four feet to infinity, and the shutter speeds and
aperture are automatically adjusted. However, it would appear that
the 100 model number may indicate that more advanced camera are
on the drawing board. Nonetheless, the camera works well and shows
promise for many applications. Moreover, its great fun to use.
At a recent demonstration of the La Plaza Telecommunity, I used the
QuickTake to take pictures of those who came by our demonstration.
Within seconds, the curious were immortalized with their pictures
scattered around the edge of a 16-inch Apple monitor, with live
Internet in the center. Everyone seemed impressed with the little
digital camera. A number of business persons who stopped by the
demonstration commented that the camera would be great for real
estate, art gallery, desktop publishing, and other such applications.
R. Bryant, Editor
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Please send an email message to Richard W. Bryant, Editor &
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format.
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COM NET NEWS is solely under my editorship, and is unrelated and
independent of the La Plaza Telecommunity, of which I am vice
president. The editorial comment is my own and does not reflect in
any way on La Plaza.
You may reproduce or publish any parts of this newsletter and
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>From COM NET NEWS:
Richard W. Bryant, Ph.D., Editor & Publisher
RW Bryant Associates
Advanced Technology Market Research & Com Net Consultants
P.O. Box 1828
El Prado, NM 87529
Tel/fax: 505-758-1919
rbryant@hydra.unm.edu
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