RE: The Year in Quotes

["P.A. Petricone" <pap@tiac.net>]

Just ran across another Lessig quote on Mitch's favorite subject. Can mere mortals handle it?

----clip

"We are, vis-a-vis the laws of nature in this new space, gods," Lessig wrote in
the Emory Law Journal. "And the problem with being gods is that we must
choose."

[Chicago Tribune article]

-pap


On Thursday, December 24, 1998 2:22 AM, Mitch Stone wrote:

> The Year in Quotes  
> 
> The computer industry had some interesting times in 1998--remember these 
> great moments? 
> 
> by Clare Haney, IDG News Service  
> December 18, 1998, 4:00 a.m. PT  
> 
> As another year draws to a close, it's fun to trawl back through the IDG 
> news archives of the last 12 months, finding quotes from the movers and 
> shakers in the computer industry. 
> 
> There are the usual suspects like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Scott 
> McNealy in their full outspoken glory, along with other familiar faces 
> from the past year, pontificating on a variety of topics and making 
> statements ranging from the erudite to the potentially libelous. Enjoy! 
> 
> Go on, Take Your Best Shot! 
> 
> "We really need it because Microsoft keeps releasing sloppier and 
> sloppier software that needs a faster and faster machine. The speed is 
> crazy." --Digital Equipment's founder and former chief executive officer 
> Ken Olsen, in response to being asked if he believes that the world truly 
> needs ever-faster microprocessor. Olsen now heads Modular Solutions. 
> (June 24, 1998) 
> 
> "Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system. I guess I 
> would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too."  --Sun 
> Microsystems Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy 
> (November 4, 1998) 
> 
> Actually, It's My Fault, Honest! 
> 
> "Right now, we have a terrible Web site." --Unisys Chief Executive 
> Officer Lawrence Weinbach (March 11, 1998) 
> 
> "I made a stupid mistake."  --Oracle Chair and Chief Executive Officer 
> Larry Ellison in a rare moment of candor, regarding Oracle's aborted 
> Sedona development project (April 16, 1998) 
> 
> "We get accused of being good marketers. I think we are a bad marketing 
> company. We've managed through our bad execution to make everyone think 
> we are going into their business. There's a very real fear and loathing." 
>  --Anthony Bay, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Services Business 
> Unit, on Microsoft's move into e-commerce (June 25, 1998) 
> 
> "Yeah, I'm already a pain in the butt. But these guys [Motorola] are 
> really good. They like controversy."  --Philippe Kahn, founder of Borland 
> International, speaking of Motorola's acquisition of Starfish Software, 
> the company he established after leaving Borland (July 14, 1998) 
> 
> Microsoft vs. Sun--Fear and Unpleasantness? 
> 
> "If we don't go to the courts, you don't have the compatibility, you 
> don't have 100-percent Java. And that's why we're doing it." --Sun's 
> McNealy, on why Sun took Microsoft to court over Java (March 25, 1998) 
> 
> "That was not one of the most pleasant experiences I've ever been 
> through." --Alan Baratz, president of Sun's Java software group, leaving 
> the courtroom after being grilled by Microsoft lawyers about Sun's 
> Java-licensing contract with Microsoft (September 10, 1998) 
> 
> "This scares the hell out of me." --Microsoft Chair and Chief Executive 
> Officer Bill Gates on Java, from documents filed by Sun in the legal case 
> between the two companies (reported October 22, 1998) 
> 
> A Peek Into the Mind of Bill Gates 
> 
> "The mentality of Microsoft is to always look for what we should be 
> worried about. ... We all have to earn our success a month at a time. 
> Even though there is no financial crisis, we are very good at creating a 
> crisis atmosphere." -- Gates (February , 1993) 
> 
> "Scott McNealy is always talking about Microsoft. Sometimes when you 
> listen to him, you forget what company he comes from. ... Hey, he is 
> spreading the word that he is worried about Microsoft." --Gates (February 
> 3, 1998) 
> 
> "The higher you get, the farther there is to fall. ... Just because 
> something is in a Windows box doesn't mean it will be successful." 
> --Gates (September 9, 1998) 
> 
> "I worshipped Digital when I was a kid." --Gates (September 9, 1998) 
> 
> "We [Microsoft] don't want to live through that." --Gates on Digital 
> Equipment after it was eclipsed by other industry players (September 9, 
> 1998) 
> 
> The Apple of Steve's Eye 
> 
> "At the end of 10 years [at Apple], I have to admit that I failed. In 
> hindsight, we should have done things differently ... and it is a 
> tremendous disappointment."  --former Apple Computer Chief Executive 
> Officer and current technology investor John Sculley (January 12, 1998) 
> 
> "Apple is a cult and the person who created that cult is Steve. ... It 
> was always [Steve Jobs's] company. The best chance Apple has is having 
> Steve Jobs back running the company." --Sculley (January 12, 1998) 
> 
> "We tried begging, bribing, everything. This is not subtle, we have 
> gotten on our knees collectively on this."  --Apple board member Larry 
> Ellison on trying to persuade Jobs to remain Apple's chief executive 
> officer (January 15, 1998) 
> 
> "Nobody's tried to swallow us since I've been here--I think they're 
> afraid of how we'd taste." --Steve Jobs, Apple's cofounder and interim 
> chief executive officer, brushing off suggestions that his company may be 
> a merger target (April 22, 1998) 
> 
> "I go to computer shops and hang around and listen to people. I find it 
> fascinating. I know it sounds corny, but the biggest kick I get is to see 
> people smiling when they see the iMac. You don't usually see a lot of 
> people smiling in computer stores." --Jonathan Ives, vice president of 
> Apple's Industrial Design Group and head of the iMac design team 
> (September 17, 1998) 
> 
> In the Market for a New Job? 
> 
> "I would tender my resignation. We'd make him an offer in a flash." 
> --Oracle's Ellison on what Mitchell Kertzman, then co-chief executive 
> officer and chair of Sybase should do to turn around Sybase's fortune 
> (October 13, 1998). Less than a month later, Kertzman joined Oracle 
> spin-off Network Computer Incorporated as chief executive officer, a job 
> he insisted he wouldn't have taken if he weren't convinced that NCI is an 
> entity separate from Oracle. 
> 
> "Many people in Microsoft say that Ellison is the single best salesman 
> for [Microsoft's] SQL Server. If users are thinking Oracle, and then 
> Microsoft at number two, I'm a happy person." --Rich Tong, Microsoft vice 
> president of applications product management, applications and tools 
> group (December 15, 1998) 
> 
> Failed Dreams 
> 
> "The PC has become a junk truck of technology. We just keep adding things 
> to it." --Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of Intel's 
> desktop products group (September 17, 1998) 
> 
> Y2K: Don't Panic ... Yet 
> 
> "We don't have a set of formal recommendations. What U.S. Senator Bennett 
> has been saying publicly is that it wouldn't hurt to have a few days of 
> food on hand, a little bit of cash." --Don Meyer, spokesperson for the 
> U.S. Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Problem, headed by Senator 
> Bob Bennett (R-Utah) (December 14, 1998) 
> 
> "Let me put to rest the rumor that missiles are going to be flying 
> everywhere by accident." --John Koskinen, President Clinton's Year 2000 
> czar, who has pledged to be on an airplane as the millennium rolls in 
> (December 14, 1998) 
> 
> "He won't be heading for the hills. But on the other hand, he won't be 
> doing what John Koskinen said he's going to do. ... He won't be in the 
> seat next to him." --Senator Meyer regarding Bennett's Y2K plans 
> (December 14, 1998) 
> 
> Crystal Ball Gazing 
> 
> "We can remove the constraints of distance and time by using the 
> electronic networking of people. ... You can't 'beam me up,' but you can 
> be there electronically." --Bay Networks Chair, Chief Executive Officer, 
> and President Dave House, on his concept for a "network holodeck of the 
> future" (June 8, 1998) 
> 
> "The cost of PCs is getting so low, we will probably give you a PC so you 
> will use our browser." --Marc Andreessen, executive vice president and 
> co-founder of Netscape Communications (June 25, 1998) 
> 
> "The time has come to think beyond the Earth." --Vinton Cerf, one of the 
> inventors of the Internet and senior vice president at MCI 
> Communications, on the creation of an "Internet that is out of this 
> world" (July 22, 1998) 
> 
> "We'll get machines that are a million times faster over the next 10 
> years. ... The key message here is that we are just at the beginning of 
> the revolution; today's machines are Model Ts."  --Gates (September 7, 
> 1998) 
> 
> "I think Sun and Microsoft will be totally changed in the future. You can 
> take half the people at Microsoft and half the people at Sun and write 
> them off." --John Gage, chief scientist at Sun (September 9, 1998) 
> 
> "We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, 'I speak as a citizen 
> of the world' without others saying, 'God, what a nut.'" --Lawrence 
> Lessig, cyberspace law authority (October 10, 1998) 
> 
> "Everyone will have an average of five IP [Internet Protocol] objects on 
> their body by 2000. There will even be digital eye glasses with voice 
> control eventually that would offer all sorts of information to the 
> wearer. ... Sony is working on the technology, so it'll happen. It'll 
> cost $20." --John Sidgmore, vice chairman and chief operating officer of 
> MCI WorldCom on a future world awash with what he terms "silicon 
> cockroaches," wireless devices that can communicate with each other and 
> the Internet (November 18, 1998) 
> 
> What Conclusion to Draw From It All? 
> 
> "The whole world's gone crazy because all of the software and all of the 
> marketing are run by people who've never operated a business. ... The 
> first problem is to try to get people to organize [businesses] with 
> wisdom, with common sense."  --Digital's Olsen (June 24, 1998) 
> 
> --Kristi Essick, James Niccolai, Jana Sanchez-Klein, and Nancy Weil 
> contributed to this story.  
> 
> Mitch Stone
> mstone@vc.net
>