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Jewish World Review July 17, 2001 / 26 Tamuz, 5761
Ian Shoales
In my opinion, though, the hegemonizing effect that Microsoft has on the marketplace is temporary. The marketplace is much more volatile than it used to be. A broker can sneeze in Hong Kong and five minutes later Wall Street is down with the flu. A few weeks back, Gates’ net worth went from, I believe, ninety gazillion dollars to seventy gazillion in the space of a heartbeat. At that rate, he’ll be broke by the year 3000. I won’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of this CyberDarwinism, but I would venture to suggest that Microsoft will prevail in its legal struggle, but will face a bigger challenge in the marketplace. Computers themselves may soon reach saturation among ordinary consumers Why? Well, I have many reasons.
In the unlikely event that I’d be invited, twice, to William Gates’ house, I’d find it more alarming than charming to see a malt liquor appear magically at my elbow, and have the couch call me "Ian." And I prefer walls than remain walls, thank you. Not long ago on the local news, the anchorman signed off with a light story about a "smart" refrigerator. In the future, it seems, your icebox will be able to "read" your milk’s expiration date. Then, the next time you go to the grocery store, your wallet will beep gently when you walk by the dairy section, alerting you that it’s time to replace your soon-to-be-curdled two per cent milkfat products. As the credits rolled, the anchorman, sports announcer, and weatherman sat staring at each other, and shaking their heads. Clearly, these arbiters of information were both disapproving of and baffled by this bland promise of the future. Even Bill Gates himself must, in his heart of hearts, wonder about the value of a smart fridge. After all, I’ll bet he has people to shop for him. And I’ll bet he even has people who employ the analog method of checking for freshness-- sniffing all half-empty cartons.
And the rest of us? I predict an alarming drop in our milk consumption. We’d rather go
without than have our debit cards screaming at us every time we go to the grocery store.
And thus will end the hideous hegemony of the dairy industry. You heard it here
07/13/01: Applying Newton's First Law of Physics to textbooks
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