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To: Marco Polo who wrote (4)	5/4/1998 2:29:00 AM
From: White Shoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37

Ben, I used to have a different handle here on SI and I wanted to pick something neutral sounding that wouldn't have people flaming me using my name for extra inspiration. That didn't work out too well...the new handle was clearly not as neutral as I thought...some of the folks on the ZITL thread on the long side questioned my sexuality!!! and on the Corel thread Vanni Resta regularly referred to me as Yellow Shoes and Soiled Shoes...so much for that idea. White Shoes the name is inspired by (1) a former football star, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, and (2) a desire to have a sort of dorky unfashionable handle...I mean, who would wear white shoes...must be an old guy, we'll go easy on him. Maybe had I changed the age listed on my profile to 76 I would get better treatment! As for Internet brokerages, I trade with a Canadian discount broker, TD Greenline (same company now owns Waterhouse in the US). My take is that the bigger firms and the big banks will, in the long run, take much of the deep discounters' business. The bigger firms will have to respond to the lead taken by the discounters but as people get more experience they might come to like the reliability and perks associated with what will be coming in the future, internet brokerages offered by the bigger commission houses. What e-trade (etc.) are doing may not go away, but will they simply fade away in time due to poor management, low margins, etc., and in a bear market will they suffer losses as all the day traders get wiped out? I personally like the relationship I have with my broker because all the trading I do gets me brownie points with a big bank, makes me into a 'premium client' etc. (even though I am getting rock bottom commissions...OK nearly rock bottom) That's the kind of leverage the bigger more stable houses & banks have, and I think that over time they will offer more discount services and seriously threaten the upstarts like etrade, Datek, and Ameritrade. I could be wrong. Maybe this day trading madness will continue forever, but don't bet on it. I believe one Mr. Pink has some opinions on these companies, you might check him. Really, you've ordered from ONSL? I've considered that. I personally don't mind the idea of web buying and agree that it will take off. I've used J.Crew, Amazon.com, garden.com, and some others. A lot of catalog retailers out there and retailers period are going to be needing commerce servers. That is why bigger companies like Compaq & Netscape & MSFT who can set you up with an e-commerce "in a box" solution, are going to be flooded with business, as are the small companies who partner with these larger companies to offer design-of-electronic-commerce-site servides. This whole field will get more business than it can handle. Sort of makes you want to change professions, just looking at some of the catalog retailers out there who still haven't even thought about getting a domain name drives me nuts, they are missing out on the chance of becoming the next Amazon.com!!! Many little companies might go from being a regional distributor for something to being THE web seller of something, but they must act fast. Oh it really gets me sometimes, I am in the wrong business. :) GNET- well Ben you are about 2 years ahead of everyone in this game and me, maybe 1 year. So if we have both switched to metacrawler then eventually some of the world will, too, and then click on the other links, and so the future of GNET seems assured although I would say there might be some overhang on the stock what with those Dryer brothers getting so many shares. ;) Interestingly there used to be a very similar metacrawler out there but it was never marketed very well. Timing & business plan is everything I guess...and especially, branding, marketing, and sufficient capital to glom up everything in your wake a la Yahoo!!! I always think SI is ahead of a lot of trends and am always proud to be a part of it. I have a theory that the Bull/Bear ratio on SI is not a contrary indicator but rather a leading indicator...yes, that it actually has predictive power due to the acuity of members...would be interesting to test that theory.