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01 Apr 99
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April 99:

400 MHz G3 OS X Server Box Special Offer!:

Recon For Investors (RFI) has arranged a Special Offer on 400 MHz G3 OS X Server boxes. Convergence Mavens can e-mail us at vmac@pelagius.com for details on the special offer.

01 Apr 99:

0800 EST:

News Flash! Vice President Gore Invents Online Trading!

Vice President Gore's office announced his latest Internet initiative will be to allow average Americans to empower themselves by enabling them to invest online over the Internet. His office related that he would not file a patent application for this radical new technology but would offer it up as yet another plank in the bridge to the 21st Century. Sources close to the Internet have stated that Vice President Gore was overheard saying: "Just think of it! Instead of people having to wait to buy and sell their stocks, they could connect to the Internet and invest! It'll be huge!"

As soon as the news of this invention hit, numerous Wall Street firms registered formal complaints with the SEC while also registering a plethora of "dot com" brokerage names. -- More --

Breaking News! Apple follows Dell!

In a stunning announcement yesterday evening after the markets closed, Apple's interim CEO Steve Jobs stated that Michael Dell was right all along and that Apple's Board had decided to close the company down and return the money to the shareholders. An emotional Mr. Jobs stated that the extremely disappointing sales of the iMac (500 world wide), coupled with 5 consecutive quarters of mounting losses, finally led the Board to conclude that it was all over. Once the final dissolution of the company is completed, every shareholder will receive their portion of the monies left over. They can also have their choice of one (1) iMac, three (3) if they take grape and blueberry.

Michael Dell was unavailable for comment.

And Now for Reality...

CBOE Mailserver "Infected?

Yesterday evening, one of the CBOE mailing lists had a "Happy99.exe" file attachment. The existence of the attachment was reported to the CBOE as well as others. Whether or not this is an instance of infection is unknown at this time. However, if you are on the CBOE mailing lists, ensure that you do not open any erratic attachments to the mailings. This is not an April Fools joke.

March 99:

31 Mar 99: 1530 EST

Beloit's Annual Survey

The following item was in the Publius Digest yesterday and we thought that we'd share it with you. It's important demographic information on The Class of 2003. Probably invaluable information for lots of businesses, enterprises, entities, etc. And no, this is not a joke. It's all too real. Eye opening as well:

Annually, Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together an information sheet to remind faculty of the mindset of its incoming freshmen class. Here are some points of reference on the next generation:

Students starting college this fall were born in 1980.
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.
They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf war was waged.
Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
There has only been one Pope.
They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
They have never feared a nuclear war.
They're too young to remember the space shuttle Challenger blowing up.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
They never had a Polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
The compact disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.
They likely have never played Pac Man, and have never heard of Pong.
Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
Blue M&M's are not new.
They have always had an answering machine.
Most have never seen a black & white TV.
They have always had cable.
They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.
The Tonight Show has always been with Jay Leno.
Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as World War I and World War II, or even the Civil War.
Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are places, not musical groups.

29 Mar 99:

1730 EST:

Product Intros:

See anything familiar with the products shipped over the last year?

FYQ2 '98:
G3 Speed Bumps
FYQ3 '98:
G3 PowerBooks (iMac Rev. A unveiled)
FYQ4 '98:
iMac Rev. A ships
FYQ1 '99:
OS 8.5 Ships, PB Speed Bumps (Rev. B Speed Bump)
FYQ2 '99:
Blue & White G3s, Rev. C (Five Flavors), OS X Server
FYQ3 '99: (Expected):
101 PowerBooks, Mac OS 8.6 / QT4.

See a pattern here? Two portable products in one quarter (101 and P1)? Toss in "Yet Another iMac" into the channel too? Making it three? Doesn't fit.

Bottom line?:

Sure looks like "One New Product Per Quarter" from where we sit. And didn't Mr. Jobs say that at MWNY '98? That Apple didn't want to glut the channel with lots of new products all at once? The "Refresh the line" part of his MWNY '98 keynote? We shall see what we shall see.

Working....

27 Mar 99:

AppleWorld Redux:

What a difference a year makes! About this time last year we were privately discussing "AppleWorld," which became known as myapple.com. When we mentioned it publicly, some people sniggered and others were down right nasty in their comments. As we developed details of what myapple.com was going to include, we kept our comments private and there they will remain.

When the news leaked out that MacWEEK was going to cease its print version and go online only, someone made up the "Macintosh World Weekly News" cover as a spoof of what content Apple would like a Mac news publication and site to have. If you click on the link for the graphic, you can download a stuffit archive to get a giggle or two. It's a takeoff on: "In Pravda (Truth) there is no Izvestia (News), and in Izvestia there is no Pravda."

It's now a year later and some people are worried that what we were joking about in the past will come to pass. That Apple is part of "The Vast Mac Wing Conspiracy" which seeks to dominate and control the Mac Centric Internet, as well as the reporting on Apple. Why? Because Apple has registered domains like apple-enews.com and the other domains they recently registered. While Apple would love to control the reporting on it, we don't think that they could control the likes of News.com, ZDNet and Mac Publishing.

Oh, there's more to all this than meets the eye but we're going to keep it private for the present. So, enjoy the spoof and have a chuckle. Meanwhile, we'll leave you to wonder what more there is than meets the eye.

26 Mar 99:

2045 EST:

Attention "Convergence Mavens":

Recon For Investors (RFI) has arranged a Special Offer on 400 MHz G3 OS X Server boxes. Convergence Mavens can e-mail us at vmac@pelagius.com for details on the special offer.

1245 EST:

The Revolution Will Be Televised!

Photo by Jon Van Nest

For those or you who are unaware of what that "White Sheeted Billboard" says and where it is located, we won't force you to dig deep into the old content to discover it.

The billboard's location is at the prominent intersection of Highland and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. It's an intersection that a lot of Hollywood types pass through a lot. It has been up and covered with that white sheet since October / November '98. The background of the billboard is black and the words "Stay Tuned" are in that prominent Apple font.

That it is probably related to QuickTime 4.0 and QuickTime Streaming Server with Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is a fairly good guess. And since Apple has recently registered QT-TV.net, we're fairly certain that "The Revolution Will Be Televised." As the billboard says: "Stay Tuned."

Working...