Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) February 07, 1997 No.1306 Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor STR Publishing, Inc. 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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 STReport Tenth Anniversary 1987-1997 Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 02/01/97: 3 of 6 numbers, no matches From the Editor's Desk... I've still got one of the worst head colds I've had in years and its hanging on making life miserable.. so I'll make this short again. We are now using the new PhotoShop 4.0 and Pagemaker 6.5.1 from Adobe for all our DTP/Graphic/Color work both in the magazine and on the Website. Had to say that to let you all know we think the winning packages are those we mentioned and use. The reason is we saw elsewhere where someone was hawking a little known brand DTP package that is, in our opinion, going nowhere fast. That is, outside of its old, dead niche market. By the way, speaking of the Website, its address as most already know..is http://www.streport.com and our ftp site is ftp.streport.com both of these addresses are to sites that are maintained on a daily basis as a service to our readers. The FTP site has roughly thirty different file areas offering all our back issues and software support for most every situation. Check the sites out and lest us know what you think of them. Of Special Note: http://www.streport.com ftp.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 it is 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 AutoMailer 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 Shareware Listings R.F. Mariano Help Wanted Lloyd E. Pulley Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael R. Burkley Joseph Mirando Victor Mariano Allen Harkleroad Vincent P. O'Hara Glenwood Drake Contributing Correspondents Jason Sereno Jeremy Sereno Daniel Stidham Albert Dayes Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Brian Boucher Ron Satchwill Leonard Worzala Please submit ALL letters, rebuttals, articles, reviews, etc., via E-Mail w/attachment to: Internet rmariano@streport.com STR FTP ftp.streport.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 Strong Encryption Exports OK'd The U.S. Commerce Department has announced it will allow three companies to export those stronger systems of data encryption. "I'm happy that we've been able to do this within the first month without rancor or difficulty," Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration William Reinsch told Aaron Pressman of the Reuter News Service. As noted, until this year, encryption programs, which scramble information and render it unreadable without a password or software "key," were classified as munitions and stronger programs could not be exported. However, a controversial new Clinton administration policy, which that took effect Jan. 1, specifies companies may receive permission to export stronger programs if they agree to incorporate features within two years allowing the government to decode encrypted messages by recovering the software keys. As noted, the policy is being widely criticized as not relaxing the export limits enough and some companies feared the requirement for a two-year plan would substantially delay export approvals. Reinsch told the wire service the quick approvals should quell some of the criticism and encourage more applicants, adding, "As a result of this, you will have more companies taking it seriously and we will expect more plans over the next couple of months." The government did not name the companies given permission to export stronger, 56-bit programs, but Glenwood, Maryland- based Trusted Information Systems acknowledged that it was one of the three. Upgraded Encryption Software Ships Pretty Good Privacy Inc. has released PGPmail 4.5, an upgraded version of its powerful encryption software for sending private encrypted e-mail messages and files over the Internet and corporate intranets. The San Mateo, California, company notes that in addition to operating as a stand-alone e-mail encryption application, PGPmail 4.5 is available as a plug-in for Eudora and Netscape Mail. In the latter version, the program allows users to encrypt, decryp, sign and verify e-mail messages from the Eudora and Netscape Mail toolbars. PGP encryption technology uses public key cryptography to scramble e-mail messages and ensures that they can only be read by the intended recipients. PGPmail 4.5 allows each user to generate a public key (which can be distributed openly) and a private key (which is never shared). The public key is used to encrypt messages to a recipient; the private key is used to decrypt those messages. PGPmail can also be used to encrypt contents of all word processing and spreadsheet software. "E-mail runs naked on the Internet," says Tom Steding, president and CEO of Pretty Good Privacy. "By integrating PGPmail 4.5 with two of the most widely-used e-mail programs, we're making private, secure e-mail easily accessible to many millions of Internet users." Pretty Good Privacy's original PGP e-mail encryption product was developed and distributed as freeware in 1991 by Philip Zimmermann. The company's encryption software is now used by millions of individuals and corporations, and has since become the de facto standard for private digital communications. PGPmail 4.5 is available for purchase from the Pretty Good Privacy Web site (www.pgp.com) by credit card as well as a variety of online payment methods including CyberCash, and DigiCash. Feds Approve Bell Merger A merger of Baby Bells SBC Communications Inc. and Pacific Telesis Group has been approved of by the federal government. PacTel operates in California and Nevada; SBC's customers are in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. This is the first big local phone companies that have gotten such permission, notes Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa, adding, "In taking the action, the Federal Communications Commission rejected arguments by long-distance companies AT&T Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. and others that the combination would harm competition." The $16.7 billion deal -- combining two of the seven regional Bell operating companies that were spun off in the 1984 breakup of AT&T -- will serve the public interest, the FCC says. In November, the Justice Department had cleared the deal which still needs approval from California regulators. SBC and PacTel announced their plans to merge last April, around the same time Bell Atlantic Corp. and Nynex -- also spun off in the AT&T breakup -- stated their intentions to combine in a $22.7 billion deal. Aversa says a law enacted last February deregulating the telecommunications industry is fueling consolidation. Editor Note: Here we go again! At the mercy of a Monolithic Bell Monster Monopoly. Apple Cuts Costs, Lays Off Staff Facing sagging sales and tougher competition, computer Apple Computer Inc. is cutting prices up to 27 percent across much of its product line and laying off an undetermined number of employees as it undergoes a further restructuring. The price reductions for Power Macintosh and Performa personal computers follow similar cuts last fall, says business writer Catalina Ortiz of The Associated Press, who adds Apple also cut prices for its servers, machines that manage networks of computers. Apple regularly adjusts prices, but, says Ortiz, "the breadth of the cuts and their coming shortly after previous reductions suggest demand remains disturbingly sluggish." Adds President Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Research International in San Jose, California, "What that's telling me is that even after the last price cuts Apple is still suffering from image problems." AP says the cuts also could further erode profit margins for the Cupertino, California, company, which lost $120 million for the October-December quarter on weak consumer demand. Says Ortiz, "The company, a third of the way into Amelio's three-year recovery plan, already has warned of further restructuring and possible layoffs. Amelio, in an interview published Friday in USA Today, confirmed the layoffs would occur as Apple tries to cut costs 20 percent." AP quotes analysts as predicting layoffs of 2,000 to 3,000 of Apple's 13,500 employees worldwide. The company cut 1,500 jobs last year. Apple Doesn't Disclose Layoffs Apple Computer Inc. has outlined part of its latest restructuring plan, but the struggling computer maker declined to disclose how many employees will lose their jobs. "Executives said that and other details of its reorganization were still being worked out and wouldn't be announced for another month," reports business writer Catalina Ortiz of The Associated Press. Apple has said layoffs will be part of its makeover and industry analysts are predicting cuts of up to 3,000, or a fifth of Apple's work force. "Apple also has not yet decided," says Ortiz, "whether to shed or scale back on such money-losingbusinesses as its Newton hand-held computer and Pippin, a combination game player and Internet surfer being sold in Japan." What Apple does say about its second structural shakeup within a year is that it is consolidating its product development, marketing, sales and operations. Previously Apple's business units resembled separate companies with their own marketing and technology activities. Meanwhile, Apple's new sales division will emphasize the consumer, publishing and education markets, areas in which Apple remains strong despite its declining overall market share, AP reports. Also, Apple says co-founder Steve Wozniak will return to the company as an adviser to chairman/CEO Gil Amelio, a position already held by Apple's other co-founder, Steve Jobs. As advisers, both are part of the company's decision-making executive committee, the wire service reports. Gates Baffled by Apple Strategy Bill Gates says he wants Microsoft Corp. to maintain existing ties with Apple Computer Inc. but that he is confused by the struggling computer maker's strategy for its core technology. Speaking in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is traveling in connection with a new product launch, Gates told Mark John of the Reuter News Service he is not devoting time to considering how the two companies might collaborate more closely, "thus," comments John, "appearing to pour cold water on recent speculation of closer links between the two." Said Gates, "I am very interested in continuing to work with Apple as we have done through history, but I am confused by the Apple operating system strategy ... and have decided not to worry about the future" in this respect. Not long ago, The New York Times was reporting Apple was considering forging closer ties with Microsoft and with its chipmaker Intel Corp., noting Gates recently visited Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and had an hour-long meeting with Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio and Apple co-founder Steven Jobs. To Reuters, Gates confirmed he had met Jobs since the recent purchase by Apple of Jobs' NeXT Software Corp firm, but did not say what had been discussed at any meetings. Gates said the situation facing Apple -- struggling to maintain sales against the domination of the Microsoft-Intel standard in the world personal computer market - - is "very challenging," adding, "People like Apple, and would like them to succeed. But that doesn't mean they will succeed." Apple Suspends Exec Bonuses Apple Computer Inc. will suspend its executive bonus plan until the computer maker returns to profitability, Chairman/CEO Gilbert Amelio has told company's annual meeting. Reporting from Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters, the Reuter News Service quotes Amelio as saying, "Let me assure you that my highest priority is to get this company in the black as early as possible." He told shareholders that when he took over at the helm of the troubled computer company one year ago, it faced five crises, which he has sought to address. "We were broke," he said, adding financial liquidity was so tight the company barely had enough reserves to manage its daily business. Reuters notes the decision to suspend the bonus program comes after Apple revealed some executives received substantial bonuses last year when Apple reported an unexpected fourth quarter profit. "The payout," said the wire service, "was the result of a change in the compensation plan which allowed the executives to receive bonuses based on the company's fourth quarter results rather than the full year's." As reported, Apple has outlined part of its latest restructuring plan, but the struggling computer maker declined to disclose how many employees will lose their jobs. Editor Note: Ex-Atarians and Amigans. does this Apple thing sound like you've "lived it" before? California Strengthens Net Sex Law A bill that would make it a crime in California for adults to use the Internet for the purpose of seducing a minor has been introduced by a state legislator. From Sacramento, California, the Reuter News Service reports State Assemblyman Steven Kuykendall's bill also would make it a crime to distribute "harmful" material to children on the Internet. In a statement, Kuykendall said, "Sex offenders need to be punished, and sex offenders who use the Internet to find their next victim are no different." The Republican state legislator said federal law already recognizes these offenses but current California law does not, adding Florida has conformed to federal law and several other states were considering similar measures. Said Kuykendall, "The ability to find and punish Internet pedophiles is limited for police if a state does not have a law addressing this type of crime," adding the measure would not censorInternet users, but would make it easier for police to pursue and jail people who misuse the network to entice children. Apple Vows to Ship Newton Products Despite published reports that it's planning to sell its Newton personal digital assistant operations, Apple Computer Inc. say it intends to ship a pair of Newton-based portables this quarter as previously announced. The Apple eMate 300 and MessagePad 2000 are expected to be on the market by next month. The eMate 300 is a low-end mobile computer that features multi-platform desktop and network connectivity for education. With a battery life of up to 28 continuous hours before recharging, the eMate 300 makes it possible for students to work for long periods of time wherever they want, notes Apple. The MessagePad 2000 is a handheld mobile computer for business professionals that provides desktop connectivity to both Windows and Macintosh computers. Core applications, including e-mail, Web access and personal productivity programs, are built into the unit. The 1.4-pound MessagePad 2000 features the 160MHz StrongARM processor, making it one of the fastest handheld computers on the market. The system is so power thrifty that four AA batteries can provide three to six weeks of typical usage, notes Apple. Egghead Reorganizes, Shuts Stores Egghead Inc. has announced a reorganization that includes the closing of 77 of its 156 Egghead stores and reducing the number of markets in which the company operates stores from 54 to 24. The computer products retailer says the closings will take effect immediately. Egghead is also substantially reducing its headquarters staff, closing its Lancaster, Pennsylvania, distribution center and offering for sale certain real estate assets, including its headquarters building in Spokane, Washington. Egghead notes that the reorganization is expected to cut headquarters and distribution expense to about $16 million on an annualized basis from about $35 million in fiscal-year 1997, excluding discontinued operations. The compny also reports that CEO Terry Strom, Senior Vice President Kurt Conklin and Senior Vice President Ron Smith will leave the company after assisting with the reorganization. Strom will continue to work with Egghead as a consultant. George P. Orban, Egghead's chairman, will become the firm's new CEO. For the third quarter ended in December, Egghead earned $1.5 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a loss of $941,000, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Sales fell to $113.2 million from $121.7 million and same-store sales fell 8 percent. Egghead's smaller stores have failed to keep pace with computer superstores, particularly those operated by CompUSA. Egghead is gradually adding larger format stores. Our objective this coming fiscal year is to reduce our operating losses, improve our business processes and devote our resources to creating a foundation for renewed growth," says Orban. Samsung Bids to Buy AST Research Majority investor Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is offering to acquire the rest of AST Research Inc. for $469 million in cash and assumed debt. Samsung, based in South Korea, says it made the proposal in a letter to the struggling computer maker's independent directors. Under the plan, Samsung would purchase the 51 percent of AST it does not already own for $5.10 a share. The Reuter news service notes that the move marks the latest effort by Samsung to assume control of AST. Despite substantial financial support from Samsung, AST's losses have been growing. For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, AST lost $68 million, or $1.18 a share. That compared with a net loss of $128.6 million, or $2.88 per share, which came after a $13 million restructuring charge. Fourth quarter revenues slipped to $611.4 million from $612.9 million. For all of 1996, AST's losses widened to $417.7 million, or $8.22 a share, from a loss of $263.2 million, or $7.01 a share, in 1995. Revenues fell to $2.10 billion from $2.35 billion. "It is apparent that in order for AST to continue as a viable competitor in the intensely competitive PC industry, significant further support from Samsung will be necessary," states Samsung's letter. "The acquisition of 100 percent ownership of AST by Samsung would give AST direct access to Samsung's resources and would provide AST with the best reasonably available way to return to profitability." AST says it has formed a special committee to review the bid and consider other possible options. Kodak Ships New Digital Camera Eastman Kodak Co. says its Digital Science DC50 Zoom Camera is now available in the U.S. at an expected retail price of $699. The Rochester, New York, company also announced that it will discontinue manufacturing its Kodak Digital Science DC40 Camera by theend of the first quarter. Kodak notes that the DC50 provides fast access to digital pictures that can easily be inserted into standard desktop software applications. The camera features a 3x zoom lens; "good," "better" and "best" picture modes; PCMCIA removable storage cards and 1MB of permanent internal memory. "Our decision to discontinue production of the DC40 is part of ongoing effort to continually refresh our product portfolio and give our customers a complete solution at an attractive price point," said Cliff Trott, Kodak's chief marketing officer for digital and applied imaging. New Chip Promises Faster Downloads A new digital signal processor chip introduced today by Texas Instruments may provide a long-awaited solution to the Internet bottleneck. The chip, which operates at 1.6 billion instructions per second, can power a rapidly emerging high-speed method to connect to the Internet. For example, a file that currently takes 10 minutes to download will take less than five seconds. "Texas Instruments' new technology will enable us to continue leading the revolution in Internet access," says Dale Walsh, vice president of advanced development at U.S. Robotics, which will use the chip with its new 56K bps line of x2 modems. "With this chip, not only will more users be able to log on to the Internet, but they will also be able to download files 120 times faster than today. The World Wide Web will no longer be the World Wide Wait." Digital signal processors (DSPs) are powerful, specialized semiconductors that are ideal for very fast, math-intensive computing. They are used in a variety of consumer electronics such as cellular phones, pagers, hard disk drives, modems, digital satellite systems and audio/video equipment. In addition to increased speed, the new chip, dubbed the TMS320C6201 will open the door to products that allow callers to use one phone line for regular voice telephone calls and data calls at the same time, eliminating the need for a separate modem line. For example, while one faily member is using the home computer to send and receive data on the Internet, the same person or other family members can still make and receive voice phone calls on the same line. "We believe that DSP technology, like this TI chip, will have a profound effect on the way we communicate, both at work and at home," says Joseph Grenier, vice president of market research firm Dataquest. "The impact of DSP technology and what we call the coming DSP revolution, can be likened to what the Pentium did to desktop computing." More information about TI's new chip is located on the Web at:www.ti.com/sc/C6x. Foot-Operated Mouse Unveiled Hunter Digital has released a foot-operated mouse. The Los Angeles-based manufacturer says its NoHands Mouse eliminates the repetitive, time-wasting keyboard-to-mouse hand movements found with traditional hand-operated mouse units. The new device features two interchangeable pedals that sit on the floor. One pedal controls cursor movement and speed while the other controls the "clicking" function. "A large percentage of carpal tunnel cases are hand-mouse related," says a Hunter spokesman. "The NoHands mouse helps avoid carpal tunnel by moving the mouse function to a more solid joint: the ankle." The NoHands Mouse is compatible with Windows, Windows 95, OS/2 and Macintosh mouse drivers. More information is available on Hunter Digital's Web site at www.footmouse.com. ISPs Back x2 Access U.S. Robotics Inc. reports that 70 percent of Internet Service Provider subscribers worldwide now have access lines that support the firm's new 56K bps x2 technology. The Skokie, Illinois, company says that in the past month the number of ISPs supporting x2 has more than doubled, and that x2 support is now available to more than 18 million subscribers worldwide. "Our coverage of the market with x2 will be tremendous," predicts John McCartney, president and chief operating officer of U.S. Robotics. "The clear majority of subscribers worldwide will access ISPs that support x2 technology, and we're continuing our momentum in the market with new ISPs coming on board every day." The first x2 modems are scheduled to ship within a few weeks. A list of ISPs supporting x2 can be accessed on U.S. Robotics' Web site at http://x2.usr.com/leaders/index.html. Browser for Blind, Disabled Tested A Web browser designed for blind and other disabled people is being tested on the Internet's World Wide Web. The software -- pwWebSpeak, made by The Productivity Works of Trenton improves on existing programs that read computer screens aloud, says Associated Press writer Linda A. Johnson, who adds, "I enables blind and other disabled users to browse through the headings and highlighted hyperlinks on a Web page, finding what they want and jumping from page to page like a sighted person." And for those with limited vision, the program can display text in large type. Its developers say it should help people with dyslexia, learning disorders and dexterity impairments such as multiple sclerosis. The program works with most existing hardware for speech synthesis, but can be used with a much-cheaper software synthesizer called SoftVoice, Johnson reports. Charges for pwWebSpeak vary from $250 for commercial users to $125 for government, education and nonprofit agencies. Individual disabled people can get it free, but are asked to pay $50 for software support. A new upgrade integrates access to "Real Audio 3.0," which allows people to catch broadcasts of news programs, live concerts, college football games and more through the rapidly growing number of Real Audio sites, according to Productivity Works senior vice president Mark Hakinnen. Two more upgrades, both with SoftVoice integrated, are due late next month, pwReader, designed for dyslexics and people with some vision, integrates Microsoft's Internet Explorer to display Web graphics; pwWebSpeak-PRO allows voice commands to run the software. The latter lets users give complex commands by voice, such as telling the computer to display a particular newspaper's front page, said Productivity Works executive vice president Ray Ingram. Versions for foreign languages will be available over the next couple of months, starting with Finnish, French, German, Italian and Spanish, AP reports. A sample copy of pwWebSpeak and more information are available from The Productivity Works' Web site at http://www.prodworks.com or by calling (609) 984-8044. Hard Drive Market Set for Growth The hard drive industry is preparing for strong growth in 1997, following on the 106 million units shipped worldwide in 1996, according to industry totals compiled by TrendFOCUS Inc., a Palo Alto, California, market research firm. U.S. companies maintained a dominant 86 percent share of the market, but Japanese and Korean companies are challenging for market share, finds TrendFOCUS. Fueled by PC shipments, a strong upgrade market and booming sales of network servers and workstations, the demand for disk drives is spiraling upward. "Last year, the disk drive industry further solidified its electronics industry position, by providing more storage capacity at lower prices," says John Donovan, vice president of TrendFOCUS. "No other technology has provided a more definable, cost-effective enhancement to computers like the disk drive." Average storage capacities skyrocketed last year, notes TrendFOCUS. "Entering 1996, the average desktop PC drive stored 875MB. At year's end, the average capacity was 1.4GB, a 60-plus percent improvement -- at even lower prices than 875MB drives were sold," says Donovan. "Unlike new processors or monitors, disk drives offer higher capacities and performance at steadily lower prices with each new generation." Industry-standard formats won out handily. TrendFOCUS notes that 3.5-inch drives, the desktop PC standard, withstood a resurgent 5.25-inch effort. The same was true in the portable market. 2.5-inch drives dominated the portable storage market, and 3-inch drives were a non-factor in 1996. "But with at least three suppliers entering the 3-inch segment, 2.5-inch drives will be challenged in 1997," added Donovan. Removable hard drives, sold primarily by Iomega and SyQuest Technology, posted outstanding gains in 1996, finds TrendFOCUS. Aggressive marketing and lower prices will broaden demand for removable drives in the late 1990s. Seagate Technology regained the top market position via its acquisition of Conner Peripherals early in the year. Quantum was the second largest supplier, but Western Digital made the most significant market share gain. "But while U.S. suppliers dominated, non-U.S. suppliers again made impressive gains," says Donovan. "Fujitsu, Toshiba, Samsung and others are investing and will challenge U.S. suppliers across the product spectrum." "The 1997 outlook is very strong. PC growth will be stellar again in 1997, thanks to wider adoption of multimedia, large software suites and a healthy upgrade mrket. Storage demand from servers and workstations is booming, the convergence of the PC with entertainment is boosting storage needs," says Donovan. "We expect the drive industry to grow even faster in 1997 to more than 130 million units." Windows Gains Ground in Schools New market research suggests PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software are gaining ground on Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh as the favored computer in grade schools. According to the Reuter News Service, the survey by International Data Corp/LINK reports grade schools said 56 percent of the new computers they plan to buy during the 1996-97 school year will run Windows software. The rest, 43 percent, would be computers from Apple. "Traditionally," notes Reuters, "Apple has been the teacher's pet among educators because of its easy-to-use computers. Microsoft, which has been coveting Apple's dominance of the educational market, launched an aggressive marketing campaign last summer aimed at schools to convince them to switch to PCs running Windows 95." And now the IDC/LINK report finds that based on Microsoft's foray and concerns about Apple's financial future, schools said for the first time they plan to buy more Windows-based PCs than Macs. Said analyst William Ablondi, "There's no question about it, school purchases are shifting to PCs running Windows. Parents have a lot of influence over what goes on in the schools, and more and more want their children to learn what they are using in the workplace." Nonetheless, Apple spokeswoman Carleen LeVasseur told the wire service the report is inconclusive because it does not measure what schools actually bought, adding, "This report is doing nothing to suggest a change in the market share." She pointed out that in the same report, IDC/LINK found 55 percent of the school districts said they plan to buy Apple computers in the school year. The rest said they planned to buy Windows machines. Students Embrace PCs and E-Mail New research from IDC/LINK finds that the rapid growth of elecronic communication in corporate America may be just a taste of things to come if the behavior of today's college students is any indication. Whether for school work or leisure, the majority of college students are now active users of PC-based e-mail, says the Framingham, Massachusetts, market researcher. It notes that roughly 9.1 million students are regular e-mail users and fully 6.1 million could be considered "e- mailaholics," sending and receiving messages almost every day. E-mail and PC use are among the fastest growing parts of the U.S. college market for technology, according to IDC/LINK. Student spending on advanced technology products exceeded $10.2 billion in 1996, with purchase plans for 1997 at record levels. IDC/LINK says students at both two-year and four-year schools now have extraordinary access to personal computers. As recently as two years ago, computer use was often oriented toward students in math and science courses who could only find PCs in campus computer labs. Today, the school's network is used by all students for tasks as diverse as group assignments, class registration, and most important of all - e-mail. For those without PCs, computers are often available throughout the campus -- from the library to mail centers to student lounges. School instructors are also relying on new technology to support classroom work. Raymond Boggs, who directed the higher education research project, says about 40 percent of students obtain class assignments electronically and nearly as many submit material electronically. "The electronic campus is a reality in more and more schools," says Boggs. "And schools are realizing they need to offer a comprehensive networking environment to be competitive." Phones Jammed by Net Surfers? Growing interest in Internet use is jamming America's telephone networks, making busy signals more common for anyone who uses a phone, says an associate professor at Michigan State University. In fact, says telecommunications expert Robert LaRose, in some West Coast areas phone users must redial 15 percent of their calls, adding, "It will get worse. The local telephone loop is the bottleneck. There are not enough switching points for the incoming calls." Speaking with United Press International, LaRose says local phone companies are being pressured to expand, although they'll likely seek higher rates to cover the costs. UPI says LaRose foresees phone companies asking regulators to dump the exemption to phone-access fees currently enjoyed by Internet providers, adding phone companies were not prepared for the sudden growth in Internet use. He said each computer-Internet link occupies a phone line for an average 20 minutes -- sometimes all day -- while the average talking phone call lasts three minutes. Group Expands Net Addresses The number of available online addresses has been dramatically increased by an international Internet group that also has moved to quell disputes over the use of trademarks in those address names. The International Ad Hoc Committee -- including members of Internet standards-setting bodies and legal and communications experts -- is proposing seven new "top-level domains" (the last block of letters at the end of every Internet address). Reporting from Washington, Aaron Pressman of the Reuter News Service says that if the plan is adopted, Net surfers will see addresses ending in ".web," ".store," ".info," ".firm," ".arts," ".rec" and ".nom," joining other existing top-level domains such as ".com," ".edu," ".gov" and ".org." "Each new domain reflects a particular type or category of Internet site," notes Pressman. "For example, 'rec' would be for sites emphasizing recreation and entertainment, while 'nom' would be for those desiring individual or personal nomenclature." Noting the group received more than 4,000 comments from around the world, Donald Heath, president of the Internet Society and chair of the ad hoc committee, told the wire service, "We are very pleased with the acceptance and broad consensus that we have achieved in this process. To attain its fullest potential, the Internet requires true self-governance." He told the wire service the plan should be approved by Internet standard setters within a few weeks, allowing new domains to come online about three months later. Notably, the plan also includes provisions to resolve disputes arising from use of trademarked names as Internet addresses, including complex disputes in which both parties may have a legitimate claim to an Internet address. Pressman says that under the committee plan: ú Anyone applying for an Internet address will have to agree to resolve disputes through online mediation under the rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization. ú Mediation will be provided by panels composed of international experts on intellectual property, trademarks and the Net. Challenges initiated within 60 days of an address registration would be resolved within 30 days. ú All challenges and proposed decisions would be made public and time allowed for comment before a final decision was rendered. Also, the plan calls for setting up as many as 28 competing registration firms to distribute new Net addresses, all operating under the auspices of a Council of Registrars, to be established as a non-profit association in Switzerland. At present, only one firm -- Network Solutions Inc. -- hands out addresses in the most popular domains, charging $100 for a two-year registration. At its Herndon, Va., headquarters, Network Solutions, which registers over 80,000 new Internet addresses a month, had no comment on the plan, but spokesman Christopher Clough raised doubts about its viability, saying, "We're concerned with the stability and integrity of the registration process." If you want to check out the complete proposal yourself, see the document posted on the World Wide Web: (http://www.iahc.org/draft-iahc-recommend-00.html). Courts Rule Against E-Junk Mail Two federal court rulings have come down against Cyber Promotions Inc., a Philadelphia company accused of sending electronic junk over both CompuServe and America Online. In Columbus, Ohio, a federal judge has barred Cyber Promotions from sending unsolicited e-mail advertisements to CompuServe's 5 million subscribers. Also, a federal judge in Philadelphia forbid the bulk e-mailer from falsifying return e-mail addresses, which kept America Online members from blocking the unsolicited messages. A CompuServe spokesman told The Associated Press that unsolicited e-mail concerned members because they have to take the time to sift through the junk mail while paying for their time online. And an AOL official told the wire service the order in that case will prevent Cyber Promotions from circumventing a tool available to its members designed to block junk e-mail. CompuServe sued Cyber Promotions last year, saying its host computers were bogged down with junk e-mail, and that subscribers were complaining about having to sift through their electronic mailboxes while the meter was running on their accounts. U.S. District Judge James L. Graham wrote in a 32-page order, "CompuServe is entitled to restrict access to its private property," adding the order will remain in effect until the case is decided at trial or settled. Three months ago, a federal judge in Philadelphia hearing a case involving Cyber Promotions and AOL ruled that junk e-mail is not protected speech under the First Amendment, and that AOL had the right to block its delivery to subscribers. Graham cited that ruling in rejecting Cyber Promotions' First Amendment claims. Net Draws Viewers From TV? Computer industry executives are saying that while the Internet is drawing many viewers away from their TV sets, the Net will have to become more like TV if it wants to boost its mass appeal to consumers. Reporting from the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Michael Shields of the Reuter News Servce added, "In any event, the two media are converging rapidly in a trend that will accelerate when digital broadcasting replaces the dominant analog television system around the world." Speaking in a panel discussion at the gathering, Chairman Michael Dell of Dell Computer Corp. noted, "We recently completed a survey of our customers, who told us in the consumer segment that they prefer to be on the Internet than to watch television at home." And President Raymond Lane of Oracle Corp. predicted the distinction between TV and the Internet soon will start to blur, adding, "There will be a convergence in the next couple of years, maybe sooner than that." Lane said this will lead to customized newspapers and video called up at the touch of a button as a powerful rival to television. "This is a slowly adapting marketplace," he said, "but I think broadcast television, as alternatives for profiling and customization are offered, will diminish." On the same panel, chief technology officer Eric Schmidt of Sun Microsystems Inc. said the breakthrough will come when digital broadcasting puts television on the same technological footing as computers. "At the point when the television signal that the average person gets is digital," Schmidt said, "there is tremendous leverage to browsing the Internet model and the digital bits that you see on your screen. What I worry about is that we will hit a limit in our industry in the number of people to whom it makes sense to be online. To get to the 70, 80, 90 percent kind of market that television has, we are going to have to have a model that looks a lot more like television and a lot more like entertainment than any of us have seen so far." Meanwhile, Lane said he was a bit more skeptical of forecasts that the Internet could crowd out television in the battle for consumers, adding, "The consumer is slow to adapt, always. You can push the cost down and simplify things, but consumer behavior is very, very difficult to change. This is going to be a very predictable and relativel slow-growth rate for our industry." And on the hardware front, Lane sees a trend toward affordable computers rather than high-powered machines. "I am much more optimistic you will start to see very simple, low-cost devices," he said. "You don't need the complexity if you just have a limited set of tasks, if you do e-mail all day or are connected to a local area network." Corporations Embrace Net E-Mail Internet e-mail software exploded onto the corporate messaging scene in 1996, with new users growing at a rate of 727 percent, compared to 46 percent for the total market, according to new research from International Data Corp. Eleven million of the corporate messaging market's 36 million business users used Internet e-mail software according to IDC's preliminary estimates. The growth and advent of open e-mail standards slowed the growth of traditional e-mail products and vaulted Internet vendors, such as Netscape, to the top of the user market. IBM's Lotus division had a great year as well by incorporating Internet standards into its products. The Internet was the fastest growing e-mail market segment, with LAN e-mail growing by a comparatively modest 16 percent to 17 million new users worldwide. Unix, mid-range, and mainframe e-mail segments experienced declines in the number of new users. The top e-mail software vendors, based on new users worldwide in 1996, were IBM/Lotus with 27 percent, Netscape with 17 percent, Microsoft with 11 percent, QUALCOMM with 9 percent, Novell with 7 percent, Software.com with 4 percent, and Hewlett-Packard with 4 percent. "In 1996, rapid adoption of Internet e-mail software occurred at the same time as LAN e-mail software vendors raced to implement open Internet standards," says Mark Levitt, research manager of IDC's electronic messaging program. "This led many user organizations who were anxious to move to next generation platforms featuring improved interoperability, scalability, manageability and functionality to slow the evaluation and deployment of new e-mail software. With a critical business application such as messaging, users preferred slowing down the process rather than moving too quickly and risk betting on the wrong horse." A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N LEXMARK OPTRA C COLOR LASER PRINTER For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range. It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. 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This "stuff" is gorgeous! A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N The Momentum Builds By Brad Silverberg Within the last couple of years, the tremendous opportunities afforded by the Internet have energized Microsoft and awakened us to possibilities we hadn't before imagined -- ways we can use Internet technologies to transform how people use their computers, increase their productivity, and work together in new ways. Of course, the Internet also is a stage for some relatively wacky ideas (such as The Pink Floyd Laser Moonshot) and bizarre performances (check out Mr. Showbiz's take on Dennis Rodman). But we at Microsoft have learned that creating breakthrough software products requires that a certain minimal percentage of the people we hire qualify as "very strange." I could tell you about the programmer who forgot to wear shoes for an entire year, or the group manager who kept an Elvis shrine and a gargantuan green lizard named Igweena Athena Iguana in his office -- quite against company rules, I assure you, in the case of the reptile. But I digress. A Drumbeat of Announcements This revolution inside Microsoft has led to a spate of Internet-related products and partnerships, which are now being announced almost daily. Just within the last month, for example, we released Internet Explorer 3.0 for Windows 3.1, and MCI joined Arthur Andersen, Sprint PCS, and Compaq Computer Corp. in naming Microsoftr Internet Explorer 3.0 as their browser of choice, along with Coopers and Lybrand, one of the world's largest professional services firms. Then Microsoft and PointCast announced an agreement that will bring Internet broadcasting to millions of computer users worldwide. Last but far from least, we released Internet Explorer 3.0 for the Macintoshr at a gala event at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, and Apple Computer announced that they would be shipping Internet Explorer 3.0 along with the Macintosh operating system. Whew! We are making so much Internet news so often these days that we've had to create a whole new Web page just to hold it all, and we've got three shifts of hard-working editors rapidly writing releases to keep up with all the activity. Open Standards, Java, and the W3C Over the years, companies have come to rely on various operating systems, programming languages and technologies to solve all kinds of business problems. Open standards -- broadly agreed to and implemented by many companies -- function as a kind of Rosetta Stone amid this complexity; they enable different computer systems to share and process information effectively, regardless of where it is stored or how it was created. Microsoft's tools are based on open standards and protocols. Our products and technologies are designed to work well across different computer systems (like Macintosh, UNIX, and Windowsr), using open Internet protocols and specifications. While we adopt and embrace technologies created by others, we also offer core Microsoft technologies as open standards to be owned by the Internet community. For example, last October we handed over control of Microsoft's ActiveXT technology to The Open Group, a software industry standards body. When we invented a new way of bringing Web pages to life, known as dynamic HTML, our first action this fall was to seek its approval and adoption by the World Wide Web Consortium (also known as the W3C), a standards-setting body. And since we licensed JavaT from Sun Computer Company last year we've created the very fastest, slickest implementation of Java on both Windows and the Macintosh, and the most popular, widely used Java development tool in the industry. The key to Microsoft's success on the Internet can be summed up thus: "Innovate based on open standards." Microsoft's Active Platform The Active Platform spans the whole range of Microsoft technologies and products, from the server to the desktop, from the browser to the service provider, from the traditional developer to the Web site builder. At the heart of the Active Platform is bringing client/server and Web technologies together to help developers build the next generation of Internet applications. Both the client and server work together, fully implementing the same standards-based technologies, to build these applications. The following diagram shows how this works. You can build powerful Web applications using all the basic technology that's both at the heart of the Web and the foundation of the Windows operating system. For example, an airline could create a site designed to help you look up the status of your frequent flyer program miles. You could ask the application questions like, "How many miles will I have in my account after my Christmas trip?" or "Do I have enough miles built up to pay for a free flight to visit my grandmother?" The server could then deliver a Web page to your browser that is created from information in the airline's database. An application like this would use HTML to display information on both the client and the server, software objects to make development easy, scripting to control the objects and display of information, and basic system services from both the client and server. Active Client With Microsoft's Active Client technology, HTML, the language of the Web, has become the language of the desktop as well. We try to do a world-class job of supporting and extending the HTML standard, to provide access to the richest and broadest set of information on the Internet, and we enable users to apply the inventions and innovations of the Web to enhance their experience of their own personal computers. Client-side scripts written in a variety of languages like VBScript and JavaScript or JScriptT can be used to create the most flexible and dynamic pages. ActiveX components like Java applets and controls created in Visual Basicr or Visual C++r can bring Web pages to life with all the extraordinary capabilities of the personal computer, easily scripted by site builders. Active Server Microsoft's Active Server technology brings all the capabilities and standards of the Internet to the server as well as the client. So HTML pages can be created "on the fly" by the server and sent out to clients. The types of ActiveX scripts and components that can run in your browser can run on a Web server as well. This offers a new set of opportunities for developers to create Web applications in more efficient and powerful ways. And finally, these new Active applications can take advantage of system services that offer dozens of imaginative capabilities, from connecting to every conceivable type of information provider to delivering a truly personalized experience of the Internet, from providing utterly reliable security to enabling users to shop as safely in the virtual world as in any physical bazaar. Brad Silverberg is senior vice-president at Microsoft in charge of the Applications and Internet Client Group. c 1997 Microsoft Corporation EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents Domain Registration Plan Drops 60-Day Waiting Period Appeals Court Overturns NBA Data Decision Satellite Loss Scrambles Distance Education Japan Experiments With Internet Smut Filters IRS Computers "Do Not Work In The Real World" America Online Not Yet Off Hook Another Apple Reorganization Coming Soon ChinaByte Has Big Initial Success The No-PC Connection TI's New Chip Handles Many Tasks At Once Cronkite Is (Almost) Spitting Mad Over Internet Prank Let It Be....SoftwareNovell Targets Borderware Netscape's Navio Plans Nintendo And Sony In Close Game Gates Says Old Laws Are Good Enough For The Net Culture Clashes On The Internet Gates And Grove On Government's Role In Technology Apple Needs "A Short List," Says Amelio The Eyes Have Had It Internet II Update University Network Is Not "Public Forum" Look Out -- Here Come More Domain Names! NY Att'y General Opposes Nynex-Bell Atlantic Merger Tax On Audio Tapes Prodigy Finds Its Voice America Offline Apple: Out Of The Sand And Off With The Gloves DOMAIN REGISTRATION PLAN DROPS 60-DAY WAITING PERIOD The International Ad Hoc Committee likely will adopt a plan to create new generic top-level domains for nternet addresses without including a provision that would require a 60-day waiting period before a domain name is assigned. As an alternative, the Committee is considering new options for avoiding potential trademark disputes generated when names are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, including a requirement that registrants agree to participate in a voluntary mediation service in the event of any disagreements. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 28 Jan 97) APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS NBA DATA DECISION The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has overturned a lower court decision, which prohibited Motorola and Stats, Inc. from disseminating real-time NBA (National Basketball Association) scores and statistics over hand-held pagers. The NBA had previously claimed that the companies' unauthorized use of information about the basketball games was "stealing" valuable league property. The NBA plans to appeal the latest decision. (Wall Street Journal 31 Jan 97) SATELLITE LOSS SCRAMBLES DISTANCE EDUCATION The recent failure of AT&T's Telstar 401 satellite has upset budgetary plans for many institutions that offer distance learning classes, as universities scramble for replacement time in the high-priced spot market. Telstar 401 was known as the "educational neighborhood satellite," and was expected to function until 2007. AT&T now says it's hoping to convert another satellite, Telstar 402R into an education-oriented replacement, depending on the successful positioning of another satellite scheduled for launch in May. The failed satellite was used by the Public Broadcasting Service, Lehigh University, the National Technological University, the University of South Carolina, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of New Mexico, PBS systems in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, and many others. (Chronicle of Higher Education 31 Jan 97) JAPAN EXPERIMENTS WITH INTERNET SMUT FILTERS Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Electronic Network Council, chaired by NEC Corp., are working together to develop filtering systems that will deny access to crime, sex and violence- related Internet sites. They also plan to experiment with "smart" chips that automatically block access to objectionable sites, unless the user enters a special password. Separately, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has urged Internet providers to prepare their own Internet rating guidelines, similar to the U.S. Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), and has also recommended using filters to eliminate electronic smut. Japanese officials emphasize that the government "is not in the position to force the use of the filtering system," on Internet users, and that it supports "total" freedom of information. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 30 Jan 97) IRS COMPUTERS "DO NOT WORK IN THE REAL WORLD" An Assistant Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service has conceded to a panel created by Congress that a $4-billion computer systems modernization project has failed, that IRS computers "do not work in the real world," and that the agency is incapable of bringing its computer capabilities up to the right level because it lacks the "intellectual capital" for the job. He proposed contracting out the processing of paper returns filed by individuals and abandoning a "big bang" approach to systems modernization in favor an incremental, piecemeal one. Though characterizing the systems as "dysfunctional," the administrator told that panel that the IRS "is wholly dependent on them." (New York Times 31 Jan 97) AMERICA ONLINE NOT YET OFF HOOK Although America Online has agreed with 36 state attorneys to compensate subscribers for their difficulties in using AOL after the company built subscriber levels beyond what its network could handle, some customers are planning to proceed with class-action lawsuits claiming that poor service from the company caused them to lose business opportunities. But an America Online spokesperson says that, under the Terms of Service usage contract, "that kind of damage isn't the responsibility of AOL." (Washington Post 1 Feb 97) ANOTHER APPLE REORGANIZATION COMING SOON Apple Computer is planning a reorganization that will focus on three core markets (apparently publishing, education, and either the Internet or consumer), and that will include laying off as many as 3,000 employees. The company has also announced price cuts of up to 27% on Power Macintosh and Performa computers and network servers. (San Jose Mercury News Center 1 Feb 97) CHINABYTE HAS BIG INITIAL SUCCESS ChinaByte, the new Chinese-language Web site created as a $2.5-million joint venture by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the Chinese Community newspaper People's Daily, and the Ziff-Davis computer magazine publishing company, has been inundated in its first two weeks of operation, with more than a million "hits." A ChinaByte executive explained: "All these computer-literate Chinese on the Net have never had anything to access before, so they keep coming back." (Financial Times 31 Jan 97) THE NO-PC CONNECTION For consumers who want to check out the Internet, but aren't ready for the care and feeding of a full-fledged PC, iPhone offers connectivity in the familiar shape of a telephone. Developed jointly by Cidco and InfoGear, the phone contains a 7.4-inch backlit VGA monochrome touch screen large enough to view a whole Web page. The device comes with a small slide-out keyboard for composing e-mail messages and costs about $500. (Business Week 3 Feb 97) TI'S NEW CHIP HANDLES MANY TASKS AT ONCE A new digital-signal processor developed by Texas Instruments can handle 1.6 billion instructions per second, about 40 times the processing power of a comparable chip found in a computer modem. Though the new chip doesn't move information faster, it allows more information to be exchanged simultaneously, says a TI spokesman. For instance, if the chip were used at a telephone switching center, it could manipulate 24 calls at once, an operation that usually requires 24 chips. The new chip will enhance the performance of CD-players, wireless phones, digital cameras and other electronic devices. (Wall Street Journal 31 Jan 97) CRONKITE IS (ALMOST) SPITTING MAD OVER INTERNET PRANK Idly surfing the Internet several months ago, famed TV newsman Walter Cronkite searched on his name and found a home page created by an Internet applications developer in Ohio who wrote an untrue account of meeting a tipsy, cursing Mr. Cronkite accosting the developer in a restaurant and spitting in his food. The man has closed down the site and said that "it was never my intention to hurt anyone." Cronkite, who had considered suing the developer, calls the home page "scurrilous" and says: "I don't think I've ever spit in my life." (New York Times 1 Feb 97) LET IT BE....SOFTWARE Be Inc. is getting out of the hardware business, ending production of its BeBox PC in favor of focusing on Be's software and operating system development. The decision was based in part on the inherent conflict the company experienced in marketing its BeOS to the Power Mac community while at the same time trying to compete with its own machines. "With the advent of multiprocessing Power Macs from Apple, Power Computing, DayStar, and others yet to come, we've been able to run the BeOS on some pretty impressive hardware," wrote Be's Alex Osadzinski, in a recent letter to BeOS developers. "It's very hard, actually impossible, for a small, 50- person company like Be to keep up with the hardware engineering resources of the entire Power Mac market." Warranties on all BeBoxes now owned will be honored, the company says, and releases of the BeOS for the next year will continue to support the BeBox. (InfoWorld Electric 31 Jan 97) NOVELL TARGETS BORDERWARE Novell sees a bright future in the "gray" area where corporate intranets connect to the Intranet, says its President, Joseph Marengi: "We're calling that zone the border -- and we'll have BorderWare, (which) will provide significant intranet performance increases. The problem is, employees are accessing the Internet from different points and typing up bandwidth. But the network could start working from a single point, getting all the information down into this incredibly fast, specialized engine that shoots it onto the Internet. Then employees could continue to work at local-area-network speeds and let this device in the middle do all the work for them." (Investor's Business Daily 4 Feb 97) NETSCAPE'S NAVIO PLANS Netscape's Navio division, a joint venture with seven electronics and computer companies, including Nintendo and Sony, will soon see its TV Navigator software incorporated into Zenith Electronics television sets. The company has ambitious plans to launch a new product every three months, with possibilities including a phone browser that connects to global telephone directories, a gas pump that includes a readout showing local traffic conditions, and a ticker that runs on your TV set showing the current prices of your stock portfolio. "It will take about two more years to start in full swing," says Netscape chairman James Clark. (Business Week 10 Feb 97) NINTENDO AND SONY IN CLOSE GAME Nintendo has caught up to Sony in the market for next-generation video game players, with each company selling between 1.3 million and 1.4 million of their newest players in the U.S. during the 4th quarter. During the same period, Sega sold between 500,000 and 600,000 comparable units. The Nintendo product in this competition is the Nintendo 64 system based on the 3D graphics chips from Silicon Graphics. (Wall Street Journal 3 Feb 97) GATES SAYS OLD LAWS ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE NET Microsoft's Bill Gates: "It's always surprising how old concepts carry over into the new medium. It's overly idealistic to act like, Oh, the Internet is the one place where people should be able to do whatever they wish: present child pornography, do scams, libel people, steal copyrighted material. Society's values have not changed fundamentally just because it's an Internet page. Take copyright. Sure, there should be some clarifications about copyright, but the old principles work surprisingly well in the new medium. Anybody who says you have to start over -- I don't agree with that." (George Feb 97) CULTURE CLASHES ON THE INTERNET At a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the issue of censorship on the Internet was debated from East/West perspectives, with the Eastern view represented by such countries as Singapore, Iran, and Egypt. Denmark foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said, "Whenever you want to stop the free flow of information, you must ask yourself what is possible. The usual answer from politicians is we need international rules. I say, forget it. It won't happen." Iranian mathematics professor Mohammed Lasijani countered: "In the west, the issue is sometimes how to globalise liberalism: how to export an ideology. I am not a liberal, and I do not believe liberalism is the only way to a decent life." (Financial Times 4 Feb 97) GATES AND GROVE ON GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN TECHNOLOGY Microsoft's Bill Gates and Intel's Andy Grove told the World Economic Forum audience in Davos that governments have a role to play in increasing the spread and use of new technology -- not as an active player but simply as a role model. They want the government's role to be improving the education system, using new technology internally, and making sure the proper infrastructure is in place, rather than directly funding research or legislating its use. (Toronto Globe & Mail 4 Feb 97) APPLE NEEDS "A SHORT LIST," SAYS AMELIO Apple CEO Gil Amelio says that one year ago the company was facing five separate crises: a cash crisis, a quality crisis, an operating system crisis, a culture crisis, and a fragmentation crisis, but that in the past year it's made "major progress" in solving all of them except the fragmentation problem. "We've got to get this entire organization focused on doing a very short list of things and nothing more." One goal he wants Apple to focus on is the development of "a machine that runs more application software than any other machine around. That doesn't mean we will run Windows. It means we will be implement those programs." (USA Today 4 Feb 97) THE EYES HAVE HAD IT Tenax Software Engineering has come up with a new tool for managing information overload -- its Cornix Java applet allows you to read Web pages with "ease and comfort at speeds of up to 1,000 words per minute." The Cornix applet displays the text of a Web page one word at a time in 100- point type (almost 1- 1/2 inches high), eliminating the side-to-side eye scanning that can cause eye fatigue. Tenax reports that most people double their reading speed almost as soon as they start using Cornix, with average person, reading about 240 words per minute, increasing to nearly 500 wpm. Tenax claims some enthusiastic readers have even reached "warp" speeds of 8,000 or so wpm. (Information Week 27 Jan 97) INTERNET II UPDATE The 98 colleges and universities that have signed on as charter members of the Internet II project may be enjoying the initial fruits of their labors as early as six months from now, when the first of the high-speed connections is projected to be up and running. Participants have pledged to spend about $50-million on the project, and President Clinton has promised to ask Congress for $100-million in his FY '98 budget, which he will release this week. Although Internet II managers have asked participants initially to pledge $500,000 a year for the next three years, some institutions will have to spend much more to upgrade their information infrastructures on campus, and most acknowledge that the total cost likely will be much higher. Internet II Steering Committee Chairman Gary Augustson says he wouldn't be surprised if a few of the charter members eventually choose to play a less active role in the project: "Universities ought not to be reluctant to sit back and let somebody else die for their country." (Chronicle of Higher Education 7 Feb 97) UNIVERSITY NETWORK IS NOT "PUBLIC FORUM" The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma has ruled that the University of Oklahoma's policy of granting full Internet access only to students who declare, with the click of a mouse button, that they're 18 years old and have a legitimate academic purpose for accessing the material, does not violate the First Amendment's free speech guarantee. It also ruled that the University did not violate a professor's First Amendment rights when it blocked campus access to sex-related newsgroups. According to the judge, the University's two-tiered policy, which allows full access to a selected menu of newsgroups, and restricted access to the full menu of the Internet, was legal because, "The OU computer and Internet services do not constitute a public forum. There was no evidence at trial that the facilities have ever been open to the general public or used for public communication." The court said therefore that the university did not violate the professor's First Amendment rights by dedicating the university's computers to academic and research purposes. (BNA's Electronic Information Policy & Law Report 31 Jan 97) LOOK OUT -- HERE COME MORE DOMAIN NAMES! The Internet Society's International Ad Hoc Committee has mandated the creation of seven new Internet domain names, including ".firm" for businesses, ".store" for retailers, ".web" for businesses related to the Web, ".rec" for entities dealing in recreational activities, ".info" for purveyors of information, and ".nom" for users desiring personal nomenclature. Adding to the confusion, there will now be 28 new companies registering addresses, a huge leap from one -- Network Solutions Inc. -- which has handled all Internet domain registrations up until now, under contract to the National Science Foundation. "Network Solutions had a monopoly; this creates competition," says Donald Heath, president of the Internet Society. The new names should be in place by the end of the year, says Heath. (Wall Street Journal 6 Feb 97) NY ATT'Y GENERAL OPPOSES NYNEX-BELL ATLANTIC MERGER New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco has voiced his opposition to the proposed merger between Nynex and Bell Atlantic, warning the move "may adversely impact competition in New York telephone markets." Vacco's comments may be considered in an advisory capacity only, but may help to influence whether the New York Public Service Commission decides to bless the union. Meanwhile, Nynex CEO Ivan Seidenberg disagrees with Vacco's opinion: "We think the attorney general is dead wrong on three counts: The law, the facts and what's good for New York." (Wall Street Journal 6 Feb 97) Editor Note: The NYSAG should ask about the planned Merger between NYNEX and Southern Bell. TAX ON AUDIO TAPES A plan by Canada to impose a special tax on blank audio tapes has emerged as another potential trade dispute with the United States, because Canada plans to use funds from the tax to bolster Canadian radio artists. Whereas the U.S sees films, television, books and sound recordings as commercial products with no cultural components, Canada remains committed to indigenous cultural development and worries about American omination of the Canadian market. (Toronto Financial Post 5 Feb 97 p5) Canada's Heritage Minister says that Canada's strong music industry is the result of 25 years of Canadian protectionist policy that have nurtured the success of Canadian performers. (Toronto Globe & Mail 6 Feb 97 A12) PRODIGY FINDS ITS VOICE Prodigy Services has licensed voice-compression software from Voxware to provide its subscribers with voice transmission capabilities. The company plans to have the new system implemented by April. (Investor's Business Daily 5 Feb 97) AMERICA OFFLINE America Online subscribers trying to log on during a two-hour period early Wednesday evening experienced what a company spokesman called a "hiccup" which gave them the message: "The system is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in 15 minutes." The system malfunction was apparently caused by the installation of a software upgrade. (Atlanta Journal- Constitution 6 Feb 97) APPLE: OUT OF THE SAND AND OFF WITH THE GLOVES Apple CEO Gil Amelio told company shareholders: "As most of you know, I've dealt with troubled companies before. I am well acquainted with what it takes to bring them back to health. When I joined Apple, I said the journey back would take about three years. Today, we're about a third of the way there. We're working hard to move faster, but unfortunately there are no shortcuts, no magic bullets." He's asked Apple employee to do three things: "Manage the fundamentals to keep us on a firm business footing; focus on the strategic core of our business so we concentrate our efforts where we can make a difference and win; and attack the competition. We're taking our heads out of the sand. We're taking the gloves off. And we're ready for action." (San Jose Mercury News Center 6 Feb 97) 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: Very little going on in the world of console gaming this week. I guess it's slow enough that Nintendo released a press release proclaiming itself the "victor" for top games this past holiday season! Whoever creates these releases, regardless of company, always seems to manage to find a way to make themselves the "winner" of something. Never fails... Well, let's see what we have this week and we hope to have that review or two that we mentioned last week, next week. Until next time... Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! Top 5 Christmas Games All From Nintendo REDMOND, WASH. (Feb. 3) BUSINESS WIRE - Feb. 3, 1997 -- What did video gamers get for Christmas? In a word -- Nintendo. According to independent sales data, Nintendo claimed all five top-selling video games in December for any console or computer system. Three of the games play on the new Nintendo 64 video game system -- the fastest selling new game machine of all time -- and two are or the 16-bit Super NES, which has sold more than 20 million systems in America over the past six years. The independent sales figures, gathered by NPD Research, listed the holiday season's top five selling games as follows: (1) Super Mario 64 (Nintendo of America for the Nintendo 64); (2) Donkey Kong Country 3 (NOA for the Super NES); (3) Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (NOA for N64); (4) Donkey Kong Country 2 (NOA for SNES); and (5) Killer Instinct Gold (NOA for N64). In addition, three other Nintendo 64 titles finished in the top 10: Cruis'n USA (NOA) (6), Wave Race 64 (NOA) (8), and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (Midway Games, Inc.) (9). "As with any entertainment, what matters to consumers is the quality of the experience," said Peter Main, executive vice president, sales and marketing for Nintendo of America. "And with the top six selling games -- and 8 of the top 10 -- there's no question that people voted for Nintendo quality this past Christmas." December sales are vital to the video game industry, representing more than a third of total annual revenues. The fully three-dimensional Super Mario 64 has already been hailed by numerous game enthusiast magazines as "game of the year," and Next Generation labeled it the best video game of all time. And the Donkey Kong Country series is widely considered to represent the best 16-bit video games ever created. Sony Computer Entertainment America Unveils Final Fantasy VII FOSTER CITY, CALIF. (Feb. 5) BUSINESS WIRE -Feb. 5, 1997-- Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. today announced the North America release date for Final Fantasy(R)VII, the next installment in one of the most popular video game franchises in history. Designed by the industry's premiere software developer, Square Co. Ltd., and exclusive to the PlayStation(TM) game console, Final Fantasy VII will be available nationwide September 7, 1997 (9-7-97). Featuring seamless 3D gameplay and animation never before experienced in an RPG (role-playing game), Final Fantasy VII contains hundrds of pre-rendered, computer generated backgrounds, with 3D battles scenes, vast map screens, and a complex and engrossing storyline. Final Fantasy VII will be available exclusively for the PlayStation game console on three CDs, making it one of the largest and most richly detailed gaming environments ever created. "In its first weekend, Final Fantasy VII has taken Japan by storm with sales exceeding 2 million units, making it the most successful PlayStation video game release of all time," said Shigeo Maruyama, chairman, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. "We expect to see the same kind of excitement for the title in North America. To that end, Sony Computer Entertainment America will implement an extensive pre-sell program during July and August allowing gamers to reserve their copies of Final Fantasy VII before the official launch date." In December 1996, Sony Computer Entertainment America agreed to a multi-title publishing deal with Square Co. Ltd., allowing the company full North American publishing and distribution rights to Square's PlayStation product line. Along with the rights to publish the revolutionary Final Fantasy VII, Sony Computer Entertainment America has first rights of refusal on four additional PlayStation-exclusive releases, Bushido Blade(TM), Final Fantasy(R)Tactics, SaGa Frontier(TM) and Tobal 2(TM). ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! PEOPLE... ARE TALKING On CompuServe Compiled by Joe Mirando jmirando@streport.com Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Yes, it's that time again. The message bases are looking a bit thin again, but at least there's enough info to make it worthwhile this time. I'm still having problems with CAB, the Atari Web browser. Every once in a while it (or MiNTnet) decides to trash the hard drive partition that they both reside on. Luckily, there is nothing on that partition except for the web browser and MiNTnet files, and I have the original archives on a different partition so all I have to do is extract them, modify them, configure them, and test them, and I'm ready to go. I know, I know, I should get it working and archive THAT so all I'd have to do is extract and run, but since it's not working exactly right yet, I figure that by constantly re- doing the configurations I might discover the root of the problem one of these times. At any rate, once it works flawlessly, I'll make the 'super-archive' available to anyone who wants it. I'll keep you posted as to what I find out. Well, let's take a look at the news, hints, tips, and info available every week right here on CompuServe. From the Atari Computing Forums on CompuServe When Eric Hall asks about how to connect to CIS using an ST and a terminal program, Curt Vendel tells him: "Compuserve works with any ASCII based terminal program, set your program to emulate a VT100 at 7bits Even Parity and your set, you call up and it asks which service you want, type CIS and return, then your compuserve ID and password." Dennis Bishop asks about a problem I've been having a lot recently: "I have D/L'ed COMA_380.ZIP twice and each time STZIP tells me the file is bad. Can the Sysop please check that file? Can anyone send me internets e- mail at starlord@muskrat.com and tell me if there is a FTP point I can get it from?" Our own Classics and Gaming Editor, Dana Jacobson, tells Dennis: "I just checked the Coma file here. As it is, the file cannot be uncompressed. I loaded the ZIP file into a text editor and saw a header in there that didn't belong. Delete everything in the first line that appears in the text editor, up to the "PK" (leave PK in). It will then uncompress (save/rename the "new" file!)." Our buddy Albert Dayes asks Dennis: "What version of ST ZIP are you using? The lastest is v2.6 and is in the library. Have you tried differenet versions of ST ZIP to see if that makes a difference? If the file is an old one UNZIP in the library might work better." Dana tells Albert: "The COMA file has a weird header in it that needs to be removed first. After downloading a number of files from the Internet over the past few months, I've learned to look for such things when STZIP claims the file isn't a ZIP file. 99% of the time, there's a header in the file that doesn't belong there." Carl Barron asks Dana: "Is it a macbinary header?? Do the usual remove macbinary header programs work?" Dana replies: "I don't think that it's a MacBinary header, but there was something there that didn't look right. When you mentioned it wouldn't unZIP, I took a look at the copy that I downloaded but hadn't checked out yet. Mine was bad also, but cleaning out the header did the trick." Sysop Jim Ness posts: "Both WINZIP and PKUNZIP (PC programs) had no problem unZIPing that file. I guess STZIP is less forgiving. PKFIX, a utility to fix problem archives, did see a problem area (it said it was in the directory) and was able to re-archive the results into a slightly smaller file, which STZIP should be able to use. I've uploaded the result, so all should be well now." Michael Lotosky asks for help in uploading a message with the new whiz-bang CIS (I refuse to say "CSI") software: "I am trying to up load a prepared message to the atari forum concerning Atari soft ware and hard ware. I using Compuserve's 3.0.2 with Win 95. In the forum message area I do not see any way that I can send a prepared message. With my old Atari 1040 St it was simple, not now." Sysop Jim jumps in again and tells Michael: "I'd suggest that you create your message in Notepad, then mark and Copy the text, then load CS3 and Paste the text into a new message window." In our continuing message thread about using CAB (Crystal Atari Browser) here on CompuServe, Jerry Coppess tells me: "This is where I am at now. I have a copy of CAB.OVL in the folder with CAB and in the Module folder (just in case). Assuming I am decyphering the docs correctly, if you run CAB too soon before logging in it will not know that you are online. If it does not know that you are online CAB.OVL is not accessed and it tries to get the info from the drives(LOCALHOST). I have no idea why drive b:, I don't have a drive b:. I am fairly sure that I am getting connected now. The modem lights stop flashing. How long are you waiting after this to run CAB? This is what I get in the message file: pppd[7]: Using interface ppp0 pppd[7]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/modem2 pppd[7]: local IP address 199.174.149.223 <29> pppd[7]: remote IP address 206.175.65.47 The speaker does not work on my Supra modem.(That should be reason enough to buy a 33.6/56K modem). When I try to access a web site from the URL,the hotlist or a file I made from the hotlist I get the disk access message and no modem activity. I am definitly not using FILE option [to try to access a site on the web]. Try accessing a website while you are offline. It will load in (or try to) a directory from disk. Checkout the message in the menu bar. I have been trying to use http://www.streport.com. and a couple of others. I'll try again this weekend. Maybe I didn't wait long enough to run CAB. There is some more info I can get from MINT(?) while it is still running, that I forgot to get last time." Actually, Jerry's problem has me stumped. I get the same messages that he gets, and I'm able to get onto the web and happily cruise around. Any ideas anyone? Dick Beebe asks for help for a friend: "A snail mail friend of mine in the UK (I'm in the US) has recently acquired a used Atari ST and is in hopes of being able to use CompuServe. She asked me for advice on what software is needed, and perhaps even what modem as she doesn't have one. I took a look at the some 350 files in your library 2, but being totally unfamiliar with the Atari, quickly decided that wasn't the best route. So, I'm asking for help. What does she need? Her primary interest was e-mail, but after looking over this forum's sections, I'm sure she'd want to join here and visit regularly." Albert Dayes tells Dick: "All one needs is an external modem, serial cable and software. For commercial telecommunications software there is Flash II v3.x and Stalker 3.x. But almost any telecommunications software (there are shareware products in the library like STorm, Freeze Dried Terminal and so forth) that can emulate a VT- 100/VT-52 terminal will work fine. For modems I would suggest the 28.8/33K v.34 external modems. The ST may not be able to handle the highest baud rates but v.34 modems (at least in my experience) connect to many more modems with less problems compared to the older modems. Also since it is external you can use it on any computer you have or get in the future." Sysop Bob Retelle adds: "In addition to the info Albert gave, you may be able to help your friend get started by sending her a floppy disk with a telecommunications program on it (there's always the "Catch 22" problem of how to get a telecom program if you don't already have one...). You can download Atari ST programs with an IBM or Mac style system and then save the programs to an IBM formatted floppy disk (the Atari ST uses almost exactly the same floppy disk format as the IBM), as long as you remember to format the floppy as a *low density* 720K disk. You can also help by uncompressing the files before putting them on the floppy if she doesn't already have a selection of file compression utilities in the Atari format. ZIP files here in our library will unZIP with the normal PKunZIP utilities, and anything with a .LZH file extender will uncompress with LHA.EXE on a PC. That way you can download any of the shareware telecommunications programs Albert recommended from our software library here and send them to your friend to get her started. Or, if she prefers, as Albert also mentioned, there are still a number of commercially available telecommunications programs she may be able to buy locally. Let us know if she has any problems getting onling with her Atari..." Michel Vanhamme adds: "Also, if she's new to CIS, she should probably GO FEEDBACK and ask to be put on Old Mail, since I've heard new members are automatically put on New Mail now..." Kevin Tekel tells Michel: "You can do that yourself... just GO NPX32. (It used to be GO OLDMAIL but they discontinued that.)" Michel replies: "Yep, and from what I've read in another forum, they intend to discontinue NPX32 as well. Apparently they want to have as many people on New Mail as possible, and in the future you would only have access to Old Mail if you have a good reason, not having access to a HMI program being considered a good one." Kevin Tekel asks: "What is the latest version of TOS and GEM for the Atari 520ST? I currently have TOS 1.0 in ROM. (My 520ST has also been upgraded to 1 Mb of memory.)" Albert Dayes tells Kevin: "TOS v1.4 is the easiest to get installed into your 520ST and has quite a few benefits and bug fixes. File access is much improved such as to compatibility with MS-DOS is much better. You can purchase a 3rd party board to allow installation of TOS v2.06 in your 520 ST." Norbert (no last name) asks for help for a family member: "Hi there, first of all I am not an ATARI user and with this note I want to help my godfather who is a 70 years old chap. He recently finished his PhD work on an ATARI ST 1040 FM using the First Word Plus wordprocessor. Now he has to publish his book and the publishers require an IBM compatible file format. As he wrote several hundred pages he asked me if I could help him out. Does some one know a conversion tool to applications like WINWORD or WORD perfect ??? Any help would be appreciated. I think he got a hint from someone but this left problems with the footnotes." Mark Kelling tells Norbert: "Congratulations to your godfather! I think a word processing program called Marcel for the Atari ST line is what you are looking for. It will read in First Word files and can produce RTF output which is readable by Microsoft Word on a PC. The RTF format will keep all special text effects like bold, itallic, etc. You can then save the document in whatever Word format the publisher can accept. There should be a version of Marcel in the Library here you can download. If you want to grab a copy for him, use a 720K IBM PC format disk to download onto. The Atari will read and write to this format disk without problems. Your other option is to save the document from First Word in ASCII text format then import it into Word. You will then have to reinsert any special text effects. Much more work, but still an option!" John Robinson asks: "Does anyone know if there is/will be a Mac version of CALAMUS? I bought MagicMac to run it, (which didn't work), and am now using Quark, which is not as flexible for my purposes." Nathan at MGI tells John: "We do not plan on writing Calamus for the Mac. I figure but the time we managed to finish it, the Mac too would be finished. There are mac emulators that work with the Atari version. Many people own and use them. The rest bought pc's. A few of us still use our TT's et al and an even fewer own the latest T60 machine out of Europe. Personally, I switched to a Pentium and the NT version of Calamus." John replies: "...So you reckon I have chosen another dying platform! I'm in too deep to go Windows at this stage, the version of MagicMac I have certainly doesn't work with Calamus. (the UK distributor blames Calamus). Looks like I will have to persevere with Quark, at least it has the advantage of being the package used by all magazines.- we do adverts to place in glossy mags and so it saves hassle that way. I had hoped with the Mac having 90% (?) of the pro DTP market it could have been on the cards .......Oh well" Richard Rives tells John: "I don't use MagCMac but someone on Genie used it with his Performa. There are a couple of modules that don't work though (SpeedLine is one). Sorry but I don't know more." Nathan comes back and tells John: "Calamus ABSOLUTELY works with the MagicMac! MGI currently does not have a U.K. distributor so I assume you are referring to JCA, who occasionally buys through DMC GmbH out of Germany. There are hundreds of people locally using MagicMac without a problem. All versions of Calamus worked on the MagicMac to some extent and Germany sold a special MagicMac version. Contact your local MagicMac distributor. I'm sure they'll be able to help. If not, let me know and I'll work out something with you from here. The Mac, Quark XPress, Illustrator and PhotoShop definitely owned the lions share of the professional desktop publishing market over the course of the past 4-5 years. But that really is slowly changing now. The large corporations here are buying PC's. PhotoShop and Illustrator have excellent PC versions of their software available. Quark's PC version mostly resembles a Mac product on a pc though. ;-) Regardless, the times they are a changing. ;-) Meanwhile, Calamus definitely works with MagicMac and your Mac is an excellent computer. I have 3 of them here too." Well folks, that's it for this week. Wish me luck with CAB and MiNTnet so that I can send this puppy to whoever wants it. Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING STReport International OnLine Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM AVAILABLE through the Internet and OVER 550,000 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. STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" February 07, 1997 Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1306