--------------------
Say that again...
--------------------
"We're having to lay off 400 people. In some companies, that takes
six months. In Netscape, that takes three weeks."
- Mike Homer, VP of Marketing at Netscape showing that efficiency is
everything in this business, in the San Francisco Examiner
"Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison are motivated not by their concern
for their customers, but by their desire to be the new dictator."
- Jesse Berst and Annette Hamilton, two reporters for ZDNet, in the
Red Herring
"Giving away the source code is not something our customers have asked
for. They don't want to plow through it."
- Dave Fester, Microsoft Internet Explorer group product manager in
response to Netscape's decision.
"It's kind of like Microsoft vs. mankind--and mankind is the underdog."
- Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, in Business Week
----------------------
A Week of Big News
----------------------
These three stories probably fit under "surprises" but I felt were
big enough to call out separately: Netscape's decision to release
their browser for free was non-news (and should never have even come into
question, as they never should have started charging for the browser) but
their decision to release the source-code for future versions was huge
news. Now developers all over will be able to get their hands on
the source code and (hopefully) push on the development of this free software,
much along the lines of Linux or Apache. The potential here is huge,
but the questions remain. Can Netscape really act in a Linus role?
Can they really handle a GNU type license? I will give them the benefit
of the doubt and assume they will do the right thing, but I will keep in
mind that they thought charging for Navigator was a good idea... Microsoft's
"backing down" to the Justice Department on the browser included on the
desktop thing shows, for the first time in this ordeal, a sign of Microsoft
not acting like an elementary school child caught cutting class... SGI
found a CEO! Rick Belluzo, who I think is both crazy for taking the
job and the right person to do so, jumps ship from HP. I'm still
hesitant to raise my estimates on SGI's chances of a comeback, but this
new leadership might provide the shot in the arm and direction that the
company needs...
------------------------------------------
Earnings Reports, IPOs and the like
------------------------------------------
IBM has warned that its profits will be a "little off" this quarter,
causing its stock to drop nearly 5% in one day... Texas Instruments missed
earnings expectations, though they beat last year's numbers handily...
Good week for box-makers: Compaq's bottom line was above expectations and
Gateway2000 surprised the analysts (and me) by beating last year's numbers
easily... Bay Networks beat earnings estimates by a penny, but CEO David
House's warnings about Asia cause the stock to drop nearly 10%... Microsoft
beat estimates easily, but warned that its next two quarters would show
flat earnings (due to Asia, and *not* any DOJ problems)... Sybase took
quite a dive after announcing it would have to restate its first three
quarters' revenue and earnings reports due to a "small group of people
[who] willfully...lied to us." How long before the class-action suit
on behalf of investors?... SGI reports a loss while analysts (why?) were
expecting some profits... Iomega missed expectations, but beat last year's
numbers easily. The Street didn't particularly care, as they knocked
a good 30% off the stock... Infoseek, announces losses, and attempts to
raise some capital with another common stock offering (good luck)... Xerox
posts some nice earnings, beating estimates and last year's numbers...
------------------------------------------------
Rumors, Conspiracies etc. of the week...
------------------------------------------------
Netscape's cutting back is actually an attempt to attract a suitor
(such as IBM). While I have no clue if it's true, it seems to me
that IBM would make the perfect suitor for Netscape. Combining Netscape
with their Lotus Division could give IBM a strong competitive position
in the enterprise software market... Tripod.com, that hip, home of twenty-somethings
is for sale... The labor shortage in the tech industry that everyone keeps
talking about is just a sham to increase the number of cheap college graduates,
and allow companies to bring in more foreign (cheaper) workers... AT&T
is going to cut 15,000 to 20,000 jobs this week... Microsoft is rumored
to be interested in buying British Telecom (denied by both sides)...
-----------------------------------------------------
Berating the obvious: (they call this news???)
-----------------------------------------------------
Intel has a new "Quick Web" caching system to "double" the speed with
which you browse the web (only if you look mainly at pictures, and don't
mind them being of crappy quality - oh yeah, and you have to pay for it)...
Borland finally realizes the days of shrink wrapped software sales is going
away (really?)... Microsoft "pressured" customers away from using Novell's
networking products... Microsoft, Compaq, and Intel promise a standard
for DSL. 4 of 5 regional Bells join immediately, as does Bell Atlantic,
a day late (my guess is they missed the news altogether until everyone
started writing stories on how dumb they looked)... At the same time, Lucent
and Rockwell decide to work together on DSL... Microsoft Sidewalk to revamp,
add more cities, and lose some staff... It only takes a day for anti-spammers
to shut down Sanford Wallace's (king of Spam) new website (though it did
take them a week to find it)... AOL is up to 11 million (misguided) users...
Digital Equipment has started testing its new MilliCent electronic commerce
software... JavaScript bug found in Netscape Navigator 4.04... Sun promoted
Edward Zander to COO, possibly as a reward for not jumping ship to take
the Apple CEO position (hey, I turned down the Apple CEO position, too!)...
AOL admits that it messed up in giving out sailor's personal info, but
says "the Navy (illegally) made us do it!"... Prodigy gets rid of its content
business (surprising those of us who forgot Prodigy was even in *any* business)...
DEC to cut prices on its desktop systems... Wired really is for sale (pay
no attention to that Louis Rossetto guy in the corner)... IBM has decided
to donate $3.5 million to US Universities in support of Internet 2...
------------
Surprises:
------------
NBC bought shares of the Mining Company... NetChannel, maker of set-top
internet boxes that compete with Web-TV has sold out... Fox News Online
will be the first free site to display real-time stock quotes... @Home
has doubled its subscriber base over the last quarter... Someone hired
former Apple CEO, Gil Amelio (while Ellen Hancock, former Executive VP
of Technology is still passing around resumes)... PSINet receives and spurns
an unsolicited $400 million offer from U.S. Internetworking...
-------------------------------
(Mis)Uses of Technology:
-------------------------------
According to CyberPsychology (yes, a horrible name, and it makes me
distrust them immediately) we have college campuses to blame for the "rapidly
growing epidemic" of internet addictions. Well, hell, I guess we
should ban internet access at college... Russia is apparently thinking
about extending the life of the Mir space station, as apparently, it hasn't
put enough lives in jeopardy... Israelis will soon allow you to file divorce
papers over the internet, so you don't need to go through the hassle of
going to court...
----------
Studies:
----------
According to Netcraft, the number one web server is neither Microsoft
nor Netscape, but Apache, the freely distributed, mass developed web server
with just over 50% of the market... A study by Andersen Consulting (paid
for by Peapod - the online grocer) says that online shopping will grow
100 times over the next ten years... Olsten Staffing Service has conducted
a study of software usage, showing us what we already knew: people are
using the Microsoft Office products a great deal more than any competitive
offerings... Apple admitted this week that its market share is down to
3%... The consumer software market saw revenue hit $5.5 billion this year.
Educational software showed the largest jump, followed by games...
--------------
Predictions:
--------------
Intel's QuickWeb is going nowhere, quickly... The Air Force will, indeed,
ban numerous internet related products as a security hazard, and other
armed forces will follow suit (if you're wondering I think it's a good
idea)...
-----------------------
Memes o' the week:
-----------------------
More on internet addiction. At Alfred University, administrators
apparently have found a correlation between high internet use and academic
dismissals (I must be an anomaly at Cornell)... Cheesy puns. If I
had a billion dollars for each time a news service reported that Microsoft
Sidewalk was to be "re-paved" this week, the Department of Justice would
probably be investigating me, too... "Open" Netscape development.
With the announcement of plans to release Netscape's source code, developers
are already planning what they are going to do with the browser.
Openscape.com was put together within 24 hours of the announcement in an
attempt to bring all such developers together... Spam is okay when "good"
people are behind it. Wired spammed its readers this week (I received
3 copies, unfortunately) to tell us all about Wit Capital - something that
was in their last issue - and something which Wired owns a share of.
Conflict of interest?...
------------------------
Too much free time:
------------------------
A long, but quite amusing, story about the fun you can have with junk
mail. Don't try this at home: http://www.dnai.com/~pcombs/$$tablecontents.html |
