[Digital Logo] [Image] [Digital Redbar] [Image] The Rapidly Changing Face of Computing June 9, 1997 A World Without Boundaries by Jeffrey R. Harrow Senior Consulting Engineer Corporate Strategy & Technology, Digital Equipment Corporation harrow@mail.dec.com Insight, analysis and commentary on contemporary computing and the technologies that drive it (not necessarily the views of Digital Equipment Corporation). Copyright ©1997, Digital Equipment Corporation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Feedback Is Important! I'd like to understand your interest in the RCFoC, how you make use of it, and the value you feel it provides to you, your career, and to your company. Please send me your comments to Internet mail address: harrow@mail.dec.com I look forward to hearing from you! Jeff Harrow ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue: * This Issue Is Available Via "RCFoC Radio!" * A World Without Boundaries. * The Next Ratchet-Up Is Just Over the Horizon. * The Key To Convergence -- Not Necessarily What You Might Think. * Bandwidth Choices. * True "Remote" Connectivity! * Identity. * Twelve Gigabyte "VCR"? * JavaCard. * Ecommerce Update. * Selling -- You? * Memphis TV. * A Sign Of The Times… * About the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Issue Is Available Via "RCFoC Radio!" If you'd like to give your eyes a rest while keeping up on the innovations and trends of contemporary computing, then "RCFoC Radio" is for you. It works if you're behind a firewall, and it works if you're using a 14.4 modem. So jump in and test the "new media" waters. Point your Web browser to http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/audio/970609.htm to experience the sounds of the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing. --------------------------------------------------------------------- A World Without Boundaries. As you may have suspected by now, I'm a telecommuter -- I research, write, and publish the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing to a global audience from my home office. With my trusty 28.8 Kbits/second modem connection (I'm still waiting for my ISP to upgrade their modems), I can access almost 100% of the ideas, news, and background material that I need to bring you the RCFoC. Indeed, rather than feeling "cut off" from traditional physical library materials, it's exactly this electronic ability to instantly research innovations and technology around the globe that makes it possible for me to bring you the RCFoC on a weekly basis! In fact, I've always maintained that, with my trusty notebook and a phone line, I should be able to produce the RCFoC from virtually anywhere. But I've never had the occasion to test this belief. When I travel I usually have the notebook and the phone connection, but I've never had the considerable focused time that it takes to produce the RCFoC. Until this trip. The way my RCFoC Seminar schedule worked out, this time I was overseas long enough for the jetlag to clear away, and had a large enough block of time, that I could put my theory to the test. And you're reading the result. This entire issue, including "RCFoC Radio," was researched, written, and published from my hotel room across the pond, 3,500 miles from my home office. (Well, I did take my notebook to the beach for an hour just to be able to say I had tried that scenario we see in some high-tech commercials, but it was hard to see the screen.) From my hotel room I had excellent 28.8 Kbits/second connectivity to my corporate intranet and the Internet, since Digital has a Windows NT RAS (Remote Access Services) server here in southern France. A local call gave me instant access to the same global information resources that I access from my office (similar to the local dial-in Internet access already being offered to the traveling public by global consortia of ISPs). In fact, with the exception of having to watch my on-line time (there's no "unlimited local calling" over here), and missing my large monitor and comfortable chair, location just didn't matter. As we're going to explore in several different ways throughout this issue, for knowledge workers, location is going to matter less and less. Physically isolated communities are going to join the global workforce, and they'll also become global consumers. The rules are going to change -- big time. A few years ago, pre-Web, I could never have produced this journal a continent away from my research materials. Today, they're as close as a phone wire. Tomorrow, the wire will be optional. Shortly thereafter, something like this won't even be worth writing about. Where do you want to live, and work, today? There's one very personal example, of the rapidly changing face of computing. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Next Ratchet-Up Is Just Over the Horizon. Technology is great stuff, and it's fun and profitable to use and explore. Of course if you're reading the RCFoC, I don't have to tell you that, because you're already interested in keeping up with, and speculating about, where the technology of contemporary computing is going. But that's not enough, anymore -- to only focus on the innovations and trends of the technology. To assess the importance of each change, we also have to look at how it might be embraced by society, and used by business. It's those innovations and trends that fall at the intersection of technology, AND society, AND business - those that are embraced beyond just the technical community - that are most likely to "make a difference." Perhaps the greatest current example of this is, of course, the Internet. Three years ago if you weren't a UNIX guru or a university student, you'd probably never heard of the Internet, much less used it. But driven by the user-friendly World Wide Web we saw the words "Web" and "Internet," and the concept of "connectivity," explode across the covers of Time, Business Week, and the front pages of "establishment" newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Times. That can be a good tip-off to us that something fundamental is happening around any particular technology innovation -- not just another article in Byte or PCWeek, but crossing the chasm (with apologies to Geoffrey Moore) into the mainstream media. For example, as I've been doing more than my share of traveling this past month to conduct several RCFoC Seminars in different countries, one example of an imminent "crossing" came to my attention, and it revolves around "connectivity." Although it tends to surprise those of us who don't usually travel beyond North America, people in many countries now consider pocket cellular phones to be as common and ubiquitous as Americans do cars. In these countries almost everybody has a pocket phone, and they think little of using them. Business people, tourists, even teenagers are usually connected. And given the relatively compact geography of many European and Mediterranean countries, they often have coverage throughout the country -- one person joked that in his country, he could "receive poorly virtually everywhere." (Of course along with the "good" that can come of this, the social implications of people physically being part of a group in once place, but conversing with someone else across the city or around the globe, can be disconcerting. And then there's the sound of the phone ringing from the next stall…) But what does this heavy use of pocket phones have to do with the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing? It has to do with "infrastructure" and how this growing connectivity is likely to evolve to global, pervasive, voice and data. For example, had I really felt a burning need, I could have placed a call from the Swissair 747 over the center of the Atlantic to any phone on the globe -- or checked my Email or sent a fax. Satellite telephony is already quite real, if a bit hard to justify by mere mortals, since the cost is $5.50 -- for every 30 seconds. (But remember that it wasn't too many years ago when the use of any "long distance" call was an expensive event reserved for emergencies or top business deals; today it's far less expensive to place a regular call, even overseas, than to create a formal business letter.) And that same "commoditization" is likely to happen with global satellite coverage. Motorola's Iridium system now has its first satellites in orbit and expects to be operational -- next year. As does GlobalStar's network. And there are others coming as well, such as Odyssey, due in 1999. And then of course there's Bill Gates' Teledesic… (An overview of some of these projects is at http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/970519.htm#And_Beyond_Those_Fast). Now these global satellite systems will be fascinating technological achievements. But if they are only used by the few, they will have little impact on you and I (for example, Inmarsat already provides global telephony and data services, but the notebook-sized terminal costs about $4,000, and "airtime" is $2.50/minute). Suppose, though, that like the Internet over the last couple of years, or pocket cellular phones in a growing number of countries, business and society were to embrace having access to data when and where you need it. Suppose that these emerging global information infrastructures priced their services in competition with the locally available telecommunications services? Consider that using existing satellite phone technology is already half as expensive as the local cellular international rates for calls from some areas in the Russian Federation to Western Europe! Or that Teledesic's $9 billion price tag is only half that estimated by Pacific Telesis to rewire California for high speed wired access (economics which have driven many emerging countries directly to cellular networks; they can't afford to go back and install wires)! But what's particularly fascinating to me is that I didn't have to research formal telecommunications journals or other obscure technical tomes to get these details; they came from the Hilton Guest magazine (Issue One, 1997) sitting in my hotel room. "Obscure" topics such as the emerging satellite voice and data services, details on using the latest notebook-based presentation technologies, and pointers on Email etiquette are what the typical business and vacation traveler is now being educated about as they pick up the magazine while trying to get over jet lag! The idea of pervasive, global voice and data is already beginning to "cross the chasm," just as the Internet did a couple of years ago! Such "mainstream" press coverage will raise peoples' comfort level and build demand even before the systems are actually available. The process has begun. Would a pocket PDA/phone that provided affordable global voice and data services change the way you work or the way you live your life (Technology + Business + Society)? Think it won't happen? Check with someone who lives in a country that has already embraced the pocket cellular phone. The next ratchet up is just over the horizon (sorry), and if the coverage is good enough, and the price is low enough, the rules, for all of us, will change big time. The opportunities for global network solutions will be -- sky-high. Welcome, to the rapidly changing face of computing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Key To Convergence -- Not Necessarily What You Might Think. When you think about Convergence (the coming together of Computers, Communications, Content, and Consumer Electronics), you might be tempted to consider "Content" as the low element on the totem pole. After all, if you ignore the Star Wars-like special effects, Content, unlike the rapidly evolving Computers, Communications, and Consumer Electronics industries, is an industry much as it was a generation ago. And yet, this relatively slowly moving Content may turn out to be a key to the rest of Convergence. We've seen how Microsoft has collected Content for MSN (http://www.msn.com/default.asp) and Sidewalk (http://sidewalk.com/) to differentiate them from the Web in general, and from AOL specifically. We've also been reading how Internet Explorer V4, when it ships (this summer - http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,10881,00.html?nd), will include a "push" client allowing you to subscribe to focused channels of information (see http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/content/pushsummit.htm for Microsoft's "push" viewpoint). Well, upping the ante, Netscape has just released a public beta of its push technology, Netcaster (http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/communicator/netcaster_frameset.html), and intends to beat Microsoft to the punch by shipping the new Communicator/Netcaster package later this month. (Check out http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?NTG19970601S0049 for an in-depth picture of today's "push" landscape.) But beyond the technology issues, what's fascinating is how both companies are aggressively courting the potential Content providers to provide their premium content exclusively through THEIR browsers. They both realize that, as the Internet and the Web continue to grow towards the status of a Utility, it's the information which people will have access to (the Content), much more than the technology, that will get the hearts, minds, clicks, and dollars of both the business and entertainment users. Did you ever think that Silicon Valley would be courting the filmmakers, the TV networks, and the publishers of the world? Well, both Microsoft and Netscape are doing so right now, and they're very serious about it. And it's going to be even more important as constantly increasing bandwidth and faster computing technology offers us, the "information consumers," new information choices far beyond today's telephone, TV, and radio. The rapidly changing face of computing, driven by Convergence, is about far more than just that comfortable old "technology…" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bandwidth Choices. Last issue we saw how an old ISDN technique called "channel bonding" is moving into a new venue -- 56K modems, allowing you to use that second phone line at your desk to achieve over 100 Kbits/second over standard phone lines (http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/970526.htm#Kbps_Modems_Well). Well, apparently "bonding" is a good idea whose time has come, since additional vendors are joining the fray. Brought to our attention by John Rowlett, this week we find that Transend has just introduced their $600 "Transend Sixty-Seven." It's a two-line modem that uses Transend's proprietary SACS (Simple Analog Channel Sequencing) variation on "channel bonding" to combine both 33.6 Kbits/second channels. The result is 67 Kbits/second of data in both the "uploading" and "downloading" directions -- if there's a similar Transend modem on the other end (http://www.transendmodems.com/). Yet even with that restriction, IDC's Abner Germanow expects other modem vendors to follow suit (http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/may/0527modem.html). Why? Because these "channel-bonding analog modems," very pragmatically, exploit that most commonly available data pipe -- the common phone line. And because of how hungry we have become for Bandwidth. For example, a recent Forrester Research study found that, in 1995, only 11% of U.S. corporations had 50 or more telecommuters, but that jumped to 24% just one year later (http://www8.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0526/26dsl.html). And in the future? "By the year 2000 there will be 55 million people working outside of traditional environments," according to Gartner Group, as quoted in a Transend paper on their Web site, and they'll all be needing more bandwidth. I do see a potential problem with the analog modem "bonding" we're beginning to see -- if the various vendors' solutions remain incompatible, we'll be limited to a high-speed bonded connection only when calling a similar-vendor-equipped modem pool. And as we're already seeing with the 56K-modem incompatibility issues between the X2 and K56flex non-standards, such incompatibility will significantly slow market acceptance. Perhaps a common Industry Standard for analog modem bonding, quickly accepted, would be in both the vendors', the users', and the market's best interests? And these modem vendors may want to get together and agree on a standardized approach soon, because we know there is Competition to analog modem technology in the wings. For example, there are the xDSL technologies (http://www.adsl.com/adsl/general_tutorial.html) which make use of existing copper phone lines to provide a very high speed digital Internet connection to the phone company's central office. Once the data arrives there, it stays in digital form and directly joins the Internet, bypassing and freeing the voice-oriented phone network for what it was designed to do. (Of course some believe that widespread adoption of xDSL is still a long way off. The Forrester report mentioned above comments that "it [xDSL] is not a firm commitment" yet from the phone companies.) Then, for just one more example, we also have the potential of high speed Internet connectivity over the cable TV infrastructure. Last issue we caught a glimpse of the expectations that such connectivity can raise (http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/970526.htm#Or_Connectivity_of_a), so this time I thought it would be interesting to share with you the experience of one of the lucky ones who already have Internet-over-Cable-TV. RCFoC reader Hitesh Chitalia writes: "I've been one of the lucky few that has cable modem, and have had it since the beginning of March. At $40/month for the ISP service AND the rental of the cable modem, it is a bargain that COMCAST (the local cable company) is offering. The only significant cost is installation. Jumping from 14.4K to cable modem speeds (1 - 3 Mbits/second average downstream, and 768 Kbits/second upstream), I am in heaven...this is what access to the Internet should be! I won't bore you with the data, but one word sums it all up...FAST! I hope this stuff takes off. And to top it off, one doesn't need cable TV to have cable modem -- you can order one without the other. Of course, being an avid TV watcher, I pay for both. Bottom line...cable modems are worth it." Also, according to reader Eric Pierce, Canada's Roger's Cable is pushing cable TV-based Internet "…in a big way." And there are others as well. Suddenly my shiny new 56K modem, or even bonded modems, seem a bit slow… The bottom line to me, which seems to be supported anew each week, is that people are demanding ever-increasing bandwidth; bright companies keep finding ever-new ways to deliver it; and the greater the bandwidth available, the greater the number and types of services that will flow across our digital pipes, creating ever-greater demand. It's a constantly expanding cycle, which I believe will be as significant as Moore's Law (which drives it) to how our businesses, and our society in general, will be making use of Convergence. Welcome to the rapidly changing face of computing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- True "Remote" Connectivity! Some countries have a "legacy" wired infrastructure, which as we discussed above, is constantly being enhanced to provide higher speed connectivity. In other countries, they're skipping the "wiring" altogether and placing a greater emphasis on cellular systems. But what about those areas, in both developed and developing countries, that are so remote that they won't be covered by traditional cellular services? The existing satellite systems such as Inmarsat, not to mention the emerging ones such as Iridium, GlobalStar, and Teledesic, should take care of the "coverage" issue. But what about one little factor we often tend to forget about -- what if the area isn't served by electricity? Enter, the solar-powered satellite phone system from Telstra. Already in use in remote areas in Australia where there's less than one phone line per 385 kilometers (according to the May 21 TechWeb - http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/may/0521telstra.html), the "Interra Net" can provide a remote community with voice and data access to the outside world -- today. It's a community-sized prelude to the personal satellite phones that should start arriving as Iridium goes live in 1998. And given that we already see solar-powered chargers for today's notebooks and laptops, I'm sure a truly go-and-stay-anywhere pocket sat-phone isn't too far away. Such global connectivity is going to further shrink our globe, expanding "virtual companies" and workforces, far beyond the big cities and developed nations of today. We're enabling what will be a very different, global community, through Convergence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Identity. One set of communities that has not been virtual, is the corporate Board of Directors, required by law to meet in-person to conduct its business (at least in California). But now, recognizing new opportunities that Convergence is enabling, a new law there allows board meetings to take place by videoconferencing, or even by "Internet chat," so long as members can be "positively identified." Of course that "positive identification" could be a problem. If it were important enough to someone, a videoconference could be spoofed by well-trained actors, and Internet "chats" are notorious for their potential anonymity. So how to prove that "you are you," both for remote meetings such as these, or for the more common tasks of electronic banking transactions, or just gaining access to your computer or your cellular phone? One solution, described in the May 21 TechWeb (http://www.techweb.com/investor/newsroom/tinews/may/0521lu.html), comes from the Lucent and U.S. Venture Partners joint venture "Veridicom," an inch-square no-moving-parts fingerprint sensor expected to be available later this year. Press your finger against this chip and it uses a radar-like technique to measure the pattern and height of the whorls of your fingerprint, comparing them to those it has on file for you. If you're you, you're in. If not, you're not. No encoded badges to forget at home or have to carry, no passwords to remember, and, except for some gruesome alternatives we won't pursue, it's probably hard to fool. Some pointers, although no details yet, are available at http://www.Veridicom.com/ . And of course there always seems to be competition for any good idea -- Identix Inc. (http://www.identix.com/) claims to be working on an even smaller, optically-based fingerprint scanner… Additional insight is available at http://nytsyn.com/live/Latest/143_052397_102211_12386.html . More examples of how innovation will continue to expand the "possible." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Twelve Gigabyte "VCR"? Eh? Talking about VCRs as if they were digital? But that's exactly what Sony would have us do by replacing our aging analog VCR technology with their prototype 12 centimeter read/write optical disk capable of holding 5.5 hours of video at the quality level of today's DVDs, or 1.3 hours of HDTV video. And with further development, they hope to increase the storage density to 18 Gigabytes. So why consider this format rather than the DVDs which are just beginning to emerge? Because the read/write DVD is still seen as being years off from commercial implementation. And as we learned from the laser disk, which has had only marginal market acceptance because you can't record on it, the market really wants to be able to do both. Of course neither of these VCR-alternatives are yet available (Sony's is expected around 2000, according to the May 21 Investor's Business Daily), so the choice is moot for the moment. But this is a reminder that, given the speed of technology and the innovation that characterizes Convergence, things can proceed in any number of directions. (And wouldn't a small, hopefully inexpensive 12 Gbyte read/write disk be great for computer backups?) Details of this technology are available in the May 27 Electronic Engineering Times at http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/may/0527optical.html . Ah, that rapidly changing face of computing… --------------------------------------------------------------------- JavaCard. Java seems to be everywhere, and now it seems it may show up right in your wallet! Recently, we considered how Smart Cards (credit cards with active microprocessors in them) may be getting the "Multos" Operating Systems to facilitate their performing multiple tasks (http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/970526.htm#MULTOS_Animal_Vegetable_or). Now, according to the May 25 Electronic Engineering Times, we find that at least one smart card OS contender is already around and headed towards its Version 2, and is based on Sun's Java. JavaCard (http://www.sun.com/sunsoft/Dev-progs/PR/970402.18.html) is a very svelte Java implementation, taking up only a few Kbytes of read-only memory in the card, and as little as 256 bytes of RAM. What might be the benefit? Just as Java, on more typical computers, provides hardware independence (the same Java "program" can run on any hardware that has had a Java interpreter written for it), that same independence could extend to the various types of tiny smart cards. And, if a programmer knows how to program Java applets for one environment… So will it be Multos or JavaCard in your pocket? It's far too early to tell, and having two "standards" will make things somewhat more difficult. But having that competition around also pretty much assures us that both entrants will get very good, very fast. And it sure would be nice to consolidate those many plastic cards into one… Details are at http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/may/0525java.html . --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ecommerce Update. Speaking of the Web and of Smart Cards, what could come to mind more quickly than Electronic Commerce? This week we find that Visa is helping Ecommerce along by beginning the world's largest pilot of SET (Secure Electronic Transaction)-enabled credit card commerce over the Web. According to the May 30 TechWeb (http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/may/0530irish.html), during the next four months 80 banks in 16 countries hope to entice 40,000 Visa card carriers to give Ecommerce a try. There's a question, though, that as the widespread use of Ecommerce moves closer, do we need new laws to oversee this new form of trading? According to Singapore's May 9 Straits Times, the G-10 countries are thinking "not now," taking a stance to nurture today's fledgling Ecommerce efforts by not implementing any laws which, they fear, might unintentionally stifle the growth of new global payment systems. Of course this doesn't mean that they consider the Internet a lawless Wild West -- they believe that current laws are sufficient to protect merchants, consumers, and banks until Ecommerce represents a larger percentage of the world's trade. But that doesn't mean we should rest easy -- yet, because those "current laws" are being constantly tested. Consider the recent arrest of someone who allegedly collected 100,000 credit card numbers from the Internet and tried to sell them to an undercover FBI agent (http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/1997/05/2702-hack.html). I've seen conflicting reports as to whether the credit card numbers were "sniffed" from the Internet while transactions were being made, or if he was able to compromise the security of a database of transactions on a Web server. But the lesson for all of us from this event is twofold: that security on the Internet is of the utmost concern to all of us, and that good security requires an end-to-end view. You can have a completely secure transaction protocol, but if a server can be broached, it doesn't much matter. Lots of Opportunity for those supplying Internet security products and services. And, a reminder to all of us thinking about providing Ecommerce services, that a bit of consultation with an Internet security expert can be a Good Thing… --------------------------------------------------------------------- Selling -- You? You may have begun to hear about Open Profiling Standard (OPS). Basically, OPS is intended to make it easier for you to let others on the Web know about you. Rather than having to fill out the ubiquitous forms at many sites that trade their information for some information about you, OPS would enable you to fill out your information once. It would be stored on your hard disk and, when you accessed a site that wanted to know more about you, your OPS data might be forwarded to them. I say "might" because the plan is for you to have complete control over which information is released to whom, and if this is to happen automatically or only after you give your individual OK. According to a May 28 TechWire Direct, Netscape, Firefly, and VeriSign, plus 60 other companies who have come on-board, intend for OPS to increase peoples' "trust" of the Internet by providing one clear standard for communicating personal information (perhaps salving the concern that some feel over "cookies" and the like.) The article went on to speculate that if OPS came into widespread use, a market could develop for companies buying and selling OPS profiles, similar to today's market for mailing lists. But I wonder if there might also be an interesting variant of this -- given the public's fascination with celebrities, how many people reading People or the soap magazines might be willing to purchase their favorite star's profile. Or, if you were about to do a business deal with someone, might you like to know everything you can about them before sitting down to negotiate? Sort of a 90s twist on Who's Who, and a reminder of -- the value of You. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Memphis TV. What might Memphis (code name for what may be Windows 98) bring us? Perhaps one of the least-predicted possibilities points directly at the heart of Convergence. According to the May 28 News.com (http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C11017%2C00.html?nd), your next Windows may come ready to decode new Web information that Microsoft hopes to have transmitted within standard TV signals. If your PC sports an add-in $400 TV Tuner card, it will be able to receive this "hidden" html code and display new types of information, such as a live "channel guide" or extra sports statistics, along with the actual TV picture. Well, I can see that in some cases this would be useful -- after all, I can never find my newspaper's TV channel guide, and I might well like to see some background information on a current news story. But here we go again -- do we want to watch TV on our PCs, or surf the Web on our TVs? Everybody will have a different preference. So I can conceive that one-day we'll simply have "information appliances" that do everything, but with different sizes and configurations to support specific business and social settings. Personally, I can't imagine trying to focus on doing work from the living room couch, or of wanting to watch a movie at my desk (although I would certainly use the channel guide if my TV were Web-enabled). But I certainly support the fact that these alternatives are beginning to show up, and that we'll each have the opportunity to choose how we interact with the growing Information Highway. There's a lot of exploring to be done as new innovations, and new combinations of existing technology, come together -- I'm rather excited that the market will have many opportunities to decide! --------------------------------------------------------------------- A Sign Of The Times… Finally, on the subject of the Information Highway continuing to wind its tendrils into the fabric of our society, consider this. According to the May 23 Chronicle of Higher Education, beginning in the year 2000, if you want to graduate from Kalamazoo U, you've got to have profiled your academic career -- on the Web. Actually focused on helping advisors to more easily categorize students' work, and to help students see how their different learnings interrelate, it is also a sign of the times -- of the rapidly changing face of computing… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing "The Rapidly Changing Face of Computing" is a weekly technology journal providing insight, analysis and commentary on contemporary computing and the technologies that drive it. The RCFoC is written by Jeffrey R. Harrow (harrow@mail.dec.com), a Senior Consulting Engineer for the Corporate Strategy & Technology Group of Digital Equipment Corporation. The RCFoC is published as a service of, but not necessarily reflecting the opinions of, Digital Equipment Corporation. Copyright © 1997, Digital Equuipment Corporation. All rights reserved. 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In the BODY of the message (on a single line), enter: subscribe rapidly-changing-face-of-computing YourEmailAddress or subscribe rapidly-changing-face-of-computing-notify YourEmailAddress depending on if you wish the full issue Emailed to you, or only a notification that a new issue is available on its Web site. You'll receive a confirmation via Email. [Image] [Digital Redbar] [Public RCFoC Home] [Digital Corporate Navbar] Creation Date: 04 June 1997 Legal