Edupage July, 26, 1998
Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three
times a week as a service of EDUCAUSE, a consortium of leading colleges
and universities seeking to transform education through the use of information
technologies. The organization has offices in Boulder, Colorado and
Washington, D.C.
AT&T TO FORM JOINT VENTURE WITH BRITISH TELECOM
AT&T, the nation's largest long-distance phone service provider, and British
Telecom (BT), Britain's largest communications company, are ready to form a
joint venture that will serve multinational business customers. By making
that move, AT&T will replace MCI as British Telecom's partner in
international communications; in 1993 MCI and BT had formed a venture
called Concert, but with WorldCom set to take over MCI in a $37 billion
merger, British Telecom has been seeking a new U.S. partner. (New York
Times 25 Jul 98)
REALNETWORKS RETALIATES AGAINST MICROSOFT
Rob Glaser, who worked for Microsoft for 10 years, and whose company,
RealNetworks, is 10% owned by the software giant, has joined the opposition
against Microsoft, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee that
Microsoft had broken the rules by deliberately designing a look-alike
product that disabled RealNetworks software when it was in use. Microsoft
responded by denying Glaser's charges and criticizing him for having "chosen
a government forum, rather than the marketplace, to pursue his proprietary
business agenda." At the hearing, Glaser demonstrated Microsoft's Windows
Media Player, which commandeered the RealNetworks software and popped up an
error message saying the video clip could not be viewed. Microsoft
officials blamed the error message on the fact that RealNetworks was using a
beta version of its latest software. Glaser says even though it was a beta
version, "their code would have had to be intentionally designed to disable
our player -- that kind of thing doesn't happen by accident." RealNetworks
says its "streaming" software is used by 85% of all Web sites that provide
video or audio content. (Wall Street Journal 24 Jul 98)
SENATE VOTES TO BAN INTERNET GAMBLING
The Senate voted 90-10 Thursday to ban Internet gambling, extending the
existing federal prohibitions on interstate gambling via telephone or wire.
A companion bill is moving through the House. Approximately 140 Web sites
offer gambling, and more than $600 million was wagered online last year on
sports alone, according to the Justice Department. Sponsoring Senator Jon
Kyl (R-Ariz.) says without the ban, the revenues could balloon to $10
billion in the next couple of years. "If we don't stop this activity now,
the money that is generated by this kind of illegal activity is going to...
become so influential in our political process that we will never get it
stopped." The legislation would exempt "fantasy" or rotisserie sports
leagues, in which participants bid on rosters of professional athletes to
create "fantasy" teams, and money is exchanged based on the players'
statistics. (Los Angeles Times 24 Jul 98)
WIRELESS ANDREW LINKS CARNEGIE MELLON CAMPUS
Carnegie Mellon's local area network, nicknamed "Wireless Andrew" after
benefactors Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, links students to the campus
network through a network of 400 base stations located around the campus,
each of which can channel two megabits of data per second to each computer
in their cell -- about 1,000 times as much as a standard modem. Users are
automatically connected to the LAN when they switch on their laptops, but if
they choose to wander off campus, they can still link to the campus network
via the city's mobile phone network. Designing the software to accommodate
both high- and low-speed networks is the key to the system's seamless
transmission. Researchers at the university now are working on a scheme to
adapt video compression software to different levels of resolution,
depending on the access point to the network. (The Economist Jul 18-24 98)
IBM DE MEXICO PAYS MEXICO CITY FOR FAILED DATABASE SYSTEM
IBM de Mexico, the Mexican unit of the International Business Corporation,
will pay Mexico City $37.5 million in cash and products to resolve a dispute
over a failed database system. Three IBM executives face trial on charges
of a conspiracy to defraud the city, which had purchased the system without
competitive bidding in 1996. An IBM executive says, "In any complex
systems-integration project, technical issues will arise, and we've always
been 100% committed to resolving them... This civil agreement allows us to
continue to work together with this customer." The rules of commerce have
changed markedly since opposition parties began to gain power and challenge
the corruption that had often been a normal part of doing business. (New
York Times 24 Jul 98)
LAUNCH MEDIA TO DELIVER HIGH-BANDWIDTH CONTENT
CD-ROM publisher Launch Media will distribute a high-bandwidth version of
its monthly electronic magazine to @Home and RoadRunner subscribers,
transforming Launch Media's content into multimedia entertainment for users
with high-speed cable modems. "This is the kind of thing that's going to
make cable modems come alive for people, not just deliver HTML pages
faster," says Launch's CEO. The new service will begin next year.
(Broadcasting & Cable 20 Jul 98)
AIR GAPS MAKE FASTER CHIPS
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are experimenting with
using a new substance for insulating their integrated circuits -- air.
Currently, layers of silicon dioxide separate the tiny electronic components
in chips to prevent signals from taking an errant route, but as chips become
even smaller and faster, researchers are looking for better insulating
materials. Paul Kohl, one of the researchers, says he and his colleagues
have now developed a technique that is "the simplest way to make an
effective air gap," using a special polymer that is later burned away,
leaving the air gap. Kohl says the same technique could also be used to
make other devices, such as thin membranes for pressure sensors. (Science
News 18 Jul 98)
IT'S THE YEAR 2000, AND YOU'RE IN THE HOSPITAL
Doctors, hospitals, and U.S. senators are criticizing the medical equipment
manufacturing industry for ignoring repeated requests to declare which kinds
of equipment are vulnerable to the Year 2000 problem. One example of
potential problems is a radiation emitter for cancer patients that could
produce the wrong dose of radiation if the system cannot correctly calculate
both the age of the radioactive isotope and the patient's last visit. But
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) says he doesn't think anyone will die
because of a Year 2000 problem with medical equipment. The problem, he
says, "is serious, but we ought not to be putting people in a sense of
panic." (AP 24 Jul 98)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educause.edu) and Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educause.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017
Visit Edupage at the Educause web site at: http://www.educause.edu
Technical support for distributing Edupage is provided by Information
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