1997
Reed Hastings starts Netflix – Apple buys NeXT and Steve Jobs returns as interim CEO – Silicon Graphics builds the complex that becomes the Googleplex – U.S. Supreme Court strikes down most of Computer Decency act
Gravy Train
Jumbo shrimp, lemon linguini, swordfish, mahi mahi, lamb chops, New York steak. Red wine, scotch or Jack Daniels are ordered to help wash it down. The dessert menu turns up and before long, bellies are bulging. The bill finally arrives: $234. Bill it to the boss! While this might sound like the exploits of a spoiled corporate executive, the preceding tale is woven from a travel expense report submitted by a San Jose city council member who drove down to Long Beach in late 1995 for a school board convention and partied with some old colleagues. “The boss” picking up the check was the taxpaying public. And that wasn’t the only meal the public paid for on that high-rolling trip, taken by Councilman George Shirakawa, Jr.. There was another $257 feast, too. An examination of city finance records for elected and appointed officials shows that each year San Jose taxpayers are paying for hundreds of meals, costing thousands of dollars, both on the road and at home. When they’re at home, the politicians and city bosses are given special treatment, operating under a different set of rules than their employees. Will Harper, April 10, 1997
Giving It All Away
Like other now legendary programmers—Woz, Andreesen, Jerry Yang—Linus Torvalds’ work has touched millions. Unlike them, he did not become a decamillionaire in his 20s. Someday, that could change. But for now, Torvalds remains an uncorrupted cult hero living amid ground-zero Silicon Valley expressways, Lexus dealerships and bedroom linen superstores. One day, the Linux way of doing business—free, Internet-based software distribution—could recast the greedy landscape of the still young information age. For now, Linus has fallen down the rabbit hole and is unpacking his things. Michael Learmonth, May 8, 1997 [Former Metro staffer Michael Learmonth covers media and technology for Advertising Age and AdAge.com, and Tweets prodigiously: @learmonth.]
Bye, Gary
The Merc and “Dark Alliance” reporter Gary Webb have finally agreed to part ways, sources tell Eye. The Merc settled a grievance that Webb filed with the San Jose Newspaper Guild, the terms of which union officials say are confidential. The fallout began soon after Webb was named “Journalist of the Year” by the Society of Professional Journalists in 1996. First-tier national newspapers, scrambling to catch up to the story, questioned the assertion that the CIA could have started the crack epidemic or that top spooks even knew about the crack-for-arms deals. In May, Merc editor Jerry Ceppos wrote an editorial explaining the series’ “shortcomings,” which ironically took another SPJ award. After the editorial, Webb told Eye he was sitting on a stack of follow-up stories the Merc refused to publish. Ceppos removed Webb from the national desk in Sacramento and banished him to a bureau in Cupertino. Will Harper, Dec. 4, 1997 [In 2004, Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide.]
E-Market
Daniel Sroka sits at his desk in the yellow-and-purple-striped, balloon-and-poster-strewn gymnasium that is the nerve center of the biggest success story on the Internet—and now one of the valley’s legendary companies.More than 32 million people logged onto one of Yahoo!’s websites during the month of December, according to the company’s calculations, and while many simply used it as a search engine, many others followed Yahoo! links to buy airline tickets, purchase stock from Wall Street firms and make hotel reservations. Sroka clicks through a series of Yahoo! pages, including the financial page. Today, the Dow Jones Average has climbed back over 8,000. Less than a decade ago, nobody thought the Dow would ever break four thousand. Sroka clicks twice more, and we’re looking at a graph tracking the Dow since 1990—showing the steady climb of more than 2,000 points in the past three years—since Yahoo! began to make the Internet accessible to everyday users. Eric Johnson, Jan. 15, 1997
