"The World Wide Web could be the next-best thing since sliced bread." "Previously on AMC's "Halt and Catch Fire"..." "Gordon?" "Gordon, are you okay?" "Donna Emerson, senior partner." "I cut loose a ball and chain of my own recently." "You really couldn't stand being at Clark, could you?" "I can't work with you." "Why are you here?" "You know why." "This is the first Web browser." "Online-research catalogue..." "Running on NeXT..." "On a network to Europe." "What will the World Wide Web become?" "Happy New Year." "How's Tokyo?" "Good." "Cold." "Good." "Good." "Well, uh..." "Is that her?" "We got some first steps for the browser that we want to walk you through so we can, uh, you know, hit the ground running when you get back to town." "Gordon, I'm gonna be working on this project remotely." "I-I need to talk to Joe." "Just me." "Yeah." "Okay." "Wants to talk to you." "Hello?" "How you doing?" "I don't understand." "I told Tom what happened." "And he and I, uh, we both agreed that it would be best if I worked on the browser remotely... from here." "What time is it there?" "They're 17 hours ahead, so whatever time it is here..." "Look, she doesn't need to be on the phone for us to upload it to Gopher." "She wrote it." "She needs to be available." "Guys, I need..." "I need..." "Stop hammering!" "Please!" "You know it's midnight there." "This is the time she specified." "Maybe Godzilla's fighting Mothra again." "We're gonna try her again in 20 minutes." "Guys!" "Guys, guys, please!" "All right?" "It's too early in the morning for this." "That is because nobody is downloading it at all." "No, you're right." "Forgive me." "69 downloads last quarter." "Is that better?" "A year and we are barely a ripple in the pond." "Of course it has to do with the bugs." "I'm tracking them as fast as I can, but you take forever to..." "Okay." "Okay, fine." "That would be fine." " How's Cameron?" " Never available." "Or if we do somehow manage to get her on the phone, she's busy or defensive or..." "Stuck at 69 downloads." "Look, Joe, we're building the core ISP business upstairs by the day, which means we don't need overnight success with the web browser." "But why do you keep putting yourself through this with her?" "This work is important." "That's not what I asked." "I'll make sure those bugs get fixed." "Shep, have you talked to Cameron?" "Uh, Gordon, this is Mike Houseman from America Online." " Great to meet you, Gordon." " Yeah, likewise." "Yeah, I want to talk about acquiring your user base." "Is AOL really that afraid of the open Internet?" "Well, it's either that or we crush you when we expand west." "Ah, well, let me tell you something, Mike..." "I need to show you something right now." "Mike, this is Joe MacMillan." "He's our Web Services division." "Impressive." "You're into the Web." "It's where everything's headed." "Gordon." "Excuse us." "It's called Mosaic." "All right, so there's another browser in the game." "We still got Nexus, Viola, Midas..." "Don't forget Millennium, thanks to Donna." "Who's got just as much of a right to this idea as we do." "But those aren't this." "Inline images, Web forums support, available on every platform." "If Cameron hadn't been radio silent for five months, if she had fixed the bugs, helped us iterate..." "I don't mind losing, but we're not even gonna get a chance to compete." "Where the hell is Cameron?" "Now we do our own chip." "Over here." "You all right?" "Yeah." "Fine." "I bet it was her new game." "I'm sure she just got wrapped up in it, forgot all about us." "What if we uncapped usage?" "You know, unlimited access for every customer... you know, no more hourly rates, just a, you know, flat monthly fee?" "That's a good idea, smart." "Look, I don't mean to harp on it, but what galls me is that she still owes us a final version." "We had a first-mover advantage." "Now Mosaic is the front door to the Web." "Mm." "Yeah, I heard they had a million downloads" " in the first six months." " Those numbers have to be inflated." "Meanwhile, Loadstar stands at a whopping 431." "Well, maybe that's okay." "But we can build a Mosaic-killer." "She couldn't do it." "We'll find someone who can." "Joe, how many times do you have to be right?" "Maybe we should just be grateful or something." "I mean, this is technology that we could only have dreamed of back in that garage." "You should've brought Ozzie." "I wouldn't have minded." "Yeah." "Yeah." "What?" "Nothing." "We broke up three weeks ago." "Oh, man." "Hey, Gordon... happy 40th." "Cheers." "Try the corridor again." "We were just there, and all we found was this rusty walking-stick thing." "Can you equip it?" ""The stick particulates in your hand"?" "Cool." "Dude, what?" "This feels like homework." "Seriously, I'm getting cold just watching this." "Oh, good... another puzzle." "Good thing we haven't seen anybody in like 10 minutes." "You can't even kill anything." "Ah, shoot." "Ah." "Okay." "Wait." "What the hell?" "We're back at the beginning?" "This is bullshit." "Who are you?" "Hi." "What's your favorite video game right now?" " Mortal Kombat." " Yeah, Mortal Kombat." "I prefer Street Fighter II for the superior controls and graphics." "Okay." "Thank you, guys, for coming in." "Here's your Pioneer Chicken gift certificates." "We appreciate your feedback." "Guys, this is not our target demographic." "We need to be going after higher GPAs, readers with immersive fantasy and sci-fi interests." "This isn't a game you play." "It's a game you live." "How many websites now?" "561." "And I found a new one for you." "Look, if this is the one that translates your name into Hawaiian, I already did it." "And?" "Kolekona." "Hey, look at this one." "It's a, uh..." "It's a coffee pot." "That is a coffee pot at he University of Cambridge, 5,000 miles away." "That's not a picture." "That's a live video feed." "Well, it looks really alive." "It's... fascinating." "Listen." "Joe, I actually came down here to chat with you about something." "Shoot." "Well, I was wondering if you'd consider moving upstairs." "Why?" "Well, the Web Services division hasn't originally grown the way we thought it would, and, you know, we could really use the server space." "And..." "And now that the browser's dead..." "Dead?" "We might have stalled a little bit, but that's because we're just getting started." "I'm not moving upstairs." "If anything, you're moving down here." "Listen, Joe, you've been down here for almost three years, and it's still just you, an ergonomic chair, and 500 Post-its." "Listen." "I'll say it again." "You did it." "You and Ryan called it." "You said the Internet would be the next great public utility." "Well, guess what?" "We're here." "We did it." "We are Thomas Edison." "We built the power company." "So why don't you come upstairs and run the power company with me?" "Gordon, nobody remembers the power company." "Came free in the mail with my Popular Mechanics this month." "AOL is carpet-bombing." "They're going after our entire territory." "They're trying to take down CompuServe and Prodigy, but we could get caught in the crossfire." "All I'm saying is, if we're about to go to war, it'd be nice to have you in the fight." "Jesus." "It has video now." "Mother..." "No, Abe, you needed to fully implement" " the updates this morning" " You try reformatting HTML with a screaming 6-month-old in your arm." "Oh, that's just great timing, isn't it?" " Oh, yeah, it is." " Yeah." "Okay, good." "She'll be right with you." "Thank you." "Carrot, grapefruit, little bit of ginger." "Mmm." "Microsoft didn't get the bump they wanted from the Home announcement." "I know." "Two hundredths of a point." "Well, Windows is still the official O.S." "of the White House." "Good morning." "First off, thanks for calling us in this morning." "Believe me, if you hadn't had reached out, we would've..." "You know, we would've been bothering you to get in here because we are just so darn excited about some of these steps we're taking to surpass Mosaic." "By the time we are done fully implementing, it'll be like, "Mosaic?" "What's Mosaic?"" "So, just to catch you up," "Millennium now supports..." "Right." "Uh, inline images." "Yeah, we got a stop button right there to halt web-page loads." "See?" "And, uh, we should have our very own "hotlists" soon." "Video?" "Yes." "Yes, of course." "We are hard at work on that." "Matter of days." "We've also been proactive with our branding efforts... you know, getting our name out there." "Greg, the mouse pads, please." "Greg, the mouse pads, please." "You know, to spread the word, and, um, our download numbers, while not Mosaic's, are really starting to edge out Loadstar, so..." "But we don't want to be just chasing Mosaic, do we?" "You guys are too talented for that." "You need to be pursuing your own vision, not aping somebody else's, right?" "We couldn't agree more." "Yes." "Wonderful." "Then we are all set." "I was really rooting for you guys." "Thanks, Donna." "We really appreciate it." "Did we just get defunded?" "Ahh." " Get your hands off me." " You asked." "I said don't touch me, Abe!" "Jesus!" "Oh, oh, oh!" "All right!" "All right." "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Wow." "Look who it is." "I was on the company invite list." "Mm." "So you do get e-mails." " Have you seen Mosaic?" " I saw Mosaic." "I haven't heard from you in five months." "Now you're just here." "Honestly, I didn't even know you were in the country." "Yeah, I'm sorry." "I should've..." "You know, I-I thought I was gonna find time to talk to you." "I didn't know the party was gonna be so..." "Look, look, look." "Don't worry about it." "To be honest with you, I'm not even that mad." "Joe's gonna kill you." "Is he here?" "Joe MacMillan at a party?" "You've been out of the loop for a while." "Well, come on!" "Ah!" "Hey, what the heck are you doing here?" "My God!" "Look!" "I'm..." "I'm doing some, um, promotion for my new game." "Yeah, The Pilgrim, sure." "I've seen it." "Ooh, looks spooky." "Ooh." "By the way, John absolutely loved that sailing compass." "Oh, oh." "Sure." "I got it mounted right on the bulkhead." "You know, we got to get over there and see these guys some time." "Soon?" "Once Diane figures out how to make it business write-off." "Gee, John, thanks." "I'm kidding." "Oh, I mean, you guys are welcome whenever you want." "I just saw Joanie, so I'm gonna go say hi." "Okay." "Good to see you." "Hey, uh... when are you gonna take me out on that boat?" "Oh, we'll get out there soon, Cap'n." "I'm gonna go get cleaned up." "Okay." "You need it." "See you guys in a little bit." "Okay." "By the looks of all this," "CalNect pulls down, what, 50, 60 mil a year?" "60." "Well, hell, 75 now that they're down in Arizona." "Still, 25 ISP competitors in the landscape and growing, and CalNect isn't a member of the C.I.X." "and won't be anytime soon." "Well, yeah." "Gordon's pretty good at watching his henhouse." "I wouldn't worry." "John, all I'm saying is that with AOL coming to town, all of this seems overly optimistic, don't you think?" "Cameron?" "Oh, my God." "Oh, my God!" " I can't believe you're here!" " Okay." "Oh, my God!" "Guys, listen." "This is Cameron." "Like..." "like, the Cameron Howe." " Yes." " Nice, dude." " She invented Space Bike." " Mm-hmm." "What's the other one called?" "Pilgrim." "Right." "That is so cool." "Do you wanna play Mortal Kombat?" "Yeah." "Oh... no." "You guys go ahead." "♪ That's how we do it every single day ♪" "Haley?" "Hi." "Hi!" "Um, o hisashiburi desu Ne." "Oh." "Impressive." "I've been, you know, practicing off those CDs you sent." "Yes." "Well, gengo o hitotsu wa kesshite tarinai." "Um..." "Anata wa subarashi ninjindesu." "No?" " No." " No, what?" "You said I was an awesome carrot." "Oh." "You don't have to worry." "My mom's not here." " Hey, man." " Hey." "Good to see ya." "I didn't think you'd make it." "Glad to know I can still surprise you." "So, um, no present?" "Actually, I did get you something." "I was kidding." "A whole box of them at the front counter at Blockbuster." "Jesus." "AOL's everywhere now." "I'm, uh..." "I'm in this fight with you." "But I want Shep's office." "It gets the most sunlight." "Done." "Um..." "Cameron's here." "Yep." "That's it." "You're a fellow bonsai enthusiast, I take it?" "No." "But I'm gonna check out your website." "Okay." "I heard you didn't come to parties anymore." "It's Gordon's birthday." "How's Tom?" "Tom is good." "He, um..." "He just got promoted to head of development at Sega, so..." "That's great." "You're mad at me." "♪ Happy birthday, happy birthday ♪" "Wouldn't you be?" "♪ Happy birthday, happy birthday ♪" "♪ Happy birthday, happy birthday ♪" "Yeah." "♪ Happy, happy birthday in a hot bath ♪" "♪ To those nice, nice nights ♪" "♪ I remember always, always I got such a fright ♪" "♪ Seeing them in my dark cupboard ♪" "I got to go." "♪ With my great big cake ♪" "♪ If they were, if they were me ♪" "Thank you all for coming!" "♪ I am ♪" "Can I have a whiskey?" "♪ Doll eyes ♪" "♪ Doll mouth ♪" "♪ Doll legs ♪" "♪ I am ♪" "♪ Doll arms ♪" "♪ Big veins ♪" "♪ Dog bait ♪" "♪ Yeah, they really want you ♪" "♪ They really want you ♪" "♪ They really do ♪" "♪ Yeah, they really want you ♪" "♪ They really want you ♪" "♪ And I do, too ♪" "♪ I want to be the girl with the most cake ♪" "♪ He only loves those things ♪" "♪ Because he loves to see them break ♪" "♪ I fake it so real, I am beyond fake ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "Am I cruel?" "Of course not." "♪ Someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "Why would you ask that?" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "All right." "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ And someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "♪ Someday, you will ache like I ache ♪" "What time is it?" "Crack of noon." "Rise and shine." "Oh, God." "You're a monster." "Pete can give you a ride home if you need one." "Who's Pete?" "My driver." "You'll love him." "He used to be a city tax planner and loves books on tape." "Is it dark in the car?" "Can I sleep in there with the A.C. on?" "Of course." "As long as you're all right with the dulcet tones of Robert Ludlum thrillers." "Man, Donut Plains 3 is impossible." "Battle mode?" "Yeah, you're on." "All right." "Oh, Jesus." "All right, you got to pick a guy." "What, Toad?" "Really?" "Mm-hmm." "He corners the best." "Interesting." "Okay, there's a decent chance this is gonna make me barf." "You and Joanie are in the same boat this morning." "Whoa!" "You can throw banana peels?" "How'd you get so good at this?" "I got my hands on a prototype cartridge about a year and a half ago." "Man, you really brought the Southwest in here, didn't you, Gordon?" "Easy." "How much longer are you in town for?" "I don't know." "Oh." "But if you want to see the craziest thing, you should swing by the focus-group testing for my new game." "It's like "Altered States"" "but with market research instead of LSD." "That damn game better be good." "Of course, right when I get a red shell." "Here." "You tell me if it's good." ""Pilgrim."" "Hm." "I'm glad you're doing so well, Gordon." "Thanks." "Yeah." "I'm doing really, really great." "I mean, last night, I got to be a human paintbrush." "I saw that." "You know, CalNect is... it's kicking ass." "Well, I'm sorry that Loadstar has to be the exception." " I..." " Come on." "You know, if I'm being totally honest, as time wore on, the browser just became more of a side project for me." "It's always been Joe's baby." "Joe." "I saw him last night." "And?" "Oh, Gordon, it didn't go that well." "Well, that's probably for the best." "For who?" "For him." "Oh, shit!" "What?" "The girls haven't left yet." "Haley, Joanie!" "Come on!" "Let's go!" "Gordon?" "No, she never comes in." "Don't worry." "All right, well, um, I'll see you Wednesday." "Mm-hmm." "Love you, too." "Joanie, let's go!" "Gordon?" "Oh." "Uh, have you seen Mosaic?" "Yes." "I was surprised it wasn't you." "Hey." "Uh..." "She may have gotten into the [clicks tongue]" "Dad." "Get out here." "Thanks for this." "Yeah." "Anytime." "She rarely comes in." "As expected, the flat fee and unkept usage dinged the overall revenue initially, but now we're in the volume business." "The user base just keeps going up." "Then this isn't a rebound." "It's sustained growth." "That's good." "Only problem is the pipe's getting tight." "We're starting to clog a little bit with all that data." "MCI hears how well we're doing, they're gonna want to renegotiate the sweetheart deal before they give us more bandwidth on their twisted pair network." "We could balk and try PacBell, but at the end of the day, we'd want to keep our backbone provider happy, whoever they are." "What do you think, Gordon?" "Uh, if MCI wants more money, fine." "We've got it." "Let's give it to them." "AOL's not the only one with deep pockets." "Let's stay ahead of this." "Shep, get a call in." "And, uh, Joe, thanks for sitting in today." "What is this?" "Loadstar." "Is that the finished browser?" "You've just been sitting on this?" "Couldn't get around to handing it in?" "No." "I finished it last night." "So, it was, what, a day of work?" "Joe, I've been working on this for weeks." "You know, you didn't have to sit around and wait for me." "If you were in such a rush, you could have hired somebody else to do the coding." "You don't get it." "I needed you." "We needed you to care, and you didn't." "We had almost a year on the Mosaic guys, but we blew it, and now..." "If you had just been here, actually been available..." "Well, I couldn't be here." "That was the deal." "And it was a raw deal for me." "And it's just a shame." "It's a shame that 5,000 miles away wasn't far enough." "What is this about?" "Look, I made this better than it had any right to be, and I did so while dealing with a lot of my own stuff." "Oh, right, your game." "I'm sure that was tough, being funded, promoted, coddled." "I've been alone on this, working by myself for three years." "Do you want to talk about what we're really talking about?" "If we had worked on this... together... it could have been amazing." "What do you want me to do?" "Nothing." "It's too late." "And I, um, got to get back to work, so..." "You know, the way things are growing... you're gonna run out of Post-its pretty soon." "Well, tell Oregon they're not a big enough market for Digital Subscriber investments." "Let's get started." "Well, first off, let me just say, on behalf of the Rover brain trust, it's great to see you again." "We're moving past the beta phase." "We are already underway in three med schools, with requests for two more." "A little more sobering, though, is that we've gone through our seed round just a hair faster than expected, and now..." "Now you need more money." "Well, yes." "It's either that or we let some people go... interns, mostly." "But this is still enterprise software," "B2B currently focused only on medical records." "Yes, through binary queries into the data pool, but we're refining comparisons to make things more versatile." "Okay, I'll just cut to the chase here." "I've given you enough funding for a medical database program." "If you want more funding, I will need a bigger idea." "Let's talk again in 24 hours." "Uh, that's a mighty quick turnaround." "Yes." "Yes, it is." "Gordon." "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." "What's up?" "I've got something." "We can still be the door." "Maybe it's not a browser." "In fact, it shouldn't be." "We're gonna build a website that is accessible from any browser." "Like a..." "Like a website of websites, an index of everything, like a directory." "What, like the Yellow Pages?" "Yes, but more than that." "I don't have the full thing yet, but..." "Look, Joe." "Joe, let me stop you right there." "I thought you were back on the business, our business, this business." "When are you gonna wake up?" "What?" "You're sleepwalking." "I mean, what the hell was that party, Gordon?" "I wanted to celebrate our success." "You're trying to convince yourself that it's okay to stop when every fiber of your being is telling yourself to keep going." "I've been telling you for years that you are a builder." "You need to build." "You know what, Joe?" "I built this." "I built all of this when you were downstairs in the basement screwing around with Post-it notes." "Did Cameron put you up to this?" "I noticed that she stopped by today." "Of course she did." "Look, all we're asking is that you put the game's controls in the manual." " No." " That's it." "No, the worst thing you can do with a magic trick is explain how it works." "No matter how much the audience asks, it's so much more rewarding if they get to discover it for themselves." "You have to respect the player." "Hey!" "So?" "It's a trip, huh?" "Cameron, what are you doing here?" "I told you." "I have to promote the game." "No, I mean, what are you doing here?" "This shit was all behind us." "The browser?" "Joe." "You have no idea how hard he's worked to get back to where he is... how hard I've worked." "And now, all of a sudden, you know, you feel guilty about no-showing on Loadstar." "You come back into his life and you got him spinning." " I didn't do anything." " Look, you spent five minutes with him in the basement, and now he's convinced that you've handed him fire from the mountaintop." "Look, I'm not saying that you're doing this on purpose, but every single time that you come back into his life..." "I owed him that work." "I owed both of you." "You know, yesterday you asked me if you were cruel." "Sorry." "We only have the room until 10:00." "It was great to see you, Gordon." "Yeah." "I mean, isn't that why God created hangovers... teach teenagers not to drink so much?" "Drinking is one thing." "Okay, well, it's better off at home with one of us than somewhere else, right?" "Gordon, it's fine." "She told you she's not going to college yet, or is she still just torturing me with that one?" "It's a positive that our daughter has such a free spirit." "Well, Joanie is certainly resourceful." "You wouldn't believe the variety of household items... fruit, even... she's found a way to smoke pot out of." "Well, there's your selling point right there." "She'd love Berkeley." "I'll talk to her." "Thank you." "It was weird to see Cameron the other day, especially in your sweatpants." "Oh, well, you know, she's always had a major, major thing for me." "No." "Yeah, well, I liked that you thought it was even a possibility." "You know what she said to me about Mosaic?" "She said, "I was surprised it wasn't you."" "What is that supposed to mean?" "I don't know." "Her latest visit's got Joe jumping up and down" " about some new idea." " Of course." "Yeah, I mean, he suddenly thinks he should index every website in existence." "How would you even do that?" "Trust me, he's been meticulously building a list of URLs... by hand... for the last three years." "That sounds awfully tedious." "Yeah, well, you know." "Joe... dog with a bone." "That he is." "And Cameron loves to shit out rainbows to distract from her asshole behavior." "Wow." "I'm gonna do the salmon." "You?" "Sounds good." "I'll do the same." "Here's to Mosaic... and the respective death of our competing browsers." "Good news." "We nailed it." "Magazines." "We use the algorithm to index back catalogs of major publications one magazine at a time." "Voilà... a trove of text documents with an unstructured data problem just waiting to be solved." "No, that's not it." "Oh." "Uh, we also discussed legal service... backlogs of briefs and precedents." " Well, we..." " Look, this is all dead data." "What's growing?" "What can we apply the algorithm to that's dynamic?" "We're in the future business here." "I don't know how we index live data." "Ah, well, then that's unfortunate." "Uh, well, what about the Web?" "The..." "The number of websites has grown 500% this year alone." "By next year, it could grow exponentially." "At that point, the data pool's theoretically limitless." "We'd have to adjust the algorithm, but we could endeavor to index the entire Web, make it searchable." "And how would you index it?" "W-With the algorithm." "It'd be fully automated and computerized." "That means it'd be up to date almost instantly with every new site addition." "That's it." "That's the idea." "Don't tell me the reward for solving Enso puzzle was getting transported back to the beginning of the game." "I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you." "Oh." "So the Enso is a zero, and I've got to start over." "Or maybe it means everything." "Now you can approach the path you've taken in an entirely new way." "Mm." "I'm sorry about the other day." "I was just having trouble believing that the browser was done, and I know that that is... over now." "I do." "Regardless, I don't want five months or five years to go by before I hear from you." "So don't disappear again." "I want to... know you in my life." "You already know me, Joe." "I'm not going back to Japan." "Tom left me." "What happened?" "He... met someone else." "Oh, I'm sorry." "Are..." "Are you..." "Divorced?" "I was gonna say "okay," but..." "Oh." "Yes." "Uh... yeah, I-I guess I am." "So, are you divorced?" "Uh, almost." "You know, it's a pain in the ass doing it from Japan." "So there's all these forms and trips to the post office and sending stuff to Texas." "And it all feels like this weird dream being married and Tokyo..." "I'm sorry." "Do you want to hear this?" "I want to hear whatever you want to tell me." "I feel like an idiot." "You're not an idiot." "Impulsive, maybe." "Okay, Joe." "Hey, I'm impulsive, too, so..." "Are you, uh..." "Are you gonna stay in California?" "I don't know." "I have to get out of this hotel, though." "The shower sucks, and I really want a bath." "I took a lot of baths in Japan." "I love a good bath." "Yeah." "So, no hints about this game, huh?" "No." "You got to figure it out yourself." "Oh, but it's so hard." "It is until you figure it out." "And then it isn't." "Who was it?" "Who was what?" "Um, the woman that Tom..." "Oh." "Oh, that's, uh..." "That's the best part." "I never even asked." "Talk to me." "Tell me something." "Tell you what?" "Just..." "I don't know..." "anything, life on Earth." "What'd I miss?" "Well, what do you want to hear?" " Joe, just talk to me." " Okay." "Uh, did you know that Bill Clinton is the president?" "Yeah." "They love him in Japan." "All those cheeseburgers." "So, what else?" "Um, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl." "Audrey Hepburn died." "And so did River Phoenix." "Uh, some crazies tried to blow up the World Trade Center, and, uh... you can be gay in the military, but nobody can ask you about it, and you can't tell anybody." "Did you know IBM lost $5 billion?" "They check the couch cushions?" "You know, Gordon went through this whole health phase." "He's got a room in his house full of gym stuff." "Like, he's got this NordicTrack and something called a ButtMaster, so..." "And, um, this thing happened to me." "I was getting out of my car at a Safeway, and I saw this woman flailing her arms, just..." "A swarm of bees was attacking her, just stinging her again and again, you know?" "And she fell to the ground." "And out of nowhere, this ice-cream truck comes screaming through the parking lot, and it's playing that music from The Sting." "And the guy gets out of the... the truck, and he's doing CPR and everything." "And the truck is still playing that tinkling piano music, and it keeps playing it even after the ambulance arrives." "And it's all I could think about for days, these paramedics just working on her like crazy while this music played and how that might be the last thing she ever hears." "Cameron?" "Hey, Cam?" "I'll just keep talking 'cause I think you're..." "I think you're still there." "Are you there?" "I'm here." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Oh, hey." "Hey." "I was just making some tea." "Do you want to know what your Hawaiian name is?" "Okay." "It's Kamelonu." "See, there's this whole website where you..." "You didn't hang up?" "Well, yeah, I had to tell you my Hawaiian name." "What is it?" "It's just Joe, but with an I instead of a J." "Eye-oh-ee?" "I actually think that's it's "Yo."" "Right?" "Right." "I'm not calling you "Yo."" "That is such a Kamelonu thing to say." "San Jose is so weird." "You know it's actually bigger than San Francisco?" "I know, but it seems so much smaller, doesn't it?" "Oh." "I think I see a water park." "I haven't ridden a water slide since I was twelve." "Isn't that weird?" "You might have already been on your last water slide." "No way." "I always planned on buying up a water park, living there alone, riding the flumes by night." "Yeah?" "That's what you wanted to do when you grew up?" "Honestly, I feel like I've always been a grown up." "Well, I bet you were one of the only babies with a chiseled jawline." "No, there was one other kid, but we fought to the death." "What do you think about Rover?" "Uh, um, Rover?" "Um, they're... smart, pivot on a dime, good team dynamics." "Yeah, but doesn't it seem like Elliot and Vera just want to kill each other sometimes?" "That's because they're married." "Huh." "Yeah, that makes sense." "Well... you should just know that they're gonna talk major shit about you on the drive home every night." "About me?" "I'm making you lead on Rover." "You pulled them off the slush pile." "You've been doing the work of an associate for months now." "You're ready." "Get them set up in the Incubator today, and start looking for my new assistant." "Until we find one, you'll be pulling double duty." "Congratulations." "This is typically where members of the human race express some enthusiasm or..." "Thank you." "Bobby, yo, grab it out of the car." "Who's winning today?" "Haley Clark." "Young lady, tell me there's a good reason you're not in second period right now." "So, he's from Philadelphia." "West Philly, yeah." "But his mom is really freaked out about what happened on the basketball court, so she packed up his stuff and... and moved him to Los Angeles, and he's been living there ever since." "I'm sorry, but was the thing on the basketball court really that big a deal?" "I mean, to send your kid away forever?" "I think it involved gangs." " Oh." " Yeah." " And he's not actually royalty." " No." ""Fresh Prince" refers to his street cred." "TV in Japan is weird." "There's all these, like, um, game shows where they make you do insane things like, um..." "like dress up like a giant banana, and then they drop you into a zoo with a bunch of chimps that haven't eaten in a week." "And you're terrified, screaming, running around, but then there is this studio audience there who's watching and laughing at you." "That sounds horrible." "You know, I was on TV once." "Mm?" "For IBM?" "Uh, no." "I was 11... uh, Thanksgiving Day parade." "I was a pilgrim, this other kid was wearing his mom's brown tights and construction-paper feathers, and we chased each other around a float and almost fell off." "Hey, can you just..." "Like, one second, one second." "Hello?" " Hello?" " Hey." "I was on TV when I was a kid." ""Good Morning Dallas."" "Troubled-youth exposé?" "No." "I won a beauty contest." "You..." "You what?" "Yeah." "Little Miss Flawless, 1970." "My mom, um, signed me up for a pageant after my dad died." "I think she thought it would distract me or, uh, we'd bond or something." "And you won." "That time?" "No." "No, I lost." "But she kept signing me up." "I told her I hated it, but she... didn't listen." "That bad, huh?" "What, a bunch of 8-year-olds whitening their teeth and getting ranked on their looks?" "Yeah, it was that bad." "So, you whitened your teeth." "Oh, my God." "She had a whole box of tricks." "Spray adhesive to... to keep your bathing suit in place, uh..." "Oh." "Hemorrhoid cream." " Hemorrhoid cream?" " Yeah." "Yeah, 'cause I'd, um, cry a lot?" "Before the competitions?" "I didn't want to be there." "I just wanted to go home, and so I'd cry and cry." "And that puffs you up pretty bad." "So my mom found out that if you put hemorrhoid cream all around my eyes, it took the puffiness away." "So I could be normal again and march out onstage and do the Pretty Feet Pose." "One foot forward, one foot back, hand underneath the rib cage, big, stupid smile on my face." "And..." "I'd lose." "Until you won." "Yeah." "Little Miss Flawless, 1970." "Got all those flaws taken care of." "One sec." " Ms. Howe?" " Hmm?" "A Gavin Greene from Atari is trying to reach you." "Thank you." "So, is there, like, a Fresh Princess of Bel Air?" "Is it dumb to get suspended for skipping school?" "It is, okay?" "But we're not here to debate that." "Okay?" "Look, I know what it's like to have an older sibling who requires a lot of attention." "Okay, your Uncle Henry?" "Total bonehead." "Always getting into major trouble." "And..." "And so, I kind of flew under the radar." "Look, Haley if you want to blow off some steam, fine, just don't be dumb about it." "You know, this isn't you." "You're..." "You're..." "You're..." "You're smart, you know?" "You're..." "You're our rock, you know..." "Oh, honey, Bug?" "No." "I'm sorry." " Look..." " I don't..." "No, I'm sorry." "Look, it..." "Look, it's... it's not even that big of a deal." "I'm..." "I'm..." "I'm..." "I'm not even mad." "It's..." "Oh, sweetie, did..." "Shep, I'm..." "I'm kind of busy here." "Ah, hey there, kiddo!" "Okay, look, did I upset you?" "Is it something that I said or..." "No, I'm..." " Oh, honey..." " Kind of need you inside, Gordon." " Shep, what do you need?" " Kinda need you inside." "Okay, well, I'll be there in a few minutes, all right?" "Okay, sure." " Oh, Bug." " And we're on it." " No." " Probably going to be fine." "Busy signals for users trying to log on, the customer-service calls spiking." "Uh, throughput's at a crawl." "We're not talking Chernobyl-style meltdown yet," " but we're in Three Mile Island territory for suresies." " Hold on." "Hold on." "Hold on." "All because of the flat-fee model?" "I mean, are people really spending that much more time online?" "A lot of people just leave their computers logged on all day now." "Hey, Bug, do you mind waiting in my office for me?" "We got three dozen users who've been on for more than twenty-four hours." "So kick 'em off." "We'd have to write new code to do that and then get everyone to download a software patch." "Yeah." "We need more capacity from MCI." "Get me, uh..." "Get me Jon Volpi on the phone." "Uh, tried." "Can't reach him." "All right, well, get me Alan or Dave or that Bobby Sobrato guy." "Uh, w-we tried them, too." "We can't get ahold of anybody at MCI." "Where's Joe?" "Uh, he never came in." "We tried him, too." "It just keeps going to voicemail." "Look, just..." "Shep, we need to fix it fast, okay?" "AOL is breathing down our butts, you know." "And if we don't give our customers what they need, they're gonna go somewhere else." "Do you know how to work Excel?" "Yeah." "Well... can you put these in a spreadsheet for me?" "It's really important." "Okay." "There's some quarters in the top drawer if you need anything from the vending machine." "Okay?" "I'll be right back." "It just doesn't sound like Haley." "I was sure the school got her mixed up with Joanie." "Yeah, no, I know." "I'm telling you, Donna, I don't know what's going on." "She's never been the crying type." "Yeah, I mean, it was that... that... that really intense crying." "Where you try and hold it in, but you can't, and, you know, then you just start going into convulsions." "Ah, maybe she's just on her period." "No, Donna, this isn't menstrual crying." "Trust me." "I know menstrual crying." "Yeah." "You know menstrual crying." "Look, do you want me to talk to her?" "No." "No, I'll..." "I'll handle it." "Okay, well, good luck." "Saturday afternoon, nothing but ocean." "Oh, Donna, it was Goddamn beautiful." "So, I took my little disco nap" " and I had a dream..." " Ah." "...that I was this..." "I was this big, fat bald baby just sloshin' around a manatee's tummy, just, "Whoosh, fworsh."" "But when I come to by God, the boat is pitching' and it's yawin' and it's rollin' like a drunk donkey." "Just a freak storm out of nowhere, just a wall of black blocking my path back to the coast." "I'm lost." "And I'm thinking, "Turn out the lights." "The party's over." Then I started to panic." "Then I started to S.O.S. like an S.O.B., and that's when these two eggheads just come cruising up." "Unbelievable." "See, these two have a custom GPS receiver on their boat." "That's the Global Positioning System." "That is right, Donna, yeah." "Turns out Fred and Bill are engineers." "They made AMD a lot of money by making real expensive stuff real cheap." "Not a bad skill set." "Right." "So we had a few beers, and we get to talking." "And what we thought was, why not take their idea and scale it up?" "Make something a guy like me can buy off the rack?" "Uh, doesn't Garmin already do that?" "Mm, yeah, but them and Magellan got a stranglehold on the market, and, Donna, they charge up the wazoo." "We're talking about disrupting the price point, bringing the costs way down." "It's interesting." "And, hey, I... what a fascinating technology." "Mm-hmm." "It is, yeah." "I'll look into it." " Fred..." " Yes." " ..." "Bill..." " Mm-hmm." "...nice meeting you." " Nice meeting you." " Pleasure." " Yeah." " Thank you." " Oh, uh, yeah." " Thank you very much." "Thanks, guys." "Great." "I'll see you in the lobby." " Okay." " Beautiful." "Okay." "All right." "Yeah, we'll see you back there." " Yeah." " All right." " Cool." " Well all right." "Well, give it to me straight." "I got to manage my expectations here." "Well, um, it's intriguing." "Mm." "What are you looking for out of this, Bos?" "I mean, do you really want to be the exec at a startup?" "I-I'm just looking for a finder's fee, you know?" "I like connecting people." "And I like these guys." "And just..." "I'm the market for this kind of thing." "You know?" "There's a lot of other salty sailors out there just like me." "Okay." "Well, you know, I'll look into it." "Again, uh, what a technology." "Well, Th-thanks for having us in." "Thanks." "Nice." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Hey, you, me, and Diane are overdue for a dinner." "We should do that soon." "We should." "Let's do." "Let's do." "Okay." "Okay, I found it." "David was visited by an exact vision of death:" "a long hole in the ground, no wider than your body, down which you are drawn while the white faces above recede." "You try to reach for them, but your arms are pinned." "Shovels pour dirt into your face." "There you will be forever, in an upright position, blind and silent, and in time no one will remember you, and you will never be called." "As strata of rock shift, your fingers elongate, your teeth are distended sideways in a great underground grimace indistinguishable from a strip of chalk." "And the earth tumbles on, and the sun expires, and unaltering darkness reigns where once there were stars." "Jesus..." "But that's not the end of the story." "This kid... his grandmother tells him to go shoot all the pigeons in the barn." "And it makes him think about death, and he has this crisis of faith." "A-And nobody reassures him." "He is... surrounded by this non-belief." "It's like a conspiracy, and he's just wising up to it." "But he still has to shoot all these pigeons." "And he does, he just shoots the hell out of them." "And he picks up a dead pigeon, and he stares at it." "And it's actually gorgeous." "And he decides right then and there that no God who would give so much beauty to such a worthless creature would fail to let him live forever." "Like his faith is restored." "Is that what you believe?" "I just..." "I don't know." "I guess I..." "I hope there's something more." "Huh." ""Huh" what?" "Just weird." "I never thought about you as the kind of guy who needed "more."" "All right." "What do you believe?" "Um, well..." "I saw this shrine in Japan." "And, uh, the locals tear it down, right to the foundation, every 20 years." "And then they build it right back up again, back to its original state." "And they've been doing this for 1,300 years." "Nothing in it's original anymore, but it still looks identical to the day it went up." "That's beautiful." "Well, no." "I mean, I don't think these people are doing it for some spiritual reason." "I think they're doing it because they're holding onto the process of it, you know?" "The doing of it, that that's all that matters." "That's what I think." "I don't know." "I've been trying to find some solace in that lately." "How's that working out for you?" "Not that great, Joe, but thanks for asking." "Um, I'm sorry." "That was..." "That was unfair." "Yeah, it was." "Look, I'm forty-five." "I've got no family." "I work in a basement." "People aren't exactly lining up for my spiritual guidance." "Is that what this is about?" "What?" "Well, you said you didn't have a family." "You don't want one, do you?" "My dad died last spring." "Oh, God, Joe." "I'm sorry." "Yeah." "And you know what this is like, but..." "You just start to think about everything." "And when I was... when I was fifteen," "I made this vow that I would never have kids." "All because of him." "He was just... huge and... imposing." "You know you're huge and imposing, right?" "He made me feel small." "Like I was... less than nothing." "And I never wanted to risk doing that to a child." "Uh..." "And then he died." "And..." "And I'm, like, there at his funeral." "And there's hardly anyone else there." "And he felt like the small one all of a sudden." "And that made you want to have a family?" "It made me realize that we are different people... and, um... maybe I would have been better." "You ever think about kids?" "Yeah." "I just, um, sprung it on Tom one day." "Didn't even really think about it." "Just "Let's start a family."" "Such a stupid thing to say to someone if you're not ready for them to take it seriously." "And he did." "Oh, I mean, he lit up." "I've never seen someone so happy." "And so we, uh, started trying." "And it didn't work." "And I was relieved." "I was relieved that Mother Nature made a decision for me that I was too spineless to make for myself." "And I realized I was just going through with it because I didn't want to disappoint him again." "Sorry." "I shouldn't... have said that." "You know, it is so good to actually talk to you." "Yeah." "You too." "I think it's gonna take a while for me to get used to that." "I mean, come on. "Aggek"?" "What is that?" "It sounds like a painful hiccup." "It does kind of remind me of pond scum." "Oh, God, Trip makes my blood boil, even just his name." ""Trip Kisker."" "Elias does like him, though." "He's a star." "Look, if we're gonna position you to take over the mantle once I'm gone, a little diplomacy with the new star pupil won't hurt." "So, how was it?" "Be honest." "Oh, well it's a promising arena." "But I think they're too late." "There's a lot of muscle in GPS already, and retail is tricky." "But I can do some more digging, maybe order up an analysis." "No." "I think John could care less about GPS." "He's just restless and looking for something to do." ""Aggek."" "It's the cry you hear when you step on a tiny lizard." "Hey, we can still talk trash about Trip behind his back, right?" " Let's circle back on that later." " Oh, really?" "I think now's the perfect time to drill down on it." "I always prefer to drill down after I'm circling back." "Curtis." "Yeah, well, I'm pulling software guys to handle support calls." "And we've already had some cancellations." "Well, call me back when you do have an answer." "Okay, please tell me you've talked to somebody from MCI." "Yeah, we did." "I just did." "Uh, Barry Schnellham?" "Schnell-ham." "Okay." "Well, who the hell is Barry Shhhnellham?" "Uh, Barry Schnellham is..." "Interim manager of enterprise solution outreach." "They're gonna wait out the clock and then squeeze us until we cave on a huge rate hike for more pipe!" "What...?" "Oh, it looks like customer service just face-planted again." "Barry Shhhnellham?" "Barry Schnellham?" "Listen to me, Shep." "You get on the phone right now and you tell Barry Schnellham if I don't have Jon Volpi on the line in the next five minutes," "I'm personally gonna drive down to MCI and put my Goddamn face through his Goddamn fist!" "How is he?" "He's great." "CalNect is really successful." " The ISP sector is growing like crazy." " No, no, no, no, no." "How is he?" "Oh." "Uh, I think he's fine." "He doesn't talk about it much." "It must be so scary." "I mean, h-he's, uh..." "he's really, really happy." "Or at least he was." "Until I told him about my new web idea." "Which is?" "So, imagine, like, um, a website of websites, uh, a curated index that takes you wherever you want to go." "Like the yellow pages?" "No, it's... it's so much more than that." "It's like a..." "It's a portal..." " Wait." "Wait." "One second, one second." " ...is what" " I'm thinking about..." " Okay." " Cameron, hey." " Hi." "Uh, your phone's been tied up all day." "Yeah, sorry." "Um, you have a sec?" "We need to talk." "Nobody at Atari wants to push forward on a product that isn't perfectly calibrated." "So we've decided to push back for a time." "How much time?" "Indefinitely." "Also, we're gonna, uh, need a quote... tonight." "Yeah, uh, I'll, uh..." "[Thud through telephone" "Hey, Cameron." "Hey." "Um... they're, uh..." "They're gonna delay my game." "Like, um... indefinitely." "Uh, they need some press-release quote from me, so I..." "I should probably go." "I can write it." "Let me help you." "Yeah, well, we can to talk about it more." " So then Judy barges in room, right?" " Yeah, yeah." "Completely unexpected." "Knocks over the glass and completely ruins my rug." "Ohh." "Like that." "Exactly... exactly like that." "Okay, time to address the over-educated elephant in the room." "A formal welcome to our new general partner..." "Colton Marshall Kisker III." "We were certainly lucky to nab you from Sequoia last year." "And the joyride IPO... 22x." " Cheers." " Cheers." "Cheers." "Mm." "I've got a lot to say, but I don't want to ruin good champagne with bad rambling, so..." "Great." "I'm honored." "I'm humbled." "And I'm ready." "I am." "I'm ready to really drill down on monetizing my portfolio while simultaneously cultivating new and promising ventures that provide big exits, with LP's clamoring to sign subscription docs." "So, thank you, one and all." "Thank you." "All right, fun's over." "Back to business." " Yeah." "Let's do it." " Come on." "SparqPlug's Series B term sheet draft is available for the curious." "Joyce, can you send around the target for PulseMD?" "Got it." "And Millennium is a write-down." "Let's take a knee on the web for now, yes?" "Actually, no." "Uh, Rover is repurposing their software for a web play." "They're getting set up in the Incubator now." "And you're still on point, Donna?" "I made Tanya Reese associate." "She'll take lead and have an update by end of day." "Um, just to throw out a quick suggestion..." "Rover has enough runway to rework their core technology and index the entire web, make it searchable." "It's low-risk, high-reward." "Uh, sorry, I'm..." "I'm just getting caught up on the particulars, but seeing as the web is rocky territory, is... is jumping back into browsers maybe something..." "Rover isn't developing a browser." "It's indexing the web." "The whole thing." "Uh, could... could we circle back for a second and drill down on leadership?" "So, Tanya Reese was an assistant of yours until today?" "We're all aware of that fact, Trip." "Absolutely." "I'm just... just getting up on my skis here, but, um, does she have a web background or any managerial experience specific to this play?" "Tanya sat on my desk for two years." "She's been involved in numerous deals and consequential in the success of more than a few." "Not to mention the fact that she pulled Rover off the slush pile to begin with, so..." "Just, um, talking while I'm thinking, uh, but since the web is frontierland, would it be the worst idea to bring in an outside consultant?" "I think Tanya is perfectly capable of handling the challenge..." "I bet Joey Winchester'd be happy to come in." "You know who's available is Michael Hottendorf." " Cass Reinhardt just exited Sequoia three months ago..." " Ooh." "...and he would hit this out of the park." " Cass..." " You know what?" "If that's what Rover needs," "I have the perfect person in mind." "Let me just, uh, make a phone call, and I'll report back." "Hmm, okay, moving on," "QwellX's missed its quarter by a bit." "Livermore Three can take about two percent of our load." "Oh, that's a drop in the bucket... we're getting hit in the face with a fire hose." "It's like a Greyhound bus station in here, Gordon." "Hey, Bos, what are you doing here?" "I don't know." "I just thought I'd stop by." "We didn't get much of a chance to catch up on your birthday." "Hey, step into my office." "Okay." "Looks like you could use a break." "Hey, sweetie, can you give us a sec?" "Ma'am." "Well, pretty, young secretary you got there." "Yeah." "I thought the ISP business supposed to be easy-breezy." "People running around out there like their balls are on fire." "Well, you know, we're, um, we're going through a couple hiccups today." "Yeah, I remember days like that... the old bucket brigade routine." "By God, it makes you feel alive, though." "Doesn't it, Gordon?" "Doesn't it?" "Them blue..." "Them blue men were something, huh?" " Yeah." " Their drumming'?" " All their, uh... their blue?" " Hey, listen, uh, Bos, m-maybe today's not a good time." "Can we grab a drink in a few days or something?" "Yeah, yeah, but... um, hey, uh..." "Gordon," "I need to, uh..." "I need to borrow some money." "Diane and I were looking to invest in this housing development." "She lost interest." "And I didn't." "Uh, so I put up my own money, uh, without telling her." "And then I went in whole hog." "So, you know, I-I put good money after bad and bad money after worse, and before you..." "Well, now I'm in the drink." "First bank note's due in a week." "All right, well, I mean, why don't you ask Diane?" "I mean, she's your wife." "W-Well, she's not my wife." "I'm not a kept man." "I got alimony to pay." "I'm paying down college loans for the kids." "I..." "I sold my boat to pay this thing down." "You sold your boat, Bos?" "Well, I mean, how short are you?" "Eighteen thousand... for the first payment." "Bos..." "Well, wh-why are you coming to me?" "Well, now, don't worry, I'm..." "I'm good for it." "I'm good for it." "No, I got this... this GPS thing that I'm working on." "And then I got, uh..." "Oh, God, I got so much stuff in the hopper right now, really." "I mean, I'm..." "I'm just..." "I'm just cash-shy, just a little cash-shy." "So I figured you had a..." "You figured that... since I hired the Blue Man Group that I must have cash just falling out of my pockets?" "Look, Bos, look, I'd give you the money in a heartbeat." "But you live with Diane, who works with my ex-wife." "And who has more money than all of us combined, all right?" "I can't get in the middle of that." "Okay?" "You're gonna have to ask her." "I..." "That'd be the end of us." "Things are choppy at home." "I mean, but Diane's it for me." "She's got to be." "Look, Bos, I-I-I got to get back out there right now." "I can't..." "All right." "It wasn't all about the money." "You don't know what it's like being retired." "Hell, you just turned forty." "You got a dozen more tricks up your sleeve no matter what." "I'm sixty-five." "This can't be my last thing." "You're gonna have to ask her, Bos." "Haley!" "Come here." "Come here." "Wh-What is this?" "Oh, well, I just took a little break to make something." "And I'll keep checking for broken sites, but..." "No, no, no." "It's fine." "Haley, Th-that drawing is awesome." "It's because it's Halley's Comet?" "Because I'm Haley?" "Is that lame?" "No, Bug, that's..." "I-it's not lame at all." "You..." "You like Richard Pryor?" "Well, yeah, he's the best." "Haley, I had no idea that you could do all this." "Well, markup language is pretty easy." "Not like it's C++ or anything." "That pony is dressed like a little pink cowboy." "It's actually a miniature horse." "So it's way cooler." "Ah." "This is..." "Jon Volpi." "On the phone." "All right, Shep." "Is rad." " "Rad"?" " Rad." "This is... rad, yes." "You ready?" "Yes." "Go ahead." "Okay, okay, okay." ""A game of this scope can't be rushed." "The Atari team and I have forged a fruitful working relationship that will continue to deliver the engrossing gaming experience our fans demand and deserve." "I am gratified by Atari's commitment to the title and look forward to our ongoing collaboration." "In addition, I firmly deny that I have an urgent desire to scalp Gavin Greene, scoop out his brain, and shit in his empty skull." "Yes!" "I think we should send it." "I mean, minus the, uh..." "the last part, unfortunately." "Listen, I know..." "I know it's hard to swallow this right now, but you are so good at what you do." "Joe..." "No, really." "Don't let that asshole take that away from you." "He's a parasite." "You create." "You make something out of nothing, and I have always been in awe of that." "And not to ruin the moment, but I really, really got to piss." "Oh, my God, me too." "Okay." "Yes, Jon, we understand that part, okay, but our trunk lines are totally clogged over here." "Now, we had a contract that specifically..." "And we'll uphold that contract... but that contract doesn't explicitly codify expansion." "Uh, Jon, Shep Gramaticus, here, VP of Ops." "Uh, if this is a rate issue, let's talk rates." "We want to engage." "It's crowded out there, Shep." "Only so much bandwidth in the ISP market." "Can't really say there's pipe just laying around for you." "Look, we get it." " We'll break our rate lock." " No." "Look, Jon, just level with us, all right?" "What do we got to pay?" "Guys, I'm afraid you're not hearing what I'm saying." "There is no more pipe." "For you." "Period." "And if you gentlemen need anything else," "Barry Schnellham is your guy." "Take care, now." "Are we an ISP with no backbone?" "We're already hemorrhaging customers." "Be dead before we switch providers." "Can they do this?" "Why are they freezing us out?" "They're starting their own ISP." "Oh, my God." "We need to retain outside counsel." "They can't do this." "They're a public utility." "They cannot pick winners and losers." "We got to do something." "What?" "Gordon...?" "Gordon?" "Does this qualify as drinking alone?" "It does." "Mmm!" "Oh, do you see that?" "What?" "The moon." "Look out your window." "No." "I think the hill is blocking it." "Ohh." "That's too bad." "It's so beautiful from here." "You missed the moon." "Oh, well." "Southeast Asian today..." "pineapple, lemongrass, and mint." "Thank you." "Tanya, stay a sec." "I, uh..." "There's been a slight change." "I kid you not." "We come up through that little trailer I was telling you about." "We go through the woods, naked as a jaybird, playing a banjo." "I kid you not!" "It really happened, the son of a..." "Hey there, Tanya." "How are you?" "I'm just getting acquainted with these numbnuts here." "Good to see you, John." "Should we get started?" "Sure." "Here's a list of short- to mid-term goals," " up for discussion, of course..." " Of course." "...aiming at a product that we want to deliver within the next couple of weeks." "Here you go." "So, do you know what you want?"