Rough Drafts

Think you’re a pretty good Web designer? How about a real challenge: Design a Web page under 5KB — including HTML, graphics, the whole bit. Now enter the contest: the 5k award

No word on whether Macs are also susceptible to satanic possession: THE REGISTER: US preacher finds demon-possessed PCs

Haven’t these guys heard about Swatch’s and the UK government’s efforts to do the same thing? And — hello? Does patenting time seem ridiculous to you, too, or is it just me? BitWise files patent on Internet standard time

ICANN chair Esther Dyson terrified that democratically elected board members will lead to a tyranny of “People who are stupid, individually.” Internet Board Faces Heavy Opposition on Voting Plan (free registration required to access)

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus — and the billionaire chief executives of enormous Internet commerce juggernauts do occasionally listen to the public. Jeff Bezos is calling for a reform of the patent system that would greatly shorten the life of software and business-method patents, to 3 to 5

Consumer e-commerce still sucks: Almost half of consumers surveyed have had trouble making online purchases. 28% of would-be transactions never close because of site problems. Namely: pages that take too long to download and sites that are too confusing to navigate. Survey: A quarter of online purch

The WSJ reports this morning that VeriSign is acquiring domain-name registrar Network Solutions: VeriSign to Buy Network Solutions In a $20.75 Billion All-Stock Deal

Controversial code governing the software industry and software consumers’ rights looks like it’s going through: “One of the key provisions in UCITA is the transformation of what is now a sale

Yesterday, Wells Fargo and eBay teamed up to put some oomph behind eBay’s Billpoint service, which lets individuals collect payments from other individuals via credit card. Now, financial service companies X.com and PayPal are merging. And First Union dropped its suit against Paytrust. The future is

The U.S. Commerce Department yesterday released its online retail sales figures. Their estimate: $5.3 billion in sales during Q4 1999, or about 1% of overall retail sales. That’s a bit lower than estimates from research firms like Jupiter and Forrester. The Commerce Dept.’s figures don’t include tra

Credit card fraud is a much bigger problem for online merchants than it is for shoppers. The Industry Standard’s long story on the topic goes a long way towards explaining why — and it describes the credit card processing system in great detail along the way. It’s a well-researched article, and — ex

DoubleClick continues to apologize, and has promised not to link personal data with browsing trails until the U.S. government comes up with clear privacy standards. That should be about never, I figure. DoubleClick, Yielding on Privacy, Promises to Wait on Linking of Data