Two Years of DaveNet
Friday, November 1, 1996 by Dave Winer.
Yesterday, in New Apple System? I pointed to a CNN report that said that Apple was charting a new operating system course, and it seemed that a specific announcement was imminent.
I got a lot of speculation, ranging from It really is Be, to It's Newton to Get a life! And then I got an email from Heidi Roizen saying that the report was a mistake.
"Dr. Amelio was speaking in general terms about how operating systems will evolve in the future. At no point did Dr. Amelio signal a change in direction for Apple's Mac OS strategy."
Meanwhile, MacWEEK has a news article that discusses negotiations between Be and Apple for the merger of Mac System 8 with the Be operating system.
http://www.macweek.com/top_stories/news_beos.html
OK. Onward!
Z tells a joke 
I got a great email from John Zeisler, z@interwest.com, a venture capitalist, and former longtime Apple exec. He explained how the wheel at Apple really turns.
"Dave, here's how it really works. A new CEO comes on board. In the top drawer of his desk are three envelopes left by his predecessor. The top one says, "Hire all new people" - so he does. 9 months later, nothing's improved. There's board pressure. So he opens the next envelope and it says, "Reorganize" - and he does. 9 months later, still nothing's improving. The board is getting restless. So he opens the final envelope, and it says, "Write 3 new envelopes."
Ye-ha! For more info, see One Infinite Loop? 3/11/96.
The Best Search Engine
How does $99 sound for a great web search engine?
I thought it was a fair price so I went for it. I'm very happy with the result. Now you can easily search all the back issues of DaveNet, and all the other websites on www.scripting.com.
The search engine software is called Spotlight. It was easy to set up and it's very fast! Even more important, it's one of the first examples of a developer community for my Frontier scripting system. It builds on the most popular database in the Mac world, Claris's FileMaker. It's very rational software. Well done. Nice!
The software comes from my friends at Worldwide Power and Light. It's just fantastic stuff. If you like Mac servers, if you like the Mac, or if you like the web, you should check it out.
http://www.wrldpwr.com/spotlight/
Many thanks to the Worldwide people for believing in and investing in Mac-based web servers.
Two Years of DaveNet
I did the first DaveNet piece, Marc Canter Sings Again! over two years ago, on 10/7/94. The Internet boom was just starting. Netscape was still a dream for Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. We were still looking to Microsoft for the source of all new things in the software business.
In many ways, we've looped right back around. What is Netscape? What will the future bring? Where will new technologies come from? Will the web really free people and their ideas or is it just more of the same? Who knows. I'm feeling less optimistic now than I have in the past. I'm more sure than ever that we need to work together, and connect the dots, that no one is big enough or strong enough to do it all on their own. But have things really changed? I'm not sure.
I missed the two year anniversary! I was paying attention to other things. A couple of days ago it occurred to me that two years had passed. So I decided rather than ignore the moment, that I'd mark it, even though it's late, better late than never, right?
Here's the birthday gift -- I just completed a review of all the pieces, and assembled a list, with brief comments of the pieces I like the best. The ones that represented a turning point in some way. I think they're all interconnected in some way. How? I'm not sure!
Anyway, here's the list:
http://www.scripting.com/davenet/best.html
I call it The Best of DaveNet, starting with Bill Gates vs The Internet thru I Become Invisible and ending with Que Sera Sera. I like 'em all! Hope you do too...
Have fun!
Dave Winer
PS: Thru the magic of file sharing, you can actually use Spotlight to index a server running on Windows or Unix. So much for platform wars. Websites are LANs. Check it out.