A toll collector on the information highway; Online Resources has a patent that may take it into every home
Article Abstract:
Online Resources and Communications Corp receives a process patent covering any online transaction in which consumers debit their bank accounts from their homes over the automated-teller-machine (ATM) network. The patent is so broad that it may allow Online to collect licensing fees not only for home-banking transactions, but from any company that receives online payment from home consumers using the ATM network. This could potentially include companies offering such services as home shopping, pay television, interactive television and securities trading. Online Pres Matthew P. Lawlor invented the transaction processing concept covered by the patent, and was surprised when a friend told him that the concept itself was patentable, without needing to be tied to any particular device. Lawlor started Online, which offers a $100 screen telephone and a $6.95-a-month service that consumers can use to access the ATM network to pay bills from their homes, in 1989.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1993
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Computerized ordering helps bookstores thrive
Article Abstract:
Bookstores are doing well, even at a time when other businesses are in trouble,despite concerns about rising prices. A reason why bookstores are thriving can be found in the ways such stores are using computer technology. Stores use computers to track sales, and consequently, inventories can be kept to a minimum. Stores can also order in more efficient ways, using networks of distributors so that it is possible to stock fewer copies of any individual book and to stock a greater variety of titles. Publishers, therefore, must now rethink the sizes of printings that they order. Some years ago, independent booksellers feared that chain stores might run them out of the business, but such fears have disappeared. In fact, chains are starting to rethink their operations, devoting more space to services and breadth of stock, and less to non-book operations.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1991
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Facts to fit every fancy: custom textbooks are here
Article Abstract:
McGraw-Hill Inc announces the ability to customize college textbooks to fit specific needs of individual teachers or students, delivering products in 48 hours. Thus, students majoring in an area might receive books that include more information; non-majors would get books that have less. McGraw-Hill's system, developed in a joint venture with Eastman Kodak Co, will allow an instructor to order as few as 10 or 20 books. The system can also be used at elementary or secondary levels. Instructors can omit or add material at their discretion. Books can even be personalized with the instructor's name, school and class number on their covers. McGraw-Hill will begin taking orders in the spring. A company spokesman describes the new system as having 'profound implications for book publishing and education.' The company declines to predict sales.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1989
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