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Topics of the day:

  1. EDUPAGE> Edupage, 21 April 1996

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Date:    Sun, 21 Apr 1996 21:34:29 -0500
From:    Gleason Sackman <[e-mail]>
Subject: EDUPAGE> Edupage, 21 April 1996

Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 18:18:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Edupage Editors <[e-mail]>
To: "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Edupage, 21 April 1996

*****************************************************************
Edupage, 21 April 1996.  Edupage, a summary of news items on information
technology, is provided three times each week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
*****************************************************************

TOP STORIES
        Bell Atlantic And Nynex Merger Actions
        Compuserve Opens Bidding At $30 A Share
        Cheyenne-Mcafee Feud Gets Nasty
        Gov't Technology Acquisition Plan Criticized
        True Plug And Play Is On The Way

ALSO
        Bell Launches New Business Data Service
        Spectrum Of Opinion
        100,000,000 Mice Served
        Bank Backs Internet Credit Card Purchases
        Voter Registration On The Web
        Leary Talks Of Suicide On The Net

BELL ATLANTIC AND NYNEX MERGER ACTIONS
Bell Atlantic's board has approved a merger with Nynex, and Nynex's okay is
expected today, for a Monday announcement of plans for a combined
corporation that would be the second-largest phone company in the U.S.
(after AT&T).  After the one-year merger process, Bell Atlantic's Ray Smith
will be CEO of the new corporation for one year, and will then step down to
be replaced by Nynex Chairman Ivan G. Seidenberg.  (New York Times 20 Apr
96 p19;  21 Apr 96 p12)

COMPUSERVE OPENS BIDDING AT $30 A SHARE
CompuServe, the second largest commercial online service, is going public,
hoping to capitalize on the Internet frenzy that's characterized IPOs such
as Netscape's and Yahoo!'s.  It's priced its initial offering at $30 a
share for 16 million shares, which will raise $454 million for CompuServe's
parent company, H&R Block.  Some analysts doubt that CompuServe's offering
will generate the same excitement as some of the purely Internet offerings,
however.  "The climate is certainly not optimal.  CompuServe blew it by a
few months on the timing," says one investment analyst.  High-tech
investors will be watching the stock market's reaction closely, looking for
a benchmark by which the value of competitors America Online and Prodigy
can be judged.  (Wall Street Journal 19 Apr 96 B6)

CHEYENNE-MCAFEE FEUD GETS NASTY
Cheyenne Software, the target of what has turned into a hostile takeover
attempt by McAfee Associates, has filed suit against McAfee and its
chairman William Lawson.  The suit accuses Lawson of making false and
misleading statements about Cheyenne in order to influence the trading of
Cheyenne stock.  The companies have been feuding since last Monday, when
Cheyenne rejected McAfee's buyout offer of $27.50 a share.  McAfee said it
had no immediate comment on the suit.  (Investor's Business Daily 19 Apr 96
A19)

GOV'T TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION PLAN CRITICIZED
After repealing in February the discredited 1965 Brooks Act, which dictated
that all computer purchases must be made through the General Services
Administration via a lengthy competitive process, President Clinton's new
plan for government technology acquisition goes too far in the other
direction, say some critics.  The new rules require big systems to be
dissected into small independent chunks, allowing easier upgrades to the
latest technology.  In addition, under the new rules agencies must analyze
and redesign operations before they invest in systems to automate them.
Senator William Cohen (Maine-D), who sponsored the legislation, estimates
the new system could save up to $175 billion over five years, but a former
CIO for Xerox, Kraft and General Foods disagrees:  "Treating each systems
acquisition as a separate solution has resulted in thousands of
unintegrated, hard-to-maintain, impossible-to-manage, contractor-dependent
islands of automation....  This act may succeed in eliminating much of the
existing regulatory chaos of acquisition only to become saddled with a more
costly chaos of operations."  (Scientific American May 96 p30)

TRUE PLUG AND PLAY IS ON THE WAY
The Universal Serial Bus, which is being promoted by a group of companies
led by Intel, theoretically will allow simple connections to as many as 127
computer peripheral devices using a single type of connector.  Beginning
later this year, Intel will incorporate USB connectors into many of its
motherboards, providing a de facto standard for about half of all PCs sold.
The new format will enable much faster performance and will allow add-ons
to hook into each other, eliminating the snarl of cables and wires that
lurks behind most PCs today.  Of course the computer industry never agrees
unanimously on anything, so a competing standard, called IEEE 1394, is
being developed to perform similar functions, and is likely to be available
in PCs sometime next year.  Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have demonstrated
"sealed-box" prototypes that sport both types of connections.  (Business
Week 22 Apr 96 p22)

==================================================

BELL LAUNCHES NEW BUSINESS DATA SERVICE
Ball Canada launched an electronic service that will allow businesses to
set up private networks between customers and suppliers to order goods on
the Internet.  The service, dubbed "Tactik," is based on the electronic
data interchange (EDI) standard that allows businesses around the world to
use the same set of electronic forms for computer-based transactions.
(Toronto Financial Post 19 Apr 96 p6)

SPECTRUM OF OPINION
Technology pundits George Gilder, Nicholas Negroponte, and Peter Huber told
a Senate Commerce Subcommittee on spectrum policy that broadcasters have
contributed to a shortage of spectrum space, with Gilder and Negroponte
maintaining that spectrum  should be used for mobile technologies, because
analog broadcasting is obsolete..  Gilder is opposed to auctioning (which
he sees as "a tax on innovation") whereas Huber thinks auctions are the
most efficient means of spectrum allocation.  Janice Obuchowski, a former
NTIA administrator, told the subcommittee that eliminating entrenched
interests in occupying spectrum is as much a political as a technical one.
(Communications Daily 19 Apr 96)

100,000,000 MICE SERVED
The mouse has made its mark -- since its invention in 1963 by Douglas
Engelbart, the computer mouse has transformed the way that most people
interact with their machines.  Logitech, which claims 40% of the worldwide
mouse market, has just rolled the 100-millionth mouse off its SuzHou, China
production line.  Engelbart, who also pioneered the ideas of windows and
hypertext, says, "For one company to reach such a milestone means that
users have understood the benefits of interacting with their computers
using a tool that matches the way their sensory and motion machinery work."
(Information Week 15 Apr 96 p12)

BANK BACKS INTERNET CREDIT CARD PURCHASES
The Bank of Montreal has become the first major Canadian bank to fully
support Visa and MasterCard purchases over the Internet.  An Internet-based
business, Internet Liquidators, has met the bank's criteria for providing
the necessary security to facilitate the transaction, but there's no one
else in line. The bank requires online vendors to adhere to the Netscape's
transaction protocol, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and to have "firewall"
software to block Internet surfers from gaining access to an organization's
internal computer system through its Internet connection.  (Toronto Globe &
Mail 19 Apr 96 B13)

VOTER REGISTRATION ON THE WEB
MCI and Rock The Vote are making it possible for people to use the World
Wide Web to submit voter registrations for their home state and receive
back a pre-stamped, addressed and completed voter registration form for
mailing. Site is < http://netvote96.mci.com/ >.  (Atlanta Journal
Constitution 19 Apr 96)

LEARY TALKS OF SUICIDE ON THE NET
Cancer-stricken Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist who became famous
in the 1960s for advocate the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, says
he is "very involved in the high tech of dying" and is "actively exploring"
the idea of committing suicide in front of a camera that would transmit the
event over the Internet.  (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 19 Apr 96 A4)

Edupage is written by John Gehl ([e-mail]) & Suzanne Douglas
([e-mail]).  Voice:  404-371-1853, Fax: [phone].

Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

***************************************************************
Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading.  To subscribe to Edupage:
send mail to: [e-mail] with the message:  subscribe edupage
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mail to [e-mail].)

Educom Review ... is our bimonthly print magazine on information technology
and education.  Subscriptions are $18 a year in the U.S.;  send mail to
[e-mail].  When you do, we'll ring a little bell, because we'll be
so happy!  Choice of bell is yours:  a small dome with a button, like the
one on the counter at the dry cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for
service"; or a small hand bell; or a cathedral bell;  or a door bell; or a
chime;  or a glockenspiel.  Your choice.  But ring it!

Educom Update ...  is our twice-a-month electronic summary of organizational
news and events. To subscribe, send mail to: [e-mail] with
the message:  subscribe update William Blackstone (if your name is William
Blackstone;  otherwise, substitute your own name).

Archives & Translations ...  Edupage is translated into Chinese, French,
German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian, and
Spanish.  For translations and archives, see  < http://www.educom.edu/ >.
Or send mail to [e-mail] for info on subscribing to any
of these translations.

Honorary Subscribers ... Today's honorary subscribers are Grotius, the
Dutch jurist and statesman (1583-1645) who wrote on international law in
"On the Law of War and Peace";  and Blackstone (1723-1780), the English
jurist who wrote the  "Commentaries on the Laws of England."

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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
*******************************************************************

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End of NEWSLTR Digest - 19 Apr 1996 to 21 Apr 1996
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