some misc

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

NII REPORT RELEASED
        A report outlining the benefits and obstacles to using the
information superhighway was released last week and the Commerce Department
is requesting comments on the findings. "Putting the Information
Infrastructure to Work" predicts the new data highway will improve the
competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing base; speed the efficiency of
electronic commerce and business-to-business communications; improve health
care delivery and help contain medical costs; promote access to the
educational system; and enable government to dispense services to the
public faster, more responsively and more efficiently. To order copies,
call (202) 783-3238 and request NIST Special Publication 857. (BNA Daily
Report for Executives 5/5/94 A10)


HIGH-TECH BOONDOGGLES?
        Last week's announcement of government support for R&D in
flat-panel displays is merely another "example of misguided government
spending that could prove ruinous to the development of a vibrant,
commercially viable industry," according to critics. Similar projects
include Sematech, which has cost $700 million in taxpayer funds since 1987;
a massively parallel processing computer project that in the past three
years has channeled $733.5 million primarily to two companies -- Intel and
Thinking Machines; and the Very-High-Speed Integrated Circuits project that
has spent more than $1 billion since 1979, most of it on R&D to produce
performance-boosting devices that could be "inserted" into existing weapons
systems. (Investor's Business Daily 5/6/94 A1)


SUPPORT FOR THE CLIPPER CHIP
        Yale computer scientist David Gelernter urges support for the
Clipper Chip encryption technology and for the Administration's Digital
Telephony and Communications Privacy Improvement Act, the heart of which is
to give law-enforcement agents a continued ability to conduct wiretapping
with court orders. "Nothing would do us more good as a nation than to
reassert our right to tell the experts to get lost. I am a `technical
expert,' but don't take my words on this bill as an expert. I was seriously
and permanently injured by a terrorist letter bomb last year, but don't
take my word as a special pleader either. Take my word because common sense
demands that wiretapping be preserved." (New York Times 5/8/94 Sec.4, p.17)