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1994-08-22
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From diderot@hitl.washington.edu Sun Aug 21 12:42:57 1994
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Subject: Edupage 8/18/94
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************************************************************************
Edupage, a summary of news items on information technology, is provided
three times each week as a service by Educom -- a consortium of leading
colleges and universities seeking to transform education through the use of
information technology.
************************************************************************
TOP STORIES
Internet Backbone Set For Techno-Overhaul
Drake Gets Power Macs
Telemedicine Faces Obstacles
Compaq Puts Warnings On Keyboards
Sega Plans 50 High-Tech Theme Parks
Pacific Telesis Skips Trial For Interactive Services
IBM Plans Electronic Software Delivery
MCI Offers Local Service In Illinois
Ferraris Or Edsels On The I-Way?
America Online To Compete With The Internet
ALSO
PCs Poised To Polish Off The Apples In Education
Getting Down To Business With CD-ROM
Information Detectives
Microsoft And AT&T Push Windows NT
Fungus-Resistant Indestructible Computer
AT&T Offers Notebooks And Multimedia Computers
Tax Man Encourages Electronic Filing
Virtual Offices Can Create Real Problems
K-III And Reed Elsevier Eye Ziff
Paper In The Paperless Office
Software Sales Statistics
Virtual Distractions
INTERNET BACKBONE SET FOR TECHNO-OVERHAUL
The old NSFNet, the backbone of the Internet, will be taken out of
commission this month as new equipment is phased in. Some users fear the
changeover could cause technical glitches, but business users are hopeful
that many of the stringent limits on advertising will not apply as forcibly
on the new network. (The Internet Letter 8/1/94)
DRAKE GETS POWER MACS
Drake University is leasing $3 million worth of Apple Power
Macintoshes, its fourth generation of computers. The school has spent $15
million on campus computers since 1987. (Wall Street Journal 8/18/94 A1)
TELEMEDICINE FACES OBSTACLES
The use of digital compression to send high-quality video images
from rural areas to big-city hospitals for diagnosis has been instrumental
in bringing specialized care to rural America. But support for telemedicine
is far from universal, and doctors trained in conventional diagnostic
methods are uncomfortable with the high-tech approach. In addition, fewer
than 1,000 genuine teleconsultations were performed in North America last
year, resulting in a lack of data on the subject. Finally the
cost-effectiveness of equipping telemedical centers has yet to be proven,
and the licensing and reimbursement issues involved in performing medicine
across state and national borders must be resolved. (Investor's Business
Daily 8/17/94 A4)
COMPAQ PUTS WARNINGS ON KEYBOARDS
In response to concerns over repetitive stress injuries, Compaq
Computer will begin placing warning labels on its keyboards urging users to
read their booklet on safety and comfort guidelines for using the machines.
Earlier this year, Compaq won what was believed to be the first jury
verdict in a case attempting to link keyboard use to wrist injuries. (Wall
Street Journal 8/17/94 B6)
SEGA PLANS 50 HIGH-TECH THEME PARKS
Building on the success of its two high-tech theme parks in Japan,
Sega Enterprises plans to open up to 50 similar parks in the U.S. by the
end of the century. The company says it already has 40 to 50 proposals for
partnerships to build the parks. (Miami Herald 8/17/94 C3)
PACIFIC TELESIS SKIPS TRIAL FOR INTERACTIVE SERVICES
Pacific Telesis Group has decided to forego the trial stage and
will move directly into commercial deployment of its interactive video
network in California. The company cited the looming prospect of
competition from cable in the local phone market as the impetus for jumping
the gun on its planned $16 billion statewide network. (Wall Street Journal
8/17/94 B6)
IBM PLANS ELECTRONIC SOFTWARE DELIVERY
IBM is planning a service that will allow customers to order,
receive and distribute software over its IBM Global Network. The company is
also looking into delivering software through online services such as
Prodigy, the Internet, and through advanced digital satellite technology.
(Investor's Business Daily 8/17/94 A7)
MCI OFFERS LOCAL SERVICE IN ILLINOIS
MCI's plan to offer local phone service in Illinois is quite
different from Ameritech's. Ameritech had asked the state's commerce
commission for permission to open the Illinois market to competition in
exchange for the right to enter the long-distance market; MCI says
Ameritech's proposals would actually impede local competition. Ameritech's
plan would make customers change phone numbers if they switched providers;
MCI wants to let them keep the same numbers. MCI also disputes Ameritech's
formula for charging MCI for calls across Ameritech lines. (New York Times
8/18/94 C1)
FERRARIS OR EDSELS ON THE I-WAY?
A Wall Street Journal editorial deplores the over-regulation
contained in S. 1822, sponsored by Sen. Fritz Hollings, and comes out in
favor of a draft bill being circulated by Sen. Bob Dole. On the Hollings
bill: "The worst restrictions have to do with `universal service,' which is
so generously defined that companies may be forced to provide
video-on-demand and other entertainment options free to impoverished
customers." On the Dole bill: "His draft legislation would even repeal the
1992 Cable Act. Such sweeping deregulation is surely the only way the I-Way
is likely to get built." (Wall Street Journal 8/17/94 A12)
AMERICA ONLINE TO COMPETE WITH THE INTERNET
America Online has formed an alliance with publishing giant Simon &
Schuster to form the "College Online" interactive computer service which
would seek to become a commercial alternative to the Internet. AOL also
announced that its subscriber base has passed the 1-million mark. (New York
Times 8/17/94 C4)
========================================================================
PCs POISED TO POLISH OFF THE APPLES IN EDUCATION
As schools step up spending to replace the discontinued Apple IIs
that constitute almost half of all their computers, IBM and Compaq are
poised to do battle for Apple's core education market. They point out that
students should be trained on the type of computer that they will most
likely find in the working world, which is 85% IBM-compatible. "The Apple
mind-set among educators is beginning to dissipate," says an Arizona school
district official. It's estimated that primary and secondary schools will
spend around $2.5 billion on computer hardware this year, and that spending
will increase by 12% to 14% per year. (Wall Street Journal 8/18/94 B1)
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS WITH CD-ROM
Corporations that previously looked on CD-ROMs as storage
mechanisms only are now experimenting with the technology for presentations
and multimedia spreadsheets. Last year, business and government accounted
for half the purchases in CD-ROM multimedia applications. Market
penetration is still a problem, however, with only 2.7 million of the 39
million PCs currently installed in business and government equipped with
CD-ROM drives. (Investor's Business Daily 8/18/84 A4)
INFORMATION DETECTIVES
A new breed of high-tech detectives are selling their skills in
negotiating computerized databases to help you answer questions such as:
is your nanny a dangerous driver?...has your home builder ever filed for
bankruptcy?...has your new employee really earned the credentials on his
resume? One such group is the Detective Information Network in Annandale,
Virginia, which bills callers $4 an hour for consultation. (New York Times
8/18/94 C1)
MICROSOFT AND AT&T PUSH WINDOWS NT
Microsoft and AT&T want to make the Windows NT operating system an
industry standard for large-scale computer jobs. AT&T says it will add
several mainframe-class features to Windows NT by the end of 1995,
including high-speed transaction processing and so-called high-availability
technology for minimizing breakdowns. A new version of Windows NT is due
out in October, and is expected to be twice as fast as the original version
while using 25% less memory. (Wall Street Journal 8/18/94 B6)
FUNGUS-RESISTANT INDESTRUCTIBLE COMPUTER
Group Technologies has come out with the Badger, a 6.5-pound
notebook computer designed to resist rain, extreme temperatures and even
fungus. The Badger is aimed at the military, law enforcement, utility
workers and other mobile employees. (Tampa Tribune 8/17/94 B&F 8)
AT&T OFFERS NOTEBOOKS AND MULTIMEDIA COMPUTERS
AT&T is coming out with lightweight notebooks and multimedia
computers aimed for the mobile professional and small-office market. (New
York Times 8/17/94 C3)
TAX MAN ENCOURAGES ELECTRONIC FILING
To encourage employers to file workers' statements of earnings
electronically, the Canadian revenue service is offering free copies of
self-mailing slips for the 1994 tax year that will save companies the
expense of buying envelopes and eliminate the cost of manually separating
slips from carbons and distributing them. (Ottawa Citizen 8/17/94 D12)
VIRTUAL OFFICES CAN CREATE REAL PROBLEMS
As companies take advantage of new technologies to move workers
into "virtual offices," they're running into some very real problems,
including low morale and employee burnout. An office in the home means that
there is no clearly defined end to the workday, and one Compaq vice
president worries about getting her staff to stop sending faxes in the
middle of the night. "People are now thinking and working on the job 12 to
18 hours a day," she says. Employees who are forced into telecommuting also
sometimes feel taken advantage of. "Everybody feels that having an office
in their home is kind of a sacrifice for the company," says a manufacturer
service rep. (Wall Street Journal 8/17/94 B1)
K-III AND REED ELSEVIER EYE ZIFF
K-III Communications and Reed Elsevier are considering acquiring
parts, but not all, of Ziff Communications, which is up for sale to the
highest bidder. The Ziff family is hoping to get $2 billion to $3 billion
for the high-tech publishing empire and would strongly prefer to hand over
the company intact rather than auction it off piecemeal. (Wall Street
Journal 8/17/94 B5)
PAPER IN THE PAPERLESS OFFICE
50% of respondents to a survey by Pitney-Bowes said that computers
create more paper flow than non-computerized offices as users continue to
send paperless memos and reports straight to the nearest printer. (Ottawa
Citizen 8/17/94 A5)
SOFTWARE SALES STATISTICS
First quarter sales figures from the Software Publishers
Association indicate that compared to first quarter a year ago sales of
programs written for Windows are up 42.9%, for DOS down by 32.3, for
Macintosh up 17%. Overall, the biggest jump in a program category was home
education software, up 127%; next was entertainment software, up 57%.
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution 8/18/94 E2)
VIRTUAL DISTRACTIONS
Dentists are using Virtual Vision Rx goggles to divert patients'
attention while in the chair. The goggles come with headphones, and are
hooked up to a tuner and VCR so patients can watch relaxing videos and
listen to music. One dentist notes he hasn't had to sedate as many patients
since he started using the goggles: "It takes patients to a different
place. You leave the room and your mouth stays there." Some patients prefer
the combination of a computer-generated space graphics video and nitrous
oxide: "It's kind of like a mild trip for them." (Miami Herald 8/18/94 C1)
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