Now that I've de-lurked a few times *and* gone and joined FoRKBusters (ev=
en
if not at a very high rate - the P166 cranks 'em out at about 180kkeys/se=
c,
the Cyrix I've given up on as it was doing around 17kkeys/sec) I'm going =
to
stick my neck out.
For the past 14 or 15 weeks I've been writing a dopey weekly hi-tech
newsletter. I started it out for fun and sent it to a few friends, and
it's grown up a bit since then. There are around 180 subscribers and it'=
s
been growing nicely. Subscribers are a mixed bunch with people from
various hi-tech companies around the world. A lot of consulting folks,
actually. I get my info from all over, and shamelessly bite stuff off of
FoRK all the time (as you can see). I figured I'd let you know about it,
post this week's issue (comes out every Sunday night) and see if anyone
wanted to subscribe. In the 15 weeks, this is the first time I've done
anything that even vaguely smacks of promotion for it, and I figure this =
is
one tough audience so I'll probably get killed for it, but oh well...
Anyway, the point is mostly to summarize a lot of the news stories that
popped up during the week, sometimes with a bit of commentary. No, it's
not particularly in depth, nor is it meant to be. Oh well... As is
mentioned at the end, there are previous issues available on the web site=
,
should anyone care.
Here it is...
*holds breath*
--- ********************************************************************* UP-TO-DATE =20 ********************************************************************* The not always serious,=20 not always weekly update on the Hi-Tech Industry November 30th - December 6th ********************************************************************* Sponsored by the Technology Management Club of=20 Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. And the "Phil Zimmermann for FBI Director" Committee-------------------- Say that again... -------------------- "We're not going to be a bank. If somebody handed me a certificate that said that I could be the only bank on the Internet, though, I'd be very tempted to be a bank, I have to say." - Bill Gates
"I think what we're doing is right, lawful, moral, proper, and competitiv= e. I might even say it's the American way." - Steve Ballmer, Microsoft #2, being positively modest
------------------------------------------ Earnings Reports, IPOs and the like ------------------------------------------ CDNow files for IPO... E*Trade falls as they report new accounts are "slowing"... Ascend turns down a $35/share takeover bid from Lucent. Didn=92t Lucent just buy Livingston? Apparently that=92s not enough... U= SWeb=92s IPO was a disappointment on Friday, launching well below expectations, bu= t then proceeded to head up...=20
----------------------------------------------------- Changing Affiliations... ----------------------------------------------------- Big news in the privacy world this week as Network Associates (formerly McAfee) bought Phil Zimmermann=92s Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) for $35 mill= ion. Online security minded folks went bezerk. McAfee is a member of the Key Recovery Alliance that supports the government=92s view that they should = be able to have a "backdoor" into any encrypted data. Zimmermann (who has spent a good amount of time and energy fighting the government on this point ever since his PGP was declared "munitions" for being too damn strong) was accused of selling out to the tune of $35 million. People everywhere declared that they would never touch PGP again, as they feared Network Associates would slip a hidden entrance in. The latest on this, though is that Network Associates has removed itself from the Alliance an= d claimed it will no longer support such actions. Also rumor has it that Clinton is looking to get rid of Louis Freeh, the FBI head who has been t= he big pain-in-the-neck pushing Key Recovery... Intel ditches the hi-tech contingent of lobbyists in the battle for digital TV standards and says they=92re just dandy with the horrible quality of interlaced television t= hat the broadcasters want...=20
------------------------------------------------ Rumors, Conspiracies etc. of the week... ------------------------------------------------ Intel=92s next generation Merced microprocessor having problems. Project leadership has changed hands for the seventh time and HP is getting annoy= ed with the entire project. The rumor now is that Merced will look a bit mo= re Alpha like than was previously planned, thanks to the recent Intel purchase... WorldCom to buy AOL... Compaq to put AMD K6s (assuming AMD produces any) in Presarios... Lee Iacocca to become Apple CEO?... Microso= ft looking to buy Hotmail...=20
----------------------------------------------------- Berating the obvious: (they call this news???) ----------------------------------------------------- Big content and online companies meet in DC this week and decide (surpris= e surprise) that they=92ll try (really!) to control their own content... Ci= rrus Logic "refocuses" to find that its graphics chips were out of focus... European Union plans to connect "every schoolchild" to the Internet... AO= L has succumbed and will be using Microsoft Outlook as its email client (wrapped in an AOL coating)... At the same time for a period of time this week AOL was not accepting any email from MSN. Neither side could figure out the problem and (naturally) insisted it was the other=92s fault... @H= ome to also do @Hotels apparently, though not with its own cable modem technology: "We have to use what works" said a senior VP at @Home. All = of you who bought some of that overinflated @Home stock? Now might be a goo= d time to sell... DejaNews to expand... Goldman=92s Rick Sherlund lowers ra= ting on Oracle and everyone flips out... Prices on flat panels to come down... Children=92s Internet Summit called a "PR Event" by News.com (nah? Really?)... Micron opposed to bailout of Korean memory chip makers... Microsoft Network drops European Internet Access... Headhunting firms "lo= ok to the web"... ichat buys GlobalChat as the "chat" business begins to consolidate... 3Com has incredible amounts of excess inventory (rumored t= o be made up of USRobotics modems)... www.microsoft.com goes down for half = a day with no explanation... Massive layoffs (37% of workforce) at AST computer... Kodak files suit against 3M and Imation for trade secret theft... Intel develops own design for Network Computer (not surprisingly= , this design requires Intel architecture, as compared to all the original processor-independent designs)... Cadence expects to continue to grow at 30-35% a year in sales, even without Joe Costello... Ascend sued by shareholders for withholding "valuable" information... Yet Another Financial News Site: ZDNet is going to launch Inter@citve Investor... Europe has not prepared itself for convergence, says the European Commission... Dell reduces prices... Louis Rosetto, the founder of Wired, once again steps (is pushed) further away from control of the magazine an= d related businesses... ZDNet asks "Is Wired in Trouble?" (wake up, folks).= .. Disney chief, Michael Eisner becomes wealthier... Steve Jobs to give keynote at Macworld Expo (who else could they get?)... SGI shareholders s= ue about "misleading statements" made this summer. Hell, after the stunts S= GI played this summer to boost their numbers, I=92d probably sue too... Copp= er, copper, copper. Texas Instruments announces copper chip breakthrough alo= ng with everyone else... If you want to upgrade NT4.0, you need to have IE4.= 0 installed. Hrmmm... Government officials consider the Internet to be a "ticking time bomb"... Executive search at Apple "not progressing as rapidly as planned" says search firm...=20
------------ Surprises: ------------ Modem companies agree on "tentative" 56-kbps standard (finally)... Axent buys Raptor in more consolidation of network security firms... Siemens AG and Newbridge Networks buys RADNet Ltd... Free access to the Wall Street Journal Interactive via WavePhore... @Home, who had been working closely with Netscape, makes an agreement to work with Microsoft on broadband software... IBM puts $10 million towards an E-commerce "think tank"... An engineer from Qualcomm has been accused of being a U.S. spy by the Russians... Qualcomm (totally unrelated.... I think) acquires Now Softwar= e, to incorporate Now Up-To-Date (no relation) into the Eudora email program... Toshiba changes its mind. Suddenly starts denying reports fro= m last week saying that they were dropping out of the desktop business. No= w, they claim, they=92ve just "delayed" their new product introduction...=20
------------------------------- (Mis)Uses of Technology: ------------------------------- Motorola introduces a "two-way" pager... Playboy adds 3D "virtual bachelo= r pad"... Digital information pheromones. Researchers are trying to create search engines based on the way ants find food... ATMs that will scan you= r retina to be introduced in the U.K.... Software program can look through source code to detect software plagiarism...=20
---------- Studies: ---------- PC World ranks AOL the worst online service (no surprise there), while IBM=92s Internet Connection ranks first... Rising salaries for tech worke= rs "upsets" non-techies... Online shopping sites start the holiday season of= f with 30% higher sales... A recent study from the Yankee Group suggests th= at while people want faster internet access, they don=92t want cable modems.= .. According to Media Matrix, MSNBC.com is the most often visited news site, followed by USAToday.com and CNN.com... Gartner Group says Network Computers aren=92t very useful, and won=92t be accepted, especially with today=92s bandwidth constraints. While I agree with this viewpoint, I fi= nd it interesting to note that Gartner Group started the whole damn Network Computer Craze in the first place with their ridiculous study on how expensive PCs were to manage... New study by the authors of "TechnoStress= " shows that technology training through "immersive" workshops "doesn=92t work". People need the chance to "explore and play" in order to learn technologies (well, duh)... CMP Research released a study showing that electronic commerce will grow more than 50% next year and only 18% of companies expect to lose money through their online businesses (and how many companies do *you* think will be dispappointed?)... A study from DISK/TREND predicts that 986,000 disk arrays (RAID subsystems) will be so= ld this year, up nearly 30%...=20
-------------- Predictions: -------------- Cable companies pushing back against Microsoft. Even as Bill Gates continues to look for more cable firms to pay off to support his WebTV project, the cable companies are resisting. This week 31 cable companies agreed to test out WorldGate=92s "Internet TV Over Cable" at $4.95/month.= .. BusinessWeek=92s plan to charge for access to their website starting in January will fail miserably. Haven=92t people realized? The only online content people are paying for is critical, time-sensitive data and porn..= .=20
----------------------- Memes o=92 the week: ----------------------- Software piracy crackdowns were all over the news last week. The one tha= t got me was the bust in Miami for a company selling illegal copies of Windows 3.1 and DOS. I mean, look, if I were Microsoft, and I found anyo= ne who could *sell* old crappy operating systems, I=92d *hire* them, dammit. Not arrest them... Cyber activism! Plenty of reports surrounding the online rallying against Disneyland for the plan to remove Mr. Toad=92s Wi= ld Ride (my favorite Disney ride)...=20
------------------------ Too much free time: ------------------------ Yes, it=92s exactly what it says. It=92s Stick Figure Death Theater (not recommended for the weak of heart): http://www.calvert.com/sfdt/sfdt.html
********************************************************************* Up To Date is written by Mike Masnick from whatever news he hears from=20 whatever sources they happen to come from. It is not intended for any us= es=20 other than as one of many possible ways to follow what's going on in the=20 hi-tech industry. I certainly wouldn't rely on it as your only source of info. And, of course, my comments may not accurately reflect reality.=20
If you would like to subscribe to the email version please send an email = to=20 mdm8@cornell.edu with "Subscribe Up To Date" in the subject heading.=20 Up To Date is also available on the web at=20 http://www.gsm.cornell.edu/Students/clubs/TMC/uptodate/=20
Comments are always welcome! *********************************************************************