biztech.57.635: Busy Techie (ronks) Wed 6 Nov 96 10:43
Penril Sells Modem Business To Bay Networks
Penril Datacomm Networks of Maryland is trying to narrow its corporate
focus and concentrate on remote access by corporate users into their
companies' nets, by spinning off a company called Access Beyond Inc.,
and selling their modem division to Bay for $120 million.
Network Company Execs Dump Own Stock
SEC filings show that high-ranking insiders at four network firms are
selling larger than usual blocks of shares lately. The companies have
done very well, so they could just be taking profits; or they could all
be buying new houses; or they could know something about the fourth
quarter they are not sharing with us. Five insiders at Ascend are
selling about $19 million of their stock, ADC Telecomm execs are selling
$8 M, nine insiders at 3Com sold $29 M in just two days, and the CEO of
Cascade Communications sold 100,000 shares, keeping only 8,000.
biztech.57.637: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 7 Nov 96 08:56
Iomega To Sell Zipettes For PDA's
The name is my invention; what they say they will do is offer a smaller
version of their popular Zip removable-disk drive, holding 20 megabytes,
that will fit in PDA's, cell phones(!), and digital cameras. They will
call it the "n-hand" for no apparent reason, and price it to OEMs for
about $100; disks should run about $10 each.
3Com Publishes Big Attack Ad
Just when the election is finally over and civility restored to public
discourse outside of the Well's News conference (some places are just
hopeless), 3Com takes out a full-page ad in the business section of the
NY Times titled "Is your future HELD AT BAY?" (a little pun there you
see, who says CEOs don't have a sense of humor). Anyway, a serious-
looking Bob Finocchio goes on and on about how untrustworthy places like
Bay Networks, Cabletron, and Cisco are, and how compared to these
lowlifes "There is an alternative: 3Com." I'm sure those rumors about
how Cisco would gut Medicare and Cabletron would flood the streets with
Willie Hortons are...oh sorry, wrong campaign.
biztech.57.642: Busy Techie (ronks) Fri 8 Nov 96 09:28
Banyan Prunes Staff
The network company will lop off a hundred people, or about 15% of its
workforce. Its chairman and CEO David Mohoney has been demoted to vice-
chairman; his place at the top will be held for now by the company's CFO
while it searches for new blood.
TV Set-Top Web Browser Banned From Export As Weapon
Not on account of its sharp corners but because it uses a 128-bit
encryption key, an appliance available from Sony and Philips at
munitions dealers like Circuit City and Sears has been classified as a
weapon requiring an export license for overseas sales. To date, 40 bits
are the maximum that can be sent abroad as it were, though the Web TV
Networks company who designed these instruments of destruction says it
has an OK for up to 56-bit keys. The government has not granted any
export licenses for 128-bit key devices, according to "a Government
official who spoke on condition of anonymity". Jeez.
SEC To Revamp Edgar
The system for the electronic retrieval of corporations' financial
filings was designed in 1984 when the technology was somewhat more
primitive, so the SEC is putting a redesign up for bids. They may also
outsource some of the remaining public-sector functions like database
maintenance to private firms.
Another Internet Stock Scam Alleged
The SEC has obtained an order freezing the assets of the head of a
company called Systems of Excellence (stock symbol SEXI), as well as
those of an electronic financial newsletter called SGA Goldstar.
Trading in the stock of SEXI, "which says it makes equipment for video
teleconferencing", was suspended in October. Basically the allegations
are that the chairman of the company issued millions of unregistered
share in the company to himself, his wife, mother, and niece (presumably
three different women), and to the publishers of a newsletter called SGA
Goldstar published on the Internet; then both he and the publishers made
false or inflated claims about the company's prospects. One sounds
straight out of the South Sea Bubble: an unnamed source "informed us of
a rumored Federal order so large which [sic] we do not even want to
rumor the size of the order". While the news report goes on about the
Internet, its role here seems merely a faster and better way of
spreading the same old lies.
biztech.57.643: Busy Techie (ronks) Sat 9 Nov 96 12:52
AT&T Worldnet E-Mail Service Down For Over A Day
Over 200,000 customers of the big hobby board were unable to send or receive
e-mail from mid-afternoon Thursday till some time Friday when a mail server
failed. Mail was not lost in either direction, the company says, just
queued and queued and...
biztech.57.645: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 11 Nov 96 10:44
Web Designers Trying To Spoof Search Engines
Like a constant battle between burglars and lock makers, some Web site
builders are trying to tilt the results of searches to get their locations
higher ranked on a search, and search tool builders are trying to prevent
them. A company called NetDesign practices "word-stuffing", in which for
example an introduction service repeats the phrase "computer dating" over
and over, sometimes in the same color as the background for invisibility, to
score higher in relevance points. One client, a vendor of rodent traps,
tried to insert the word "sex" repeatedly into his site; I wonder what sort
of customer he was looking for. Search engines are beginning to catch on to
this, and are being told to ignore repetitions without punctuation and to
look for context. Entirely abandoning subtlety, a search company called
Open Text simply sold the top spots on its results page to the highest
bidder; despite the straightforward nature of the approach, vehement
criticism evidently forced them to go back to more devious means after a
month.
Cisco's Success, Strategy Analyzed
Following last week's announcement of quarterly financial results that
showed an 80% rise in revenue and a 77% increase in profits over a year ago,
not to mention a share price more than doubled since the start of 1996, the
NY Times does a look behind the scenes complete with factoids and some
thoughts on open vs. proprietary systems. Cisco's market cap of $42 billion
makes it third largest on NASDAQ behind Intel and Microsoft; they claim 44%
of the network industry's profits (compared with Why is DES being replaced?
My understanding is that despite enhancements like longer keys and triple
encryption, DES is becoming more vulnerable to brute-force attacks from ever
faster decryptor machines. Few argue that to be the case today, but some
believe that within say ten years DES will be inadequate for the higher
levels of sensitivity that it is used for now. The impression I have from
colleagues who are more closely involved in this issue (and send me papers
of mind-numbing complexity) is that it's not time to panic over DES'
adequacy, but it is time to up periscope and think about a replacement for
the long term.
biztech.57.663: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 18 Nov 96 11:21
Mr. MacOS Out
Isaac Nassi refreshingly declined to claim he was "pursuing other
interests" in resigning as chief of Apple's operating system division;
his statement says "it was just time to go". So he went. One observer
wryly noted that he closed the gap between Apple and Microsoft software,
but unfortunately Apple was ahead at the start. Various causes are
rumored: he denies that Apple's negotiations with Be Labs played a part
in his decision, but the recent abandonment of the Copland project and
differences with CEO Gilbert Amelio may have.
CDMA Wireless standards Moving In On TDMA
According to the report, AT&T has bet heavily on Time Division Multiple
Access to drive its digital wireless phone service, which offers up to
three times the capacity of analog by time-slicing a frequency into that
many conversations. Now comes Code DMA to the party, sponsored by
smaller companies like Primeco, with up to nine times analog over a
collection of frequencies. The head of Northern Telecom's wireless unit
suggests that marketing not technical superiority may decide the winner;
but that's another topic.
Intel, Apple To Open Own Restaurants
Well not exactly, but close. Intel has allied with Starbucks to open a
chain of cybercafes with Intel inside; and Apple is partnering with Mega
Bytes International (really) of London to create the first Apple Cafe in
LA, followed by London, Paris, NY, Tokyo, and Sydney. The link between
caffeine and the Internet has never been closer; perhaps Jolt modems?
US In Big Push for Electronic Banking
With the exception of tax returns (more on that later), the government
is moving to convert *all* of its payments to individuals as well as
companies to direct deposit by 1999. The effects of this migration
could be profound, and not only to Social Security recipients without
bank accounts. EDI payments to vendors will become mandatory in most
cases, so businesses will have to provide it and will be more likely to
use it for transactions among themselves; companies like power utilities
who also deal with consumers will likely promote ACH bill payments.
Banks are being encouraged to offer bare-bones checkless accounts with
direct deposit and a debit card; and the Treasury may even offer its own
debit card to recipients of Federal benefits along the lines of a pilot
presently underway in Texas. The scale of the change? As of now, about
47 percent of the government's 850 million annual payments of $1.2
trillion are transacted via paper check, costing about 42 cents each; an
electronic deposit costs about 2 cents each. Electronic tax refunds
will not be required (though they'll be encouraged) out of Congressional
fear some that people wouldn't file tax returns at all if they had to
disclose their bank account numbers.
biztech.57.667: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 18 Nov 96 18:06
Don't have the article in front of me, but it said check-cashing shops were
thinking of installing ATMs, possibly with a per-transaction fee to take up
the gouge slack. The electronic deposit initiative was said to be a result
of Congressional legislation last spring; for example it was their idea to
modify Clinton's proposal that proposed to electrify all tax refunds.
biztech.57.669: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue 19 Nov 96 09:57
Headline of the Day: "IBM Surge Fails To Lift Blue Chips"
Compuserve May Move Out Of Germany Due To Censorship
The German parliament is considering legislation that would hold on-line
services responsible for blocking access to pornography and "extremist"
words and pictures. Compuserve says in response it is considering
moving its offices and staff of 250 out of the country to reduce their
chances of liability, though they would probably continue to serve their
335,000 German customers.
Mastercard Buys 51% of Mondex
Smart-card issuer and sponsor Mondex International was set up in July by
17 banks with an initial capitalization of 100 million pounds (~$170 M
US), so the undisclosed purchase price is probably about half that.
biztech.57.670: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 21 Nov 96 12:25
Treasury To Publish Unpolicy on Taxation of Internet Sales
A draft report is scheduled to go up on
www.ustreas.gov today that
outlines the absence of formal policy recommendations from the Treasury
on taxing commercial transactions that take place over the Internet.
Instead it will advocate "an overarching goal of neutrality" which
treats cybersales no differently from those that occur the old way.
Some states like New York are nevertheless looking into taxing them, and
will probably not be deterred by Federal policy papers. Of greater
concern to the authors is the ability of money launderers to use
electronic cash for anonymity on washday, and the potential of key-
escrow encryption to deal with it.
biztech.57.672: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 21 Nov 96 18:41
Topic 197 over in the Windows conference is all about MS Bob; apparently
he's still kicking, or at least being kicked.
biztech.57.673: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 25 Nov 96 10:17
Japanese Patent Win May Lead To More Litigation
When an American patent-holder goes after a Japanese company with a
claim of infringement, the Japanese firm usually caves in and signs a
license agreement to avoid being sued here and facing an American court,
even though the case on the merits looks doubtful. A now-bankrupt
company called Alpex claimed a 1977 patent on technology (#4026555) that
enabled video game characters to move around, and by threatening to sue
got a number of game makers like Atari to knuckle under and pay. But
Nintendo refused and went to trial; a $25 million trial judgment was
reversed on appeal by the Federal Circuit, who held Nintendo used newer
technology. The plaintiff has requested an en banc rehearing, but the
decision is making other foreign firms think about standing up to
infringement claims they consider unjustified.
Toshiba Holds Back on US DVD Units - Nothing To Run On Them
Citing the absence of disks that can use the new high-capacity drives,
Toshiba will not introduce them here till next year. Matsushita who
also makes them is undeterred by such details and will ship them this
year as planned; they've been available in Japan since Nov. 1.
Advertiser To Invade Chat Rooms After Peeking In
Last spring Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising sponsored "cultural
anthropologists" to observe live interactions in groups like Widowed
World, Herpes Self-Help, Romance Connection, and American Woodworker.
What a combo; anyway they wanted to see if there was money in it for
potential sponsors. Apparently to their surprise they discovered "there
are people there with mainstream American interests" including "women
who buy laundry detergent" and even parents. They are now working on
how to invade the places. One proposal floated publicly is to sponsor
them; they don't mention planting shills but I won't be surprised to see
some chirpy voice trumpeting Tide in a MUSE next month.
biztech.57.675: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue 26 Nov 96 11:11
Delbert Yocam To Head Borland
The former chief operating officer at Apple and Tektronix, who is not
related to either Dilbert or Li'l Abner's Mammy Yokum, will commute
weekly from his Oregon home to run Borland as its chairman and CEO,
replacing the interim execs who have been occupying the positions since
Gary Wetsel quit in July. Borland staff is around 950, down from 4,000
at its peak; their stock at $7 goes for a third of its 52-week high.
Its current challenge/ threat is the explosive growth of Java popularity
which their software is not designed to take advantage of. Mr. Y says
they will ship products next year that address both Java and the
Internet better, though one analyst (Jeffrey Tarter) suggests there is
not a lot of money to be made in the Java tool market for some time.
Power To Be
Apple clone-maker Power Computing Corporation has licensed the Be
operating system for use on its systems. They will ship with the MacOS
pre-loaded but the BeOS on a bootable CD-ROM. Both parties to the
otherwise undisclosed agreement stated that it does not affect the
status of Apple's negotiations to license the software or buy Be. It's
suggested that Apple may want to take the OS apart and incorporate
components from it into neo-Copland or whatever they're calling it.
AOL Commits To Excite As Only Net Searcher
I can't tell from the article if AOL users will be able to use
Altavista, Lycos, etc. by going through gyrations, but apparently they
will be told Excite is the exclusive available way to search the
Internet on AOL. Excite Inc. is also buying AOL's Webcrawler for $20
million in stock (the paper says AOL paid $1 M for it a year ago - not
bad), and AOL gets 20% of Excite (up from 12%) and a seat on their
board.
biztech.57.676: Busy Techie (ronks) Wed 27 Nov 96 08:48
IBM Awash in Money, To Buy $3.5 Billion Of Own Stock
Since the start of last year they have bought back 66 million shares for
about $10B total, and they're at it again even at a share price of $158.
(Not bad considering it was $41 in 1993.) Estimates are they have $6-7B
a year to play with; last year they bought back $6B of stock, spent $3B
for Lotus, and had $8B cash left over. With all that money and nothing
else left for them to buy, they have decided to buy themselves.
France To Lower Groupe Bull Stake
(Looking for a pun on "steak" but nobly foregoing the opportunity for a
cheap laugh..) The French Government presently owns 54% of its largest
computer company; 37% on its own and 17% through France Telecom. (NEC
and Motorola each own 17%) They will sell off at least 5%, to bring
their ownership down to less than half. Bids must be for at least 1.4
million shares, at a price the Finance Ministry will announce to the
"winner", who must promise not to sell them for a year; what a deal.
Perhaps IBM would like it?
biztech.57.680: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 2 Dec 96 10:08
WIPO Meets In Geneva, US Presses For Stricter Copyright
The UN-sponsored World Intellectual Property Organization meets
infrequently (on the order of once a decade); the current one that ends
December 20 is working to draft a treaty on copyright protection for the
first time since PCs and the Internet became a significant force. US
representative Bruce Lehman (Patent and Trademark Office Commissioner)
has three proposals to present, covering increased protection for
literary and artistic works, phonorecordings, and databases or
compilations of information. Critics observe that there has been little
public debate of his treaty proposals, except that some of them were
rejected by Congress this year, and if they come back as a proposed
treaty they will simply be subject to an all or nothing yes/no vote to
ratify. They are said to narrow drastically the concept of fair use,
and the protection they offer for compilations of public-domain data far
exceeds current law. Mr. Lehman, described as "a former lobbyist for
the copyright industry", argues that the infrequency of WIPO confabs and
the length of time to ratification means he has to look far ahead to
prevent dissemination of works that could stifle creativity by
undermining authors' / composers' / agents' / etc. incentives.
Informix Takes Aim at Oracle
Having moved up into the number 2 database-vendor spot when Sybase faded
this year, Informix is set to ship its "Universal Server". While the
name sounds like an automated butler (a sort of cyber-Jeeves), the
system is apparently a data-independent DBMS for storage of audio,
video, geographic, and other types of information in addition to plain
old letters and numbers. Based on a combination of the original
Informix and a program called Illustra, it relies on plug-in modules,
some from third-party vendors, to manage the more outre data formats.
Oracle is not expected to match it for 6 to 12 months in Oracle 8.
biztech.57.682: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 2 Dec 96 13:34
Perhaps the reason the news does not emphasize the role of copy
protection in fostering creativity is that all parties fundamentally
agree on that as a goal; where they differ is in assessing the harm that
"fair use" and the like will do to it. WRT the 10-year product cycle,
it may be the global reach that prevents WIPO from being more nimble;
their product is a worldwide IP treaty, and those things move slowly.
Even in this country, we're not that far from the day when a copyright
case involving player piano rolls was the main precedent for computer
software.
biztech.57.684: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue 3 Dec 96 10:55
AOL Repricing Angers AG's, Floods Lines
Effective December 1, America Online converted all its customers from a
monthly price of $10 for 5 hours and $3 for each additional one, to a
new flat rate of $20 a month. For those who used it less than, um, nine
hours a month it was essentially a unilateral price increase, and the
attorneys general of 18 states asked them to give users the option of
sticking with the old plan. The company says it will arrange to give
_existing_ customers the option of either plan. In any case, so many
users decided to take advantage of the flat rate on its first day that
they signed on eight million times - not bad considering that there are
only seven million subscribers to the service. Busy-signal city.
biztech.57.689: Busy Techie (ronks) Wed 4 Dec 96 09:42
Isn't he the brother of Chevy Case?
IBM Issues Centuries
Joining a small number of corporations, IBM has issued bonds with a 100-
year maturity. $850 million of the debt was sold at 7.22%. Though the
instruments seem like a long-term prospect, they are callable: that is,
IBM can pay them off early like a mortgage under certain conditions.
That will be more likely if a Treasury proposal becomes law to reject
tax deductions for securities of over 40 years' maturity.
LEP's To Replace LED's?
An English company called Cambridge Display Technology Ltd. is
developing screens for electronic devices that use light-emitting
polymers or LEP's. Such displays could be flexible to the point of
being rolled up, and both lighter weight and cheaper to make.
Apparently the phenomenon in its currently patentable form was
discovered by accident, when a scientist who was trying to create
semiconducting polymers turned off the lab lights on his way home and
noticed his experiment was glowing. (Sounds like a sci-fi movie.)
Unfortunately they seem to be stuck on an inability to produce blue
light, but for monochrome displays in watches, cell phones, and other
appliances this should not be a problem.
biztech.57.691: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 5 Dec 96 10:12
Mondex E-Cash Card Gets Backers, But Future Unclear
The Mondex USA corporation is due to be announced today; its owners are
Wells Fargo with 30%, Chase Manhattan with 20%, and 10% stakes for AT&T,
Dean Witter Discover, First Chicago, Mastercard, and Michigan Natl Bank.
Mastercard also owns 51% of Mondex International, the overseas version.
Non-owner banks are also eligible to offer the cards, and a Citibank
pilot on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is due soon. Mondex's main
rival today seems to be Visa Cash, offered by you-know-who. Mondex
claims the advantage of inter-card funds transfers, for say a parent to
give lunch or allowance e-money to a child. Success is uncertain: tests
at the Atlanta Olympics demonstrated that while the technology works,
people's interest in it is "tepid". Not to mention that there are costs
associated with the startup: merchant terminals cost $500, the cards
themselves $10 each wholesale, and Mondex wants 25 cents from banks for
every time someone puts money in the card.
Microsoft Nobility Dances In Circle
With over 30 vice presidents, MS has created a committee at the top to
deal with its complexity. The new Executive Committee replaces the 7-
member Office of the President begun in 1992. Two senior VP's will join
the group: James Allchin and Brad Silverberg, who still report to group
VP Paul Maritz. Silverberg, the former nemesis-designate of Netscape,
will manage MS Office development, and Allchin will take over Internet
server apps from Silverberg. The more things change,...
Company Can't Give Away E-Mail Services
CMG Information Services has abandoned its Freemark free e-mail offer,
when only 45,000 out of a minimum required 100,000 signed up for it.
The company said advertisers were not interested in such a small number.
biztech.57.692: Busy Techie (ronks) Fri 6 Dec 96 09:09
Government-Business Encryption Compromise Off
The brief era of good feeling between the administration and vendors of
encryption products that began in October will probably end before the
year does. Roel Pieper of Tandem is calling the fall compromise "a bait
and switch situation", and other companies are jumping off the bandwagon
as the government modifies its terms. The plan was for the US to allow
export of encryption software with a key escrow mechanism overseen by
the Commerce Department (instead of one considered less friendly like
State, Justice, or Defense); some companies at least figured that was
better than endless wrangling. Unfortunately in a Nov. 15 announcement
transferring responsibility to Commerce, the government added a few
changes: (1) the DOJ cops will be "consulted" by Commerce; (2) export
licenses even for 56-bit and shorter keys will be considered on a case-
by-case basis instead of just permitted; (3) in considering the
application for an export license, it will not matter if comparable
technology is available overseas; (4) the government will determine the
key recovery system unilaterally; and (5) that system might allow for
decryption of messages as they are transmitted instead of afterwards.
TI Moves Notebook Manufacturing Overseas
They will lay off 500 workers in Texas and move TravelMate fabrication
to Asia, where the Extensa line is made now.
Stratton Oakmont Gets NASD Boot
The brokerage firm that sued Prodigy over accusations of fraud made in
one of their forums was expelled by the National Association of
Securities Dealers as "an egregious boiler room that manipulated stock
prices and defrauded customers". Its president and head trader were
also barred from the business. They already owe something like $28
million in settlements for customer complaints. Their latest argument
was they should be allowed to stay in business to pay off their debts,
but NASD decided it was not a good idea to let them "commit fraud in
order to use the revenues to pay prior customers". (_They_ said it.)
biztech.57.696: Busy Techie (ronks) Fri 6 Dec 96 15:05
I am shocked - shocked - at the intimation that politics was involved.
biztech.57.697: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 9 Dec 96 14:19
Streaming Multimedia Software Gains Market
A Massachusetts company called Narrative Communications founded and
managed by Lotus refugees in 1995 has produced a suite of programs to
enable net users to view multimedia files while they download.
Apparently existing software requires the entire file to be received
before it can be played; the Enliven product requires only receipt of a
header, then begins to show the A/V in real time even over POTS lines.
The viewer, which can be downloaded now at
www.narrative.com and will be
bundled with future versions of MS Internet Explorer, is free. The
"Producer" for creating viewable files is $250, and the server runs
about $6,000-$11,000. The company's chairman is John Landry, a former
senior VP at Lotus. Sites using Enliven today include Ben & Jerry's,
Broderbund, Life magazine, and Sony.
Cisco Sells Gear Over Web
Well, who doesn't anymore; but $75 million in less than five months?
Execs confirmed a Communications Week story that since opening their Web
site to sales, they have derived that amount of revenue. Their goal is
$1.8 billion by the end of their fiscal year next July, or about 30% of
total sales.
Pointcast "Push" Browser Attracts Competition
The current big thing among net-commerce mavens seems to be the active
broadcast of material to end users with web browsers (no longer a very
descriptive term) that receive and display it automatically. Since
Pointcast pioneered its service in February, it claims 1.7 million
viewers of news, stock prices, weather, etc. And ads. Other companies
like Marimba from ex-Sun employees, Incommon from ex-Oracle employees,
and Backweb (whose people don't all seem to have come from one place),
offer a slightly different take by not functioning as a middleman like
Pointcast but simply offering the technology for media companies to run
on their own. Pointcast counters that many clients don't want to run
their own site and prefer to rent Webspace; they say they looked at
Marimba but decided it didn't scale up to the volume they needed.
Microsoft is reported planning to include broadcast reception capability
in the next release of Windows. I can't help wondering if this might
have some applicability to corporate intranets, but no specific ideas
come to mind. I bet they will to somebody soon, though.
biztech.57.699: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 9 Dec 96 16:05
Well I see that Narative Communications got $3 million from somebody called
Greylock Management, and another $5.25M from Accel Partners of San
Francisco.
The article on Pointcast and its siblings didn't mention anything about
intranets; it just discussed pitching the products to consumers.
biztech.57.701: Busy Techie (ronks) Mon 9 Dec 96 19:40
We have a topic (#36) on "The Microsoft Monopoly", BTW.
biztech.57.702: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue 10 Dec 96 10:11
$6 Million Carpal Tunnel Verdict Against DEC
A Brooklyn jury awarded a total of $6 million to three women for stress
injuries from the use of DEC keyboards. This is reported as the first
court victory for plaintiffs: Compaq and IBM have successfully defended
suits on the subject, and others have settled without going to a jury.
DEC says it will appeal. A major factor in the case may have been that
despite its denying there was any link between keyboard use and injury,
DEC was cited by "Federal regulators" (probably OSHA) in 1989 regarding
its own employees and created "an extensive program to protect" them
from the supposedly non-existent threat.
Chips Move Faster
The domestic book-to-bill ratio for November was 1.15, up from 0.81 in
April and 1.10 in October. So for every $100 of chips sent out, makers
received $115 of new orders. Perhaps hoping to quit while they're
ahead, the industry association will drop reporting the figures after
December's and go to a global ratio.
MSN Re-remakes Itself
For the second time since it opened in August 1995, the Microsoft
Network has reinvented, re-engineered, or whatever the current word is,
itself. The first time was a year ago when they dropped the proprietary
AOL-like persona and "embraced the Internet". This time they embraced
the television, with channels, film and animation clips, and of course
interruptions for commercials. Reactions so far sound pretty negative,
like "it's neat to glance at for a few minutes, but there's nothing on"
and "It is an empty experience". Yep, just like TV. Apparently all the
online services are having trouble: AOL has yet to show a profit,
Compuserve is retrenching, and Prodigy is almost off the radar screen.
Netscape Signs Alliances with RBOCs
The Web browser will offer users an easy way to select the phone company
as their Internet service provider from Netscape's site; in return, the
five Bell companies (Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Pac Bell, and
SW Bell) will make Netscape their chosen browser. One analyst colorfully
points out the effect of this marriage of titans is "Basically the poor
old mom-and-pop ISP gets axed."
biztech.57.706: Busy Techie (ronks) Tue 10 Dec 96 19:52
MS Bob must be a couch potato.
biztech.57.710: Busy Techie (ronks) Wed 11 Dec 96 14:11
About the defense budget, wasn't it?
Java-Minus-One Alliance Formed To Stamp Out Deviance
Sun announced that over a hundred companies had joined a group to ensure
their Java specifications are "100 percent pure". The goal of the group
led by Sun's Javasoft division is to ensure that its members stick to
the Java standards and don't add their own extensions. Microsoft was
not in the alliance because it was not invited; they have already been
sort of naughty (or impure) in that department with added features that
favor Windows, but they're certainly not alone. Sun seems to be
concerned that Java not go the way of Unix, whose variety of
incompatible flavors "ruined the operating system's chances of emerging
as a common computing platform" and paved the way for Windows dominance.
Miscellany
Autodesk bought New Hampshire-based Softdesk for $72 million in stock;
and Microsoft bought Web and intranet toolmaker Netcarta of Scotts
Valley for $20M cash. Both of those purchasees sound like they picked
names that played on familiar trademarks. And Bay Network's chief
financial officer William Ruehle is leaving.
biztech.57.714: Busy Techie (ronks) Wed 11 Dec 96 18:11
> Was Unix ever really a contender for the mainstream desktop market
My guess is yes, it had a chance in the late eighties and early nineties.
DOS and Windows 3 lacked elements it had, and it could scale from a
workstation OS to a terminal server driving a workgroup and on up. I know
of automation consultants to law firms who were certain it was the only way
to go, around 1991. And many businesses were deciding then where to migrate
from Wang and other minicomputer systems. But the incompatibilities between
Sun's Unix and IBM's and SCO's and etc. (glossed over by a Sun rep I heard
once as "source-level compatibility") were one factor in its becoming an
also-ran.
biztech.57.718: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 12 Dec 96 07:11
Many of the law firms I interviewed for an article in 1991 actually did not
depend very heavily on DOS or Windows systems. The secretaries used
WordPerfect, but the company business was often based on outdated
minicomputer systems they were looking to replace.
biztech.57.719: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 12 Dec 96 09:32
Microsoft and Pointcast In Deal
When MS announced that the next release of Windows (I wonder if they
will call it Windows 00 three years from now) would incorporate a new
Internet Explorer that allowed channels of Web "push" services on the
desktop, it looked like they were set to move in on Pointcast like they
are moving in on Netscape. But for the short term at least, they look
to be coexisting. The two companies announced plans to cooperate:
Pointcast will distribute MSNBC content and "embrace Microsoft
technology", and the new Windows will feature the Pointcast system on
the desktop. Since most Pointcast users today are said to run Netscape
Navigator, guess who loses.
DuPont Does $4 Billion Outsourcing
They awarded 10-year contracts to Computer Sciences Corporation and
Andersen Consulting to manage corporate systems that include 300 sites
in 70 countries, with 65,000 computers. Andersen also got $550 million
to run DuPont's application development.
biztech.57.722: Busy Techie (ronks) Thu 12 Dec 96 14:36
I didn't mean to suggest that Netscape users lose; it's the company itself
that may take a hit. From the article: The agreement is a potential blow to
the Netscape Communications Corporation...Most Pointcast users now use
Netscape's Navigator browser when they want to look at a site on the
Internet. That could change soon."