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Microsoft Coffee

microsoftcoffee.org

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Re: Microsoft Coffee

#21

Post by commandlinefan »

88840-8855 wrote: post #14
rasengan wrote: post #9

If this happened in 2021 someone would be in prison or fired at best. That said, this is a hilarious story and reminds me of the things people used to do in the early days of the internet in terms of trolling and such. Unfortunately, after groups like the GN*A and others successfully trolled the world several times, nation states figured it out and started trolling to actually control the narrative of the internet! A…

True that. The reason for this is simple. Stock price. Investors would wine around, price could move. It is all about money today: serious business.

I think it's deeper - and more insidious - than that. People with no sense of humor, or even awareness of their lack of sense of humor, have clawed their way into positions of real power. They used to just run the parent-teacher council and try to get TV shows cancelled, but now they've moved on to control nearly every aspect of our lives. And their power is growing.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#22

Post by ocdtrekkie »

perardi wrote: post #8

Historical evidence that we’ve done all the good April Fools’ pranks, and we can just stop doing them now. Please. Please, I beg of you, PR teams, let us be free of corporate April Fools’ pranks. Make the world a better place.

I think what makes this a satisfactory prank is that PR didn't vet it. When the company officially signs off on a joke, you know it's been watered down.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#23

Post by [deleted] »

88840-8855 wrote: post #14
rasengan wrote: post #9

If this happened in 2021 someone would be in prison or fired at best. That said, this is a hilarious story and reminds me of the things people used to do in the early days of the internet in terms of trolling and such. Unfortunately, after groups like the GN*A and others successfully trolled the world several times, nation states figured it out and started trolling to actually control the narrative of the internet! A…

True that. The reason for this is simple. Stock price. Investors would wine around, price could move. It is all about money today: serious business.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#24

Post by MattGaiser »

commandlinefan wrote: post #21
88840-8855 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True that. The reason for this is simple. Stock price. Investors would wine around, price could move. It is all about money today: serious business.

I think it's deeper - and more insidious - than that. People with no sense of humor, or even awareness of their lack of sense of humor, have clawed their way into positions of real power. They used to just run the parent-teacher council and try to get TV shows cancelled, but now they've moved on to control nearly every aspect of our lives. And their power is growing.

Having a sense of humour is dangerous when you need the approval of others because most sense of humour differ from the ones others have.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#25

Post by sn_master »

Razengan wrote: post #4

> Things were different back in 1996. … Microsoft had a reputation, deserved or not, as more of an imitator than an innovator. Perhaps not too different, apparently.

Does it? I hardly see any news about Microsoft in 'tech' press anymore.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#26

Post by cja »

I want a job where I can spend days of valuable time on unauthorised, unproductive projects just because I want some fun, and not get punished for it.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#27

Post by tpmx »

chrisseaton wrote: post #16
cube00 wrote: post #10

I feel for the poor staff in those retail stores trying to work out what this product was that wasn't scanning while you've got a customer at your register getting more annoyed by the second.

People who do pranks like this don’t care how it negatively impacts on other people. Also think about all the additional work the PR people were forced to do to clean up.

Yes, those poor, poor Waggener Edstrom PR people. It's about time someone like you took a stand for them - they surely can't fend for themselves.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#28

Post by duxup »

cnt-dracula wrote: post #11

It’s sad that a company can’t accept negative PR and show them that they do indeed support their employee’s actions. I think it has more to do with how all organizations want to feel professional instead of nerdy and fun.

I'm not sure what employee actions they're supposed to support.

MS didn't get a chance to 'support' this, these guys did the thing on their own.

If I'm MS I'm not sure I want to do a lot to "support" them after the fact as I really don't need groups of other employees stocking the shelves with fake products...

Any prank that looks like it has someone else's name on it, or approval... but isn't approved is just always going to have a risk associated with it.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#29

Post by addicted »

gumby wrote: post #19
rasengan wrote: post #9

If this happened in 2021 someone would be in prison or fired at best. That said, this is a hilarious story and reminds me of the things people used to do in the early days of the internet in terms of trolling and such. Unfortunately, after groups like the GN*A and others successfully trolled the world several times, nation states figured it out and started trolling to actually control the narrative of the internet! A…

Prison? That seems over the top.

This would be a massive SEC violation at minimum.

A prison sentence would not be surprising at all.

The only reason they likely didn’t get it in 1995 even is that MS PR (the one this person derides as PR flacks) apparently successfully convinced the world that this wasn’t done by MS insiders.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#30

Post by marcosdumay »

Wait, MS wasn't working on Java at that time? When did they try to release MS Java and were forced to rename it into J++?

I remember getting a box of MS dev tools with J++ included just a few years after this. It was already a well settled product.

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