Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB56A6510@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:49:54 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 17 March 1998
************************************************************
Edupage, 17 March 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.
************************************************************
TOP STORIES
U.S. DOE Says Cookies Aren't Bad For You
New Tool To Stop Junk Mail
NSF To Stop Funding Trust For Internet Development
ISPs Say Internet Demand Exceeds Technology
ALSO
Compaq Slashes Inventories With Free Monitor Offer
Yahoo! And MCI To Compete Against AOL
Study Says NCs Are Replacing PCs In Workplace
Customers Ignored In High-Tech Decisions
U.S. DOE SAYS COOKIES AREN'T BAD FOR YOU
The U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability
has issued an information bulletin stating that privacy advocates' fears
over the use of cookies -- a popular technique for tracking Web site
visitors -- are unfounded. The claims that Web cookies may be used to
gather information on "passwords, credit card numbers, and a list of the
software on your computer" is not even "close to the truth," according
to the bulletin. In fact, information that is gathered via cookies --
usually a user's numerical Internet address, browser type and operating
system -- can also be recorded in a Web server's log files. "Cookies
just make it easier. [A server] cannot find out your name or e-mail
address, or anything about your computer using cookies," says the
bulletin. (TechWeb 16 Mar 98)
NEW TOOL TO STOP JUNK MAIL
A new version Sendmail, the software used on about 75% of the message
routing computers on the Internet, will offer a number of features to
block "spamming" (the transmission of massive quantities of unsolicited
commercial messages), including the ability to reject mail from known
spam addresses and to force spammers to reveal their true Internet
addresses. Eric Allman, who wrote the Sendmail program while working as
a programmer at the University of California at Berkeley, is also
creating a company (Sendmail Inc.) to sell software and support services
to businesses, while continuing to develop new features for the free
version of the software. (New York Times 17 Mar 98)
NSF TO STOP FUNDING TRUST FOR INTERNET DEVELOPMENT
The company that contracts with the National Science Foundation to
manage the Internet address registration process will no longer be
putting a portion ($15) of the fees it collects into a trust fund for
network improvements. Network Solutions says it plans instead to reduce
the fee it charges from $50 to $35, because the Internet Intellectual
Infrastructure Fund, which now stands at $45.5 million, has "an
appropriate amount of money," according to an NSF spokeswoman. The
trust fund is the center of a lawsuit filed by a group of companies
protesting the $50 fee, which they say is a tax that NSF lacks the
authority to levy. Twenty-three million dollars of the fund, which is
now frozen until the case is adjudicated, was to have been distributed
to colleges and universities as part of the Administration's Next
Generation Internet plan. (Academe Today 17 Mar 98)
ISPs SAY INTERNET DEMAND EXCEEDS TECHNOLOGY
Internet service providers and equipment vendors are warning that
Internet bandwidth demands are growing much faster than the capacity of
Internet backbones. For instance UUNet Technologies reports that
Internet traffic used to double every year, but now its doubling every
three to six months: "We have to radically alter our backbone very, very
regularly," says a UUNet VP. "We and everybody else are going to have a
difficult time keeping up with bandwidth demand." ISPs complain that
new video applications are straining current technology, and that it's
difficult to build up the backbone without knowing in advance which
Internet applications are going to prove most popular: "We're being
asked to build bandwidth for the future without really knowing what the
traffic will be," says the chairman of Netcom On-Line Communications
Services. And while all agree that eventually usage-based pricing will
prevail, some are suggesting that the industry may also move to a
distance-sensitive pricing scheme, similar to that used by
long-distance telephone providers. (Information Week 16 Mar 98)
============================================
COMPAQ SLASHES INVENTORIES WITH FREE MONITOR OFFER
Compaq Computer will offer free 15-inch monitors, valued at about $300
apiece, with its commercial desktop PCs in an effort to reduce inventory
at its distributor warehouses. Last month, it reduced prices sharply
across its commercial line, cut the price of monitors in half, and
offered to double the installed memory of some products. The company is
hoping to streamline its manufacturing and distribution processes to
make it more competitive with direct sellers like Gateway 2000 and Dell.
The company's consumer business, which is not suffering from inventory
overload, won't be included in the new promotions. (Wall Street Journal
16 Mar 98)
YAHOO! AND MCI TO COMPETE AGAINST AOL
Targeting the same kind of subscribers who are members of America
Online, a new dialup online service created jointly by Yahoo! and MCI
will offer Internet access plus premium content and all the features
available from Yahoo!. The standard rate for MCI customers will be
$14.95 a month for unlimited use, with $19.95 being the rate for non-MCI
customers. Industry analyst Patrick Keane says he can see the new
venture "being a pretty formidable competitor" but that cyberspace is
"littered with the bodies of those who have tried to take on AOL." (USA
Today 16 Mar 98)
STUDY SAYS NCs ARE REPLACING PCs IN WORKPLACE
A study by International Data Corp. indicates that about 73% of
companies buying network computers say they are replacing PCs, rather
than terminals. Eighty percent cited the lower cost of NCs in their
decision. About 40% of the respondents indicated they own more than 100
NCs, with IBM the most recognized brand name, followed by Sun
Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.
(Investor's Business Daily 17 Mar 98)
CUSTOMERS IGNORED IN HIGH-TECH DECISIONS
The Deloitte Touche consulting firm says that high-technology
manufacturers suffer from "customer phobia" when it comes to developing
strategies to market and sell their products. A study by the company
concludes that customer satisfaction with manufactured high-tech goods
has steadily declined over the past five years despite a steady increase
in product quantity, with the industry remaining largely
technology-centered along the lines of a "build it and hope they will
come" while keeping customers at a safe distance. (Ottawa Citizen 17 Mar
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.
************************************************************
Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to
Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message:
subscribe edupage Edwin Hubble (if your name is Edwin Hubble; 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.
[Note: Edupage editors John Gehl & Suzanne Douglas also write the
newsletter Innovation; for a free trial subscription see
http://www.newsscan.com/ .]
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 Edwin Hubble
(if your name is Edwin Hubble; otherwise, substitute your own name).
Translations & Archives... Edupage is translated into Estonian, French,
German, Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. For
accessing instructions, send a blank message to
translations@educom.unc.edu. Archives of Edupage can be found at
http://www.educom.edu/ in the publications section.
Today's Honorary Subscriber is the great American astronomer Edwin
Hubble (1889-1953), whose name is honored in the Hubble Space Telescope
as well as the Hubble diagram (which relates the velocities of galaxies
to the distances from the Milky Way), the Hubble constant (which is a
measure of the rate at which the expansion of the universe varies with
distance); and Hubble's law (which states that the recession velocity of
a distant galaxy is directly proportional to its distance from the
observer).
Educated at Chicago and Oxford, Hubble was a Rhodes scholar and a
boxer who became a lawyer before deciding he was more interested in the
stars than in legal briefs.
Here is a sample of his writing, taken from his 1936 book "The
Realm of the Nebulae":
"The universe is empty, for the most part, but here and there,
separated by immense intervals, we find other stellar systems,
comparable with our own. They are so remote that, except in the nearest
systems, we do not see the individual stars of which they are composed.
These huge stellar systems appear as dim patches of light. Long ago
they were named "nebulae" or "clouds" -- mysterious bodies whose nature
was a favorite subject for speculation.
"But now, thanks to great telescopes, we know something of their
nature, something of their real size and brightness, and their mere
appearance indicates the general order of their distances. They are
scattered through space as far as telescopes can penetrate. We see a
few that appear large and bright. These are the nearer nebulae. Then
we find them smaller and fainter, in constantly increasing numbers, and
we know that we are reaching out into space, farther and ever farther,
until, with the faintest nebulae that can be detected with the greatest
telescope, we arrive at the frontiers of the known universe."
************************************************************
Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
************************************************************