> ELLISON SEES HIMSELF AS AN ENLIGHTENED EGOTIST
> Why has billionaire and Oracle founder Larry Ellison wanted to buy
> Apple Computer? Because he has a mission to put a computer on the
> desk of every American child. "This is all being done pro bono. The
> question is: What do you do with your life? This is what, after the
> first several billion dollars, keeps you going... I mean, the goal is
> not be the richest guy in the graveyard. I don't care how much I'm
> worth when I'm dead. How do I make myself feel good? The only way I
> know to make myself feel better is to make the world feel better.
> Don't mistake that for altruism. It's egotism. Call it enlightened
> egotism." (Vanity Fair June 97)
Call it being totally misinformed that what he says or thinks is
meaningful to anyone. Larry, your days are numbered.
Speaking of which...
> ORACLE TO BUY NETSCAPE'S NAVIO
> Oracle Corp. will purchase Netscape spin-off Navio Communications,
> created last year to develop software for information appliances.
> Navio has been developing a version of Netscape's popular browser that
> will work with TVs operated by remote control and "smart" phones with
> small display screens. "If they can put together their technologies
> and generate some efficiencies, it makes an awful lot of sense to me,"
> says one industry observer. (Wall Street Journal 19 May 97)
Yeah, well, it makes a lot of awful nonsense to me.
> SUN TO SELL ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE THROUGH RUSSIAN FIRM
> Sun Microsystems will sell encryption software licensed from Elvis+
> Co., a company formed by scientists who worked on the former Soviet
> space program.
Elvis... Sun... I get it!!
> The software will be shipped to overseas customers from Sun
> distributors in third countries, effectively skirting U.S. encryption
> export laws. Jim Bidzos, CEO of encryption firm RSA Data Security,
> says the move is "blatant and in-your-face," and warns "The government
> has to shut this down, or else the competitors of Sun probably have to
> say, 'We're going to do the same thing.'"
This could get interesting.
> Sun's general manager of network-security products defends the action,
> saying "This is not being done to subvert export-control laws but to
> deliver solutions to customers. Never before have organizations
> outside of the United States had access to such advanced security
> software." (Wall Street Journal 19 May 97)
Talk about your doubletalk. "This is not to subvert export-control,
it's just to give foreigners access to things the US govt doesn't want
them to have."
> GATEWAY 2000 DEBUTS NETPC
> On May 21, Gateway 2000 will unveil the industry's first NetPC --
> code-named Tomahawk -- priced at less than $1,000 without a monitor,
> and sporting a 133-MHz Pentium chip, 16 MB of memory, a 1-gigabyte
> hard disk and a speedy network connection.
Yawn. My 166Mhz Pent 16MB 2-gig HP Pavilion cost less than this
nine months ago.
> "This is going to be great for the corporate market," says Gateway's
> VP. The slimmed down PCs run Windows programs and have the advantage
> of the hard disk -- one item the widely touted NCs (network computers)
> won't have. NCs rely on a server for software applications and file
> storage. "With such low prices, that would allow me to go in to my
> managers every year or so and say I need new machines," says a Merrill
> Lynch VP. (Business Week 26 May 97)
Thereby continuing to allow Intel to have 90% of the microprocessor
market, Microsoft to have 90% of the operating system market, and Cisco
to have 80% of the high-end router market. Doh!
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
Qui culpae ignoscit uni suadet pluribus. Pardon one offence and you
encourage many.
-- Publilius Syrus, Sententiae No 587 c. 43 B.C.