FROM THE TRUE AXIS OF EVIL... BILL GATES
Will RealNetworks Be Netscaped By Microsoft?

Good points by the chairman of Microsoft, the true evil empire, below. Microsoft is simply a juggernaut in the real sense... remember Spider-man's old foe, The Juggernaut? With $50 billion in cash and all those PC desktops at their control, they can enter almost any software/tech market and make it theirs. Scary.

I was recently catching up with an old acquaintance who started one of the leading Internet hosting companies. I remember when he started his company five years ago with a few friends and their savings, and now it's in the top five of the global hosting market. While discussing various aspect of his business, he was telling me how Microsoft is making it awfully hard for them to pay for RealNetworks' products (e.g. Helix Servers) since they were giving out their server software for free. Naturally I assumed his company was encouraging their customers to utilize and promote Windows Media instead of RealPlayer, which they were beginning to do.

So Microsoft first used their "monopoly power to restrict how PC makers install competing media players while forcing every Windows user to take Microsoft's media player" ("Real hits Microsoft with $1 billion antitrust suit"), and now on the back end they are attacking RealNetworks' targeted growth business of providing their software and technology to content owners and network operators to distribute digital content. I chill ran down my spine. They are truly the "Evil Empire."

So I began wondering how long will RealNetworks last? Will they, like Netscape, become marginalized among consumers and the industry?


Losing ground in the innovation race?

By Bill Gates
Special to ZDNet
February 25, 2004, 4:40 AM PT

COMMENTARY--Computers will change our lives more in the next 10 years than they have in the last 20.

Not only are people relying on them for more of the things they do every day, but the pace of computing innovation has never been faster. Processing power continues to advance, according to Moore's Law, while network bandwidth, wireless, storage and graphics capabilities are growing at even faster rates...

Federal support for research and development, particularly through our universities, is crucial. It drives long-term technology advances that help create new companies and jobs--or entire industries--which, in turn, generates tax revenue that can be invested in further innovation. The abundance of hardware and connectivity is making it possible to tackle some of the biggest challenges in computer science. The Internet boom was the result of this cycle of innovation: As a product of government, business and academic work, it accounted for more than one-third of economic growth in the United States during the late 1990s...

But we're losing ground in another part of the innovation process: finding the smart, motivated people that can make these breakthroughs happen. Fewer young people are choosing to study computer science, despite all the challenging problems we have yet to solve and the incredible potential of the technology industry. (full article)