Opinion
Bringing down
the bully
Judge should punish
Microsoft to the fullest
It’s official - Microsoft is GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY!
On Monday, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that
Microsoft was guilty of 23 of 26 of the charges brought forth
by the Department of Justice, and that Microsoft violated
the Sherman Antitrust Act by maintaining “monopoly power
by anticompetitive means.”
What it boils down to is that almost everything the gov
ernment accused Microsoft of is true. It used illegal tactics
to poison the Java computer language, tied the hands of
computer hardware-makers on what they could and couldn’t
include with their systems and, the big one, used monopo
listic control over computer operating systems to further
Internet Explorer over Netscape Navigator.
n i i ne inai neia naming dui oaa
DUYYieCl OTICe, omens for Microsoft. Over the
course of the trial, the company
was caught altering a tape, watched
Department 1ts own experts admit Microsoft
~ T . was a monopoly and saw the
Oj JUStlCe Was Microsoft witnesses poke holes in
determined Microsoft’s own story.
ueiermineu This ign.t the first run.in the
not tO get Department of Justice has had with
# Microsoft. In an earlier trial over
burned again. similar issues, the Department of
Justice struck a settlement with
Microsoft to get concessions, but that settlement was ren
dered useless by loopholes.
Burned once, the Department of Justice was determined
not to get burned again.
This time the Department of Justice refused to let
Microsoft write the settlement, for fear the loophole strate
gy will be used again. And at that, Microsoft refused to hear
any more and walked away from the table.
So what is the solution if it isn’t a settlement?
Sanctions virtually are ineffective in a constantly chang
ing computer industry. Microsoft must be broken up.
Judge Jackson’s decision won’t be issued until this sum
mer, and the appeals process will take another year or two,
but Microsoft has to be broken up.
If Microsoft were divided, the company would be split
into three major sections: operating systems, hardware and
software.
When one company decides the fate of an industry, it’s
never for the best of everyone.
We hope that Jackson employs the sternest possible rem
edy in his verdict, and we hope that it will be the only effec
tive one we can foresee: breakfip.
Editorial Board
Josh Funk (editor) • J.J. Harder • Cliff Hicks • Samuel
McKewon • Dane Stickney • Kimberly Sweet • Lindsay
Young
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Obermeyer’s
VIEW
Letters to the
EDITOR
We want the Mac
Some of you may be aware that
last week UNL honored Dr. Bill
McLaughlin with the Most
Distinguished Teacher of the Year
Award. Of every professor here at
UNL, he was named the most distin
guished by the students.
Dr. Mac (as the students call him)
is a general chemistry professor, and
he is one of the most amazing teach
ers I have ever had. I’m sure any stu
dents who have had him would agree
he takes a difficult and sometimes
boring subject and turns it into some
thing practical and interesting. Not
many teachers are gifted with the
ability to teach and keep students
interested.
What I would like to bring to the
students’ attention is that this univer
sity is inches from losing him. His
contract ends soon, and another
school has offered him a position. In
response, our university hasn’t done
much.
The administrators are not mak
ing an effort to keep him. They want
researchers, not teachers. Dr.
McLaughlin is not just any professor.
I’ve had my share of terrible teach
ers, and this university can’t afford to
lose a great one.
Dr. McLaughlin teaches approxi
mately 900 students, and he makes
every effort to be available for all of
them.
If anyone had ever tried to visit
him in his office hours, he or she
would find several other students
also waiting there. He sees every
one.
This university has more than
20,000 students, yet only six are
graduating with chemistry majors.
This might say something about the
chemistry department for undergrad
uates, and it cannot afford to lose one
of its greatest professors.
I ask that we as a student body be
called to action. Please contact the
Chemistry Department Chairman
Lawrence Parkhurst at 551
Hamilton Hall and urge
him to keep Dr.
Mac at UNL.
Katie Wright
sophomore
accounting
Are we the paupers?
Leslie Owusu’s article in yester
day’s Daily Nebraskan brought up
many good points about the miscon
ceptions of being a student athlete,
yet she did not endear herself to the
non-athletic students.
It’s true that many stereotypes of
student athletes are unjust and based
on a few cases. The few student ath
letes I know are very intelligent,
hard-working and energetic. Yet the
last section of her article smacks of
someone who feels she is royalty
interacting with the lowly common
ers.
Having a Student Athlete Day
where students can live the life of an
athlete? Are non-athletes paupers
and student athletes kings and
queens? Not everyone desires to live
another person’s life. Many students
have other things to do that cloud
daydreaming about living the life of
an athlete. Homework, jobs,
extracurricular activities and social
functions keep many students busy
and content with their own lives.
Get to know a student athlete?
Besides those I’m acquainted with, I
see enough profiles about student
athletes when I watch sports or read
magazines to get an idea of what it’s
like to be a student athlete.
Maybe students should take the
time to get to know a single parent
who has a full-time job and takes
night classes or some other low-pro
file student. The lack of abundant
information on these students may
make getting to know them interest
ing.
Finally, Owusu had a misconcep
tion of her own when she wrote this
column. By simply writing it she*
assumed the non-athletes in the
student body want to experience
what it’s like to be an “elite” student
athlete.
I hope Owusu understands that
other students live their lives without
being envious or even jealous of stu
dent athletes. Even the lowly non
athletes can be content with their
own lives.
Tristan Gudvangen
senior
accounting
Ironic accusations
Sean Krause offers, as a rationale
in opposition to gays serving openly
in the military, “most males do not
want to get dressed or shower while
being watched by a homosexual
male.”
The protestations of Krause
sound a lot like third-grade sandbox
temper tantrums.
The presumption made by
Krause is that he has something I as a
self-respecting gay man want to see.
Don’t flatter yourself, Sean. Why
assume I don’t possess the ability to
exercise sufficient self-control in
your naked presence?
It is rather ironic that the histori
cal stereotype of gay men has been of
weak, cowering, effeminate figures,
but examine the rhetoric of guys like
Sean - there we find the real cow- i ‘
ards.
Whit Brooks
graduate student
sociology
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