Like Yogi Berra, who once said that a musical piece was "better than it sounds", some security experts now claim that transmitting data over the Internet is safer than it seems. Although they acknowledge the existence of security risks, they say these risks can be minimized by employing readily available security procedures, including: - Using 8-character or longer passwords that are not found in dictionaries. Changing passwords frequently. Using encryption when sending passwords or any other confidential information. Installing all vendor-recommended security "fixes" promptly. Turning off all systems options known to be vulnerable to security problems.
Computerworld's 1995 computer salary survey shows the pay for 28 job titles (from computer operator to VP) with variations for 23 industries and 3 company sizes.
According to the survey, compensation rose by 4«%, with biggest gains in the retail industery and the smallest in government. The raises in small firms outpaced those in larger companies, continuing a trend from prior years. The highest paying industries were: banking, chemicals, computer services, consumer products, food and beverage, insurance and utilities. The lowest paid were apparel, education, distribution, forest products, government, industrial products, metals/plastics/rubber and non-profit.
Business Automation now offers a custom salary analysis service for clients.
According to a US West study, 25% of the phone calls made in the U.S. today are FAXes. If this is true, businesses are wasting tremendous amounts of time printing things out and walking them to the FAX machine. Those not yet FAXing direct from their computers should be.
Opinion on Windows 95 is divided, but largely favorable. Computerworld evaluated Win95 against IBM's OS/2 (the most comparable non-Microsoft alternative) and ranked Win95 higher, but its sister publication, Infoworld, came to just the opposite conclusion after a similar test. Users of the Internet's two major Win95 "newsgroups" note several problems with the product, but most affect only minor functions and are not particularly severe. Meanwhile, Microsoft has just started sending non-disclosure agreements to Windows 96 test sites.
Nearly 80% of corporations plan to upgrade to Windows 95 within twelve months, but fewer than 30% intend to do so within six, says a Computerworld survey. Microsoft estimates that 10% 25% of Windows users will upgrade during the first year. One factor in the delay is cost. The Gartner Group estimates firms will spend $1500 per user to upgrade, not counting the cost of additional hardware (other research groups estimate lower amounts). Of the total, training accounts for about 50% and Win95-compatible software upgrades are 20%. Hardware upgrades (to an optimal 16+ MB of memory, 600+ MB of disk and Pentium processor) can add hundreds of dollars more per user.
Intel's new Pentium Pro chip will be out soon, but it is not as powerful as expected. IBM and others will soon ship PCs built on Intel's successor to the Pentium chip, the Pentium Pro. But tests show its speed offers less of a gain over the Pentium than the Pentium did over the '486. One benefit: once the Pentium Pros come out, plain-old-Pentium PC prices should drop.
An Internet "brown out" shows the 'Net may be outgrowing its infrastructure. According to the Internet Society, which keeps the statistics, the Internet grew from fewer than 3,500 connected networks in 1991 to approximately 100,000 last month. The 100,000 networks include 5 million connected computers, but this count does not include all the individuals dialing in on PCs and Macs, who are counted as users, not computers. An estimated 20 to 30 million people have Internet E-mail addresses, approximately 10% to 20% of whom regularly also use other services such as the World Wide Web. As a result of this growth, when a Japanese firm sent a broadcast message to the entire Internet on Sept. 5, its fiber-optic "backbone" (which is maintained by Sprint, MCI and others) bogged way down for about a half an hour. With the Internet growing at about 10% per month (it is projected to more than double again by this time next year), the backbone will have to be expanded soon, or delays will certainly become the norm.
IBM and AT&T are each brining out public communications services based on Lotus Notes. These services allow subscribers with employees or clients spread around the world to "publish" documents and get responses to them, schedule and conduct online conferences, and send E-mail. The prospects for these services are guarded, however, because the Internet, itself, can provide nearly all of the same capability even without Notes. The IBM and AT&T services have one big benefit that the Internet cannot match: greater security.
"BugNet" is online. Companies can now check for bugs in their PC software on the Internet. BugNet Newsletter, an independently produced publication, has set up a location on the World Wide Web (www.bugnet.com/~bugnet) where users post all the bugs they encounter as well as the fixes, if any, they have discovered.
With IBM's acquisition of Lotus barely "dry behind the ears", rumors are circulating that its next target will be Apple or Novell (or both). IBM and Apple have confirmed having discussions this past summer, but these have proven fruitless (for now). But Big Blue probably "fits" better with Novell, a fact not lost on those in Salt Lake City, the latter firm's home. If IBM does pull off both coups, the result might finally create a credible competitor to Microsoft, except for one fact . . . IBM hasn't run a successful PC-oriented operation since Microsoft rose to prominence in the mid-80s.
A new generation of modems allows callers to talk and transfer data at the same time. The new DSVD (Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data) modems are designed for use in customer service or other applications where callers need to talk together while one of them views or updates the data on the other one's computer. The new models cost about twice as much as data- only units of the same speed.
Nearly half (41%) of all computer department employees say they would copy software illegally for themselves or a friend, according to a recent study by a Georgia College professor. Also, 7% said they would adjust a bank balance to avoid a service charge if they could and 10% saw nothing wrong with writing a virus that said "Have a nice day" to fellow employees using their company's computers.
Due to a printing change, the Bulletin will move back to its original schedule of coming out in even-numbered months. As a result of this adjustment, there will only be five issues in 1995, instead of the usual six.
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