Each weekend we highlight the most important stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
Rocky talk: A libertarian think tank gathered network industry powerbrokers in Aspen for the annual Cyberspace and the American Dream. Right out of the chute, Bell Atlantic CEO Ivan Seidenberg preached the wonders of wireless and the evils of regulation.
Still, most participants in a panel discussion claimed that industry polices itself all by its lonesome. And everyone said they would feel more comfortable if Congress finally got a clue about the Internet and all that digital-techno stuff.
Spend, spend, spend: Cisco Systems, angling to boost its optical networking presence, said it would fork out US$6.9 billion in stock to buy money-losing startup Cerent. Analysts were aghast at the price, but as one put it, "At the end of the day they're cash-rich, and they can afford to do it."
School daze: Students began heading back to school, toting new, must-have gadgets. Also part of the mix this fall: more options than ever when it comes to buying textbooks. Our extensive education-related Hoo-Ha resides here.
Making us obsolete: "Traditional journalists think that something like Slashdot might put them out of work." So said Slashdot.org editor Rob Malda, describing what might be the beginning of the age of open-source journalism, where a whole community of nerds offers opinions, insights, and expertise on news bits. Malda might be right -- if he and his cohorts can figure out a way to filter out the inevitable bozos and nut cases that make reading the site such a chore.
Some call it vaporware: While Ted Nelson was building Xanadu, Tim Berners-Lee was working on a little project that would become the World Wide Web. For what it's worth, the source code behind Nelson's 30-year bid to construct a multi-dimensional hypertext system is out of the bag, released by its creator.
And speaking of vapor: A Seattle company is planning to use new antimicrobial technology in self-sanitizing garments -- socks, for starters -- that kill odor-causing bacteria on contact. The technology is based on a class of chemicals known as N-halamines, which derive their bug-killing properties by binding chlorine atoms to the fabric.
Delivering the goods: A new report said Web sites that don't rig up sophisticated systems to store, ship, and track the stuff they sell are going to lose money and customers, and could even slow the spread of e-commerce. The Forrester Research gang said that big sites like Amazon.com have distribution pretty well in hand. But smaller sites that sell a few dozen or hundred items a day -- look out.
Protecting their turf: Game company iEntertainment Network began going after "Freehosts," which allow WarBirds players to avoid a $2-an-hour charge to play the flight-sim game. It's a move that appears to be paying off domestically, but overseas may be a different story.
Meanwhile, feeding the fans' frenzy for all things Warbirds is *WarBirds: the Story so far... *, the first full-length book to turn a microscope on a true virtual community.
And protecting their turf: Apple took legal action for the third time in less than two months against an alleged iMac knockoff artist. The latest target is Japanese computer maker Sotec. To prevail, Apple will have to prove that the supposed knock-offs infringe on the iMac's "trade dress" -- the legal term for a product's distinctive aesthetic design features -- and observers say that may be a tough go.
Guarding the backdoor: They held a security conference in Washington, and Windows took a beating. Its Outlook application, in particular, is fraught with trouble, researchers said. Microsoft scrambled to address the vulnerabilities, but millions of Windows users remained at risk.
Opt-out vs. opt-in: Federal regulators said they would appeal a court decision that effectively canceled a vague rule that had forced phone companies to obtain customer permission before using or selling call records for marketing purposes. If upheld, the decision would compel consumers to explicitly tell companies not to use their records, rather than forcing companies to seek customer permission.
Having it both ways: Yahoo Store instructed users on how to send out unsolicited email to target promotional partners for their Yahoo-hosted storefronts. Then it said using Yahoo's email service to spam these folks was a no-no. Anti-spammers, who thought Yahoo was on their side, smelled a contradiction.
Will work for options: Firms that provide services for Net startups said more and more companies are offering to pay them in stock options instead of cash. The bartering has been for services like legal counsel, public relations, or consulting, and the practice of trading options for products -- like coffee, or computers -- hasn't caught on. Yet.
Asian power: The fastest-growing minority group in Texas isn't Hispanics; it's Asians. This is particularly true in tech-centric Austin, where the numbers are beginning to translate into a political presence. "There's a very committed group of businesspeople and professionals who are making themselves known," said one Democratic strategist. "In the '80s, we didn't see that."
Making babies: It's no mere coincidence that the growth in egg donation and surrogacy has tracked the growth of the Internet. "The Net opened up an enormous bank of knowledge," said one agency director. "People never knew they could choose from 1,500 donors instead of five." And here's a scary thought: The Web has simplified and mechanized the process of selecting an egg donor so that, to some extent, parents can plan and design their ideal child.
Dissed Down Under: Australia's communications minister wasn't happy to hear the president of the American Civil Liberties Union describe his country as "the village idiot" for its new Net censorship law. He shot back with unkind remarks about gun control and health care. But while the verbal squabbling was entertaining, the real news might have been that behind-the-scenes negotiations continued on the practicalities of enforcing the controversial restrictions in Oz.
Smooth sailing: The GPS rollover came and went without kicking up much trouble. In fact, the ease with which the Global Positioning System coped might bode well for that next big date-based dilemma -- Y2K.
Too good to be true: Amiga fans -- and they're out there -- got some good news. Or did they? A German company promised new computers based on the long-abandoned technology, but IWin has no US retail presence, there's no phone listing for its American office, and the company did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Future cars: Automakers prepared to roll out their 2000 models, with new tech-enhanced features galore. Analysts said two advances in particular will have long-lasting ramifications: Infrared night-vision capabilities in the 2000 Cadillac DeVille, and hybrid gas-and-electric engines from Honda and Toyota.
Busted: An Oregon man pleaded guilty to illegally trafficking in MP3 files, and legitimate dealers couldn't have been happier. "These high profile cases ... will educate the MP3 community that there are risks involved in trading MP3 files illegally," said Steve Grady of Emusic, which sells MP3 files for download.
Law-enforcement counterbalance: Privacy advocates called for the appointment of an independent "privacy czar." This after President Clinton's privacy adviser failed to prevent the proposal of a law that would allow the FBI to enter private homes and bypass privacy software.
Gotcha: RC5, which is used in encryption-cracking contests, was credited with tracking down a couple of computer thieves. The client runs during idle CPU cycles, and periodically connects to Distributed.net servers to return processed encryption keys and to retrieve new ones. When stolen computers communicated with the server, they logged in using the thiefs' IP addresses.
The Kevin saga: Inmate Kevin Mitnick, in search of kosher food, was injured in Southern California freeway wreck. The convicted hacker, who sustained minor injuries, was being taken to a Los Angeles jail when the crackup occurred, but he ended up back at the San Bernardino pokey that can't meet his dietary preferences. THE WEEK AHEAD
30 August to 6 September, Black Rock Desert, Nevada: The official history says Burning Man began in San Francisco in 1986, but it wasn't until the Man made his way to the northern Nevada desert that it became a counterculture happening not to be missed. Now the quintessential '90s event, a techno-pagan temporary theme park for adults hits the playa for the last shindig before Y2K.
31 August, San Francisco: News doesn't leak from Apple's Cupertino headquarters. It comes out when Steve Jobs wants it to, and usually during one of his high-profile keynotes -- like this one at Seybold Seminars, perhaps. At Moscone Center.
31 August to 2 September, Palm Springs, California: Another desert gathering, this one of a very different sort. The theme of this Intel Developer Forum is "Advancing the Internet," with CEO Craig Barrett and desktop products VP Pat Gelsinger giving keynotes on the future of e-business, as well as the connected home. At the Convention Center.
1 September, San Francisco: The future is the topic up the coast in SF, too, at Ziff-Davis' The Next 20 Years. This is the third of four such events in the '99 series, which wraps up in London on 29 September. At the Palace of Fine Arts.
3 September: Adam Sandler made a goofy animated film about a guy who sneaks peeks through women's windows. It's The Peeper, the first made-for-the-Web-movie. -30-
