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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scrapps who wrote (16471)	6/26/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 22053

Would-be inventor patents 'simple' solution to Y2K bug (Crawfordsville, Ind.) Journal Review - Thursday, June 25, 1998 CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. -- The world is spending billions of dollars and billions of hours trying to teach computers that a new century will begin Jan. 1, 2000. It took Wesley Stout 14 months of 8 to 10 hour days to develop a solution. Stout, of Ladoga, Ind., has filed a patent application. Don Watkins, the attorney who filed the application calls it a new approach. ''If this solution works, Wesley Stout and Bill Gates will be mentioned in the same breath,'' says Don Watkins of Litman Law Offices Ltd. of Arlington, Va. Under the present six-digit date system used by virtually all computers, there is no provision for a change of century. So Jan. 1, 2000, is a problem for computers that will read the date as 01-01-00 and interpret it as Jan. 1, 1900 -- or not understand it at all. Among the dire predictions are air-traffic control problems, paychecks refused by bank computers and military weapons systems derailed. Stout's solution would use the day of the year and a perpetual calendar to program computers to take into account the change of century. Here is how it works, using the example of June 26, 1998. Each day of the year is numbered. Jan. 1 is day one, Jan. 2 is day two, etc. June 26 is day 177. Using the standard six-digit date system, the Stout plan would label June 26, 1998, as 17-72-98, instead of 06-26-98. His system arrives at 17-72-98 this way: The first three digits, ''17-7'' correspond with the day of the year. The fourth digit, ''2,'' identifies the century. Stout has given the years 1800-1899 the code number 1. The years 1900-1999 are given the code number 2. The years 2000-2099 are given the code year 3. Stout said that when the century code number 9 is used, information from the earlier centuries can be archived and the century codes 1 through 8 can be used again. The fifth and sixth digits are the last two digits of the year, 1998. Stout says the Social Security Administration has been working on the Y2K problem, as it's come to be known, since 1989. Citibank, he says, has spent $25 million to $40 million in efforts to resolve the problem. Stout paid Litman Law Offices $4,395 to file his patent application. He says programmers have written 100 million lines of computer code. Stout sat in front of his computer 8-10 hours a day for 14 months. He says, ''I can't get any software or hardware company to talk to me. They say, 'We're developing our own product.''' Stout, a retired tool and die maker and decorated war veteran, says his system can be keyed manually onto any computer's hard drive. But when the computer industry discovers his system works -- and it is patented -- ''Then, they will have to come to me.'' Stout offered his invention to Bill Gates and Microsoft for $1.5 million. He says the company didn't respond. Calls to Microsoft were passed off to voice mail at a public relations company. Patent attorney Watkins says, ''We reviewed other solutions to the problem.'' Watkins can't verify that Stout's solution will work, but the firm's search indicated no one has patented the same solution. Stout is also represented by Bakers & Daniels, a law firm in Fort Wayne. Attorney Kevin Erdman is familiar with the Y2K problem; in fact, the law firm publishes a newsletter dealing with the subject. Erdman says, ''I think (Stout has) a viable solution, but it may not be the only solution.'' He says the system will have to be tried on a system-by-system basis. No news 'bout nut'n today. Found this. Can you say cockamamie? o~~~ O

To: Scrapps who wrote (16471)	6/29/1998 12:00:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Wireless LAN Alliance, WLANA, Announces Industry Progress Toward Wireless LAN Interoperability - BW, 09:08 a.m. Jun 29, 1998 Eastern WLANA Reaffirms Support for IEEE 802.11 as the Standard for Wireless LANs REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 1998-- The Wireless LAN Alliance (WLANA) today announced industry progress toward wireless LAN interoperability and reaffirmed its support for IEEE 802.11 as the standard for enterprise wireless LANs in the 2.4 GHz band. The 802.11 standard, and the increase in industry-wide interoperability associated with it, is making way for continued growth in the wireless LAN industry. Improved product interoperability provides customers with investment protection and purchasing flexibility. guide-p.infoseek.com o~~~ O