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IE Sends Cake to Firefox 2 Team

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wish-it-was-a-cheesecake dept.

GDI Lord writes "The Microsoft Internet Explorer Team sent the Firefox team a cake for the release of Firefox 2! "P.S.: No, it was not poisoned" " That they know of anyway.

102 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    but they didn't have time, seeing how they were too busy building a better browser! Good night, everybody!

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by mnmn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Isnt it obvious? They since they just released IE7 they want a cake back.
      Only to include a file in it for the developers at Redmond.

      --
      "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
    2. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by LifesABeach · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Beware of Geeks, Bearing Gifts" - Casandra

    3. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by iced_773 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not only that, it was Laocoon who said "Whatever it is, I fear Greeks bearing gifts."

    4. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by Atilla · · Score: 3, Funny

      How can Firefox be a better browser? It's only version 2! IE is like, version 7 already!

      *g*

      --
      --- sig moved for great justice.
    5. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by Red+Alastor · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now that it's released and they have some free time, they should send one to the IE team on their deployment day (next patch Tuesday if I'm not mistaken). But in the spirit of open source, they should include the recipe.

      --
      Slashdot anagrams to "Sad Sloth"
    6. Re:The firefox team was gonna send a cake too... by NuclearDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Beware of geeks, bare in GIFs."

      --
      This statement is forty-five characters long.
  2. itsatrap by Kuciwalker · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think this is the poster child for the "itsatrap" tag.

    1. Re:itsatrap by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

      Most controversial stories get tagged either "food" or "notfood".

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    2. Re:itsatrap by jZnat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Pretty much every Microsoft story that involves someone outside of Microsoft as well has been tagged "itsatrap". I've been keeping track: all but one of the itsatrap articles have been Microsoft-related.

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    3. Re:itsatrap by shadowcode · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't believe this guy, itsatrap!

    4. Re:itsatrap by dr_dank · · Score: 3, Funny

      Focus your fire on that strawberry shortcake. May the frosting be with us all.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
  3. The Browser Wars by BRUTICUS · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...just got a whole lot friendlier

    1. Re:The Browser Wars by the_humeister · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a lot better than in the past when we had drive-bys from the IE and Firefox gangs.

    2. Re:The Browser Wars by theMerovingian · · Score: 2, Funny


      Yeah, I was really glad when Microsoft's hit man got busted and all those shootings came to an end.

      --
      "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
    3. Re:The Browser Wars by forgetmenot · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously, you didn't read the part where a naked Ballmer jumped out of the cake throwing gobs of it at everyone and screaming "I'll f***** destroy You!"

    4. Re:The Browser Wars by AlecLyons · · Score: 5, Funny

      Browser Wars 2: This time it's amicable

    5. Re:The Browser Wars by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Obviously, you didn't read the part where a naked Ballmer jumped out of the cake throwing gobs
      > of it at everyone and screaming "I'll f***** destroy You!" ...followed by five minutes of him jumping around screaming "Confectioners! Confectioners! Confectioners! Confectioners! Confectioners!".

    6. Re:The Browser Wars by Kelson · · Score: 4, Funny
      Browser Wars 2: This time it's amicable

      Would that make it a "civil" war?

  4. Something like they did to Netscape? by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reminds me of the prank they pulled on the Netscape team long time back. Not that this is another prank, but well...

    1. Re:Something like they did to Netscape? by jZnat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, it seems like only yesterday people thought the blue e was the internet and had no idea what a web browser is.

      Oh wait...

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
  5. Pie? by BeeBeard · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are they sure it wasn't just humble pie? :)

    1. Re:Pie? by robyannetta · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Firefox team couldn't eat it because of all the ActiveX ingredients... [ducks]

      --
      - Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
    2. Re:Pie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      ActiveX is made of ducks?

  6. An improvement from the IE/Netscape days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Better than the big IE logo they left back when IE4 shipped, although the cake surely didn't provide as cool of http://home.snafu.de/tilman/mozilla/mozilla-ie-car d.jpgpictures. (It is sad seeing the guy placing the marketshare number there, however.)

  7. You have to admit by captnitro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That was pretty classy. (Even if ultimately it was intended as a bit of good-natured competitive ribbing, which it doesn't look like.)

    I have to say, often times we're prone to think that large organizations such as Microsoft are just a big, faceless entity. As a whole, this may or may not be true, but either way, they're only made up of people. The IE team only wants to ship the best software possible given their resources, as does Mozilla.

    The best to both teams -- let the competition continue!

    1. Re:You have to admit by waif69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is awesome! It shows that at least some of the team members of the IE development team have some self-respect and can appreciate quality work. This shows that just because a group of developers work for the giant doesn't mean that they are disrespectful and bad sports.

    2. Re:You have to admit by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I got modded troll, but I'm being serious. After 6 years of IE6, they finally release a new version. What they gave us a bunch of copied features from other browsers(firefox,opera) that have been available for years, and from what i've heard, nothing that really makes it better than the competition. And they have worse standards support than everybody else. You would think that in 6 years that they could produce something at least on par with the competition, if not many times better.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:You have to admit by Random+BedHead+Ed · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Good points, but look at it this way: the IE folks owe everything to Firefox. Really. The fact that their offices no longer smell of mothballs is a direct consequence of Firefox's rise. Microsoft was able to keep an open and evolving cross-platform development platform at bay (i.e., the web), but the fact that their strategic product wasn't a profitable product kept development in the dark ages until Firefox came along. IE will always improve (and indeed, will only improve) if it has this competition. As one of the co-creators of Firefox said recently:

      Firefox brought Microsoft back to the table, but they make no guarantees how long they'll stick around. I can't imagine why any individual--let alone an IT department--would bet on a company with a proven track record of gross abandonment.

      IE people should be very glad there's a Firefox, and pray it has staying power. And should keep sending cakes to the Mozillers.

    4. Re:You have to admit by Ed+Avis · · Score: 2

      Yeah it's surprising that Microsoft teams would send cakes... I was expecting more a Ballmer-o-gram or something.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    5. Re:You have to admit by cnettel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, the previous IE team was basically disbanded, with people going to work on Office, Visual Studio and WPF/Avalon/XAML. Two of these are very popular and can, in their own way, surely be considered on par or superior to the competition. (Visual Studio is a nice IDE even for non-Windows development.) It's not a matter of trying for six years and failing, but rather starting quite late, with a team that's still smaller than it was when Trident was first developed. This of course only shifts the blame within MS, from developer incompetence to management incompetence, or arrogance.

    6. Re:You have to admit by eck011219 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I agree -- I have a couple of friends who work in Redmond and are just as fed up with the corporate BS as any Slashdotter. But they're working on things that deeply interest them, and they (as yet) believe that they and the other very sharp people on their teams can produce better stuff than Microsoft has in the past (besides, it's apparently a great place to work, if you can get past the corporate sellout thing that so many of us have a problem with). So I'm not at all surprised about the cake -- you have to figure that the IE folks and the Firefox folks are in contact from time to time and are watching each other carefully all the time, and the IE team at MS is going to be just as interested as Firefox in getting something cool out for the public.

      The problem with Microsoft is not bad coders. I'm sure they have some, but I bet the percentage is no different from other companies. The problem is when upper management starts making coding decisions based on shareholders' concerns, or when marketing starts making standards decisions and passing them down to coders. One of the friends at MS said that pretty much all the coders he knows would much rather be working with accepted standards instead of hackneyed MS pseudo-standards.

      Anyhow, I agree completely that this was a classy move. I would still have some marketing intern taste it before the whole team digs in (lest today be remembered as the day Firefox development froze forever at 2.0!), but I think most in-the-trenches coders would be happy to pat a rival on the back for something cool.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    7. Re:You have to admit by PenguinGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And why did it take 6 years to get a new version of IE? Because MS had "won" the browser war so they didn't have to upgrade anything..

      The joys of Microsoft and the campaign to control all of computing.

      --
      Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
    8. Re:You have to admit by EggyToast · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yeah, exactly. A good programmer will be able to write whatever code they're told to write. To them, it's not a question of whether it presents good UI guidelines or doesn't conform to the OS; they make it work with the guidelines provided. If they're not hearing any problems, they're going to assume they're doing a good job.

      It's the managers and designers who are deciding what things will look like and how functionality will work. The managers for Word will say "We need to have this integrated into IE." The programmers aren't the ones to say "That's stupid; no one's going to use that." That's the manager's responsibility to understand what projects are important and which ones should go back to the drawing board.

      And when you hear conflicting things from management, it just makes you want to do what you're told, rather than try to figure out "which way is right" on such a subjective decision.

    9. Re:You have to admit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      why in the world would they want to do that?

      To make a living.

      I hope this message reaches you all the way up in your tower.

    10. Re:You have to admit by Miseph · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Indeed. It often strikes me that many of our colleagues in geekdom have a tendncy to get quite wrapped up in what employees of certain companies (Microsoft, Symantec, SCO, etc.) are or aren't doing, and the relative ethicality of those actions and inactions. So wrapped up, in fact, that they seemingly forget that those employee's are people too, real ones, with bills, and lives, and stomachs, and that given the choice between doing something we dislike and eviction, most people are going to suck it up and put food on their tables. When you're ready to give full employment with equal pay and benefits to what they make now, then go ahead and tell us that they should all quit working for Microsoft because you don't like their business practices... until then, you're just blowing smoke. Too bad the parent felt he had to post AC. Good thing I'm so damned apathetic.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  8. The link by Klaidas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Shouldn't it be http://fredericiana.com/2006/10/24/from-redmond-wi th-love/ ?

    1. Re:The link by Evro · · Score: 4, Informative

      Looks like it should have really been http://www.flickr.com/photos/jollyjake/278562314/ - their server is apparently better equipped to handle the load.

      --
      rooooar
  9. Yum, Cake by GiggidyGiggidy · · Score: 5, Funny

    When the cake was opened, the Firefox team found it was not quiet finished and full of bugs.

    1. Re:Yum, Cake by StevoJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      and it only worked with one particular fork

      --
      That didn't really make sense. But I'm going to post it anyway.
    2. Re:Yum, Cake by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Funny

      "When the cake was opened, the Firefox team found it was not quiet finished and full of bugs."

      The FireFox team decided to return the favor and make them a cake to congratulate them on their recent release of Internet Explorer 7. It is expected to be completed in about four years and have some of the same details in the icing that Opera's cake had already.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    3. Re:Yum, Cake by Chris_Jefferson · · Score: 5, Funny

      The firefox team sent back a plain sponge with a note saying "If you would perfer a more exciting cake, there are a large number of extensions you can get."

      --
      Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
    4. Re:Yum, Cake by Epeeist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Unfortunately the cake they sent had red icing in a large square over the top of it with a black and yellow stripe and a few other bits of coloured icing scattered here and there.

      The cake itself was pretty acid too.

  10. Of course it wasn't poisoned by roystgnr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If it wasn't for the Firefox team, we'd all still be stuck with IE6 and the Internet Explorer team would have had to look for new jobs.

    1. Re:Of course it wasn't poisoned by IdahoEv · · Score: 4, Funny

      The best comment I heard was "Yeah, but did the IE team include the recipe?"

      --
      I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
  11. New cake; old ingredients by spookymonster · · Score: 5, Funny

    While the IE team touted the cake as 'new and innovative', after further investigation, the Firefox team discovered that Microsoft had used ingredients that originally appeared in Mozilla cakes several years earlier.

    --
    - Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
  12. It takes time.. Give it another year or two by iOsiris · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then the FF team will slowly start disappearing from mysterious causes

  13. And she said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Let them eat cake."

  14. Happy to have a job again! by EggyToast · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember, Microsoft disbanded the IE team shortly after 6 was released. The IE team sends a cake not just for a "birthday," but as thanks for giving them jobs!

    1. Re:Happy to have a job again! by onion2k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They still had jobs, just not working on IE. You don't get rid of developers just because the project finishes. Similarly, you don't keep a team together when they've got nothing to do. That would be a waste of some valuable assets. They'd just gone to other parts of Microsoft.

      --
      http://twitter.com/onion2k
  15. Talk about a much-improved quote.. by T-Ranger · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Explorer team also left a greeting card with the picture of a grumpy baby with the note: ``It's just not fair. Good people shouldn't have to feel bad. Best wishes, the IE team.'' [an error occurred while processing this directive] A helium-filled balloon taped to the logo reads, ``We love you.'' How history changes in 9 years.

  16. I would do the same by javilon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Should mozilla not exist, there would be no IE7 team. The IE7 team must be glad that mozilla keeps releasing new versions so they can keep their jobs. Without competitive pressure M$ left 5 years pass without a IE release.

    --


    When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
  17. giving back by jmyers · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who says Microsoft does not give back to the open source community?

    1. Re:giving back by Reverend528 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Unfortunately, the license forbids the firefox team from redistributing the cake.

      --
      Badass Resumes
    2. Re:giving back by dominator · · Score: 5, Funny

      Like it or not, they'll be distributing "derivative works" of the cake in the next few hours...

      *ducks*

    3. Re:giving back by lostboy2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heh. Doesn't that qualify as reverse engineering?

    4. Re:giving back by numbsafari · · Score: 3, Funny

      Only if they've been drinking heavily or have the flu.

  18. I was hoping Firefox 2.0 would bring change. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been trying to use Firefox 2.0 for the past few days. I never got around to using any of the release candidates, but I had kept reading that there were a lot of improvements and that it was going to be a great release.

    That's not what I've found. The memory consumption issues of Firefox 1.5.x have still not been dealt with. The Firefox process I'm using right now has been running since yesterday afternoon. Using the Task Manager, I can see that Firefox is taking up 593 MB of RAM. I've heard that this can be caused by bad extensions, so I didn't install any. Furthermore, I heard that Firefox's caching sometimes uses a lot of memory, so I completely disabled it.

    I've also tried IE7, and I've been really pleased. They've gotten their act together and their product works very well. I've been using Firefox 1.0.x for a long time now, but I think I might just switch to IE7. I was hoping that I could take the Firefox 2.0 route, but based on my experiences so far, that won't be happening.

    I hope the Firefox developers enjoy the cake the IE7 team sent them. They should eat it, and then get to work on fixing Firefox for 3.0. I'm hoping Firefox 3.0 finally gets around to lowering the memory consumption to a reasonable level.

    1. Re:I was hoping Firefox 2.0 would bring change. by arevos · · Score: 4, Interesting
      That's not what I've found. The memory consumption issues of Firefox 1.5.x have still not been dealt with. The Firefox process I'm using right now has been running since yesterday afternoon. Using the Task Manager, I can see that Firefox is taking up 593 MB of RAM. I've heard that this can be caused by bad extensions, so I didn't install any. Furthermore, I heard that Firefox's caching sometimes uses a lot of memory, so I completely disabled it.

      I'm always intrigued by these comments. There's barely a time at work when a Firefox window isn't open in the background, I have numerous extensions installed, and having over two dozen tabs open is not particularly unusual for me; however, Firefox has never even come close to using up that much RAM on any machine I've worked on, even when I have that amount of memory to spare. Even the huge pages the new Slashdot comment system produces doesn't raise my RAM usage very far over the 100M mark, and the majority of that is likely caching.

      I wonder why Firefox seems to use up so much memory for some people, whilst others get away with relatively little. Did you have any plugins installed that might have been the cause of this problem?

    2. Re:I was hoping Firefox 2.0 would bring change. by dkasak · · Score: 2, Informative

      I really don't get it. I've *never* had problems with Firefox memory usage (I started using it a few versions prior to 1.0; I can't remember which), be it on Linux or Windows. I'm currently using the final release of Firefox 2.0 with 15 extensions installed (including one listed as a problematic extension - IETab, for sites which impose restrictions on browsers) and a couple of Java applets opened in separate tabs. The process has been running for 4 days now, during which I had opened over a 100 tabs, with about 20 tabs being the simultaneous maximum. The current memory usage of Firefox is 82,072 KB, with the peak memory usage being 91,042 KB.

      This is a serious matter that needs discussing in order to isolate the reasons for the enormous memory usage some people seem to generate. As it's extremely unlikely that everyone is lying about this (and I'm not either), there's obviously a quite concrete reason why this happens. I find it very surprising that no one has been able to clearly outline it. It would be really great if we could figure out what exactly is going on so it can be fixed once and for all.

  19. What they didn't tell you... by Aqua_boy17 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Developers later found that they were unable to open the box containing the cake. When attempting to do so, they kept getting a message from WGA telling them that it was attempting to verify that theirs was in fact a Genuine Windows Cake, then their connection to the server would time out.

    --
    What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
  20. Icing on the cake... by Capt+James+McCarthy · · Score: 5, Funny

    reads "Thank You for tabbed browsing."

    --
    There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
    1. Re:Icing on the cake... by Zigg · · Score: 2, Funny

      "...to Opera."

    2. Re:Icing on the cake... by gordo3000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      haven't there been entire 200 comment discussions about who first came up wtih tabbed browsing? I'm sure, in the end, we will all find out it was actually Al Gore

  21. Secret Ingredients by organgtool · · Score: 2, Funny
    P.S.: No, it was not poisoned

    However, it did contain the pubes of every person on the IE team. The Firefox team plans on retaliating by baking a cake using the dismembered appendages of family members of the IE team. You can thank South Park for that grisly idea. :)
  22. Give Me A Break... by beringreenbear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For a change, Microsoft's IE team was showing a bit of class and acknowledging that without the competition and innovation from Mozilla Firefox, there (probably) wouldn't have been an IE 7 project. It also hints that there might be some subtle changes in Microsoft's old Cult of Bill approach. At the end of the day, software developers are just people, and political football aside, there really is no reason for animosity. Kudos to Microsoft's IE 7 team for being good sports.

  23. Maybe It's Just a Gift? by Secret+Agent+Man · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe while us users squabble in our own browser war, the development teams actually don't care all that much. Maybe they truly are just glad of how everyone is advancing (as opposed to just trying to one-up each other). I'm not saying that everyone in both companies feel that way, but instead of reading stuff into this surprise present, maybe it was just a good gesture.

  24. Overheard on IRC by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 4, Funny

    "But did they include the recipe?"

  25. Need more details by Linker3000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Was the icing #FF6666, #6600FF or something else?

    Was there a nice #FF0000 cherry on the top?

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
    1. Re:Need more details by lostboy2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, it probably wasn't a cake.

  26. Satan's birthday party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Was it a Ferrari cake, or an Acura cake?

  27. Microsoft lives out an episode of The Simpsons by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 5, Funny

    P.S.: No, it was not poisoned

    Montgomery C. Gates: Look at them stuffing their faces, never knowing they're getting closer to the poisoned part of the cake... There IS poison in the cake, right?
    Smithers Balmer: Uh, no sir, our lawyers said that's considered murder.
    Montgomery C. Gates: Damn their oily hides!

  28. Re:Thanks for the ideas by le0p · · Score: 3, Funny

    So I guess Firefox is just going to forward the cake to Opera then?

    --
    "I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
  29. Big Black E? by Diamon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seems even the IE team knows that IE is dead.

    As for the ex-lax, bugs, pubes in the cake of course none of that is true. Those things would only be possible if someone at Microsoft actually made the cake, and that's not how MS does things. They knew they couldn't make a good cake so they just went out and bought a cake from someone who already knew how to make one and then stuck their logo on it and called it theirs.

  30. And being the nerds they are... by krell · · Score: 4, Funny

    ""The Microsoft Internet Explorer Team sent the Firefox team a cake for the release of Firefox 2!"

    And being the nerds they are, it was baked into the shape of Counselor Troi. The Firefox nerds, now trendy Galactica fans, merely laughed at the nerds who were so out of it as to still love "Star Trek".

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  31. Re:Obligatory comment by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Funny

    the real obligatory comment is:

    Nice cake...but what's with all the bugs? ;-)


    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  32. Non-slashdotted picture by jsoderba · · Score: 5, Informative

    The picture is hosted on flickr.

  33. A cake? by zeromorph · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shouldn't it have been cookies?

    Ok, maybe they were afraid they don't accept cookies.

    --
    "Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
  34. Cake, or a free trip to Australia? by spookymonster · · Score: 3, Funny

    I heard Microsoft was originally going to book the entire Firefox dev team on Oceanic flight 815....

    --
    - Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
    1. Re:Cake, or a free trip to Australia? by bloobloo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cakes on a Plane?

  35. It's only right. . . by Iridium_Hack · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After all, Firefox has probably caused more updates and work on IE than anything else. Those IE developers are probably quite thankful seeing as their budget increased quite a bit, partially because there is now some decent competition on the field.

  36. Firefox team sends IE a cake: by DrugCheese · · Score: 2, Funny

    Congratulations on fixing Internet Explorer 3!

    --
    *DrugCheese rants*
  37. Of Course They Sent A Cake by fuzznutz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are grateful to the Firefox team for doing all their R&D for them.

  38. CAKE OR DEATH! by TerranFury · · Score: 2, Funny

    We know the how the Firefox team answered that question.

    When Microsoft runs out of cake, the Opera team will have to politely ask for the chicken.

    1. Re:CAKE OR DEATH! by Ekhymosis · · Score: 2, Informative

      For those who didn't get the reference, it's from Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill comedy. Brilliant he is.

      --
      Fighting over religion is like seeing whose imaginary friend is best.
  39. But the question is... by Yvanhoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... did they accept the cookie ?

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    1. Re:But the question is... by stunt_penguin · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well since it was free...... as in cake I guess they did :D

      --
      When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
  40. Microsoft Strikes Again by dahwang · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just as they did with the Nintendo Wii and Xbox360, Microsoft is getting free publicity.

    With Firefox just releasing their new version, it has eclipsed the launch of IE7. By sending a cake, which is sure to getting bloggers and slashdot to post, Microsoft directs the attention back on them. Also, it's good publicity. But we all know, no publicity is bad publicity.

    SLASHDOTTERS YOU TOOK THE BAIT!

  41. Re:Obligatory comment by andphi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bugs are a good source of protein. They're features!

  42. Perhaps this is common. by LoudMusic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lots of comments about how the IE team is happy to be empoyed, a friendly gesture, poking fun, etc etc. But I think this sort of thing is more common place than most of us imagine. Big companies that spend a lot of their time working on similar products follow eachother's progress very closely and are aware of the same difficulties they're both having. They may not be on the same team, but they're fighting the same battle. Even physical wartime battles have been known to halt to celebrate a common holiday, together.

    I know that Terminix (a client of my company) congratulated Orkin (the evil competitor) on one of their recent anniversaries. It's a way of saying "We know what you're up against, and we know it kinda sucks. Hang in there."

    My wife and I watched an episode of Dharma & Greg last night (TiVo, don't know the air date) where they're entering a dancing competition. Dharma's parents were against it claiming competition makes people mean and greedy. I see that a lot in society, and it doesn't have to be that way. Competition is to make us better individuals. Without competition we'd never progress to the next level. And because of that we should thank our competitors for putting up a good measure of excellence.

    Even in sports like track and cross country where you can effectively compete against yourself, where's the push to keep getting a faster mile time, higher polevault, or longer long jump if you have nothing to compare it against? At the end of high school track meets I remember walking around and shaking the hands of everyone I competed with. If it weren't for them I wouldn't have been "in the top three" regularly. I'd have just been a dude running crappy lap times on the weekend.

    Here's to competition! The evolver of our modern society. Thank your competitors, for they are what bring us a better life.

    --
    No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
  43. If I were the FF Team... by Siberwulf · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would have sent a cake back to the IE team. Except I would have included the recipe on exactly how the cake was made along with it.

  44. That they know of anyway. by SydShamino · · Score: 5, Funny

    It secretly contained chopped-up bits of the IE source code. Having ingested it, the entire Firefox team is now legally disqualified from working on open source competitors.

    Or something like that. It's early still.

    --
    It doesn't hurt to be nice.
  45. The cake is a lie!!!!! by Pharmboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Quick, before someone sees me! Go to my secret website and type LOGIN. Then use my login, Pharmboy. My password is "portal" (without the quotes). At the prompt, type "thecakeisalie" at the prompt without the quotes to activate the hidden camera inside Microsoft! The cake is a lie and this proves it!!!1!

    ;)

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  46. Figures It Would Be A Cake... by tds67 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...because Bill Gates fears having pies around him.

  47. Re:Leaky extensions by bunratty · · Score: 2, Informative
    Adblock .5
    Adblock is one of the most infamous of all the memory hogging extensions. Update to Adblock 0.5.3.042 or later, or use version 0.7.0.2 or later of Adblock Plus.
    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  48. actually from microsoft? by Loconut1389 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anyone actually verified that the cake is in fact from Microsoft?

    I can hear the phones ringing....

    Mozilla secretary: Mozilla- home of Firefox and Thunderbird, how many I help you?
    Microsoft secretary: This is Ursula from Microsoft's browsers division- we didn't send a cake...
    *phone drops*
    ****DON'T EAT THE CAKE!****

    Or perhaps upon closer inspection, there were flakes of white powder on the bottom of the cardboard...

    I'd be wary of food items being dropped off anonymously.

    Did an IE rep physically hand over the cake and show real ID?

  49. What I want to know is... by Kelson · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did Opera send them a singing telegram?

  50. Mozilla sent a cake to the Debian team. by LeedsSideStreets · · Score: 2, Funny

    They scraped the logo off and replaced it before they ate it.

  51. Re:EULA under the cake by Psykechan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Underneath the cake is the EULA that starts with:

    By consuming this cake, you agree to the following terms in the cake end user license agreement (EULA)...

  52. And when the Firefox team was sleeping.. by Sloosh13 · · Score: 2, Funny

    thousands of frosted miniature Microsoft employees came streaming out of the cake and took the office...

  53. Class by dr00g911 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This might be the classiest thing I've ever heard of MS doing. No in-joke, no sarcasm, here's your non-pretentious cake, you deserved it.

    It's how the rest of the world works. Healthy businesses acknowledge competition and inspiration. Their workers even go out for drinks with rivals now and again. $giantcorporateentity != $employee and all that.

    I'm not exactly heralding the coming of a kinder, gentler MS that consistently behaves like a grownup, but baby steps like this are the beginnings of a change in corporate culture and should be encouraged.

    Props to the IE 7 team, you guys showed some serious class and also delivered a great upgrade (minus a few bizarre interface choices) recently.

    Now who do I have to send a cake to to get my menus back in IE without hitting alt?

    I kid!

    (mostly)

  54. Re:CARBOS FTW by mikek3332002 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think the IE team just appreciates the competition.Having a browser war really does drive innovation.


    Probably they sent it as thanks because they could code something other then security holes/fixes.