Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

BYLINE: By JON PARELES
SECTION: Section E; Column 0; The Arts/Cultural Desk; MUSIC; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1228 words
DATELINE: AUSTIN, Tex.
Adam Elliott, the drummer and singer of Times New Viking, summed up the South by Southwest Music festival between the frenetic songs by his band, a three-piece from Columbus, Ohio. Even if Times New Viking were no good, he said, ''there's a thousand other bands.'' He added, ''Those odds are pretty good.''

He underestimated both his band and the choices. South by Southwest, known as SXSW, presented 1,775 bands in its official showcases, and with unofficial shows there were easily more than 2,000 bands performing in Austin during the festival's four busy days, Wednesday through Saturday, along with a few stragglers on Sunday.

So this is not exactly an overview of SXSW, where showcases and daytime symposiums are well organized and what surrounds them is a ruckus of business and pleasure. One person could attend only a small percentage of the music.

There were about 12,500 registered participants at the convention, as well as the members of those 1,775 bands. Unofficial events -- parties, promotions, and concerts like the 10-hour ''Mess With Texas 2'' show on Saturday -- have swarmed around the official festival, providing additional chances to hear groups as word-of-mouth spreads.

White Denim, the Austin band that was the supercharged finale for my own SXSW -- a power trio with a rocketing, punk-speed take on twangy Texas garage-rock -- played seven shows from March 11 to 15. Lykke Li, a Swedish singer who delivered pop love songs with a cutting voice and wily acoustic arrangments, performed in four places on Friday alone.

SXSW Music takes place after the SXSW conventions on film and digital media, and the music festival is thoroughly Internet-savvy. Hundreds of songs from bands performing at the festival are available as free mp3's at sxsw.com, along with video of presentations and performances.

Although SXSW is well adapted to the digital era, in some ways it is firmly old-fashioned. While it is a showcase for young bands, it's an all-ages event. Lou Reed, whose keynote for the convention was an onstage interview, also dropped by to perform with younger groups paying him tribute. Daniel Lanois, who has produced albums for U2 and Bob Dylan, showed his new in-the-studio documentary, ''Here Is What Is,'' and performed his own songs and guitar pieces around town in duets with the drummer Brian Blade that moved between serenity and clangor. The Minimalist composer Steve Reich was also at SXSW to speak and to play host for performances of his compositions.

Lesser-known bits of rock history resurfaced, including a revival of the Homosexuals, a punk-era British band that made only one album of its jumpy, idiosyncratically structured songs. Its 57-year-old leader, Bruno Wizard, cackled and mocked the music business during a set at Spiro's.

SXSW is a bastion of that endangered artistic unit, the album. The Lemonheads played through ''It's a Shame About Ray,'' a 1992 album being rereleased this year.

Van Morrison, R.E.M. and My Morning Jacket built nearly their entire concerts on material from their new or coming albums, and each one played a committed, enthralling set. Mr. Morrison's new songs held the sting of the blues; R.E.M. has reinvigorated its old guitar-band style for an album aptly titled ''Accelerate''; and My Morning Jacket's new songs put a streak of R&B -- from funk riffs to falsetto vocals -- in its ringing, expansive Southern rock. (R.E.M., My Morning Jacket and many other bands, including the perky collegiate New York City rockers Vampire Weekend, had their SXSW performances broadcast on NPR, where they can still be heard at npr.org/music.)

The most pervasive old-school choice at SXSW is gearing the festival toward live performance far more than recording. While recording companies (mostly independent ones) are well represented, SXSW also draws the booking agents, managers and club owners who provide more immediate support for musicians. In an era of plummeting CD sales and free downloads, most musicians survive on live performances, as the ancient model of the troubadour returns in the digital age.

At SXSW concert promoters can sample bands that are being, in essence, battle tested: playing abbreviated sets on hastily assembled equipment to unfamiliar audiences in Austin's peculiarly shaped clubs. It's a good test too for longtime rock stars who are, for the moment, not entirely in control, choosing to prove themselves against the energy of younger bands.

Another model for a musician's career is to sell rights to songs as background music for soundtracks and commercials. That encourages exactly what live performance does not: reticence and generality rather than the vividness and specificity of a performance. Yael Naim, whose song ''New Souls'' grew popular through an Apple commercial, played a set determined to show she has more than 60 seconds of worthwhile music; she poured her rich voice into songs about loneliness and longing, and got a tent full of music-business professionals to sing along.

But some of my favorite bands at the festival were those that made their impact on the spot. Times New Viking merged guitar-rock and the keyboard drive of German rock; the Dodos, from San Francisco, worked up to manic propulsion with hard-strummed acoustic guitar and plinking toy piano. Atlas Sounds filled a club with guitar drone; then one member proffered an amplifier to audience members for knob-turning and extra feedback.

There were also gentler performers, like Laura Marling, a British teenager who writes folky, haunted songs, and Hanne Hukkelberg, a Norwegian songwriter who sang (in English) about the forces of nature in complex, odd-meter songs that sometimes had a tuba for their foundation.

With so many bands, SXSW encompassed genres from art-rock to zydeco. Although SXSW started in 1987 as a showcase for regional Southwestern music and independent bands and is still a vital stop for roots-rockers, it has also recognized that hip-hop entrepreneurship is every bit as do-it-yourself as indie-rock's. Top-tier rappers including Ice Cube performed at this year's festival, along with acts like David Banner, Clipse, Del the Funky Homosapien, the Cool Kids, and Cadence Weapon.

The festival is also treated as a gateway to the American market by foreign governments, which subsidize delegations of musicians. Britain had its own ''embassy,'' with a full schedule of bands through the convention. And it sent bands that have already been winnowed at home, including the irresistibly catchy Ting Tings, a duo who now have a major-label contract in the United States. They pump out danceable riffs echoing the 1960's and 1970's, while Katie White gets worked up with complaints like, ''That's not my name.''

Two other British bands also played fiercely kinetic groves: Does It Offend You, Yeah?, which ran on the dance-rock beats and synthesizer buzz of the late 1970's, and These New Puritans, whose dissonant stomp and dark lyrics reached back to Public Image Limited and the Fall.

Yet South by Southwest is more than a marathon audition. It's a chance for social networking in real time and space. The exhilaration of so many performances in such a short time is a morale booster for both business people and fans, and an annual reminder that the fortunes and misfortunes of the recording business don't stop the music.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: FESTIVALS (91%); MUSIC (91%); MUSIC INDUSTRY (90%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (90%); CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS (89%); MUSIC COMPOSITION (78%); POP & ROCK (78%); MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (78%); CLASSICAL MUSIC (78%); INTERVIEWS (78%); INTERNET AUDIO (78%); DOCUMENTARY FILMS (63%); SINGERS & MUSICIANS (91%)
GEOGRAPHIC: AUSTIN, TX, USA (91%); COLUMBUS, OH, USA (73%) TEXAS, USA (91%); OHIO, USA (88%) UNITED STATES (91%); UNITED KINGDOM (67%)
LOAD-DATE: June 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Morgan Quaintance, guitarist of Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Katie White, who is one half of the British duo the Ting Tings

The rapper David Banner on Saturday afternoon, when he danced with audience members and sprayed them with beer and water. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. E5)

White Denim: from left, Steve Terebecki on bass, the drummer Joshua Block, and James Petralli on guitar. (PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. E1)

DOCUMENT-TYPE: Review
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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The New York Times
March 16, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Measuring Wealth By the Foot
BYLINE: By PATRICIA KRANZ
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; BACKDROP; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1057 words
IN a shipyard in Germany, Blohm & Voss workers are building a mammoth yacht called the Eclipse.

Like many things in the secretive world of superyachts, its exact length is hard to pin down. So is the name of its owner, and the cost of building it.

But according to the Web site of The Yacht Report, one of several publications that track yachting with the same intensity that gossip magazines cover Hollywood hunks, the Eclipse is 531.5 feet long.

That's six and a half feet longer than the Dubai, an 11,600-ton behemoth that now holds the record as the world's largest yacht. Its owner is the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The extra length on the Eclipse isn't an accident. Supersized yachts are the latest examples of one-upmanship among billionaires, many of whom already own a private jet, a Rolls-Royce or two, and multiple mansions.

Despite fear of an economic recession and unrelenting job pressures among those who remain yachtless, there's still a lot of money floating around the world. And as the superrich get richer, the size of yachts grows bigger and bigger, too.

''When a yacht is over 328 feet, it's so big that you lose the intimacy,'' says Tork Buckley, editor of The Yacht Report. ''On the other hand, you've got bragging rights. No question, that's a very strong part of the motivation.''

Who will be the one to wrest bragging rights from the sheik? Blohm & Voss, a leading shipbuilder, isn't saying. According to an executive at a different yacht company, who requested anonymity because he was concerned about losing clients, it is being built for Roman Abramovich, a Russian tycoon.

Mr. Abramovich already owns the 282-foot Ecstasea and the 377-foot Pelorus, and Web sites that track yachts speculate that he may be the owner of a new 394-foot yacht called Sigma that resembles a battleship. A spokesman for Mr. Abramovich declined to comment.

Just four years ago, when Lawrence J. Ellison, the chief executive of the Oracle Corporation, took possession of the 454-foot Rising Sun, he gained crowing rights over Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder. Mr. Allen's yacht, the Octopus, is relatively minuscule at 417 feet. (Since then, David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, has bought a 50 percent share of the Rising Sun from Mr. Ellison.)

Many yacht owners are entrepreneurs or industrialists, rather than royalty or bold-faced names from Silicon Valley, according to yacht designers and builders. ''One of my clients is a woman who started her own business and ended up making cocktail-type quiches sold through Costco and Wal-Mart,'' said Douglas Sharp, who owns a yacht design company in San Diego.

Like Mr. Abramovich, a growing number of yacht buyers are from emerging markets. ''There's an incredible amount of disposable money in the world at the moment, and a lot of money is coming out of new markets like Russia and Ukraine, as well as India,'' says Jonathan Beckett, chief executive of Burgess, a company that helps owners build and charter yachts. ''These people have made a lot of money very quickly and have an appetite.''

According to ShowBoats International, a luxury yacht magazine, 916 yachts measuring 80 feet or longer -- the traditional definition of a superyacht -- were on order or under construction as of last Sept. 1, four times the number in 1997. The biggest gains were among the biggest yachts: 47 yachts were 200 to 249 feet long, up 68 percent from a year earlier, while 23 were 250 feet or longer, an increase of 28 percent.

''When I started in the early 1970s, a 60-foot boat was considered pretty large,'' Mr. Sharp said. ''A 150-foot boat was queen of the show in Monaco in 1982. In 2008, you wouldn't be able to find that boat in the marina.''

Some new megayachts are so big that they have to dock in commercial ports. The growth in the number and size of yachts is also making it hard to find qualified crew members.

Still, many yacht owners trade in their boats every few years for bigger models.

''People want more toys to play with. That's something that drives it,'' says Wim Koersvelt, director of Icon Yachts in the Netherlands. ''Gyms were unusual 20 years ago, and no yacht is being built now without a gym. They're buying two- to four-person submarines, have four Jet Skis and little sailboats stored on board, as well as helicopter landing pads.''

It takes two to four years to build a yacht, and prices are rising so quickly that some owners are selling their boats before they're even finished -- for a tidy profit. Mr. Beckett of Burgess says prices have risen 10 percent to 20 percent in the past two years alone. He estimates that a yacht 328 feet long would cost about $230 million today, with prices rising to $650 million for a 500-foot yacht.

Some owners recoup part of their costs by chartering their yachts. Want to sail the Maltese Falcon, the innovative clipper ship built by Tom Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist? That will put you back around $539,000 to $555,000 a week, not counting expenses for fuel, food or crew. Or the Mirabella V, the elegant sloop owned by Joe Vittoria, the former chief executive of Avis Rent A Car System? That's $325,000 to $375,000 a week, depending on the season.

There are no signs that demand will slacken. ''There are 2,000 superyachts in the world today'' over 120 feet long, ''and nearly 200,000 people who could afford to buy them,'' Mr. Beckett says.

The arms race in yachts echoes the competition among business titans in the last century to build the world's tallest skyscraper. In his book ''Mine's Bigger,'' David A. Kaplan describes the battle between Mr. Perkins and Jim Clark, the co-founder of three Silicon Valley companies, including Netscape, as they competed to build the world's biggest sailing megayacht.

By the time Mr. Perkins completed his Maltese Falcon, measuring 288 feet, in 2006, it was substantially longer than Mr. Clark's Athena if measured at the water line.

''Clark could console himself only with the fact that if you included his 33-foot stainless steel bowsprit as part of the length, then his was bigger than anybody else's,'' Mr. Kaplan writes.

Mr. Vittoria holds a different record. His 247-foot Mirabella V has a 292-foot mast -- so tall that it can't fit under the Golden Gate Bridge.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: SHIPBUILDING (89%); BOAT BUILDING (89%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (88%); SELF EMPLOYMENT (78%); CONSTRUCTION COSTS (73%); RECESSION (72%); ECONOMIC NEWS (72%); WEB SITES (72%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (68%); WOMAN OWNED BUSINESSES (63%)
COMPANY: ORACLE CORP (63%); MICROSOFT CORP (51%)
TICKER: ORL (LSE) (63%); ORCL (NASDAQ) (63%); MSFT (NASDAQ) (51%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS541512 COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES (63%); NAICS541511 CUSTOM COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES (63%); NAICS511210 SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (63%); SIC7379 COMPUTER RELATED SERVICES, NEC (63%); SIC7372 PREPACKAGED SOFTWARE (63%); SIC7371 COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES (63%)
PERSON: ROMAN ABRAMOVICH (53%); LAWRENCE J ELLISON (52%); DAVID GEFFEN (51%); PAUL ALLEN (51%)
GEOGRAPHIC: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (90%) DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (90%); CALIFORNIA, USA (57%) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (90%); GERMANY (73%); MALTA (59%); UNITED STATES (57%)
LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: At 525 feet, the Dubai is now the world's largest yacht. But in the new megayacht universe, it won't hold the record long.(PHOTOGRAPH BY GUSHL/YACHT-IMAGES.COM)(pg. BU1)

The Pelorus, top, is owned by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Counterclockwise from above are the Maltese Falcon, at Fort St. Angelo in Valletta, Malta

the same boat with sails unfurled

the Octopus, owned by the Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen

and the Mirabella V, by Joe Vittoria, former Avis chief.(PHOTOGRAPH BY GRAEME ROBERTSON/GETTY IMAGES)

(PHOTOGRAPH BY DARRIN ZAMMIT LUPI/REUTERS)(pg. BU8)

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

972 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 16, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Lacey Tisch, Lowell Sidney
SECTION: Section ST; Column 0; Society Desk; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 543 words
Lacey Ann Tisch, the daughter of Susan Tisch Allen and Andrew H. Tisch, both of Manhattan, was married on Saturday evening to Lowell Jay Sidney, a son of Marcia Sidney and Steven L. Sidney of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Rabbi Philip Hiat, the bride's maternal grandfather, performed the ceremony at Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

The bride, 27, who will be known as Mrs. Tisch-Sidney, is a founder and co-president of an Internet venture in Manhattan called Travelin Gals, which provides travel advice for young women. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

The bride's father is a chairman of the board of Loews Corporation, a holding company in Manhattan with interests in insurance, hotels, tobacco and energy. He is also a trustee of Cornell University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the City Parks Foundation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The bride's stepfather, Jeffrey Allen, is the chairman of Universal Attractions, a talent booking agency in Manhattan. Her stepmother, Ann Rubenstein Tisch, is a founder of the Young Women's Leadership School of East Harlem and the president of the Young Women's Leadership Foundation, which supports that school and a half-dozen others.

The bride's paternal grandfather, the late Laurence A. Tisch, was a chairman and chief executive of Loews and the chairman of CBS.

The bridegroom, 29, is an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn. He graduated from Arizona State University and received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

His mother taught first grade at Public School 197 in Far Rockaway, Queens, and later retired from the New York City Department of Education as a mentor to other teachers. His father is a partner in Ahmuty, Demers & McManus, a law firm in Albertson, N.Y.

Ms. Tisch and Mr. Sidney met in April 2006 in the snack aisle of a supermarket on Park Avenue South in Manhattan, where Ms. Tisch had been perusing the shelves and looking perplexed.

''I thought she was really cute, so I said, 'May I help you?' '' Mr. Sidney recalled. She demanded to know if he was flirting with her.

He sheepishly admitted he was.

Ms. Tisch said she found him to be ''very genuine and sweet.'' She also admitted to being a little nervous about this stranger seemingly prowling the aisles. Her fears were allayed when she noticed he was with a group of friends who included one of her former sorority sisters.

Ms. Tisch then told him she would let him buy her a snack, he remembered.

Mr. Sidney began searching the shelves for the brand of baked potato chips she said she was looking for, but to no avail. After five minutes or so, a hopeful Mr. Sidney offered a bag of chocolate chip cookies and a carton of fat-free milk instead.

At that, he remembered, Ms. Tisch extended a hand and said, ''I'm Lacey.'' (By this point the sorority sister hadn't had an opportunity to tell Mr. Sidney about Ms. Tisch, or even mention that she knew her.)

After introducing himself, Mr. Sidney offered to walk her home.

Snack in hand and his group of friends in tow, they departed.

A year after their supermarket encounter, he proposed by the rooftop pool of a Havana hotel -- proffering some chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk along with the ring.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: LAW SCHOOLS (89%); EDUCATION (89%); HOLDING COMPANIES (89%); WOMEN (89%); DESTINATIONS & ATTRACTIONS (77%); PARKS & PLAYGROUNDS (77%); UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION (76%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (76%); EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS (75%); CITY GOVERNMENT (74%); WEDDINGS & ENGAGEMENTS (90%); CLERGY & RELIGIOUS (72%); PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS (69%); ALLIANCES & PARTNERSHIPS (68%); STEPPARENTS (68%); FOUNDATIONS (68%); GROCERY STORES & SUPERMARKETS (65%); SNACK FOODS (62%); JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS (50%); LEGAL SERVICES (69%)
COMPANY: LOEWS CORP (70%); CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS (56%)
ORGANIZATION: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (57%); CORNELL UNIVERSITY (56%); AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE (56%); ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY (54%)
TICKER: LTR (NYSE) (83%); L (NYSE) (70%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS524126 DIRECT PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE CARRIERS (70%); NAICS334518 WATCH, CLOCK & PART MANUFACTURING (70%); NAICS312221 CIGARETTE MANUFACTURING (70%); NAICS213111 DRILLING OIL & GAS WELLS (70%); SIC6331 FIRE, MARINE, & CASUALTY INSURANCE (83%); SIC6311 LIFE INSURANCE (83%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (98%) NEW YORK, USA (98%); FLORIDA, USA (92%); ARIZONA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (98%)
LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY TERRY deROY GRUBER)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

973 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 16, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Can Sealy Catch Up With the Foam Set?
BYLINE: By ELIZABETH OLSON, PATRICK McGEEHAN, JANE L. LEVERE and DAN FOST
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; SUITS; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 784 words
Less than two months after conceding that 2007 financial results did not meet expectations, the chairman and chief executive of the Sealy Corporation, David J. McIlquham, resigned last week, effective immediately.

Stock of Sealy, the world's largest mattress manufacturer, lost more than half its value in the last year as the company struggled against rivals promoting new mattress technologies to end nightly tossing and turning. Lawrence J. Rogers was named interim C.E.O. while the company, based in Trinity, N.C., searches for a permanent replacement. Paul Norris becomes non-executive chairman.

Mr. McIlquham, 53, had been with the company since 1979 and became C.E.O. in 2002. The company said he will pursue new opportunities and ''spend more time with his family.''

Sealy, whose traditional inner-spring mattresses have been buffeted by the popularity of newer products like memory foam, has turned to producing mattresses from natural latex -- which comes from rubber trees. But the company's repositioning apparently wasn't fast enough to prevent the board from seeking fresh leadership. ELIZABETH OLSON

LEATHER PAYS OFF Could Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 star of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association, be a role model for Reed Krakoff, the president and executive creative director of Coach? After all, both of them handle leather goods for a living.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Yao signed a $75 million contract extension with the Rockets. Last week, Coach disclosed that it had extended Mr. Krakoff's contract by three years, through June 2014. It, too, could be worth about $75 million, according to details the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On top of a salary that will rise from $2.5 million this year to almost $3.2 million in the final year, the contract promises Mr. Krakoff $10 million in signing bonuses, more than $14 million in other bonuses and as much as $34 million in annual performance bonuses.

Incidentally, the N.B.A. tried using an official basketball made of microfiber a couple of years ago, but switched back to a leather ball after some of Mr. Yao's colleagues complained. PATRICK McGEEHAN

WAVES THROUGH THE BOOK WORLD Cunard, the British cruise company, has joined with the PEN American Center, the writers' group, to create a book club on the high seas.

Cunard, which is donating $70,000 to PEN, will obtain the services of PEN writers, who will sail on Cunard cruises and discuss their work with passengers. The alliance involves six cruises this year and eight in 2009.

Cunard will also help sponsor a gala on April 28, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, that will kick off the 2008 PEN World Voices Festival.

Salman Rushdie, chairman of the festival, and Francine Prose, president of the PEN American Center, are scheduled to announce the Cunard partnership on Thursday, on board the Queen Mary 2 at the passenger cruise terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn.Carol Marlow, president of Cunard, said the company was working with PEN because both are ''international organizations with a long history, and concern and high regard for the cultural things in life.''

Ms. Marlow said she did not have time to belong to a book club, though she likes to read. She said she was currently rereading ''Birdsong,'' the novel by Sebastian Faulks set during World War I that she called ''a moving description of a young man's life.''JANE L. LEVERE

TECHNOLOGY MAKES LIFE EASIER? In a room packed with new-media devotees last week, Mark Cuban, the founder of the HDNet television network, emerged at one point as a digital doubting Thomas compared with Michael D. Eisner, the former chief of Disney.

Mr. Eisner, who has reinvented himself as a Web entertainment entrepreneur, was discussing his projects with Mr. Cuban at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Tex. ''Within five years, content on the Internet will be as important as content on cable, on television networks, or satellite,'' Mr. Eisner asserted.

Mr. Cuban countered that Mr. Eisner's vision faced a major obstacle: insanely complicated technology that is not likely to become simpler any time soon. To prove his point, he asked how many people in the room had hooked up their home PCs to their television sets. At least a third raised their hands.

Mr. Eisner acknowledged that the people in attendance were not a representative sample. ''Ninety percent of Americans whose PCs are connected to their TVs are in this room,'' he said. ''It's hard to tune your clock radio. But eventually there will be a few more Steve Jobs around the world who will make the technology simple.''

DAN FOST