Lynn, >and I really don't enjoy shopping for furniture.
Could you somehow impart that to my better half? ;-))
From an article from yesterday's San Jose mercury News, which I don't think got posted here, apologies if wrong:
For his part, Chambers sees no reason why
spectacular growth can't continue -- ``30 to 50
percent a year if we execute right,' he said.
mercurycenter.com
Published Friday, March 24, 2000, in the
San Jose Mercury News
TECHNOLOGY/DAN
GILLMOR
Cisco appears likely to
be next biggest thing
BY DAN GILLMOR
Mercury News Technology Columnist
NEWS and views, culled and edited from my
online column, eJournal
(weblog.mercurycenter.com/ejournal):
SURPASSING VALUE: At the close of business
one of these days, Cisco Systems Inc. is likely to
become the most valuable company on Earth, moving
ahead of Microsoft Corp. in market capitalization.
Assuming that happens, we'll all note that event as a
huge achievement for the San Jose-based networking
company and yet another signal of data networks'
growing role in our lives.
Being top dog will certainly be a pleasant
experience, says John Chambers, Cisco's chief
executive. But he was prouder when Cisco became
No. 2.
``The move that meant the most was passing GE,' he
said in his office Thursday at the company's San Jose
headquarters. By Chambers' reckoning, General
Electric Co. sets the standard as ``the best-run
company in the world.'
Cisco's relentless gains have been remarkable even
by Silicon Valley and technology-industry standards.
The company's market cap broke through the $500
billion milestone Wednesday, and the share price
bolted upward again Thursday, closing at $77.81, up
$5.56. The only enterprise still ahead of Cisco on
Thursday was, of course, the world's largest
software company. Our favorite monopolist also had
a great day, closing up more than 8 percent, after
reports circulated that a soft-on-Microsoft settlement
in the big antitrust trial might be in the works. A
settlement would be great, but only if it has teeth.
I'm not in the Microsoft-is-in-trouble camp, which
has lured some naive observers. But I am a believer
in what is behind Cisco's ascendance -- the rise of
the network as the dominant story in technology.
``The network is the computer,' people said
presciently in the 1980s. We'll soon need a new
aphorism. The network won't be everything, but it's
clearly becoming the environment for a stunning
amount of what we do every day.
In that world, Cisco holds an enviable position.
Chambers and his team have bought and grown and
maneuvered their way into the sweet spot, and they
deserve plenty of credit.
For his part, Chambers sees no reason why
spectacular growth can't continue -- ``30 to 50
percent a year if we execute right,' he said.
Office Pool: Which company will hit the
trillion-dollar market cap first? If I were a gambler, I
wouldn't bet against Microsoft. But I might well bet
on Cisco.
TOYING WITH REALITY: Mattel Inc., which
sells toys, software and other products suitable for
children, is having a world-class legal temper
tantrum.
A Mattel subsidiary, which sells a Web-censorware
product called Cyber Patrol, is going to
extraordinary lengths in enforcing a court order
designed to stop distribution of software that reveals
which sites the censorware blocks. Not only has the
company steamrollered some hackers, but it's now
going after a journalist who listed hyperlinks to the
sites where the hackers' software could be
downloaded.
Cyber Patrol is one of the many products designed to
keep kids away from inappropriate material on the
Web. But the worthy Peacefire (www.peacefire.org)
site and other censorware critics have shown
persuasively that these products also block perfectly
reasonable sites. The companies making censorware
generally refuse to reveal which sites they're
blocking, and they get furious when people dare to
point out their software's flaws.
Declan McCullagh, a writer for Wired News and
maintainer of the excellent Politech mailing list and
Web site (www.politechbot.com) on politics and
technology, has been covering this issue. He posted
the addresses of some Web sites containing the
offending software.
McCullagh has posted a copy of an e-mailed
subpoena from Mattel's lawyers. He says Mattel
wants a list of his subscribers, and viewers of his
Web site, so it can go after them, too, even though he
never posted the software but merely linked to sites
where it was stored.
``I have no intention of revealing the identities of
politech readers to Mattel or anyone else,' he said in
his posting.
If you're buying stuff for kids, you might want to keep
Mattel out of your spending plans.
MORE TAX FOLLIES: The no-Internet-taxes
crowd is furious. After stacking the congressional
Internet tax commission with anti-tax advocates, they
still couldn't come up with the mandated two-thirds
majority to ban Net taxes entirely.
They have, however, been smart in their public
relations, managing to persuade some credulous
journalists to call the other side ``pro-tax,' as if that's
what the argument is about.
No, the issue remains as simple as ever. Should we
continue to grant an exemption from sales taxes that
gives a huge advantage to catalog and Internet
merchants over Main Street merchants? The answer
from the anti-tax crowd is a loud Yes.
If we do that and watch more and more sales move to
the Net, how should we make up the difference in tax
revenues that inevitably will sap local services, or
what services should be cut when revenues dry up?
The answer from the anti-tax crowd is the correct but
irrelevant claim that state and local sales tax
revenues haven't yet started sinking due to the Net
effect. So, they ask, what's the problem?
The answer is that we're in an economic boom that
will end someday unless the law of supply and
demand has been repealed. When that happens, the
Net tax drain will be blatantly obvious. The anti-tax
tactics are plain enough -- to wait as long as possible
so that it will be politically difficult, if not
impossible, to apply sales taxes.
The issue is tax fairness. We should either replace
the sales tax -- a fine idea, given the regressive
nature of sales taxes -- or apply it evenly. It's totally
unfair to do otherwise.
Note: Please don't write to point out that you pay
shipping charges when you buy from an online
merchant but not from a local one. The goods that
show up on local store shelves did not just
materialize there -- they were shipped to the store,
and the cost of shipping is already in the price.
Tony |
