Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
Nudging their way in: Upstarts like MP3.com are putting pressure on traditional industry heavyweights to bulk up their online presence. No surprise, then, that Sony and Time Warner made a deal to buy CDNow and combine it with Columbia House, the giant music and video membership club.
Pretty good hypocrisy: Congress sent that newly passed Y2K-lawsuit bill to the president via the Internet, and made a big show of it. The irony was that the legislators digitally signed it using encryption that the government tightly restricts.
Everyone online: AT&T says it will give US$300,000 to the NAACP and $210,000 to the Urban League to help those organizations improve tech literacy among minorities. AT&T, which made a $6.4 billion profit last year, said its donations come in response to a Department of Commerce report indicating a gap in computer access between the races.
The state of Texas said it will also try to bridge that gap, committing $10 million to wire community technology centers.
Bigger be better: Onsale said it will buy Egghead.com for about $400 million in stock. The deal will produce a company that's cash-flush in a slim-margin business, and one that carries heft against smaller online computer-retail wannabes.
Tech geography: San Jose and the surrounding Silicon Valley is the top tech region in the nation. Duh. But Dallas in second place? So said the Milken Institute, which also concluded that tax incentives and proximity to research institutions were key factors in planting tech seeds -- but as companies mature, it's clean air and low crime that fuel expansion.
Too hot to handle: Sega dangled its new 128-bit Dreamcast player in front of fans, giving away a few units in contests around the country and offering it for rental. But the machine won't be on sale until September -- which might give folks time to prepare. "The graphics blew away the old Segas," said one early player. "But it's too fast! It's hard to control."
Thanks, iMac: This has not been the best of years for computer manufacturers -- but Apple's a notable exception. Its latest quarterly earnings easily beat forecasts, and the confident company said it would buy back up to $500 million of its shares.
Y2K bomb: US military leaders declared boldly that come Y2K, their computer-run weapons systems won't put the world at risk. (They also reassured the American public that logistics computers are A-OK, meaning grunts will get their Army-issue boots and socks.) But the same officials could offer no such comforting words about Russian military systems.
Smaller is better: Giving new meaning to the term "pea brain," researchers announced that the higher your level of education, the more your brain is likely to shrink as you get older. The flip side is that better-educated, smaller-brained seniors are less likely to suffer from memory loss and age-related impairments.
Owner for a day: Someone transferred the Web domain excite.com into Jim Reardon's hands, much to his surprise. The situation was quickly straightened out and Excite didn't lose any traffic -- but Network Solutions' registration and transfer process sure lost some credibility.
DTV may be DOA: Build it and they will come -- that worked for a fictional ballpark in Iowa, but it's not working for digital TV. The boxes are way too expensive, concluded an extensive Forrester Research study. Meanwhile, a push to tinker with technical standards could further hamper sales.
New horizons: Intel said it will make a big push into broadband Internet access this fall, unveiling a new line of fast, always-on modems. The company has a deal with Cisco Systems where Cisco will provide ADSL infrastructure technology for Internet access providers, while Intel will focus on the end user.
SUV lowdown: How do Kia Sportage customers feel about the sport utility vehicle? Not hard to find out. For nearly a year, the company's customer-feedback email page fed comments into a publicly accessible location -- and there were lots of complaints. Oops.
Not all there: Those new Secure Digital Music Initiative specs were finally published. Sort of. They leave empty placeholders for key technological requirements affecting such core functions as security and copy management. Pretty big holes, observers noted.
One thing SDMI does do: It specifies that compliant devices allow CD owners to make only four digital copies per copying session, an area that was supposed to be left alone. Any further copies need to be made from the original CD. How this fits with US copyright law is sure to be debated.
Dr. Criminal: The American Medical Association and a pharmacy consortium are working to restrict the availability of drugs online. As one AMA trustee put it: The way it is now, a doctor "can just look at a form and write a prescription, without any interaction with the patient, and the AMA is against that."
Bill's chance: A power-hungry President Clinton could use Y2K as a pretext to declare martial law. That view, formerly espoused by fringe elements alone, got more mainstream play this week when a US congressman served it up at a Washington event.
Doing good, maybe: How to pay for technological development in poor countries? The UN suggested that richer nations apply a one-cent tax on every 100 emails sent. In 1996 alone, such a program would have generated $70 billion in development assistance. Free-market advocates and conservatives immediately denounced the idea, and the UN quickly backpedaled.
OT bill hangs: California's governor is set to sign a bill that would require employers to pay time-and-a-half when the workday stretches past eight hours. But if Silicon Valley has its way, it won't go through. Tech companies oppose the move, saying they need the flexibility of the current law, which requires OT only when an employee works more than 40 hours in a week.
Safe viewing: Stanley Kubrick's latest and last, Eyes Wide Shut, took some digital doctoring to get an R rating in the United States. The clever editing -- done with Kubrick's approval -- means you'll have to use your imagine a bit during the big orgy scene.
BS in science fiction: A British university said the study of science needs more verve, so it will offer a degree program that's a mix of traditional science courses and science fiction. Typically, the study of science fiction is confined to English departments.
Ink-stained eBay: Is eBay a cultural movement or just a place to move discarded Smurfs and Elvis paintings? Betting on the former, the online auction house said it would launch a monthly magazine where traders can share their life-affirming stories.
And there's more for the eBay addict: Auction Tracker, which displays a list of eBay auctions selected by the user, launched this week. The browser updates current bid prices, bidder information, auction opening and closing times, and even converts time zone differences.
Programmed not to eat: One of the world's top modeling agencies unveiled a virtual model. She's Webbie Tookay, and Elite expects to use her "in the same way as regular models are used -- in magazines, TV, and advertising." THE WEEK AHEAD
19 and 20 July, New York City: This year's Jupiter-sponsored Plug.In features big shots from the music industry and its digital challengers, which means lots of talk about MP3 (a topic we know all about). At the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
19 to 22 July, Chicago: They say it's "the world's largest event for e-business and Internet technology," but who really knows? Internet World Summer '99. At McCormick Place.
20 July: It was 30 years ago that the Eagle landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took his small/big step. Of course, some people insist it never happened.
20 to 23 July, New York City: Following right on the heels of Plug.In, the Digital Club Festival features 350 live bands. At various downtown clubs.
21 July, New York: Everyone's eager for Apple to get its new portable on the market, and analysts think this may be the day, as Steve Jobs delivers the MacWorld keynote. At the Javits Convention Center.
22 July, Washington, DC: House Republicans are on ICANN's ass, accusing the Internet domain-name manager of secrecy, unaccountability, and unreasonable taxation. Their title for today's 11 a.m. hearing: "Is ICANN Out of Control?" In room 2322, Rayburn Office Building.
