Lacey's Paper Round -- the week's best IT coverage in print

The IT writers in the national press have pretty much given up on writing about technology. The only thing that seems to interest them is the value of this or that Internet stock. This week the money-obsessed have been writing about At Home's take over of Excite, and sturdy profit performances by bellwether stocks IBM, Intel and Microsoft.Did I miss something? If you spot an interesting item about computers or the Net in the printed press drop me an email and tell me about it. I have an exclusive ZDNet pen for all entries published.

Excite @Home deal "as usual, reality lags far behind reality" -- Lex Column, Financial Times

One again the FT's Lex Column takes a sharp pin to the Internet bubble. Commenting on the Excite/@Home deal, Lex wrote "as usual, reality lags far behind the vision. @Home has just 330,000 subscribers"..."More worrying is the thought that investors will see a deal like this as a validation of inflated Internet stock prices. Since @Home is paying entirely in its own high-flyng stock that would be a dangerous conclusion to draw." Financial Times, Lex Column, Jan 20, 1999.

Insurance companies reluctant to insure Y2K consultants -- Wall Street Journal

"Year-2000 problems represent a huge unknown risk to insurers, and these carriers don't want to get caught having blithely written, broad professional-liability policies only to be hit by a tidal wave of claims from technolgy consultants who have been sued for failing to properly debug their clients' computer systems." Wall Street Journal, Jan 20, 1999.

Psion shares up on Sony deal and GEC bid rumours -- The Daily Telegraph

Rumours of a bid from cash-rich GEC, and a possible licensing deal with Sony have pushed up Psion's share price this week. "However, analysts believe a lucrative licensing deal involving Psion's software joint venture Symbian is the most likely cause of its new found popularity." The Daily Telegraph, January 21, 1999.

Online price war may hit Internet e-commerce sites -- Wall Street Journal

The vicious price wars raging in the high street could spread to the Web as competition intensifies for e-cash. Wall Street Jouranl reported that "Internet stocks lost some of their buoyancy over the past two days, after an analyst warned that a price war could break out as some online retailers, including OnSale and Buy.com, move toward selling books, compact disks, videos and computers at wholesale prices." Wall Street Journal, January 22-23, 1999.

Letting the Jini out of the bottle -- The Economist

The Economist reports on a new hardware technology from Sun, called Jini. "As Java is the universal language for software, so is Jini for hardware. It creates a platform where devices of all sorts can interact as a 'community'..."So far, Sun has successfully spread the Jini gospel. Already, 30 firms have singned up, including Canon, Ericsson and Toshiba". The Economist, January 23-29, 1999.