========
Subject: May Project Gutenberg Newsletter
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
To: "Project Gutenberg mailing list" <gutnberg@listserv.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 13:45:58 -0500 (CDT)
***This is Project Gutenberg's Newsletter for Wednesday, May 3, 2000**
Etexts Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since Before The Internet
[Usually sent the first Wednesday of each month, delayed if by relay.]
Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli, of Rome, Italy
*Check out our Websites at promo.net, and ask me for our FTP servers.*
With 2550 eTexts online it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers
gaining a nominal value of $3.92 from each book, for Project Gutenberg
to have given away $1,000,000,000,000 [One Trillion Dollars] in books.
Table of Contents:
Headline News
Requests For Assistance
Comments About Our New Files
Index Listings for the New Files
Notes from Edupage and News Scan
***
Headline News
Is it true that 60% of the world population
has never made a phone call?
About twice as many [64%] Asian-American families use the Internet,
as the national average of all families [33%], which should include
the Asian-American families. . .so the difference is even greater.
97% of Chinese households have television, 88% for refrigerators.
Since 1956 US service workers have outnumbered blue-collar workers.
100 rupees [$2.34] buys 50 channels of cable access in India,
this is equal to one day's wages for a rickshaw peddlar.
10 years ago there was just one part time government channel.
No four lane intercity highways in India.
India is currently undergoing the worst drought in 10-100 years.
Some areas have been suffering from poor rainfall for 3-4 years.
About half the world population now lives in cities.
There are about 15 cities with 10,000,000 population.
In 1950 New York City handled about 20% of the US sea
shipping, now down to only 6% of the nation's tonnage.
A million Yellow Taxi trips per day in New York City.
New York is NOT one of the 15 cities of 10,000,000.
[Let me know if you have comments about including
these kinds of information in our Newsletters.]
Requests For Assistance
We need an English translation of Euripides, from before 1923,
particularly for Medea. Please email Scott Fallin <saf@well.com>
cc:me
Progress on our translation of Siddhartha is very difficult,
and we drastically need more volunteers to help translate
from the original German, which we have available as Etext.
Due to various copyright restrictions, it may not be legal
for many volunteers outside the US to help us
Trying to locate:
Michael Larsen, formerly of Penn. <larsen@math.upenn.edu>
Marcus Aurelius file lost. . .can sender please resend.
We need E.T.A. Hoffman books in English for David Bridson
<david@bridson.co.uk>
From one of our readers:
While you may have some favorite word processors, here are some
free ones that you might want your volunteers to have available,
rather than sending them out to buy something. WordWright looks
particularly good for your project, but there are others.
http://www.freewarehome.com/business/wordproc.html
Would anyone like to proof Walter Scott's Guy Mannering?
scotgmw.txt is the one, needs work. . .headers are funny,
lots of double spaces, probably from trying margination.
We need a pre-1923 edition of Billy Budd, Sailor.
Please email Eric Sugar <bisb@aol.com> and cc: me.
We need a copy that says it is pre-1923:
Swords of Mars, and, Synthetic men of Mars
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950. [1909]
Garden City, N.Y. : Nelson Doubleday,
"Kampung Buku Malaysia (Malaysia Book Village) is a manifestation of the Kedah
State Government's ( a state in Malaysia) initiative in promoting reading to
the people of Malaysia. Through the book village, we hope to make available
cheap reading materials through the sales of second and remainder books.
However, as part of the Worldwide Book Village and Book Towns Movement,
we also sell antiquarian and rare books.
"We believe that our aspirations in bringing reading materials to the public
at large will be further enhanced through Etext under Project Gutenberg.
We, at the Book Village are making efforts to spearhead PG in Malaysia
and South East Asia (Malaysia. Singapore, Indonesia & Brunei),
to publish Etexts in the Malay Language. We will, in our endeavor
try to recruit retired librarians, government servants, students,
historians, government and non-government bodies to volunteer
in this wonderful program.
"We may be contacted at buku@kampungbukumalaysia.com
or visit our website at www.kampungbukumalaysia.com "
And I have my own request for assistance:
I still very much need public relationtions people,
both for contacting the media and the Billionaire
Boys Club. . .hart@pobox.com
Comments About Our New Files
We are closing in on being a year ahead of schedule,
this is the first time I have really announced the
releases of Etexts in the same month they will be
officially released a year later!!! We should be
able to reach 3,333 Etext by the end of 2001. . .
We have released the six volume series
"The Origins of Contemporary France"
by Hippolyte A. Taine.
Due to popular requests, we have released four new
math constants [yes, there are still nerds and geeks
out there in InternetLand. . ..
We posted Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
We have started releasing Aristophanes.
And plenty more Bret Harte, Elizabeth Gaskell,
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Index Listings for the New Files
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext]####
*****A "C" Following a Project Gutenberg Etext Number Indicates Copyright****
New versions of the following were posted:
Jan 2000 The American Republic, by O. A. Brownson [amrepxxx.xxx]2053
Mar 2001 Two Men of Sandy Bar, by Bret Harte[Bret Harte#27][tmosbxxx.xxx]2570
Mar 2001 The Day's Work [Vol. 1], by Rudyard Kipling[RK#14][dyswkxxx.xxx]2569
Mar 2001 Trent's Last Case, by E.C.(Edmund Clerihew)Bentley[trentxxx.xxx]2568
[This was the British title, US title was The Woman in Black]
Mar 2001 The Woman in Black by E.C.(Edmund Clerihew)Bentley[trentxxx.xxx]2568
Mar 2001 A Plea for Captain John Brown, by Thoreau [HDT #4][apcjbxxx.xxx]2567
[Author: Henry David Thoreau]
Jan 2001 Mary-'Gusta by Joseph C. Lincoln [J.C. Lincoln #4][mrygtxxx.xxx]2473
Mar 2001 How to Fail in Literature, by Andrew Lang[Lang#26][fllitxxx.xxx]2566
Mar 2001 The Story of the Glittering Plain, by Wm. Morris 4[gltplxxx.xxx]2565
Mar 2001 Wanderings Among South Sea Savages by H. W. Walker[wasssxxx.xxx]2564
[Title: Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines]
[Author: H. Wilfrid Walker]
Mar 2001 Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry by Lamothe-Langon[8dbryxxx.xxx]2563
Mar 2001 Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry by Lamothe-Langon[7dbryxxx.xxx]2563
[Full title: Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry With Minute Details of Her
Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV]
[Author's full name: Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon]
[We are posting two versions, 8 bit with accents, 7 bit plain standard text.]
Mar 2001 The Clouds, by Aristophanes [Aristophanes #1][cloudxxx.xxx]2562
Mar 2001 Robert Falconer, by George MacDonald[MacDonald#10][rflcnxxx.xxx]2561
Mar 2001 The Three Partners, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #26][tpartxxx.xxx]2560
Mar 2001 Man of Property, by John Galsworthy[Forsyte#1JG#4][mnprpxxx.xxx]2559
Mar 2001 Poems, by George P. Morris [mrrspxxx.xxx]2558
Mar 2001 Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton W. Burgess[TB#4][ldmwwxxx.xxx]2557
Mar 2001 Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation, by Bret Harte [BH#25][jhmlnxxx.xxx]2556
Mar 2001 Under the Redwoods, by Bret Harte[Bret Harte [#24][unrdwxxx.xxx]2555
Contains:
JIMMY'S BIG BROTHER FROM CALIFORNIA
THE YOUNGEST MISS PIPER
A WIDOW OF THE SANTA ANA VALLEY
THE MERMAID OF LIGHTHOUSE POINT
UNDER THE EAVES
HOW REUBEN ALLEN "SAW LIFE" IN SAN FRANCISCO
THREE VAGABONDS OF TRINIDAD
A VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN
A ROMANCE OF THE LINE
BOHEMIAN DAYS IN SAN FRANCISCO
UNDER THE REDWOODS
Mar 2001 Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky [FD #4][7crmpxxx.xxx]2554
Mar 2001 Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky [FD #4][8crmpxxx.xxx]2554
Mar 2001 Jeanne d'Arc, Her Life and Death, by Mrs. Oliphant[7jnrcxxx.xxx]2553
Mar 2001 Jeanne d'Arc, Her Life and Death, by Mrs. Oliphant[8jnrcxxx.xxx]2553
[We are posting two versions, 8 bit with accents, 7 bit plain standard text.]
Mar 2001 Thankful's Inheritance, by Joseph C. Lincoln[JL#5][thkinxxx.xxx]2552
Mar 2001 Droll Stories [V. 3], by Honore de Balzac[HdB #95][3drllxxx.xxx]2551
Also see:
Sep 2000 Droll Stories [V. 2], by Honore de Balzac[HdB #92][2drllxxx.xxx]2318
Oct 1999 Droll Stories [V. 1], by Honore de Balzac[HdB #82][1drllxxx.xxx]1925
Mar 2001 Tales of Trail and Town, by Bret Harte [Harte #23][totatxxx.xxx]2550
Mar 2001 Doom of the Griffiths, by Elizabeth Gaskell[EG#10][dmgrfxxx.xxx]2549
Mar 2001 The Poor Clare, by Elizabeth Gaskell[E. Gaskell#9][prclrxxx.xxx]2548
Mar 2001 Half a Life-time Ago, by Elizabeth Gaskell[E.G.#8][hlflfxxx.xxx]2547
Mar 2001 Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up, by CE Mulford[hcrruxxx.xxx]2546
Mar 2001 BAR-20[Alternate Title],by Clarence Edward Mulford[hcrruxxx.xxx]2546
Mar 2001 When God Laughs et al, by Jack London [JL #98-109][gdlghxxx.xxx]2545
Contains:
98. WHEN GOD LAUGHS
99. THE APOSTATE
100. A WICKED WOMAN
101. JUST MEAT
102. CREATED HE THEM
103. THE CHINAGO
104. MAKE WESTING
105. SEMPER IDEM
106. A NOSE FOR THE KING
107. THE "FRANCIS SPAIGHT"
108. A CURIOUS FRAGMENT
109. A PIECE OF STEAK
Mar 2001 From Sand Hill to Pine, by Bret Harte[B Harte #22][fshtpxxx.xxx]2544
Mar 2001 Polyeucte, by Pierre Corneille[Tr by T. Constable][plyctxxx.xxx]2543
Mar 2001 The Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen[Henrik Ibsen #5][dlshsxxx.xxx]2542
Mar 2001 Character, by Samuel Smiles [Samuel Smiles #6][crctrxxx.xxx]2541
Mar 2001 Father and Son [Autobiography], by Edmund Gosse [ftrsnxxx.xxx]2540
Mar 2001 The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Russel Wallace V2[2malayxx.xxx]2539
Also see:
Feb 2001 The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Russel Wallace V1[1malayxx.xxx]2530
Mar 2001 My Birthday. . .if you find something cute. :-) [ xxx.xxx]2538
Mar 2001 The Pocket R.L.S., by Robert Louis Stevenson [#39][pkrlsxxx.xxx]2537
Mar 2001 Amphitryon, A play by Moliere, Tr. by Waller [M#2][amphixxx.xxx]2536
Mar 2001 Openings in the Old Trail, by Bret Harte[Harte#21][oitotxxx.xxx]2535
Mar 2001 Eugene Pickering, by Henry James [James #29][eugpkxxx.xxx]2534
Mar 2001 Round the Sofa, by Elizabeth Gaskell [#8][rndsfxxx.xxx]2533
Mar 2001 The Half-Brothers, by Elizabeth Gaskell [#7][hlfbrxxx.xxx]2532
Mar 2001 An Accursed Race, by Elizabeth Gaskell [#6][accrcxxx.xxx]2531
Also released:
Jan 2001 Repertory of the Comedie Humaine, Pt 2 [Balzac#94][2rthcxxx.xxx]2469
Also see:
Jan 2001 Repertory of the Comedie Humaine, Pt 1 [Balzac#93][1rthcxxx.xxx]2468
And. . .we have these already prepared for next month:
Apr 2001 The first 498 Bernoulli Numbers[Math Constant #22][brnllxxx.xxx]2586
Apr 2001 The first 1001 Fibonacci Numbers[Math Constant#21][fbnccxxx.xxx]2585
Apr 2001 The first 1000 Euler Numbers [Math Constant #20][eulerxxx.xxx]2584
Apr 2001 The Value of Zeta(3) to 1,000,000 Places[Math #19][zeta3xxx.xxx]2583
The next six Etexts comprise the series "The Origins of Contemporary France"
by Hippolyte A. Taine. "The Origins of Contemporary France" = ocf
Apr 2001 The Modern Regime V2, by Hippolyte A. Taine OCF V6[06ocfxxx.xxx]2582
Apr 2001 The Modern Regime V1, by Hippolyte A. Taine OCF V5[05ocfxxx.xxx]2581
Apr 2001 The French Revolution V3, by Hippolyte Taine OCFV4[04ocfxxx.xxx]2580
Apr 2001 The French Revolution V2, by Hippolyte Taine OCFV3[03ocfxxx.xxx]2579
Apr 2001 The French Revolution V1, by Hippolyte Taine OCFV2[02ocfxxx.xxx]2578
Apr 2001 The Ancient Regime, by Hippolyte A. Taine OCF V1 [01ocfxxx.xxx]2577
Apr 2001 Alps and Sanctuaries, by Samuel Butler [Butler #5][alpsnxxx.xxx]2576
[Full Title: Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino]
Apr 2001 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, by Colerige #2[cfinqxxx.xxx]2575
[Full: Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc., by Samuel Taylor Coleridge]
Apr 2001 On the Frontier, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #28][frntrxxx.xxx]2574
Apr 2001 The Caged Lion, by Charlotte M. Yonge [Yonge #2] [cgdlnxxx.xxx]2573
Apr 2001 On the Decay of the Art of Lying, by Mark Twain 17[lyingxxx.xxx]2572
Apr 2001 Peace, by Aristophanes [Aristophanes #2][peacexxx.xxx]2571
Notes from Edupage and News Scan
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan Daily
Underwritten by Arthur Andersen & IEEE Computer Society
If you have questions or comments about NewsScan
send e-mail to Editors@newsscan.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe to NewsScan Daily,
send an e-mail message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com
with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.
MICROSOFT TO ADOPT BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY
[See Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon for details,
but be forewarned, there is no ending to the book.]
Microsoft says it plans to incorporate biometric technology in its Windows
software that will enable users to sign on by brushing their fingertips
across a scanner rather than typing in a password. Biometric technology
scans the details of a person's fingerprints, iris patterns, facial
structure or other physical characteristics and compares them against a
database of stored user information. The company will use authentication
technology from I/O Software Inc. (Reuters/Los Angeles Times 3 May 2000)
http://www.latimes.com/business/20000503/t000041568.html
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? DISNEY, SAYS TIME WARNER
Three and a half million homes cable customers across the U.S. were shut
out of ABC affiliate TV stations Monday as a result of a dispute between
Time Warner Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. The two media giants have been
negotiating for several months to form a new long-term agreement for Time
Warner's cable systems to carry channels from Disney, including ABC, the
Disney Channel and ESPN. Disney wants Time Warner to feature two new
channels and to make the Disney Channel part of its basic package. Time
Warner agreed but balked at the price and dropped affiliates in New York
City; Los Angeles; Houston; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Toledo, Ohio; parts of
Fresno, Calif., and Philadelphia. Each company blames the other for the
stalemate, witha Disney executive blasting, "Some deranged individual has
deprived all of these people of ABC. These people are arrogant
manipulators." A Time Warner spokesman says Disney is trying to extract
"excessive and unreasonable terms" for its cable TV channels. Until the
matter is settled, viewers are tuning into "Who Wants to be Millionaire"
the old-fashioned way -- by fiddling with their antennae.
(Washington Post 1 May 2000)
WEB PORTALS RETHINK THEIR BROADBAND PROMISES
[Big Bandwidth is so far 98% vaporware. . . .]
Faced with the reality that only a relative handful of Web surfers have
access to high-speed 'Net connections, portal sites Yahoo and Lycos have
quietly scaled back their plans for new applications and content designed
specifically for those users. Spurred by the merger of Excite.com with the
@Home Network last year, Lycos began development of a service dubbed "Lycos
Lightning" aimed at high-speed surfers. But that initiative has been moved
to the back burner, as has a similar effort by Yahoo. "We look at the
marketplace and say, 'Well, broadband certainly is important, but there's
50 narrowband connections still in the United States for every broadband
connection, so let's be careful about how much energy we put into
broadband,'" says one Lycos exec. Despite broadband's limited availability
today, analysts expect high-speed connections in the U.S. to reach as many
as 12.9 million households in two years. When that kind of critical mass is
reached, site operators will have no choice but to play to the broadband
market. (New York Times 1 May 2000)
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0_4_1779432_00.html
INTERNET TELEPHONY IS COMING INTO ITS OWN
[You can read about this in Cryptonomicon, too.]
If you think Internet communication is limited to e-mail and instant
messaging, think again. Last year, Internet Protocol (IP) networks carried
2.7 billion minutes of phone calls worldwide, and International Data Corp.
says that number could jump to 135 billion minutes by 2004, with nearly a
quarter of that usage occurring in Asia. One company hitching its wagon to
the IP telephony star is OCen Communications. OCen -- which stands for open
communications enterprise network and means "profound telecommunications"
in Chinese -- has built a private IP network linking Los Angeles to Asia,
enabling customers in California to place IP voice and fax calls to Japan,
South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and eastern China. Now, the company
plans to sell its services to corporate customers in Asia for resale to
consumers. Thought OCen faces a slew of competition from Internet phone
carriers, it's the first to target the Asian business community, where
quality is more of a factor than cost. Other IP phone companies have made
price their big selling point. OCen is offering customers what amounts to a
virtual private network -- ensuring high-quality service and four-digit
dialing between company locations, even when those locations span several
national borders. (Los Angeles Times 1 May 2000)
http://www.latimes.com/business/20000501/t000040913.html
CAN SCRATCH 'N SNIFF COMPUTERS BE FAR BEHIND?
[You heard it first from me. . .hee hee]
Shopping online for a Mother's Day gift and can't decide which perfume to
choose? Not a problem any more. TriSenx has patented a technology that will
let you click and smell. Using a device something like a desktop printer,
you can download a smell or taste from the Internet. A picture of a
strawberry, for example, both smells and tastes like, well, a strawberry.
The scent technology, which several companies have been working on, works
by mixing chemicals to create the desired smell. The scents are printed on
a cardstock paper now, but future plans call for them to print to a
communion-like wafer that would make it easier to sample tastes from the
Web. Will it catch on? At its current price of $398, skeptics abound. "If
it's going to be a couple of hundred bucks I'd be hard-pressed to see who's
going to go out and buy a smell generator," says one analyst. Numerous
businesses have expressed interest in the idea, including fragrance makers
and cookie companies. (San Jose Mercury News 1 May 2000)
http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/481779l.htm
NEW EU ENCRYPTION EXPORT RULE LOOSER THAN U.S.
The European Union has agreed to relax the rules for exporting encryption
software, lifting almost all restrictions on encryption exports among the 15
EU countries and 10 other countries -- the U.S., Japan, Canada, Switzerland,
Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland -- which
together make up over 80% of the world market. The new EU rules eliminate
the need to secure approval from national licensing bodies and do away with
security checks for all encryption products with the exception of so-called
crypto-analytic tools, which can be used to test systems and crack codes.
Companies will need only to promise that the end user of the encryption
product is in one of the 25 countries approved. Exports to countries outside
that group will be subject to current restrictions. The move puts U.S.
encryption companies once again at a disadvantage, despite a liberalization
of export rules that took effect in January. And although U.S. companies are
likely to respond by pushing for further reforms, it's not likely that the
government will oblige. (Wall Street Journal 28 Apr 2000)
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956867771608897487.htm
LOSING INTERNET WEALTH AT INTERNET SPEED
Among the many technology entrepreneurs who have seen market gyrations cause
their stock holdings to plummet is MicroStrategy founder and chief executive
Michael J. Saylor, who made news two months ago when he announced that he
was putting $100 million of his personal funds into the creation of an
online university. A MicroStrategy spokesman says that Saylor will continue
his plans to make that donation, even though the market value of his
personal stake in the company has dropped from a high of $13.6 billion to
$1.07 billion at close of the market yesterday. (Washington Post 28 Apr 2000)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29010-2000Apr27.html
JUDGE WANTS HACKER OFF THE LECTURE CIRCUIT
[Is this EX POST FACTO as prohibited in the US Constitution?]
When he was released on probation after having been imprisoned almost five
years for network vandalism, Kevin Mitnick was ordered to stay completely
away from computers, cell phones, and the Internet for three years. The
judge, assuming that Mitnick would have to find some minimum-wage job,
didn't think of ordering him not to give speeches about his knowledge of
hacking. To rectify her oversight, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer is
now telling him she'll send him back to jail if he doesn't get off the
lecture circuit. Mitnick says, "They're saying I can no longer write or
speak about technology issues. I think it is an abrogation of my First
Amendment rights... Probation is not supposed to be punitive...They don't
like the idea of my being a celebrity. They are trying to chill my free
speech in hopes that my notoriety will die down." (AP/San Jose Mercury News
28 Apr 2000)
JUSTICE APPROVES VIACOM-CBS MERGER
[More Merger Mania]
The Justice Department has okayed Viacom's $47-billion purchase of CBS, and
the Federal Communications Commission has indicated it, too, plans to
approve the megamerger. In its recommendation for approval, the FCC's Mass
Media Bureau said the combined company should be given a year to comply
with the 35% audience limit and six months to sell off two radio stations or
a TV station in Dallas, in order to comply with media ownership rules. The
Bureau also recommended that Viacom-CBS be allowed to keep UPN for one year,
during which time the FCC likely will relax its dual-network prohibition.
(Hollywood Reporter 27 Apr 2000)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/frontpage/index.asp?ee
MICROSOFT COUNTS ON TEEN WHIZZES FOR THE FUTURE
Microsoft has seen the future and it is young. So it's hired two teenagers
-- Michael Furdyk, 17, and Jennifer Corriero, 19 -- to explain to Microsoft
executives the new generation's philosophy of work and play. "People's lives
used to be all about education, then work, then retirement or fun or
whatever," says Corriero. "But what's happening with us is that all three of
these things are all mixed in together. We're always learning, we like our
work so we're working more, and we're working when we want to, and we're
having fun now as opposed to later." One example of how things are changing
is that younger people seem to prefer online chat meetings as opposed to
conference room get-togethers. They feel they can communicate more
thoughtfully by writing, can work on other projects while waiting for a
response, and can walk away from the meeting with a written record of all
that was discussed. (AP/Los Angeles Times 27 Apr 2000)
http://www.latimes.com/business/20000427/t000039487.html
COMPUTER GIANTS SEEK SAVINGS THROUGH B2B PARTNERSHIP
Taking their cue from "old economy" veterans who have formed
business-to-business partnerships to help reduce supply costs, three of the
top five computer companies -- Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway --
announced they have joined with nine suppliers to launch a new "online
marketplace company." The enterprise initially will be a catalog of
products from each participant and later will link buyers and sellers.
Eventually it's expected to speed up the design and manufacture of new
products and will include telecom and consumer electronics components.
Backers, who estimate savings will be between 5% to 7%, are actively
seeking other players, including Internet software and services suppliers.
Pioneer partners are chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Samsung
Electronics, Infineon Technologies, NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd.; disk-drive
makers Quantum Corp. and Western Digital; and printed circuit-board makers
Solectron Corp. and SCI Systems Inc. The new company is expected to be up
and running in 90 days. IBM announced it is developing a similar exchange.
(San Jose Mercury News 1 May 2000)
SCI FI WRITER WINS PRIZE CREATED FOR ONLINE VISUAL ARTISTS
[No. . .I swear. . .I didn't get to this one until just now, didn't know!]
By-passing 250 official entries in the Internet category of the Prix Ars
Electronica international computer-arts competition sponsored by the
Austrian Broadcasting Company, the jurors gave the prize to science fiction
author Neal Stephenson ("Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon'), who didn't even
enter the contest and isn't even a visual artist. One juror said
off-the-record: "It was a good way to make the comment that the work we were
seeing wasn't as original, and also to credit Neal Stephenson because he's
directly inspired so many developers." (New York Times 27 Apr 2000)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/artsatlarge/27artsatlarge.html
OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED AOL-TIME WARNER MERGER
The Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for
Media Education, and the Media Access Project will file petitions with the
Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in
opposition to the proposed merger of America Online and Time Warner, which
the groups say will add "a dangerous new dimension to the merging structure
of the cable TV-broadband-Internet industry." AOL and Time Warner say that,
to the contrary, the merger "will deliver tremendous benefits to consumers,
bringing people around the world more choice and more convenience and
accelerating the rollout of broadband services." (Washington Post 26 Apr 2000)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13380-2000Apr25.html
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan Daily
Underwritten by Arthur Andersen & IEEE Computer Society
If you have questions or comments about NewsScan
send e-mail to Editors@newsscan.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe to NewsScan Daily,
send an e-mail message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com
with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.
***
NEW VOICE IN PORTALS
A number of Internet startups are creating voice portals that
allow users to access the Internet using a telephone rather than
a computer. Users call a toll-free number and speak commands to
navigate the Internet. Tellme Networks has built a voice portal
that allows users to choose from various categories of
information, including stock quotes, weather reports, and
restaurant and movie listings. Using speech recognition
technology, the portal takes in a caller's selection, finds the
requested information online, and reads the information aloud.
Voice portal developers expect to eventually create voice sites
that users would navigate by speaking keywords. The market for
using the phone to provide Internet access and direct users to
businesses could reach $5.5 billion, says Mark Plakias of Kelsey
Group. Voice portals could help narrow the digital divide since
telephones are so widely available and easy to use.
(SiliconValley.com, 30 April 2000)
EPA TO LIMIT WEB INFORMATION
[Beaten to death from both sides.]
The Environmental Protection Agency has decided that it will not
publish specific information on the Internet about toxic waste
sites and other dangerous chemicals residing in manufacturing
plants for fear that terrorists will use the information to
launch an attack. The EPA had previously planned to make such
information public, but objections were raised by FBI and Justice
Department officials, who felt that the information could be used
by people with bad intent to facilitate an attack on a chemical
plant. New EPA and Justice Department regulations will be
released today. Omitted from the Internet will be information
relating to the size of the population surrounding chemical
plants, the type and breadth of a toxic cloud that could develop
if there were an accident at a chemical plant, and disaster
scenarios that could occur if such an accident took place.
(Washington Post, 27 April 2000)
A LAPTOP FOR EVERY KID
Four years after the principal of a Bloomfield, Conn., school
initiated an effort to supply all of its students and teachers
with laptops and wireless Internet access, other school systems
across the country are seeking to act on bold plans of their own
to provide their students with such technology. In Maine, the
state legislature will vote this week on a proposal by Gov. Angus
King that would supply all of the state's 17,000 seventh-graders
with laptops, as well as the new seventh-graders of each school
year. Although King wanted to use as much as $50 million of the
state's budget surplus to wire students, a compromise has reduced
that amount to $30 million, which would also be used to establish
a permanent endowment with its interest to be used to help buy
the computers. In New York City, the board of education has
already voted to pursue an initiative that could fund laptop
purchases for every student in fourth grade and higher in nine
years. With its April 12 unanimous vote, a school Internet
portal will be created, and the Web site will make money by
selling ads and licensing e-commerce sites. New York's 1.1
million public school students will obtain e-mail service through
the portal. (Time, 1 May 2000)
COMPANIES, SCHOOLS DO MATH: TECH PAYS
The effects of the digital divide are perhaps most evident in
Silicon Valley, where high-tech workers are regularly becoming
millionaires while many non-tech workers cannot afford to pay
rent. With local workers filling only two-thirds of high-tech
labor needs, the industry is losing $3 billion a year in
productivity and high salaries needed to keep workers, according
to the business, government, and education think tank Joint
Venture: Silicon Valley. Although Silicon Valley is renowned for
technology, the region's schools are unable to meet demand for
technical classes because of poor funding and a lack of qualified
teachers. Schools have had to cancel technology classes because
teachers, frustrated with low salaries, are entering the
high-tech field. Some companies are trying to create a skilled
labor pool by providing training and equipment to local high
schools and community colleges. Meanwhile, Joint Venture:
Silicon Valley urges local high-tech companies to send workers to
teach at community colleges to "spread the wealth" of Silicon
Valley. (Investor's Business Daily, 26 April 2000)
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