Computers Networks

Driven by a desire to vent rage and sorrow kindled by historic events in their homeland, Chinese scattered throughout the world have turned to a collection of computer networks they have fashioned into a high-tech version of Chinese wallposters. From Iowa to New York, from France to Norway, Chinese students and professors alike have tapped into computers to share transcripts of telephone conversations with relatives in China, rage over atrocities witnessed on television, mourn acquaintances slain and, in one case, to start in motion a proposal to award the student demonstrators the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday took his reelection campaign on the road--the information superhighway. Sitting in front of a computer at a Silicon Valley manufacturing company, Wilson pecked out answers on his keyboard to questions from constituents with cyberspace handles like Tecnonut, Annecat, Mermaid and Miz beyond. The exchange, carried out on a network organized by the San Jose Mercury News, started out well enough. "Hi, this is Gov. Pete Wilson," the governor typed. "Welcome Pete!

Santa Monica's electronics wizard, Ken Phillips, did not expect to be overwhelmed by potential users demanding access to a new computer network at City Hall. A couple of queries a day would probably trickle in, he thought. It's a good thing Phillips knows computers better than he predicts human curiosity. Within two days of the innovative network's debut, more than 250 people were clamoring to sign on.

Astrophysicist Larry Smarr needed a super computer a decade ago to handle the complex equations of his work on the black holes of space. But no American university had such an advanced machine for basic academic research, so the University of Illinois professor had to beg computer time from friends at government military labs and in West Germany, where non-military use of super computers was more common.

Larry Goldberg's town has a grocery store, a theater, a library, an art gallery and, of course, a teen-agers' hangout. But you won't find it on any map. It's called Northcoast Electronic Town, or N.E.T., a cybernetic linkup of five of the state's northernmost counties that Goldberg launched last year.

Orange County's first new high school in four years cost $25 million, but there isn't a stick of chalk or a simple blackboard in sight. Instead, each classroom at Aliso Niguel High School features a Macintosh computer and a remote control linking a 27-inch television monitor via fiber-optic cable to a library nerve center filled with racks of laser disc players, CD-ROM machines and other state-of-the-art gadgets.

Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia -- an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security. Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S.

The dialogue sounded like that of any party: announcements of guests arriving and departing, jokes about the cake, even a chorus of "Happy Birthday." But this was no ordinary party. The guests were in different cities; the only sound was the crisp clicking of keystrokes, and the birthday boy was missing, taken from a father who faced a mournful day remembering his loss.

A federal judge Wednesday temporarily blocked Microsoft Corp. from using a networking feature in future versions of its Windows operating system. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco forbade Microsoft from selling or marketing its Chimney design while a lawsuit over a patent owned by Alacritech Inc. was pending, closely held Alacritech said in a statement.

Cisco Systems Inc., a bellwether in the devastated networking equipment industry, gave Wall Street a bit to cheer about Monday as it reported better-than-expected quarterly sales amid a loss of $268 million. Company executives also forecast flat to slightly higher sales for the current three-month period, even though the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may have knocked as much as 5% off sales growth for the current quarter.