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Cloak and Dagger (10/21/98)
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It was Day 3 of the new "Redmond Justice" season, and the surprises are still coming. You know how the Justice Department's case relies heavily on this May 1995 meeting between Microsoft and Netscape, during which Microsoft reportedly offered to divvy up the browser market to keep Netscape from developing Navigator for Windows 95? Well, Microsoft's lawyer John Warden just proposed in court that the whole meeting was actually Netscape's idea. And his smoking gun is an email message sent to Microsoft from Netscape co-founder James Clark way back in December of 1994, which stated, "we'd like to work with you." There are all kinds of juicy details in a Washington Post article.
The plot thickens! In this email message, Clark reportedly states that coming to some kind of agreement could be in Microsoft's best "self interest" as well as Netscape's, and that "depending on the interest level," Microsoft might even "take an equity position in Netscape." Hmmmm. So during his cross-examination of Netscape chief exec Jim Barksdale, Warden put forth that the deal discussed during the infamous May meeting was "pretty much what Mr. Clark was proposing to Microsoft in December 1994." Barksdale held his ground, though, denying the connection and stating that Clark's proposal was "not consistent with [Netscape's] strategy."
The other interesting little cloak-and-dagger aspect of this mysterious email message from Clark is the last line, which reads, "No one in my organization knows about this message." That's certainly consistent with Barksdale's claim that he only recently found out about Clark's proposal when Netscape was preparting for this trial. Not only that, but the email message was sent at 3:01 AM-- a strange time to be sending mail about company business. Netscape's lawyer claimed Clark was "a little nervous" when he wrote the desperate message, since Netscape was running out of money at the time and Clark was trying to find ways of raising new cash. But Clark has since left Netscape, so we may never find out just what the deal was. Intriguing, though, isn't it? Stay tuned!
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SceneLink (1093)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/21/98 episode: October 21, 1998: A new iMac is making its way to store shelves, and this one is a lot more suitable for playing the latest games. Meanwhile, Apple molds some new larger-screened machines for the educational channel, and Microsoft produces a new smoking gun that indicates Netscape may have been the ones to propose dividing up the browser market...
Other scenes from that episode: 1091: Blue in the Face (10/21/98) So who says no one at Apple is tuning in? Many longtime viewers will recall our occasional frothing-at-the-mouth diatribes against what we consider the single most egregious mistake in the iMac's otherwise awesome design: the built-in 3D acceleration... 1092: Time for School (10/21/98) Okay, so the iMac's getting its first tune-up in the form of better graphics capability. While that's a great thing, there's still some question about the iMac's suitability for all educational uses; ever since Apple dropped the G3 All-in-one from the educational price list, the iMac has been the standard replacement...
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