[1] From: James O'Donnell <jod@CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU> (5)
Subject: the oldest University WWW site ever
[2] From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk> (36)
Subject: Online
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Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 23:00:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: James O'Donnell <jod@CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: the oldest University WWW site ever
Recommended reading:
http://www.upenn.edu/AR/1830/index.html
Jim O'Donnell
Classics, U. of Penn.
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Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 21:26:58 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: Online
Extracted from the Guardian Online this week (see
<http://online.guardian.co.uk/> for many of these items):
(1) Adrian Mars, "Keys to the plague", on viruses, their makers, etc. Having
myself passed on news of bogus viruses, I was particularly caught by the
brief discussion of these. "Alan Solomon, founder of the anti-virus company
bearing his name, notes that a 'considerable amount of harm is in fact
caused by over-reacting to both real viruses and false alarms. An Australian
bank, for example, using now unavailable anti-virus software, reacted to a
virus warning that later turned out to be a false alarm. They shut down
their entire foreign exchange dealing system for 24 hours at a cost of
around 3 [million pounds]." To what degree, I wonder, does this happen with
supposed biological diseases and health threats generally? Improved
communications systems, as we have noted here before, make raising a scare
(for ill as well as for good) increasingly easier. In the end do we really
want faster and easier communications systems? Do we have a choice?
(2) Tim Radford, "The coil can't help it", on an artifical giant Anaconda,
40 feet long, constructed for the forthcoming horror movie, Anaconda. The
creature has 140 vertebrate joints hydraulically controlled within the body,
with a computer system that is essentially a processor for each joint to
control the movements. Students of automata will take notice. Is anyone
watching the match between Gary Kasparov and Deep Blue? Is there a web site
for the match?
(3) The Albert Einstein Archives, bequeathed to the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, which has begun to construct a site to display them, at
<http://www2.huji.ac.il/~jnul/einstein/>.
(4) Converse, a program written by the London software house Intelligent
Research, just won the Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence for
out-talking, in a Turing Test, contenders from the US, Canada, and
Australia! See George McMurdo, "Stone age babies in cyberspace",
<http://www.qmced.ac.uk/cis/staff/cimmu/jisew/ewv22n1/default.htm>, on
"Emulating a Turing Machine".
WM
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer, King's College London
voice: +44 (0)171 873 2784 fax: +44 (0)171 873 5801
e-mail: Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/ruhc/wlm/