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Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
Ticker shock: When tech stocks drooped, Silicon Valley psychologists were hit with panicked phone calls from rank-and-file workers who have little in life beyond their stock-option packages. But the worst may be yet to come. "If the market really falls, we're going to have some pretty mass hysteria around here," predicted one observer.
And nervous breakdowns might not be the only fallout if the market heads seriously south. Rising valuations have been feeding California's hot real estate market, which leaves some worry-warts wondering what havoc will ensue if the bull turns bear.
Sacred words: AT&T WorldNet got a subpoena from the Church of Scientology's Bridge Publications, which seeks the identity of an anonymous online critic. The church said it's just protecting copyrighted material, the critic said he's scared, and AT&T asked for more time.
They're back: The government's antitrust suit against Microsoft came under attack – from economists who called it protectionism, and anti-tax activists who called it a waste of money. No matter. The trial resumed after a three-month hiatus, continuing a saga that actually began many years ago.
MIT professor Franklin Fisher was at the center of most of the action this week, testifying for the government in its rebuttal and arguing that Microsoft indeed possesses an operating-system monopoly. But Microsoft appeared to land a few solid counterpunches, casting doubt on the accusation that it had bullied Netscape's browser out of the PC market.
Porn, be gone: Opponents of sweeping anti-Net porn legislation in Australia said enforcement would place a huge burden on ISPs, and would be virtually unenforceable, anyway. But in an interview with Wired News, the man who wrote the law said backers were simply asking ISPs to "do their best."
Music news: America Online joined the rush into Net music, ponying up US$400 million in stock to acquire digital audio software company Nullsoft and Spinner Networks, the music service. Coming after RealNetworks' release last month of a downloadable music player, there's now little doubt that online music has a very big future.
Nullsoft, by the way, took care of lingering legal troubles later in the week, agreeing to license some of PlayMedia's playback technology. In return, PlayMedia dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit.
Autotech: Civil libertarians criticized a GM device that records and processes the last five seconds of vehicular data before a collision. The company said the info will be used only for aggregate crash data, but it's unclear exactly who will have access to it.
IPO pullback: Market edginess took its toll on tech public offerings again, with three companies delaying their debuts. Merrill Lynch's Paul Meeks said that in general the market should warm over the second half of the year, although he sees Amazon.com's slide continuing.
Baseball boobs: Androstenedione, the drug that slugger Mark McGwire and other ballplayers use to build muscles, got a big thumbs-down from Iowa State researchers. They said it doesn't actually do much for the biceps, or any other muscles, for that matter; but it might make your breasts abnormally large.
Good news: Apparently the Internet is not all porn and bomb-making sites. There's MentorNet, too, through which young women in the sciences exchange hopes and fears with their sage elders – all via email. "Having a mentor made the difference between staying and leaving," said one Stanford PhD student.
17 months until Election Day: Citizens for a Sound Economy schooled Republican candidates on its hands-off approach to the Net, encryption, taxes – you name it. The libertarian-leaning group also gave Al Gore hell for backing a telephone surcharge that helps pay for wiring schools and libraries. These attacks on Gore – and his own self-inflicted wounds – may be tarnishing the veep's carefully cultivated geek image, especially in that electoral gold mine, California.
The book trade: Borders talked up a plan to store books digitally and then print them only upon request. The technology may solve the industry's old problem of forecasting sales. And if it works, Borders said, the printers could eventually turn up in stores.
Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, pulled out of its planned acquisition of wholesale giant Ingram. Independents and Amazon had complained that the deal would give B&N too much power over who gets what books when. Federal regulators saw it that way, too.
Hot wings: A Davis, California, company said it's about to test "Skycar," a rotary-engine-powered craft that takes off and lands vertically, and can travel about 900 miles at more than 350 mph on a single tank of gas. Skycar could fit in well with NASA's Highway in the Sky initiative, which envisions small flying machines being piloted by computers.
Go west: Between a quarter and one-third of Harvard Business School students want Silicon Valley jobs. Makes sense, then, that the school – like other leading biz schools – has opened a research outpost right in the middle of the e-action.
Med-tech: Massachusetts researchers showed that by damaging the sciatic nerve – the main sensory nerve to the leg – they can activate growth signals in cells in the central nervous systems of laboratory rats. What this means for us human types is that it may be possible, someday, to reconnect a severed spinal cord.
Crime tech: Three cutting-edge developments in crime-fighting made news this week. A San Diego biotech company said it will soon begin testing a tiny chip designed to do at-the-scene DNA analysis; Washington state investigators described how neural network software is helping them track down violent serial criminals; and a New York university got a big grant from the Justice Department to develop software that will aid in forensic handwriting analysis.
Our man in Tokyo: With crime – and fear of crime – on the rise in Japan, the government may soon get expanded powers to eavesdrop on citizens. But that may be a case of legalizing what's already common practice. According to a former executive with a hearing aide company, the cops have been buying and using surveillance gear since the 1950s. THE WEEK AHEAD
6 June: Are European Net users mad as hell? Will they take exorbitant hourly rates anymore? We'll find out today. Activists have called for an online boycott, the second this year.
7 June, San Francisco: Microsoft's Office 2000 is due to hit stores this week. That means hype and hoopla, with company president Steve Ballmer at the center of it all.
7 June, Oshkosh, Wisconsin: One high school student has already admitted to posting a Web site hit-list in the Columbine aftermath. Now his alleged accomplice is due to face the judge.
8 and 9 June, Washington, DC: Government, industry, academia, and consumer groups will gather for a two-day workshop on consumer protection in the global electronic marketplace. The Federal Trade Commission is behind the event. The regulators are looking for clues on international business-to-consumer transactions, where disputes could be heard, which governments have authority to protect consumers – that kind of thing.
9 to 12 June, San Francisco: This year's Promax & BDA turns its focus to "the people who are introducing digital commerce to our society." Spike Lee, Bill Maher, and Roger Ebert will be there, too.
10 June, Washington, DC: The Federal Trade Commission holds its third and final public forum on "A New FCC for the 21st Century." This session brings together academic and organizational experts.
