August 2001 Technology Updates
1. Books on demand
On July 9, 2001, two companies -- Marsh Technologies and Volume One -- demonstrated the first fully automated print-on-demand machine. Using Marsh's MTI PerfectBook-080, Jeff Marsh of Marsh Technologies and Peter Zelchenko of Volume One ordered a copy of Robin Shamburg's book Mistress Ruby Ties It Together from Volume One's Web site.
The PerfectBook-080 prints the book on a laser printer and the book cover on a color printer. It then glues the pages together and trims them. The entire process takes about twelve minutes. The PerfectBook-080 will sell for about $100,000 and Marsh Technologies expects it to be used by bookstores to sell out-of-print or hard-to-find books.
For more information, click on these links:
2. PC Tips — Using Morpheus
If you're upset by Napster shutting down (see this month's update), you might try an alternative peer-to-peer file-sharing system. To use one of the most popular, MusicCity's Morpheus, follow these steps:
- Browse to the MusicCity Web site at http://www.musiccity.com. After the intro (which you can skip) look on the right side of the page for an animated ad describing Morpheus.
- Click on the "Download Now" part of the ad. A Web site from C-Net will appear. Click on Download Now and choose to save the file to disk (remember where you saved it).
- The file is in .zip format, so you will need to use a program like WinZip to extract it (WinZip is available from http://www.winzip.com).
- Double-click on Morpheus.exe to install the program.
- The first time you use the program you will need to register. After registering successfully you will see the main MusicCity Web site appear in the Morpheus program.
- To find music (or movies, software, images, or documents) click on Search on the tool bar.
- Select the type of media you are searching for (or choose everything). This example assumes you chose music.
- You can just type your search term and check Artist, Title, or All, or you can do an advanced search by clicking "More Search Options." Advanced search will allow you to specify both Title and Artist as well as File Size, Quality, and a number of other characteristics.
- A list of matching items will appear in the window on the right side of the screen. Right-click on an item and choose Download to download it.
- Click on the Traffic button on the tool bar to check on the downloading.
3. Napster down, then up
Napster, the popular song-swapping service, suspended free file sharing at the beginning of July 2001. The company disabled all previous versions of the Napster client (a small software program run on the user's computer) in anticipation of its new fee-based service. By the middle of the month it appeared that Napster might be down for good, as Judge Marilyn Patel, of the U.S. District Court, ruled that the new service must perfectly ensure that no copyrighted material was being swapped on the Napster system. Napster engineers told the judge that the service would be 99 percent effective at blocking copyrighted material, but not 100 percent.
Toward the end of July Napster had released a beta (test) version of its new system. In addition, the company took its case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a temporary stay of Judge Patel's ruling. The Appeals Court will hear arguments in the case during August.
For more information, click on these links:
4. Patent for software downloads
E-Data, a small New Jersey-based company, won a major legal victory over some of the biggest Internet companies on July 16, 2001. E-Data claims that its 1985 patent, which describes a "system for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location," applies to software downloaded from the Internet. AOL-TimeWarner, Intuit, and Ziff-Davis Publishing are among the defendants. E-Data claims that the patent entitles it to a licensing fee for all software downloaded from the Internet.
The company originally filed suit in 1995. However, the case was thrown out by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1999. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the lower court's decision and sent the case back to the District Court. The most recent ruling upholds the Federal Court's earlier one.
For more information click on this links:
5. Safe Harbor attacked
It appears that a U.S. Department of Commerce Web site that is supposed to help U.S. companies certify their internal privacy and security practices had a security flaw of its own. The Safe Harbor site was established by the Department of Commerce and European Union to help U.S. companies comply with strict European Union (EU) laws on the transfer of personal data to countries with weaker privacy laws (such as the U.S.). Under the Safe Harbor provision, U.S. companies have their privacy policies certified as meeting the EU's requirements. This certification protects them from potential legal action by the EU.
The security hole in the Safe Harbor Web site could allow hackers to access proprietary information about companies using the system. In response to the threat the Department of Commerce removed two of the Web pages on the Safe Harbor site on July 5, 2001.
For more information, click on these links:
6. New Apples
On July 18, 2001, at the much anticipated MacWorld Expo, Apple computers CEO Steve Jobs launched the company's new line of desktop and notebook computers. Among the highlights in the desktop line is the new G4 Power Mac, called QuickSilver. The high-end QuickSilver machine comes with dual 800 MHz processors and a $3,500 price tag. All but the cheapest computer in the line comes with Apple's SuperDrive, a DVD-RW (a device that plays and writes digital versatile disks), which allows users to play and burn DVDs and traditional CDs.
The new iMacs (Apple notebooks) will be available with 500, 600, or 700 MHz processors. In addition, all will have a CD-RW drive (allowing users to burn CDs). Jobs also announced three new iMac colors - indigo, graphite, and snow.
For more information, click on these links:
7. Microsoft posts open source
In somewhat of a reversal of its previous policies and statements, Microsoft has made the source code for its Windows CE 3.0 operating system available on its Web site. Windows CE is used on portable digital assistants (PDAs). Microsoft had previously railed against the "open source" movement. Open source makes the source code of a computer program publicly available and allows users to make changes to the code as long as they share the changes for free.
In posting the CE source code Microsoft also introduced its own version of open source, called "Shared Source License." Under this license programmers may change the Windows CE code but may not distribute the changed program for commercial purposes. Some programmers are concerned that Microsoft will use the fact that they downloaded the code against them in court if they independently develop a competing product.
For more information, click on these links:
8. Comcast bids for AT&T broadband
On July 9, 2001, Comcast Cable made a $44.5 billion unsolicited bid to purchase AT&T Broadband. AT&T Broadband is the nation's largest cable operator, with 13.5 million subscribers. The deal values each AT&T Broadband subscriber at about $3,800, which is in line with the industry average. If Comcast succeeds, the combined company would have over 22 million subscribers, many in the largest U.S. media markets (geographic areas used by advertisers to set ad rates).
On July 18, 2001, AT&T's board of directors rejected the Comcast bid. One problem with the offer is that it would destroy AT&T's strategic plan of dividing into four separate companies (AT&T Broadband, AT&T Business, AT&T Consumer, and AT&T Wireless). In rejecting the offer the board did leave open the possibility of accepting a revised bid from Comcast or another company.
For more information, click on this link:
9. Space station computers crash
For the second time this year a computer on the International Space Station (ISS) crashed on July 17, 2001. All three of the station's central command computers failed during a mission in April 2001. Two of those computers were replaced on a subsequent mission. The latest problem occurred in only one of the computers. However, it temporarily crippled the station's robotic arm. After the computer was rebooted it seemed to function fine.
NASA is not certain if the problems are hardware or software related (or both). But some NASA experts believe the problems could be caused by the computers' disk drives. These function like disk drives on personal computers, but because they have moving parts they perform a bit differently in space. NASA is going to explore the possibility of replacing these drives with solid-state storage devices (also called flash memory), which have no moving parts. These devices may have their own problems, though, as the cosmic rays that bombard the station could cause them to fail.
For more information, click on these links:
10. Bionic suit
On the old television show "The Six Million Dollar Man" Steve Austin's bionic limbs allowed him to perform superhuman feats of strength. Now nurses can achieve the same effect, but for much less money. Scientists at Japan's Kanagawa Institute of Technology have developed a bionic suit that can help nurses lift heavy patients. The suit uses sensors on the major muscles to determine how much extra force is needed. This triggers actuators along the knees, waist, and elbows. The actuators use compressed air to help the suit's wearer.
The suit may help prevent back injuries, which plague many nurses. In one test a 141-pound nurse lifted a 154-pound patient. A commercial version of the suit may be available within two years and may cost about $1,700.
For more information, click on these links:
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