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2003 Vaporware Awards
7x7 writes "Wired News has the 2003 Vaporware Awards available for your perusal. Winning the Lifetime Achievement Award, if you hadn't guessed already: Duke Nukem Forever!"
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Think back in the late 1800's in America (mentioning this for non-U.S. /.ers), where there was this saloon in the West that was kind of a run-down,
ramshackle joint that was frequented by a few loyal patrons and not too many
others. I think it was California, but it could have been Oregon or someplace
similar -- well, the location isn't really relevant to the story but if you're
interested you may be able to dig a bit on Google to find out. Basically,
while the saloon didn't go out of its way to publicize itself to
out-of-towners (not much point given that it was in a remote area) it managed
to do a fairly steady trade despite the occasional brawl that caused property
damage and the persistent requests from a particular fellow for free drinks.
More nights than not, the proprietor of the saloon would watch this drunk come wandering in through the doors, sit down, and lay a line on him about how he's trying to pull things together and how he'd just make enough to keep himself in beans and couldn't the bartender just pour him a shot or two to fuzz the edges and whatnot. And again, more nights than not, the bartender would take pity on the poor guy and pull out the whiskey.
Now, mind you, this went on for some time, and while the bartender was an easy mark even he had his limit. So one night, after the bartender already gave the fellow three shots on the house, he decides to cut the guy off.
"Look," he says, "while I'm really sorry to hear that things still aren't working out for you I don't think that I can keep giving you free drinks. I've got to make ends meet too, you know."
So the drunk says, "I don't suppose you've got anything I can do to get another drink tonight?"
The proprietor, not particularly wanting this fellow to hang around all night and certainly not expecting him to take him up on his proposition, says "Well, you see that spittoon over there? If you take a swig out of that I suppose I could give you a drink to wash it down."
No sooner did he finish his last sentence than the drunk walked over to the spitoon and hefted it off of the flooy. Before the bartender could stop him, the fellow put the rim to his lips, tipped the bottom of the metal container up into the air, and began to swallow. To the bartender's dismayal, the guy continued to slowly chug the thick contents of the spittoon. When he had finally gulped the final remnants of the container, he threw it to the ground, wiped off his lips with his shirt cuff, and gagged, "So, do I get the drink?"
"You can have the bottle!" exclaimed the bartender, immediately pouring the first shot. "But tell me, why did you swallow the whole damn thing? You only needed to swig it to earn the drink."
And the drunk replies: "It was all one long string."
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
.NET
Microsoft Bob.
Gator (Gain).
Bonzi Buddy
In fact, maybe all spyware, pop-ups (or pop-unders), and spam should be on that list.
Oh, and don't forget Video Professor. He gives me the heebie-geebies.
>>and the ever-slipping ship date for Longhorn
One can only hope.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
HL2 had the source code stolen thing, and that's an understandable delay in shipping.
Huh? It's not like actual crates full of source code were stolen and had to be replaced. Somebody _copied_ the source code, not _stole_ it.
Heh. they might regret picking on the AmigaOS this time. Hints from the producers show it'll be out at the beginning of february
They didn't exactly specify WHICH february did they?
Not to worry. You've waited eleven years already, another decade surely can't hurt.
heck, even Apple has more desktops than linux