Microsoft Coffee • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#201

Post by ellyagg » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #193

> 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…

It used to be that we were not all indistinguishable cogs in machines designed to be as inoffensive as possible.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#202

Post by cjlovett » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:00 PM UTC

Fantastic story. I joined Microsoft in 1997 but unfortunately I cannot confirm the story, I never heard this story before, but it doesn't surprise me, we had a lot of fun back then with all kinds of pranks, and Easter eggs, until one day it was all suddenly stopped, ship an Easter egg and get fired was what they told us. That was a very sad day. I can confirm that Microsoft was doing things with Java back then, I worked in an XML parser written in Java when I first joined Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#203

Post by nxc18 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #193

> 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…

I think people sometimes don’t perceive things the same way and that can lead to misunderstandings. I have sympathy, I’ve been in the position of having some edgy marketing/pr go the wrong way for a software launch.

Totally random example that I had _no involvement_ in: launching a tree survey app on the 20th of April that had insufficient moderation tools. I’ll let your imagination around this (totally hypothetical) scenario run wild.

Personally, I think the prank would have been fine if they filled the boxes with actual coffee beans.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#204

Post by sn_master » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #171

sn_master wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the PC hardware to be better too. Even dirt cheap PC laptops have touch screens with high quality pens included and are very easy to upgrade their RAM to 32/64 GB from Amazon.

I'll give you that for sure. Any specific model you recommend?

I have the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro, wonderful machine, and the included pen experience was great, specially with the flipped tablet mode. It's a bit outdated now but there should be a new model.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#205

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

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. :)

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#206

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

iso1210 wrote: post #95

exhilaration wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 v…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#207

Post by kenjackson » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

iso1210 wrote: post #95

exhilaration wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 v…

What's also suspicious is there is a lot you can find online about the 1994 Vatican City hoax that they allude to, but nothing about Microsoft Coffee.

I think a really good prank using deep fake tech.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#208

Post by dboreham » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:05 PM UTC

frabjoused wrote: post #200

Could that Sony screen really have existed in 1996? It's definitely not a CRT. It's also fishy that there is no mention of the author anywhere, domain registration intentionally unrevealing. The domain was created at 2:00am on the 1st of April.

The screen is modern, displaying playback of an old taped video.

Little suspicious of the 16:9 aspect ratio. News broadcasts weren't wide screen until much later. Probably it is being displayed cropped?

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#209

Post by 300bps » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:06 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #49

On Friday, 1-April-2005, I executed an Aprils fool joke inside of WalMart Stores, Inc., Information Systems Division that ended up going somewhat wrong. The director of our area, Network Engineering, was widely liked, and I'd worked for him, first directly when he was a manager, since 1997. Pretty chill guy, great sense of humor, effective leader. I particularly liked him because he gave my team, Network Management,…

Nice but wow... I've done the telnet to a mail server on TCP port 25 trick over a hundred times. Only once did I take it almost as far as you. When our company was bought I sent an email from HR to my buddy saying that certain employees would be given the option of taking severance. My buddy asked all of his coworkers if they got that email, they said they hadn't. He then replied to the HR guy who told him he was the victim of a practical joke.

Re: Microsoft Coffee

#210

Post by throwanem » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

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. :)

I can't find any mention of it on contemporary Usenet via Google Groups search, and you'd think someone would have mentioned it in comp.os.linux.advocacy if nowhere else...