From cate3@netcom.com Thu Feb 16 08:44:10 1995
Subject: Life D.1
To: jwry.dli@netcom.com
From: "cate3@netcom.com" [Henry_Cate_III@netcom.com]
Reply-to: cate3@netcom.com
---------------------------------------
Date: 5 Apr 94 19:12:55 PDT (Tuesday)
Subject: Life D.1
The following are selections from Edupage, a twice weekly sumary of news items
To join, send a message to:listproc@educom.edu
with the text: SUB EDUPAGE yourfirstname yourlastname
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FROM RADIATION TO RAYS. Samsung will begin marketing a "Bio-TV" next year
that turns harmful electromagnetic radiation into ultraviolet and infrared
rays, capable of making plants bloom and grow. (Telecommunications Policy
Review 12/5/93 p.10)
WISHFUL THINKING. A Roper survey sponsored by IBM found that more than half
of the respondents don't want a computer that requires a manual to use it.
Two-thirds requested a computer that would recognize a user's face and
automatically pull up the file s/he typically uses. (Washington Post
12/27/93 Business p. 13).
SMART LIVING. Entergy Corp. of New Orleans has asked regulators for
permission to wire 35,000 homes initially, and 440,000 ultimately, as it
seeks to offer high-tech electrical service. The new 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. Beginning in March, customers
will get itemized bills for as many as eight appliances, in order to track
energy usage and patterns. In addition, Entergy is 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. (Washington Post 12/28/93 D1)
DRAGNET. The FBI has posted a message on the Internet, asking for help in
solving the Unabom case, which involves a series of bombings targeting the
computer industry, the aircraft and airline industries, and universities. A
$1 million reward is offered for information leading to the conviction of
the perpetrator. The FBI used a NASA computer to post the documents, which
are accessible at naic.nasa.gov. (Wall Street Journal 12/31/93 p.10)
HIGH-TECH WORK SPAWNS DECLINE IN SUIT SALES. The information age has had an
unexpected effect on the men's clothing industry -- suit sales have
plummeted as men increasingly "dress down" for the office. "With so many
offices going into electronic status, dealing with people through faxes and
computers, there is no need for appearance to be as large a factor," says
the president of a clothing store company in Kansas City. (St. Petersburg
Times 1/3/94 p.19)
DOUBLE-CLICKED TURKEY. Embedded microprocessors that control appliances and
gadgets are getting ever more powerful; within 5 years, RISC chips will
probably allow your oven to learn and remember recipes. "You might store
the exact cooking instructions for, say, a turkey, then hit a turkey icon
to start," says an Intel marketing director. (New York Times 1/2/94 F9)
WORD-OF-MOUTH POWER. "Bad word-of-mouth travels faster and farther, thanks
to electronic bulletin boards," according to the Service Edge newsletter.
Businesses may have to rethink their attitude toward unhappy customers as
the electronic community changes the way information is passed on and
processed. (Wall Street Journal 1/6/94 A1)
COMMUNICATION (FOR THE RECORD). U.S. Congressmen are allowed to revise for
posterity what they say in debate. One congressman exploded to a
colleague: "What did you say? You are trying to cut me off? You had better
not do that, ma'am. You will regret that as long as you live!" Revised for
the Congressional Record his remarks read: "I will say to the gentle lady,
for whom I have the greatest respect, I would hope that she or any other
member not try to cut off another member when a serious matter like this is
trying to be resolved here in the proper House." (Atlanta Constitution
1/11/94 A7)
BUT DID THEY GET IT TO WORK? Panic broke out at the Pentagon when a
Florida man asked for instructions on how to work a radio amplifier he
bought an auction for $97. The "radio amplifier" turned out to be a
$472,850 piece of military hardware vital for US global communications in
the event of nuclear war. It was mistakenly shipped to a haulage warehouse
in Lakeland, Florida. (Ottawa Citizen, 01/07/94 A5).
BACK TO THE FUTURE. The rotary dial phone, a step backwards
technologically, is returning to outside payphones in certain parts of
New York City, to prevent drug dealers from paging a customer, using
voice mail, and taking advantage of other services that rely on push-
button phones. (New York Times 1/10/94 A1)
SATELLITES IN EUROPE. Satellite broadcasting just got easier in Europe,
with a recommendation from the European Union Commission that member
states recognize one another's licenses for satellite ground equipment.
Providers now need licenses from each country served. (Wall Street
Journal 1/11/94 A7)
EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS RELY ON COMPUTERS. Although phone lines were down,
earthquake victims in California were able to communicate with each other
and the outside world via computer. Prodigy set up a free bulletin board
for people to exchange messages, and the "Earthquake" and "QuakeChat"
channels were buzzing on the Internet. (Wall Street Journal 1/18/94 B6)
SUPER SCANNING. A South African-made "Supertag" chip could make checking
out of a grocery store a snap -- at 50 items in one second, the chip can
scan a shopping cart-full of groceries in seconds, identifying, pricing and
adding up the total in the time it takes to reach for the checkbook. (St.
Petersburg Times 1/17/94 p.10)
VIRTUAL ADDICTION. A Glasgow University psychologist warns against virtual
reality addiction, citing studies on children whose dependence on computer
games makes them behave like drug addicts. (Focus 12/93 p.22)
SYNCHRONIZED E-MAIL. Hitachi Computer Products' Mosaic Works links different
e-mail systems transparently, and also lists all users on one combined
directory for easy access. Its SMTP-based format takes the headache out of
coordinating messaging on multiple LANs or among multiple e-mail systems.
"We think corporations are going to use the Internet more and more, and we
view ourselves as supplying a nice fixture on the Internet plumbing," says
Hitachi's director of software marketing. (Investor's Business Daily 1/18/94
p.4)
TELECOMMUTING CONVERTS IN LA. Last week's earthquake may result in a new
crop of converts to the virtues of telecommuting. PC Week (Jan. 24) notes
that before the earthquake, 17% of the 2.8 million U.S. telecommuters lived
in California, and that percentage is expected to skyrocket, given the
significant long-term damage to traffic routes around Los Angeles.
(Investor's Business Daily 1/27/94 p.4)
THIN-SKINNED TELEVISION. Panasonic has designed a 14-inch TV set only 4
inches thick, for marketing next year. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1/27/94 F2)
CRAYONS TO COMPUTERS. Micrografx is teaming up with the maker of Crayola
crayons to develop a line of software programs for kids. (Wall Street
Journal 2/1/94 B6)
ZAPPING. The Arthur D. Little consulting firm has developed the technology
for a device that can detect and eliminate commercials; it finds a
commercial by sensing blank frames and sound-level dips that precede and
follow it. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bill Husted, 2/3/94 C2)
NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T. New window technology has found a use for
liquid crystal display technology. Switchable Privacy Glass uses liquid
crystal display technology to provide privacy without shades -- a piece of
3M film is placed between two panes of glass. When an electric current is
switched on, the crystals in the film are polarized and you can see through
them. When the current is off, the crystals go into a random state,
blocking the view. (St. Petersburg Times 2/5/94 D5)
FILMLESS CAMERA. Eastman Kodak and the Associated Press have developed
Newscamera 2000, a digital camera that captures images as computer data
rather than as chemical changes on film. Photographers on deadline can then
send the images over the phone rather than hassling with developing and
shipping them. (Wall Street Journal 2/9/94 B12)
VIRTUAL BILLBOARDS. Virtual technology will enable broadcasters to insert
"billboards" into the images of sports events via a video processor
scheduled for availability next month. The advertisements will not be
visible to players and fans in the stadium -- only to television viewers.
(Wall Street Journal 2/10/94 A1)
OLYMPICS VIEWERS SOUND OFF. An electronic bulletin board set up by Prodigy
for viewers of the Winter Olympics is eliciting a lot of critical
commentary, with subscribers contributing helpful suggestions like, "Gag,"
"Arrgghh!" and "Who is responsible for those horrible outfits the American
team wears during the opening ceremonies." A CBS senior vice president
termed the response "overwhelming." (Wall Street Journal 2/15/94 B6)
ELECTRONIC SLEIGHT-OF-HAND. A debate in journalism about the ethics of
using digital technology to alter or combine photographs has ensued from a
recent New York Newsday cover photograph doctored to make it appear that
ice skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding were practicing together last
week when in fact they were not. The acting dean of Columbia University's
School of Journalism called the picture the "ultimate journalistic sin"
because it altered reality at a time when images carry much of a story's
message. (New York Times 2/17/94 A12)
E-MAIL DEATH THREAT. Reuters reports an Illinois college student has been
charged with sending a death threat to President and Mrs. Clinton by
e-mail. (New York Times 2/26/94 p.9)
A LITTLE MISTAKE. A computer programming error caused Chemical Bank to
mistakenly deduct about $15 million from customer accounts in the New York
City area, by double-recording withdrawals from automated teller machines.
Chemical Bank reacted promptly to correct the problem and said that many of
the customers sounded "more resigned than threatening." (New York Times
2/20/94 p.15)
A BIGGER MISTAKE. Because the venerable 200-year-old Encyclopedia
Britannica shunned multimedia technology, its profits have dried up and it
is being hurt badly in the marketplace by CD ROM competitors Compton's,
Grolier's and Encarta. (Forbes, 2/28/94 p.42).
INNOVATION THE KEY. A survey of small businesses in Canada found a simple
difference between very successful companies and those with less stellar
growth: the top companies innovate and spend more on technology.
Successful companies placed a higher emphasis on: developing new technology
(by 12%); refining the technology of others (by 16%); improving their own
technology (by 7%). (Toronto Globe & Mail, 02/19/94 B3).
TRANSPORTATION MEANS COMMUNICATION. Airborne shipping companies like
Federal Express and United Parcel Service are running ads boasting more
about their computerized ordering and tracking services than their
transportation strengths, because hundreds of their business customers have
streamlined their supply and distribution processes to take advantage of
such services. For example, a PC made by the Gateway 2000 company often
comes together for the first time in a Fed Ex truck enroute to a customer
with the monitor shipped from L.A. and the CPU shipped from South Dakota.
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3/1/94 D1)
SIGN LANGUAGE ON CD-ROM. HarperCollins Publishers announced the first
CD-ROM dictionary of sign language, which includes a video demonstration of
each of 2,500 signs. The electronic dictionary, priced at $59.95, will be
shipped to bookstores in September. (Wall Street Journal 2/28/94 B3)
POPCORN BREAK. AT&T, TCI, and US West will extend a test in Denver of
video-on-demand and pay-per-view services; a new feature will enable
viewers to take a break from a movie and pick it up 15 minutes later on a
different channel. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/3/94 E2)
MULTILINGUAL BULLETIN BOARDS. Prodigy has added 24 bulletin boards designed
for foreign languages using the Roman alphabet. There's even a BBS in
Esperanto, an invented hybrid of European languages. Each BBS will be
monitored by a specialist in that language (the Esperanto post is still up
for grabs). (Wall Street Journal 3/7/94 B5B)
PRINT YOUR OWN STAMPS (IS MONEY NEXT?). The U.S. Post Office is testing a
postage mailing center machine which allows a customer to insert money to
print a single stamp sufficient for any letter or package being mailed,
from 19 cents to $99.99. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3/5/94 A13)
A DEGREE OF DEFLATION. A degree from Harvard and other Ivy League schools
is no longer the lifetime guarantee of success it may have been in the
past. "The layoffs of managers at IBM or Xerox or AT&T do not discriminate
between graduates of Harvard" and some lesser school, says Senator John D.
Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. (New York Times 3/6/94, Sec.3, p.1)
E-MAIL IN RUSSIA. Russians are increasing their use of networks such as
Glasnet (which connects to the Internet through satellite phone lines)
and Relkom (which, with 200,000 uses, is the country's largest network).
(New York Times 3/9/94 A1)
KNOWLEDGE VANDALS
Computer security expert Gene Spafford at Purdue "complains--in vain, as he
freely admits--of computer science professors who assign their students
sites on the Internet to break into and files to bring back as proof that
they understand the protocols involved." (Scientific American 3/94 p.90).
LE BUG
To protect their culture, the French are planning to fine anyone
adulterating the French language with commercial or official English,
including computer terms. Such terms would now have to be transformed into
a French equivalent "when a French term or expression of the same meaning
exists." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3/11/94 A14)
HE SAID/SHE SAID
We all knew it -- there's a fundamental difference in the way men and women
relate to their computers: "While women use computers, men love them."
According to president of a market research firm, "Women consider computers
the way they consider Cuisinarts. They're there for a purpose." Men, on the
other hand, tend to "go to the computer for 15 minutes and find they're
engrossed for hours," says an interface designer for Sun Microsystems.
(Wall Street Journal 3/16/94 B1)
BYTE BY BYTE
A bill under consideration by the Florida legislature would charge citizens
per byte for downloading computerized records. The Florida Press
Association has lodged a protest, noting that the price per byte "has
nothing to do with any analysis that anybody has engaged in to determine if
this is a reasonable cost." (Miami Herald 3/16/94 B8)
EVERYONE'S NIGHTMARE
An error in a computer message has cost Chilean taxpayers at least $207
million, when a futures trader accidentally typed "buy" instead of "sell."
One politician bemoaned the typo, saying, "Among the great scoundrels and
fools of Chilean history, there will be a place for Mr. Davila -- and his
computer." It's gotten so bad, there's now a new verb making the rounds:
davilar, loosely translated to mean "to botch things up miserably." (Wall
Street Journal 3/16/94 A1)
WORDS FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Windows magazine reports that Microsoft Word for Windows has a flaw that
under certain circumstances can allow a recipient of e-mailed document to
retrieve material that the author had deleted before sending it. (New York
Times 3/16/94 C4)
PUBLIC SCHOOL ALTERNATIVES
Fifteen Massachusetts public schools will now be run by 13 different
organizations so that the state can compare alternative educational
strategies. (New York Times 3/19/94 A1)
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