A Curmudgeon's Look at Business and Technology
May 1, 2000
Number 28
by Kevin G. Barkes

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Sponsored by NewRegistrars.com, a directory of accredited domain name registrars. These Network Solutions competitors can register domain names directly, often for less than $70, with no separate billing of NIC fees.

Splitting up Microsoft: Don't Hold Your Breath.

     Believe me, I'm no fan of the software giant, but the Department of Justice's plan to break up the huge firm into operating system and application software behemoths makes about as much sense as trying to kill a hydra by decapitating it.

     Instead of one giant company, there will be two: one specializing in monopolizing operating systems and the other specializing in monopolizing office and browser application software. The effects on the marketplace will be negligible. Windows will continue to be the dominant operating system and MS Office will continue to be the best-selling applications suite.

     Arguments about the effect of a breakup are probably pointless, anyway. There will be years of negotiations and appeals, and Computing's Next Great Thing may make determining Microsoft's fate about as important as deciding who makes the best daisy wheel printer.

     The DOJ should let the market decide. It can help by closely monitoring the way Microsoft bundles and sells its software to computer manufacturers. Operating system pricing should be independent of the browsers or application software the vendors offer on their machines.

     To further insure fairness, the DOJ should force Microsoft to completely document and publish the application programming interfaces (APIs) to its operating systems and put a Chinese wall in place between the OS and applications people to prevent Microsoft's own developers from getting advance or inside information. If any secret APIs are discovered or a feature appears in a Microsoft application too soon after a new API is introduced, the Feds should be allowed to whack Bill's outfit upside the head with a humongous fine.

     If the government really wants to get nasty, it should force Microsoft to use its own software to operate its businesses. For example, the company's Hotmail subsidiary doesn't use an MS operating system or MS host software. Hotmail runs Apache servers on Unix machines.

     Of course, the government probably couldn't get away with ordering Microsoft to submit to such a draconian measure. Even avowed Microsoft bashers would agree it would violate the company's eighth amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

     The Associated Press story on his demise quoted the medical examiner's findings that reportedly stated he "died of complications of chronic alcoholism."

     I never met Phil Katz, but I've used his software virtually every day for the past 14 years. I probably wouldn't be in business today if it weren't for him.

     Back in the late 80s, a power spike trashed my PC's hard drive while it was updating a floppy-based archive file containing all of my business financial records. The overwritten file, my only backup, was corrupted. The hard drive had been reduced to a whirring mass of iron oxide particles. It was absolutely the worst-case scenario.

     I was doomed. I called PKWARE and Phil himself answered the phone. He told me to make a diskcopy of the trashed diskette and send it to him. I did so, via Federal Express, along with a check for $100.

     Phil hadn't asked for any money, but I figured it couldn't hurt. Two days later, the Fedex guy rang the doorbell. I grabbed the envelope from him, dashed to my office, stuck the floppy in my replacement machine and saw, much to my relief, that my financial files were intact. Another look inside the envelope revealed a registered version of the software and a hand written note from Phil admonishing me to be more careful in the future.

     That's how I'll remember Phil.

From: matine agabi [matine_agabi@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 5:48 PM
To: kgb@kgbreport.com
Subject: RE BIZ

Dear Sir,
 
This letter may come to you as a surprise, I just want
to share a mutual business relationship with you which
will benefit both of us at the end of it.

However let me briefly introduce myself to you, I am
Mr. MATINE AGABI. I work with the Federal Ministry of
Finance (FMF) in Nigeria. In my department we
discovered an accumulated money amounting to
$25 million U.S. Dollars which was not claimed by the
foreign contracting firm.  Now we want to use you as
one such contractor firms and recommend you to the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the payment of this
money ($25 million).

All we need from you is a viable and reliable bank
account in which to pay this money. All arrangements
has been completed for easy and successful transfer of
this money into the bank account which you will
provide for us. No risk whatsoever is involved.

Please as soon as you indicate your interest on this
deal SEND YOUR BANKING DETAILS

Kindly keep this deal very very confidential till
everything is over and you receive this money into
your account.

Your line of business does not matter, only your
cooperation is needed.

Thank you and expecting to hear from you soonest.

Yours faithfully,

MATINE AGABI

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online and get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com/

     When someone sends you something that strains your credulity, and before you start forwarding it to everyone you know, do what I do: fire up your web browser and jump on over to http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/. Odds are you'll find it there.

     Just to be on the safe side, I've added Mr. Matine Agabi of the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) in Nigeria to the KGB Report mailing list. Matine, if you read this, just pick up the phone and call me collect. I'll arrange to have a courier drop by your office in person and pick up my $25 million check. No need for you to go to all that trouble to wire the money to my bank.

     It's the least I can do.

KGB In The News

     Our ongoing child pornography/identity theft business with Network Solutions was featured by internet.com's Domain Notes website, http://www.domainnotes.com/articles.html. The tease is pure tabloid: "One man's story of how a domain hijacker made changes to his domain registration without his knowledge--and how he was prosecuted for a child porn site as a result!" Maybe they meant "persecuted"... last time I checked, the ominous white vans of Janet Reno's Elian Liberation Squad were nowhere to be seen. Check out the sordid details yourself at http://wwwkgbreport.com/kgbreport/20000113.html.

The Official KGB Windows 2000 Migration Advisor:

     Not yet.

A few more adjustments...

     We're still tweaking the email version of the newsletter and based on reader feedback, we've made some additional changes.

     The version distributed via email is now in plain text format. That's because many of our readers use email programs that don't have HTML capability, or view their messages offline and can't handle the graphics and hypertext links without reconnecting with their Internet service provider.

     Those of you who are online or who prefer the embellishments provided by HTML can always access the current issue of the newsletter on our web site by linking to http://wwwkgbreport.com/currentkgbrep.shtml. You can read all of our back issues by visiting http://wwwkgbreport.com/kgbrep.shtml.

     We'd also be extremely grateful if you would click on our sponsor links when you're done reading the newsletter content. If you buy books from amazon.com, please consider using our affiliate link to get to Amazon's site: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/kgbconsultinginc. While the click-through and affiliate commission revenue is rather meager, it helps us to pay the bills and keep the newsletters coming every week.

KGB Trivia:

     Answer to our previous question: Minuet in G was recorded as A Lover's Concerto by the Toys in 1965 and played an important role in the plot of the 1984 film Electric Dreams . Congrats (again) to Tom Heald of Rapid City, SD, who was the first person with the correct answer.
     This issue's question: Author and personal role model Stan Kelly-Bootle offers a free copy of his outstanding Unix Complete book to the first person that can name the two films released in the 1990s, that hit first place in box office receipts and explicitly mentioned the Unix operating system. Email your answer to trivia@kgbreport.com, and be certain to visit Stan's monthly "Son of Devil's Advocate" column at http://www.sarcheck.com/skb/.

Useless Web Sites of the Week:

     http://pemtropics.mit.edu/~jcho/spam/ is the official home page of the SPAM Haiku Archive. Yep, the wondrous mystery meat "has spawned a post-modern, cross-cultural literary form: the SPAM haiku, or SPAM ku", and this site boasts over 14,000 searchable examples as well as SPAM sonnets, SPAM limericks and other forms of SPAM poetry.

     And if you're tired of Easter eggs of the hard-boiled variety, consider http://www.eeggs.com/, The Easter Egg Archive, which is dedicated to listing the hidden features and novelties programmers are wont to conceal in their works. Thousands of computer software and hardware eggs are listed here, as well as a collection of hidden meanings, in-jokes and secrets about books, television programs and movies.

Curmudgeon's Corner:

     This week's irritation: the annoying head and hand gestures used by persons appearing in commercials or delivering the news.

     You know what I mean... newscasters who start a story and then tilt their heads at an odd angle. I assume the movement is intended to show the interest of the newsreader in the feature. Instead, it resembles the look a dog gives you after a particularly bombastic eructation.

     And those hand gestures! While they talk, they extend their arms, bent at the elbow as if using both arms to shake hands, and make small, allegedly expressive movements. You'd think they'd realize the potential for abuse. I'm seriously considering creating a frame capture of a male speaker engaging in this behavior, with the caption "Well actually, Sally, it's more like a loaf of French bread..."

     You just know there are a bunch of high-priced media consultants laughing their butts off on the way to the bank.

     Have a pet peeve? Send it on to kgb@kgbreport.com.

Quotations of the Week:

• I saw 'e-lightbulb' the other day. That's a sure sign the apocalypse is coming.-Joe Kraus
• Always remember that you are a unique individual; just like everyone else.-Unknown
• An ongoing relationship with customers is a great thing from a business point of view.-Bill Gates
• Why create mediocrity when you can copy genius?-Unknown
• Among God's creatures two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes, in order not be separated from the man.-Andres Segovia

     The KGB Random Quotations Generator has over 4,000 entries and is frequently updated. Visit it online at http://wwwkgbreport.com/kgbquote.shtml, and be sure to try the search feature. Have a quote you'd like to share? Send it to us at quotes@kgbreport.com.

     Help us keep the KGB Report and our Quotations Generator running by clicking on our affiliate link to about.com's giant quotations site, with tons of reference info and pointers to the best quote-related sites on the web: