sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sunergy Newsletter #13 - January, 1994 (part 1 of 2) SunFLASH Vol 62 #12 February 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62.12 Sunergy Newsletter #13 - January, 1994 (part 1 of 2) *1* Broadcast Summary of Sunergy #8 Satellite Broadcast *2* Upcoming Broadcasts *3* Tech Tips and Ideas *4* Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) white paper outline *5* Transmitting Data Within Video Signals (454 lines) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Distributed by Press Relations (PR), Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, a Sun Microsystems, Inc., business. All rights reserved. Sunergy Manager: Larry Lettieri Sunergy Editor: Vicki Pedretti Contributing Editor: George Paolini Contact the Sunergy editors by email at: sunergy@sun.com. ============================================================================== = CONTENTS - ISSUE #13 = ============================================================================== (in part 1 of 2) ANNOUNCEMENTS *1* Broadcast Summary Sunergy #8 Satellite Broadcast *2* Upcoming Broadcasts TECHNICAL TOPICS *3* Tech Tips and Ideas *4* Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) white paper outline *5* Transmitting Data Within Video Signals (in part 2 of 2) INDUSTRY OUTLOOK *6* SunWorld Excerpt: "Internet Sextant" PRODUCT UPDATES *7* SMCC Announcement *8* SunSoft Announcement SUNERGY INFORMATION *9* Sunergy ftp site login instructions *10* Sunergy enrollment and contact info --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ANNOUNCEMENTS - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************** *1* Broadcast Summary * *********************** The 8th Sunergy interactive, satellite broadcast aired on January 11. Entitled "Global Information Infrastructures", this broadcast continued with the theme of our last broadcast taking a closer look at the information highway, present and future, with an emphasis on global implications. This broadcast was our first to be closed captioned for the hearing impaired. As well, this was our first show to be broadcast over MBONE (Multicast Backbone), and was the first in which we sent textual and graphical information via the vertical blanking interval, all of which we intend to continue for future broadcasts. Hosted by John Gage of Sun Microsystems, the guest list included: Eric Schmidt, President, Sun Technology Enterprises, Inc. Geoff Baehr, Chief Technical Officer, SunConnect Dr. Vinton Cerf, Vice President, Corporation for National Research Initiatives and President of the Internet Society Recap of the topics covered: * The ever popular JOHN GAGE READING LIST (a more comprehensive listing which includes Publisher information and ISBN#s can be found at the Sunergy ftp site - see end of newsletter for login instructions): 1. Internet Society News by the Internet Society 2. Internet System Handbook, by Daniel C. Lynch & Marshall T. Rose 3. Geek of the Week audiotapes, Internet Talk Radio 4. The Virtual Community, by Howard Rheingold 5. Scientific American Magazine, January, 1994, "The Data Networks" article by Gerald J. Holtzmann & Bjorn Pherson 6. Technology Forecast, Version 4.0, August 1993 7. Wired Magazine 8. Mondo 2000 9. Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, by Mitch Waldrop (recommended by Vint Cerf) 10. Morph's Outpost 11. The Sciences 12. Information Infrastructure Source Book * DISCUSSION SESSION involving the panel of guests examined the Internet as it is today and their speculations about the future of the Internet. Discussion centered around the need for cooperation to develop standards and conventions to be put in place for the future, at which time will exist the ability to effectively compete in this new market. * John Gage and Geoff Baehr "surfed the Internet" during a real-time DEMONSTRATION OF MOSAIC. They looked at information on servers in France (French Information Institute for Corporations), the US (FBI server, UNABOM article), Turkey (Middle East Technical University) and Japan (Nipon Telephone and Telegraph). Mosaic provides access to information around the world for anyone from elementary schools to universities to corporations and is viewed identically, irrespective of type of platform being used to retrieve the information. [Geoff Baehr's personal Universal Record Locators (URLs) "hot list" is available via ftp from the Sunergy ftp site - see login instructions at the end of this newsletter.] *QUESTIONS from the satellite downlink sites sparked discussions on: - The role of small business entrepreneurs in the information highway "big picture". - The evolvement of a unified data dictionary for the Internet. - Distinguishing between viruses and knowledge robots ("knowbots") and software agents. - Mobile wireless access to the Internet. - Bringing training to the desktop via the Internet and the need for certification of content. - Deregulation of the telecommunications industry. - The use of direct broadcast satellite technology vs. other means of information delivery. - Internet monetary protocols and the ability to charge for services over the Internet, with reference made to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). For more information from IETF (located at the Corporation for Research Initiatives), email ietf-secretariat@cnri.reston.va.us or telephone +1-703-620-8990. * VERTICAL BLANKING INTERVAL (VBI) DEMONSTRATION. Demonstrating VBI insertion (conversion of Sun video into NTSC) and decoding. For more information contact Neal Page at Sun Microsystems by email neal.page@east.sun.com or by telephone +1-919-460-8362. (See excerpt from white paper by Duane Northcutt later in this newsletter entitled "Transmitting Data Within Video Signals".) * A brief MBONE (Multicast Backbone) DEMONSTRATION, showing how a broadcast looks when received over MBONE today. *************************** *2* Upcoming Broadcasts * *************************** Sunergy Presents Sunergy Live #9 "Creativity in the Digital Domain" An Interactive Satellite Broadcast March 15, 1994 8:30 am - 10:00 am PST Guests to be announced Sunergy Live #10 Live from ObjectWorld, San Francisco July 28, 1994 8:30 am - 10:00 am PST Guests to include: John Gage (host), Sun Microsystems Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation Steve Jobs, NeXT Chris Stone, OMG IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON ONE OR BOTH OF THESE BROADCASTS AND YOU ARE NOT A SUNERGY MEMBER, PLEASE SEND EMAIL TO: sunergy@sun.com IF YOU HAVE A SATELLITE DISH AND WOULD LIKE TO DOWNLINK ONE OR BOTH OF THESE BROADCASTS, PLEASE SEND MAIL REQUESTING THE SATELLITE COORDINATES AND TRANSPONDER INFORMATION TO: sunergy@sun.com (Coordinates for the two broadcasts may differ, so please specify which broadcast(s) you wish to receive.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - TECHNICAL TOPICS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *************************** *3* Tech Tips and Ideas * *************************** TECH TIPS AND IDEAS from the pages of the GEMs file richard.w.scott@Corp.sun.com New Ideas for a New Year Has it really only been two months since the last edition of Sunergy? Time flies! Well, let me be the LAST to wish you all a Happy New Year! Old Business Before I get into some NEW ideas, I'd like to let you know about a couple of older ones. In the last edition we discussed Personal Postmaster, a program designed to enable you to attach sounds to incoming mail in order to "alert" you as to the sender. This product also allows the user to "pre-sort" email into logical mail files for later reading. UNFORTUNATELY, my article made it sound like this product was PUBLIC DOMAIN. This error on my part as caused a lot of email. Personal Postmaster is a commercial product created by Joe Murphy and must be licensed to your site. One of the readers of this column was kind enough to send a copy of a Mail package called Siren Mail. In good faith I told him I'd review the package and report back to you folks what I'd learned. Well good intentions don't always pan out. I've only gotten as far as the installation of this package (which was surprisingly easy, by the way), but have had no time for testing. I'll try to have a report for you by next edition. In the meantime, if you are interested in this mail handler, you can reach Siren Software at info@siren.com. Please mention where you heard about it if you contact them. And now... Brighten Up Your Workspace!! If you are running OpenWindows and have a color monitor, you may be missing some of the fun you can have with color. After a year of staring at "same old, same old" I started to investigate the actual color capabilities of Sun Workstations. I found a large number of colors available, many of which, admittedly, are too subtle to make much of a difference. Some of them, however are quite nice and can be used to add some pazazz to your workspace. For example, an alias in my .cshrc file called cmd: alias cmd 'cmdtool -bg DarkSlateBlue -fg LemonChiffon1 &' This creates a command tool background (-bg) and foreground (-fg) using the colors listed. OK, OK... the colors might not SOUND that hot, but give 'em a try, you might be surprised. Well and good, you say, but what if I want something other that DarkSlateBlue and LemonChiffon1? Glad you asked that. Next comes "color" and "colors". As with the alias above, you COULD make color and colors into aliases, or as I did, make them into one-line shell scripts kept in a personal bin directory, ie. /home1/bin. Now, a warning right from the top, I'm only giving you the scripts themselves in this article. If you want the text file, rgb.txt, you'll have to email me with a request. I'll send it to you as quickly as I can. (The text file is too large to include in this article: see the end of this article for my email address). color: this script will find all colors that match a string, for example, "color white" returns all whites, like GhostWhite, FloralWhite, and AntiqueWhite. color: cat /gems/docs/rgb.txt |grep -i $1 |more Note that you would edit this to show the actual location of your rgb.txt file. colors: this script will list all colors in the rgb.txt file, which makes it easy to "shop around". colors: cat /gems/docs/rgb.txt |more Again, please note that you must edit the line to indicate the actual location of rgb.txt. Now that you can find colors, you can experiment with them in your OpenWindows environment by using "colt" and "colsh". These scripts will allow you to strart up a texteditor and shelltool respectively in your choice of colors. colt: textedit -bg $1 -fg $2 & colsh: shelltool -bg $1 -fg $2 & Needless to say, not every color combination is breathtaking, or even endurable, but you'll find the colors that do the most for you in a short while using these simple utilities. This has been a simple excursion into the use of color in your OpenWindows environment and by no means exhausts the possibilities. Use your imagination... and, if by chance you create something especially good, or if you even stumble on a good combination or idea for color, drop me a line so we can share it with everybody next time. For those of you who have already mastered your OW workspace, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you've created, and how you did it! Goodbye for now One last little thing for this time. Here's a quick little routine that you can use to "personalize" your daily logoff. Create a script called "goodbye" goodbye: #!/bin/csh -f cd /rik/sounds # go to your sound directory play Goodbye.au # play your favorite `outta here' sound cd # return to your home directory exec xlock -mode flame # run lockscreen If there is something you'd like to see in this column, or if you have something to contribute, a favorite shellscript, a command alias or a short C program, you can email me at: richard.w.scott@corp.sun.com Until next time, remember, it was Meatball Fulton who said: "What appears to be coming AT you, is coming FROM you!" ============================================================================= ______ /_____/\ /____ \\ \ Richard W. Scott /_____\ \\ / Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. /_____/ \/ / / 2550 Garcia Avenue m/s MTV07-04 /_____/ / \//\ Mountain View, California 94043-1100 \_____\//\ / / Phone 415 336-1026 | FAX 415 960-0943 \_____/ / /\ / Email: richard.w.scott@Corp.Sun.COM \_____/ \\ \ ===================================== \_____\ \\ "What appears to be coming AT you is coming FROM you." \_____\/ -Meatball Fulton ============================================================================= ******************************************** *4* Information Infrastructure Task Force * (IITF) white paper outline * ******************************************** Following is the outline of a white paper published by the United States Committee on Applications and Technology of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF). The paper, in its entirety, can be retrieved from the Sunergy ftp site (see end of this newsletter for login instructions.) What It Takes To Make It Happen: Key Issues For Applications Of The National Information Infrastructure Committee on Applications and Technology Information Infrastructure Task Force January 25, 1994 This paper is intended for public comment and discussion. Your comments can be sent to any of the following addresses: Post: Committee on Applications and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology Building 101, Room A1000 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Phone: (301) 975-2667 FAX: (301) 216-0529 E-Mail: cat_exec@nist.gov THE COMMITTEE ON APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This issue paper was prepared by the Committee on Applications and Technology of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) in support of the President's action plan for developing, in partnership with the private sector, an advanced information infrastructure for our country -- the National Information Infrastructure. The Committee is charged with coordinating Administration efforts: -to develop, demonstrate, and promote applications of information technology in manufacturing, electronic commerce, education, health care, government services, libraries, and other areas, and -to develop and recommend technology strategy and policy to accelerate the implementation of the NII.. The Committee works with the Subcommittee on High- Performance Computing and Communications and Information Technology, which was established as part of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology to coordinate the development of new information technologies. The Committee on Applications and Technology also is responsible for implementing many of the recommendations of the Vice President's National Performance Review that pertain to information technology. ABSTRACT ^^^^^^^^ This paper highlights important issues that need to be addressed in the development, demonstration, and promotion of applications for the National Information Infrastructure (NII). The paper is intended for three important audiences: the public, the committees and working groups of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF), and other agencies and departments in our government. The goal is to identify and describe the issues so they can be considered and discussed by these audiences, leading to their eventual resolution. Some of these issues, such as privacy, intellectual property rights, information security and the scalability of projects are already being addressed by the committees and working groups of the IITF. Others, such as user acceptance and organizational learning, still need to be addressed by the IITF in order to allow the private/government partnership to evolve and to work together to build and shape the National Information Infrastructure. OUTLINE ^^^^^^^ I. THE COMMITTEE ON APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY (included above) II. ABSTRACT (included above) III. GLOSSARY IV. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V. KEY ISSUES FOR NII APPLICATIONS VI. THE APPLICATIONS PERSPECTIVE: A FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING NII ISSUES VII. NII ISSUES AFFECTING SPECIFIC APPLICATION AREAS VIII. ISSUES THAT CUT ACROSS APPLICATIONS AREAS A. PROVIDING EQUITABLE ACCESS B. USER ACCEPTANCE C. PRIVACY D. USER TRAINING E. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING F. PRIVATE-SECTOR ACCEPTANCE OF GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY G. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS H. INFORMATION SECURITY I. INFORMATION ACCESS, STORAGE, AND RETRIEVAL J. INFORMATION AND DATA STANDARDS K. CONVERSION OF INFORMATION L. USER-FRIENDLY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE M. INTEROPERABILITY STANDARDS N. SCALABILITY O. COST AND PRICING P. PUBLIC FUNDING IX. CRITICAL ISSUES IN KEY APPLICATION AREAS A. PRIVACY IN HEALTH CARE B. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN COMMERCE AND EDUCATION C. INFORMATION AND DATA STANDARDS IN MANUFACTURING D. CONVERSION OF INFORMATION IN LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES X. WORK-IN-PROGRESS: IMPORTANT ISSUES ALREADY ADDRESSED BY THE IITF XI. NEXT STEPS AND FOLLOW THROUGH XII. BIBLIOGRAPHY (continued. Seepart 2 of 2 for copyrights, TMs etc)