Prestige and the potential to avoid the endless lines at the California Department of Motor Vehicles weren't the only things driving the auction of one set of automobile license plates. When Ted Dalotta -- California resident and longtime owner of the "UNIX" personalized license plates -- announced his relocation to New Jersey, those with both car and computer perked up.
One month, several hundred e-mails, and $6000 later, John Mashey of Silicon Graphics emerged as the new owner of the plates. After paying for the official transfer of the registration, the remainder of Mashey's bid will go to the USENIX Scholarship Fund that helped publicize the event (for more information, see http://www.sage.usenix.org/ whatsnew/unix_plate.html).
Three million dollars for an Internet domain name and now $6000 for a set of license plates should mean only one thing -- register your name now.
-- Lauren Klein
A retired tool-and-die maker has filed for a patent that supposedly solves the Year 2000 problem. The proposal that Wesley Stout has put forward uses the day of the year and a perpetual calendar. Using the familiar six-digit data system, Stout would label June 26, 1998, as 17-72-98, instead of 06-26-98. "17-7" is the day of the year, "2" is the century, and "98" is the year. The century identifier would be "1" for 1800-99, "2" for 1900-99, and "3" for 2000-99. According to Don Watkins, Stout's patent attorney, "If this solution works, Wesley Stout and Bill Gates will be mentioned in the same breath."
-- Jonathan Erickson
Among those honored at the 1998 Shareware Industry Awards, held at the Eighth Annual Shareware Industry Conference in Rhode Island, were:
These (and other) shareware programs are available at http://www.softwarevault.com/siafswv.asp.
-- Jonathan Erickson
In a scenario reminiscent of Microsoft's scurrilous AARD message (see "Examining the Windows AARD Detection Code," by Andrew Shulman, DDJ, September 1993), MDI Internet (a Canadian ISP) has alleged that Microsoft is using error messages to suggest where Windows 98 users should and shouldn't go for Internet access. According to published reports, one error message said "You might want to try selecting 'other Internet provider' from the list of Internet service providers." This and similar messages appeared when users of Microsoft Front Page Express (bundled with Windows 98) published web pages. As with AARD (present in Beta versions of Windows 3.1), which generated an error message if users were using an MS-DOS-compatible operating system (such as DR DOS), Microsoft said the error messages were an innocent mistake and would be modified.
-- Jonathan Erickson
Sage, an autonomous mobile robot built by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, has been deployed as a tour guide in the Dinosaur Hall at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The robot is based on navigation technology developed at CMU. The museum and RedZone Robotics integrated the robot into the museum environment with multimedia displays and docking hardware. Sage has the ability to detect and respond to the presence of people, leading them on a 15-minute tour using video and multimedia information-on-demand. For the time being, Sage has a set dialogue. Planned enhancements include speech recognition, and the ability to trigger projections on visual displays in the hall, and user interaction with Sage via the Internet.
-- Jonathan Erickson
IBM claims to be the first company to have perfected a "silicon-on-insulator" technology that boosts computer speeds and enable batteries in mobile devices to last longer. The fabrication process involves a special insulation layer between each transistor and the microprocessor's silicon base, reducing electrical interference that saps energy and performance. According to IBM, microprocessors designed to run at 400 MHz could run at more than 500 MHz. The company also said the devices use one-third less electricity than today's microprocessors, thereby extending battery life for mobile phones, handheld computers, and the like.
-- Jonathan Erickson
The Web Design and Development '98 and PC Expo/WEB.X conferences are launching a web-design competition to benefit the STARBRIGHT Foundation. Dubbed "Masters of the Web '98," the competition is open to any interested parties, who will have 24 hours to design a multipage site based on a set of instructions. The competition will begin at 8 pm EST on November 6, 1998. Money from this competition will be donated to the STARBRIGHT Foundation, a nonprofit organization chaired by film director Steven Spielberg and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf to address the medical and emotional challenges of seriously ill children.
Registration information and further competition details are available at http:// www.webmasters98.com/.
-- Eugene Eric Kim