New Message and Programming Service Make Next Generation Media Player   A Gateway to Instant Internet Audio and Video

    NEW YORK, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), the recognized leader in media delivery on the Internet, today announced the immediate availability of the first beta release of RealPlayer(R) 7 Basic and RealPlayer 7 Plus for Windows and Macintosh.  The new Real.com(TM) Network and Real.com Take5 were announced today in separate press releases.  RealPlayer 7 includes dramatic improvements in start-up time, a new user interface with enhanced media navigation features, and delivers higher quality media experiences.  In addition, the Real.com Message Service enables users to be notified when entertainment or breaking news programming is available, and offers one button access to a wide variety of high quality programming from both Real.com Take5 and more than 200 Live Stations and Channels.  The release of RealPlayer 7 builds on previous releases of RealPlayer, whose popularity continues to grow with more than 85 million unique users, an increase of more than 40 million users in 1999.  This beta release of free RealPlayer 7 Basic and RealPlayer 7 Plus are immediately available for download from http://www.real.com/.

    "RealPlayer 7 gives consumers a place where they can find the best audio and video programming on the Internet," said Maria Cantwell, senior vice president, Consumer and E-Commerce Division, RealNetworks, Inc.  "With substantial advancements in performance and usability, new media caching capabilities, and a new message service, RealPlayer 7 delivers a powerful Internet media experience that consumers will want to turn on every day."     "Time Warner's NY1 viewers are now able to enjoy a wonderfully interactive broadband experience that is only possible using RealPlayer 7 and RealSystem G2," said Marc Nathanson, executive producer of New Media for Time Warner's NY1 News.  "For the first time, we've been able to create a fully customizable programming capability that is dynamically updated, providing our audience up- to-date relevant information about what's happening in New York."

    New Features in RealPlayer 7
    Faster, Higher Quality Media Experiences
    -- Support for multiple RealPlayer windows enables users to experience
       more compelling interactive presentations.
    -- RealPlayer 7 Media Caching decreases load time for frequently played
       content.
    -- RealPlayer 7 can be manually resized by the user to customize the size
       of the presentation window.
    -- Dramatic performance improvements in RealPlayer 7 deliver 40% faster
       startup time, up to 45% less memory (RAM) consumption, and up to 40%
       less CPU utilization compared to RealPlayer G2 on the Windows platform.
    -- Enhanced full-screen video performance for broadband (high-speed
       network) video playback.
    -- Improved MP3 performance, including support for Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
       and streamed MP3 content from Real servers, and from Web, Shoutcast,
       and Icecast servers.

    Enhanced Media Navigation
    -- A sleek new interface with numerous usability improvements makes it fun
       and easy for users to control their media experience.
    -- Forward and back buttons and a location bar enable users to navigate
       through recent media clips and to directly enter URLs of media clips
       for immediate playback.
    -- Users can select a Home Clip to play automatically when RealPlayer is
       launched.  Users can easily configure their RealPlayer to play Real.com
       Take5, My Channels, My Favorites or other programming.
    -- Users can now start playing the clip at a specific time in a media clip
       with the new Seek to Position feature.

    One Button Access to Audio and Video Programming
    -- Real.com Take5, available exclusively in RealPlayer 7, is a daily
       showcase of the most compelling news, music, entertainment and
       specialty programming on the Internet.
    -- Real.com Message Service, a free set of subscription services, notifies
       users on their desktop about breaking news and entertainment, updated
       editions of Take5, RealPlayer Tips & Tricks, and more.
    -- My Channels and Live Stations provide quick, personalized access to
       live and on-demand streaming audio and video content from more than
       100 programming partners.  Users can now find and sort Live Stations by
       Genre, Country of Origin, or Genre.
    -- My Favorites enables users to bookmark direct links to streaming media
       content for future playback.

    New Features in RealPlayer 7 Plus
    -- Enhanced 10-Band Graphic Equalizer
       -- With the new SmartEQ, RealPlayer 7 Plus senses the type of audio
          programming a user is experiencing -- music or voice -- and
          automatically adjusts the EQ settings to deliver the highest quality
          experience.
       -- By adjusting the new Room Size and Reverb settings, users can
          simulate a customized listening environment in which to experience
          their music programming.
       -- Auto-Gain and Pre-Gain adjusts the volume level of audio playback
          relative to the EQ settings.
       -- RealPlayer 7 Plus offers eight new EQ settings: Instrumental, Hip
          Hop, Funk, Dance Mix, Blues, Metal , New Age, and 80s.
    -- Enhanced scanning capabilities enable users to scan through Live
       Stations by genre or country of origin, and scan through playlists.

    Support for RealPlayer Channels and Live Stations
    RealPlayer 7 provides one-button access to the best Internet audio and
video programming from more than 100 partners, including:  3WK Underground
Radio, 89X, 93X, ABCNews, ABC Radio:  77WABC, ABC Radio:  790 KABC, ABC Radio:
92 KQRS, ABC Radio:  93.1 DRQ, ABC Radio:  93X, ABC Radio:  95.5 KLOS, ABC
Radio: 95.5 WPLJ, ABC Radio: 96.3 KSCS, ABC Radio: CD94.7, ABC Radio:  ESPN
Radio 1000, ABC Radio:  Hot Talk 560 KSFO, ABC Radio:  KGO Newstalk AM 810,
ABC Radio:  Kicks 101.5, ABC Radio:  Memories 96.7, ABC Radio:  Mix 107.3 FM,
ABC Radio:  WBAP 820 News/Talk 820, ABC Radio:  WJR AM 760, ABC Radio:  WJZW
105.9, ABC Radio:  WLS 890 AM, ABC Radio:  WMAL AM 630, ABC Radio:  Y106.7,
audiohighway.com top alternative, audiohighway.com top pop, audiohighway.com
top rock, Bloomberg Business News, CD 93, CD 101, Christian Pirate Radio,
CNN.com, Comedy Central, Country 105, Deutsche Welle, DiscJockey.Com 80's
Experience, DiscJockey.Com All-Hits Channel, DiscoverMusic.com, Discovery
Channel Online, Dr. Science, Earth & Sky, enn.com, eYada.com, FOXNews.com,
Global Media Pop-O-Matic, Global Media Urban Groove, Global Media Phat Ones,
Global Media Kool Hits, Global Media Clubhouse, Global Media Rock Solid,
Global Media Test Pattern, Global Media The Edge, Global Media Station A, GMN,
GOGAGA Radio, Groovetech, The Health Network, HistoryChannel.com, HOT 97, HOT
101, The Humane Society of the United States Animal Channel, Internet
Television Network, KCRW, KFRU, KHYI, KIX 106, King FM, KJJY, KJOY, KKLA,
KPIG, KRSH, KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM, KVCH, KWRD, Made In Germany Magazine,
MountainZone.com, NetRadio.com:  Route 1, NetRadio.com:  Alt Country,
NetRadio.com:  60's Country, NetRadio.com:  Latin, NetRadio.com:  Celtic,
NetRadio.com:  Maestro, NetRadio.com:  Quiet Classics, NetRadio.com: Symphony,
NetRadio.com:  The X, NetRadio.com:  Techno, NetRadio.com: Smooth Jazz,
NetRadio.com: Cafe Jazz, NetRadio.com: Quiet Storm, NetRadio.com:-Vintage
Rock, NetRadio.com: Adult Rock, NetRadio.com: Folk, NetRadio.com: HITS,
NetRadio.com: Lite Hits, NetRadio.com: Groovin' 70s, NetRadio.com: 80's Hits,
NetRadio.com: Teen Scene, NECN (New England Cable News), NPR(R) , PC Week
Webcast, Prima- Cuidad Internet, Pseudo.com, Radio Canada -- La Chaine
Culturelle, Radio Canada -- La Premiere Chaine, SCIFI.com, SETS 102, Talk 24,
THE END, The Sync, Techweb Today, Texas Rebel Radio, Today's Christian Music,
WAVA, WKSU, WPRD, WTRR, ZDTV, ZDTV Radio, and many more.

    Pricing and Availability
    RealPlayer 7 Basic for Windows and Macintosh is immediately available for
free download from http://www.real.com/.  RealPlayer 7 Plus for Windows and Macintosh
platform is immediately available for purchase and download for $29.99 from
http://www.real.com/.

    About RealNetworks
    RealNetworks, Inc., based in Seattle, is the recognized leader in
streaming media delivery on the Internet.  It develops and markets software
products and services designed to enable users of personal computers and other
consumer electronic devices to send and receive audio, video and other
multimedia services using the Web.  Consumers can access and experience
audio/video programming and download RealNetworks consumer software on the
Internet at http://www.real.com/.  All RealNetworks systems and corporate
information is located on the Internet at http://www.realnetworks.com/.
    RealNetworks continues to maintain a strong leadership share of the
streaming media market.  As of October 1999, there are more than 85 million
unique users of RealPlayer and more than 85% of all streaming media Web pages
on the Internet use industry leading RealAudio(R), RealVideo(R),
RealFlash(TM), RealText(R) or RealPix(TM), and more than 350,000 hours of live
RealAudio and RealVideo programming are available each week (Source: Hotbot).

    NOTE:  RealNetworks, RealPlayer, Real.com, RealAudio, RealJukebox,
RealText, RealPix and RealVideo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
RealNetworks, Inc.  RealFlash is a trademark of Macromedia, Inc. and
RealNetworks, Inc.  Macromedia and Flash are registered trademarks of
Macromedia, Inc.  All other companies or products listed herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW)  -- A federal judge found Friday that Microsoft not only holds a monopoly on the market for personal computer operating systems, but that it also took abusive actions to protect its dominant position and harmed consumers.

Shares of the world's largest software company (MSFT: news, msgs) fell almost 3 points in after hours trading to about 88 3/4, after closing down 3/16 at 91 9/16. Investors said they expect shares of the company, a recent addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJ: news, msgs) to drop on Monday.

The findings by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson mark the first part of a two-phase verdict. The judge didn't determine whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws. Jackson's legal conclusions will come in a subsequent ruling that may be seen by the end of the year.

A monopoly is illegal only if it can be proved that a company protected or extended its dominant position through anticompetitive acts.

The findings largely followed the case set out against Microsoft by the government and 19 states, portraying the company as a monopolist that engaged in acts that "unjustifiably" distorted competition and ruthlessly squelched any threats to its products.

Jackson wrote that such acts produced "immediate and discernible harm" -- a key antitrust concept. The government hailed the findings.

"This is a tremendous victory for America's consumers. ... (that) shows once again that in America no person and no company is above the law," said Joel I. Klein, head of the Justice Department antitrust division.

Charles "Rick" Rule, a legal advisor to Microsoft and a former Justice Department antitrust chief, emphasized that Jackson's findings don't necessarily indicate the company violated antitrust laws.

"It's not clear to me that what the court found amounts to the type of exclusionary 'bad acts'" that constitute an illegal monopoly, Rule said.

Nevertheless, Microsoft officials didn't hide their disappointment. In a statement, the company said the findings don't reflect the intense state of competition and innovation in the software industry, but vowed to "vigorously contest" the case.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appeared to open the door to settlement talks, saying the company is committed to resolving issues raised by the case "in a fair and responsible manner." 

Klein said the government remains open to discussing a settlement, provided talks "fully and properly address our competitive concerns."

Government and Microsoft officials had met during the trial, most recently in June, to discuss a settlement, but appeared to make little headway.

Microsoft officials, however, also indicated the company is willing to take its chances on the appeals process if future rulings deal harshly with the company.

"We believe that the American legal system will ultimately affirm Microsoft's position, and conclude that Microsoft's innovations have brought tremendous benefits to millions of people," said Microsoft general counsel William H. Neukom.

The judge found that Microsoft undertook ruthless actions designed to preserve its monopoly, stifled innovation in the software industry and ultimately harmed consumers. That finding could pave the way to significant sanctions against the software giant, depending on how the judge treats the issue in his legal conclusions.

The findings said that Microsoft's actions toward competitors and partners showed that the software giant "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."

To the benefit of Microsoft, however, the judge didn't wholeheartedly agree with the government's assertion that Microsoft's decision to bundle its Internet browser into the Windows 95 operating system was a naked attempt to undercut the browser market share held by rival Netscape, now a part of America Online (AOL: news, msgs). The government argued that the decision offered no consumer benefits whatsoever.

The fate of the Netscape browser, which saw its market share rapidly dwindle after the bundling decision, was a key component of the government's case. But Jackson wrote that the debut of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and its rapid improvement gave Netscape incentive to improve Navigator's quality at a competitive rate.

"These actions contributed to improving the quality of Web browsing software, lowering its cost, and increasing its availability, thereby benefitting consumers," Jackson wrote.

But the judge had harsh words overall for Microsoft's dealings with partners, such as computer makers and Internet service providers, and competitors, including Netscape, which is now part of America Online (AOL: news, msgs). He agreed with the government's assertion that Microsoft's actions were aimed at undercutting competitive threats posed by so-called middleware products that offered consumers a way to use software on computers and devices unequipped with Windows.

"As has been shown, Microsoft ... engaged in a concerted series of actions designed to protect the applications barrier to entry, and hence its monopoly power, from a variety of middleware threats, including Netscape's Web browser and Sun's (SUNW: news, msgs) implementation of (the) Java (computer language)," the judge wrote.

In addition to immediate and easily discernible harm, these actions "also caused less direct, but nevertheless serious and far-reaching, consumer harm by distorting competition," he added.

While Microsoft found little to cheer in the rulings, observers cautioned against reading too much into the findings, given that the judge has yet to issue legal conclusions and that the case may ultimately be subject to an appeal before a potentially sympathetic appeals court. Barring a settlement, the case could drag through the courts for at least two more years.

James Lucier, a Washington-based analyst with Prudential Securities said the judge's apparently pro-government findings were largely anticipated due to Jackson's demeanor and lines of questioning during the trial.

"Anyone who says this is a surprise either was not paying attention or doesn't understand the process," Lucier said.

Lawyers said it may be premature to draw conclusions about any possible remedy from the findings of fact.

"This is the first stage (of the ruling). It's important not to read too much into what the judge does say on the factual questions," said antitrust attorney Glenn Manishin.

Few antitrust experts expect Microsoft to be broken up, even if the final ruling favors the government. Possible remedies, should Jackson conclude that Microsoft has a monopoly and engaged in anticompetitive tactics to maintain it, range from a break-up of the company to the possibility the company could be forced to license its Windows operating system to other software makers.

Alternatively, Microsoft could be made subject to so-called "conduct" remedies, that would legally enjoin the company from engaging in anticompetitive acts, but wouldn't force it to alter its structure.
William L. Watts is a reporter for CBS MarketWatch.

Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (October 31, 1999 8:29 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - The ritual of higher education is going high-tech. High school students are now heading to the Web to get information instantly and conveniently.

From the venerable College Board, which runs the SAT college entrance exams, to start-ups such as BestSchoolsUSA.com, online research services want to help students pick schools, write essays, even pay for tuition. Most sites are free.

Traffic was heavy at many sites, anticipating Monday's application deadline for early decision and early action at several leading colleges and universities. But peak season has yet to come, with traditional application deadlines of December or January.

Though seniors are the ones most focused now, high school juniors are already surfing the Web for college data even though they have a year to go before applying. "The Internet is like a bridge to tons of information," says Ashvin Dewan, a junior at Hightower High School in Missouri City, Texas.

His guidance counselor, Paula Cox, is grateful. She says online services have allowed students to research schools themselves, freeing counselors to focus on advice.

Other counselors urge caution, however. Just about anyone, they point out, can set up a Web site catering to a high school audience. Commercial Web services might lure students into a scam or give bad information, such as an incorrect application deadline.

"Web sites' information can be very, very unreliable," says Stephen D. Singer, director of college counseling at the Horace Mann School in New York.

One site in particular, ecollegebid.org, irks Joyce Smith, executive director of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Alexandria, Va. That site treats selecting a college like an auction. Families bid for a certain amount of tuition, and schools willing to accept that then respond.

"It's a totally different spin on college," she says. "It's more like a novelty than the start of an education process."

Even though Internet sites allow guidance counselors to focus on guidance and counseling, Smith worries some students might try to bypass counselors completely and forgo their advice.

"A child can sit at a computer for hours searching for information, and the only way a high school would know," she notes, "is if the child has to ask for a transcript."

Eliminating the relationship is never the goal, insists Young Shin, president and chief executive of embark.com in San Francisco. He says no site can meet all of a student's needs.

Besides the basic research available on the Internet,"every student always needs special counseling and advice," he says.

Leading Web sites such as The Princeton Review's http://www.review.com/ and Peterson's http://www.collegequest.com/ let students narrow their choices based on size, location and other personal preferences. Before, students had to use CD-ROM services at their schools' computers or leaf through books and college brochures.

The nonprofit College Board has a site, collegeboard.org, offering similar services. It recently announced plans to create a for-profit site, collegeboard.com, to offer additional features this spring.

Some sites compile details on academic requirements and campus life, and many link directly to the colleges' own Web sites.

Students can also apply to some schools online through some of the commercial sites, using a special form or digital image of a college's own application.

Help is also available with tuition. Embark.com plans to announce Monday a promotional sweepstakes drawing with a grand prize of four years' tuition or up to $80,000. Embark and other sites have databases with scholarship information.

"You'd be amazed at how much money is out there and how much money goes unclaimed," says Evan Schnittman, vice president at the New York-based Princeton Review.

Not for lack of searching. The number of registered users at his site rose at least five times this year - and should increase as peak season nears.

Of course, the computer will not write the application essay - although, for $60 or more (major credit cards accepted), several services will edit essays and offer suggestions on content. Others offer sample essays and writing tips for free.

Heather Goode, a high school senior in Davie, Fla., relied on BestSchoolsUSA.com and other sites to explore colleges in her area. She wants to remain near her family, so she is thinking of the University of Miami.

She prefers the Internet over visiting her guidance counselor's office during the busy school day. "You can do it at your leisure," she says. "If you're bored at 3 o'clock in the morning, you go online."

The results won Mammen Zachariah, a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

"If you use the Internet, you get more information about each individual college," he says. "If I didn't have the Internet, I wouldn't have applied here. Through the Internet, I knew it was a good school."

Is it too late for AltaVista even with the big backing? Yahoo seems to be pulling away from an established pack that include Lycos, Excite@Home and Disney's Go/Infoseek, but Rod Schrock, head of the CMGI's new AltaVista company, told Reuters over the weekend that he's glad to be learning from others. "There's a huge advantage to being last," he said. "You can come up with a vision and a strategy that's better."

New features will include a focus on real-time information -- stock quotes, "pitch-by-pitch" sports scores, live traffic video -- under the AltaVista Live rubric. The site is also investing heavily in shopping directories, expanding the shopping.com site. Ah, yes. There's even a new search service.

Reuters contributed to this report.

3:00 a.m. 22.Oct.99.PDT
Bigger is better for attracting sex partners -- at least in the world of beetles, where the preference for larger mates may explain a sexual behavior that has otherwise baffled scientists.

Scientists have observed same-gender sexual behavior in insects, lizards, birds, and animals for some time now, but they have been mystified as to why female animals mount each other.

A new study in the current issue of the journal Nature offers an explanation for why female beetles engage in sex with each other.

"We thought this must have some advantage for the female here," said University of Florida zoology professor H. Jane Brockmann, who conducted the study, along with Ally Harari of Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

"You don’t normally see animals doing things that expend energy that have nothing to do with survival or reproduction."

Harari and Brockmann studied the mating patterns of Diaprepes abbreviatus, an inch-long Florida black beetle also known as the sugar cane rootstalk borer weevil.

While studying ways to get rid of the beetle, a well-known pest of citrus, Harari and Brockmann became interested in understanding the beetles' unconventional mating rites.

"We found that everybody mounted everybody," Brockmann said. "Males mounted females but you also had males mounting males and females mounting females.... When you see something like that, it demands an explanation."

They discovered that the female beetles that mounted each other often ended up mating with the largest males, a boon for the ladies in terms of natural selection.

"In many insects, large individuals are preferred by females, because either they are better-quality males or they can transfer something to the females," Brockmann said. "By mounting like this, females are more likely to attract larger males."

But why would it take a female mounted on top of another female to attract a male?

In fact, finding a mate can get so confusing that the guys often find themselves mounting other males by accident, or cutting in on other beetle couples already well engaged in the act.

Without reliable signals, the male beetles depend on their sense of sight, gravitating toward larger individuals, which tend to be female, or a mating pair, which -– to a beetle's rationale -- is more likely to have a female involved.

The team found that when a male approached a copulating couple, he would push the mating male off the female's back. Larger beetles had more success with this kind of takeover than smaller ones, which led the researchers to believe there was a reason for the females' habit of mounting other females.

"It had to be something that both [females] would gain from the behavior," Brockmann explained. "Large males in particular are attracted to large couples. We showed that only large males are able to take over a female. They are able to fight with the mounted male and kick him off."

In other words, it was natural selection at work. The females would mount each other to make themselves all the more visible to the males.

To test their theory, the team observed the reaction of male beetles to sets of large and small female-mounted pairs. As predicted, the larger beetles went straight for the larger females.

The team concluded that by attracting the larger males, the females benefited from access to "good genes," and to the resources that are passed from the male to the female during mating.

1:35 p.m. 19.Oct.99.PDT
A cure for the common code was reportedly found by a bunch of cryptographers this week.

On Monday, Amazon launched a two-week contest asking users to decipher the hidden meaning behind five lines of seemingly random numbers. The prize: a package of crypto books and a programmable robot kit.

The entrants: Just about anyone, really. No math degree needed, Amazon pledged. Heck, the online retailer even promised to throw in a couple of hints along the way to help out the less code-adept.

As it turned out, it wasn't necessary.

Hours after its launch, news of the contest hit the Internet code-cracking community in a big way. And in a few more hours, cryptographers were already talking about how they solved the puzzle.

The hoopla began around 7 p.m. EDT on Monday, when Bradley Beth, a computer programmer from Richardson, Texas, sent an email posting about the contest to nerd-centric news and gossip site Slashdot.org.

Within minutes, dozens of code-crunchers set to work on the puzzle, posting their theories along the way.

Software developer Rob Montaro pitched in with what others took as a key insight: that some of the seemingly random numerals posted on Amazon's site actually matched up with the numbers used to reference books, known in publishing circles as ISBN numbers.

Once that clue hit the wires, the rest was pretty easy, said Boston software engineer Seth Finkelstein. He spent a few minutes writing a PERL script to analyze the code and develop a few solutions based on Montaro's insight.

In a couple of hours, he came up with a somewhat strangely worded but reasonably coherent solution that he eventually posted online. It was one of several such postings.

Finkelstein shied away from taking credit for his feat. He said he's not certain the answer is entirely correct, adding it took no great skill to come up with a reasonable interpretation.

"It's not a serious contest," he said. "The sheer number of people who cracked it show it is not useful for hiding a message. You wouldn't want your financial records to be protected this way."

Amazon said the contest wasn't intended as a serious crypto test, but more as a kind of puzzle that might appeal to its code-crunching customers. Jennifer Buckendorff and Therese Littleton, the two Amazon site editors who designed the contest, saw it more as "a rainy afternoon treat for geeks" and a way to promote crypto-themed books.

The company didn't disclose how many contest entries it has received, or whether any were correct. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing of correct entries at the end of the month.

In the meantime, a few people thought the contest was being taken a bit too seriously. Or, in the words of one Slashdot poster:

"This contest is supposed to be winnable by people who get stumped by crossword puzzles in USA Today, not by some paranoid lunatic that uses Ordo Novus Seclorum to read his email and encrypts his grocery list so that no one will find out he's buying stinky cheese and miniature vegetables."

In the wake of firms such as EFax (EFAX: news, msgs) and free Internet service provider Net Zero (NZRO: news, msgs), Dialpad is hoping to grab 300,000 users by the end of the year and 1.2 million by the end of 2000.

The 27-year old Bulgarian bugmeister said Monday he has unearthed another gaping security hole in Internet Explorer.

The bug lets a malcontent read the contents of documents that are on your hard drive. The necessary JavaScript commands can be buried in Web pages, HTML email messages, or newsgroup postings.

Wired News verified the bug using Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 4.0, but Guninski says computers with NT 4.0, IE 5.0, and perhaps Windows 98 are also vulnerable.

A Microsoft spokesman acknowledged the problem and said the company plans to post an article on its Web site by the end of the day recommending that users disable active scripting. Microsoft said it will soon release a new version of IE without the glitch.

Guninski says that the bug probably lets an attacker do "window spoofing" -- opening a window in your browser that appears to be the location of a trusted site. But when you type in your credit card number or other personal information, it's sent to the owner of the malicious Web site.

This isn't the first time Guninski has exposed embarrassing flaws in Microsoft products.

He says that so far he's found 12 security holes in Windows and IE, and his Web site lists three that -- like the one he published Monday -- let adversaries browse your hard drive.

Microsoft has patched the previous 11 bugs he identified.

"The problem is the combination of IFRAME and document.execCommand. Normally, you cannot use execCommand on an IFRAME from another domain. But if you do 'IFRAME.focus(); document.execCommand' then [the] command will be executed in the IFRAME," he wrote in an email message to Wired News.

"This is not really particular to Microsoft. Netscape is just as bad most of the time. It's extremely difficult to write a secure application the size and complexity of a Web browser," says Elias Levy, CTO of Security Focus and moderator of the BugTraq mailing list.

"That's what people should not miss. People get all caught up in the bug of the week. But they seem to miss the basic reason of why we have all the security problems. It's difficult to write software and it's even more difficult to write secure software," Levy says. 

One of the most heavily attended sessions during this week’s Internet World was a special session on high-tech in Scandinavia. Panelists from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway lightened the mood by joking with each other about the difficulty of pronouncing their names.

The Finns talked about the rampant use of wireless technology in their country, where people book movie tickets, buy Pepsi and pay for car washes over mobile phones and have the fees electronically deducted from their bank accounts.

Scandinavia is one of the most wired regions in the world; 56 percent of the population carries a mobile phone. Heikki Rotko, the CEO of Satama Interactive, speculated that one reason for the rapid adoption of technology in Finland is that there are "5 million people in the country and it’s the size of California and there’s a lot of snow and darkness in between. And the other thing is that maybe Finns ... don’t like to talk so much face to face."

A number of US companies, including DoubleClick, Jupiter, and Razorfish have either established offices in Scandinavia or invested in or bought companies there. And Nordic companies are doing the same thing in the United States. Laust Sondergaard, founder and CEO of the Danish company MondoSoft, said that sales increased at home after his company opened an office in New York late last year.

He said 80 percent of the television seen in Denmark is American made, so Danes are comfortable dealing with American-based companies. Sondergaard said companies like his are seeking venture capital money in the United States.

"Eventually we’ll be here, all of us," he said gesturing to the panel. Gitte Pedersen of Proximity, who organized the panel, said this was the first time Scandinavian representatives had appeared together on a panel to jointly promote their region in the United States.

Booth bimbo era ends: It used to be computer trade shows were filled with lots of scantily clad women in high heels handing out freebies -- with absolutely no clue about the products they were hawking.

No more. While there were some costumed people to be seen at Internet World -- several Santa impersonators, an elf, a Tin Man, and an amazon woman in a silver dress -- most booths were stocked with perky, professional presenters.

"It’s the end of the booth babes," said Julie Lamb, a musician who was working the eShare booth. Lamb said the actors and artists that get sent via agencies to staff shows like Internet World need to be articulate.

"Now Internet companies want intelligent men and women." Why the demand for fully clothed women? Lamb, who has worked at Internet World before, speculated that the increase of women in the labor force and the growing awareness about sexual harassment are two of the reasons.

Portal pooch plenty: A number of companies were showing off new portal ideas, including one New York company that’s lined-up eToys as a sponsor. Alfy is a cartoon-laden portal for kids. The site features games and activities and an unidentifiable cartoon character that looks like he might be distantly related to one of the Berenstein bears.

"I was working here for a few days before I finally asked 'What is Alfy?'" confessed one employee. Turns out he’s a dog.

Translation, please: Israel, France, and Germany were among the countries represented by delegations of corporations with pavilions that took up whole sections of the show floor. The Hamburg Economics Ministry had a booth promoting the city's multimedia shops and was giving away free tourist guides in English. A German company, MediaDESIGN, was there to show off its speedMap city mapping technology.

Tucked away downstairs among mostly younger companies was Yar Communications, a company that’s been around for 20 years but only recently entered the Internet market. Yar employs freelancers around the world who do translations for posting on Web sites.

Yar says that next year, a majority of the online population will speak a language other than English. "A monolingual Web site is no longer enough," the company’s brochure proclaims. Yar helped Apple translate its online content for the iBook launch into 13 languages. 

Apple doesn't think the iBooks will cause serious problems, but the French army isn't thrilled about Jobs and Co. muscling in on their airwaves, and they're not backing down. Rear Admiral Jacques Bizard told the press, "We're not going to scrap all our communications equipment simply because iBook has suddenly shown up."

One of the year's biggest Internet deals may be coming undone

Oct 3, 1999 -- Here at TIME Digital we may be celebrating venture capitalist John Doerr as Number 16 on our latest annual ranking of the digital elite. But investors are gleefully betting that one of his biggest deals of the year is about to unravel.

It was January when the hot cable broadband company At Home announced that it was using its amped stock to merge with the Yahoo-wannabe Excite. The match was hailed as a commonsense combination of access and content -- "The Media Network of the Next Century" -- and the value of the two companies soared on the prospect of a broadband portal. Doerr's firm Kleiner Perkins was at the center of the deal, having helped launch both companies (which not so coincidentally were across the street from each other in Redwood City, California).

Although it was never clear how At Home would make Excite pay for itself -- was it a marketing tool for signing up access customers? was it an AOL-style capitve audience for advertising and ecommerce? -- few seemed to argue that the special content would be a big selling point for for cable modem customers. Especially special Excite content that's free on the Web for everyone else anyway.

Then a month ago there started to be rumblings that AT&T, one of Excite@Home's major shareholders, did not want to be competing with customers and partners in the content business. There were suggestions that America Online, Excite@Home's larger rival in both access and content services, was going to cut a deal with AT&T for access to cable systems that had been promised to Excite@Home.

Yesterday AT&T and Excite@Home confirmed that they are in fact discussing deals that could undo last winter's merger. In a statement Thursday AT&T said, "We have periodically explored, and we continue to explore, many alternatives with respect to our Internet strategy and our ownership interest in Excite@Home." There are other in-laws further complicating the once happy corporate marriage of Excite@Home's two billionaire executives T.J. Jermoluk and George Bell. In addition to AT&T, the Cox and Comcast cable systems are each also major Excite@Home shareholders with veto power over any big deal. Or un-deal.