News and commentary from the cross-platform scripting community.
	Mail Starting 8/7/97

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From: director@casa.ca (Hoops);
Sent at 8/7/97; 3:29:02 PM;
Re:Don's Amazing Puzzle

Another quick puzzle in a slightly different vein...What is significant about this statement:

A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA (?)

It is, of course, an anagram, reading the same frontwords as back.

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From: stevep@wrq.com (Steve Poole);
Sent at 8/7/97; 8:36:40 AM;
Re:Behind the Hype

Sure the Mac has a default browser notion, and has for a long time thanks to Internet Config. With that being a standard part of Mac OS 8 it makes sense to have it preconfigured for some browser or other. Given that the relative suckage of the MS and Netscape browsers is tilting in the favor of Explorer, it might as well be the default.

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From: albhy.galuten@unistudios.com (Galuten, Albhy);
Sent at 8/7/97; 8:08:30 AM;
Question

Question - doesn't it make sense for Apple to separate out their software and their hardware businesses?

Maybe now when I use my PC I can have logarithmic mouse response like I do on my Mac

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From: cameron@group5design.com (Cameron Barrett);
Sent at 8/7/97; 10:45:26 AM;
Re:"Beyond the Hype"

Oy! Dave.

So, here we are, with Steve Jobs saying Microsoft + Apple = 100% Desktop marketshare. What does this mean for Netscape and Sun? Why aren't Andreeson, Barksdale or McNealy on the new Apple board? It seems that they would make be capable of making clear decisions for Apple just as well as anyone else? Maybe we're lucky that Gates isn't on the Apple board, maybe we aren't.

With all of the industries Microsoft has been poking their fingers into lately, I'm not surprised by the "deal" between Apple and Microsoft. Apple was the first computer company to develop a consumer PC-TV (the MacTV)....I'm sure Microsoft hasn't overlooked this. Apple is and was the source for a large majority of Microsoft's GUI "innovations." Microsoft has not forgotten this. Netscape and Sun have both publicly stated that they are competing with Microsoft. Microsoft has not forgotten this. It's not coincidence that Microsoft has spent $1.5 billion investing in the television and cable markets. What I'm surprised about is that none of the major electronics manufacturers have spoken out against Microsoft's investments. Don't Sony and Magnavox and RCA have a lot to lose if Microsoft starts producing software that only run Microsoft TV-OS boxes? Microsoft made its fortune by selling software that ran on third-party hardware. Are they going to do the same thing when PC-TVs hit the market? Who is developing these PC-TV operating systems? WebTV is one, and Microsoft snapped them up.

If Apple were thinking ahead, wouldn't they be smart to revive their MacTV with its own TV-OS that just happens to run best on Apple hardware, but contains an open architecture that encompasses third-party hardware? Come to think of it, isn't that very similar to what Microsoft is trying to do with Java and Windows?

P.S. If the computer news industry is confused about what's happening, I feel sorry for the mainstream media catering tho the public. On my local news last night, I actually heard a reference about Apple and Microsoft "merging." Sheesh.

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From: trebor@animeigo.com (Robert J. Woodhead (AnimEigo));
Sent at 8/7/97; 9:07:49 AM;
Re:Behind the Hype

While I have no affection for Bill Gates, I have to acknowledge his (and Microsoft's) strategic brilliance. He deserves those billions. He just hedged his bets on the OS wars and infiltrated the creator of the one possible rival to NT, ensuring that no matter what happens, he wins -- and he did it for measly $150M!

Remember that email a week or so back saying "start the holy war, and build a black box that runs Windows under Rhapsody?" Well, what will probably happen now is that the black box will get built - but it will be Microsoft that builds it.

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From: jkempner@physics.oberlin.edu (Joshua Kempner);
Sent at 8/7/97; 8:44:40 AM;
Re:Behind the Hype

I heard a very interesting observation from an editor of MacWorld on NPR this morning about the new Apple board. He remarked that this was the first time Apple has had a board made up of people with computer industry experience instead of business management experience. What's your reaction to this?

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From: dbakin@netcom.com (David S. Bakin);
Sent at 8/7/97; 1:46:22 AM;
cross-license patents v. cross-license source code

Were you surprised that Bill Gates was booed during the keynote? I know some Mac fanatics act immature but I still wouldn't have expected that.

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From: dbakin@netcom.com (David S. Bakin);
Sent at 8/7/97; 1:30:05 AM;
cross-license patents v. cross-license source code

I've read several articles today (8/6), including one by Henry Bortman who isn't usually this clueless, that took the announcement of "cross-licensing of patents" as if it was "cross-licensing of source code". Surely 'patents' means 'patents' and not 'source code', even in the cases of technologies like QuickTime.

Maybe you could address this in a DaveNet or on Scripting News? I don't understand enough about the patented or patentable Apple technologies to know what Microsoft could be getting access to that would be significant, or why this confusion happened to this commentators.

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From: degraff@bitplayers.com ();
Sent at 8/6/97; 11:11:07 PM;
Licensing

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for calling this straight.

I hope that Bill Campbell and Jerry York will provide some counter to the anti-licensing blame game / security blanket that Apple execs are pushing. At least those two board members come from backgrounds which should have provided clear lessons in the importance of licensing. But then Jobs' experience should have been the strongest pro-licensing lesson of all - or does he just not want to face up to that reality?

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From: tlundeen@lundeen.com (tim lundeen);
Sent at 8/6/97; 10:50:47 PM;
Re:Behind the Hype

Yes, Apple doesn't seem to have a clue about the clone vendors. They need them and the MacOS market needs them. To create this situation with the clone vendors at this point in time is simply incredible, and, to a long-time Macintosh devotee, infuriating. If Apple had clones to compete with years ago, they would be much stronger for it.