Last updated:Monday, April 7, 1997, 8:30 a.m.
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Microsoft is buying WebTV.

Remember how they used to say not to tell anyone your Social Security number? Then they started putting it on your driver's license, your checks and your online registrations? The Social Security Administration went online a month ago, and you can now look up your earnings record, pitiful as it is, from the comfort of your cubicle. But so can crooks, skeptics warn.

Maybe you're worried about an information war. Maybe you're not, but you should be. Maybe you ask yourself, how does that differ from all the people who are trying to control my thoughts and consumer decisions right now? Maybe you ask yourself: What is this beautiful house? Who is my beautiful wife? Maybe I should stop here.

IBM plans to announce today how you can get digital broadcast without buying a digital TV.

More reports from China that its software piracy crackdown is yielding results.

South Korean chip makers LG Semicon Co and Hyundai Electronics are expanding production of 64-bit DRAM chips. Samsung is likely not far behind.

Aren't we all? The headline says Hollywood studios search for winning online formula, but what they are really looking for is the next Jack Benny. Really.

Blind users have been on the Net and the Web a long time, but now a group of German companies plan to tailor an online service for non-sighted browsers. No URL yet, though.

European encryption experts are saying danke because the U.S. government's ban on powerful encryption has allowed them to carve out a very lucrative business.

The on-again, off-again reports about AOL buying Compuserve indicate it's on again. But that's not the final word.

A fine old headline was revived in Salon about the New York Times coverage of the Heaven's Gate hyseria. Times' Internet: Threat or menace?

You may not like 'em, but you can't ignore them: No, we're not talking Microsoft. We're segueing into the registration-required-for-U.S.-visitors,-it'll-cost-ya-if-you're-overseas New York Times story about an online lesson for the judge in the Communications Decency Act case.

@Home will announce today high-speed access in 50 cities for business customers. That's a change from its current concentration on the consumer market

Looking for a niche? How about creating longer-life laptop batteries? Many of us would be forever grateful.

A searchable Internet directory for India-related content has just been launched at www.khoj.com. Khoj, for non-Hindi speakers, means "search."

Be honest: How many of you told the boss, way back when, "Boss, we gotta have a web site. The cost is marginal." And now you're running a budget in the high six figures. The web isn't really free, as we all know.

Everything old is new again: ISPs, in an effort to distinguish themselves, are creating virtual private networks. Sounds a lot like the bulletin board systems of old, doesn't it?

Multi-lingual Java applets are in the works at Omron Corp. in Japan.

Is it push or is the web? Or is it both? In its March issue, Wired pushes push; Upside Online says: "Gimme a break."

How can I miss you if you won't go away? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm back (for you Mac users, too).

From Mercury Center:

Microsoft buys WebTV
Hear the one about TCP/IP? Tech jokes click
Dan Gillmor: Digital TV giveaway is airway robbery
A start-up "angel" gets involved
Intel museum curators comb flea markets
Cutting-edge valley lags on a trend -- drinking and stogie-puffing
Buying a cell phone, part two
Cheryl Shavers: Avoiding management by crisis
Virtual reality expo exposes cyberman
AMD chip ads go public
Adobe's John Warnock was turned around by a teacher