Tidbits & Quotes: March 2004

Things are only impossible until they're not.

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded, dead.

It's good to win. Only one team can win. Everybody can compete, give up his all. Everybody can grow from the experience, no matter the final score. Everybody can be recognized. And respected. It hurts to lose, but it hurts worse to be disrespected.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

So, given the challenges of application development, we made a very simple business decision: we chose to target the platform with 95% of the market. If, in some infinitesimal way, this choice bolsters Microsoft’s browser monopoly, that’s unfortunate, but Oddpost is a for-profit business, not a monument to justice. We don’t hate Macs, Opera, or standards, and most of us don’t even worship Satan. But market forces dictate our behavior. It makes no sense to exhaust half our development resources catering to 5% of the market.

Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.