Net brings Mars mission live to your desktop
July
6, 1997
By JIM BROOKS
The Mars Pathfinder was set to touchdown on Mars Friday, July
4 -- and in preparation for the event, NASA has prepared a first-class
Web site to showcase the event.
Actually, its a number of Web sites. Anticipating that the demand
for information would outstrip the capacity of a single Web server,
NASA has arranged for "mirrors" of its Mars Pathfinder
site.
As the name suggests, they are identical copies of the "original"
Web site. There are 26 mirrors for the Pathfinder site, in locations
all over the world.
At this writing, the Pathfinder sites were waiting for the landing
procedures to commence in a few hours.
The Mars Pathfinder mission includes a mechanized unmanned rover
that will beam back live pictures from the surface of Mars.
Once the rover is on the surface and operational, the Pathfinder
sites will have up-to-the-minute weather information (Mars, that
is), as well as scientific data from the lander.
There are even links to live audio and video sources from NASA
TV.
If you're a student or a just fan of science, you owe it to yourself
to visit one of the mirrored Mars Pathfinder sites and get an update
on what's going on.
For a master list of the many Mars Pathfinder Web site mirrors,
point your browser to http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/.
WIN98 "PROMISING." The update for the aging Windows95
operating system -- referred to as Windows98 and code-named "Memphis"
-- looks "promising," according to a sneak peek by the
editors of PC Week magazine.
A beta version of the operating system was released Thursday to
about 10,000 testers for evaluation.
As promised, the new operating system's desktop looks more like
a Web browser than the old Windows95 desktop. It uses the Internet
Explorer interface to navigate drives files and directories as well
as surf the Internet.
There are no stunning new developments, but PC Week testers say
the improvements and new features will "hold wide appeal."
The release date for the software is still "by the end of
the year," PC Week said.
WINDOWS SHUT. While millions of users and businesses still
use the old 16-bit Windows version 3.1 or 3.11, don't look for it
to be available on new PCs after the end of this year.
Most PC makers have already dropped the option of installing Windows
3.11 or plan to do this year, reports PC Week.
PC makers will likely still offer technical support for Windows
3.11 machines through next year.
Microsoft officials say they are discouraging sales of the 16-bit
operating system, but haven't set a formal date to cut-off support
or sales.
According to Microsoft, there are more than 200 million computers
running the older versions of Windows.
MONEY TALKS. The number one online service's courtship of
number two continues.
America Online's on-again, off-again pursuit of CompuServe is apparently
on again.
According to a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal, AOL's partner
in Germany is sweetening AOL's bid with some cold hard cash.
Bertelsmann AG cash is being offered with AOL's original bid of
about $1 billion in stock. H&R Block Inc. has rejected the stock-only
bids from AOL. Block owns 80 percent of AOL rival CompuServe.
AOL would not only be able to add CompuServe's three million members
to its own 8.5 million, but it would immediately be able to expand
its still-limited network capacity.
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