Snippets from a reporter’s notebook after the first week of the Microsoft Corp. antitrust trial in Washington, D.C:
How heavy is the spin in the Microsoft trial? So heavy that when one public relations operative sought to discredit a critic of Netscape Communications Corp., she offered this indictment: “He’s one of those people with long hair, long fingernails and he sleeps during the day.” As though there would be much of a software industry if there were rules about grooming, manicures or nocturnal prowling.
–
Government lawyers weren’t the only ones swinging haymakers at Bill Gates last week. Rev. Douglas Moore, a Washington, D.C., minister and businessman, unfurled a large banner on Monday taking Gates to task for leaving black people off his board of directors and his list of philanthropies. Moore noted that Gates has given millions to Harvard and Duke, but nothing to Howard or other predominantly black schools. And he noted that there aren’t any blacks on Microsoft’s board of directors.
“He doesn’t have to be diversified. He’s a monopolist,” Moore complained.
–
People lined up as early as 4:30 a.m. for a seat at the 10 a.m. start of the Microsoft trial Oct. 19. Throughout the day, a couple dozen people kept vigil outside the courtroom doors, hoping to take the place of someone leaving. Court rules prohibit a closed-circuit feed or other telecasting, so the only way to view the trial is to be in the courtroom. By Wednesday, during the tedious, though occasionally dramatic cross examination of Netscape CEO James Barksdale, the pack of reporters, analysts, lawyers, Netscape and Microsoft employees and ordinary citizens had thinned to the point that there were usually four or five spare seats. Expect a return of the hordes Tuesday, when the government plays a portion of Gates’ 20-hour videotaped deposition.
Linear lunch: The same branch of mathematics that programmers use to plot airline schedules is now available to help you plan meals.
Computer science researchers at Argonne National Laboratory want to make people aware of linear programming, a complex field of mathematics used to solve problems with lots of variables. While it might sound like pretty heavy stuff, and it can be, Argonne’s linear programming Web sites are also lots of fun.
“We wanted to provide something that would be enjoyable and informative for people who had no knowledge of linear programming as well as useful for people who are quite sophisticated,” said Steve Wright, an Argonne senior scientist.
Argonne’s Web site (www.mcs.anl.gov/otc/Guide/CaseStudies/diet/) enables people to select foods that they like to eat and then puts together a suggested diet that provides minimum daily nutrient requirements at the lowest possible price.
Besides listing the foods, serving numbers and cost for a day’s worth of nutrition, the program also gives people a breakdown of where calories come from in the suggested diet, the costs of individual items and so on.
More Top Picks Best Laptops
At a more sophisticated location (www.mcs.anl.gov/otc/Server/), users can find linear programming software they can download to use in solving problems such as managing inventories or manufacturing processes.
People can also submit problems for researchers at Argonne or at Northwestern University, which is a partner with Argonne in a joint center for linear programming, to solve. Sophisticated users of linear programming also can find an extensive listing of free and commercially available linear programming software.
The sites get 1,600 to 2,000 visits daily, said Wright.
“One reason is that it’s assigned to a lot of students taking linear programming courses,” he said.
Argonne’s computer science department has a tradition of providing useful software to people, said Wright, and also has a mission to find creative ways of using the Web to promote awareness of linear programming.
New wine, old bottles: Pulling off a global gathering is risky business, as organizers of the second annual Global Learn Day (www.bfranklin.edu) discovered the hard-drive way.
The round-the-world voyage intends to bring together, in cyberspace, leaders of distance education, conferencing, Internet technology and public service for the purpose of extending education to every corner of the globe.
Billed by its organizers as the Largest Educational Webcast in History, the 28-hour virtual conference is now set to begin at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7. The first try, on Oct. 10, was scrapped when the crash of the Earthlink Network on the West Coast, where many of the technical elements of the conference were managed, left thousands without Internet access or e-mail service.
So, what do you do when you have to cancel invitations to thousands of people from 200 countries less than 48 hours before showtime?
Some old-fashioned technology came to the rescue, said Terrence R. Redding of Palm Beach, Fla., one of the organizers.
Telephone calls became a substitute for e-mail. And, organizers even resorted to U.S. postal service to reconnect with each other.
———-
MORE ON THE INTERNET: Read previous “Inside Technology” columns at chicagotribune.com/go/insider