Last updated:Monday, March 24, 1997, 8:30 a.m.
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The NASDAQ is in a lull and the techno-stock elite are starting to worry.

Talk about timing: Advanced Micro Devices CEO W.J. Sanders III got only a modest raise last year, but was able to buy 2.5 million stock options at $14.75 per share. That was just about at the bottom of the cycle: AMD's stock price has since risen as high as $48.50.

The spotted-cow computer people have decided it's time to tell Microsoft et al. to "mooo-ve over." (Sorry, we have to milk a joke.) Gateway 2000, the South Dakota-based mail-order PC house, is starting to make big-time political contributions as part of a strategy to get some political clout in Washington D.C.

Pushing gets competitive: Wayfarer Communications will start offering discounts on its technology, which it says differs from consumer-oriented products such as BackWeb and PointCast.

Netcom Canada is starting to knock "habitual gluttons" offline. It offers an "unlimited access," not "unlimited use," provision in its contract with customers. And the parent company in the U.S., with its 580,000 subscribers, is taking a close look at how the policy is received north of the border.

Pretty Good Privacy Inc. will announce today that it's acquiring ZoomIt, whose core product is a meta-directory. The purchase is expected to help the data-encryption firm set up a central server for encryption keys.

San Diego joins the trend of naming itself a technology mecca based on its big jump in telecommunications jobs. Qualcomm and Sony Electronics employ about 11,000 in the "Wireless Valley." And they're not alone.

Let's get this straight: Apple decides it can't support OpenDoc, but Microsoft wants its developers? Actually, Microsoft is inviting OpenDoc developers to take a look at its independent software vendors program. It's a pitch for ActiveX that only the most literal reader could overlook.

Mac clone-maker Power Computing is considering putting Intel inside some new PCs. You could say the Texas firm is hedging its bets; you'll remember that it also has plans to adopt the Be OS.

Compuserve is for sale, if anyone out there wants to challenge AOL and the Internet.

The Apple-IBM subnotebook should be streaking to market this summer. Retailing for about $3,500, the Comet will weigh about four pounds, with a 180- or 200-MHz PowerPC 603e processor, 16 megs of RAM and a 1.2 to 3 gigabyte hard drive.

Speaking of notebooks: Micron shows off its new $1,999 Pentium portables.

Ever try to connect servers? You'll appreciate the call for clustering standard, this one by vendors.

Is Usenet coming back? Could be. A columnist for Internet World urges the rest of the world not to forget why it was so popular to begin with.

Want to help Wired come up with a new ideology? They're seeking contributions ... but keep it to two paragraphs, recitable each morning, please.

Ten-cent philosophy: Revel in these days, programmers. Everybody loves you. Everybody wants you. But change is the only constant.

From Mercury Center:

Has AMD's chip come in?
Dan Gillmor: A weak challenge to Win-ternet empire
High-tech firms battle over college grads
Virus detection software
David Lam advises "Don't fear mistakes."
Women in technology should not let tunnel vision become blinding
Intel to add 3,000 workers