1.

I'm thinking about Ben Rosen these days. He's back in charge at Compaq. Rosen is a smart guy. I met him first in the early 80s when I was associated with Personal Software, the company that produced Visicalc. Rosen was an analyst and newsletter writer and smalltime investor. He was watching and listening carefully, waiting for his opening, and when the IBM PC came, he pounced, starting Lotus with Mitch Kapor to challenge Personal Software, and starting Compaq to provide an alternative to IBM.

2.

I had a psychic Ben Rosen experience last week. Walking down a street in suburban Washington DC, I had a thought. I wonder what Ben Rosen is doing now. A couple of days later I got my answer on the front pages of the Times and the Journal. He's shaking up Compaq, where he's still Chairman, which is no longer just a PC maker. Compaq is DEC, Tandem, AltaVista, and the original desktop business. Rosen's creativity should be quite a force. I'd love to chat with him now to hear how he's thinking. Like I said, he's a smart creative guy.