by Al Massey
In a recent interview, Jim Barksdale, CEO of Netscape, proclaimed “we’re not all that concerned [about Microsoft IE4.0] - after all, we still control over seventy percent of the browser market.” Hold on a minute, Jim, while I get my tape recorder. It see ms like only yesterday, not to mention several billion dollars ago, that Jim Manzi of Lotus said those exact same words. Manzi, of course, was referring to Lotus’s position in the market as it related to Microsoft’s Excel. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, “the path to Redmond is paved with the bleached bones of those that have underestimated Microsoft.”
At the behest of just about everyone outside Microsoft the Justice Department has launched yet another of its “yawn” investigations. I say yawn because these so-called investigations are ever so boring and rarely produce any meaningful results, particula rly where Microsoft is concerned.
Specifically, folks seem concerned that the marauding monopolist from Redmond, little Billy Gates, is set to take over the Internet as we know it by making Internet Explorer such an integral part of Windows that it would be nearly impossible to use any o ther browser. Stay tuned while this soap opera “As the Browser Barfs” unfolds.
“If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.”
What’s that I smell? Could it be the sweet smell of SPAM? Yes indeed boys and girls, I have just received word that the spam-king himself, Mr. Sanford Wallace, is signing on new partners in his efforts to bring us a “SPAM-FRIENDLY” Internet backbone. Jus t what we need to go along with a snail mail box filled with letters from Dick and Ed saying we’ve just won ten million dollars.
In news we could live without, Mr. Wallace proudly proclaims that his Cyber Promotions/Quantum Communications is taking on new partners in an effort to become the most hated Internet backbone provider. In making the announcement Wallace was quoted as say ing Dr. Robert Elliot had signed on as chief technology officer of the new company to be called Global Technology Marketing, Inc., or GTMI for short.
This bit of news was immediately picked up by the online media, chiefly Cnet who rushed to judgment by reporting that a GTMI subsidiary “Log On America” would be building the Spam backbone. Log On America is owned by a company named Global Telemedia, Inc ., or GTMI for short and is in no way related to Wallace or Cyber Promotions or Quantum Communications. In short, Global Telemedia is respectable.
This is typical of Wallace and the company he keeps. If you have had an e-mail account for more than ten seconds you have probably received “get rich quick” schemes from Cyber Promotions. The best I can hope for this new venture is that the SPAM it gener ates turns rancid lying by the side of the Info Highway.
“If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Congress!”
Technoid-Journalism is redefining the boundaries of our Criminal Justice System. From O.J. Simpson to Louise Woodward (the nanny) modern media is encroaching on justice. I have been mesmerized as law and technology collide and cross cultural boundaries i n an effort to redefine truth.
In times past Ms. Woodward would have simply been placed on trial, tried by a jury of her peers and either been found guilty or innocent. Not so in this day where images and information traverse the world in nanoseconds and the opinion of dueling experts transmitting blow-by-blow accounts over the World Wide Web account for more than the lawyers and jurors in the courtroom.
Yes, the Web was the “star” of the Nanny trial just as it was during O.J.’s and in this instance the wailing of our British cousins carried more weight than the opinion of the jury. Can the day of MODEM Juries be far behind? Does our system of jury selec tion and trial work in the digital age? Or do we need to plow the whole thing under and put up a parking lot?
Welcome to the Information Age where truth and justice are just silly schoolboy dreams and trials such as these are multi-million deals. Where everyone, jurors, lawyers, witnesses, judges and journalists hold back essential facts in the hope for a major book or TV deal. I can’t wait for the Venture Capitalist to discover these trials. We will see them traded over the counter on Wall St.
“But what ... is it good for?”—Engineer
at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM 1968,
commenting on the microchip.
While organizing a conference on missing children, Interpol Inspector Jose Berrios stumbled upon the Web site for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.missingkids.org), saw a pretty girl’s smile and forever changed the lives of peo ple from California to Oregon to Puerto Rico.
For some time investigators had been trying to determine the identity of the eight-year-old girl known to them as Sonja Guzman. Suspecting she had been abused, Puerto Rico’s Special Investigations Bureau became involved when the woman claiming to be her mother could not produce a birth certificate.
“Something about the smile” alerted Barrios and a short time later, after sifting through over 500 photos, he came upon the image of a baby girl with the same charming smile. Further investigation proved that the girl was actually Crystal Anzaldi, who h ad been only 14 months old when she disappeared from her San Diego home in 1990.
“Without the Web site, I can’t see how the child would ever have been identified,” said San Diego Police Sgt. Jim Munsterman, the lead investigator in the 7-year-old case.
“No wonder you always go home alone. * Sign over mirror in Men’s restroom.”
Well, there you have it for this month. Greed, avarice, intrigue and a little girl’s smile. All the elements are there, much as they are in your own back yard, on the Internet.
Al Massey is a HAL-PC member who can be contacted at almas@hal-pc.org .
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.