If the Blizzard of '96 reminded us of anything, it's that when hype butts head with reality, reality usually wins. At least that was the case this winter when wind and snow caused thousands of people to log-on instead of dig out. From Maine to Missouri, digital grid-lock resulted as workers telecommuted until storms subsided. In some parts of Massachusetts, Nynex reported a 50 percent increase in phone-line demands. ("It's like everybody who has an automobile trying to drive on the Massachusetts Turnpike at the same time," said Nynex spokesperson John Johnson from his home office.) In parts of Missouri, Southwestern Bell phone traffic was 168 percent above normal.
Goodness knows, I'm as big a fan of telecommuting and home-based businesses as anyone else on my party line. But before we cash in our subway tokens for modems, it looks like the telecommunications infrastructure has a way to go. And with the number of home-based businesses expected to double over the decade (it's estimated that there currently are more than 45 million home-based workers) phone companies will be hard pressed to keep up with demand.
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After a two-year judicial bobsled ride, Phil Zimmermann couldn't be happier about coming in out of the cold. Zimmermann, the author of Pretty Good Privacy encryption, was facing up to 51 months in a federal prison if convicted of violating munitions export laws because his software was posted on the Internet.
Without explanation, federal prosecutors suddenly dropped charges against Zimmermann. Still, said U.S. Attorney William Keane, "people should not read anything in this decision," leaving the courtroom door ajar for similar investigations in the future. In the end, tax dollars were wasted, Zimmermann was besmirched, detained, and bankrupted, and Keane and crew go merrily about their business.
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Tough talk is cheap, except when high-priced corporate attorneys are doing the yapping. That's what makes me think the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and Willows Software, a startup backed by former Novell kingpin Ray Noorda, will end up before the bench with Microsoft.
At the heart of the brouhaha is the ECMA-blessed APIW specification, a platform-independent, vendor-neutral interface to the Windows API. Willows Twin Cross-Platform Developers Kit (XPDK), available in both source and binary forms, is APIW based. APIW essentially allows you to run Windows binaries on just about any flavor of UNIX, as well as Macintosh, NetWare, and OS/2 platforms without having to pay Microsoft.
Not only is Willows charging as little as $79.00 for the source and binary on CD-ROM, but you can also download it at no cost for individual, noncommercial uses from http://www.willows.com. Fees for commercial licenses, starting at $250.00, seem modest and reasonable.
Microsoft is not amused. It lobbied hard against the ECMA vote and one of its lawyers recently said that "Microsoft objects to the publication of the ECMA APIW standard and expressly reserves its intellectual property rights." In the meantime, the ECMA will be submitting the initiative to the ISO.
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From the "If the snowshoe fits..." department: Looking for a warm refuge on a cold day, I recently ducked into the Spencer Museum of Art. As luck would have it, the exhibit "Roger Shimomura: Delayed Reactions," had just opened and included paintings featuring sushi and Superman, geisha girls and Marilyn Monroe, and American Pop art and traditional Japanese wood-block prints.
Of relevance here was the painting entitled "Sansei Story, 1989-90" which, to my surprise, was on loan from Microsoft. As we've come to expect from Microsoft, the painting wasn't the best-of-show, although it was the biggest. Still, Microsoft should be commended for its support of the arts and for making that art available to the public.
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief