Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB527C8B3@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 17:54:41 -0500
From: Bob Swisher <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 18 September 1997
> Edupage, 18 September 1997. Edupage, a summary of news about
> information technology, is provided three times a week as a service by
> Educom, a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and
> universities seeking to transform education through the use of
> information technology.
> ************************************************************
>
> TOP STORIES
> Intel's Next Generation Of Chips
> Apple Names Jobs Interim CEO
> U.S. Encryption Export Rules Stymie Allies' Systems
> DOD's Year 2000 Headaches
>
> ALSO
> IBM Dissolves Taligent
> E-Stamp Seals Deal With Microsoft, AT&T
> IMS Metadata Specs Available For Comment
>
> INTEL'S NEXT GENERATION OF CHIPS
> Intel has designed a new generation of memory chips capable of storing
> not one but two bits of information on each transistor, effectively
> doubling the storage capacity of a chip. In addition, Intel engineers
> think that in the future they may be able to build chips holding four
> or more bits on each transistor. The new chips will use "multilevel
> cell flash memory," which is able to go beyond binary (zero-or-one)
> readings and sense four distinct states -- equivalent to two bits of
> data. (New York Times 17 Sep 97)
>
> APPLE NAMES JOBS INTERIM CEO
> Apple Computer has named co-founder Steve Jobs as its interim chief
> executive officer, formalizing the role he has played since former
> CEO Gil Amelio was ousted two months ago. Jobs has repeatedly said
> he's not interested in the job, preferring instead to concentrate his
> efforts as CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. The search for a permanent
> Apple CEO continues, says the vice chairman of the executive
> recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles. "Steve has indicated to me and
> the board that he is fully supportive of getting absolutely the best
> candidate available to head the company, and he will be very
> supportive of that candidate. He is just doing what the company needs
> at this point, which is to make decisions." (Wall Street Journal 17
> Sep 97)
>
> U.S. ENCRYPTION EXPORT RULES STYMIE ALLIES' SYSTEMS
> The U.S. policies restricting the export of strong encryption software
> has held back the development of secure commercial and government
> communications in Europe, says an academic at Cambridge University in
> England. Ross Anderson, who co-authored a report highly critical of
> the Clinton Administration's stance, says "We have to question the
> wisdom of introducing weaknesses into our national infrastructures.
> In the long term, the United Kingdom and its European partners have to
> start thinking carefully about the defensive vs. offensive aspects of
> this business. The time is right for a fundamental realignment of
> resources in this field."
> Ross says the restrictions mean that the British Patent Office has to
> use a very weak form of encryption when communicating with its
> counterparts overseas: "They use the size of keys I give to my
> students to break as exercises." Civilian networks that have weak
> security as a result of the controls include the Europe-wide Global
> System for Mobile Communications telephone networks, commercial
> banking networks and television broadcasting networks. (TechWire 17
> Sep 97)
>
> DOD'S YEAR 2000 HEADACHES
> The General Accounting Office issued two reports last month, saying
> the U.S. Department of Defense "will be at risk of failing" as a
> result of critical threats to its military readiness, operations and
> security caused by computer systems unable to process dates beginning
> with "20" rather than "19." Currently, the Defense Logistics Agency
> -- dependent on computer systems for securing and managing military
> supplies of food, fuel, medicine and clothing, as well as supporting
> more than 1,400 weapons systems -- is working to fix the 86 automated
> information systems, containing some 39 million lines of code, upon
> which it will rely after 2000. But the GAO says the agency "has not
> yet taken the fundamental steps for ensuring the proper date
> information is passed between systems," nor has it set priorities as
> to which systems should be attended to first. A recent incident at
> the Defense Department involved 90,0000 items in DLA's materiel
> management program being removed from inventory as a result of a
> faulty year-2000 date calculation. Correcting the problem took 400
> hours. (Science News 13 Sep 97)
>
> ==========================================
>
> IBM DISSOLVES TALIGENT
> IBM says it's officially dissolved its Taligent subsidiary and will
> absorb Taligent's approximately 100 employees, most of them software
> engineers, into its applications-development activities. Some of the
> programmers are expected to work at the Java porting center that IBM
> recently announced with Sun Microsystems and Netscape, and some will
> focus on creating "key components for a number of IBM's programming
> tools, most notably VisualAge for Java and VisualAge for C++," says a
> company spokeswoman. (InfoWorld Electric 17 Sep 97)
>
> E-STAMP SEALS DEAL WITH MICROSOFT, AT&T
> Virtual postage start-up E-Stamp has inked a deal with Microsoft and
> AT&T wherein each will take a 10% stake in E-Stamp, giving them entrée
> into the digital postage market. Later this year, E-Stamp will beta
> test a system that allows users to order and securely download virtual
> postage over the Internet. The postage is stored on their PCs, which
> can print out a 2-D bar code that substitutes for stamps or postage
> meter markings on letters or packages. E-Stamp is creating an
> Internet Post Office Web site to manage the downloads and customer
> relations. Although the company won't take a cut of all the postage
> it sells, it plans to make its money off of the hardware and software
> it sells, as well as a transaction fee on each postage purchase. The
> company also is considering marketing a "certified e-mail" service
> that would guarantee peer-to-peer delivery of secure e-mail.
> (InternetWeek 17 Sep 97)
>
> IMS METADATA SPECS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT
> The metadata specification recently announced by Educom is available
> for review and comment by interested parties until December 5, 1997.
> The specification is posted at http://www.imsproject.org/metadata.
> Developed by a coalition of academic, industry and government
> organizations, the metadata spec is the first of a series of
> specifications and software components that will enable Internet-based
> learning materials from diverse sources to be widely used. Educom also
> plans a 1998 release of a prototype instructional management system
> based on this and additional specifications. Once released, the
> specifications and software components
> of the IMS project will be available at no cost. Additional
> information on the IMS project can be found at
> http://www.imsproject.org.
>
> Edupage is written by John Gehl <gehl@educom.edu> & Suzanne Douglas
> <douglas@educom.edu>. Telephone: 404-371-1853
>
> Technical support is provided by Information Technology Services at
> the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
>
> ************************************************************
> Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to
> Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message:
> subscribe edupage Alan Turing (if your name is Alan Turing;
> otherwise, substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message
> to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage.
> (If you have subscription problems, send mail to
> manager@educom.unc.edu.)
>
> EDUCOM'97 CONFERENCE, the premier national conference on information
> technology in higher education, will be held this year October 28 to
> 31 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition to almost 100 presentations
> from leaders in information technology in higher education, the
> conference will feature Eli Noam, director of the Columbia Institute
> for Tele-Information;
> Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of Life on the Screen:
> Identity in the Age of the Internet; and John Perry Barlow, co-founder
> of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. For conference information
> check out <http://educom.edu/ >, call 202-872-4200, or send e-mail to
> conf@educom.edu.
>
> Educom Review ... is our bimonthly print magazine on information
> technology and education ... Subscriptions are $18 a year in the
> U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a
> little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a
> small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry
> cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell;
> or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel.
> Your choice. But ring it!
>
> Educom Update ... is our twice-a-month electronic summary of
> organizational news and events. To subscribe, send mail to:
> listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe update Alan
> Turing (if your name is Alan Turing; otherwise, substitute your own
> name).
>
> Translations & Archives... Edupage is translated into Chinese,
> Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Korean,
> Lithuanian, Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish. Send mail to
> translations@educom.unc.edu for info on subscribing to any of these
> translations. See
> http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/pubHomeFrame.html for Edupage archives.
>
> Today's Honorary Subscriber is the great English mathematician and
> logician Alan Turing (1912-1954), a pioneer of artificial
> intelligence. In his famous essay "Can a Machine Think?" he wrote:
> "I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think? This should
> begin with definitions of the terms 'machine' and 'think.' The
> definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the
> normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous. If the
> meaning of the words 'machine' and 'think' are to be found by
> examining the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the
> question, 'Can machines think?' is to be sought in a statistical
> survey such as the Gallup poll. But this is absurd. Instead of
> attempting such a definition I shall replace the question by another,
> which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively
> unambiguous words." The new
> form of the question took the form of "imitation game," in which a
> machine attempts to imitate human thought, and the question changes
> subtly from "Can a machine think?" to "Can a machine simulate
> intelligent human behavior?"
>
> ************************************************************
> Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
> ************************************************************
>