Mullings by Rich Galen | Issue for November 8, 1999

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Maybe We'll Buy Another House on the West Coast

Monday, November 8, 1999

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, finding that Microsoft is a monopoly made me think of the "killer apps" which existed when Microsoft was a small software house and the DOS was competing with CP/M to run the new world of microcomputers. WordStar had just replaced MultiMate as the word processing program of choice. Lotus 1-2-3 had replaced VisiCalc as THE spreadsheet program. And dBase II was the ONLY database manager to use.

WordStar and dBase are no longer in existence at all. Lotus 1-2-3 is now part of IBM which bought Lotus Development Corporation not for its spreadsheet, but for its Lotus Notes groupware product. CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) is not used commercially anywhere on the planet.

15 years ago, if the Justice Department had decided to go after Lotus for cornering the spreadsheet market, it would have found a monopoly. If it had gone after CP/M (before DOS) it would have found a monopoly. While there were other word and data processing programs, WordStar and dBase II were certainly overwhelmingly dominant. IBM absolutely owned the microcomputer market.

The free market, not the government, worked its will.

On the George W/Andy Hiller front: When I was a young radio reporter at WMOA in Marietta, Ohio I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Linus Pauling who in his lifetime won not one but TWO Nobel Prizes: One for Chemistry and one for Peace. Pauling had developed a widely reported theory that large doses of vitamin C would prevent or significantly curtail the severity of the common cold.

When I arrived at his hotel room for the agreed-to five minute interview, he had a debilitating cold. Here I was, a twenty-something reporter, in the presence of one of the great minds of the 20th century, and I spend the entire five minutes demanding to know why he had such a bad cold. I WAS Andy Hiller.

Maureen Dowd compared the Hiller interview with the famous Ted Kennedy/Roger Mudd interview. She is wrong. It would be comparable if Mudd had not asked Kennedy "Why do you want to be President," but had, instead, asked "Who was the 19th President and what was his greatest achievement?"

So, Hillary Clinton goes to New York last week to take a look-see at the new Clinton family homestead. Hillary is asked whether this will be Bill's primary residence after they leave the White House. According to the Associate Press she said, "I haven't really talked with him about that." Huh? They spent $1.3 million on this cottage, took some unbelievable slings and arrows for their cozy financing arrangements, re-financed the deal to lower the heat, and the "haven't really talked" about whether Bill will live there? We never expected him to carry her across the threshold, but �"

Here's the Whine-of-the-Week: The NY Times, Sunday, ran a story about the new Manhattan area code - 646 - which is being added because 212 is running out of numbers. The Beautiful People of Manhattan don't want an area code which makes them sound like they live in Brooklyn or Staten Island. A whiner-of-record was George Stephanopoulos who complained, that because some phone systems don't recognize his new area code, "My friends at the White House can't get through."

George: A. You don't have any friends at the White House. B. Is it just possible this is an excuse for the people you think are still your friends at the White House not to return your phone calls?

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