January 13, 2000
Today's Links Story: Update on Industry Standard's Sidebar
FEED Magazine: Why AOL Thinks Its Stock Is Overvalued.
Clay Shirky. Although it was worth almost twice of Time Warner on paper, AOL stock holders will take a mere 55% of the new company. This is a brilliant way of backing down from an overvalued stock without causing investors to head for the aisles.
Red Herring: The once and future king.
Tony Perkins. But Mr. Case was smart enough to get in early, while his stock was still skyrocketing, to take advantage of the Internet bubble and buy some real assets, real products, and real revenues before his time runs out. Mr. Case has made it to the top of the real media world, and he did it just in time.
NY Times: U.S. Removes More Limits on Encryption Technology.
The new rules were cautiously applauded by industry groups, who argued that regulations issued by the administration in September were still cumbersome and put them at a disadvantage when competing with foreign companies, especially from Germany, that have no such restrictions.
Newsweek: A Portable Web.
WAP is the result of three years of negotiations between the big mobile-phone makers, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, and a single, 500-employee Silicon Valley start-up, Phone.com. Three years ago, Phone.com persuaded the much larger companies to collectively develop WAP...
PC World: Applying Moore's Law to Mobile Phones.
Petersen says that while mobile phones with the capacity for Internet functions like those using the wireless application protocol will by 2002 quadruple available memory and double signal speeds, power consumption will remain low. He says mobile phones will retain their consumption of around 0.1 watts...
Motley Fool: Stuck on You....
The Wall Street analyst's comments, especially the ones about the "stickiness" of Amazon's website, left me amused and unconvinced. What was this "stickiness," and could it really be considered a viable barrier of entry for Internet companies?
News.Com: Amazon adds East Coast customer service center.
Amazon.com.wvcs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, will own and operate the new Huntington facility--an arrangement similar to the set up of its other customer service and distribution centers. Because Amazon will not directly own the center, it will not charge sales tax to its West Virginia customers.
Upside: Net Taxes: When, Not If.
And, with all deference to the governor of Virginia, it is lunacy to think that any politician will have the guts to use two-thirds of the excise tax collected on Grandma's phone service to subsidize some yupster's online purchase of a DVD player.
NY Times: Better Digital Images in Smaller Files.
The committee must tread a fine line. If the format has too many patented pieces and requires too many license fees, no one will adopt it. But if it is too open, the companies that paid for the research behind the standard will not get any revenue.
Atlantic Unbound: Alternate Realities.
Review of new books by William Mitchell and Douglas Rushkoff. If the movement appears to have faded away since its much-publicized debut, this is not a result of any punishing defeats; it's more likely because the initial statement of technorealistic principles was simply too noncontroversial.
NY Times: Rules of D.S.L.: Location, Location, Confusion.
But while cable television providers generally offer, or don't offer, cable modem service in broad service areas, and satellite links are widely available, D.S.L. service is spottier. Your phone company may provide it, but you may not be able to get it. And that has confused consumers.
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