301–310 of 394 posts
"There’s the KOMO News footage, which some of us still have on a dusty VHS tape. There are a handful of print articles from tech magazines at the time. And one of us has the audio recording of the radio coverage." It would be cool if there were some kind of technology that would allow them to share those things, like with people who can't actually be there in person.
" Don't be snarky. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm assuming Seattlites would be able to confirm. However as much discussion we've had about the internet remembering everything, I can't find anything in Google to confirm "Microsoft Coffee" except for this site, discussion of it on Reddit 13 hours ago.
There's a bunch of real MS promotional merch that doesn't show up in search engines. In the 1990s they released "drag 'n' drops" - a gummy candy in the shape of dragons. I can't find any mention of them.
Stuff like this seems whimsical, but it serves the very serious purpose of allowing Microsoft to claim exclusive use of their name in that class.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you can't believe them even if it's not. People tend to remember things that never happened. Other than that, GP may have just been teasing. I mean what's the probability that you call them and they still have the same people there after 25 years? You call them and one of those rare guys (who's still there after 25 years) answers the phone. Or whoever answers the phone is willing to take the time to find someon…
I wasn't teasing, I actually called them. I was curious if it was a deepfake ML video so I wanted to find out. I got passed around quite a bit till I spoke with a guy in news room archives who had been there "a long time and would know", that's why I specifically got passed to him I believe.
> unlike other pranks our prank didn’t just say ‘Microsoft is successful but nerdy’. Instead, it fed the idea that Microsoft kind of sucked as a company in some way; a lazy copycat. > [...] Usually Microsoft was happy to take credit for clever pranks from employees, because it showed we played hard besides working hard. > [...] BillG said, in effect, that the prank was not in good taste, and that it made Microsoft lo…
You're 25 years younger in a corporate environment that has thoroughly taken control of this kind of thing.
> BillG said, in effect, that the prank was not in good taste, and that it made Microsoft look stupid rather than clever - especially as a catch-up to Sun Microsystems.
He was pissed because, while a "joke", it was an valid and accurate criticism as well. Sun was miles ahead of Microsoft and many other companies, in several different ways. Microsoft dominated because Gates was a ruthless son of a bitch who repeatedly broke laws that were poorly enforced back then.
I had a whole tirade typed out, but I realized that HN is full of true believers in the "New Bill Gates". I'm not. He's trying to buy a legacy so he can overwrite the shit one he had when he was at the helm of Microsoft. Sadly, it'll work because people have short memories.
When I was growing up, my dad had visited Seattle and came back from the trip with a box of Microsoft Coffee. He claimed to have gotten it from a store called Egg-Head’s Software or Egghead Computing or something like that. (EDIT: Upon reading the full article it seems to have been Egghead Software.)
I took it to my computer club and was laughed out of the room for it being fake. I believe he still has it somewhere, in storage...
Needless to say, I have some friends to email given that I’ve been the victim of “my uncle works at Nintendo” style teasing about this for years.
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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.
No, it wouldn't be a "massive SEC violation" and yes, a prison sentence would be _very_ surprising. The SEC can't send someone to prison. They're a civil enforcement agency.
But the SEC can certainly start investigations and then take someone to court in conjunction with DAs the country over, and a possible result can be imprisonment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you can't believe them even if it's not. People tend to remember things that never happened. Other than that, GP may have just been teasing. I mean what's the probability that you call them and they still have the same people there after 25 years? You call them and one of those rare guys (who's still there after 25 years) answers the phone. Or whoever answers the phone is willing to take the time to find someon…
I wasn't teasing, I actually called them. I was curious if it was a deepfake ML video so I wanted to find out. I got passed around quite a bit till I spoke with a guy in news room archives who had been there "a long time and would know", that's why I specifically got passed to him I believe.
Reminded me of this well executed prank at McDonalds: https://mashable.com/article/mcdonalds-fake-poster-prank/
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 think the issue is that the joke made Microsoft look bad (like they copied another company's product). Google has a big April Fool's collection, but you can imagine their PR department probably would not let anyone's joke reference that the product would be sunset in 18 months.
Microsoft basically from Gates' reign was a lot of, "Copy the shit that we see others do."
Ballmer at least had the audacity to attempt something original like the Xbox. Steve gets a horrendously bad rap, but if you look at Microsoft's products from the start of his time as president (1998) to CEO (2000) and until he was replaced by Satya Nadella, Ballmer was trying to provoke his people into something new.
Nowadays, Microsoft is actually an innovator making some really impressive products (the entire Surface line, Azure, etc.).
Gates is boring, bland, and a "genius" at realizing the future potential of technologies (Xerox's GUI, The Internet, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), but he absolutely sucks at producing something that will appeal to a consumer. I've said before that if you could combine Gates' understanding of future tech with Steve Jobs' ability to understand design and consumer desire, you'd have an unstoppable entrepreneur. The only other person out there who I think even comes close is Elon Musk.