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Computing
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Surfing Silicon Valley: Surfing south of market

March 19, 1998
Web posted at: 10:04 AM EST (1504 GMT)

By San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg Lefevre

I'm composing this sitting in the back of the Coffee.Net cafe. Located south of the city's Market Street, it is one of San Francisco's original Internet cafes. I'm clicking away on my Newton MessagePad 2000 (remember those?). The place is packed. This is cyber class night. The mood is eclectic and inclusive at the same time. Up front someone from Slip.Net is talking about making up your own web site (more in a future column). Questions and answers fly back and forth. The vocabulary stretches from the most basic to the hyperliterate. From tie- dyes to ties-and-dyed-hair everyone in the room has only the Internet in common. They've come together because they all want to be on the Web. One fellow can't come up with the extra $5 he'll need each month for an added feature he needs.

Another in the group is rich enough to buy whatever he needs. But they're both hungry for knowledge about how to make this cyber thing work. They've got a lot more in common than they first knew.

South of Market is a district on the "other side" of San Francisco's business district. It used to be the docks, then it was the warehouse district. Now it's known for its newest industry -- cyberspace. There are probably more software companies per square mile here than anywhere. Mostly because it's only about two square miles and there are a LOT of software companies here. So many that it's become a problem. The small companies are growing so fast that they can't get the space they need. Their employees can't find reasonably priced apartments.

And the winners are ...

I was witness to some of the best Web sites around, and their authors and designers at last weekend's Webbies. The live awards show packed the Exploratorium Theatre in San Francisco and was webcast at the same time.

AllPolitics.com (spun up elsewhere on this same server) won for best political site. An easy choice I thought. Someone else won for best news site.

I was asked to judge the Education category. Smithsonian was one of the nominees but I voted for learn.com. Check this site out. It's packed with that common-sense life-skills stuff your dad used to tell you about or your Aunt Martha passed on to all the nieces and nephews. How to fix this, run that, operate these, bake that, fold these, stop that. Of course these days dad's moved on with his midlife crisis and he's not around to pass on practical wisdom, and Aunt Martha's in a commune in Montana polishing gun barrels.

The Webbies were sponsored by The Web magazine. The mag folded, leaving behind a small but fanatical band of believers. The promoters have promised another competition next year. Be sure to tune in.

Comedian Chris McGuire was a great master of ceremonies, spinning one snappy Web joke after another. It was fascinating to gauge the audience's sensitivity to some of the humor. I mean, what's an internet festival without some Bill Gates jokes, right? Wrong. Nearly every Gatescrack went flat. Too close to home, I guess. Example: "This just in. Microsoft has just announced it has purchased the alphabet. Now certain letters will no longer be in use. Nor will some words, like litigate." Nervous twitter then dead silence. Funny? Yes. Laughter? No.

Later McGuire lamented his inability to get the Web browser running on his PC. "Where do I want to go today? Down to the computer store to buy a Macintosh!!" Huge Applause. Loud laughter. Cheers! The top joke of the night. Then I remembered. Most of these folks write their sites on Macs.

Don't they know the Mac is dead anyway? Doesn't Steve Jobs know the Mac is dead? What about all those people rushing to buy Macs from Steve's Web site? They bought $12 million the first month. Don't they know? Why is Jobs pumping out even faster than fast Macs when the whole enterprise is doomed? Yeah, and few thought he could make money using computers to make cartoon movies, either.

Most experts I've asked have told me Apple will not survive. Funny, most of them use Macs.

What does Jobs know that the experts don't?

Surf on...

 
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