Coop's Scoop: Chip wars at PC Expo and more

If you're Bob Herbold, this is your lucky day. As Microsoft's chief operating officer, it's Herbold's job to make the trains run on time -- so to speak. Anyway, the decision by the brass to migrate the company toward a subscription and services business model only means good news for Herbold, who told me this is going to do wonders for lowering the software company's cost of goods sold. It costs a lot less to blitz bits than to manufacture and market shrink-wrapped software. That's something the antivirus firms figured out a while ago. Dollars to donuts, my guess is it's only a matter of time before the rest of the industry follows suit. Click here for more.

Also on the subject of things Redmondian, the company going to release C Sharp, an update on the company's line of programming languages, that is targeted at combating Java.

PC Expo kicks off on Tuesday, and you should expect some major noise out of Transmeta about snagging high-profile OEMs who will use its Crusoe microprocessor in their notebook computers. Click here for more.

Also of interest to any chip heads -- watch for the formal debut of AMD's PowerNow technology, which allows its notebook PC chips to power down voltage and clock speed to help save battery life. And for more on the state of the AMD-Intel rivalry, click here.

Speaking of PC Expo, Jeff (What, Me Worry?) Bezos will deliver the Tuesday keynote. The topic will be how to succeed in business without ever turning a profit.

Cyber entrepreneur Joe Firmage is back. It looks as if my favorite star watcher is putting together a new venture, code-named "Project Voyager." According to a cryptic e-mail sent my way from somewhere north of Pluto, his new enterprise "will take its passengers to places never seen before, to knowledge never known before, through exploration, community and adventures that will touch every kind of screen."

Sting -- yes, that Sting -- is going to play Garry Kasparov in a chess match that will be covered live over the Internet. Fans can follow the slaughter live at www.Kasparovchess.com.

Such a class act. Inacom Corp., once the biggest corporate reseller in the industry, declared Chapter 11 on Monday and then informed its approximately 5,000 employees they were losing their jobs via a recorded message. Even worse, they had to call an 800 number to get the news! And so the book closes on what once was once one of the raging success stories of the computer-reselling universe.

Another week, another worm attack -- or so it seems. Folks, it ain't rocket science: Just don't open up goofy attachments that wind up in your e-mail box without exercising even the most minute dollop of scrutiny. Otherwise, don't fault the stars. The blame will be all yours.

After a French court told Yahoo! to "make it impossible" for Web surfers in that country to gain access to sales of Nazi memorabilia that appear on one of the Web sites it hosts, Jerry Yang told his French interlocutors to take a hike. Good for Yang. He's not defending the louts selling this junk; he's defending the principle of free expression on the Internet. Tough call.

Time Warner's merger with America Online received a collective thumbs-up from shareholders. Now comes the harder obstacle to clear: Convincing Federal regulatory authorities that this is indeed good for the common weal.

Is it time to play taps for COPPA, the 1998 Net anti-porn statute that was designed to protect the kiddies? The courts have now twice ruled it unconstitutional. How much more time and money will the government waste trying to push this boulder uphill is anyone's guess.

The hands-down winner of the Charlie Cooper Chuzpah Award this week goes to British Telecommunications, which plans to pursue its claim of ownership over the patent for Internet hyperlinking.

High interest rates, high debt load, spiraling inventory and rising expansion costs -- hardly the very picture of red-cheeked health. The company in question is Amazon.com and the description is offered by a Lehman Brothers analyst. Watch this one very carefully.

I'm sure it's all coincidence, but only one week after Napster hired on David Boies news comes of settlement negotiations with the record industry.

How would a Bush Administration handle the Microsoft antitrust case? In an interview with ZDNN, George W took the Fifth on that one.

Check out the whisper campaign waged by Hewlett-Packard against Compaq and IBM in Australia. The company's brass disavows any attempt to mislead but says it is "constantly striving for reseller mindshare." Sounds like an updated version of an tried-and-true agitprop trick.

Amazon.com cash to run dry by 2001?
BT claims hyperlink patent
IBM offers 1Gig drive for handhelds
Stages worm attacks
MS-DOJ: Something for everyone
Strike two for COPPA
Dell jumps into networked digital audio
IBM goes for the geeks
AT&T claims open-access court win
Pssst…Wanna buy a server
Andreessen deals with Microsoft
George Bush talks tech with ZDNet
BT on hyperlinks: Show me the money
Shareholders approve AOL-Time Warner