``We made a big bet on Rambus . . . In retrospect, it was a mistake.''
-- Intel CEO Craig Barrett, commenting on Intel's attempt at forcing the
industry into using a proprietary memory technology. Licensed exclusively
from Rambus, the carrot was a kickback to Intel of a half a billion up front
and a percentage of the take thereafter. (Neither Rambus nor Intel were
able to bring their respective technologies to market in a timely
and cost-effective fashion, forcing Intel to abandon Rambus in order to
guarantee a continued healthy revenue stream.)
See extensive analysis on Electronic News. 10/18
``[L]et's face facts. Innovation has never been Microsoft's strong suite.
We're much better at ripping off our competitors.''
-- Stanford economist Paul Romer, quoting a Microsoft insider, as described
in The Register.
``The Java market's biggest frustration is Sun's inability to move the specifications forward at a faster pace. [P]utting the standards in a consortium would slow the process down, not speed it up.'' -- Michael Goulde, executive V.P. of research and consulting services at Patricia Seybold Group, commenting on the Java standardization process on TechWeb.
``I feel a tad bit repulsed to write about RDRAM. I doubt that there has been any other x86-component, which was hyped or lied about more than Rambus and its `great' RDRAM.'' -- Dr. Thomas Pabst, in a review article on the Tom's Hardware site.
``It is quite clear AMD is pushing them and Intel is taking chances'' -- Dan Scovel, semiconductor analyst, commenting on AMD's success with the Athlon, in a 12/99 Forbes article.
``[S]ome innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self-interest.'' -- Microsoft anti-trust trial judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, in his Findings of Fact.
``At any point in time, there are about 80,000 wafers running in a state-of-the art fab, with a total value of some $250 million.'' -- VLSI Research president Dan Hutcheson, discussing the Taiwan quake with Electronic Business News.
``We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they are selling, we're going to give away free.'' -- Microsoft's Paul Maritz, describing a tried and true Microsoft business strategy. Sun Microsystems may be trying the same tactic by giving away free copies of an MS Office work-alike.
If you were
competing against Bill Gates in a track meet,
he would sabotage your starting
blocks, bribe the officials, loosen the cleats in your shoes,
use a trick count for the
start,
and do anything and everything else he could think of to avoid having the
outcome determined by virtue of performance on the field.
-- Joe Barr's take on the Microsoft method, in his LinuxWorld article
reprinted in CNN
"It's not supposed to be a glorified television channel."
-- Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World-Wide Web,
lamenting how it's turning out.
The Madeline War: A humanitarian tragedy of epic proportions,
born of arrogance and stupidity.
On Bullies: A bully is recognized by his actions. No-one pauses
to wonder whether the kid that beat your lunch money out of you at
recess needed it to buy medicine for his poor ailing bed-ridden mother.
"He's a pot-smoking, draft-dodging, wife-cheating liar."
-- colorful opinion of a law student from Wisconsin (NPR broadcast, 1/28/99).
"I am absolutely certain that we believed we were acting within
the letter of the law."
-- President Bill Clinton
"Today NT 'is simply not the functional equivalent
of more established operating systems such
as NetWare and Unix.'"
-- in a report from the Giga Information Group, as reported in
"Microsoft's true innovation is a brilliant business strategy.
But it is not the business strategy that is being questioned. ...
What is being questioned is are business tactics that cross the line of
another core American value -- fairness. ...
Most Americans know the difference between an innovator and a bully."
-- Editorial in PC Week, 9/21/98 p. 72
"Without a disarmament, a test ban amounts to nothing more than
'nuclear apartheid'"
-- India's attitude on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, as stated
by Indira A. R. Lakshmanan in the Boston Globe.
"I was once an assistant professor of mathematics. Since then, I have lived
in the woods of Montana, doing skilled crafts."
-- Ted Kaczynski, describing his occupation
"I used to be interested in Windows NT, but ... I don't find anything
technically interesting there. In my opinion MS is a lot better at making
money than it is at making good operating systems."
-- Linus Torvalds, author of the Linux kernel
(interviewed by Hiroo Yamagata of the Tokyo Linux Users Group).
"I am absolutely certain that we believed we were acting within
the letter of the law."
-- President Bill Clinton, on soliciting funds from the White House
(as quoted by Brian McGrory in the Boston Globe).
"I do not mind competing against Intel, but I would rather not
compete against our own technology."
-- Digital chairman Robert Palmer, on why DEC is suing Intel.
(as quoted by Lisa DiCarlo in PC Week).
"This is not a democracy, it's a consensus.
Until we stop arguing, there's no answer."
--
Ralph Harvey of CWRU, on whether there is life on Mars
(as quoted by David L. Chandler in the Boston Globe).
"Seek a broad education. Technology is moving too fast
to focus too narrowly."
--
G. David Forney Jr., V.P. of Technical Staff, Motorola ISG,
co-inventor of QAM coding,
as quoted by Robert Bellinger in E. E. Times.
"If this traffic is so onerous and difficult to handle, they can unbundle the local loop and we can handle all that dreadful Internet traffic for them." -- Fred Briggs, Chief Engineering Officer of MCI Communications Corp., commenting on the baby Bells' network congestion problem.
"The Internet is ... a unique and wholly new medium of
... human communication".
--
ACLU v. Reno, 3d. Federal District Court, No. 96-963; June 11, 1996.
"[The disruptive effect and broad reach would make] unconstitutional any regulation of protected speech on this new medium."
"The Government, ... asks this court to limit both the amount of speech on the Internet and the availability of that speech. This ... is profoundly repugnant to First Amendment principles."
"As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion."