Monthly Technology Updates

NOVEMBER 1999

November 1999 Technology Updates

1. Year 2000 - Travel on New Year's

Those who are planning on ringing in the New Year by traveling to an exotic locale should be aware of the potential for the Y2K bug to disrupt their vacation. Traveling on New Year's Eve will be a problem as many international airlines have announced that they will suspend operations on December 31, 1999, and resume on January 1, 2000. The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a list of countries that might experience Y2K-related disruptions in their domestic aviation systems. Among the countries mentioned are Aruba, the Czech Republic, Cayman Islands, and Uruguay.

Two major U.S. airlines, United and American, have announced that they plan to fly a full schedule for the New Year. Meanwhile, Northwest has announced cutbacks in its number of flights around the New Year due to lack of demand. Finally, the State Department will issue "strengthened" travel advice based on the potential for Y2K disruptions in certain countries.

For more information, click on these links:


2. PC Tips - PowerPoint Animation 2

Last month's technology updates showed how to use preset animation in a PowerPoint presentation. For really impressive presentations you may need to use custom animation. This feature allows you to choose how an element will appear, what sound will play when the element appears, and what will happen to the element as the animation continues. Let's work through an example. Suppose you want to add visual and audio impact to a presentation by having clip art images appear and disappear at appropriate times. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Create a new PowerPoint presentation and choose a blank slide.
     
  2. Insert three clip art pictures by choosing Insert from the menu, then Picture, then Clip Art.
     
  3. Place the images so they overlap.
     
  4. Click on Slide Show on the menu, then Custom Animation.
     
  5. In the check box (upper left part of the window) check Picture frame 1.
     
  6. In the lower right part of the window be sure that On mouse click is checked in the Start animation box (the alternative is to set the animation to run automatically a certain number of seconds after the previous event).
     

    Your screen should look similar to the picture below:

  7. Click on the Effects tab.
     
  8. In the Entry Animation and Sound area choose an effect from the left drop-down list.
     
  9. If appropriate, choose a location from the right drop-down list (some effects have no location).
     
  10. Choose a sound effect from the middle drop-down list.
     
  11. Finally, choose what will happen after the element animation runs from the bottom drop-down list. Since we have overlapping clip art images, choose Hide on Next Mouse Click.
     

Your screen should look similar to the picture below:

Repeat steps 5-11 above for Picture frames 2 and 3. You can use different visual and sound effects for each. When you are finished, click the OK button. To view your slide show with animation press F5. Click the mouse when you want the next animation element to run.

3. Online auction wars On September 25, 1999, AuctionWatch launched a search engine comprised of Web-based auctions. The site uses data from many sites, including Yahoo!, Amazon.com, and eBay. The search returns information such as the current high bid, the number of bids, and the time remaining in the auction. The search results also provide links to the actual auction listing. Using the power search feature, users can choose which auction sites to include in the search.

eBay quickly asked AuctionWatch to stop including its auctions in the search engine. Earlier in September, eBay had asked a number of other auction search engines to stop using its data. eBay claims that the search engines cause the site to run slowly. However, some legal experts believe that eBay does not have a legitimate legal claim since factual data (such as price) cannot be copyrighted.

For more information, click on these links:


4. NetAid

First there was BandAid, then LiveAid and FarmAid. Over the weekend of October 9-10, 1999, there was NetAid. NetAid was established to help raise money for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This effort assists countries in eradicating poverty. The event included three concerts, which were held in London, New York, and Geneva. Artists included David Bowie in London, Sting, Sheryl Crow, and Jewel in New York, and Bryan Ferry in Geneva.

The event's primary sponsor, Cisco Systems, provided the networking capacity to transmit streaming video from the three concerts via the Internet. The video feed was available only to universities participating in the Internet2 initiative. To view the video, users had to download and install Cisco's new IP/TV software. The concerts were also broadcast on MTV and radio in the United States.

5. New chips

Intel has announced that its new chip, which has been code-named Merced, will be called Itanium when it is released sometime next year. The new chip heralds a break with the x86 instruction set Intel processors have used for years. An instruction set can be thought of as a programming language for a microprocessor. The new instruction set, called IA-64, will allow computers to address large amounts of random access memory (RAM) and provide other performance improvements, such as parallel processing.

The implementation of a new instruction set means that software written for previous Intel chips, such as the Pentium line, will need to be rewritten for Itanium. However, Intel has lined up many of the most important software developers, including Microsoft, to develop software for the new chip.

Other chip makers are not embracing the new instruction set. AMD has indicated it will work to build a 64-bit chip based on the x86 instruction set. IBM is taking another approach with its Power4 chip. The company plans to put two CPUs on a single chip to dramatically improve performance.

For more information, click on these links:


6. Apple OS 9

Apple Computer's new operating system for its Macintosh computer line, called OS 9, went on sale on October 23, 1999. Some stores, such as CompUSA, held midnight madness sales. The new operating system sells for $99. It comes with many new features and a bit of controversy.

OS 9 includes Sherlock 2, an Internet search and shopping program. It also uses a voiceprint password system and provides the ability to store multiple configurations. The controversy surrounds an OS 9 feature called ColorSync 3.0. This feature provides color synchronization between on-screen and printed documents. A software company called Imatec claims that Apple infringed on Imatec color synchronization patents. The new suit continues a legal battle between Apple and Imatec. Imatec filed a $1 billion patent infringement suit against Apple last February. Both cases are still pending.

For more information, click on these links:


7. Y2K security risk

The head of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), Michael Vatis, reported that some Y2K fixes performed by foreign companies may contain malicious code. NIPC is a part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In testimony before Congress, Vatis explained that many U.S. companies have contracted their Y2K remediation efforts out to foreign companies. These companies are given virtually unrestricted access to computer systems and programming code.

By using their unrestricted access, foreign companies can undermine systems in a number of ways. For instance, they can install "trap doors." This is computer code that will allow the programmer to access the system at a later date, often bypassing any additional security that has been added. Another type of attack is a "logic bomb." This is computer code designed to disrupt or destroy a system when a particular sequence of events has occurred or a particular date and time is reached. There is also an economic risk involved as foreign companies can make copies of the systems they are working on and sell them (or the intelligence gained from them) to competitors.

A CIA officer working for NIPC has identified India and Israel as the most likely sources of this type of problem. However, no specific instances could be cited for either country. India, which has taken in about $2 billion in Y2K-related work, quickly denied the allegations.

For more information, click on these links:


8. MCI and Sprint merge

On October 5, 1999, MCI Worldcom, the number-two long distance telephone company, announced it would buy the number-three long distance telephone company, Sprint. The selling price for Sprint is estimated at about $129 billion. The deal represents the largest corporate merger ever. The new company will be called Worldcom, and it will have about 35 percent of the long distance market. The new company would still be the second-place long distance carrier behind AT&T, which has a 42 percent share of the market.

Company executives hope to finalize the deal by the middle of next year. However, the chairman of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), William Kenard, said he would closely scrutinize the deal before approving it. Most industry experts believe that the company will be forced to sell certain assets in order to proceed with the deal.

For more information, click on these links:


9. Taiwan earthquake shakes up chip prices

An earthquake hit Taiwan in September, but the aftershocks are still being felt in the computer industry. Taiwan is a leading manufacturer of computer components. Among these components are dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, computer motherboards, and CD-ROM drives.

The earthquake shut down production for at least two weeks, causing shortages at many computer makers and leading to an increase in prices. The price for CD-ROM drives has risen about 10 percent. The earthquake exacerbated an already tight market for DRAM chips. The price of these chips has risen steadily since the beginning of the summer and has nearly doubled since the earthquake.

The memory-chip price increase is causing problems for major computer makers. Dell computer, the leading made-to-order computer maker, announced that the chip price increase has led to a $75 jump in the cost of producing about 30 percent of its computers. Dell's quarterly earnings have suffered. To cut costs, Dell and other computer makers have stated they will put less memory in their computers.

For more information, click on this link:


10. Online office

In the corporate world (and at universities) many people are called on to work in teams. Many teams use e-mail to schedule meetings and share documents. However, this can be very inefficient, as e-mail was never designed to handle these tasks. Groupware packages, such as Lotus Domino, provide a full range of functions for group work but can be expensive (a full implementation can cost over $5,000). Now there is a cheaper solution that involves the Internet.

Virtual office sites, such as HotOffice and eRoom, provide some groupware functionality for as little as $12.95 per user per month. The sites typically allow users to share documents, track tasks, and schedule meetings. Most also provide online discussion boards and chat rooms. But the sites usually provide only scaled-down functionality. For example, most do not allow users to produce Gantt or PERT charts for project management. However, the virtual office sites are constantly upgrading and provide a good solution for small, short-lived groups (such as student groups hammering out team projects).

For more information click on these links:


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