Land Speed Record Falls

The land speed record for transcontinental Internet traffic was broken last month by a team that included University of Washington, Microsoft, Quest Communications International Inc., and Information Services Institute. The group won a contest sponsored by the Internet2 Community, a consortium of universities working to accelerate the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Using Windows 2000 Professional, the Microsoft team transferred 8.4GB from a desktop computer in Redmond, Wash., to a desktop in Arlington, Va. Using standard Internet (TCP/IP) protocols, the 84-second transfer sustained a data throughput rate of 831Mbps over a distance of 5,626 kilometers. According to a Microsoft press release, a user moving data at those speeds could download a full CD of music (640MB) in about six seconds--an endeavor that, on a typical desktop modem today, would take about 24 hours. To transfer the same 8.4GB of data over a 1.5Mbps DSL connection, it would have taken 13 hours, or 15 days over a standard 56Kbps modem. "The limits on today's bandwidth are no longer determined by raw bandwidth, but rather by how well the different network components work together," said Brian Valentine, senior vice president of the Windows division at Microsoft.

Microsoft Learns to Speak

Microsoft has allied with speech-recognition software giant Lernout & Hauspie to roll out its Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) 5.0. The SAPI kit will embody L&H's multilingual automatic speech-recognition and text-to-speech engines, which are widely used by developers for PC and multimedia application development. L&H's PC/MM ASR1600 provides high-quality continuous speech recognition with an array of consumer microphones of varying ranges. The L&H PC/MM TTS3000 is a software-only text-to-speech engine that converts any computer-readable text into intelligible, synthetic speech. Microsoft's SAPI 5.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes SAPI middleware, ASR, and TTS reference engines, source files, sample applications, tools, and documentation to help speech-engine and application developers build speech solutions.

Project 2000 Hits Retail

Microsoft has made available the retail version of its best-selling project-management software, Microsoft Project 2000, and its Web-based companion, Microsoft Project Central. The company touts Project 2000 as a tool for the average knowledge worker, with an easy-to-use interface that allows users to input project data such as tasks, budgets, and resource allocation. It allows team members, project managers, and other stakeholders to communicate and collaborate on projects across an organization. Customers can order the Microsoft Project 2000 trial version via the Web. The package includes Project Central, deployment templates for Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft Office 2000. The trial CD is available for the cost of shipping and handling at Microsoft's Project page.

Linux Growth Curve Way Up

It's getting to be old hat, but the Linux parade continues. Evans Marketing Services claims that the number of large corporations running Linux increased by 95 percent in the last half of 1999. That's a big jump, and it shows the continued trend toward Linux growth. Evans Marketing's survey also showed that the number of companies running Linux on more than 25 percent of their servers jumped from less than 2 percent in May 1999 to nearly 13 percent in December 1999. Running Linux on more than one-fourth of their servers is a big commitment for companies to make, and this shows quite startling growth in just six months.

As Linux gains ground, more and more companies are porting their wares to Linux.

Deneba announced a port of its Canvas 7 graphics program to Linux, and said it plans to include a free download of its beta version, which should be available by the time you read this. Canvas is known for combining bitmap and vector graphics within one package. Interestingly, Deneba ported Canvas 7 by using a set of Windows libraries called WineLib and using part of the WINE project.

The WINE project aims to create an environment on Linux that can execute Windows applications. The libraries that are part of WINE allow application developers like Deneba to create one version of their software for Microsoft's Windows and then recompile their software on other platforms such as Linux. The hope is to reduce the cost of porting Windows applications to Linux and thereby gain an ever-increasing list of Linux applications. With Deneba's port of Canvas 7, this hope now seems to be a reality--or at least the start of something real.

Alias|Wavefront, part of SGI, announced ports of the Maya Batch Renderer and Maya Composer Renderer, two graphics programs that will help create clusters of Linux systems for commercial graphics rendering. Called render farms, these clusters have been used for rendering computer imagery for movies such as "Mighty Joe Young" and "Star Trek: Insurrection." SGI, Alias|Wavefront's corporate parent, has made a major Linux push, as shown at its Linux page.

SAS Institute also announced that it will port its SAS suite software to Linux. SAS, originally known for its mathematical software, now focuses on access, management, analysis, and data presentation.

East Coast Electronics Giant Now Carries Macs

Apple's comeback seems to continue unabated. The company took fourth place among PC manufacturers in the retail/mail-order market for January (the latest figures as we wrote this were in a quarterly survey).

According to PC Data's January Retail/Mail-Order Hardware Report, Apple had 10.9 percent of unit sales and a 17 percent unit growth. (Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and E-Machines had the top four spots.)

More good news for Apple: 34 percent of the computers purchased among the top five brands in school districts during the 1999-2000 school year will be Macs, according to Quality Education Data Inc.'s (QED) Technology Purchasing Forecast, 1999-2000, 5th Edition.

Finally, according to the market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), Apple is still top dog in sales to the U.S. education market. IDC's fourth-quarter 1999 Education Market Report shows Apple leading in overall U.S. education sales with a 30.6 percent market share, double that of its closest competitor.

HP Rolls out Mac-specific DeskJet Printer

Hewlett-Packard, which has recently rolled out many new products for Mac users, has released its first Mac-specific DeskJet printer. The $199 DeskJet 935C color inkjet sports the performance and functionality of the HP DeskJet 932C printer, and adds a grayish white casing with silver accents to serve as a complementary peripheral for Apple's line of iMac, G3 and G4 machines.

Connectix Releases Red Hat Linux Emulator

Thanks to Connectix Corp., you now can run Linux on your Mac. The $99 emulation program--Virtual PC with Red Hat Linux--comes with Red Hat Linux, an Internet-centric and open-source operating system, pre-installed. You can toggle between the Linux and Mac environments with one mouse click.

Nobody Beats the Wiz

The Wiz, the 41-store chain that dominates the consumer electronic market in the New York Metro Area, is now carrying Mac products. The stores are now stocking iMacs, iBooks, and Apple accessories. The Wiz may also carry high-end Power Mac G3/G4 systems and displays when adequate store space is available.

Microsoft Updates Apple Internet Apps

Microsoft's Macintosh Business Division has updated its two Mac Internet products. The Web browser, Internet Explorer, is now up to version 5.0, and features several Mac-only features. It lets users change the look of the browser to match the flavor of their systems. More important is an all-new rendering engine, named Tasman, which purportedly performs 50 times better than previous IE browsers for the Mac, along with greater reliability. The Mac version of the Outlook Express e-mail client is now up to version 5.02. The update increases e-mail security with Authenticated SMTP, improves launch speed for customers with large databases, and enhances performance in reading complex HTML messages. Both products are free and can be downloaded at Microsoft's download page.