The new Netscape millionaires prove

how much money is lying around on the

Web. Darn it, it's time for somebody

else to cash in, and what better way

than to claim that you invented the

whole kit and caboodle? According to

a press release from one Dr. Michael

Doyle and his Eolas Technologies, Dr.

Doyle "invented" a technology in 1993

called "Weblets," which sounds

suspiciously like HotJava's applets.

If Doyle's patent application is

granted, the folks at Sun who brought

us Java could owe this savvy

entrepreneur a tidy sum for

retroactive "licensing." Of course,

nobody can comment on the patent

filing itself, which remains secret -

all we have to go on is a press

release from Eolas last week. At one

point, the Eolas press release claims

that "also covered is the use of any

algorithm which implements dynamic

bi-directional communications between

Web browsers and external

applications." This little comment

and the rest of the release, of

course, elicited peals of virtual

laughter from the Web developers

community on its house organ, the

www-talk mailing list. "Shipping

around executable code has been part

of the plan for the Internet since

day one," one developer noted to us.

More peals of laughter could be heard

from those who listened to the

Internet-ignorant Dan Dorfman plug

the NASDAQ-traded stock of Camelot

Corporation last Thursday because of

its hot, hot new product, Digiphone.

Prior to Digiphone, it appears that

one of Camelot's most recent

corporate triumphs was to place a

subsidiary, Camelot Entertainment,

into chapter 7 bankruptcy. At least

one observer who knows about voice

applications for the Internet, Jeff

Pulver, saw the product fail

miserably at two investor roadshow

appearances and for three days

straight at the most recent PC Expo

in New York. When Pulver queried the

Digiphone representatives at PC Expo,

they blamed their product's failures

on the Internet service provider at

the event. "What I found really

strange about that remark," Pulver

tells us, "is I was able to telnet

into my host without any problems the

entire show."

If Windows 95 doesn't turn out to have

quite the market reach as its $200

million advertising campaign, Bill

might be pointing his finger at the

engineers who managed to turn an

operating system that's almost as

good as the Mac OS into a big, fat

memory hog. We're told that at one

major consumer-products company an

upgrade won't be in the offing

anytime soon. Three-fourths of its

50,000 installed PCs lack the RAM

requirements for Win95. Can we have

some chips and a resale license,

please?

By Ned Brainard

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