Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB53FAAB5@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 08:14:25 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 30 November 1997
> ************************************************************
> Edupage, 30 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
> Policy Fight Over Use Of University Computing Resources
> Netscape Disputes Browser Market Data
> Ericsson Plans Speedy Internet Technology
> Conspiracy Theory
>
> ALSO
> Dynamic Encyclopedia
> Microsoft Piracy Suit
> Phone Companies Gobble Up ISPs
> IBM Chips Away At Global Market
> Here's A Good Insight -- Print It Out On Paper!
>
> POLICY FIGHT OVER USE OF UNIVERSITY COMPUTING RESOURCES
> Declaring that "it was the judgment of the people in computing
> services that it was an inappropriate use of computer services and a
> violation of the agreement that the students sign at the beginning of
> each year," the University of Pittsburgh has closed down a student-run
> Web site created to share tips about avoiding security problems with
> software. A university administrator asserts that the site violated a
> campus policy that computers may not be used for commercial purposes,
> but the student charges that the
> university is censoring him and says: "We didn't make a dime. We
> didn't ask for a dime. We didn't sell any advertising on it."
> Following his attempt to orchestrate an e-mail and telephone protest
> action from his supporters, the student was charged by the university
> with harassment, failure to comply with the request of a school
> official, and interference with the use of the university's judicial
> process. (AP 28 Nov 97)
>
> NETSCAPE DISPUTES BROWSER MARKET DATA
> Netscape says data compiled by online search engine sites, including
> Yahoo, Excite and Infoseek, indicate its Web browser has maintained a
> 67% share of the market, contradicting data released earlier from
> Dataquest indicating Netscape's portion had fallen to 57.6%.
> (Investor's Business Daily 28 Nov 97)
>
> ERICSSON PLANS SPEEDY INTERNET TECHNOLOGY
> Swedish telecom giant Ericsson says it has developed a new technology
> that allows users to make phone calls and access the Internet
> simultaneously over the same line, at speeds nearly four times what is
> currently possible. The technology eliminates the need for phone
> customers to subscribe to an Internet service provider -- rather, the
> phone companies would sell modems for between $100 and $200, and users
> could "switch" their Internet connection on and off. (Wall Street
> Journal 26 Nov 97)
>
> CONSPIRACY THEORY
> An alliance of five powerful computer companies, by promoting Java as
> the common platform for further technology development, is taking
> Microsoft to task for its perceived opposition to open standards
> development. IBM, Netscape Communications, Novell Corp., Oracle Corp.
> and Sun Microsystems all are moving to develop new products and
> technologies independent of the ubiquitous Windows operating system.
> "IBM, Oracle and Sun, which are very large companies, more and more
> coordinate their, let's say, anti-Microsoft activities," says
> Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. "And it ends up creating a fairly powerful
> message that we have to be very aware of -- the fact that that's an
> intense competition at a level beyond what we've seen in the past."
> Responds a Sun VP: "We're trying to do what we can to make sure the
> country favors an Internet that's open and free for everyone and isn't
> controlled by any organization." (Broadcasting & Cable 24 Nov 97)
>
> ==============================================
>
> DYNAMIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
> Philosophy professors at Stanford University are developing The
> Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy < http://plato.stanford.edu >,
> which is designed so that the authors of articles contained in the
> compendium can update their subject matter as needed. The system then
> automatically alerts the editors, via e-mail, that new material has
> arrived, to be reviewed and made available to readers. Twelve editors
> and 120 scholars thus far have contributed to the encyclopedia, and
> the project's leader expects to have most entries
> completed within five years. (Chronicle of Higher Education 28 Nov 97)
>
> MICROSOFT PIRACY SUIT
> Microsoft is suing Argentina's wealthiest province for breaching an
> out-of-court settlement over the use of pirated software in its
> computers. Microsoft sued after the government of Buenos Aires
> province fell behind on payments to reimburse the company for using
> unlicensed software in 3,500 computers. Software piracy is thought to
> be widespread in Argentina and other Latin American countries.
> Microsoft estimates that 71% of installed software programs are
> unlicensed compared with 80% in 1994. (Montreal
> Gazette 26 Nov 97)
>
> PHONE COMPANIES GOBBLE UP ISPs
> In the past year, telephone companies have purchased all or portions
> of about a half-dozen large Internet service providers, in a strategy
> to get into the Internet business, including WorldCom Inc.'s
> acquisition of UUNet and GTE's purchase of BBN. Deals in the works
> include ICG Communications, a small Colorado-based carrier, buying
> Netcom On-Line Communications Services, and IXC Communications in
> Austin taking a 20% stake in PSINet. The few remaining national,
> publicly held ISPs are Concentric Network Corp, MindSpring Enterprises
> Inc. and EarthLink Network Inc. "To stay independent, you need to be
> huge," says a Forrester Research analyst. (Investor's Business Daily
> 26 Nov 97)
>
> IBM CHIPS AWAY AT GLOBAL MARKET
> With its announcement last week of plans to build a $700-million
> microchip development center (scheduled for operation in 1999) in East
> Fishkill, New York, IBM is hoping that the company will gain an edge
> in the $140 billion global chip market. Recently, the company
> revealed a technology breakthrough that would allow copper to replace
> aluminum in chip wiring designs -- a development that analysts believe
> is the most significant advance in chip design in many years. (USA
> Today 26 Nov 97)
>
> HERE'S A GOOD INSIGHT -- PRINT IT OUT ON PAPER!
> Recalling a 1967 Forbes magazine article that predicted the paperless
> society ("Gone forever will be the boring task of writing and mailing
> checks to pay monthly bills"), economist Robert J. Samuelson notes
> that in 1966 Americans wrote about 20 billion checks, whereas 30 years
> later they wrote roughly 64 billion. "Paper's obituaries proved wrong
> for two reasons. The first is technology and economics. Over the
> years, paper has become cheaper, easier to use and more versatile.
> Therefore, people use more of it. The check survived because it
> adapted. Even in the 1960s, many checks were sorted by hand. What
> prevented terminal choking was the machine-readable check, with
> magnetic coding. Processing machines sort 50,000 to 80,000 checks an
> hour." And the second reason? Paper imposes "a crude order on the
> information glut. Paper helps distinguish between information that's
> important, relevant and durable and information that isn't."
> (Washington Post 26 Nov 97)
>
> Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
> (douglas@educom.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017.
>
> Technical support for distributing Edupage is provided by Information
> Technology Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
> Hill.
>
> ************************************************************
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> Freud (if your name is Sigmund Freud; otherwise, substitute your own
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> Translations & Archives... Edupage is translated into Estonian,
> French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Lithuanian,
> Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish.
>
> Coming up next week! Don't miss the 21st Annual CAUSE Conference on
> Information Resources in Higher Education, December 2-5, 1997. Walt
> Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CAUSE and
> Educom are exploring the possibility of a merger. See:
> http://www.cause.org/conference/c97/c97.html.
>
> Today's Honorary Subscribe is Sigmund Freud (1865-1939), the father of
> psychoanalysis who is perhaps best known for creating the concept of
> the "Oedipus complex," which he named after the mythical King Oedipus
> who killed his father and married his mother. Freud also pioneered
> methods of free word-association and dream interpretation and
> conceived the terms "id," "ego," and "superego" to describe different
> aspects of the human psyche. Scholars Franz Alexander & Sheldon
> Selesnick (The History of Psychiatry, 1966) write of Freud:
> "He became interested in dreams when he noticed that many of his
> patients during their free associations began to talk spontaneously
> about their dreams. He therefore asked them to relate what thoughts
> they had in connection with elements of the content of the dreams. He
> noticed that these associations often revealed the dream's hidden
> meaning. He then attempted, by using these associations from its
> manifest content, to reconstruct the dream's hidden meaning -- its
> latent content -- and in so
> doing discovered the particular language of unconscious thought
> processes. He published his findings in 'The Interpretation of Dreams'
> in 1900; this book, is without doubt, his most important
> contribution." It is also an excellent specimen of Freud's talent as
> a brilliant prose stylist.
>
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