The Online REPORTER
WEEKLY DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERNET FRONT
Sept 16 - Sept 20 1996 Issue No 16
TASKFORCE SPURNS WEB-BASED MANAGEMENT EFFORT
The Desktop Management Task Force has dumped its involvement with Microsoft's Web-based enterprise management standard (affectionately dubbed WBEM - OR issue 8).
DMTF sponsorship of the HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS) portion of WBEM had been a critical part of Microsoft's effort to drive the standard through vendor-neutral bodies, like the DMTF and the Internet Engineering Task Force. But the setback seems unlikely to kill the initiative because of the marketing clout of Microsoft and the more than 50 backers of WBEM. Gartner Group research director Clare Price points out, with or without the DMTF, if Microsoft heavyweight partners like Cisco, Compaq, and Intel want WBEM to succeed, they are "strong enough to cause these standards to become de facto regardless of what happens in the standards bodies".
According to Microsoft System Management Product Manager Michael Emmanuel, Microsoft is not now backpedaling from the open standards process, but rather is working to overcome the industry's apprehension that Redmond's motives are not, shall we say, in everyone's best interests.
Notable in its absence from the WBEM roster is Sun Microsystems, which is actively promoting its competing Java Management API (JMAPI). Sun has been careful not to slam WBEM since many of its Java management customers support it, but it is clearly reluctant to see WBEM crowd out the space it has envisioned for its own initiative.
Emmanuel says that the DMTF's rejection is not final, but is instead a call for WBEM's backers to build consensus with Sun rather than forcing the DMTF to pick between two competing initiatives. A fine distinction, perhaps, given that Sun has shown no interest in playing ball with WBEM so far.
Microsoft will be redoubling its effort to drive the adoption of WBEM under the auspices of a birds-of-a-feather session on Web management during this week's Networld + Interop show in Atlanta. WBEM is comprised of the above mentioned HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS), the HyperMedia Management Protocol (HMMP) and a reference C++ implementation called the HyperMedia Object Manager.
For its part, Sun will be using Networld + Interop to announce the general availability of its beta JMAPI development environment, Solstice WorkShop. Sun is also expected to announce other ISV partnerships relating to the effort.
IBM PREVIEWS 'CYBERPHONE' AS COREL GETS INTO JAVA PDA
IBM last week took a prototype of its new "cyberphone" out for a ride at a trade show in Tokyo. Roughly the size of a cellular phone, the cyberphone can be used for retrieving e-mail, Web browsing, and, presumably, telephone conversations. Text is viewed on a concave mirror attached to the phone and is visible, larger than life, when the phone is placed to the users ear. The phone also features a tiny thumb-operated input device and a tiny coin-sized 100 megabyte hard disk .
IBM has plans to boost the disk capacity to 1 gigabyte without increasing the size of the disk. All in all, it seems like an innovative, if weird way to surf the net, but IBM will not say when North American users will be able to judge the technology for themselves. company officials would merely confirm the existence of the phone and declined to reveal further product plans.
Meanwhile Corel Corp is diversifying in all directions, and its latest whim is to scramble aboard the Personal Digital Assistant bandwagon. The number of software companies who have successfully moved into hardware are few and far between, however, Corel needs a decent platform for all the Java-based software it is developing.
The machine is being designed as a Java-based off-line organiser which can also double as an online surfboard when connected via an internal 28.8kbps wired modem. The company is currently looking at a 320 by 240 pixel resolution liquid-crystal display, but does not know whether to go with the ARM RISC from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, the Motorola Inc MPC 821 embedded PowerPC, or to please Java online begetter Sun Microsystems Inc by going with one of its Java-specific processors.
The software environment would anyway consist of a Java virtual machine and related applets for the organiser and Internet functions. Wireless communications are not on the agenda; Corel reckons it could have its box out in March. The company has not revealed who will be building it.
MODEM MAKERS PREPARE 56KBPS BOXES, AIMED AT THE INTERNET
US Robotics and Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Inc both announced last week that they are working on proprietary technology to get modems running at 56kbps over standard phone lines. Its a move that should shake up the ISDN and leased line market, if they can manage it. Chipset-manufacturer Rockwell was the less vaporous of the two, saying it would demonstrate the technology at the forthcoming Las Vegas Comdex trade show in November. Currently, the company says it is working to analyse performance in real-world situations. Like other technologies aimed at driving the phone lines at super-high speeds Rockwell's is not suitable for all situations, and will be pitched mainly at Internet access applications, although it can also be used where corporations have direct digital lines into their enterprise networks.
The technology, which Rockwell will submit to standards bodies for consideration, relies upon the fact that for most users of dial-up Internet access the only portion of the call which is analogue is from the user to a local phone company switch. The Newport Beach, California-based company says that for this reason traditional modulation techniques - which were designed for much longer distances over poorer quality lines - are no longer required, and that it has developed a new way of encoding that enables the higher speeds to be achieved.
NETSCAPE APPFOUNDRY STILL THIN ON COMMITMENT
Hype or revolution? Last week saw the launch of Netscape's latest attempt to convince people that it is the leader in building corporate intranets. Its "Appalanche" project, designed to flood the world with intranet-based applications, was launched as "AppFoundry". It's a two-pronged attack. Prong number one is Netscape's decision to bundle and recommend a series of Intranet construction tools. This is a pretty dull packaging marketing exercise.
The prong's twin, by contrsast, is potentially much much more interesting: Netscape has convinced 17 developers to give away the source code to virtually-finshed intranet applications. The company is saying that there will be 100 by the end of the year. Corporate IT staff can take the code and tweak it for their own in-house use with few changes. The catch is that the applications are strongly tied to Netscape's own servers. Netscape specified that application developers should use JavaScript for back-end database integration. Guess whose servers are the only ones to handle JavaScript at the moment - yes you guessed it.
Nonetheless the list of application-bases is impressive. There's a benefits enrolment package from Stonebridge Technologies and Travel and expenses reporting from Acclaim Technology. The consultancy Booz-Allen & Hamilton has come up with a purchasing analysis tool, Sapient Corporation has corporate events calendar... and so on. It appears that Netscape staff drew up a list of potential partners and a list of required application areas. It then approached the various companies asking them to pick a category.
According to Netscape, no money has changed hands between the itself and the companies on the site, and yet here are these companies merrily giving away their work. So is this the beginning of a new business model? Are we seeing the extension of shareware principles into the heart of corporate IT? Is it, perhaps the first real attempt at working out the commercial framework for software components?
Probably not. Despite the impressive list of apps, most of the application companies we spoke to involved in AppFoundry came up with the same story; that they didn't see the program as particular strategic, that they didn't see it pressaging any particular change in their business strategy. Most didn't want to be quoted; but exuded the message that they had some code lying about anyway, and wanted the publicity that a place on the Netscape site would afford.
Jeff Davies, senior technologist at Lante Corporation was fairly typical when he said his company essentially approached the four-to-six-week project as "a way of getting several of our people up to speed on intranet technology". Apart from the "internal skills development", Davies cites the publicty, and that's about it. It is certainly not a new business model for the company, he says.
Netscape has made much of the support newsgroups it set up to help developers customize and make use of the code. As we went to press, discussion was sparse on the groups and Davies says he doesn't expect that they will provide "any business value to us".
All this may change if Netscape can attract the sheer volume of applications and vendors that it is promising; until then, however AppFoundry seems destined to remain a curious advertizing hoarding for those who have some code which is useful, which they don't want to turn into full-fledged products.
MICROSOFT, NETSCAPE ET AL SUPPORT HIGH-RES NET IMAGES
Back in the Spring Eastman Kodak Company, HP, LPI and Microsoft Corp unveiled 'FlashPix', a new graphical file format specifically designed for the Web. It was notable for storing the image in multiple resolutions, with the idea being that only the resolution appropriate to the destination output device is sent over the Net.
Now Hewlett-Packard Company and John Sculley's Live Picture Inc (LPI) have announced "Imaging for Internet" solution, a group of technologies which make up one of the first useful implementations of FlashPix.
Imaging for Internet uses the newly announced Internet Imaging protocol, collaboratively developed between HP, Kodak, LPI, Microsoft and Netscape, among others, designed to let developers to integrate FlashPix technology into their network solutions.
The HP/LPI implementation consists of a browser plug-in that users can download and a server module. Used together, these components allow a user to display and print Web images at the same resolutions as the monitor or printer being used. It should also let users zoom, rotate, crop and pan to see image details prior to printing, and allow them to save images in a personal gallery of photos.
The companies expect to release a public beta version later this year, with the first product release in early 1997.
The US Internal Revenue Service scrapped its new electronic filing system after having spent $17.1m of the $22m budgeted for the Cyberfile system, designed to enable taxpayers to use personal computers to prepare and send their returns to the Internal Revenue men at no charge. Meanwhile the Australian Government has decided to embark on an equivalent system.
A new joint venture, set up by Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Sega Enterprises Ltd will offer games through the Internet from November. Mitsubishi has a controlling 53%
Softbank continues to spray its money about. The company has teamed with U.S. venture capital partnership Cutler Group to invest $20m into Hong Kong-based on-line services group Asia Communications Global Ltd. The online company said it will use the cash to expand into online commerce, publishing and gaming. Meanwhile on the other side of the Pacific, San Jose-based The Fourth Communications Network Inc announced it had picked up $2m from Softbank Holdings. Fourth installs Internet systems in hotel rooms.
Apple Computer Inc has come out with a clever new scanner that includes technology to place graphics documents on the Internet: the Apple Color OneScanner 1200/30 includes optical character recognition technology that converts documents to HyperText Mark-up Language.
Dutch national airline KLM is taking its first tentative steps towards Internet-based ticket bookings. Initially the service, due to be launched by the end of the year will be limited to companies and participants in KLM's customer loyalty programme. Whether it extends further will depend on customer demand. And no, payments will not be made online, for security reasons.
Since last week, the Chinese government has reportedly blocked access to more than 100 World Wide Web sites which Beijing finds too politically sensitive. Gone is the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, CNN...and Playboy. The Taiwan Government Information Office, and bodies such as Amnesty International, have also been hit reports the South China Morning Post. Internet users, of which there are estimated to be around 100,000 also have to register with the police.
Nomura Securities Co and an association of banks in Southeast Asia have raised $100 million fund aimed at seeding Internet companies in the region. Nomura is putting half of the funding into the The Asean Supreme Fund. The rest is being put up by members of the Asean Bankers Association in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
BRIEFLY
NOVELL TRYS TO RE-INVENT ITSELF WITH INTRANETWARE
Novell this week is going to try to pound a round peg (IPX/SPX) into a square hole (TCP/IP) and appropriate the word intranet to apply to its own NetWare local area network architecture.
At an unveiling set for the eve of this week's Networld+InterOp show the company is going to take the wraps off what it's calling IntranetWare, essentially a blend of NetWare 4.11 and a new Internet server it's had in beta for months now that hooks to the TCP/IP-based Internet at one end and IPX/SPX-based NetWare on the backside. The bundled browser-of- choice will be Netscape Navigator to no surprise. The combo package will let someone on the Internet or - heaven forbid - on an NT-based intranet use a browser to access NetWare applications and services - Just as if Novell had an intranet to sell. Novell's choice of the name IntranetWare is designed to deal with the image problem Novell's facing. Intranet these days describes a corporate LAN that uses the same TCP/IP protocols as the Internet.
NetWare, because it's based on IPX/SPX, is by definition excluded from the hottest fad currently gripping corporate computing. Face it, LANs are boring. Locals say IntranetWare is part and parcel of a new set of marching orders aimed at raising Novell's profile as fast as possible, obviously by latching on to the latest buzzword.
VERITY PINS ITS HOPES ON SEARCH'97
After being pounded in the stock market for posting a fiscal Q1 loss of $1.3 million, indexing software company Verity Inc. launched its re-named product line last week.
After seeing its stock plunge from a high of $57 less than a year ago, to its current $10 range, CEO Philippe Courtot was under the gun last week to present industry and financial analysts with a convincing long-term strategy. According to Courtot, that strategy is to link Verity search engines, already well-established on the Web, with a powerful front-end client, called Search'97 Personal to create a de facto Internet search user interface.
With Search'97 Personal, users can index information on their own hard-drives or CD-ROMs. With companion product, Search'97 Information Server, this can be extended to corporate intranets and the Internet. The client software will run with either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer and allows users to search and view files in over 200 native file formats. It can also be used to create complex search strings for sites like Yahoo. Information Server supports a stream architecture which consolodates information retrieval accross the various other Search'97 product line components. Verity hopes to make Search'97 the standard interface for searching anywhere, but Courtot admits that the goal of setting an Internet standard is still far away. Tiernan Ray, Staff Editor with Technologic Partner's Computer Letter says that the idea of bringing structure to Web content is compelling, but it remains to be seen whether Verity has the both the marketing and financial clout to broaden its core technology and cut the OEM deals it will need to be ubiquitous. And it is doubtful that rival Fulcrum Technologies or Microsoft, with its upcoming Tripoli technology, will simply sit still and let Courtot's vision come true.
www.verity.com
PHONET INTROS PBX FOR THE NET
How long till the corporate PBX gets fully integrated into the Internet? The latest step on that path comes from Israeli-based PhoNet Communications Ltd which has unveiled its LAN-based PBX with built-in Internet connectivity. The company has been selling LAN-based telephony into small companies for a while; office workers get hand-sets that plug into the back of their PC via a specialist card. Until now, however, calls to the outside world have been handled by regular phone lines plugged into the back of the PhoNet server. The advantage? It saves on installing phone cabling and a specialised switch.
With the new release, however users will hit '9' for a normal outside phone line, or '8' for a connection via the Internet. After that, they dial the number as usual, and assuming that the requested number is also equipped with PhoNet (and no-one is downloading huge FTP files) the call is connected over the Internet.
The company aims its products at small companies who otherwise be considering their first PBX. The server itself handles most of the expected PBX functions such as voice-mail in software and the company publishes the API so third parties can add extra bits. The base system is just a PC, running Windows 95 and populated with interface cards. The system is expected to ship in the fourth quarter, no pricing was given. The company, based in Herzilia, Israel is privately owned with offices in New York.
It can only be a matter of time before some traditional PBX manufacturer takes the ultimate step and installs an Internet link as an alternative interface.
Give it a routing table holding a list of other Internet telephony sites and whether their call is travelling via the plain old telephone system or via the Internet will become transparent to the user (quality permitting). Once that happens prepare for a clamour, both from regulators and from those predicting the death of the net from bandwidth overload. www.phonet.co.il
In fact, Simi Valley, California-based Micom Communications Corp is nearly there, it has comeout with the V/IP Voice Over Internet Protocol phone-facsimile Internet Protocol gateway, designed to create an overlay speech-facsimile network on top of an enterprise Internet Protocol data network.
According to the company, V/IP enables any user, from any telephone or facsimile machine in the company, to make free, toll-quality intra-company calls over the company's IP. The V/IP product family consists of analogue and digital voice interface boards, featuring one and two speech-facsimile channels.
The voice interface board plugs into a single personal computer at each enterprise location, operating NetWare, MS-DOS, Windows95 or Windows NT. The V/IP interface board is claimed to be compatible with any phone, facsimile machine, PABX, key system, Centrex or main exchange trunk.
HOTMETAL PRO TO BE RECAST AS HIP CORPORATE INTRANET TOOL
SoftQuad International is recasting HoTMetal Pro, its Internet site design program, as a corporate intranet offering scheduled to hit market sometime in Q4.
The new version, dubbed HotMetal Intranet Publisher (HiP), will come with a bunch of features designed specifically to make the program interesting to corporate-types, starting with a utility that lets companies create their own HTML tag extensions. The extensions can be used to created an HTML tag that defines something like part numbers, a class that doesn't exist in standard HTML. The custom HTML tags can then be used in complex database search structures. Of course standard browsers won't be able to use the custom HTML tags, so SoftQuad's also writing a plug-in authoring program to create plug-ins for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer that will be able to understand the tags. Also being added for the edification of corporate I-net webmeisters is a site project visualization tool that's part of a management interface designed to handle the huge volume of information typically found on corporate I-net sites.
In preparation for HiP's release, Toronto-based Softquad is setting up its first VAR effort. It's figuring HiP as the design tool VARs use to create sites for those of their customers who don't want to do the work themselves. HiP's exact pricing is still being worked on, but it's expected to be just under $500 including a license for five browser add-ons. HiP's going to run on Windows NT/95 and 3.x, with NT recommended for any substantial size Intranet sites.
ADOBE TAKES COPYRIGHT PROTECTION WATERMARKS
Leading digital watermark company Digimarc Corp has garnered its first major success with Adobe Corp, which will build the technology into PhotoShop and providing copyright information and an on-line link to the creator.
Portland, Oregon-based Digimarc's embedding software adds a random 'noise' into the file - less in flat colour areas; more where there is detail - and prints a unique code into it. (The company claims it will work as well for audio, graphics and video as for still images.) Detection software, such as that now licensed by Adobe and available free from Digimarc before the year is out, finds this low-level randomness and extracts the code. When the file is read, by PhotoShop for instance, a copyright symbol is displayed with the identifier and a marker to say whether the image is restricted or royalty-free. Selecting a 'Web look-up' feature logs the user onto the Internet and shows the creator's details held on-site by Digimarc.
Digimarc claims to have learned from its network software peers when avoiding corruption of the identifier when an image is manipulated. "Networking technology strives to avoid noisy connections," said Digimark's Scott Carr. "Our position is that a noisy environment is what you do to a picture." Creators pay a flat $150 a year to be on Digimarc's database - a price tag Carr claims those interviewed "barely batted an eye at" - and queries to the database are free. It is thought that the cost could almost be justified as an advertising medium.
Standards in this area are likely to force themselves in de facto as major players accept or reject technologies. While Adobe, arguably the heaviest weight in the arena of digital imaging, other giants such as Eastman Kodak Co are neither confirming nor denying participation given the amount of work they have already done in this area behind their own closed doors.
Monitoring bodies for the system don't exist as such, but lobby firm The Wexler Group is pushing for acceptance of the Digimarc as a legal standard. While in the US politicians have put this issue to one side until after the election, it is certain to force changes internationally as companies and individuals find the new gap between piracy and Web freedom.
Tracking the use of images is not the domain of Digimarc, said Carr. "We're not a monitoring system but this is the first step towards establishing a way for the creator to communicate with the consumer." And the possibilities once that is achieved are as many as people will be prepared to pay for, notably building payment facilities into software once electronic commerce is reliably achieved. It is not unrealistic, Carr admitted, for copyright legislators such as the Library of Commerce to send software agents out to the Internet, logging whose works are being used and where, although libertarians need not worry too much, according to Grant Anderson, a London-based information lawyer for the Denton International Group: "on the question of enforcement, it is not always worth going after [violators]."
Carr also accepted the "potential" of breaking the codes and implanting a bogus one, "but that is the region of the thief," and a clear breach of the law, as contrasted with the uncertain winds blowing the Internet today.
While copyright solutions such as this or MOR Ltd's visual decoding algorithms used in SmartAlex filter software are a "big step forward", Anderson noted that other issues than technology still face the politicians - countries whose avoidance of international agreements are notorious; possible concerns of privacy if copyright tracking is employed; and the gap between commercial use and curiosity.
Indeed, any resolution will have to weigh up with the spirit of the Internet where few people think of copying images and sounds they find as piracy. But as one observer noted, "Who cares if they don't think of it as piracy - our lawyers will explain it to them!"
ONLINE-LINKED CD-ROM HYBRIDS TAKING OFF
Hybrid CD-ROM titles containing links to the Internet and on-line services are selling fast compared with conventional CD-ROMs, but most publishers see the on-line aspect of their products as an enhancement rather than a sure-fire money spinner.
This is one of the findings of a new report, The Hybrid CD-ROM/on-line Assessment, from research and consulting company InfoTech Inc. The number of hybrid CD-ROMs on the market at the end of this year is expected to at least double to 720 titles, rising to 3,500 next year, compared to only 311 last year, the Woodstock, Vermont-based company said. "Most publishers are very pragmatic. They realise that on-line links in titles are enhancements, not money makers," Ted Pine, InfoTech chairman told Multimedia Business Report. "To publishers, on-line is just additional gravy for a title."
In the current market, the most common types of hybrid titles are games that offer dial-up networked multiplayer features; reference titles like encyclopaedias with on-line updates; entertainment that links to on-line sites and applications software such as upgrades and technical support.
Around 99% of publisher income from hybrid CD-ROMs comes through retail sales. On-line revenue streams are emerging slowly for these titles, but it is thought that it will be several years before publishers can even expect to recoup their development costs for the disks, Pine said.
KOBIXX UNVEILS JAVA-BASED WEB PUBLISHING SUITE
At last week's Seybold show in San Francisco, start-up Kobixx Systems announced its first three products: Site Tree, which presents users with a graphical "tree" view of a Website, Ezine Publisher, a turnkey software publishing package, and KoTrain, which is for publishing online training programs. All three products are designed as modules and can be plugged into each other as required.
In its base form, Ezine Publisher is composed of a management console, a CGI delivery mechanism and a template mechanism. Written entirely in Java, it is designed for electronic publishers who want to publish on the Web without having to monkey about in HTML. Add-ons modules featuring Kobixx's soon-to-be-patented randomized advertising feature and production calendar are also available at $3,000 each.
Kobixx Chief Technology Officer Stephen Pendergrast reckons s that randomized advertising is unique not because it can cause ads to appear in a random, but because they can be randomised in a graded fashion. With it, a Webmaster can have a specific ad appear, say 42% of the time. Ad can be associated in a graded way with individual Web pages and prevented from repeating for the same visitor.
Ezine Publisher also tracks how deeply users click through each ad. The base product costs $5,595 and will be generally available on November 15.
Site Tree is intended for Webmasters looking to provide visitors with a logical view of their Websites. It analyzes URLS of existing Websites to create a logical file-and-folder type view of the pages on the site that can then be edited in a drag and drop fashion. Pendergrast says Site Tree could be directed at any Website to create a logical view. He claims the software can do a complete tree of Yahoo! in 15 minutes. Site Tree is available now for $195.
KoTrain, which was not yet available for demo at the show, will allow users to create and manage online training courses. It has some unique security features to prevent course materials from being ripped off. KoTrain can identify how many IP addresses a particular student is using, and shut down the account. The product can also prevent robots from copying course material and uses dynamic HTTP links to prevent the course from being downloaded and reused. KoTrain is scheduled to be released on November 15th. It will cost $12,500.
www.kobixx.com
MICROSOFT MAKES GOOD ON JSCRIPT GIVEAWAY PROMISE
Microsoft Corp is taking to the free distribution model like a bee to honey. After giving away Internet Explorer, it has now givingaway JavScript development code.
As previously promised (OR issue 11) will deliver binary and source reference implementations of the scripting engines for Visual Basic, Scripting Edition and JScript, Microsoft's implementation of JavaScript. Both will be licensed at no cost to interested parties, and can be implemented for any operating system or hardware system. The support for Visual Basic Script and the JavaScript language in Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 should enable Internet developers to create interactive Web sites using either scripting language. Microsoft hopes to win support from other browser and application vendors. Both Visual Basic Script and JScript are integrated with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 using the ActiveX Scripting interface. Developers can script Java Applets using the JavaScript language. The ActiveX Scripting interface enables developers to co-ordinate the interaction of a variety of software components on the Internet, including Java Applets and ActiveX Controls written in other languages, using any scripting language that supports this interface.
HP PRAESIDIUM GIVES DCE-TYPE SECURITY ON THE WEB
Last week Hewlett-Packard announced Praesidium/Security Service, which allows companies to manage data with its Praesidium authorized server. Praesidium/Security Service gives non DCE users DCE-like authentication. HP also announced Virtual Vault, a secure Webserver built on the Secureware technology HP acquired last February. Next month, HP is expected to continue its string of e-commerce announcements, with releases on authentication via smart cards and encryption technology that will circumvent US government export restrictions. Praesidium/Security Service and Virtual Vault are bothe available now.
FOLLOWING TALKS, CITRIX MAY FIND A PLACE IN THE SUN
Redmond foe Sun Microsystems Inc is deep in talks with one of Microsoft Corp's closest allies, negotiating a licence to Citrix Systems Inc's ICA, (Intelligent Console Architecture), protocol which enables users of windowing terminals and other skinny clients to access Windows applications running on Windows NT servers.
As the companies have only signed a letter of intent, details are sketchy but Sun is understood to want Intelligent Console Architecture for use with JavaOS, Solaris and its forthcoming Network Computer offering. The inability of Network Computers and other terminals to run Windows locally has sent vendors scurrying to Citrix and its partners such as Insignia Solutions Plc for Intelligent Console Architecture licences, because the client component requires only 200Kb to 300Kb of memory. Current licensees include Microsoft itself, Wyse Technology Inc, Boundless Inc, Tektronix Inc and Network Computing Devices Inc - IBM Corp's Network Computer partner.
What Citrix doesn't yet have, and what it told us it doesn't expect to develop itself, is a Java version of the Intelligent Console Architecture client, which would provide any Java-based system with access to Windows applications. In its current form Intelligent Console Architecture, effectively a multi-user extension to Windows NT, requires clients to feed from Windows NT Server running Citrix's WinFrame server component. However there is supposedly no reason why it couldn't be made to run elsewhere with a year or so's work, say on a Sparc server, enabling terminals and other devices to access Sparc programs.
3DO UNVEILS FIRST ONLINE GAME - NEGOTIATION WITH ISPS
3DO Europe Ltd has unveiled Meridian 59, its first online game, although its adoption in the UK could be hampered because local phone calls are not free. To alleviate the problem 3DO is "in the process of talking to Internet service providers at the moment so players don't restrict their online time," the company said. "We don't want players watching the clock and worrying about their phone bill because this would ruin the essence of the game.", a spokesman added.
3DO said the service providers are very keen to set up some kind of payment structure so gamers don't restrict the length of play and discussions are going on at the moment. Further details are expected before the game is launched in October.
The game is essentially text-based with a three-dimensional graphics interface and features quizzes and quests for the player and this means the player could be on-line for some time. Another feature of the game lets users sign onto the game and when they log off they can keep the same character for future games. The game has been developed for 3DO by its recent acquisition, Archetype Interactive Corp. The beta version is up and running now and players can log on via 3DO's Web site. It currently has around 150 players online at any one time. The final version is expected to cost between £20 and £35.
NT IDENTITY CRISIS CONTINUES
The Windows NT Workstation/Server tussle continues. According to O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, California publishing and software development company, two simple changes to Windows NT's Registry, where configuration information is stored, are all that are needed to change an NT Workstation to an NT Server. A senior editor at O'Reilly told US PC Week that a single undocumented Registry setting was all that separated the Server and Workstation versions of Windows NT 3.51; in 4.0, two registry settings are needed, and Microsoft went to some effort to hide the settings; the only other differences between Workstation and Server are the bundled programs and utilities. When PC Week Labs ran the utility written by O'Reilly & Associates to change the settings on Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the system put up a dialogue box that warned "The system has detected tampering with your registered product type; this is a violation of your software licence - tampering with product type is not permitted,". Workstation reboots as server, and perormance limitations of the former are found to have all miraculously vanished.
DOT Gossip
You can practically see the beads of sweat on Intel's upper lip. All this talk of a PC's total cost of ownership (TOC) and zero administration clients, aka NCs, has finally gotten to them which is why they're staging a confab for thousands of business folk at Madison Square Garden in New York on the 24th and rolling out the concept of the "Managed PC." Intel's going to try to lower the PC's TOC itself before folks like Larry Ellison do. Intel's going around these days acknowledging how important TOC is and will be to the Fortune 5000 so you just know the pressure is on. A Managed PC is a widget with management capabilities built in complements of Intel and little friends like Computer Associates and Tivoli.
Network Solution Inc's and the InterNIC's policy on non-payment for domain names says that they will be added to the free pool and made available for registration by any party 60 days after. Yet three weeks past that deadline, the 20,000-odd names cut off in the first purge have yet to be freed-up. There is no news as to when they will be available.
Australia's Sausage Software has upgraded its Egor Java applet - famous as the first commercial Java applet intended to help people create animated Web pages - so that it can run multiple animations. Egor 3.0, which can even handle animations that collide, supports animated .gif import/export and has a previewer and control panel visible on a surfer's web page.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's flitting around again trying to drum up attention for the NC and promising a mammoth TV ad campaign next year on its behalf - a first for Oracle - while that NC subsidiary he spun off a while back, Network Computer Inc continues to remain reclusive about what it's up to, declining interviews with the press indefinitely. Folks who ought to know say it's because NCI is disorganized.
The European telephone company that is in the market for an enormous number of Oracle Corp-designed Network Computers, perhaps to give to its subscribers, is neither France Telecom or Deutsche Telekom AG, InfoWorld quotes Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison as saying. Oracle could not confirm this as we went to press. France Telecom was previously thought to be a front-runner.
MSNBC has cut a deal with FreeLoader Inc to develop a custom version of its robot search and retrieval software for MSNBC users.
Premenos Technology's stock jumped over 4 points last week after AT&T announced it will license the company's encryption software.
Lycos shares jumped 2 3/16th on news last week that the search engine company's losses were lower than expected. Lycos posted a loss of 16 cents per share, while Wall Street had been expecting 18.
And another one: Rockwell Switching Systems Inc is teaming up with Boca Raton, Florida-based NetSpeak Corp to develop and market products that enable Internet and Web users to speak directly with call centres over the Internet. NetSpeak's WebPhone, used with Rockwell's Automatic Call Distributors, would require no additional equipment for the call centre agent, promise the new partners.
Yet another supporter for Ipsilon Networks Inc's Internet Protocol switching technology has come forward: Milpitas, California disk controller maker Adaptec Inc has announced that, through a licensing deal with Ipsilon, it plans to incorporate Internet Protocol switching across its range of Asynchronous Transfer Mode equipment by early next year.
Motorola Inc has invested in NetSpeak Corp, an Internet speech telephony company based in Boca Raton, Florida, through its New Enterprises programme which seeks out firms in emerging industries.
The latest version, Level 3, of Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript - the first major update for years and years - enables users to print complex graphics and pages from the World Wide Web, and features include Enhanced Image Technology, NetWorks System, and PlanetReady Printing.
Banyan Systems Inc, Westborough, Masssachusetts has introduced Release 7.0 of its Vines operating system, the first release to support the Internet Protocol natively, although support for the Vines Internet Protocol is also incorporated, for existing installations.
Two more consumer electronics giants threw their hats into the big-screen Internet TV ring last week as Sanyo and Samsung announced television sets designed to surf the Internet. Sanyo's offerings will come in 21 and 28 inch models. Samsung's will be a 29 inch model. Both products will be sold in their respective domestic markets this fall and imported to the US after that. The announcements follow hot on the heels of rivals Sharp and Mitsubishi, which recently announced their own Web TV's.
SAP AG has announced a joint technology and marketing deal with Haht Software Inc of Raleigh, North Carolina, under which SAP customers will be able to use the Hahtsite Internet development environment to create World Wide Web-based applications that interface directly with their existing R/3 application logic. SAP is to resell Hahtsite.
In what sounds a rather intemperate attack, Netscape Communications Corp chairman Jim Clark used his keynote address at World PC Expo 96 in Japan to urge people to stop developing software for Microsoft Corp's ActiveX specification, saying that Microsoft will take over the Internet if ActiveX wins the battle against Sun Microsystems Inc's Java programming language and becomes the developers' choice for writing applets for the World Wide Web. If that happens then "Microsoft will own the telecommunications system in much the same way as they now own the desktop," Clark said.
Phoenix, Arizona-based local, long distance and Internet service provider Touch Tone America Inc, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Arcada Communications in a move that could boost annual turnover of the combined operations to $13m: Arcada is a privately held long-distance phone service company based in Seattle; when the deal is completed, Arcada will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Touch.
CompuServe is being incredibly coy going to follow America Online's policy and try in some way to block bulk senders of un-requested email. It mutters about "looking at its options", and "taking measures". Rumours suggest, however that it is working e-mail filters in the next major release of its front-end which will give users the option to avoid mail from a list of known miscreants.
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WEEKLY DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERNET FRONT
Sept 16 - Sept 20 1996 Issue No 16
TASKFORCE SPURNS WEB-BASED MANAGEMENT EFFORT
The Desktop Management Task Force has dumped its involvement with Microsoft's Web-based enterprise management standard (affectionately dubbed WBEM - OR issue 8).
DMTF sponsorship of the HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS) portion of WBEM had been a critical part of Microsoft's effort to drive the standard through vendor-neutral bodies, like the DMTF and the Internet Engineering Task Force. But the setback seems unlikely to kill the initiative because of the marketing clout of Microsoft and the more than 50 backers of WBEM. Gartner Group research director Clare Price points out, with or without the DMTF, if Microsoft heavyweight partners like Cisco, Compaq, and Intel want WBEM to succeed, they are "strong enough to cause these standards to become de facto regardless of what happens in the standards bodies".
According to Microsoft System Management Product Manager Michael Emmanuel, Microsoft is not now backpedaling from the open standards process, but rather is working to overcome the industry's apprehension that Redmond's motives are not, shall we say, in everyone's best interests.
Notable in its absence from the WBEM roster is Sun Microsystems, which is actively promoting its competing Java Management API (JMAPI). Sun has been careful not to slam WBEM since many of its Java management customers support it, but it is clearly reluctant to see WBEM crowd out the space it has envisioned for its own initiative.
Emmanuel says that the DMTF's rejection is not final, but is instead a call for WBEM's backers to build consensus with Sun rather than forcing the DMTF to pick between two competing initiatives. A fine distinction, perhaps, given that Sun has shown no interest in playing ball with WBEM so far.
Microsoft will be redoubling its effort to drive the adoption of WBEM under the auspices of a birds-of-a-feather session on Web management during this week's Networld + Interop show in Atlanta. WBEM is comprised of the above mentioned HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS), the HyperMedia Management Protocol (HMMP) and a reference C++ implementation called the HyperMedia Object Manager.
For its part, Sun will be using Networld + Interop to announce the general availability of its beta JMAPI development environment, Solstice WorkShop. Sun is also expected to announce other ISV partnerships relating to the effort.
IBM PREVIEWS 'CYBERPHONE' AS COREL GETS INTO JAVA PDA
IBM last week took a prototype of its new "cyberphone" out for a ride at a trade show in Tokyo. Roughly the size of a cellular phone, the cyberphone can be used for retrieving e-mail, Web browsing, and, presumably, telephone conversations. Text is viewed on a concave mirror attached to the phone and is visible, larger than life, when the phone is placed to the users ear. The phone also features a tiny thumb-operated input device and a tiny coin-sized 100 megabyte hard disk .
IBM has plans to boost the disk capacity to 1 gigabyte without increasing the size of the disk. All in all, it seems like an innovative, if weird way to surf the net, but IBM will not say when North American users will be able to judge the technology for themselves. company officials would merely confirm the existence of the phone and declined to reveal further product plans.
Meanwhile Corel Corp is diversifying in all directions, and its latest whim is to scramble aboard the Personal Digital Assistant bandwagon. The number of software companies who have successfully moved into hardware are few and far between, however, Corel needs a decent platform for all the Java-based software it is developing.
The machine is being designed as a Java-based off-line organiser which can also double as an online surfboard when connected via an internal 28.8kbps wired modem. The company is currently looking at a 320 by 240 pixel resolution liquid-crystal display, but does not know whether to go with the ARM RISC from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, the Motorola Inc MPC 821 embedded PowerPC, or to please Java online begetter Sun Microsystems Inc by going with one of its Java-specific processors.
The software environment would anyway consist of a Java virtual machine and related applets for the organiser and Internet functions. Wireless communications are not on the agenda; Corel reckons it could have its box out in March. The company has not revealed who will be building it.
MODEM MAKERS PREPARE 56KBPS BOXES, AIMED AT THE INTERNET
US Robotics and Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Inc both announced last week that they are working on proprietary technology to get modems running at 56kbps over standard phone lines. Its a move that should shake up the ISDN and leased line market, if they can manage it. Chipset-manufacturer Rockwell was the less vaporous of the two, saying it would demonstrate the technology at the forthcoming Las Vegas Comdex trade show in November. Currently, the company says it is working to analyse performance in real-world situations. Like other technologies aimed at driving the phone lines at super-high speeds Rockwell's is not suitable for all situations, and will be pitched mainly at Internet access applications, although it can also be used where corporations have direct digital lines into their enterprise networks.
The technology, which Rockwell will submit to standards bodies for consideration, relies upon the fact that for most users of dial-up Internet access the only portion of the call which is analogue is from the user to a local phone company switch. The Newport Beach, California-based company says that for this reason traditional modulation techniques - which were designed for much longer distances over poorer quality lines - are no longer required, and that it has developed a new way of encoding that enables the higher speeds to be achieved.
NETSCAPE APPFOUNDRY STILL THIN ON COMMITMENT
Hype or revolution? Last week saw the launch of Netscape's latest attempt to convince people that it is the leader in building corporate intranets. Its "Appalanche" project, designed to flood the world with intranet-based applications, was launched as "AppFoundry". It's a two-pronged attack. Prong number one is Netscape's decision to bundle and recommend a series of Intranet construction tools. This is a pretty dull packaging marketing exercise.
The prong's twin, by contrsast, is potentially much much more interesting: Netscape has convinced 17 developers to give away the source code to virtually-finshed intranet applications. The company is saying that there will be 100 by the end of the year. Corporate IT staff can take the code and tweak it for their own in-house use with few changes. The catch is that the applications are strongly tied to Netscape's own servers. Netscape specified that application developers should use JavaScript for back-end database integration. Guess whose servers are the only ones to handle JavaScript at the moment - yes you guessed it.
Nonetheless the list of application-bases is impressive. There's a benefits enrolment package from Stonebridge Technologies and Travel and expenses reporting from Acclaim Technology. The consultancy Booz-Allen & Hamilton has come up with a purchasing analysis tool, Sapient Corporation has corporate events calendar... and so on. It appears that Netscape staff drew up a list of potential partners and a list of required application areas. It then approached the various companies asking them to pick a category.
According to Netscape, no money has changed hands between the itself and the companies on the site, and yet here are these companies merrily giving away their work. So is this the beginning of a new business model? Are we seeing the extension of shareware principles into the heart of corporate IT? Is it, perhaps the first real attempt at working out the commercial framework for software components?
Probably not. Despite the impressive list of apps, most of the application companies we spoke to involved in AppFoundry came up with the same story; that they didn't see the program as particular strategic, that they didn't see it pressaging any particular change in their business strategy. Most didn't want to be quoted; but exuded the message that they had some code lying about anyway, and wanted the publicity that a place on the Netscape site would afford.
Jeff Davies, senior technologist at Lante Corporation was fairly typical when he said his company essentially approached the four-to-six-week project as "a way of getting several of our people up to speed on intranet technology". Apart from the "internal skills development", Davies cites the publicty, and that's about it. It is certainly not a new business model for the company, he says.
Netscape has made much of the support newsgroups it set up to help developers customize and make use of the code. As we went to press, discussion was sparse on the groups and Davies says he doesn't expect that they will provide "any business value to us".
All this may change if Netscape can attract the sheer volume of applications and vendors that it is promising; until then, however AppFoundry seems destined to remain a curious advertizing hoarding for those who have some code which is useful, which they don't want to turn into full-fledged products.
MICROSOFT, NETSCAPE ET AL SUPPORT HIGH-RES NET IMAGES
Back in the Spring Eastman Kodak Company, HP, LPI and Microsoft Corp unveiled 'FlashPix', a new graphical file format specifically designed for the Web. It was notable for storing the image in multiple resolutions, with the idea being that only the resolution appropriate to the destination output device is sent over the Net.
Now Hewlett-Packard Company and John Sculley's Live Picture Inc (LPI) have announced "Imaging for Internet" solution, a group of technologies which make up one of the first useful implementations of FlashPix.
Imaging for Internet uses the newly announced Internet Imaging protocol, collaboratively developed between HP, Kodak, LPI, Microsoft and Netscape, among others, designed to let developers to integrate FlashPix technology into their network solutions.
The HP/LPI implementation consists of a browser plug-in that users can download and a server module. Used together, these components allow a user to display and print Web images at the same resolutions as the monitor or printer being used. It should also let users zoom, rotate, crop and pan to see image details prior to printing, and allow them to save images in a personal gallery of photos.
The companies expect to release a public beta version later this year, with the first product release in early 1997.
The US Internal Revenue Service scrapped its new electronic filing system after having spent $17.1m of the $22m budgeted for the Cyberfile system, designed to enable taxpayers to use personal computers to prepare and send their returns to the Internal Revenue men at no charge. Meanwhile the Australian Government has decided to embark on an equivalent system.
A new joint venture, set up by Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Sega Enterprises Ltd will offer games through the Internet from November. Mitsubishi has a controlling 53%
Softbank continues to spray its money about. The company has teamed with U.S. venture capital partnership Cutler Group to invest $20m into Hong Kong-based on-line services group Asia Communications Global Ltd. The online company said it will use the cash to expand into online commerce, publishing and gaming. Meanwhile on the other side of the Pacific, San Jose-based The Fourth Communications Network Inc announced it had picked up $2m from Softbank Holdings. Fourth installs Internet systems in hotel rooms.
Apple Computer Inc has come out with a clever new scanner that includes technology to place graphics documents on the Internet: the Apple Color OneScanner 1200/30 includes optical character recognition technology that converts documents to HyperText Mark-up Language.
Dutch national airline KLM is taking its first tentative steps towards Internet-based ticket bookings. Initially the service, due to be launched by the end of the year will be limited to companies and participants in KLM's customer loyalty programme. Whether it extends further will depend on customer demand. And no, payments will not be made online, for security reasons.
Since last week, the Chinese government has reportedly blocked access to more than 100 World Wide Web sites which Beijing finds too politically sensitive. Gone is the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, CNN...and Playboy. The Taiwan Government Information Office, and bodies such as Amnesty International, have also been hit reports the South China Morning Post. Internet users, of which there are estimated to be around 100,000 also have to register with the police.
Nomura Securities Co and an association of banks in Southeast Asia have raised $100 million fund aimed at seeding Internet companies in the region. Nomura is putting half of the funding into the The Asean Supreme Fund. The rest is being put up by members of the Asean Bankers Association in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
BRIEFLY
NOVELL TRYS TO RE-INVENT ITSELF WITH INTRANETWARE
Novell this week is going to try to pound a round peg (IPX/SPX) into a square hole (TCP/IP) and appropriate the word intranet to apply to its own NetWare local area network architecture.
At an unveiling set for the eve of this week's Networld+InterOp show the company is going to take the wraps off what it's calling IntranetWare, essentially a blend of NetWare 4.11 and a new Internet server it's had in beta for months now that hooks to the TCP/IP-based Internet at one end and IPX/SPX-based NetWare on the backside. The bundled browser-of- choice will be Netscape Navigator to no surprise. The combo package will let someone on the Internet or - heaven forbid - on an NT-based intranet use a browser to access NetWare applications and services - Just as if Novell had an intranet to sell. Novell's choice of the name IntranetWare is designed to deal with the image problem Novell's facing. Intranet these days describes a corporate LAN that uses the same TCP/IP protocols as the Internet.
NetWare, because it's based on IPX/SPX, is by definition excluded from the hottest fad currently gripping corporate computing. Face it, LANs are boring. Locals say IntranetWare is part and parcel of a new set of marching orders aimed at raising Novell's profile as fast as possible, obviously by latching on to the latest buzzword.
VERITY PINS ITS HOPES ON SEARCH'97
After being pounded in the stock market for posting a fiscal Q1 loss of $1.3 million, indexing software company Verity Inc. launched its re-named product line last week.
After seeing its stock plunge from a high of $57 less than a year ago, to its current $10 range, CEO Philippe Courtot was under the gun last week to present industry and financial analysts with a convincing long-term strategy. According to Courtot, that strategy is to link Verity search engines, already well-established on the Web, with a powerful front-end client, called Search'97 Personal to create a de facto Internet search user interface.
With Search'97 Personal, users can index information on their own hard-drives or CD-ROMs. With companion product, Search'97 Information Server, this can be extended to corporate intranets and the Internet. The client software will run with either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer and allows users to search and view files in over 200 native file formats. It can also be used to create complex search strings for sites like Yahoo. Information Server supports a stream architecture which consolodates information retrieval accross the various other Search'97 product line components. Verity hopes to make Search'97 the standard interface for searching anywhere, but Courtot admits that the goal of setting an Internet standard is still far away. Tiernan Ray, Staff Editor with Technologic Partner's Computer Letter says that the idea of bringing structure to Web content is compelling, but it remains to be seen whether Verity has the both the marketing and financial clout to broaden its core technology and cut the OEM deals it will need to be ubiquitous. And it is doubtful that rival Fulcrum Technologies or Microsoft, with its upcoming Tripoli technology, will simply sit still and let Courtot's vision come true.
www.verity.com
PHONET INTROS PBX FOR THE NET
How long till the corporate PBX gets fully integrated into the Internet? The latest step on that path comes from Israeli-based PhoNet Communications Ltd which has unveiled its LAN-based PBX with built-in Internet connectivity. The company has been selling LAN-based telephony into small companies for a while; office workers get hand-sets that plug into the back of their PC via a specialist card. Until now, however, calls to the outside world have been handled by regular phone lines plugged into the back of the PhoNet server. The advantage? It saves on installing phone cabling and a specialised switch.
With the new release, however users will hit '9' for a normal outside phone line, or '8' for a connection via the Internet. After that, they dial the number as usual, and assuming that the requested number is also equipped with PhoNet (and no-one is downloading huge FTP files) the call is connected over the Internet.
The company aims its products at small companies who otherwise be considering their first PBX. The server itself handles most of the expected PBX functions such as voice-mail in software and the company publishes the API so third parties can add extra bits. The base system is just a PC, running Windows 95 and populated with interface cards. The system is expected to ship in the fourth quarter, no pricing was given. The company, based in Herzilia, Israel is privately owned with offices in New York.
It can only be a matter of time before some traditional PBX manufacturer takes the ultimate step and installs an Internet link as an alternative interface.
Give it a routing table holding a list of other Internet telephony sites and whether their call is travelling via the plain old telephone system or via the Internet will become transparent to the user (quality permitting). Once that happens prepare for a clamour, both from regulators and from those predicting the death of the net from bandwidth overload. www.phonet.co.il
In fact, Simi Valley, California-based Micom Communications Corp is nearly there, it has comeout with the V/IP Voice Over Internet Protocol phone-facsimile Internet Protocol gateway, designed to create an overlay speech-facsimile network on top of an enterprise Internet Protocol data network.
According to the company, V/IP enables any user, from any telephone or facsimile machine in the company, to make free, toll-quality intra-company calls over the company's IP. The V/IP product family consists of analogue and digital voice interface boards, featuring one and two speech-facsimile channels.
The voice interface board plugs into a single personal computer at each enterprise location, operating NetWare, MS-DOS, Windows95 or Windows NT. The V/IP interface board is claimed to be compatible with any phone, facsimile machine, PABX, key system, Centrex or main exchange trunk.
HOTMETAL PRO TO BE RECAST AS HIP CORPORATE INTRANET TOOL
SoftQuad International is recasting HoTMetal Pro, its Internet site design program, as a corporate intranet offering scheduled to hit market sometime in Q4.
The new version, dubbed HotMetal Intranet Publisher (HiP), will come with a bunch of features designed specifically to make the program interesting to corporate-types, starting with a utility that lets companies create their own HTML tag extensions. The extensions can be used to created an HTML tag that defines something like part numbers, a class that doesn't exist in standard HTML. The custom HTML tags can then be used in complex database search structures. Of course standard browsers won't be able to use the custom HTML tags, so SoftQuad's also writing a plug-in authoring program to create plug-ins for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer that will be able to understand the tags. Also being added for the edification of corporate I-net webmeisters is a site project visualization tool that's part of a management interface designed to handle the huge volume of information typically found on corporate I-net sites.
In preparation for HiP's release, Toronto-based Softquad is setting up its first VAR effort. It's figuring HiP as the design tool VARs use to create sites for those of their customers who don't want to do the work themselves. HiP's exact pricing is still being worked on, but it's expected to be just under $500 including a license for five browser add-ons. HiP's going to run on Windows NT/95 and 3.x, with NT recommended for any substantial size Intranet sites.
ADOBE TAKES COPYRIGHT PROTECTION WATERMARKS
Leading digital watermark company Digimarc Corp has garnered its first major success with Adobe Corp, which will build the technology into PhotoShop and providing copyright information and an on-line link to the creator.
Portland, Oregon-based Digimarc's embedding software adds a random 'noise' into the file - less in flat colour areas; more where there is detail - and prints a unique code into it. (The company claims it will work as well for audio, graphics and video as for still images.) Detection software, such as that now licensed by Adobe and available free from Digimarc before the year is out, finds this low-level randomness and extracts the code. When the file is read, by PhotoShop for instance, a copyright symbol is displayed with the identifier and a marker to say whether the image is restricted or royalty-free. Selecting a 'Web look-up' feature logs the user onto the Internet and shows the creator's details held on-site by Digimarc.
Digimarc claims to have learned from its network software peers when avoiding corruption of the identifier when an image is manipulated. "Networking technology strives to avoid noisy connections," said Digimark's Scott Carr. "Our position is that a noisy environment is what you do to a picture." Creators pay a flat $150 a year to be on Digimarc's database - a price tag Carr claims those interviewed "barely batted an eye at" - and queries to the database are free. It is thought that the cost could almost be justified as an advertising medium.
Standards in this area are likely to force themselves in de facto as major players accept or reject technologies. While Adobe, arguably the heaviest weight in the arena of digital imaging, other giants such as Eastman Kodak Co are neither confirming nor denying participation given the amount of work they have already done in this area behind their own closed doors.
Monitoring bodies for the system don't exist as such, but lobby firm The Wexler Group is pushing for acceptance of the Digimarc as a legal standard. While in the US politicians have put this issue to one side until after the election, it is certain to force changes internationally as companies and individuals find the new gap between piracy and Web freedom.
Tracking the use of images is not the domain of Digimarc, said Carr. "We're not a monitoring system but this is the first step towards establishing a way for the creator to communicate with the consumer." And the possibilities once that is achieved are as many as people will be prepared to pay for, notably building payment facilities into software once electronic commerce is reliably achieved. It is not unrealistic, Carr admitted, for copyright legislators such as the Library of Commerce to send software agents out to the Internet, logging whose works are being used and where, although libertarians need not worry too much, according to Grant Anderson, a London-based information lawyer for the Denton International Group: "on the question of enforcement, it is not always worth going after [violators]."
Carr also accepted the "potential" of breaking the codes and implanting a bogus one, "but that is the region of the thief," and a clear breach of the law, as contrasted with the uncertain winds blowing the Internet today.
While copyright solutions such as this or MOR Ltd's visual decoding algorithms used in SmartAlex filter software are a "big step forward", Anderson noted that other issues than technology still face the politicians - countries whose avoidance of international agreements are notorious; possible concerns of privacy if copyright tracking is employed; and the gap between commercial use and curiosity.
Indeed, any resolution will have to weigh up with the spirit of the Internet where few people think of copying images and sounds they find as piracy. But as one observer noted, "Who cares if they don't think of it as piracy - our lawyers will explain it to them!"
ONLINE-LINKED CD-ROM HYBRIDS TAKING OFF
Hybrid CD-ROM titles containing links to the Internet and on-line services are selling fast compared with conventional CD-ROMs, but most publishers see the on-line aspect of their products as an enhancement rather than a sure-fire money spinner.
This is one of the findings of a new report, The Hybrid CD-ROM/on-line Assessment, from research and consulting company InfoTech Inc. The number of hybrid CD-ROMs on the market at the end of this year is expected to at least double to 720 titles, rising to 3,500 next year, compared to only 311 last year, the Woodstock, Vermont-based company said. "Most publishers are very pragmatic. They realise that on-line links in titles are enhancements, not money makers," Ted Pine, InfoTech chairman told Multimedia Business Report. "To publishers, on-line is just additional gravy for a title."
In the current market, the most common types of hybrid titles are games that offer dial-up networked multiplayer features; reference titles like encyclopaedias with on-line updates; entertainment that links to on-line sites and applications software such as upgrades and technical support.
Around 99% of publisher income from hybrid CD-ROMs comes through retail sales. On-line revenue streams are emerging slowly for these titles, but it is thought that it will be several years before publishers can even expect to recoup their development costs for the disks, Pine said.
KOBIXX UNVEILS JAVA-BASED WEB PUBLISHING SUITE
At last week's Seybold show in San Francisco, start-up Kobixx Systems announced its first three products: Site Tree, which presents users with a graphical "tree" view of a Website, Ezine Publisher, a turnkey software publishing package, and KoTrain, which is for publishing online training programs. All three products are designed as modules and can be plugged into each other as required.
In its base form, Ezine Publisher is composed of a management console, a CGI delivery mechanism and a template mechanism. Written entirely in Java, it is designed for electronic publishers who want to publish on the Web without having to monkey about in HTML. Add-ons modules featuring Kobixx's soon-to-be-patented randomized advertising feature and production calendar are also available at $3,000 each.
Kobixx Chief Technology Officer Stephen Pendergrast reckons s that randomized advertising is unique not because it can cause ads to appear in a random, but because they can be randomised in a graded fashion. With it, a Webmaster can have a specific ad appear, say 42% of the time. Ad can be associated in a graded way with individual Web pages and prevented from repeating for the same visitor.
Ezine Publisher also tracks how deeply users click through each ad. The base product costs $5,595 and will be generally available on November 15.
Site Tree is intended for Webmasters looking to provide visitors with a logical view of their Websites. It analyzes URLS of existing Websites to create a logical file-and-folder type view of the pages on the site that can then be edited in a drag and drop fashion. Pendergrast says Site Tree could be directed at any Website to create a logical view. He claims the software can do a complete tree of Yahoo! in 15 minutes. Site Tree is available now for $195.
KoTrain, which was not yet available for demo at the show, will allow users to create and manage online training courses. It has some unique security features to prevent course materials from being ripped off. KoTrain can identify how many IP addresses a particular student is using, and shut down the account. The product can also prevent robots from copying course material and uses dynamic HTTP links to prevent the course from being downloaded and reused. KoTrain is scheduled to be released on November 15th. It will cost $12,500.
www.kobixx.com
MICROSOFT MAKES GOOD ON JSCRIPT GIVEAWAY PROMISE
Microsoft Corp is taking to the free distribution model like a bee to honey. After giving away Internet Explorer, it has now givingaway JavScript development code.
As previously promised (OR issue 11) will deliver binary and source reference implementations of the scripting engines for Visual Basic, Scripting Edition and JScript, Microsoft's implementation of JavaScript. Both will be licensed at no cost to interested parties, and can be implemented for any operating system or hardware system. The support for Visual Basic Script and the JavaScript language in Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 should enable Internet developers to create interactive Web sites using either scripting language. Microsoft hopes to win support from other browser and application vendors. Both Visual Basic Script and JScript are integrated with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 using the ActiveX Scripting interface. Developers can script Java Applets using the JavaScript language. The ActiveX Scripting interface enables developers to co-ordinate the interaction of a variety of software components on the Internet, including Java Applets and ActiveX Controls written in other languages, using any scripting language that supports this interface.
HP PRAESIDIUM GIVES DCE-TYPE SECURITY ON THE WEB
Last week Hewlett-Packard announced Praesidium/Security Service, which allows companies to manage data with its Praesidium authorized server. Praesidium/Security Service gives non DCE users DCE-like authentication. HP also announced Virtual Vault, a secure Webserver built on the Secureware technology HP acquired last February. Next month, HP is expected to continue its string of e-commerce announcements, with releases on authentication via smart cards and encryption technology that will circumvent US government export restrictions. Praesidium/Security Service and Virtual Vault are bothe available now.
FOLLOWING TALKS, CITRIX MAY FIND A PLACE IN THE SUN
Redmond foe Sun Microsystems Inc is deep in talks with one of Microsoft Corp's closest allies, negotiating a licence to Citrix Systems Inc's ICA, (Intelligent Console Architecture), protocol which enables users of windowing terminals and other skinny clients to access Windows applications running on Windows NT servers.
As the companies have only signed a letter of intent, details are sketchy but Sun is understood to want Intelligent Console Architecture for use with JavaOS, Solaris and its forthcoming Network Computer offering. The inability of Network Computers and other terminals to run Windows locally has sent vendors scurrying to Citrix and its partners such as Insignia Solutions Plc for Intelligent Console Architecture licences, because the client component requires only 200Kb to 300Kb of memory. Current licensees include Microsoft itself, Wyse Technology Inc, Boundless Inc, Tektronix Inc and Network Computing Devices Inc - IBM Corp's Network Computer partner.
What Citrix doesn't yet have, and what it told us it doesn't expect to develop itself, is a Java version of the Intelligent Console Architecture client, which would provide any Java-based system with access to Windows applications. In its current form Intelligent Console Architecture, effectively a multi-user extension to Windows NT, requires clients to feed from Windows NT Server running Citrix's WinFrame server component. However there is supposedly no reason why it couldn't be made to run elsewhere with a year or so's work, say on a Sparc server, enabling terminals and other devices to access Sparc programs.
3DO UNVEILS FIRST ONLINE GAME - NEGOTIATION WITH ISPS
3DO Europe Ltd has unveiled Meridian 59, its first online game, although its adoption in the UK could be hampered because local phone calls are not free. To alleviate the problem 3DO is "in the process of talking to Internet service providers at the moment so players don't restrict their online time," the company said. "We don't want players watching the clock and worrying about their phone bill because this would ruin the essence of the game.", a spokesman added.
3DO said the service providers are very keen to set up some kind of payment structure so gamers don't restrict the length of play and discussions are going on at the moment. Further details are expected before the game is launched in October.
The game is essentially text-based with a three-dimensional graphics interface and features quizzes and quests for the player and this means the player could be on-line for some time. Another feature of the game lets users sign onto the game and when they log off they can keep the same character for future games. The game has been developed for 3DO by its recent acquisition, Archetype Interactive Corp. The beta version is up and running now and players can log on via 3DO's Web site. It currently has around 150 players online at any one time. The final version is expected to cost between £20 and £35.
NT IDENTITY CRISIS CONTINUES
The Windows NT Workstation/Server tussle continues. According to O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, California publishing and software development company, two simple changes to Windows NT's Registry, where configuration information is stored, are all that are needed to change an NT Workstation to an NT Server. A senior editor at O'Reilly told US PC Week that a single undocumented Registry setting was all that separated the Server and Workstation versions of Windows NT 3.51; in 4.0, two registry settings are needed, and Microsoft went to some effort to hide the settings; the only other differences between Workstation and Server are the bundled programs and utilities. When PC Week Labs ran the utility written by O'Reilly & Associates to change the settings on Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the system put up a dialogue box that warned "The system has detected tampering with your registered product type; this is a violation of your software licence - tampering with product type is not permitted,". Workstation reboots as server, and perormance limitations of the former are found to have all miraculously vanished.
DOT Gossip
You can practically see the beads of sweat on Intel's upper lip. All this talk of a PC's total cost of ownership (TOC) and zero administration clients, aka NCs, has finally gotten to them which is why they're staging a confab for thousands of business folk at Madison Square Garden in New York on the 24th and rolling out the concept of the "Managed PC." Intel's going to try to lower the PC's TOC itself before folks like Larry Ellison do. Intel's going around these days acknowledging how important TOC is and will be to the Fortune 5000 so you just know the pressure is on. A Managed PC is a widget with management capabilities built in complements of Intel and little friends like Computer Associates and Tivoli.
Network Solution Inc's and the InterNIC's policy on non-payment for domain names says that they will be added to the free pool and made available for registration by any party 60 days after. Yet three weeks past that deadline, the 20,000-odd names cut off in the first purge have yet to be freed-up. There is no news as to when they will be available.
Australia's Sausage Software has upgraded its Egor Java applet - famous as the first commercial Java applet intended to help people create animated Web pages - so that it can run multiple animations. Egor 3.0, which can even handle animations that collide, supports animated .gif import/export and has a previewer and control panel visible on a surfer's web page.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's flitting around again trying to drum up attention for the NC and promising a mammoth TV ad campaign next year on its behalf - a first for Oracle - while that NC subsidiary he spun off a while back, Network Computer Inc continues to remain reclusive about what it's up to, declining interviews with the press indefinitely. Folks who ought to know say it's because NCI is disorganized.
The European telephone company that is in the market for an enormous number of Oracle Corp-designed Network Computers, perhaps to give to its subscribers, is neither France Telecom or Deutsche Telekom AG, InfoWorld quotes Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison as saying. Oracle could not confirm this as we went to press. France Telecom was previously thought to be a front-runner.
MSNBC has cut a deal with FreeLoader Inc to develop a custom version of its robot search and retrieval software for MSNBC users.
Premenos Technology's stock jumped over 4 points last week after AT&T announced it will license the company's encryption software.
Lycos shares jumped 2 3/16th on news last week that the search engine company's losses were lower than expected. Lycos posted a loss of 16 cents per share, while Wall Street had been expecting 18.
And another one: Rockwell Switching Systems Inc is teaming up with Boca Raton, Florida-based NetSpeak Corp to develop and market products that enable Internet and Web users to speak directly with call centres over the Internet. NetSpeak's WebPhone, used with Rockwell's Automatic Call Distributors, would require no additional equipment for the call centre agent, promise the new partners.
Yet another supporter for Ipsilon Networks Inc's Internet Protocol switching technology has come forward: Milpitas, California disk controller maker Adaptec Inc has announced that, through a licensing deal with Ipsilon, it plans to incorporate Internet Protocol switching across its range of Asynchronous Transfer Mode equipment by early next year.
Motorola Inc has invested in NetSpeak Corp, an Internet speech telephony company based in Boca Raton, Florida, through its New Enterprises programme which seeks out firms in emerging industries.
The latest version, Level 3, of Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript - the first major update for years and years - enables users to print complex graphics and pages from the World Wide Web, and features include Enhanced Image Technology, NetWorks System, and PlanetReady Printing.
Banyan Systems Inc, Westborough, Masssachusetts has introduced Release 7.0 of its Vines operating system, the first release to support the Internet Protocol natively, although support for the Vines Internet Protocol is also incorporated, for existing installations.
Two more consumer electronics giants threw their hats into the big-screen Internet TV ring last week as Sanyo and Samsung announced television sets designed to surf the Internet. Sanyo's offerings will come in 21 and 28 inch models. Samsung's will be a 29 inch model. Both products will be sold in their respective domestic markets this fall and imported to the US after that. The announcements follow hot on the heels of rivals Sharp and Mitsubishi, which recently announced their own Web TV's.
SAP AG has announced a joint technology and marketing deal with Haht Software Inc of Raleigh, North Carolina, under which SAP customers will be able to use the Hahtsite Internet development environment to create World Wide Web-based applications that interface directly with their existing R/3 application logic. SAP is to resell Hahtsite.
In what sounds a rather intemperate attack, Netscape Communications Corp chairman Jim Clark used his keynote address at World PC Expo 96 in Japan to urge people to stop developing software for Microsoft Corp's ActiveX specification, saying that Microsoft will take over the Internet if ActiveX wins the battle against Sun Microsystems Inc's Java programming language and becomes the developers' choice for writing applets for the World Wide Web. If that happens then "Microsoft will own the telecommunications system in much the same way as they now own the desktop," Clark said.
Phoenix, Arizona-based local, long distance and Internet service provider Touch Tone America Inc, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Arcada Communications in a move that could boost annual turnover of the combined operations to $13m: Arcada is a privately held long-distance phone service company based in Seattle; when the deal is completed, Arcada will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Touch.
CompuServe is being incredibly coy going to follow America Online's policy and try in some way to block bulk senders of un-requested email. It mutters about "looking at its options", and "taking measures". Rumours suggest, however that it is working e-mail filters in the next major release of its front-end which will give users the option to avoid mail from a list of known miscreants.
(c) 1996 May not be copied
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