Bring me the ponytail of Ted Waitt!

I wonder how much longer Gateway and AOL are going to keep chatting about a joint venture before signing on the dotted line. The two sides have been talking about getting into bed on an ISP deal, but sources report a major hang-up: Steve Case remains adamant about receiving a lock from Ted Waitt's ponytail.

The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is getting together in San Francisco over the weekend to chat about the pursuit of wealth and equity in cyberspace. An apt venue. ... Look for Intel to stir up the buzz (read: manipulate the press) with PIII Coppermine and Merced updates at the Microprocessor Forum. Also, news on AMD's Athlon. ...

AOL's preparing a big shindig to celebrate the release of AOL 5. Still unclear if Bill Gates will be able to make the event. ... Cisco, Excite@Home, Sun Microsystems, Travelocity and Nuance, among others, are teaming up on a big telephony announcement in the Big Apple on Tuesday. Coincidence, I'm sure, but their boffo kaffeeklatsch happens just as teams of tech reporters descend upon New York for Internet World, so brace yourself for gobs of palaver devoted to the new cyber order. ...

Michael Dell says he's not looking to hang up his cleats, but I wonder what he'd say if Lou Gerstner made him a godfather offer. ... Apple's holding another mecca to Cupertino, supposedly so Mac worshippers can bow at the altar of the new iMac. ... This might be a stretch but we might hear about progress from a working group set up by the IETF to settle the ridiculously stupid instant messaging squabble.

For am additional look at what's on tap, turn to ZDNN's editorial calendar and programming guide.

The week that was:
Microsoft is testing the first version of the next incarnation of Windows, earmarked for delivery sometime next year. But after discovering a major bug in the code, engineering decided to pull the software's "Beta 1" status. Sound familiar?
Millennium: The new Windows

And so Network Solutions has finally decided to stop sulking and recognize a panel empowered by Uncle Sam to oversee the transition of Internet domain name registrations to the private sector. So much for the feckless agitprop campaign surreptitiously waged by certain interested parties against Esther Dyson and ICANN.
NSI, ICANN smoke peace pipe

Web hosting seems to be all the rage these days. Smart move for the likes of Intel, which can afford to build extensive "data farms." But the idea behind the rent-an-app isn't more than an updated throwback to the days of time-sharing.
Suddenly, everyone is a host

With investors working themselves into a frenzy about a possible deal between America Online and Excite@Home, I wonder what the SEC makes of a curious statement by AT&T bigwig Leo Hindery. Less than 24 hours before his bosses issued a PR release admitting they were considering "alternatives" for Excite@Home, Leo the Lip told Reuters that the rumor was absurd.
Excite@Home rallies on AOL speculation

Wall Street loves tales of total domination, and so it was that analysts began slobbering over themselves when Amazon.com announced plans to let consumers and businesses to set up shop on its Web site. Despite Wal-Mart's imminent cyber arrival, the fact remains that Amazon has a superior way of gathering more data about customers than competing brick-and-mortar rivals.
Amazon offers cheap store space

In the news:
Dell, IBM in new deal
Taking the fear out of e-mail
Massive cut interrupts Net traffic
If you can't spy 'em, buy 'em
Surf while you sweat
Apple struggles to plug iMac leaks
IE5 hole passes through firewall
The biggest hack in history