Tuesday, September 16, 1997

Microsoft's Cornelius Willis has confirmed for DaveNet Live at Seybold, "Sept 30 in SF". Mark your calendars!

From Tom Campbell at Microsoft: The bottom of your 9/15/97 posting said 'Now, more than ever, I want vector graphics in the web browser.' IE4 now has a sensational component called the Structured Graphics control with an extremely rich set of graphics primitives, allowing you to create way dynamic graphics with rotating text, filters, transitions, dissolves, etc., at a very low cost in download time. The most complex pages I've seen were only 2 or 4K.

Jean-Louis Gassˇe wants to build a dedicated PhotoShop system running on CHRP hardware and the BeOS. I bet PhotoShop users would dig this!

SJ Merc on WebTV Plus. Three gigabytes of content delivered overnight via television broadcast signals. Stunning!

Check it out -- Marc Canter likes WebTV Plus.

Got Shockwave?

The RIPView Plug-In does vector graphics like "Lineto Moveto".

Earlier News

DaveNet: "Judgment".

"Mail Starting 9/16/97".

Apologies to subscribers to the davenetworld mailing list. Our list server is having problems. You're not the only one. Some software went crazy. We're working on it.

MicroCenter is selling a PC w/o monitor for $499.

News.com: Vignette StoryServer 3.

I'm glad Ric Ford watches Yahoo.

WebMonkey interviews Mark Hurst, who runs the Creative Good site, managed with Frontier.

MacWorld: Web publishing made easy.

Adam Engst in today's TidBITS: "The only public information from Apple has been a telephone conversation Jobs had with Ric Ford of MacInTouch."

Hey Adam -- use the web! I interviewed Jobs on Sept 3. Want more clues? See Doc Searls's analysis. And then read what Steve Wozniak said about Steve Jobs's vision (it wasn't negative).

Another clue, from the archives of DaveNet. In April, I wrote:

It's interesting to note that Larry Ellison has a different idea for Apple than Steve Jobs. A new set of public quotes from Ellison say that Rhapsody is a loser, that Apple's only valuable asset is the current Macintosh OS, and that all of Apple's remaining energy should be focused on that. The quotes have appeared in print, and are being confirmed by reporters who have interviewed him.

If this is his true intention, I support it. Rhapsody is a total Hail Mary play. Apple has never supported System 7. It's their only product. Focusing on that is the only way for Apple to remain a viable platform vendor.

Another clue, thanks to Scott McKenzie, comes from the boilerplate at the bottom of Apple's recent press releases. The old story:

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry and leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on easy-to-use personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, handheld computers and Internet content. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions, products technologies and services for business, education, consumer, entertainment, scientific and engineering and government customers in more than 140 countries.

Apple Computer, Inc. ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II, and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is now recommitted to its original mission -- to bring the best personal computing products and support to students, educators, designers, scientists, engineers, businesspersons and consumers in over 140 countries around the world.

Even if Apple hasn't directly said what its strategy is, the tea leaves are lining up. And Scripting News gets the story.

And no flames... Whew!