358 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
358 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS
|
|
B B I T S B B Y Y T E S ONLINE EDITION
|
|
BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS VOL 1, NUMBER 2
|
|
B B I T S B B Y T E S 7/19/93
|
|
BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
The digitization of information in all its forms will probably be
|
|
known as the most fascinating development of the twentieth century.
|
|
(An Wang, founder of Wang Laboratories)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
The Age of Information I
|
|
|
|
What's information really about? It seems to me there's something
|
|
direly wrong with the Information Economy. It's not about data, it's
|
|
about attention. In a few years you may be able to carry the Library
|
|
of Congress around in your hip pocket. So? You're never gonna read the
|
|
Library of Congress. You'll die long before you access one tenth of
|
|
one percent of it. What's important - increasingly important is the
|
|
process by which you figure out what to look at. This is the beginning
|
|
of the real and true economics of information. Not who owns the books,
|
|
who prints the books, who has the holdings. The crux here is access,
|
|
not holdings. And not even access itself, but the signposts that tell
|
|
you what to access - what to pay attention to. In the Information
|
|
Economy everything is plentiful - except attention.
|
|
(Bruce Sterling, cyberpunk science fiction author and futurist)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
The Mother of All Databases
|
|
|
|
It could be the biggest database in the commercial world. United
|
|
Parcel Service (UPS), based in Mahwah, N.J., is running a 2.6 terabyte
|
|
DB2 database, which logs the location of all packages in the U.S. and
|
|
Canada. The database requires over 3 million Dasd cylinders, and is
|
|
supported on an IBM 9021 Model 900 mainframe. DB2 produces over 150
|
|
logs per day. Once, when a disk pack was lost at 11 A.M., it took 38
|
|
hours to recover, said Casey Young, who manages the database for UPS.
|
|
"After we updated our resumes, we decided we were writing too many
|
|
logs," she said. No ad hoc queries to the database are allowed, she
|
|
said. ("UPS Database Reaches 2.6 Terabytes," Software Magazine,
|
|
July 1993, p. 16.)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Computing by Candlelight II
|
|
|
|
... we are seeing the beginning of the end of the $500 to $800 big
|
|
league application software pricing. "If you take advantage of the
|
|
limited time special offer, you can get it for just $99." Frankly,
|
|
anyone who buys a system for $1200 is going to steal the software
|
|
unless you "give it to them" for just $99.
|
|
OK, so what's the big problem here? Why isn't this all just happiness
|
|
and good news? If this story was about TVs and VCRs, it would be --
|
|
but it's not. Our contemporary computers are not pieces of recently
|
|
designed coherent equipment with 30-page owner's manuals printed in
|
|
three languages. The sad and sobering fact is, our current personal
|
|
computers -- the Macintosh included -- are amazingly fragile nightmare
|
|
kludges of delicate interactions that only barely work right most of
|
|
the time. They are fragile. Yeah, so what else is new?
|
|
I'll tell you what I think is new: The amazingly low cost of these new
|
|
systems has virtually removed the barrier to entry for a whole new
|
|
wave of purchasers and users who are utterly unequipped to deal with
|
|
the nightmarish messes and debris we've created. Our technical support
|
|
personnel glibly say to these confused people: "Oh yeah, that again.
|
|
All you have to do is add the line AutoPleaseNoRebootConfirm=1 to the
|
|
[MiscDebris] section of the WOMBAT.INI file in your C:\HIDDEN\THINGS
|
|
directory, OK? Click."
|
|
(Steve Gibson, "The PC Industry's Low-Ball Pricing May Spell Its Own
|
|
Doom," INFOWORLD)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
|
|
Recycle Your Laser Printer Toner Cartridges For Cash
|
|
|
|
Laser-Pro says it will pay $5 and shipping charges for your used laser
|
|
printer toner cartridges and will also pay the shipping on orders for
|
|
remanufactured or new cartridges. The company says it is now selling
|
|
remanufactured laser printer cartridges that do not leak and cost up
|
|
to 20 percent less than new cartridges. Laser-Pro President Jim Ogborn
|
|
says this is a "win-win" situation for customers: "Not only can
|
|
businesses feel good about recycling but they can purchase quality
|
|
printer cartridges for a fraction of the standard retail prices."
|
|
Originally, toner cartridges were designed to be thrown away when the
|
|
toner was used up, and early attempts at re-filling the cartridges
|
|
were less than succesful: the cartridges often leaked toner into the
|
|
machine, making a mess on the paper and sometimes causing mechanical
|
|
damage to the printer. Later attempts were more successful, with
|
|
re-manufacturers disassembling the cartridges and replacing worn
|
|
parts. With a savings of 30% to 40% over the cost of a new cartridge,
|
|
combined with an increased interest in recycling, users have become
|
|
more interested. Laser-Pro says the newest cartridges are better made
|
|
and reduce the need to cannibalize old cartridges for parts.
|
|
(contact: Laser-Pro, 800-377-0551 or 708-893-1888)
|
|
============
|
|
Egghead Software has just begun a similar program. Contact them for
|
|
details. (Egghead Software, 1-800-526-7344)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
PC Phone Home
|
|
|
|
Plan on hearing more from your friends and co-workers starting in
|
|
1994. A proposed standard for adding voice telephony to Windows was
|
|
announced by Microsoft and Intel. Expect telephony features to appear
|
|
in word processors, spreadsheets, and communications and fax software.
|
|
For example, Delrina may add features such as voice cover sheets and
|
|
turbocharged answering machine functions to its Winfax fax software.
|
|
(PC World News Monitor, July '93)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Turbulent Times For PC Stocks
|
|
|
|
With the personal computer industry already in turmoil, investors are
|
|
bracing for more bad news after deeply disappointing earnings at Apple
|
|
Computer Inc. and a warning from Dell Computer Corp that their
|
|
earnings will be down. The Dow Jones industrial average was off 22.64
|
|
at 3,528.29. Big Board volume was 277 million shares for the week
|
|
closing July 16. Industry analysts say they will be scrutinizing other
|
|
earnings reports for any hint of a slowdown in the heady demand that
|
|
has fueled the explosive growth in PC sales over the past year.
|
|
"Industry growth rates and shipments are going to decelerate," said
|
|
Sanjiv Hingorani of Nomura Research, adding that "the current state of
|
|
the PC industry is similar to 1984, when it also experienced a pickup
|
|
in demand after coming out of an economic downturn." The price wars
|
|
that have benefited computer buyers over the past year have reduced
|
|
many companies profit margins to dangerously low levels. Analysts said
|
|
that as profits continue to fall, consolidation among PC firms will
|
|
continue, such as AST Research's recent deal to purchase Tandy Corp.'s
|
|
computer operations. Oddly enough, one PC maker that may be in a good
|
|
position to deal with the industry flux is IBM, which streamlined its
|
|
PC business last fall. (sources: AP, Reuters)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
The Internet - It's Not Just For Nerds Anymore
|
|
|
|
"It works, it's cheap, and it's ubiquitous." That's why commercial
|
|
users are increasingly interested in the Internet, says Martin
|
|
Schoffstall, VP and chief technical officer for PSI, an internet
|
|
connectivity provider. The network, long considered a haven for the
|
|
scientifically oriented, is drawing the attention of corporate
|
|
America. Currently, there are an estimated 12 million people worldwide
|
|
using the Internet every day, and those numbers are projected to grow
|
|
well into the next decade. Bits and Bytes will featuring a series of
|
|
articles on Internet basics in upcoming issues.
|
|
("Not Just For Nerds," Information Week, 7/12/93, p. 16.)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Megatrends or Megamistakes?
|
|
|
|
One major problem is that of "information overload" or so-called
|
|
"infoglut." This arises because modern society generates so much new
|
|
information that we are overwhelmed by it all and become unable to
|
|
distinguish between what is useful and what is not-so-useful. In
|
|
essence, it is a problem of not being able to see the wood for the
|
|
trees. For example, 14,000 book publishers in the US release onto the
|
|
market 50,000 new titles every year. There are now at least 40,000
|
|
scientific journals publishing more than 1 million new papers each
|
|
year -- that's nearly 3,000 per day -- and the scientific literature
|
|
is doubling every 10-15 years. Clearly, it is impossible for any one
|
|
individual to keep up with the literature, except for very small
|
|
areas. The book and research paper explosion has been assisted by the
|
|
"publish or perish" ethic in academia, which encourages the production
|
|
of mediocre, repetitive and largely useless work. It also creates a
|
|
serious headache for cash-strapped libraries.
|
|
===
|
|
Improvements in IT enable us to gather, store and transmit information
|
|
in vast quantity, but not to interpret it. But what are we going to
|
|
*do* with all that information? We have plenty of information
|
|
technology -- what is perhaps needed now is more intelligence
|
|
technology, to help us make sense of the growing volume of information
|
|
stored in the form of statistical data, documents, messages, and so
|
|
on. For example, not many people know that the infamous hole in the
|
|
ozone layer remained undetected for seven years as a result of
|
|
infoglut. The hole had in fact been identified by a US weather
|
|
satellite in 1979, but nobody realized this at the time because the
|
|
information was buried -- along with 3 million other unread tapes --
|
|
in the archives of the National Records Centre in Washington DC. It
|
|
was only when British scientists were analyzing the data much later
|
|
in 1986 that the hole in the ozone was first "discovered."
|
|
===
|
|
Perhaps the time has come for a major reassessment of our relationship
|
|
to technology, especially the new information and communication
|
|
technologies. After all, haven't manufacturers belatedly discovered
|
|
that expensive high-tech solutions are not always appropriate for
|
|
production problems, that robots are more troublesome than people and
|
|
that the most "flexible manufacturing system" available to them is
|
|
something called a human operator? Didn't one study of a government
|
|
department conclude that the only databases worth accessing were those
|
|
carried around in the heads of long-serving employees? And is it not
|
|
the case that the most sophisticated communication technology
|
|
available to us is still something called speaking to each other? One
|
|
conclusion to be drawn from this is that technological advances in
|
|
computing seem to have outpaced our ability to make use of them.
|
|
(Tom Forrester, Opening Address to International Conference on the
|
|
Information Society, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute / Green Meadow
|
|
Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, 11/18/91)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
French Visa Smart Card Network Crashes
|
|
|
|
Just imagine it's the weekend, and you've decided on a last minute
|
|
trip to the shore. You're a little low on cash, so you pull in to your
|
|
local neighborhood automated teller machine (ATM). You put your card
|
|
in and - nothing happens. Well, that's what happened in France on the
|
|
weekend of June 26, when 40% of the French banking network's capacity
|
|
was knocked out for 28 hours. Cardholders were left without cash from
|
|
ATMs, while restaurant-goers and shoppers were faced with the prospect
|
|
of owing money when their cards were rejected. An estimated 6 million
|
|
bankcard users were affected. The problem hit the French particularly
|
|
hard, since the Carte Blue smart card is widely accepted in France,
|
|
acting as a checkbook, debit card and credit card all in one. As a
|
|
result, many French rely totally on their Visa smart card for all
|
|
banking transactions. The problem stemmed from a single cut in
|
|
communications between their central computers and the banking control
|
|
center. (Sources: Information Week 7/5/93, Newsbytes 7/13/93)
|
|
=====================================================================
|
|
Meanwhile, Back in Hollywood...
|
|
|
|
The agonies filmmakers have suffered as their work is chopped, tinted,
|
|
And compressed are nothing compared to what technology has in store...
|
|
Unless the United States achieves uniformity with the rest of the
|
|
world in the protection of our motion picture creations, we may live
|
|
to see them recast with stars we never directed, uttering dialog we
|
|
never wrote, all in support of goals and masters we never imagined we
|
|
would serve.
|
|
(Star Wars director George Lucas, 1991)
|
|
============
|
|
On the other hand, old George is not above making a buck in the
|
|
computer software field. It was recently announced that producer and
|
|
director Steven Speilberg (ET, Jurassic Park) has joined forces with
|
|
entertainment production giant LucasArts to create The Dig, billed as
|
|
a "dangerous, deep space computer adventure." The hugely successful
|
|
filmmaker, who's also a noted computer games enthusiast, says he's had
|
|
the futuristic story in his head for years," and I thought it would
|
|
make a better game than a film."
|
|
("Computer Games," Information Week, June 7, 1993, p. 10)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
ACCESS: U.S. Government Online, part 2
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
***US Government Run Bulletin Board Systems***
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of listings of some of
|
|
the bulletin boards run by various government agencies. Dial in and
|
|
watch your tax dollars at work. Note that while most of these BBSes
|
|
are free, some do charge a fee for their services. These are denoted
|
|
by dollar signs. Some boards have separate numbers depending on what
|
|
baud rate your modem is capable of supporting. Where this is the case
|
|
the baud rate is given in parenthesis before the number. For those of
|
|
us concerned about our long distance phone bills, the state is given
|
|
in parenthesis after the number. While we're on the subject, an
|
|
upcoming ACCESS column will list some low(er) cost alternatives for
|
|
those of us who wish to explore the BBS scene without going broke. :-)
|
|
|
|
AGRICULTURE ****************
|
|
Human Nutrition Information Service BBS - Voice Number: 301-436-8491
|
|
(2400) 301-436-5078 (MD)
|
|
- Run by the Department of Agriculture.
|
|
- Covers topics related to food and nutrition research. Databases and
|
|
conferences.
|
|
|
|
ECONOMICS ********************
|
|
Department of Census/ Bureau of Economic Analysis Electronic Forum
|
|
(2400) 301/763-7554 (MD) - (9600) 301/763-1568 (MD)
|
|
- Run by the Department of Commerce.
|
|
- Contains a *lot* of business and industry information. Manufacturing
|
|
shipments, inventories, orders, plant expenditures, TIGER street
|
|
indices, CDROM information, housing and 1990 census data. Files
|
|
include foreign and domestic trade data, country business policies,
|
|
state ratings, population estimates. Also press releases. A goldmine
|
|
of information for large businesses and small entrepreneurs alike.
|
|
|
|
Economic Bulletin Board ($$$)
|
|
(2400) 202/482-3870 (DC) - (9600) 202/482-2584 (DC)
|
|
- Run by the Department of Commerce.
|
|
- $35/year plus 5-20 cents per minute (2400 baud) and $100/year plus
|
|
50 cents per minute (9600 baud).
|
|
- Use GUEST as password to browse. This board contains press releases
|
|
from the BEA (see above), Federal Reserve, Bureau of Labor
|
|
Statistics, and others.
|
|
|
|
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data BBS)
|
|
(9600) 314/621-1824 (MS)
|
|
- Run by Federal Reserve system.
|
|
- Contains information on banking, interest rates and the economy.
|
|
|
|
KIMBERLY
|
|
- Run by 9th District of the Federal Reserve Bank.
|
|
- *Daily* financial data for the nation. Forecasts, securities auction
|
|
results, bank directories, Federal Reserve information, money facts,
|
|
and consumer finance statistics. Online publications include the
|
|
Fedgazette newspaper, and banking-related magazine articles.
|
|
|
|
Labor News
|
|
(2400) 800/597-1221 or 202/219-4784 (DC)
|
|
- Run by Department of Labor
|
|
- Labor statistics, acts of congress relating to labor laws, testimony
|
|
and speeches, indexes and trade data from a variety of labor related
|
|
agencies.
|
|
|
|
ENVIRONMENT************************
|
|
EPA BBS
|
|
(9600) 919/541-5742 (NC)
|
|
- Run by the Environmental Protection Agency
|
|
- This number is the master gateway to 10 different EPA BBSes, most of
|
|
which are only available through this number.
|
|
|
|
FEMA Hazardous Materials Information Exchange
|
|
(9600) 708/972-3275 (IL)
|
|
- Run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
|
|
- Information and educational materials on hazmats. Chemical
|
|
databases. FEMA and DOT publications.
|
|
|
|
PPIES/PPIC/ICPIC
|
|
(2400) 703/506-1025 (VA)
|
|
- Run by the Environmental Protection Agency
|
|
- PPIES (Pollution Prevention Information Exchange System). Contains
|
|
a calendar of events, program summaries from the Federal, state, and
|
|
corporate level. Case studies and general publication references.
|
|
- PPIC (Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse). Contains
|
|
documents and booklets on waste reduction, aimed at both individuals
|
|
and businesses.
|
|
- ICPIC is like PPIC but here the focus is global. Ozone information,
|
|
and databases of phase-out chemical data and specific pollutant data
|
|
as well.
|
|
(sources: Online Access BBS Edition, August '93, Boardwatch Magazine,
|
|
April '93, Bob Breedlove's USBBS list)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Bits and Bytes Bookshelf
|
|
|
|
Business Dictionary of Computers (3rd Edition) by Jerry M. Rosenberg
|
|
[John Wiley & Sons. 403 pages. $39.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper)]
|
|
- Over 7500 computer terms running the gamut of IT-related topics
|
|
|
|
The Children's Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer
|
|
by Seymor Papert [Basic Books. 225 pages. $22.50
|
|
- Papert, a professor at MIT and the creator of LOGO, a programming
|
|
language for children "convincingly explains why the first computer
|
|
revolution in U.S. Schools failed" and offers his ideas for a second
|
|
one that may succeed and hopefully end the decline in our nations
|
|
educational system.
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
High Tech Dumpster Diving
|
|
|
|
Up to his waist in mustard, cigarette butts, cardboard and foam
|
|
rubber, Bob Kaiser and others in his group, Essential Elements, plumb
|
|
the depths of corporate dumpsters throughout Silicon Valley in search
|
|
of gold-plated integrated circuits, reusable computer parts, and
|
|
unopened packages of MS-DOS 5.0. High-tech dumpster divers can make as
|
|
much as $1,000 a week.
|
|
(Tom Schmitz, "High-Tech Scroungers Going For The Gold," San Jose
|
|
Mercury News, 7/6/93, p 1A)
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
Bits and Bytes Online is a weekly electronic newsletter.
|
|
Email Subscriptions are available at no cost from slakmaster@aol.com
|
|
or jmachado@pacs.pha.pa.us. Put "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject header. To
|
|
unsubscribe, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject header.
|
|
Questions and comments are welcome at any address. If you come across
|
|
anything you think should be included here, please pass it on! Send
|
|
long postings to the pacs address. If you need to reach me on paper,
|
|
my snailmail address ===============================================
|
|
follows: = (Copyleft 1993 Jay Machado) *UNALTERED* =
|
|
Jay Machado = electronic distribution of this file for =
|
|
1529 Dogwood Drive = non-profit purposes is encouraged. =
|
|
Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 = The opinions expressed herein do not =
|
|
ph (eve) 609/795-6048 = do not necesarily represent anyone's =
|
|
= actual opinion. Your mileage may vary. =
|
|
=============== end of Bits and Bytes Online V1, #2.==================
|
|
|