Month: August 2001

“The financial climate is the worst it’s been in 25 years.”

Salon CEO Michael O’Donnell, claiming that his website’s layoff of 14 employees exceeds the fiscal brutality of the Reagan Recession, the Crash of ’87, the Gulf War, and the 1998 Asian Crisis, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 August 2001

“I am a hard-core believer that the clean desktop is the way to go…. At the same time, we told OEMs that if they were going to put a bunch of icons on the desktop, then so were we.”

Microsoft exec Jim Allchin, on his company’s demands for free Windows desktop icons in exchange for granting a license to PC makers, eWeek, 6 August 2001

“Napster ist nicht tot.”

Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers, insisting Teutonically that the out-of-service file-sharing network isn’t dead, Stern, 8 August 2001

“I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it’s too expensive to change the interface.”

Virtual surrealist Jaron Lanier, on the computer industry’s carefully honed user-surliness, The New York Times, 7 August 2001

“Our new attitude is how can we put you in front of our customer.”

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, on how his newfound rapport with Madison Avenue means that advertisers know what he is — all they’re discussing is the price, CBS MarketWatch, 6 August 2001