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    Plans For The Real Information
Highway 01/19/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON,
U.S.A., 1995 JAN 19 (NB) -- Last
October, the US Department of
Transportation announced a $200
million, seven-year project to
automate driving. Dubbed the National
Automated Highway System Consortium,
the project would be 80 percent
taxpayer funded.

    The idea is that computer-driven
cars would be able to move faster and
be spaced more closely, thus reducing
the need for more roads. Sound crazy?
It might be, according to a recent
report in the Nov. 28, 1994, Business
Week ("Smart Highways, Foolish
Choices," by Christina Del Valle, pp.
143-144).

    The article says many observers
say the project would be too costly
and impractical, and that it would be
better to focus on more achievable
goals. "Critics fear this could be
another field in which the US
pioneers, but others grab the
profits," Del Valle writes. She goes
on to say that one researcher thinks
it might cost $75 billion just to
automate 5,000 miles of roadway.

    Another in-depth look at
automated highways appeared in the
Nov. 1994 issue of Photonics Spectra
("Smart Cars and Smart Highways" by
Mark A. Fischetti, pp. 76-84).
Fischetti reports that the US Federal
Highway Administration forecasts a 50
percent rise in vehicles by 2005 and
is planning to spend $155 billion by
1997 to deal with the situation --
without resorting to additional
highway construction.

    In short, this means coming up
with ways to manage traffic more
intelligently using computers of all
sorts. This solid article explains
how this money is being spent and
what research and development
projects are underway, with a special
emphasis on photonic applications for
the smart highway.

    While some researchers maintain
the only way to deal with highway
crowding is to automate our
automobiles, the formidable
technological problems may not be
solved until 2020 at the earliest,
reports Justin Mullins in the Oct.
15, 1994, issue of New Scientist
("Cars That Drive Themselves," pp.
37-40).

    The technical problems include
designing road sensors and computer-
controlled systems to control
steering, braking, and accelerating.
Then there are the knotty legal
issues, always a concern in a society
teaming with hungry lawyers. And
don't forget the interesting problem
of how to segregate automated from
non-automated cars on future
intelligent roadways. "Drastic means
have been proposed for removing
intruders (from automated highways),
including helicopters wielding
mechanical grabbers and
electromagnetic pulses that bring a
delinquent car to a halt by frying
its electronic circuits," Mullins
writes.

    This story is republished with
permission from the January 1995
Cybernautics Digest, a monthly
summary of reports about converging
information technologies.

    (Contact: Terry Hansen,
Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH
Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave.
N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950;
Fax: [phone]; E-mail:
[e-mail]. US
subscription rate: $24; $2 sample
issue)



   SPA Targets Internet,
International Piracy 01/11/95
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JAN 11
(NB) -- Software Publishers
Association (SPA) says corporate
software piracy in the US was down 23
percent in 1994, but other forms of
piracy became more secretive and
harder to locate. The antipiracy
trade organization said it will focus
on international piracy and,
specifically, piracy on the Internet
during 1995.

    SPA sources said antipiracy hot-
line calls came in last year at a
rate of nearly 30 per day. These tips
led to the SPA taking various types
of action against 447 organizations
and led to 197 audits and lawsuits.
These resulting in the payment of
$2.7 million in penalties during
1994, SPA sources said. The
organization said cumulative receipts
from its continuing antipiracy
campaign came to $14 million so far
at the end of last year.

   SPA said that, of all cases
brought against suspected offenders,
95 percent were corporate cases. Five
of these led to settlements greater
than $100,000, the organization said.
Money from such settlements goes to
fund education programs and future
legal actions, the SPA said, but
declined to name any of the companies
involved.

    The SPA officially estimates
losses to software companies at $1.6
billion annually in the US, and $7.5
billion internationally. It bases its
estimates on the number of computers
sold in an area, the number of
software packages reported sold
legitimately in the same area, and
statistical reports on the number of
key applications run on an average
desktop machine.

    David Trendlay, the SPA's
director of research, told Newsbytes
the underlying assumptions were
reasonable and the resulting
estimates should be considered good.

    Sally Lawrence, the SPA's
director of communications, told
Newsbytes that piracy law violators
have become more active on the
Internet, where they are harder to
track down.

    "We have stepped up our
monitoring on the Internet
dramatically, and are working in
cooperation with major American
universities where some of this
activity is taking place," she said
during an interview. "They've come
across a number of pirate sites
hidden away in unsuspecting host
servers. Right now they're monitoring
those activities with the intention
of prosecuting to the full extent of
the law."

    Lawrence declined to release any
further details, other than to
confirm that the organization's
attentions to the Internet were not
confined to activities in the "found"
specific sites.

    Internationally, the SPA has been
active in France, Great Britain,
Singapore, Ease Asia, South America,
and Canada. It has recently developed
a Certified Software Manager course
that offers certificates upon
completion of a test on copyright
law, licensing issues, and autoing
and software management policies.

    (Craig Menefee/19950111/Press
Contact: Sandra Sellers, director of
litigation, ext. 311, or Sally
Lawrence, director of communications,
ext. 320, both of the Software
Publishers Association, 202-452-1600;
Reader Contact: Piracy Hotline: 800-
388-7478; SPA fax-back service, 800-
637-6823)

    Review of - The Internet Yellow
Pages, a book 01/06/95 From:
Osborne/McGraw-Hill 2600 Tenth St.
Berkeley, CA 94710. Price: $27.95.
PUMA Rating: 3.7 (4=highest,
1=lowest) Reviewed for Newsbytes by:
Ian Stokell 01/06/95

     Summary: Useful reference for
exploring the Internet.

    The biggest problem in using the
Internet, apart from actually
configuring your software and getting
up and running via a direct
connection from an Internet provider
(IP), is figuring out where the good
stuff is found.

    You could flounder around
endlessly, moving from site to site
racking up online time and searching
your life away, or you could sign up
with a few Usenet newsgroups that
correspond to your areas of interest
and get some pointers from other
like-minded Internet users. Or, and
here is the option that I recommend,
you could invest in an Internet
reference book/directory or two.

    The Internet being what it is --
i.e. a sort of living, growing entity
-- any reference book will be far
from definitive. However, reference
books such as "The Internet Yellow
Pages," act as excellent starting
points for exploring the "Net."

    The 450-page book actually lists
thousands of Net resources along with
a separate list of annotated Usenet
newsgroups to which users can
subscribe. Resources in the main body
of the book are listed alphabetically
by subject and include mailing lists,
newsgroups, anonymous FTP (File
Transfer Protocol) sites, Gopher
sites, and Telnet addresses. In
addition, there is a pretty good
index at the back of the book.

   As mentioned, The Internet Yellow
Pages is an excellent starting point
for searching the Internet, unless
you are actually lucky enough to find
a resource straight from the book.
Most mainstream topics have a listing
or two, and for those more
specialized areas, you need to choose
something close to your desired
subject and start poking around.

    Reading through the book you
really get an idea about what an
amazing resource the Internet is, and
how diverse!

    Want something