|
Scroll down to view entire week.
Use navigation bar below to go forward or back.
______________________________
Sunday, December 6
______________________________
WHERE
DO THEY STAND?
Though their case was once billed as a battle over
browsers, antitrust officials now must make the case that
the universal programming language known as Java was at
least as much a threat to Microsoft's hegemony over the
market for PC operating systems as Netscape
Communications' Navigator browser was. Full
story here.
HEY SUCKER CATS
There is almost no limit to what you can change in the
Mac OS, and it's all done without an archaic command-line
interface like DOS. From ResEdit and AppleScript many
great shareware products have been created, and many
users have tweaked their Macs to incredible new
dimensions, all through a standard Macintosh graphical
interface. More
here.
IPV6 AVAILABLE, BUT . . .
After four years in the lab, the next
generation of the protocol that runs the entire Internet
is open to the public. Now comes the hard part. The
Internet Society has released a new version of Internet
Protocol, the low-level blueprint that the entire Net is
built on. But it may be some time before cyberspace
gets bigger and faster as a result. Details here.
Thought for
the day: "People who never do any more
than they get paid for never get paid for any more than they
do." - Albert Hubbard
______________________________
Saturday, December 5
______________________________
RECKONING
TIME
Predicting the future is a dicey proposition at
best, a humbling experience when disastrous. If you have
spent much time hanging around 1998 on the Web, you know
I made a few predictions for Internet companies this year
back in the last week of 1997. Well, it's time to check
the scorecard. By my account, I finished with 3 up and 3
down. A .500 batting average would be world record in
major league baseball, does it garner respect in the
chancy predictions game? Now's the time to review my
original thoughts, then compare that with what really happened. Be sure to share your thoughts about my
conclusions, and feel free to offer your own opinions.
WHAT'S NEXT?
As 1998 winds near a close, so does work on this year-long
project. I will continue updating the site through the
end of December, except for a week vacation at Christmas,
but you probably wonder what comes next. I'll report the
final traffic statistics mentioned in the promotion section, so you can
determine the success of those efforts. I'll keep you up
to date on the latest developements in the DOJ vs.
Microsoft trial and other breaking news, but most of all,
you will see a whole new look to this site beginning on
January 1, 1999. If you would like to take a sneak peek
at the beta preview, go here.
ARE YOU EXCITED?
In a move long anticipated and warmly welcomed by
Web developers, Netscape Communications is expected to
unveil on Monday a developer preview of the next-generation
layout engine for Communicator 5.0. First announced in
April, the engine promises to speed up and slim down
Navigator, Communicator's Web browsing component.
Full story here.
ABOUT FACE
Microsoft is considering putting chairman
Bill Gates on the witness stand to restore his
credibility with the judge in the landmark antitrust
trial against the world's biggest software maker. More info here. In other news, Gates and his wife
Melinda have announced they are expecting their 2nd child
in June.
Thought for
the day: "Character cannot be developed
in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul
be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller
______________________________
Thursday, December 3
______________________________
READY FOR THE APPLIANCE
DECADE?
"I'm not predicting the demise of the PC, but
the PC is a pretty crude device, hard to use, and so 'general
purpose' that very few of us use more than 5 percent of
its capability," says Hewlett-Packard chief
executive Lewis Platt. Find
out why here.
BET THEY CAN'T WAIT
The National Governors' Association (NGA) and other state
and local government groups nominated 10
people for the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce
to study Internet taxes. The Internet tax-freeze law,
passed by Congress in October, called for the formation
of a 19-member commission of government and industry
representatives to study how or if taxes should be
applied to Internet commerce. See
the nominees here.
WILL IT BE TRANSPARENT
BLUE?
Just months after jettisoning its Newton Message
Group, Apple is ready to re-enter the consumer handheld
PC market. This time the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer
maker is developing a palmtop device, code-named "P1."
Unlike Newton, which used a proprietary operating system,
the P1 will run on a trimmed version of the Mac OS. Full
story.
Thought for
the day: "It is better to fail in
originality than to succeed in imitation." - Herman Melville
______________________________
Wednesday, December 2
______________________________
THE CROWN JEWELS
It's the closely guarded and controlled Windows
API, not Windows itself, that is the jewel in Microsoft's
crown. Antitrust trials and internal memos
leaked to the Web give the first glimpse of how Redmond
maintains a hammerlock on APIs, and paint Java and Linux
as the giant's most serious threats yet. Take a stroll
through this c|net Special Report
to see the history, and the future.
HOW MANY
BUTTONS DOES YOUR MOUSE HAVE?
Microsoft lawyer Tom Burt succeeds in
getting Sun executive James Gosling to back away from the
"write-once-run-anywhere" promise associated
with Java. Daily update
here.
TECHNOLOGICAL OOZE
One of the greatest myths about the computer
industry is it is not as harmful to the environment as
the belching, oozing industries of the past. Indeed, the
chips that power sleek new PCs are clean. Extremely clean.
But it takes large amounts of water and toxic chemicals
to get them that way. Full
story here.
Thought for
the day: "The tendency of an event to
occur varies inversely with one's preparation for it." - David Searles
______________________________
Monday, November 30
______________________________
THE GRILLING CONTINUES
Under tedious questioning from Microsoft attorney
Michael Lacovara, government witness Frederick Warren-Boulton
acknowledged that Microsoft's OEM pre-installation kit,
or OPK, allows vendors to install Netscape's icon on a
start-up menu found on Windows 98. Lacovara also attacked
Warren-Boulton over his testimony that restrictions
Microsoft places on Internet content providers sites
unfairly exclude Netscape. Full
day's details here.
"SERIOUSLY IMPAIR APPLE'S ABILITY"
Imatec said today that it had failed to
strike a deal with Apple Computer to settle Imatec's $1.1
billion patent infringement lawsuit against the company,
adding it remained confident it would prevail based on
pre-trial testimony. In a statement today, New
York-based Imatec said Apple would be guilty of "willful
infringement" if after knowing of the Imatec patents
it failed to investigate the patents and form a good
faith belief they were invalid or not infringed. Full
story here.
AOL'S ENCOURAGING MESSAGE
It may only be an encouraging word to a potential
soon-to-be-employee, but AOL chief Steve Case has sent
word to Mozilla.org that AOL will continue to support its
open source browser efforts.
More info here.
Thought for
the day: "By perseverance the snail
reached the ark." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
|
