NSF is revising its proposal guidelines, as of 10/1. Three years will now be the usual grant period. All project descriptions are to be limited to 15 pages, including any description of past work. Biographical sketches are limited to two pages per investigator. There is also a new annual report form. Printed copies of the revised Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering (GRESE, NSF 92-89) may be requested from pubs@nsf.gov, (202) 357-7861. [grants, 9/14.]

NSB's Special Commission on the Future of the NSF will be chaired by William Danforth (Washington U.) and Robert Galvin (Motorola). (Danforth is an MD, Galvin is a lawyer; other members are from a variety of disciplines and professions -- but none from CS.) The commission will accept written comments until 10/15/92 on two questions: (1) NSF support plays an important role in the health of the nation's academic system, which is the source of new ideas and human resources in science and engineering. How can NSF maintain and enhance the health of this vital resource? and (2) In light of the many changes in both science and world affairs, should NSF build on its traditional mission by pursuing a broader array of research and education objectives and doing more to link academia and industry? If so, what strategies could the agency adopt to move in this direction? Write to nsbcomm@nsf.gov, (202) 357-7346 Fax. [Michael Fluharty, (202) 357-9498. grants, 9/11.]

The question is not whether the US needs a National Competitiveness Agency, but whether NSF should be that agency. Report language for the Senate's VA/HUD/IA appropriations bill calls for the changes that NSF director Massey recommends, but the NSF director would prefer to let the Commission report first. [WHAT'S NEW, 9/11.]

"Millikan's School: A History of the California Institute of Technology" by Judith R. Goodstein (W.W. Norton, NY, 1991, $25) describes the founding of Caltech, the first modern research university. Interestingly, Millikan was looking to minimize government's role in science. European research was mainly conducted in free-standing institutes, and government influence was strong. [Allen E. Puckett. Spectrum, 9/92.] Millikan evidently believed that combining teaching with research would keep the research honest.

California's austere new budget may cause another 25K layoffs in the defense industry, plus 50K other jobs by the end of the year (according to UCLA's David Hensley). Education has been cut, and tax hikes after the elections will drive out more businesses. 668 plants moved out in the last five years (20% to Mexico), with 80% citing high costs. [Larry Armstrong, BW, 9/14.] On the other hand, money not spent by the government builds personal savings, pays off consumer debt, or fuels the commercial economy.

The California budget bill that would have required withholding on independent contractors has dropped that provision, for the moment. The Computer Software Industry Association (CSIA) has also helped defeat AB3059, which would have granted amnesty to employers coming into compliance with laws on employee status vs. contractor status in return for stricter (and retroactive) interpretation of those laws. CSIA is spreading the word about a July 6 SF Chronicle article on an Immigration loophole costing California several $100M annually. And CSIA is watching HR5011, which would repeal section 1706 of the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Contact Kaye Caldwell (72260.2414@compuserve.com) for info. [SEF, 8/92.]

Tim Stryker of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, has been testing software for electronic democracy. Call (305) 370-9376 by modem to try out the Superdemocracy BBS. Tim is the founder of Galacticomm Inc., which makes The Major BBS. His plan to replace Congress has been published in Telecomputing (1990 issue) and will soon be out in a book called "Think a Little." Stryker proposes a dynamic system of forums where citizen-sponsored bills can be debated. When enough votes are registered, a bill is elevated for a final 30 days of consideration. Approved bills face an additional 30 days of challenges. Proxies implement representative democracy for those who want it, with different proxy assignments permitted for different areas of legislation. (A citizen could override his proxy's vote whenever desired.) [Margo Harakas, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. SJM, 9/6.]

The Charlotte Observer has reengineered its political coverage, gathering reader's questions and putting them to the candidates. The newspaper has discovered that readers care much more about issues than about who's ahead in the polls. [ABC Evening New, 9/15.]

Donn Parker (donn_parker@qm.sri.com) says that the new "hacker" movie Sneakers is mostly technologically believable, unlike Wargames. (It does show a Cray running Windows 3.1, though. And Robert Redford's tiger team is underpaid at $175K.) Information security professionals should use the movie to promote security awareness. It's a pretty good melodrama, despite some moralizing. [Risks, 9/11. Bill Park.]

Dr. Mary Kay Allen, a pioneer in AI for military logistics, died of cancer 6/16 at age 38. She was president and CEO of Intellogistics, Inc. [IAKE Knowledgebase, 7/92.]

Delbert Yocam has joined Tektronix (Wilsonville, OR) as president and COO, raising Tek's stock price by $1 (to $21.25). Yocam was previously COO at Apple and then president and CEO of Momenta. [Rory J. O'Connor, SJM, 9/11.]

Bill Gates has said that Microsoft is committed to working more closely with the major university-oriented computer research centers. Microsoft is said to spend $10M/year on fundamental research. [Jim Mallory, Newsbytes. CC, 9/8.]

Microsoft has distributed Windows NT developer kits to the 5K people attending Win32. The new operating system will work on RISC processors, run most DOS and Windows programs, and have outstanding multitasking. It also requires lots of memory, won't run many utility programs, and needs entirely new device drivers. Conversion of most Windows programs will be relatively easy, unless you've written for the 326 Enhanced mode. [Paul Hoffman, MicroTimes, 8/31.]

"Undocumented Windows" is a new book listing more than 200 undocumented calls in the Windows operating environment. Competitors are upset that Microsoft reserved the calls for its own advantage. This may influence the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's investigation of Microsoft's business practices. [WSJ, 9/1. Tim Finin.] Microsoft claims the calls are minor and that many were mentioned in miscellaneous sources.

Several companies have found Sharp's Wizard to work well in vertical applications, including executive meeting synchronization. The Wizard is as powerful as IBM's original PC. (It doesn't run DOS, though.) Brooklyn Union Gas has used it for a Basic-language port of VP Expert. HP's 95LX is also popular, but less powerful for financial applications. Other competitors are the Poqet from Fujitsu Personal Systems Ltd. and Apple's announced Newton. [Michael Fitzgerald, CW, 8/31.]

Platform-independent USL Unix SVR4.2 is said to require only 4MB of RAM and 60MB of disk space. That makes it a lean implementation, with careful optimization of its built-in GUI interface. (Both Open Look and Motif GUIs are supported.) SVR4.2 will work better if given more resources, though. The kernel is said to be modular, taking up memory only as required by user applications. [Bennett Falk, MicroTimes, 8/31.]

UniLinx is a Unix information market, similar to the AMIX exchange. Users will access advice, training, bug fixes, text, products, and services for the Unix community -- perhaps even demos, online conferences, and interactive assistance. Vendors will pay storage and transaction fees. Unix Systems Labs hopes to start the service early next year, with Peter Watts at the helm. [Esther Dyson, Forbes, 9/14.]

America Online has seen little pressure for download billing. It's a business issue, not a technological one: software publishing companies are not eager to bypass their own dealers. If AMIX or UniLinx establishes the market, other information services will implement transaction billing. [Steve Case. Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes, 8/31.]

As the U.S. defense base disintegrates and we contemplate cutting all but top R&D functions, Japan maintains its manufacturing and encourages dual-use technologies. [David B. Friedman and Richard J. Samuels, MIT Japan Program. David K. Kahaner; Bill Park.]

David Lam, co-founder of Expert Edge, says that small companies today must be global to survive. Lam grew up in Hong Kong, and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. The bulk of his business is overseas, which has worked well during our recession. [Loretta Green, Peninsula Times Tribune, 8/26. agentsee.] When choosing a business partner, consider foreign connections.

The German computing society, Gesellschaft fuer Informatik e.V. (Bonn), has an 1,800-member neural-network SIG. Patrick Thomas (thomasp@informatik.tu-muenchen.de) and Prof. Bernd Schuermann of Siemens AG are co-editors of the quarterly newsletter, "N3 - Nachrichten Neuronale Netze."

Siemens AG (Munich) has restructured its corporate R&D, or about 1,500 workers and 10% of its $5.3B R&D effort. Research specific to only one business unit has been moved out of corporate labs. Long-term strategic R&D has been moved into a new Innovation Center; near-term research, including software and information technology, has been placed under four application centers. Cross-posted managers and internal information fairs help labs peddle their wares to the 15 business groups. [J. Robert Lineback, Electronic News, 7/20.]

CSLI (Stanford) has announced several visiting scholars in NLP and logic: Hyuk-Chul Kwon (kwon@csli.stanford.edu); Aesun Yoon (yoon@csli.stanford.edu); Hidetosi Sirai (sirai @csli.stanford.edu); and Ralf Mueller (muller@csli.stanford.edu). [Ingrid Deiwiks (ingrid@russell.stanford.edu), NL-KR, 8/27.] Also Koji Nakatogawa (koji@csli.stanford.edu). [NL-KR, 9/9.]

Sun Microsystems will hire 33 software engineers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk, expanding an existing relationship with supercomputer designer Boris A. Babaian. Sales of the software is expected in 18 months. [WSJ, 9/1. Tim Finin.]

The Manticore Consultancy is offering former-Soviet (CIS) programmers training and work in object-oriented development. Graduate-student exchanges will be included in the Manticore Eastern European Software Initiative. 49 E. 86th St., NY, NY 10028. [Harold Lorin. CW, 8/31.]

Esther Dyson has written an entertaining article about business customs in the former Soviet Union. (Business phones are often not answered because calls always mean trouble. If someone does answer, you probably can't leave a message.) She misses the early days of Silicon Valley, when it was "a ragtag collection of former scientists and scruffy electronic tinkerers working out of garages." (Now it's "full of business school graduates and salespeople, PR guys and sensible, rational risk-takers, ensconced in office parks and corporate campuses.") She is spending a quarter of her time in the CIS, enjoying the "brilliance, passion and disorder" of Russian physicists and moonlighting programmers. [Forbes, 9/14.]

The leading networks in Japan are NEC's PC-Van and Fujitsu's Nifty-Serve, each with over 200K members. Ascii Corp. (Tokyo) is combining its ACS, PCS, and MSX-ACS networks into a single service with 75K members, and is adding gateways to Delphi, G-Search, and language translation services. The fee will be 2,000 yen per month ($16) plus 20 yen per three minutes. Delphi, which is associated with Ascii, has acquired Byte Magazine's BIX. [Masayuki Miyazawa, Newsbytes, 2/18.]

Kazuhiko Nishi started Japan's $270M Ascii Corp. when he was a college student in 1977. The software and publishing company suffered a cash-flow crisis when Japan's economic boom ended, but Nishi has pulled together funding from six banks to pay off a short-term bond. Ascii agreed to shed unprofitable subsidiaries, reduce hiring, and take other cost-cutting measures. [SJM, 9/3.]

ICOT was a very good advertisement for AI, and now that the best students in Japan seem to be moving into AI subfields. ICOT also propelled the growth of the AI in Japanese industry. [Prof. Setsuo Ohsuga, UTokyo. David K. Kahaner, ONR Asia, 8/27. Steve Goldstein.]

The number of women developing software in Japan has increased 250% in the last five years. Other industries have seen less-rapid increases in the female workforce. [Industry Week, 7/6. Kelly E. Dwyer, CW, 8/10.]

Hitachi Development Center (formerly Hitachi Software Works) has reduced its software defect rate to one fault per 14K lines of code during the first 12 months after delivery. Structured development methodologies have helped survive Japan's shortage of programmers. Custom software development is typical, usually with considerable overlap between projects. Productivity is 4,500 lines of equivalent assembler code per developer per month, or 1,500 lines of C code. About 65% of that productivity is code reuse. The quality assurance department has final authority on when a project is ready to ship. Real power in the company is with domain managers (spanning many projects), systems engineers, and quality assurance managers. [Ware Myers, Computer, 8/92.]

Hitachi's C-based expert-system environment is ES/KERNEL, in versions for X-Windows and Motif and most platforms. 4K copies have been sold in Japan. Reasoning styles include production systems, object-oriented message passing, assumption-based constraint satisfaction, and multilayered blackboards. Related domain shells are ES/Promote/W-Diag for diagnosis, ES/Promote/W-Plan for planning and scheduling, and ES/Tool/W-RI for rule induction. Other tools handle real-time process control, plant operation, and user interface building. Large companies have built many applications for shallow reasoning in high-volume transaction processing. [David K. Kahaner (kahaner@cs.titech.ac.jp), ONR Asia. comp.research.japan, 8/26.]

A JTEC (Japanese Technical Evaluation Center) team headed by Prof. Edward Feigenbaum (feigenbaum@stanford-aim.stanford.edu) visited Japan in 3/92. Their written report on expert-system technology should be available soon from NSF. [David K. Kahaner (kahaner@cs.titech.ac.jp), ONR Asia. comp.research.japan, 8/26.]

Prof. Setsuo Ohsuga, former President of the Japan Society for AI, is director of UTokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST). RCAST has 53 professors, 27 other faculty, 140 research fellows, and 150 graduate or research students. It was established in 1987 to emphasize openness, flexibility, and international cooperation in interdisciplinary studies. Budget is almost $15M. Chaired professorships include factory automation; knowledge processing and transfers systems; intelligent sensing devices; molecular information materials; robotic materials; and 26 others in systems, devices, materials, and socio-technology.

Prof. Ohsuga also holds the RCAST Chair of Knowledge Processing and runs a lab with Koichi Hori (hori @ohsuga.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The lab has one visiting professor and 19 students, about 1/3 from outside Japan. Most technical reports are available in English, but computer interfaces are in Japanese. This "knowledge-based CAD" lab has a Unix-based Knowledge Acquisition and Utilization System (KAUS) based on Ohsuga's multilayered logic. Applications include mechanical design, wing design, and control-system analysis; software design may be next. Chemilog, a Prolog-based language, has been used for chemical design, and Prof. Hori's AA! system aids engineers in early conceptual design and articulation. "Collaborative activities with Western scientists are bound to be fruitful." [David K. Kahaner, ONR Asia, 8/27. Steve Goldstein.]

The Kaisha Society is a professional society of 300 foreigners working for Japanese companies in Tokyo. Monthly speakers have recently included several ambassadors. The president is Robert Filippi of the Bank of Tokyo, 81-3-3231-2247 Fax. [Timothy Rowe (rowe%mri.co.jp@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu), AJBS-L, 8/20.]

When William Davidow was at Intel, he wrote a monthly check to a floppy-disk vendor. Each bill (about $250K) was accompanied by six inches of paperwork showing how many floppies were ordered each day, how many arrived, how many were defective, how many were reshipped, etc. Computers enabled the accounting department to track all this -- an impressive display of productivity. Contrast this with Mazda, which then had about five people in its accounts payable department. (Ford had 500, which it managed to reengineer to just 50.) Mazda was running a just-in-time factory with reliable suppliers and no inventory storage. Each month it counted the number of cars it had made, multiplied by five, and sent a check to its tire supplier. [William Davidow, MicroTimes, 8/31.]

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a source of job listings. It's published weekly except late in August and December, at 1225 23rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20037. $67.50/year. Most of the jobs are in the U.S., although other countries outside Europe are occasionally represented. [Josh Hayes (josh@cqs.washington.edu), sci.research.careers, 8/19.]

RICOH California Research Center (Menlo Park) needs an experienced, well-rounded MS OO/GUI computer scientist for R&D on unusual virtual machines. Peter Hart (hart@crc.ricoh.com). [ba.jobs.offered, 9/8.]

Marie Bienkowski (bienk@triceratops.erg.sri.com) at SRI International (Menlo Park) has a continuing interest in hiring experienced AI doers (as opposed to thinkers). [comp.ai, 9/8.] She says that campus recruiters and unsolicited resumes can fill industry's entry-level needs. That, combined with experienced people staying put, explains why there are so few AI jobs advertised.

The Federal Reserve Board, Div. of Research and Statistics, needs a Unix-experienced PhD/CS Information Systems Analyst to research and develop OODB strategies, support economists in research and analysis, and develop econometric software. Otis Sutson, FRB MS 156, 20th & C Streets NW, Washington, DC 20551, (202) 452-3863 Fax, or Raymond A. Board (m1rab01@fed.frb.gov). [m.j.o, 9/10.]

A central-NJ Fortune 500 company is looking for an experienced Unix software engineer for C/C++/Assembler image-processing applications. Tretech Solutions Inc. (tretech@well.sf.ca.us), (908) 946-4175 Fax. [m.j.o, 9/4.]

CMU's Robotics Institute needs a highly qualified BS/MS C/C++/Mach/NeXT research programmer for AI-based speech recognition and software to help children learn to read. Jack Mostow (mostow@cs.cmu.edu). [m.j.o, 9/4.]

The AI Lab at Vrije Universiteit Brussel needs graduate or postdoc research scientists for Unix/C/LISP work on KBS tools (diagnosis, design, scheduling), OOKR, AI architectures, and learning. Contact Luc Steels or Walter Van de Velde (walter@arti.vub.ac.be), +32 2 640 25 35. [Brant Cheikes (brant@ida.liu.se), 9/8.]

University College Dublin has a postdoc opening in connectionist NLP and modeling of eye movements in reading. 3,255 ECU/month. Contact Ronan Reilly (rreilly@ccvax.ucd.ie), +353.1.2697262 Fax, by 9/15. [connectionists, 9/9.]

Denning Mobile Robotics, Inc. (Wilmington, MA) is looking for a BS/MS real-time Sun software engineer to develop a robotic pallet truck and floor-care equipment. Roger Gonzalez (rg@msel.unh.edu). [m.j.o, 9/12.]

Renaissance Technologies Corp. (Sekauket, NY) is looking for Math/Physics PhD senior research advisors for Unix/C investment data analysis in Stony Brook, Long Island. (516) 246-5550; (516) 246-5761 Fax; no email. [Frank Caggiano (fcaggian@rentec.com), m.j.o, 9/11.]

A company in Beaverton, OR, needs an MS CS/Math software engineer for C/Fortran exploration of neural networks in image noise cleaning, line extraction, and analysis, and to develop math functions for nonlinear simulation. Will coordinate with a Chinese institute. $35,902. Job Order #5550344, Emp. Div., Dept. of Human Resources, 875 Union St. NE, Salem, OR 97311. [CW, 9/14.] Possibly related to OCR.

GATEWAY JAPAN, an online bboard, now has a job posting and resume database as well as a calendar of events. It has recently added all 1992 OP-ED JAPAN articles (with summaries), compiled and translated by the ASIA FOUNDATION. New users may try the service free for a week. Contact Kristie Blair (kristie_blair %umail.umd.edu@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu), (202) 265-7685, for hardcopy info. FOCUS JAPAN II, a book of 150 fellowship lists and organization profiles, will be be available in December; $59.95, or $64.95 for both editions if ordered by 10/31. [AJBS-L, 8/19.]

SUPERNET INTERNATIONAL is an internet BBS for supercomputer researchers. Among other services, it includes benchmark files; a buyer's guide; features, news, and editorials from Supercomputing Review; discussion forums; several online newsletters; and an impressive job bank. It will soon carry Usenet News and an online bookstore. It's free: just telnet or rlogin to supernet.ans.net (147.225.1.51) and log in as supernet, or dial in at (408) 428-2565 with 8-N-1 VT100 emulation. Most terminal types are supported, including sun xterm vt220/320. [Mathew Burns (admin@supernet.ans.net), (800) 234-7977, 8/21.]

GNET is an archive/journal about bringing the net to lesser- developed nations and the poorer parts of developed nations. Abstracts and archived documents are available by FTP from global_net on dhvx20.csudh.edu (155.135.1.1). To join the moderated list, contact gnet_request@dhvx20.csudh.edu. [Larry Press (lpress@isi.edu), com-priv, 9/9.]

If Windows 3.1 doesn't work for you straight out of the box, you'd better have a guru around to help you modify its configuration. One source of help is the Windows User Group Network (WUGNET) in Media, PA. $95/year gets you online help and a bimonthly technical journal. [Eric Bender, PC World, 5/92.] Fixes for most configuration problems are now well-known, so advice from Usenet or other discussion forums can get you past most glitches. Undetected viruses can cause crashes that you might blame on Windows, so be sure that your virus scanner is up-to-date.

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) has established six new discussion lists covering ownership and licensing of information in scholarly net conferences. Send a "sub OWNERSHIP your name" message to listserv@cni.org, or sign up for REPOST, DERIV, RESOURCES, SITE-LICENSE, or INTERNATIONAL. [Brian Kahin. Current Cites, 8/19.]

Bill Woodward (uahwbw01@asnuah.asn.net) has passed along a list of discussion lists related to law: aba-unix@cayman.com (Unix for law office management); teknoids@law.mail.cornell.edu (technical services); info-law@brl.mil (general discussion); lawsch-l@auvm.american.edu (law students); law-lib@ucdavis.edu (law librarians); comlaw-l@ualtavm.bitnet (education); ail-l@austin.onu.edu (AI); forens-l@acc.fau.edu (forensics and law). [AIL-L, 8/20.]

The IMAGRS-L list concerns digital image processing of remotely sensed data, plus visualization, parallel computing, and image-related issues. It's run by Peter Sincak (kuko@spuni12.bitnet). 225 subscribers generate about 3-4 messages per day. Send a "sub imagrs-l your name" message to listserv@csearn.bitnet. [Julien C. Flack (julien@scs.leeds.ac.uk), sci.image.processing, 8/17.]

Anne P. Mitchell (shedevil@gw.home.vix.com) is gauging interest in a "truth in science and technology" newsletter (for a friend). Articles would debunk science or explain new approaches in traditional terms. (E.g., neural networks as multivariate statistical analysis.) Readers would be encouraged to send data not explained by current science. Send your mailing address for a copy of the first issue. [sci.research.careers, 8/20.]

Noble Savage Philosophers (NSP-L@RPIECS) is an unmoderated online group of approximately 200 philosophers. Send a "sub nsp-l your name" message to listserv@rpiecs.bitnet. Discussion logs can be obtained with a "get nsp-l log9205" (or log9201, log9202, etc.). [Barry (userf98f@rpitsmts.bitnet), CYBSYS-L, 9/9.]

IE-digest is a new moderated list for intelligent systems for economics, including NN, GA, ES, fuzzy logic, and rule induction for economic and financial modeling. Sign up with IE-list-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk. Archives will be in directory ie on cs.ucl.ac.uk (128.16.5.31). [Suran Goonatilake (surang @cs.ucl.ac.uk), connectionists, 9/14.]

LANGUAGE INDUSTRY MONITOR, a bimonthly newsletter for natural-language computing covers speech processing, handwriting recognition, terminology management, full text indexing and retrieval, document processing, and computer-aided translation (including MT). It's in hardcopy only (so far), $95. Samples are available and submissions are solicited. Colin Brace (colinb@paramount.nikhefk.nikhef.nl). [IRLIST, 8/24.]

Virginia Tech's Scholarly Communications Project is setting up an FTP server for the J. of Technology Education; VPIEJ-L; the Newsletter of the Visual Communication Div. of the Assoc. for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication; and VPI's other scholarly electronic journals. FTP files from /pub on borg.lib.vt.edu. [James Powell (jpowell@vtvm1.bitnet), VPIEJ-L. Gleason Sackman (sackman@plains.nodak.edu), PACS-L, 8/27.]

Library Trends, 40(4), is a 200-page special issue on Electronic Information for the Humanities, edited by Mark Stover. $18.50, UIllinois Press, Champaign, IL 61820. [Dan Lester (alileste@idbsu.bitnet), PACS-L, 8/26.]

New Project Gutenberg etexts are the 1990 US Census (2nd) and the Hackers' Dictionary, uscen902.xxx and jargn10x.xxx in etext/etext92 on mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu. Other sites also have copies, including quake.think.com, simtel20.army.mil (pd1:), nptn.org (/pub/e.texts/gutenberg), and several dial-up BBSs. [Michael S. Hart (hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu). PACS-L, 9/3.] Prof. Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, is profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education (8/12, p. A15-16). Worth reading, according to Dan Lester (alileste@idbsu.idbsu.edu). [PACS-L, 8/14.]

"Lowdown on Doctors, Lawyers and Politicians" is a PC disk (or "electronic book") with 560 witticisms sorted by subject and eight labels such as Positive, Negative, Advice, and Jokes. Short bios are given for most of the 330 authors. The book offer a browser, filters, word search, six indexes, 12 output formats, context sensitive help, and various customizations. The interface is from Idea Savings Bank. $19.95 until Election Day; $29.95 thereafter. Guaranteed. MCR Agency Inc., Oakland CA, (73327.1172@compuserve.com), (800) 767-6797. [PR NewsWire, 8/27. agentsee.]

Oak Ridge Public Relations Inc. is compiling a book of high-tech humor, to be distributed free later this year. Send submissions to 21771 Stevens Creek Blvd., #203, Cupertino, CA 95014; (408) 253-0936. [Susan Rose, EDN, 5/21.]

(Milton Berle claims to have 6.5 million jokes in his computer database. [CACM, 2/12.] At 100/day, that would last you 178 years.)

Commercial programmers often hide their names or pictures in their products, and sometimes leave secret commands for cheating at games. Joe Morris of MITRE has a 1300-line list called Ye Olde Secrete Screene Cheete Sheete. Write to Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu for a copy. [Bob Cowles, Chaos Corner, 9/15.]

Statistical Sciences, Inc. (Seattle, WA) is offering a free video demonstrating advanced analysis methods for examining complex data sets. It features their S_PLUS analysis system, of course. R. Carey Gersten (mktg@statsci.com), (206) 283-8802. [IDG PR Service, 3/31. agentsee.]

"Computation: The Micro and the Macro View" by B.A. Hubberman (Xerox PARC) contains articles on physics domains that are "elucidating the nature of computation." Available this Fall at $45 or $28 paperback, ISBN 981-02-0982-7. [Chaos Corner, 9/15.]

"The Entrepreneurial PC," by Bernard J. David, has good advice on starting an entrepreneurial business -- raising money, reading financial statements, etc. Its "100 profitable business ideas" is pretty much common knowledge, though. $24.95 paper, Windcrest/McGraw-Hill, (800) 233-1128. [Woody Liswood, MicroTimes, 8/3.]

"The Mac Shareware 500" by Ruffin Prevost and Rob Terrell (Ventana Press, $39.95) describes the best Mac freeware and shareware programs available. It even comes with three floppies and a free membership in America Online. Now you don't have to program everything yourself. "The thousands of shareware authors out there can out-think you by their sheer numbers." [Chris Oakes, CC, 9/8.]

Dhiraj K. Pathak (dkp@centro.soar.cs.cmu.edu) is planning an early Spring defense of his thesis in machine learning, cognitive modeling, and integrated architectures. He joined the Robotics program at CMU after receiving degrees in EE from IIT Delhi and CMU. Dhiraj says he also has a keen interest in politics and people.

Kurt Christensen reports that Apeiron ("ap-e-ron") has developed a heterogeneous-network programming language as Phase I of a NASA SBIR project. The company is now looking for industry interest and Phase III matching funds. Apeiron's approach uses an iconic object-flow language (compatible with Prograph) for representing programs. Compiled code modules are made available for automatic task distribution on heterogeneous networks. Phase II will address multiplatform implementation, with priority for platforms of industrial partners. Contact Kurt Christensen (apeiron.tech@applelink.apple.com), P.O. Box 8005, MS-220, McKinney, TX 75069; (800) 743-6602 or (214) 423-2276.

-- Ken