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[Flux]

We can't seem to pass a day in recent

months without hearing that yet

another of our friends has answered a

summons from the Rain King. Last week,

for example, we learned that Eric

Etheridge, once an editor at Rolling

Stone and later a founding editor of

George, had been called to service at

court.

[Image]

Plus ça change.... Etheridge

has managed to avoid relocation, but

- one by one - the nobles are

abandoning the creature comforts of

their salons for the dismal splendor

of Versailles - er, Redmond. Bill

Gates, for reasons best known to

himself, is attempting to empty the

intellectual capital. The latest

acquisition is Michael Goff, late of

Out magazine, who will join Etheridge at

Microsoft's massive CityScape

project.

[Image]

Speaking of those "reasons," Marc

Andreessen should probably watch his

mouth. Here's what he said recently

to some researchers from Forrester:

[Image]

"Just because Microsoft builds Web

viewing into the OS doesn't mean it

can keep up with our pace of

development. Operating systems take

five to seven years to mature -

browsers move much faster than that.

What you've got in Microsoft is a

company that needs to find its next

10 billion. It's looking at two

areas: consumer content and business

software - BackOffice. Microsoft is

about to find out that there's no

money in consumer content, and

Netscape is going to challenge

BackOffice. Microsoft is investing

US$100 million in media; we're

investing zero. We'll both end up

with the same return - nothing."

[Image]

We noted the strained braggadocio in

these statements and easily

translated Marc's analysis. Here's

our take:

[Image]

"Microsoft is making browsers

obsolete. Here's hoping we can make

up for it by making money in the

groupware applications market. On the

other hand, if consumer content turns

out to be the source of user loyalty

and growth, it's going to be a

painful year."

[Image]

Last Monday's Wall Street Journal

paean to our favorite TV replacement,

PointCast, proved how much momentum

can build behind a media bandwagon.

In this case, the attention is

well-deserved, but we hope our

friends at PointCast have an exit

strategy for their venture, which

recently received a capital infusion

to the tune of some $36 million from

a group of investors that includes

newspaper giants Times Mirror and

Knight-Ridder. The Journal story

included what we can only assume was

a facetious comment from Jupiter

Communications's Adam Schoenfeld that

PointCast was "a very big danger to

Microsoft." Well, not exactly. As the

article pointed out, Microsoft is

already readying a PointCast

replacement as part of the next

iteration of its Internet software.

And a joke that's been running for

months around the Silicon Valley

venture-capital community is that

every business plan being pitched

these days is for a "PointCast

killer" - and certain companies

building impressive Java tools will

only make this worse. Schoenfeld

claimed, "It's dangerous to impress

Microsoft too much with an innovative

application." On the Net, in fact,

it's dangerous to impress anyone who

can code.

[Image]

By Ned Brainard

Have a tip for Flux? Send mail to: flux@hotwired.com.

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