--------------------
Say that again...
--------------------
"We're in the middle of a major marketing shift, one that will be more
powerful than banner ads."
- Sarah Stambler, author of a report on electronic marketing, implying
that banner ads actually were powerful.
"It's not like I have 15-year-old girls throwing their underwear at
me. I think the 15-year-old geek inside me is still disappointed
about that."
- Linus Torvalds, Mr. Linux, on the burdens (or lack thereof) of fame,
in Time Magazine.
"It starts with e-mail, then you get them interested in a buddy list,
so they can find their friends and family. Then you move them into shopping,
and managing their money, and gift reminder services."
- Barry Schuler, president of AOL Interactive Services, demonstrating
the connection between drug dealers and AOL Interactive Services, in the
NY Times (somehow I hear a burst of evil laughter following this quote)...
------------------------------------------
Earnings Reports, IPOs and the like
------------------------------------------
Onsale reports greater revenues, smaller losses... Excite adds some
poison pill amendments to its stockholder rights... RealNetworks had a
great quarter and they give credit the Clinton testimony... SportsLine
matched expectations (more revenue, and still big losses)... TI surprises
everyone with pretty damn good earnings... Egghead losing more money...
Microsoft, of course, announced killer earnings... PeopleSoft reports expected
earnings, but much lower sales, and the stock gets trashed... Sucks to
be a private Internet company these days: Healtheon, TheGlobe.com, and
Vignette all pull their IPOs this week (sorry guys)... IBM beats expectations
and gives credit to increased PC sales... Qwest reports smaller than expected
losses and claims they really (really!) do believe in greater bandwidth
(phew)... SGI losing less money than in the past (and much less than was
expected) but we're still looking at rapidly decreasing revenue... ZD reports
poor earnings, and blame just about everything they can think of... Open
Market to lay off 20% of their staff (ouch!)... CDNow reports a huge loss,
but not as bad as expected... Inktomi making tons of money (well, that's
what happens when everyone uses your engine, I guess)... Lucent posts huge
earnings (still a powerhouse)... Gateway had a great quarter... GeoCities
still losing money with no end in sight... Preview Travel continues to
lose more and more money... Ascend beat earnings estimates, but not by
enough... Network Associates has a good quarter... Computer Associates
beats estimates...
------------------------------------------------
Rumors, Conspiracies etc. of the week...
------------------------------------------------
Microsoft tried to buy PalmOS from 3Com some time ago... Apple, of
course, tried to one up MS by buying the entire PalmPilot unit from 3Com
(but Eric told Steve to go away)... Craig Barrett sent around an internal
memo to Intel employees talking about why it was good that staffing levels
are falling, but it was bad that Intel customers are basically pissed off
about lack of products, and late deliveries. Of course, the note did nothing
to connect the two... AT&T on the verge of making a big deal with 3Com
to provide telephone service (AT&T, of course, says they're looking
at many vendors, including 3Com)... Ciena is rebuilding its failed merger
with Tellabs...
----------------------------------------
News you should have read elsewhere
----------------------------------------
Netscape 4.5 in official release (biggest improvement? It's 0.5
releases ahead of MSIE)... SportsLine agrees to pay money to Excite to
some exclusive something or another... General Instrument buys a minority
stake in SpyGlass... Finally, the N2K-CDNow merger is official...
--------------------------
News you could do without
--------------------------
Salon to beg for money in order to survive (now there's a business
model)... Time-Warner, who apparently believes in the "hit me again" approach
to making deals, has a new agreement with AOL... Geocities to use Inktomi's
search engine (how original)... Priceline to begin reverse auctions for
hotel rooms... New barnesandnoble.com site includes used books... Online
travel sites (notably, Microsoft's Expedia) whining that they get lower
commissions than regular travel agents (oh, hush up)... Microsoft relaunches
Sidewalk (again) with a focus on shopping (the latest "next big thing"
on the Internet)... IDT announces it's improved the quality of its Net2Phone
product... Intel's anti-trust hearing pushed back (I think the DOJ is busy
enough right now)... Washington State finally sues a spammer... SGI delays
the release of their NT workstations (not a good sign)... Microsoft and
Softbank pull down a site that reveals MS user IDs... Cyberian Outpost
to follow in Beyond.com's footsteps and take out national TV ads... Iomega
hires turnaround specialist from Rockwell Automation as CEO, to try to
save the flailing company... Mapquest relaunches its site... US Gov't using
unauthorized frequencies for military uses throughout the world (though,
they swear, they're working on fixing that right up, now)... Microsoft
Site Server to include auction capabilities (so now we'll see even *more*
auction sites)...
------------
Surprises:
------------
Sun acquires Beduin Communications, a small Canadian company building
small Java apps... Harris Corporation has sued Apple Computer for a ton
of money for tossing out the Newton (took 'em pretty long to notice, didn't
it?)... Intel buying Shiva... SBC buying a stake in Concentric Networks...
Samsung to release an MP3 player (RIAA can't stop *everyone*, can they?)...
NEC chairman resigns in the midst of a huge Japanese scandal... The IRS
is now claiming that its computers will be Y2K compliant by January of
'99. This seems to be quite different than what they were reporting
in the past...
-------------------------------
(Mis)Uses of Technology:
-------------------------------
The super smart folks at Sandia National Labs have created a tiny mechanical
lock for computer chips that will block unauthorized access to whatever
info the chip is dealing with... Hyatt is planning on installing printers
in hotel rooms... NuvoMedia (who names these companies, anyway?) releases
their eBook at Barnes & Noble, for a mere $500... A paralyzed man receives
chip implant that lets him control a computer with his thoughts (I don't
know about this one)...
----------
Studies:
----------
A new study from Charles Schwab and SeniorNet has found that those
over 50 are "embracing the Internet in record numbers"... A new study from
Jupiter says that most people purchase online due to lower prices (duh!)...
A new study from Bloomberg news shows that only 11% of magazine publishers
see the Internet as a competitive threat... A study from NYU shows that
newsgroups are most helpful for folks with problems or "marginalized but
concealable" behavior (basically, newsgroups make for great support groups)...
Veronis, Suhler & Associates has released a study predicting online
advertising will be a $6.5 billion business in 4 yeas...
-----------
Overhype
-----------
There's some court case going on concerning Microsoft. I'm not
going to talk about it this week, because there's way too much coverage
elsewhere, it's fairly well tread, and it's boring as anything...
--------------
Predictions:
--------------
More Internet consolidation in the works. With the failure of
Internet IPOs this week, more and more companies are going to look to "bulk
up" by acquisition...
------------------------
Too much free time:
------------------------
Personally, I think this makes the whole thing that much more suspicious:
http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/clinton.htm
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