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INTEL DEVELOPS PORTABLE COMPUTER

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - You may not be able to take a moon shuttle or spend a night in space like characters in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," but the kind of thin computer pad they carried could be on shelves by the real 2001. Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, is testing a device about the size of an Etch-a-Sketch that taps into the Internet without a wire and can be passed around the house from husband to wife to kid to check the latest headlines, e-mail, stock quotes and even the school lunch menu. "They'll have to come out here and pry it out of my hands," said Katherine Cowan, whose suburban Portland family recently tested a prototype that designers based loosely on the "newspad" in the classic 1968 movie.

eBAY recovers after ANOTHER outage

After an outage yesterday that halted bidding for nearly seven hours, popular auction site eBay is up and running today. "We believe that we have recovered all of the corrupt data, and no data, bids, nor items were lost," eBay's Michael Wilson, senior vice president for product development and site operations, said in a posting at 10:38 p.m. PT yesterday. The outage began at 3:41 p.m. PT. All auctions that had been scheduled to end between 1:50 p.m. and midnight yesterday have been extended for 24 hours, under eBay's policy. In an earlier posting, Wilson said one database had been corrupted, and the corruption quickly spread elsewhere on many different hardware devices. "We do not know what caused the problem, but we are certain it is not hardware. We are working with our software vendors to determine the cause of the problem," Wilson said, also ruling out heavy usage as a cause. "The reason it took so long to recover was that many files were corrupted, and we needed to restore them from backups and reapply the updates," Wilson said. eBay engineers initially attributed the outage to problems with its CGI server hardware.

GATEWAY TO BUILD LOW-COST COMPUTERS

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Computer maker Gateway Inc. will continue to turn its focus to high-profit services such as financing, Internet service and computer training, CEO Ted Waitt told shareholders at the company's annual meeting Thursday. The North Sioux City, S.D.-based company also plans to introduce more low-cost computers, which represent the fastest growing segment of the personal computer market, Waitt said. "The days of everyone buying a $2,500 PC are over," he said. Gateway currently sells a $999 personal computer, but Waitt declined to say how much lower the company would go in the next year. "Right now to say we'll be at $499, or $599, or $399, we're still working that out," he told reporters after the meeting.

MICROSOFT'S UNEASY BROWSER VICTORY

The scales have tipped in favor of Internet Explorer -- as almost 60 percent of companies in a survey released Wednesday say they now use Microsoft's browser, an important trend that could possibly be a Pyrrhic victory for the software giant. Microsoft's aggressive push to persuade consumers to use its browser rather than one made by rival Netscape is at the core of the government's antitrust trial, which is scheduled to resume on June 1. And as recently as October, the same market researcher's survey -- cited as evidence in the trial -- indicated that 60 percent of companies used Netscape's software. Microsoft lawyer John Warden told the judge that the earlier survey "completely undermines the government's case." Lawyers also cited the earlier results twice while challenging government witnesses.

But the new survey from Zona Research of 308 corporate technology professionals showed that 59 percent identified Microsoft's browser as the one they "personally use the most at work." And it has left Microsoft trying to downplay the significance of the survey -- and therefore the company's own success. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan argued that the results show only which browser the professionals used personally, not necessarily which browser was used by all employees. But the survey also said more than two-thirds of the companies encourage or require all employees to use specific Internet software, and that of those, 62 percent encourage or require the use of Microsoft's browser over Netscape's. Still, Cullinan argued: "This is simply offering choice, and the best product winning."

Critics said the results support the government's allegations. "It reconfirms the underlying facts of the case, and the problems and the tactics shown," said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that has been critical of Microsoft. "Microsoft has always made the point, you have to have real damage [to Netscape]. Here's obviously real damage." Netscape early on targeted companies as its prime market for browser sales. Companies' software managers recognized Netscape as an Internet pioneer, and a 1996 Zona survey found more than 70 percent of companies used Navigator. Internet Explorer generally has been more popular among consumers at home, especially since Microsoft began bundling the browser within Windows. IE also enjoys unusual popularity among home consumers because America Online distributes Microsoft's browser to all of its 18 million subscribers. If you think that sounds a little odd, given that AOL owns Netscape, consider its contractual obligation: AOL must continue distributing Microsoft's browser until January 2001.

COMPUTER CHIP MAKER TO GIVE BONUSES

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Another $20 million bonus will be handed out to the 1,000 employees at a computer memory-chip firm that boasts a family-style "we're in it together" philosophy. John Tu and David Sun, co-founders of Kingston Technology Co., told employees in memos that the big payoff will come in July, company spokeswoman Heather Jardin said Wednesday. Tenure and performance determine how much each employee gets out of the $20 million bonus. She declined to provide other specifics, only saying that "it's a huge range." "They have always said they would do profit sharing. It goes along with Kingston's philosophy. It's a real family thing," Jardin said.

SEC CENSURES, FINES DATEK ONLINE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators have censured and fined Datek Online Brokerage Services Corp. for using its customers cash to pay some of its expenses, a violation of consumer protection laws. While the actions didn't cause any customers to lose money, the enforcement action is the first taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the burgeoning Internet stockbroker business. Datek and its former CFO agreed in a settlement to the censure and fines, totaling $60,000, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday. Datek, based in Iselin, N.J., is one of the nation's biggest online brokerages, processing more than 500,000 trades a day.

CIH ANTIDOTE AUTHOR SPEAKS UP

By Sanjit Singh

New Delhi (May 18, 1999) - A 21-year-old Bangladeshi student who invented an antidote for the CIH, or Chernobyl, virus has declared that his software is safe, despite concern about the program voiced by professional antivirus authors. Developers at U.S. data recovery firm OnTrack Data International Inc. said that users of the free utility, called MRECOVER -- written by Bangladeshi student Monirul Islam Sharif -- might be in danger of losing fully recoverable critical data. OnTrack's criticism, however, is not about the core MRECOVER program, but the readme.txt file that comes with it, Sharif stressed. The Chernobyl or CIH virus, invented by one-time Taiwanese student Chen Ing-hau, caused havoc all over Asia on April 26, hitting thousands of PCs in Korea, Singapore, India, Bangladesh, and China. After the virus hit, Sharif said, he wrote a 70KB C-language antidote program, which he called MRECOVER, in 24 hours, and posted it on his Web site.

OnTrack engineer Sean Barry, however, said that users may be putting themselves at greater risk of losing data if they follow instructions appearing in the program's accompanying text files. Barry noted that if the utility does not recover the data, the instructions in the program tell users that they may have to format their storage device. The problem with the text instructions as they now read, according to OnTrack's Barry, is that if users reformat their hard drives, professionally written programs that otherwise may have been able to recover all the lost data may not be able to. OnTrack said it recommended that if users decide to use shareware or freeware utilities to recover from the CIH virus, they should avoid re-partitioning or reformatting their storage device if the utility does not work. The firm said its data recovery engineers have recovered useable data for worldwide customers who have suffered data loss from the CIH virus. In most cases, it has been a 100 percent recovery from the virus corruption, OnTrack said.

Sharif, for his part, said OnTrack is harping on the semantics of the text of the readme.txt file accompanying his program and not the program itself. "I have got lots of feedback from users all over the world since I posted MRECOVER at http://members.xoom.com/monirdomain  on May 2," he said. He added, however, that, "I accept that in my program, near the end of recovery, it shows a message 'If data recovery is not possible you may have to format.'" Sharif said that he would change the readme.txt file accompanying the next version of the program to make it clearer that the program does not always work and to avoid misunderstanding on the part of users. Meanwhile, Sharif said, "I have also mentioned on the Web site, 'MRECOVER will not alter the contents of the disk if it sees data is not recoverable, only when MRECOVER can retrieve data, it will write the changes.' This ensures that the contents are intact and that you can use other methods if available." The MRECOVER program currently will not recover the first partition of a hard drive if the hard drive uses File Allocation Table (FAT) 16, but the text files accompanying the program clearly say that, Sharif noted.


AMAZON.COM OFFERS REFUNDS

NEW YORK (AP) - Amazon.com Inc. will issue refunds to customers who bought New York Times best-selling books in the two weeks prior to Internet merchant's announcement that it was cutting prices. Amazon said Monday it would slash prices of best-selling books by 50%, a move that was then matched by Internet rivals Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com. The Seattle-based Amazon already has notified customers who purchased books from May 3 to May 16 that they would be entitled to the discounts and their accounts would be credited for the difference in price. Barnesandnoble.com said its discounts were good for purchases beginning Monday. Officials from Borders.com could not be reached for comment.

DELL PROFITS JUMP 42%

DALLAS (AP) - First-quarter profits for Dell Computer Corp., the nation's largest direct seller of computers, increased 42% on an expected rise in sales, meeting analysts' expectations. Dell said Tuesday it earned $434 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended April 30, up from $305 million, or 11 cents per diluted share in the same period last year. The profits met analysts' expectations, according to a survey by First Call Corp. Dell made its announcement after the close of the Nasdaq Stock Market, where shares rose 81 cents to $44.06. In after-hours trading, the shares fell to $41.87. The drop in stock price was likely due to Dell's meeting expectations, instead of exceeding them, one analyst said.

HIGH TECH COMPANIES LACK TRAINED WORKERS

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - High tech companies in Silicon Valley can't find enough qualified workers to fill job openings and it's hampering the industry's growth, a study released Tuesday found. That employee shortage is translating into a $3 billion loss for local high tech companies, according to a study by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a group of public organizations and private businesses working to improve the economic vitality and quality of life in Silicon Valley, where most of the top high tech businesses in the U.S. are headquartered. The report found 160,000 high tech positions - roughly one-third of the high tech industry demand in Silicon Valley - are filled by recruits from outside the region, by long-distance commuters or they go unfilled.

WEB BOOKSTORES DISCOUNT BESTSELLERS

SEATTLE (AP) - A price war among the three biggest online booksellers broke out Monday when Amazon.com announced 50% off all New York Times best sellers, and Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com immediately matched the discount. The deep discounts will mean the companies will make little or no profit on the books, but the offer could stimulate sales of other more lucrative products as customers browse through the Web sites. All three companies have traditionally offered best-selling books at discounts as deep as 40% below list price.

TOSHIBA TO USE NUON TECHNOLOGY

Toshiba Corporation today revealed that it will be using the VM Lab's NUON platform in its future digital consumer products. The first products will hit store shelves in the year 2000. NUON is a technology that transforms digital video products into interactive multimedia centers for the whole family. For the first time, you will be able to enjoy high performance interactive applications with sophisticated film-quality graphics on the same machine that provides movie content. "After following VM Labs carefully since 1995, Toshiba has chosen to incorporate NUON technology into future digital consumer products, the first of which is expected to be available in 2000," said Hisashi Yamada of Toshiba Corporation. "We are particularly impressed by NUON's highly compelling technology and its potential for the enhancement of a wide range of digital home products and software. We believe NUON will hold an important position in the digital visual market of tomorrow, attracting Hollywood movie studios and other entertainment companies to share in the rapid expansion of interactive content received through the television." For more info: http://www.nuon-tech.com

XEROX, MICROSOFT STRIKE TECHNOLOGY DEAL - WSJ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Copier firm Xerox Corp. set a technology and product alliance with Microsoft Corp. that would make it easy to connect Xerox digital copiers to computer networks running Microsoft software, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The agreement dictates that Microsoft and Xerox will design software applications together at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, the newspaper said, quoting sources familiar with the project. The alliance with Microsoft gives Xerox an immensely powerful partner and could help the copier giant gain an edge against Hewlett-Packard Co. whose products have the majority of corporate desktop printing today.

SYNETIC TO BUY MEDICAL MANAGER FOR $1.4 BLN

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Health care communications technology company Synetic Inc. said Monday it would buy Medical Manager Corp., a medical practice management software firm, in a stock deal valued at $1.4 billion. The deal would give Synetic a boost in the race to link the nation's doctors and their desktop computers with health plans, clinical labs, pharmacy benefit managers and other health care players in an online network. Under the agreement, each outstanding share of Medical Manager common stock would be exchanged for 0.625 newly issued share of Synetic common stock, subject to a collar mechanism. The pooling of interests deal is expected to be completed by Sept. 30 and is subject to approval by boards of both companies.

INTEL RELEASES FASTER PENTIUM III CHIP

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - No. 1 chip maker Intel Corp. Monday launched a faster Pentium III processor that allows personal computers and larger server machines to handle more easily functions like Web audio-video. The latest Pentium III processor - the brains in high-end PCs - runs at a speed of 550 megahertz, up from the 500 megahertz Pentium III chip Intel launched in mid-March.

REALNETWORKS IN MUSIC, VIDEO DEALS

SEATTLE (AP) - RealNetworks Inc. and Snap.com announced a pair of deals that will help Internet users find music and video on the Web. RealNetworks said it will incorporate a search feature into its RealPlayer G2 software using Snap.com technology as the search engine, the companies said in a joint statement. Snap.com, the San Francisco-based Internet portal from NBC and CNET, becomes the exclusive search feature on RealPlayer G2, allowing users to search directly for RealAudio and RealVideo files on the Web.

INTERNET ADVERTISING GROWING MORE DIVERSE - STUDY

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Computer-related advertisers still dominate the Internet, but their share of overall spending shrunk in 1998, as drug makers and other types of businesses stepped up their marketing presence in cyberspace, a report issued Friday said. Advertising spending channeled to the top sites, jumped 93% to $1.03 billion in 1998, with the top 50 sites taking in more than $965.5 million in revenue, according to the InterWatch report, which tracks advertising spending at 300 Web venues. The study was issued by InterMedia Advertising Solutions.

GERMAN POLICE DEVELOP INTERNET CRIME-BUSTER

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - German police are developing an Internet search engine that will home in on illegal activity on the Web, including pedophile networks and neo-Nazi propaganda, and lead detectives to those who publish or even view such sites, an official said Monday. "It should make it easier for police to pinpoint criminal content on the Internet, secure evidence and identify the senders," Deputy Interior Minister Claus Henning Schapper told a conference on Internet security in Bonn. "We want to contain the spread of, for example, politically extreme matter or, highly important, child pornography over the Internet." He gave no further details on the device nor did he say when it might come into operation.

NEW MBAS FLOOD INTERNET BUSINESSES

BOSTON (AP) - At 30, Anne Stanton isn't a corporate titan. At least not yet. But the 1999 graduate of Harvard Business School is forsaking job security and a fat paycheck for the potential for phenomenal wealth and success offered by an Internet startup she launched with classmates. Among their peers in the newest class of Harvard MBAs, their gamble is not unique. "A lot of people that are on the team, they've turned down salaries of $150,000 and bonuses of $50,000," said Stanton, who hopes her company, LocalREWARDS.com, will be operating in 40 to 60 markets by November.

TEEN INDICTED FOR HACKING COMPUTER

WASHINGTON (AP) - A teen-ager identified as a computer hacker whose name appeared on the Internet site for the White House after vandals altered it this week has been indicted in Virginia on charges he broke into another government computer. A grand jury indicted Eric Burns, 19, on three counts of computer intrusion. Burns, reportedly known on the Internet as "Zyklon," was accused of breaking into a computer between August 1998 and January 1999 in northern Virginia that is used by the U.S. Information Agency. "Zyklon" was one of a dozen names listed on the hacked version of the White House Web site, which was altered overnight Sunday for a few minutes before government computers automatically detected the intrusion.

U.S. WON'T CUT YUGOSLAVIA WEB ACCESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration pledged Friday not to interfere with Internet access for some of Yugoslavia's citizens, saying they need the worldwide computer network for reliable news coverage. "Full and open access to the Internet can only help the Serbian people know the ugly truth about the atrocities and crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Kosovo by the Milosevic regime," State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. Loral Space and Communications Ltd. of New York said this week that it might be forced under a trade embargo against President Slobodan Milosevic's government to cut transmissions into Yugoslavia from one of its satellites. The satellite serves at least two of Yugoslavia's major Internet providers.

FCC REVIEWS NEED FOR BROADBAND RULES

WASHINGTON (AP) - Government regulators plan to move cautiously in framing rules to govern high-speed digital services for consumers, Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard said Monday. As telecommunications companies increasingly offer Internet service, the FCC must weigh to what extent it should regulate what Kennard pointed out is an essentially unregulated medium. "We have to be very, very careful about injecting government into a market like the Internet, which has thrived quite well without a lot of government intervention," Kennard told a National Consumers League forum on information technology. Kennard argued that consumers have benefited because the Internet market "has been effectively unregulated." But he said the FCC will soon seek wide public comment "on access to the broadband pipe so that we can gain a better understanding of how this marketplace is developing and whether there is an appropriate regulatory response to this issue."

"What you have is the cable companies moving into the Internet and the telcos moving into the Internet," Bell Atlantic Chairman Ivan Seidenberg, another forum speaker, said. When fully implemented, their rival broadband technologies will be capable of offering high-quality video and audio links to the World Wide Web, as well as other interactive consumer services. Seidenberg agreed with Kennard that consumers should have easy entry to a host of communications gateways, including wireless and satellite services. But he also called on the FCC to deal "with issue of parity," claiming that the cable companies currently enjoy an unfair advantage as a result of "disparate regulatory treatment."

Kennard and Seidenberg were joined on the panel by America Online Chairman Steve Case, who said: "My own view is that there are only two broadband wires into the home: the cable line and the telephone line.... We need to recognize that two wires taken to an extreme would lead to a duopoly that would gut innovation and momentum in this industry." America Online recently sought to become a partner in a bid by Comcast to acquire MediaOne Group, a big cable firm with Internet aspirations. But, America Online, the nation's biggest online service, backed out of the deal when AT&T trumped the Comcast offer in an effort to become the nation's top cable provider. Asked after the forum about America Online's broadband strategy in the wake of the failed Comcast overture, Case said:

"We will continue to work with any company who is interested in working with us to try to move this medium forward and try to take advantage of the audience we have to sell their technology. Certainly AT&T is on the list of companies we'd love to work with as long as we can establish a win-win partnership." Case noted that about one-third of all U.S. households currently possess Internet access. Although only a tiny fraction have the kind of fast connections that are increasingly common in the workplace, that number is expected to rise rapidly in the next five years. Bell Atlantic is the principal underwriter of the four-day conference in Washington sponsored by the century old National Consumers League.

POLLSTERS FACE THREAT FROM INTERNET

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Pollsters face a triple challenges to their profession now that they've wrapped up one of their most influential years. The high profile of polls in the last year has led to increased scrutiny by critics. The public's response to poll interviewers has been declining. And Internet surveys are being offered as a tempting - and cheaper - alternative to proven scientific methods. These were major concerns of pollsters who gathered over the weekend for the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. The role played by public opinion in President Clinton's sex scandal and impeachment trial was a frequent theme at the weekend sessions. While public support for Clinton did not prevent his trial, many analysts believe it contributed to his political survival.

EBAY BUYING 2 COMPANIES

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Online auction company eBay Inc. announced two deals to expand services on its Internet trading site. eBay is acquiring Kruse International, an automobile auctioneer aimed at the collector market, and Billpoint Inc., a company that facilitates credit card payments over the Internet. Kruse offers appraisal and authentication services and participates in about 40 car auctions per year. As part of eBay's online auctions, sellers will use Billpoint to instantly accept credit cards. The company also puts together reference reports for buyers, listing all their transactions, including status and refunds. eBay will issue common stock worth about $275 million in making the acquisitions, the company said Tuesday.

HP STAKES CLAIM ON INTERNET

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Tuesday unveiled its plans to become a major player on the Internet by offering a host of services to help other companies build more effective online businesses. HP's "Internet Chapter II" strategy addresses the ways the company expects the Internet to evolve - from a collection of distinct Web and e-commerce sites to a connected set of information and services that will automatically respond to customer needs with little instruction. Hewlett-Packard, which by many accounts has trailed other players in the first chapter of the Internet, is now offering some futuristic scenarios for how it believes Chapter Two will unfold - a car that breaks down and automatically sends for a mechanic or an airline reservation that notifies a hotel of a passenger's late check-in if a flight is delayed.

MICROSOFT TRIAL TO RESUME JUNE 1, AIDE SAYS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The landmark Microsoft Corp. antitrust trial will resume June 1, an aide to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said Tuesday. The trial adjourned in late February and its resumption has been delayed while Jackson heard another trial. An aide to the judge said that, barring some unforeseen delay, Jackson will resume hearing the non-jury trial following the U.S. Memorial Day holiday. Microsoft went on trial in October 1988, on allegations by the Justice Department and 19 states that it violated the nation's antitrust laws by abusing monopoly power in the market for the Windows operating system for personal computers.

 

 

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