from EDUPAGE

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

IS THE CHIP WAR OVER?
    The Economist magazine thinks so. It says that the value of Sematech,
the industry-government research consortium founded in Texas in 1987 to
save the American microchip industry, has outlived its usefulness. "It is
time, as Senator George Aiken said of the war in Vietnam, to declare
victory and leave." (The Economist 4/2/94 p.77)


WILL THE TECHNOLOGY CENTER HOLD?
    Maybe Silicon Valley and other technology centers are things of the
past. With networking becoming a new lifestyle, the long-term future of
urban centers is uncertain. "With the grid in place, many people will find
it just as productive and one hell of a lot nicer to work at the computer
in the den than at a computer in a corporate office 50 miles away." (Upside
4/94 p.12)


OPEN SECRET
    Instead of using mathematical codes to scramble and unscramble
messages, Georgia Tech physicists are devising a way of sending a message
with electronic noise generated by a flickering laser. By connecting
identical lasers over fiber optics, the same random pattern of noise is
generated at both the sending and receiving end, and the receiving simply
subtracts the noise to uncover the message. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4/7/94 E2)