Just ask Bob Kaiser of Essential Elements. This spring, Bob's tour of certain Redwood City dumpsters netted $10,000 worth of NeXTstation memory modules concealed in file folders at the bottom of the trash. And as long as the bin is on public property, it's all perfectly legal. Finders keepers.
Apple's dumpsters in Cupertino have long been a mecca for connoisseurs of secret documents. That's where one Sullivan informant hit on a treasure trove this month. One amazing find was a draft of an agreement with a company called Quix Computerware of Lucerne, Switzerland, to sanction sales of Macintosh LC ROMs for converting NeXTstations to run the Mac OS. It appears that Quix plans to market a product called Daydream, a small white box that connects to your DSP port and loads System 7.1 and Apple's ROM secrets into your NeXTstation RAM. Your performance is completely native, comparable to a Macintosh Quadra 900 or 950 (depending on your model of NeXT). It is compatible with all Macintosh software.
Amazing as it sounds, the ROMs are licensed from Apple. According to the documents, Quix plans to sell the box for less than $1000, though there is no indication of where or when the product will be available. Maybe this is what Steve means when he talks about only one computer on every desk.
Even more interesting was the crumpled memo discussing the future of Taligent in light of the cutbacks at Apple. It refers to the company's need to raise outside funding and discusses some contingencies if the Pink project goes belly up. One alternative is an alliance with NeXT, which after all is already shipping what's on Taligent's drawing board. It is not so far-fetched, considering that new CEO Mike Spindler goes back to the Steve Jobs days at Apple. You might also note all the nice things Steve has been saying about Diesel Mike in the press.
Back in Redwood City, part of the old NeXT property at 600 Galveston will be the new corporate headquarters of 3DO Corporation. NeXT employees are already planning lunch-time trips across the street to check out the next generation in consumer-electronics game technology. NeXT's revived board of directors, which includes Larry Ellison of Oracle and Dan Case of Hambrick & Quist in addition to Steve Jobs and a representative from Canon, has met twice since June. Top priority is reaching a solid business plan with realistic sales targets for 1994. Word is that the board is satisfied with the early '93 numbers, with NEXTSTEP sales in the first month after shipment running above expectations.
NeXT is considering plans for a January developer conference on the East Coast, a region that was underrepresented at last spring's NeXTWORLD Expo. The timing coincides with the schedule for NEXTSTEP 4.0 feature freeze, whereupon 4.0-savvy briefings can begin in earnest. While that sounds hopeful, don't expect to see a shipping 4.0 before calendar year 1995, when we can expect a triple-architecture (NeXT, Intel, and HP PA-RISC) release. Would that be called "really fat?" How about "obese?"
The legal market, once considered a prime target for NEXTSTEP, has been moving backwards recently. Big plans at the USWest corporate counsel's office have been scaled back from the planned 275 seats to the already-installed 50 to 60 machines. Windows NT will be the strategic platform. In Tulsa, Conner & Winters also dropped NeXT in favor of Windows.
Not all the news comes from dumpsters. Tuning in to MTV to keep up with the youth culture, Sullivan discovered at last where all the extra NeXTstations went. It wasn't the government boys after all but pop icon Madonna, who snatched up the hardware for her "Rain" video. A whole bank of stations is prominently featured in the high-concept spots Ð each and every one running NEXTSTEP in Kanji.
Speaking of unexpected finds, one recent visitor to the offices of Athena Design, makers of the Mesa spreadsheet, saw an old-fashioned medicine bottle filled with a beautiful blue liquid and labeled "Appsoft Solution." Whatever liquid you prefer, it tastes best in a Lt. Sullivan coffee mug Ð yours in exchange for industry secrets. Contact Sullivan at 415/978-3374 or send e-mail to sullivan@ nextworld.com.
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