AltaVista (and parent CMGI) is threatening to sue companies that index distributed database sets on intranets or the Web. The company owns 38 patents and has 30 more pending, covering fundamental techniques such as spider-based indexing. [Financial Times, 25Jan01. NewsScan.]

Microsoft's net income is up almost 8% (to $2.4B) over 2Qtr00. The company increased R&D by $100M this quarter (to $990M), and is rapidly expanding into cell phones and handheld devices, digital TV, .NET services, and game systems. [SNS, 24Jan01.]

Microsoft has settled with Sun over use of the Java trademark. Microsoft may still develop its own language, but will terminate its Java license agreement and pay Sun $20M. [Financial Times, 24Jan01. NewsScan.] (Microsoft probably wants an application- level environment that works like a platform-independent (and OS-independent) "operating system," in case the courts split Microsoft into an OS company and an apps company. Java has a head start, but Microsoft has always tended to push its own variants. That was a source of this 1997 lawsuit over whether Microsoft had licensed the right to add Windows-specific enhancements to Java despite Sun's objections.)

Apple will soon be selling G4s with CD-RW/DVD-Video "Superdrive," which will make it cheaper and easier than ever to produce DVDs that play on any commercial player. (This is similar to Apple's 1980s introduction of the LaserWriter, which brought near-typeset printing quality to the masses.) [Pfeiffer Report, 22Jan01. Edupage.] Apple will even sell blank DVD discs for about $10 each, well below the market price of $30-$40. Similar stand-alone DVD-writing drives by themselves cost several thousand dollars. However, the new Macs may be in short supply for six months. [TidBITS, 22Jan01.] (Could a video help sell your proposal, your project results, or your business plan? Some people will find it easier to make a video than to write a report. Inherently visual projects will have a competitive advantage, especially if the sponsor needs something impressive to show to its own funding agency.)

The Internet economy grew more than in 50% in 2000, despite what you've heard about the dot-com crisis. Over 3M US workers are employed in this sector: 33% in sales and 28% in technical positions. Revenues were $830B. . [SJM, 12Jan01. NewsScan.]

Although dot-com IPOs are stalled, venture investment in "infrastructure businesses" nearly doubled last year, from $1.6B to over $3B. This includes businesses with significant physical infrastructure such as warehouses and retail chains. [E-Commerce Times, 25Jan01. NewsScan.] (Investment in e-commerce hasn't disappeared completely, but it may now be easier to add capability to an existing business than to start one from scratch. Or you might want to develop your technology for another year instead of creating the business first, raising capital, and then doing the research.)

----- "The ideal life is in our blood and never will be still. Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing -- where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do." -- Phillips Brooks. -----