American History 1988
Chapter 271 - 262: The Next Project

Chapter 271: Chapter 262: The Next Project

Clinton hung up the phone and returned to his office, where his campaign team was still arguing incessantly about today’s salacious news.

"Alright, guys, how can we get through this PR crisis?"

Merely shifting the spotlight was clearly not enough, as Clinton’s campaign office had received numerous complaint calls.

Moreover, his rivals were not going to pass up this excellent opportunity to attack him.

Take California’s Jerry Brown, for instance, who was vehemently lambasting Clinton’s various scandals in the newspapers.

The uproar over extramarital affairs, the revelation of his young self’s attempt to dodge the draft, and the dark history of marijuana use were all out in the open.

Clinton had once admitted to trying that stuff, but now he argued, "I only inhaled it into my mouth, but not into my lungs."

This explanation practically made Brown laugh his teeth out; he was invigorated, ready to come back out of retirement and hit hard, with Hillary and the interests of the Rose Law Firm not escaping his venomous tongue.

In Brown’s words, "Clinton never disappoints when it comes to embarrassing himself; he’s practically a weekly scandal!"

The hot-tempered Clinton was certainly not a wooden mannequin, he scoffed at Brown’s flat tax proposal and demanded that Brown disclose his vast net worth through his tax returns.

The two went back and forth, quarreling endlessly in the newspapers like unruly schoolchildren.

But the situation was undoubtedly unfavorable for Clinton now, with his brand-new scandal still hanging in the newspapers.

Additionally, Brown’s combative outsider image had a strong appeal in an election year marred by an economic recession.

While greeting early morning workers on the Staten Island ferry, Clinton had no choice but to tolerate passersby shouting, "Go Brown!" in acts of booing.

So he urgently needed to end this storm, the sooner the better.

"That woman is a tricky whore!" warned his campaign manager, David Williams.

It was clear what he meant; this woman was trouble and not someone to be trifled with.

She’d bound herself to Clinton, seeking to make a splash.

Then she appeared in interviews everywhere, even accepting endorsements, thus attracting both fame and money.

"We need to shut her up," declared Clinton firmly; Jennifer Flowers had already severely affected his campaign.

"Bill, we’d better not touch her," David Williams reminded, "Every move she makes now is under the public eye."

If anything unexpected happened to Jennifer Flowers, Clinton would be unable to wash his hands clean even if he jumped into the Pacific.

"This won’t work, that won’t work, we can’t do nothing!

I’ve had enough of the pesky reporters and their endless questions, let’s put an end to it sooner!"

Clinton was the absolute center of the campaign team; he couldn’t tolerate a situation of "just being scolded without fighting back."

"Go on a show," suggested Regis, suddenly crossing his arms.

"What?" Everyone turned to look at him.

"The situation now is that Bill has become famous, whether that fame is good or bad.

That’s the fact, and what we need to do is to turn ’bad’ into ’good.’

Last time on the TV show, you remade your charming image for the masses who still don’t know the truth!"

The more Regis spoke, the clearer his idea became, "Go with Hillary! Stand in front of the camera and clear your name!

This is a rare opportunity, and if the show is a success, we might be able to turn the tables and gain a huge advantage."

"Oh~" David Williams stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe we could try it?"

Clinton was tempted; he had great confidence in himself, "So, which show should we go on?"

"The CBS newsmagazine ’60 Minutes,’ I know people at the station," Regis volunteered eagerly.

"Well done, Regis!" Clinton patted his shoulder affectionately.

Regis was a senior strategist on Clinton’s campaign team.

He was introduced by Dean, and to some extent, he was Dean’s spokesperson at Clinton’s side.

When the financier puts up money, naturally he has his own demands.

At the appropriate time, Regis would secure some interests for Dean.

The only problem now was to convince Hillary, which gave Clinton a bit of a headache.

After all, he was the one involved in the scandal, but considering her current state... well, it was worth a try.

...

The election was in full swing, and the rivalry between Silicon Valley and Seattle continued unabated.

Intuit had been in the personal financial software field for nearly a decade, and its Quicken software was already very mature.

With Byte Company’s help, it quickly gained market recognition and began to enter countless homes.

The newly released Microsoft Money, although fraught with many flaws, still managed to attract some user attention with Microsoft’s powerful marketing.

But as Dean and his team had anticipated, its poor user experience subjected the software to heavy criticism.

Hadn’t it been for its low price, perhaps nobody would have been willing to try it.

According to Dean’s projections, the competition between the two would continue for a long time.

Overall, Microsoft Money was no threat to Quicken.

Of course, Microsoft was busily developing the next version, aiming to close the gap between the two products with rapid iterations.

Intuit wasn’t idle either, with Cook gearing up to release a new version of Quicken in the summer along with TurboTax, a tax software for businesses.

It would only get interesting when Microsoft and Intuit each released a version and the face-off intensified.

This year was bustling with activity, Dean had that premonition.

Well, his old friend Jim Clark was visiting him again.

"Dean, have you ever heard of the World Wide Web browser?"

The moment Jim walked through the door, he couldn’t help ranting about it.

"If you’re talking about that browser invented by Berners-Lee from Europe, then I think I have."

Dean simply turned his computer screen around, which already had a Windows version of the World Wide Web browser installed.

"Oh~, you’ve actually moved it to the Windows system?" Jim’s team was using the workstation version.

Dean shrugged with a smile, "I haven’t gotten my hands on coding in a while, so I just thought of it as loosening up the fingers."

The Windows version was Dean’s own porting endeavor, a playful exercise—don’t forget he was once a computer geek himself.

"Good thing it’s a resource shared gratis, otherwise watch out for the lawyer’s letter."

Jim said jokingly while taking the coffee handed to him by Anna.

Cracking software within the company was grounds for a lawsuit.

"I’m friends with Berners-Lee, how could he trouble the person who once gave him hypertext suggestions?"

Dean was always keeping an eye on the development of the Internet, and he knew all the historic IT tycoons.

"Alright then, what do you think of it?" Jim gestured towards the computer on the table with his chin.

"A revolutionary invention, but quite rough around the edges," Dean’s evaluation was almost always sharp and precise.

"But it’s convenient, it opens a window for people using the Internet to browse different vistas, doesn’t it?"

Jim Clark was also a technical expert, and as an industry elite, he generally understood the potential of this kind of software.

"I agree with you, but I feel that the World Wide Web browser is still imperfect.

Its user interface is too specialized, the layperson wouldn’t understand what those abstruse words mean.

The commands are not concise enough, the complex procedures make it hard for people to remember all the details.

And it is too plain, lacking rich, vibrant colors, even the images are soulless entities."

Dean listed a whole bunch of flaws of the World Wide Web browser, leaving Jim agape with amazement.

"I suspect you’ve dissected it on an operating table, don’t tell me you don’t have any ideas for it?"

"The look in your eyes tells me, I’ve taken your beloved treasure."

Dean sipped his coffee with a grin, his research on browsers was much deeper than Jim’s.

"Look, that’s exactly why I’m here."

Jim was frank, facing a market with unclear prospects, he needed a partner to share the risk.

"So, the next project, a browser?" Dean raised an eyebrow.

"I’m not certain, but I feel that people need a software that can easily take them online."

Jim thought of the browser as a window, through which he could peek into the mysteries of the net.

"We could give it a try, but I feel it’s not mature yet," Dean pointed at the computer.

"We can improve it, those flaws you’ve just mentioned, aren’t they exactly the directions for improvement?"

Jim believed he found the right person, Dean’s vision was even keener than he had imagined.

"No, what I meant is that its underlying code is not perfect, plus there are issues of ownership."

Dean’s perspective was not only on the software design itself but also included concerns from a business standpoint.

"Wait, underlying code? Ownership issues?" Jim hadn’t considered all of that at all.

"I feel that the hypertext language is still not perfect; the current browsers can display images, but they are not vivid enough.

Just look at the World Wide Web, it’s not thoroughly graphical in execution; I hope that web pages can become more colorful and rich."

To be honest, the current browsers were still quite a distance from the effect Dean wanted to see.

After all, it was a newly born entity and had many imperfections.

As far as Dean knew, Berners-Lee was consistently updating the hypertext language library.

Dean himself had received two drafts of it already.

"We can work together to perfect the code," Jim didn’t place much importance on this, as software companies all have that capability.

"What about the ownership issue you mentioned?" Technical issues are solvable, but business problems had to be approached with caution, Jim had learned this the hard way.

As the founder of Silicon Valley, he now held only 3% of its shares, which was proof of his past setbacks.

Facing Jim’s question, Dean spread his hands, "Hypertext language currently belongs to the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

This project was initially approved and developed by them, so the research achievements are under the name of the institute."

This created an awkward predicament; for the software developed by Internet geeks using hypertext language, who holds the ownership?

It’s one thing for non-profit software; others can’t pursue legal responsibility.

But if it’s applied to business, and the scale is massive, the European organization has every right to sue for infringement."

"Oh~God!" Jim’s expression was the epitome of disappointment, "So it can’t become a business?"

He had completely ignored this point until Dean reminded him.

"It’s not entirely the case..."

Thump, thump, thump, Anna knocked on the door and came in.

"Boss, there’s a candidate you might want to meet; I think you’ll be interested in her."

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