Traffic Reports at Demo ’97
About 700 computer company executives, investors and analysts will be in Indian Wells this week for Demo ‘97, one of the premier new-product showcases in the technology business.
In a switch from last year, when the Internet and computer networking fever were just taking hold, the big topics will include relieving network congestion and expanding the ways in which corporate computer systems use Internet technology.
Companies will unveil software used to send specific programs from central network computers to employees or consumers when they are needed, rather than first storing them on desktop computers. Other products will be demonstrated that help information sent across networks avoid traffic jams.
Cyberspace
This week:
* Today, 7 p.m.: Writer Charles Murray, author of the controversial book “The Bell Curve,” chats about his new book, “What It Means to Be a Libertarian.” CompuServe. GO PREVIEW
* Wednesday, 6 p.m.: Amateur astronomers Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker, who discovered a comet, will talk about their experiences. Internet. https://www.NBC.com/chat
* Thursday, 6 p.m.: Avant-garde composer Philip Glass will speak live from Brazil about his new opera, “The Witches of Venice,” which he wrote for La Scala Opera House. Microsoft Network. RIFF
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ON THE NET
* Friday is Valentine’s Day, and there’s plenty of romantic help available on the Net. If you’re working on a homemade valentine, get some free clip art--hearts, cupids, etc.--at https://www.accent.net/coggan/valentines.html. Get a fix of love poems at https://www.alienbill.com/romance. Want to say it with flowers? Check out https://www.dina.kvl.dk:80/~fischer/alt.romance/flowers.html to find out what message a flower conveys. Red tulips, for example, are a declaration of love, while yellow roses say jealousy and blue violets mean faithfulness. Unsure about your significant other? Let the Love Calculator (https://www.xs4all.nl/~kink/love) figure the probability of a successful relationship. You can also send cyber-valentines from https://valentine.universalstudios.com/frameUNDERSCOREindex.html, https://www.eonline.com/Hot/Valentine or https://www.disneyinteractive.com. For a more creative valentine, get Cyrano, at https://www.nando.net/toys/cyrano, to help you craft a poem.
* If you’re concerned that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 hasn’t delivered its promised benefits, as many consumer activists believe, join the Center for Educational Priorities protest site (https://www.cep.org/protest.html).
* The Children’s Institute International is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to the treatment and prevention of child abuse. (https://www.childrensinstitute.org) Find out about the group’s services, including child and family assessment, foster care, day care and child health services.
* The USC interactive museum (https://digimuse.usc.edu/museum.html) features 19th century American landscapes and 20th century Japanese prints, and lets you move around an 800-pound marble sculpture on display at USC’s Fisher Gallery.
* A picture is worth how many words? Find out how ancient Egyptians used pictures to communicate at (https://www.pbs.org/nova/pyramid). You can also tour the inside passages of the Great Pyramid at Giza and learn about Egyptian civilization.
* Looking for information on, say, health care? You can visit one of 766 Web “rings” at https://www.webring.org. The service, which groups sites on a similar subject along a circular list, makes it easy to browse a group of sites on a number of topics.
* Find information on the national parks at https://www.nps.gov. You can look up a specific park or search by state to find parks in your area. The site includes descriptions of each park, operating hours, directions, climate, and more.
Site suggestions can be sent to cutting.edge@latimes.com
