are we not going to sell any of this information to third parties," says a Comet spokesperson. Bottom Line Price Tag
ROBOT WHEELCHAIR CLIMBS STAIRS
Y2K AFTERMATH
Governments and companies worldwide spent about $200 billion on the Y2K computer problem. U,S. Y2K chief John Koskinen said. This figure is easy to break down: The U.S. spent $ 100 billion; the rest of the world spent $ 100 billion.
magine a sleek wheelchair with two pairs of midsize wheels on a swivel. Imagine approaching a curb, or even, stairs, and being able to swivel repeatedly up the stairs. Imagine sitting in the supermarket, hitting the "stand" button, and swiveling up on two wheels to reach the top shelf. This describes the IBOT, a self-propelled chair on wheels that knows, using gyroscopes and microprocessors, how to keep its balance. Invented by Dean Kamen, the IBOT is now in clinical trials prior to approval by the EDA. Johnson & Johnson has invested $50 million in developing the Independence 3000 IBOT Transporter. Availability by prescription is projected for 2001, at about $25,000.
THE BOSS KNOWS
Corporate surveillance of employee email is rising: 27% of major U,S, firms check employee email, up from 15% in 1997. Fewer companies that monitor email are telling their employees they are doing so--84% in 1999, down from 91% in 1998. Financial services firms lead In electronic monitoring (including voice mail and video surveillance)--68%. followed by business and professional service providers--51 %--and by wholesalers and retailers--47%.
Source: America Management Association survey of member was companies
I
"There puffery by vendors and some money \-i> ,ftnr"
't' \ J* ijons. , ^^^<'^*
was wasted, but these were real problems."
--Leon Kappelman, co-chair of the Society for Information Management's Y2K Working group
"Why did we fall for this hype? I feel cheated, betrayed, misused, abused, deceived, and
e v e r y t h i n g e l s e ! " --Anonymous postir}g in on Intemet discussion group, signed "GuUibte"
On the Horizon
This month's leap day. the 29th. could pose the next problem for computers not programmed to recognize the first "extra" leap year in 400 years. Leap day 2000 is an exception in that most leap days normally are skipped in years ending in 00. However, if the year ending in 00 can be divided evenly by 400 it is still a leap year. Some computers may not expect a leap day this year, and thus skip ahead to March 1. 2000.
HIGH TECH. HOLD THE COMPUTER
T
he most complicated watch made without a computer was auctioned at Sotheby's. The 74-year'old Patek Philipe pocket watch sold for SI 1 million, the most ever paid for a timepiece. B
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NIELSON NET RATINGS
Top 10 Web Sites as of November 1999
Property 1, AOL Websites 2, Yahoo! 3, MSN 4, Lycos Network 5, GO Network 6, Microsoft 7, Excite@Home 8, Blue Mt. Arts 9, Time Warner 10, AltaVista Unique Audience 21.935 19.965 12,966 9,767 6^43 5^70 5,322 4.404 4.228 3,770 Time Per Person 0:10:00 0:25:38 0:18:07 0:07:3 1 0:12:48 0:07:17 0:14:07 0:11:49 0:09:24 0:06:05
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Februa^ 2000/Vol. 43. No. 2 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM