Now OT: Yahoogroups (was Re: modifying the FCB1010)

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 1:42 AM -0400 6/29/08, Todd Pafford wrote:
>Me too, but if that's where the discussion is, I'll swallow my pride
>and put up with it.  How can such a big name in the internet industry
>make stuff that sucks so much?  :/

Well, I'd say they don't make stuff that sucks so much, because they 
don't make stuff.

Instead, they buy up other start-ups (in this instance, e-groups and 
onelist) in order to drive up their perceived value and hence their 
stock price.  Then, rather than build on those start-up's 
technologies and force innovation, they merely let them languish and 
go buy up more start-ups.  When things start to look like they can't 
build on them any more, the top guys just cash in their stock options 
and bail.

It's not about technological innovation, or even excellence in 
service.  It's about money and merely playing a big game to get ahead.

To be fair, large companies are almost forced to behave in this 
manner once they go public.  There's this huge chunk of fickle 
investors/shareholders who only buy and sell your public stock to 
line their own pockets.  If you can't sell them on the idea that 
you're going to make them money, they'll dump you like a hot potato 
and your stock value goes into the gutter; as well as any perceived 
market value and future sales.  These stockholders could give a d*** 
about whether you're actually making stuff that doesn't suck.  They 
only want you to make them cash.

Yahoo used to be the darling of the Internet, now it's Google. 
Pretty soon, Google should succumb to the same suckage factor and 
somebody else will take their place.  The wheel turns, the top dog 
gets chopped up and fed to the runts....

        --m.
-- 
_____
"I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of 
murder... later"