Microsoft Coffee • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#91

Post by tim333 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

brundolf wrote: post #65

Geeflow wrote: post #34

Is there any reason to believe that this actually happened? Conveniently, it was published on April 1st. The story itself would be a great April Fools' prank. :)

The news footage is pretty convincing

It's quite flickery. I don't remember TV/video being that bad in 96.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#92

Post by a2g4rAVy » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #88

a2g4rAVy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC valid starting on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 02:07:46 GMT. Video was uploaded to YouTube on April first. I would go with a fun joke.

>SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC There's nothing suspicious about that CA. If you do a search[1] you can see plenty certificates issued for benign sites. My guess is that's the CA for google related products? eg. GCP, app engine, or google site builder. [1] https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754

Yep! but the dates are suspicious. There is no record of this happening anywhere before April 1st.

Youtube, SSL, domain, everything. April first. Also, humorously hosted on google.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#93

Post by judge2020 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #90

judge2020 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? The hostname also goes to 1e100.net. host `dig www.microsoftcoffee.org +short | tail -1` 51.165.217.172.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer pnatla-aa-in-f19.1e100.net.

>I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? Doesn't seem like it https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754

Ah ok, I thought Letsencrypt was the only available auto-issuing CA on Google Cloud but that must have changed with GKE. The 1e100 address is probably pointed at a gke load balancer then.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#94

Post by sn_master » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #55

sn_master wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

These days if a company isn't growing faster than the population its garbage. It isn't enough to have a consistent value proposition that some X% of the population will spend on. This isn't a sustainable viewpoint so we pop the bubble periodically and start again. MS' os is better than it ever was, but its competitors more than caught up. They still define the data formats of business to some extent with office. And…

> its competitors more than caught up

Not in the PC market that's for sure. I tried Mac and Linux few times for work and I always found Windows to be far better, at least as a desktop/laptop OS.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#95

Post by iso1210 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

exhilaration wrote: post #79

brundolf wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news footage is pretty convincing

If they faked that footage and even went as far faking the messed up VHS tracking, I will be very very impressed.

The VHS tracking is what makes me suspicious (and of course the date, the lack of any mention of it at all)

If you've waited for 25 years to announce something, you're going to get video captured correctly.

> There’s the KOMO News footage, which some of us still have on a dusty VHS tape

Does anyone from Seatle recognise the two KOMO reporters?

If the footage is a deep fake over real footage from that time, I'm very very impressed. I suspect that the audio is fake, sort of matches up with the real recording, and the box is digitally replaced.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#96

Post by msla » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

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.

These days, Microsoft seems more like IBM: They have a good business supporting stuff they've already done, and have, if anything, a negative incentive to rock the boat by doing anything new. It's the white dwarf phase of a company: Their innovative "hydrogen fusion" gone, they coast for some indeterminate amount of time on their own internal heat.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#97

Post by hedora » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #55

sn_master wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

These days if a company isn't growing faster than the population its garbage. It isn't enough to have a consistent value proposition that some X% of the population will spend on. This isn't a sustainable viewpoint so we pop the bubble periodically and start again. MS' os is better than it ever was, but its competitors more than caught up. They still define the data formats of business to some extent with office. And…

Their stock has doubled in the last two years.

Also, VS Code went from zero to > 50% market share, and Azure, Teams, etc are growing fast. GitHub is adding MS ecosystem integrations at a rapid pace.

I don’t think that adds up to a very bearish story.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#98

Post by stakkur » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

Obviously a joke. Microsoft would just buy Starbucks and rebrand it as Microsoft CoffeeX 3D.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#99

Post by nokcha » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

addicted wrote: post #29

gumby wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If it was objectively clear that it was just a joke, it would probably qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment and thus be immune to SEC penalties.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#100

Post by judge2020 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #82

Steltek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree wholeheartedly. I'm pretty tired of fictional April Fool's joke. If you've got a good idea for a (harmless) prank, DO IT. Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it.

> Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it. But are we sure this is just some lame webpage? If the prank is to gaslight the internet into believing the Microsoft Coffee prank took place wouldn't the news segment covering the prank also be fake? I have no idea if that was the anchor for that TV station in the 90s. That would be way more entertaining to me than some press release or fake product…

Kind of related to the last few seconds of the news clip - Feb 14 1996 "Zoo Gorilla Gives Birth In Seattle" - I imagine visitation for the new baby would come around a month and a half after birth. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/14/zoo-gorilla-gi...