BUMMER THAT RIOTING STUDENTS RUN YOUR MAIL SERVERS

“Electronic mail is of great benefit, because information thus transmitted eliminates the limitations of space and time, is received instantly, may be read whenever and wherever there is a computer and telephone, eliminates bureaucracy, and can be instantly discussed and replied to if needed.”

Statement attributed to Indonesian President B.J. Habibie in a meeting of his country’s freshly minted Reform Cabinet, Kompas Online, 26 May 1998

HE MUST BE COUNTING IN WEB YEARS

“There will be other paradigm shifts, other new technology developments that will make these issues today that are such big problems [meaningless]…. There was no such thing as the Internet five years ago.”

Neil Herman, a technology analyst with Salomon Smith Barney, offering an intriguingly ahistorical perspective on Microsoft’s legal woes, CNNfn, 19 May 1998

I BET YOU SAY THAT TO ALL YOUR PARTNERS

“Everybody I work with I want to be exclusive with.”

Computer Associates CEO Charles Wang, on the giant systems integrator’s one-sided taste for monogamy, Infoworld, 18 May 1998

BUM RUSH

“What excites me about it is the future. And to successfully predict the future is kind of a rush.”

Tim Glass, CEO of Cybermeals, explaining why he’s so stoked about re-engineering the ordering of takeout food for the Web, The Industry Standard, 18 May 1998

ALSO, WE WOULD LIKE FREE ICE CREAM

“Today’s action is intended to ensure that consumers and computer-makers have the right to choose which software they want installed on their personal computers, and not have that software chosen for them.”

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, giving voice to the tech consumer’s desires as she announced the Government’s suit against Microsoft for anticompetitive practices at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Wired News, 18 May 1998