The last edition of Network World for 1998 is out now in this week's ComputerWorld.
It includes a feature on the future of wireless networks, the fallout from the networking industry's "great debate", plus the regular news and opinions. Click on the Network World logo at our home page - http://networkworld.idg.com.au - for direct access to the stories.
Feature: Technology advances sweeten wireless data's futureMix a mobile phone with a modem-equipped laptop, stir in wireless data and what pops out is a dish too sour for the taste of most network managers.
In their eyes, wireless data platforms are too slow, too fiddly and too expensive to make the corporate network infrastructure A-team.
But sweeter times are coming for wireless data delivery and they are coming fast.
Q&A: Vendors take centre stage in industry debateThe networking industry recently did its best to unearth the "real issues" in a lively debate at an exhibition and conference in Sydney. It featured the managing directors of Australia's most prominent networking vendors.
Unfortunately, the vendors failed to answer all the "tough" questions they prepared for each other.
So, armed with a leaked copy of the official (vendor anonymous) debate questions, we interviewed each MD after the debate.
Corner's column: Information policy deja vuAt the end of November the government announced the latest move in its strategy to develop Australia's information and communication industries, the membership of the Australian Information Economy Advisory Council (AIEAC). The 24-member council comprises leading figures from government, academia, and industry and replaces a number of other similar advisory boards.
Editorial: What's with the Star Trek obsession?
Hands up all you Star Trek fans. Don't hide, I know you're 'out there'.
Call it a hunch, but I reckon I know exactly why network managers like being a trekkie. Starship Enterprise. This massive 'enterprise' travels the universe loaded with all sorts of technical wizardry - least of all a massive network - ready for just about anything.
Gibbs' column: ICANN? Can they? We hope they canThe king is dead, long live the king. -- British official proclamation made on the death of the monarch to signify the succession of ruleRecently I discussed the curiously stupid behaviour of Network Solutions, which used to run the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC).
We need an effective and fair organisation to manage the Internet's naming system, and NSI isn't it. The king is dead . .
Off the wire: Dr Freud . . . meet Mr GatesBill Gates has been the subject of thousands of articles, many TV shows and a growing array of Web sites.
But despite the endless publicity, does anyone besides the software titan himself know what makes Bill Gates tick?
Network World posed these and a series of other questions about Gates to three top mental health professionals in the Boston area.