An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

Post by tvanantwerp » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:22 PM UTC

seer wrote: post #156

grababner wrote: post #74

'He tells us: "Eventually somebody would come back to you with your idea – they would say, 'Hey, you know, this doesn't need Windows at all'. And you have to control your urge to fucking kill them, because you've been telling them that for two years and now they finally come up with it like it's their idea. But that's the Jedi mind trick." ' OMG. I learned this a few years ago working in a corp environment with stubb…

The way I see it, you are just a single data point to the senior people. You mention something, they hear it from a couple of other places and they are now convinced that its a good path forward. You can put your black hat and game this by making sure you suggest whatever you’re after to more people/sources of info that your target listens to. Bonus points for going through intermediaries that obscure the source of t…

Post by dfxm12 » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

mattnewton wrote: post #187

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's super-easy to believe, barely an inconvenience. Wikipedia tells me 3,000 Japanese soldiers died in the Battle of Midway. [1] If I gloss over the fact that they were soldiers and not civilians, and ignore the injuries, in terms of one-day death toll, it's the same as 9/11. Sure, the Japanese military was the aggressor in WWII, but it seems rude to mention 3,000 human deaths for a cheap "take that!" I mea…

> As an optional fun fact, Midway Games was probably using the same allegory when they picked their name. Really? I always thought this was because they were founded in Chicago, near Midway airport. (The airport itself was named after the battle though). Midway games got started in video games licensing games from japanese companies Taito and Namco, so I never thought about an adversarial explaination of the name.

Post by simonh » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:45 PM UTC

naikrovek wrote: post #171

simonh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that is logic doesn’t provide goals, priorities or motivation to achieve them. I was thinking about this recently while watching Raised By Wolves. The Androids express feelings and emotions, but this isn’t necessarily unrealistic. That could be a useful way to encode goals and evaluate priorities.

I didn't describe my logic, so to which logic are you referring? I made some statements which I believe to be true. You're just contributing to my beliefs that humanity is entirely worthless.

Post by rasz » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:47 PM UTC

loosescrews wrote: post #90

Has Xbox ever been profitable for Microsoft? The rumors I have always heard indicated that it wasn't [1]. Maybe it was worthwhile for protecting their Windows business, maybe they never should have bothered. Even if it is profitable now (I can't find any information one way or another), it doesn't seem like it turned out to be a worthwhile investment. Maybe Steve Ballmer was right? [1] https://www.cgmagonline.com/201…

Post by Bakary » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

holbrad wrote: post #175

"Microsoft's choice of codename for the console project – Midway – was a deliberate statement, one that may seem problematic in a more enlightened age, referring as it does to the World War II battle in which US forces defeated the Japanese. " Hard to believe someone wrote that non-ironically...