CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple Computer Inc. has become the top selling vendor of personal computers in the U.S. for the third quarter, according to market research firm Dataquest.
Apple edged out IBM for total PC shipments in 1993, topping the list in the U.S. marketplace for the second straight year, according to figures from Dataquest. Compaq came in third.
Fiber Traffic Control
LOS ANGELES - The city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation has developed a fiber-optic cable network for traffic control and monitoring of its Smart Corridor Traffic Management System, running through the heart of the city.
The system includes video surveillance to monitor intersections and the flow of traffic onto the Santa Monica freeway.
Correction
In November's Imaging article, "Scanners Accelerate Vote Count and Reporting," the equipment used by San Mateo County is an Optech III-P unit from Dallas-based Business Records Corp. Terry Medina's correct title is deputy clerk recorder.
Technology in the Home
LAS VEGAS (NB) - At Comdex Fall, Home of the Future speaker Tricia Parks identified a number of products with varying degrees of household penetration, including: PCs, found in an estimated 30 percent of homes; modems, at 10 percent; online service subscriptions, with six percent; answering machines, with 57 percent; and security systems, with 15 percent.
According to a recent survey by pollster COMPAS and public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe about 40 percent of Canadian homes have computers, nearly doubling in the past two years.
Ontario, Canada's richest and most urban province, reported 46-percent penetration of home computers. British Columbia was next with 41 percent.
Ergonomic Standards Rejected
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A California state board on Thursday unanimously rejected a proposed rule regulating repetitive tasks such as computer or assembly line work.
In voting unanimously to defeat the regulation, its members, defied a state law requiring them to create a new standard by Jan 1, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
California is the first state in the nation to attempt to regulate.
Internet Privatization
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) - The Internet will go through some major changes in the next few years, but will emerge the better for it, according to a recent report from Forrester Research Inc.
In its report entitled "Internet Adolescence," Forrester points out that the NSFnet network funded by the United States government is the backbone of the Internet in the U.S. today. Regional operators can send traffic over the NSFnet at no cost. But the National Science Foundation plans to stop bankrolling the Internet as of April 30, 1995, and plans a transition to a commercially operated Internet.
Forrester predicts that national network operators will step in to fill the gap. The losers will be the regional networks, many of which have grown out of universities.
NEWS - LARGE ITEMS
Jan 95 GT pg 6
Congressional Telecom Powers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NB) - Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), who will be the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee when the Republicans organize the 104th Congress in January, is already moving to shape telecommunications legislation that he hopes to pass early in the new Congress.
Pressler, who has had a prickly relationship with US West, the regional Bell company that serves his home state, has been meeting with telecommunications executives, promising a rewrite of the 1934 Communications Act that is "less regulatory" than the measure that ultimately failed in the committee in the 103rd Congress.
Pressler also is holding on to his insistence, born of his rural roots, that the new legislation must preserve universal telephone service to rural areas.
Over in the House, a fight could be brewing for leadership of the coveted Energy and Commerce Committee, which has an important piece of the telecommunications jurisdiction. If seniority rules, Rep. Carlos Moorhead (R-Calif.), 72, a low-key back bencher for most of his 20 years in Congress, would become chairman of a panel that has a finger in virtually every legislative pie in the House. But Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), a more assertive lawmaker, is considering challenging Moorhead. Bliley, 62, an undertaker who was mayor of Richmond as a Democrat, was first elected to Congress in 1980 as a Republican. While more assertive than Moorhead, he has also developed a solid working relationship with Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), former chairman of the committee, now ranking minority member and a ferocious autocrat. Bliley also has good ties to Pressler.
Afraid of the Highway
LAS VEGAS (NB) - MCI Communications Corp. sponsored a Gallup study of white-collar attitudes toward the "information superhighway" concept and has found that nearly half of those surveyed are "cyberphobic."
Of 600 surveyed nearly half of the subjects admitted they are cyberphobic. Their cyberphobia centers around loss of privacy, a feeling of being overwhelmed by information, losing face-to-face contact, having to learn new skills, and the fear of being passed over for promotion
While 65 percent of the test group use personal computers, 91 percent of them do not use online information services which screen for news, 66 percent do not use e-mail at work and less than half use voicemail.
Jan 95 GT pg 10 Library Of Congress Online
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NB) - The Library of Congress intends to convert millions of items to digital form and start distributing them through the Internet and on CD-ROM to individuals and libraries around the U.S.. The items include: Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs; speeches by President Warren G. Harding; and maps that pioneers used as they moved west.
The library has unveiled its multi-million dollar National Digital Library project, with five million rare American artifacts to be available digitally by the year 2000.
Someday the library's mammoth collection - more than 100 million items, including 35 million books - will be fully digitized.
The project will not come cheap. The library has lined up $10 million in private support for the first part of the program, and estimates the five million items will eventually cost $20 million. The National Science Foundation has awarded $24 million in grants to six university-led teams to work on digital library technologies.
Jan 95 GT pg 6 PTI's Local Government Technology Awards
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Palo Alto, Calif., has won top honors for technology in the 1994 Technology Achievement Awards presented annually by Public Technology, Inc. (PTI), the nonprofit association of local governments. Palo Alto was recognized for its partnership with Digital Equipment Corp., in bringing a host of Internet services to the community.
Honorable mentions were presented to Dallas, Texas, for its Commercial Collection Revenue Accounting and License System, which has speeded up the processing of fee payments for commercial solid waste haulers, and to Fort Collins, Colo., for its Underground Electric Facility Location Automation.
Awards were presented to other local governments for technology-related projects, including Huntsville, Ala., for its State Plane Coordinate Systems; New York, N.Y., for its Citywide Training Network; and Peoria County, Ill., for its Inmate/Suspect Photo Identification Database.
PTI also announced that Richard A. Bowers, city manager for Scottsdale, Ariz., is the recipient of this year's Technology Leadership Award. Bowers was recognized for his reinvention of organizational structures to promote innovation and technology.
Jan 95 GT pg 7 Procurement from GSA Schedules
WASHINGTON D. C. - A new federal law allowing state and local governments to purchase goods and services using GSA Schedules is moving toward implementation and could be ready by this spring. The General Services Administration is developing the rules and procedures for the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton last fall.
The act allows state and local governments to use all GSA schedules in contract purchases, and follows the general language of the Senate bill (see October GT). Proposed implementation rules were scheduled to be printed in the Federal Register in December or January to solicit public comment. For further information, contact the Federal Supply Service at 703/305-6936.
Jan 95 GT pg 6 Maryland Assistance Network
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Residents of Maryland will have one-stop access to a wide variety of public and private assistance programs through a new computer network called Maryland Community Benefits Network (MCBN). Workers at any networked location can use software developed by the United Seniors Health Cooperative (Washington, D.C.) to take basic information about an individual and family and match it against hundreds of eligibility requirements for public and private programs.
The new system, which starts in three counties, will enable applicants to avoid filling out as many as 18 separate applications with nearly 100 pages containing over 1,700 questions. When MCBN is in full operation, the system will automatically complete applications to 14 entitlement programs and electronically transfer the data to the appropriate agencies.
Jan 95 GT pg 10 Telecommuting BBS
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NB) - The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has established a new BBS (dial-up bulletin board system) to promote discussion and help distribute information. GSA sources said they hope the new BBS will be only the first of a network of public and private telecommuting information BBSes.
Called the TELECONX BBS (for "tele-connects BBS"), GSA bills the board as "the Federal Telecommuting Connection."
GSA said the system offers a variety of information on telecommuting.
To call the BBS, set 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and call 202-501-7741. To access it on the Internet, telnet fedworld.gov, then select Teleconx, currently number 56 on the gateway.
Jan 95 GT pg 7 Franchise Rights Squabbles
TROY, Mich. - TCI Cablevision of Oakland County, Mich., has halted a major upgrade of its cable television system in Troy because the city won't issue construction permits.
According to the Detroit Free Press, TCI wants to install fiber-optic lines that could be used one day to carry telephone calls as well as TV shows. But city officials contend TCI's franchise agreement covers only cable TV, not phone service. If TCI wants to go into the phone business, Troy wants the company to negotiate a new franchise agreement and pay more fees.
City attorney Peter Letzmann told the Free Press that if TCI is going to expand their services, then the citizens should get a payback.
Troy officials say they won't grant the construction permits unless TCI states that it is not upgrading the system so it can offer telephone service. That way, the city hopes to protect its right to demand additional franchise fees whenever TCI starts offering phone service.
Meanwhile, the local phone company Ameritech plans to begin offering cable TV service in Troy sometime next year. The city would like to charge cable franchise fees to Ameritech, but that may not be possible. A federal court held earlier this year that phone companies don't have to pay local franchise fees to provide cable TV service.
Jan 95 GT pg 7 Bank on the Internet
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (NB) - First Data Card Services Group (FDC) of Omaha and Netscape (formerly Mosaic) Communications Corp. of Mountain View announced they will provide a secure way to conduct credit card and other electronic transactions on the Internet.
The two firms said new software will let FDC and its member banks provide the first real-time online card authorizations, starting in December. With real-time authorizations available, customers anywhere in the world will be able to purchase goods and services via the net, using any major credit card.
Jan 95 GT pg 7 Virtual Bank
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NB) - A firm says it has developed "the world's first merchant banking system for cyberspace." First Virtual Inc., maintains that its new online system is the "easiest, safest and most inexpensive way" to conduct business on the Internet.
The First Virtual Internet Payment System provides a link between the world of credit cards, banks, and processing agents, and the Internet, according to Lee Stein, president and chief executive officer.
"First Virtual has created the launching pad for what we believe will become the world's largest and fastest growing cottage industry - the buying and selling of information on the Internet," said Stein.
Stein said the reason this kind of electronic commerce has not existed before is that most sellers cannot qualify for credit card merchant accounts and cannot collect money. He added that security has also been a major hurdle; buyers could not be guaranteed that poachers would not get access to their credit card information.
"However, through First Virtual, individuals, small businesses, multi-national corporations, and even the government can all take advantage of this potential global market without fear of credit card fraud," said Stein.
Information technology equipment and services will be provided to First Virtual by Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Jan 95 GT pg 10 Hayes Microcomputer Under Chapter 11
ATLANTA (NB)- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., the modem maker whose "AT" (for "Attention, modem") modem control command set has become a worldwide standard, has filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors.
Dennis C. Hayes, chief executive officer (CEO) of the closely held firm, attributed the action to a "short-term cash shortage brought on primarily by dramatic increases of demand." Hayes said his firm's sales in fiscal 1994 were over $250 million and that both revenues and sales were at an all-time high.
According to one analyst, the filing probably at least partly reflects a production problem that many modem makers are having in a market where prices are dropping sharply as new and faster standards continue to arrive at ever increasing speed.
Jan 95 GT pg 7 Cellular Community Watch
OXNARD, Calif. (NB) - The coastal city of Oxnard has joined a growing number of cities that use cellular phones in a volunteer Cellular Community Watch anti-crime program. The hardware and phone accounts were donated by Cellular One, a division of AT&T;'s McCaw Cellular operation.
The idea is a spin-off of Neighborhood Watch or Community Watch programs in which neighborhood volunteers cruise local neighborhoods looking for signs of crime in progress, fires, and other emergencies. When found, the volunteer notifies the appropriate authorities to take action. The strategy has been found effective in many locations across the U.S.
Jan 95 GT pg 10 California's Online Voter Guide
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NB) - A collection of non-profit organizations, telecom companies, pubic library services, computer firms, and print publications brought the California Online Voter Guide onto the Internet. The Guide, available through Internet Gopher services, World Wide Web, and America Online, described candidates and issues in the November California election.
The California Voter Foundation (CVF), which sponsored the Guide, reported that more than 5,000 people accessed the Internet version in a 3 week period prior to the elections, downloading about 15,000 files.
Jan 95 GT pg 10 Internet Index
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) - Open Market Inc. (OMI) is the new host of Internet's Commercial Sites Index, a listing of businesses and organizations with Internet connections. OMI maintains the index as a free public service for anyone with Internet access and a Web browser such as Mosaic.
The index went online in January, 1994. Since then it has grown into the most comprehensive available database of commercial sites that carry information, sell goods, or provide services on the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Currently, the index has an alphabetical listing of all organizations that have requested a listing. These include businesses, commercial servers, organizations and non-profits, U.S. government agencies, states, cities and towns, and other commercial directories. Listings include a direct link to the entry's own server, so users need only click on a company's name to be taken immediately to that Internet site.
Jan 95 GT pg 10 UK Police Boot Up
LONDON, ENGLAND (NB) - After years of allowing regional police authorities to set their own computer system plans, the British government has formally instructed the various police authorities around the UK to make full use of technology in their war against crime. The instructions are laid down in a new set of guidelines, known as the national blue-print for police IT (Information Technology), which have been issued this week.
Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, has also unveiled plans to implement a new police data "superhighway" that will link every police force in the UK, allowing them interactively access, on a controlled basis, data on DNA tests and fingerprint files, as well as the currently-accessible criminal records system.
