Wired News
Microsoftening The Feds and 20 states filed suits against the software superpower, charging that integration of its Web browser into Windows 98 is an attempt to extend its OS monopoly. Despite its freedom-to-innovate spiel, Redmond clearly felt the antitrust heat. Witness its unwonted flexibility with Gateway, allowing the computer maker to offer Netscape as the default browser on new Win98-based PCs.
Wintel Woes, Part Two Antitrust enforcers sued Intel for trying to squeeze trade secrets from would-be rivals. An overture to a wider action? The FTC is probing whether the chipmaker used its near monopoly in the PC market to force its way into new sectors. Also, Intel delayed production of Merced – its first 64-bit microprocessor – until mid-2000, forcing partner Hewlett-Packard to delay related systems.
Cracking India A trio of teen crackers penetrated India's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre network and downloaded detailed files. Indian sources confirmed the intrusion, which was intended to protest the country's nuclear-weapons tests this spring. The teens' next declared target: Pakistan's weapons program.
Telecom Two-Step MCI sold its Net business to Cable & Wireless for US$625 million, hoping to assuage regulators who fear that its merger with WorldCom (which owns UUNet) would squash competition in the data-services sector. Analysts quickly pegged C&W as a takeover target – a sign that the Great Telecom Shuffle is far from over.
It's a Policy! Hand out the cigars: The White House finally delivered its restructured domain name system. The plan defers tough decisions – competition and the creation of new generic top-level domains like .web – until a global nonprofit agency is in place. The big winner: Network Solutions Inc., whose .com monopoly remains effectively intact.
Trivia Moment NSI noodled with its DNS databases to produce these coast-versus-coast trivia bits: Of the 1.86 million .com, .org, and .net domain names, 9.5 percent are registered in the New York City metro area and 7.2 percent in Washington, DC. California cities trailed those eastern hubs in numbers, though the state boasts 5 of the top 10 Netliest cities.
Netliest Cities %
| 1. | New York | 9.5
| 2. | Washington, DC | 7.2
| 3. | LA/Long Beach | 6.9
| 4. | San Francisco | 3.6
| 5. | Boston | 3.4
| 6. | San Jose | 2.9
| 7. | San Diego | 2.2
| 8. | Dallas | 2.2
| 9. | Atlanta | 2.1
| 10. | Oakland | 2.1
| East Coast | West Coast
<p><y Moment</sts isn't talking, but <stre's other founding Steve confirmed the tale</stm Gil Amelio's pass-the-buck bio <em>he Firing Line:</empre-Apple days, Jobs cut a $1,000 deal with Atari for a circuitboard that Wozniak designed and built. "Jobs came back and gave me $300, saying that they had talked him down to $600," quoth Woz. Years later, when Woz learned that Jobs had been paid in full and kept most of the take, he cried a bit. "But it didn't affect our friendship one iota," he averred.</p>
<Siphon</ster scrutinizing 1,400 commercial Web sites, the Federal Trade Commission reported that 86 percent sucked in user data with little or no warning. Most troublesome, the agency said, was the percentage of children's <strs that surreptitiously collect data</st practice that the FTC suggested Congress outlaw. Remarkably absent in the reaction: libertarians telling the Feds to keep their mitts off the Net.</p>
<ing the Picture</strk and Intel joined forces</stoffer digital-imaging tools and services, suggesting that the historically go-it-alone photo giant understands that the new economy depends on strategic partnerships. The picture-perfect ending: a <strk/AOL deal</st>
<d</strnt</stounced Project FastBreak, a $2 billion <str to roll out high-speed voice and data service</stUS homes and businesses. The technology: asynchronous transfer mode. The details devil: To serve small customers, Sprint must cut deals with potential rivals – the telcos that own local wires.</p>
<lible Inktomi</stsearch- and network-technology company <str public</stising $40 million in the first day, thanks in part to its new Yahoo! license.</p>
<nue Model</stelder of online news, the <strury Center stopped charging</st the daily Web edition of the San Jose Mercury News in a ploy to build the site's readership. So information really does want to be free – but only if it's the hard-to-sell general-interest variety, and only when there's an ad base to prop it up.</p>
<ch Term: Hubris</sta way-rude style, <strte rejected a $1.7 billion takeover</ster from Zapata, saying that the fish-oils manufacturer-cum-new media player "holds no possible value to Excite's shareholders." Ironic from a company that has never turned a profit and had to borrow $50 million from partner Intuit to get on Netcenter.</p>
<ing It</strtCast took the IPO plunge</stling papers that value the company at $235 million. It's a far cry from the $400 million News Corp. offered for the company last year. Fly in the IPO ointment: Conventional wisdom says portals, not push, will grab the biggest Web audience.</p>
