Last updated:Tuesday, June 17, 1997, 8:30 a.m.
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The rain's the same: Maybe it's the Pacific Northwest-like weather that influenced them, but Microsoft has invested $80 million to build a research lab at Cambridge University.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a -- dish? Motorola plans to spend $12.9 billion to build satellites for very high speed data and video.

The next wavelet: The Library of Congress is a believer in new compression technology that's been sold by LizardTech. The company says it can handle any digital image of any size quickly and without distortion.

Quiet: Genius at work: If your office is next door to these folks, we're not kidding; the MacArthur "genius" grants have been announced. (If you're a subscriber to Mercury Center, you can read about Pamela Samuelson, a UC-Berkeley professor of information systems and law and one of the nation's leading experts on intellectual property law.)

Internet addiction disorder? That's what a psychologist is calling the case of a neglectful parent who, her estranged husband said, was spending 12 hours a day on the computer and ignoring the kids. (Hmmm... and dad was where?)

A subscriber born every minute: AOL reports that 750,000 overseas users have signed up for its service.

Whose expo? At PC Expo, Apple declares a partnership with Marimba and Pointcast and will include push technology in its new operating system, due out in July.

Everybody wants to rule: Governments seem to be competing to try to control the Net. Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, last week passed new multimedia legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court may rule soon on the Communications Decency Act. Not to mention the small and large nations trying to restrict their citizens' access or impose rules about the worldwide resource. BTW, there's a New York Times link up there -- free registration in the U.S., pay per view overseas.

So you're running a little ISP out of your back bedroom and you've got a small but interesting customer base. Anyone from Texas? If so, you must provide site filters for them, according to a new Texas law.

Watching the watchers: Admit it; you're just a bit unclear on exactly how each one of the myriad of search engines works and which is the best one to use in each circumstance. An interesting new page, Search Engine Watch helps de-mystify this crucial tool of web use.

Trouble ahead: UUNet customers, if you're reading this, don't worry. If you're not, well you're the latest in a stream of users who are experiencing access problems lately.

Howard Rheingold's Electric Minds website may go dark within a few weeks, now that Softbank has withdrawn a loan offer.

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No-muss separations in high-tech business
Netcom names new president
Ex-Novell chief now at startup