Jean-Louis Gassee, founder of Be Inc., isn’t just a software guy. He also wields a mean pen.
Gassee regularly writes essays for his company’s online newsletter. His latest column is particularly strong — a personal take on the Microsoft trial and a federal judge’s recent “findings of fact” in the case. He speaks from experience.
Stories like this are going to force a drastic remedy in the Microsoft case. That’s probably unfortunate, because this may be a case where the necessary cure for one company’s over-the-top behavior damages everyone else in the long run. They say bad cases make bad law — this time, a badly behaved company may lead to bad law.
Gotta Get One of These…
Monday, Nov. 15 —
I’m in lust — with a keyboard. It’s called the Stowaway, from a company called Think Outside — as in “Think outside the box.” It works with my Palm V personal organizer, and it’s going to change the way I do certain things
The Stowaway isn’t on the market yet. Look for it to appear late this year or early next year. I’ll tell you more in Tuesday’s column.
Thinking Inside
Monday, Nov. 15 —
I spent the past couple of hours at the South China Morning Post (free registration required to use Internet edition), the dominant English-language daily newspaper in Hong Kong. Like other papers around the world, the Post is wondering how it’ll make the transition from the current mass-media economy, where large organizations put out large, advertising-supported publications and broadcasts, to the world where the Internet (you’ve heard this before) changes everything.
They asked me to discuss the future of newspapers in an increasingly online world. I don’t think I reassured them very much. I deeply believe in journalism and in newspapers. While I’m certain the future will preserve the former. I’m less sanguine about the business model of the latter.