Thursday, March 28, 2024

August 6, 2001– Newsletter #142

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Goodies to Go ™
August 6, 2001–Newsletter #142

This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com

Please visit http://www.htmlgoodies.com
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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,


Most of you know how I feel about cellular phones. I’m
not a big fan. Well, now I own one. More precisely, my
wife owns one. Her new position demands it and the
company will reimburse the cost. We hit five different
companies and bought the cheapest local coverage at 700
anytime minutes a month. The young man who sold us
the purple phone received four calls while selling to us.
He answered all four calls on a clear plastic phone that
blinked red and yellow lights in the body of the phone.
The little antenna also sparkled. Over the four phone
calls I learned that his friends were going to a bar that
night. His sister should have gotten into the shade while
at Biloxi Beach. His buddy was interested in what he
was doing and that his boss wanted him to work on
Saturday. Each three-minute call concluded with the
young man saying he had to go because he had a
customer.


As we were walking out, he asked me to come back when
I wanted a phone of my own. I told him I would return
when the Cleveland Indians win the Series the same year
the Saints win the bowl…in New Orleans.


Did you hear…


As if we didn’t know it already, hacking is at an all-time
high. According to “The Register” newspaper citing stats
from The Honeynet Project, the biggest increase was in
the area of defacing corporate Web sites. For some more
specific number see here.


There is a real conflict of results between the often-sited
American Management Association (AMA) study of
workplace email and Web monitoring and a new study by
the Privacy Foundation
(http://www.privacyfoundation.org/). The AMA study
had suggested that 78% of American firms monitor
employee’s Internet usage. Furthermore, the AMA study
suggests that 47% actually read their worker’s email.
Those are frightening numbers indeed. Now comes
Andrew Schulman, head of the Privacy Foundation study.
That study suggests that only 15% of American workers
have their email read and 19% have their surfing tracked.
Some might suggest that the big difference is that the
AMA study deals with percentage of companies while the
Privacy Foundation study shows percentage of workers.
Even so, those are fantastically differing results. Look
for more research on this subject real soon.


All it takes to somewhat legitimize something is one
major player to get involved. Well, don’t look now but
the MGM Mirage has applied for a cyber-gambling
license from, get this, the Isle of Man, a small semi-
independent island located in the Irish Sea. The casino
grew tiered of waiting for Nevada regulators to allow
cybercasinos.


Lucent Technologies Inc. has finally made a profit. It has
nothing to do with their business either. They sold the
company’s private Hamilton Farm golf club. The buyer
was the Maryland-based company Townsend Capital
LLC. Both sides agreed that Lucent made the profit but
neither would comment on exactly what was the profit
amount.


Now onto today’s topic…


The other day I was talking to a fellow professor whom I
admire not so much for his programming abilities but
rather for his unbelievable lust for what was coming next.
The latest version had to be on his computer. Out of date
was out of fashion and should be immediately out of
mind, he felt. I was like that for a while but not anymore.


During my discussion I asked if he had upgraded to
Internet Explorer 5.5 as our university had asked us to do.
He answered that he had on his school computer but not
at home. He wanted to but it just kept slipping his mind.


Say what?


It wasn’t just that he didn’t upgrade that caught my ear, it
was that he was saying what I’ve been thinking for a long
while now.


Has the Web audience hit a sort of critical mass when it
comes to new technology?


I ask that question because it used to be that upgrading to
the next version or the latest and greatest would mean
some great change, some wonderful repair, or a new
method of manipulating data.


This is not to say that there isn’t new technology coming
out. On the contrary, there is. New versions and new
languages (that all seem to end in “ML” for some reason)
are flooding the market, but none of them seem to be
packing the grand wallop like new versions of the past.


Could it be that we’ve all got what we need?


Time was that Internet users were made up of the
hardware haves and have-nots. Those with big fat
Pentium 100s would giggle at the lowly 486 users. Not
any more. Except for rare cases, most everyone has a
pretty fast Pentium or Mac. That leveled that playing
field pretty well. Software was the same have and have-
not question for a while. Free downloads of just about
everything has leveled that playing field. It seems now
that the only real have and have-not divide is between
dial ups and “dsl/cable/T-line” people. I think you’ll
agree that even that divide is starting to close up as prices
come tumbling down.


I guess I can wrap up my entire argument in two words,
“I’m good”. I have what I need. My Micron computer
has a really fast CPU, big hard drive and tons of memory
all of which came standard. I have DSL and versions of
software that work.


Like many of the people I know…I’m there. I have hit a
critical mass.


Furthermore, I believe the “status” part of new hardware
and software has almost been eliminated. I would
impress the heck out of people because I had the latest
thing. Not now. Those I know are either equal or, more
than likely, happy with what they have. They too have
hit a critical mass in terms of technology.


The critical mass I’m talking about seemed to manifest
itself in two areas, electronic books and PDAs. Both
were to be the next biggest thing. They were both
technology and status incarnate. Both are struggling to
stay around.


When PDAs and electronic books hit the market with
overblown hype, the majority of people looked at what
they had, weighed the option, raised an open hand and
said, “No thanks. I’m good.”


This is not to say that a user not jumping on the latest and
greatest is a bad thing. It’s quite the opposite. It shows
that a level of comfort has been reached. It has with me.
I like what I have and see no need to change or upgrade
anything anytime soon. It’s the same with most everyone
I talk to. Sure I found some students that were still
ravenous when it came to the new stuff, but they didn’t
seem like they were in the majority anymore.


As we look over the Internet horizon, the next big ship to
come in, if all the news reports are to be believed, will be
the wireless Web. There are hints of it now, but those
hints are only small glimpses into what will be…so it is
said.


OK, fine. Let’s assume that everything that the wireless
Web should be comes to pass. It’s here. In order to
participate in the parade, all you’ll need to do is get some
new pieces of hardware and upgrade some of that
outdated, yet functional, software.


Will we buy the wireless Web or will be stop, take stock
of what’s around us, raise an open hand, and say,
“Thanks.”


“I’m good.”


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


That’s That. Thanks for reading.


Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And remember: The first person to go over Niagara Falls
in a barrel and live to tell the tale was Annie Taylor in
1901. Her wooden barrel was beaten around at the base
of the falls for 17 minutes before being kicked out into
calmer waters. Another interesting fact about Ms. Taylor
was her age at the time of the stunt. She claimed to be
43. However, historical records showed that she was
more than likely 63. I hope I can pass for 43 when I’m
63.

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