Minor slips in the market and major slaps in court

The Microsoft trial, running at a witness a week, may drag into next March. Imagine our joy. By then even diehard reporters may tire of the cut-and-thrust. Netsurfer Digest puts it nicely [1]:

• The Justice Department has posted the direct testimony [2] of Apple Senior VP Avadis Tevanian, Jr., but unfortunately has done so in the form of three PDF-ized scans, each over 700K. Eric M. Bennett did us the favor of excerpting some of the salients of Tevanian's testimony. They are posted on the TBTF site by permission [3].

• Sales of Lotus Notes are on the rise against Microsoft's competitive product, Exchange [4]. Market-research company Electronic Mail & Messaging Systems tracks these trends. In the first half of 1998 Exchange outsold Notes 6.7M new seats to 5.8M. But in the third quarter, Notes moved 3.4M new seats vs. 3.2M for Exchange.

• Corporate browser use has recently swung 6% in Netscape's favor, in the first reversal of that company's browser numbers' slide since the 1996 introduction of Internet Explorer 3.0. Since 1996 Zona Research has periodically been conducting a small-scale survey (100-250 users) of corporate browser usage. In their October survey [5] Zona reported a 60%-40% split in Netscape's favor, after the July survey [6] had found 54%-46%. Here's a summary of these results.

                 Oct. 1998      July 1998
                  n=113          n=259
    
                    n    %         n    %
      Microsoft    --   --        --   --
            IE4    36   32        88   34
            IE3     9    8        30   12
                        ---            ---
                        40%           46%
      Netscape
           Com4    33   29        69   27
           Nav4    24   21        40   15
           Nav3    10    9        32   12
           Nav2     1    1         0    0
                        ---            ---
                        60%           54%

[1] http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/nsd.04.33.html
[2] http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f2000/2010.htm
[3] http://tbtf.com/resource/tevanian.html
[4] http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19981109S0018
[5] http://www.zonaresearch.com/browserstudy/1998/oct98/98browser.html
[6] http://www.zonaresearch.com/browserstudy/1998/july98/98browser.html
[6a] http://tbtf.com/archive/1996-10-20.html#s01

Reverberations from a leaked Microsoft memo

The leaked internal Microsoft document [7] profiled in last week's TBTF [8] continues to echo in the nerd media and far beyond.

• The original document, now called Halloween I, was followed by Halloween II [9] -- a similar treatment focusing on the Linux operating system, then by Halloween III [10] -- Microsoft's reaction to the press attention to the above. (It's hard to pin down how official Halloween III is. Surely it emanated from Microsoft, but from what altitude?)

• Robert X. Cringely took it upon himself to advise [11] the Open Source community to stop reacting like deer in the headlights to Microsoft's baleful glare.

• The Observer opined [12] that the Halloween Document marks the apogee of Microsoft's dominance. Conclusion: "If you have Microsoft shares, prepare to sell them now."

• Linux Today investigated [13] most of the 20 Microsoftie reviewers and endorsers whose names appear at the end of Halloween I.

• Halloween II predicted that complicated Web standards such as the developing DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) will prove difficult for the Open Source community to grapple with. Last week an Apache developer announced the first release of an open-source DAV module for the Apache server on Linux [14].

[7] http://www.opensource.org/halloween1.html
[8] http://tbtf.com/archive/1998-11-03.html#s02
[9] http://www.opensource.org/halloween2.html
[10] http://www.opensource.org/halloween3.html
[11] http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit19981105.html
[12] http://reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/11/8/32026.html
[13] http://linuxtoday.com/stories/638.html
[14] http://www.lyra.org/greg/mod_dav/

Moral media for a new age

Self-described "technologically challenged media critic" Jon Katz discovered Slashdot.org [15] and straightaway got religion. (He got such a case of it that yesterday he subscribed to TBTF. Welcome, Jon.) Katz believes that bottom-up sites such as Slashdot, untidy and boisterous, deliver on the promise of a revolutionary new medium in a way that crossover old media such as Slate and Salon can never aspire to. The white-hat character of the Open Source movement spawns media with built-in moral authority.

[15] http://slashdot.org/features/98/11/09/1124251.shtml

Purchase of Ingram gives Amazon.com pause

On 5 November Barnes & Noble announced it will buy the closely held Ingram Book Group [16]. Ingram is the country's largest book distributor and Amazon.com's biggest supplier -- 57% of Amazon.com's book purchases came through Ingram last year. Amazon.com officials immediately voiced their concern over the combination, as did industry analysts [17]. Barnes & Noble's online unit, Barnesandnoble.com, is Amazon's principal Web competitor. Ingram insists it will honor existing contracts and distribution arrangements.

For a good time, follow these links and read the press releases in order.

• Amazon.com Issues Statement Regarding Barnes & Noble's Acquisition Of Ingram Book Group [18]

• Barnesandnoble.com Issues Statement Regarding Amazon's Statement About Barnes & Noble, Inc. [19]

• Amazon.com Issues Statement Regarding BarnesandNoble.com's Statement Regarding Amazon.com's Statement About Barnes & Noble, Inc. [20]

[16] http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,28452,00.html?tbtf
[17] http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,28474,00.html?tbtf
[18] http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/981106/wa_amazon__1.html
[19] http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/981106/barnesandn_1.html
[20] http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/981106/wa_amazon__2.html

And privacy loses, again

As if to demonstrate that the Justice Department is not about to slow it down, Microsoft has purchased [21] the LinkExchange advertising network and its family of related sites servicing mostly small businesses. LinkExchange will be folded into Microsoft's MSN collection of Internet properties. The services the new acquisition brings to MSN include:

• Express Store -- offers online ad packages on LinkExchange partners

• SubmitIt -- submits a URL to numerous search engines

• ClickTrade -- an affiliate program

• Merchant Planet -- helps users build storefronts and accept credit cards

• ListBot -- builds and hosts e-mail lists

The acquisition has a privacy wrinkle that none of the traditional media outlets caught. Stephen Heise <stephen at streetprices dot com> describes the problem this way.

Flawed concept or just flawed execution?

The pioneer in e-cash, the company considered by privacy experts to offer the gold-plated standard for anonymous transactions, announced [23] on 4 November that it will seek Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court. The demise of David Chaum's groundbreaking company has stimulated reams of commentary on mailing lists such as e$, micropay, and cryptography. Some posters paint DigiCash's demise as indicative of the fatal flaws they see in the very idea of anonymous digital money. Others chalk up the failure to Chaum's dogged insistence on unrealistically high royalties for using his patented blind-trust process. These two views are reflected in this posting [24] to the Red Rock Eater News Service, in which moderator Phil Agre introduces Robert Hettinga playing Gordon Gekko [25]. (Note: the Gekko reference comes from Hettinga's own posting, and is not implied by Agre's introduction.) I agree with Hettinga more than I do with Agre in this case, but Agre's prose is not to be resisted.

A new hacker tactic: low-frequency, coordinated scans

Beginning last July, security experts began to document a new type of probe directed against protected networks. Low-frequency scans originating from multiple IP addresses could slip in beneath the notice of most intrusion-detection software. In September the Shadow group, an anti-hacker coalition, issued a report on the tell-tale signs of such stealth attacks [26]. See [27] for a readable summary of this report. Developers of intrusion-detection systems such as Network Associates and ISS are hard at work on detectors for low-frequency attacks [28].

[26] http://www.nswc.navy.mil/ISSEC/CID/co-ordinated_analysis.txt
[27] http://www.andovernews.com/cgi-bin/news_story.pl?90350
[28] http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/printme/0,4235,360254,00.html

Finding things where you expect to

The ever-reasonable Greg Knauss has proposed a standard to help ease the complexity of navigating unfamiliar Web sites [29]. He writes:

[29] http://theobvious.com/archives/110298.html

Grown like grass on glass

Nanotubes are thin, elongated versions of buckminsterfullerenes -- soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules named for the late Buckminster Fuller, architect and inventor of the geodesic dome. Buckyballs have intrigued scientists since they were first made in 1985. Now a team at SUNY Buffalo has found a way to grow nanotubes onto thin sheets of glass [30], in rows resembling a buzz-cut head of hair, for use in display panels. The nanotubes are much stronger than steel and are highly efficient electron emitters. "Our nanotubes are beautifully aligned, they grow at relatively low temperatures, and they grow on glass," one of the researchers said.

[30] http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2556956475-31f

[31] http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/

An obscure and controversial Y2K bug

A mysterious anomaly called the Crouch-Echlin Effect may strike computers with a nonbuffered real-time clock even after they have been checked for Y2K problems and fixed. This NY Times article [32] (free registration and cookies required) describes the reported glitch and gives equal time to its critics, who suspect the motives of Msrs. Crouch and Echlin and claim that the problem cannot be reproduced. Compaq Computer, nee Digital, exacerbated the controversy recently by announcing for sale software to check for Crouch-Echlin, and paying a royalty to the discoverers.

[32] http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/11/biztech/articles/09bug.html

Better news on embedded processors

Electric and gas utility Washington Water Power tested 540,000 embedded components and found only 1,800 (3.3%) that contained year-2000 date dependencies [33]. Of that number, only 234 needed to be fixed or replaced -- only 4/100 of 1% of the total. Earlier guesstimates of likely failure rates ranged up to a few percent overall for embedded processors in the power and transportation industries.

[33] http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/9810126DF6

Bank of Canada prepares for a run on cash

The bank is ready to print more money should people become anxious about the millennium bug and want to withdraw extra money as a safeguard [34]. A spokeswoman for the Canadian Bankers Association said banks expect consumers' worries to increase as Jan. 1, 2000 draws closer.

[34] http://www2.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/money/981102BUS01d_FI-CASH2.html

Spectre of military intervention raised in Scotland

A leaked letter [35] reveals a warning that the millennium bug could spark a Scottish civil emergency requiring military intervention. The letter is part of a feud between a Scottish parliamentarian and the British defense secretary over cuts to the Territorial Army north of the border. It reads in part:

[35] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_208000/208029.stm
[35a] http://reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/11/17/33620.html

Blinding 'em with science

On the 20th anniversary of its coverage of science and technology, The Economist is running its second science quiz [36]. The first was 10 years ago. I've subscribed to the magazine for 8 years and have read the science news religiously -- their coverage often surpasses that of Scientific American in clarity and comprehensibility to the layman -- but I found this tightly designed little quiz humbling. The Web quiz [36] rides an easier medium than the dead-trees edition and it scores you automatically.

[36] http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/current/st4654.html

[37] http://www.cato.org/events/technol.html

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