STReport Headline
News |
Free postage exchanged for profile MIAMI (AP) - Anyone willing to answer a few personal questions online may never have to pay for postage again. A South Florida company plans to give Web surfers free, pre-stamped envelopes in exchange for giving their consumer profile - including income level and what kind of car they drive - to allow sponsors to target advertising and coupons on those envelopes based on that person's tastes. Postage4Free.com Inc., a six-person operation founded this year, kicks off its Web site Monday. Customers complete an online application and receive 10 business-sized envelopes, each with a first-class 33-cent stamp, in the mail in four to six weeks, said Marisa Dottori, who co-founded the company. Customers can come back for reorders after three months. BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - Computer equipment maker Exabyte Corp. is cutting 200 jobs as part of a reorganization aimed at slashing costs by as much as $12 million. About 100 of the layoffs occurred Thursday. Another 40 positions, including 20 vacancies, will be phased out by the end of the month. The remaining jobs will be eliminated before the end of the year. Exabyte officials announced earlier this month that they would make significant cuts to streamline operations. Before the reductions, the company employed 1,275 people, including 900 in Boulder. The reductions will affect most of Exabyte's operations, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, administration, quality control and engineering. Japan cars hit by navigation glitch TOKYO (AP) - Hundreds of people in Japan complained Sunday after their automobile navigation systems went haywire - the result of a Y2K-like glitch in the satellite system used in navigation devices worldwide. Screens went blank and bizarre symbols turned up on the electronic navigators, essential for millions of drivers in a country where urban streets are a chaotic jumble. Pioneer Corp., a major manufacturer of car navigation systems, received about 600 calls on its help hotline, said company spokesman Hidehiko Shimizu. Shimizu said callers were directed to the nearest repair shop, where their systems were fixed for free. The breakdowns stemmed from a glitch in the Global Positioning System - a navigation system that uses satellites to pinpoint exact locations on Earth. 'Virtual university' has quiet start SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - So far reality isn't so pretty for the virtual university that opened a year ago amid a lot pomp and circumstance. The Western Governors University was heralded as a landmark online college and Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt predicted that thousands of students would be enrolled within a few years. But a year after the school opening with an operating budget and startup costs totaling $13 million, only about 120 students have enrolled in slightly fewer than 130 courses offered over the Internet by various universities. While about 100 more students have signed up for four unaccredited degrees in the past four months, officials say it's the concept, not the numbers, that people should pay attention to. BOSTON (AP) - Compaq Computer Corp. has abandoned efforts to make its advanced Alpha computer chips compatible with 32-bit Windows 2000, the next version of Microsoft Inc.'s NT operating system due out later this year. Houston-based Compaq said it has disbanded the 100-person team assigned to the project, and some layoffs are likely. The company continues to work with Microsoft to develop 64-bit Windows NT, Compaq spokesman Jim Finlaw said Sunday. The Alpha chip has been consistently faster than the competing Pentium chip because it's built to handle 64 bits of data at a time, compared to 32 bits for Pentium, The Boston Globe reported Saturday. But Alpha's 64-bit design won't run on Window's 32-bit operating system, including NT, without a translation program, the newspaper said. Companies team on NEW YORK (AP) - Lucent Technologies, Nokia and 3Com are helping found a new industry group that will adopt standards for wireless computer networks and certify products that meet those standards. The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, WECA, hopes to make go-anywhere computing as commonplace as using a mobile phone by making it less of a gamble for consumers and network operators to invest in expensive wireless equipment. While users of laptop computers and other portable devices can already dial-up to the Internet and private company networks with a wireless modem, the connections are often slow and unreliable from location to location. Gates has wealthiest foundation WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, has created the country's wealthiest foundation, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Gates and his wife, Melinda, have consolidated their two charitable foundations and donated an additional $6 billion to the newly named Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, bringing its total worth to $17.1 billion, according to a report published on the Chronicle's Web site Sunday and confirmed by a co-chair of the Gates Foundation. The couple decided to merge the William H. Gates Foundation, named after Gates' father, and the Gates Learning Foundation so they could broaden their focus on learning and global health, said Patty Stonesifer, foundation co-chairwoman. PSINet to buy Transaction Network HERNDON, Va. (Reuters) - Internet service provider PSINet Inc. said on Monday it would buy Transaction Network Services Inc., a processor of sales over the Web, in a $720 million cash-and-stock deal. Transaction Network runs a network used by U.S. credit card processors and has experienced rapid growth this year in processing transactions, a statement said. The $720 million purchase price consists of $351 million in cash and up to 7.8 million PSINet common shares. Transaction Network shareholders may choose to receive cash, PSINet stock, or both. William Schrader, PSINet chairman and chief executive, said the deal "enables PSINet to better access the $1 trillion marketplace for e-commerce services." Sun Micro to buy Forte Software PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc. said Monday it agreed to acquire software developer Forte Software Inc. for $540 million in stock in a deal that will expand Sun's portfolio of network servers, workstations and software. Under terms of the agreement, each share of Forte common stock will be converted into 0.3 shares of Sun Micro common stock. With this acquisition, Sun said it is adding to its portfolio more key elements for network computing. Oakland, Calif.-based Forte has a strong position in the market for scalable distributed application development and enterprise application integration. These complement Sun Micro's Java platform and other network computing technologies, the company said. AOL plans TV Internet facility FRANKFURT (Reuters) - America Online Inc. Chief Executive Steve Case said in a magazine interview Sunday the Internet service provider plans to make Internet services accessible via the TV screen. Germany's Focus magazine reported Case as saying AOL planned to offer e-mail and chat-room services over the channel, which would be screened on TV and not over the Internet. The new facility is called AOL-TV, but is not a separate TV channel, AOL said. Unlike its competitor Microsoft Corp., Case said AOL was not interested in buying up the German TV cable network, which Deutsche Telekom AG is selling off. However, Case said it was possible AOL could participate in a German TV deal with media giant Bertelsmann AG, its joint venture partner in AOL Europe. Motorola chip may improve digital TV SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (AP) - Motorola Inc. said Monday it has developed a chip designed to improve reception of digital television signals in urban areas. The company said its digital signal processing architecture, called the MCT2100 demodulator chip, reduces the effects of "multiple reflections," which occur when obstacles - such as a building or truck - block digital signals. Motorola, an electronics and telecommunications firm based in Schaumburg, Ill., created the chip in conjunction with technology company Sarnoff Corp. Motorola said the new technology would help digital television providers meet the Federal Communications Commission's transmission standard. Yahoo launches digital music Web site SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Yahoo! Inc. on Monday unveiled its Yahoo! Digital site, a move that adds the huge Internet media company's voice to the chorus of companies that digitally distribute music over the Web. The site allows Web surfers to listen to music from popular recording artists, as well as purchase songs that can be transmitted via the Internet to a user's computer. Customers can also watch and listen to Internet broadcasts, like concerts and music video, view on-demand video channels and, in about one week, self-publish and sell their own music online, Yahoo said. 'Witch' town site gets 500,000 hits BURKITTSVILLE, Md. (AP) - The Internet Web site devoted to this small town of just over 200 people has drawn half a million visits in one day. Residents of the town in western Maryland prepared the site to respond to the flood of tourist and media inquiries that followed the release of "The Blair Witch Project," a pseudo documentary horror film that has earned millions of dollars at the box office this summer. On the Web site, residents are providing facts about the town, which has just 75 old brick and Victorian homes, one post office and one church. Though the Web site, hosted by a Severna Park-based company called ToadNet, is attracting visitors, the Web page says residents are not making money from the limelight. Spain's tomato war begins again While 38% of the
World's population suffers from starvation! Mozart-smart theory challenged (AP) - A Mozart sonata may lift the soul, but it won't make listeners any smarter, according to two studies that challenge previous research and popular belief about the effect of music on intelligence. The latest results call into question 1993 research that showed college students temporarily gained up to nine IQ points after listening to a Mozart piano sonata. The widely reported findings spawned an industry of supposedly mind-enhancing recordings. South Dakota, Georgia and Tennessee, as well as the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, give away classical CDs to new mothers. And several "Mozart Effect" CDs have been on the Billboard classical charts since Jan. 1998. High tech workers sought WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For thousands of American high-tech firms, their billion dollar businesses depend on their ability to find foreign workers who can navigate complex computer languages like "Java" or "C." According to the Information Technology Association of America, about 346,000 information technology-related jobs were vacant in 1998, and labor-deprived high-tech firms have begun exploring beyond American shores, seeking offshore operations or importing skilled foreigners to work in the United States. Programmers get glimpse MONTEREY, Calif. (Reuters) - Software developers can now get a first glimpse of one of the computer industry's longest and most storied software projects - still unfinished after almost 40 years. Eccentric inventor Ted Nelson said this week he would make some of the software code for his Xanadu project - a conceptual precursor of the World Wide Web - available to the open source development community, where programmers have free access to a software program's code over the Internet, allowing them to make changes to improve the code and test it for bugs. Now 62, Nelson is the inventor of what Wired Magazine once called the "longest-running vaporware project in the history of computing" - the Xanadu project. Vaporware refers to software that was promoted or talked about but never materialized. Gates said 'Pirates' film got it wrong AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - As far as Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates is concerned, the recently-aired television movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" can walk the plank. Gates said on Wednesday the movie, which depicted the rise of the computer industry and Silicon Valley through a rivalry between Gates and Apple Computer's Steve Jobs, got it all wrong. "Maybe I'm too close to the situation to like the portrayal, but that was not history," he told the audience at the Dell DirectConnect conference for Dell Computer Corp. customers. "They didn't get the facts quite right," said Gates.
|
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court ordered reconsideration Monday of a judge's restrictions against shipments by Microsoft Corp. of software containing Java programming language. Judge Ronald Whyte of San Jose granted an injunction to Sun Microsystems last November. He said Sun was likely to show that Microsoft had violated a licensing agreement allowing it to use Sun's version of Java in its products. The injunction prohibited Microsoft from distributing products that used Sun's Java copyrights, including Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4.0, unless Microsoft conformed to Sun's standards for Java. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that there was evidence to support Whyte's conclusion that Microsoft had violated the agreement by designing a version of Java incompatible with other software. SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - Stamps.com said Monday it will provide its Internet postage service on Microsoft Corp.'s Office Update Web site. Financial terms weren't disclosed, Dow Jones News Service reported. Stamps.com, of Santa Monica, Calif., is one of two companies licensed by the U.S. Postal Service's PC Postage program that lets individuals and companies buy postage via the Internet and affix stamps directly from a personal computer. In morning trading, shares of Stamps.com were up 20%, or $6.25, at $36.87 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Stamps.com, which is targeting small businesses and people with home offices, allows users to download its software for free. The company plans to make its service available nationwide Sept. 27. DULLES, Va. (AP) - AOL Europe, a joint venture between America Online Inc. and Bertelsmann, began offering a free Internet access service in the United Kingdom Tuesday. Customers using the service, called Netscape Online, will not pay for access to the Internet but must pay local phone charges. European telephone companies charge per minute, even for local calls. Netscape Online will compete directly with a free Internet access service called Freeserve, which is Britain's largest Internet service provider with more than 1 million users. More than 100 Internet service providers offer free access in Britain. So-called "free" Internet services make their money three ways - from sharing in telephone revenues as subscribers dial up, from advertising and from a cut on any purchases made via the Internet. 'bundled' services NEW YORK (Reuters) - Baby Bell SBC Communications Inc. is expected to launch discounted packages that bundle Internet, entertainment and local telephone services, the Wall Street Journal reported in Tuesday's online edition. The Journal said the so-called telephone-service "bundles," expected to be announced Tuesday, are designed to compete with similar packages planned by rival AT&T Corp. The company could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment. high-speed Net service LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Internet service provider EarthLink Network Inc. said Monday it had struck a deal with telecommunications company GTE Corp. in a move to expand high-speed access to the World Wide Web. The service, to be offered over GTE Internetworking's digital subscriber lines (DSL), will be tested in the Los Angeles area this quarter and rolled out commercially in 20 other markets by the end of the year, EarthLink said. DSL technology, which operates over traditional copper telephone lines, lets users log onto the Internet at speeds up to 25 times faster than the fastest analog dial-up modems, which stream data at 56.6 kilobits a second. Houston (STR) - Compaq Computer is giving up its attempt to get the Windows 2000 operating system to run effectively on the 64-bit Alpha chip. The hardware giant had 100 people working on the project, and the positions will go. Windows 2000 is a 32-bit operating system and is not currently compatible with Alpha unless a 'translation' program is used. However, this extra complexity takes away the performance advantage that 64-bit platforms have over their 32-bit cousins. may trigger flood NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Millennium Bug that promised to swell U.S. courts with lawsuits arising from damage that may occur if a computer system fails to recognize the Year 2000 so far has resulted in only 74 cases filed, according to a report released Monday by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The trickle has the potential to turn into a full fledge flood after the clock strikes midnight 1999, some experts said. As of June 30, there were only 74 cases filed in state and federal courts against 45 defendants that related to the Year 2000 computer glitch (Y2K), according to the report. In the first half of 1999, only 13 cases were filed, compared to 21 in the second half of 1998, excluding multiple filings against the same defendant, the report said. LOS ANGELES (AP) - An Internet company offering music and movie downloads says it will offer one of the first movies specifically produced for initial release on the World Wide Web. "The Quantum Project" will be produced by Metafilmics, the production company that made "What Dreams May Come," the Robin Williams feature that won an Academy Award for best visual effects. Some short subject movies have had their premieres on the Internet, but analysts said they believed "Quantum Project" would be the first longer film to debut online. The $3 million movie, which goes into production this year, will debut next spring on Sightsound.com. Viewers will be able to download the film for a rental fee, probably between $2 and $4. NEW YORK (AP) - If 440 hours of Olympic coverage aren't enough, NBC has set up a Web site devoted solely to the 2000 Sydney Games. It will be the only Web site allowed to show video of the events and will also feature athletes contributing their accounts free of charge. Due to the 15-hour time difference, Americans have to wait for TV coverage on NBC or one of its cable networks, CNBC and MSNBC. However, diehard Olympic fans will be able to receive the latest information as it happens over www.nbcolympics.com - a joint-venture with Quokka Sports. NBC is expected to show about 170 hours of Olympic coverage, and its two cable partners will show about 270 hours for an unprecedented 440 total hours. LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Walt Disney Co. has bought a majority interest in toysmart.com, an online educational toy seller, the companies said Wednesday. Disney's Buena Vista Internet group will own an estimated 60% stake in the Waltham, Mass.-based toysmart.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but analysts said the deal includes $20 million in cash for toysmart.com and $25 million worth of free marketing with Disney. The ads would appear on the Go Network, which includes ESPN.com and ABCNews.com and on other outlets, such as the Disney Channel. REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. has chosen Richard Belluzzo, a computer industry veteran, to run its rapidly growing Internet operations. Belluzzo, 45, resigned Monday as chairman and chief executive officer of Silicon Graphics Inc., a position he held for less than two years. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that he's expected to start as head of Microsoft's Internet unit - now called the Consumer and Commerce Group - on Sept. 1. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment early Wednesday. Before he moved to Silicon Graphics, Belluzzo had a 22-year career at Hewlett Packard, where he became the No. 2 executive. FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) - The man charged with creating the Melissa computer virus that clogged e-mail systems around the world admitted he created the bug, a prosecutor alleges in court papers. David L. Smith, a former computer programmer, was arrested in April. A brief filed in state Superior Court by Supervising Deputy Attorney General Christopher G. Bubb says Smith waived his Miranda rights and spoke to investigators when police arrived at his apartment. "Smith admitted, among other things, to writing the 'Melissa' macro virus, illegally accessing America Online for the purpose of posting the virus onto cyberspace, and destroying the personal computers he used to post 'Melissa,'" Bubb wrote. on society's digital divide WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent warnings of a growing information technology gap between whites and minorities and the rich and poor will be confronted at a forum later this year, the U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday. Commerce Secretary William Daley said the two-day session planned for late October would allow top high-tech firms, civil rights groups, civic leaders and community groups to hold a serious dialogue about the "digital divide." "Without enough skilled people from all walks of life, we risk letting a 21st century opportunity become a 21st century social problem," said Daley, speaking at a technology center for needy kids sponsored by the Greater Washington Urban League. for $6.9 bln NEW YORK (AP) - Cisco Systems Inc. reportedly has agreed to acquire closely-held networking startup Cerent Corp. for $6.9 billion in stock. Vinod Khosla, Cerent's chairman and a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, told The Wall Street Journal the deal appears to be the largest ever involving a private technology company. Cisco planned to announce the purchase, it's costliest to date, Thursday, the newspaper said. Cerent, based in Petaluma, Calif., makes equipment that eases communications bottlenecks by routing telephone calls and Internet traffic on and off fiber-optic lines. The company has posted only $10 million in sales in its two years in business and has never turned a profit. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - An Internet standards body is seeking final comment for a new programming language for designing Web sites that would make it easier for Web pages to be displayed on handheld information devices. The World Wide Web Consortium said Tuesday it is asking for feedback on the use of XHTML, or Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, to help make Web pages readable on handheld computers, cell phones and other outlets besides desktop browsers. XHTML incorporates elements of HTML, the current programming language used for displaying documents on the Web and XML, or Extensible Markup Language, a newer language that gives Web designers more flexibility in designing, sorting and delivering information products. AUSTIN (AP) - Dell Computer Corp. announced a new service Wednesday under which the company will maintain customers' servers over the Internet. The goal, said Ro Parra, senior vice president of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, is to eventually have computer systems detect, diagnose and resolve most of their problems without human interaction. The announcement marks an expansion of Dell's Internet capabilities, said Cody Acree, vice president of technical research at Frost Securities in Dallas. "It is not something I've seen in the other major PC manufacturers." Michael Dell, head of the country's largest PC maker, demonstrated the new technology for diagnosing computer problems online at Dell's first DirectConnect convention Wednesday. WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. and at least five other countries do not expect to finish fixing their Year 2000 computer bugs until just weeks before the new year, an international survey reported Thursday. Two other countries, Slovakia and Bolivia, do not believe they will finish until next year, meaning problems could occur after midnight strikes on New Year's Eve. Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, said the late completion dates are not necessarily reason to expect catastrophe. Rather, he said, the survey points to areas in which to intensify contingency planning. Other countries not expected to finish until December are: Pakistan and Macedonia, for air transportation; Bulgaria, for health; Bolivia, for government services; Colombia, for customs, and Angola, for sea and land transportation, customs and health. SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - An Internet governing body seeking to bring order to the World Wide Web wound down three days of meetings Thursday by tackling one of the technology's thorniest issues: cybersquatting. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as INCANN, closed its conference by approving guidelines to resolve disputes over domain names - the addresses used by Internet users to access a particular Web site. Businesses looking to establish a presence on the Web have increasingly complained about cybersquatting, the practice of buying Internet Web site names and then selling them for a profit. INCANN pledged to develop a system within 45 days to more closely monitor the registration of names on the Internet and provide a way to resolve disputes over trademarks. SEATTLE (AP) - Internet retailer Amazon.com, which announced a new way last week to help gift buyers find its most popular products, said Thursday it was modifying its new Purchase Circles feature after complaints about consumer privacy. The service is designed to help purchasers find hot products in 3,000 different cities, universities and workplaces. The service first appeared on Amazon.com's Web site last Friday. The Seattle-based company's technology collected consumer data, which it made available in searchable databases where online shoppers could see which books or music CDs are most popular with people in a certain area code, employer or military branch. But outcry over privacy concerns apparently prompted modifications. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A new Web site is launching lobsters into cyberspace. It's based inside a trap under the waters of Spruce Head, where a camera sends a new photo to an Internet site every two minutes, sometimes showing a caged crustacean poking its antennae around or climbing across the lens. The Web address is http://www.midcoast.com/lobcam/. The so-called Lobster Cam was set up by the University of Maine's Lobster Institute to help advance science while having a little fun in the process. The first graduate student who worked on the project ended up with a waterlogged camera. The pictures can only be seen during the day until a burnt-out light in the trap is fixed.
|