Re: Audio of Hatch Hearings

[Lawrence Lean <llean@netcom.ca>]

I thought it was "neat" in how some members of the senate panel in their
questions, tried to trap Glaser into his real <no pun> intentions in
testifying. Senator Torricelli pulled out an affidavit from Paul Maritz,
indicating that contextually MS and Real Networks were in negotiations
and that Glaser indicated he "was prepared to negotiate all night", and
if they were successfull, that Glaser would not testify. Glaser told the
Senators that that was "absolutely untrue."

IMO, Glaser did seem evasive on questioning and was overall narrowly
focused on what MS had done to his firm technically. He did not for
example deal with the bundling of Windows Media Server technologies
where his firm likely makes the most money => it hasn't happenned yet to
hurt his cozy relationship [Is it now more likely in NT 5.0 Server?]. He
tried very hard to avoid any other criticism of MS or any
generalizations about MS business practices.

Glaser by staying out of broader critisicm, and by trying to get
peaceful co-opetition restored, clearly talked on a clever cusp. And it
showed. I think he is going to get rolled over by OS technology
integration. And he should have been much more strident to preserve his
company. So to me ... that indicates there is more to the Maritz
statement than simply saying it was untrue. FWIW.

Personally, I was downloading Windows Media about a week back but when I
saw that it was only Real Media 4.0 compatible, I thought this would
screw up 5.0 content and replace the Real stuff. I do have the Plus
Player so it was a download I started then said, well actually, I can't
write exactly what I said ...but stopped rather quickly. The impact is
clearly at the OEM level in September when the Multimedia Pack-Fix
Pack-Completion Pack for W98 comes out.

The surprise to me of the hearing was Jeff Papows' testimony: it was
very strongly stated and worded. 

Ellison was flaky, aloof, and overly simplistic considering how much MS
SQL 7.0 bundled in BackOffice is supposed to be aimed squarely at
Oracle's RDMS business. Fine he had a lengthy prepared statement
[http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/ellison.htm] but why not at least say
something about your own company????

I have more to listen to ...

A sidenote: it would seem for software that MS wants to penetrate
markets by free distribution, there is no registration, but for markets
they already own, they want your personal information and to set a
cookie to get updates.

Regards,
Lawrence

Steve Cohen wrote:
> 
> NPR has a shorter version, about 15 mins, pretty meaty, the Glaser
> testimony.
> Funny, CNN, all those guys stayed away, I guess because Gates wasn't
> there.
> They missed a good show.
> 
> Lawrence Lean wrote:
> 
> > FYI:
> >
> > If you want to listen to the Hatch hearing yesterday, its at
> > http://www.broadcast.com/news/dc/capitol072398.stm
> >
> > Its 2 hours and 47 minutes+
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Lawrence