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Microsoft's Home Of Tomorrow Has No Bathroom

Starman9x writes "Over at the The Toronto Star reporter Rachel Ross got a tour of Microsoft's home of the future. She writes with an appropriate amount of humor, given all the easy targets Microsoft has set up. While the writeup is light and witty, there is an unspoken Orwellian undertone to it -- after all, do we really want Microsoft to have that much control over things?"

16 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. No bathroom by intermodal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess that's for consistency...windows leaves all kinds of shit all over your system, so why not your house as well?

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  2. Re:01753 567100 by macshune · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The house of the future has no bathroom.
    And I really have to go."


    Sorry, please install Service Pack 1b for the crapper.
    Have a nice day.

  3. no bathroo? because... by skydude_20 · · Score: 4, Funny

    its not a bathroom, but a recycle bin. it can go for awhile without emptying, just until you fill up a certain percentage of the house that you allow. actually, each partition of the house has one, though reliability can be flakey at times, oddly sucking away at all the other resources of the house (electrical, water, etc..). though for the most part works, but keeps you forever wondering why they call it a recycle bin

    --
    Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
  4. Home of the future by drmofe · · Score: 4, Funny

    No shit!

  5. Oh great... by Arctic+Dragon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now where am I gonna put all my bathroom reading material?

  6. Re:01753 567100 by cscx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple: The house would be see-through.

    Sun: The house would look like absolute shit asthetically, but it'd be stable, and never be able to be knocked down.

    Novell: I don't know, but there'll be a lot of guys in black ties and white shirts ringing the doorbell.

  7. textmessage : Grandpa pooped! by hmccabe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some have already been tested in senior centers. It's still in the early stages of development, but such a system isn't entirely a fantasy

    Speak for yourself, lady, but my fantasy isn't monitoring seniors all day.

  8. Re:01753 567100 by neuroticia · · Score: 4, Funny

    Heh. Actually, AppleHome would be see-through and striped, and come in all the colors of the rainbow or a cool titanium finish that would scratch and dent. =] You could only have 1 or 2 Rooms in it (5.25 bays), but the Rooms would do everything (Superdrive/combodrive) You'd only be permitted to run AppleHomeOS on it, until someone came out with LinuxHomeOS For the AppleHome. AppleHome users would account for only 10% of the population, but would be MUCH more vocal about their love of the AppleHome than MS users.

    And if you used something in Beta, you'd erase your bedroom (iTunes, Safari)

    It would definitely have better aesthetics than Microsoft-Home, though. Eeek.

    -Sara

  9. Wellcome Home Bob! by TheLoneCabbage · · Score: 5, Funny


    Imagine walking home... it's been a long day.

    As you enter, you are greeted by a warm Muzac entry sound. "Welcome Home" It chimes in an even, an unoffensive voice.

    As you walk in, you are followed by wall mounted screens delivering custome tailored advertising. Who knew I could grow another 6" safely and without any effort?

    You hang up your coat and you are chimed by a tone, that says "Thankyou for using MS coat rack" Ding!

    You go to the kitchen to put away groceries, but before you get there a 6 foot holographic paper clip stops you. "Your grand mother is not eating her food. Do you wish to feed her"

    "No it's ok, I'll talk to her later Mr. Clippy"

    "Are you SURE you dont' want me to feed her. It's not healthy for her not to eat"

    "She's made it 80 years on her own Sir, she knows when to eat"

    "Older peopler need to eat, human, or they could starve!"

    "Fine, what ever. Give her some food"

    You can hear sounds of mechanical arms wurring in the distance, and an old woman screaming... ugh just another bug.

    You go to put away the food, but as you insert some fruit and turn around, you see it spit out of the fridge. "What now?!"

    "This fruit is not compatible with this refridgerator"

    "It's a banana you talking box of ice, just take it"

    "MS Fridge 3.1 does not recognize this typen of fruit. Are you sure you want to store it in MS Fridge?"

    "YES!! I want to store it in MS Fridge!!"

    "Open the door manualy to continue."

    You put away the rest of the food, with only a few more discussions regarding the unlicensed eggs, which aparently were not grown at McMSoft Farms, and therefor do not have the correct nutritional value. And the fit the cubbard through over you buying flower... It insists that MS Breads are a more efficient use of your leasiur time.

    As you go to the TV, you realize that you won't be watching TV tonight since all that's on is the BSD show.

    Sudenly out of nowhere a lazer shoots you inthe pocket and burns a hole, destroying a tape you had in your pocket. "Hey!! what was that?"

    "You were carrying ilegaly coppied music. I have corrected the issue for you."

    "It was a mix tape from a friend!!"

    "All copyrighted materials must have digitial copy right signitures, or they may be stolen. You don't want to steal do you?"

    "It's from his band you nit! Never mind, I'l just go take a shower"

    You dissrobe (hoping the computer isn't watching this time) and turn on the shower.... ICE cold.

    "Computer turn up the heat, please"

    "The heat is on"

    "No it's not, it's freezing"

    "The watter is hot at 37 degreees"

    "In Celcius!!"

    "Error: Unknown variable.... Reporting bug.... Bug fix will be available when you upgrade to MS House XP: The Next Generation"

    You scream into the night as you run naked into the woods, trying to escape the MS Tree 3000's (better greener foilage). You find your self a nice cave and grow hemp in the field. Not because you like hemp, but because you heard it causes memmory loss, and you want to forget.

  10. Re:01753 567100 by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Funny

    With a Microsoft-Home: if you threw a party, once the nineth person entered, the house would shut down util you upgraded your licence.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  11. Clippy by lateralus_1024 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought Microsoft's animated *assistant* appears after you drop a hot load on the sofa.

    "It appears that you have moved your bowels in a most inappropriate way. Would you like to add the turd to the clipboard for later use?"

    --
    If you think /. comments are bad, check out Digg.
  12. Re:01753 567100 by sryx · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the Apple House: You would always be better than your neighbors.

    In the Sun House: You would always be smarter than your neighbors.

    In the Novel House: Neighbors?

    In the Linux House: You have to rebuild it from scratch every few months but at least you got 45,312 people who will help you out (or at least call you a newbe until you read up enough to build it your self)

    In the Minux House: You wouldn't have one big house to hold everything but instead many smaller separate houses, one for each purpose.
    -Jason

  13. Re:01753 567100 by neuroticia · · Score: 5, Funny

    All the more reason to opt for a Linux-house or BSD-house. Everything's made with open technology, so when you don't like something you just have to poke around at it until it changes. You have your choice of how you want your house to look, and you can tweak it quite a bit. Plus, since it's open you don't have to go to the locksmith's when you want to change the keys. Just grind your own.

    Applehouse and MSHouse are a tad bit too restrictive for my tastes. I'll stick it out and wait for GPLHouse, even if it won't always support the latest and greatest new House-ware.

    And, of course, RedHouse will make every House-UI look alike, which will confuse you to death when you expect something to act one way, but it acts a different way... Until you realize you're in Gnome-House and not KDE-House.

    Gentoo-house would be interesting.... Quite interesting. But somehow I think that most of the population would end up making a mistake and locking themselves out of it.

    And bloody hell, the Everything-Drake Mandrake house with Toilet-drake, espressomachine-drake, chair-drake... Ok. I admit it, even the Linux-Houses will have their issues.

    This is corny.

    /me exits

    -Sara

  14. Re:01753 567100 by helix400 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Microsoft Hot Patch End-User License Agreement for MS Toilet XP.

    This EULA grants you the following limited use rights...

    1. ....you are allowed only one instance of Microsoft Toilet XP in your home.

    2. ....any attempts to disassemble, reverse engineer, etc., this toilet are illegal.
      ....If you suspect this toilet is pirated, please call 1-800-PIRACY.
      ....You may not rent, lease or lend this toilet to other users.
      ....Microsoft reserves the right to update this toilet at any time.
      ....Do not taunt Microsoft Toilet.
      ....Microsoft reserves the right to terminate this EULA. In such an event, you must destroy all traces of this toilet and its component parts.
  15. That's Great by omega9 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft does not need^H^H^H^Hdeserve this much control.

    It's bad enough the world has to deal with things like the SQL Slammer, but there's no way in hell I'm going to risk waking up one morning to the Toaster Twister and Coffee Cruncher, visit the bathroom to great the Rectal Reamer, and find out my mailbox says STOP ERROR 0x00000e24 - INACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE.

    Only to be topped off by being yelled at by some /. troll becuase "Hotfix Q1873672 has been out for your microwave for 3 months!!1 It's your own fault you can't walk upright anymore!!". Hmm.. must be time to patch the house again.

    NO SIR.

    --
    I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
  16. Quantities adjusted by the number of people inside by cOdEgUru · · Score: 4, Funny

    Scenario One:

    Heath : Computer, why did you select the quantity for four. Its just me in here..

    Computer : Sweetheart, I thought I should cook for the three gentlemen hiding in the attic with guns too..

    Scenario Two:

    Heath : Please select quantity as two for myself and my boyfriend.

    Computer : Your boyfriend was here with the blonde from the coffeeshop. Believe me sweetie, he ate.. Oh how he ate!!