Aquarionics

Sir

Sir?

Sir? Are you listening?

Mr Merlin?

Simon?

Simon shook his head.

"Yes? Sorry, I was miles away." Millions of miles away, he thought.

"I was saying that we have just got the final specifications for the SHTK Standard from the W3C" said Kay.

"And?" Asked Simon,

"I'm afraid there is little change. It is impossible for us to add many more features to the system unless we improve upon this standard." she replied.

"A, Impossible is not in our dictionary; and b, we keep to the standard" said Simon, reciting in a few words what the company ethos did in several thousands. It was quite literally true as well, The ashes of the relevant page were framed on the wall behind Simon's desk.

"If we start making our own standards simply because we think we know best, we are going to lose our main consumer base".

This was true as well, Merlin Tech's main customers were the types of people who attempted to rebel against software producers who tried to enter markets and take them over. Merlin's strategy was to create programs that conformed to standards precisely and with backward compatibility, so a document created in Textra 98 could still be read in version 2, but without the extra special effects added in the latest version.

This was a revelation to the industry. The problem was that the general public stuck to it's own, familiar brands and Merlin Tech could not break into that sector without applying some of the unethical tactics of the other companies, Which the CEO, Simon Merlin, refused to do.

They could call it an Impasse, if that hadn't been on the same page as Impossible.