ShadowRAM: Feb. 23, 2004

Last week, a corporate reputation study by Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute (I'm not kidding here, folks) found that while the reputations of drug companies (for price gouging, etc.) plummeted between 2002 and 2003, Microsoft actually rose in the public's estimation to No. 5 in 2003 from No. 13 the previous year. A published report attributed some of those gains to a halo effect from Bill Gates' well-publicized,and, let's face it, generous,philanthropic gifts. But is it just me or did anyone else notice how Gates' big-time gifts started right around the time of Microsoft's worst PR beating about its, ahem, competitive business practices?

Meanwhile, Walt Disney, the other evil empire, soared to No. 4 from No. 15. Makes you wonder if any of these respondents have even a passing knowledge of Michael Eisner.

Some things remained constant year over year, as Enron remained mired in last place at No. 60. Meanwhile, WorldCom dropped down one notch to No. 59.

Speaking of companies in need of a PR boost, the Lindon, Utah, home of beleaguered SCO seemed quiet last week. The company insists it will still file a copyright infringement claim against a large Linux customer. Insiders say the lawsuit is still on the radar and, despite published reports to the contrary, will be filed by the end of February. SCO is mum on the identity of the target, although many expect it to be a major enterprise Fortune 1000 customer of IBM and Red Hat, neither of which offers customers indemnification from the legal costs of Linux litigation. Online speculation has swirled about Google, which is also a large Linux shop.

The diversity of passengers on flights to San Francisco last week made for strange seatfellows. On one end of the spectrum were geeks heading to the Intel Developer Forum. On the other were folks heading to San Francisco City Hall to get marriage licenses they couldn't elsewhere.

On the East Coast, Groove Networks' own Ray Ozzie (a CRN Industry Hall of Famer) is a newly elected member of the National Academy of Engineering. Ozzie was tapped for his work on online collaboration products including Lotus Notes.

Other notables included another CRN Hall of Famer, Gary Starkweather, now at Microsoft but noted for his work developing the laser printer; and IBM Fellow Joan Mitchell for her work in photographic fax and image compression, supporting my long-standing notion that the IBM Fellow thang is the best gig in the business.