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A L S O__T O D A Y The 21st Challenge No. 14 Results By Charlie Varon and Jim Rosenau High-tech designer drugs 21st Log Block that filter!; Zap to Web: Fuggedaboutit - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Video games of all shapes, all sizes, all platforms: Revel in gamer heaven in Table Talk's Digital Culture area - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y The cookie monster of Putnam Pit By Matt Welch An angry muckraker seeks access to the municipal computer systems in a small Tennessee town (10/15/98) Service with an artificial smile By Robert Rossney Supermarket clubs point the way to a future of corporate-mandated friendliness and Stepford clerks (10/14/98) Getting to know all about you By Jennifer Vogel Attention, shoppers -- what you tell supermarket clubs may be used against you (10/14/98) The joy of Perl By Andrew Leonard How Larry Wall invented a messy programming language -- and changed the face of the Web (10/13/98) Typing for nonconformists By Alex Marshall The Dvorak alternative keyboard is a boon for the aching hand (10/12/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

See you in court As the Microsoft trial begins, forget the browser war and follow the money. - - - - - - BY SCOTT ROSENBERG | On Oct. 20, 1997, the Justice Department's antitrust lawyers made the first move in their latest war with Microsoft. Monday, almost exactly a year to the day later, a full-blown Microsoft antitrust trial begins. A year is forever in the software industry. While the weeks leading up to the Microsoft trial have been occupied with a vast spin war in the press between lawyers for both sides -- as leaked e-mails and memos and depositions fill out news columns in a descending spiral of minutiae -- it's been easy to miss just how seriously the big picture has changed since this antitrust battle began. Trial coverage will assault us all beginning Monday -- including a public airing of Bill Gates' videotaped August deposition, in which he was reportedly "evasive and nonresponsive." Here are several thoughts to keep in mind amid the onrush of trial coverage. 1) The browser war is over. The initial complaint against Microsoft -- that it had unfairly leveraged its control of the Windows operating system to promote its Internet Explorer browser over Netscape's competing browser -- is now largely moot, less because of the court decision earlier this year that essentially threw out the Justice Department's first, narrow complaint against Microsoft than because of what military and diplomatic types like to call "facts on the ground." While the lawyers have fought their war of attrition, Microsoft has gradually gained ground on Netscape, and recently passed a critical milestone: A Sept. 29 report from International Data Corporation declared that Microsoft's browser surpassed Netscape's market share this past summer (Netscape is down to 41 percent, and IE -- if you include the IE-based America Online browser -- now has 43 percent). Given this trend, and Microsoft's demonstrated ability of "cutting off the air supply" of its competitors, it's difficult to imagine how Netscape could ever turn the tide in its favor once more -- notwithstanding recent reports of continued Netscape strength in office use. 2) Not everything is going Microsoft's way. Windows NT, the "enterprise"-grade operating system that's likely to be the locus for the next round of Microsoft antitrust scrutiny, is stuck in a development rut. Microsoft is experiencing major delays in bringing out a new 5.0 version of NT -- the company hasn't even set a release date, and analysts now doubt it will ship before the millennium. This gives competitors like Novell and Sun a rare opening. Apple, which a year ago was on the ropes, has rebounded. Apple hardly threatens Microsoft's monopoly, and in fact its new vigor provides Microsoft with some convenient air cover -- its survival proves that there's still some flicker of competition in the personal computer marketplace. Still, any signs of Apple life are sure to hearten Microsoft's opponents. Finally, though Microsoft keeps retooling its efforts to build online content and to devise a "portal" site to compete with Yahoo, Netscape's Netcenter and the rest of this crowded field, so far the company has been unable to dominate the Web the way it has dominated the desktop. - - - - - - - - - - - - N E X T__P A G E .|. If you're fighting an Evil Empire, you'd better find a Force