Author: Matt

“Last year the Internet became a real destination instead of a curiosity. It will soon be odd to say you don’t have a Web address. It will be like saying, ‘No, I haven’t installed any telephones.'”

Cathy Hotka, the National Retail Federation’s VP of information technology, on retailers’ warming embrace of the Internet, Miami Herald, 11 May 1998

“The question for Condé Nast is can they leave [Wired] alone, or will they force it into the mold of their other achingly hip, sweet-smelling, narcissistic magazines.”

Jon Katz, HotWired’s media critic, missing the obvious synergies in the sale of Wired magazine to Condé Nast, The New York Times, 11 May 1998

“An injunction delaying Windows 98 would clearly have a negative impact on the country as a whole.”

Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, who’s secretly thrilled to pin his sales woes on the government instead of his lackluster products, speaking at Microsoft’s behest at a pro-Windows 98 corporate PR rally in New York, The New York Times, 6 May 1998

“This appeals to people who are looking for a particular site and can’t remember a URL, and for whom the whole approach of typing in ‘www.companyname.com’ doesn’t feel good.”

Abe Hirsch, director of business development for AltaVista, for whom the whole approach of registering “www.altavista.com” never worked, on his company’s new RealName service to make sure fools and their Web sites are not parted, News.com, 6 May 1998

“I’m still out trying to build the Knowledge Navigator, but doing it not with just one company but a whole series of companies.”

Quixotic visionary and erstwhile soda jerk John Sculley, still dreaming the impossible dream of ubiquitous information access through whizzy gadgets, Seattle Times, 5 May 1998