Collection of Education/collectionofeducationcarat1997.iso/COMPUSCI/EDU0196.ZIP/EDU01236.DOC

Text File | 1996-05-01 | 9KB | 171 lines

Subject: Edupage, 23 January 1996

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Edupage, 23 January 1996.  Edupage, a summary of news items on information
technology, is provided three times each week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
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TOP STORIES
        AT&T To Acquire Stake In Satellite TV Company
        MCI Gets Tough On Spamming
        Netscape Cuts Deals With Verifone, AOL
        Software As A Service Industry
        ISDN vs. Cable Modems

ALSO
        Russian Chips
        Internet Translation Service
        New York Times Web Site
        Educational Programming On Cable TV
        Fiberoptic Link Around The Globe

AT&T TO ACQUIRE STAKE IN SATELLITE TV COMPANY
AT&T is investing $137.5 million in Hughes DirecTV, giving it a 2.5% stake
in the direct broadcasting service.  The arrangement will allow AT&T to
offer customers TV as well as long-distance telephone services, and charge
for both in a single bill.  The move is one more step in AT&T's plan to
provide one-stop-shopping for all communications services.  (New York Times
23 Jan 96 C1)

MCI GETS TOUGH ON SPAMMING
MCI has announced a new policy aimed at discouraging "spamming" -- the
distribution of unwanted junk e-mail.  The policy covers MCI's e-mail,
Internet access, and World Wide Web services.  "We reserve the right to
automatically disconnect and deny access to any MCI customer who violates
this spamming policy, and we will take swift and corrective action," says
the marketing director for MCI's Business Enterprises.  (Investor's
Business Daily 25 Jan 96 A8)

NETSCAPE CUTS DEALS WITH VERIFONE, AOL
VeriFone Inc., whose electronic payment systems are used in 75% of U.S.
credit card transactions, will work with Netscape Communications to develop
software for processing financial transactions on the Internet.  The
software will be able to handle a variety of credit cards and will be
designed to work with merchants', customers', and banks' computers using
existing processing structures.  (Investor's Business Daily 23 Jan 96 A9)
In separate news, Netscape and America Online are in talks over using
Netscape's Navigator software on America Online.  "They're the only two
companies that seem to have a viable shot a balancing the Microsoft
hegemony," says an industry watcher.  (Wall Street Journal 22 Jan 96 A3)

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE INDUSTRY
Cygnus Support has grown into a $10-million-a-year company by making "free
software affordable" -- while it charges nothing for its source code,
companies pay it to modify the software, adapt it to new hardware, and
answer their technical questions.  Cygnus's software-for-free,
service-for-fee strategy may be a forerunner of the future model for the
highly competitive software industry.  By making the software available for
free, it "provides a straightforward mechanism for a group to innovate
rapidly and yet remain united by a common core of technology."  (Scientific
American Jan 96 p35)

ISDN VS. CABLE MODEMS
After years of neglecting ISDN, Baby Bells are finally beginning to use a
consumer-oriented approach to  the marketing of ISDN services -- but
industry observers say it's probably too little, too late.  "I think it's
time to write the obituary on ISDN," says a Gartner Group analyst.  "Nice
launching, wrong airport.  It's time to turn the page and move on," he
notes, referring to the cable companies' plans to offer high-speed,
high-capacity access for a fraction of ISDN's costs.  (Wall Street Journal
23 Jan 96 B7)

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RUSSIAN CHIPS
Russian chip factories increased their output by 10% in 1995, and sales are
expected to rise 7% this year, according to British consulting firm Future
Horizons.  And chip exports are taking off -- from $316,000 in 1993 to $19.4
million for the first 10 months of 1995.  "The industry has definitely
turned around," says Future Horizons' chairman, and while their chips tend
to be outdated by U.S. standards, Russian firms are doing a brisk business
with countries such as China and some of the southeast Asian nations.
(Business Week 22 Jan 96 p92)

INTERNET TRANSLATION SERVICE
Globalink offers a Translate Direct service that does a quick turnaround job
translating Web pages and other Internet documents to and from English,
French, German, Italian and Spanish.  The company has human translators
available 24 hours a day.  The URL is < http://www.globalink.com > and is
only accessible using the Netscape Navigator browser.  The company can be
reached by phone at 800-255-5660.  (Internet World Feb 96 p16)

NEW YORK TIMES WEB SITE
The New York Times Web site < http://www.nytimes.com > offers news and
feature articles from the printed newspaper, classified ads, and various
other features.  Subscribers will be able to copy articles to their own
computers for $1.95 each.  (New York Times 22 Jan 96 C7)

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING ON CABLE TV
Comcast, the third-largest cable operator, is preempting three hours a week
of programming by cable networks such as MTV and USA Network in order to
run educational programs that it will produce itself or buy from other
sources.  A Comcast executive says, "The networks will hate it, but at the
end of the day someone has to step forward and do something."  (USA Today
23 Jan 96 1B)

FIBEROPTIC LINK AROUND THE GLOBE
A consortium led by AT&T Submarine Systems in the U.S. and NDD Submarine
Cable Systems in Japan has begun a $1.5 billion project ("Flag," or
Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe) to lay undersea fiberoptic cables from
England to Japan, with landing points in Europe, the Middle East, Africa
and Asia, in order to provide  120,000 64kbps circuits.  About 50
telecommunication companies from around the world have agreed to purchase
capacity on the cable.  (Financial Times 19 Jan 96 p4)

Edupage is written by John Gehl ([e-mail]) & Suzanne Douglas
([e-mail]).  Voice:  404-371-1853, Fax: [phone].

Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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