Flux
First Amendment First: Late this summer Bell Atlantic won a US federal court ruling that, on the basis of the first amendment, allowed it to enter the video programming biz on its own home turf. Why the fuss? This could prove to be the carrot that finally gives phone companies the incentive to lay fiber to the curb. The cable companies were not happy about the ruling and plan a hard-fought appeal.
Mario's Roots: "Hot Circuits, A Video Arcade" recently completed a ten-city tour and is now ensconced in the American Museum of the Moving Image's Astoria, New York digs. The exhibit features 30 classic video games, from Computer Space (the first commercial game) to Donkey Kong (where Mario first made his way into the world psyche). Recent additions include a 3DO Multiplayer (now there's a piece of history) and the new Sega Activator.
Nah, They're Just British: A study by Robert Half International found that 62 percent of executives in the United Kingdom felt that their colleagues were "excessively tense," compared to a 41 percent figure for their American counterparts surveyed. In both cases, however, "excessive drinking and smoking" made the top five list as manifestations of stress.
So Why Are They Still in Place? A recent study released by the Software Publishers Association reports that the US's barriers to export of software with encryption capabilities have simply encouraged the creation of identical products in other countries. All the export controls have done, it seems, is success-fully tie the hands of US software makers trying to compete in foreign markets.
First Paper, Now Disks: Eco Tech Inc. buys floppy disks from major software manufacturers (who are more than happy to unload their outdated inventory), then recycles them into high-quality blank disks. Buy from Eco Tech [+1 (713) 840 0840] and a portion of your purchase goes to the Wilderness Society.
Finally, a Unified Europe: Three major providers of software-based maps (Etak, Tele Atlas, and Robert Bosch) have inked a deal to create digital street maps for all of Europe by 1995. And unlike their compatriots in the EC, these collaborators have agreed to stick to one standard format.
Fax Warfare: Sick of faxed junk mail? Net pranksters have been refining a means of fighting back - fax a loop of black paper to the offending number. Eventually the sender's fax will burn out. To avoid retaliation, one Net humorist suggests, change your fax machine's return fax ID to that of yet another fax junk mailer.
Manual Overload: The Communications Circle, a group of "fed-up professional writers" based in La Senda, New Mexico, is sponsoring a "Worst Manual of the Year" award. The winner will be announced in early December. If you have a candidate, e-mail (itso@hydra.unm.edu) for more info.
Sign of the Times: Sony and Total Recall Corp. of Spring Valley, New York, have teamed up to bring us the Babywatch system, a combination lamp/video camera designed to catch abusive baby sitters in the act. No word yet on the inside-the-'fridge model.
It Still Won't Prevent RSI: Honeywell's keyboard division announced this summer that it will manufacture a specially equipped keyboard that neutralizes your monitor's electromagnetic field.
The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem: Aware of the addictive nature of MUDs, Pavel Curtis, creator and administrator of Xerox PARC's Lambda.moo, has installed a safety lock that automatically disconnects a user after a certain amount of time. The only problem: The user must specify that he or she wants the feature.
Still Got a Long Way to Go: A Dell Corp. commissioned study found that "fear of technology afflicts most Americans." The survey identified four "techno types": the techno-wizard, the techno-to-go (wants ready-to-use technology), the techno-boomer (wants technology to make him/her look smart, also known in Wired circles as the techno-poseur), and the techno- phobe. Our guess is the techno-phobes fall into that 22 percent group the survey found are "uncomfortable setting a digital clock."
Online Monarch: Queen Elizabeth visited a center that offers technology training to underprivileged kids, and in the process typed the first-ever monarchic message sent over the Internet: "During this visit to the Whitefield Centre I have been heartened to see the emphasis placed upon helping young people toward independence by the use of technology (signed) Elizabeth R."
Mickey Mousing Around: The Disney Adventures Magazine recently joined Wired, CNN, and Time in the media stampede to America Online.
Not Mickey Mousing Around: Rupert Murdoch has seen the Next Great Thing and it's not just another TV network (pace, recent acquisitions of Asia's StarTV). He's buying into the biggest network of them all. Murdoch's News Technology Group recently purchased Delphi, the fifth-largest online service in the world and probably the most Internet-savvy service of the lot.
Can You Hack It? A 100-question "Official MIT Nerd Test" recently hit our desks, and some of the questions made us LOL: "Have you ever programmed a computer? Have you ever built a computer? Programmed a computer continuously for more than four hours? On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the same weekend? Past 4am? For money? Was your math SAT more than 300 points higher than your verbal? Have you ever made a technical joke? Did no one get it? Were you ever on a chess team? Were you ever on a debate team? Can you count in binary?" A score of 40 or more in the affirmative puts you firmly in the nerd camp; if you answer yes to more than 80 of the questions, you will be regaled as the "Great Nerd Master," and undergraduates will sacrifice "virgin, untouched slide rules in your name."
Sorry Melinda: We ran your picture but not your name - our regrets, Ms. French - er - Mrs. Gates. (Editor's note - refer to the paper magazine, issue 1.4 p31 or 1.5 p30, for the picture)
Say It Like It Is: From New Scientist comes this latest mail-merge folly (soon to be urban myth, no doubt): Seems an unnamed financial institution decided to target 2,000 of its richest clients with a direct-mail campaign to persuade them to purchase additional services. Standard stuff, but a programmer on the project tested the mail merge with a fictional character he whimsically named "Rich Bastard." Through some kind of screw-up, all 2,000 letters went out with correct addresses, but with the fictional name. Yes, the programmer was sacked.
Missed the Movie, Saw the Dinos: Steven Spielberg was working in Europe while Jurassic Park went through crucial post-production dino creation, so he monitored the progress through an encrypted satellite video link. A cypherpunk in France got wind of the link and decrypted some of the digital dinos as they bounced between California and Europe. They were "pretty cool," he reports. Time for ILM and Spielberg to look into PGP.
Speaking of PGP: Sent to us anonymously (of course): "You may be interested in the products and services our new organization, BlackNet, has to offer. BlackNet is in the business of buying, selling, trading, and otherwise dealing with information in all its many forms." Through PGP (that's Pretty Good Privacy, a freeware encryption scheme) and anonymous remailers, the folks at BlackNet (don't ask who they are) plan to create a huge black market in data: "trade secrets, processes, production methods (esp. in semiconductors) - nanotechnology...chemical manufacturing...new product plans...." Want in? You'll have to find a BlackNet-originated message (one with the BlackNet PGP key), then respond to it, using anonymous remailers and PGP, of course. You might find such a message in alt.extropians, or alt.fan.david-sternlight, we are told. It's never easy to play on the black market.
Kasparov Beware: IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing computer recently finished off the world's top-ranked woman player, it's next target is Gary Kasparov, who humbled an ancestor to Deep Blue in 1989.
Why Are Those Feds Crawling Out My Window? Recent posts on a DOJ BBS tell of "hackers" that are wiring their metal doorframes with massive coils of copper wire. Why? When the feds confiscate their disks and hard drives, all data is automatically erased as they walk out the door.
