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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Monday, January 24, 2000, 8:32 AM -0500
From: Faulkner Information Services <flash@faulkner.com>
To: ???
Subject: Cyberscape Digest 01/21/2000

                                 CYBERSCAPE DIGEST

Welcome to CyberScape Digest, a roundup of top internet stories delivered
weekly to Faulkner Information Services subscribers.

This issue of CyberScape Digest covers events from Monday 01/17 through
Friday 01/21. Here's what you should know...

Consolidation of Technology Companies Continues...
Akamai Technologies agreed to purchase Network24 Communications for stock
valued at $200 million. Akamai plans to integrate Network24's Qcast
application into its EdgeAdvantage platform in order to allow companies to
better manage live and on-demand Internet broadcasts. UK-based security firm
Baltimore Technologies agreed to acquire GTE CyberTrust Solutions, thus
buying its way into the US public key infrastructure market--not a bad place
to be, considering that US laws relating to the export of strong encryption
have been relaxed. The company will pay $150 million to complete the
transaction, and at least some of this will be in the form of stock.
Speaking of stock transactions, CNET reported that it is engaged in a rather
large one--$700 million worth of stock, which it is using to purchase
mySimon, an online comparison shopping service. So radical is the move that
CNET is even changing its name, to CNET Networks, in recognition of the
variety of businesses the company now embraces. Some businesses went on
spending sprees this week. CMGI kept it all in the family with its
advertising company, Engage Technologies, purchasing Flycast Communications
and AdSmart, ad networks in which CMGI possesses a majority stake. Engage
will pay for its purchases with stock valued at $2.5 billion. Gemstar, in
the midst of a merger with TV Guide, snapped up NuvoMedia and SoftBook, two
electronic book manufacturers, for an undisclosed sum. Wonder how long it
will be before TV Guide is available in a version that can be downloaded
into an e-book reader? 
[ http://www.akamai.com/ ], [ http://www.network24.com/ ], [
http://www.baltimore.com/ ], [ http://www.cybertrust.com/ ], [
http://www.cnet.com/ ], [ http://www.mysimon.com/ ], [ http://www.cmgi.com/
], [ http://www.engage.com/ ], [ http://www.flycast.com/ ], [
http://www.adsmart.net/ ], [ http://www.gemstar.com/ ], [
http://www.tvguide.com/ ], [ http://www.nuvomedia.com/ ], [
http://www.softbook.com/ ]

..But Agreements Make the Internet Buzz
E-mail looks like it will continue to be the "killer app"--or at least
that's what BellSouth is betting. The phone company agreed to a market trial
of Landel Telecom's Mailbug, an e-mail device for users who don't want the
complications of a full-fledged PC. Meanwhile, the growth of the Internet in
Asia is the focus of both Cisco Systems and Lucent. Lucent agreed to invest
up to $100 million in Hanaro Telecom, a major Korean high-speed ISP; all
three companies are examining the possibility of engaging in joint projects.
H&R Block chose to expand beyond its boundaries in a different way. The tax
company made a deal with E-LOAN to feature the online mortgage company as
the exclusive provider of mortgage services on H&R Block's Web site.
Financial terms were not disclosed. For those looking for something other
than a mortgage, UK free ISP Freeserve made a deal with search engine
company Inktomi to integrate Inktomi's technology into Freeserve's Web
portal. The deal will combine Freeserve's respected technologies for
searching European Web sites, with Inktomi's technologies, which are highly
rated for searching American and Canadian Web sites. Betting on the
technology of a wireless Internet, Nortel Networks said it will invest $25
million in Research in Motion, an e-mail pager firm, as part of a research
and marketing agreement. In the office, the technology behind postage and
printers is taken for granted--unless, perhaps, the two are combined.
Stamps.com, one of only two companies authorized by the US Postal Service to
offer electronic stamps over the Internet, signed a deal with
Hewlett-Packard to bundle its software on printer installation CDs of HP
OfficeJet and LaserJet printers. The two companies will also run a
co-branded Web site to allow their customers to access the Internet postage
service, and the first month of the service will be free.
[ http://www.bellsouth.com/ ], [ http://www.landel.com/ ], [
http://www.cisco.com/ ], [ http://www.lucent.com/ ], [
http://www.hanaro.net/ ], [ http://www.hrblock.com/ ], [
http://www.eloan.com/ ], [ http://www.freeserve.com/ ], [
http://www.inktomi.com/ ], [ http://www.nortelnetworks.com/ ], [
http://www.stamps.com/ ], [ http://www.hp.com/ ]

Microsoft Issues Reply to Judge Jackson's Findings
Microsoft answered US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of
fact in the Department of Justice vs. Microsoft antitrust case. In its 70+
page brief, Microsoft appealed to case law going back over the past 30 years
to back up its claim that it does not hold a monopoly on PC operating
systems, and that the government did not prove any of its antitrust charges.
The brief disputes the judge's findings, issued early last November, that
Microsoft "enjoys a monopoly," and also disputes the Justice Department's
arguments that the software giant took illegal actions to maintain that
monopoly. The brief emphasizes Judge Jackson's finding that "many--if not
most--consumers can be said to benefit from Microsoft's provisions of Web
browsing functionality with its Windows operating system at no additional
charge." The DoJ and Microsoft are expected to rebut each other's
conclusions; oral arguments will follow near the end of February, leading to
a ruling sometime in the spring.
[ http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.usdoj.gov/ ]

Governments and the Internet
In response to a specific complaint, the Australian Broadcasting Authority
issued an "interim take-down" notice to someone hosting possibly X-rated
content on domestic Web servers. The unidentified hoster complied with the
order. Under Australia's Online Services Act, the material will now be
evaluated by the country's Office of Film and Literature Classification, and
if it is found to be X-rated (sexually explicit), the hoster can be
prevented from putting it back up. Electronic Frontiers Australia, a
free-speech organization, expressed concern that the standards being used to
judge the material may be stricter than those used for print media--so that
the same photo could be cleared for print publication, but not Internet
publication. China, which saw the number of its citizens using the Internet
more than double over the last six months (from four million to nearly nine
million), revealed plans to liberalize online stock trading. Ran Li, CEO of
Hong Kong-based GoTrade.com, reacted to the news by looking forward to an
influx of new customers--40 million people invest stock in China, but only
15,000 of them do it online. In the US, California looks set to become the
fourth state to make lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles a thing of
the past, with a program to allow online renewal of vehicle registration
starting in April. Nevada governor Kenny Guinn is pushing for even more--he
hopes to set up Internet access to all the state's government offices and
forms by April 30. The service will be available through a singe Web site.

[ http://www.aba.gov.au/ ], [ http://www.oflc.gov.au/ ], [
http://www.efa.org.au/ ], [ http://www.gotrade.com/ ], [
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/ ] 

Transmeta Unveils Mystery Chip
Secretive chip design company Transmeta finally took the wraps off its
Crusoe chip. Hailed as revolutionary by many in the industry, the chip
relies on software rather than hardware for many of its functions. The chip
consumes far less power than its more hardware-based counterparts, making it
ideally suited for use in mobile devices such as notebooks. It also uses a
"code-morphing" technology, developed by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, that
allows it to translate the instructions for other chips--such as
Intel's--into native instructions, which means that applications developed
for other systems can be run on systems with the Crusoe chip. Presently
available in 333 MHz and 400 MHz versions, the chip is expected to be
offered in 500 MHz and 700 MHz versions by the middle of the year. But who
will manufacture the chip? None other than IBM, at its chip facility in
Burlington, VT. Nor is IBM the only company Transmeta engaged in quiet
negotiations with. S3 is working with the company to develop Linux-based
consumer Internet devices. Not surprisingly, financial details were not
disclosed for either deal. Now if Transmeta gets together with Motorola,
which just developed a liquid methanol-powered fuel cell said to last 10
times as long as ordinary rechargeable batteries, makers of notebook AC
adapters might start shaking in their boots.
[ http://www.transmeta.com/ ], [ http://www.ibm.com/ ], [ http://www.s3.com/
], [ http://www.motorola.com/ ]

Two Exciting Items
One wonders if there's some kind of CEO flu going around. Recently Bill
Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft, but remained chairman, and Steve
Case stepped down as CEO of AOL, but remained chairman. Now Excite@Home's
CEO, Thomas Jermoluk, is stepping down and handing the job over to George
Bell, the company's president. Jermoluk will continue to hold the title of
chairman. Perhaps he felt a little spooked by the Universal Death Penalty
@Home narrowly missed. Usenet volunteer David Ritz recommended the UDP,
originally scheduled to start January 19, after 16 months of complaints to
the company about the level of unsolicited bulk e-mail (aka spam) that came
from its servers. During a UDP, volunteers monitoring Usenet news groups for
spam prevent the posting of any messages from the sentenced ISP's servers,
legitimate or not. Excite@Home quickly responded to the threat, saying that
they were working to get their spam problem under control. As a result, the
UDP was lifted before it was scheduled to go into effect, but could still be
called if high levels of spam continue coming from Excite@Home after 30
days.  [ http://www.excite.com/ ], [ http://www.home.net/ ] 

Legal Matters and the Internet
In what is believed to be the first case of a federal agency acting on hate
speech displayed by a Web site, federal authorities filed a suit against
Ryan Wilson. The suit, filed in Philadelphia with a Housing and Urban
Development judge, accuses Wilson of violating the Fair Housing Act for
putting up a Web site that threatened housing activist Bonnie Jouhari. The
site carried her picture and an animation of her office exploding; it also
stated that people like Jouhari "will be hung from the neck from the nearest
tree or lamp post" for being a traitor to their race (Jouhari is white, and
helps people file housing discrimination complaints as part of her job).
Jouhari moved and left no forwarding address after becoming aware of the
threats. Somewhat more prosaicly, iVillage faces a lawsuit from two former
executives. Joanne O'Rourke Hindman, former iVillage CFO, and Steven D.
Carter, former iVillage vice president, claim the company convinced them to
leave secure positions with other companies by deceiving them with
remuneration promises on which iVillage could not deliver. According to
Hindman, when she voiced her concerns over the company's "marginal and even
inappropriate" accounting practices, the company fired her--after only four
months on the payroll. Both former iVillage employees say they were promised
stock options which they never received. Finally, two cases reached final
verdicts. The World Wrestling Federation won the first international
arbitration case concerning cybersquatting. Scott Donahey, a World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitrator, found that the
California resident who tried to sell worldwrestlingfederation.com to the
WWF for a profit had acted in bad faith, and stated that the cybersquatter
should hand over the domain name. Second, the US Supreme Court refused to
hear an appeal from a group of nine companies arguing that Network
Solutions' registration fees are the same thing as an unauthorized tax.
NSI's fees stand, and its stock rose after the Supreme Court refused to hear
the case. 
[ http://www.hud.gov/ ], [ http://www.ivillage.com/ ], [
http://www.wipo.org/ ], [ http://www.wwf.com/ ], [ http://www.nsi.com/ ]

Ability to Prove Digital Transactions Gets Boost
The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) accepted XML
standards for digital receipts, created and proposed by the Digital Receipt
Alliance (DRA). The members of the DRA include NCR, America Online,
Microsoft, Office Depot, VeriFone, and others. Digital receipts are designed
to become the equivalent of a paper receipt for online transactions--proof
that a transaction actually occurred. Eventually, both ARTS and the DRA hope
such digital receipts will carry the same legal backing as their paper
counterparts. ARTS executive director Richard Mader stated that a standard
electronic receipt would be very helpful for e-commerce.
[ http://www.nrf-arts.org/ ], [ http://www.ncr.com/ ], [ http://www.aol.com/
], [ http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.officedepot.com/ ], [
http://www.verifone.com/ ]

Jeeves Finds New Ways to Serve
Search engine Ask Jeeves signed up two new corporate clients, Fidelity
Investments and Nike. The natural-language query technology will be used on
Fidelity's Web site to answer questions about personal investing, while
Nike's "Ask Nike" engine will help customers find product information. But
the redoubtable butler apparently isn't content only to serve corporate
clients. For those who want their own personal butler, Personal Jeeves
provides users with customized information, including national and world
news, stock quotes, sports scores, local weather, and a daily horoscope. The
service is similar to the customized pages that Yahoo! and other search
engines have provided for some time. Of course, no proper butler gets too
personal, which is why the company is struggling with how to handle
questions of a prurient nature. Ask Jeeves presently answers those
questions, but the company registered the domain names "askadult.com" and
"asksex.com" (both currently inactive). The move may indicate consideration
of a separate Web site, perhaps with a different character--ask Lola,
anyone? [ http://www.ask.com/ ], [ http://www.fidelity.com/ ], [
http://www.nike.com/ ], [ http://www.yahoo.com/ ]

iCraveTV Angers Broadcasters
Canadian company iCraveTV must be very talented--it managed to upset ten
movie companies, three broadcasters, and two sports organizations. How? By
grabbing copyrighted television signals and rebroadcasting them in digital
form over the Internet, and adding advertising to the signal. The US
requires companies carrying TV programs to compensate the broadcasters, but
Canada's laws are more liberal--which is where the conflict comes in.
iCraveTV has been carrying programming from both Canadian and US channels,
and while it tries to limit its viewers to Canadians, anyone claiming to
have a Canadian telephone area code can tune in. Two lawsuits were filed in
a federal court in Pittsburgh seeking injunctions against the company. Jack
Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, described
iCraveTV's actions as "one of the most brazen thefts of intellectual
property ever committed in the US." iCraveTV president William Craig stated
that "iCraveTV believes it is acting in compliance with applicable laws and
will defend itself actively and vigorously." Plaintiffs in one suit include
the National Football League and the National Basketball League. Plaintiffs
in the other, larger suit include Twentieth Century Fox Film, Disney
Enterprises, Columbia TriStar and Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios, Orion Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Time Warner, ABC, CBS, and
Fox.  [ http://icravetv.com/ ], [ http://www.nfl.com/ ], [
http://www.nba.com/ ], [ http://www.mgm.com/ ], [ http://www.abc.com/ ], [
http://www.cbs.com/ ], [ http://www.fox.com/ ], [ http://www.disney.go.com/
], [
http://www.orionpictures.com/ ], [ http://www.paramount.com/ ]

Viruses, Hackers Take Their Toll
Computer viruses made a serious dent in company productivity last year, to
the tune of over $12 billion worldwide, according to some estimates.
Malicious hackers, meanwhile, already started a tab for this year. In what
the London Times is calling one of the most serious security breaches in the
country, hackers in the UK broke into the networks of 12 international
companies and demanded a ransom of 10 million pounds (US$16 million) for
stolen information from Visa, one of the companies broken into. Scotland
Yard is on the case. The US, of course, is far from immune; hackers altered
the Thomas Web site belonging to the Library of Congress, used by those
seeking information about bills being considered in Congress. In addition to
altering the page to read "US Congress Web site--defeated!" and leaving
their group's name, "Lamers Team," the hackers left what they claimed were
the steps they followed to get into the Web site. It's enough to make one a
little worried now that prominent hacker Kevin Mitnick was just released
from a medium security prison, even though he still won't be permitted to
use any kind of computer equipment without the prior written permission of
his probation officer. 
[ http://www.visa.com/ ], [ http://thomas.loc.gov/ ]

Slew of Services Offered by Internet Companies
Internet access is getting cheaper and more convenient. In a competitive
gamble, AT&T cut the price of its high-speed Internet access in the Bay Area
to just under $30 a month for those willing to purchase their own cable
modems. The price is less than the combined cost of a second phone line and
an America Online account. For the ones who can't be separated from their
e-mail, EarthLink teamed up with Mail.com to offer a Web-based e-mail
service, called WebMail. The service allows EarthLink members to access
their e-mail from any Internet-connected computer. Best of all, it's free to
EarthLink members. Registering domain names is getting cheaper and more
convenient, too, at least for those registering 300 or more domain names.
Internet Names Worldwide, a division of Australian company Melbourne IT,
provides its bulknames.com service. Users of the service can register 300
names for AUS$36 (US$24) per name per year; the more names registered, the
less it costs per name. The company boasts that it can register 1000 domain
names per hour. For cheap and convenient shopping, surfers can check out a
number of options. The ongoing feud between AuctionWatch and eBay escalated
to the point that AuctionWatch developed a work-around to eBay's block for
its search engine--and AuctionWatch is once again showing auction listings
from eBay's Web site side-by-side with listings from other auction sites.
For something a bit less contentious, Priceline is launching the "Perfect
YardSale," where buyers and sellers of used goods can come together and find
what they're looking for. Priceline backs these transactions with a 30-day
product warranty. The service is being offered first in Atlanta, but is
expected to expand. For those shop-'til-you-drop fans, Netpulse
Communications is redefining the phrase by spending $100 million to put in
free Internet terminals at workout stations in fitness centers. So far, 500
health clubs have signed up.
[ http://www.att.com/ ], [ http://www.aol.com/ ], [
http://www.earthlink.net/ ], [ http://www.mail.com/ ], [
http://www.inww.com/ ], [ http://www.melbourneit.com.au/ ], [
http://www.bulknames.com/ ], [ http://www.auctionwatch.com/ ], [
http://www.ebay.com/ ], [ http://www.priceline.com/ ], [
http://www.netpulse.com/ ]

Two Annoying Glitches
A company planning to be a domain name registrar needs to be good with
names. Unfortunately, some of them aren't. BulkRegister.com barely put out
its shingle before 10 domain names it registered came into dispute. It
appears that several customers registered their domain names and paid for
them, but 24 hours later discovered that other people were listed as the
owners in Network Solutions' "Whois" data base. BulkRegister admits to
knowing about the problem for over a week, and is working to figure out what
happened and to prevent it from happening again. Company CEO Tony Keyes
added candidly that "One of the things we feel really bad about is the poor
communications we conducted with these clients. We really dropped the ball."
Another company that dropped the ball, somewhat less seriously, was IBM. For
an hour Tuesday morning, its Web site listed two versions of its ThinkPad i
Series laptop computer for just $1 each--quite a discount for a computer
that normally sells for between $1300 and $2300. The pricing discrepancy was
blamed on a "data error" and, as with other sites that have posted price
discrepancies of this magnitude, IBM stated that it could not honor the
price. A company spokesperson said "We'll work something out with our
customers," but did not know how many took advantage of the error. 
[ http://bulkregister.com/ ], [ http://www.nsi.com/ ], [
http://www.ibm.com/ ] 

Outage Ticker: Mae West, Newshub
The number one Mae West route server was reportedly scheduled to go down on
midnight Tuesday night in an attempt to remedy some instability in the
system. Unfortunately, it couldn't be reset as planned, and was rebooted
again about 10 hours later. The number two Mae West route server was left
alone. Preliminary reports indicated that they were still experiencing
packet loss through the Mae West network between San Jose and NASA. Friday
morning, Newshub's Web site was apparently experiencing problems. Users of
the site were greeted by an entirely blank page, with no explanation. 
[ http://www.wcom.com/ ], [ http://www.newshub.com/ ]

Cyberscape Dee-Lite: 
Plenty of off-the-wall stories caught this poor reporter's eye this week.
The old phrase "not doing things halfway" took on a new meaning this week
when the little town of Halfway, Oregon, changed its name to Half.com at the
request of a Pennsylvania company by the same name. In return for the name
change, which will only last a year, the town will receive $75,000, 22
computers for its elementary school, and other perks from the company. Next,
two auction items. The first one is from eBay, featured in this spot with
almost painful regularity. Michael Chaney, a Linux guru, served as Santa
Claus for Microsoft when he noticed that the passport.com domain wasn't
working over Christmas weekend. Microsoft uses the domain for its Hotmail
free e-mail service, but forgot to pay a $35 bill to Network Solutions for
it--so Chaney paid it. Microsoft sent him a $500 check as a reward. Chaney
decided to sell the check on eBay, and will match the winning bid, up to
$2500, and donate the entire proceeds to the charity of the high bidder's
choice. The bid currently stands at $5000. For those who like to bid on more
substantial items, Lycos and Millionaire.com teamed up to offer a
well-preserved, complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Originally unearthed in
1992, the item was first offered for auction--where else?--on eBay, back in
July, but received too many hoax bids. Bidding starts at $5.8 million, and
shipping is included. For those more inclined to watching than buying,
there's Ananova. A creation of PA New Media, Ananova is billed as the first
virtual news anchor, and will appear in Web cybercasts. She already appears
on her own Web site, where the technical challenge of creating a fully
animated 3D character to read the news is explained in more detail. If
that's not quite interactive enough, there's always XYZ Fear. Ann Wade and
her husband wrote a horror-genre movie script--not yet sold--in which high
school students compete for a prize in a country-wide haunted house contest.
The kids decide to create a Web site to solicit suggestions for making their
house a sure winner. The Web site actually exists, of course, and actually
is soliciting ideas to be used in the film. The best idea will receive $1000
and a free trip to the film's premiere, assuming it gets sold and made.
Could it be the next Blair Witch Project?   
[ http://www.half.com/ ], [ http://www.ebay.com/ ], [
http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.passport.com/ ], [
http://www.lycos.com/ ], [ http://millionaire.com/ ], [
http://www.ananova.com/ ], [ http://www.xyzfear.com/ ]  

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---------- End Forwarded Message ----------



Missy Harvey
Computer Science Librarian
Engineering & Science Library
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA  15213

http://www.library.cmu.edu/usr/missy/

                   .--~~,__
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      (_/'~~      ''''(;

"Golden retrievers are the best alarm clock 
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