Tuesday, June 22

MCI WorldCom and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen are investing US$600 million in Metricom. Metricom's Ricochet provides wireless email and Internet access.

Gateway has chosen ActionTec modems for its Gateway Solo 3100 laptop.

Ramp Networks, makers of routers that allow a network of computers to share an Internet connection, is preparing an IPO that is expected to raise US$40 million.

A new study - sponsored by the cell phone industry - has found that cell phone usage may increase the incidence of human brain tumors, cell growth in micronuclei, and DNA breakage in rats.

Broadband Internet access

FCC Chairman William Kennard spoke to a cable TV convention last week and went on record as being against regulating the cable TV industry as it moves into Internet access and telephony.

US West has begun trials of WebVision, a new service that provides television, Internet access and telephone capabilities through the customer's television. DSL provides bandwidth for the service.

Business Week looks at a county commission decision in Los Angeles that local cable companies do not have to let Internet service providers use their infrastructure to offer Internet access. Earlier this month a Portland, Oregon judge ruled against the cable arm of AT&T. AT&T is appealing the decision.

AOL is investing US$1.5 billion in Hughes Electronics. The money will be equally divided between the DirecPC Internet satellite service to provide high speed access for a high speed version of AOL, and DirecTV, for a planned AOL TV offering.

Our new look

Regular 56K.COM readers may notice a new look. This weekend we're experimenting with cascading stylesheets (CSS) on the home page. Among other things, stylesheets will make it easy to change the entire site over from the browser default font (usually Times) to a sans-serif font. The Times look was getting tired, and stylesheets make it easy to change fonts and other aspects of our 700+ pages by changing just one linked stylesheet.

CSS requires IE 3.0 or higher, or Netscape 4.0 or higher. The beauty of CSS is that older browsers won't get to see the new look, but they will still be able to see all of the content on the site.

If all goes well, we will link all of the pages on the site to this stylesheet. If you experience any problems viewing the site, please let us know. Thanks!

New contests and giveaways

Palm V Giveaway

VW Beetle Giveaway

Jamaican Vacation

Get a VISA guaranteed

Free issue of Fast Company

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Friday, June 25

The ITU has given final approval to G.Lite as an international cable modem standard.

Cable Television Labs (cablelabs.com) has certified five more DOCSIS standards compatible cable modems, which doubles the number of certified designs. The five companies whose designs were approved are Askey Computer Corp., Cisco Systems, Philips Electronics, Samsung Information Systems of America, and Sony Corp.

The Red Herring has more information about the AOL-Hughes Network deal, plus recent estimates from Jupiter Communications on future modem use:

Projections for modem use in 2002
ISDN	0.5%
Satellite	2%
DSL	5.5%
Cable	11%
Analog, including 56K	81%

source: Jupiter Communications

Network Associates has an advisory about a new virus, Heathen.A, that spreads via Word 97 documents.

Phone Phun

If TeleVend has its way, you'll be able to buy a cola with your cell phone: dial the soda machine's number with your cell phone, and the drink will show up on your cell bill. The idea is new in the U.S., but it's already being done in parts of Europe.

Old time phreaking with a new twist. Users of the Diamond Multimedia Rio MP3 player and Palm handhelds can get free long distance phone calls by playing recordings of coin deposits. The only disadvantages are that it only works on older pay phones and, oh yeah, it's a federal crime. Wired has the story.

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