Gore's report on restructuring the government is selling well in DC. Insiders snapped up the first run, others could back order it (1 week) from the GPO for $14 or could get an immediate copy from a private printer for $11. :-) The report suggests a Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council combining FCCSET with several other scientific coordinating groups. (Science advisor John H. Gibbons is behind this. The new agency would have more clout than FCCSET for setting technology policy and affecting agency programs.) DOE would "consolidate and redirect" its labs, which may mean closing labs. [Robert L. Park (opa@aps.org), WHAT'S NEW, 0/10/93. Also BW, 9/20/93, p. 85.]

Stephen Squires has been removed as ARPA's director of the Computing Systems Technology Office, but remains as a "special assistant." [HPC Select, 8/26/93.]

The Senate has tentatively cut NSF's requested 18% research increase to 4%, vs. 10% from the House. Both have agreed to a 17% increase in education, although NSF only asked for 14%. [Robert L. Park (opa@aps.org), WHAT'S NEW, 0/10/93.]

Proceedings are available for the ARPA/NSF Int. Workshop on an Infrastructure for Temporal Databases (6/93, Arlington, TX). 43 papers, 624 pp. $35 from Robyn Austin (robyn@cs.arizona.edu), (602) 621-8448. [dbworld, 8/20/93.]

David Muir Sharnoff is compiling a descriptive catalog of free database software -- flat, relational, object-oriented, full-text, WAIS, etc. The current version may be FTP'd as pub/free-databases from idiom.berkeley.ca.us. Contact muir@idiom.berkeley.ca.us with any additions. [net-hap, 8/26/93.]

Papers on declarative database visualization are available from the Hy+/GraphLog project at UToronto. Hy+ is a system for visualizing and querying databases of nested graphs (called "hygraphs"); GraphLog is its visual query language. FTP csri-technical-reports/285 from csri.toronto.edu or request a paper copy from reports@csri.toronto.edu. [Alberto Mendelzon (mendel@db.toronto.edu), dbworld, 8/14/93.]

Have you heard about the object-oriented extension to COBOL? Taking a lead from C++, the ANSI committee is calling it Add one to COBOL giving COBOL. [Christopher Small (chris@soi.com), rec.humor.funny, 7/14/93.]

Scott Fahlman (sef@cs.cmu.edu) and the CMU Common Lisp wizards are working on Igor, an ARPA-funded development environment based on Apple's Dylan language. (CMU CL will still be supported, and will be used for a Fall '94 implementation of Dylan.) Igor will support a "hypercode" style of programming, with user-controlled views of linked instructions, class definitions, foreign modules, specifications, comments, test code, etc. (In some ways it will resemble InterLisp.) Platform-specific compilers will provide compact, fast "delivery modules" competitive with C, FORTRAN, or Ada. Igor will be copyrighted but free for non-commercial use, with blanket permission to use library and runtime code. Releases will be announced on comp.lang.dylan. [info-dylan @ministry.cambridge.apple.com, 8/17/93. Tim Finin.]

1,500 developers are awaiting the fall release of Newton Toolkit. About 100 developers are using beta copies. The toolkit will include NewtonScript, reusable components, an interactive development cycle, cross-development features, and tools for content creation and graphical layout. Early MessagePad applications will be shipped on diskettes for downloading from PCs, since PCMCIA cards cost about $15 each in small runs. [James Daly, CW, 8/23, p. 101.]

How does NewtonScript compare with Lisp? It has a lambda capability, called func. The reader can't "eval" data strings, but you can compile them to get function objects. You get closures/blocks and message passing, but not continuations. Slots can be added to objects after instantiation, unless they are in your application's read-only space. Inheritance can follow two paths, from a parent and from a "proto" template. Garbage collection usually takes less than .1 second. There is only one scheduling thread in version 1.0. [Walter Smith (wrs@apple.com), comp.sys.pen. Bill Park, 8/12/93.]

Bill Park reports that the Develop magazine from Apple has put Inside Macintosh on its Develop Bookmark CD-ROM, as promised. The Toolbox Essentials document is over 900 pages, and there are 95MB total on files, devices, interapplication communications, memory, processes, QuickTime, and overview. Apple Document Viewer 1.0 lets you browse, bookmark, paste, and print images and text from the books. Bill thanks editor Caroline Rose (crose@applelink.apple.com). [park@netcom.com, 9/10/93.]

Robert Shenot's "The Shareware Book" can be FTP'd as sharbk1.zip from /mirrors/msdos/info on wuarchive.wustl.edu. "... every aspect of using the shareware marketing channel," esp. in the American market. You also get a copy of the book when you use Andrew Saucci's Megapost, a commercial service that works with shareware authors and places their products on at least 30 servers. [Don Branson (314-935-5320), SEML, 9/8/93. Bill Park.]

Internet World has changed from a 9X/year newsletter to a bimonthly magazine. Over 12K copies of the Nov/Dec issue were distributed at INTEROP. $29/year ($59 institutional) or $4.95 per copy from meckler@jvnc.net, (800) MECKLER. The editor in chief is Daniel P. Dern (ddern@world.std.com), (617) 969-7947, (617) 969-7949 Fax. Call (800) 736-7999 or (913) 469-1110 for advertising rates. Meckler also publishes an Internet Research journal. [Daniel P. Dern (ddern@world.std.com), net-hap, 8/20/93.]

World Wide Web Newsletter (WWWN) is a new UK hardcopy publication covering the Internet and its cousins. #24 for 6 issues; #42 outside the UK and Europe, $60/year US. Ivan Pope (ivan@ukartnet.demon.co.uk), Art Computers (London), +44 81 533 0818 voice or Fax. [alt.bbs.internet. Peter Scott (scottp@herald.usask.ca), net-hap, 9/2/93.]

With a second issue of the Internet Business Journal on its way to over 5,00 [sic] readers, Michael Strangelove is turning his attention to a new venture: The Internet Magazine. It's a Canadian-oriented publication (but still quite general), to appear first on newsstands in Quebec and Ontario this October. Six issues/year, $25. For a free sample copy, mention your ten favorite Internet resources and the name of the worst-dressed Internet personality you have ever met to mstrange@fonorola.net, (613) 747-6106. [net-hap, 8/31/93.]

HPC Select News is offering 50% off through 9/17/93. Send a "601" subject line to more@hpcwire.ans.net for details. [9/9/93.] (Full price for professionals is $195/year. I wonder if they can still get that now that they've signed up everyone willing to pay half as much. It's a good supercomputer news service, though, and I like their email interface. Also a good source of HPC job ads.)

American Cybercasting Corp. will email you USA TODAY Decisionline or the Moscow News. You choose which sections you want, at $10.90/year per section or about $80/year for all sections. Order from subscrib@americast.com. [James R. Garven (jgarven@mcl.cc.utexas.edu), risknet@bongo.cc.utexas.edu, 8/30/93. CARR-L.]

The Middlesex News (Framingham, MA) is experimenting with free electronic services, including scanning of headlines from the next day's paper. Also club listings, restaurant reviews, etc. Gopher to world.std.com and select Items 17 and 5. Advertising, archives, and other ideas will be implemented later, in conjunction with Software Tool and Die (Brookline, MA). Contact Adam Gaffin (adamg@world.std.com), (508) 370-4608. The Middlesex News covers the MetroWest high-tech region west of Boston, and has operated a BBS since 1986. [CARR-L, 9/2/93.]

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive has received a $95K Ford Foundation grant to build an Internet database of newscast summaries. Such summaries are currently published monthly in Television News Index and Abstracts. The link should be working early next year. Vanderbilt has more than 28K videotapes of news broadcasts. [Jean P. Moore, Vanderbilt Register, 8/16/93. Elliott Mitchell (mitcheec@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu, net-hap, 8/23/93.]

ACM's new Allen Newell Award is for career contributions that have breadth within CS, or that bridge CS and other disciplines. $10,000 will be awarded biennially (for now). Nominations are solicited by 11/30/93. [CACM, 9/93, p. 26.]

Nominations for the Sylvia Scribner Award for influential work in learning and cognition (in the past 10 years) are due by 10/10/93. The award is made each year by Division C of the American Educational Research Association. Contact King D. Beach (kdbeach@msu.bitnet) or Laura Martin (lwm@cunyvms1.bitnet). [Gene V. Glass (atgvg@asuacad.bitnet), net-hap, 8/15/93.]

Beginning EE graduate students may apply for the Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Fellowship, by 1/15/94. $24K, for one year only. IEEE Awards Dept., 345 E. 47th Street, NY, NY 10017; (212) 705-2882, (212) 223-2911 Fax. [The Institute, 9/93.]

NASA is soliciting proposals for Neurolab, a 1998 Shuttle mission dedicated to brain and behaviour research. Apply to Dr. Frank Sulzman, (202) 358-2359, by 12/1/93. [Commerce Business Daily, 7/6/93. Jim Sims (sims@pdesds1.scra.org), connectionists, 8/26/93.]

Adobe's Acrobat Reader is available to ZiffNet and ZiffNet/Mac members through 9/18, for just downloading charges (GO ZNT:ACROBAT Item 4) or $19.95 + $7 from (800) 85-ADOBE. ZiffNet also has several demo files in Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). [CARR-L, 9/2/93.] (Acrobat PDF is a new PostScript derivative that can send fax-quality or high-resolution documents with ASCII-like convenience and compression, even if the receiver doesn't have the original fonts. Adobe aims to win out over SGML and other structured document formats and markup languages, and wants to distribute the readers so that publishers will have a ready market.)

(An alternative page-description language is the Open Document Architecture (ODA) of ODAC, a Brussels consortium of IBM, BULL, Olivetti, Siemens, Digital, and others. WP and Lotus are also considering it. A CD-ROM developer kit is available for about $100. [Lode Goukens (ps890866@fpsw.ufsia.ac.be), CARR-L, 8/29/93.])

So many people signed up for the World Robot Championships next month that the event has been canceled. Only 200 entries could be accommodated, but far more signed up. A new competition limited to national champions will be scheduled for spring or summer. [Ken MacFarlane (irg@turing.ac.uk), comp.robotics, 9/10/93.] (There may still be a gathering of roboticists who purchased non-refundable tickets to Glasgow.)

Gary Cottrell has lost his long-time Dognitive Science collaborator, Jellybean. Cottrell is now soliciting humorous submissions (of any kind) for a "festschrift" memorial e- publication in the neuroprose archive. 11/1/93 deadline. [gary@cs.ucsd.edu, connectionists, 9/2/93.]

NMSU's Computing Research Laboratory (CRL) seeks an outstanding lead scientist as director. Research areas include AI and Cognitive Science, NLP, IR, HCI, KR, connectionism, and reasoning. Apply by 10/1 to Dr. Louise Guthrie, CRL Search Committee, P.O. Box 30001/CRL, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM 88003. [Ted Dunning (ted@crl.nmsu.edu), m.j.o, 9/9/93. Also CACM, 9/93, p. 157.]

Selectronics/Microlytics (Pittsford/Rochester, NY) needs a Director of Linguistic Software Development for development of grammar checkers and related products. Mike McCourt (0003393954@mcimail.com), (716) 248-9150 x300, (716) 248-3868 Fax. [LINGUIST, 8/24/93.]

Defence Research Agency (Malvern, Worcestershire), Speech Research Unit, is seeking several researchers in statistical speech recognition, spoken language understanding, and speech-related HCI. Wendy Holmes (holmes@signal.dra.hmg.gb), +44-684-894384 Fax. [Brian A. Mellor (bam@hermes.mod.uk), m.j.o, 9/13/93.]

Lotus Development Corp. (Cambridge, MA) needs 4-5 workgroup researchers for a new Applied Research Group. Dr. Irene Greif (igreif@lotus.com), (617) 693-5789, (617) 693-5541 Fax. [CACM, 9/93, p. 160.]

ESL (Sunnyvale, CA) needs an NLP programmer to lead a commercial product team. Lisp/C; IR and GUI experience helpful. US citizenship desired but not required. Kristine McNamara (klm@esl.com), (408) 743-6349 Fax. [Gene Huang (gene@chopin.esl.com), m.j.o, 9/9/93.]

Boston University's new Center for Neuroscience (Charles River Campus) is seeking a director. Should be an experimental neuroscientist, preferably in behavioral neurophysiology. Neuroscience Search Committee, Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Room 240, 111 Cummington Street, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215. [announce@retina.bu.edu, Neuron Digest, 8/31/93.]

UStellenbosch (South Africa) needs a tenure-track CS senior lecturer (or above). search@cs.sun.ac.za; +27 2231 774416 Fax (or +27 21 8084416 after 9/26). Apply by 11/4. [m.j.o, 9/14/93.]

A Los Angeles client needs an experienced US MS/PhD intelligent-systems engineer to develop AI for situation assessment, data fusion, and tactical planning. Unix/Mac C/C++/LISP/OPS-5. Lynne Freedman (lynne@asher.com), (818) 905-9895 Fax. [debbieAasher.com, m.j.o, 9/8/93.]

West Virginia University's Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) is accepting applications for 1/94 graduate research fellowships in computer support for collaborative enterprises. Contact Bonnie Kasten (kasten@cerc.wvu.edu). [V. Jagannathan (juggy@cerc.wvu.edu), comp.ai, 9/9/93.]

The European Computer-Industry Research Centre (ECRC) is seeking a PhD researcher in distributed and heterogeneous database systems, possibly including intelligent information retrieval. Willem.Jonker@ecrc.de, +49 89 926 99 170 Fax. [dbworld, 9/9/93.]

Fellowships are available for the Harvard/MIT/Tufts doctoral and postdoctoral programs in medical informatics. Robert A. Greenes (greenes@harvard.edu), (617) 732-6281, (617) 732-6317 Fax. [NL-KR, 9/10/93.]

Support is also available for the Duke-UNC training program in medical informatics. Contact W. Edward Hammond (hammo001@mc.duke.edu) or Charles P. Friedman (cpf@med.unc.edu). [Chuck Friedman (friedman@sumex-aim.stanford.edu), NL-KR, 9/10/93.]

An email-based distance-learning institute is forming, for undergraduate and graduate non-laboratory courses. Advanced Technical Lifestyle Adaptations -- New Theories Institute for Study and The Atlantis School Project solicit applications from prospective faculty and NYC-area board members. State what courses you'd like to teach. Two years experience in each course required. Telnet to alantis.edu 1993 to experience the environment. Ken Taylor (taylor@atlantis.edu), President. Student inquiries should go to school@atlantis.edu. [comp.ai, 9/13/93.]

There are approximately 2,000 anonymous FTP servers on the Internet. Code libraries include wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (DOS), sumex-aim.stanford.edu (Mac), apple.com (including Mac OS through 7.0), and gatekeeper.dec.com (3rd-party DEC software). The NCSA TELNET TCP/IP communications package for PCs is in ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu, and Columbia University's AppleTalk Package is on rutgers.edu. [John S. Quarterman (jsq@tic.com), com-priv, 2/24/93.]

Complete archives of net-happenings, NETTRAIN, PACS-L, and several other lists are now available from the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). Telnet to a.cni.org and log in as brsuser, or gopher to gopher.cni.org and access Coalition BRS-SEARCH Services, Search Coalition Databases. [net-hap, 9/10/93.]

The Machine Learning Repository at UCI provides data for evaluating machine-learning systems. Benchmarks for constraint satisfaction problems (CSP) are currently sought, along with any thoughts on creating such benchmarks. Both constraint logic programming (CLP) languages and ALICE (AIJ 10:29-127, 1978) are being considered. Eddie Schwalb (eschwalb@ics.uci.edu). [comp.ai, 8/10.]

MIT's Center for Biological and Computational Learning has reports available for FTP. The compressed PostScript files are in ai-pubs/publications/1993 on ftp.ai.mit.edu. [Reza Shadmehr (reza@ai.mit.edu), connectionists, 8/16/93.]

If you enjoy fractured English and bad translations, FTP file docs/words-l/Funnies/translations from ftp.msstate.edu. [Natalie Maynor (maynor@ra.msstate.edu), LINGUIST, 9/9/93.]

Cesar Ramos-Cedeno is compiling a guide to genetic-algorithm resources on the Internet. Discussion lists include evolutionary- computing@mailbase.ac.uk, GA-LIST@aic.nrl.navy.mil, and GA- MOLECULE@tammy.harvard.edu. (Use the -request suffix to sign up.) Also GA-Digest (via GA-List) and comp.ai.genetic. LibGA 1.00 and a GA Software Guide can be FTP'd from /pub/galist/src/ga on ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil. [cramos@conicit.ve, CYBSYS-L, 8/16/93.]

A new Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides has been formed by UMichigan's library. Examples are W. Drew's "Not Just Cows" (for agriculture) and Michael Strangelove's "The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet" (for religious studies). The guides have been WAIS-indexed. FTP them from /inetdirs on una.hh.lib.umich.edu or access them via the UMichigan gopher. [Lou Rosenfeld (lou@umich.edu), PACS-L, 9/3/93.]

John December has updated his extensive list of Internet services related to computer-mediated communications. FTP file internet-cmc.readme from pub/communications on ftp.rpi.edu. [decemj@aix02.ecs.rpi.edu, net-hap, 8/18/93.]

A guide to finding interesting discussion lists -- via lists of lists -- has been compiled by Arno.Wouters@phil.ruu.nl. Send a "get new-list wouters f=mail" message to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu (or ndsuvm1.bitnet). [Peter M. Weiss (pmw1@psuvm.bitnet), net-hap, 8/24/93.]

If you need to send email to foreign colleagues, you may want the revised 3rd edition (9/2/93) of "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing & Networks" by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams. Gateway formats are given for over 180 networks. FTP internetwork-mail-guide from /pub on csd4.csd.uwm.edu. [net-hap, 9/2/93.]

To find network-accessible BBSs, send an empty subject/message to bbslist@aug3.augsburg.edu. You will receive "Not Another List?!?!?!?!!!"; also Yanoff's list of special Internet services, and the somewhat-dated "Zamfield's Wonderfully Incomplete, Complete BBS List." Topical BBSs are listed in the Broadcasting/Journalism BBS List, retrieved with a "get media bbslist f=mail" command to listserv@ulkyvm.bitnet. One of the better BBSs is from UOklahoma: telnet oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu (129.15.3.10) or dial (405) 325-6128. (You can also FTP files from oubbsftp.telecom.uoknor.edu.) [Dana Noonan (noonan@msus1.bitnet), NNEWS@vm1.nodak.edu, 6/23/93. net-hap.] (Good dial-up BBS lists may be found in Boardwatch magazine.)

"The GUIDE" provides K-12 educators and students with a user-friendly graphic interface to the Internet. It includes email, NetNews, Gopher, Telnet, FTP, WAIS, and other protocols, optimized for dial-up SLIP connections. Windows/Mac; $40/year plus $5 tax. The server runs on Unix platforms. Keith D. Vogt (kvogt@eis.calstate.edu), California Technology Project (Seal Beach , CA), (310) 985-9631. [net-hap, 6/18/93.]

EARN has a Bitnet-oriented "Guide to Network Resource Tools," including Gopher, VERONICA, World-Wide Web, WAIS, ASTRA, ARCHIE, WHOIS, NETSERV, TRICKLE, BITFTP, NETNEWS, and LISTSERV. 600KB in PostScript form. Send a "get nettools ps" command (or "get nettools memo" for ASCII) to listserv@earncc.bitnet. [Prescott Smith (pgsmith@educ.umass.edu), net-hap, 6/17/93.]

The NetPower Resource Guide is now shipping, sponsored by the not-for-profit National Education and Technology Alliance (NETA). The guide describes hundreds of services on the Internet, Prodigy, Compuserve, America Online, Dialog, Datastar, AT&T, The WorldClassroom, NewsNet, GTE, Learning Link, BBSs, etc. Also included are starter kits or discounts for AOL, Delphi, The Well, Portal, and The World. "NetPower," an 800 page book by Eric Perrson, can be purchased for $39.95 from Fox Chapel Publishing (Lancaster, PA), netpower1@aol.com, (800) 457-9112. Coming in December: the monthly NetPower Digest. [net-hap, 8/29/93.]

Jonathan Kochmer's "The Internet Passport: NorthWestNet's Guide to Our World Online" is an expanded version of NorthWestNet's User Services Internet Resource Guide (ftphost.nwnet.net:/user-docs/nusirg). Passport, at 500 pages, is even broader and deeper than Krol's "The Whole Internet." Two special topics are supercomputing and K-12 education. Four stars (essential reading). Conversational and easy to read, but the volume of information may intimidate to new users. $39.95 retail; $19.95 educational or nonprofit. NorthWestNet (15400 SE 30th Place, Suite 202, Bellevue, WA 98007), (206) 562- 3000, (206) 562-4822 Fax. [Jim Milles (millesjg@sluvca.slu.edu), NETTRAIN, 6/22/93. net-hap.]

New Usenet newsgroups include sci.op-research and soc.culture.scientist. The latter already has 400 messages this week, on topics such as science and religion, astrology, Arab culture, science and gender, public perception, methodology, Kuhn, Turing, and Goedel. [9/14/93.]

INDKNOW is a new discussion of indigenous knowledge systems: belief systems of indigenous peoples and rural groups, including traditional ecological knowledge. Political support of indigenous peoples will be one goal, in conjunction with the 2500-member Indigenous Knowledge and Development (IK&D) network. Send a "sub indknow your name" message to listserv @uwavm.u.washington.edu. Direct activism will be left to NativeNet (Gary S. Trujillo, gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) and to the APC network (econet-info@igc.apc.org). [Preston Hardison (pdh@u.washington.edu), net-hap, 9/1/93.]

DARWIN-L covers history and theory of the historical sciences: evolutionary biology, archeology, historical linguistics, cosmology, textual transmission and stemmatics, paleontology, historical geology, systematics and phylogeny, historical anthropology, and historical geography. Send a "sub darwin-l your name" message to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu. [Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu), LINGUIST, 9/14/93.]

The International Philosophical Preprint Exchange is a new forum for draft philosophy papers and their critiques. Send a "help" or "begin send getting-started index end" message to phil-preprints-service@phil-preprints.l.chiba-u.ac.jp (Chiba University, Japan). Files may be FTP'd from phil- preprints.l.chiba-u.ac.jp. Gopher service is available from apa.oxy.edu or kasey.umkc.edu ("Science Studies"). Coordinated by Richard Reiner (rreiner@nexus.yorku.ca) and Syun Tutiya (tutiya@cogsci.l.chiba-u.ac.jp), with administrative questions to phil-preprints-admin@phil-preprints.l.chiba-u.ac.jp. [Istvan Berkeley (istvan@psych.ualberta.ca), philos-l@liverpool.ac.uk. Peter Scott (scottp@herald.usask.ca), net-hap, 9/8/93.]

POWER-PC is for discussion of IBM's POWER-PC computers and related RISC systems. Send a "sub power-pc your name" message to listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu. [Harold Pritchett (harold@uga.cc.uga.edu), net-hap, 9/1/93.]

WordNet is an online lexical reference system organized as linked synonym sets. Contact wn-users-request@princeton.edu to join the new WordNet users' mailing list. [Shari L. Landes (shari@phoenix.princeton.edu), HUMANIST, 9/24/93.] (See my RSW distribution for instructions on obtaining WordNet 1.4. This version includes a semantic concordance of files from the Brown Corpus.)

Chris Welty has begun a FAQ file -- answers to frequently asked questions -- for the NL-KR newsgroup. Send NLP resource listings and other contributions to weltyc@cs.rpi.edu. [NL-KR, 8/24/93.]

FAQ is a new distribution list for FAQ files and guides to the Internet. Contact Tristan Louis (tristan@gibbs.oit.unc.edu). An archive will be kept in /pub/NetInfo on aql.gatech.edu. Currently 10-20 [very large] updates per week, to 100 subscribers. [net-hap, 8/23/93.]

Dan Wallach (dwallach@cs.berkeley.edu) is keeping FAQs on computer health issues, and maintains an FTP archive of typing- related information. Check directory pub/typing-injury on soda.berkeley.edu (128.32.149.19) for keyboard reviews, files on tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, back issues of the RSI Network newsletter, shareware programs for break reminders and one-handed typing, some GIFs showing new keyboards, and many other files. The FAQs may also be found in pub/usenet/news.answers on rtfm.mit.edu. Dan's 8/14/92 and 7/31/93 FAQs provided some of the following.

See a doctor if you have intense or throbbing pain, tingling, numbness, weakness, a cold feeling, or tension in your elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, or fingers. Even one day can make a difference. An occupational-therapy clinic is best.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a swelling that compresses nerves running through the carpal tunnel in your wrist. Release surgeries may open up the bone or cut a little-needed tendon to make more room. They don't always work, so conventional ice therapies should be tried first. You don't want to mess with CTS: see a doctor immediately about any numbness or weakness in your fingers. (Often there is no pain.) Typing with wrists bent seems to be a major cause.

Tendinitis -- sometimes "tenonitis," and now often "tendonitis" -- is an inflammation of the tendons. In RSI, it's caused by too many identical motions with not enough rest. (Small motions may be worse than large motions that spread lubrication along tendons.) Tension in your arm can aggravate tendinitis, especially if you deviate from straight wrists in any way. New thumbs-up keyboards greatly reduce muscle tension, but their effect on RSI is not known. Padded wrist rests seem to help many typists, but can be dangerous if hands are rested while typing.

You should sit with your feet flat, back straight, elbows hanging limply at your sides, arms horizontal, wrists straight (not bent sideways!), with no weight resting on your forearms. An ergonomic chair is simply one that you can adjust to this configuration, unless you have special medical needs. (Matching your back-support needs is the most critical factor in selecting a "task chair." I like a high back that can lean far forward over a large seat cushion. If you have back problems, you may want a chair back that curves in slightly at the sides (about $600 from Repo Depo). Many chairs let you adjust the seat angle to take pressure off the backs of your legs, and some have a full-forward mode to put you in a kneeling or half-standing posture. ECKADAMS makes chairs with a lockable rocker mode that maintains back and seat alignments.) Chair arms are usually a bad idea, although arms of the right height can help certain people. Your mouse should be at the same height as your keyboard. Having your keyboard in your lap is better than having it too high, and seems to help some people; you can hold your mouse on a tray or metal plate under your keyboard. Keep your fingers curled sharply down, as pianists are taught to do. (I suspect that this is the important usage difference between manual typewriters and computer keyboards, but I can't cite any studies.)

Boston has a new online RSI support group. Contact boston-rsi-request@world.std.com to join. [Rik Ahlberg (rik@world.std.com), C+HEALTH and SOREHAND, 6/30/93.]

Does computer use irritate your eyes? Japanese researchers have found that blink rates are typically reduced to 7 per minute, vs. 10 when reading and 22 when relaxed. Computer users also keep their eyes open wider due to the angle between keyboard or document height and monitor height. [CACM, 5/93, p. 12.] One company makes "ergonomic" desks with embedded monitors. This could reduce eye strain, but will increase neck strain. The top of your screen should be level with your eyes. Text to be copied should be at a similar height and distance, or should be so far from the screen that you rarely look from one to the other. Twisting too often on a stationary chair can lead to "coachman's bursitis."

Maria R. Sugranes (maria@felix.lib.csulb.edu) notes that there's a law firm specializing in medical malpractice which guarantees its computer workers an "absolute break" every 15 minutes. [C+HEALTH, 3/27/93.] (The policy might just be a ploy to be mentioned in court, or an employee perk, but this could indicate the rational economic break-even point.)

Gary Leavens (leavens@cs.iastate.edu) has a Sparcstation Unix script that reminds the user to take a rest breaks. It "clinks" every five minutes and interrupts the display for 2 minutes every 20 minutes. [sci.med.occupational, 10/20/92.] (It would drive me nuts, but so would CTS.)

Several programs are designed to save typeaholics. At Your Service from Bright Star is a Mac/Windows calendar program that can warn you when it's time to take a break; (206) 451 3697. LifeGuard for Mac/DOS (and soon Windows) warns you if you've typed for X minutes without taking a break; $59.95 from Visionary Software (Portland, OR), (503) 246-6200. EyerCise is similar, for DOS, Windows, and OS/2; $69.95 from RAN Enterprises (Haverhill, MA), (800) 451-4487; includes "Computers & Visual Stress" by Godnig and Hacunda. Typewatch is a freeware Unix program for warning when to take a break; FTP from soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/typewatch.shar. hsh is Unix freeware for one-handed TTY input and keyboard remappings; FTP from soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/hsh.shar. [Richard Donkin (richardd@hoskyns.co.uk), Typing FAQ, 8/14/92.]

Macro programs can save you a few keystrokes. One "expander" is rk, the reactive keyboard. FTP rk.tar.Z from pub/typing-injury on soda.berkeley.edu. [Dan Wallach (dwallach@cs.berkeley.edu), sci.med.occupational, 7/15/93.] Finish Line is a Windows shareware program that does the same thing. 70402.2003@compuserve.com for details. MindReader is for DOS. [Richard Donkin (richardd@cix.compulink.co.uk), sci.med.occupational, 7/14/93.]

-- Ken