Channel Talk (2 July)

• It seems George Orwell may not have been as paranoid as some made out, even if he was a little way off with his projections when he designated 1984 as the year to worry about Big Brother. A Philadelphia software company called The Green Tree, which seems to be desperately seeking Big Brother?s Preferred Disciple status, has developed a program called com.Policy that takes random screen captures of a computer at pre-set intervals, so managers can know exactly what users have been doing or viewing at any given time. It also logs all programs executed along with any online activity that takes place. Maybe someone should formally introduce Green Tree to uber-disciple Bill and see if he won?t take the fledgling under his (bat) wing.
• Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO and Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, are fighting again, but this time it?s not over market share but the title Mr Nineties Nice Guy. Billy?s gift of $200 million to provide internet access for public libraries in the US was a welcome one but it was matched by Larry?s gift of $100 million for schools to buy network computers. The only difference being that Bill?s gift came from his personal stash and Larry?s came from Oracle.
• Talking of Ellison, did you hear about his night out with Sharon Stone? According to US reports, they shared dinner at a night spot called Babette?s. But it doesn?t look as though this is going to be the start of a beautiful affair, for it appears as though Stone was after his expertise. She wanted to talk to him about her sister?s charity organisation which offers computer training for the homeless. And it doesn?t look like there will be a repeat of dinner, as she was said to be upset that Ellison went around telling everyone about his hot date.
• E-commerce may well be the next big thing, but it is still very much in its infancy. In the US, a company called E+Trade Group has developed a system for trading stocks and shares over the Web. Great idea, except that the system crashed last week just as the Dow Jones was riding high. The fault lay with a defective disk drive and to make matters worse the backup systems also hung up. Anyone logging on hoping to make a fast buck was greeted by a screen telling them to use their phone instead. E+ Trade had the same trouble back in May when it ended up forking out $1.7 million in compensation. Back to the drawing board.
• The latest affliction to torment the new digerati: Beepilepsy. No, it?s not some sort of rash you get from looking at dodgy Web sites in a darkened room. It is apparently what those tooled-up executive types suffer from when their pagers or mobile phones start to ring, or worse, vibrate. Those in the know describe the sufferer, after the initial state of panic sets in, as ?progressing into confused facial expressions, jerky body motions as they go searching for the offending noise, and sudden lapses in both speech and thought?.