__ Wired News __
__ Microsoft v. the World __
At year's end, the software superpower faced court challenges from the US Justice Department, a half-dozen states, the European Union, and Java lord of record Sun Microsystems, not to mention the anti-Redmondista campaigns of Ralph Nader and class-action lawyer Gary Reback. Net impact: With markets vanquished, courtroom weight lifting is how Microsoft stays trim. In the latest round of litigating and lecturing, Gates & Co. hardly broke a sweat.
__ Browsing the Market __
When the 1997 score was tallied by Dataquest (in an independent, uncommissioned report), Microsoft Internet Explorer's market share fattened to 40 percent, nibbling Netscape Navigator's numbers from 73 percent down to a bony 57 percent. Indignant, Netscape attacked the Dataquest figures - which had been culled from a single source, the AltaVista search page - and decided to conduct its own survey based on four search engines. The result: Netscape retained a 67 percent market share. The moral, updated for the digital age: Lies, damn lies, and browser statistics.
__ Telecom Inaction '98 __
Even as the new Federal Communications Commission struggled to defend the old FCC's byzantine regulatory structure against court challenges, new chair William Kennard took up his predecessor's call for increased regulatory powers. Needed FCC epiphany: In rule making, less is likely more.
__ Romancing the Phone __
A chief theme of Congress's year-end philippics: The 1996 Telecommunications Act loosed merger mania instead of competition. The wild matings of the Baby Bells and the frenzy to buy MCI marked the first wave. The announced merger of ICG Communications and Netcom signaled the beginning of a second wave in which business-focused local phone carriers will bid for ISPs to round out their offerings.
__ Apple Is History? __
Not only has Apple Computer failed to live up to its history, now the landmark company has given it away - to Stanford University. By this summer, Silicon Valley's seat of higher learning expects to finish cataloging 20 years' worth of documents (trivial and momentous), antique hardware, arcane software, scrapbooks, brochures, T-shirts, and, of course, coffee mugs.
__ After PGP __
Data-security company Network Associates, a well-known promoter of key recovery crypto systems, bought Pretty Good Privacy Inc., a strong opponent of key recovery, for US$36 million and named PGP founder Phil Zimmermann a fellow with unclear authority. Although privacy advocates worried that the purchase would neutralize one of the leaders of the cypherpunk cause, the reverse happened: Within days of the deal, Network Associates withdrew from the Key Recovery Alliance.
__ A SAFE World __
Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) revived the Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act that FBI director Louis Freeh had stymied last year. Goodlatte and allies offered a compromise that would buy off the crypto-fearful with the promise of a national law enforcement code-breaking center.
__ Standard Brew __
Despite intense lobbying by Microsoft, the International Standards Organization approved Sun Microsystems' request to set the Java standard. Then Sun's coders returned to the lab to fine-tune the Java specs (which will be submitted to the ISO later this year). Meanwhile, the company's lawyers went to court to argue that Microsoft violated the Java licensing agreement.
__ In Other Standards News __
Intel split from its tech allies Microsoft and Compaq when it announced a chip based on the broadcast industry's digital-TV standard; manufacturers inched closer to a single standard for 56-Kbps modems; and the World Wide Web Consortium took initial steps to standardize the Web's Extensible Markup Language (XML).
__ Jam Session __
The publishers of the CD-ROM zine Launch announced a customized music Web site, myLaunch; the online retailer CDnow prepared to go public; and Rolling Stone's parent company, Wenner Media, bought a stake in JamTV and established The Rolling Stone Network. Sounds as if the Web has finally found rhythm.
__ The Copper Revolution __
The common metal made headlines with IBM's announcement of a new chip technology that uses copper instead of aluminum to form the electrical pathways on a silicon wafer. No sooner did IBM publicize this faster chip, than Texas Instruments touted its own copper-wiring breakthrough.
__ Dial (Up) a Cop __
At December's Internet Online Summit, headlined "Focus on Children," ISPs vowed to help cops catch child pornographers and cyberpredators. America Online took the lead, naming a cybercop consultant: John Ryan, an AOL lawyer and former New York prosecutor, who began offering seminars on how to track down evil in its online lairs.
