**************************** Telcomine: A Telecom & Technology Newsletter http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.html ................................................... Telcomine (http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.htm),=20 a monthly newsletter from Infozech. Telcomine brings=20 you the latest trends and developments in frontline IT Technologies. To subscribe send a mail to nl@infozech.com .................................................. *****TELCOMINE************ Wealth of Information about Telecommunications Volume 8, August 1998 IN THIS ISSUE 1. Off With The Keyboard: Multimedia's multiple millenium=20 visions The multimedia industry is promising to launch the=20 new millenium with computers that take oral commands=20 may not need keyboards at all and telephones that receive=20 and send email by voice signals.=20 2. Oral Coded Commands To The Computer Several new expert programs are available for oral commands=20 and text dictation to computers. These include Kurzweil=20 Voice Commands, VoicePads, Dragon Naturally speaking=20 medical suite and Dragon Naturally speaking Legal suite. 3. Speak Only American English, Please ! A young Indian student from Boulder Colorado Co. points out flaws in VoicePad. It responds only to=20 accents, he says. 4. Email on Phone: New Voice Software Reading and sending email by phone without a=20 computer can be as easy as making a toll-free call. 5. IBM Chip For Faster Computers And Better Voice IBM has discovered a new faster chip called=20 "silicon-on-insulator" (SOI) which can boost=20 the performance of computers and communication=20 equipment by up to 35 percent. It will also enable=20 IBM to create more powerful voice software. 6. Computer Telecom War -- Mergers Threaten=20 "The Empire" The new mega-mergers between=20 Telecom giants may unleash new technologies=20 to bypass Microsoft's monopoly in Cyberspace.=20 7. Indian Team Finds A Serious NT Bug An Indian team finds a serious bug in Windows=20 NT operating system which could endanger security=20 and allow break-ins. 8. Windows 98 : PC Giants Ring Alarm Bells Several PC manufacturers warn upgrading to Windows=20 98 could cause conflicts with some of their models.=20 They include Compaq, Toshiba and Dell. 9. Unique "Fingerprints" For Each Computer=20 A Bangalore (India) based team has developed a virtually unbreakable software security technique=20 called CLONE (Controlled Logically Originated=20 Numeric Environment) that would enable each=20 computer to possess a unique "fingerprint"=20 identity similar to the DNA fingerprint in=20 living cells.=20 10. "Trojan Horse" to Steal Passwords A new software program called the "Trojan Horse"=20 is going to prove destructive for Windows 95/NT users. 11. Ebill: Billing for Telecom Services eBill is a modular billing solution from Infozech. For more details please visit=20 http://www.infozech.com/ebill.htm 12. Our Mailbox More Brevity=20 An admiring reader suggests more condensed version of Telcomine so that readers miss nothing. ************************************************ Off With The Keyboard: Multimedia's multiple=20 millenium visions ************************************************ Off with the keyboard! The multimedia industry is=20 promising to launch the new millenium with computers=20 that take oral commands and may not need keyboards=20 at all and telephones that receive and send email=20 by voice signals.=20 To cap it all, AT&T and TCI will give you multi-purpose=20 set-top boxes that can turn on the television, click and=20 order a movie, click again and get to the Internet and=20 click on the telephone to order a pizza. =20 Voice recognition and mega-chips are on top of the agenda.=20 Telephony and computing will be competing with and=20 supplementing each other possibly in entirely new modes=20 yet unfamiliar to the Microsoft ruled cyber-space.=20 Experts see it as a war in the making. Bill Gates's=20 empire is under siege on all sides. Dreams of this brave new world of the 21st century are=20 being fuelled by a spate of mega-mergers, each promising=20 quantum leaps in technology and services. In this issue we spotlight some of these trend=20 setting developments. ************************************ Oral Coded Commands To The Computer ************************************ Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) , an=20 international leader in the development of advanced=20 speech technology, has released Kurzweil Voice=20 Commands - a command and control application=20 for MS Word.=20 With VoiceCommands a user can replace several mouse=20 clicks and key presses with a single voice command.=20 He can talk to the computer ( with limitation) in=20 normal speech, such as "change the font of the=20 second sentence of this paragraph to Times=20 New Roman," and have the program perform it. In addition, it has also released Kurzweil VoicePad=20 which promises to support both dictation and navigation.=20 Empowered with a 20,000 active word vocabulary and an=20 online dictionary for a total of 2,00,000 words, the=20 product automatically adapts to users speech and=20 language patterns.=20 Also in the running are products from Dragon Systems=20 Inc. The Dragon Naturally speaking Medical suite contains=20 a special 230,000 - word medical vocabulary and with the=20 Dragon Naturally Speaking Legal Suite one can dictate naturally and directly into the PC eliminating the=20 time and cost needed to have documents keyed in. Not one to be left behind IBM has made a breakthrough=20 with a high-speed chip which will enable it to create=20 more powerful voice recognition software. =20 ************************************* Speak Only American English Please ! ************************************* Anshul Kumar, a 10 year old American born Indian=20 schoolboy from Boulder, Colorado, who alerted Telcomine=20 about VoicePad warns that the device could also be a=20 test of how truly American you are in your speech.=20 While he and his younger brother, Anurag, easily pass=20 the test, his father (a professor!)and mother do not.=20 VoicePad simply refuses to listen when they talk to it.=20 The reason: After 14 years in America Anshul's parents=20 still carry an Indian accent. They can't help it. Nor=20 can VoicePad. There the matter rests at present until=20 the technology recognizes the universal fact that=20 English is spoken worldwide in a myriad accents - not just the American. ************************************** Email on Phone: New Voice Software ************************************** Using voice-recognition software Planetary Motions Inc=20 lets you send e-mail through your phone.=20 Also with its newest product CoolMail, it has made it possible for a user to listen to a computer read his or her e-mail over the phone for free. Reading e-mail without a computer can be as easy as=20 making a toll-free phone call. We would be able to=20 dial up our e-mail, use the phone network to store=20 data and track phone numbers and generally treat=20 our telephone as another computer interface. Wildfire Communications hopes to get into this market=20 by turning every phone into a computerized personal=20 assistant. From there, Wildfire ( your assistant's name)=20 will let you know if you have messages, or will let=20 you call people just by saying their names or by reading=20 their phone numbers.=20 Traditional players in the phone market aren't letting=20 the newbies have all the fun. AT&T has recently launched=20 its PocketNet service, which allows customers to use=20 their cellular or digital phones to access their e-mail,=20 calendars, address and special "online information=20 channels" from Web sites such as AccuWeather, ESPN=20 SportsZone, WhoWhere? and Bloomberg Online.=20 IBM has announced an agreement with ALTech to create=20 new speech-driven telephony products for businesses.=20 =20 Motorola is also getting into the game. The company=20 is introducing a new paging product, called PocketTalk.=20 ******************************************** IBM Chip For Faster Computers, Better Voice ******************************************** A new faster chip technology called=20 "silicon-on-insulator" (SOI) will enable=20 IBM to create more powerful voice-recognition=20 software, smaller cell phones with longer-lasting=20 batteries and more portable devices for=20 connecting to the net. IBM is to build high-speed transistors that=20 can boost the performance of computers and=20 communication equipment by up to 35 percent. Specifically, silicon-on-insulator can be used=20 to create higher performance microchips for big=20 computer systems like servers and mainframes,=20 and more power-efficient chips for battery-operated=20 hand-held devices like cell phones. In September, IBM created a stir when it became=20 the first to announce new "copper chip" technology=20 that can be used to create faster, lower-cost=20 computer chips using copper instead of aluminum=20 for the wiring of such devices. ********************************* Computer Telecom War - Mergers=20 Threaten "The Empire" ********************************** "Bill Gates has got to have his eyes closed if=20 he doesn't see that these guys are building=20 critical mass to try and control the Internet"=20 says Victor Schnee, author of MegaStrategies: Winning The Computer-Telecom war. According=20 to Schnee the latest announced Telephone=20 company mergers bode ill for the computer=20 industry. Microsoft Corp., and other software=20 companies and PC makers could all be harmed by=20 further consolidation as it gives telephone=20 companies more control over how quickly new=20 technologies are put into the network to offer=20 faster access. That faster access, in turn,=20 is expected to simulate development of new=20 applications, which then triggers sale of more computers. Another worrysome implication for the Telecom=20 industry itself is that the mergers have so=20 blurred the line among long distance Interexchange=20 carriers, incumbent local excahnge carriers,=20 and cable-TV operators that it has become=20 difficult to typecast the players. AT&T has followed it up with a $10 billion global=20 joint venture with British Telecom Finally, Bell=20 Atlantic has Merged with GTE Corp. This is=20 claimed to be the biggest ever corporate=20 merger in the United States (published reports=20 put it around to a $ 55 billion)=20 ************************************* Indian Team Finds A Serious NT Bug ************************************* Microsoft's Windows NT operating system is in doldrums=20 again, this time with a serious bug that could endanger=20 security and allow break-ins.The bug, discovered by=20 three Indian Programmers late last year, lets an=20 ordinary network user and possibly anyone with =20 Internet access to impersonate a system administrator.=20 Microsoft is aware of the bug and has reportedly=20 confirmed it. It is working on a fix. The flaw=20 affects both the server and workstation versions=20 of NT 4.0 and 3.51 says Karan Khannan, product manager on the NT security team at Microsoft. ***************************************** Windows 98 : PC Giants Ring Alarm Bells ***************************************** With half a million copies sold in the US alone,=20 Windows 98, Microsoft's latest operating system,=20 is turning out to be far less than the promise.=20 Already upgrade horror stories, bugs and=20 incompatibilities are surfacing by the dozen. Stung by the furore Microsoft is already preparing=20 to release the first service pack for windows 98.=20 Dubbed service release 1, the patch is scheduled=20 to be available to windows 98 users as early as=20 September. Several major PC manufacturers including Compaq,=20 Toshiba, and Dell have issued formal warnings.=20 The upgrade, say the manufacturers, may cause=20 conflicts and problems with some of their models. ************************************** Unique "Fingerprints" For Each Computer=20 ************************************** A Bangalore (India) based team has developed a virtually=20 unbreakable software security technique called CLONE=20 (Controlled Logically Originated Numeric Environment )=20 that would enable each computer to possess a unique "fingerprint" = identity similar to the DNA fingerprint in living cells.=20 The team beleives that with the CLONE technique every=20 computer can be made unique. Mr Kumar, a member of the=20 team, claims that Internet Service Providers can use=20 the Clone technique of security to register the=20 fingerprint of each computer system logging=20 into their server. The unique fingerprint strings=20 can also be useful in tracing an intruder computer=20 that tries to break into the network, even if it=20 was not successful. Dolly, the CLONE, exists in the host computers.=20 It is charged with a special method called 'nucleus'=20 which generates a long strand of codes that is one=20 half of the total required for cloning from the=20 host computer. During the cloning process, the=20 diskette which contains Dolly is inserted and run.=20 This contains the other half of the codes from=20 the target computer and creates a unique=20 fingerprint that is one in a trillion and=20 is virtually unbreakable. However, CLONE can also be misused when in=20 the wrong hands. Using the clone technique,=20 one may be able to develop some of the deadliest=20 computer viruses for which building an anti-virus=20 software will be virtually impossible. ************************************** "Trojan Horse" to Steal Passwords=20 ************************************** A new software program called the Trojan Horse=20 is going to prove destructive for Windows 95/NT=20 users . This will steal passwords to gain unlimited=20 access to company networks or an ISP account, =20 believes Dr Solomon's Software - a company which=20 is into making tools for combating such software=20 attacks. Windows 95/NT saves the password linked with a=20 given user ID in a Windows sub-directory. After=20 searching the sub-directory for phone numbers and=20 the latest user ID for each number it then emails=20 this information to a predetermined address=20 (typically its author) using Microsoft Windows=20 Internet application calls. However Microsoft maintains that Trojan horse=20 programs represent an issue that can be eliminated=20 if customers are aware of what kind of software=20 they are downloading and take precautions to=20 prevent such intrusion.=20 ************************************ Ebill : Billing for Telecom Services ************************************ eBill is a modular Billing software solution from Infozech=20 for all types of telecommunications services like Callback,=20 Toll free Numbers(800/888), Fax, Calling Card, Internet=20 Service and other CDR based billing. More details can be found=20 at http://www.infozech.com/ebill.htm ************* Our Mailbox ************** 1. More Brevity Thanks for the Newsletter - it sure looks=20 interesting, only wish I had time to read=20 it all - is it possible to have an even=20 more condensed version?=20 -- Elwyn Ll Jones Perhaps one piece on Page 1, Column 1,=20 partly meets your needs.-- Editor 2. How much is a subscription?=20 -- Harvey Gates This newsletter is sent free to a=20 select group of professionals like you. -- Editor 3. Wow! Very impressive. It gets better and=20 better. Watch for the typos and inconsistencies,=20 though. Small suggestion that could make a big=20 difference. -- Sanjay Anand 4. Great newsletter! I wish you a lot more=20 customers for ebill! - Oliver Schmalholz Readers are invited to send comments on=20 specific articles at Telcomine@infozech.com=20 ******************************************* Information supplied on as is basis. This newsletter is a service from Infozech. If you have found Telcomine useful,=20 please consider telling somebody else about it.=20 E-mail: Telcomine@infozech.com Fax: 408-490-2840; Voice Mail: 408-490-2842 Please visit us at http://www.infozech.com