September 7 – 13, 1997
from the Up-To-Date dept
Sponsored by the Technology Management Club of Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Matt Drudge School of Unsubstantiated Reporting…
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UP-TO-DATE
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The not always serious,
not always weekly update
on the Hi-Tech Industry
September 7th - 13th
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Sponsored by the Technology Management Club of
Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management
and the Matt Drudge School of Unsubstantiated Reporting...
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Say that again...
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"We want our God-given 90 percent market share, and we will exploit every
friggin' distribution channel to get it."
Netscape's VP of sales and marketing Mike Homer, Wired News, 10 September 1997
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Everybody, let's work together...
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Never thought you'd see this one: Intel, AMD, and Motorola to work
*together* with the government to work on news ways to shrink chip circuit
sizes...Compaq has invested $4 million in Ramp Networks to help push along
their Internet technologies that allow you to make "fast" connections...
Sun has acquired Chorus Systems SA. Chorus, a French company, develops
operating system for telecommunications devices (hmmmmm...)... A consortium
of companies in the cable industry have decided to work together to offer
low-cost, high speed internet access through the television (more or less
attempting to take on WebTV). Companies involved in the process or the
backing include heavyweights Worldgate, Citicorp and Motorola... Microsoft
buys 20% of Trados GmbH, a maker of translation software from
Germany...Digital, Wells Fargo, VeriFone (owned by HP) and (of course)
Microsoft are working together to create total solutions for
storefronts on the internet... Netscape is working with Bell Canada to
create E-commerce solutions... Intel, Microsoft, DEC and Compaq have asked
Sun to give up their control of Java...
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Berating the obvious: (they call this news???)
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Motorola and IBM decide the PowerPC chip belongs in "noncomputer"
devices... The Mir space station's main computer fails, is fixed, and fails
again... HP attempts (again) to become the number one supplier of PCs to
the world...Compaq announces it will become one of the top three computer
companies in the world... Disney.com will be redone to be "radically"
different... Net2Phone finally creates a service that allows you to make
calls over the internet without a computer... Microsoft opens NY offices
for content... CompuServe customers "nervous" about AOL's takeover...A
PCMCIA removable hard drive? I want one. 520 MBs on a single Type III
card from Procom (watch out Iomega...)... Psychologists have started
counseling over the internet (does this belong under "misuses of
technology"?)... Dell sells more PCs to corporate users than Compaq...
Apple still looking for a CEO... Experian (ex TRW) shuts down *another*
online service due to (take a guess) security concerns... The government
votes to tighten export controls on encryption. Obvious, yes, but one
keeps hoping that they'll get a clue... MSNBC's servers (maintained by
Microsoft, of course) failed all day Tuesday (did anyone notice? I didn't
think so)... Packard Bell says it's selling more of its low cost computers
than higher cost ones (go figure...)... Next generation internet "delayed"
due to government mistakes... Microsoft saw possibility of buying
CompuServe "not worth it"... IBM sees "no real demand" for NetPC...
Softbank to reorganize its US media properties... Stories on the rise
about "pet-sitting" for Tamagotchis (no comment) while 496 of the little
buggers were "seized" for being anti-social at Ho Chi Minh city airport.
According to officials "It is a harmful game that separates children, and
even adults from their normal life."... Motorola's profits to be below
expectations... Microsoft bans java applets on their web sites (could this
be in response to Sun's banning of PowerPoint?)...
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Surprises:
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Yes, CompuServe was actually sold! AOL bought their customers and Worldcom
gets AOL's network business. The real surpise, though, is that investors
seem to think this is a good thing for AOL (whose stock rose dramatically
following the deal). Also of interest is that it has now come to light
that CompuServe in the early '90s worekd out a deal to buy AOL, but H&R
Block vetoed the deal (oops)...Throwing another wrench into the whole DVD
process: Digital Video Express has created Divx, a disposable DVD. The
plan is you can rent a movie on one of these discs for $5 and then throw
it out! Or, pay a bit more to get the movie to show again. Or, if you
really like it, hell, pay around $20 more and the movie is yours for good.
This was not what others were planning on, but Circuit City thinks it's a
grand idea... Silicon Graphics announces that, indeed, they will build
workstations based on the Intel Pentium Pro microprocessor and running
Windows NT. This fact may belong under the "Berating the Obvious". The
surprise is simply the fact that they may have actually realized the
necessity for this in time. We shall see...
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(Mis)Uses of Technology:
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No, I don't know why this section seems to repeatedly mention cars, but:
Intel has equipped a Peugeot Citroen (the orthopedic shoe of the European
car industry) with tons of computer gear so that drivers and passengers can
(via voice control) retrieve email, get news from the internet, receive
traffic reports, and play digital movies (in the back seat).
New York City has established computer kiosks throughout the city where you
can pay off your parking tickets and property taxes. It just won't be the
same, though, until they add that lovely NYC attitude into those machines...
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Studies on the Net:
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A report by Media Matrix is predicting that the long prophesied convergence
of TVs and PCs is a hoax! The feeling is that many people want them to be
remain separate. In fact, 40% of households have both TVs and PCs in the
same room and have them both on at once... Odyssey, a market research firm
has determined that household usage of online services has doubled in the
past year to nearly 12.8 hours a week... Speakers at Telecom Interactive
'97 have announced that flat-rate charges for internet access are going to
disappear (again)... 98% of online shoppers are satisfied with their
purchases according to Vaidec Inc... Forrester Research predicts 53% of
homes will have PCs by 2001... Austin Knight Inc. has found that 99% of
colleges have web sites, but only 60% find it a useful recruitment tool...
OmniTech predicts that multimedia based training for corporate education
will double by the year 2000 (big surprise there...)... People are spending
more time on the internet and as a result: 59% are watching less
television, 24% are doing fewer household chores, 14% are not excercising
as much, and 12% are spending less with family and friends (you can
probably chalk me up for each of those categories...)
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Predictions:
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AT&T is now incorporating an "electronic shopping agent" called Jango into
it's Internet services. I am just waiting (patiently) for the catastrophe
that awaits this one. "Jango buys unsuspecting family a new Porsche and
unrefundable cruise around the world"... I don't care what that Media
Matrix study says, I think that convergence will continue in some form. To
base their findings on the fact that 40% of households use both TVs and PCs
at once is like saying that no one would ever use a telephone because most
people write letters from home already...
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Meme o' the week:
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It started out innocently enough. Then it began to become too much to
handle... In light of the unfortunate passings of Mother Theresa and
Princess Di last week all the technology and internet related news sources
felt this strange need to somehow be part of the hype. Almost everyone
had to point out "mourning" sites on the web, as if that somehow
legitimized their way to join in the "real" news...
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Too much free time:
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Hours of pointless fun: http://smeg.com/backwards/
Type in any website and get to see it *backwards*!
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Up To Date is written by Mike Masnick from whatever news he hears from
whatever sources they happen to come from. It is not intended for any uses
other than as one of many possible ways to follow what's going on in the
hi-tech industry. I certainly wouldn't rely on it as your only source of
info.
If you would like to subscribe to the email version please send an email to
mdm8@cornell.edu with "Subscribe Up To Date" in the subject heading. Same
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Up To Date is also available on the web at
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Comments are always welcome!
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