Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB55E6ABF@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 11:53:27 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 19 February 1998
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Edupage, 19 February 1998. 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.
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TOP STORIES
More FCC Auctions
Computer Associates Launches $9.18 Billion Takeover Effort
Preventing Illegal Copying Of Movies And Music
The Increasing Cost Of Surfing
ALSO
Effort By States To Regulate Internet
U.K. Survey Of Computer Crime
Price Gap Between Dell, Other PC Makers, Narrows
Rockwell, 3Com Complete Joint Testing Of New Modem
IBM Bonuses
MORE FCC AUCTIONS
The Federal Communications Commission is auctioning off another segment
of radio spectrum to be used for local multipoint distribution service
(LMDS), a broadband, point-to-multipoint technology that will be used to
offer video programming, teleconferencing, wireless local phone service
and high-speed Internet access. The technology is expected to cost less
than comparable services offered through fiber optic or cable networks:
"You don't have to wait to have the phone company dig up streets to put
in lines, and the quality is much better than current copper wire phone
technology," says one telecommunications analyst. The government is
hoping to reap $4 billion from this latest round of auctions, but
analysts say the take will probably be closer to $2 billion, because
major telecommunications companies are prohibited from owning licenses
in their service areas for three years.
(TechWeb 18 Feb 98)
COMPUTER ASSOCIATES LAUNCHES $9.18 BILLION TAKEOVER EFFORT
Computer Associates International has offered the shareholders of
Computer Sciences Corp. $108 per share in a hostile bid to acquire the
computer service company, and a spokesman says Computer Sciences plans
to respond later this week. Industry observers call Computer
Associates' move a risky maneuver, because the computer-services
business requires loyal employees, and CA could end up spending a lot of
money and antagonizing its future employees. (Wall Street Journal 18
Feb 98)
PREVENTING ILLEGAL COPYING OF MOVIES AND MUSIC
Intel, Sony, Matsushita, Toshiba and Hitachi have developed an
encryption plan that will prevent the illegal copying of digital movies
or music received over satellite services, cable networks, or the
Internet. (Los Angeles Times 19 Feb 98)
THE INCREASING COST OF SURFING
Several online magazines -- Slate, Business Week Online and Marvel
Comics -- are beginning the transition from a free to paid subscription
basis. Slate, for example, plans to charge a regular price of $29.95
for an annual subscription, and the magazine's publisher explains:
"Nothing that I have seen in the past one-and-a-half years has dissuaded
me from the notion that we need subscriptions to have a viable business
model. The longer you stay a free site, the harder it becomes to switch
to paid. For us, it's not question of if, but when." (Interactive Week
18 Feb 98)
===============================================
EFFORT BY STATES TO REGULATE INTERNET
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Ann Beeson complains that, in
spite of the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the
Communications Decency Act, individual states are now introducing
similar laws. "These state legislatures don't seem very interested in
reading Supreme Court opinions... Like any new medium, we are seeing
this urge for lawmakers to want to regulate it." New laws are being
considered by Tennessee, Rhode Island, Illinois and New Mexico. The
Tennessee law, which is the most sweeping, would create a special domain
code for adult-oriented sites; require schools and libraries to use
filtering software, with criminal liability for teachers and librarians
who fail to comply; and make Internet service providers liable for
distribution by their customers of harmful material. (New York Times 19
Feb 98)
U.K. SURVEY OF COMPUTER CRIME
An Audit Commission survey of computer misuse such as fraud and use of
unlicensed software in the United Kingdom indicates that the proportion
of organizations reporting such crimes rose from 36% in 1994 to 45% last
year. (Financial Times 19 Feb 98)
PRICE GAP BETWEEN DELL, OTHER PC MAKERS, NARROWS
Dell Computer has built a huge business on its much-ballyhooed price
advantage -- a result of its direct sales strategy that enables it to
avoid costly inventory storage and management. Last year, prices on
Dell machines were running about 15% lower than comparable PCs from
other sellers, but that differential is quickly narrowing, as Compaq,
IBM and Hewlett-Packard adopt some of Dell's price-saving techniques.
The result is that Dell's advantage, percentage-wise, is now down into
single digits: "We have a significant and continued price advantage.
But we think there's a preoccupation with the price of the box," says a
Dell spokesman who notes that customization and direct contact with
users are also key to their success. (Investor's Business Daily 19 Feb
98)
ROCKWELL, 3COM COMPLETE JOINT TESTING OF NEW MODEM
Rockwell International and 3Com Corp., once bitter rivals over the next
generation of computer modems, surprised everyone by unexpectedly
announcing that they've finished joint testing of their
once-incompatible 56Kbps equipment and pronounced the products compliant
with the electronic protocol approved two weeks ago by the International
Telecommunication Union. "We feel that this has been a major move
forward for the modem market after a difficult 1997," says the president
of Rockwell's Semiconductor Systems unit. (Wall Street Journal 18 Feb
98)
IBM BONUSES
In spite of an uneven financial performance last year, IBM is paying out
$1.3 billion in bonuses to most of its 270,000 employees. The bonuses
will range from 4.5% to 25% of 1997 salary. (Atlanta
Journal-Constitution 19 Feb 98)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) and 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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Today's Honorary Subscriber is Henry Ford (1863-1947), the American
automobile engineer and manufacturer who pioneered "assembly-line" mass
production techniques, which were used to produce 15 million of the
famous Ford Model-T automobiles in 1908-09. Ford was quite interested
-- with distinctively mixed results -- in social issues. Prior to
America's entry into World War I, he led a quixotic stop-the-war mission
to Europe on the "Henry Ford Peace Ship"; later, he was deemed a social
visionary for his decision to pay his employees the highest salaries in
industry (high enough to enable them to buy Ford cars); still later, he
was accused of hiring mobsters to engage in brutal repression of labor
activity at his plants. Ford could be quite eccentric. As a
manufacturing man he had a great deal of contempt for office workers.
One night he sent his henchmen into one of the offices to destroy all
the desks with axes, so that when the employees showed up for work the
next morning they would know they were no longer needed.
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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
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