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Technology Stocks : PC Sector Round Table -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1891)	8/11/1999 12:11:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Respond to of 2025

Brush up on SSD's? Is there really any value investing to be done here? Product wise, I would seem that DSS would be more related to higher speed memory technology and it's falling ASP. Looking at T and still wondering. This company is not a quick mover and they might be spending more cash on the Media One deal than we'd like to see if the stock stays down. Now, can they do some timely manipulation to get the price up and avoid paying cash guarantees? Funny enough, Ford interests me now. Paying near 4% div, PE under 10 and earnings with potential for spinning off another unit to unlock value. Hutchinson getting back down to 22 range. Seems like a good low entry point for their trading range. Will they break 20? Has the HDD sector taken enough of a beating yet? Win 2000? Don't know much either. Upgrade stimulous? Don't know yet that this is a reason to upgrade. Was Win 98? In fact, is there a slowing of buying as people anticipate the upgrade? Seems like NT upgrade is more important at the moment with all the old biz computers that might be buggy. My current focus is more on internet spreading to new devices. Yes, I also miss Pierre and Stitch. I hope Stitch didn't feel any problems from his public opinions conflicting with work. More likely, I think he got a little concerned about this hobby of typing too much when you should be outside playing. For me, I'm hesitant to buy anything. Are we almost past this down period? Will the market slowly crumble until we get the next interest rate hike? Do you think Antec has another leg up? It's not nearly as responsive as HLIT to this expected upgrade cycle. I'm tempted to do some call writing on Antc, but that would surely mean they'd run away. Regards, Mark

To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1891)	8/13/1999 8:02:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2025

Code Cracker Worries Cryptographers Full Coverage Internet Privacy BY JEFF DONN Associated Press Writer WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - Experts in computer encryption say a new computer design, if built, could crack the kind of secret keys that now protect the bulk of electronic commerce. The estimated cost of such a computer - $2 million - would be manageable for many organizations. But most highly sensitive military, banking and other data are already protected by stronger keys, according to cryptographers at the conference where the design was shown. The commonly used weaker keys, though, would become ''easy to break for large organizations,'' said cryptographer Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He developed both the new computer design and helped invent the widespread coding system - known as RSA public-key encryption - that it attacks. Shamir spoke Thursday at the opening of a two-day conference of more than 120 cryptography experts from around the world at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Computer scientists said his work underscores the growing vulnerability of the most commonly used short form of RSA keys, which consists of just 512 bits. The key - a sequence of 1s and 0s, or bits - unlocks the secret coding of a computer transmission so it can be deciphered. Shamir dubs his idea for the computer Twinkle, which stands for The Weizmann Institute Key Locating Engine and also refers to the twinkle of its light emitting diodes. The 6-by-6-inch optical computer would measure the light from diodes to perform mathematical calculations solving 512-bit RSA encryption keys faster than ever - within two or three days. An effort in February to solve shorter, easier 465-bit keys took hundreds of computers and several months. Shamir first informally showed a prototype of his device at a conference in Prague, the Czech Republic, in May. He publicly outlined its workings at length for the first time Thursday. ''Twinkle is a little out there, but it looks like it's buildable to me,'' said Seth Goldstein, an expert in computer architecture at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. Organized crime, friendly and unfriendly governments, research institutions and others might take an interest in such a project, conference participants suggested. In any event, users of 512-bit keys ''should be worried,'' said Christof Paar, a computer engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. ''In the current state of the art, it is not secure,'' added Bob Silverman, a research scientist at Bedford-based RSA Laboratories, a division of RSA Data Security. Shamir co-founded RSA Data but no longer works there. Longer keys, such as 1,024-bit, are already employed for many sensitive communications. But, out of intelligence and other concerns, the U.S. government requires special permission to export software with the longer keys. The most popular browsers are normally set to just 512 bits. Brian Snow, a technical director for information security at the National Security Agency, spoke to the conference Thursday about weak quality assurance in commercial security products. But he declined to answer general questions for the press. Though available, longer keys are harder to set up and take more computer power to operate. Such power may be scarce in the wireless telephones, home appliances and other computerized conveniences of the future, cryptographers said. dailynews.yahoo.com

To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1891)	8/16/1999 11:23:00 AM
From: Mark Oliver	Respond to of 2025

Here's a story about inflight web access. It's a bit vague, but it made me think a little and I had a fascinating thought. Why not reshape on board duty free sales with a e-commerce twist? You know how these efforts to sell duty free seem to be a great invasion of space during a flight. What would happen if they opened up a e-commerce like option where you could browse thousands of items and whatever you bought would be waiting for you at the arrival gate before entering customs or even picking up bags? I guess I am looking at the moment when web access via a seat back terminal would be a standard part of your flight entertainment options. Like they said here, some activities would be better supported by the onboard server. So, naturally ads would push you to buying options that cover a wide range of choices that could never be supported on one of those little carts they push up and down the isle. Want a duty free camera, PC, music, or whatever? zdnet.com Regards, Mark

To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1891)	8/16/1999 12:02:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Respond to of 2025

Does the break up of HP unlock value as they say when GM or Ford do a spin off? The car companies are often considered to be worth more in pieces than a whole? Can the same be said for HP? Hewlett-Packard's Agilent files for $100 mln IPO Reuters WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Agilent Technologies Inc., a maker of test, measurement and monitoring instruments as well as semiconductors and optical components, said Monday it planned to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. Palo Alto-based Agilent did not disclose in a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission how many shares will be offered or the estimated price range for the stock. But those details are expected in subsequent regulatory filings. zdii.com Regards, Mark

To: Yogi - Paul who wrote (1891)	8/16/1999 12:15:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Respond to of 2025

Somehow, I keep expecting to see this translate into a positive gain for T. But, it's a no show so far. WCOM on the otherhand is not as hurt as one would expect. Is there a delayed reaction coming? techstocks.com Regards, Mark MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM) MCI WorldCom had a rough weekend. It took its problematic high-speed data network offline Saturday in the hopes of solving technical problems that have plagued the systems for more than a week. Thanks to the technical glitches, millions of customers have been unable to consistently get online, including more than 2 million AOL and CompuServe subscribers. The stock closed up 2 9/16 to 78 11/16 Friday.