[net.micro.mac] Microsoft EXCELL

ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward) (04/21/85)

[]
In the San Francisco Examiner on Sunday April 21st, columnist John
Dvorak reported that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will announce a
Microsoft integrated package on May 2nd.  This package for the Mac will
be called EXEL.  Dvorak reports rumors that EXEL will be shipped in the
summer.  It apparently will be a spreadsheet program integrated with
CHART and some kind of database.  The spreadsheet will recalculate only
those cells that require change, and the Switcher will be incorporated
as part of the scheme.  Microsoft is saying that the package
is multifunctional, not integrated.

Dvorak also reports that there has been a very successful effort by
Microsoft to block information about this product from being released. 
He recounts an incident in which he wrote an article about the product
for a nation magazine, and had all references to EXCEL and Microsoft
taken out.  He refers to "an amazing willingness on the part of editors
to kowtow", and calls it "a low point in journalism ethics".  

Journalism?   I always thought that computer rags were put out by 
computer vendors' marketing departments.

jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (04/23/85)

ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward), writing about John Dvorak's column on a rumored
new Microsoft product, writes:

>  He recounts an incident in which he wrote an article about the
>  product for a nation magazine, and had all references to EXCEL
>  and Microsoft taken out.  He refers to "an amazing willingness on
>  the part of editors to kowtow", and calls it "a low point in
>  journalism ethics".

Judging from SOME of the "rumors" published in SIMILAR columns in the past
(e.g., the rumor that Microsoft was in BIG TROUBLE because they had USED
some interrupt vectors that WERE reserved on the 80186, a rumor that turned
out to BE entirely false) maybe THE editors were just doing what EDITORS
are supposed to DO, trying to keep the NEWS REASONABLY accurate.

(And then, there was that rumor that Lotus wasn't going to put any of its
products on the Mac, because it was too hard to write software for, and so
terrible things were going to happen to Macintosh sales as a result...)

(Most of the above, incidentally, is good-natured :-).  I guess Dvorak is
kind of like Howard Cosell; you may not always like what he says, or the
strange way he writes it, but it sure is interesting to read it.)
-- 
Full-Name:  J. Eric Roskos
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brad@gcc-bill.ARPA (Brad Parker) (04/24/85)

In article <851@peora.UUCP> jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) writes:
>... I guess Dvorak is
>kind of like Howard Cosell; you may not always like what he says, or the
>strange way he writes it, but it sure is interesting to read it.
>-- 

YES! The only bad part about infoworld's downward spiral is that
we may loose the "Gospel according to John D.!"
-- 

J Bradford Parker
uucp: seismo!harvard!gcc-bill!brad

"I've seen this happen in other people's lives... 
	and now it's happening in mine."		-The Smiths