Steve Jobs is seeking to take flight to escape the bridge- and freeway-bound hell that puts a serious dent in so many commuting workers' lives. The Apple Computer co-founder wants to fly between his two jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, and, after a little horse-trading, a local city council is going to help make his dream come true.
Jobs, Number 1 Responsible Adult at Silicon Valley-based Apple, won approval earlier this week from the city of Richmond, California, headquarters of his Pixar Animation Studios, to build a heliport on the site of a former Navy fuel depot. The facility will let Jobs cut travel time for the approximately 60-mile one-way trip from a not untypical two hours-plus to 25 minutes.
What the convenience will cost: US$40,000 to build a landing pad, $5,000 for the first year's rent to the city, $20,000 in computer donations to worthy city causes. Oh, yeah, and the helicopter. The San Francisco Chronicle says Jobs has narrowed his choices to either a Boeing/McDonnell-Douglas Explorer 900 or a Euro-Copter 135, twin-engine copters that can hold seven or eight passengers and crew members.
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What's in a name.com?: FedEx snagged the Orange Bowl. Nokia ponied up for the Sugar Bowl, even sandwiching its name into the official Web site's URL. Saturday night, Insight Enterprises, an Arizona direct marketer of computer products, becomes the first company to append a .com onto a bowl game name when the Insight.com Bowl kicks off at 7 p.m. CST.
Formerly known as the Copper Bowl, the game will pit the New Mexico Lobos (9-3) against the underdog Arizona Wildcats (6-5) in Tucson, Arizona. Insight Enterprises sells hardware and software primarily by phone, though it says its Web site accounts for 4 percent of the company's US$550 million in sales. (26.Dec.97)
