Notes from Howard's Sabbatical from Working. The name comes from a 1998 lunch conversation. Someone asked if everything man knew was on the web. I answered "no" and off the top of my head said "Fidel Castro's favorite color". About every 6-12 months I've searched for this. It doesn't show up in the first 50 Google results (this blog is finally first for that search), AskJeeves says it's: red.
An interesting opening 3 paragraphs, but then the essay strays.
The 4 things that killed Microsoft: Google, GMail/Javascript/Ajax, broadband internet, Linux and OS/X ....gee I don't know about that. Javascript, Gmail, and Apple has the ruthless assasin of the Windows API...oh please.
So the paradigm has shifted away from the desktop towards the internet and Microsoft is less significant. We all knew that in 1999. Did someone forget to tell Paul Graham that?
I think Paul just got cable internet is his neighborhood or a new dish satellite with internet access and just made this discovery. I can't wait for his next coroner's report. Once Paul finds out you can get weather reports for anywhere in the world on his browser he will likely proclaim "Weather on the TV is dead!"
Well in 1999 MS was still a big deal. Startups all feared MS getting into their market. Startups didn't start if they thought MS would move into the space. Yeah they were late to jump into the internet, but they were still feared. Not so any longer.
I agree this essay is a little unconvincing as it goes on, but still, he's about as knowledgeable on the subject as anyone. Graham founded Viaweb which was bought by Yahoo in 1998. He started angel funding startups and encouraging students to found their own companies. Read some of his older essays, they're all worthwhile.
2 comments:
An interesting opening 3 paragraphs, but then the essay strays.
The 4 things that killed Microsoft: Google, GMail/Javascript/Ajax, broadband internet, Linux and OS/X ....gee I don't know about that. Javascript, Gmail, and Apple has the ruthless assasin of the Windows API...oh please.
So the paradigm has shifted away from the desktop towards the internet and Microsoft is less significant. We all knew that in 1999. Did someone forget to tell Paul Graham that?
I think Paul just got cable internet is his neighborhood or a new dish satellite with internet access and just made this discovery. I can't wait for his next coroner's report. Once Paul finds out you can get weather reports for anywhere in the world on his browser he will likely proclaim "Weather on the TV is dead!"
Well in 1999 MS was still a big deal. Startups all feared MS getting into their market. Startups didn't start if they thought MS would move into the space. Yeah they were late to jump into the internet, but they were still feared. Not so any longer.
I agree this essay is a little unconvincing as it goes on, but still, he's about as knowledgeable on the subject as anyone. Graham founded Viaweb which was bought by Yahoo in 1998. He started angel funding startups and encouraging students to found their own companies. Read some of his older essays, they're all worthwhile.
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