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Yesterday, the court decided to break up Microsoft. Here's a little list of resources and places on the web where you can learn more about it. Microsoft has requested that the ruling be set aside until an appellate court hears its case, read about that on CNN. ZDNet has a big thing on it here, as well as new words from Judge Jackson. The Financial Times site, FT.com, has news and a Ballmer interview here. Here's something from the Washington Post, talking about the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. Enjoy.

SomeGirl writes "Well, it's finally happening. The EU is proposing a Web tax." Its only a matter of time I s'pose... but quick! By a bunch of stuff while its still tax free! I recommend Moby's 'Play' and the Tenchi in Tokyo DVDs, but stay away from those VW Bugs that they're selling online (Ooo! Look! A Special Color!)

Well, it's official. The United States Department of Justice has called for the breakup of Microsoft into two separate companies: an applications company which will manage software like Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, and an operating systems company that will manage products such as Windows NT. CNN coverage here.

Tei'ehm Teuw writes "From an article on CNN - The Federal Communications Commission Monday approved AT&T Corp.'s proposed $54 billion bid to buy cable television company MediaOne Group Inc. This will pave the road for servises like Roadrunner to be tenatively available in 30 percent of the US market. The FCC denied AT&T's position that the 30 percent ownership rule did not apply to its proposed merger with MediaOne and is forcing them to reduce the overall cable assets across the new empire. This is both good and bad, good because broadband access is more widespread, but bat because the monopoly of old seems to be making a comeback. " It seems that the FCC is requiring AT&T to give up MediaOne's stake in Time Warner, and/or 11.2 million other cable subscribers, so that they control under 30% of the cable market. However, I've seen a lot of these Stop AT&T billboards where I live.

cbull writes: "Yahoo! has an article that indicates the judge in the Microsoft case thinks splitting Microsoft into three companies is attractive to him. This is based on a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Software and Information Industry Association." And mfinke wrote: "Just saw the CNN article here about Judge Jackson's ruling that DOJ's proposal to split the company will still be considered when he rules. " Finally, mizhi pointed out this ZDNet coverage of the proceedings, saying "Basically, the government says that instead of splitting Microsoft into an operating system company and applications company, it should also split it into a third independent company for Internet Explorer."

smeng58 writes: "If haven't got your Athlon yet, you may have to wait. This article found on CNNfn states AMD has sold out their production of the Athlon for the second quarter. Looks like AMD has capacity problems, or a lot of people are choosing AMD over Intel."

smeng58 writes: "If haven't got your Athlon yet, you may have to wait. This article found on CNNfn states AMD has sold out their production of the Athlon for the second quarter. Looks like AMD has capacity problems, or a lot of people are choosing AMD over Intel."

According to this CNN article, Sega will announce today a $200 rebate on its $200 Dreamcast console. They'll even throw in a free keyboard. Game consoles have always played "lose money on the razor, make it on the blades," but now, the blades have changed: the catch is a mandatory two years of their online service at $22/mo. So, exactly how much ass do the Dreamcast's online games kick?

Jon Rochmis from wired wrote in to tell us that Declan McCullagh has a story up now: Microsoft Loses. There really isn't a lot of details, except that the news is officially out, and that the penalties (and of course many more lawsuits) will be forthcoming.Update: 04/03 09:08 by H :Check out the official government site for the ruling -- in excruciating detail. CNNfn also has got an analysis up.

thor writes, "According to CNBC, Verisign (VRSN) will purchase Network Solutions (NSOL) for approx. $21B ($531/share). Looks like the story of the day for a lot of people on and off of Wall Street. Network Solutions closed at $360 5/8 yesterday is trading up $100 in early hours trading. " I've also found the story on CNNfn. Why does this merger scare me?

AdemoN was the first to the gate with the latest on the DoubleClick privacy fiasco. A woman in California has sued DoubleClick, alleging that they have violated her privacy rights by representing themselves as not collecting personal information, while actually doing so. Remember - you can opt-out of the whole thing as well. Click below for a note on a major PR blunder by DoubleClick from Roblimo.

- Friday, January 28, 2 p.m. US EST

Tuesday USA Today reporter Will Rodger wrote about DoubleClick. We linked to his story here. Wednesday afternoon a DoubleClick Corporate Communications person* called Andover.net Corporate Communications VP Janet Holian and asked her to remove our story and the link to USA Today.

Janet passed the problem to me, since Andover has a very strict policy prohibiting Andover corporate people from interfering in editorial decisions.

I listened politely to the DoubleClick person, who told me USA Today's story was innacurate and we were wrong to link to it, and how she was calling journalists all over the country to tell them that the information in it was false and should not be relied upon. Then she requested that we pull the Slashdot story that linked to the USA Today story. No direct threats were made, but the words "refer this to our legal department" were said.

I said no, we couldn't and wouldn't pull the story.

Next move: I called USA Today. These guys are good fact-checkers. They pointed me at some of DoubleClick's own press releases and privacy policy pages, most of which had already been referenced by Slashdot in this story back in October, 1999.

An Open Offer
I offered DoubleClick's Corporate Communications person a chance to state their side of the story here, on Slashdot. I promised to run whatever they sent verbatim. I have received nothing from them so far. I called DoubleClick and reiterated the offer before writing this. Still nothing, not even an e-mail saying what information they feel is incorrect in any of the stories written about them here, in USA Today or in other media.

At this point, it's DoubleClick's move. Perhaps, eventually, they'll post something on their Press Release page. We'll keep an eye on it in case they do.

* I left out the name of the DoubleClick Corporate Communications person purely as a personal courtesy. She is a very nice woman in a bad position, trying to do a very tough job - which, right now, could probably best be described as "frantic damage control."

Almost everybody sent this one in: "AOL and Time Warner merge!" See stories at cnnfn.com, Yahoo! News or almost any other online news outlet. Or go straight to the source(s); the Time Warner and AOL press releases, which make this sound like the greatest thing since the first two 'net nodes were connected together. Now you'll be able to get all your Internet needs, from connectivity to content to shopping, delivered by a single experienced company. No more need to deal with Web sites that stray from the party line, take risks (and screw up now and then), or any of that other messy old-fashioned "Internet as anarchy" stuff. To get online in the future, all you'll need to do is plug in your computer, turn off your brain, and enjoy!

Goon writes " Here's an article at CNN about how the Justice department has hired a consultant to gage the effect of breaking up microsoft into 3 or 4 smaller companies. According to the article, it appears that this is what the DOJ is intending to do if a settlement is not reached."

News.com is reporting that AMD has released a new 750 MHz Athlon. The chip is quite pricey ($800 in lots of 1000), but should be available before the year is over. Jerry Sanders says AMD is having a strong quarter. Cnnfn.com also has an article about the release of the chip, and also mentions that a 533 MHz K6-2 was released.

fremen writes "CNN is reporting that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has appointed a mediator in the Microsoft case. The mediator is Richard Posner, chief Judge of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Yahoo has a similar story indicating that he'll be acting in a 'private capacity.'"

grayhame writes "It seems that Sony and Sun have decided to team up to co-develop digital consumer electronic appliances with access to the internet. " Sun seems to be moving towards consumer space. Sun and Specialized are doing a co-branding thing where Specialized uses Sun workstations to design their bikes, and in return, there will be Sun-purple co-branded bikes.

gluck writes "CNN is running a poll on agreement with Judge Jackson on the DOJ v Microsoft prelmimary finding of fact. Results so far are: 61.91% agree with the finding of fact and 79% want action taken. You can vote at CNN DOJ v Microsoft Poll"

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has released his initial finding of facts - which appears to be very favorable to the government. Judge Jackson agrees with the government's assertions that Microsoft holds monopoly power in operating systems in the Intel world. Now, note of course, that is just an initial finding - now the two sides debate the penalties against Microsoft. Check out the government web site for the Findings of Fact - though it's running pretty slow there's a mirror as well. The info is all over the news as well. Thing sound grim - click below for a quote from the Judge:

"Microsoft has demonstrated that it will use its prodigious market power and immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify competition against one of Microsoft's core products," Jackson wrote in his findings. "The ultimate result is that some innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self-interest."

Ouch. Pretty harsh words from the Judge. No one knows what the penalties will be, and the possibility for a settlement between the Government and DOJ are much more probable now, as Microsoft knows the way the judge feels about it. Things are gonna be different, though.

z@ph0d writes "This article tells how Dell, Compaq, and Gateway could announce soon they will be shipping low cost PC's without Windows. No word yet on what they'll ship with, but who knows? "

TuneUp writes "Amazon is suing Barnes and Noble over it's 1-Click "technology" which allows you to enter your credit info only once, then shop to your hearts content. Time to see if these ridiculous patents will hold up. " We reported on the patent a few weeks ago. By far my favorite bit is how this feature took "Thousands of Hours" to implement. I'm having a really hard time with this patent, since to a computer saving your VISA number and shipping address is no different then saving, say, your Slashdot Nickname and preferred threshold. Well, except one probably ought to be a bit more secure...

Rude Turnip writes "What won't people try to sell on Ebay? First it was 16 year old girls, then the planet earth then Ebay itself! In the latest round of auction hijinks, the SEC has issued a cease and desist order to prevent three people from selling *gasp* stocks on the popular auction site. Apparently, the individuals violated some regulations having to do with the sale of unregistered stock. Was this the case of another online investment scam or a bona fide attempt to conduct corporate finance in cyberspace? CNNfn has the scoop. "

duder writes "It appears that both sides in the Microsoft anti-trust suit are filing the closing arguments according to the Washington Post. " It doesn't look any surprises-CNNfn has an additional update as well. The DOJ and MS have filed sharply contrasting legal briefs-Microsoft claims there's competition, citing Sun and Red Hat, the government claims they have a monopoly. And give the US justice system, I'm sure we'll see the end to this case sometime shortly after Rob actually finishes reading Cryptonomicon.

Ed Powell writes "CNN has a story about how AOL is looking into creating a TV channel. Looks like MSNBC is getting some competition soon. " Can they spam my TV ads?

Last week an Internet "deliver groceries to your door" company called Webvan, based in Foster City, California, announced a $1 billion deal with international engineering and construction giant Bechtel to build distribution centers in 26 U.S. markets. But Webvan may be planning to deliver much more than food.

Amazon and almost all the other e-commerce high-rollers depend on traditional delivery services like UPS, Federal Express, and DHL. Last I heard, while most online merchants seem to be taking big losses, package delivery companies were becoming more profitable than ever because of e-commerce.

Webvan is headed by Louis Borders, one of the two brothers who founded Borders Books and Music in 1971 and started borders.com in 1997. As soon as Webvan gets some of its new distribution centers running, I expect to see them offer deals like "free book delivery with any grocery order" that other online retailers can't match.

So forget groceries. Webvan could become the first e-commerce company that would have its own "direct to your door" delivery service and keep all the "shipping and handling" fees instead of putting them in other companys' pockets.

If I were Jeff Bezos, Webvan would scare me. And if I were selling almost anything other than books or food online, I'd be scrambling to cut a delivery deal with Louis Borders right now, before everyone else in the e-commerce business figures out that a "Webvan" could deliver almost anything that could conceivably be sold over the World Wide Web.

BlackICE writes "Ding dong the witch is dead-The trial portion of the case is over, and now both sides will have about a month to prepare closing statements. Expert opinion seems to be that the government will win, but what the final outcome will be in terms of reforms or injunctions is still up in the air. " Reports have also been hinting at settlement talks as well - maybe that will get everything over with sooner. Of course, following this comes the appeals, so my kids should be somewhere in grad school by the time this really finishes.

Allright so several people have noted that the iToaster from Microworkz runs a "BeOS/Linux Hybrid". Sounds kinda crazy, but it was confirmd by (quoted on MSNBC and CNNfn as well as confirmed in an email from their sales dept.) So the question is when can we download their changes to the Linux kernel? Hit the link below to read more explanation on why the answer is never.

I was given several different answers from different people. Here is a reply to an email asking about the code I sent to (sales@microworkz.com)

• Mr. Malda,

  Thank you for your interest in Microworkz.com. The iToaster operating system is a hybrid between BeOs and Linux and is licensed and patented by Microworkz.com, Inc. The source code is therefore proprietary and not available for download.

  The Linux pure source code is however at www.linux.com.

  If you have any other questions or if you would like to place an order, please give our Sales Team a call at (888) 306-2044 from 7am - 8pm Monday through Friday and 10am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday PST. Or simply check out our web sites at www.microworkz.com.

So I called them and asked more. I talked to a very nice gentleman who put me on hold for awhile while he found answers. According to him, the iToaster does not run Linux (although according to the email posted above from the sales department, it runs "A Hybrid between BeOS and Linux". This is sorta what the MSNBC article said ("The way it was explained to me, BeOS handles the file system, while Linux does just about everything else.")

So I guess there are 2 possibilities here:

1. Microworkz messed up by using the word "Linux" when dealing with CNNfn and MSNBC, as their machine does not run Linux at all. This seems to be what I was told on the phone.
2. Microworkz is violating the GPL by making modifications to the Linux kernel and not releasing them.

At this point there really isn't much we can do about it since the iToaster isn't really out so we can't do any pounding on it to determine if their is something questionable going on.

Thanks to the many of you who wrote in to give us the heads up on this. We'll keep you posted if we figure out more.

jpatters writes "CNN is reporting that the state of California will be selling confidential wage data to private companies. They hope to raise $15 million over the next decade. Read the full story "Yeargh-I love governments blurring the line between my life and companies.

Knish wrote in to let us know that the Intel-FTC suit has already been settled. Details are still very sketchy, but we will post more updates as they are known-all that is currently known is that both sides have submitted motions to withdraw the matter. Apparently, there are still "other issues" to settle, but the main ones are taken care of. Update: 03/08 02:40 by CT : Knish sent us more information on the settlement.

Knish wrote in to let us know that the Intel-FTC suit has already been settled. Details are still very sketchy, but we will post more updates as they are known-all that is currently known is that both sides have submitted motions to withdraw the matter. Apparently, there are still "other issues" to settle, but the main ones are taken care of. Update: 03/08 02:40 by CT : Knish sent us more information on the settlement.

Jason Spangler writes "IBM and Dell announced a technology pact in which Dell will buy storage, microelectronics, networking, and display technology from IBM. The deal also includes patent cross-licensing and collaboration in future product development."

I-man writes "Extra extra! DOJ lawyer completely destroys the credibility of yet another Redmond Exec!" Wrap it up people. This is just getting to loony. I'm not sure which "Bill" related trial is more boring right now. They're both pretty darn funny though. Update: 02/23 02:24 by CT : cswiii sent us a nice link to a CNN story about a Six-week break trial. After which we'll finally get some closing.

Fudge.Org writes "There is a promo link on CNNFN.COM. It mentions RedHat being born in a garage and/or college dorm, and how it will topple the Bill Gates empire. The article should show up some time today. " Someone yell when this link goes live.

Mike McCune writes "News.com is reporting that a committee advising the Department of Justice is considering forcing Microsoft to license the source code to it's operating systems." Another alternative is to block Microsoft from adding features to the OS. In related news, Frédéric writes "Maybe you know Microsoft is trying to use Be to prove it does not have a monopoly on OS's. The SJ Mercury news speculates that Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée may join the antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp.". This transcript of this interview with JLG gives his position."

Loic Dachary wrote in to say that catalog, a GPLd perl script to create your own Yahoo style directory is up for download. ja wrote in to say that LyX, TeX a frontend for dummies has officially hit v1.0 From my own blatant self promotion department, I actually registered CmdrTaco.net and have moved most of my non-slashdot stuff there- as well as cleaning up some design issues and making pages smaller and faster and prettier. Update your links, the old stuff will go away in the not so distant future. David Carver noted that the March 1999 issue of (What? Paper?) Performance Computing magazine mentions Slashdot on Page 13 regarding last Novembers reports on Cheap Alphas. For something truly strange, we have something Blaxthos sent: The Church of the Quivering Otter. It's actually even wierder than it sounds. An anonymous reader sent us a link to a CNN article about the Victoria's Secret commercial during the superbowl: Apparently the website got a million hits in the following hour. Was the game boring or do we just really like Stephenie Seymour? The answer to both of these is probably yes. Somewhat related is another patent following the one we mentioned yesterday. Rosmo sent us (Not for the ultra moral!) a patent that might be even scarier that that one.

Will Johnston sent us a link to a CNNfn article where you can read about Intel's plan's to incorporate encryption into it's microchips. I'm not sure about this one: The paranoid in me starts quivering, but then again, standard encryption sure would make a lot of this stuff a lot easier. What do you think?

the drenalizer writes "Here is an interesting one for the ISP and telco industries. CNN has an article on this story. Reaction so far seems that ISP's are optimistic about the deal and think that Lucent can benefit from getting Ascend's SOHO product line and some of the mid range products that they offer (and maybe Ascend customers will appreciate more clueful tech support according to some). "

vab writes "Perhaps looking to further weaken the U.S. Gov't anti-trust case with another MegaMerger/Deal Microsoft is in talks with AT&T to sell AT&T MSN and other Microsoft media properties, possibly in exchange for cash and Windows NT promotion. If the deal goes though it would make AT&T's WorldNet the second largest ISP, second only to AOL, and allow Microsoft to dump some yet-to-be-profitable projects. " Apparently, the deal is not going through. Funny thing-AT&T considers the talks to be done, while MS considers the talks to be "on-going".

EngrBohn writes "CNN reports that a portion of the CDA dealing with adult cable channels is unconstitutional. Not only did the CDA place an undue burdon on adult-only content channels (eg, Playboy) that weren't on adult-sometimes content channels (eg, HBO), but the three judges also ruled that one of the underlying principles of CDA was unsupported: "the Justice Department presented 'no clinical evidence linking child viewing of pornography to psychological harms.'" "

Well, Toshiba and Fujitsu have announced that they will be teaming up to offer one huge DRAM by 2002. Yes, it's true a one piece gigabytes of RAM is on its way. The budget for the project is just about 250$US million and will be focusing on a .13 micron design process.

Courtesy the uberinformed David Lesher. Sun has won their Java suit against Microsoft. The most obvious ramification is that Microsoft must stop shipping Windows 98 and IE immediatley. Hopefully, more information will come in later. H:For those of you who don't want to go to the NY Times, read about the victory over here. J: To clarify - my original post was very poorly worded.They did not win in the legal sense, but they did win in the sense they have succeeded in making MS either comply or lose. S: Hey you're all famous! we're mentionned on news.com.

Well, the slated deal between TCI Cable and AT&T may fall apart if " regulators limit the companies' ability to charge users of a planned high-speed Internet access service for related services the customers may not want." The article goes on to talk about how the companies "need" economies of scale. H: It's stuff like this that makes me fussy. I understand they want money, but essentially their arguement is that unless they can basically /extort/ money from the customer, then they don't want in. *sigh*

Paul Ammann writes " CNNfn has an interview with Robert F. Young, CEO of Red Hat. It shows Linux as a free operating system and that it is gaining support - and threatening Windows. If I may quote CNN, ** Linux is looking lovely. ** "

CdNow and N2k are reporting that their merger talks have been succesful. This will be an interesting trend in the onsale sales area-now that the market has reached some faint degree of maturity, typical business manuvers start to take place. For more news, head over here.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's official. Sun and Microsoft will be facing in court over Java. It all ties back to the 1996 licensing change that Sun says MS violated. Details are sketchy right now, but this will be an interesting one to watch.

Symantec has lost the court battle that is has been engaging in with Cybermedia. The US Court ruled that Symantec's Norton Uninstaller was infringing upon copyrights held by Cybermedia. This means that Norton Uninstaller must stop shipping, as they are now under "a notice of recall". The lawsuit stems from Cybermedia accusing Symantec of stealing some of the code for Uninstaller.

James Bialas writes "CNN's Digitial Jam had a quick blurb on some new encryption software from IBM which they plan to distribute for free. Supposedly this technique can prevent active attacks on encrypted transactions. No info on IBM's web page yet." I'm sure we've all heard about the software before, but this is a nice little writeup. Check it out.

Yes, the bazillion and one Trial of the Century, in this case the infamous anti-trust suit against Microsoft, is set for trial. The judge today denied public access to the depositions issued by the company, in doing so, by the screwy US Justice system, cleared the way for the trial to procced. For the full details read here.

Today is the day that the new iMacs are supposed to be rolling. Jobs and Co. are betting big on this one, with Jobs saying this will "cause a revolution." Regardless of that, Apple is undertaking their biggest ad campaign ever, with a 100$US million dollar ad campaign. It will be interesting to see the results of this-and whether the PC converts return, like Jobs hopes.

Steve Sheldon writes "It appears that MGM's new game based on the old movie WarGames includes a virus. It would have been funny if the virus acted as an old wargames autodialer, but... :)"

David Rusting writes "Interesting tidbit from CNN Digital Jam on how Microsoft will argue they thought of the browser first (before Netscape). Does anyone really buy this? "