Month: February 2004

“We had the buzz in the field in the late ’90s. And now we don’t really have the buzz in terms of the people coming into the field, the diversity of people coming into the field. And that’s a concern for us.”

Harvard dropout Bill Gates, speaking at his almost mater about why no one’s leaving school to join his firm anymore, Boston Globe, 27 February 2004

“Working the ICANN process is like being nibbled to death by a duck. It makes no sense, and in the end, you’re dead in the water.”

VeriSign executive Tom Galvin, on his company’s filing a lawsuit against Internet domain-name overseer ICANN so it doesn’t have to follow any pesky rules, Computerworld, 26 February 2004

“The idea that AOL is changing its advertising approach going forward in 2004 is false.”

America Online spokeswoman Ruth Sarfaty, committing her employer to another 10 months of inept advertising, CNNmoney, 23 February 2004

“What has been frustrating is real business issues being reduced to personal issues, and it will get worse.”

PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway, steeling himself for Oracle’s attempts to turn him into the Willie Horton of shareholder rights, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 February 2004

“I think productivity has also improved because people have outsourced business processes and focused a lot more on the things people focus on in recessionary times.”

Part-time venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, on how companies have boosted profits while slashing headcount, News.com, 23 February 2004