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Each weekend, we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered during the previous week. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
Goliath, again: You can't call AT&T "the phone company" any more. Not after MediaOne said yes to its buyout bid and Comcast agreed to scoot aside. The deals are subject to antitrust review, but right now it looks like Ma Bell will soon have cable into more homes than anyone else will, making it a potential broadband juggernaut.
Microsoft did manage to secure a major role in AT&T's scheme, in exchange for a US$5-billion investment in the company, but America Online was left out in the cold.
AOL shareholders, fearing the company would wither sans high-speed cable access, pushed the Sell button. The dialup leader sought help in Congress, where newly introduced legislation would encourage cable companies to share their lines with traditional ISPs.
That movie: Phantom news bubbled furiously as opening day drew nigh. MTV aired a music video featuring John Williams' new sounds; Silicon Valley braced for a 19 May sick-out; new trailers hit the Web; and Lucasfilm asked the FBI to help it curtail Web piracy of the movie.
Oh, yeah: We also got our hands on an early review. Beware the plot spoilers!
First Amendment to the rescue: A federal court ruled that President Clinton's executive order limiting the export of encryption software violates constitutionally guaranteed free-speech rights. The decision could clear the way for US-born, privacy-protecting source code to head overseas.
The real deal: RealNetworks continued its spry spring, releasing the RealJukeBox player, which runs CDs, RealAudio, and MP3 files -- and can record in the company's proprietary format.
Two days later, at its annual conference in San Francisco, Real chief Rob Glaser said that 100,000 people downloaded the product the first day it was available. Also in SF, a Canadian company showed off a plug-in that brings 3-D to the RealPlayer.
Dead trees, please: Folks were intrigued by the e-books displays at BookExpo America 1999, but few were buying. Hard to read onscreen ... too costly ... just doesn't feel like a book -- those were some of the complaints.
Get smart: The greatest bull market in history continued its push and pull on the national psyche, both scaring and enticing. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt said he sees rampant stupidity at work, but advised that education -- not regulation -- was the way to go.
Meanwhile, the Dow jumped to new heights (until Alan Greenspan opened his mouth), and Instinet moved to make after-hours trading widely available.
Smells like teen art: If you told Adam Rees his new art exhibit stinks, he wouldn't mind -- it's called Scratch-and-Sniff. And the tech angle here? Rees, 19, scoured the Net to find a way to lace his silk-screen posters with scents, and all his design work was done on "a dinky laptop."
Laissez-faire days: Strange but true, you need a license to publish opinions on commodity futures (things like gold futures and pork bellies). A libertarian law firm was in court this week challenging the law, representing 10 people who publish and read books, newsletters, and Web sites about commodity trading.
Post-Littleton: There was more fallout from the Columbine High tragedy. In the private sector, the recording industry sponsored online chats on violence and music. And in Washington, the White House led an effort to make safety information available on the Net.
Clean, if not green: A European Commission directive requires the phase-out of toxic materials -- and a phase-in of recycled plastics -- in electronics manufacturing. You won't be shocked to hear that US computer manufacturers have problems with this.
Lost in space: Last week it was Lockheed Martin blowing a satellite launch. This week, Boeing's Delta 3 missed its mark. Now a lot of people are wondering what the heck's wrong with the US space industry.
Trust-busters at work: The Justice Department's antitrust squad began looking into Network Solutions sole ownership of the Whois database of Internet names and addresses. NSI critics hailed the news, but legal observers were skeptical that much would come of the probe.
Vegas scams: The tech savvy are finding new ways to fleece casinos. So new, in fact, that exactly how one guy made off with a cool $6 million remains a mystery. But the casinos are fighting back with their own tech tools.
Strange powers: Careful engineers and snake-oil salesman (or so it appeared) came together in Maryland for the first Conference on Future Energy. The consensus was that home-brewed advances aren't getting the attention they deserve, not from media, government, or academia.
New issues: Two noteworthy IPOs were announced this week. Software vendor Liquid Audio wants to become one of the first businesses from the online music sector to cash in. And Jean-Louis Gassee's Be Inc., on the ropes after 10 years of development and scant revenues, is looking to the public markets for some badly needed sustenance.
Kevin's costs: If his victims are to be believed, cracker Kevin Mitnick's noodling into their networks cost the companies some $300 million. Sun alone is claiming is claiming an $80-million toll, according to estimates published in 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. THE WEEK AHEAD
9-12 May, Berkeley, California: IEEE holds a Symposium on Security and Privacy at the Claremont Resort and Spa.
10-14 May, San Jose, California: Interim CEO Steve Jobs and Avie Tevanian, Apple's senior veep for software engineering, open this year's World Developers Conference with "an overview of Apple's software 'road map,' including the first in-depth look at Mac OS X."
11-14 May, Toronto: The World Wide Web Conference features founding father Tim Berners-Lee among its keynoters. It was just over 10 years ago that he invented the Web, you know.
12 May, Washington: The Feds are due to release rules detailing how Web sites operated by the government or government contractors must be made accessible to the disabled. Some designers fear that the guidelines could push up costs and limit their use of new technology.
14 May, Washington, DC: The Federal Trade Commission holds a workshop to try to clear up some of the fuzzier "rules and guides" for electronic media that it published a year ago.
15 May, Baltimore, Maryland: It's the Preakness, and for the first time, horse players can wager on a Triple Crown race using a personal computer. California-based You Bet avoids federal gambling prohibitions by hooking users into a "private, closed-loop network."
