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Edupage, a summary of news about information technology, is provided three times a week as a ervice 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.

THE LONELY NET
A two-year, $1.5-million study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University,
funded by the National Science Foundation and major technology companies,
has concluded that Internet use appears to cause a decline in psychological
well-being. A director of the study says, "We are not talking here about
the extremes. These were normal adults and their families, and on average,
for those who used the Internet most, things got worse." One hour a week of
Internet use led on average to an increase of 1% on the depression scale, an
increase of 0.04% on the loneliness scale, and a loss of 2.7 members of the
subject's social circle (which averaged 66 people). Although the study
participants used e-mail, chat rooms, and other social features of the
Internet to interact with others, they reported a decline in interaction
with their own family members and a reduction in their circles of friends.
"Our hypothesis is, there are more cases where you're building shallow
relationships [on the Internet], leading to an overall decline in feeling of
connection to other people." Since the 169 study participants, all from the
Pittsburgh area, were not chosen in a random selection process, it is not
clear how the findings apply to the general population, but a RAND
Corporation senior scientist says, "They did an extremely careful
scientific study, and it's not a result that's easily ignored." (New York
Times 30 Aug 98)

PATENT LAW IN THE INFORMATION AGE
The U.S. Patent and Trademark has in recent months offered patents to at
least five online business models, including an award last week to CyberGold
Inc. for creating a system that lets Web users earn money by clicking on
banner ads and corporate Web sites (a business model described in the patent
as online "attention brokerage"). University of Texas at Austin law
professor Mark Lemley fears that this trend could stifle competition by
granting overly broad patents, whereas University of California at Berkeley
law professor Pamela Samuelson thinks it's reasonable to recognize that
business models can be in and of themselves technological advances.
Samuelson says, "If patents worked for manufacturers, surely they will work
for the information economy." (New York Times Cybertimes 28 Aug 98)

LUCENT SERVES UP NEW PERSPECTIVE ON TENNIS
Lucent Technologies has debuted a new TV camera that gives tennis match
viewers the ability to see the whole court from the side, thereby making it
easier to follow the game as the ball is lobbed from one end to the other.
It has also tested a system that shows all of the movements made by a player
during a match, using a technology similar to that used for the Doppler
Weather map. The technology uses computers and video to track information
and display it, says a Lucent researcher. Meanwhile, IBM will be covering
the U.S. Open, which begins Monday, on its Web site, which will feature an
interactive camera that allows users to aim it and zoom in and out of their
views of the action. The site will also have real-time scores and
statistics, and live chat sessions hosted by special guests. (Wall Street
Journal 28 Aug 98)

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN HOLOGRAPHIC STORAGE
Academic and industrial scientists have been researching ways to use
holograms in information storage devices, but one key disadvantage has been
the tendency of holograms to be very "volatile" -- reading them tends to
degrade their content. Now a group at the California Institute of
Technology has discovered that by using special, thin crystals of lithium
niobate that incorporate traces of iron and manganese atoms, the resulting
holograms were much more stable. The researchers found that they could
record data durably in the crystals using ultraviolet light, while at the
same making a hologram using two red laser beams. The UV light stimulated
the iron and manganese atoms to liberate the electrons, ensuring that the
hologram created by the lasers was stored by both types of atoms. The
resulting hologram could be read by illuminating it with red laser light
alone, which did not excite the UV-triggered manganese atoms, so they
retained the imprinted data without loss (there was some degradation in the
iron atom version). The work "is a step toward a practical holographic
storage device," says Hans Coufal of the IBM Almaden Research Center, but
says the technique will need to be modified to bring it to the mass market.
(Scientific American Sep 98)

COOL CHIPS
Using technology developed by Intel and NCR, Columbia, S.C.-based KryoTech
is selling PCs that use chip-cooling technology similar to that in your
household refrigerator. Cooling chips down speeds up performance because
the reduced thermonuclear resistance in transistors and interconnects means
bits of data can move faster. The company's "thermally accelerated" systems
replace the traditional cooling fan with a design that places the computer
atop an environmentally friendly fridge -- cold air is pumped up from below
to the processor, which is encased in an insulated "kryo cavity" that keeps
the cold inside, protecting other parts of the machine from the ice and
condensation. (Popular Science Sep 98)

DEPOSITIONS CONTINUE IN MICROSOFT TRIAL
In preparations for the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust suit against
Microsoft, government lawyers questioned Microsoft chief Bill Gates for two
days last week and the federal judge who will preside over the September 23
trial has indicated that the government can question Gates for "as long as
it takes." Microsoft officials are accused of meeting with Netscape in 1995
and illegally offering to split the market for Web browsers. Gates has
called the allegation "an outrageous lie." (AP 29 Aug 98)

AOL JUST GROWS AND GROWS
Without even counting its CompuServe members or its membership beyond the
U.S., the America Online membership figure now surpasses 13 million
subscribers. Peak usage now is 750,000 users at a time (compared to 400,000
a year ago) and the current number of modems available is 800,000 (compared
to 447,000 last year). Modem growth rate is 34% higher than the rate of
membership increase. (Investor's Business Daily 28 Aug 98)

LISTENING TO E-MAIL
A new service called CoolMail, http://www.planetarymotion.com/, allows
e-mail users to call from any phone and hear their e-mail read to them via
automated voice after they listen to a 10-second advertisement. The call is
free from a local access number and costs 10 cents a minute otherwise. A
reply feature is also available. (USA Today 28 Aug 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
Technology Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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