important message about netlib evolution

[David G. Hough at validgh]

From: NA Net Administration
Date: Monday, April 1, 1996
Subject: Cosmic NA Net

We are pleased to announce a joint venture involving NA Net, Netlib
and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.  Effective immediately, it
will be possible to down load software and other material from Netlib
using the various international digital TV satellite systems operated
by Murdoch's companies, including the "Sky" satellite in Europe and
the "Star" satellite in Asia.  Murdoch's North American satellite
system will not be operational until the fall; in the interim, 
Netlib will be carried by cable's Home Shopping Network.

An inexpensive video sensor is now available at many electronic and
computer stores.  It plugs into a SCSI port on most computers,
receives bar-code video signals from the TV set and translates them
into source and object code files on the computer.  A Java applet is
available which will search the computer's entire file system, find
any programs which reference the Netlib routines and finish the job
of making complete applications.

The joint venture also involves NA Net mail and the NA Digest.  An
Internet search engine is already periodically checking the login
and password files of all computers connected to the Net and monitoring
the location and usage of all NA Net members.  After a few months, a
principal components algorithm (employing the singular value
decomposition) will be able to anticipate individual member's travel
plans and insure that NA Net mail and the NA Digest will rearch them
any place in the world.  This should work well for everybody except
Gene Golub, who travels so much that none of us can keep track of him.

We are all excited by this new venture, which demonstrates, yet again,
that NA Net will use any technology we can get our hands on.

  -- Cleve Moler
     Jack Dongarra
     Eric Grosse