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To: Kal who wrote (6332)	12/20/1997 3:06:00 AM
From: uu	Respond to of 64865

A very interesting post I came across on another thread talking about one of these so called con-artists (i.e. analysts) predicting the stock market trend. Someone noticed something that many (at least I) did not notice. This Merril Lynch con-artist in his thesis of market trend states the following: "It's a wakeup call," he said. "Markets are like trees. They don't grow to the sky." Can you tell what is wrong with the above statement?!! Well here it is: If trees do not grow to the sky, then where would they go?!! For an enjoyable laughter here is this con-artist's opinion of the market trend: Message 3004512 Regards, Addi Jamshidi

To: Kal who wrote (6332)	12/20/1997 3:56:00 AM
From: Kashish King	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

RE: An interesting look at ms/doj issue What came across in that op-ed article was just how myopic and uninformed this Glassman fellow is. He seeks to blast Microsoft for not being politically astute while simultaneously spitting on the government. He attempts to tie it all together with some blather about Microsoft not paying protection money to the government thugs. Listen to this bird-brain Glassman (apologies to parrots) and please hold down the laughter: Consumers have benefited from this turnaround. Netscape, which dominated the browser market, now has competition - which is one reason the antitrust action lacks merit.

To: Kal who wrote (6332)	12/20/1997 12:06:00 PM
From: LKO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Interesting view... This editorial writer of Seattle times certainly seems to be in tune (and probably on the invitee list :-))) with the prevailing opinions in the party circuits of Microsoft Millionaire's Club that seem to be driving the strange brain-dead decisions in the handling of this case. The most interesting quote I found was: > Microsoft's contention is that consumers benefit from wide-open > markets, where competitors slug it out without the state's > interference. And in this new age, technology moves so quickly that > no firm can establish monopoly power for long - and certainly can't > use it to push up prices. That seems to be an interesting point of view. Here is how I would translate it: Leave innovation and fair-play to the benevolence of the established market dictator and trust us that good things will happen to consumers. If this was the law of the land and the rules for business competetiion here is my (cynical) view of how history of technological innovation would have played out: * AT&T would have been benevolent enough and reduced the rent on your home phone, your phone charges etc. You do not need that MCI, Sprint etc. * Microsoft would have been nice to make that LAN Manager networking work for you. You do not need that Novell, Internet, or whatever else . * IBM would have been nice and made a smaller 3270 terminal with prettier characters for you and even made computers which require only half-a-room for your. You do not need that Apple, Apollo, Digital, Sun etc. * Intel (and yes in some market price segments Intel has competetion) would have brought out that sub-1000 powerful PC for you. They actually want to lower margins and sell chips for cheap. You do not need that AMD, Cyrix, etc. * GM, Ford, Chrysler would have produced fuel-efficient, small electric cars. You do not need taht Toyota, Honda, etc * <Add your own example here> The sad thing is (unlike the prevailing view from many anti-microsoft partisans :-)), I think the company has a lot of smart people and ability to compete fairly and win but is behaving like a drug addict having a hard time giving up old bad habits. They should learn some lessons from Sun's handling of the Java benchmark fudging :-) and Intel's handling of floating point bugs. No need to stay in denial. They should come out and say "we screwed up", give choice to OEMS to ship Windows95 with whatever, ship Windows98 with the included browser (yes I believe that is legit) and get on with life. Competetion (often with companies half a block away) is the way of life in Silicon Valley and that has not stopped wealth creation (or innovation) from happening here. The anti-trust laws are not as obsolete as inside-the-monopoly people tend to think.