WEEKLY DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERNET FRONT
July 8 - 12 1996 Issue No 6
SUN BACKS CLEAN-ROOM JAVA IMPLEMENTATIONS...
The JavaLite OS, initiated by OSF's Research Institute, is being built on the MK++ microkernel that OSF - now part of the Open Group - developed in its B3 security work (OR Issue 5). We have our suspicions that IBM's silence regarding Sun's JavaOS is being caused by an attraction to JavaLite. IBM's own microkernel is based on the OSF work and the Research Institute's plans for a modular OS sound remarkably similar to IBM's ill-fated Workplace OS strategy. Sources at IBM remain tight-lipped over whether the company is even evaluating the OSF work.
According to OSF Research Institute head Ira Goldstein, JavaLite's use of a microkernel makes the OS a "mix and match "system that allows any flavor of the Unix operating system to be dropped in alongside the JVM.
So JavaLite differs in concept from Sun's JavaOS, which will be simply a lightweight Java platform targeting network computers and other Internet devices.
The modularity will allow users to determine what kind of operating system it will be - a monolithic Unix-cum-Java OS or a lightweight pure Java play for Internet devices. The feature is aimed at Unix fanciers looking to adopt Java without abandoning Unix applications. It will also let users configure the network to apportion functionality between local devices and the server - a key feature, Goldstein said, because the NC model can put a lot of strain on the server: "When you talk about a lot of thin clients there also has to be a fat server around somewhere." While the Research Institute calls the OS JavaLite internally, Goldstein said "We probably can't call it that" because Sun's guarding the Java trademark. It's alternately called TIE or Trusted Internet Environment.
The initial implementation of JavaLite, which will use Sun's Java rather than OSF's own version, will build on a "scaffold": a full-blown Unix OS that will be whittled down over various incarnations until there's nothing left but things like network infrastructure. Goldstein estimates that the first "full-bodied" version of TIE will emerge in Q3 with releases every three months after that, leading up to the "lite" version of the OS showing up in the middle of next year.
Netscape has launched its fifth beta of Navigator 3.0, integrating its Borland-licensed JIT Java compiler, only a week before Microsoft's own JIT is set to surface in an Explorer beta. Netscape's Beta 5 also features layout enhancements such as frame border controls, multiple columns of text, and font face support that checks the local system for display fonts.
... AS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FLESHES OUT ITS MODULAR JAVA OS
Sun has come out unequivocally in support of people doing clones of Java - not that they will be able to call it "Java". "We made Java cloneable from the beginning" said JavaSoft VP Jon Kannegaard. Those doing clean-room implementations will be able to run them though the standard Sun compatibility test suites too, after which they will be able to bear the 'Java compatible mark' in exactly the same way that applets, or development tools do today.
It doesn't take two independent implementations for Java to become a de jure standard, Kannegaard commented: some of the standards bodies "would like to standardise it right now". He added "we believe right now it's a little too early".
With JavaSoft driving both the development of the Java standard and its own commercial implementation, the conflict of interest question arises. Do JavaSoft's own developers get an "unfair" advantage over others who are attempting their own clean-room implementations? It is a question that seems yet to have come up in a world that has so-far been built on consensus. While Kannegaard says he understands the concern, in practice "we haven't seen the problem arise". Consequently, there are no current plans for an Open Java Foundation, or anything similar.
STRAIN BEGINS TO SHOW AS DOMAIN NAME CHANGES LOOM
Radical change in the structure of Internet domain names looks increasingly likely as IANA's control of the top-level process comes under pressure. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols such as IP addresses and domain names and is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the US Federal Network Council (FNC).
As previously reported (OR issue 1), IANA is examining ways that the Internet international top level domains (iTLDs) can be opened up, adding alternatives to .com etc. However the urgency of the discussion has been intensified by the fact that others are going ahead and starting their own top level domains anyway. The movement to set up alternative registries is being fostered by a dissatisfaction with the InterNIC's effective monopoly.
Chief among those striking on their own is the AlterNIC (www.alternic.net). Companies using its service can either register names in the existing domains, or AlterNIC's alternative domains such as .LAW for lawyers, .XXX for pornography suppliers and .LNX for Linux-related organisations. Additionally, AlterNIC has reserved some company-specific domains: .SUN, .IBM, .ABC - they are there, if the companies should want them. Meanwhile Karl Denninger, head of Chicago-based Internet provider MCSNet is planning to use AlterNIC to register his .BIZ domain - an alternative to .com. It was Denninger who devised and set up the Usenet biz. hierarchy. there is no practical reason why the domains need be restricted to three letters, however; .restaurants or .lawyers is just as plausible in the new free-for-all.
At the moment, most users will not be able to find these domains. Using them requires system administrators to deliberately change their systems' domain name resolution settings so that they take their information from the alternative source, rather than the standard InterNIC-controlled root servers.
OSF JAVELIN RENAMED OSMOSIS - PORT 'NOT POLITICAL'
The Open Software Foundation claims that its clean-room implementation of Java isn't politically motivated and that its Research Institute tackled the task to solve some of Java's technical problems.
OSF's clean-room implementation of Java, called Javelin until an Australian company already using the name surfaced in the past few weeks, has recently been rebadged Osmosis for the way that applets pass through a network's "membranes." OSF still catch themselves saying "Javelin," however. Javelin chief architect Keith Loepere coined Osmosis first and then thought of an acronym to match it, resulting in the half-serious Omni-present Secure Mobile Object Software Isochronally Scheduled tag that sent us scrambling for a dictionary to discover that isochronally means simultaneously.
The move to build Osmosis was "entirely technical," Research Institute chief Ira Goldstein said, adding that its Java will improve on the original's real-time performance and security. "If you want Java to succeed - which we do - you have to step up to some of these issues." He claims Osmosis is not "license-related" but concedes that the OSF dislikes the way Sun licenses Java, as a French cohort said last issue. According to OSF, Sun not only collects a royalty, typical in the Unix world, but any enhancements made to Java belong to Sun, not the party making the enhancements. OSF will make Osmosis freely available to non-commercial users as the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications's (NCSA) Mosaic was, but will charge for commercial use.
NOT A CLONE, BUT AN IMPROVEMENT
Goldstein claims Osmosis features fine-grained authorization control based on work done by ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Defense Department. Such control grants specific applets specific rights based on their source and function. The authorization model, called Adage, answers the question, How far do you let an applet pass through various "membranes"? and makes sure that no one has tampered with the applet.
OSF, forever recycling its past, will use its star-crossed Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) to pass messages and transactions between separate Java systems.
The Research Institute is also working on a way to "marry" the garbage collection function in Java to the memory manager in the hope of speeding up real-time performance. Osmosis also features a "turbo compiler" written in C++ with B3-derived coding that will compile both portable byte code and executable code. The compiler will work with both Java and Osmosis and will contain a "fork" that will let it be ported to either 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems without the performance penalty that Sun's Java reportedly imposes on 64-bit systems. Hence its backing by Digital Equipment Corporation, the only vendor with a 64-bit Unix operating system, Digital Unix.
Work on both the JavaLite OS and the virtual machine is reportedly being driven by the institute itself rather than by specific vendors who've invested in the product, although Goldstein said the process would be opened up to vendors next year. It's too early for Sun, the developer of the original Java and now one of OSF's sponsors, to become involved in the process, he added. If Sun likes what OSF does, it will be able to license it like any other vendor for its Java product line.
The JVM will begin implementation in the Fall with prototypes due the first quarter of the year, raising questions as to whether it will arrive too late to take advantage of the Java surge. Goldstein said there are other groups doing clean-room Java implementations, notably Natural Intelligence, whose Java VM for the Mac which has been licensed by Apple as well as a group on the Internet building Jolt. The difference, he said, is that those implementations only seek to create Java-compliance while "we're not trying to reproduce Java, we're trying to improve it."
TAOS STAYS SECRETIVE ON FAST JAVA PORT &JAPANESE BACKERS
Keep an eye on the Tao Group of Companies, headquartered in Reading, England (www.tao.co.uk). Tao is the home of Taos, a skinny, processor-independent operating system that bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the concepts inherent in Java. Taos code is compiled to a standard 'virtual processor' and the company has ported translators to a wide variety of processors, allowing them to run the VP code. If that sounds rather like a Just In Time compiler, well yes it's very similar, say people at Tao, who apparently have some interesting patents covering the area. Where Taos appears to differ from Java at the moment is that, despite the processor independence, it is very fast, and highly scalable across multiple, heterogeneous processors. It is also claimed to be fine-grained; the boast is that the only bytes ever loaded by the system are the ones that it needs to execute.
With the advent of Java, JavaOS and the like, it might seem that the company would be in trouble (who wants a portable OS when the applications themselves will be portable?). However chairman Francis Charig says that a clean port of Java to Taos is underway, and moreover the company will be drawing upon its existing experience to make the implementation blindingly fast.
Pinch of salt or possible contender? Tao is a secretive company, privately held with around 20 staff and substantial backing, it is claimed, from large Japanese corporates. Revenues this year are put at $2m.
Over the past few years the company has quietly got on developing technology that seems to work: the only schedules that have slipped are those related to revealing the identities of the Japanese backers. Now Charig says that names will be named this September. These won't be Java announcements per se; those aren't expected until next year. "Next year" is a long time in Java terms, but Charig is sanguine about the possibilities of being over-taken. September's announcements should provide the best evidence yet of how seriously Japan is taking Tao and therefore what kind of clout it can be expected to have in the Java world.
VERISIGN SAYS CLASS 3 LICENCES TO PREDOMINATE IN EUROPE
Verisign Inc, the digital signature company believes that in Europe at least 'Class three' digital signatures will predominate for Internet commerce. Verisign class three certificates require users to present themselves in person to a notary who verifies their identity. By comparison, class 2 authentication is carried out through a check with an online database (such as Equifax's consumer credit database in the US).
One reason for the preference for Class three rather than Class two outside of North America is the presence of existing international notary bodies. In particular, Equifax is talking with the International Union of Latin Notaries about how their members can work with the Verisign process, says Andy Leventhal, director of international business development. When it comes to other territories, and setting up class 2 database alliances, he says he is carrying out bilateral negotiations with notaries, chambers of commerce, PTOs, big banks and commercial consortia.
Another complication is that the companies that own the databases "are still trying to decide what roles they want to play as a Certification Authority", he says.
Seems nobody loves the Mac anymore. Sister publication Unigram.X reports that SunSoft Inc has subordinated its work on the Mac version of the Java Workshop development environment to work on the versions for Windows platforms to such an extent that Workshop for the Mac won't be out now until around the year-end, having previously been promised for last month. This is despite the Java Virtual Machine for the Mac being around since March.
X CONSORTIUM BECOMES EX-CONSORTIUM, AS WEB STRIKES
The X Consortium, wounded by the success of the World Wide Web, is turning its X Windows graphical networking system over to the Open Group Unix standards body. The Cambridge, Massachusetts organization will pass all of its technologies and intellectual property rights over to the Open Group by year-end.
X Consortium says that with most vendors' development resources going into building on the Web, there's been less and less demand for innovative development on the Unix operating system and therefore on X Windows.
The consortium will go out by embracing the phenomenon that killed it; it's working on a previously-announced X release called Broadway that lets X Windows users access applications from Web browsers.
PSINET GOES WHOLESALE; CROWDED OUT AS CONSUMER ISP
PSINet, spurred by the online encroachment of high-profile telcos like AT&T and MCI, is abandoning its direct consumer ISP services and going wholesale.
The Herndon, Virginia firm says that it will provide national network services to regional ISPs and started the ball rolling by transferring its customer base to Atlanta-based MindSpring Enterprises Inc. Mindspring will pay PSINet $23 million over two quarters for network support as well as PSINet's Pipeline and InterRamp customers. PSINet, which claims over 300 points of presence (POPs) worldwide, will provide Mindspring nationwide access.
PSINet figures it will make as much money this year, selling to ISPs without a national Internet backbone, as it would have if it focused completely on consumers. The financial impact of the wholesale approach will be felt in 1997 and beyond, it says.
ULTRASEEK SEARCH ENGINE IS DELAYED TO WEED OUT "JUNK"
Infoseek claims it's holding it's new Ultraseek high-powered search engine back from public view to get it bug-free and filter out the dead links and duplicated pages that typically clutter search results, a feature it says will give it an edge over bigger rivals.
Ultraseek was originally supposed to beta publicly at the end of last month, but Infoseek said it wanted to get it relatively bug free before turning it loose on the world. It cites other companies who've brought products to the Web that simply weren't ready for market - namely HotWired's HotBot, which debuted in May to heavy hype only to fall victim to embarrassing bugs that disrupted service. It will go to wide beta at the end of summer, Infoseek says.
While Ultraseek isn't likely to catalogue the number of URLs that rivals Alta Vista and HotBot claim, it says the filtering capacity means that what users get will be more useful. It says people focus too heavily on speed and size in the search engine race, which is "not an engineering pissing match" but an effort to meet customers needs best. "Who cares how fast it is if you have to deal with dead links and loops?" a spokesperson said. Of course, Infoseek might not say such things if it were the one with the bigger and faster search engine. It added that Ultraseek will eventually index "every Web site out there."
Infoseek claims that Ultraseek, although commonly perceived as a distinct service like the Personal Guide, has been intended from the beginning to be integrated in Infoseek 3.0. Its debut this summer was only to be a sneak preview for customers unwilling to wait until the rest of the package rolls out. 3.0 was planned for this fall, but it appears as if it too may slip, falling back to year-end.
l Speaking of pissing matches, Lycos claims its directory has over 51 million URLs catalogued - more than Alta Vista, Yahoo, InfoSeek and Excite put together. The growth spurt is due to Lycos' new CentiSpeed search engine, launched a month ago.
IBM/NCD TERMINALS TO BE NCS
IBM's "network application terminals," the machines it signed Network Computing Devices to co-develop (OR Issue 5), will support the Network Computer Reference Profile and lead IBM's NC charge.
Development will be based on work by IBM's AS/400 division, although IBM is keen to drop the name AS/400 from the device since it will be an NC and support all server platforms and run Windows applications. IBM's PC Company was dabbling in network computer design as well, but IBM is now uniting behind this single design.
IBM is funding less than 50% of the development and both companies claim to be taking the lead in the development. NCD says the terminal will be based on its $1,000 Explora machine but will not necessarily include its Citrix WinFrame-based WinCenter software, which is server-based. That doesn't rule out, however, the inclusion of the Citrix thin client model to run Windows applications. IBM has "an incredible wish list" of features to add on top of Explora, some of which will have to be left out as realities dictate, according to Rudy Morin, NCD's executive VP for operations and finance.
The deal is non-exclusive, and Mountain View, California-based NCD says it will look for other manufacturers to resell the machines as IBM does. NCD was forced to reveal the deal only hours after it signed it due to Federal Trade Commission rules because its revenues will be "materially affected" by the agreement.
POPWARE TURNS ISPS INTO LONG DISTANCE FAX-BUREAUX
Netcentric Corp this week announced its first batch of POPware, value-added software for Internet Service Providers. First out of the gate comes FaxStorm,a package which routes faxes via the Internet. The idea is simple; a user sends the fax from their PC, it is routed to the FaxStorm-enabled ISP with a Point of Presence closest to the final destination. Modems at the POP dial out and deliver the fax. The user saves long-distance call charges, the participating ISP gets a cut of the revenue that NetCentric collects for the transmission. The company has similar voice call-out POPware waiting in the wings. The ISP software runs under NT or Unix, its cost depends on the nature of the revenue-sharing agreement between NetCentric and individual ISPs.
There is a variety of end-user software available: FaxStorm Desktop is a standalone faxing application with built-in contact manager and fax scheduler; FaxStorm SoftModem which plugs into PC-based faxing software such as Delrina WinFax and Microsoft Exchange; FaxStorm Web that plugs into Netscape Navigator and FaxStorm Print Driver which lets Windows-based applications print directly to an Internet fax. There is also a software development kit available to let the system be integrated into custom applications. www.netcentric.com.
JAPANESE APPLIANCE STANDARD
18 Japanese companies, including Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd will form an industry consortium designed to set standards for a all-in-one Internet home appliances that include processor, communications and television tuner in one piece of equipment.
First models are expected at the end of the year. The organisation will promote the development of user-friendly software for surfing the Internet so that it is no harder to use than a television, and will try to standardise technology for the television-computer hybrid.
It will also push for the creation of more Japanese-language sites for mail order, education and medical applications. Casio Computer Co, Itochu Corp and Access KK are among the other backers, and the group is expected to have some 50 members when it formally launches in September.
IBM VM/ESA MAINFRAMES BECOME WEB SUPERSERVERS
Sterling Software has launched the first in a family of products that will turn mainframes into Web superservers and open up mainframe data to users armed with browsers.
The Reston, Virginia company's VM:Webserver targets IBM's VM/ESA operating system. In addition to typical Web server functions such as powering Web pages and Java applets, VM:Webserver allows developers to write CGI scripts to mainframe applications. The Web server delivers data from those apps in HTML form in a graphic interface. Not waiting for in-house developers to link applications to its server, Sterling will follow up this release with Web gateways to applications like DB/2.
Sterling is the latest in a series of companies to test the notion that the Internet can rescue mainframe data and applications, a task that has proven difficult in client/server environments. The jury's still out on whether the mainframe-to-internet tack will prove successful or not, but users have the advantage of a secure Web server with transaction processing, data storage and a slimmer chance of crashing than typical servers. Sterling will follow up the Webserver release with data security and encryption products.
ORACLE LICENSES NAVIGATOR, TOO
Oracle, not exactly putting to rest speculation that it may give up PowerBrowser for dead, has licensed 16,000 copies of Netscape Navigator for in-house use. PowerBrowser is a virtual no-show in the browser market, which is of course dominated by the big two, Navigator and Explorer.
The firm denies it's giving up on PowerBrowser, however, which it said will be a key part of its intranet strategy. It claims it licensed Navigator internally to ensure that its upcoming InterOffice collaboration product will work with any browser. On that note, Oracle also uses Internet Explorer in-house as part of its Windows 95 license.
Oracle is only following advice frequently given by the likes of Sun's Scott McNealy that all Web applications should be tested on at least three browsers to be sure they're open. But guys - 16,000?
l Oracle is using the formatting technology beneath applications such as Harvard Graphics for its InterOffice collaboration product line. In its agreement with the graphics application's owner Software Publishing Corporation, Oracle will license the Intelligent Formatting engine, and help bring it to the Internet and port it to Java. The engine helps pass "rich visual content" across the Internet without generating large bitmaps.
DEC COBBLES TOGETHER ROBUST OLTP OVER INTERNET PACKAGE
Troubled Digital Equipment Corp has unveiled what it describes as the first "industrial strength" software for doing transaction processing over the Internet - which will no-doubt surprise IBM. TP Internet server, is a bundle of existing technology, topped off with some encryption and tunnelling code. At its heart is Digital's existing ACMSxp TP monitor, which runs on NT or Digital Unix. This is coupled to the company's RTR (Reliable Transaction Routing) code.
The new part of the package is AltaVista Tunnel encryption technology. Tunnel products, which come in Workgroup or Personal flavours use RSA encryption with a maximum key length of 40 bits outside of the US, to set up authenticated links between servers or servers and end users. The company is aiming this package at any business that is currently using leased lines. The software is scheduled to begin shipping in August, costing $6,400 for Windows NT server systems and $14,200 for Digital Unix systems.
START-UP OFFERS FREE E-MAIL FROM ANY WEB BROWSER
HoTMaiL Corp, a start-up offering free Web-based e-mail, claims it's the first e-mail service that allows users to send and receive mail and surf the Internet from a Web site without requiring software to sit on the client, enabling customers to check their accounts from any platform computer that has a browser.
HoTMaiL is following the lead of free e-mail provider Juno Online Services in using advertisers to pick up the tab, but the Fremont, California-based company, which has about 10 staff, said it will most closely mimic Netscape's business model. After it builds a name for itself through free e-mail accounts it will release a value-added corporate offering later this year. It will add Java support in the future "when it's more stable and more prevalent" the company said.
ACTA WON'T GET HELP FROM FCC ON NET TELEPHONY
The America's Carriers Telecommunications Association (ACTA), the telephone industry group that petitioned the government to prohibit Internet telephony, shouldn't be expecting too much help from the FCC if its chairman's remarks are any indication.
Federal Communications Commission head Reed Hundt's remarks, delivered by his chief of staff in a Montreal conference, said that the Internet ought not be regulated as the telecommunications industry should. Even if the Federal agency could technically handle the task, he added, it wouldn't have time "to separate the acceptable data packets from the unacceptable voice packets."
ACTA, representing over 130 of the smaller US long-distance carriers. has vowed to continue its long, uphill struggle despite what look like insuperable odds.
MICROSOFT BOOSTS MAC WEB
Microsoft has released a free Macintosh package featuring Internet Explorer in an effort to grant its Apple customers the Web features used by its Windows customers.
The package includes Explorer 2.0 and Internet Assistants for Word and Excel as well as upgrades for MacOS and Word. The Microsoft Empowerment Pack, as it's called, is the result of joint efforts by Microsoft and Apple to synchronize Microsoft Windows applications with their siblings on the Mac, both in features and in timing.
Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio and COO Marco Landi recently met with Bill Gates for dinner to discuss how applications could begin to emerge at the same time on both Windows and MacOS in the future.
CD-ROMS CAN HOST WEB SITES
SMS Data Products, has added a new twist to Web sites: they can now be powered by a "serverless" CD-ROM Web server instead of a standard computer.
SMS, a McLean, Virginia storage company, announced that it's made it possible for Web pages to be stored in HTML on CD-ROMs and served to the Internet from its Millennium 700 series CD towers.
The CD-ROM effort, designed to protect the SMS investment in CD-ROM technology, is one of the more interesting ploys that seemingly-peripheral companies have used to catch a ride on the Internet bandwagon. The towers, which have seven drives, are Internet-enabled through SMS Data's Web Connectivity Module. Millenia runs in NT, NetWare, Unix and Vines environments.
Microsoft has lined up Java tool vendors such as Borland, Sybase's Powersoft and Symantec behind its Java reference platform for Windows - not much surprise there - and points out that together with itself the vendors support more than 90% of the development tools market.
Juno Online Services says it's opened over 100,000 e-mail accounts in the little over two months since it rolled out nationwide. Since it's e-mail accounts are free and Juno seeks its revenues from advertisers by offering targeted ads and online market research, it would be more interesting to look at how many advertisers Juno has lined up.
British Telecom has joined forces with Microsoft Corp to market networking and online services for small and medium-sized companies to enable them to share resources and access the Internet and other online services. The partners will provide advice and assistance for customers that want to know how best to integrate their computers and telecommunications services, giving them a single point of contact for all their communications needs. British Telecom says it will install and maintain products and services covered by the deal.
Informix will make the HP/Netscape intranet partnership a threesome this week with an announcement that it will join the development and marketing alliance. The database company already has software bundling deals with Netscape. HP and Netscape's agreement previously called for intranet consulting and sales for applications built on Netscape's Web software and HP's OpenMail and OpenView. Informix's databases will now be thrown into the mix.
SFNB, the first all-Internet bank, has opened up a branch on CompuServe. The bank will sit in CompuServe's banking center. The two companies will offer $40 worth of online time for customers who open an account. The bank will round out its services with insurance and brokerage services expected by year-end.
America Online has introduced its own credit card, a Visa card backed by the First USA bank. Each purchase adds points to the card that can be redeemed for free access time - a $100 purchase nets the user one free hour on AOL.
From the Wish We'd Thought of That News Angle Dept: C/NET wrote last week that the fall in profitability of four industry leaders - DEC, Borland, Adobe and Sybase - is due largely to the way the Internet has changed the business environment and decreased profitability. Might we suggest a more pedestrian reason for their lackluster performances - say, competition and failure to execute?
In two reassuring - and perhaps related - trends on the Internet, women users have a stronger presence on the Web and adult sites are becoming less popular. The number of female home users grew from 32% last quarter to 38% this quarter, according to PC-Meter, a household survey of home-audience Web activity. The survey, conducted by the NPD Group market researchers of Port Washington, New York, also says that adult sites have faded in popularity, falling from 25% in January to 19% this quarter.
BRIEFLY
Radical change in the structure of Internet domain names looks increasingly likely as IANA's control of the top-level process comes under pressure. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols such as IP addresses and domain names and is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the US Federal Network Council (FNC).
As previously reported (OR issue 1), IANA is examining ways that the Internet international top level domains (iTLDs) can be opened up, adding alternatives to .com etc. However the urgency of the discussion has been intensified by the fact that others are going ahead and starting their own top level domains anyway. The movement to set up alternative registries is being fostered by a dissatisfaction with the InterNIC's effective monopoly.
ISA HAS CARD-OPERATED PUBLIC INTERNET ACCESS TERMINAL
With all this talk of the "ideal Internet access device," what does a company that is designing a machine to be that and nothing else come up with? It turns out that it's not a $500 Network Computer. ISA Inc has launched a rugged, tamper-proof Internet Access Terminal designed for public places. At about $5,000 a go, the stand-alone machines are a far cry from the magical $500 figure, but chief executive Mike King said the company has already sold five machines, named NetWave USA, to a hotel, a senior citizens club and a sports bar chain. Now discussions are under way regarding distribution rights abroad. The custom-designed terminals comprise a Pentium-based personal computer from IBM Corp that runs both Netscape Communications Corp's Navigator browser software and AT&T Corp's browser, housed within a heavy-duty sealed case. A standard keyboard and mouse are used to surf the Internet, and an exposed 3.5" floppy drive enables users to download and keep any information. According to King, the floppy drive posed one of the biggest design headaches for the firm, but he reckons enough virus protection software has been written into the system to prevent bugs finding their way onto the hard drive. End-user usage charges will vary. ISA will supply plastic swipe cards with the machines, and it will be up to the host location to put a value on access time. The St Petersburg, Florida-based company is better known for its IdentiKid scheme, which has run for about 10 years in the US. For a fee of $5, parents can get their children's fingerprints and personal details stored on a plastic credit-style card for use in case of emergencies. If the child disappears, the card is handed over to the police: seems to be one idea that never crossed the Atlantic.
TOP 10 INTRANET MYTHS
Gartner Group Internet guru David Smith has isolated the top 10 intranet myths and describes them as follows:
1. Intranets are new. The buzzword is new but enterprises have been using Internet technology in their networks for years.
2. Intranets are just publishing systems. A common oversimplification, that persists as the publishing of widely distributed documents such as HR policies and procedures is often a justification for initial investments in base intranet kit. This leads to the view that...
3. Intranets are the same as groupware. Since products from "Internet vendors" and established groupware technologies will compete and existing groupware products are evolving to support more and more Internet technologies, it is common to see these two concepts confused.
4. Groupware is the same as intranets. See Myth #3, above.
5. Intranets require "thin clients." Too often, Internet technologies are associated with tangential efforts such as $500 terminals and consortia aimed not as much at providing solutions as at fighting a common enemy, ie Microsoft.
6. Intranets are the same as LANs. Most existing LANs use a mixture of network protocols with increasing use of TCP/IP. To equate the two is a gross, naive oversimplification.
7. Intranets are the same as internal corporate networks. Similar to Myth #6, this is an oversimplification as most existing corporate networks are multiprotocol as well.
8. Intranets will replace client/server. As a buzzword, it appears that intranets have already replaced client/server. But in reality, intranets are an example of client/server technology and more and more "traditional" client/server techniques will be utilized as organizations continue to increase usage of intranet technologies for more sophisticated applications.
9. Intranets provide the elusive common infrastructure organizations have been clamoring for. While intranets will provide increasing least common denominator functionality, the standardization will remain at lower levels gradually rising but always having innovation and fragmentation at higher levels.
10. Something called "the intranet" exists. While "the Internet" exists, use of the term "the intranet" is misleading and indicative of the level of hype the term has generated. In fact, we would not be surprised to see some well-meaning person write: "With the success of corporate intranets, we may see them connected together someday."
DOT GOSSIP
IBM's promised port of Java to Windows 3.1 is actually due at the end of July. The porting center at Hursley now says it hopes to have a public alpha available for download "within a month, with a full release a few months further down the track". An early version of the code has been handed over to over to FTP Inc for testing in its CyberAgent product. Current focus is apparently on porting the AWT.
The team warns that "The alpha release will definitely be slow!" It is, however beginning to look for potential licensees.
While Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 3.0 beta is now Java-enabled, users say that it still stumbles when Netscape's JavaScript is involved - for example, when the browser calls in an applet via JavaScript.
Novell's "Green River" upgrade to NetWare will have TCP/IP integration, unlike previous versions of the operating system.
Asymetrix, whose SuperCede VM is reportedly capable of running Java 10 times faster than JIT compilers and 50 times faster than plain old interpreted code, is licensing the SuperCede technology to NEC and Toshiba.
It expects to announce several more OEM deals in 90 days when it has a final production version of the SuperCede toolkit. Meanwhile, industry buzz has it that Netscape may be looking to license SuperCede VM - which isn't properly a JIT compiler because it compiles all code at machine level - to replace the Borland JIT compiler it just integrated with its products. Watch Sun in this space, as well.
IBM has a hot little Netscape plug-in called ChaCha that streams audio over low-bandwidth dial-up connections. ChaCha, currently a technology demonstration, has been tested on Netscape's Navigator 2.0 and Atlas beta for Windows 95 and NT.
MFS Communications Co Inc successfully sold off 31 million shares at $37.125 apiece. The company says that the $1 billion raised will go to finance its previously announced infrastructure plans. Last year the company lost around $2.2 per share, however Darrell Edmonds, analyst with Bear, Stearns & Co told Reuter he expects the losses to bottom out next year, with the benefits beginning to show in '98.
E-data Corp, the company with the patent that it claims covers much of Web-based commerce (OR issue 1) reports that two more defendants in the patent infringement case have signed up for a licence. Monotype Typography Inc of Elk Grove Village Illinois and New York-based Index Stock Photography Inc join existing licensees IBM, VocalTec and Adobe Systems. Terms were not disclosed, which is notable, since E-data's licensing terms have been made public in the past. A copy of the recent court order giving E-Data 60 days to elucidate its claims can be found at: www.patents.com/ige/june25.sht
VXtreme Inc, Palo Alto, California, which planned to start life as a traditional video conferencing vendor, has switched tack and will now launch itself this month as a next-generation Internet video technology company. The firm says it'll provide a free video viewer that will connect with the Netscape Navigator browser. It will focus on corporate intranets, which are rapidly moving to T-1 lines where VXtreme could deliver video at 10 to 20 frames per second.
The CIA, alarmed at the prospect of an electronic attack on the United States' computer networks, plans to build a "cyberwar" center under the auspices of the National Security Agency to protect the nation's electronic infrastructure. CIA director John Deutch said electronic warfare could become a 21st-century threat second only to nuclear, biologicial and chemical weapons.
eSoft Incorporated of Denver, Colorado, belying its name, is shipping a rack-mounted Web server. One of the hardware kinds. The 133 MHz Pentium runs Windows NT and includes 32Mb of RAM, a 2.1Gb hard drive and O'Reilly's WebSite Pro 1.1.
Enterprising city fathers in Fort Collins, Colorado, taking advantage of the bevy of Internet service providers that have sprung up in the area, have declared that its sales tax applies to Internet access as well as other goods and services. The 3% sales tax sits on top of a tax passed along from the telcos that lease the ISPs their lines. The 'bit tax,' in addition to setting an unsettling precedent, gives the advantage to national providers like AT&T and Netcom, who can't be taxed by a specific municipality.
"Ah, how history is re-written", we wrote in issue 2. Yes, but unfortunately it was us doing the re-writing. That Sun VP James Gosling argued against the idea of making Java public domain, while today is a fan of the 'development through free distribution' model is completely consistent. Gosling and Arthur van Hoff - now of Marimba - point out that "public domain" and "freely distributable" are not synonyms and that making Java PD would have ceded control of the standard away from Sun - with consequent fragmentation of the standard. The point that Van Hoff was trying to make was that Gosling was right to dig his heels in.
Macromedia, is braching out. Currently it is best known for its multimedia authoring tools and latterly its tools used to spruce up the Web with graphics and animation downloaded to browsers. Now it is shipping a set of software tools designed to construct not-so-glamorous Web site underpinnings on the server side. Backstage Enterprise Studio, aimed for Webmasters and MIS types, builds Internet applications linked to standard databases via ODBC. It takes advantage of Macromedia's famed Shockwave authoring tools, of course. It's available on Windows 95 and NT but is browser, server and database independent.
The Internet scramble has created some strange bedfellows, but this is ridiculous: IntraNet Solutions, a Minnesota intranet consulting company, has merged with MacGregor Sports and Fitness Inc, a company that specializes in things like soccer boots and baseball mitts with nary a browser in the lot.
C/NET, the Internet media company, went public on Nasdaq last week. It offered two million shares of common stock starting at $16 a share. The offering was co-managed by Morgan Stanley, Hambrecht & Quist and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell/CJ Lawrence. Analysts suggested that though the company was innovative and has a vision, that vision didn't necessarily extend to how it would make money. The share price jumped to $21.25 on the first day of trading but fell back to close at $18 on July 2.
The US Justice Department has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court over the rejection of the Communications Decency Act
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July 8 - 12 1996 Issue No 6
SUN BACKS CLEAN-ROOM JAVA IMPLEMENTATIONS...
The JavaLite OS, initiated by OSF's Research Institute, is being built on the MK++ microkernel that OSF - now part of the Open Group - developed in its B3 security work (OR Issue 5). We have our suspicions that IBM's silence regarding Sun's JavaOS is being caused by an attraction to JavaLite. IBM's own microkernel is based on the OSF work and the Research Institute's plans for a modular OS sound remarkably similar to IBM's ill-fated Workplace OS strategy. Sources at IBM remain tight-lipped over whether the company is even evaluating the OSF work.
According to OSF Research Institute head Ira Goldstein, JavaLite's use of a microkernel makes the OS a "mix and match "system that allows any flavor of the Unix operating system to be dropped in alongside the JVM.
So JavaLite differs in concept from Sun's JavaOS, which will be simply a lightweight Java platform targeting network computers and other Internet devices.
The modularity will allow users to determine what kind of operating system it will be - a monolithic Unix-cum-Java OS or a lightweight pure Java play for Internet devices. The feature is aimed at Unix fanciers looking to adopt Java without abandoning Unix applications. It will also let users configure the network to apportion functionality between local devices and the server - a key feature, Goldstein said, because the NC model can put a lot of strain on the server: "When you talk about a lot of thin clients there also has to be a fat server around somewhere." While the Research Institute calls the OS JavaLite internally, Goldstein said "We probably can't call it that" because Sun's guarding the Java trademark. It's alternately called TIE or Trusted Internet Environment.
The initial implementation of JavaLite, which will use Sun's Java rather than OSF's own version, will build on a "scaffold": a full-blown Unix OS that will be whittled down over various incarnations until there's nothing left but things like network infrastructure. Goldstein estimates that the first "full-bodied" version of TIE will emerge in Q3 with releases every three months after that, leading up to the "lite" version of the OS showing up in the middle of next year.
Netscape has launched its fifth beta of Navigator 3.0, integrating its Borland-licensed JIT Java compiler, only a week before Microsoft's own JIT is set to surface in an Explorer beta. Netscape's Beta 5 also features layout enhancements such as frame border controls, multiple columns of text, and font face support that checks the local system for display fonts.
... AS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FLESHES OUT ITS MODULAR JAVA OS
Sun has come out unequivocally in support of people doing clones of Java - not that they will be able to call it "Java". "We made Java cloneable from the beginning" said JavaSoft VP Jon Kannegaard. Those doing clean-room implementations will be able to run them though the standard Sun compatibility test suites too, after which they will be able to bear the 'Java compatible mark' in exactly the same way that applets, or development tools do today.
It doesn't take two independent implementations for Java to become a de jure standard, Kannegaard commented: some of the standards bodies "would like to standardise it right now". He added "we believe right now it's a little too early".
With JavaSoft driving both the development of the Java standard and its own commercial implementation, the conflict of interest question arises. Do JavaSoft's own developers get an "unfair" advantage over others who are attempting their own clean-room implementations? It is a question that seems yet to have come up in a world that has so-far been built on consensus. While Kannegaard says he understands the concern, in practice "we haven't seen the problem arise". Consequently, there are no current plans for an Open Java Foundation, or anything similar.
STRAIN BEGINS TO SHOW AS DOMAIN NAME CHANGES LOOM
Radical change in the structure of Internet domain names looks increasingly likely as IANA's control of the top-level process comes under pressure. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols such as IP addresses and domain names and is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the US Federal Network Council (FNC).
As previously reported (OR issue 1), IANA is examining ways that the Internet international top level domains (iTLDs) can be opened up, adding alternatives to .com etc. However the urgency of the discussion has been intensified by the fact that others are going ahead and starting their own top level domains anyway. The movement to set up alternative registries is being fostered by a dissatisfaction with the InterNIC's effective monopoly.
Chief among those striking on their own is the AlterNIC (www.alternic.net). Companies using its service can either register names in the existing domains, or AlterNIC's alternative domains such as .LAW for lawyers, .XXX for pornography suppliers and .LNX for Linux-related organisations. Additionally, AlterNIC has reserved some company-specific domains: .SUN, .IBM, .ABC - they are there, if the companies should want them. Meanwhile Karl Denninger, head of Chicago-based Internet provider MCSNet is planning to use AlterNIC to register his .BIZ domain - an alternative to .com. It was Denninger who devised and set up the Usenet biz. hierarchy. there is no practical reason why the domains need be restricted to three letters, however; .restaurants or .lawyers is just as plausible in the new free-for-all.
At the moment, most users will not be able to find these domains. Using them requires system administrators to deliberately change their systems' domain name resolution settings so that they take their information from the alternative source, rather than the standard InterNIC-controlled root servers.
OSF JAVELIN RENAMED OSMOSIS - PORT 'NOT POLITICAL'
The Open Software Foundation claims that its clean-room implementation of Java isn't politically motivated and that its Research Institute tackled the task to solve some of Java's technical problems.
OSF's clean-room implementation of Java, called Javelin until an Australian company already using the name surfaced in the past few weeks, has recently been rebadged Osmosis for the way that applets pass through a network's "membranes." OSF still catch themselves saying "Javelin," however. Javelin chief architect Keith Loepere coined Osmosis first and then thought of an acronym to match it, resulting in the half-serious Omni-present Secure Mobile Object Software Isochronally Scheduled tag that sent us scrambling for a dictionary to discover that isochronally means simultaneously.
The move to build Osmosis was "entirely technical," Research Institute chief Ira Goldstein said, adding that its Java will improve on the original's real-time performance and security. "If you want Java to succeed - which we do - you have to step up to some of these issues." He claims Osmosis is not "license-related" but concedes that the OSF dislikes the way Sun licenses Java, as a French cohort said last issue. According to OSF, Sun not only collects a royalty, typical in the Unix world, but any enhancements made to Java belong to Sun, not the party making the enhancements. OSF will make Osmosis freely available to non-commercial users as the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications's (NCSA) Mosaic was, but will charge for commercial use.
NOT A CLONE, BUT AN IMPROVEMENT
Goldstein claims Osmosis features fine-grained authorization control based on work done by ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Defense Department. Such control grants specific applets specific rights based on their source and function. The authorization model, called Adage, answers the question, How far do you let an applet pass through various "membranes"? and makes sure that no one has tampered with the applet.
OSF, forever recycling its past, will use its star-crossed Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) to pass messages and transactions between separate Java systems.
The Research Institute is also working on a way to "marry" the garbage collection function in Java to the memory manager in the hope of speeding up real-time performance. Osmosis also features a "turbo compiler" written in C++ with B3-derived coding that will compile both portable byte code and executable code. The compiler will work with both Java and Osmosis and will contain a "fork" that will let it be ported to either 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems without the performance penalty that Sun's Java reportedly imposes on 64-bit systems. Hence its backing by Digital Equipment Corporation, the only vendor with a 64-bit Unix operating system, Digital Unix.
Work on both the JavaLite OS and the virtual machine is reportedly being driven by the institute itself rather than by specific vendors who've invested in the product, although Goldstein said the process would be opened up to vendors next year. It's too early for Sun, the developer of the original Java and now one of OSF's sponsors, to become involved in the process, he added. If Sun likes what OSF does, it will be able to license it like any other vendor for its Java product line.
The JVM will begin implementation in the Fall with prototypes due the first quarter of the year, raising questions as to whether it will arrive too late to take advantage of the Java surge. Goldstein said there are other groups doing clean-room Java implementations, notably Natural Intelligence, whose Java VM for the Mac which has been licensed by Apple as well as a group on the Internet building Jolt. The difference, he said, is that those implementations only seek to create Java-compliance while "we're not trying to reproduce Java, we're trying to improve it."
TAOS STAYS SECRETIVE ON FAST JAVA PORT &JAPANESE BACKERS
Keep an eye on the Tao Group of Companies, headquartered in Reading, England (www.tao.co.uk). Tao is the home of Taos, a skinny, processor-independent operating system that bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the concepts inherent in Java. Taos code is compiled to a standard 'virtual processor' and the company has ported translators to a wide variety of processors, allowing them to run the VP code. If that sounds rather like a Just In Time compiler, well yes it's very similar, say people at Tao, who apparently have some interesting patents covering the area. Where Taos appears to differ from Java at the moment is that, despite the processor independence, it is very fast, and highly scalable across multiple, heterogeneous processors. It is also claimed to be fine-grained; the boast is that the only bytes ever loaded by the system are the ones that it needs to execute.
With the advent of Java, JavaOS and the like, it might seem that the company would be in trouble (who wants a portable OS when the applications themselves will be portable?). However chairman Francis Charig says that a clean port of Java to Taos is underway, and moreover the company will be drawing upon its existing experience to make the implementation blindingly fast.
Pinch of salt or possible contender? Tao is a secretive company, privately held with around 20 staff and substantial backing, it is claimed, from large Japanese corporates. Revenues this year are put at $2m.
Over the past few years the company has quietly got on developing technology that seems to work: the only schedules that have slipped are those related to revealing the identities of the Japanese backers. Now Charig says that names will be named this September. These won't be Java announcements per se; those aren't expected until next year. "Next year" is a long time in Java terms, but Charig is sanguine about the possibilities of being over-taken. September's announcements should provide the best evidence yet of how seriously Japan is taking Tao and therefore what kind of clout it can be expected to have in the Java world.
VERISIGN SAYS CLASS 3 LICENCES TO PREDOMINATE IN EUROPE
Verisign Inc, the digital signature company believes that in Europe at least 'Class three' digital signatures will predominate for Internet commerce. Verisign class three certificates require users to present themselves in person to a notary who verifies their identity. By comparison, class 2 authentication is carried out through a check with an online database (such as Equifax's consumer credit database in the US).
One reason for the preference for Class three rather than Class two outside of North America is the presence of existing international notary bodies. In particular, Equifax is talking with the International Union of Latin Notaries about how their members can work with the Verisign process, says Andy Leventhal, director of international business development. When it comes to other territories, and setting up class 2 database alliances, he says he is carrying out bilateral negotiations with notaries, chambers of commerce, PTOs, big banks and commercial consortia.
Another complication is that the companies that own the databases "are still trying to decide what roles they want to play as a Certification Authority", he says.
Seems nobody loves the Mac anymore. Sister publication Unigram.X reports that SunSoft Inc has subordinated its work on the Mac version of the Java Workshop development environment to work on the versions for Windows platforms to such an extent that Workshop for the Mac won't be out now until around the year-end, having previously been promised for last month. This is despite the Java Virtual Machine for the Mac being around since March.
X CONSORTIUM BECOMES EX-CONSORTIUM, AS WEB STRIKES
The X Consortium, wounded by the success of the World Wide Web, is turning its X Windows graphical networking system over to the Open Group Unix standards body. The Cambridge, Massachusetts organization will pass all of its technologies and intellectual property rights over to the Open Group by year-end.
X Consortium says that with most vendors' development resources going into building on the Web, there's been less and less demand for innovative development on the Unix operating system and therefore on X Windows.
The consortium will go out by embracing the phenomenon that killed it; it's working on a previously-announced X release called Broadway that lets X Windows users access applications from Web browsers.
PSINET GOES WHOLESALE; CROWDED OUT AS CONSUMER ISP
PSINet, spurred by the online encroachment of high-profile telcos like AT&T and MCI, is abandoning its direct consumer ISP services and going wholesale.
The Herndon, Virginia firm says that it will provide national network services to regional ISPs and started the ball rolling by transferring its customer base to Atlanta-based MindSpring Enterprises Inc. Mindspring will pay PSINet $23 million over two quarters for network support as well as PSINet's Pipeline and InterRamp customers. PSINet, which claims over 300 points of presence (POPs) worldwide, will provide Mindspring nationwide access.
PSINet figures it will make as much money this year, selling to ISPs without a national Internet backbone, as it would have if it focused completely on consumers. The financial impact of the wholesale approach will be felt in 1997 and beyond, it says.
ULTRASEEK SEARCH ENGINE IS DELAYED TO WEED OUT "JUNK"
Infoseek claims it's holding it's new Ultraseek high-powered search engine back from public view to get it bug-free and filter out the dead links and duplicated pages that typically clutter search results, a feature it says will give it an edge over bigger rivals.
Ultraseek was originally supposed to beta publicly at the end of last month, but Infoseek said it wanted to get it relatively bug free before turning it loose on the world. It cites other companies who've brought products to the Web that simply weren't ready for market - namely HotWired's HotBot, which debuted in May to heavy hype only to fall victim to embarrassing bugs that disrupted service. It will go to wide beta at the end of summer, Infoseek says.
While Ultraseek isn't likely to catalogue the number of URLs that rivals Alta Vista and HotBot claim, it says the filtering capacity means that what users get will be more useful. It says people focus too heavily on speed and size in the search engine race, which is "not an engineering pissing match" but an effort to meet customers needs best. "Who cares how fast it is if you have to deal with dead links and loops?" a spokesperson said. Of course, Infoseek might not say such things if it were the one with the bigger and faster search engine. It added that Ultraseek will eventually index "every Web site out there."
Infoseek claims that Ultraseek, although commonly perceived as a distinct service like the Personal Guide, has been intended from the beginning to be integrated in Infoseek 3.0. Its debut this summer was only to be a sneak preview for customers unwilling to wait until the rest of the package rolls out. 3.0 was planned for this fall, but it appears as if it too may slip, falling back to year-end.
l Speaking of pissing matches, Lycos claims its directory has over 51 million URLs catalogued - more than Alta Vista, Yahoo, InfoSeek and Excite put together. The growth spurt is due to Lycos' new CentiSpeed search engine, launched a month ago.
IBM/NCD TERMINALS TO BE NCS
IBM's "network application terminals," the machines it signed Network Computing Devices to co-develop (OR Issue 5), will support the Network Computer Reference Profile and lead IBM's NC charge.
Development will be based on work by IBM's AS/400 division, although IBM is keen to drop the name AS/400 from the device since it will be an NC and support all server platforms and run Windows applications. IBM's PC Company was dabbling in network computer design as well, but IBM is now uniting behind this single design.
IBM is funding less than 50% of the development and both companies claim to be taking the lead in the development. NCD says the terminal will be based on its $1,000 Explora machine but will not necessarily include its Citrix WinFrame-based WinCenter software, which is server-based. That doesn't rule out, however, the inclusion of the Citrix thin client model to run Windows applications. IBM has "an incredible wish list" of features to add on top of Explora, some of which will have to be left out as realities dictate, according to Rudy Morin, NCD's executive VP for operations and finance.
The deal is non-exclusive, and Mountain View, California-based NCD says it will look for other manufacturers to resell the machines as IBM does. NCD was forced to reveal the deal only hours after it signed it due to Federal Trade Commission rules because its revenues will be "materially affected" by the agreement.
POPWARE TURNS ISPS INTO LONG DISTANCE FAX-BUREAUX
Netcentric Corp this week announced its first batch of POPware, value-added software for Internet Service Providers. First out of the gate comes FaxStorm,a package which routes faxes via the Internet. The idea is simple; a user sends the fax from their PC, it is routed to the FaxStorm-enabled ISP with a Point of Presence closest to the final destination. Modems at the POP dial out and deliver the fax. The user saves long-distance call charges, the participating ISP gets a cut of the revenue that NetCentric collects for the transmission. The company has similar voice call-out POPware waiting in the wings. The ISP software runs under NT or Unix, its cost depends on the nature of the revenue-sharing agreement between NetCentric and individual ISPs.
There is a variety of end-user software available: FaxStorm Desktop is a standalone faxing application with built-in contact manager and fax scheduler; FaxStorm SoftModem which plugs into PC-based faxing software such as Delrina WinFax and Microsoft Exchange; FaxStorm Web that plugs into Netscape Navigator and FaxStorm Print Driver which lets Windows-based applications print directly to an Internet fax. There is also a software development kit available to let the system be integrated into custom applications. www.netcentric.com.
JAPANESE APPLIANCE STANDARD
18 Japanese companies, including Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd will form an industry consortium designed to set standards for a all-in-one Internet home appliances that include processor, communications and television tuner in one piece of equipment.
First models are expected at the end of the year. The organisation will promote the development of user-friendly software for surfing the Internet so that it is no harder to use than a television, and will try to standardise technology for the television-computer hybrid.
It will also push for the creation of more Japanese-language sites for mail order, education and medical applications. Casio Computer Co, Itochu Corp and Access KK are among the other backers, and the group is expected to have some 50 members when it formally launches in September.
IBM VM/ESA MAINFRAMES BECOME WEB SUPERSERVERS
Sterling Software has launched the first in a family of products that will turn mainframes into Web superservers and open up mainframe data to users armed with browsers.
The Reston, Virginia company's VM:Webserver targets IBM's VM/ESA operating system. In addition to typical Web server functions such as powering Web pages and Java applets, VM:Webserver allows developers to write CGI scripts to mainframe applications. The Web server delivers data from those apps in HTML form in a graphic interface. Not waiting for in-house developers to link applications to its server, Sterling will follow up this release with Web gateways to applications like DB/2.
Sterling is the latest in a series of companies to test the notion that the Internet can rescue mainframe data and applications, a task that has proven difficult in client/server environments. The jury's still out on whether the mainframe-to-internet tack will prove successful or not, but users have the advantage of a secure Web server with transaction processing, data storage and a slimmer chance of crashing than typical servers. Sterling will follow up the Webserver release with data security and encryption products.
ORACLE LICENSES NAVIGATOR, TOO
Oracle, not exactly putting to rest speculation that it may give up PowerBrowser for dead, has licensed 16,000 copies of Netscape Navigator for in-house use. PowerBrowser is a virtual no-show in the browser market, which is of course dominated by the big two, Navigator and Explorer.
The firm denies it's giving up on PowerBrowser, however, which it said will be a key part of its intranet strategy. It claims it licensed Navigator internally to ensure that its upcoming InterOffice collaboration product will work with any browser. On that note, Oracle also uses Internet Explorer in-house as part of its Windows 95 license.
Oracle is only following advice frequently given by the likes of Sun's Scott McNealy that all Web applications should be tested on at least three browsers to be sure they're open. But guys - 16,000?
l Oracle is using the formatting technology beneath applications such as Harvard Graphics for its InterOffice collaboration product line. In its agreement with the graphics application's owner Software Publishing Corporation, Oracle will license the Intelligent Formatting engine, and help bring it to the Internet and port it to Java. The engine helps pass "rich visual content" across the Internet without generating large bitmaps.
DEC COBBLES TOGETHER ROBUST OLTP OVER INTERNET PACKAGE
Troubled Digital Equipment Corp has unveiled what it describes as the first "industrial strength" software for doing transaction processing over the Internet - which will no-doubt surprise IBM. TP Internet server, is a bundle of existing technology, topped off with some encryption and tunnelling code. At its heart is Digital's existing ACMSxp TP monitor, which runs on NT or Digital Unix. This is coupled to the company's RTR (Reliable Transaction Routing) code.
The new part of the package is AltaVista Tunnel encryption technology. Tunnel products, which come in Workgroup or Personal flavours use RSA encryption with a maximum key length of 40 bits outside of the US, to set up authenticated links between servers or servers and end users. The company is aiming this package at any business that is currently using leased lines. The software is scheduled to begin shipping in August, costing $6,400 for Windows NT server systems and $14,200 for Digital Unix systems.
START-UP OFFERS FREE E-MAIL FROM ANY WEB BROWSER
HoTMaiL Corp, a start-up offering free Web-based e-mail, claims it's the first e-mail service that allows users to send and receive mail and surf the Internet from a Web site without requiring software to sit on the client, enabling customers to check their accounts from any platform computer that has a browser.
HoTMaiL is following the lead of free e-mail provider Juno Online Services in using advertisers to pick up the tab, but the Fremont, California-based company, which has about 10 staff, said it will most closely mimic Netscape's business model. After it builds a name for itself through free e-mail accounts it will release a value-added corporate offering later this year. It will add Java support in the future "when it's more stable and more prevalent" the company said.
ACTA WON'T GET HELP FROM FCC ON NET TELEPHONY
The America's Carriers Telecommunications Association (ACTA), the telephone industry group that petitioned the government to prohibit Internet telephony, shouldn't be expecting too much help from the FCC if its chairman's remarks are any indication.
Federal Communications Commission head Reed Hundt's remarks, delivered by his chief of staff in a Montreal conference, said that the Internet ought not be regulated as the telecommunications industry should. Even if the Federal agency could technically handle the task, he added, it wouldn't have time "to separate the acceptable data packets from the unacceptable voice packets."
ACTA, representing over 130 of the smaller US long-distance carriers. has vowed to continue its long, uphill struggle despite what look like insuperable odds.
MICROSOFT BOOSTS MAC WEB
Microsoft has released a free Macintosh package featuring Internet Explorer in an effort to grant its Apple customers the Web features used by its Windows customers.
The package includes Explorer 2.0 and Internet Assistants for Word and Excel as well as upgrades for MacOS and Word. The Microsoft Empowerment Pack, as it's called, is the result of joint efforts by Microsoft and Apple to synchronize Microsoft Windows applications with their siblings on the Mac, both in features and in timing.
Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio and COO Marco Landi recently met with Bill Gates for dinner to discuss how applications could begin to emerge at the same time on both Windows and MacOS in the future.
CD-ROMS CAN HOST WEB SITES
SMS Data Products, has added a new twist to Web sites: they can now be powered by a "serverless" CD-ROM Web server instead of a standard computer.
SMS, a McLean, Virginia storage company, announced that it's made it possible for Web pages to be stored in HTML on CD-ROMs and served to the Internet from its Millennium 700 series CD towers.
The CD-ROM effort, designed to protect the SMS investment in CD-ROM technology, is one of the more interesting ploys that seemingly-peripheral companies have used to catch a ride on the Internet bandwagon. The towers, which have seven drives, are Internet-enabled through SMS Data's Web Connectivity Module. Millenia runs in NT, NetWare, Unix and Vines environments.
Microsoft has lined up Java tool vendors such as Borland, Sybase's Powersoft and Symantec behind its Java reference platform for Windows - not much surprise there - and points out that together with itself the vendors support more than 90% of the development tools market.
Juno Online Services says it's opened over 100,000 e-mail accounts in the little over two months since it rolled out nationwide. Since it's e-mail accounts are free and Juno seeks its revenues from advertisers by offering targeted ads and online market research, it would be more interesting to look at how many advertisers Juno has lined up.
British Telecom has joined forces with Microsoft Corp to market networking and online services for small and medium-sized companies to enable them to share resources and access the Internet and other online services. The partners will provide advice and assistance for customers that want to know how best to integrate their computers and telecommunications services, giving them a single point of contact for all their communications needs. British Telecom says it will install and maintain products and services covered by the deal.
Informix will make the HP/Netscape intranet partnership a threesome this week with an announcement that it will join the development and marketing alliance. The database company already has software bundling deals with Netscape. HP and Netscape's agreement previously called for intranet consulting and sales for applications built on Netscape's Web software and HP's OpenMail and OpenView. Informix's databases will now be thrown into the mix.
SFNB, the first all-Internet bank, has opened up a branch on CompuServe. The bank will sit in CompuServe's banking center. The two companies will offer $40 worth of online time for customers who open an account. The bank will round out its services with insurance and brokerage services expected by year-end.
America Online has introduced its own credit card, a Visa card backed by the First USA bank. Each purchase adds points to the card that can be redeemed for free access time - a $100 purchase nets the user one free hour on AOL.
From the Wish We'd Thought of That News Angle Dept: C/NET wrote last week that the fall in profitability of four industry leaders - DEC, Borland, Adobe and Sybase - is due largely to the way the Internet has changed the business environment and decreased profitability. Might we suggest a more pedestrian reason for their lackluster performances - say, competition and failure to execute?
In two reassuring - and perhaps related - trends on the Internet, women users have a stronger presence on the Web and adult sites are becoming less popular. The number of female home users grew from 32% last quarter to 38% this quarter, according to PC-Meter, a household survey of home-audience Web activity. The survey, conducted by the NPD Group market researchers of Port Washington, New York, also says that adult sites have faded in popularity, falling from 25% in January to 19% this quarter.
BRIEFLY
Radical change in the structure of Internet domain names looks increasingly likely as IANA's control of the top-level process comes under pressure. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols such as IP addresses and domain names and is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the US Federal Network Council (FNC).
As previously reported (OR issue 1), IANA is examining ways that the Internet international top level domains (iTLDs) can be opened up, adding alternatives to .com etc. However the urgency of the discussion has been intensified by the fact that others are going ahead and starting their own top level domains anyway. The movement to set up alternative registries is being fostered by a dissatisfaction with the InterNIC's effective monopoly.
ISA HAS CARD-OPERATED PUBLIC INTERNET ACCESS TERMINAL
With all this talk of the "ideal Internet access device," what does a company that is designing a machine to be that and nothing else come up with? It turns out that it's not a $500 Network Computer. ISA Inc has launched a rugged, tamper-proof Internet Access Terminal designed for public places. At about $5,000 a go, the stand-alone machines are a far cry from the magical $500 figure, but chief executive Mike King said the company has already sold five machines, named NetWave USA, to a hotel, a senior citizens club and a sports bar chain. Now discussions are under way regarding distribution rights abroad. The custom-designed terminals comprise a Pentium-based personal computer from IBM Corp that runs both Netscape Communications Corp's Navigator browser software and AT&T Corp's browser, housed within a heavy-duty sealed case. A standard keyboard and mouse are used to surf the Internet, and an exposed 3.5" floppy drive enables users to download and keep any information. According to King, the floppy drive posed one of the biggest design headaches for the firm, but he reckons enough virus protection software has been written into the system to prevent bugs finding their way onto the hard drive. End-user usage charges will vary. ISA will supply plastic swipe cards with the machines, and it will be up to the host location to put a value on access time. The St Petersburg, Florida-based company is better known for its IdentiKid scheme, which has run for about 10 years in the US. For a fee of $5, parents can get their children's fingerprints and personal details stored on a plastic credit-style card for use in case of emergencies. If the child disappears, the card is handed over to the police: seems to be one idea that never crossed the Atlantic.
TOP 10 INTRANET MYTHS
Gartner Group Internet guru David Smith has isolated the top 10 intranet myths and describes them as follows:
1. Intranets are new. The buzzword is new but enterprises have been using Internet technology in their networks for years.
2. Intranets are just publishing systems. A common oversimplification, that persists as the publishing of widely distributed documents such as HR policies and procedures is often a justification for initial investments in base intranet kit. This leads to the view that...
3. Intranets are the same as groupware. Since products from "Internet vendors" and established groupware technologies will compete and existing groupware products are evolving to support more and more Internet technologies, it is common to see these two concepts confused.
4. Groupware is the same as intranets. See Myth #3, above.
5. Intranets require "thin clients." Too often, Internet technologies are associated with tangential efforts such as $500 terminals and consortia aimed not as much at providing solutions as at fighting a common enemy, ie Microsoft.
6. Intranets are the same as LANs. Most existing LANs use a mixture of network protocols with increasing use of TCP/IP. To equate the two is a gross, naive oversimplification.
7. Intranets are the same as internal corporate networks. Similar to Myth #6, this is an oversimplification as most existing corporate networks are multiprotocol as well.
8. Intranets will replace client/server. As a buzzword, it appears that intranets have already replaced client/server. But in reality, intranets are an example of client/server technology and more and more "traditional" client/server techniques will be utilized as organizations continue to increase usage of intranet technologies for more sophisticated applications.
9. Intranets provide the elusive common infrastructure organizations have been clamoring for. While intranets will provide increasing least common denominator functionality, the standardization will remain at lower levels gradually rising but always having innovation and fragmentation at higher levels.
10. Something called "the intranet" exists. While "the Internet" exists, use of the term "the intranet" is misleading and indicative of the level of hype the term has generated. In fact, we would not be surprised to see some well-meaning person write: "With the success of corporate intranets, we may see them connected together someday."
DOT GOSSIP
IBM's promised port of Java to Windows 3.1 is actually due at the end of July. The porting center at Hursley now says it hopes to have a public alpha available for download "within a month, with a full release a few months further down the track". An early version of the code has been handed over to over to FTP Inc for testing in its CyberAgent product. Current focus is apparently on porting the AWT.
The team warns that "The alpha release will definitely be slow!" It is, however beginning to look for potential licensees.
While Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 3.0 beta is now Java-enabled, users say that it still stumbles when Netscape's JavaScript is involved - for example, when the browser calls in an applet via JavaScript.
Novell's "Green River" upgrade to NetWare will have TCP/IP integration, unlike previous versions of the operating system.
Asymetrix, whose SuperCede VM is reportedly capable of running Java 10 times faster than JIT compilers and 50 times faster than plain old interpreted code, is licensing the SuperCede technology to NEC and Toshiba.
It expects to announce several more OEM deals in 90 days when it has a final production version of the SuperCede toolkit. Meanwhile, industry buzz has it that Netscape may be looking to license SuperCede VM - which isn't properly a JIT compiler because it compiles all code at machine level - to replace the Borland JIT compiler it just integrated with its products. Watch Sun in this space, as well.
IBM has a hot little Netscape plug-in called ChaCha that streams audio over low-bandwidth dial-up connections. ChaCha, currently a technology demonstration, has been tested on Netscape's Navigator 2.0 and Atlas beta for Windows 95 and NT.
MFS Communications Co Inc successfully sold off 31 million shares at $37.125 apiece. The company says that the $1 billion raised will go to finance its previously announced infrastructure plans. Last year the company lost around $2.2 per share, however Darrell Edmonds, analyst with Bear, Stearns & Co told Reuter he expects the losses to bottom out next year, with the benefits beginning to show in '98.
E-data Corp, the company with the patent that it claims covers much of Web-based commerce (OR issue 1) reports that two more defendants in the patent infringement case have signed up for a licence. Monotype Typography Inc of Elk Grove Village Illinois and New York-based Index Stock Photography Inc join existing licensees IBM, VocalTec and Adobe Systems. Terms were not disclosed, which is notable, since E-data's licensing terms have been made public in the past. A copy of the recent court order giving E-Data 60 days to elucidate its claims can be found at: www.patents.com/ige/june25.sht
VXtreme Inc, Palo Alto, California, which planned to start life as a traditional video conferencing vendor, has switched tack and will now launch itself this month as a next-generation Internet video technology company. The firm says it'll provide a free video viewer that will connect with the Netscape Navigator browser. It will focus on corporate intranets, which are rapidly moving to T-1 lines where VXtreme could deliver video at 10 to 20 frames per second.
The CIA, alarmed at the prospect of an electronic attack on the United States' computer networks, plans to build a "cyberwar" center under the auspices of the National Security Agency to protect the nation's electronic infrastructure. CIA director John Deutch said electronic warfare could become a 21st-century threat second only to nuclear, biologicial and chemical weapons.
eSoft Incorporated of Denver, Colorado, belying its name, is shipping a rack-mounted Web server. One of the hardware kinds. The 133 MHz Pentium runs Windows NT and includes 32Mb of RAM, a 2.1Gb hard drive and O'Reilly's WebSite Pro 1.1.
Enterprising city fathers in Fort Collins, Colorado, taking advantage of the bevy of Internet service providers that have sprung up in the area, have declared that its sales tax applies to Internet access as well as other goods and services. The 3% sales tax sits on top of a tax passed along from the telcos that lease the ISPs their lines. The 'bit tax,' in addition to setting an unsettling precedent, gives the advantage to national providers like AT&T and Netcom, who can't be taxed by a specific municipality.
"Ah, how history is re-written", we wrote in issue 2. Yes, but unfortunately it was us doing the re-writing. That Sun VP James Gosling argued against the idea of making Java public domain, while today is a fan of the 'development through free distribution' model is completely consistent. Gosling and Arthur van Hoff - now of Marimba - point out that "public domain" and "freely distributable" are not synonyms and that making Java PD would have ceded control of the standard away from Sun - with consequent fragmentation of the standard. The point that Van Hoff was trying to make was that Gosling was right to dig his heels in.
Macromedia, is braching out. Currently it is best known for its multimedia authoring tools and latterly its tools used to spruce up the Web with graphics and animation downloaded to browsers. Now it is shipping a set of software tools designed to construct not-so-glamorous Web site underpinnings on the server side. Backstage Enterprise Studio, aimed for Webmasters and MIS types, builds Internet applications linked to standard databases via ODBC. It takes advantage of Macromedia's famed Shockwave authoring tools, of course. It's available on Windows 95 and NT but is browser, server and database independent.
The Internet scramble has created some strange bedfellows, but this is ridiculous: IntraNet Solutions, a Minnesota intranet consulting company, has merged with MacGregor Sports and Fitness Inc, a company that specializes in things like soccer boots and baseball mitts with nary a browser in the lot.
C/NET, the Internet media company, went public on Nasdaq last week. It offered two million shares of common stock starting at $16 a share. The offering was co-managed by Morgan Stanley, Hambrecht & Quist and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell/CJ Lawrence. Analysts suggested that though the company was innovative and has a vision, that vision didn't necessarily extend to how it would make money. The share price jumped to $21.25 on the first day of trading but fell back to close at $18 on July 2.
The US Justice Department has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court over the rejection of the Communications Decency Act
(c) 1996 May not be copied
online REPORTER, a sister publication of Unigram.X and ClieNT Server News, is published weekly in Europe by:
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