__ Wired News __
__ Density Destiny __
IBM engineers in Silicon Valley doubled their previous record for magnetic storage media, packing 11.6 billion bits of data (725,000 typed, double-spaced pages) per square inch of disk surface. The dense drives will come to market within four years. In the process, the price of 1 meg of disk memory will shrink to 3 cents (compared with US$11.54 in 1988). Prediction: Bloatware will inflate as never before to fill up the cheap memory.
__ Boom Times __
Continuing economic turbulence in Southeast Asia raised fears that the global boom could flatten into a dead thud. Worst-case scenario: China and Japan veer into the Pacific Rim pileup, and slow the global economy. Less-drastic vision: Tech sectors hit the brakes as Asian customers run out of cash. Reality: The question isn't whether, but when and how deeply the effects will be felt outside the region.
__ Tiananmen.gov __
Chinese officials concluded that although the Internet can be a great force for modernization, the information it carries can damage the state. So the government introduced rules to control content and punish anyone who uses the Net to spread unorthodox views. It was Deng Xiaoping all over again: encourage economic freedoms while maintaining rigid political control. But will the tactic succeed on the Net? The real test comes only when China's tiny Net population expands. The current tally is a mere 250,000.
__ Our Censored Libraries __
Libraries across the country witnessed the first shots in a landmark legal battle. Citizens in Loudoun County, Virginia, challenged the growing use of Net-filtering tools by public institutions. The group, Mainstream Loudoun, argued that library officials in the county outside Washington, DC, trampled the First Amendment by requiring patrons to use censorware and Net terminals to be placed where staff can see them.
__ Taming the Net __
After the World Wide Web Consortium refined its Platform for Internet Content Selection, the intended standard for rating and filtering sites, the Global Internet Liberty Campaign launched a free-speech attack, accusing the W3C of doing the devil's work by helping dictators and censors everywhere muzzle netizens. The response from W3C's Tim Berners-Lee: Our technology is good - but rights groups should remain vigilant.
__ Recognized __
Time's Man of the Year: Andy Grove, because the mag's editors were turned on by his escape-from-Budapest story. (Though we wonder why, as the most powerful chief outside Redmond, he's worth only $350 million.) National Medal of Technology: Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, for "creating and sustaining development of Internet protocols and continuing to provide leadership in the emerging industry of internetworking," and Ray Dolby, for his work developing sound-recording and playback technology.
__ TeleMelodrama __
Ruling in favor of SBC Communications Inc., a federal judge in Wichita Falls, Texas, declared the Telecom Act of '96 unconstitutional because it makes it too hard for SBC and sister Baby Bells to compete in the long distance market. The resulting salvo of appeals is likely to sink the ruling. But the episode will also speed up a congressional review of the much-litigated law.
__ Wiring Shuffle __
The Telecom Act ordered the Federal Communications Commission to set up a fund to get schools, libraries, and public- health clinics online. The FCC, in turn, ordered phone companies to subsidize the project. When the telcos rebelled, the FCC lowered the subsidy by more than 30 percent. A temporary peace.
__ Apple: Back in Black __
After five quarters of punishing, Stalingrad-scale losses, Apple CEO-not Steve Jobs delivered an astonishing financial report. In the fourth quarter of 1997, the Mac company tallied profits for the first time since Bob Dole was a contender. The $47 million didn't change the world. But it did give Jobs a dash of cred.
__ Netscape: Seeing Red __
The webware shop's stock fell to $18 - a record low - after the company announced a fourth-quarter '97 loss of $85 million, and the staff layoffs began. PR Spin One: The numbers reflected a momentary dip as the firm moves from the browser trade to the corporate-enterprise business. PR Spin Two: Bill Gates's free-Internet Explorer strategy undercut Netscape's sales. Reality: Netscape will have to give away its $49.99 browsers to keep market share.
__ Microsoftening? __
Microsoft declared that the only way to comply with Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's order to offer a version of Windows 95 sans the Internet Explorer browser was to supply defective software. After being chastised by the judge, however, the software superpower allowed that its behavior might have been strident. And Microsoft's lawyers tried to assume a more polite tone of voice even as they continued to whine about the court-appointed special master, Lawrence Lessig. (See "The Special Master," page 99.) But Judge Jackson called the polite brief "defamatory," and dismissed the company's filing.
