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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: levy who wrote (25987)	6/4/2001 12:56:55 PM
From: sandintoes	Respond to of 28311

Now look at the thread they have under stock quotes...this is all telling! The employees think this of the stock? Message 15881795 To:SIer formerly known as Joe B. who started this subject From: moenmac Friday, Jun 1, 2001 12:36 PM View Replies (1) \| Respond to of 312 THE POTTY PUTTER Thank You For Sharing By Skarlet Fever The "Potty Putter" is further evidence that the human race has outlived whatever purpose we may have had in the first place. I think our purpose was to mess up the planet and we've done a fine job of that. Now that I've seen the "Potty Potter" I think we need to just go ahead and blow ourselves up like in Planet of the Apes and be done with it. When we saw this ad the other night we were stunned and horrified. It was like the Boogie Bass had gone back to hell to visit family and returned with a new infernal playmate. The "Potty Putter" is a little miniature putting green that fits around the front of your toilet. Yes, you read that right. Your toilet. My bathroom isn't big enough to accommodate the "Potty Putter" but that's okay because the chirpy voiceover guy told me I can get one for work, too. The commercial in question features smiling white people practicing putting while they sit there with their pants around their ankles. Ed nearly choked to death on a pork dumpling when the ad started. I picked up the phone and called Nisa and left her a voicemail message that I'm sure puts me one step closer to involuntary institutionalization. First of all, how is practicing putting while sitting on the toilet going to improve your game? People who play golf will buy the stupidest stuff imaginable. Second of all, golf is not a sport. I'm sorry, but it's not. Don't get me wrong. I like spending time outside wandering aimlessly. I understand that some people need the pretense of golf or fishing in order to feel better about just screwing around doing absolutely nothing of any value whatsoever. But that's the point of goofing off. You accomplish nothing. That's one of the reasons it's fun. Goofing off, I mean, not golf. Not only does the "Potty Putter" promise to improve your game, it promises to improve your health. According to the commercial, people don't spend nearly enough time just sitting on the toilet. How do they know this? Why do they know this? Did I want to know this? I can only answer the last question and the answer is, unequivocally, no. The "Potty Putter" is an omen. It's a direct commentary on how pathetic our society has become. But it has a darker message too. There is nowhere, absolutely nowhere, that is immune from the multi-tasking nightmare that is modern society. Why can't we just goof off anymore? Why can't we just be left alone? Why do we have to be reachable via email, phone, and pager 24 hours a day. When did our time cease to be our own? When did it become a mortal sin, a grave personal insult, to turn off your phone and just read a book or watch TV without being at the beck and call of others? Why is your time more important than my time? Techno-communications overload is not enabling us to communicate smarter. The incoherency of most instant message conversations is a testament to that. And so far, of the innumerable one-sided conversations I've had to endure in Target, sidewalk cafes and the grocery store, not one has seemed to have any real or lasting impact on the quality of anyone's life. Actually, that's not true. I think that the woman who counseled her friend about said friend's vaginal secretions may have done something noble and heroic. But does the woman on the other end of the phone know that she was allowing this info to be broadcast to everyone in line at Target? And did those of us in line really need to know this? No. No we did not. I'm not saying that mobile communications or the internet aren't fun, useful and sometimes lifesaving. What I'm saying is that we need to assert ourselves. We need to set boundaries. And we need to respect other people's boundaries. And in the minutes, few and far between that they are, when we are being left alone - why do we have to be doing something to "improve" ourselves? Using the bathroom seems like a necessary task. It has a tangible outcome. Isn't that enough? Is there anything ickier than being in a quiet public restroom and having the person in the next stall suddenly strike up a conversation? First of all, it's unnerving. Second of all, unless the are your best friend, in need of toilet paper, or crazy, they are invariably on a cellular phone. Who could you possibly need to talk to so urgently that you have to call them while you're in the bathroom? And what is the person on the other end of the line hearing? (probably very little actually, if the caller has the same cellular service I do, but that's not the point). And what's worse than being in the bathroom and having to listen to a phone conversation? Getting a phonecall from someone who's in the bathroom when they call you. Unless you're seeking the antidote to Cobra venom or the place is on fire, you really don't need to be making phonecalls from the bathroom. You are in there for a very specific reason. You are either bathing or expelling waste from your body. Ed just interrupted me to tell me that "Zyrtec is great. I feel fabulous." This explains why he was campaigning earlier for me to buy him a Potty Putter. "Only 19.95" he has informed be repeatedly. Maybe we should buy one. I worry that writing about a product that no one else I know has seen or heard about may scare them. What if the thing is a flop? No one will know what I'm talking about. I'll sound crazy. They might start avoiding me. Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad thing… Ms. Skarlet owns a set of golf clubs but they never leave her basement.

To: levy who wrote (25987)	6/7/2001 11:10:30 AM
From: 10K a day	Respond to of 28311

HELLO SI - SCOTT POP up window is annoying after about the 15th time. (actually after the first time..BUT)... You guys really otta' think about adding a one time only argument ....But if you don't care about pissing people off I guess it's ok with me....You have my blessing on pissing people off...

To: levy who wrote (25987)	6/8/2001 1:14:54 PM
From: Roger Sherman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

1st Commercial Launch of Broadband Interactive TV I attended two shareholder's meetings in Bellevue, WA this past month. INSP's on May 21, and Charter Communications (CHTR) the day before yesterday, on June 6. When I get a chance, I'll try to offer a few personal thoughts regarding both of those meetings. At the end of the INSP meeting, I had a nice chat with Bill Savoy, and another nice chat with Paul Allen, following the CHTR meeting this past Wednesday. My discussions with both of them focused on the upcoming CHTR roll-out of their interactive TV service, and what roll INSP has with them in the DIGEO Broadband partnership. Some of you old-timers on this thread will recall that on October 4, 1999 it was announced (through much fanfare at the time), that a new organization had been formed, called Broadband Partners (later becoming DIGEO Broadband). It's purpose would be to develop the "broadband" technology allowing for the merging of the television with the PC (and Internet)...a long-held dream of Paul Allen's. It would first be released to the world through the (Allen controlled) cable company, Charter Communications. The three key partners of the venture were GNET (now INSP), CHTR, and Vulcan Ventures. I just reviewed my notes from the GNET shareholder's meeting of March 17, 2000, which was held approx. 5 1/2 months after the "Broadband Partners" announcement. In my notes I had written that during Russell Horowitz's presentation he stated something like, "We hope to be the first to market with (broadband) TV set-top boxes. We hope to have the broadband Interactive TV portal released sometime later this year (2000)." As many of you know, Digeo had been working with both MSFT TV and Liberate TV, developing the middleware for TV set-top boxes. BTW, in the same edition of today's Seattle Times, another article mentions 7 local (Pacific NW) dot-com companies trading for close to, or in some cases less than, the balance in their bank accounts...as possible buyout targets. In a table with the article, 18 local companies are listed, one of which is INSP...which it shows having "cash" (as of 3/31/01) of only $180.36 million. ********************************** Well, this morning the following article was published in today's Seattle Times. Perhaps it will help explain why some of us are so interested in the roll INSP might be playing regarding the DIGEO Partnership, and the development of Interactive TV: seattletimes.nwsource.com Friday, June 08, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific PORTUGAL DEBUTS MICROSOFT INTERACTIVE TV By Barry Hatton The Associated Press Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tries an interactive TV set at the Portuguese cable company TV Cabo during the official launch of the service Thursday in Lisbon. LISBON, Portugal - Microsoft yesterday launched its bid to carve out a share of the fledgling interactive-television market with the commercial rollout of the world's first broadband set-top boxes. Interactive television, offering Internet access and online services through TV sets, is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue worldwide in coming years. The market for personal computers, meanwhile, has registered sluggish growth. Portugal's TV Cabo became the world's first cable company to deploy advanced set-top boxes running Microsoft's new TV software. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer described the launch as "a landmark day" for interactive television because it introduced innovative technology and a new source of revenue for the software powerhouse. "I'm very optimistic about the market on a global basis for interactive television," Ballmer said during a news conference. Microsoft declined to provide details of their sales targets. London-based analysts Ovum Consulting predicts the number of households worldwide capable of receiving interactive television will grow from 62 million to 357 million by 2006, while sales are expected to grow from $58 million last year to $44.8 billion. The set-top box provides online shopping, home banking, games, digital video recording, Internet access and e-mail. The system is operated from a wireless keyboard or a handheld remote-control device. Ballmer said Microsoft also is developing a lower-end set-top box with a more limited range of features. Microsoft has spent six years investing in the research and development of software for interactive television. However, months of setbacks, including snags with adapting the architecture of its PC operating software to the more limited processing power of set-top boxes, delayed the debut. Tests over the past six months in Portuguese homes were successful, TV Cabo said. "We all believe the technology is ready," Ballmer said. Microsoft faces competition from rival systems developed by Liberate Technologies and OpenTV, both based in California. TV Cabo, with nearly 1 million subscribers, was selected as Microsoft's partner because of its "foresight and vision" in developing interactive television, Ballmer said. It is charging $13 per month for the box and access to the interactive service. There is an initial cost of $127. TV Cabo President José Graça Bau said his company expects to show a profit on the system after three years. "Of course, interactive TV is only now being born, and everyone has to change the way they use their TV sets,"** Graça Bau said. Interactive TV has spread quickly in Europe, though its growth has been slower in the United States. The interactive satellite system of Britain's BSkyB, controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has nearly 5 million subscribers, while the comparable service of France's Canal Plus has 1.5 million users. Canal Plus operates similar services in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Scandinavia and parts of Africa. Microsoft also announced interactive-cable -TV deals with operators in Mexico and Israel. Under one deal, Mexico's Grupo Televisa unit Cablevision will begin testing the Microsoft TV server and software using advanced, DCT5000 set-top boxes from Motorola. Cablevision hopes to begin the trial later this year, with a goal of eventually upgrading 30 percent of its subscriber base to the service. Microsoft and Cablevision expect to deploy at least 350,000 set-tops over the next three years, the companies said. In the second deal, Israel's Matav Cable Systems Media said it would begin field trials of the Microsoft system later this summer. Matav is one of Israel's three cable-television providers, and it serves roughly 25 percent of that country's population, it said. Material from Reuters was used in this report. Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company

To: levy who wrote (25987)	6/10/2001 12:36:09 AM
From: brk	Respond to of 28311

redherring.com ...... Public enemy No. 1 in the analyst community this year is Merrill Lynch's bullish Internet golden boy, Henry Blodget. After failing to downgrade any of the stocks that he covered until after they had lost an average of 63 percent of their value, Mr. Blodget became a popular target of venomous attacks on countless stock message boards. It was Mr. Blodget's refusal to downgrade InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP) -- a wireless portal company based in Bellevue, Washington -- even as the stock plummeted 91 percent last year, that Debases Kanjilal, a 46-year-old pediatrician in New York, blames for his losses of $518,000. Now Mr. Kanjilal is intent on holding Mr. Blodget personally responsible for his loss; he filed an arbitration suit against him in March with the New York Stock Exchange. "Henry Blodget is the poster boy of conflicted analysts who reaped huge investment banking and brokerage fees by pumping up the tech bubble and then leaving the investing public holding the bag," says Jacob Zamansky, Mr. Kanjilal's attorney in the case. "Blodget and other analysts must be held personally accountable." In his suit, Mr. Kanjilal claims that Mr. Blodget remained overly positive on InfoSpace because Merrill Lynch was acting as a financial advisor in InfoSpace's acquisition of Go2Net, a Web portal company in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Kanjilal is seeking $10 million in punitive damages and $800,000 in compensatory damages. Merrill Lynch disputes Mr. Kanjilal's allegations. "Our analyst research was not compromised," says Joe Cohen, a Merrill Lynch spokesman. "Stock recommendations are just that: recommendations. This was an experienced investor who ignored our advice and followed a very aggressive, risky strategy," Mr. Cohen says of Mr. Kanjilal. A hearing date for the arbitration case has been set for February 2002. I don't get it levy....he loses 518k, so he sues for 800k + 10 million ? I hope this one makes it on Judge Judy so I can watch.