July, 1, 2005 archives

high stakes, no prisoners: a winner’s tale of greed and glory in the internet wars by charles h. ferguson is the story of vermeer technologies, the company that created that created frontpage and was acquired by microsoft. it’s a very personal account of the story, and it’s a good read. ferguson is quite a character, and his characterizations of various dotcom celebrities and microsoft insiders are entertaining.

the book was written about six years ago, and some of his predictions have fallen short in the meantime. microsoft hasn’t really claimed a huge percentage of the server market, and the frontpage server extensions certainly haven’t done much to drive iis adoption.

fuel-injected dreams: a novel by james robert baker is a story about a late-night radio dj’s life colliding with a phil spector-like record producer who has retreated into drug-addled nuttiness. it’s funny and well written, with some clever plot twists and an appropriately loopy ending.

the book is 20 years old, which makes some of it seem eerily prescient with spector on trial for murder now.

i spent the last few days in seattle, meeting with the developers of the various mysql connectors.

while in seattle, i stayed at the moore hotel, in downtown seattle. the building is just two months newer than where i live. i guess not all of the floors have been refurbished, but the room i had was great (and pretty cheap).

this is the first time i spent any time in seattle, and still didn’t take any time to do any sightseeing at all. but seattle seems like a cool city, and i probably should do that some day.

one observation: i took the bus to the office from my hotel, and it was a much, much whiter crowd than i’ve ever seen on any bus in los angeles. i was impressed by seattle’s bus system.