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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Be Newsletters - Volume 1: 1995–1996</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="be_newsletter.css" type="text/css" media="all" /><link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" href="./images/favicon.ico" /><!--[if IE]>
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<![endif]--><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2" /><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Be Newsletters" /><link rel="up" href="volume1.html" title="Volume 1: 1995–1996" /><link rel="prev" href="Issue1-16.html" title="Issue 1-16, March 27, 1996" /><link rel="next" href="Issue1-18.html" title="Issue 1-18, April 10, 1996" /></head><body><div id="header"><div id="headerT"><div id="headerTL"><a accesskey="p" href="Issue1-16.html" title="Issue 1-16, March 27, 1996"><img src="./images/navigation/prev.png" alt="Prev" /></a> <a accesskey="u" href="volume1.html" title="Volume 1: 1995–1996"><img src="./images/navigation/up.png" alt="Up" /></a> <a accesskey="n" href="Issue1-18.html" title="Issue 1-18, April 10, 1996"><img src="./images/navigation/next.png" alt="Next" /></a></div><div id="headerTR"><div id="navigpeople"><a href="http://www.haiku-os.org"><img src="./images/People_24.png" alt="haiku-os.org" title="Visit The Haiku Website" /></a></div><div class="navighome" title="Home"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html"><img src="./images/navigation/home.png" alt="Home" /></a></div><div class="navigboxed" id="naviglang" title="English">en</div></div><div id="headerTC">Be Newsletters - Volume 1: 1995–1996</div></div><div id="headerB">Prev: <a href="Issue1-16.html">Issue 1-16, March 27, 1996</a> Up: <a href="volume1.html">Volume 1: 1995–1996</a> Next: <a href="Issue1-18.html">Issue 1-18, April 10, 1996</a></div><hr /></div><div class="article"><div xmlns="" xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" class="titlepage"><div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><h2 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="title"><a id="Issue1-17"></a>Issue 1-17, April 3, 1996</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect1"><div xmlns="" xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" class="titlepage"><div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><h2 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="title"><a id="Engineering1-17"></a>Be Engineering Insights: Of Base Classes and Flexibility</h2></div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="author">By <span class="firstname">Erich</span> <span class="surname">Ringewald</span></span></div></div></div><p>
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After you've spent a few years creating a new platform behind closed
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doors, huddled like mad scientists, it's possible to lose perspective.
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That disappears quickly when you ship a few hundred machines out to
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developers who simply want to develop on a great machine. They start to
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pick it
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apart like crazed weasels, and I mean that in only the most positive
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sense. The last few months of supporting the pioneer Be developers has
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been very interesting.
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</p><p>
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The C++ language is one subject that comes up quite a bit. Some
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developers love the fact that we've decided to use this language
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standard. Others appreciate that we have avoided the language's more
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"esoteric" features (multiple inheritance is frequently mentioned here).
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Still others (actually only one or two) have said that although they love
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the BeBox and its kits, they just can't program it because C++ nauseates
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them. A visceral reaction to semantics!
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</p><p>
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Admittedly, there is a certain amount of religion in these positions, but
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one thing is true: C++ is not known for its dynamism. Between static
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binding, the base class feature, virtual tables, and no garbage
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collection, C++ is a bit of a stubborn old aunt who refuses to leave the
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house. For us, this presents some problems and challenges, but ones which
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I think can be managed if we all modify our mindset a bit.
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</p><p>
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With the older platforms whose limitations we are trying to overcome,
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software (both application and system) has been a very static thing. It
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takes about four years for Microsoft and Apple to develop and publish a
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new release. Application software is then stuck on floppies or CDs which
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spend an average of nine months in the distribution channel. If we are
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going to be able to continue to outrun those platforms, we need to have a
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much more flexible attitude about software
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updates and distribution.
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</p><p>
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Such flexibility in thinking will help us together overcome some of the
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static limitations of C++ without locking ourselves into an API, virtual
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table layout etc., for all time. But it's not just to make dealing with
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C++ easier that I recommend this, it will be better for our customers as
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well. They ask you for new features in your application, you in turn ask
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for new system software features to facilitate them, we implement them,
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perhaps shifting around a class layout. We ship you the new version of
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BeOS, you implement the new features, we ship the new software together,
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and the customer buys the upgraded application from you and thinks you're
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the most responsive application developer they've ever seen.
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</p><p>
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So how often can we do this? Every four months may be a bit too
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frequent—but it will certainly be much more often than once every four
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years. The improved communication and distribution mechanisms afforded by
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the Internet will help us show ourselves to be much more responsive than
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the older platforms.
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</p></div><hr class="pagebreak" /><div class="sect1"><div xmlns="" xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" class="titlepage"><div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><h2 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="title"><a id="DevProfile1-17"></a>Be Developer Profile: AMP Productions, Inc</h2></div></div></div><p>
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“<span class="quote">The BeBox will shine in multimedia,</span>” says Tom Ierna, president of AMP
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Productions, Inc. Based in Florida, his 5-person company specializes in
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35mm slide presentations, video, computer-based kiosks, and live
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entertainment, serving the education and business markets. When four
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thousand members of local student clubs convened in Florida, AMP was
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there shooting slides and video, which they edited on-site to produce and
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deliver a show on the last day—much like a slide show on the last day
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of summer camp.
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</p><p>
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“<span class="quote">Customers today want integrated video, computer graphics, MIDI, and
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digital sound effects in their slide shows,</span>” says Ierna. “<span class="quote">The cost of the
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hardware, software, and expertise to produce that kind of presentation is
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phenomenal: a 15-20 minute show can cost up to $30,000. You almost want
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to ask customers to hand over their checkbooks!</span>”
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</p><p>
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As a small company, AMP is always on the lookout for ways to make their
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multimedia productions easier, faster, and less expensive. And that's
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exactly why the BeBox caught their eye. “<span class="quote">Out-of-the-box hardware extras
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are what made us choose the BeBox,</span>” Ierna says. Especially the MIDI and
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GeekPort capabilities, but also the PCI bus architecture, the CD-quality
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stereo sound, and the slew of expansion and connection options. “<span class="quote">With the
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BeBox, we feel like we're working on the cutting
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edge instead of on the 10- to 20-year old technology that most of today's
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high-volume computers are based on.</span>”
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</p><p>
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AMP has both short-term and long-term plans for the BeBox. Short-term,
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they'll use their Be application internally to produce the slide
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presentations, with the <span class="trademark">BeOS</span>™ GUI replacing their command line-driven
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programming language (which has been adopted as the industry standard).
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“<span class="quote">We'll also use our application to control the slide shows: the slide
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projectors will be controlled by the BeBox (most likely through the
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GeekPort), our audio will be generated on the BeBox, and we'll use a
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control signal from the BeBox to sync the video.</span>” Long term, they hope to
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see digital video editing and output on the box, providing a truly
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integrated solution.
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</p><p>
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Ierna doesn't think it will take much to attract multimedia developers to
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the Be platform. “<span class="quote">Mention true multiprocessing, true multitasking,
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multithreading, the expansion and connection options that the box
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provides, and they'll froth at the mouth.</span>”
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</p><p>
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AMP expects to release their Be application in early 1997. For more
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information, send an e-mail message to tom_ierna@mailhost.valpak.com.
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</p></div><hr class="pagebreak" /><div class="sect1"><div xmlns="" xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" class="titlepage"><div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><h2 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="title"><a id="Gassee1-17"></a>Homage</h2></div><div xmlns:d="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="author">By <span class="firstname">Jean-Louis</span> <span class="surname">Gassée</span></span></div></div></div><p>
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This week we lost a big man, David Packard, one of the Founding Fathers
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of Silicon Valley. The mourning has less an air of sadness than one of
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celebration for we are remembering an accomplished life. There isn't much
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I can add to the well-deserved tributes to his business and
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philanthropic achievements. "The HP Way," a charmingly unassuming book,
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details the philosophy behind the business "Bill and Dave" built,perhaps
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the most enduringly successful company in our industry, good to its
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shareholders, customers and employees. I know, I worked there.
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</p><p>
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Twenty-eight years ago this coming June, Hewlett-Packard offered me what
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proved to be the opportunity of a lifetime. At age 24, I was coming out
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of what is tolerantly referred to in California as my psycho-social
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moratorium. Meaning my business experience consisted of a string of
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disconnected jobs—descriptions of some would be out of place in this
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family publication—in the food, beverage and entertainment,
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pharmaceuticals and insurance fields. I had no idea what a resume was.
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So, when I saw the recruitment ad specifying a math or physics degree,
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selling experience and fluent English, I wrote a two-page letter
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explaining why they should hire me. They did, in spite of my broken
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English. My job was to launch their first desktop computer in the French
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market.
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</p><p>
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Looking back, I shudder sometimes. Placed today in their situation, would
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I hire myself? Joining Hewlett-Packard was a revelation. I came from a
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culture of distrust and hostility between management and workers. At HP I
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grew in an environment where I was trusted, given a degree of freedom and
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responsibility I had not encountered elsewhere, and found an incredible
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patience with my combination of inexperience and strongly held views. I
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flourished and rose in the hierarchy as HP became king of the hill in the
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desktop computer business, before it missed the early phase of the PC
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revolution.
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</p><p>
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To this day I'm indebted to HP for its kind of schooling. It was so
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convincing I came to think every US company conducted their business in
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the same humane and efficient way. I was brought back to reality when I
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joined another school—of hard knocks this time—at a very East Coast
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minicomputer company. A few years later I got an opportunity to practice
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both kinds of schooling when I started Apple France. Our office was
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across the street from HP so I could hire a few good men from the old
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company without disturbing their commute. We did well and, in obeisance
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to the Peter Principle, I was transferred to this country and promoted to
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a job for which I had no experience or formal training.
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</p><p>
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After another five years of schooling in the ways of Corporate America, I
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started Be. The HP connection helped in small and big ways: When HP's
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credit department was unwilling to ship a logic analyzer to Steve
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Sakoman's garage—a small but frustrating problem—John Young's (HP's
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CEO at the time) secretary quickly cleared the path. The Big Problem was
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fund raising. When we started Be, our idea looked even crazier than it
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does today. Windows and Mac reigned supreme, investors in NeXT and
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Momenta had been burned and Go didn't look great either. Kleber
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Beauvillain, CEO of HP France and an early Be investor with other HP
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Europe luminaries, made the introduction to Credit Lyonnais. Their
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venture arm, Innolion, became the lead investor in our first round. The
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company would have probably never gotten off the ground without that
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connection at a time when most US venture funds (with one exception,
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Newtek) found the idea too risky—or "too interesting" as the dreadful
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euphemism became familiar to us.
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</p><p>
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As we make the transition from a group developing a product to a real
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company, one with developers, business partners, and customers, I too
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mourn the passing of a great man. I do it with admiration for a life well
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lived, with gratitude for the opportunities and the schooling, and with
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the hope I'll honor my debt in building this business.
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</p></div></div><div id="footer"><hr /><div id="footerT">Prev: <a href="Issue1-16.html">Issue 1-16, March 27, 1996</a> Up: <a href="volume1.html">Volume 1: 1995–1996</a> Next: <a href="Issue1-18.html">Issue 1-18, April 10, 1996</a> </div><div id="footerB"><div id="footerBL"><a href="Issue1-16.html" title="Issue 1-16, March 27, 1996"><img src="./images/navigation/prev.png" alt="Prev" /></a> <a href="volume1.html" title="Volume 1: 1995–1996"><img src="./images/navigation/up.png" alt="Up" /></a> <a href="Issue1-18.html" title="Issue 1-18, April 10, 1996"><img src="./images/navigation/next.png" alt="Next" /></a></div><div id="footerBR"><div><a href="http://www.haiku-os.org"><img src="./images/People_24.png" alt="haiku-os.org" title="Visit The Haiku Website" /></a></div><div class="navighome" title="Home"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html"><img src="./images/navigation/home.png" alt="Home" /></a></div></div><div id="footerBC"><a href="http://www.access-company.com/home.html" title="ACCESS Co."><img alt="Access Company" src="./images/access_logo.png" /></a></div></div></div><div id="licenseFooter"><div id="licenseFooterBL"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" title="Creative Commons License"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://licensebuttons.net/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a></div><div id="licenseFooterBR"><a href="./LegalNotice.html">Legal Notice</a></div><div id="licenseFooterBC"><span id="licenseText">This work is licensed under a
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<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative
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Commons Attribution-Non commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License</a>.</span></div></div></body></html>
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