News

Confirmed Again: We're Incredibly Good
Your article on the demise of OSC and Deck II ("Death of a Multimedia Phenomenon," Dec. 24) is perhaps the best story I've ever read about life, politics, and survival in the software industry of today. I'm recommending everyone I know who's in the desktop video production or multimedia business to read it and learn from it. Good job!

Rob Birnholz
Via Internet

Computer Education
I just finished reading your tragic profile of the rise and fall of OSC ("Death of a Multimedia Phenomenon"). As a dedicated user of Deck II software, and member of a garage band, I know the power of this software. I didn't know that Macromedia was driving it into the ground. I feel betrayed. Last spring I talked to folks at the Macromedia booth during a big Las Vegas trade show and was told glowing stories of the almost complete new Deck software. What I wasn't told was that the new release was withering on the vine. I bought Deck software because it was affordable and powerful only to find that the sinister world of corporate finance is choking it.

I guess I learned two things in Vegas: The house always wins, and big business sucks.

Ben Nieves
Via Internet

Top-Down Rot
Re: "Death of a Multimedia Phenomenon" by Matt Smith: I'm an ex-Macromedia employee. I worked for Macromedia's new Web unit and was disgusted by the internal panic-mode environment as well as the corporate ethics standards. After having been driven to a nervous breakdown, I was ruthlessly thrown out as a thing that was no longer needed. As an ancient sage once said, "Fish always begins to putrefy from the head." The decline of the stock reflects it.

Name Withheld
Via Internet

Tibet Manual
I am Tibetan born and raised in exile in India and have been living in the United States for the past 10 years. My parents left Tibet because they could not stand the Communist destruction. They did not leave Tibet before the Chinese invaded, because before the invasion life in Tibet was not anywhere as grim as your article in SF Weekly has portrayed ("Tibetmania!," Music, Dec. 17). They left because their lives were at stake in the name of Chinese "liberation."

Jeff Stark's research, based on the People's Almanac, has some truth but was vastly exaggerated. As a Tibetan, it is particularly disheartening to go through all the destruction, abuse, and cultural genocide to my people and my country by the Chinese, and then to see educated, open-minded Americans fail to properly research and understand the culture and history.

Tibet did live in a feudal society, and it had some dark sides to it, but Tibet did have a government based on Buddhist principles of compassion and nonviolence. However, no matter how pure the system is, abuse did exist in villages and towns by administrators. Just like in any government.

In my 10 years of living in the United States as a musician I've personally tried to share stories of the situation in Tibet. Myself and other Tibetans who have been working to fight for our cause have never asked any government or individuals to aid us with weapons or arms to fight the Chinese, but rather asked for their hearts as human beings.

I personally know the people at the Milarepa Fund, most of whom have been to Tibet, Nepal, and India. They have seen, touched, smelled, and studied Tibet, and their hearts are torn by the current situation in Tibet imposed by the Chinese. I see their work as standing for justice, not only in Tibet but to all the oppressed people in the world. It is a matter of Tibetan people's culture, dignity, and survival as a race on this planet. It is not about some "poor peasant" in Asia.

We have every right to choose our own destiny, and the Chinese government has no right to rule Tibet. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has repeatedly said in the press that when Tibet is free, he will not run for power, and that he wants the people to choose their leader. I personally admire the people at the Milarepa Fund -- their courage, sincerity, and determination to help Tibet. I hope that Mr. Stark will understand the situation better, and I hope he will also help our cause.

Tashi Dhondup
Pacifica

Benefits Reviewed
We would like to encourage Jeff Stark, the author of the article "Tibetmania!" (Music), to broaden his historical source material beyond the People's Almanac and to consider speaking to some actual Tibetans about the situation in their country before attempting to speak for them.

The Milarepa Fund
San Francisco

Galloping Grammarian
Dear Mr. Boulware: I, too, have a dream ...
Journalists should know the difference between "less" and "fewer." To correct your recent article (Slap Shots, Dec. 24), "less people enslaved by poverty" should be "fewer people."

Merry Christmas, and congratulations on your new status at the paper.
Ann Lewis
Via Internet

Editor's note: Editors should know the difference, too. We're sorry we were daydreaming on the job.

Online Spot On
I love your Web site. I've been eagerly awaiting it for a couple years. Very useful, and well put together. Great work.

Joe Schmelzer
Via Internet