Digital TV
WSJ: TCI and Microsoft Sign Pact on Software for Set-Top Boxes
Internet
WP: Va. to Offer 1st Access to Internet2
NYT: No Refunds for Domain Name Recipients
Search Services
WSJ: Netscape Jolts Web by Allying with Excite, Inc.
NYT: Excite, a Web Directory Service, In a 2-Year Deal With Netscape
WSJ: AT&T Enters Marketing Pact with Lycos, Inc.
International
WP: Double Trouble for Europe's Computers
** Digital TV **
Title: TCI and Microsoft Sign Pact on Software for Set-Top Boxes
Source: Wall Street Journal (A8)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Tele-Communications, Inc (TCI) and Microsoft Corp, signed a
contract on the software that will be used in TCI's digital TV set-top boxes,
which will contain MS's Windows CE operating system. The deal allows TCI to
retain the right to use the operating system of rival Sun Microsystems.
** Internet **
Title: Va. to Offer 1st Access to Internet2
Source: Washington Post (D12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/05/063l-050598-idx.html
Author: Frank Swoboda
Issue: Internet
Description: Officials announced Monday that the nation's first access point
to Internet2, a high-speed computer network, will be opened in the
Washington area this fall by a consortium of local universities and
corporations. The project, to be formally announced tomorrow, will be called
Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX).
Title: No Refunds for Domain Name Recipients
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/cyber/articles/05domain.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Legislation
Description: In a bill passed last week and signed almost immediately,
President Clinton and lawmakers retroactively authorized collection of an
extra $30 paid by people registering their Internet addresses. The surcharge
in mention was declared an illegal tax by Judge Thomas F. Hogan last month.
The action, intended to free up $60 million for spending on the development
of the Next Generation Internet, could further delay a refund plan that
would have benefitted the millions of people who paid the additional fee
over the past two years. The money had been on hold since January when
Washington lawyer, William Bode, won a temporary restraining order freezing
the funds.
** Search Services **
Title: Netscape Jolts Web by Allying with Excite, Inc.
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1,B7)
http://www.wsj.com/http://www.wsj.com
Author: Kara Swisher
Issue: Internet Services
Description: Netscape and Excite are joining forces in the race to stake out
the entryway to the World Wide Web. In a two-year deal, Excite (the #2
Internet search company) will create a search service that will bear both
companies' names. Excite will pay Netscape $70 million in guaranteed
advertising revenue and take over the job of selling advertising for the
Netscape site. The agreement is an attempt to leapfrog Yahoo!, the #1 search
and directory site on the 'Net.
Title: Excite, a Web Directory Service, In a 2-Year Deal With Netscape
Source: New York Times (D1,D11)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/biztech/articles/05netscape.html
Author: Saul Hansell
Issue: Internet Services
Description: Excite agreed yesterday to pay Netscape Communications $70
million for the right to "provide a fraction of the search services and
other information that Netscape will make available to users of its browser
software and home page" on the Web. Excite's move underscores how
"cut-throat" competition for Internet users has become. Excite expects the
deal to initially increase the amount of pages it serves each day by about 8
to 10 million and to take in $98 to $100 million over the two-year life of
the deal.
Title: AT&T Enters Marketing Pact with Lycos, Inc.
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://www.wsj.com
Author: Jared Sandberg (on G. Auerbach)
Issue: Internet
Description: AT&T struck an alliance with Internet-search service Lycos to
increase the phone company's visibility on the Internet while giving Lycos a
big marketing partner. Over the next three years, you'll be seeing more
promotions for AT&T services on Lycos' popular search site, and if you're an
AT&T WorldNet subscriber, Lycos will be your default browser when you log on.
The Lycos site will also be enhanced by a variety of new telecom features.
(Other agreements in this same vein include Sprint joining with CNET's Snap!
Directory, and MCI Communications Corp. contracting with Yahoo!.)
** International **
Title: Double Trouble for Europe's Computers
Source: Washington Post (D1,D12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/05/058l-050598-idx.html
Author: John Burgess
Issue: International/Y2K
Description: With the year 2000 just around the corner, Europe is not
dealing with one but two computer repair jobs of epic proportions. One is
the now familiar challenge of the Year 2000 "millennium bug," also known as
Y2K, that is present in many computers around the world. The other is
distinctly European: the reprogramming of millions of computers to accept
the euro, the unified currency that is scheduled for introduction in 11
countries on Jan. 4 of next year. Some experts fear that this "dual
pressure' will end up with each job only getting half-done. Robin Guernier,
who heads a London advocacy group called Taskforce 2000, and a few other
experts have been calling for a delay in the euro's introduction so computer
programmers can first focus on the Y2K problem. But to date they have had no
effect. Geoff Unwin, vice chairman of the management board of Cap Gemini, an
international computer consulting firm based in Paris, agrees that there is
a problem and the job will probably not be finished in time. But Unwin says,
"What is important now is that we prioritize what must work, what must run,
and make sure we put our scarce resources onto them."
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