Networking giant Nortel has abandoned the DSL business.

AOL and Sony are working together to bring online chat to the PlayStation 2. The chat accessories will  debut at E3 in Los Angeles this week and will be available in December. In other news, the Play Station 2 will soon support RealNetworks streaming audio and video .

Modem chip maker Cirrus Logic will lay off 120 employees (9 percent of staff) and exit the chip business to focus on consumer entertainment devices.

Three strikes and you're out:

1. A security vulnerability was discovered recently in DSL modems made by Alcatel, the world's largest maker of DSL equipment.
2. Alcatel announced that they wouldn't fix the problem.
3. Alcatel issued a press release in the form of a Word document, with the revision history intact for the world to see.

Of the 260,000 people who became millionaires in the first three months of 2000, about a third lost their millionaire status by the end of 2000.

Eazel is shutting down after running out of money. Their Nautilus file manager for Linux is GPLed, and will live on.

Languorous speeds (10 kilobits/sec, shared) and a questionable pricing model are causing investors  to lose interest in in-flight Internet access.

Jurisprudence

The Center for Digital Democracy has asked the FTC to review an agreement between AOL Time Warner and High Speed Access. AOL is required to give three independent ISPs access to its cable networks, but ties between High Speed Access and AOL Time Warner are connected via investor Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures.

Fraud claims against EarthLink co-founder Robert Slatkin could reach US$600 million. The SEC searched his offices this week.

Juno and Gateway have settled with the FTC and will no longer advertise services as free when fees can be charged to heavy users.

A class action lawsuit charges NetZero, RedHat, Avici and DigiMarc with manipulating stock prices a the time of their IPOs.

Joke

Back in 1996 three Southerners decide to see the Olympics in Atlanta. They threw a cooler in the pickup truck and drove to Georgia without tickets, only to find all of the events sold out.

They noticed some athletes entering through a side gate, and observed the security check as an athlete approached the guard.

"Country?," prompted the guard.
"Czechoslovakia," the man rebuked.
"Event?"

The athlete held up a compound bow and answered: "archery." The guard scribbled on his clipboard and handed the Czech a pass.

That gave the guy from Tennessee an idea. He jogged over to the street, picked up a manhole cover, and ambled over to the side entrance.

"Country?"
"United States."
"Event?"

The Tennessean held up the manhole cover and replied: "discus." The guard wrote "discus" on the clipboard and produced a pass.

The guy from North Carolina saw his friend getting waved through and decided to take a chance. He rummaged through an adjacent construction site to find a long PVC pipe and carried it to the side entrance.

"Country?"
"United States."
"Event?"

The tarheel held up the pipe and announced: "pole vaulting." The guard gave him his pass.

The guy from Kentucky finally caught on, so he went to the same construction site, found a prop, and shuffled over to the guard.

"Country?"
"United States."
"Event?"

The Kentuckian proudly held up a roll of barbed wire and answered: "fencing."

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