349 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
349 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
BBB III TTT SSS BBB Y Y TTT EEE SSS
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B B I T S B B Y Y T E S ONLINE EDITION
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BBB I T SSS AND BBB YYY T EEE SSS VOL 1, NUMBER 3
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B B I T S B B Y T E S 7/26/93
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BBB III T SSS BBB Y T EEE SSS
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======================================================================
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Scientists believe that the universe is made of hydrogen because they
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claim it's the most plentiful ingredient. I claim the most plentiful
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ingredient is stupidity. - Frank Zappa, 1993
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======================================================================
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What's On The Tube Tonight, HAL?
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Imagine if while you were at work today, your TV set was busy working
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for you. First, it checks a list of your viewing preferences, then it
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sifts through thousands of shows and records several programs it
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thinks you might like to watch tonight. Sound like science fiction?
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Well, think again - this new technology is coming to a TV set near you
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this fall. One of B&B's primary focuses is the growing interaction
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between computers, phones, cable TV and just about any other gizmo you
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can think of. This "electronic TV Guide" is an early indicator of
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things to come. With it, a viewer can push a button and order their TV
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to find, preview and record any show. "Truly, this is the first
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interactive TV," says Brian Klosterman, a senior vice president at
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StarSight Inc., which will offer the electronic guide this fall. If
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successful, these guides portend big changes in how you use your TV -
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and how your TV uses you. ... "Channels become irrelevant in a world
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where viewers shop only for those shows that interest them," says T.
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Gary Trimm, president of Scientific-Atlanta's broadband communications
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group, which makes the cable boxes that use the new technology. And as
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viewers shop for programming, big brother will be watching, and taking
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careful note. Two-way TV opens up the potential for the ultimate in
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direct marketing, with advertisers able to reach, say, every Hispanic
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woman between the ages of 18 and 24 (something B&B has also been
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trying to do :-). "It's another step toward losing our ability to live
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anonymously," warns Les Brown, a media scholar at the New York-based
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Center for Media Studies. ... The StarSight system is intelligent
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enough to keep track of what you like to watch. Using your
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preferences, it can scan through all 7,000-12,000 shows on any given
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week and flag or record programming for you. However, this powerful
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feature will be kept turned off in its first products, since some
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consumers in test marketing complained that they felt like their TVs
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were 'spying on them'. Other features: While watching one show, you
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can bring up a list of what's playing elsewhere. You can preview any
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show without changing channels. Shows can also be grouped by type,
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listing all the sci-fi movies, baseball games, or swimsuit specials on
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today, this week or this month. And best of all, you can program your
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television to record a show without setting your VCR. Joy!
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(Source: Charles Haddad, Cox News Service)
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======================================================================
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Megatrends or Megamistakes II
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There is also serious concern that media infoglut is having a damaging
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effect on society - in particular the younger generation. As
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Chesebro and Bonsall (1989) show, the television set is on in the
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average American household for 7 hours and 7 minutes a day. In
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addition, recorded video tapes are watched for a further 5 hours 8
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minutes a week on average (1987 figures). Young Americans can also
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tune in to any of 9,300 radio stations in the US, on one of the 5.3
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radios in the average American household. In these and other ways,
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the typical American encounters no less than 1,600 advertisements
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each day. By the age of 17, the average American child would have seen
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over one-third of a million ads. It is little wonder that US academics
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are talking about America "amusing itself to death," its collective
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mind numbed by video-pulp, 10-second sound bites and 30-second video
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clips. A recent report by the Times Mirror group concluded that the
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current under-30s generation in the US - despite the benefits of a
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higher standard of living, better education, information technology,
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etc. - "knows less, cares less and reads newspapers less than any
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generation in the past five decades."
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(Tom Forrester, Opening Address to International Conference on the
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Information Society, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute / Green Meadow
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Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, 11/18/91)
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======================================================================
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The Tao of DOS
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A master was explaining the nature of Tao to one of his novices.
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"The Tao is embodied in all software - regardless of how
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insignificant," said the master.
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"Is the Tao in a hand-held calculator?" asked the novice.
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"It is," came the reply.
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"Is the Tao in a video game?" continued the novice.
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"It is even in a video game," said the master.
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"And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"
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The master coughed and shifted his position slightly.
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"The lesson is over for today," he said.
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(from "The Tao of Programming" by Geoffrey James (Info Books, 1987)
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======================================================================
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IS and Business Units, Living Together In Perfect Harmony:
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What A Beautiful World It Could Be
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IS managers and the heads of their organizations' business units are
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in the same speedboat, says Patrick Fortune, CIO of Bristol-Myers
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Squibb. And they'd better learn to help each other steer as they
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careen wildly through a future of perpetual change. ... Without
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cooperation between IS and the business units, neither side can expect
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to make progress. His suggestions? First, break down traditional
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barriers between IS and the business units. Then, concentrate on
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creating an "information-literate" organization so that business execs
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understand what IT can do for them. Finally, create a comprehensive IT
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toolkit that can provide the standards, techniques, and procedures
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business units need to forge into the murky mist.
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(Source: John P. McPartlin, "IS And Business Units: Happy Together?"
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Information Week, 7/5/93, p. 62)
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======================================================================
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NEW PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND INDUSTRY NEWS:
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PictureTel Turns your PC Into A Videophone
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PictureTel Corp. has introduced equipment that turns your PC into a
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video teleconferencing system. The $6,000 setup will allow users to
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view the person they're talking to in a corner of the computer screen
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while running other applications. Users will also be able to view the
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work on each other's computer screens. The system includes a
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speakerphone and a video camera that can also be used to display
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printed documents. Also included will be a screen sharing application
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that will allow users to share and view the same file. This technology
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will make it easier for people to work from home but not miss out on
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meetings, brainstorming sessions, and other 'human contact' elements,
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the lack of which are one of the big stumbling blocks to effective
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telecommuting. The main drawback at present is lack of support for
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LANs, mainly due to insufficient bandwidth for the video signal. But
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this is a problem that will soon be resolved.(PictureTel 508/762-5000)
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(Sources: Wall Street Journal 7/16/93, p. B8, Communication Week
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7/19/93, p. 5)
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==================
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RAM Prices Skyrocket
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Prices of computer memory chips have more than doubled in the past
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week, in response to a factory fire in Japan where an important chip
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ingredient is manufactured. Small companies have experienced the
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largest sticker shock. It is estimated that the surge in prices could
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raise the cost of building a PC by $120.
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(Source: New York Times 7/21/93, p. D5)
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===================
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Midrange To Go
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A new mobile computing concept should emerge soon from the somewhat
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unlikely environs of IBM's Rochester, Minn., labs - home of the
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AS/400. IBM has a luggable single user AS/400 in the works that would
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be aimed mainly at software vendors and resellers looking to do on-
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site customer demonstrations and AS/400 programmers who want to take
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their work home or on the road with them. Pricing is expeeted to start
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in the $5,000 to S6,000 range for the machine, which would contain the
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OS/400 operating system in full. (Source: Computerworld, 7/5/93, p. 90)
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====================
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Adobe's Acrobat: Electronic Paper
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Simply put, Adobe's revolutionary new Acrobat software allows users to
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share their documents electronically regardless of hardware platform,
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operating system, or what application created the document. The
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receiving system doesn't even need to have the right fonts installed.
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Like I said above, electronic paper - I create a document on my IBM PC
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using Pagemaker, I send it to my friend, who has a MAC and never even
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heard of Pagemaker, and no problemo, there is my document in all it's
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glory. There are 3 versions of the software: a $50 read only version,
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a $195 version that allows you to create, view, annotate and print the
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documents, and for power users, the $695 version, which can convert
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Postscript files to Adobe's PDF format and is available in a network
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version. Sharing information just got several orders of magnitude
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easier.
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(Sources: PC Computing, INFOWORLD)
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====================
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Free ADA Compiler!
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Ada is a programming language developed by the US Department of
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Defense and others. There is an ANSI standard for Ada (which is named
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after the first programmer, Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace),
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and it is mandatory for all new DoD software. Apparently, Ada is a
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nice programming language, offering readable, structured language (all
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you non-programmers can skip a few lines), strong typing, separately
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compiled interfaces, data abstraction, built-in multitasking,
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reusability and more. Ada's strengths, according to INFOWORLD
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Publisher Bob Metcalfe, are for projects that must be written by many
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people, that must be readable, portable across different platforms,
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maintainable, reusable, and oh yeah, highly reliable. "Everthing else
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can be written in C," says Metcalfe, who says that C++ is old
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technology and best left behind. A *free* copy of the Gnu Ada compiler
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can be obtained by calling the BBS at 800/232-9925.
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======================================================================
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Smithsonian Institute Starts Software Collection
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The Smithsonian Institute, which often refers to itself as "the
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nation's attic," has started The National Software Collection at the
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National Museum of American History. This collection will eventually
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include much of the Institute's vast mainframe and minicomputer
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software collection. Microsoft Word will be the first program
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officially inducted into the collection. In addition to the software
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itself, the company is also donating archives containing materials
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relating to the creation and subsequent development of Microsoft Word.
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(Source: Newsbytes News Service, 7/16/93)
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======================================================================
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The Ross Perot Law Of Information
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Information doesn't care about organizational politics or
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institutional boundaries. The fastest way to flatten an organization
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is to give employees the means to send and receive information on an
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ad hoc basis to anyone in the company, including the CEO. Start by
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identifying E-mail as a mission-critical application, then stand back
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and watch what happens. Informal work groups will begin to form;
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introverts will share their ideas more freely. Mid-level bureaucrats
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will go into cardiac arrest when control of information leaves their
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fiefdom. (Source: Fank J. Ricotta Jr., "The Six Immutable Laws of
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Information," Information Week, 7/19/93, p. 63)
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======================================================================
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Documentation From Hell: Place Your Votes Now
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The Communications Circle, a group of fed-up professional writers, is
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holding a contest for the worst manual of the year. Send your nightmare
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documentation example to:
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Worst Manual of The Year c/o The Communications Circle,
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918 La Senda, N.W., Albuquerque, NM 87107. Entries must be received by
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Halloween. There is bound to be a crowded field for this coveted
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award and I'm sure we all have our favorites. B&B wil report on the
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winner(s) as soon as they are announced.
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(Source: Computerworld, 7/12/93, p. 134)
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======================================================================
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There's A Seeker Born Every Minute
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In Crestone, Colorado, followers of Kuthumi, a spirit entity said to
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communicate via computer, say that Kuthumi has instructed them to
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build a 45 story pink granite pyramid near the town. Why, you ask? To
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draw a signal from space that that will keep the earth safely on its
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axis, of course! Bits and Bytes will stay on top of this momentous
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story, and will attempt to contact Kuthumi on the astral plane for an
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exclusive B&B interview. In the meantime, donations to the Pink
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Pyramid Construction fund can be sent in care of the editor.
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(Source: Newsweek)
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======================================================================
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The Beauty of Client/Server
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The beauty of client/server computing is the potential to fulfill end
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user's desire for more control of data manipulation, and to allow
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network managers and IS professionals the ability to maintain back-end
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network and data integrity. I like this model because makes sense. End
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users tend to think more strategically about data manipulation than IS
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and network managers. On the other hand, IS and network managers know
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more about networked systems, security and maintaining data integrity
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than end-users.
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(David Buerger, "End Users Are About To Gain Front-End Control,"
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Communications Week, 7/5/93, p 38)
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======================================================================
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Bits and Bytes Bookshelf
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Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age of Show
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Business by Neil Postman [Penguin Books, 1985. $8.95]
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- (from the back cover) "Television has conditioned us to tolerate
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visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to
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the detriment of public affairs. ... Before we hand over politics,
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education, religion, and journalism to the show-business demands of
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the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media
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shape our lives and the eay we can, in turn, shape them to serve our
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highest goals." An important, thought provoking, and entertaining
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book. Soon to be a major motion picture - NOT! Highly recommended.
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THe Metaphysics Of Virtual Reality by Michael Heim [Oxford University
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Press, 1993. $21.00]
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- (from the forward by Myron Krueger) "In this book, Heim puts his
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finger on why virtual reality has excited us as a culture." Heim
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explores the philosophical implications of emerging computer techno-
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logies with an eye for the dark as well as the bright side.
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Hypertext, multimedia, RSI (repetitive stress injury), and the
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effects of word processing on the English language are a few of the
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topics discussed. I just statred reading this one, and am finding it
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very interesting. If these issues interest you, recommended.
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======================================================================
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AT THE NEWSTAND...
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"Domesticating Cyberspace" (Scientific American August 1993, pg.100)
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This article provides a good summary and analysis of the history and
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current status of networking developments.
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====================
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The July 1993 issue of PC Magazine features a search for the "perfect"
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PC, with lots of advice and recommendations.
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====================
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Last and definitely NOT least: if you enjoy B&B, there is a good
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chance you will enjoy WIRED magazine. With only 3 issues under their
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belt, WIRED is already *the* single best source for news from the
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frontlines of the digital revoltion. Issue 3 (July/August '93)
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contains a major new article on the digital highway by Mitchell Kapor,
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designer of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the Electronic Freedom
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Foundation, and interviews with science fiction author Arthur C.
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Clarke and Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. Also
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reports on interactive rock and roll (products coming soon from David
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Bowie, Peter Gabriel, U2 and others), online role playing games, IBM's
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big buck attempt to go Hollywood, the new Radio Shack stores, Internet
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books, cool electronic gizmos, and so much more that your head may
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explode. Highly recommended.
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======================================================================
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Meet Me On The Holodeck
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Admit it: Arcade games have hit a wall. That clutch-the-joy-stick-and-
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stand-at-the-video-terminal interface is getting real old. It's time
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to move to the Next Generation. Edison Brothers Entertainment agrees.
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By late 1993 it plans to introduce fully immersive virtual reality
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games based on the hit series "Star Trek: The Next Generation." To be
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anchored in our country's most revered cultural centers - malls -
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these centers will be a dramatic departure from the typical quarter-
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slogging video game haunts of yesteryear (many of which, by the way,
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St. Louis-based Edison Brothers owns and operates). Edison won't tell
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us how much a trip into the "Star Trek" world will cost, but it will
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use actual footage from Paramount Pictures ("Star Trek's" producer)
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and claims the ride will be fully interactive.
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(Source: Wired Magazine 1.1, )
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======================================================================
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Sending Email To The White House: How Not To Do It
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DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
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THERE ARE TOO MANY STATES NOWADAYS. PLEASE ELIMINATE THREE.
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I AM NOT A CRACKPOT.
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(Grandpa Simpson, The Simpsons, Fox TV, Thursday nights at 8 PM)
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======================================================================
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ADMINISTRIVIA
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Reaction to Bits and Bytes Online has been overwhelming. Subscription
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requests have been pouring in from all over this crazy old world. I
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thought I was hip to the age of information and the information
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explosion and all that, but my exponentially growing mailbox has
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brought it all home to me in no uncertain manner. In my ignorance of
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my mailbox software's capabilities, however, I made a mistake: I am
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getting requests to the pacs address without the requestor's mailing
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address attached. From now on when subscribing or unsubscribing,
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please include the email address you wish B&B sent to. I have modified
|
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the instructions below to reflect this. If you sent in a request and
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are not receiving B&B, please resend your request. SORRY! If you are
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on America Online you can now download B&B from their files section.
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On the Internet, B&B will be available from various servers and
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mailing lists. Details next issue. Please unsubscribe if you do start
|
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getting B&B from another source. Feedback is always welcome - I am
|
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still trying to find the right balance of material. See you next week!
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======================================================================
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Bits and Bytes Online is a weekly electronic newsletter.
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Email Subscriptions are available at no cost from slakmaster@aol.com
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or jmachado@pacs.pha.pa.us. Put "SUBSCRIBE in the subject header and
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your email address in the body of the message. If you work for "the
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rail" send a similar message to my emailbox. To unsubscribe, send a
|
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message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject header and your email
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address in the body. Questions and comments are welcome at any
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address. If you come across anything you think should be included
|
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here, please pass it on! Send long postings to the pacs address. If
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you need to reach me on paper, my snailmail address follows:
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===============================================
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= (Copyleft 1993 Jay Machado) *UNALTERED* =
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Jay Machado = electronic distribution of this file for =
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1529 Dogwood Drive = non-profit porpoises is encouraged. =
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Cherry Hill, NJ, 08003 = The opinions expressed herein do not =
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ph (eve) 609/795-0998 = do not necesarily represent anyone's =
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= actual opinion. =
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=============== end of Bits and Bytes Online V1, #3.==================
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