Last updated: Tuesday, August 12, 1997, 8:30 a.m.
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Buying season: The European Union clears the purchase of Tandem by Compaq.

Good morning, Vietnam: Vietnam finally gets a full-time Internet link in September, which is not to say it will be uncensored.

Drudge debate: Matt Drudge, who fashions himself as the gadfly of the web, claims a scoop on Newsweek over allegations of one White House aide that she was sexually harassed by President Clinton. Newsweek points out that Drudge's report bore only passing resemblance to the completed story.

Stand by your Mac: All those Macintosh user groups that used to pop up where ever computer users gathered are having hard times; some are blaming the mother ship.

Next -- virtual homework: Taking classes on the Net is not a new thing, at least in Internet years, but we just got a press release touting a virtual professorship in Finland. A New York City professor teaches a class in Helsinki from the States.

Use a fly swatter next time: Have you ever tried to track a bug? No, we mean the insect variety. You go hither and yon, up and down, around and around... and that's what it's like trying to track down software bugs, too. The fellow who found a bug in the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser has a flawed applet in his own demo.

A chuckle a day: We know cartoons are big on the web (just look at the Mercury Center's own comics page) but here's a tale of two twentysomethings who made an animated short for the web and it's now turning into a television series.

Watching the watchdogs: Privacy advocates are asking the FCC to stop the FBI from setting up a huge system of digital surveillance.

Who can you trust? Net activists are also accusing the FTC of misrepresenting information about privacy that was presented to the U.S. Senate.

On the Net, no one knows... Why is it that anyone other than hip young males are so invisible on the Net (to the mainstream media, anyway)? We already know there are plenty of women online; if you haven't noticed, there are plenty of older users out there, too.

A name change we like: If you are one of the many subscribers to the Denver-based Mercury Mail (no relation to Mercury Center), you're going to see a name change today; they will be called InfoBeat. So now maybe people will quit confusing us with each other...

Better than fireworks: Folks on the Net adore NASA and space stories; do you also like our favorite meteor shower, the Perseid? Shooting stars are showing now in the midnight sky above you.

Tune it in: Streaming audio beats downloadable audio files, so shouldn't instant video win the game, too?

Think before you reply: A series of threatening e-mails, supposedly from Samsung, but actually from a spammer, filled millions of mailboxes over the weekend, creating widespread confusion and misdirected vengeance.

When is now? That's a philosophical question, certainly, but it's also relevant on the web where time stamps vary almost as much as hit counts. Of course, hereabouts we guarantee the accuracy of our times ... oops, how'd it get so late?

In Mercury Center today:

Chong-Moon Lee finds success
Jobs confirms sale of Apple stock
From hang-gliding to a space shuttle flight



The latest stock and market information in Mercury Center's stock page.