Chip talk: Audio update

Panel still divided on Net taxes

Amid sharp discord over sales taxes on e-commerce, a federal commission Wednesday neared agreement on prohibiting Internet access levies and scrapping a telephone tax originally created to finance the Spanish-American War. The 19-member Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, created by Congress to devise future Internet tax rules, planned later Wednesday to consider those two recommendations as it continued to thrash out the sales tax issue. Although commission members agreed both proposals have the necessary two-thirds support to win approval, several cautioned that they could be used as bargaining chips in negotiations over the sales tax and other controversial issues.

• Local govts. want a ''trusted third party'' to collect Net sales taxes

White House ready to relent on crypto

Clinton administration officials said Tuesday they intend to further relax export controls over Internet privacy technologies. The action comes in the wake of protests lodged by industry and congressional critics alike since the White House released its last proposal Nov. 19. Critics complained then that the White House had backtracked on a Sept. 16 announcement that seemed to promise liberalization across the board. Commerce Undersecretary William Reinsch said Tuesday that his department is preparing new drafts that should address the disputed items.

• FBI, National Security Agency encourage restrictions

EBay nixes racist Web domain sale

An online auction seeking $1 million for a Web address containing a racial slur against blacks has been stopped by Internet auctioneer eBay. On eBay, someone using the screen name ''animus'' advertised the domain name as available to both ''peace-supporting organizations or individuals'' and ''hate-supporting individuals or organizations.'' The racist Web address is the latest inappropriate item put up for auction on eBay, which has stopped previous attempts to sell items including human organs and babies.

• Civil rights groups register some racist domain names to prevent use

Windows 2000 code ready to ship

REDMOND, Wash. -- After an arduous three years of development, Microsoft may finally release the finished code for Windows 2000, the latest operating system in the Windows family. Windows 2000, which will succeed Windows NT version 4.0 for Microsoft's corporate customers, is coming nearly a year later than Microsoft intended.

• Microsoft expects slow adoption of new operating system

Santa sites give less than they get

The gee-whiz golden age of technology seems to have put Santa in an experimental mood this year, but the holiday magic isn't quite there yet. A fictitious 7-year-old boy named James (actually a USA TODAY reporter) hit the Internet recently to see how the wealth of cyber-Santas answered some tough kid queries. What James found were busy Santas who are usually better at gathering marketing information than filling an inbox with personal e-mail responses. And he discovered a handful of interactive elves and other North Pole denizens, some of whom were plagued with glitches.

• Kids and parents should pay attention to the fine print
• Our review of Santa sites

Returns not so easy for e-shoppers

NEW YORK -- Online shoppers clicking their way to a merry Christmas should beware of confusing and restrictive return policies that could leave them hanging their heads come Dec. 26. Some of the top 50 Web sites studied by Extraprise Advisors either don't include return policies or load them with fine print and caveats, said Allen Bonde, the consulting firm's research director. According to a new survey of 873 people nationwide by the consulting firm America's Research Group, 64% of respondents said they checked out return policies of sites where they shopped, while 36% said they did not.

• Some sites charge restocking fees
• Do you have online shopping horror stories? Share them.

Dell to launch online tech support

AUSTIN, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp. is joining with an Austin communications firm to launch all.com, an online technical support company that links troubled computer users to automated online help or directly to a technician. The service is targeted at home and small business customers and will be available in January, officials said.

• Dell to offer single-click access to online help on its PCs

Airlines reducing Y2K schedules

A variety of factors -- including the reluctance of people to fly on New Year's Eve -- has prompted some airlines to reduce their holiday schedules. But the airlines stress they're not scaling back out of fear that computer systems will fail. They say planes still will be in the air as 1999 gives way to 2000. Other forms of transit are adjusting their schedules for Y2K. Amtrak trains are planning to pull into stations shortly before midnight -- and get moving again just after the new year begins, presuming all is clear. At sea, the Carnival cruise lines ship Sensation will skip its regular trip to New Orleans and put in at Gulfport, Miss., instead.

• Airlines reduce their schedules most New Year's Eves
• Alabama lags on Y2K
• Visit our Y2K message board: How Y2K-ready are your gadgets?

Media giants' Net change

Those listening carefully at the PaineWebber Annual Media Conference in New York last week noticed that an important shift took place in 1999 in the way media giants approach the Internet. This time last year, executives assured analysts that their companies had Web ventures. But those were clearly ancillary businesses put in place to protect the mother ship in case the Internet did, indeed, become an important -- and lucrative -- media force. At last week's gathering, though, companies such as Time Warner, Walt Disney's go.com, Seagram, News Corp., Viacom and USA Networks had a different message. Not only are they deeply into the Internet, they've integrated it into virtually everything they do.

• "It's a 180-degree turn."

Net secrecy raises security concerns

NEW YORK -- A service intended to give Web users more privacy is raising concerns that it could inadvertently compromise the ability of law enforcers to chase unscrupulous individuals across the Internet. The service from Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc., based in Montreal, would let people remain completely anonymous while sending e-mail, chatting and visiting Web sites. Such thoroughness could frustrate law enforcement officials trying to track down shady Web users who send abusive e-mail and exchange illegal goods such as child pornography and pirated software.

• Firm chose Canada for nation's less restrictive encryption laws

Group wants to 'destroy' eToys

A protest group calling for the destruction of online toy seller eToys said it already has hackers working on ways to interfere with site traffic counts and the toy seller's server operations. In a press release RTMark, a group describing itself as a "machine to improve its shareholders' culture and life -- sometimes to the detriment of corporate wealth" -- put out a call to Internet users to "destroy" eToys by joining in a series of "sabotage" projects. RTMark said the campaign is intended to protest a trademark infringement suit eToys is waging against a European conceptual artist group called "etoy."

• "Our aim is to destroy the company."

Antitrust expert to review MCI-Sprint deal

Signaling that No. 2 long-distance telephone carrier MCI WorldCom Inc.'s proposed $136 billion buyout of No. 3 Sprint Corp. will get close scrutiny, the U.S. Justice Department retained antitrust lawyer Stephen Axinn to help determine whether the transaction will reduce competition. The proposed merger has been eyed suspiciously by federal regulators. Axinn's recruitment doesn't mean the Justice Department has decided to challenge the combination, a spokeswoman said: ''We are not leaning one way or another. No decision has been made.''

• But, say analysts, ''You don't hire a gunslinger to babysit a merger."