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Edupage, 9 April 1998. Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a 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
Free Java For Educational Institutions
Microsoft, Sony Form PC/TV Alliance
Telecommuters Cite Higher Productivity At Home
Library Groups Call For New Policies On E-Journals
Virginia Judge Lets Software Filtering Case Go Forward
ALSO
Seiko's PC Watch
Veterans Get Scare Through Mass E-Mail Warning
Lost Data At Stanford Business School
Palm Trick: Now You See A Palm PC, Now You See ... A Palm-Size PC
FREE JAVA FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
More than half a million nonprofit academic institutions at all levels of
instruction will be eligible for free one-year software licenses from Sun
Microsystems for software development tools based on Sun's Java computer
language. Sun says that the value of software donated under this program
could run into the billions of dollars. (Dow Jones Newswires 8 Apr 98)
http://www.sun.com/edu/java/free
MICROSOFT, SONY FORM PC/TV ALLIANCE
Microsoft and Sony have agreed to incorporate each other's technologies in
both companies' products, in an effort to achieve the convergence of PC and
television technologies. Sony has agreed to license Microsoft's Windows CE
operating system for "certain future products," and Microsoft will license
Sony's Home Networking Module for use with "certain versions of Windows CE."
The future hybrid products likely will be based on the IEEE 1394 I/O
standard. "We expect to create the true fusion of the PC world and the
television world and when that happens, everybody wins," says the president
of Sony America. (InfoWorld Electric 7 Apr 98)
TELECOMMUTERS CITE HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY AT HOME
A Kensington Telecommuting Survey indicates that nearly 75% of telecommuters
say they get a lot more work done while at home or on the road, as opposed
to time spent in the corporate home office. Most pegged their productivity
level at about 30% higher. The survey also showed that of companies that
allow telecommuting, 63% don't give any formal training on how to be a
telecommuter, and few pay for telecommuting employees' PCs and accessories.
About 8 million workers telecommute regularly in the U.S. (Investor's
Business Daily 8 Apr 98)
LIBRARY GROUPS CALL FOR NEW POLICIES ON E-JOURNALS
The International Coalition of Library Consortia, a group comprising more
than 40 library groups, has issued a statement calling for an end to the
"excessive pricing" of electronic publications and for a cease-fire in
"attacks" on libraries' rights to redistribute documents. "We're saying
that, during this period, it is important not to be locked into a pricing
model that is difficult for libraries to afford," says one of the
statement's authors. The coalition's statement suggests that subscription
rates for e-journals should be lower than those for printed versions, and
that libraries should have the option to subscribe to the electronic version
only. In addition, libraries should be allowed to follow fair use
guidelines in dealing with electronic material, and store archives of
e-journals on their own systems. Publishers have been noncommittal in their
response to the statement: "I don't think our pricing model is
unreasonable," says a spokesman for Elsevier Science, adding that his
company is "trying to expand the options on pricing models" for online
publications. (Chronicle of Higher Education 10 Apr 98)
VIRGINIA JUDGE LETS SOFTWARE FILTERING CASE GO FORWARD
A ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema allowed civil liberties
groups to proceed with their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of
the Loudon (VA.) County Library Board's Internet policy, which requires that
children younger than 17 must be sitting with a guardian or parent if they
want full access to the Internet, unblocked by filtering software. Brinkema
ruled that content-based restrictions on the Internet "must be justified by
a compelling government interest and must be narrowly tailored to achieve
that end." (Washington Post 9 Apr 98)
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SEIKO'S PC WATCH
Seiko Instruments will introduce the world's first wearable PC on June 10 in
Japan. The $285 "Ruputer" wristwatch will be able to download data,
including text and pictures, from other PCs, and will come loaded with three
programs that run on Windows 95. Users will be able to exchange data via
infrared signals. (Investor's Business Daily 9 Apr 98)
VETERANS GET SCARE THROUGH MASS E-MAIL WARNING
A "well-intentioned but misinformed veteran" in Minneapolis scared hundreds
of thousands of other veterans by sending out a mass e-mail communication
falsely advising them that they faced possible termination of their
benefits. A Veterans Administrator spokesperson said: "He thought he was
doing the right thing by warning people, but he really disrupted millions of
people with this information." (AP 9 Apr 98)
LOST DATA AT STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL
When outside contractors failed to verify that data had been saved before
attempting to move two servers from the Stanford Business School to the
university's central computer system, 10 to 15 of the school's 200 faculty
and Ph.D. candidates lost their databases, research notes, and parts of
books or dissertations. The dean of the school says, "This was a disaster.
Even though lots of people recovered their work, some people lost data
irretrievably." (San Jose Mercury News 9 Apr 98)
PALM TRICK: NOW YOU SEE A PALM PC, NOW YOU SEE ... A PALM-SIZE PC
Faced with a lawsuit from 3Com Corporation for trademark infringement,
Microsoft has agreed to change the name of its handheld computers from "Palm
PCs" to "Palm-size PCs," to avoid confusion with 3Com's popular PalmPilot
line of handheld devices. (Wall Street Journal 9 Apr 98)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) and Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educom.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017
Technical support for distributing Edupage is provided by Information
Technology Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Today's Honorary Subscriber is the great New York City-born operatic soprano
Maria Callas (1923-1977) who studied at the Athens Conservatory and won
immediate recognition when she appeared in 1947 at Verona in La Gioconda.
She won particular fame for her ability to sing in the bel canto (beautiful
singing) style of pre-Verdian Italian opera. She was also known for her
dramatic personal life, which included a tempestuous long-term relationship
with Aristotle Onassis.
With all her success, she remained insecure. Audiences would stand
crying out her name -- Cal-las, Cal-las, Cal-las -- and then the name of the
famous opera house in which she was adored. But her friend Nadia Stancicoff
says that even at the height of her glory Callas was rarely satisfied with
her work:
"She needed direction and reassurance. Rossi-Lemeni remembers that
when they sang 'Norma' together, after she'd finished 'Casta Diva,' she'd
pass in front of him making an awful grimace and whisper, 'I didn't sing
well. Right?' She did this every performance. I told her, 'Are you crazy,
Maria! You sang beautifully.' You have no idea how dramatic and tragic the
second and third acts were. Later the insecurity got worse. In 'Anna
Bolena', when her voice started not to be so sure, she was very nervous
onstage. Besides, the claque against her didn't help."
Callas said of herself: "I belong to the givers. I want to give a
little happiness even if I haven't had much for myself. Music has enriched
my life and, hopefully -- through me, a little -- the public's. If anyone
left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I achieved my purpose."
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Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
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