De Anza College student Al DeGuzman arrested for planning a Columbine-style attack – Hewlett-Packard acquires Compaq – Terrorists attack World Trade Center – American troops enter Afghanistan – Sex.com domain theft trial begins in San Jose – Napster forced to close
Whacked!
The shock, the rage, the enormity of it all became apparent as the obvious questions sprang to mind. How could a country fail so miserably to protect its citizens, maintain safe skies, even protect the nerve center of the earth’s most powerful military machine? Now there’s W in Louisiana, looking like a scared deer, assuring the world that America’s still in business. “We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people.” And he’ll punish those responsible, as soon he can figure out who did what. Don’t ask the intelligence agency his dad once ran. … The Federal Reserve’s still open, a White House spokeswoman assures. A country with no coherent strategy to protect its citizens can still print greenbacks. Meanwhile, sellers began hiking prices on eBay for World Trade Center souvenirs until it took action and halted the practice … and our president is passing out $300 refund checks. Dan Pulcrano, Sept. 13, 2001
Limp Business
She remembers when she had no fewer than eight clients a day. At $500 a pop, she was doing very well. But this year has been a difficult one, and now she’s lucky if she sees more than one customer a day. She sighs a lot as we talk. The pay cut is only part of the problem. “My stock investments are all messed up,” she adds. … “The Silicon Valley that most of these girls knew was just a phase,” said Maria, an escort-slash-tech-investor (not her real name), “and it’s passed … mark my words. The sooner the girls who came here on the hype realize that, the sooner they’ll move on, and the sooner this place will get back to normal. Alex Ionides, Sept. 27, 2001
Work: Linus Apocalypse?
The Microsoft antitrust case will now be settled partly out of court, and already U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has stated that the settlement will not involve breaking up or restructuring the monopolistic corporation. Since much of the fire behind Linux supporters was fueled by the idea that Microsoft could be beaten, this is a great psychological (and economic) blow. Annalee Newitz, Nov. 11, 2001
Yes! I’m Out Of Work!
Almost all have heard the stories of the two-month waiting list for U-Hauls, or of dotcom workers living in homeless shelters. Some have friends who left high-tech for firefighting or law school when not just their jobs but entire companies disappeared. Vacancy rates in office buildings in San Francisco climbed to 10.3 percent as of June this year, close to the same numbers as 1996, in the pretech boom days of the city. Lauren Barack, Nov. 19, 2001
