August 17 - 23, 1997
from the Up-To-Date dept
Up To Date
(8/17 - 8/23)
The not always serious, not always weekly update on the Hi-Tech Industry
(or at least what I feel like writing about).
Say that again...
"If you came down from Mars, Solaris and NT would look like the same
thing."
---Sun CEO Scott McNealy,
Upside.com, 15 August 1997
Internet 3???
"A computing centre at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will join
INTEL CORP and the University of California, Berkeley to create a new
"system of computer systems" to do research and evaluate technologies
for
new supercomputers. Called "Millennium," the three-year, $6 million
project
is aimed at allowing researchers in 17 different campus units to work
locally on small clusters of computers, as well as tap into a much
larger
cluster which will be a campus-wide resource, to perform scientific
research, the laboratory said." Haven't we seen this before?
Meanwhile,
Bay Networks (headed by a former Intel VP) has donated $1 million to
Internet 2.0 Do I see competing Internets?
Berating the obvious (this is news?):
Experian (formerly TRW) releases credit info on the net, and shuts
the site
down two days later for security problems... NEC joins Sony,
Philips and
HP in ditching the agreed upon "standard" for DVD... Justice Dept.
Investigating Microsoft's investments in video streaming and it's
"competitor" Apple... More computers connected to the internet than
ever
before according to Dataquest... Dell's earnings per share double and
beat
Wall Street's estimates... PCQuote, providing stock quotes to the Microsoft
Network continues to lose money... Compaq lowers prices... Russia to
end
Mir funding by 1998, finance official says... CompuServe is still for
sale... British Telecom tries to renegotiate it's buyout of MCI...
Novel
losing money... Pointcast still looking for a CEO...
Surprises:
Corel ditches Java. Corel's one big shot at saving it's software
against
Microsoft's domination was Java. Now they've gotten rid of it.
Corel
claims that Java's not good enough (perhaps that belongs under "berating
the obvious"). Now what's Corel going to do?
(Mis)Uses of Technology:
Mercedes Benz is planning on embedding a web server into its cars so
technicians can spot service problems remotely. Since when did
HTTP become
such a wonderful protocol? Isn't there something more functional
than
that? It's a hype thing.
Studies on the Net:
New studies released this week continue trying to build on .net fever:
First University of Pittsburgh releases a study saying people can get
"addicted" to the internet. Then, a psychologist from New York
University
announces at a conference that "sex drives technological innovation
on the
net." Obviously, it's those people addicted to sex on the net
that keep
this net fever going. In a related story, Penthouse publisher
Bob Guccione
says, "The Internet will be the biggest thing we have." Now a
new study
cites that with the increase of information on our computer it takes
us
longer to find things. Who funds these?
Predictions:
Snap! Online, CNET's new internet online service, will fail, or at
least
need a major overhaul by next summer. Netscape will decide that
it can't
make any money charging for Communicator. Online contests become
the next
"big thing". Following on Amazon's widely publicized "write a
book with
John Updike" plan, it's no surprise that companies such as Torani Italian
Syrups (yes, a syrup company) are asking people to help write a book
as
part of a contest on their web site (www.torani.com).
Meme Watch: Beta vs. VHS
The Beta vs. VHS "standards" argument is being used to explain everything
these days. Watch out, or you might take it seriously.
Recently spotted
in the DVD defections, it's also being used to talk about HDTV standards,
as well as the new wireless industry for internet connectivity.
It's
gotten to the point where any standards fight is relayed in terms of
the
big Beta vs. VHS battles of the 80s. Take heed.
Too much free time: or, Your Tax Dollars At Work...
The FBI has made all 663 pages of its Elvis Presley files available
for
download in PDF format: http://www.fbi.gov/foipa/presley/presley.htm
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.
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.
Up To Date is also available on the web at
http://www.gsm.cornell.edu/Students/clubs/TMC/uptodate/
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Reader Comments
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In the car?
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In the car?
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fucking cool......
15 years of it..... someone open a window.....its starting to smell something awful!
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I thought there'd be more comments.
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HTTP what?
To be fair then HTTP made the Internet pretty. Functionality was slowly added in during following versions.
I remember those web years when finding a good WYSIWYG program was sure not easy and I soon gave up and just wrote code manually in notepad.
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Testing
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Re: Testing
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Re: Re: Testing
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Link to older archive
Nice, the last link is archived:
https://web.archive.org/web/19980130070210/http://www.gsm.cornell.edu/Students/clubs/TMC/u ptodate/
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