Silicon Times Report The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) August 30, 1996 No.1235 Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 STR Electronic Publishing Inc. A subsidiary of STR Worldwide CompNews Inc. R.F. Mariano, Editor Voice: 1-904-292-9222 10am-5pm EST STReport WebSite http://www.streport.com STR Publishing Support BBS THE BOUNTY INTERNATIONAL BBS Featuring: * 5.0GB * of File Libraries Mustang Software's WILDCAT! Client/Server BBS Version 5 95/NT Featuring a Full Service Web Site http://www.streport.com Voted TOP TEN Ultimate WebSite Join STReport's Subscriber List receive STR through Internet MULTI-NODE Operation 24hrs-7 days Analog & ISDN BRI Access 904-268-4116 2400-128000 bps V. 120-32-34 v.42 bis ISDN V.34 USRobotics Courier Internal I-MODEM FAX: 904-268-2237 24hrs BCS - Toad Hall BBS 1-617-567-8642 08/30/96 STR 1235 The Original Independent OnLine Magazine! - CPU Industry Report - Corel News - Bell South an ISP? - HP NEW Workstation - Modem Chips UP - Sony NET Terminal - Sony WEB TV - Karpov Dominates - Thumbs Plus 3.0d - NBA SUES AOL!! - People Talking - Jagwire Mega Telecom Merger Announced Reno Says Justice Site Safe CIS Spin-Off Delayed STReport International OnLine Magazine Featuring Weekly "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports STReport's BBS - The Bounty International BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the provision and distribution of STReport for their members. You may call The STReport Home BBS, The Bounty @ 1- 904-268-4116. Or obtain the latest issue from our WebSite. Enjoy the wonder and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to all computer types, worldwide, through the use of the Internet. All computer enthusiasts, hobbyist or commercial, on all platforms and BBS systems are invited to participate. ** WEB SITE: http//www.streport.com ** CIS ~ PRODIGY ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ BIX ~ AOL IMPORTANT NOTICE STReport, with its policy of not accepting any input relative to content from paid advertisers, has over the years developed the reputation of "saying it like it really is". When it comes to our editorials, product evaluations, reviews and over-views, we shall always keep our readers interests first and foremost. With the user in mind, STReport further pledges to maintain the reader confidence that has been developed over the years and to continue "living up to such". All we ask is that our readers make certain the manufacturers, publishers etc., know exactly where the information about their products appeared. In closing, we shall arduously endeavor to meet and further develop the high standards of straight forwardness our readers have come to expect in each and every issue. The Publisher, Staff & Editors Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 8/17/96: 4 of 6 numbers, one 3 number match From the Editor's Desk... What a Week! The Hare virus hits a friend of ours and possibly us. One of our Western Digital 2.5 gb Eide hard disks went out to lunch... strangely enough it seems it occurred on the 22nd of August... As did our friend's machine. Oh well, such is life. In any case, after a rather distressed call to Western Digital, they shipped a brand spanking new drive Fed-Ex overnight... no questions asked. The next morning a drive was at my door. That's what I call solid customer support. This week, a number of new software packages arrived for review. I expect that I'll be quite busy for the next few weeks getting those reviews out. Stay tuned.... Ralph.. Of Special Note: http//www.streport.com STReport is now ready to offer much more in the way of serving the Networks, Online Services and Internet's vast, fast growing site list and userbase. We now have our very own WEB/NewsGroup/FTP Site and although its in its early stages of construction, do stop by and have a look see. Since We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addressees, we were compelled to put together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wished to receive STReport on a regular basis, the file is ZIPPED, then UUENCODED. Unfortunately, we've also received a number of opinions that the UUENCODING was a real pain to deal with. So, as of October 01,1995, you'll be able to download STReport directly from our very own SERVER & WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR list. STReport's managing editors DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Editor Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors PC Section Mac Section Atari Section R.F. Mariano J. Deegan D. P. Jacobson Portables & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner Marty Mankins Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin John Szczepanik Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms John Duckworth Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Victor Mariano Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian Vincent P. O'Hara Contributing Correspondents Dominick J. Fontana Norman Boucher Daniel Stidham David H. Mann Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Ed Westhusing Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt Ron Satchwill Leonard Worzala Tom Sherwin Please submit ALL letters, rebuttals, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: CompuServe 70007,4454 Prodigy CZGJ44A Delphi RMARIANO GEnie ST.REPORT BIX RMARIANO AOL STReport Internet rmariano@streport.com Internet CZGJ44A@prodigy.com Internet RMARIANO@delphi.com Internet 70007.4454.compuserve.com Internet STReport@AOL.Com WebSite http://www.streport.com STReport Headline News LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Microsoft Denies Netscape Charge Microsoft Corp. labels "without merit" recent antitrust allegations made by rival Netscape Communications Corp. in letters to the U.S. Justice Department. The Redmond, Washington, software giant said it "adheres strictly to all legal requirements" including those contained in a 1994 consent decree settling federal antitrust charges. It was revealed earlier this week (GO OLT-161) that Netscape has broadened its antitrust charges, alleging Microsoft offered improper payments and other inducements to persuade PC makers and Net service providers to use Microsoft's World Wide Web software. From Seattle, the Reuter News Service says Microsoft has denied offering a $3 discount on its Windows 95 operating system to computer makers who promise to hamper access to Netscape's Navigator browser. In an unsigned statement, Microsoft said, "There is not and has never been any $3 discount for making competing browsers 'less accessible.'" Reuters says the firm also denied that any of its agreements with Internet service providers obligate them to provide Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser exclusively and noted that customers are free to switch between browsers. Also the company defended its practice of limiting the number of users allowed on a single copy of its Windows NT Workstation as "standard practice in the software industry." Microsoft said Netscape, which has criticized the new licensing arrangement, uses similar licensing agreements to limit the number of users allowed to connect to some of its software products. In its statement, Microsoft also denied that its strategy of giving away the Internet was "predatory," as Netscape had charged. "Microsoft noted that Netscape initially obtained its dominant share of the browser market largely by giving away the product," Reuters added. Microsoft Pressures Alleged Microsoft Corp. is being accused by several PC makers of wielding its operating system dominance in an attempt to push Internet Explorer to the top of the browser market. The allegations come just as Microsoft is denying charges filed with the U.S. Justice Department by rival Netscape Communications Corp. that cited at least five areas where it believes Microsoft is violating anticompetitive and antitrust laws. Now PC Week reports that seven original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) it contacted said Microsoft used various pressure tactics to emphasize Internet Explorer over Netscape Navigator. "Two said Microsoft has threatened to re-evaluate Windows 95 licensing fees if competing products, namely Navigator, are bundled on their systems," Lisa DiCarlo and Michael Moeller and of PC Week Online report. "In addition, one OEM alleged Microsoft is also flexing its muscle by withholding participation in marketing programs with vendors that bundle both Navigator and Internet Explorer, instead of IE exclusively." Still, another OEM told the publication Microsoft tried to raise its Windows 95 licensing fee when the vendor requested that Microsoft remove IE 3.0 from the operating system. "These are central issues in Netscape's claims that Microsoft, through decreased Windows 95 royalty payments and stepped-up support of IE, hurts Netscape's ability to compete in the browser market," PC Week Online commented. Microsoft Vice President William Neukom, in charge of law and corporate affairs at the software publisher, vehemently denied Microsoft offered any financial incentives to PC makers and denied all charges made by Netscape in the letter to the Justice Department. To this, Vice President Brad Chase of Microsoft's Internet Platform and Tools Division added, "This is not right. We busted our butt to get a great product out to market and in the end, customers are winning. We have not done anything wrong. The allegations are just not true." But, says PC Week Online, PC makers it talked to "told a different story, although all requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal from Microsoft." The publication quoted an executive at one OEM as saying, "They said there could be a review of licensing fees if we bundle a competitive product." Added an executive at another OEM, "We thought our licensing fees would decrease if they removed IE, but they said they would increase, so we kept it on." PCO quotes antitrust attorneys as saying these charges are likely to force the Justice Department to step up its investigation of Microsoft, but they question whether the investigation would result in a formal lawsuit. Says John Briggs, past chairman of the American Bar Association's section on antitrust, "Even if you put all of Netscape's charges together and take them as being true, it is not clear if Microsoft violates any antitrust legislation." Net Authority Licenses New Names The fierce competition to register desirable Internet addresses may soon cool as word comes the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has decided to give out several new licenses to firms that will register new "domain" names starting in 1997. Currently, the Herndon, Virginia, Network Solutions Inc. has the sole license from the authority to register address names in the most common top-level categories, most of which end with one of a few three letter designations, including ".com" for private sites, ".gov" for government sites and ".edu" for sites run by schools. "The availability of new names and competing registration services should help quell disputes over popular or trademarked names," writes reporter Aaron Pressman of the Reuter News Service. Pressman notes Network Solutions registers names for sites in those three so-called top-level domains along with ".org" and ".net," charging $100 for a two-year registration. "That greatly limits the number of available names," he says, "creating competition and even bidding wars for prestige monikers like 'television.com' or 'cybercafe.com.'" Pressman says the numbers authority is in the process of appointing a committee that will review applications from companies interested in registering names under the new top level domains, according to authority head Jon Postel, who added that ultimately "a few" companies will be given authority over three new top level domains each. Postel said the committee will begin accepting applications in October and new names could be in service by the end of January. The registration companies will be able to set their own prices with a small percentage of the fees going into a fund to improve the Internet's central infrastructure, Postel said. Reno Says Justice Site Safe Intruders who vandalized the U.S. Justice Department's site on the Internet's World Wide Web did not get access to criminal files, says U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. "My understanding is that there is a clear wall between the two systems," Reno said a her weekly news briefing yesterday. "The system designed for public information is separate from that that tracks criminal investigations." As reported earlier, last Friday night, intruders altered the Justice Department's online page (reached at Web address http://www.usdoj.gov), adding swastikas, obscenities and a picture of Adolf Hitler in an apparent protest against the controversial Communications Decency Act that prohibits transmission of "indecent" material on the Net. The page was shut down for about 48 hours until it could be restored. Reno says the department's web page was separate from its other computer files. "In this situation, it is a system that is available for the public because it is the Web site, designed to provide information to the public. And thus, it is more difficult to prevent hacking." Reno adds, "What we had done and what this nation needs to do with respect to all its computer systems is continue to refine our knowledge and develop greater knowledge of what can be done to prevent hacking." Reuters notes, "Reno and other officials have warned that the U.S. computer network is vulnerable to theft and sabotage and have called for stronger computer security measures." Frankenberg Said Leaving Novell Word is Robert Frankenberg is resigning as chief Novell Corp. after two years at the helm of the networking company. A highly regarded, longtime Hewlett-Packard Co. manager, Frankenberg was recruited to succeed Ray Noorda, the company patriarch who built Novell into the dominant company in the field of computer networking software. "But," notes reporter Lee Gomes in this morning's The Wall Street Journal, "because of what many industry observers describe as an obsession with Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates, Mr. Noorda began a series of acquisitions meant to attack Microsoft that were ultimately disastrous for Novell. The most notable was the 1994 purchase of WordPerfect Corp., for which Novell paid $1.4 billion in a stock swap. It ended up selling WordPerfect to Corel Corp. in Janary for stock valued at $132 million." The Journal remembers that when Frankenberg took over at Novell, there was much industry discussion about whether he would be able to turn the company into a rival to Microsoft, "but quickly, Novell's core networking business began having trouble." The paper says that as Noorda's "ill-fated acquisitions drained resources," Novell's core networking segment lost ground to Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, resulting in a string of weak quarters." Now, comments Gomes, "It isn't clear whether any successor can pull Novell out of its dive. Microsoft recently released a new, more flexible version of Windows NT, which is expected to be a blockbuster product that further erodes Novell's position." NBA Sues America Online, Stats Inc. America Online Inc. and Stats Inc. have been sued by the National Basketball Association, which allege the online services used game scores and data without permission. The Associated Press notes the NBA seeks unspecified damages and wants to block AOL from using real-time information on its games supplied by Stats Inc. Adds AP, "The suit is almost identical to one against Motorola Inc. that the NBA won last month. In that ruling, a federal judge said Motorola could not put out scores on a hand-held pager that simulates action during NBA games because the league owned the scores. Stats Inc. was also named in the Motorola suit." Three weeks ago, Vienna, Va., -based AOL asked a Virginia court for a judgment that it is within its rights to use the NBA scores. AOL chairman Steve Case said in an statement, "We believe the new online medium should have the same right to report on real-time events and news as television and radio." H&R Block Retains CompuServe Tax preparation company H&R Block has decided not to complete the spin-off of the rest of its Compuserve Inc. subsidiary, at least for now. H&R Block interim president Frank Salizzoni told the Reuter News Service the Kansas City, Mo., company, which owns 80 percent of Compuserve after spinning off part earlier this year, has decided not to present the proposed spin-off of the rest to shareholders at its annual meeting scheduled for Sept. 11. Said Salizzoni, "The board continues to believe that a separation of Compuserve is in the best interests of H&R Block shareholders and will continue to consider the matter." H&R Block spun off 20 percent of Compuserve in April and had planned to distribute the rest to its shareholders. Companies Meet on New Net Standard Representatives of more than 40 companies, including AT&T Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Novell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc., are meeting with Microsoft Corp. this week for the first technical conference on the common Internet file system (CIFS) protocol, a propsed standard for remote file-sharing over the Internet and corporate intranets. A plug-and-play infrastructure for business networking, CIFS will let computer users collaborate over the Internet without having to install new networking software, buy new hardware or change the way they work, notes Microsoft. Because CIFS is based on protocol standards already widely used in corporate networks, tens of thousands of existing business applications will be able to operate over the Internet and share data easily with applications for the World Wide Web, adds the software giant. "In much the same way that French became the universal language of diplomacy, and English the common language of business, CIFS is poised to become the common 'language' for business networking," says Gary Voth, Microsoft's group product manager responsible for strategic technologies and standards. "CIFS helps create a world in which companies can mix and match network clients and servers, regardless of operating system, so users can collaborate easily across different business projects." According to Microsoft, CIFS defines a common access protocol for sharing files and business information of all types over the Internet and corporate intranets, not just Web pages. CIFS is an enhanced version of Microsoft's open, cross-platform server message block (SMB) protocol, the native file-sharing protocol in the Windows 95, Windows NT and OS/2 operating systems, and also widely available for Unix, VMS and other platforms. With support from other industry leaders, Microsoft submitted the CIFS specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a draft document in June 1996. For more details about CIFS, visit http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/cifs/. Groves Sees Net Eliminating Jobs Jobs that thousands of people now perform are threatened as use of the Internet grows, says Intel Corp. President/CEO Andrew Groves, adding, "The Internet is eliminating the person in the middle of many common transactions." Speaking recently with Newsweek Magazine, the leader of the world's largest semiconductor supplier said, "Instead of using an 800 (toll-free) number, the consumer is going to tap into a database, get information, place orders, do various things -- whether we are talking banks or travel reservations, or ordering books, cars, TVs, health care, whatever." Said Groves, "If I were in one of those industries, or I were an individual earning my living that way, I would view the Internet as a tidal wave that's going to wipe me out. I would be running as far as my feet go, redoing all my reservations systems, order systems, customer databases, so that masses of people would be able to reach them from their computer." Groves also told Newsweek "strategic inflection points" -- periods of dramatic change that hit an industry -- also hit individuals and that people should prepare for that change. "There are lots of people who have spent decades honing a skill, " said the Intel chief. "Major change in the world is creeping up on them, and they're not taking advantage. Your career is your business, and you have to manage it like a businessman." Phone Industry Feeling Net Strain Phone industry experts say phenomenal growth in use of the Internet is becoming such a strain on today's phone networks that more and more people dialing plain old phone calls won't get through. Writing in The Chicago Tribune, reporter Jon Van says Internet popularity is challenging "the engineering assumptions that underpin the public phone network." This comes, experts say, "just at a time when most phone executives have focused their attention on deregulation and competition rather than maintaining their networks' nearly flawless performance." In a nutshell, the problem is: ú Computers can tie up phone lines for hours or days at a time, which can overwhelm a network designed on the assumption that most phone calls last only three to five minutes. ú Phone networks are designed with the notion that only 10 percent of residential and 20 percent of business customers are talking at any given time, so the lines and switches can be shared by lots of people because ú most aren't using them. Phone networks can crash when hordes of customers dial up at the same time, as sometimes happens during radio-station promotions and call-ins for popular concert tickets, Van notes, and, according to a new study by Bellcore, a telecommunications consulting and engineering company based in Morristown, New Jersey, thousands of computer modems dialing into the Internet are having a similar effect. The Bellcore study estimates that at the very least, each of the nation's seven phone regions would have to spend an average of $35 million a year for several years to adress the Internet problem, or perhaps $1 billion or more altogether. "While voice calls tie up a line for three minutes or so, Bellcore found the average time for an Internet call is 20 minutes," Van writes. "These increases multiply through the system so that up to 10 times the expected load can be seen at switches serving Internet providers. A Bellcore model suggested that if just 4 percent of a network's lines are tied up with Internet calls, it could increase blockage of calls by sixtyfold." Sex Offender Database Backed Pledging support of a law that would follow every move of every child molester, President Clinton says a temporary computer system to track sex offenders throughout the country will be in place within six months. Speaking in his weekly radio address yesterday, Clinton said the national database will be compiled from information supplied by each state, while a new computer network will allow police to determine quickly and efficiently whether an individual was a registered sex offender anywhere in the United States. The Reuter News Service says Clinton's announcement is an interim step in the establishment of a permanent National Sex Offender Registry due to be completed by mid-1999 that is to include state-of-the-art identification techniques such as DNA, fingerprint matching and mugshots. Explaining how the system would work, Clinton said every time a sex offender was released, his state would force them to register. The FBI then would compile these state lists into a national database. "Within six months, a new computer network will give states information from every other state for the very first time ... Then they will share that information with the families and communities that have a right to know," he said. The wire service notes groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have voiced fears that the national registry would infringe on Constitutional protections. Java Development Fund Set Up A $100 million fund to invest in start-up firms developing businesses bsed on the hot new Java technology for the Internet's World Wide Web has been created. Investors in the new fund, set up by high-tech venture capital powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, include 10 major technology companies, among them IBM, Compaq Computer Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. The Java Fund now is closed to any new investment, says Samuel Perry of the Reuter News Service. In Menlo Park, California, fund manager Kevin Compton told the wire service the fund aims to improve small firms' access to corporate investors at a time when new product development has been shortened considerably by the frenzy over the Web, adding, "These companies have to live in Web weeks now, and instead of spending a year, or who knows how long, it takes to get corporate partners, they've got them on day one." In Java developer Sun Microsystems Inc. -- itself launched with support from Kleiner Perkins and now the largest investor in the fund after Kleiner Perkins' institutional investors as a group -- chief technology officer Eric Schmidt, at Sun Microsystems said, "We could have just let the market take care of this because there's a lot of money in the market right now." However, he noted, the fund aims to build on the broad enthusiasm over Java, which has been licensed by a wide range of software developers ranging from Redmond, Washington-based software giant Microsoft Corp. to the Taiwanese government. In addition to IBM, Compaq and Netscape, other corporate investors in the fund include Cisco Systems Inc., the cable TV companies Comcast Corp. and Tele-Communications Inc., Japan's Itochu Corp., Oracle Corp. and US West Media Group. Iomega Upgrades Customer Support Iomega Corp. has announced a new customer support service that it promises will decrease customer service wait times across its product lines and improve the overall quality of its technical support. Under the new structure, customers have the option of utilizing free upgraded automated support tools or a new fee-based technical hotline. "As a result of our growth, we recognize the immediate need to improve our technical support service, and we have implemented innovative programs to address those needs," says Scott Thomas, director of customer support at Roy, Utah-based Iomega. "Iomega is committed to providing the best technical support in the industry at an affordable cost, and thus we've chosen programs that will ultimately save our customers time, frustration and money." The fee-based hotline will be available at $14.99 per incident for Iomega's Zip and Ditto drives and $19.99 per incident for its Jaz drives. The new no-cost support services include a Web site; (http://www.iomega.com), featuring expanded search and retrieval capabilities, a faxback service, a compute bulletin board system and an interactive voice response system. CA Creates Internet Division A new Internet division promising to save businesses from the headaches of seeking numerous vendors now needed to set up and manage a Web site is being set up by Computer Associates International Inc. CA, which manages Web sites for large corporate customers, also plans to sign up hundreds of thousands of small businesses to use the service whether they own computers or not, writer Eric Auchard of the Reuter News Service reports. Adds Auchard, "In this 'community' Internet service, neighborhood businesses such as pizza parlors would contract with Computer Associates to establish an Internet presence, allowing customers to call up a shop's Web site to place an order. Currently, a company wishing to establish itself on the Internet is confronted with a maze of separate vendors from which they must buy the necessary hardware, software and (consulting) services to put together the disparate elements." The wire service says the aim of CA's one-stop Internet service is to shoulder "all the messy technical responsibilities for customers," allowing them to focus on their own business. While not so well known as Microsoft Corp. and other brand name PC software makers, Computer Associates is the world's top mainframe software supplier and the second largest independent software firm overall after Microsoft. CA itself isn't discussing its new unit, but sources familiar with the plans confirmed for Reuters that the new Internet unit has been formed to help customers create dynamic Web sites tied to internal corporate database systems. "A special focus would be to make customer information stored on legacy mainframe systems available via the Web," Reuters says. "Web-based electronic commerce tools would tie the system directly to a company's back-office accounting department." HP to Offer New Workstation Word is Hewlett-Packard Co. is set to introduce workstations that use chips from Intel Corp. and an operating system from Microsoft Corp. and three new models of personal computers for the home market. Last spring, HP brought out an ambitious new product family of relatively low-cost "Wintel" based servers, or high-end computers. "The products showed the extent to which HP was embracing Windows and Intel technology for its entire product line, as opposed to just PCs," says reporter Lee Gomes of The Wall Street Journal. "Until then, most H-P servers were higher-priced systems using all in-house H-P technology, and as a result, were a major profit source for the company." With the HP Vectra XW workstations being unveiled today, HP is extending its Wintel line from servers down to lower-cost desktop workstations. The Journal says the new machines run between $8,200 and $10,800 for bare-bones models, far below the price for in-house Unix systems sold by HP and others. The paper notes analysts are saying that in moving toward Wintel systems, "companies like HP are experiencing considerable internal tension, since they are now selling popular, low-cost Wintel machines to technical and business customers while also marketing traditional higher-profit Unix computers." HP, on the Unix front, is up against its own Unix division, as well as such all-Unix companies as Sun Microsystems Inc. and Silicon Graphics Inc. On the Wintel side, HP will be battling such PC-industry giants as Compaq Computer Corp., which earlier this month announced its own line of Intel-based workstations. The company's three new "Pavilion" PCs run between $2,599 for a system using Intel's 166MHz Pentium processor to $3,199 for one with a 200MHz Pentium. Diery Leaves AST After 9 Months After only nine months on the job, Ian Diery has resigned as AST Research Inc.'s high-profile CEO. Young-Soo Kim, a Samsung Electronics Co. executive and AST director, was named to succeed him. In The Wall Street Journal this morning, reporter Dean Takahashi characterized the 46- year-old Diery's departure as "another blow to the struggling personal-computer maker," adding it is likely to lead to more control of the company by Samsung, the South Korean giant that already owns 46 percent of the firm and has so far poured $678 million into the company. Kim told the paper AST likely will need more money from Samsung to continue its turnaround effort. "In effect," adds the Journal, "Samsung seems likely to eventually take over AST." Once one of the world's biggest PC makers, AST has been losing ground to Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., as well as low-cost mail-order vendors such as Dell Computer Corp., dropping off the list of the top 10 U.S. PC makers in terms of revenue and units. The Journal says Diery, a hard-charging Australian rugby player and former op Apple Computer Inc. executive, was brought in to staunch the slide, and "though he got good marks from some analysts for improving AST's poor service operations and cutting costs, AST's financial condition hasn't improved markedly." Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Kim said Diery's leaving was amicable, "mutually agreed upon by all parties." Modem Chip Market to Soar International Data Corp. is forecasting that revenues from modem semiconductors will grow 31.5 percent per year, compounded annually, through the year 2000. The Framingham, Massachusetts, market researcher notes that the trend toward telecommuting, an increased need for remote access by mobile workers and the swelling ranks of consumers using online services and surfing the Internet are all drivers behind the tremendous growth projected for the modem market and, in turn, semiconductors within them. IDC says the share of modem semiconductor revenues from high-speed V.34 modems will increase to 57 percent, while revenues from more basic V.22 and the slower V.32 modems will shrink to 19.3 percent of total revenues in 2000. "The increasingly graphical content of World Wide Web pages as well as high bandwidth applications like videoconferencing are propelling the demand for modems with faster transmission speeds," says Kelly Henry, an IDC analyst. "Because telephone lines are technologically limited, modems have to assume more functionality." Mega Telecom Merger Announced In a deal worth approximately $14 billion, WorldCom Inc. and MFS Communications Co. Inc. have announced plans to merge. The combined company, to be known as MFS WorldCom, will be one of the world's largest business communications companies, providing a single source for a full range of local, long distance, Internet and international service over an advanced fiber optic network. The merger is the fifth largest in U.S. history. The new company will have annualized revenue of approximately $5.4 billion, with over 500,000 business customers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. At the heart of the venture will be an end-to-end fiber network with 25,000 miles of fiber in service or under construction connecting all major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The deal includes Internet access provider UUNet Technologies, which MFS recently purchased for $2 billion. "Rarely in business do you have the opportunity to bring together the premier growth companies from key segments of an industry," says Bernard J. Ebbers, president and CEO of WorldCom Inc. "We are creating the first company since the breakup of AT&T to bundle together local and long distance services carried over an international end-to-end fiber network owned or controlled by a single company." The parties hope to complete the merger within four to eight months. Dataquest: Users to Embrace xDSL Internet users are demanding more speed to access their data, and xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) will become one of the key high-bandwidth solutions, according to Dataquest. The San Jose, California, market research firm notes that xDSL "is a promising new technology" that allows the existing twisted-pair telephone infrastructure to support multimegabit data rates. Dataquest analysts believe that xDSL will be primarily targeted at the residential and SOHO (small office, home office) markets. Dataquest forecasts that xDSL worldwide equipment revenue will reach $2.5 billion by 2000. "xDSL will provide the high-speed 'last-mile' pipe to the home that will be used for Internet access, online services, telecommuting, videoconferencing, video phones, interactive gaming, and distance learning applications," says Lisa Pelgrim, industry analyst in Dataquest's telecommunications group. "Homes and many small businesses are currently limited to slower technologies at analog and ISDN speeds. Users are craving more speed as their data demands increase, making them more than ready for low-cost, high-speed services." Sony Readies to Ship Net Terminal Sony is set to offer its low-cost WebTV Internet terminal next month at consumer electronics stores nationwide. The $349 plug-and-play unit, which connects to a TV and phone line, is designed to bring the World Wide Web and other Net resources to non-PC users. Sony claims that prospective Web surfers can be "seeing the sites" within 15 minutes of opening the box. Net access for WebTV is provided by WebTV Networks Inc. of Palo Alto, California. The subscription provides access to the Internet, as well as personalized e-mail addresses and profiles for up to five users per household. Subscription prices haven't yet been announced. WebTV will ship with remote control that works with all major television brands, as well as a 25-foot phone line cord and phone line splitter. Other bundled accessories include an A/V connection cable and an S-Video cable. "Our WebTV terminal provides a great opportunity for millions of families without a PC at home to get in on the action of Web browsing, e-mailing friends and relatives, planning vacations together, checking out movie reviews -- all on the Net, in front of their TV sets," says John Briesch, president of Sony's consumer audio-video group. Sony to Launch Web TV Unit Watch for Sony Electronics next month to join the hunt in the emerging market for television connections to the Internet's World Wide Web. Reporting from Park Ridge, New Jersey, Bob Woods of the Newsbytes computer news service says Sony's efforts to combine Web browsing capability with a TV signal will be a bit different from those of competitors such as Philips Consumer Electronics Co., Zenith Electronics and Gateway 2000, because Sony's set-top box will work with any TV. Sony spokesman Rick Clancy told Woods the new unit, called the Sony WebTV Internet Terminal model INT-W100, is a low-profile device that is designed to be unobtrusive on the TV, and to co-exist with cable TV boxes and even satellite systems. "The unit's 33.6 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) modem lets TV-Web surfers connect at the highest speed possible with an analog modem," Newsbytes writes. It also is especially designed to work with TVs that have Picture-In-Picture capability, "so that if a Web address pops up during a program or commercial, a viewer can access the site at about the same time as the Web site is mentioned," the wire service adds. WebTV's monthly charges have not yet been determined, because the company is waiting to see how other companies will determine their pricing. However, Clancy said charges are expected to be under $20 a month with no additional hourly charges. Apple Gets Netscape Support Apple Computer Inc.'s efforts to make the Internet part of its turnaround strategy has been boosted by Netscape Communications Corp., which has agreed to develop a new version of its Navigator browser that supports Apple's Cyberdog Internet search software. The new Netscape version also will support OpenDoc, software backed by Apple for manipulating documents, reports Samuel Perry of the Reuter News Service. Reporting from Mountain View, California, Perry says Apple will distribute Netscape Navigator for Cyberdog with its Mac operating system and plans to incorporate the browser in future versions of its Mac system for Apple computers. "Cyberdog allows Internet surfers to navigate by clicking on icons, for example, while Opendoc allows people to mix and match software combining text, graphics and video from different systems," Perry observes. Analysts told the wire service the move underscores Apple's commitment to developing Internet technologies and extends the relationship between the two companies at a time when they are both facing extreme competitive pressure. As reported, Apple has been sinking from weak sales and a major restructuring that forced it to take substantial charges and post a record $740 million loss in its second fiscal quarter. Reuters quotes Larry Tesler, an Apple veteran who was named to head the AppleNet division earlier this year, as saying the company now is focused on the Internet and his group was working to cut development times dramatically. Netscape Promises OS/2 Version A version of Netscape Communications Corp.'s popular Navigator Web browser for IBM's new OS/2 Warp 4 operating system software is to be developed. In Mountain View, Calif., the Reuter News Service quotes officials with Netscape and IBM as saying the version of Navigator, which will recognize speech, should be available for testing next month and for end users in 1996's fourth quarter. Reuters says IBM plans to launch OS/2 Warp 4, the latest version of its personal computer operating system, in September. "IBM and Netscape are natural partners, given both of our commitments to open standards like Java and HTML," said Bob Lisbonne, vice president of client product marketing at Netscape. IBM officials told the wire service the deal confirms the company's commitment to OS/2, which has long been an underdog of operating systems with a small share of the PC market, versus Microsoft's. Agents Simplify Net Searches Autonomy Inc. says it has developed a new technology that has th potential to change the way people use the World Wide Web and other online resources. The Palo Alto, California-based company says its intelligent agents can learn about a user's interest in a particular topic and then scour the Internet unattended, looking for relevant documents to bring back to the user. The Autonomy Web Researcher and the Autonomy Press Agent are available now as a free beta download from www.agentware.com. The final software is scheduled for an October release. Both applications run under Microsoft Windows or Windows 95 and can use direct or dial-up Internet access. Autonomy says its intelligent agents are made up of components: "legs" to move through resources such as Web sites, e-mail or corporate intranets, and a "brain" that can make intelligent decisions on the user's behalf. The company notes that the "brain," based on neural network research from Cambridge University, can figure out whether a document is relevant by looking at its key concepts and overall context and comparing them to the user's interests. "Finding answers on the Web is like trying to pinpoint a life raft on the Pacific," says Drew Harman, Autonomy's CEO. "A typical search engine uncovers thousands of Web sites, leaving users with the frustrating chore of sifting through pages of extraneous material in hopes of uncovering what they're looking for. Autonomy's intelligent agents eliminate this time-consuming task by doing all of this work for you." Autonomy, Inc., is the U.S. subsidiary of Autonomy Corporation PLC of Cambridge, England. FTC Ends Camelot Probe Camelot Corp. says the Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of the company and the marketing of DigiPhone, its Internet long-distance telephone software. According to the Dallas-based firm, the FTC has determined that no further action is warranted. In May, Camelot received a letter from the FTC saying that the agency wanted to confirm that the DigiPhone software could communicate over the Internet in full duplex. "We are pleased to have this investigation brought to closure with no action taken on behalf of the FTC," says Danny Wettreich, chairman and CEO of Camelot. Camelot also notes that Camelot Music Inc., which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is not related to it in any way. School Hires Computer Intruder In New Jersey, Palisades Park's high school recently hired a 16-year-old computer whiz to intentionally break into the school's computers. Officials with the school system said students needed their transcripts to send off to colleges, but they were in the computer and no one who knew the password could be reached. So the school hired Matthew Fielder to break in. He charged them $25 an hour for the service. "They found this student who apparently was a whiz and apparently was able to go in and unlock the password, and then they got the transcripts out," School Board attorney Joseph R. Mariniello told The Associated Press. AP says a red-faced superintendent George Fasciano earlier this week was forced to explain to the school board the $875 bill for Fielder's services. The wire service says Fielder was recommended by Palisades Park's computer coordinator but does not attend the district's schools. School officials declined to release any further information about him. "The trouble started last month when some students needed transcripts," AP says. "The principal was on vacation and unreachable. The former vice principal also couldn't be reached. Another school employee with the codes had been incapacitated by a stroke, and members of the guidance department were either on vacation or not working over the summer because of a financial crunch." Karpov Trounces Chess World Russian world champion Anatoly Karpov has demonstrated that chess is not exactly a team sport, easily defeating hundreds of online chess players in his first open chess game on the Internet. Yesterday's online match went 65 moves and took 4 1/2 hours, with Karpov playing black and the online consensus playing white. As Associated Press writer Matti Huuhtanen notes, White moves came from suggestions sent in over the Internet, with the most frequently proposed move chosen by a computer. Says AP, "Internet users, who had seven minutes to propose an opening, chose the king's pawn (e2-e4). Karpov countered in two seconds with the Caro-Kann (c7-c6). As many as 300 players submitted suggestions to the worldwide computer network for the moves. The game ended when white would have had to sacrifice its queen to avoid an immediate checkmate threat." Following the digital meet, Karpov commented, "It was a good game. They are serious players." Huuhtanen report from Helsinki, Finland, where Karpov played his side of the game in a dimly lit hall at the Hotel Intercontinental. The game was reproduced on a large white screen, computer monitors and boards arranged on tables for chess buffs who paid $6.60 to sit in the same room as Karpov. The Internet address for the Karpov game is http://www.tele.fi/karpov on World Wide Web. For Immediate Release Corel Announces OEM Bundling Agreement with Compaq OTTAWA, Canada - August 28, 1996 - Corel Corporation, an award-winning developer and marketer of productivity applications, graphics and multimedia software, has announced a bundling agreement with Compaq Computer that will see the computer giant ship CorelDRAWT 5 on new Compaq Presario Home PCs worldwide. "We are extremely pleased to join Compaq in offering this value-packed bundle to the consumer," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "The inclusion of CorelDRAW 5 in Compaq's popular Presario Home PCs will provide increased power and productivity to the end user, while increasing mindshare for our graphics and productivity packages." Compaq launched its newest Presario family - which combines the latest technological advances with intuitive designs, arcade quality graphics, high- fidelity stereo sound, and the fastest Pentium processors - in mid-July. Shipping immediately, the special build includes the CorelDRAW 5 program in nine languages - US English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese and Chinese - 100 clipart images and 10 fonts all on one CD. Corel To Bundle Netscape NavigatorT In Upcoming Products Popular Software To Ship With Corel's Office Solutions OTTAWA, Canada - August 27, 1996 - Corel Corporation today announced an agreement that will see Netscape NavigatorT Internet client software bundled into upcoming Corel products. Netscape Navigator will ship with English, German, Spanish and French versions of Corelr Office Professional 7, as well as future versions of CorelVIDEOT Remote. Other products and localizations will be determined at a later date. "Our goal at Corel is to provide customers with the best graphics and productivity applications on the market and we think the inclusion of the world's top-rated client software will help to do just that," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "With Netscape's leading-edge technology included in some of our major software packages, we will continue to offer our customers the superior tools with which to enhance their overall efficiency." "Netscape Navigator software offers excellent performance over a modem and offers complete Internet access including Web browsing, email, news groups and file transfer capabilities," said David Rothschild, director of marketing client applications at Netscape. "We are pleased to continue our commitment to provide the best of breed Internet solutions with inclusion in Corel's product offerings." Netscape Communications Corporation Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California. Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com or by calling 415-937-2555 (corporate customers) or 415-937-3777 (individuals). Corel Corporation Incorporated in 1985, Corel Corporation is recognized internationally as an award-winning developer and marketer of productivity applications, graphics and multimedia software. Corel's product line includes CorelDRAWT, the Corelr WordPerfectr Suite, Corelr Office Professional, CorelVIDEOT and over 30 multimedia software titles. Corel's products run on most operating systems, including: Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, MS-DOS and OS/2 and are consistently rated among the strongest in the industry. The company ships its products in over 17 languages through a network of more than 160 distributors in 70 countries worldwide. Corel is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: COS) and the NASDAQ - National Market System (symbol: COSFF). For more information visit Corel's home page on the Internet at http://www.corel.com. For more information on Corel's Corporate Licensing Programs, please contact Corel Customer Service at 1-800-772-6735 or 613-728-3733. Corel and WordPerfect are registered trademarks and CorelDRAW and CorelVIDEO are trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Netscape, Netscape Communications, the Netscape Communications Corporate logo, Netscape Navigator and Netscape Navigator Personal Edition are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Thumbs Plus 3.0d STR Infofile Announcing.... Thumbs+Plus(tm) version 3.0d! Cerious Software, Inc. is pleased to announce the availability of ThumbsPlus version 3.0d. Already in use by professionals worldwide, ThumbsPlus is fast becoming the preferred product for organizing, viewing and editing graphic files. Supporting over 35 (and counting) file formats internally, with many more formats that can be configured or accessed via OLE, ThumbsPlus is the product of choice in its class by people who need quick, intuitive access to their graphics. Demanding people, like those at Intel, Microsoft, HP, Rockwell International, ATI Technologies, the Army, Air Force and Navy, sing high praises for Thumbs+Plus. You can even find it at NASA, where ThumbsPlus accompanies the astronauts on every Space Shuttle flight! This new, improved ThumbsPlus is a full 32-bit application for Windows 95, Windows NT and Windows 3.1. Microsoft Win32s version 1.3 is required for operation on Windows/WfWg 3.1/3.11. Here is a partial list of the new features added in version 3: ú ThumbsPlus version 3.0 is a 32-bit application for Windows 95, NT and 3.1/3.11 (using Win32s). ú Several new file types are supported: ú PNG: CompuServe PiNG format (read) ú UUE: uuencoded files (read and decode) ú FIF: Fractal images (Iterated Systems) ú KIZ: Kodak Postcard ú STX, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8: Santa Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG) ú Improvements handling several file types: ú GIF: transparency is supported (read and write) ú GIF: animated GIFs can be displayed ú JPEG: progressive mode is supported (read and write). ú PSD: Photoshop version 3 files are supported. ú TIFF: JPEG and ZIP compression are supported ú TIFF: Multi-page TIFF file support ú RAS: Bi-level SUN Raster files may now be read. ú AVI: Now supported in the shareware version. ú MOV: Now supported in the shareware version. ú This version incorporates a new database format, with: ú Keyword assignment and searching. ú Automatic keyword assignment based on file type, file name, and file color characteristics. ú Long file name support (except on Windows 3.1/3.11). ú Selection of thumbnail size and color depth (32 gray levels, 236-color palette, or 15-bit high color). ú Improved disk volume recognition (especially for network and CDROM drives), and assignment of volume aliases. ú File annotations (comments in the database). ú ThumbsPlus can now read image files larger than 16Mb (except on Windows 3.1/3.11). ú Improved display speed and memory usage for large files. For some file types, ThumbsPlus will also view while loading a file. ú Contact sheets (showing parts or all of a thumbnail catalog in a graphic file) with many configuration options. ú Color selection for directory list folders and various other user interface elements. ú Toolbar improvements: ú Customizable main window toolbar ú View window toolbar (also customizable) ú Tool tips for buttons on toolbars ú View window status line. ú Addition of right-button menus (context menus). ú Use of property sheets (tabbed dialog boxes) to simplify adaptation of the program to your needs. ú Improved algorithms and 32-bit code result in faster image manipulation and conversion. ú You may now delete directories and entire directory trees. ú ThumbsPlus can use the Windows 95 Recycle Bin. When you register, you'll receive version 3.0-R, which also has: ú PFB: Adobe Type 1 fonts ú DXF: AutoCAD Exchange format ú MPG: MPEG-1 video (if you have appropriate MCI drivers) ú 32-bit TWAIN scanner support. ú Shows ZIP files as directories, which can be browsed, and the files in the archive may be treated as regular files. Also, network licensees get: ú Network user program defaults can be set up in a THUMBS.DEF file in the network directory with ThumbsPlus. ú ThumbsPlus may be installed on and run from a network drive, and the database may be shared on a network. (Single-user licenses will not operate on a network). ú Network database defaults can be set up in a THUMBS.TDD file in the directory with the database. For more information, please contact: Cerious Software, Inc. http://www.cerious.com 1515 Mockingbird Ln. Suite 910 ftp://ftp.cerious.com Charlotte, NC 28209 USA CompuServe: 76352,142 Voice: 704-529-0200 sales@cerious.com Fax: 704-529-0497 support@cerious.com AOL: Cerious2 To download ThumbsPlus version 3.0d-S: World wide web: http://www.cerious.com Internet ftp: ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious CompuServe: GO GRAPHSUP, Library 3/Graphic Viewers GO WINSHARE, Windows Shareware GO WINUSER, Windows User Group AOL: PC Graphic Arts forum (keyword PCG) STReport's "Partners in Progress" Advertising Program The facts are in... STReport International Online Magazine reaches more users per week than any other weekly resource available today. Take full advantage of this spectacular reach. Explore the superb possibilities of advertising in STReport! Its very economical and smart business. In addition, STReport offers a strong window of opportunity to your company of reaching potential users on major online services and networks, the Internet, the WEB and more than 200,000 private BBS's worldwide. 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And, at the same time, helping to keep the very best Independent Online Magazine available each and every week for many years to come. Special Notice!! STR Infofile File format Requirements for Articles File Format for STReport All articles submitted to STReport for publication must be sent in the following format. Please use the format requested. Any files received that do not conform will not be used. The article must be in an importable word processor format for Word 7.0.. The margins are .05" left and 1.0" Monospaced fonts are not to be used. Please use proportional fonting only and at eleven points. ú No Indenting on any paragraphs!! ú No Indenting of any lines or "special gimmickery" ú No underlining! ú Columns shall be achieved through the use of tabs only. 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Mariano, Editor STReport International Online Magazine EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents NSF Cuts Funding For Private Sector Internetworking Silicon Alley Gets Attention From Investors Netscape Targets Consumer Devices News Flash - You've Got E-Mail Waiting See You In September, Merlin Flaw Detected In Explorer 3.0 The Ayes Have It On Net Balloting Gov't Tab For Century Date Change Could Reach $30 Billion Computer Interface Contributes To Plane Crash Intel Targets New Technology Development New Plan Proposed For Global Domain Registries Educators Want More Learning, Less Fun From Ed Software HP Adopts Wintel Standard For Workstations Browser Battles, Cont. MCI And Nextwave To Provide Wireless Services At&T Wants To Reach Out And Touch You On The Web Moonlighting On The Net WorldCom Buys MFS Blind Affected By Software Flaws Scientists Told To Avoid Tech-Talk NC Vs. PC Karpov Wins Online Chess March CompuServe Spinoff Delayed Apple Bundles Microsoft Suite For Europe, Considers Be Buyout Navigator Sets Sail On OS/2 NBA Sues AOL Computer System Boosts Ford Productivity IBM To Sell Its Network Chips Sony Delays DVD Rollout The One Search BellSouth To Offer Internet Access NSF CUTS FUNDING FOR PRIVATE SECTOR INTERNETWORKING The National Science Foundation, which has been managing the NSFNET Internet backbone since 1985, says it will no longer support the Internet networking and routing services that the private sector provides for the nation's research and education community. The move will allow NSF to concentrate on building the next generation of the Internet: "The NSF-funded operations of NAPs (network access points) and RAs (routing arbiters) can now shift to the commercial marketplace as their researchers focus on connections and routing for advanced networking," says Mark Luker, NSFNET program director. "Both actions help NSF to move to the next stage, a stronger focus on the high- performance Internet of the future needed to support today's advanced research." (BNA Daily Report for Executives 20 Aug 96 A7) SILICON ALLEY GETS ATTENTION FROM INVESTORS "Silicon Alley" -- the New York-area companies focused on the Internet and new media -- has the attention of a new investment fund called Flatiron Partners, in which the Softbank Corporation of Japan and the venture capital arm of Chase Manhattan Bank each will invest $25 million. Silicon Alley is centered around the Manhattan's Soho and Flatiron districts. (New York Times 23 Aug 96 C1) NETSCAPE TARGETS CONSUMER DEVICES Netscape Communications will announce on Monday its plans to incorporate its Navigator technology into a wide range of consumer products, including pagers, video games, cell phones and cable TV set-top boxes. "The strategy is to have Navigator running everywhere," says co-founder Marc Andreessen. The company has already formed a top-secret subsidiary, staffed with 30 to 50 people, to develop operating systems for those devices. (Interactive Age Digital 23 Aug 96) NEWS FLASH - YOU'VE GOT E-MAIL WAITING Office workers using local area networks usually hear a tone or see a little moving icon, signaling they've received new e-mail in their in-box, but people who work out of their home aren't so lucky. They generally have to go through the process of logging onto their Internet service to check if any new mail has arrived. Ex Machina has a better idea -- next month it will debut its AirMedia Live service, which will broadcast news alerts to small receivers plugged into your PC, causing an icon to pop up on your screen. The company plans to give away basic services, and will charge about $150 per receiver plus an extra $5 a month for a second tier of features. (Business Week 26 Aug 96 p53) SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER, MERLIN IBM is moving aggressively to shorten future product development cycles to three months or less, and is planning to release OS/2 Version 4.0, code- named Merlin, by the end of September, says the general manager of IBM's personal software products unit. In addition to Merlin, the company has set the same deadline for shipping the symmetric multiprocessing extensions for OS/2 Warp Server. IBM will then update the system incrementally, adding features such as Internet firewall support and development tools for Java, and configuring OS/2 to work with Lotus's upcoming Internet release of Notes, code-named Domino. (Information Week 12 Aug 96 p30) FLAW DETECTED IN EXPLORER 3.0 Computer scientists at Princeton University identified a flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3.0 that could allow someone to send a destructive command to a Windows-based computer connected to a Web page. A Microsoft vice president describes the flaw as "not a big deal" but says a software patch is being developed quickly to rectify the problem. (New York Times 23 Aug 96 C16) Editor Note: As of this printing, the patch is available on a widespread basis. THE AYES HAVE IT ON NET BALLOTING A recent AT&T poll of 1,000 people found more than 65% of respondents were interested in using the Internet to research where candidates stand on certain issues. Also, nearly half indicated they'd rather vote electronically than in person. About 25% of those polled said they have access to the Internet and of those, 20% plan to follow the 1996 presidential election on the Net. (Investor's Business Daily 26 Aug 96 A6) GOV'T TAB FOR CENTURY DATE CHANGE COULD REACH $30 BILLION The Year 2000 Interagency Committee is developing a database to help federal agencies locate hardware and software to fix the "year 2000 problem," spread throughout many different government computer systems. Each agency will be responsible for identifying, documenting and prioritizing the lines of computer code that will need to be changed, with estimates of such changes running anywhere from $1 to $8 per line of code. The Year 2000 Home Page includes information on best practices with regard to code inventory and pilot projects. A best practices conference is planned for next March. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 22 Aug 96 A8) COMPUTER INTERFACE CONTRIBUTES TO PLANE CRASH The crash of a Cali-bound American Airlines jet last December in Colombia, S.A., occurred because the plane's captain entered an incomplete command into the onboard computer -- and the default action taken by the software pointed the plane in the wrong direction. The beacons at the Cali and Bogota airports both begin with the letter R, which is the only character the pilot typed; instead of proceeding toward Cali, the plane turned in the opposite direction (toward Bogata) and crashed into a mountain. (New York Times 24 Aug 96 p7) INTEL TARGETS NEW TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT Intel Corp., which has spent years improving on its basic chip design, has decided that approach just won't cut it anymore. "Now we're at the head of the class, and there's nothing left to copy," says the company's chief operating officer. In response, Intel is shifting its focus, assembling a team of top-notch scientists and engineers to do long-term, original research on computer chip design. The group, called Microcomputer Labs, will delve into projects ranging from 3-D graphics to advanced software applications, working with researchers at top universities, including Stanford, MIT, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of North Carolina. "Our mission is to keep the technology treadmill going," says the engineer heading up the new effort, whose specialty is compiler technology. "We'll have to look at the future applications for computers and how to create computer architectures that can run them." (Wall Street Journal 26 Aug 96 B4) NEW PLAN PROPOSED FOR GLOBAL DOMAIN REGISTRIES The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the organization charged with assigning and coordinating Internet protocol parameters, is calling for the creation of new registries located around the world to administer up to 150 new international top-level domains. Currently, Network Solutions Inc., under contract to the National Science Foundation, administers domain names in the .com, .org, .edu, .net and .gov top-level domains. The IANA's new plan will open the domain registry business up to competition, says the plan's author. Up to 50 new registries could be in service by the end of January 1997. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 26 Aug 96 A9) EDUCATORS WANT MORE LEARNING, LESS FUN FROM ED SOFTWARE Educational software is useful in the classroom, but "the business of education is not entertainment, and teachers are keenly aware of this," says a research analyst at Simba Information Inc. "In schools - where educators take their job descriptions extremely seriously - the novelty of bells-and- whistles multimedia is wearing off rapidly." Educational software sales, much of it purchased by parents for their children's use at home, are booming, with numbers up 56% from last year, says the Software Publishers Association. And much of the rise is attributable to already established products such as Davidson & Associate's Math Blaster, which has enjoyed 12 years of popularity. "You would never be able to find an entertainment title like that," says a Davidson VP, noting that educational products enjoy a longevity unheard of in the video game industry. Entertainment software sales grew by only 6% last year, according to the SPA. (Investor's Business Daily 27 August 96 A8) HP ADOPTS WINTEL STANDARD FOR WORKSTATIONS Hewlett-Packard's new line of workstation computers will support the Wintel standard made popular by PCs running Microsoft Windows software on Intel chips. This latest move means that HP will be marketing two separate lines of workstations - one based on Wintel, and one supporting the traditional Unix standard. Last May, HP introduced a family of relatively low-cost servers based on the Wintel standard, a move away from its earlier higher- priced systems that used in-house HP technology. (Wall Street Journal 26 Aug 96 B6) BROWSER BATTLES, CONT. Microsoft has responded to Netscape's allegations that it engages in unfair, anticompetitive business practices in promoting use of its Internet Explorer browser software. In a statement issued Aug. 22, Microsoft refuted Netscape's contentions, point by point, summing up its arguments by saying that Netscape's "suggestion that Microsoft is somehow violating the antitrust laws" by incorporating "new features and functionality (such as Internet Explorer and Internet Information Server) ... is preposterous." Instead, it maintains that "Microsoft's progress is the result of hard work, product improvement, mutually beneficial partnerships and creative marketing." (BNA Daily Report for Executives 26 Aug 96 A9) MCI AND NEXTWAVE TO PROVIDE WIRELESS SERVICES MCI Communications and Nextwave Telecom have joined forces to provide wireless services in most of the nation's largest cities by mid-1997. MCI might also resell Nextwave's personal communications services (PCS) as an alternative to regular telephone services. (New York Times 27 Aug 96 C3) AT&T WANTS TO REACH OUT AND TOUCH YOU ON THE WEB AT&T's "instant Answers" technology enables World Wide Web users to request that the company sponsoring the Web site they're browsing give them a call, by clicking on an icon labeled "Call me now." The move, which is tied to an AT&T effort to boost its 800-number business, will allow a sales agent on the Web to "push" any additional information requested directly over the Web to the customer. Meanwhile, AT&T WorldNet subscribers now can link up to America Online at a 20% discount off regular AOL rates. (Wall Street Journal 27 Aug 96 A6) MOONLIGHTING ON THE NET Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have concluded that idle PCs could be leased out by their owners to remote users who might have occasional need for a computer, but not want to buy one. "It seems silly to invest lots of money to buy more computing power when all you have to do is utilize what's already out there," says one researcher, who cites the example of an accountant who has a one-time need to use some graphics design capability. Technology already can support remote control of PCs over the Internet, and the researchers say all that's needed is some sort of system for leasing the machines and their software, while keeping the computer owner's files private and secure. (Investor's Business Daily 26 Aug 96 A6) WORLDCOM BUYS MFS WorldCom, the nation's fourth-largest long distance phone service provider, is buying MFS Communications, the leading provider of alternative local phone services to business customers; the move will create the country's first fully integrated local and long-distance telephone company since the Bell System was broken up in 1984. (New York Times 27 Aug 96 C1) BLIND AFFECTED BY SOFTWARE FLAWS At the World Blind Union international assembly, lawyer and activist David Lepofsky charged that developers fail to make software accessible to those with vision impairments and said that point-and-click technology is useless to those with vision impairments. (Toronto Globe & Mail 27 Aug 96 A6) SCIENTISTS TOLD TO AVOID TECH-TALK A directive from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada's largest funding agency, tells scientists to explain their projects in everyday language rather than technical jargon. The directive responds to a member of Parliament's attacks on "frivolous research," including the paternity of squirrels, the energetics of hummingbirds, "information processing among pigeons," and "cubitus interruptus locus in Drosophilia." (Toronto Globe & Mail 27 Aug 96 A1) NC VS. PC Farzad Dibachi, whose company, Diba Inc. specializes in developing inexpensive information appliances, says that network computers will provide everything you need to access information, making PCs unnecessary for many day-to-day tasks: "PCs won't go away. There will be a differentiation between devices for creating and massaging data, and ones for accessing information. If you don't need to create or massage information, you don't need a PC." (Information Week 19 Aug 96 p12) KARPOV WINS ONLINE CHESS MARCH In an open chess game on the Internet, Russian grandmaster Anatoly Karpov defeated several hundred opponents in a game that lasted 65 moves and four and a half hours. For each move, contestants had seven minutes to indicate their response, and a computer calculated the most frequently suggested response. < http://www.tele.fi/karpov/gameworl.htm > (New York Times 27 Aug 96 B9) COMPUSERVE SPINOFF DELAYED H&R Block is delaying the spinoff of its remaining 80% stake in CompuServe after reviewing the commercial access provider's weakened state following recent quarterly losses and an accelerating defection of subscribers to America Online or the Internet. Analysts say CompuServe would be more attractive to investors if it were restructured to separate its online services business from its other business, which is focused on providing data networking services to corporate and other larger customers. (New York Times 29 Aug 96 C2) APPLE BUNDLES MICROSOFT SUITE FOR EUROPE, CONSIDERS BE BUYOUT Apple Computer and Microsoft Corp. have formed a partnership to market Apple's Power Macintosh 7600 and 8200 machines equipped with Microsoft's Office suite software. "We have to grow together in an industry which is maturing," says Apple Europe's VP of sales. (Investor's Business Daily 29 Aug 96 A5) Meanwhile, Apple is negotiating the possible purchase of Be Inc., an innovative desktop computer manufacturer headed by former Apple research director Jean-Louis Gassee. The Be system is considered by experts to be a "boutique" item -- a cutting-edge but robust and reliable system built to handle advanced multimedia and graphics functions. (Wall Street Journal 29 Aug 96 B3) NAVIGATOR SETS SAIL ON OS/2 A new version of Netscape's Navigator software for browsing the World Wide Web will run on IBM's OS/2 operating system, which now has built-in speech- recognition capabilities that will allow users to call up sites on the Internet with voice commands. (New York Times 29 Aug 96 C6) NBA SUES AOL The National Basketball Association has sued America Online over its use of game scores and statistics from NBA games in progress. The lawsuit, which also names Stats Inc. as a co-defendant, contends that AOL supplied real- time, play-by-play information without the league's permission. The legal issue at stake is whether game information constitutes intellectual property owned by the sports league involved. Broadcast rights to that information are sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, but online providers maintain such information constitutes news, which is free to disseminate. (Wall Street Journal 29 Aug 96 B3) COMPUTER SYSTEM BOOSTS FORD PRODUCTIVITY Ford Motor Co. says it's got enough computer processing power that if it combined all its systems, it could calculate the tax returns of every U.S. citizen within 30 minutes. "That's something no other commercial company in the world can say," says Ford's manager for advanced computer-aided engineering. The company's computer systems have enabled it to cut the cost of its steering columns by $7 per vehicle, and has reduced the time it takes to design and build them from 14 months to two months. Microprocessing power is cutting down on the overall design time, and has lowered crash tests costs by lowering the time it takes to calculate results. (Investor's Business Daily 29 Aug 96 A6) IBM TO SELL ITS NETWORK CHIPS IBM has begun marketing to outside customers the chips it developed for distributing sound, data, and video over networks and for supporting both asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and token ring technologies. (New York Times 29 Aug 96 C16) SONY DELAYS DVD ROLLOUT Sony Corp. will not introduce its digital video disc players until next spring, citing a lack of software for the new machines. DVDs, which eventually will replace CDs and videotape, are capable of storing seven to 14 times as much information as those media. Disputes over copyright protection have been blamed for the software delays. "I always doubted whether bringing it out before Christmas was that crucial," says an analyst at Goldman Sachs. "It's going to take five years for it to grow into a major product." (Investor's Business Daily 29 Aug 96 A5) THE ONE SEARCH Inference Find's parallel search engine simultaneously searches all the major search engines, including Yahoo!, Lycos and InfoSeek, and eliminates the duplicate findings, clustering the information into content type and organizing it according to user preferences. Check out and click on InFind." (Information Week 19 Aug 96 p12) BELLSOUTH TO OFFER INTERNET ACCESS BellSouth will join several of its RBOC siblings in offering Internet access to business and residential customers in its service region. The new BellSouth.net service is immediately available in Atlanta and New Orleans, and will be expanded to eight other regions in October. The company will charge $19.95 a month for unlimited usage, or $9.95 for 10 hours with each additional hour costing $1. (Wall Street Journal 28 Aug 96 B3) Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas (douglas@educom.edu). Voice: 404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057. Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology, University of North Carolina. EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Marvin Minsky (assuming that your name is Marvin Minsky; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage... Subscription problems: educom@educom.unc.edu. EDUCOM REVIEW is our bimonthly print magazine on learning, communications, and information technology. 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 to the Update: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe update John McCarthy (assuming that your name is John McCarthy; if it's not, substitute your own name). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE The CAUSE organization's annual conference on information technology in higher education is scheduled for the end of this month in New Orleans. The conference will bring together administrators, academicians and other managers of information resources. For full conference information check out or send e-mail to conf@cause.colorado.edu. ARCHIVES & TRANSLATIONS. For archive copies of Edupage or Update, ftp or gopher to educom.edu or see URL: < http://www.educom.edu/>. For the French edition of Edupage, send mail to edupage-fr@ijs.com with the subject "subscribe"; or see < http://www.ijs.com >. For the Hebrew edition, send mail to listserv@kinetica.co.il containing : SUBSCRIBE Leketnet-Word6 or see < http://www.kinetica.co.il/ newsletters/leketnet/ >. For the Hungarian edition, send mail to: send mail to subs.edupage@hungary.com. An Italian edition is available on Agora' Telematica; connection and/or free subscription via BT-Tymnet and Sprint (login: ) Now to install the Link II, the EZ-135, and MagiC4! BTW, I tested the two 5v leads to the MB, and my tester read 1.88v on both. Hmmm. Is that within spec?" John Frick posts: "I recently dusted off my old 520st and after doing some minor repair, was able to boot up tos. However, none of my disks can be read. I just getbad disk or data messages. I swapped out the disk controller, but nothing changed. The system reconizes both my drives and I can hear the motors turning and the heads seeking, but have not been able to read any data.Anyone have any suggestions to try. P.s. I don't have any loose chips." You know what they say about that... Loose chips steal MIPS! Anyway, Sysop Bob Retelle asks John: "Can you format and use a new floppy disk..? If you can successfully format a disk and write to it, it means your hardware is working.. but if it can't read your older disks, it may mean the disk drive mechanism is out of alignment. Have you tried cleaning the heads with a disk drive cleaner disk? It's possible that they may have accumulated dirt or oxide during storage. When you checked for loose chips did you also check to see that the cables to the drive mechanism are well seated..? Loosening and reseating them might help if any corrosion has developed... same for the socketed chips on the motherboard. Lifting the chips very slightly with a fine screwdriver and pressing them back into the sockets can "wipe" the contacts of any oxidation. If both drives exhibit the same symptoms, it may be the disks themselves have developed problems. Is there anyone in your area with a similar system who could check some of the disks and see if they can be read on their ST..?" John tells Bob: "Both drives are exhibiting the exact same problem. I haven't tried to clean the heads, but I guess it couldn't hurt. I also changed out the mmu and the 'other' chip that comes lose before I tried to boot up my 520st. Do you know if they could cause my problem? I hate to pry them up again but I can if necessary. I also switched drive cables, but still had the same problems. I am not sure of the data path from the disc after it goes thru the disc controller. thanks for any advice...." Sysop Bob tells John: "I wouldn't try to pry up those two square chips (the ones in the "PLCC" sockets.. those sockets are awfully fragile and can be a real pain if they crack and have to be replaced..!) The other chips in sockets though are candidates for "reseating", especially the set of TOS ROMs (on your motherboard they're probably a set of six large chips on the lefthand side of the motherboard). Flaky connections on those ROMs can cause all kinds of problems, and the fact that both of your disk drives have the same problem kind of points to something other than the drives themselves. It's a bit of a long shot, but reseating those ROMs (gently, gently..!) might help." Well folks, that's about it for this week. I'm still following any developments with web browsers for the ST/TT/Falcon. While there is nothing concrete yet, there are encouraging signs here and there. As soon as I know of any solid developments, I'll let you know. So be sure to tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING EDITORIAL QUICKIES "Kemp Scrambles with the Ball!! Who is really carrying WHO?" STReport International OnLine Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM AVAILABLE through OVER 200,000 PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions of The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions and Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff of STReport International OnLine Magazine. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. STR, CPU, STReport and/or portions therein may not be edited, used, duplicated or transmitted in any way without prior written permission. STR, CPU, STReport, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STR, CPU, STReport, are trademarks of STReport and STR Publishing Inc. STR, CPU, STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible in any way for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" August 30, 1996 Since 1987 Copyrightc1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1235