January 25, 1999

COMPRESSED DATA

Cool Awards, Chilly Audience

EW YORK -- There's no business like show business, unless of course you count the stock market in the age of the Internet: one part Fellini film, one part trapeze act. It was in the spirit of infusing the Web with a bit of literal high-flying that the Cool Site of the Year Awards were held in New York on Thursday at Webster Hall in the East Village. The crowd of 700 was mesmerized by a French acrobat but less receptive to the celebrity host, Robin Leach, late of the television program "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

"Please be quiet," he demanded, trying to start the show and becoming increasingly frustrated. "Please shut up!" Indeed, few in the crowd seemed concerned with following the winners and more interested in talking among themselves while imbibing the complimentary spirits poured by one sponsor, Wine.com. (After all, one might get famous by claiming an award, but not necessarily rich, and rich appears to be far more important to those in business on the Web.)

Not that those nominated weren't hoping to take home a trophy, for which Web surfers cast online ballots to determine the best in 15 categories. Mark Walling, for instance, trekked from Redmond, Wash., at the expense of his employer, Bill Gates. He genially masked his ambition to win Best Reference Site for Terraserver, the Microsoft geography site he was representing. "I don't expect we'll win," he said, smiling. "Everyone hates the 'evil empire."'

Leach, after admonishing one award recipient for his sloppy dress and unsuccessfully rallying the crowd to move the event "uptown to Lincoln Center next year," announced the winner in Walling's category. Sure enough, Terraserver lost to How Stuff Works, a home-grown noncommercial site created by Marshall Brain.

"We met him in the elevator at the hotel," Walling's wife, Tammy, said of Brain. Like her husband, she had not visited New York before, and was mystified by touches like a lithe man in black platform shoes who donned a blue bunny suit and handed out the trophies.

Walling returned from the wings, just in case, and this time he was masking his feelings a bit less transparently. But when, moments later, Brain's was named Cool Site of the Year, he beamed with pride on behalf of his new friend. "We'll all have to go out," he said to his wife. After all, as Leach would be the first to say, everyone loves a celebrity.

-- LISA NAPOLI

Linux Users Going Straight to Microsoft

Proponents of the Linux software operating system would rather not have Microsoft Windows on their personal computers -- and would most definitely rather not pay for Windows, which is standard issue on most PCs. Now, with a militancy that seems to be part of the movement, a band of Linux users plans to demand its Windows money back.

The users are hoping to use a loophole that they say they have found in the end user licensing agreement for Windows, which says, in effect: If you do not agree with the stated terms and conditions, do not use the software. Those who do not agree to the terms, the agreement states, should "promptly contact manufacturer for instructions on return of the unused product(s) for a refund."

A handful of Linux aficionados has started the Windows Refund Center (www.linuxmall.com/refund), taking inspiration from Geoffrey Bennett, an Australian PC customer who got back $110 (Australian) last year after refusing to accept the terms of the Windows licensing agreement.

In Bennett's case, the refund came from Toshiba, the maker of his PC. But the folks behind the Windows Refund Center would like to simplify things by having Microsoft supply the refunds. So on Feb. 15, which they have declared "Windows Refund Day," they are going to present their case to Microsoft, en masse.

"We're going to quietly walk up to the Microsoft office and people are going to turn in their disks, manuals and certificates," said Don Marti, a leader in the Bay Area Windows Refund campaign. "And they're going to get a check."

Microsoft is not so sure about that. Tom Pilla, a spokesman, said the Windows end user licensing agreement is intended only to insure that people use Windows properly and do not make illegal copies.

"PC manufacturers are free to ship any software applications and operating systems they want," Pilla said. "By the time they're reading the end user agreement, they've already purchased Windows, presumably consciously." And besides, he said, so far "we've gotten no requests for refunds."

-- LAURIE J. FLYNN

Repentant King of Spam Serves Humbler Kind of Fare

Until his disappearance from the online world early last year, Sanford Wallace was easily the most reviled man in cyberspace. Wallace, the self-professed "king of spam," infuriated millions of Internet users daily with his mass e-mailing campaigns and then reveled in his right to do so. In its heyday, his company sent out 30 million pieces of electronic junk mail a day.

That was until last February, when a judge ordered Wallace's company, Cyber Promotions, to pay $2 million in damages to Earthlink, an Internet service provider whose members were the mostly unwilling recipients of Cyber Promotions' junk mail. The judge then promised to impose a $1 million personal penalty were Wallace ever to spam Earthlink subscribers again. And that was only the most expensive of 13 lawsuits filed against Cyber Promotions the last few years.

The ignominy was enough to send Wallace into virtual seclusion from the online world. And then he saw the light. Today, Wallace says he is repentant.

"It was a healing process that had to take place," he said. "There were so many people who hated what I did."

Wallace has started a new online business: Smartbot.net, a free service for corporations looking to automate the e-mail replies they send in response to customer inquiries. With 46,000 clients since Smartbot.net started operations in September, the service is a hit.

But there's a catch. To sign up for the service, companies have to agree to add their names to Wallace's bulk e-mail lists, to receive the advertising he sells to support his service. If this bulk-mail proviso makes it sound a lot like the spam king's previous business, there's a difference: Once they've signed up for the service, they can opt out of the bulk-mail obligation.

"The proof is in the pudding," Wallace said. "I haven't been kicked off the Internet since I've been back. I couldn't have done that for 20 minutes before."

Wallace said his low start-up costs made Smartbot.net a money maker almost immediately. "Without legal fees to pay," he said, "it's amazing how much easier it is to make a profit."

-- LAURIE J. FLYNN

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Related Sites
These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability.

• Wine.com

• www.linuxmall.com/refund