When entertainment giant TicketMaster Group Inc, currently embroiled in legal battles with Microsoft Corp (CI No 3,151), though not about illegal Web page links so much as Microsoft wanting to undercut its Internet business entirely, according to the company, a major factor behind its rise to prominence was its use of Assembly language programs on DEC VAXes, a language and environment picked for ultra high-speed transaction. In fact, so successful was the combination that for many years Digital refused to let TicketMaster tell anyone what kit it was using, given that people would opt for such small DEC boxes instead of the larger configurations it was saying could alone support the massive numbers of users and transactions TicketMaster was achieving. This according to Bob Leonard, co-founder and senior executive vice president of the now $2bn corporation. But commenting on the American public’s insatiable need for a faster and faster pace of life and service, Bob adds that Once people were happy to wait in line all night for a ticket for a Stones concert. Now you put ’em on hold for a minute and they go crazy!
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