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This was how the network computing dreams of Larry Ellison, chair and CEO of Oracle Corp., were summarized at that moment during his keynote speech at Oracle Open World 1999 in Los Angeles. At least, only for that critical, ill-timed moment during his demo.

Ellison wanted to go to the Oracle Store on the web using the second version of the Network Computer (NC) connected to the Internet. Unfortunately, the site probably was experiencing heavy traffic at that exact moment, barring Ellison from accessing it. He instead dialed up to a waiting T1 line that brought him to the site.

The flamboyant Oracle head was again making a pitch for his NC concept, the idea of having data and applications reside on a server to be accessed by a thin client, which is dependent on the network. All that data would reside on a massive Internet-enabled database. The idea was introduced by Ellison four years ago, saying that having applications and voluminous files reside locally on a PC is an inefficient computing model.

''(Microsoft Corp. chair) Bill Gates says the NC is the most stupid thing he's ever heard, but I say they have a model of complexity we all should move away from,'' Ellison said.

Ellison believes data--e-mail, files and even applications--should all be placed in a database, an understandable proposal since Oracle is a database company.

''Microsoft's goal is to make the PC more powerful, introducing Windows 2000,'' he said. ''This makes PCs harder to use and more expensive. With all the unmanaged data in there, even Bill Gates is finding it hard to find stuff in his PC.''

The Oracle CEO said having the server and the database manage data and simply pumping it on demand to the thin client (such as the NC) brings down the price of personal computing since you wouldn't need to buy an entire PC and the user doesn't have to manage everything locally. The problem is, that data delivery is still dependent on the bandwidth. If the network goes down or gets clogged, so do the thousands of users connected to that server.

''Applications on the desktop is a bad idea. Applications and data on servers are easy to manage,'' he said.

However, this was basically the same message Ellison said at Oracle Open World two years ago, also held in Los Angeles. He's not singing an entirely old tune, however. Ellison's idea of an NC has been expanded to cover any device that could get data from a network using a browser. Whereas before Ellison defined NCs as stripped-down, inexpensive PCs, today he says the NC could be a cellular phone, an Internet appliance, a handheld organizer or any device that could retrieve data from a network, wirelessly or otherwise. This is a pretty encompassing definition, and quite a convenient way for Oracle to correct the old NC concept today and in the years to come.

''Microsoft can call it an information appliance, or a web appliance or a web TV--they all mean the same thing; these are all network computers,'' he said.

Ellison cited the Web Companion, a handheld device that Gates introduced at Comdex in Las Vegas which ran simultaneously with Open World in Los Angeles. The Web Companion is a portable, wireless device that has Internet access. Ellison said such a device is still an NC.

To prove his point, Ellison demonstrated his company's portal-to-go technology using a Sprint Webphone (a digital PCS cellular phone service with Internet access available in the United States). Oracle 8i produced stripped-down HTML data so that it would be small enough to be displayed in a cellular phone. Ellison browsed down to an unusual service--an Internet-connected, specially configured Coke vending machine. The vending machine uses Sun Microsystems' Java and Jini technology to connect it to the Internet. Using the cellular phone's menus, Ellison was able to pay for the Coke and activate the vending machine to dispense the can.

''You can have all sorts of services sent to you from the network,'' he said. ''It could be a PC or any device, as long as it gets data from the database.''

The second generation of NCs is getting meaner and cheaper. Whereas before NCs cost $500, the NC2--to be shipped first quarter next year--now costs $199 and has been beefed up to include a CD-ROM drive, 64Mb of memory and a 400-MHz Intel chip.

Ellison does not believe, however, that PCs will disappear.

''People will still use PCs, but in a year or so more users will be getting their data from network computers, or cell phones or mobile devices,'' he said.

On the applications front, Ellison was not coy to say that he wants companies to buy Oracle's entire applications suite instead of getting best-of-breed components from various vendors. He cited in particular the many modules being offered for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM).

''Companies are optimizing their processes around components instead of around an entire system,'' he said. ''We have a complete e-business suite--from manufacturing automation to the marketing system to sales to inventory to human resources. You can dump the separate pieces you now have and get the entire suite from us.''

This intriguing idea goes against the long-held belief that a company should not be tied to a single vendor for its software needs. The concept of open systems holds that you can have various software from various vendors and make them interoperate. However, Ellison boldly admitted that such a situation is not ideal.