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Friday, April 19, 2002
• A lull in the action
Attention, weblog fans. For the next couple months, the
NetRunner pace is going to slow a bit. I'm assigned to cover the trial
of Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., which is expected to last eight weeks.
That means I'll be posting new entries here less frequently, but I won't
be stopping altogether. There should be periodic lulls in the trial, and
when they occur, I'll be blogging. So please keep visiting. And check
out the Cianci trial coverage.
• Amazon hits back
Amazon.com
boss Jeff Bezos isn't taking lightly the criticism
of an authors' group that believe its used books marketplace is depriving
its members of royalties.
I had received a copy of the first Bezos email and then the followup.
I found the aggressive response to the Authors
Guild's complaint interesting given the group's narrow audience. Obviously,
Amazon.com thought the guild's
appeal to writers to drop Amazon links from their sites posed a threat.
• Give Bill a good polish
The news
arrived today that Bill Gates will take the witness stand in the ongoing
Microsoft antitrust trial. It doesn't much matter to me, but let's hope
for Microsoft's sake Bill learned a lesson from the videotaped deposition
he gave when the feds were still after him. In that appearance, then prosecutor
David Boies shredded to pieces an arrogant and petulant Gates.
As
News.com put it, putting Gates on the stand is a "risky strategy,
particularly given his previous videotaped deposition" and a weak
case presented by the nine states that refused to join the federal government
settlement with Microsoft.
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
• An education breakthrough
Think South Dakota, and high-tech pioneer may not come
to mind first. But the sparsely populated Midwestern state is leading
the way in employing Internet technology to improve public schools. Last
week, it launched the Dakota
Digital Network Campus, which is promising parents instant access
to grades, attendance and discipline records for their children. The state
announced the DDN Campus will be installed at five public schools
this spring with new schools added every few months.
South Dakota Education and Cultural Affairs Secretary
Ray Christiensen told
Newsbytes.com the state has installed strong security measures to
ensure that no one -- particularly students looking to pump up their grades
-- can hack into the system.
• Better than a milk carton
The pop-up ad is the bane of many a Net user. But there's
a pop-up campaign under way in Great Britain I wouldn't mind seeing take
hold here. According
to BBC News, a pop-up window seeking information about a missing Surrey
schoolgirl, Amanda Dowler, is being displayed to the users of several
British Web sites. The 13-year-old has been missing since March 21. More
than a half million Web users have seen the pop-up. View
it here.
React on the NetRunner
bulletin board.
Send an e-mail to Dave McPherson
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