Interesting Facts & Information
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Interesting Facts and Information!



The Richest Americans

Information from www.forbes.com
 
Rank Name Net Worth () Age Residence Source
1 Gates, William Henry III 51,000 49 Medina, WA Microsoft
2 Buffett, Warren Edward 40,000 75 Omaha, NE Berkshire Hathaway
3 Allen, Paul Gardner 22,500 52 Seattle, WA Microsoft, investments
4 Dell, Michael 18,000 40 Austin, TX Dell
5 Ellison, Lawrence Joseph 17,000 61 Silicon Valley, CA Oracle
6 Walton, Christy 15,700 50 Jackson, WY Wal-Mart inheritance
6 Walton, Jim C 15,700 57 Bentonville, AR Wal-Mart
8 Walton, S Robson 15,600 61 Bentonville, AR Wal-Mart
9 Walton, Alice L 15,500 56 Fort Worth, TX Wal-Mart
10 Walton, Helen R 15,400 86 Bentonville, AR Wal-Mart
11 Ballmer, Steven Anthony 14,000 49 Redmond, WA Microsoft
12 Anthony, Barbara Cox 12,500 82 Honolulu, HI Cox Enterprises
12 Chambers, Anne Cox 12,500 85 Atlanta, GA Cox Enterprises
12 Johnson, Abigail 12,500 43 Boston, MA Fidelity
15 Adelson, Sheldon 11,500 72 Las Vegas, NV Casinos, hotels
16 Brin, Sergey 11,000 32 San Francisco, CA Google
16 Page, Larry E 11,000 32 San Francisco, CA Google
18 Omidyar, Pierre M 10,200 38 Henderson, NV Ebay
19 Kerkorian, Kirk 10,000 88 Los Angeles, CA Investments, casinos
19 Mars, Forrest Edward Jr 10,000 74 McLean, VA Candy
19 Mars, Jacqueline 10,000 66 Bedminster, NJ Candy
19 Mars, John Franklyn 10,000 69 Arlington, VA Candy
23 Kluge, John Werner 9,000 91 Palm Beach, FL Metromedia
24 Icahn, Carl 8,500 69 New York, NY Leveraged buyouts
25 Redstone, Sumner M 8,400 82 Beverly Hills, CA Viacom
 26 Newhouse, Donald Edward 7,500 75 Somerset County, NJ Publishing
26 Newhouse, Samuel Irving Jr 7,500 77 New York, NY Publishing
28 Anschutz, Philip F 7,200 65 Denver, CO Investments
28 Soros, George 7,200 75 New York, NY Hedge funds
30 Ergen, Charles 7,100 52 Denver, CO EchoStar
31 Knight, Philip H 6,900 67 Beaverton, OR Nike
32 Murdoch, Keith Rupert 6,700 74 New York, NY News Corp
33 Johnson, Edward Crosby III 6,500 75 Boston, MA Fidelity
34 Duncan, Dan L 6,000 72 Houston, TX Energy
34 Perelman, Ronald Owen 6,000 62 New York, NY Leveraged buyouts
34 Taylor, Jack Crawford 6,000 83 St Louis, MO Enterprise Rent-A-Car
37 Arison, Micky 5,800 56 Bal Harbour, FL Carnival Cruises
38 Bren, Donald L 5,700 73 Newport Beach, CA Real estate
39 Broad, Eli 5,500 72 Los Angeles, CA Investments
40 Bloomberg, Michael Rubens 5,100 63 New York, NY Bloomberg L.P.
41 Menard, John R Jr 5,000 65 Eau Claire, WI Home improvement stores
42 Bezos, Jeffrey P 4,800 41 Seattle, WA Amazon
42 Rowling, Robert 4,800 52 Dallas, TX Oil & gas, hotels, investments
44 Moore, Gordon Earle 4,600 76 Woodside, CA Intel
45 Geffen, David 4,500 62 Malibu, CA DreamWorks
45 Kaiser, George B 4,500 63 Tulsa, OK Oil & gas, banking, real estate
45 Koch, Charles De Ganahl 4,500 69 Wichita, KS Oil, commodities
45 Koch, David Hamilton 4,500 65 Wichita, KS Oil, commodities
49 Warner, H Ty 4,400 61 Chicago, IL Beanie Babies
50 Perot, Henry Ross 4,200 75 Dallas, TX Computer services, real estate
51 Goodnight, James 4,100 62 Cary, NC SAS Institute
52 Crown, Lester & family 4,000 80 Wilmette, IL Investments
52 Davis, Barbara & family 4,000 75 Beverly Hills, CA Inheritance, oil
52 Murdock, David Howard 4,000 82 Los Angeles, CA Investments
52 Schmidt, Eric 4,000 50 Atherton, CA Google
56 Sorenson, James L 3,900 84 Salt Lake City, UT Medical devices, real estate
56 Tisch, Preston Robert 3,900 79 New York, NY Loews
58 Schwab, Charles R 3,800 68 Atherton, CA Discount stock brokerage
59 Johnson, Charles Bartlett 3,700 72 San Mateo, CA Franklin Resources
59 Schulze, Richard M 3,700 64 Edina, MN Best Buy
61 Blavatnik, Leonard 3,500 48 New York, NY Access Industries
61 Davidson, William Morse 3,500 82 Bloomfield Hills, MI Glass
61 Lampert, Edward S 3,500 43 Greenwich, CT Investments
61 Lucas, George 3,500 61 Marin County, CA Star Wars
65 DeVos, Richard M 3,400 79 Ada, MI Alticor
65 Wrigley, William Jr 3,400 41 Lake Forest, IL Chewing gum
67 Abele, John E 3,300 68 Boston, MA Boston Scientific
67 Jobs, Steven Paul 3,300 50 Palo Alto, CA Apple Computer, Pixar
67 Lauren, Ralph 3,300 65 New York, NY Fashion
70 Cook, William Alfred 3,200 74 Bloomington, IN Medical devices
70 Hughes, Bradley Wayne 3,200 72 Malibu, CA Public Storage
72 Johnson, Rupert Harris Jr 3,100 64 San Mateo, CA Franklin Resources
73 Arnall, Roland 3,000 66 Holmby Hills, CA Mortgage banking
73 Bass, Robert Muse 3,000 57 Fort Worth, TX Oil, investments
73 Bronfman, Edgar M Sr 3,000 76 New York, NY Liquor
73 Filo, David 3,000 39 Mountain View, CA Yahoo
73 Lauder, Leonard Alan 3,000 72 New York, NY Estee Lauder
78 Greenberg, Maurice Raymond 2,800 80 New York, NY American International Group
78 Johnson, Barbara Piasecka 2,800 68 Monte Carlo, Monaco Inheritance
78 Nicholas, Peter M 2,800 64 Boston, MA Boston Scientific
78 Pohlad, Carl 2,800 90 Minneapolis, MN Banking
78 Saban, Haim 2,800 60 Beverly Hills, CA Television
83 Hillman, Henry Lea 2,700 86 Pittsburgh, PA Industrialist, venture capitalist
83 Lauder, Ronald Steven 2,700 61 New York, NY Estee Lauder
83 Simons, James H 2,700 67 East Setauket, NY Hedge funds
83 Spielberg, Steven Allen 2,700 58 Pacific Palisades, CA Movies
83 Stern, Leonard Norman 2,700 67 New York, NY Real estate
83 Trump, Donald John 2,700 59 New York, NY Real estate
89 Ingram, Martha R & family 2,600 70 Nashville, TN Ingram Industries
89 Kroenke, Ann Walton 2,600 55 Columbia, MO Wal-Mart
89 Perenchio, A Jerrold 2,600 74 Bel Air, CA Univision
89 Wexner, Leslie Herbert 2,600 70 Columbus, OH Limited Brands
93 Cohen, Steven A 2,500 49 Greenwich, CT Hedge funds
93 Hunt, Ray Lee 2,500 62 Dallas, TX Inheritance, oil, real estate
93 Kinder, Richard 2,500 61 Houston, TX Pipelines
93 Kovner, Bruce 2,500 60 New York, NY Hedge funds
93 Kravis, Henry R 2,500 61 New York, NY Leveraged buyouts
93 Mitchell, George Phydias 2,500 86 The Woodlands, TX Mitchell Energy
93 Rich, Robert Edward Sr 2,500 92 Palm Beach, FL Nondairy creamer
93 Ricketts, J Joseph & family 2,500 64 Omaha, NE Ameritrade
93 Roberts, George R 2,500 61 San Francisco, CA Leveraged buyouts
93 Rockefeller, David Sr 2,500 90 New York, NY Standard Oil, banking
93 Schwarzman, Stephen A 2,500 58 New York, NY Investments
93 Simmons, Harold Clark 2,500 74 Dallas, TX Investments
93 Simon, Melvin 2,500 78 Indianapolis, IN Real estate
93 Simplot, John Richard & family 2,500 96 Boise, ID Potatoes, microchips
93 Washington, Dennis 2,500 71 Missoula, MT Construction, mining, transportation
93 Yang, Jerry 2,500 36 Los Altos, CA Yahoo
109 Bechtel, Riley P 2,400 53 San Francisco, CA Engineering, construction
109 Bechtel, Stephen Davison Jr 2,400 80 San Francisco, CA Engineering, construction
109 Bucksbaum, Matthew & family 2,400 79 Chicago, IL Real estate
112 Burkle, Ronald 2,300 52 Los Angeles, CA Supermarkets, investments
112 Hostetter, Amos Barr Jr 2,300 68 Boston, MA Cable television
112 Rainwater, Richard Edward 2,300 61 Fort Worth, TX Real estate, energy, insurance
112 Zell, Samuel 2,300 64 Chicago, IL Real estate
116 Butt, Charles C 2,200 67 San Antonio, TX Supermarkets
116 Getty, Gordon Peter 2,200 72 San Francisco, CA Inheritance, oil
116 Helmsley, Leona Mindy Rosenthal 2,200 85 New York, NY Real estate
116 Kellogg, Peter R 2,200 63 Short Hills, NJ Investments
116 Laurie, Nancy Walton 2,200 54 Columbia, MO Wal-Mart
116 Marcus, Bernard 2,200 76 Atlanta, GA Home Depot
116 Soon-Shiong, Patrick 2,200 53 Los Angeles, CA Generic drugs
116 Spangler, Clemmie Dixon Jr 2,200 73 Charlotte, NC Investments
116 Stryker, Ronda E 2,200 51 Kalamazoo, MI Stryker Corp.
125 Calamos, John P 2,100 65 Naperville, IL Mutual funds
125 Dolan, Charles Francis 2,100 78 Oyster Bay, NY Cablevision Systems
125 Kohler, Herbert & family 2,100 66 Kohler, WI Plumbing fixtures
125 Mann, Alfred 2,100 79 Los Angeles, CA Inventor, entrepreneur
125 McCaw, Craig O 2,100 56 Seattle, WA McCaw Cellular
125 Rales, Mitchell P 2,100 49 Washington, DC Danaher Corp
125 Taylor, Glen 2,100 64 Mankato, MN Printing
125 Udvar-Hazy, Steven 2,100 59 Beverly Hills, CA International Lease Finance
133 Allen, Herbert Anthony Jr 2,000 65 New York, NY Investment banking
133 Annenberg, Leonore 2,000 87 Wynnewood, PA Inheritance
133 Bass, Lee Marshall 2,000 49 Fort Worth, TX Oil, investments
133 Bass, Sid Richardson 2,000 62 Fort Worth, TX Oil, investments
133 Brandes, Charles H 2,000 62 San Diego, CA Money management
133 Green, David 2,000 63 Oklahoma City, OK Hobby Lobby
133 Hearst, William Randolph III 2,000 56 San Francisco, CA Hearst Corp
133 Huizenga, H Wayne 2,000 67 Fort Lauderdale, FL Investments
133 Jones, Paul Tudor II 2,000 51 Greenwich, CT Hedge funds
133 Lindner, Carl Henry Jr & family 2,000 86 Cincinnati, OH Investments
133 Magerko, Margaret Hardy 2,000 39 Upper Saint Clair, PA 84 Lumber
133 McGovern, Patrick Joseph 2,000 68 Hollis, NH IDG
133 Milken, Michael Robert 2,000 59 Los Angeles, CA Investments
133 Nicholas, Henry Thompson III 2,000 46 Laguna Hills, CA Broadcom
133 Penske, Roger S 2,000 68 Birmingham, MI Cars
133 Rales, Steven M 2,000 54 Washington, DC Danaher Corp
133 Sall, John 2,000 56 Cary, NC SAS Institute
133 Sobrato, John Albert 2,000 66 Atherton, CA Real estate
133 Stryker, Jon Lloyd 2,000 47 Kalamazoo, MI Stryker Corp.
133 Turner, Robert E "Ted" 2,000 66 Lamont, FL Cable television
153 Cooke, Phoebe Hearst 1,900 78 San Francisco, CA Hearst Corp
153 Hearst, Austin 1,900 53 New York, NY Hearst Corp
153 Hearst, David Whitmire Jr 1,900 60 Los Angeles, CA Hearst Corp
153 Hearst, George Randolph Jr 1,900 78 Los Angeles, CA Hearst Corp
153 Lewis, Peter Benjamin 1,900 71 Coconut Grove, FL Progressive Corp
153 Malone, John C 1,900 64 Parker, CO Cable television
153 Mathile, Clayton Lee 1,900 64 Dayton, OH Iams
153 Pritzker, Thomas J 1,900 55 Chicago, IL Hotels, investments
153 Rady, Ernest S 1,900 68 San Diego, CA Banking, insurance
153 Sperling, John G 1,900 84 Phoenix, AZ Apollo Group
153 Zuckerman, Mortimer Benjamin 1,900 68 New York, NY Media, real estate
164 Abraham, S Daniel 1,800 81 Palm Beach, FL Slim-Fast
164 Cargill, James R 1,800 81 Minneapolis, MN Inheritance
164 Cargill, Margaret Anne 1,800 85 La Jolla, CA Inheritance
164 Cuban, Mark 1,800 47 Dallas, TX Broadcast.com
164 DeLeon, J Russell 1,800 39 Gibraltar Online gaming
164 Druckenmiller, Stanley 1,800 53 New York, NY Hedge funds
164 Frank, Sidney 1,800 86 New Rochelle, NY Liquor
164 Hall, Donald Joyce 1,800 77 Mission Hills, KS Hallmark
164 Jackson, Jess Stonestreet 1,800 75 Healdsburg, CA Kendall-Jackson
164 Kroenke, E Stanley 1,800 58 Columbia, MO Sports, real estate
164 Parasol, Ruth 1,800 38 Gibraltar Online gaming
164 Pritzker, Penny 1,800 46 Chicago, IL Hotels, investments

Want to know the truth about college life?

Classes
Go to all your classes during your first month of school? Hey, great for you, now let me let you in on a little secret. This isn’t high school, you’re professors don’t care about you. Show up, don’t show up, pass, fail, live, die, they’re getting a paycheck no matter what. Always keep that little fact of life in mind when you’re deciding if you really need to go to your 8 am class when you’re so hung over you can’t even breath without it hurting.


Your Dorm
Hard not to notice the smell that hit you in the face when you first entered your dorm room, wasn’t it? Bet you thought it was just a temporary thing. Jokes on you, ‘cause that stink will be a resident in your building far longer than you will. Your only option is to breathe it in, get used to it, and learn to love it. No amount of showering or cleaning will ever get rid of it.

Your Roommate
During the beginning of school, your roommate most likely went to great lengths to prove that he would be your best friend, someone who always watches your back, and is always willing to pick up the tab at the bar. Be prepared for an abrupt change as Your roommate will most likely sleep away most of the day, shame you into drinking grain alcohol before class, and generally drag you down to the depths of humanity along with him. Don’t fight it. Look on the bright side of things; while your roommate may be a slob and a drunk, at least he’s not a shape shifter who will try to eat your soul while you’re passed out. Or maybe he is. Sleep with your eyes open just in case.

Meals
You’re already missing home cooking, aren’t you? Despite the fact that your parents have spend an obscene amount of money on meals for you, you’re diet will consist mainly of pizza, Roman noodles, and juice packs. New to your diet, however, may be coffee. Much like its more destructive cousin, beer, you will most likely hate the taste of coffee at first. Learn to love it, as it is a handy hangover tool and you will look forward to seeing it in the morning more so than any loved one. Think of it this way; if beer is the guy who goes nuts and gets thrown in jail on Spring Break, coffee is the one who bails him out.

Money
I’m sure you’ve already realized money is hard to come by. For some, it will come from a job on campus. For most, it will come from your parents. Don’t ever be afraid to ask your parents for money. Look at it this way, if they’re crazy enough to think that your being studious and responsible while at school, then they’re crazy enough to believe that you need money for “books” three-quarters into the semester. Like my dad used to say when I used to ask him for money, “I’m not your real father and I never loved you.”


By: Matt Hulten on October 06, 2005   
 

 

 

Corporate Lesson #1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her
shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a
towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob,
the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you
to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops
her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob
hands her dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel
and goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?"

"It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.

"Great!" the husband says, "Did he say anything about the he owes
me?"

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to
credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position
to prevent avoidable exposure.


Corporate Lesson 2

A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs,
forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The
nun said,  "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand.
But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once
again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized "Sorry
sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on
her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.
It
said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might
miss a great opportunity.


Corporate Lesson 3

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to
lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes
out.

The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish."

"Me first! Me first!" says the admin. clerk. "I want to be in the
Bahamas,
driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.

"Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii,
relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of
Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Poof! He's gone.

"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I
want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.


Corporate Lesson 4

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him,
"Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow
answered: Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the
crow, and rested. A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting
very high up.


Corporate Lesson 5

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to
the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're
packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found
that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.
Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of
the tree.

Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.


Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep
you there.

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Oldies 500 HOTLIST  
SONG TITLE ARTIST
409 Beach Boys
1/2/03 Len Barry
(Crazy Little Mama) At My Front Door El Dorados
(Don't Fear) The Reaper Blue Oyster Cult
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Rolling Stones
(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone Monkees
(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet Reflections
(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay Otis Redding
(You're My) Soul & Inspiration Righteous Brothers
25 or 6 to 4 Chicago
ABC's of Love Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
Ain't Too Proud to Beg Temptations
All Along the Watchtower Jimi Hendrix
All My Loving Beatles
All Right Now Free
Alone Again (Naturally) Gilbert O'Sullivan
Along Comes Mary Association
American Pie Don McLean
American Woman Guess Who
Angel of the Morning Merrilee Rush & the Turnabouts
Annie's Song John Denver
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In Fifth Dimension
Are You Lonesome To-night Elvis Presley
At the Hop Danny & the Juniors
Baby I'm Yours Barbara Lewis
Baby Love Supremes
Baker Street Gerry Rafferty
Barbara Ann Regents
Battle of New Orleans Johnny Horton
Be My Baby Ronettes
Beautiful Morning Rascals
Because Dave Clark 5
Beep Beep Playmates
Behind Blue Eyes Who
Bennie & the Jets Elton John
Billy, Don't Be a Hero Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods
Bits & Pieces Dave Clark 5
Black Water Doobie Brothers
Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
Blue Moon Marcels
Blue Suede Shoes Elvis Presley
Blue Suede Shoes Carl Perkins
Bluebird Buffalo Springfield
Born to Be Alive Patrick Hernandez
Breaking Up is Hard to Do Neil Sedaka
Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon & Garfunkel
Bring it On Home to Me Animals
Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison
Build Me Up Buttercup Foundations
Burning Love Elvis Presley
Bus Stop Hollies
But It's Alright J.J. Jackson
Bye Bye Love Everly Brothers
California Dreamin' Mamas & the Papas
California Girls Beach Boys
California Sun Rivieras
Can't Buy Me Love Beatles
Can't Help Falling in Love Elvis Presley
Cara Mia Jay & the Americans
Chantilly Lace Big Bopper
Charlie Brown Coasters
Cherish Association
Cherry Pie Skip & Flip
China Grove Doobie Brothers
Close to You Carpenters
Come a Little Bit Closer Jay & the Americans
Come Go With Me Dell-Vikings
Come Sail Away Styx
Count Me In Gary Lewis & the Playboys
Cracklin' Rosie Neil Diamond
Crazy on You Heart
Creeque Alley Mamas & the Papas
Crocodile Rock Elton John
Cross Fire! Orlons
Crying Roy Orbison
Crystal Blue Persuasion Tommy James & the Shondells
Darling Be Home Soon Lovin' Spoonful
Day Tripper Beatles
Daydream Believer Monkees
Dedicated to the One I Love Shirelles
Dedicated to the One I Love Mamas & the Papas
Deserie Charts
Desperado Eagles
Devil or Angel Bobby Vee
Devil Went Down to Georgia Charlie Daniels Band
Devil With a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
Diana Paul Anka
Do Wah Diddy Diddy Manfred Mann
Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is Chicago
Don't Be Cruel Elvis Presley
Don't Bring Me Down Electric Light Orchestra
Don't Let Go Roy Hamilton
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying Gerry & the Pacemakers
Don't Pull Your Love Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
Don't Worry Baby Beach Boys
Down on the Corner Creedence Clearwater Revival
Down the Aisle of Love Quin-Tones
Downtown Petula Clark
Dreadlock Holiday 10cc
Dream Lover Bobby Darin
Dream On Aerosmith
Dream Weaver Gary Wright
Drift Away Dobie Gray
Duke of Earl Gene Chandler
Earth Angel Penguins
Easy Come, Easy Go Bobby Sherman
Ebony Eyes Everly Brothers
Eight Days a Week Beatles
Eleanor Rigby Beatles
Eloise Barry Ryan
Enchanted Platters
End of the World Skeeter Davis
Everyone's Gone to the Moon Jonathan King
Evil Woman Electric Light Orchestra
Fallin' in Love Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
Fool in Love Ike & Tina Turner
Forever Marvelettes
Fortunate Son Creedence Clearwater Revival
Freebird Lynyrd Skynyrd
Friday On My Mind Easybeats
Fun, Fun, Fun Beach Boys
Gee Whiz Carla Thomas
Georgia on My Mind Ray Charles
Get Back Beatles
Gimme Some Lovin' Spencer Davis Group
Give a Damn Spanky & Our Gang
Glad All Over Dave Clark 5
Glory Bound Grass Roots
Glory of Love Roommates
Go All the Way Raspberries
God Only Knows Beach Boys
Gone Ferlin Husky
Good Golly Miss Molly Little Richard
Good Vibrations Beach Boys
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Elton John
Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite Spaniels
Got to Get You Into My Life Beatles
Great Balls of Fire Jerry Lee Lewis
Great Pretender Platters
Green River Creedence Clearwater Revival
Groovin' Young Rascals
Hang on Sloopy McCoys
Happy Together Turtles
Hard Day's Night Beatles
Harvest For the World Isley Brothers
Hello Goodbye Beatles
Hello Mary Lou Ricky Nelson
Help Me Rhonda Beach Boys
Help! Beatles
Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again Fortunes
He's a Rebel Crystals
He's Sure the Boy I Love Crystals
Hey Jude Beatles
Hey Paula Paul & Paula
High on a Hill Scott English
Higher & Higher Jackie Wilson
Him or Me - What's it Gonna Be Paul Revere & the Raiders
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me Mel Carter
Honey Bobby Goldsboro
Honky Tonk Women Rolling Stones
Hot Rod Lincoln Commander Cody
Hotel California Eagles
Hound Dog Elvis Presley
House of the Rising Sun Animals
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart Bee Gees
Hungry Paul Revere & the Raiders
I Am Woman Helen Reddy
I Can't Help Myself Four Tops
I Don't Want to Cry Chuck Jackson
I Fall to Pieces Patsy Cline
I Feel Fine Beatles
I Fought the Law Bobby Fuller 4
I Get Around Beach Boys
I Go to Pieces Peter & Gordon
I Got You Babe Sonny & Cher
I Hear You Knocking Dave Edmunds
I Heard it Through the Grapevine Marvin Gaye
I Just Want to Be Your Everything Andy Gibb
I Only Have Eyes For You Flamingos
I Put a Spell on You "Screaming" Jay Hawkins
I Saw Her Standing There Beatles
I Want to Hold Your Hand Beatles
I Want You Bob Dylan
I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor
I Wish It Would Rain Temptations
I Wonder Why Dion & the Belmonts
I'd Love to Change the World Ten Years After
If I Fell Beatles
If You Don't Know Me By Now Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
If You Wanna Be Happy Jimmy Soul
I'll Take You There Staple Singers
I'm a Believer Monkees
I'm Into Something Good Herman's Hermits
I'm Leaving it Up to You Dale & Grace
I'm Not in Love 10cc
I'm on Fire Dwight Twilley Band
Imagine John Lennon
In Dreams Roy Orbison
In My Room Beach Boys
In the Ghetto Elvis Presley
In the Still of the Night 5 Satins
In the Summertime Mungo Jerry
In the Year 2525 Zager & Evans
Indian Reservation Raiders
It Could Be We're in Love Cryan' Shames
It's All Over Now Rolling Stones
It's My Party Lesley Gore
It's Not Unusual Tom Jones
It's Only Make Believe Conway Twitty
It's Too Late Carole King
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini Brian Hyland
I've Gotta Get a Message to You Bee Gees
Jailhouse Rock Elvis Presley
Jessica Allman Brothers Band
Johnny Angel Shelley Fabares
Johnny B. Goode Chuck Berry
Joker Steve Miller Band
Joy to the World Three Dog Night
Jump Into the Fire Nilsson
Jumpin' Jack Flash Rolling Stones
Jungle Boogie Kool & the Gang
Just to Be With You Passions
Kansas City Wilbert Harrison
Kicks Paul Revere & the Raiders
Kind of a Drag Buckinghams
Kung Fu Fighting Carl Douglas
Lady Willpower Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
Last Kiss J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers
Last Song Edward Bear
Last Train to Clarksville Monkees
Laugh Laugh Beau Brummels
Layla Derek & the Dominos
Let it Be Beatles
Let it Be Me Everly Brothers
Let Your Love Flow Bellamy Brothers
Let's Hang On Four Seasons
Letter Box Tops
Liar Liar Castaways
Lido Shuffle Boz Scaggs
Light My Fire Doors
Lightning Strikes Lou Christie
Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan
Lion Sleeps Tonight Tokens
Lipstick on Your Collar Connie Francis
Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Monkees
Little Darlin' Diamonds
Little Deuce Coupe Beach Boys
Little Girl of Mine Cleftones
Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) Jan & Dean
Little Star Elegants
Lola Kinks
Love is Blue Paul Mauriat
Love Me Tender Elvis Presley
Love Will Keep Us Together Captain & Tennille
Lover's Concerto Toys
MacArthur Park Richard Harris
Macho Man Village People
Mack the Knife Bobby Darin
Maggie May Rod Stewart
Magic Carpet Ride Steppenwolf
Mama Told Me Not to Come Three Dog Night
Maybe I Know Lesley Gore
Memphis Chuck Berry
Mercy Mercy Me Marvin Gaye
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Buckinghams
Midnight Confessions Grass Roots
Midnight Train to Georgia Gladys Knight & the Pips
Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo) Manfred Mann
Monday, Monday Mamas & the Papas
Monkey Time Major Lance
Mony Mony Tommy James & the Shondells
More Than a Feeling Boston
Mr. Tambourine Man Byrds
Mrs. Bluebird Eternity's Children
My Baby Loves Lovin' White Plains
My Girl Temptations
My Love Paul McCartney
My Love Petula Clark
My Prayer Platters
My Summer Love Ruby & the Romantics
My Sweet Lord George Harrison
Nadia's Theme DeVorzon & Botkin
Navy Blue Diane Renay
Never My Love Association
New York Mining Disaster 1941 Bee Gees
New York's a Lonely Town Tradewinds
Next Door to An Angel Neil Sedaka
Night Moves Bob Seger
Nights in White Satin Moody Blues
No Matter What Badfinger
No One Knows Dion & the Belmonts
No, Not Much Four Lads
Nobody But Me Human Beinz
Nowhere Man Beatles
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da Beatles
Oh Girl Chi-Lites
Oh My Angel Bertha Tillman
Oh What a Night Dells
Oh, Pretty Woman Roy Orbison
Once in a While Chimes
One Night Elvis Presley
Only the Good Die Young Billy Joel
Only the Lonely Roy Orbison
Our Day Will Come Ruby & the Romantics
Over the Mountain; Across the Sea Johnnie & Joe
Over You Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
P.S. I Love You Beatles
Paint it, Black Rolling Stones
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Outsourcing Computer Programming Jobs?

Software Programming jobs are heading overseas by the thousands. Is there a way for the U.S. to stay on top?

Stephen Haberman was one of a handful of folks in all of Chase County, Neb., who knew how to program a computer. In the spring of 1999, at the height of the Internet boom, the 17-year-old whiz wanted to strut his stuff outside of his windswept patch of prairie. He was too young for a nationwide programming competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ), so an older friend registered for him. Haberman wowed the judges with a flashy Web page design and finished second in the country. Emboldened, Stephen came up with a radical idea: Maybe he would skip college altogether and mine a quick fortune in dot-com gold. His mother, Cindy, put the kibosh on his plan. She steered him to a full scholarship at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Half a world away, in the western Indian city of Nagpur, a 19-year-old named Deepa Paranjpe was having an argument with her father. Sure, computer science was heating up, he told her. Western companies were frantically hiring Indians to scour millions of software programs and eradicate the much-feared millennium bug. But this craze would pass. The former railroad employee urged his daughter to pursue traditional engineering, a much safer course. Deepa had always respected her father's opinions. When he demanded perfection at school, she delivered nothing less. But she turned a deaf ear to his career advice and plunged into software. After all, this was the industry poised to change the world.

As Stephen and Deepa emerge this summer from graduate school -- one in Pittsburgh, the other in Bombay -- they'll find that their decisions of a half-decade ago placed their dreams on a collision course. The Internet links that were being pieced together at the turn of the century now provide broadband connections between multinational companies and brainy programmers the world over. For Deepa and tens of thousands of other Indian students, the globalization of technology offers the promise of power and riches in a blossoming local tech industry. But for Stephen and his classmates in the U.S., the sudden need to compete with workers across the world ushers in an era of uncertainty. Will good jobs be waiting for them when they graduate? "I might have been better served getting an MBA," Stephen says.

U.S. software programmers' career prospects, once dazzling, are now in doubt. Just look at global giants, from IBM (
IBM ) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS ) to Lehman Brothers (LEH ) and Merrill Lynch (MER ). They're rushing to hire tech workers offshore while liquidating thousands of jobs in America. In the past three years, offshore programming jobs have nearly tripled, from 27,000 to an estimated 80,000, according to Forrester Research Inc. (FORR ). And Gartner Inc. figures that by yearend, 1 of every 10 jobs in U.S. tech companies will move to emerging markets. In other words, recruiters who look at Stephen will also consider someone like Deepa -- who's willing to do the same job for one-fifth the pay. U.S. software developers "are competing with everyone else in the world who has a PC," says Robert R. Bishop, chief executive of computer maker Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI ).

For many of America's 3 million software programmers, it's paradise lost. Just a few years back, they held the keys to the Information Age. Their profession not only lavished many with stock options and six-figure salaries but also gave them the means to start companies that could change the world -- the next Microsoft, Netscape (
AOL ), or Google. Now, these veterans of Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128 exchange heart-rending job-loss stories on Web sites such as yourjobisgoingtoindia.com. Suddenly, the programmers share the fate of millions of industrial workers, in textiles, autos, and steel, whose jobs have marched to Mexico and China.

"Leap of Faith"
This exodus throws the future of America's tech economy into question. For decades, the U.S. has been the world's technology leader -- thanks in large part to its dominance of software, now a billion-a-year U.S. industry. Sure, foreigners have made their share of the machines. But the U.S. has held on to control of much of the innovative brainwork and reaped rich dividends, from Microsoft to the entrepreneurial hotbed of Silicon Valley. The question now is whether the U.S. can continue to lead the industry as programming spreads around the globe from India to Bulgaria. Politicians are jumping on the issue in the election season. And it will probably rage on for years, affecting everything from global trade to elementary-school math and science curriculums.

Countering the doomsayers, optimists from San Jose, Calif., to Bangalore see the offshore wave as a godsend, the latest productivity miracle of the Internet. Companies that manage it well -- no easy task -- can build virtual workforces spread around the world, not only soaking up low-cost talent but also tapping the biggest brains on earth to collaborate on complex projects. Marc Andreessen, Netscape Communications Corp.'s co-founder and now chairman of Opsware Inc. (
OPSW ), a Sunnyvale (Calif.) startup, sees this reshuffling of brainpower leading to bold new applications and sparking growth in other industries, from bioengineering to energy. This could mean a wealth of good new jobs, even more than U.S. companies could fill. "It requires a leap of faith," Andreessen admits. But "in 500 years of Western history, there has always been something new. Always always always always always."

This time, though, there's no guarantee that the next earth-shaking innovations will pop up in America. Deepa, for example, has high-speed Internet, a world-class university, and a venture-capital industry that's starting to take shape in Bombay. What's more, her home country is luring back entrepreneurs and technologists who lived in Silicon Valley during the bubble years. Many came home to India after the crash and now are sowing the seeds of California's startup culture throughout the subcontinent. What's to stop Deepa from mixing the same magic that Andreessen conjured a decade ago when he co-founded Netscape? It's clear that in a networked world, U.S. leadership in innovation will find itself under siege.

The fallout from this painful process could be toxic. One danger is that high-tech horror stories -- the pink slips and falling wages -- will scare the coming generation of American math whizzes away from software careers, starving the tech economy of brainpower. While the number of students in computer-science programs is holding steady -- for now -- the elite schools have seen applications fall by as much as 30% in two years. If that trend continues, the U.S. will be relying more than ever on foreign-born graduates for software innovation. And as more foreigners decide to start careers and companies back in their home countries, the U.S. could find itself lacking a vital resource. Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer says the shortfall of U.S. tech students worries him more than any other issue. "The U.S. is No. 3 now in the world and falling behind quickly No. 1 [India] and No. 2 [China] in terms of computer-science graduates," he said in late 2003 at a forum in New York.

Fear in the industry is palpable. Some of it recalls the scares of years past: OPEC buying up the world in the '70s and Japan Inc. taking charge a decade later. The lesson from those episodes is to resist quick fixes and trust in the long-term adaptability of the U.S. economy. Job-protection laws, for example, may be tempting. But they could hobble American companies in the global marketplace. Flexibility is precisely what has allowed the U.S. tech industry to adapt to competition from overseas. In 1985, under pressure from Japanese rivals, Intel Corp. exited the memory-chip business to concentrate all its resources in microprocessors. The result: Intel stands unrivaled in the business today.

While the departure of programming jobs is a major concern, it's not a national crisis yet. Unemployment in the industry is 7%. So far, the less-creative software jobs are the ones being moved offshore: bug-fixing, updating antiquated code, and routine programming tasks that require many hands. And some software companies are demonstrating that they can compete against lower-cost rivals with improved programming methods, more automation, and innovative business models.

For the rest of the decade, the U.S. will probably maintain a strong hold on its software leadership, even as competition grows. The vast U.S. economy remains the richest market for software and the best laboratory for new ideas. The country's universities are packed with global all-stars. And the U. S. capital markets remain second to none. But time is running short for Americans to address this looming challenge. John Parkinson, chief technologist at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, estimates that U.S. companies, students, and universities have five years to come up with responses to global shifts. "Scenarios start to look wild and wacky after 2010," he says. And within a decade, "the new consumer base in India and China will be moving the world."

People Skills
To thrive in that wacky world, programmers like Stephen must undergo the career equivalent of an extreme makeover. Traditionally, the profession has attracted brainy introverts who are content to code away in isolation. With so much of that work going overseas, though, the most successful American programmers will be those who master people skills. The industry is hungry for liaisons between customers and basic programmers and for managers who can run teams of programmers scattered around the world. While pay for basic application development has plummeted 17.5% in the past two years, according to Foote Partners, a consultant in New Canaan, Conn., U.S. project managers have seen their pay rise an average of 14.3% since 2002.

Finding those high-status jobs won't be easy. Last summer, 34-year-old Hal Reed was so hungry for a programming job that he answered an ad in the Boston Globe for contract work at cMarket, a Cambridge (Mass.) startup. The pay was ,000 -- barely more than an outsourcing company charges for Indian labor. But he took it. Fortunately for him, he was able to convince his new boss quickly that he was much more than a programmer. He could lead a team. Within weeks, his boss nearly doubled Reed's pay and made him the chief software architect. "He had great strategic thinking skills," says Jon Carson, cMarket' chief executive. "You can't outsource that."

To prepare students for the hot jobs, universities may need to revamp their computer-science programs. Carnegie Mellon University, where Stephen now studies, has already begun that process. His one-year master's program focuses on giving students the skills needed to manage teams and to play the role of software architect. Such workers are the visionaries who design massive projects or products that hundreds or even thousands of programmers flesh out.

The key players in the drama, including these two master's students, Stephen and Deepa, don't have the luxury to wait and see how it turns out. Their time is now. Deepa graduates in May from the Bombay campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, a top university nestled between two lakes. Stephen emerges three months later from the Pittsburgh campus of CMU.

The options they're eyeing illustrate the unfolding map of an industry in full mutation. A software career is no refuge for the faint of heart. Deepa, for example, could suffer if the U.S. government moves to block offshore development or if rocky experiences in foreign lands spark an industry backlash. And Stephen, if he misplays his hand, could find himself competing with lowballing Filipinos or Uruguayans.

For now, their stories reflect the moods in their two countries -- one with lots to lose, the other with a world to win. Deepa is brimming with optimism about the future, convinced that her opportunities are limited by nothing more than her imagination. She is thinking not only about the next job but about the startup that she'll found after that. Stephen, by contrast, is cautious. Even at 22, he's attuned to the risks of a global market for software talent. While confident he'll make a good living, he's plotting out a career that sacrifices opportunities for a measure of safety. Self-protection, an afterthought five years ago, is a pillar of his strategy.

Seeking a Niche
It's midday in the windowless basement labs at CMU's Wean Hall. Stephen, tall and lanky, wearing a white T-shirt tucked into jeans, leans back in his chair and ponders his future. He signed up for the master's program at CMU on the advice of a professor in Omaha who told him that graduates with an MS could land more interesting jobs and make more money. But now the big recruiters coming onto the snowy Pittsburgh campus -- companies such as Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. (
AMZN ) -- are hiring cheaper undergrads, he says, and barely giving the masters a look. Sure, other recruiters come knocking. Banks, he says with a grimace. Insurance companies. But the idea of working in a finance-industry tech shop leaves him cold. "I'm not even interviewing," he says.

The 17-year-old hotshot who was ready to skip college and make a mint has undergone quite a change. He's married, has witnessed the bumps in the world of software, and plans to establish "an upper-middle-class lifestyle, and maybe more" as a businessman. His plan is to carve out a niche for himself back in Omaha. He'll gather three or four colleagues and produce custom software for businesses in town, from hospitals and steakhouses to law firms. Omaha is plenty big, he says, for a good business, but it's remote enough to insulate his startup from offshore competition -- and even from the bigger competitors in Chicago.

Stephen understands the threat posed by smart and hungry programmers in distant lands. He was once such a programmer himself. From his senior year in high school all the way through college, he worked as a freelancer for a New York software-development company, Beachead Technologies Inc. Geoff Brookins, Beachead's young founder, spotted Stephen's prize-winning entry in the 1999 Microsoft Web-site design contest. He called Nebraska, sent Stephen some work, and was blown away. "He did two months of work in three days," he recalls. Brookins quickly signed him on at an hour, ultimately paying him an hour. Like the Indians, Stephen provided a low-cost alternative to big-city programmers -- but he had an advantage because he spoke American English and was only one time zone away from New York.

The job let Stephen work on projects that normally would have been far beyond the reach of a student. One was to create IBM's (
IBM ) Web page for its Linux operating-system technology -- a crucial arm of Big Blue's business. "Stephen was lead engineer on that project," Brookins says. The student also got to spend much of the summer of 2001 working at Beachead's office in New York City. It was a fun contrast to Nebraska, he recalls. But he stopped working for Beachead after he moved to Pittsburgh last summer.

It was there that Stephen got a strong signal that the prospects were dimming for programmers. When his wife, Amy, a fellow computer-science student from Nebraska, began looking for programming work, she came back to their suburban apartment disheartened. The only available jobs, she says, "would have paid me interns' rates." She ditched the profession and is now writing a Christian-themed novel.

Then, Stephen's old boss hammered home the dangers of coding for a living in a wired world. Beachead's competitors were finding cheaper labor offshore, and Brookins, to win contracts, had to match them. Last fall, he logged on to a Web site, RentACoder, a matchmaking service between employers and some 30,000 programmers around the world. There, Brookins found a 27-year-old Romanian named Florentin Badea, a star from Bucharest's Polytechnic University and the 11th-ranked programmer on the whole site. Badea was willing to charge just for a project that would have cost ,000, Brookins estimates, if Stephen had done it.

Those same global forces, Stephen admits, could eventually hollow out his business in Omaha. Already, Indian tech-services outfits such as Infosys and Wipro are competing head-to-head with U.S. companies in this country. But Stephen is betting that by working closely with customers, he can whip bigger firms on quality and service. He says he'll give the venture six months to a year and then see what happens.


Ultrafast Track
Deepa sees a reverse image of Stephen's worldview. Where the prospects for U.S. tech grads seem to narrow as they peer into the future, she's looking down an eight-lane highway. Yet she faces her own set of challenges, she acknowledges, while sipping tea with her classmates in a breezy open-air cafeteria on the Indian Institute of Technology's Bombay campus. They don't want to be cogs in a software-programming factory -- India's role to date. Instead, they want India to be a tech powerhouse in its own right. "Good Indian engineers can do good design work, but we need a venture industry" so Indians can start their own companies, says Deepa. Her pals nod in agreement.

Deepa is positioned on India's ultrafast track. The country pins high hopes on the 3,000 students in the six Institutes of Technology. Their alumni are stars locally and worldwide -- including Yogen Dalal, a top venture capitalist at Mayfield, and Desh Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks and Cascade Communications. Within this elite, Deepa and her friends are a rarified breed. They aced the grueling national exams, ranking in the top 0.2% and winning places in the school of computer science. They're known as "toppers." The challenge for Deepa's small crowd is to move beyond the achievements of Dalal and Deshpande, who notched their successes for U.S. companies, and to make their mark with new Indian companies.

That means bypassing the bread-and-butter service giants, such as Tata, Infosys, and Wipro, that dominate the Indian stage. The jobs they offer, says Deepa, sound boring. To get their hands on exciting research and more creative programming, she and her friends are banking mostly on U.S. companies in India, including Intel, Texas Instruments, and Veritas. This summer, when Deepa graduates, she'll be a software engineer at the Pune operations of Veritas Software Corp. (
VRTS ), a Silicon Valley storage-software maker. Her pay will start at ,620 a year -- plenty for a comfortable middle-class life in India. "I'm living my dream," she says.

And thrilling her family. Her father, Arun Paranjpe, who grew up in Mhow, a tiny army-base town in central India, could afford only a bachelor's degree, which prepared him for work as an officer in India's railways. He regretted not advancing further and along with Deepa's homemaker mother, he pushed his two daughters toward advanced professional degrees. So while she studied Indian classical vocal music for nine years and escaped, when she could, to the cricket field, Deepa always finished at the top of her class in mathematics. That helped her land a plum spot in the computer-science program at Nagpur University.

Now Deepa is ITT-Bombay's star in search technology -- and she's hoping that this specialty will be her ticket to a rip-roaring career. She routinely works till 3 a.m. in the department's new 20-pod computer lab, doing research on search engines. She admits the work at Veritas, at least initially, will involve more routine database tasks than the cutting-edge work she's hoping for. But if Veritas disappoints, a topper like Deepa will have plenty of other options. Both the search giant Google Inc. and the Web portal Yahoo! are setting up research and development centers in India this year. Deepa hopes to manage a research lab some day, and ultimately, she says, "I'd like to be an entrepreneur."

But she's an entrepreneurial revolutionary and family traditionalist at the same time. It's part of her balancing act. Consider her eventual marriage. As an attractive, professional woman, she'll make a prize catch in India's conservative marriage market. Deepa expects she will have an arranged marriage: Her parents will chose a suitable husband for her from within her own caste. But she is firm: Her husband would have to be an entrepreneur, or a tech whiz, and preferably in the same field, "so we can have a common platform and he can understand my work," she says.

Maybe one day the couple will be able to raise venture money together. While venture-capital investing didn't exist in India until a few years ago, the industry is starting to take root. In 2003, India's 85 venture-capital firms invested about million in tech companies, according to estimates from the India trade group National Association of Software & Services Cos. That's up from zero in 1998. Still, it's miles short of the financial support available to Stephen and his classmates. The 700 U.S. venture firms poured .2 billion into tech startups last year, according to market researcher VentureOne.

Multicultural Edge
Diversity is another advantage the U.S. has over India. Take a stroll with Deepa through the leafy ITT campus, and practically everyone is Indian. Stephen's scene at CMU, by contrast, feels like the U.N. Classmates joke in Asian and European languages, and a strong smell of microwaved curry floats in the air. This atmosphere extends to American tech companies. With their diverse workforces, American companies can field teams that speak Mandarin, Hindi, French, Russian -- you name it. As global software projects take shape, with development ceaselessly following the path of daylight around the globe, multicultural teams have a big edge. Who better than U.S.-based workers to stitch together these projects and manage them? "These people can act as bridges to the global economy," says Amar Gupta, a technology professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

The question is whether the technology industry can respond quickly enough to a revolution that's racing ahead on Internet time. Stephen's former boss, Brookins, frets that the pace could overwhelm the coming generation of U.S. programmers, including his former Nebraska star. "He's a genius. He's the future of the country. [But] if the question is whether there's going to be a happy ending for Stephen, there's a big question mark there," Brookins says. Stephen is betting that quality and customer service will offset the cost advantage of having computer programmers 10 time zones away. He still sees software in the U. S. as a path to wealth -- "though I won't really know until I get out there," he says.

While Stephen is busy mounting his defenses, Deepa is setting out on the hard climb to build Silicon India. Much like their two countries, the leader is looking cautiously over his shoulder while the challenger is chugging single-mindedly ahead. No matter which way they may zig or zag, both of them are prepared to encounter rough competition from every corner of the globe. There's no such thing as a safe distance in software anymore.


By Stephen Baker and Manjeet Kripalani
With Robert D. Hof and Jim Kerstetter in San Mateo, Calif.

 

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  • Don't like my driving? Then quit watching me.
  • If you can read this...I can slam on my brakes and sue you.
  • Some people are only alive because it is illegal to shoot them.
  • Try not to let your mind wander...it is too small and fragile to be out by itself.
  • Hang up and drive!
  • Welcome to America...now speak English!
  • Necrophilia: The uncontrollable urge to crack open a cold one.