October 31, 2000- MS SAYS IT WATCHED HACK ATTACK Microsoft now says it detected the electronic break-in of its headquarters earlier this month and secretly monitored the hacker's activities. A spokesman for the Redmond giant said the attack lasted for only 12 days and added that the company has sufficient evidence to help identify the culprit. But some experts weren't buying Microsoft's attempt at reassuring customers and partners, saying the urgent reaction is contradictory to their claim. Microsoft believes the hack came through an unknowing telecommuter's home computer.
MS TO RENT APPS Microsoft will rent its applications to end-users for the first time ever as the company begins the transition of selling software as a service, not a product. The trial run will begin with Internet café easyEverything in Times Square next month. Visitors to the cafes will be able to use Microsoft's Office programs for a small fee. Microsoft will apply the lessons learned from this experience to its new .Net initiative, where Microsoft will likely charge customers a monthly fee for usage, rather than an upfront lump sum.
AMAZON SLIDES ON ACCOUNTING CONCERNS Amazon's stock dipped yesterday as concerns mounted over the company's accounting methods and cash position. A Lehman Brothers analyst lambasted the e-tailer last week, saying Amazon overstated its cash position. Amazon also revealed that the SEC was inquiring about some of its accounting policies.

October 30, 2000- MICROSOFT HACKER TOUGH TO FIND Microsoft will be hard pressed to track down the hacker who's been wandering its network. News of the break-in, which Microsoft is calling industrial espionage, came in a Friday report by the Wall Street Journal. A former Department of Justice cybercrime prosecutor has since said even if the hacker is found, it could be difficult to prosecute him because the crime crossed international borders.
AOL FRANCE: J'ACCUSE America Online says service problems in France are the result of the "passion" of some of its online customers. Seems AOL underestimated just how much use some would make of the company's 99F (about $14) unlimited access offer. AOL admitted that it had underestimated demand, but also named certain individuals who it said were hogging the online server space. AOL is planning to quadruple its network capacity to fix the problem.
COMPANIES BEEF UP EXCHANGE SEARCHES E-commerce search-engine companies Empolis and Mercado Software are getting better at searching business-to-business and business-to-consumer exchanges. The companies offer user profiling, an automated search advisor, performance monitoring and integration with e-commerce platforms. The goal is to combine search with merchandising and personalized information to drive a seller's business. Empolis' search engine, orenge 2.1, released earlier this month, acts as a virtual sales assistant based on knowledge about products and personal preferences.

October 29, 2000- Sunday - MICROSOFT SETTLES FALSE AD CLAIM The FTC announced that Microsoft's WebTV division agreed to settle charges accusing the company of false advertising. The FTC was opposed to Microsoft claiming that WebTV delivers all of the entertainment of the Internet to your TV. In fact, WebTV system owners weren't able to access all of the content on the Internet. As part of the settlement, Microsoft is barred from making "deceptive advertising claims" about the performance of WebTV. It is required to disclose long-distance charges some customers may incur as well as reimburse former WebTV subscribers for previous long-distance charges.
NEW BENCHMARKS NEEDED FOR CRUSOE? Transmeta released its Crusoe mobile processor, but critics say its power-saving features come at a cost of lower performance. But standard benchmark tests might not give an accurate picture, according to analysts. Because the Crusoe chip saves power by running standard x86 instructions in software, and not the hardware, standard benchmarks may not work.
PLAYSTATION 2 LAUNCHES Sony has launched its eagerly awaited PlayStation 2 game console. The bad news for gamers was there were only 500,000 units available for sale immediately, with 100,000 units expected each week until the end of the year. The next-generation game console features a 300 MHz 128-bit processor, 32 MB of memory and 4 MB of graphics memory. Next year is shaping up to be a battle of the biggies -- PlayStation 2 will be available and both Microsoft and Nintendo launch their new systems.
MICROSOFT HAS BEEN HACKED - Microsoft has asked the FBI for help containing this matter. Where an alledged hacker break-in had copied the source code to many of Microsoft's new products, including Windows Whistler, and Office 2001. It seems the problem was caused by an employee downloading a trojan (QAZ) and spread to the entire network. The source code has seemed to be sent to St. Petersburg Russia.

October 26, 2000- Thursday- AT&T SLICES AND DICES ITSELF AT&T surprised no one yesterday when it officially announced plans to carve itself into four pieces. The breakup will be completed in 2002 and will spin off the company's wireless and broadband units into separate, publicly traded firms. CEO Michael Armstrong said the new companies will still work together. He rejected suggestions that the breakup reversed the company's previous strategy to bundle traditional services with cable and broadband.
MICROSOFT'S $150 MILLION AD BLITZ Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to pull in visitors to MSN. Rollerbladers will skate around 16 cities handing out MSN CDs and talking up the company's broadband and mobile MSN services. The campaign will include an online contest in which 10 people will win a "tech makeover" worth $10,000. Microsoft is also pushing its MSN Explorer, which integrates a consumer-oriented Web browser with a media player, Hotmail and MSN Messenger instant-messaging software.
INTEL ADDING NOTEBOOK JUICE Intel plans to ship three Pentium III chips for notebooks that will all reach speeds of 1 GHz. Each of the chips will be manufactured differently and paired with different chip sets, bus speeds and cache sizes. They'll be available early in the second quarter of next year. The move is a direct attempt to take advantage of delays by rival AMD.

October 25, 2000- Wednesday- GROUP WON'T CHOOSE IM PROTOCOL The industry group working to deliver a standard protocol for instant messaging decided not to choose a final standard, handing that task to other bodies. The Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol working group, a subset of the Internet Engineering Task Force, has been laboring to pull together a common IM standard from the countless proposals it received. The goal is to establish a standard that will allow different IM services to communicate with one another. The group narrowed the suggestions down to three finalists and will now focus on what the requirements for the basic service are.
OFFICE 10 BETA TO ARRIVE EARLY Microsoft will begin shipping beta 2 of Office 10 this week, earlier than its projections of mid-November. Included in the second beta are some of the local Web-storage-system parts that are already a part of Microsoft's Exchange 2000 product, the Tahoe search and document-management portal beta and additional Outlook email security functions. The commercial version of Office 10 will ship in the first half of 2001.
THE 'UNSAVORY' PAST OF DOT-COM EXECS Internet firm executives are four times more likely to have an "unsavory background," than those of executives at traditional companies, according to Kroll Associates. Kroll checked the backgrounds of 70 U.S., European and Asian Net executives and board members over the past six months. The "unsavoriness" includes problems with the SEC, insurance fraud, bankruptcies and links to organized crime. The hyperfast nature of the dot-com industry is blamed for the situation, with Kroll blaming hurried appointments of key executives and a failure to adopt traditional methods of executive governance.

October 24, 2000- Tuesday- INTEL AIMING FOR 2 GHZ WITH PENTIUM 4 Intel Corp. says it will ramp up chip speed to as much as 2 GHz by the end of next year. The chip maker plans to launch the Pentium 4, its speediest chip yet, next month. Intel has recently struggled with manufacturing-related chip shortages, 820 chip set problems and the Pentium III 1.13GHz recall. The troubles have put rival Advanced Micro Devices into the speed lead. Intel plans to introduce the Pentium 4 at 1.4 GHz and 1.5 GHz, before rapidly ramping clock speeds. Some analysts say the high price of the Pentium 4 and the lower clock speeds of the Pentium III create opportunity for AMD, which recently announced a 1.2 GHz Athlon chip. That chip is expected to hit 1.5 GHz by next January.
MICROSOFT OFFICE BETA LACKING Microsoft has instructed its Beta 1 testers for the new version of Office 10 to keep quite about their experiences. Sounds like the Redmond giant had good reason. The first version lacked some of the promised features, including offline storage; translation options; and a new, built-in speech-recognition technology that enables users to write and edit documents using type commands, voice commands or both simultaneously. A Microsoft spokeswoman said Beta 2 will be far more
comprehensive.
TWO-WAY MESSAGING GETS BIG BACKERS AT&T Wireless, Sprint and VoiceStream are signing on to what they think will be the next big thing: two-way messaging. The carriers think two-way messaging (Short Messaging Service) will be a hit in the corporate world. AT&T Wireless last week started offering messaging that lets subscribers send and receive short test messages from their wireless phones. SMS has been hot for several years in Europe, where an estimated 9 billion SMS messages were sent in August alone. It is also popular in Asia.

October 23, 2000- Monday- ARTISTS MIXED ON NAPSTER Musical artists came out swinging both for and against Napster at this year's CMJ Music Marathon. The hotly debated Internet music file-swapping service is the center of a legal controversy and has caused a rift in the music industry. Artists like rapper Chuck D. are in favor of services like Napster, believing they level the playing field. Other artists such as Cracker's David Lowery decried Napster, saying it was "hippie capitalism." Both sides of the debate await a decision by a federal appeals court that could shut Napster down.
AOL: DISNEY RECEIVED CONFIDENTIAL DATA America Online says the Disney corporation received confidential information about contract terms for AOL's interactive TV and how it plans to compete with broadcast networks. Disney admits that its outside counsel, Larry Duncan, passed sensitive information to Disney officials, who did not sign confidentiality agreements. Duncan sent an email, which summarized the confidential information, to Disney's top Washington lobbyists.
LINUX DESKTOP APPS FOR SALE Chilliware Inc. will sell non-open-source desktop applications for the open-source operating system Linux. Starting today, Chilliware will ship Nexxus, a contact manager; Mentor, a documentation wizard; IceSculptor, a desktop publisher; and Mohawk Apache, a server configuration product. Chilliware also offers its own distribution of Linux for the desktop. All of the applications will cost $79 or less.

October 22, 2000- Sunday- JOBS PRESCRIBES APPLE REMEDIES Steve Jobs blamed Apple's recent financial woes on slowing sales of the PowerPC G4 Cube, concerns over G4 chip speeds and a switch in its education sales strategy. Jobs is looking to increase sales of its G4 Cube through strategies such as a $300 rebate, as well as the introduction of lower-cost versions this spring. Jobs also mentioned the "megahertz gap" between Apple machines and other PCs based on x86 chip architecture. Jobs said Apple is working with Motorola to introduce higher-speed processors equal to Intel-standard systems. The slowdown in Apple's education push is a result of switching to an "Apple-only" sales force and eliminating all third-party education sales forces. Jobs said the switch occurred in July, an inopportune time since that is a busy month for education buyers.
PANEL SAYS NO TO NET FILTERS A congressional panel formed to study ways to protect children online will not recommend the mandatory use of Internet filters in public schools and libraries. The panel, set up under the Child Online Protection Act, made its decision at a time when lawmakers are considering mandating the use of filters. The panel recommends that the government encourage the use of antipornography filters but says no technology offers the ideal solution.
DEJA VIEWS MERGER SOLUTIONS Seeking shelter from the "tech wreck," Deja.com is looking for a merger partner. The company's two business units -- Deja News Usenet and Precision Buying Service -- will be sold separately. Deja says it isn't running out of cash, but feels it hasn't grown fast enough to support the buying service it has been developing for two years.

October 19, 2000-Thursday- EARNINGS: MS, AOL UP -- ARIBA EVEN It was a big earnings day in the tech world yesterday: Microsoft beat analysts' expectations by 5 cents in its first quarter, earning $2.58 billion, or 46 cents a share, on sales of $5.8 billion. America Online earned a penny more than analysts' estimates in the first quarter. AOL reported net income of $350 million, or 14 cents per share, not including special charges. Analysts estimated a profit of 13 cents per share for the quarter. Including non-recurring items, AOL earned $345 million, or 13 cents per share.
ANALYSTS GRILL MS CEO Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took on analysts during a keynote yesterday, fielding questions about MS software costs, the .Net initiative and effects of the antitrust trial. Speaking at the "Mastermind Keynote" address, Gartner Group analysts asserted that Microsoft's licensing terms over the last five years drove up per-user costs by 300%. Ballmer said that number hadn't been reflected in Microsoft's financial statements. Analysts also looked for specifics on the .Net initiative and questioned whether the antitrust trial has changed the culture of Microsoft.
COMPANIES NEGLECTING SECURITY RISKS? Major software companies could be ignoring security holes, putting users at serious risk, according to Swedish security firm Defcom. The bug-hunters say they have found "vulnerabilities in major operating systems." Defcom says companies are ignoring their warning. The company is now considering taking the security holes public. Defcom's warning comes after a significant change by the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which now gives companies only 45 days to fix a security problem before going public.

October 18, 2000-Wednesday-F LAW LEAVES DOMAINS VULNERABLE Nearly 23,000 domains hosted by Internet service provider EarthLink were left open to defacement and hacking for at least a week because of poor security. Using a recently discovered exploit, an attacker could have used a simple URL to access files on a server hosted by EarthLink subsidiary MindSpring. The vulnerability, made public on several security lists last week, allows any Web user to read files on a server running Extropia's Web Store ecommerce software. While that vulnerability could be irritating, an overlooked security hole also left the company's customers open to attack. A key file was left unprotected, enabling trespassers to copy encrypted passwords to about 23,000 accounts. No attacks resulting from the incident are known.
TEPID EARNINGS FOR IBM, INTEL IBM met 3Q Street estimates, earning $2 billion, or $1.08 a share. However, the $21.8 billion in sales came in at the low end of most analysts' estimates. Sales marked a modest 3% improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned $1.8 billion, or 93 cents a share, on sales of $21.1 billion. Meanwhile, Intel topped analysts' downwardly revised estimates and edged past its own lowered revenue expectation in the third quarter. The world's largest maker of PC processors reported 3Q net of $2.9 billion, or 41 cents a share, excluding special charges. Click for more. RealNetworks also met analysts' estimates. The provider of streaming media software and content posted net income of $7.6 million, or 4 cents a share, excluding special charges. Revenue increased 92% year-over-year to $67.1 million, about what analysts expected.
AMD INCREASES SPEED, CUTS PRICES AMD introduced a new 1.2 GHz Athlon processor for high-performance desktops and a new 800 MHz Duron chip for low-cost PCs. The new Athlon, which has been expected for some time, is easily the fastest desktop PC processor available. But what's more relevant to customers, especially those buying lower-cost Athlon systems, are the deep price cuts. AMD nearly halved 1,000-unit pricing on all of its Athlons. The 1.1 GHz was slashed by 46%, the 1 GHz Athlon chip was cut by 43% and the Athlon 950 dropped 39%.

October 17, 2000-Tuesday- NOTEBOOK FEATURES CRUSOE, CAMERA Further integrating consumer electronics, PCs and media, Sony has unveiled two new laptops. The new VAIO QR adopts an almost iBook-like design, looking to make notebooks more of a fashion statement. The VAIO QR is priced at the lower end of its price range for notebook PCs and is similar to its predecessors. The new VAIO GT uses the new Crusoe chip and sports a video camcorder attached to its side. The Crusoe chip promises to improve battery life, and the video camera will allow users to make live "personal broadcasts," Sony hopes.
PROGRAMMERS FACE OS X CHOICE Programmers looking to upgrade their programs for Apple's new OS X face a tough decision: retrofit existing programs, or start from scratch. Apple's Carbon APIs allow developers to rewrite existing OS 9 code. Or they can choose to build from the ground up for the new OS by using Apple's Cocoa APIs. Simply modifying the software will save time for developers, but the software would not fully take advantage of all of OS X's features. Whatever path programmers choose, Apple says its should make little difference to consumers.
HANDSPRING GOES COLOR, ADDS GAMEFACE HandSpring introduced two new handhelds, including one with a color display, and a game module yesterday. The Visor Prism has a 16-bit color display, 8 MB of memory and a faster processor. The Visor Platinum features a 16-bit black-and-white display, 8 MB of memory and a faster processor. A new attachment called GameFace is a faceplate that snaps on top of a Visor and sports a joystick and buttons, turning the handheld into a gameplayer.
October 16, 2000-Monday - REPORT: U.S. PREPPING TO BLOCK AOL-TW The U.S. government is preparing to block AOL's merger with Time Warner if the two sides cannot reach an agreement over Internet access within two weeks, according to The Washington Post. Sources say both the government and AOL-TW are still far apart over the issue of competitive access to AOL's high-speed cable lines. While the companies could ask for a deadline extension, sources say FTC attorneys are preparing litigation to block the merger.
CLINTON ORDERS 3G WIRELESS ADOPTION Fearing the U.S. will fall behind foreign competitors, President Clinton orders government agencies to work with the FCC and private companies to speed up the adoption of high-speed wireless technology. Clinton wants agencies to identify "third-generation" (3G) wireless technology radio spectrum requirements, which would provide mobile access to the Net at speeds similar to cable modems. Countries such as Finland and Japan have already set aside portions of the radio spectrum for 3G devices. Clinton has ordered the commerce secretary to work with the FCC and other agencies to develop a spectrum selection plan by October 20, and issue an interim report by November 15.
MICROSOFT ROLLS OUT AUTO WIN CE Microsoft unveiled its new Windows CE for Automotive yesterday, as the company looks to extend its Windows OS into the car. The software was created to power the increasing number of in-vehicle computers that are finding their way into every inch of new cars. Win CE for Automotive is the first part of Microsoft's Car.Net framework to become available. The company hopes third-party developers will use it to build mobile programs that will deliver Web access and other services to cars. Microsoft's announcement comes just days after Palm and Delphi formed a similar venture called MobileAria.
October 13, 2000-Monday - AOL/TW NEARING LAST HURDLES With the European Commission clearing the AOL-Time Warner Merger, the two companies now need approval from just the FTC and FCC. While it won't be simple, AOL showed it is willing to compromise with the EU. The FTC's main concern with the merger has been with the opening of Time Warner's cable lines to ISP competition and AOL's Instant Messaging service. Time Warner has pledged to open up its cable lines to others, but AOL steadfastly refuses to open up IM until there is an IM standard that satisfies security and privacy concerns.
RIVALS TAKE SHOTS AT INTEL Intel may be a computer industry giant, but its rivals weren't afraid to take a few swipes at its products at the Microprocessor Forum this week. The founder of Centaur Technology, which was purchased by Via Technologies, noted that Intel makes the "world's fastest, greatest microprocessor" but added it's "the world's most expensive microprocessor." Hot off a great earnings report, AMD also jabbed at Intel's recent misfortunes, commenting on the lack of quantity of Intel chips and the recall of the Pentium III.
NEW MAC OFFICE LAUNCHED The Mac-only version of Microsoft's Office 2001 officially rolled out yesterday. The general manager of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit talked about how the success of the iMac inspired the MBU to reposition the Mac Office as a personal information tool set.
October 12, 2000- Thursday - VC SAYS WEB ECONOMY STILL HEALTHY A prominent venture capitalist told Wall Street and Fortune 500 firms they're all wet when it comes to assessing the Internet economy. Flatiron Partners co-founder Fred Wilson, who invested in Kozmo.com, GeoCities and Thestreet.com, said the so-called "tech wreck" was unwarranted and urged investors to bet on Internet companies. He said dot-com valuations were as low as they were going to go.
OPERATOR, GET ME LYCOS Internet Media Company Lycos took the lid off a new voice portal that lets users get free information from the Web by speaking into a phone. Users in northern New Jersey, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York will be able to dial up an access number and speak commands into the phone to get information.
DATES SET IN MICROSOFT APPEAL Microsoft and government attorneys got their marching orders from the U.S. Court of Appeals. The panel is reviewing a lower-court ruling that the company was a monopoly and should be broken in two. The appeals court ordered Microsoft to file its first brief, of 150 pages, on Nov. 27. The U.S. government can respond with 125 pages, and states that have sued separately get 25 pages. Microsoft can reply with 75 pages on Jan. 29, 2001. Final briefs are due on Feb. 9.
October 11, 2000-Wednesday - YAHOO BEATS STREET Internet portal Yahoo beat analysts' forecast by a penny in its third quarter. The company reported third-quarter net income of $81.1 million, or 13 cents per share, excluding special charges. Yahoo's revenue for that quarter increased 90% year-over-year to $295.5 million. Nielsen/NetRatings statistics showed Yahoo leads in reach among work users and second among home users.
PSION AND DIAMOND TEAM UP FOR PDA S3 will enter the popular PDA market this month with its new Psion-based Diamond Mako. The Psion operating system is popular in Europe but has failed to catch on here in the U.S. The Mako spots clamshell design and comes with a keyboard and 480x160 monochrome touch-screen. It runs the EPOC 32 OS version 5.01 and has 32-bit 36 MHz ARM processor with 16 MB of RAM.
MS TO REPLACE PIRATED SOFTWARE Microsoft is giving away software to those who may own illegal copies of its programs in a move to halt piracy. Microsoft will replace software for both companies and individuals who were duped into buying pirated copies. Microsoft said it launched the program because illegal copies of software can damage a company's credibility and lead to possible legal issues.
October 10, 2000-Tuesday - GOVERNMENT STUMBLES ON PIRACY Online piracy is flourishing while the federal council established to fight it is hampered by inter-departmental turf battles. President Clinton created the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLEC) in September 1999. It took NIPLEC nine months to post a notice in the Federal Register asking for input on what its mission should be. Since then, industry insiders say, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have failed to coordinate their efforts, making it difficult to get anything done. While the government drags its feet, sales of pirated and counterfeit goods over the Net have boomed to $13 billion per year.
MOTOROLA DEMANDS YOUR DATA Motorola is forcing its independent dealers to turn over their proprietary customer data -- whether or not customers want data released. If the independent dealers refuse, Motorola will cut off their supply of its popular two-way radios. If dealers comply with Motorola's order, there's nothing stopping Motorola from bypassing the dealer and selling directly to customers. Customers are threatening to sue dealers who turn over their data. In the end, consumers have no recourse since the U.S. does not offer its citizens any real right to privacy.
HP UNVEILS NEW 'E-PC' Hewlett-Packard will announce two new smaller, low-cost "e-PCs" for corporations and small businesses. The e-PC will replace HP's eVectra and Brio machines for businesses. The e-PC is one-fourth the size of a traditional PC and uses a flat-panel monitor. The e-PC will be available in two flavors, one for small businesses and one for corporations. The small business e-PC starts at $849 and has a 633 MHz Celeron chip, 64 MB of RAM, and a 10 GB hard drive. The corporate PC starts at $659 with 700 MHz Celeron, 64 MB RAM and a 10 GB hard drive.
October 9, 2000- Monday - SECURITY FLAWS GO PUBLIC The pressure is on software companies to make their products more secure. The push comes from a recent decision by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to make security flaws public within 45 days. The agency will not, however, publish any code for exploiting flaws. The decision stands on middle ground in the debate between those who believe in full disclosure of security flaws and those who believe information about flaws should be kept quiet.
WHISTLER BETA STILL NOT READY A beta version of Microsoft's next-generation operating system, code-named Whistler, won't be ready when the company had originally hoped. An internal timetable pegged the beta release date at Oct. 11. But some alpha testers say even late October may be too soon. Whistler, the successor to Windows 2000, is supposed to be the first installment in Microsoft's .NET platform.
EDS GETS MASSIVE NAVY CONTRACT The U.S. Navy will use Electronic Data Systems Corp. to weave together all of its desktops, systems and networks across different Naval and Marine Corps. commands. The Navy says the $6.9 billion contract is the largest of its kind. EDS will have to create a single intranet to link up 350,000 desktop systems and 200 different networks.