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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Reginald Middleton who wrote (18799)	4/28/1998 6:17:00 PM
From: nommedeguerre	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Reggie, >Exactly what Windows application is required to access and use your web-site?> >>Excel 97 and in some cases IE 4.0 for the analytics Why can't the user just enter the data onto your web-page and let your server send the results back? This is how it is done on real servers, by the way. Then I would not need to spend $500 to get Office97 to run your model. I could instead just pay you a monthly fee for the service and will not have to download new models all the time. (By the way IE is no longer an application...) <I can dial into work from home and use Excel 5.0 through a boring X Windows program from yesteryear.> >>So, Excel 5.0 is antiquated. Yeah, Excel97 is a big step forward with all the recalc problems it has. Accuracy in accounting must be antiquated now too. Let's see, I have to download Excel97 models to use it, yet I can access and run a model on Excel5.0 without downloading anything; it is difficult to see where the antiquation lies if we look at real functionality vs. "new" features. <If I could use a browser to run Excel, why would I need a "shrink-wrapped", maintain it myself, pain-in-the-ass software package at home?> >>You can't use a non-Windows browser to run excel. That's the point. So much for "Internet-ready" in their ads! I guess people who want to use Excel remotely will just have to stick with antiquated Excel5.0. >>Since you asked, I'll tell you. With six megabyte download, one time, self-updating download, you can use my web site to perform very advanced corporate valuation, structured product and derivate valuation and contruction, LBO structuring, M&A analysis and divestiture/consolidation valuation for any private company and any of 6,100 public companies. But if you had a decent server, the user would not have to download 6 megabytes of anything before doing what he came to your site for. >> The app queries and downloads full financial data (IS, BS, CF, etc.) from a 600 meagbyte 15 year historical database located on my server and pulls real time exchange rates for 32 coountries, inflation rates, interest rates and real time share prices from other web databases. Sounds good to me. >>There is currently no other type of application that does what this one does, and yes, it was developed from plain old MSFT shrink wrapped software. Because MSFT does not allow a browser interface across the Internet, you were unable to write a simple app interface, forcing the user to download 6 Meg of executable instead of an HTML page. Sounds like Excel97 is somewhat crippled if this is true. That is the problem with using "canned" software. If it does not do what is needed, it never will. What will you do if a competitor offers a browser-based website similar to yours? If you do it first, you may gain customers you otherwise would not attract or reach. Cheers, Norm

To: Reginald Middleton who wrote (18799)	4/28/1998 7:38:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 24154

Bandwith does not support the real time calculation strength required by this type of work, but it is ideal for centralized data retrieval . . . I just though I'd butt in and let you know that the above sentence is pretty clearly nonsense. "Bandwith" (what band would that be with?) is about as orthogonal to "real time calculation strength" as you can get. Anyway, would this all be that famously non-fraudulent Excel "high end financial math"? Cheers, Dan.