October 15, 2003

The May Report: 10/15/2003: Stolen eBay seller identity hits local event
organizer; a plot twist at Motorola; Go Cubs!

Editor and publisher: Ron May, ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com,
773-525-3944.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

— Briefly noted, by Ron May

1. READER COMMENTS AND RESPONSES
1a. Phil Williams: A different view of China
1b. Mary Kay Laurent: Ridge Suggests Mandatory Cyber-Security Disclosure

2. POSITIONS AVAILABLE
2a. ATG in Chicago is hiring Java experienced internet professionals

3. OTHER (Events)
3a. Thurs., Oct. 16: CMNC: Dan Gamotta of Motorola
3b. Monday, Oct. 20 and Tues. Oct. 21: Two AMC meetings
3c. Wednesday, Oct. 22: SAP Business Forum ’03
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The Scoop section:
______
Briefly noted, by Ron May

* Since I got back in the saddle just over a month ago, I have not had a day
when I lacked enthusiasm for writing, but today I am in a somber mood, partly
because of the psychologically devastating loss in last night’s game; partly
because the guy who sent the e-mail I published on Monday about Motorola may
lose his job as a result of the letter being published; and partly because no
“press” is being allowed at the TEC finance seminar today and I am the only
“press” that ever goes anyway. I understand the desire not to have confidential
financial info. published and would abide by that restriction, but for a broad
set of panel discussions, this seems a bit much. Alex Jarett told me this
morning that they have decided to err on the side of caution and the attendees
are being asked to screen themselves with respect to their bona fides as
qualified investors. So, the event appears to be operating as a combination of
education and investment solicitation to investors.

Anyway, I feel that my not being there is a loss to everyone (if I did not
truly believe that why am I “wasting” my time doing this report?), so the loss
of a good report on the meeting is a loss to all. I was telling Julia about
this situation today at lunch and I said to her that “I’ve changed, haven’t I?”
She retorted in her usual snappy way, “Yah, your shirt.”

The person from Motorola who sent that letter intended it as a personal
communication to me, but since he is unfamiliar with the ways of this report
— in fact, he has just become familiar with TMR this week — he did not
realize that he must ask for anonymity and/or non-publication. I did think
about whether to pull his name and then thought that Motorola is a big
cumbersome company and that this guy might just not care about whether he says
it with his name.

That thinking turns out to have been flat-out wrong. First, the guy works for
CSC now and they are even less concerned with niceties. Second, CSC did no due
diligence he tells me before the outsourcing deal was cut; so if they cared
that little before the deal why would they care about getting rid of him?; and
third, I will print this person’s resume in the event that he does lose his job
which he expects to be by the end of the week. This person did work for
Motorola and he explained to me that all the Motorola IT management was just
dropped into CSC, but that now CSC is thinking of itself as a separate
operation with little loyalty to Motorola and people are being dispersed
throughout the CSC operation. Apparently they just wanted the big name
contract, but did not consider what would really be involved. I asked him how
he knows that he will be fired and he almost laughed, as though it is a
foregone conclusion. Two phone calls also tipped him off.

On the subject of the Cubs, I am hardly, baseball fan that I am (not), the
person to wax philosophic. There are people who understand the history and
psychology far better than I. But I do consider myself to be a Chicagoan, not
by birth or growing up, but by college and beyond and I do have some Chicago in
my blood. It is a city of broad shoulders, of meat and potatoes and the
Grabowski view of life. I like the Chicago no nonsense “tell it like it is and
let the chips fall where they may” attitude. Remember Mike Royko. Royko
represents the Chicago I think of — direct, no bs, on the level, strong and
resolute. I am not big on the mafia side of this town’s culture though. But
that hard-working immigrant blue collar population no longer really runs things
and no longer exists in the numbers it used to, but the children of those guys
— witness our current governor — are running things.

Somewhere in the back of my mind and I suspect many others is the nagging
question: Are we more comfortable with losing?

My brother who is a life-long baseball fan was taken aback when I raised this
point with him this morning and quite correctly pointed out that if the Cubs
had come from behind and the series was now tied 3-3 going into the seventh
game, we would all be saying how great it is that they stand a chance. And so
they do. They are already one of the top four teams in baseball this year and
no one can take that away from them, no matter what happens. They have played
some phenomenal games and have competed at the very highest level quite well.
Again, that is something they and we can be proud of no matter what happens
tonight. The statistic that I quoted my brother about the Cubs, that they have
lost 67 straight games when they entered the ninth inning behind, was
immediately refuted. He said that one would have to look at how that compares
to other teams in baseball and that even the Yankees may have a similar record.

They may not be a “come from behind” team but every team has its own style of
winning. I think it is hard to generalize about the culture at large from one
baseball game and this entire line of thinking is a non-starter. But that is
what happens when I get depressed.

* So, lacking any real story to lead with today, I got lucky — a call from
one of those event organizers/PR guys known for his time on the frontier. He
was buying a digital camera on eBay for $1,084 to take pictures in low light at
his “low life” events and he got cyber-scammed. Apparently the identity of the
person selling the camera legitimately had been stolen and our buddy wired the
money to a guy who had nothing to do with the person selling, I believe in
London (ironic, given our buddy’s name, isn’t it?) Our guy became suspicious
when he did not hear back in twenty four hours with the tracking number, etc.,
and so he went back to the software and found the original person’s
information. That guy had great references, by the way — 178 of them. The
original and legit guy contacted our man here and told him that another buyer
had almost been scammed but lucked out because the banks were closed on Monday.
eBay admitted to the legit seller that his identity had been stolen. So, all
this has been reported to the authorities now and it remains to be seen how
much of the problem can be traced to “hackable” eBay software. Our guy made the
original contact using the eBay software. Our guy here has given eBay 24 hours
to respond on this before he goes to the press (the real press, like CNN) which
is interested in the story. Meanwhile he has no camera and is out $1,084. Does
anyone else have a similar eBay or cyber-crime story?

* A reader tells me that Flip’s name and company, Divine, surfaced in the trial
of Frank Quattrone. See the Wall Street Journal coverage on Monday, October 13,
2003.

* Rumor has it that iNest Realty will hit a major milestone very soon —
$1,000,000,000 in homes sold since Andy Wolf started the service in 1997.

* For individual and comparative data on Purchasing Power Parity, check out
this site which was referred by a reader: www.worldbank.org/data/icp/

* In the last forty eight hours, I have had over fifty new subscribe requests
from the website, many of them coming from Motorola employees. Maybe some of
these people can be anonymous sources. Those numbers are not typical so TMR
must be doing something right.

* Under the header of “Where are they now?” several people have recently
inquired about the whereabouts of Bruce Hanson of PricewaterhouseCoopers. I
called him and he has just returned from a week in Honduras which was a mission
for his church. In addition he has been busy with the Naperville United Way.
Anyway, we have just missed each other at meetings, although he was at the
Early Stage Investment Conference.

Bruce explained to me that when PwC has to decide where to put its marketing
dollars, an organization like the MEF, while quite worthwhile as an
organization helping very early stage entrepreneurs, is too early stage for a
firm like PwC to be of use. Bruce said that there are lawyers who can help
companies at that stage before an accounting firm like PwC comes into the
picture. Bruce is no longer on the board at the MEF but said that PwC will
probably help sponsor the Christmas party. Bruce is on a panel this afternoon
in the finance seminar for the Technology Executives Club.

In any event, Bruce Hanson is still around but a bit more selective about the
events he goes to. Yesterday he attended an Executives Club of America meeting
at the Metropolitan Club.

Continuing the “where are they now” theme, I ran into Marcelo Quiroga of
Battelle/NASA at Cafe Iberico last Thursday night and he was hanging out at the
bar trying to make a good impression on a couple of young ladies. I snagged him
for a few minutes. He told me that Dan Mason left Battelle about six months ago
and has not been heard from since. Marcelo thinks Dan may have returned to
Ohio. Jim Charney has not been heard from at all, and Marcelo thinks he may be
living in Evanston now and retired. Catherine Whitney has also not been seen or
heard from Marcelo believes that Michelle from the same group that did get a
job of some sort, and may even have relocated to another state with her
husband.

* Phenome Systems which presented on Monday morning at the ARCH/Coalition MMM
has commitments for $500K in financing thus far, my sources indicate. That was
not in Neal Goodwin’s talk.

* Tom Churchwell stated on Monday that his fund is $30MM. Before I call Tom,
does anyone know how much of that money has actually been raised? I have heard
that there may be some investor resistance. Also, I heard that Tom was turned
down for matching money by the SBA ast year which would have made it a $60MM
fund. And, how much of the fund has been invested? One observer pointed out to
me that the investments are so early stage that the time horizon for the
investors getting money out of it is probably five to seven years, not three to
five.

Enough for today. Everyone is on pins and needles to see how things go tonight
and hopefully the Cubs will be four wins away after tonight from matching 1908.
_________________
1. READER COMMENTS AND RESPONSES
1a. Phil Williams: A different view of China
From: “Phil Williams” To:
Subject: China
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 00:43:37 -0500

Dear Ron:

As Weijian Shan wrote on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal last
week (Tuesday, 10/7/03), China is among the world’s fastest growing economies,
but it is also one of the most inefficient. Foreign analysts estimate the
Chinese banking industry’s bad loan ratio at 50%, twice the government figure,
which is problematic since Chinese banks provide 98% of all corporate
financing. According to a Standard & Poor’s estimate, the banking clean-up
will cost $518 billion in a country with a $1.3 trillion GDP. When this
occurs, as it must at some point, China will be faced with negative economic
growth similar to what the Japanese experienced during the past decade.

While it’s true that the Chinese economy has outperformed all other nations
since 1980 averaging 8.6 % growth, for the latter half of that period Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks some of China’s more
notable companies, lost a third of its value. That China could experience such
phenomenal growth, yet still maintain such a dismal standard of living,
particular in the SARS ravaged rural areas that lack even the most basic health
care, is a testament to the utterly dreadful conditions that existed for a full
35 years after the end of World War II and a stubborn faith in a failed
political and economic system which perpetuates living standards well below
many of its neighbors such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

This paradox exists because the communist-led government maintains very strict
capital controls, i.e. money can come in, but it can t go out, and the Chinese
have among the highest savings rates in the world at 40%. Since Chinese
citizens are prohibited from converting their money into foreign currency,
there’s little opportunity to consume and absolutely no chance to invest
abroad. How can China fully adopt WTO banking standards by 2007 without
immediately addressing these inefficient practices?

Trade represents 40% of China’s GDP compared to 10% of US economy. To put it
in perspective, US trade is roughly equal to the entire Chinese GDP. In
relative terms a 10% increase in foreign goods prices will add about 1% to US
inflation; whereas a 10% decrease in Chinese exports will reduce their GDP by
roughly 4%, ceteris paribus. In short, the Chinese need US trade much more
than we need trade from China. Additionally, China has nearly 50,000 students
studying in American colleges and universities.

This all sounds very similar to what was being said about Japan 20 years ago,
but the Japanese enjoyed far greater prosperity, liberal democracy and a rule
of law that honored intellectual property rights.

One stark contrast with China is the quality of products and job growth
associated with Japan in the 1980s. Lexus and Infiniti didn’t exist 25 years;
I don’t think we’ll see any major appliances or automobiles coming out of China
any time soon, although I understand that their switching equipment is pretty
good. According to many of their strategic trading partners in places such as
Iran and Panama, their engineering has been disappointing. The type of jobs
going to China are just not in demand in the US; we don’t have much use for
wing-nut assemblers. These are low wage jobs that don’t require much skill.

Furthermore, recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports on manufacturing
job losses were overstated by the media. For instance, if a manufacturing
plant outsource cafeteria services, a recent cost savings trend, BLS reports a
loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector when the jobs aren’t really lost and
aren’t actually manufacturing. While this makes headlines, it doesn’t
accurate reflect what really happening in the economy. Unfortunately, I’m
afraid that many in the media and a few academic types are missing the bigger
picture on China.

Simply put, they cannot sustain this growth. Their economy is a paper tiger in
need of drastic structural reform.

Respectfully,

Phil Williams
DH Burnham, Inc.
_____________________
1b. Mary Kay Laurent: Ridge Suggests Mandatory Cyber-Security Disclosure
From: “Mary Kay Laurent”
To:
Subject: Ridge Suggests Mandatory Cyber-Security Disclosure
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 08:13:21 -0500

Dear Ron,

I met you very briefly (you asked for my card) at the Technology Executive
forum and had seen you at an event when Ms Warrior from Motorola spoke at a
gathering at NWU this past summer. You look great! Diabetes runs in my family
and losing weight is one of the best ways of beating it. I hope you continue.

I appreciate your newsletter, I had no idea what you wanted my card for until I
got your newsletter. I thought you might be interested in this email my
partner Ben Apple got form ISAlliance, which he is a member of. Ben teaches
the CISSP course. This maybe old news to you and if it is, please disregard.

Thanks for the great news and insights!

All the best,

Mary Kay G. Laurent
Principal

mkglaurent@mgmtsolutions.biz

Telephone: 312.494.9894

Management Solutions Strategies, Inc.
3105 N. Ashland Ave Suite 325
Chicago, Il. 60657
_____________________
2. POSITIONS AVAILABLE
2a. ATG in Chicago is hiring Java experienced internet professionals
Subj: ATG in Chicago is hiring Java experienced internet professionals
Date: 10/9/2003 11:43:40 AM Central Daylight Time
From: dgaffney@atg.com (Gaffney, Doug)
To: owner-mayreport@list.themayreport.com

Hello May report:

ATG www.atg.com (Art Technology Group) a software vendor specializing in
web based applications (commerce, portals, publishing, self service)
currently has 5 open positions for Java architects and senior engineers
in our professional services group based in our downtown Chicago office
at 550 West Washington Blvd. Previous server side Java development
experience required, previous ATG experience is a plus.

Interested individuals may contact:

Doug Gaffney
dgaffney@atg.com
Director of Professional Services – ATG
550 W Washington Blvd – 11th floor
Chicago, IL 60661

Thank you,

Doug Gaffney
___________________
3. OTHER (Events)
3a. Thurs., Oct. 16: CMNC: Dan Gamotta of Motorola
From: Nik Rokop
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:41:07 -0500
Subject: [CMNC] 2 seminars of interest

The following will be of interest to you…the first one, this Thursday Oct
16th, stars CMNC Treasurer Dan Gamota of Motorola. He will tell you about his
exciting work Nanotechnology and Printing Electronics at Motorola. The second
one will be in Gaithersburg, MD on Nov 5th – be a part of setting IEEE’s
Nanotechnology Standards.

Please check your web site: www.chicagonano.org for updates on events
and new announcements – there will be a few exciting ones in the next couple of
weeks!

Nik Rokop

Seminar: Nanotechnology and Printing Electronics at Motorola

When: Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 1:00:00 PM
Where: 810 S. Clinton Street, UIC, Room 230 CEB (Chemical Eng.
Building), Chicago, IL 60607
Hosted by: Ali Mansoori, mansoori@uic.edu

Presenter: Dr. Daniel Gamota, Department Manager
Affiliation: Motorola, Organic and Molecular Electronics, Schaumburg, IL

For details, please see: www.uic.edu/classes/che/che595/Gamota.html

IEEE Nanotechnology Standards

We would like to extend an invitation to you to attend an Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) organized event on November 5 &
6 to facilitate the commercialization of nanotechnology: 1) IEEE Meeting to
Create a Standards Roadmap for Nanoelectronics and 2) IEEE P1650T
Nanotechnology Standards Kickoff Meeting. These meetings will be held at
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Headquarters in
Gaithersburg, MD.

During the Roadmap Meeting the attendees will discuss a wide range of areas
for nanotechnology standardization along the path from R&D to
commercialization. At the IEEE P1650T Working Group Kickoff Meeting the
attendees will focus on the development of the “Draft Standard Test Methods
for Measurement of Electrical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes”.

We are looking forward to seeing you at what will be referred to in the not
too distant future as, The Catalyst for the Nanoelectronics Industry.
Please click on the following link to learn more and to register
grouper.ieee.org/groups/1650/announcement.htm

Regards, Daniel Gamota and Edward Rashba
–
Nik Rokop
President & CEO
nLake Technology Partners, LLC
nrokop@nlake.com
300 N. State Street # 2601
Chicago, IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-404-4454
Fax: 949-209-4871
_______________________
3b. Monday, Oct. 20 and Tues. Oct. 21: Two AMC meetings
Sub: [AMC] Two AMC Meetings Next Week
Date: 10/14/2003 11:16:54 AM Central Daylight Time
From: harvey@tillis.com (Harvey S. Tillis)
Sender: owner-announcements@list.serve.com
Reply-to: harvey@tillis.com (Harvey S. Tillis)
To: announcements@amcomm.org

AMC¹s MMUG Chicago Meeting
Monday, October 20, 2003
Flash MX 2004: An in-depth Look
See below or visit
www.amcomm.org/contemplate/assembler.php?page=SIG_director

And

AMC NetContent/Chicago Meeting
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Measuring the Value of Online Content
See below or visit
www.amcomm.org/contemplate/assembler.php?page=SIG_content

—
AMC¹s MMUG Chicago Meeting
Monday, October 20, 2003

Flash MX 2004: An in-depth Look

Last month we gave you a peek at Studio MX 2004. But this month we’re gonna
dig deeper and take an in-depth look at Flash MX 2004. Be sure to join us
Monday, October 20th, as we put this new release under the microscope and
explore what Flash MX 2004 really has to offer.

Flash MX 2004 promises a HUGE array of spiffy features. Now there are two
versions of Flash; Flash MX 2004 and Flash Pro 2004. What is this all about,
and what does it mean to you? Get one developers opinion, and voice your
own.

Also, a lawsuit has guaranteed BIG changes are coming for anyone developing
for the internet. If you use any form of active content on your sites
including Flash, Shockwave, Windows Media, Real, Java Applets, or Quicktime,
you are going to be affected. It is vital that you understand and stay
informed about what this means to you. What exactly are the issues? What are
the solutions? We will be addressing these topic with all the latest
information.

And if that wasn¹t enough, Andy Driscoll is going to share a new application
he is working on. Come check out “Lessons,” a time management tool which
he has been developing.

Come for the presentations, stay for the giveaways

TWO SPECIAL NOTES:
1. We are now meeting on the 8th Floor.
2. If you have been using Flash MX 2004 and have any particular opinions or
experiences you’d like to share please contact me at michael@mmugchicago.org

MMUG Chicago, The Chicago Area Macromedia Users Group
Monday October 20, 2003
Illinois Institute Of Art
180 North Wabash, Room 843
Chicago, IL.

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.
A light buffet will be provided.

Admission is FREE for AMC members and students with ID, non-members $10.

Parking garages around the area and accessible from the
Randolph/Wabash el stop, or Lake Street Red Line Stop.
–
AMC NetContent/Chicago Meeting
Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Measuring the Value of Online Content

Content can make the difference between whether someone stays at a
site and becomes a loyal customer or leaves in a hurry. Content
determines whether or not someone opens an email newsletter. The
labels used for navigation, the specific words in a headline, the
subject line of an email all play an important role in the Web
experience and in the actions people take. Content plays a part in
executing the larger strategy for a site.

The key to both of these is to be able to measure what your site
visitors do as well as the business goals for the site. And to do
that, your goals need to be measurable.

We will learn how to set up measurable goals and metrics for a site,
and how to assess the results of those.

About our speaker

Rick Costello, The Web Site Profit Doctor
is an internet marketing
consultant who transforms “information only” sites into profitable
customer acquisition tools. The company’s primary services include
Web site audits, strategic planning, competitive intelligence,
behavioral analysis, measurement and enhancements.

PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION:
Giordano’s, 310 W. Randolph, Chicago

Meeting format
6:00 – 6:30 Registration, light buffet, networking
6:30 – 7:00 Attendee introductions, card swap, networking
7:00 – 8:30 Presentation, Q&A

Admission: AMC members and full-time students free; non-members $10.

About NetContent/Chicago
NetContent/Chicago offers information, topical issues and current
events for the online content industry. Our network enables content
professionals to meet online and network in person during monthly
seminars held in downtown Chicago. Monthly meetings attract a diverse
audience of content management professionals, communicators, internet
and intranet managers from large corporations, small business,
nonprofits and government.
–
Don’t forget to check the AMC Members Directory when looking for skills and
talent for you next project. You can search by name, company name, or
skills. www.amcomm.org/scripts/content.php?page=directory
–
Harvey S. Tillis
President
The Association for Multimedia Communications, Inc. (AMC)
P. O. Box 10645
Chicago, IL. 60610
773-276-9320 direct
www.amcomm.org
___________________
3c. Wednesday, Oct. 22: SAP Business Forum ’03
SAP Business Forum ’03
Wednesday, October 22
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Hyatt Regency O’Hare
9300 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago

At SAP Business Forum ’03 in Chicago, you’ll learn how to solve challenges
facing small and midsize companies in industries like automotive, consumer
products/wholesale distribution, discrete manufacturing, life sciences,
retail/apparel, and service provider. Keynote speakers include Bill McDermott,
CEO and President, SAP America; and Dr. Philip Kotler, renowned business author
and S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at
Northwestern University in Chicago. Learn technology best practices at Modine
Manufacturing Company, Molex, Medline Industries, Pacific Cycle, Ulta Salon &
Cosmetics, J.Crew, Delphi Corporation, ZF Batavia, Dade Behring, and BG Service
Solutions. Space at this FREE event is limited! Questions? Contact
1-888-592-1727.
_______________
The May Report Ron May: editor, reporter, commentator,
and publisher. 773-525-3944 For personal &
confidential: 312-670-6336 E-mails for Ron:
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_________________
END OF REPORT.