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SAMMY570 SAID : "All this means is that NO, MS can't just go and download the SDK and code happily for the iPhone ever after. It must first go out and shell out (a lot of) cash for some Apple PC it didn't want in the first place." Weirdly enough, MSFT had no trouble with buying a boatload of MACS when they were developing for the XBOX360. http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/23/even-microsoft-wants-g5s/ or http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/8096/Xbox-360-Development-Kit-Spotted/ or http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/308/1030308/xbox-2--sdk-released-on-cool-apple-power-mac-g5s

Possibly also of interest: The /. thread for the Belkin incident, and I put a small collection of related Google Group links in a weblog post back then. The Belkin incident was the first thing I thought of when I saw this story post. Good to know I'm not the only one who remembered that.

On his Mac

For those that managed to miss it, you can read a bit about it here.

Rude dude, The Bungi, points to the employee's complete and utter submission to being fired for taking a photograph that offended His Gateness. He then goes on to call me a "half brain" and other names. Here's what I see in that blog:

I made a mistake This has been pointed out many times, sometimes more politely than others.

People were rude to him for what he did. You might not have a problem with that, but I do.

Microsoft ... decided ... to just cut me loose before I could do any more damage.

Only a person who works for M$ would consider telling the truth to be "damage". You might be OK with the way he was treated, but I think it sucks. I brought up the point to show what happens to people who violate M$'s PR. Your advocacy of such bad behavior only goes to prove what I said is true.

The man seems to have recovered from the vicious smearing he got for his entirely innocent actions. Most people like him and he seems to have gotten back enough self esteem to be critical of M$. It's also a sign that he's no longer afraid of them, so we might imagine he's got himself a nice job away from the asshole's reach.

Rude dude, The Bungi, points to the employee's complete and utter submission to being fired for taking a photograph that offended His Gateness. He then goes on to call me a "half brain" and other names. Here's what I see in that blog:

I made a mistake This has been pointed out many times, sometimes more politely than others.

People were rude to him for what he did. You might not have a problem with that, but I do.

Microsoft ... decided ... to just cut me loose before I could do any more damage.

Only a person who works for M$ would consider telling the truth to be "damage". You might be OK with the way he was treated, but I think it sucks. I brought up the point to show what happens to people who violate M$'s PR. Your advocacy of such bad behavior only goes to prove what I said is true.

The man seems to have recovered from the vicious smearing he got for his entirely innocent actions. Most people like him and he seems to have gotten back enough self esteem to be critical of M$. It's also a sign that he's no longer afraid of them, so we might imagine he's got himself a nice job away from the asshole's reach.

No, but that's how M$ works

Really, that's how "M$" works? It's interesting, because the guy that got fired penned this blog entry, where he says:

Yes -- I made a mistake

This has been pointed out many times, sometimes more politely than others. My posting of a photo taken at the Microsoft campus was (most likely) a breach of contract.

... Who's to blame?

In the end -- me. I really don't blame Microsoft for their actions. By my best guess, they saw me as breaking the rules -- whether those rules were a "no cameras" clause, an NDA, or something entirely different -- and decided that rather than give me a second chance and run the risk of me doing something similar in the future, it would be better to just cut me loose before I could do any more damage.

This is from the guy's blog, who unlike you doesn't see fit to use what any other large company in the planet would have done to further their puerile "M$ is teh evilz LOLOL" agenda.

So the next time you feel the need to use this as a standard "I hate M$ let me tell you why" bullet point, perhaps you'd like to stop and think for a second about how "big dumb companies" work. You know, in the real world. Anyone with half a brain can probably see through that misrepresentation of the facts, like most of your other "arguments".

It would seem that sci-fi will never be anything other than what it is: a fiction.

Top ten tech items inspired by science fiction:

Perhaps you should quit hanging out with Hollywood types, women, and metrosexuals then. A nice blanket statement like that flies really well out in Georgia (USA), particularly about black people. That's why we still have KKK rallies. I don't know what you're *looking* at because if that's what you *see* I recommend a vision check. Do those three types use Macs? Quite possibly, and I can see reasons why. I see students buying them, parents buying them, and perhaps I'm the only one that read the news but universities buy them, secondary school systems buy them, crazy people buy them, and, oh yeah, even MICROSOFT buys them. I'd like to point to my own rabid Apple fanboy-ism as the bias for writing this, but clearly I keep seeing instance after instance of people buying Apple, or buying into Apple. Perhaps you should consider what your perceptions are filtering out if that is *normally what you see*

But Shhhh! They'll fire you if you tell anyone. At least, they did before this announcement.

But Shhhh! They'll fire you if you tell anyone. At least, they did before this announcement.

too bad my mod points just expired.
Bravo on the George Carlin reference

> Nah, that's not Woody's (Michael Hanscom to those of you who don't know him) posting style...

Heh. Now I'm curious who you are...fewer and fewer people call me "Woody" anymore.

And, just to give the definitive answer as to who I was and why I lost the position (just on the off chance that anyone's paying attention to this particular thread _and_ this gets modded up enough for anyone to see...):

Here's the original weblog posts for [the photo][1], the [day I lost the position][2], and my [final wrap-up][3].

[1]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ even_microsoft.html
[2]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ of_blogging_and.html
[3]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ fifteen_minutes.html

And that's about the meat of everything.

> Nah, that's not Woody's (Michael Hanscom to those of you who don't know him) posting style...

Heh. Now I'm curious who you are...fewer and fewer people call me "Woody" anymore.

And, just to give the definitive answer as to who I was and why I lost the position (just on the off chance that anyone's paying attention to this particular thread _and_ this gets modded up enough for anyone to see...):

Here's the original weblog posts for [the photo][1], the [day I lost the position][2], and my [final wrap-up][3].

[1]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ even_microsoft.html
[2]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ of_blogging_and.html
[3]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ fifteen_minutes.html

And that's about the meat of everything.

> Nah, that's not Woody's (Michael Hanscom to those of you who don't know him) posting style...

Heh. Now I'm curious who you are...fewer and fewer people call me "Woody" anymore.

And, just to give the definitive answer as to who I was and why I lost the position (just on the off chance that anyone's paying attention to this particular thread _and_ this gets modded up enough for anyone to see...):

Here's the original weblog posts for [the photo][1], the [day I lost the position][2], and my [final wrap-up][3].

[1]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ even_microsoft.html
[2]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ of_blogging_and.html
[3]: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ fifteen_minutes.html

And that's about the meat of everything.

Gustave Gilbert said it, Adolf was pretty bad but he didn't do EVERYTHING... Full quote: "Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship." "There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars." "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Holy shit is that an uber nerd.

Like this?

I guess this guy feels vindicated!

Reading protected LiveJournal entries via RSS

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

This is interesting...

In February, Microsoft released the Software Development Kit (SDK) for its forthcoming Xbox 2 video game console. Since the Xbox 2 will utilize IBM processors similar to the ones used in today's Macintosh systems, the SDK was seeded to developers on dual Apple Power Mac G5 systems running a custom Windows NT Kernel.

The article implies that the guy who got fired a year or so ago for posting pictures of a Microsoft loading dock full of Powermac G5s may have been fired not because of petty Mac - Windows jealously (or whatever the explanation was at the time), but because those G5s were a tool for the development for Xbox2.

see the visual diff of this change

Apparently some sort of a sexual maneuver. Googled for it and all I, er, came up with was this:

Be advised: the "Minnesota wristwatch" maneuver is correctly performed by using only the penis. The scrotum and testicles should neither be substituted nor included in any way.

What it really is, I don't know. But congratulations to the Minnesotans in the audience!

(This was also posted on my weblog, so my apologies for babbling about things most /.'ers would already know...)

I did wonder a bit about the G5/Xbox2 link back in November, when news first broke that the Xbox2 would likely be running on the G5 chip. At the time, I was idly wondering about the possibility of an Xbox emulator for the Mac (similar to Connectix' old Virtual Gamestation software that allowed Mac users to run Playstation games on their home computer).

Now, though, the news that the seeded G5's are running a custom NT kernel has me wondering along different lines.

In February of '03, Microsoft bought Virtual PC, the PC-emulation software for Macs that allows them to run Windows software inside an emulated PC. They've continued to support and update Virtual PC for the Mac, along with releasing Virtual PC for the PC, allowing Windows machines to run multiple virtual machines on one physical box handy for software testing purposes. Unfortunately, Virtual PC depends on a feature of earlier PowerPC processors that is not present in the G5, so there hasn't been a version of Virtual PC released yet that will run on Apple's flagship G5 desktop machines.

Last month, Microsoft announced that a new G5-compatible version of Virtual PC would be released along with Office 2004. Considering that the Xbox2 SDK is apparently running a customized NT kernel that runs on G5 systems, could some of those same customizations be worked into Virtual PC 7, making for a major speed increase, as more of the low-level code would be running natively on the Mac rather than having to pass through an emulator? I don't really know enough about the innards of how software like this works, so I could be entirely off-base here the differences between the emulation required for Virtual PC and the customizations needed to get the NT kernel running on the PowerPC processor may have absolutely nothing in common but it was enough to get me wondering.

Even more interesting, though, would be if someone could leak some form of benchmarks, even rough ones, showing what kind of performance this customized NT kernel was getting on the SDK machines. I'm assuming it must be at least somewhat respectable, as the machines are being used for creating software for the Xbox2 but how respectable?

And going even more wildly out of the bounds of realityfor years now, there have been rumors of Apple porting the Mac OS to be able to run on Intel-based PCs (realistically, that's not likely to ever be released publicly, but the technology is there). However, what about going the other direction? What if Microsoft were to take these customizations to their kernel and and eventually supplant Virtual PC with an actual build of Longhorn for the G5, either as a "red box" that would allow you to run Windows applications concurrently with Mac OS X applications (we can already run Mac OS X apps, "Classic" Mac OS apps, Unix command-line apps, and Unix X-11 apps all at the same time as it is), or as a dual-boot option (Which OS would you like to run today)?

Likely? I seriously doubt it. But fun to play with.

And I'd still love to find out just how zippy those G5s are running NT. Wouldn't it be a fun little tweak if they were running as fast as (or faster, even) than high-end PCs?

Michael Hanscom almost blew the XBox2 story wide open back in October.

Remember when Microsoft fired that guy because he mentioned that they bought G5s. Too bad he didn't know anything about why they bought them.

Michael Hanscom almost blew the XBox2 story wide open back in October.

Remember when Microsoft fired that guy because he mentioned that they bought G5s. Too bad he didn't know anything about why they bought them.

Here's the slashdot story.

And here's the original blog posting.

Internally, Microsoft has begun developing game prototypes, and it is using G5 systems to do so.

Perhaps that's what these were for? (as opposed to: new machines for the MBU, controllers for Bill's video wall, or any of the other umpteen theories)

how about a video of microsoft unloading g5's in redmond instead. http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/ even_microsoft_.html

No, their using drag n' drop for developing Windows on OS X while ripping of Linux.

what do you think these were for?

Now, we know what all thoses G5 were for ! :)

does anyone know where I can get a G5 processor that can run at 33Mhz and can run on my 800Mb hard drive with 10Mb of ram?

Even Microsoft wants G5s

Even Microsoft wants G5s

Microsoft Getting G5s delivered

Why would it be a suprise that Microsoft would buy g5s? I mean, what do you think they use to write Office for Mac and the other ports of their software? I mean, duh.

But seriously, it's not like he worked in the department that was using the machines and just mentioned it, he just saw something going on and took a picture and posted it on his blog. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

If I ran a multi-billion dollar company I wouldn't want ugly bastich going around snapping random photos of internal stuff and posting them on his blog.

Someone read his review of Kill Bill and got the wrong idea :)

Apparently, his financial situation is a tad bit dire, so if you really wanna stick it to the man, you might consider paypaling him a buck. Even better, give the dude a job...