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Technology Stocks : RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (964)	7/26/1998 12:01:00 PM
From: Beta Nasdaq	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5843

The intraday shocks of RNWK must be expected. The daytraders push it around like a yo-yo. My gut feelings are that their are a lot of long players like myself holding RNWK knowing that the killer app on the Internet is audio and video. The power elite in the entertainment industry will side with Real Networks. Hollywood and the content community in general will not give control of their product to a group of software engineers. Widespread highspeed is right around the corner. HDTV and the rest will propel entertainment and business over the Internet. The market will be just to dam big for Microsoft to control. Real Networks is a definite long term hold. Patience! Content is King.

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (964)	7/26/1998 3:25:00 PM
From: EliBenTedrus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5843

Who wins if this war of words and white papers continues? RNWK or MSFT? Neither? Both. This whole thing was a charade. The bug was fixed weeks before the hearing. Bill and Rob are on the phone as you read this, laughing uncontrollably. Bill is telling Rob he should get an academy award. Oren is right now at the bank cashing a check from Utah based NOVL for his re-election war chest. He will then phone CNN, and ask for a spot tonight on Larry King or Crossfire, for more free press. Newt will call Oren later tonight to tell him the he should win out over Rob for the award. --- The whole thing was pure genius. Co-opetition. Beats the hell out of competition, and often advances standards as well. I currently have no position in MSFT or RNWK, but have the deepest respect for MSFT and its abilility to make huge amounts of money, innovate, enhance computer user's experience and value, and crush all comers at will. :) Anyone company which openly says, "If they are going to pirate OS's in China, we want it to be ours." knows the game inside and out.

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (964)	7/26/1998 4:56:00 PM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 5843

Hello dave_s, You stated: > It appears that there is not a clear answer in the "he said / she > said" P%%%ing contest between RNWK and MSFT. Who wins if this war > of words and white papers continues? RNWK or MSFT? Neither? I will predict that we are witnessing something much larger than anyone here seems to understand. The move here is control of consumers ...and literally true psychological "control" of consumers. And Microsoft is on the verge of a win that is much bigger than anyone might imagine. Microsoft is quickly moving to become a "portal" designed to steer more and more consumers dollars into Microsoft. Start.com is now becoming more and more the goal of Microsoft's success. dailynews.yahoo.com When the average consumer fires up a PC, they are going to run Internet Explorer (instead of buying and installing Netscape) ... which now takes them to Start.com ... an environment that they can customize for themselves ... how nice! But Start.com is "in the net" ... all the customizations are stored at Microsoft ... the beginnings of a profile. Start.com also provides the "base" bookmarks and directory of the consumer. Those who follow what's on their screen will be guided to Microsoft companies and partners ... read the above press release carefully. If a consumer is interested in travel, car sales, investments, news, mail or other communications ... and more recently apartments and real estate ... Microsoft has a company to provide for you. All of the bookmarks guide consumers to "friendly" and convenient Microsoft. Also, your searches on the web are handled by Start.com ... so everything you search for is stored and indexed ... your profile grows. This is not a paranoid rant ... this is industry analysis. Look at the acquisition of FireFly ... very cool technology to profile individuals and categorize likes and dislikes. Creating new lines of demographics that have nothing to do with physical ... but instead focus on psychological traits. This is the core interest of Ralph Nader and James Love ... essential.org As for their touting of privacy, they indicate three core reasons to track you: + To help you quickly find software, services or information on microsoft.com. + To help us create Web site content most relevant to you. + To alert you to product upgrades, special offers, updated information and other new services from Microsoft. If they know your interests and have a good profile (reason #1 above) then they will know what businesses to purchase or focus on to get your dollars. They will also know what competitors sites you visit, etc. Microsoft's game has always been abstraction ... and when they can release a media player that becomes the users interface to media, they control the message. Their player will start to provide directories of content, a "channel" knob to flip through media sources ... and those channels will no doubt be biased towards Microsoft companies and partners. Last night I had a long discussion with some friends in the industry ... I never thought it would be required, but I now see the inevitable break-up of Microsoft. Now I think it needs to happen. While many are here bickering about the trees, there is a forest that needs to be seen. Scott C. Lemon