Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Too much concentration of power in one company’s hands is a dangerous thing (“Microsoft’s Six Fatal Errors,” Science & Technology, June 19). It’s a ray of hope for consumers that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson stood up to Bill Gates’s purported boast that “this antitrust thing will blow over.” Let us all hope that this ruling will prevent Microsoft from stifling its competition. Doug Long Downers Grove, Ill.
What exactly is it that Bill Gates “blew”? Our age should be proud that we had such a creative genius who built an influential business empire providing so many valuable jobs and quality products from which the whole world has benefited. Bill Gates “lost” only because he was a power threat to the Justice Department and a business nemesis to lazy, envious entrepreneur would-bes. His only fault is that he was too successful. It was the judge who blew it. The verdict is nothing but a vindictive government conspiracy; it was not a just, wise decision. Personally, I’m buying some Microsoft stock. William Cottringer Highland, Ill.
The real reason Bill Gates finds himself in his present situation is that he does what every corporate executive does: play the unpretty game that is business. Every major U.S. company has lots of dirty little secrets; unfortunately for Microsoft and true modern capitalism, the Justice Department seems more focused on airing the rich, successful guy’s dirty laundry than on helping the American consumer. If the federal courts had any sense, they would get tough on Big Tobacco and Soft Money, potential targets of much more importance than the Poor Little Rich Nerd. Alex Jennings San Diego, Calif.
The Post Office did a mutilation job on Bill Gates’s face on the cover of my copy of your June 19 issue. I started patchwork with Scotch tape and instinctively began to hum “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.” I wonder if all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can put Humpty together again. Sal Smith Oak Ridge, Tenn.
How Far Will Teachers Go? Although the courageous children should be commended for blowing the whistle on those of their teachers who acted inappropriately (“When Teachers Are Cheaters,” special report, June 19), the teachers are hardly to blame for a system that sets them up to fail. The entire evaluation process of students and teachers needs to be examined–and until it is, America’s schools will continue to be second-rate. Laura Jane Glascoff Columbus, Miss.
We certainly wouldn’t think of doing business with a repair shop that has cheated us, or of patronizing a business that holds our families in contempt. Yet that is exactly what we are forced to do when we have to send our children to public schools that cheat them out of a quality education. Fritz Steiger, President Children First America Bentonville, Ark.
Hurrah for the students of Potomac Elementary who reported their cheating teachers. If their values survive for the duration of their educational experience, they might just be our best hope for reform. George Tremblay Carolina, R.I.
Corrections In our current “e-Life” Special Issue, a report (“Hot Machines”) misidentified the manufacturer of the i-opener fax as Netvision; it is made by Netpliance.
In our June 19 column “Know When to Fold ‘Em, Bill” (Random Access), we mistakenly cited the case of Lauder v. Duff; we should have said Perelman v. Duff, referring to the acrimonious divorce proceedings of Ron Perelman and Patricia Duff.
