DATA POINTS: DEVELOPER COMPENSATION.

With U.S. employment rates at near-record levels, R&D managers understandably feel a trifle nervous about negotiating developer salaries. But are paychecks really going through the roof? Not according to the latest salary survey from Software Development magazine, which recently polled 3,969 of its readers, show attendees, and Web site visitors about pay and job satisfaction issues. The survey revealed that two-thirds of respondents earn between $45,000 and $84,000 a year--healthy but hardly extravagant compensation. Moreover, 68% feel their specific salaries are "competitive for their region," and relatively few plan to jump ship for fatter paychecks. In fact, says SD editor-in-chief Alexandra Weber Morales, the survey "reveals not a group of disgruntled developers but a population of mostly male, mostly seasoned, mostly content, mostly 40-hour-a-week-working, mostly $60,000-per-year-earning developers who overwhelmingly like their bosses and coworkers."

"1999 Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey," Software Development, 11/99. Web: www.sdmagazine.com/breakrm/features/s9911f1.shtml.

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL professor Alan Dershowitz on the likelihood that Microsoft will face additional lawsuits if it loses its current antitrust trial: "From Paris to Jakarta to Tokyo, every class action lawyer in the world is watching this case with bated breath." (Quoted in Forbes, 4/19/99)

MIT economist Franklin Fisher on Microsoft's claim that it faces risks from future competition: "It might be true that some unknown innovation may produce a platform threat to erode Microsoft's power. But unknown threats have nothing to do with whether Microsoft has a monopoly on PC operating systems." (Quoted in Information Week, 6/7/99)

MICROSOFT general counsel William Neukom on a proposal to open up his company's technology to competitors: "We take the simple-minded view that it is our intellectual property, we made it, it's our song, and you should play it our way." (Quoted in The New York Times, 11/7/99)

ANTITRUST lawyer Rich Gray on the Microsoft case: "In my wildest imagination I never imagined Microsoft would lose this big. Judge Jackson bought into just about every argument the government made." (Quoted in Computerworld, 11/8/99)

CONSUMER ADVOCATE Ralph Nader on Microsoft's corporate behavior: "It's a company with a long history of mischief and perfidy, so a remedy is going to have to be self-enforcing, and the only way to do that is with a breakup." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 11/10/99)

HOUSE majority leader Rep. Richard Armey on the Microsoft decision: "The antitrust laws were written to protect consumers, not to give Washington bureaucrats power to choose sides among competitors in a dynamic marketplace." (Quoted in Interactive Week, 11/15/99)

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH analyst Peter Huber on the DOJ's victory: "The true horror that Joel Klein must face is that he's winning the case. The more you try to refine your solution, the stupider you're going to look." (Quoted in Business Week, 11/22/99)

MICROSOFT chairman Bill Gates on his refusal to accept a settlement that restricts what the company can add to Windows: "If we can't add functionality to Windows, there is no Windows! Let's face it. Without innovation, given the intense competition out there, Windows would become irrelevant." (Quoted in Time, 11/22/99)

MICROSOFT chairman Bill Gates in a Comdex keynote: "Anybody here heard any good lawyer jokes lately?" (Quoted in Business Week, 11/29/99)

SANDS SOFTWARE developer Doug Skoglund on why open disclosure of Windows APIs wouldn't help programmers: "The real problem is the documentation of the Windows APIs. Most of my time is spent testing each one, only to discover that it works differently than documented." (Quoted in Business Week, 12/6/99)