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Silicon Valley diary

Despatches from the front line of ecommerce, by Andy Goldberg

Monday

THERE is a new addition to the Goldberg family. Chocolate is a seven-week-old puppy who is the result of an illicit liaison between a chocolate Labrador named Flash and a Kelpie father whose name she doesn't even know.

Chocolate is adorably sweet but she does mess up the carpet, and even worse likes nothing better than to lie under my desk while I'm working, snuggled in a nest of computer wires that she loves to chew.

This makes me think that perhaps I should have splashed out on one of Sony's robotic pups called Aibo that you can apparently train to do tricks and read your email. After playing with one for a few hours, I conclude that Aibo's clever engineering is simply no substitute for the real thing.

Tuesday

I checked out Aibo at Sony's Metreon centre which opened two years ago in the heart of San Francisco as a prototype entertainment mall. The belief was that people would soon be able to experience so much through their computers that location-based entertainment would have to offer something really special in order to coax people out of their smart houses and web-enabled armchairs.

The Metreon idea seems to work - but with some reservations. Metreon's 15 huge cinemas are packed, just like its array of restaurants and beautifully crafted kiddie play areas that allow children to explore a surreal world based on the book Where the Wild Things Are. Shops showcasing the latest technology from Sony and Microsoft are also doing brisk business.

But the electronic games arcade in which Sony invested huge resources to come up with a range of pioneering new games is largely deserted. Many of the innovations that originally filled the cavernous space have been replaced by more conventional consoles. After all, if you get your kicks playing video games, why not do so in your pyjamas?

Wednesday

Cisco Systems has announced the first-ever quarterly losses in its history which is being viewed as a morality tale for the new economy throughout Silicon Valley. Just 12 months ago, Cisco symbolised the triumph of the new order when it briefly became the most valuable company in the world. Now it appears that it made the fatal error of believing its own hype and thinking it could keep doubling in size every few months without suffering a disastrous overload.

One of the basic causes of its current trouble is that Cisco pre-ordered a vast amount of resources to keep up with what it thought was an insatiable demand for its products. When the bottom fell out the market, it was left with a ton of stuff on its shelves that it could never hope to sell and was forced to write off $2.2 billion worth of supplies. "Cisco got greedy and is now paying the price," said tech site ZDNet. Perhaps it has learnt its lesson. By aggressively writing off its inventory, the company is showing that it still means business.

In one fell swoop, it has cleared its backlog and can concentrate once again on providing its customers with the array of high-tech switches, routers and other gizmos that will keep our data networks expanding at a cracking pace.

Thursday

The rumour mills have been swirling about the impending resignation of the reclusive IBM chairman and chief executive Louis Gerstner. He did nothing to dampen speculation when asked at an analysts' meeting if he would still be around next year. "We don't plan that far ahead at IBM," he said.

Friday

Disney is another old name breaking with the past. The traditional purveyor of all that is good and wholesome is issuing Atlantis: Trial By Fire. Based on the upcoming film, the computer game is Disney's first-ever first-person "shooter", along the lines of the notorious Quake and Doom. In order to preserve its do-good image, Disney has updated the concept - there are no guns at all. Players can use a "puffer" to blast their enemies with air and force them back. Opponents can also be overcome with the "froster" that shoots a bolt of ice that slows them down, and the really mean baddies can be immobilised with the "gooser", which sends a blob of goo to surround them.

Saturday

This assumes, of course, that Californians will still have the electricity to run their computers, which is doubtful. They are already forgoing another quintessentially Californian pastime - turning off their hot tubs to conserve juice. I am asked by a local TV station to give my view of the energy crisis so I remind viewers of how we handled this kind of thing in the winter of discontent. "Smile stoically, make babies and buy up all the candles and batteries you can before the energy companies corner those markets too."

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2001