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Microsoft Coffee

microsoftcoffee.org

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Re: Microsoft Coffee

#131

Post by galangalalgol »

sn_master wrote: post #94
galangalalgol wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It depends so much on which native tools you use. Which is good and bad. Good that all three OS are good enough not to be the deciding issue, and bad that we haven't really solved portable native software well.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#132

Post by habeebtc »

V99 wrote: post #39
cja wrote: post #26

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.

Microsoft at that time was very much a stereotypical work hard/play hard/sleep in your office/repeat type of place (in at least many departments). Extra hours aren't that hard to find here or there if you're never leaving.

Still is, really.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#133

Post by ineedasername »

This is why computers used to have that cup holder that would slide out and give you a place to put it.

When you weren't using it you could even put a music CD in it and it would play music right through your computer speakers!

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#134

Post by reaperducer »

coding123 wrote: post #69
brundolf wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news footage is pretty convincing

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.

I can't find anything in Google to confirm "Microsoft Coffee" except for this site, discussion of it on Reddit 13 hours ago.

Its choice not to display any information older than the attention span of a cracked out chipmunk is one of the main reasons I stopped using Google.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#135

Post by Steltek »

space_ghost wrote: post #85
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.

As someone else pointed out, this isn't just a lame webpage. The YT video of the news broadcast, if it was faked, would have been much more involved.

It's true that going to the trouble of costumes and video editing is at least some effort. However yesterday had more than its fair share of very low effort Photoshops and year after year, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

To the original question, the alleged original prank still outweighs any contemporary green screen antics: producing multiple physical fake boxes, distributing them across town in multiple stores, and getting local news to pick up on it. That's a lot of work.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#136

Post by gkop »

ma2rten wrote: post #31
throwaway894345 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this happened in 2021 someone would be in prison or fired at best. If that's the best case scenario, what's the worst? Firing squad?

This is a good example of how human language is ambiguous. You should read it as in the worst case in prison and in the best case fired.

No, we have tone and punctuation to disambiguate the two interpretations here. Parent commenter interpreted correctly. If the grandparent’s intention was otherwise, they should have used a comma.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#137

Post by II2II »

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.

April fools pranks should leave the recipient laughing at themselves for their own foolishness, otherwise it is just a mean spirited prank at the expense of someone else. Pranking a major organisation is just too hard: there are too many different people with different personalities involved.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#138

Post by ma2rten »

mmmmmbop wrote: post #89
JoshTko wrote: post #56

Volkswagen would have benefited from reading this article> Bill Gate's comment that the prank makes Microsoft look stupid applies pretty well to the Voltswagen stunt.

I'm seriously confused by the backlash to the Voltswagen stunt. The first thing I thought when I read the headline was that this was obviously an early April fool's day joke. Perhaps people are just upset that they didn't get it and are blaming Volkswagen to avoid admitting that they were a bit too gullible around April 1st.

It's because it was not released on April fools.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#139

Post by passivate »

coding123 wrote: post #69
brundolf wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news footage is pretty convincing

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.

Google's index isn't as vast as they claim. Their "About 5,780,000,000 results" is a gross exaggeration. You can't actually view all those results even if you tried.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#140

Post by iso1210 »

judge2020 wrote: post #100
wnevets wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Had to remove the /1, but good find. That does seem to put the right timeframe -- and with confirmation they're real presenters too. It's not a matter of finding a c. 25 year old clip from the news to base a fake on, it would be finding one from about March-May 1996 (which itself would be amazing to have for no reason), and then replace it.

I'm leaning more to "this is real", but it's astounding there's no reference to it before yesterday.

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