,
05Aug97. Bill Park.]
I reported last week that Apple will be making network PCs.
That's likely, but hasn't been announced. What has been announced
is that Apple and Microsoft are dropping lawsuits, working
together on at least one Java project, and agreeing to share
some [undisclosed] technology and patents. Since these two
companies control nearly all of the desktops, they can set
any standards they want. One can infer that Netscape and Sun
are in trouble, although the appointment of Larry Ellison
to Apple's board is a point for the anti-Microsoft forces.
Ellison and Gates are usually portrayed as arch rivals,
competing for the coming home/education Internet/TV market.
Steve Jobs just says that Microsoft is no longer the enemy.
Microsoft's $150M went for non-voting stock to be held
at least three years. They probably paid $18/share, for a $50M
paper profit already at the current stock price. As analysts
say, Microsoft's pocket-change investment in Apple was a
no-brainer decision. (The Justice Dept. will probably see
no anti-monopoly violation, since propping up Apple keeps
competition open.) But Microsoft's real contribution is
the promise to keep producing software for the Mac -- also
a no-brainer, given the hundreds of millions that Microsoft
makes from Mac software.
An independent study of 30K media professionals at 10K
media companies found that Mac users produced $26,441 more
annual revenue and $14,488 more net profit per person than
Windows users of comparable skill doing comparable work.
[Gistics, Inc. (Larkspur, CA). IW, 28Jul97. EduP.]
Larry Tesler -- Apple's chief scientist, Internet honcho,
and acting VP of Advanced Technology -- has left after 17 years.
He has a Palo Alto start-up to do educational software for kids.
[SJM, 05Aug97, 1C. Bill Park.] (I've heard Cocoa, Inc. and
CSI as names for the company.)
Macworld and MacUser will be merging, consolidated under
the same publisher as MacWEEK. Mac Publications is a joint
venture of IDG and Ziff-Davis. [TidBITS, 04Aug97.]
(The two magazines have carried almost identical advertising
from the beginning. I always wanted MacUser to be more
programmer/home user-oriented, as opposed to business oriented,
but I guess that's not where the advertising money was.)
Software pirates have been paying Apple a rare tribute.
After System 7.6 was released, some 30-40 websites are said
to have circulated free copies of the CD image. But after
System 8.0 came out, no one posted a pirated copy. None,
reportedly. The pirates are urging people to buy it legally.
[Chris Nolan, SJM, 04Aug97, 1E.]
Although eclipsed by Apple announcements, Be Inc. (Menlo Park)
now has a version of its multiprocessing Be OS running on a PC
with two Intel processors. Two Intel engineers worked at Be
for three months to get it working. The Intel version will
probably be released in Jan98. About 1,500 people have purchased
Be OS for the PowerPC, available since mid-July. Be hopes to give
away a million copies within a year. It's also seeking $15M-$20M
to finance marketing of the OS. One company making software
for the platform is Starcode Software (Redwood City, CA),
founded by Stanford students. [Jodi Mardesich, SJM, 29Jul97, 1C.]
And there's still a use for old technology: Computer critic
Clifford Stoll has converted the shell of an old IBM PC into
a cat litter box; his old Mac Plus is now an aquarium.
[WSJ, 02Jul97. EduP.]
McLean, VA: AI specialist for software optimization.
Reston, VA: US MS/PhD SE in data mining.
North Carolina: C++/Java games programmers with AI, NN,
genetic algorithms.
Austin, TX: SEs in AI, fuzzy logic, etc.
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL; NM): MS+ RA in IT,
data mining, pattern recognition for analyzing information flow.
Center for Adaptive System Applications (CASA; Los Alamos, NM):
postdocs in modeling, expert systems, data mining, pattern
recognition, NN for finance.
Xerox PARC (Palo Alto, CA): innovators in AI, engineering,
art, music, etc., for "life changing" ubiquitous computing. (*)
Intel (Santa Clara, CA): MS/PhD sr SE in pattern analysis, NN.
SF Bay Area: MS/PhD sr SE in constraint reasoning, NLP.
SF Bay Area: sr SE in IR, pattern recognition.
SF Bay Area: MS+ sr KE in expert systems, KR.
Aculab (UK): scientist in phonetics, speech synthesis,
recognition.
Surrey, UK: MS/PhD researchers in speech recognition,
signal processing, pattern recognition.
UPisa (Italy): MS/PhD researcher in fuzzy logic, pattern
recognition for olfactory classification.
Monash U. (Melbourne): PhD jr/sr lecturers in IT, DB, IR, HCI,
multimedia.
ATR (Kyoto): R&D in language modeling, speech recognition.
KAIST (Korea): postdoc(s) in neural systems, learning algorithms,
signal processing.
* captain's cool job of the week.
(Selected by Brian "captain" Murfin.)
ACM is providing free access to its Digital Library
through 30Sep97. Full text of selected articles, plus tables
of contents of 20 journals and over 400 conference proceedings.
[CACM, Jul97.]
IEEE Computer Society is offering free online access to 17
of its 19 magazines, through the end of this year.
. [Computer, Aug97. EduP.]
The cogsci list supports the Cognitive and Psychological
Sciences Index, ,
plus general CogSci discussion. Send a "join cogsci your name"
message to .
[, new-lists, 23Apr97.]
Study Web reviews over 15K educational Web sites, by grade
level. . [Internet-on-a-Disk, Aug97.]
You can browse a bunch of FAQs at ,
Yahoo! , , or
.
The classic FTP site for FAQs is , from MIT. [Jeroen Pietersma ,
21Jul96. net-hap.]
The recent US budget accord says that home offices now can be
deducted if used for administrative or managerial purposes,
not just "core business activities." Owners with a 401(k)
or SIMPLE plan can get the same benefits as employees, including
company-financed retirement contributions. The death tax
exemption will increase to $1M by 2007, plus $700K more
(starting immediately) for family-owned businesses. And
self-employed workers get to deduct more of their health care
costs -- 50% this year, rising to 80% in 2006. However,
Congress did not clarify the tax definition of "independent
contractor," thus forcing many contractors to work through
agencies (adding about 15% overhead). [Steve Kaufman, SJ,
30Jul97, 1C.]
In addition to the mcse discussion list (TCC 7.45),
there's an MCSDTalk list for developers seeking the Microsoft
"Solution Developer" certification. Send a "subscribe mcsdtalk
your name" message to ,
or check the archive on
.
[Gess Shankar , NEW-LIST, 21Apr97.]
Entrepreneurs' World Website (EntreWorld), from the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation, is a website about starting, running,
and growing your business. There's also a section supporting
entrepreneurship in general, with annotated pointers
to other Internet resources in six major subject areas.
. [Bill Park ,
18Jul97.]
Business plans shouldn't emphasize revenue/profit predictions,
since everyone knows they're made up. Instead, show that you've
identified a real and lasting opportunity, understand the business
context (regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic
trends, inflation, etc.), have assessed the risks and rewards,
and have the right team. Your people must be committed, smart,
well-educated, and with relevant experienced. [William Sahlman,
"How To Write A Great Business Plan," Harvard Business Review,
Jul/Aug97. NewtNews.]
"A Serious Business" is an email newsletter by and for people
in smaller businesses in over 70 countries. It now has
a People-to-People VIP Lounge and message board, at
. For a trial subscription,
write to . [Ray Gabriel ,
net-hap, 27Jan97.]
Build Your Business Tips offers advice on building
and promoting an internet business. Four tips per week.
Send a "subscribe byb" message to .
[Hal Croasmun , NEW-LIST, 05Jul97.]
GuestFinder helps print, radio, and TV journalists
find experts and interview sources. Browse free at
, or add your own picture and info
for a fee. [Lorilyn Bailey , net-hap,
08Feb97.]
The Rapid Deposit System can take checks over the phone,
email, or fax. JTek Enterprises, .
[, 09Dec96.]
Does your phone number spell anything interesting? Try
phoneSpell to find out. .
[Bob Appleton, FUN4U, 22Jun97.]
-- Ken
