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Sat-ND, 8.9.97

Sat-ND, 8.9.97

Sat-ND, 8.9.1997 – The worst ever


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Today's Extremely Boring Headlines

DIGITAL
AOL, WorldCom buy CompuServe
Fantastic Software
High-speed, low-cost Telesat service
SATELLITES
What sailors do at sea
Small is beautiful
BUSINESS
Globalstar in Saudi Arabia
New copyright fees for DBS services?
FEEDBACK
HTML v/s ASCII
Apologies


Editorial note

So here it is, the worst and most boring issue of Sat-ND so far. There is nothing interesting in it, so just delete it from your inbox. Sorry for the waste of bandwidth.
By the way, I do not blame myself; it seems nothing interesting has been happening recently. If you happen to have any interesting stories, well, why on Earth haven't you sent them in?


DIGITAL

AOL, WorldCom buy CompuServe

In a complicated transaction, AOL plans to buy the ailing online service CompuServe – or rather the service's 2.6 million members world-wide as the deal also involves WorldCom Inc. that will take care of other parts of CompuServe's business.
WorldCom will acquire CompuServe in a stock-for-stock transaction but turn over its consumer online service customers and US$175 million in cash to AOL, which will give to WorldCom ANS Communications Inc., a high-speed network corporate services company AOL acquired in 1995.
It's unclear how AOL will integrate CompuServe into its own business, or whether CompuServe subscribers will even just get AOL instead. That applies to the U.S. only, as CompuServe has been more successful abroad. CompuServe has 870,000 online customers in Europe, compared to AOL's 700,000. AOL and it European partner, Germany's media giant Bertelsmann AG, will buy CompuServe's European operations and continue them as a separate service.
All those deals in the U.S. and Europe are subject to regulatory approval. The Wall Street Journal speculated that the complex U.S. deal may be put under antitrust scrutiny from the government.

Fantastic service

The Fantastic Corporation (TFC), which claims to be "the leader in high-speed digital broadcasting systems," and Deutsche Telekom (DT) have states their intention to use TFC's Channel Management Centre to broadcast media services over DT's cable network, the largest of its kind in Europe.
Of course, I usually wouldn't have mentioned that, especially as it's totally unclear what's going to be broadcast. But I really love the following statement by Peter Ohnemus, president and CEO of Swiss-based The Fantastic Corporation: "Now, over 17 million people will be able to experience the speed and beauty of digital content."
Talk about speed! Switching channels on a digital set-top box, at least those used in Europe, takes about half an hour, and that's just slightly exaggerated. Let's hope that (1) nobody is as silly paying for access to DT's cable network while he/she has satellite access and (2, for the unfortunate remainder with no access to satellites) that that Fantastic software is as fast as claimed.
What is this all about? It seems to be some kind of data transmission via cable at rates of up to 28 Megabytes per seconds. No Internet access, though, just content broadcast to the users' PC which "will be equipped with TFC's MediaSurfer(TM), a broadcast enabled Internet browser, which receives the broadcast signal throughout the day." [I suppose you have to leave your computer switched on all day then?]

High-speed, low-cost Telesat service

Telesat Canada will offer a high-speed data communications service in a move that could in effect double the number of its corporate customers.
Telesat, the operator of most of Canada's domestic satellite broadcast and telecommunications services, said it would offer the fastest network of its kind around, hoping to attract smaller corporate customers hat so far could not afford Telesat's very small aperture terminal (VSAT) service. Companies with as few as 10 locations could use the Telesat service economically, while the VSAT service only makes sense financially if a company at least 40 locations to be served. The new service, which offers transmission rates of up to 24MB/s, will also allow smaller companies to share bandwidth with other users.


SATELLITES

What sailors do at sea

The U.S. Navy recently completed a successful test of their Librarian Course Management System. How exciting, I hear you say... but wait, it all happened at sea through a satellite connection to the Internet.
The test was performed aboard the AEGIS cruiser, the Princeton, while deployed at sea in the Pacific Ocean. A sailor on board the ship was able to successfully call up a Computer-Based Training (CBT) lesson created in Asymetrix Corporation's Toolbook II authoring tool that was stored on the Asymetrix home page located in Bellevue, Washington [and not at sea.] The sailor took a test that was associated with that CBT lesson and the results of the sailor's responses to test questions were then stored in a database located at the Asymetrix home page (www.asymetrix.com).
The Asymetrix press did not elaborate on the satellite connection neither stated it whether the sailor passed the test. [What a useless piece of news... guess you were right when you said 'how exciting.']

Small is beautiful

The first Thai-made micro-satellite is scheduled to be launched in Russia in November, the local press reported today. However, it has been manufactured in exile.
The 150-kilogram satellite was built by Thai engineers at the University of Surrey in Britain [well known for its micro-satellites] and it will operate in a low-earth orbit to monitor forest fires, water pollution, and most certainly some other interesting things on top of that.
The satellite will be delivered to Kazakhstan within three weeks and later be launched aboard a Russian Zenith rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.


BUSINESS

Globalstar in Saudi Arabia

Globalstar and the Trans Arab Telecom Company (TATCOM) of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, have reached an agreement to give TATCOM the exclusive rights to provide Globalstar's mobile telephony services throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia beginning in late 1998.
Under the service agreement, TATCOM will own the sole right to Globalstar services in Saudi Arabia and to operate any Globalstar gateway (ground station) there. Saudi Arabia's initial Globalstar gateway, planned to be located in Riyadh, will serve the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and possibly other Gulf region nations as well.
The US$2.5 billion Globalstar system, led by Loral Space & Communications, comprises 48 low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites and a global network of ground stations. Other members of those partnership are QUALCOMM Incorporated [yes, it's the company that also sells an email programme by the name of Eudora that offers an extremely clumsy user interface as its most distinguishing feature,] AirTouch Communications, Alcatel, Alenia, DACOM, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Elsag Bailey, France Telecom, Hyundai, Space Systems/Loral and Vodafone.
http://www.globalstar.com/

New copyright fees for DBS services?

DBS services in the USA have won the support of U.S. representative Billy Tauzin, cahirman of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, in their fight to cut the fees they pay for broadcast signals.
Tauzin indicated that he would support the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association's (SBCA) efforts to keep copyright fees in check. Earlier, the Copyright Arbitration Rate Panel (CARP) recommended to increase DBS copyright fees up to 22%. Tauzin said the CARP's recommendation may prompt Congress to overhaul the copyright payment scheme.
According to BCA president Chuck Hewitt, satellite carriers would have to pay 900% more for superstations than cable operators would.


FEEDBACK

HTML v/s ASCII

Okay, I hope we can end this dispute today. Since I asked for your opinion a week ago, I have received some email from readers who prefer the plain text version (which is delivered to you anyway, your email client may just not display it.) To make this perfectly clear: the current format includes a plain text version as well as an HTML 3.2 version (no Netscapisms, no Microsoftish, no tables, no pictures, no nothing except for better readability and a nicer look.)
The portion of subscribers that wrote in to ask for plain text is, even after a week, still below 1 percent. I wouldn't exactly call this a public outcry demanding ASCII back. What's more, I received almost as many comments to the effect that I should use whatever format I like, and some even explicitly favoured HMTL.
So, this is the VERY LAST OCCASION to send your opinion to pck@lynet.de. Dual feed HTML/ASCII or just plain ASCII? Speak out now or forever hold your peace :-)

Apologies

Two readers told me that Eudora Pro 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 were indeed capable of displaying Sat-ND in HTML. Well, guys, I hope you've paid for that software?!
This does not apply to the freeware version, I guess. (I haven't got it on my computer because it's just a plain waste of time.) However, I know that earlier versions of Eudora Pro did not display HTML correctly.
So, Eudora Pro users, welcome to the club! Please accept my humblest apologies for any false claims. Nonetheless, I cannot recommend any Eudora version unless it offers a preview pane such as Microsoft Internet Mail (which unfortunately has some problems with the links in Sat-ND. Should you have failed to notice, the table of contents is now fully linked so that you can directly jump to any article that interests you. Thanks a lot to Star Division of Hamburg who made this possible – I've tried to but I couldn't do that with Microsoft Word 97.)


Copyright 09/97 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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