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To: Robert Utne who wrote (24735)	11/3/1997 10:49:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Toshiba Makes 15GB DVD With New Laser November 3, 1997 (TOKYO) -- Toshiba Corp. is developing a next-generation DVD product that uses a blue-violet semiconductor laser. The Tokyo-based electronics company provided details of the R&D project at the Joint Magneto-Optical Recording International Symposium and International Symposium on Optical Memory (Joint MORIS/ISOM '97), which was held recently in Yamagata. At the international symposium, a Toshiba official delivered a lecture on trends in optical memory recording density and the entire industry. The official said that Toshiba is developing a 15GB single-sided DVD with a data transfer rate of 30Mbps through the use of a GaN-system blue-violet semiconductor laser. [Note: This is the data rate for HDTV.] Toshiba's 7.5GB single-sided DVD made on an experimental basis, and which was unveiled at the company's technology fair held in March 1997, was the first step in a development strategy, and the new DVD now under development is the second step. The first DVD uses a blue-green SHG laser. The company official projected that a single-side DVD with a capacity of 50GB will appear around 2005. Unlike in the case of CD standards, the DVD industry will have a succession of standards as innovative technologies are developed, according to Toshiba's view. (Nikkei Electronics)

To: Robert Utne who wrote (24735)	11/3/1997 5:03:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Direct Duo............................................................. washingtonpost.com Dishing Out Fast Internet Access By Daniel Greenberg Friday, October 31, 1997; Page N74 The Washington Post The only wait longer than the World Wide Wait for slow Web pages is the delay in getting faster Internet connections. Promising technologies like cable modems and affordable ISDN have simply not materialized for most people. The answer to this dilemma may be to space out. Hughes Network Systems, which helped pioneer small-dish satellite-TV, has just launched DirecDuo, a combination of the company's popular DirecTV service with a new kind of Internet downloading called DirecPC. DirecPC blazes past all other forms of consumer-level Internet delivery by shooting data down to your PC at an amazing 400 kilobits per second (kbps), dusting garden-variety 28.8-kbps modems by a factor of almost 14. The operative word is downloading, because while the little dish gulps in data at remarkable speeds, it still requires a standard modem, phone line and dial-up Internet provider to send out your request for data. Bouncing your bits through the satellite actually slows your outgoing connection by about a second, which makes the system a poor choice for time-sensitive online games. (You can bypass DirecPC to access your dial-up account directly, although the dish then becomes a rather expensive house gargoyle.) We opted for a professional installation, which helped keep setup relatively simple, and since then the service has run without a hitch through several weeks of heavy use and abuse. It works with just about any (Win 95) Internet software: browsers, mail programs, even Internet investment software like Quicken's Live Update feature. The download speed is jaw-dropping: Graphics-heavy Web pages blast onto the screen and video clips execute immediately. All but the biggest downloads seem nearly instantaneous. Speeds varied from site to site, and busy sites could still slow the system, but tests with Vital Signs' net.medic utility confirmed DirecPC's claims, at times clocking the system as fast as 550 kbps. Cable modems can go faster than DirecPC under certain conditions, and if you believe the phone company's promises, a next-generation phone-line technology called ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) will outstrip it at a potentially lower cost. But neither is a reality for most people in the D.C. area now. DirecPC is, and it fundamentally feels right. This is the way the Internet was supposed to be well, at least in Bill Gates's world. Start with a street price of $700 for the satellite dish ($600 with the current rebate program), approximately $200 for installation (highly recommended unless you are an experienced electrician with a good masonry drill) and a one-time $50 activation fee. DirecPC's connect charges run from $20 a month to a whopping $130 (in addition to another twenty bucks a month or so for a conventional Internet provider). And if you want to watch satellite TV, you pay for that service as well. So is it worth it? If you're tired of glacially slow Internet service, it could be tempting -- ISDN costs just as much and runs much slower. If you are also tempted by satellite TV and anxious to drop-kick your cable company, DirecDuo could be a perfect solution. Factor out the costs of satellite TV (which offers more channels than cable and looks much better), and the remaining few hundred dollars to set up DirecPC service suddenly seems downright affordable. Especially if you sign up for one of the evenings and weekends plans ($40 a month for 400-kbps service, or $20 a month for 200 kbps service). Even if you throttle back DirecPC to half speed to get the rock-bottom price, you still outpace ISDN. (There are also $16 and $10 a month plans, but they limit the amounts you can download or add additional charges per megabyte of data downloaded.) Then again, if you're spending that much time on the Internet, maybe you really should be watching more TV. DirecDuo, Hughes Network Systems; Win 95, 8, $800 (DirecPC-only dish, $500), 800/347-3272, direcduo.com c Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company