Month: August 1999

“We would have done this five years ago and taken [Microsoft] on with a fat client.”

Sun Microsystems president Ed Zander, on his company’s plan to take on big, bruising Microsoft Office with a skinny little kid program from Germany, The New York Times, 31 August 1999

“Ultimately, the domain name system is about your ability to be seen and heard in the digital age.”

Andrew Shapiro, technorealist-at-large and advisor to the Markle Foundation, on the inalienable human right to dot com, The New York Times, 30 August 1999

“I think we are truly making a contribution to the way our society operates.”

Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer, exercising a bit of misdirection as he makes the case that selling computers slightly cheaper and slightly faster amounts to a social revolution, News.com, 25 August 1999

“When you add the Web, everybody is a software company.”

Forrester Research analyst Harley Manning, explaining why we’ve woken up in a world that’s always in beta, ComputerWorld, 23 August 1999

“We’ve got pro formas up the ying-yang, but how do you know, because you’ve never done it before?”

CEO John McCoy, on his seat-of-his-pants efforts to forecast demand for Bank One’s new Wingspan Internet bank, The Wall Street Journal, 25 August 1999 (paid subscription required)