Massachusetts residents will no longer be able to discard their old computers and TV monitors as they please when a first-in-the-nation electronic disposal ban goes into effect here Saturday.

The ban, issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), will promote the recycling and/or donation of televisions and TV monitors.

The crux of the problem with discarding such items, according to the DEP, lies in the CRTs (cathode ray tubes) used in both devices and which contain, on average, five to eight pounds of lead. While the lead can be safely removed through a recycling process, it can be very hazardous if released by crushing or incinerating the CRTs.

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A federal ruling on the use of Internet blocking software is raising questions about the power of U.S. courts to force the removal of information from Web sites. The case, which involves Cyber Patrol, could also have implications for the reverse engineering of commercial software and attempts by companies to halt the practice, which they say damages the marketability of their products.

Abner Germanow, research director for the Internet security program at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., predicted that the Internet community will find itself increasingly confronted by untested court rulings governing reverse engineering and the freedom to post contested programs on the Web.

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In the latest salvo in the AT&T Corp.-America Online Inc. war, Ma Bell and its partners said Friday they will acquire a 39 percent voting stake in Net2Phone, which provides Internet telephony and Web communications services.

An AT&T-led consortium, which includes Liberty Media and British Telecom (NYSE: BTY), will purchase 4 million newly issued Class A shares from Net2Phone at a price of $75 a share.

The consortium will also purchase 14.9 million Class A Net2Phone shares from IDT Corp. (Nasdaq: IDTC), currently Net2Phone's controlling shareholder, for $75 per share. IDT also inked agreements with AT&T and the Concert international venture.

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A securities day trader who allegedly posted a bogus press release on the Internet last week that led to a drop in the price of Lucent Technologies' shares was arrested today and charged with securities fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Fred Moldofsky, 43, was to be presented in federal court in Houston on the charges, which were filed in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors said.

The complaint said that Moldofsky posted the fraudulent press release, which stated that Lucent Technologies expected an earnings shortfall, on a Yahoo message board.

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The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an inquiry into some of Yahoo's consumer information practices to see if they comply with consumer protection laws, the company said Thursday.

Shares of Yahoo, one of the most highly trafficked sites on the Internet, closed down 7-3/4 to 169 in heavy Nasdaq trading.

The FTC has requested information from the Internet portal about its practices, the Santa Clara, California-based company said in an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to release an upgrade to its StarOffice productivity suite in the second quarter.

Next week, Sun will post on its Web site a preview version of StarOffice 5.2, which will be available for public download until late April, according to Tony Hampel, director of marketing for Sun's Webtop and application software.

StarOffice 5.2 will be larger (with more code), faster, more scalable and robust, and more interoperable with other office suites than the current StarOffice 5.1 version, Hampel said.

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The Stephen King novella "Riding the Bullet" may have been even more popular online than was previously thought.

The story, exclusively released in an electronic version two weeks ago, set records as users rushed online to download copies. But at least a few users bypassed the $2.50 fee charge by most sites, instead downloading pirated copies that quickly made their way online.

Len Kawell, president of Glassbook Inc., one of the e-book publishers distributing the story, confirmed that hackers had attacked the encryption technology used to protect the story from copyright violations.

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Instant messaging is quickly becoming a business-critical application and not just a distraction for employees. As a result, some big-name vendors are getting into a market that was once thought of as somewhat of a backwater, introducing features such as visual and audio IM and shared whiteboarding.

Novell Inc. this week announced at its BrainShare conference the availability of its long-awaited instantme real-time client, which was created in partnership with America Online Inc. Thanks to this relationship, instantme interoperates with AOL's AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) client, which claims a user base of about 50 million.

The first indication that instantme isn't aimed at consumers is that it uses Novell's Novell Directory Services eDirectory to store users' business contact information. In response to enterprises' ever-growing concerns about online security, Novell plans to release a secure version of instantme in the second quarter. It will include encryption and digital certificates.

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Music Web site EMusic.com Inc., said Wednesday it would introduce co-branded Web sites with three of America Online Inc.'s Web site brands -- online communications service ICQ, and online music services Winamp and Spinner.com.

EMusic's catalog of over 90,000 music tracks which can be pulled down off the Web in MP3 formats will now be available to users of the three AOL services, Emusic said.

"These new sites will make it even easier for ICQ, Winamp and Spinner users everywhere to discover and listen to new music," said Gene Hoffman, president and chief executive of EMusic.com.

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In a major shakeup in the speech recognition market, Lernaut & Hauspie today agreed to acquire its largest competitor, Dragon Systems, in a stock transaction, which may give a much-needed boost to the emerging sector.

Lernaut & Hauspie announced today it has agreed to purchase Dragon Systems for 5.4 million shares of Lernaut & Hauspie stock, valued at about $593 million. The merger is intended to jump start voice technology among so-called Internet appliances, as well as cell phones and PDAs, presumed to be the successor to the desktop PC as the most popular way to access the Internet.

The acquisition makes sense because both companies excel in different areas, analysts say. L&H software, for instance, is easier to use than Dragon's but is not as accurate, according to Steve McClure, a research vice president at International Data Corp.

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Be said today a new version of its operating system for desktop computers is now available for free, but the company is having trouble actually making it available.

In January, Be said it would make its BeOS 5 software available for free to users who registered with the company. Since then, about 100,000 users have registered to get the software, which is now available on the company's Web site. But users reported difficulty accessing the site throughout the morning.

A Be representative confirmed that the site has been slowed by users who downloaded some 50,000 copies of the software today. Downloading these large files has slowed down the rest of Be's site, as well as mirrored sites in other countries, the representative said.

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The number of cybercrimes being investigated by the FBI has doubled in the past year, and last month's attacks on leading Web sites are the tip of the iceberg, FBI director Louis Freeh said today.

Addressing a Senate subcommittee of cybercrime, Freeh suggested changes to the law that would help track down cybercriminals and make it easier to keep pace with the fastest-growing area of crime in the United States.

In 1998, Freeh said the FBI opened 547 "computer intrusion" cases, and this more than doubled to 1,154 last year. In 1998, the FBI closed 399 of those cases and 912 last year. "In short, even though we have markedly improved our capabilities to fight cyberintrusions, the problem is growing even faster," he told the committee.

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Handspring will begin selling its handheld computers in retail stores, the company said today, a significant milestone for the start-up.

Handspring , which was launched a year and a half ago by Palm co-founders Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, has sold its devices through its own Web site since last September. The start-up struggled with e-commerce software glitches and customer service complaints, with many customers reporting shipping delays and botched orders.

Handspring has largely straightened out its online sales situation, company executives say, and has now turned to the more traditional retail sales channel. Handspring's Visor, along with Springboard add-on cartridges, will be sold at CompUSA, Best Buy and Staples next week. Handspring had been expected to enter the retail channel earlier this year, sources have said.

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Yahoo is quietly previewing a new Web site that will allow people to store and view digital photos on its popular service.

Shutterfly.com, a digital photo start-up backed by Internet entrepreneur Jim Clark, plans to announce a deal with Yahoo tomorrow, according to a Shutterfly representative.

"Welcome to Yahoo's new Photos service!" the site reads. "The easiest way to put your photos online and share them with friends and family. 15 FREE MB of space."

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RealNetworks, which makes software for playing music and video from the Internet, has begun selling personal-computer games that can be downloaded from its Real.com Web site.

RealNetworks said it will share revenue from sales of the games with eight companies that developed the titles, including Gamescape Studios, MasterWorks Software and NonStop Entertainment. RealNetworks has agreements with two of the game studios to be the exclusive seller of certain titles.

The company said it wants to provide users of Real.com with an easy way to purchase and download PC games. Sales of PC games total more than $1.8 billion a year, though most consumers still buy CD-ROM game titles in stores, the company said.

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A new video technology is floating through the computer underground that holds the promise of doing for movies what MP3 has done for digital music.

Dubbed "DivX"--no relation to the defunct digital video disk (DVD ) player--the technology allows video to be highly compressed while retaining a high-quality picture. Feature-length Hollywood movies could be downloaded in just a few hours with a broadband connection and stored on a single CD.

That could be bad news for the film industry, which has so far avoided widespread Internet piracy primarily because movie files are too large to be traded conveniently online. Although DivX won't tear down those barriers completely, it shows that technology advances could bring Hollywood much sooner than it had hoped into the heated battles over digital distribution that are wracking the music industry.

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Resisting the cheap PC's fall from grace, EMachines goes public.

Low-cost PC makers have been under fire as of late, but one company among them is doing its best to stay alive. Low-price desktop PC vendor EMachines went public on Friday, trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol EEEE.

The market for "free" and cheap PCs was hot, but as consumer confidence waned many companies either bailed out or were acquired. EMachines itself announced in February that it was halting its offer of free Internet access, which was used to lure consumers.

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Online retailers will soon receive a list of formal recommendations from Visa aimed at helping merchants crack down on fraud.

Visa's "best-practices" guide, which will be released within the next several weeks, will be similar to those the credit card giant has created for catalog companies that accept credit cards by mail or telephone without signatures. But the newest guide will target e-commerce companies for the first time, with tips on how to minimize hacker attacks on databases and spot potentially fraudulent orders before products are shipped.

"Internet merchants haven't always come out of the old catalog business, and sometimes they have little experience in business," said Dave Richey, vice president for card operations at Visa. "They're often new and often focused on IPOs and other stuff. Communication between merchant and cardholder is key in avoiding misunderstandings."

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Rambus, a licenser of technology that lets microchips work faster, asked U.S. trade authorities to order a halt to imports of Sega Enterprises' video game console, which it says infringes on its patents.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Rambus alleged in its request to the U.S. International Trade Commission that microprocessors used in Sega's Dreamcast and made by Hitachi violate its patents. The complaint also seeks an injunction against further distribution of some memory and microprocessor products made by Hitachi that Rambus says breach its patents.

''We'll discuss (the matter) with Hitachi,'' said Munehiro Umemura, a Sega spokesman.

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Big Blue was later than rivals Dell, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard in deciding to start selling these special-purpose servers. But what IBM lacked in timeliness it's making up in breadth, with a collection of models soon to be released within the company's Netfinity line of Intel-based servers.

The company will release a number of servers set up for specific jobs--serving up Web pages, speeding up Internet data transfer, storing information and establishing "firewalls" to protect networks against intruders. "We have a complete family that covers a broader range of the appliance market than any single vendor," said Jim Gargan, director of Netfinity marketing.

Hardware makers are scrambling to improve their server appliance offerings, even though analysts expect the new server category to cannibalize sales of general-purpose servers. In a report issued this week, International Data Corp. predicted the server appliance market would reach $11 billion in 2004, up from $1 billion last year.

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DoubleClick, under attack for its method of tracking the online movements of Internet users, is in settlement discussions with several states that are investigating if the company violates consumers' privacy, Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm said.

Michigan, New York, Connecticut and Vermont are holding the discussions with New York-based DoubleClick, the Internet advertising company, about a possible settlement, Granholm said today.

DoubleClick's plan to collect information on the Web-surfing habits of consumers, combine it with users' names, and sell that information to companies that direct sales pitches to selected audiences has drawn criticism from civil libertarians and prompted investigations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and several states.

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MP3 tunes are great when you're hooked to your PC or if you have a portable player. But don't you wish you could play your MP3 tunes on your car's cassette player, or that old-but-still-serviceable Walkman? A method is in development, and it won't involve laborious conversions from MP3 to .wav and dubbing to cassette tapes.

SmartDisk this week demonstrated a prototype of FlashTrax, which at first glance resembles a conventional audio cassette. The difference is a slot in its side, where you can slide a flash memory card that holds standard MP3 files.

FlashTrax should be available by this fall, SmartDisk representatives say. It is expected to come in two configurations: as an accessory to existing portable MP3 players, and in a complete package with software and hardware for recording onto flash memory cards, as well as onto the cassette.

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The Internet may not be full of frauds, but apparently, it has its share.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has identified more than 1600 sites as potential suspects in a massive multinational effort to scour the Web for get-rich-quick schemes. The sites are suspected of trying to lure people into participating in bogus business propositions.

The FTC's "GetRichQuick.Con" project involved 150 organizations in 28 countries, including affiliate offices of the Better Business Bureau and other consumer protection agencies worldwide, says Jodie Bernstein, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC. Bernstein described GetRichQuick.Con as the largest-ever international law enforcement project to fight fraud on the Internet.

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The Palestinian Authority has won its own domain -- at least on the Internet.

Palestinian leaders, who have been seeking statehood for decades, first requested a unique "country code top-level domain" in 1997. On Wednesday the Net's domain-name oversight body awarded them the country code .ps.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers based its decision on a United Nations verdict to use "PS" as a code for a list of U.N.-recognized countries and territories. That list, called the ISO 3166-1, is the basis of existing country-code domains on the Internet.

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Donald Duck, worried he might be shut out of the new media age by his animated avian rival Daffy Duck, is squawking to Congress.

Walt Disney Co. acknowledged Thursday it has told U.S. House and Senate members that it fears its programming would be denied fair access to America Online Web sites if the online company's merger with media company Time Warner Inc. were approved.

Chris Castro, a Disney spokeswoman in Burbank, California, told Reuters the company was engaged in lobbying efforts in Washington "to evaluate if there is a basis for concern."

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Arthas' technology will play a large role in the Web portal's person-to-person payment service, Yahoo PayDirect, which is expected to launch later this year.

San Francisco-based Arthas lets individuals electronically send money to and receive money from anyone with an email address. People can also send personalized electronic bills that can be paid online using the payment service.

The acquisition is Yahoo's latest play to add e-commerce to its traditional Internet searching and directory services. The company could integrate the payment service with its online auction or classified ad Web sites, according to a release.

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The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce adjourned Tuesday without reaching a consensus recommendation to send to Congress.

The final gavel on a 10-month process designed to create policy recommendations for Congress to consider when making laws on the Internet and interstate commerce will produce a document that meets an April 20 deadline, but it may not contain portions that are considered a commission "recommendation," which by law must be created by a two-thirds majority vote of the 19-member body.

"Sometimes in a commission, you can't get a consensus, you can only get a majority and then you have to move on," said James Gilmore III, the governor of Virginia and the commission chairman.

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Ebay Inc., the nation's largest Internet auctioneer, was sued by Jerry Orbach, star of television's Law and Order, for selling a 42-year-old contract bearing the actor's signature and Social Security number.

In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York, Orbach says that ebay , on behalf of an auction dealer in Maine, has posted on its Web site a photograph of two contracts he signed in 1958 and a third unidentified document. One of the documents has Orbach's Social Security number, he says.

Orbach, star of Dirty Dancing and other films, contends the posting has exposed him to ''identity theft and credit card fraud'' and could eventually harm his creditworthiness and ''personal and professional life.'' He is asking a judge to order ebay to remove the contracts from its Web site.

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America Online is expanding its Digital City unit to more than 200 regional Web sites from about 60 to increase advertising and e-commerce revenue.

Digital City's Internet sites offer local information such as restaurant reviews and movie times. The unit also unveiled a service that sends local maps and other content to cellular phones, pagers and other wireless devices connected to the Web.

AOL wants to tap the burgeoning market for local online information because more U.S. residents are using the Internet to help plan their leisure activities. About 54 percent of the $7.7 billion in projected spending for online advertising in 2002 will go to local sites, AOL said, citing research from Jupiter Communications.

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Not happy with Internet Explorer or Navigator? Here’s an alternative. Opera Software released on Monday a beta version of its Internet browser software, Opera 4.0 Elektra for Windows.

The Norwegian software vendor reports it is still ironing out a few last-minute bugs, but the prerelease version of the browser is available for download from its site.

Versions for software platforms other than Microsoft's Windows, including Linux, also are under development, a company spokesperson says. The release date for the commercial version of Opera 4.0 is not yet set, he adds.

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Shockwave.com has introduced two new streaming music applications and launched a redesign of its Web site to lure visitors with its interactive entertainment.

The front door of Shockwave.com now employs a living room theme, an attempt to make the site friendlier and easier to navigate. You can choose a look for the room, selecting among motifs as diverse as desert and space. The site dynamically changes its images to match the time of day.

"We've gone with a physical metaphor for users who are not Net-savvy," says Rob Burgess, chief executive officer of Shockwave.com. "For advanced users, we've made all the content on the site available in just two clicks."

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McAfee is releasing VirusScan 5.0 on Monday, adding automatic backup and new customization tools to its virus-fighting software utility.

VirusScan from McAfee--a division of Network Associates--ships in a standard version priced at $29 and a deluxe version for $39. The deluxe edition includes PGP encryption functions and FirstAid, a program designed to solve computer conflicts.

The updated VirusScan includes virus detection, cleaning, and quarantine, plus incremental updates, automatic backup, and a configuration assistant, which takes you through a question-and-answer session to determine the best settings for your needs.

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Faced with a deluge of e-mails, faxes and phone calls from candidates who see positions posted on various Web job sites, the U.S. Navy Recruiting Command for months has been scrambling to manually sort, qualify and respond to the queries. But relief is at hand.

The Recruiting Command's "e-recruiting group," in Millington, Tenn., this week is launching a resume collection, screening and processing system, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Patrick Casetra, who helped research an automated alternative to the Navy's Web-based recruiting efforts. The system is based on Resumix, from Resumix Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"We spoke with (human resources) people at several major corporations before selecting Resumix," said Lt. Steve Zip, assistant public affairs officer for the Recruiting Command. "We wanted to find out what Fortune 500 companies were using."

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Compaq Computer Corp. introduced two notebook computers, priced at $1,099 and $1,499, targeted at small and midsize business users looking for a low price point. The higher-priced model sports an active matrix screen.

Kevin Knox, a research director at Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said the pricing on the new Compaq Notebook 100 "absolutely puts (Compaq) ahead of the (competitive) pack . . . it gives them the lead in low-cost notebooks."

While some small manufacturers do offer similarly priced models -- as do discounters with name-brand close-outs -- Knox said the Compaq name will carry a valuable cachet in the targeted markets, which include the fields of government and education. Knox said he expects Compaq to stick to the targeted small and midsize businesses with the new Compaq Notebook 100 models. "I don't think you will see Compaq selling these into major corporate accounts."

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Intel on Monday announced PCs featuring Pentium III processors running at 866 and 850 MHz are avaliable from OEMs.

"The Intel Pentium III processor at 866 and 850 MHz enables powerful personal computers for running rich software and media, both in the home and in business," said Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of Intel's desktop products group.

Last October, Intel introduced Pentium III processors featuring an integrated Level 2 cache that runs at the full speed of the processor core. This Advanced Transfer Cache lets the application's performance scale with increasing clock frequencies. Intel has made this technology a key component to the performance of the Pentium III. Most other processors on the market offer older technologies that keep the cache memory from operating at full frequencies, limiting the PC's full ability to deliver performance to the user, Gelsinger said.

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A company that makes popular software to block children from Internet pornography is suing two computer experts for distributing a method for kids to deduce their parents' password and access those forbidden Web sites.

Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, Mass., which sells the widely used ``Cyber Patrol'' software, filed an unusual federal lawsuit Wednesday asking a judge to order Eddy L. O. Jansson and Matthew Skala to stop distributing their ``cphack'' program immediately.

The judge's clerk said no hearing had been set because of difficulties contacting lawyers for the defendants, who are outside the United States.

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Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos is a paper billionaire, but his annual salary would hardly be enough for a mortgage on a Silicon Valley town house.

The chief executive and chairman of Seattle-based Amazon earned $81,840 last year, the same amount as 1998. And for the third consecutive year, he didn't receive a bonus or stock options, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bezos, Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 1999, owns 33.6 percent of Amazon's common stock, valued about $7.4 billion based on the current price of about $62 per share.

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Is Lucasfilm being influenced by the dark side in the way it governs its "Star Wars" Web site?

Some angry fans are protesting policies the film studio has outlined in its user agreement regarding a new feature on StarWars.com that allows people to build fan pages hosted on the site. The service, which launched earlier this month and is powered by home page builder Homstead.com, lets fans post images of "Star Wars" characters and creatures.

The protesters are indignant over a provision in the contract's language that gives Lucasfilm sole control of the original designs people post on their fan sites. The studio's reins extend to "derivative works"--meaning that any content a person creates, from a picture of a Wookie to a plot line in a short story, becomes the property of Lucasfilm.

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Shipments of color inkjet printers grew 21 percent on a yearly basis and reached a record high in the fourth quarter of 1999, according to a new research report.

Internation Data Corp. (IDC) said the color inkjet printer market grew 21 percent to 19.3 million units during the quarter. The continued fast growth of the color inkjet printer market--and consequently, the highly profitable business of selling ink cartridges--underscores the growing eagerness on the part of companies such as Xerox and Lexmark to make moves to try to unseat Hewlett-Packard as the market leader.

Xerox, Sharp and Fuji Xerox said earlier this week they will spend approximately $2 billion over the next five years on research, manufacturing and marketing on products in an effort to grab a major share of the inkjet market. Starting this summer, Xerox claims it will bring to market new printing technologies developed and made by alliance members that will speed inkjet printing by up to 50 percent while reducing the overall cost of printing.

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Someday, you won't carry a notebook computer or even a palm-size PC to stay connected. Instead you'll have multiple computers on your person: in your shoes, in your ink pen, even woven into your clothes.

That future is arriving quickly. Of the more than 8 billion microcomputers produced this year, 95 percent will be embedded in everything from buildings to cars to clothing. But how do we network all those computers, and how do we use them to improve productivity and quality of life?

David Tennenhouse, vice president and director of research at Intel, posed that question in his keynote for Intel's Computing Continuum conference here. More than 500 technology experts gathered to ponder a day where the notion of networking a desktop PC is quaint, and people have hundreds of networked computers doing their bidding.

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Spines are tingling across the book industry over Stephen King's latest story, a not-quite novel experiment in digital publishing that is shaping up as a major test of the mass consumer appeal of e-books.

Online readers are snapping up the novella, "Riding the Bullet," which was made available on the Web today. On Barnesandnoble.com alone, more than 200,000 customers requested free copies of the story in a 24-hour promotion, according to the company.

"We averaged 2.5 requests per second," said spokeswoman Lisa Lanspery, who concluded that the market for e-books has never been more ripe. "One day there's going to be a time when every book in print will be available in digital format," she said.

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Intel agreed to buy telecommunications chip company Giga A/S of Denmark for about $1.25 billion in cash to add more semiconductors for data and phone networks.

Intel is buying the company from NKT Holding A/S, a Danish industrial and electronics company. Copenhagen-based Giga's chips are used for high-speed Internet transmissions. Giga will be combined with Intel's Level One Communications unit, which makes networking chips.

Intel has been buying companies whose technology or products will help sell more personal computer chips or speed performance of PCs and the Internet. The company has snapped up 14 companies since January 1999, including the August purchase of Level One for $2.73 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

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