Dr. Dobb's Journal December 1997
The U.S. Navy has formally commissioned the U.S.S. Hopper. An Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, this ship was named after Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, who pioneered COBOL, was responsible for the first compiler, and coined the word "bug" after removing a moth stuck in the Mark II.
The U.S.S. Hopper is only the second Navy vessel named after a woman, and the first since World War II. At the commissioning ceremony in San Francisco last August, several speakers noted how technologically advanced the ship is, and how pleased Hopper would have been with the technology on the ship. Rear Admiral W.G. Sutton remarked to those attending and to Senator Barbara Boxer, seated next to him, that Hopper also would have been pleased that the ship was finished early and under budget. Attending for Hopper, who died in 1992, were her brother and sister.
Inscribed on the U.S.S. Hopper shield are the words "aude et effice" -- "dare and do," a phrase oft quoted by Hopper.
-- Eugene Eric Kim
RSA Data Security prevailed in a lawsuit brought forth by Roger Schlafly. In his 1994 suit, Schlafly alleged that the MIT (RSA) encryption patent was invalid, that RSA Data Security committed libel, and that the company was guilty of interference with contractual relationships, fraud, unfair business practices, and antitrust violations. Judge Spenser Williams of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found against Schlafly, stating (among other things) that the MIT patent was valid and that "the RSA patent is entitled to patent protection."
-- Jonathan Erickson
Guess it isn't enough that you can't open a magazine these days without running across at least one celebrity lip encrusted with a tell-tale white mustache. Now, the Milk Processor Education Program has expanded its ubiquitous milk-mustache campaign to the Web at http://www.whymilk.com/. The site lets you browse through past and future celebrity milk advertisements, send e-mail postcards featuring celebrity milk advertisements, download a screensaver emblazoned with (guess what?) celebrity milk advertisements, or join Club Milk -- which earns trading cards plastered with milk-mustachioed pictures of supermodel Tyra Banks and prepubescent pop-sensation Hanson for the first 30,000 milk junkies, er, members, provided that initiates pledge to drink three glasses of milk a day.
-- Deirdre Blake
If you're looking for a new car, note that the 1998 Cadillac Seville STS is sporting the world's first "intelligent" passenger-car seats that automatically measure each part of your body and adjust in real time to the appropriate lumbar, thigh, and bolster support. Your body is then checked dynamically every few minutes for position updates. The technology that makes smart seats possible is referred to as Intelligent Surface Technology (IST) and has been used for several years in transportation seating, office chairs, hospital beds, and wheelchairs. BCAM subsidiary HumanCAD Systems developed ManneQuinPRO Windows-based human modeling and ergonomic-design software used to build the smart seats.
-- Jonathan Erickson
Yale University is advising incoming students to buy Windows rather than Macintosh computers. In a letter to the freshmen, Daniel Updegrove, director of Yale Information Technology Services, said, "If you plan to purchase a new computer, however, you are strongly encouraged to select a Windows PC, which was the choice of over 75 percent of first year student computer owners in 1996-97." Updegrove added, "Owing to uncertainties about availability of software for Apple operating systems, the University cannot guarantee support for Macintoshes beyond June 2000."
According to Frank Steen, director of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Harvard has no plans to follow suit. There's little question about which team Steve Jobs rooted for at this year's Harvard-Yale football game.
-- Eugene Eric Kim
IBM has come up with a way to make computer chips using copper instead of aluminum, resulting in cheaper, faster, and more energy-efficient ICs. Compared to aluminum, copper is more difficult to apply to silicon chip surfaces. Switching to copper, however, should result in microprocessor that run 40 percent faster, and 30 percent cheaper. To make copper feasible, IBM developed a compound that goes between the copper and the silicon base, along with a new way to flatten the copper, thereby permitting layering of many wires inside chips. The company currently has no immediate plans to license the technology.
-- Jonathan Erickson
Making the switch from defense contracting to consumer development, HNC Software showed off its Falcon fraud-detection system at the American Bankers Association's Bankcard Conference. The pattern-matching system (originally developed for smart weapons) compares card transactions to a model of typical fraudulent spending patterns, then to a profile of a cardholder's recent purchases. HNC's Patricia Campbell said the system "is able to learn from looking at large numbers of transactions."
-- Jonathan Erickson
Everyone knows that Bill Gates has been quite generous in giving away truckloads of Microsoft software to schools and libraries. Now Oracle -- a company that's hitched its wagon to the premise that network computing is the wave of the future (if it could just get all those reactionary types to dump their pricey PCs in favor of dumb terminals) is in on the act, too.
At the start of the school year, Oracle hosted an event to kick off California Governor Pete Wilson's Digital High School Initiative, a drive to put 200 California high schools online. The $100-million initiative was signed into the state budget in August, and Oracle's role in bringing the plan to life involved "educating" Wilson's administration on the benefits of network computing. Oracle COO Ray Lane said that the Governor's initiative is "tailor made for network computing and meets with Oracle's long-standing belief that students need simple, inexpensive access to the world's information."
Larry Ellison then said that Oracle's Promise (the company's charitable arm) will donate network computers to 100 poor schools in California over the next year and a half. Ellison further said that "Oracle's Promise is committed to closing the 'digital divide' by bringing network computers to every classroom in America."
-- Deirdre Blake