Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB53270D7@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 08:40:37 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 2 November 1997
> ************************************************************
> Edupage, 2 November 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
> Congressional Investigators Question Microsoft IE Tactics
> Mac OS For Intel Machines: What Might Have Been
> Overseas Floridians Get Chance To Vote Over Internet
> RSA Seeks To Establish Internet Encryption Standard
>
> ALSO
> Growing Chips In Test Tubes
> New Tools For Analyzing Complex Computer Systems
> Net Policing In Switzerland
> MSN Morphs Again
> Edupage: Official Technology Newsletter For The Year 2000
> (tm)
>
> CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATORS QUESTION MICROSOFT IE TACTICS
> A committee investigating software industry competition is looking
> into Microsoft's Internet Explorer marketing practices: "There are
> questions over why some PC makers have, so quickly, changed over to
> Internet Explorer 4.0," says one source close to the U.S. Senate
> Judiciary Committee. "What was behind it?" A hearing scheduled for
> Tuesday on overall industry issues likely will zero in on these
> questions, under the leadership of Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch,
> whose constituents include Novell Inc. and Caldera
> Inc., both of which have complained about Microsoft business tactics.
> "Over the past several months, the Judiciary Committee has received
> numerous complaints from a broad spectrum of entities alleging that
> Microsoft is engaging in unlawful, predatory practices that go well
> beyond the scope of fair competition," says Hatch. (Computer Reseller
> News 1 Nov 97)
>
> MAC OS FOR INTEL MACHINES: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
> Apple is thought to be involved in an effort to develop a version of
> its Macintosh operating system to run on computers based on Intel
> processors, but it's not the first time the company worked on such a
> project. Five years ago Apple and Novell software engineers worked
> together on a secret project called "Star Trek" that produced a
> prototype design in late 1993. However, the project was soon killed
> off by internal politics after the departure of its two biggest
> supporters, when Vice President Roger Heinen left to work for
> Microsoft and Chief Executive Officer John Sculley was forced out of
> the company. It is not unreasonable to speculate whether
> Apple would now control most of the PC operating system market if in
> 1994 it had preempted Microsoft and the introduction of Windows 95.
> (San Jose Mercury News 31 Oct 97)
>
> OVERSEAS FLORIDIANS GET CHANCE TO VOTE OVER INTERNET
> Florida has developed a plan that will allow overseas military and
> civilian voters to participate in the 1998 elections by casting their
> ballots via the Internet. (New York Times Cybertimes 1 Nov 97)
>
> RSA SEEKS TO ESTABLISH INTERNET ENCRYPTION STANDARD
> RSA Data Security has formally applied to the Internet Engineering
> Task Force to make its S/MIME encryption technology an Internet
> standard. Supporting RSA's drive is a group of 12 Japanese vendors
> that have announced they will form a Japanese consortium to advocate
> the adoption of S/MIME encryption in that country. RSA's major
> competitor is Pretty Good Privacy,
> which has been pushing its own technology with the IETF. "We think
> that RSA coming out and working within the standards organizations is
> a good thing," says the director of technology at PGP, who adds that
> this is where these types of issues should be discussed. (Net Insider
> 31 Oct 97)
>
> ===============================================
>
> GROWING CHIPS IN TEST TUBES
> Yale University researchers are working on an alternative method of
> producing computer chips -- growing them in test tubes. The idea is
> to encourage organic molecules into organizing themselves into wires
> and transistors by zapping them with an electrical current. The
> result could be superchips with many billions of transistors.
> (Business Week 3 Nov 97)
>
> NEW TOOLS FOR ANALYZING COMPLEX COMPUTER SYSTEMS
> Scientists in New Mexico have developed a prototype virtual reality
> system that creates a three-dimensional representation of a complex
> computer program, allowing scientists to visualize and manipulate the
> software. "It's like being inside a brain," says one of the
> researchers, who adds that the technology could be used for simulating
> industrial process control, visualizing enormous databases and
> recognizing patterns, and improving engineering and software design.
> "A large proportion of all computer problems is attributable to the
> initial, informal, subjective phase of conceptualizing how a system
> should or should not behave," says a scientist
> at Sandia National Laboratories. (Science News 25 Oct 97)
>
> NET POLICING IN SWITZERLAND
> The University of Basel, Switzerland closed down some of its
> departmental Internet activities after a 31-year-old computer
> assistant was found to have child pornography on his Web page as well
> on his personal computer at home (discovered when the police raided
> his house). The man was dismissed from the university and is charged
> with transmitting child pornography. If convicted, he will face up to
> three years in prison and fines up to $28,000. (AP 31 Oct 97)
>
> MSN MORPHS AGAIN
> The Microsoft Network has changed gears again, now positioning itself
> as an Internet service provider (through MSN Connect) for $19.95 a
> month, or as a combination Internet-premium content provider
> (internally called MSN Club) for $25 a month. "Microsoft doesn't want
> to be in the ISP business. But it already is and it's acknowledging
> that fact," says a media analyst at Arlen
> Communications. Further restructuring is predicted. (Broadcasting &
> Cable 20 Oct 97)
>
> EDUPAGE: OFFICIAL TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER FOR THE YEAR 2000 (tm)
> The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has awarded 117 trademarks that
> include the word "millennium" and more than 1,500 containing "2000."
> Some examples of the trademark applications: a moving company using
> the phrase "Moving Into The Millennium," a brewing company (Miller)
> that wants to be "Official Sponsor Of The Millennium," a magazine
> (Playboy) that wants to be "Official Magazine Of The Millennium," and
> a California company that claims exclusive rights to the use of "Class
> Of 2000" T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and shorts. A government
> trademark administrator says: "If in fact the mark serves a trademark
> function and we think is able to distinguish those goods from other
> goods, then we will register it." (AP 31 Oct 97)
>
> Edupage is written by John Gehl <gehl@educom.edu> & Suzanne Douglas
> <douglas@educom.edu>. Telephone: 770-590-1017.
>
> Technical support is provided by Information Technology Services at
> the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
>
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> Today's Honorary Subscriber is Thomas Tallis, (c. 1505 - 1585), the
> first headmaster of King's School's Canterbury. Londoner Laurence
> Blackall writes: "The pre-eminent figure in English music by the
> reign of Mary Tudor, Tallis managed to retain both his monopoly on
> royal music publishing and his Roman Catholic religion well into the
> reign of Elizabeth I, without ever becoming a target for the
> attentions of the bewilderingly devious Elizabethan spy network headed
> by the virulently Protestant Walsingham.
> Tallis owned a fairly impressive house in Greenwich, and in the mean
> time managed to make a substantial fortune, judging by the legacies he
> left. His 'Spem in Alium,' a showpiece motet for 40 voices all
> individually written out, is one of the greatest pieces of Elizabethan
> music. However, his most famous work is the Third Mode Melody from
> Archbishop Parker's Psalter of 1567, a setting of 'Why Fumeth in
> Flight' - or, as it more familiarly known, the tune 20th-century
> composer Ralph Vaughan Williams used for his 'Fantasia on a Theme of
> Thomas Tallis.'"
>
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