I NEVER GOT INTO TECHNO

“Our audience has become an incredibly wired, techno-literate audience whose fundamental approach to entertainment has changed.”

MTVi CEO Nicholas Butterworth, on the fundamental differences between Napster users who download songs for free and MTV viewers who watch music videos for free, News.com, 27 March 2001

TEETHING PAINS

“If it didn’t have problems at the beginning, it wouldn’t be great technology.”

Lesswire AG employee Ulrich Woessner, insisting that a failed demo of the Bluetooth wireless technology is actually proof of future coolness, Wired News, 26 March 2001

GENERATION X-ML?

“The phones that people have today are not the phones that people will want to use in the XML generation.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, inventing an implausible demographic for his company’s software products, CNN.com, 22 March 2001

WE PUT THE SHOPPING CART BEFORE THE HORSE

“What you typically do is perfect the store and once you perfect it, you start rolling it out. In this case we rolled it out and we perfected it later.”

Kozmo CEO Gerry Burdo, on the company’s retrenchment from its original nationwide ambitions, News.com, 21 March 2001