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New Yorker Accidentally Gets $1M WebTV Prototype
An anonymous reader sent us to a story that chats about a shipping error causing a million dollar WebTV prototype to get shipped to a NY Bank employee. The creepy part is that the NYPD apparently tracked the package down. I guess I should be thankful the HPD isn't knocking on my door asking about that crate of Transmeta CPUs that somehow got shipped here by mistake last week.
It is referring to what you are talking about in this statement, but WHY did the NYPD have to retrieve the package? Who payed for this? The taxpayers of New York? If so, that is DEFINATELY a crime. And don't tell me "oh you think its a crime just because it is micros~1" because if redhat were to the same thing and I were a tax payer in New York, I would be just as angry.
Sosumi. just kidding. DONT!
Sounds like a legitimate business transaction. I might as well say, "Oh did I sell that Picasso at the garage sale for 3 bucks? It's worth a lot more, I'm gonna have the cops go get it back for me." Sorry, doesn't work that way. MS screwed up. They should suffer the consequences. The guy paid for the unit FAIR AND SQUARE. It's his. MS should offer to buy it back for a few hundred thou or even the fill mil... the guy still doesn't HAVE TO sell, though.
Ok, so it's not entirely on topic, but it's pretty funny.
A couple of forgetful acquaintances of mine would reluctantly disagree with that statement...
Lovely, almost makes you wish that "Fair" was a possible moderation option
If anyone bothers to read the comments of the story, it might be true that it's just an urban legend.
>
...
e xtsteps/diagnose.htm
Diagnose Your Digital Nervous System
The list of 20 questions below--taken from Microsoft CEO Bill Gates's new book Business @ The Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System--
http://www.microsoft.com/DigitalNervousSystem/n
;-).
My parents had a Dodge Aspen with a prototype carb. They didn't want it back and it was not repariable at all. It turned out to be a real mess.
If they couldn't replace it for under $1000 they I gess they do hardware the same way they do software. Prototype hardware tends to have problems leaking blue smoke. Problems between poor visa in the ground plane, 3V and 5V mixed parts and parts in the wrong way (with most surface mount parts there are heaps of ways to put them on wrong). I would be supprised if they didn't have at least 10 (or more like 100) of the PC boards already. Same with custom parts. Software is a matter of another flash rom. But it is M$ where talking about so it could be the only one. I wonder if the NYPD will press charges about false police reports or did they make a deal for N copies of office????
heres my email to john about this situation so he can print it with the really cool column hes gonna write. (Im not real smert so i cant find his email address)
Hey John!
Yrr sure right, it's reel bad that microsoft can imfluence the government this way. Heck if i had lots of money like that evil billy i sur wouldnt try telling the police to find a verry expensive prototype of somethin i lost no i wouldnt. I also agree wit ya that microsoft is to big and is bad for us all because theyr bad people and big companys are bad for us because theyr bad and stuff. Oh one more thing i wanted to tell you that i think it would be bad if some high school nerds that play doom and quake and stuff went and worked for microsoft because then microsoft would be relly bad and try to kill people but it wouldnt be our fault it would be because of all those bad teachers that dont like nerds that play doom and think that theyre all murderers and stuff. I almost forgot i gotta say another thing here. thanks a lot for those cool hellmouth articles thet ya rote for us here at slashdot they were relly cool and i learned a lot about how bad people are now and how its the fault of those bad teachers that dont like us nerds because we play quake and doom and stuff.
your friend,
dale.
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Federal law states that anything you get in the mail, not due to fraud, you can keep. Period. No police code allows them to do that, and the police know it. Thus, this is a b@ullsh!t story.
At first read, this whole story sounds like an Urban Legend. Million-dollar piece of equipment turns up in NYC, so NYC's Finest tracks it down, breaks down the door & takes it back. They even manage to track it down to recipient's father's apartment, where they brought the missing equipment only a few moments before.
;-)
The only thing that kept me from entirely dismissing this story was the fact they had a name for the recipient. And that fact made me wonder what the WHOLE story was.
And now that RedX has uncovered it, & shared the link to it with us, case closed.
Boy, what Urban Legend will next appear about Microsoft? Will we hear about a certain video tape BillG & his wife made turning up at a Redmond Blockbuster? Perhaps it will recount how the Mrs brought Billg to, uh, a successful compile by reciting the SAT scores of female Microsoft employees?
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
And that's why they needed the police in this case - not to ensure that they got back the $1M prototype, but to make sure the guy took delivery of his WebTV system without incident.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
As for the presence of the cops, that's probably just standard procedure when valuable deliveries go astray. It's wildly inappropriate here, but think about what's usually involved in megadollar value shipments. It's not unreasonable for the cops to wonder if there's a connection between the carrier, the recepient, and the missing diamonds.
That's a reasonable hypothesis. The conspiracy theorizing about this is more than a little silly. The article doesn't even establish that it was Microsoft that called the police. It could just as easily have been UPS involving the police only because of the high value of the item and the risk of having someone try to intercept it for corporate espionage or whatever. As for no crime having been committed, dealing with criminals isn't the only thing police do. They are sometimes present only to prevent trouble. No one said they were there to arrest anyone, or that they entered illegally, or did anything else improper. It seems that some folks have already decided that anything involving MS or police MUST be a conspiracy, and search for anything that can support that view no matter how far fetched.
.If some other more suspicious info is revealed, I might change my mind. But given only the info in the article, any suspicion of wrong doing is unfounded, and the tail end of the article is just moronic.
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Peace,
vilvoy
Coincidence? I think not. Sounds like M$ are "innovating" their way into a sweeter deal.
The guy's father's name was Samuel Posner and he lived in New York not Chicago. You should really do some rudimentay research before inventing implausible conspiracy theories.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Where I work we needed to get some as-yet-unreleased components for an important hardware project. The manufacturer agreed to loan us prototype hardware. I thought this was strange, but it turns out that it's not leagal to sell prototypes, at least in that case (pneumatic pressure regulators). Is this the situation in other industries as well?
Are you for real? The article quotes at least three people: Posner, a named NYPD spokesman and a named MS spokesperson. Granted, the NY Times occasionlly makes a factual error, but they do not make up stories from whole cloth.
Yes, some people celebrate Hannukah by exchanging presents. I've known women who have been confined to bed for weeks before delivery. There are many reasons why. There are also reasons why ordinary people are leery of opening their door to the police. I am also quite willing to believe that MS told the NYPD that it was worth $1 million in order to recover it whether or not you accept that valution.
A little healthy skepticism is a good thing, just don't overdo it.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
*sigh*
The law the first poster cited limit the enforceability of certain types of contracts *only*. IIRC, these laws were prompted, in large part, by banks sending unsolicited *credit cards* back when credit cards were rare and many people didn't realize the consequences of using that little piece of plastic. (At least when debit cards were introduced people knew that they had to pay the bill *sometime*, although many people didn't realize just how quickly that bill came due.)
To say there were a lot of problems is putting it mildly. It got so bad that the government eventually had to go in and wipe the slate clean by declaring all such contracts unenforceable. A secondary effect was wiping out responsibility for unsolicited merchandise, but few people would equate a $5 tie and a $1000 VISA bill.
As to your points, the law (and our society) recognizes that mistakes happen *and it's incumbent upon each of us to minimize the damages*. This obligation isn't unlimited, but it is proportional to both the value and your ability to undo the damage. You might have a hard time finding a law that states this explicitly, but you'll have a much harder time finding a prosecutor, judge and jury that have even a sliver of compassion for your argument.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Even more interesting, as the author noted, was how Micros~1 managed to get the NYPD to knock on this guy's door to retreive the package even 'though no crime was committed. Do they really have that much clout? God help us all if so :)
The news report I read (and let us keep in mind that the above-linked article is not a news report) said that fould play *was* suspected, that someone may have deliberately relabeled the box in order to steal it. Even if they have eliminated that possibliltiy now, it was clearly a possibility at the time, and thus the involvement of the NYPD in securing what might have been stolen property was entirely proper. Of course, one could suppose that MS knew from the beginning that there was no crime involved, and made it appear that a crime was involved in order to get the NYPD's help, but there's no indication of inappropriate behavior on the NYPD's end. In other words, they don't have to definitively establish that a crime was committed before they start helping recover the missing item- they are, after all, an investigative body as well as a law-enforcement organization.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
How well does it survive decelleration trauma? Say, from a 5 story building. Anyone wanna do the math?
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
This sounds like a modern day recasting of the old urban legend--fancy new prototype.
Yeah, but wouldn't it be the legendary "fast and stable Windows NT" from the Rare Glitch Project?
Jay (=
Er, no. Largest software company, maybe. IBM was bigger, last I heard.
Female Prison Rape in NY
Yeah, but there are lots of big petroleum and food companies, but only one big software company. Plus, you could argue that you can count all of the Microsoft lapdog companies (probably about 33-50% of "independent" software houses) in the Microsoft column. Fortunately for us, the petroleum monopoly was broken up. We'll have to see what happens with the software monopoly.
Do we have any true confirmation, or is this just more word of mouth stuff? I mean, there are a lot of more plausible sounding urban legends on this site.
Let's analyse this: Big corporation X, which many people don't understand, and has been recently confirmed to have been doing evil things, has an employee, who accidently sends package Y, which is worth 1,000,000 dollars. This person, Z, who is a complete innocent just trying to get his fair share from company X is shocked/scared/suprised as company X brings in the [Mafia|Police|Military] to get back its 1,000,000 dollars package. Lesson to be learned: really don't trust those large corporations, because they're all evil and secretly control the government.
" Has the NYPD now been reduced to foot soldiers that serve to correct simple clerical errors on behalf of corporate America? "
I don't know. I'd want a signed letter, compelete with a few forms of ID, from this Scott Posner fellow before I'd believe any of this in the slightest. This is an NT security rag^H^H^Hmag...
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Possibly, but i'd suspect that the shipping label was printed wrong. ie, end user goof-up. Which I doubt they'd be running OS/2. Tom
OK, maybe this is a non-anti-Microsoft post. Should be interesting.
Most people seem to be taking issue with the fact that the NYPD was called in to track down the prototype. This seemed like a Bad Thing/Big Brother/Corporation-Gov't conspiracy at first, I must admit.
But now that I've been thinking about it, maybe we're all succuming to a knee-jerk reaction here. Suppose Ford "accidentally" shipped their 2001 concept car prototype to Joe Bob in Topeka.
After the initial panic attack at Ford Corporate settled down, they'd look for the absolute fastest way to get that thing out of the open. Call the police, explain the situation. Then call the police commissioner, explain the situation. Then call the mayor, explain the situation.
In short, I think the inherent value of the box (well, its value to Microsoft) may justify the use of the police. As someone else posted, it isn't fair the the NY taxpayers picked up the tab, but those are the breaks. Capitalism sucks, but it's better than anything else.
--Mid
Just think, MS could find some local bankrupt gov't like Orange County California and take over local gov't services in exchange for fully funding their continued operation. MS would then control the police, etc. Hmmm OCP? Orange County Police? There's just gotta be something to that I'm missing here...
UPS uses OS/2 Warp heavily for clients and servers. Although they are evaluating NT solutions to further fux up their operations.
He probably had no idea it was a prototype, and his dad probably couln't have cared any less one way or the other.
Well, the law would, naturally, vary from state to state. There is an important (to me) difference between A sending B a package with a bill when there has been no dealing, and A sending B a package when there has been dealing, and it is misdelivered to C. In the first case, A intended B to get the thing, while in the second, it was a mistake.
There have been cases where electronic fund transfers have gone wrong, and people had to give the money back.
I would apply the law regarding lost property. The common law was that the a finder could keep lost property unless the true owner showed up. The interesting other part was that the owner of the location got to keep misplaced property unless the true owner showed up. How do you know the difference? (I am not making the following up, I am not that funny.) YOU ASSESS THE STATE OF MIND OF THE (ABSENT) PERSON WHO LOST/MISLAID THE PROPERTY. (DOH!) Regardless, many states require good faith efforts to find the true owner and return the property.
Modern statutes require you to take the property to a place like the police station, and leave it there for a period of time. If nobody claims it, it's yours.
With unique property like the prototype, you have to worry about good faith purchasers for value. Mind you, it is an incredible concept for a prototype, but more applicable to things like original artworks.
I mean really, don't you prefer a world where lost stuff gets returned rather than one where everyone is looking to lift everyone else's stuff?
I suspect we're not getting the full story; if this is a legit story, then I would have to say that one of the following must be true:
(a) The secretary who "accidentally" sent the prototype did so intentionally, and the person it was sent to was suspected of being in cahoots.
(c) The secretary intentionally sent the prototype to that address, and then forwarded the address to whomever she was secretly working for. They went and picked it up wearing NYPD uniforms.
(c) Microsoft got a discount on some NYPD costumes from a local custome shop.
(d) One helluva bribe must've changed hands.
Anyone have any other ideas..?
James
Did anyone cache the story? I cannot read the original story.
Is there any site that tends to see these stories and cache them before us raveous hordes descend from slashdot?
Who determins the value of this "prototype" certainly not an independant auditor. They come up with the value of it based off what they "think" it is worth. I would have to say that this is a bit to much for people to have to pay for the New York PD to retrieve a peice of EQ. no matter what the value based off the fact it was a mistake internal to MSs own operations. I mean if this thing was packaged and sitting around I'm sure that it is not the only one of it's kind and really that vital to the growth of the already giant MS. It's just a toy they misplaced and decided to go to the extremes to get it back. If I were a New Yorker I'd be wanting Microsoft to pay for the officers time and then a penalty for involving the police in what was obviously a non threatening civil matter.
Check out Tom Christiansen's fine posts, for example.
I think the people here are pretty "Open" minded. :-)
-Jordan Henderson
under certain situations if something like this
happens you can keep it.
its toally screwed up that the nypd would be
nvolved with this.
they are such stupid lazy asses.
Yea if it's sent by mistake, but reading all the coverage I think M/S were assuming it was sent out to someone on *purpose*, i.e. someone inside was sending trade secrets outside. Now if they had that view, then of course it's illegal.
I wouldn't expect it to go on ebay (but I'd love to see it) And from their point of view, it's simpler to keep someone from ever getting ahold of it than to go "Oops, that set-top box you are using is actually a prototype, even though it doesn't look special or any different than a working box. We want it back."
-Mr Spatula
i remain dubious over the assertion that this chain of events actually occurred. could anyone possibly confirm this with another source? preferably, a *reliable* source...
as far as them losing $1 million in R&D, i believe that if the merchandise had been shipped to a competitor (impossible since microsoft would've bought them out anyway) and that 'competitor' managed to reverse engineer the device to determine how it was created, then and only then would it have been a possibility. obviously some old guy is not about to sac bill gates and all he's worth by plugging in some new prototype webtv unit into the back of his television set.
*my 2 cents*
-raj jr
yeah, but we're talking here about what they *should* do, not what they actually do. it's not my fault ya'll damn yankees live in a city with prick police run by a fascist.
i That's fire department, not police
:)
Didn't you ever see Police Academy?
-k. ^-^ ^D
FWIW I agree with your point that its over-reacting to see this as some sort of evidence of evil forces at work.
/. is so full of the narrow-mindedness that you imply? Why is it that just because SOME of the louder voices here are narrow minded, do you narrow-mindedly assume that ALL or even MOST are?
/. are NOT narrow minded M$ bashers/linux flag wavers. I happen to use both Microsoft products AND linux, and I use the ones for what I feel is the best use for each. I don't preach my usage, or bash others' views. Yes, Slashdot can be linux-centric but its a mistake to think that everyone here shares the same viewpoint.
/. because I like the up-to-date news and the varying viewpoints, both good and bad. I don't always agree, and other times I agree wholeheartedly, and not just with those with whom I am politically, morally, OSedly, and Languagedly aligned, sometimes I disagree, but it makes me think deeper on the subject. That is why I come here, to stimulate my brain, and try to keep current with what's going on. I think that maybe you do to, or you wouldn't be showing your frustration with the admittedly narrow-minded approach of some of /.'s citizens.
But...
I noticed that you are being moderated UP not down. How could that be if
, >but who really needs positive karma in a microcosm full of minds that run the gamut from >"closed" to "empty
I mean you are here, are you in that range of minds or an open thinking mind? You are getting positive karma because you had something intelligent to say, but the sarcasm wasn't necessary, and frankly it detracts from your otherwise excellent statement.
I am not attacking you viewpoint, but I am criticizing your tone.
The fact is that many readers of
I would be willing to bet that amongst the many many readers/posters at Slashdot you will find every major OS, Programming language, and machine architecture represented and advocated, along with countless smaller ones.
I continue to read and post at
Don't drop yourself down to the level of the thoughtless posters that annoy you by shotgunning mud over the entire readership. Your insights show that you are above that.
Best,
Logos
We are agents of the free
I'll think I'll start posting my shopping list.
Lee Kai Wen
Lee_Kai_Wen@hotmail.com
An anonymous reader sent us to a story that chats about a shipping error causing a million dolar WebTV prototype
Does anyone know the exchange rate from dolar to dollars?
Let the flamage begin.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Well, it is hard to tell cluelessness from subtle irony sometimes. Just pass me another egg nog and I'll try to relay. Don't skimp on the rum. Cheers!
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
um, you can completely forget where you parked it.
or i can, at any rate.
Is anyone familiar enough with the New York penal code to determine why the police would personally go to this man's house for the "unit" (wink wink nudge nudge)?
I just want to know so I can accidentally send Gulianni some flowers and get the cops to go get them back for me.
I don't see any major news magazines reporting this. I don't see even any thing to back this up like a comment from WebTV or Microsoft or the people involved. How do we know that this web site didn't just post something they heard with no factual double checking as reporters are suppose to do. This is one of my main complaints about the internet is that anyone can make a web page and post any information they want, but it doesn't make it true.
Any confirmation to this story at all???
We can all have a great laugh of this, but I guess the real news is at the bottom of the article..
It was microsoft's fault, so they have to fix it. Did they pay NYPD for this, or did the people of New York pay for this..
I read slashdot for the articles.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu.faq/listing.cgi?se lection=question
Believed to be False:
Major firms/gov't suppress evidence of a super great product(car, light,etc.) ["The Economical Car" in TVH and CBA]
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I know this doesn't help me validity being anonymous, but I didn't want to bother logging in to post this. I cannot speak for the state of NY but in the state of MA where I live if something you did not order is shipped to your house you can keep it. No charge, no police, nada. SO if this unit was shipped in MA the person would both have the right to keep it and demand the correct unit. This law is in place so customers don't get scammed by companies trying to sell product using this method aka pay XYZ amount now, or if your not happy just ship it back (at your expense). Of course you can sign contracts with companys to change this (Look at the CD clubs for example.) but this man did not and probably had the right to keep it. Of course like the article mentioned why were the police involved, as there were no criminal charges . If you accidently mailed a X-mas gift to the wrong address you damn well would not get the police to help you retrieve it. I'll let you ponder that, but heres a hint read 1984 and understand what the government really is. Oh well, after that comment you'll probably write me off as a looney so I'll end it here. - Killjoy
If I had received it, I wouldn't want M$'s prototype either. Too big for a doorstop, too heavy for a bookend, and too dorky to use. But I wouldn't give it back, just to keep them worried ;-)
It would seem that a better solution might have been for MS to send an employee from a nearby office (they must have a New York office), explain the situation and then give him a new unit and perhaps a couple of free months for the hassle.
The again would YOU open your door to some stranger claiming to be from MS? and if you happened to be a gun nut... (er collector)
Since your UID is smaller than mine, I can only conclude that you're trolling. -s20451 (410424)
... and I'm hearing what youre saying. by "full of [closed and empty minds]" I didn't mean to imply everyone was stupid or closed minded - I meant full as in "this store is full of groceries"; obviously it's not FULL, but there certainly are a lot of groceries.
:D
likewise, by calling this story classic slashdot anti-microsoft conspiracy trash, I didn't mean everything on slashdot is trash, because it isnt. I just meant that there exists here a large amount of antimicrosoft conspiracy trash, and this is some of it.
I realize theres interesting stuff/people here, and obviously thats why I read here and post occasionally. I said what I said so that people would know that I'm against what I was replying to.
Personally I';m surprised I'm being moderated up; more proof that those who are smart enough to realize that what they are saying is inflammatory are smart enough to put some comment into their flames.
I dunno, critisize my tone if you like, I'm a big boy and I can take it. I just thought I'd clarify my tone because I think you think I'm (slightly) more of an ass than I actually am. heh.
best to you too, vin
Didn't the article mention that he hadn't even opened the package yet?
-BrentI must agree here. The officer probably politely explained the situation and requested the unit back. On the other hand, a MS lawyer probably would have accused you of living the wrong house and tried to prove it in court. In this case, I think I would've rather had a police officer come to me.
This sounds like a modern day recasting of the old urban legend--fancy new prototype. I can't follow the link right now (/. effect?) so I can't check the details, so I'm not asserting that this must be false. But you might want to flip your BS radar up on this one, until someone gets independent confirmation
Stevis
We've got two lives, one we're given, and the other one we make. --Mary Chapin Carpenter
What does the software has to do with the clerk putting the wrong piece of hardware in the wrong package?
Wouldn't it be scary if Microsoft actually cared about public perception and handled situations like this a little better from a PR standpoint?
One scenario could have been microsoft special agent (and bodyguards
==freq
"Tension is the great integrity" -- R. Buckminster Fuller
You too can have fun and make money at the same tiem by shipping out company property.
Seriously, there are real thefts attempted this way.
I disagree with the NYPD being involved, but I think there may have been a fear of a situation developing in which whoever recieved the package wanting to hang on to it, once the value was realized. A good majority of people who use WebTV units probably wouldn't know the difference, however.
The clerk who shipped it did not think he was shipping something worth $1M, he thought he was shipping something worth $300.
I don't know what's sadder, that "Windows Security News" printed this urban legend as the truth, or the people that believe it really happened.
:)
The original author is laughing right now, either because he fooled a lot of people, or nervously while saying to himself "I never should have believed that guy."
Why are Slashdot readers browsing that website anyway
ciao
David
You know, I was actually thinking about getting my parents a WebTV system for Christmas. I'm suddenly very glad I got them a DVD player instead. ;-)
i used to think everyone hated gates because he was greedy and a thief and quite possibly a tyrant bent on world domination.... i however had no idea that he has succeeded in controlling everything that is including metro police departments....good Lord the coming of the White is upon us all remember the face of your fathers Stand and be True.
The man in black walked into the desert and the gunslinger followed.
Next time you receive such a package, just forward it to any electronics firm in Asia. LOL
Idiot! Yo-yo Ma is a man, not a woman. God damn peon.
I don't agree, this is also not an issue of unsolicited goods, firstly this guy appears to have ordered WebTV box and a WebTV box was delivered. To all intensive purposes this guy got what he ordered; that the box was a prototype is immaterial to him.
If Microsoft wanted the box back it becomes a civil dispute not a criminal one. It's completely overkill to send the Police. IMB It's borderline Police harassment, combined this with the fact he's apparently a Banker, his honesty and integrity need to be beyond reproach, I think he's got a pretty good case for defamation of character. OTOH, he bough Microsoft so he probably got what he deserved:)
However the Police are not supposed to be corporate lackeys, they are here to protect people from crime, not enforcing questionable civil disputes. IMHO the Guy should sue, probably both the NYPD and Microsoft, he's certainly got a stronger case than moron's who don't know coffee is hot.
Troll my ass! What is this, from moderators who also can't freakin' spell? Sorry, it DOES make a difference, and it IS a legitimate criticism.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Except, of course, that Microsoft was not giving him a gift. Microsoft was selling him a product. Admittedly, there are still parallels. If I go to a restaurant and order a cup of coffee, and a waiter mistakenly places a fine steak dinner on my table, am I legally entitled to that fine steak dinner? If I am trying to buy a hot dog from a friendly hot dog vendor, and as I hand him my $20 bill, a strong gust of wind blows it into the hat of a nearby performance artist, is it now his $20 bill?
The idea is that you don't own something just because it was delivered to your house. You own something because its ownership was transfered to you. If you hand me an item, that does not necessarily mean it is a gift. I've valet parked my car quite a bit, and every time I've gotten it back. I've handed a $20 bill to a guy to pay for a $.33 candy bar once, and he handed me back more than $19! I didn't even have to call the cops.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
>>and his wife, who is seven months pregnant and >>confined to bed, "
>
>Why on Earth is a seven month pregnant woman >confined to bed? 6 months is when it starts to >show, and the women are quite capable of moving >under their own power even 9 months pregnant and >overdue.
Previous history of loss is one reason. Also, being at high risk of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure, twins, family history) may cause some physicians to play it safe. That's what happened when my wife had to stop working at 6 months.
All worked out for the best: We have 2 2 month old boys now.
You definetly make a point, but..
The guy that the box was shipped to had nothing to do with the mishap. If he was, they'd be pressing charges.
Even if he was involved, MS shouldn't be allowed to call the cops and get action on a whim. He didn't do anything, he shouldn't have the cops at his house. UPS maybe, but not the cops.
Yeah, you can. Ship it accidentally to some of the other posters on this list, then try to get it back. Indeed, based on some comments, if you drive it on a city street, and the city decides to retain ownership, they can.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
Did you really believe I was serious, or am I being foolish believing that you are? Yeah, Microsoft really is going to bribe a high profile judge with a prototype WebTV device to try and gain favour in the upcoming negotiations. It sounds more like a story you would read in The Onion.
My question is why NYPD even got involved. If NYPD took back the prototype with force without the permission of the bank clerk then that would be illegal. If you receive an item through the mail by mistake your are NOT obligated to give it back and it is NOT illegal for you to keep it.
I've heard about this law (and I read all of the sub-threads here clarifying it) regarding mail-order purchases, but what about direct purchases in a store?
Several years ago, I purchased a video card in a store in Silicon Valley. It looked like what I purchased, but in fact, had much higher spec memory than it the product that I meant to purchase (and thus was meant to have been sold at a much higher price). The store called me several days later, explained the mix up and asked me to return the item in exchange for the lower spec item that I meant to purchase. I did, of course, return it and received the slower cheaper version, but I often wondered if I needed to.
If you purchase something in a store, leave the store, and they find out that they sold you a more expensive item at a much lower price, are you obligated to return it if they request you to?
Usually they inflate the costs of these things if they're trying to get damages from someone (the word "E911" comes to mind). I'd be surprised if they weren't counting a large percentage of the R&D costs in that prototype.
I'm Sorry sir, I opened the package and played with it. It seems that all I got was a blue screen reading GPF at the top. So I filled it with dirt and am using it as a flowerpot on the patio.
;)
s/he would have gotten as much info about it before having to turn it back in - like get lots of close up shots of the circuit boards, ROM dumps, case design, pull the ASIC's, (chips? what chips??) etc. just in case a potential competitor is, ahem, interested ($$). A rare opportunity.
Boojum
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
While the R&D cost could easily be $1M, the value of the actual unit itself is hardly more than a few thousand - the cost of a small PCB run or wire-wrap prototype. I would moderate this article as "Bullshit". Oh, I forgot, we can't moderate articles.. :-(
IANAL, but read the law you cite. That law does *not* say you can keep everything you receive in the mail (or via some other delivery service); it simply says that implied contracts where you "indicate consent" by accepting your mail are unenforceable and you are under no obligation to either pay the invoice or return the merchandise at your own expense. It's the same logic used to overturn the other notorious unilateral implied contracts - "shrinkwrap" software license.
You *can* be required to return the merchandise at the shipper's expense.
You *can* be required to return misdelivered merchandise to the delivery agent, so they can complete delivery.
But most importantly, this law doesn't apply because it wasn't invoiced merchandise and this individual was not the intended recepient.
As for the presence of the cops, that's probably just standard procedure when valuable deliveries go astray. It's wildly inappropriate here, but think about what's usually involved in megadollar value shipments. It's not unreasonable for the cops to wonder if there's a connection between the carrier, the recepient, and the missing diamonds.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Am I the only one who is suprised that someone is shipping something worth "a million dollars" by UPS? Either it's not really worth that much (in which case M$ probably misrepresented themselves to the NYPD) or the guy who sent it to the mail room rather than buying it a seat on a plane and escorting it personally should be fired forthwith.
New York City Postal Department
You never, ever, ever want to mess with a US Postal Service Inspector. They can make your live a living hell
-----Transmission Complete----- If you want to email me...Don't
Seems like this could turn out to be a great move for the USoA. Although a little cynical, I think that you have tapped a nerve that many feel is true...big brother USA and MS.
MAL
Actually I would suspect that the labels where printed just fine but that the clerk put the wrong label on the wrong package, but that must of course be too simple and then you guys wouldn't be able to blame Windows right?
I don't think the fact that the NYPD was called is such a big deal. About 3 months ago I read a story in the paper. Famous chellist Yo-Yo Ma left her 3000000 stradivarius chello in the back of a cab and the NYPD were called to help track it down. I think the value of the object lost/misplaced means the police can get involved.
That's true, there's a story about it here. (BTW, Yo-Yo Ma is a he)
I guess it isn't such a big deal that the NYPD was called in, considering the supposed cost of the prototype. Now whether the prototype was really worth $1,000,000 is another story. The parts were probably worth less than $1000. Once MS assembled them, they were probably worth about $3.58. MS is no doubt including their R&D costs, but if the prototype was lost, the R&D would not have been lost with it.
Uh... yeah. Can you cite that law? Or is this like that whole, "No, really, you _can_ claim yourself as a dependent! My brother, the CPA, told me so!" argument I was in last week?
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
Depends on if you measure by market cap or by revenues.
Microsoft wins on market cap, but IBM wins on revenues.
chris
Surfing the net and other cliches...
Surfing the net and other cliches...
(Who Meta-Meta-Moderates the Meta-Moderators?)
From what I remember, it has to be shipped to you, not delivered to you by mistake. If the shipping label says this guy, he is in luck. If the shipping label says someone else and the delivery guy got the wrong address, he has to give it back.
And goddamnit, I saw a police officer giving some woman directions! I want my bloody $.000005 back!
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
Not true, I believe, however, what you are thinking of is a rule that prevents companies from reverse-marketing things to you... ie: mailing them to you then making it your responsibility to return the item or pay for it. The law (ianal) says you are not obligated to do either, simply because they sent it to you.
This does not cover things sent by accident.
I'm guessing the shipping computer Blue-Screened at an inopportune time.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
WinTV is a bt8x8-based video capture card manufactured by Hauppauge. WebTV is something completely different.
F0 07 C7 C8
Anyone find it strange that the R and D department and the customer relations people were so close that it was possible to swap outgoing products?
If I was running a company that was building game consoles or 'high tech' stuff the R/D guys would work in an unmarked building on the outskirts of some town in Arizona. There would be lots of dish antennas, razor wire fences, and rabid guard dogs with names like "pookie" and "raul." Lastly, all one million dollar engineering prototypes would not go out UPS. There great and all, and I'm sure they do great with liver transplants and stuff, but this is my prototype. Hell, I wouldn't even trust the NYPD. My delivery people would be the Secret Service.
They rent out, don't they?
If not I'll call the Swedish Ski Commandos of Doom and Questionable National Alligence.
[Bill Gates] Hey Rudy, how you doing?
[Rudy Gulianai] Ay, Not bad, just happy the subway situation didn't get out of hand
[BG] That's good. I was wondering, uh, umm, I sort of, um, lost a "computer" in the mail, I was wondering if you could track it down for me
[RG] Who is the carrier
[BG] United Parcel Services
[RG] Hmm... Yeah, I've had trouble with them too, why don't you just call them
[BG] Well, the damn operator would believe that the package was worth a million dollars
[RG] You shipped a @#$@#$ million dollar computer with UPS, you @#$@#$, are you completely out of your mind.
[BG] Yeah, I know, it was a stupid thing to do, but can you help me?
[RG] I'll see what I can do
-----Transmission Complete----- If you want to email me...Don't
Not entirely OS/2, not anymore. The high speed/high reliability mail sorters and bar code readers run LINUX. Maybe Cmdr Spudhead should flash his press pass for a guided tour of a BMC, they are impressive.
I don't think you get it.
If you shipped a package to someone, ie you paid ups to send mom her christmas gift and it accidently goes to someone else, what does the NYPD have to do with it?? Who cares how much the thing costs, it's irrevelant. Why not call UPS and have them fix the problem??
As it was already said, the main juice of this article was MS called NYPD to fix their problem with UPS. (Already said), who paid for this? It costs resources to have the cops come to an address. What about the dude that was getting mugged in the other neighborhood while these coppers were kissing MS butt?? Gimmie a break. You try calling NYPD and tell them that you UPS'd a package somewhere and it got sent to the wrong addy, see how fast they tell you to call UPS, and then see how fast they laugh at your face (through the phone).
Again, being redundant, MS must have SOME CLOUT to get the police to fix a problem that UPS should have.
Bottom line...MS NOT ONLY HAS THE POWER TO CONTROL (most of) CONSUMER COMPUTING, THEY CAN CONTROL THE %&*$ING COPS TOO!
I can already see some manager wondering who got their hands on it -- a competitor? 2600 or LoD -- aren't they based in the east coast, possibly New York? Then thoughts shift to what this will do when management hears about this: have we just committed a "career-limiting act"?
There's probably always been a kind of siege mentality at Microsoft. I'm sure that this has only intensified with the recent finding of fact by Judge Jackson, BackOrifice 2000, the spotlight that Linux took from Windows and all the general ill will towards the company. Couple that with the human tendency to assume that something that's gone missing has been stolen (especially if that something is valuable), and you have a recipe for paranoia. Except that paranoia is the mistaken impression that people are out to get you.
In the end, they assumed theft-by-scam, for which it would have been justified to call the cops. Since it wasn't the case, it's yet more egg on Microsoft's face, and you can allow yourself a little schadenfreude and know that somewhere inside 1 Microsoft Way, someone is getting the riot act read to them.
But this is Slashdot, my fellow AC. Everything evil on Earth is due to Microsoft.
Microsoft is to blame for poorly-written device drivers that crash servers, Microsoft is to blame for stupid people who think they can administer a big NT installation only because they spent some time tinkering with installing a pirate copy of NT on their dorm buddy's PC. Microsoft, as you just pointed out, is the cause for all blunders, at UPS or anywhere else.
Windows is the sole cause of poverty, political unrest and lung cancer. Kiss your Karma goodbye if you don't agree with these points in all your posts. Moderators wil be out there, looking for posts like yours. Just like they will be moderating this post to -3 in a couple of minutes. Yay zealot moderators!!
i hate microshaft as much as the next guy, but this crap with the "hey, there's no crime here, why's the NYPD doing the hegemon's footwork?" is just ridiculous.
there is no crime committed:
when a cat gets stuck in a tree.
when someone loses their sub-$1 million-dollar car.
when someone's car breaks down.
...and yet, i don't hear anyone complaining about the police helping out in those circumstances.
the simple truth of the matter is that microsoft probably wanted their package back ASAP, and the NYPD was the quickest, surest way to do that.
maybe MS thought that the guy would more easily surrender the package to the NYPD than some MS rep. so what? believe it or not, the guy doesn't have a right to the prototype. he didn't buy it.
to use an earlier analogy: if you sell somebody a picasso at your garage sale for $3, you don't have a right to get it back. if, however, you sell a velvet elvis painting for $3, and accidently hand the guy a picasso instead, then you did not make a bargain for that painting, and it's still yours, even if the other guy has committed no wrong.
on the other hand, of course, you still owe the guy a velvet elvis painting.
just my $2000.02,
-k. ^-^ ^D
The article cited in the /. summary does a horrible job of telling the story. Check out this article at the NY Times for a better recap. Seems the NYPD unit involved was the Computer Investigative Unit, which is certainly appropriate due to the fact that this was suspected industrial espionage. At the time, it was suspected that the shipping labels may have been intentionally switched in order to steal the device. In hindsight, the police did overreact since this turned out to be a mistake rather than industrial espionage. To be fair, they didn't know if they were knocking on the door of a pregnant wife (they were) or a corporate spy. Also, the device was in the hand's of the banker's father, who is an attorney. Regardless of our opinions of MS, a prototype of one of their more popular products that is more than a year from market probably is worth $1 million to them or their competitors, and when something like this ends up in NY rather than Seattle, you can bet there will be some pretty beefy law enforcement involved. I'm sure a similar case with a big company like GM, Ford, IBM, Apple, etc. would result in similar police response.
cdmz1
I like my Linux shaken, not stirred.
...they were right about you...
The million dollar valuation is the same one used to show how costly Kevin Mitnick's crimes were. And oh, remember that million dollar-ish document somebody dumpster-dove from a phone company, the one telling how to dial 911 or something? It probably cost MS over a megabuck to develop the new product, but the prototype was not, in and of itself, the thing of real value, and they probably lied to the PD in order to get them to do their dirty work for them.
How can you be sure it was a clerical error until you've recovered the package. We are talking about a million dollar prototype. They'd have to take every precaution to make sure the person shipping it didn't do it on purpose, and someone wasn't trying to steal the technology. After they've recovered the prototype, and the whole story is known, it's obvious that it was a clerical error. I doubt it seemed that obvious to Microsoft at the time they called the cops.
In the title it says WinTV, but in the article it says WebTV. Which is it?
Mark Duell
That "million-dollar" valuation on the proto-board is, I fear, wholy specious. Whilst I'm sure MS spent $1M to produce the board, that cost was almost entirely spent on the _design_. Thus, if they lost the board, they only have to make another from the same design.
Now, a hand-stuffed custom board with a bunch of rework is still an expensive item (maybe $10-50K in engineer's time) and it's rare (they'll probably have a dozen or two of a given rev), but unless it's fabricated from pure gold, the board itself isn't hugely valuable.
It's also misleading to argue that, because the board embodies "trade secrets", its loss could cost the company millions of dollars - its a pretty opaque instanciation of a proprietary design, not that design itself. A prototype board is no more reverse-engineerable than is a production board, and no-one claims that by shipping production hardware they're losing valuable intellectual property.
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
USoA stock is indeed up due to this news. 10-year Treasury notes.
NY has a long and proud tradition of alienating businesses by severely taxing and regulating them until they flee to neighboring states. If NY has a claim to being "Centre Of The Universe", then it's only from a combination of having the UN, a bunch of kick-ass cultural institutions like museums and Broadway, and Wall Street.
Besides, Microsoft is located in Redmond, WA, and not NY. Do you really see Billy Gates waking up tomorrow and saying to himself: "You know, we really got some curteous service from those swell folk over there in New York. I think it's time we left Redmond and my friends in Boeing and moved cross-country so we can be closer to Riker's Island."
Or at least he wouldn't say it without downing a few strong ones first. Stay tuned for his New Year's eve celebration, I suppose.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
My Appologies to Yo-Yo Ma. The newspaper story I read said he was a she. I don't listen to that much clasical but I don't appreciate being called an Idiot and a peon by people who can't make any contribution except to nit-pick. It was a simple mistake and has nothing to do with the crux of what I said.
... this is just the first known case of them doing it for hardware.
Heck, just open your wallet and look at your fiat currency. Why does so many dollars buy you so much gold? Because someone, somewhere decided "Here is a piece of paper. It's worth a lot." Why are certain pieces of artwork worth so much at auction? Because someone, somewhere, decided "Here is a painting. It's worth a lot."
I myself take some personal comfort in thinking of WebTV as a bit of dadaist expression.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
San Jose Mercury News article
I used to think the SJMerc was rabidly anti-MS, then I started reading Slashdot...
MS got the NYPD involved because there was suspicion of industrial espionage. We laugh, sure, and maybe some people here overreact and say "no way that was worth $1M US!! MS is controlling the cops!", but most of us just enjoy mocking a large corporation for being so careless with their valuables.
As an aside, to those who do feel that this exemplifies MS's influence over governmental agencies...
-- Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Everyone's missing the point here. We're not dealing with an intelligent person. I mean...he ordered a WebTV fer chrissake.LOL
_.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._
ASCII art?? I thought it was a REGULAR expression
Of course the conversation might go a bit like this :
... Hello? Sir Please open the door. Sir?
Guy : Hello?
MS-Guy : Sir, We accidentaly shiped you a one of a kind very valuable prototype unit and we'd like to-
Doesn't $1,000,000.00 seem a big expensive for a set-top box? :) I'm not an economist, but I'm sure there is a pretty small market for high-pricetag-low-end internet connections.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
I'm curious as to the approach the police used. Did they demand the unit back? Did they ask? Did they intimidate?
I really don't understand how you can feel comfortable with officers whose job it is to enforce the law tracking down ms screw ups. The fact that the package was worth one million dollars is irrelevant. Why were the police involved?
Did you even READ the article? A shipping clerk changed the addressing label on the package, sending it to New York instead of Redmond. The clerk thought it was an ordinary WebTV and that nobody would miss it.
Legally, you cannot sustain a financial gain on someone elses "mistake" If they had the Picasso tagged at 3 bucks an didn't know what it is, tough shit. On the other hand, this item was not tagged at 3 bucks, it was sent in error. Therefore, MS has every right to demand it back.
That was Snowball in a mechanical Bill Gates suit. He beat Brain to the punch... as I recall, that was one of the "Jimmy Brain" episodes.
:-)
I'll have to check my PnB archive
Someone already made this point, but you are so paranoid that I will make it again.
Bob: Oh no! The $10M diamonds got shipped to John Smith instead of Dick Smegma!
Tom: Who the hell shipped it? I'll fire the bastard!
Bob: Uhmm.. it seems that John Smith was in charge of shipping that item.
It's the same calculator used to determine that Microsoft and every other software, music, video company lost trillions and trillions of dollars every day because of pirating.
Even if the WebTV was made out of gold and diamonds, it'd be tough to get it's value up to a million short of putting a money order/cashier's check inside. But I can see it in a future Sunday ads, "Browse the web from the comfort of your couch. This brand new model WebTV can be yours for only $999,999.99." Then while walking down the aisle some old couple see it, "Oh look honey, it's not even a million dollars, let's get a couple." Of course, it's another $200,000 for the maintenance deal, and $70,000 for sales tax.
"It's Bill Gates TIME!!" while the other was holding a very sharp CD-Rom jewel-case saying. "You want some of this? Where's the unit?"
What's really amazing is that the WebTV upper echelon didn't think it was important enough to handle shipping this so-called million-dollar unit. I also feel sorry for that mailroom clerk, his future at WebTV must be shakey now.
I suspect that there are a number of petroleum companies that have significantly more money than MS. Not to mention some of the bigger food companies. MS is probably the biggest software manufacturer, but all things told the world doesn't use nearly as much software as they do food and oil.
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
classic anti-microsoft conspiracy slashdot trash. I'm sure I'll get moderated down for this, but who really needs positive karma in a microcosm full of minds that run the gamut from "closed" to "empty"? one time I ordered a whole bunch of computer parts online which UPS kindly misdelivered to some building on 29th st in nyc. as soon as their tracking system notified me of the snafu, I notified UPS - they told me that they could send someone over the next day to try and pick it up, and since that wasn't good enough for Mr. I-Need-It-Now-Bossman, I called my helpful NYPD who said they'd be more than happy to escort me over to pick up my stuff. the NYPD want to help you if youre a NYC resident (unless you're hatian, in which case I guess they just want to anally molest you). let's not get our panties in knots because they helped microsoft.
what if you did something that hurts Bill's feelings? A SWAT team?
I know that if you receive unrequested merchandice in your mail, you are entitled to keep it for free. This law was enacted to prevent companies from sending products to people who hadn't requested them, along with a bill requesting payment. If someone does this to you, throw the bill away and keep whatever they sent :)
/. who could commend on the legal issues involved in this kind of thing?
:)
I'm curious as to how this kind of "clerical error" would be dealt with in that kind of context. Do we have any lawyers here on
Even more interesting, as the author noted, was how Micros~1 managed to get the NYPD to knock on this guy's door to retreive the package even 'though no crime was committed. Do they really have that much clout? God help us all if so
Anthony
"I think any time you expose vulnerabilities it's a good thing." -Attorney General Janet Reno
Now, I'm apt to buying into a lot of stuff, but this one does take the cake. First-off, Microsoft should have sent a representative off to the person's house to explain the mixup and traded ON THE SPOT with a new WebTV unit (Which are next to worthless.. I've used one, and hate 'em)
Why the police were even involved, I'll never know, but I do believe the city of New York can prosecute Microsoft on the grounds of mis-appropriation of some sort or another. That kind of tactic is totally wrong. Of course, the article didn't mention that the home was possibly in the middle of Harlem.
My 2 bits...
-What have you contributed lately?
My father had a similar experience with a Buick he bought. Turned out the car left the plant with a prototype engine under the hood. When GM tracked it down, there was no police response, they simply sent my father to the dealership to swap the car for another one.
"Hello, sir, this is the NYPD. We have been informed by Microsoft that you have machines here that have been bought for the express purpose of running a Microsoft operating system but you are instead running Linux on them. We would like to come in and confiscate those machines."
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
Microsoft completed merger talks with industry giant United States of America. Reports are somewhat sketchy at the moment, but it looks like Microsoft will be purchasing a majority share in the USoA. Supporters point to the recent Microsoft controlled actions of the NYPD as further evidence of the MegaCorps takeover. USoA stock skyrocketed on the rumors as investors speculate that for the first time in fifty years USoA may actually turn a profit. Microsoft stock also rose several points as the acquisition of nuclear weapons makes them a formidable world economic player.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
I bet Sony will play some yen to checkout the new design --just so they can have a good laugh to M$'s Wince^H^H^H^H^HWinped enbed Webtv. Add Webtv's feature on what's already ass kicking PS2.
CY
If it was a shipping mix-up, then it wasen't a crime.... so why was the NYPD called in? This UPS crap has happened to me before. They just ask for the box back and then they give you the intended shipment.
Uh, prototype hardware or not. This thing CAN'T be worth a million bucks. If Microsoft lost it, would they have REALLY been out a $1,000,000. No, of course not. Only the cost of parts and assembly - couple thousand bucks at best. Unless they happened to put the only copies of the schematics in the same package.
;)
Furthermore, why UPS??? Thought FedEx and Airborne were the preferred ones for that sort of stuff.
I'll refrain from taking a guess as to which platform their shipping software was running on...
Tom
The cops sweat profusely, having run up 20 flights of stairs to Mr. Cogen's apartment -- and bang on the door with their nightsticks, fingers silently adjusting their position to the perfect pistol grip -- just in case. BANG BANG BLANG CLANG Muffled sounds from the apartment fill the hallway and turn into loud yells, then still louder echos of "Ok, ALRIGHT, just a SECOND DAMNIT". Mr. Cogen opens the door, albeit a bit quieter after what he sees. "Um, " Mr. Cogen Squeezes out barely before being interrupted. "Mr. Cogen, please help us here", a puffy, white-faced 30-something officer blurts between gasps, "But we seem to have a problem." "Yes?" Cogen asks, politely, slightly amused, and a tad bit frightened all at once. "Well, there was a ... you received a shipment, some WebTV item, right? Or your son delivered it? You have it?" "Yes, yes, I do. It's in the back bedroom. WHY?" Cogen finally asks, as he has a faint clue of what might be transpiring. "Well," continues the chubby officer, "It's not really yours, but Microsoft's. They accidentally sent you a preview unit, and they want it back. We're sorry, but it's worth alot of money". A dismayed look of bewilderment, and fright overcomes Cogen as he realizes the urgency of the situation. Taking cue from Cogen's sudden change of expression, the officer and one other move past him in a graceful shove and ask if they can help him box the unit. Cogen, pushing his own way back before the officers says, "BUT LILO WAS JUST WORKING!" ---Sorry, didn't know how to end it....
Yeah, hows the ol' senate campaign going? Really? Sure, sure, glad we could help out. Look, there's been a little mix up here, and, haha, was wondering if you could do us a little favor this time? Sure, look, I need to get our shipping mgr. in touch with your police chief, What's that Rudi? No, no, no, just a small operation, nothing big, just a single user, uh voter, yeah; What? Oh, yeah, they are a dime a dozen, hehheh. Sure, just talk with my shipping dept and there'll be more where that came from, lots more, Ok?
Boojum
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I think the only thing they could do with such pictures is sell them to magazines. It's not as if the box contains useful components like hard drives or lots of RAM. You'd run as much of a chance of getting sued for breaking the damn thing by opening the case...
Let's think about a similar situation: You somehow find or receive 1kg of cocaine (you think). What do you do with it? Can you find some underworld type to fence it with? Will the real owners eventually find out who got it? The bag of cocaine, which could be useful if it were in small quantity, is thoroughly useless and very dangerous in large quantity.
Maybe the analogy doesn't hold up, I doubt that the use value of a webtv box is anything more than the street price of the current model at BestBuy. In any case, how would you alert the other people who are making webtv like boxes that you had the photos without M$ finding out somehow? Who are the competitors anyway? How much good would pictures do them?
This whole idea is silly.
That's kinda like the time I was "accidently" shipped that kilo of coke from South America.
It's good to know that NYPD is expanding their list of services available to the public. I suppose they had to find something to fill the day now that they can't shove plungers in peoples butts anymore.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
"This program has just performed an illegal operation. Your local police force will arrive shortly to take it into custody."
not to use MS Access to maintain their address databases...
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/ articles/18tv.html
requires free_registration.pl
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Where did the NYPD shove it today?
If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
The guy's name was Scott Posner and the WebTV was for his father (possibly one Richard Posner, the Judge in charge of mediating negotiations between Microsoft and the DoJ). Coincidence? I think not. Sounds like M$ are "innovating" their way into a sweeter deal.
I think its dead, Jim.
--fatboy
I don't see anything creepy about the NYPD being able to track the package down. I mean, they have several ways to do it. I'm no specialist in the area, by far, but they could easily have obtained the address from MS (which is probably what happened.) They could also have gotten the UPS tracking number from MS, and then used that to determine where it was delivered, but the first method would be much faster.
... which is certainly not a crime by any definition of the word.
Then again, if I did read the comment wrong, then maybe it was referring to the fact that the NYPD was called in at all to recover MS property, that was incorrectly mailed to the wrong address
Am I the only one that
- ----------
finds it hilarious that
someone went through all
this trouble for WebTV?
-----------------------------------------------
I wonder how much the NYPD charges for their services? Maybe they have a "first time free" deal? I certainly could use them to run a few extra Xmas shopping errands for me.
Reliable sources indicate that Microsoft may add several USoA subsidiaries (DOJ, DOE, DOD) into its corporate structure, spinning off the other, less valuable pieces. A company spokesperson says, "We will do whatever it takes remain competitive."
One of the reasons that I became a lawyer was to avoid ever having to hire one. -SPYvSPY
CmdrTaco, why didn't you whip out your PRESS pass and phone the NYPD to find why they were involved?
Ok, i can't connect to the website that the article is on... but, how could ANY webtv product... prototype or not, cost a million dollars (well, dolars to be techinical =P)..!?!
Money and the executive branch work together
pretty well, don't they. I'm sure M$ will gladly
give the NYPD free copies of Windows 2000 next
time they upgrade their PCs.
How many companies can get direct support from
the NYPD, huh, M$, the major's office and the attorney general?
Tomorrows Daily News headline would read: NYPD Lets Million Dollar Computer Get Away!
The NYPD does more good each day than most people know about, it just doesn't make for good reading or sell newspapers. The vast majority of it has nothing to do with crime, either. Next time you lock your keys in the car, do you expect the police to tell you to "Get lost, we just do crime" or to help you out?
I dislike Microsoft as much as anyone, but just because it was MS, doesn't mean there is something evil or wrong going on here. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't MS, this article would probably never even appear on Slashdot.
I worked at a Major Insurance company in the Communications Dept about 15 years ago. Mixed in with a shippment of camera cases was a strange grey case with radiation symbols on it. Turns out it was a detonator for a warhead meant for the defense department. I think it sat under a producers desk for a week before it was picked up!
Your idea about an unmarked building on the outskirts of some town in Arizona won't fly because you could not get developers to go there. I say that as an Arizona resident -- outside of Phoenix, Tucson, and (to a limited extent) Flagstaff, there's no "there" there. You can't even get high speed Internet outside of these three areas -- US Worst's wiring dates back to the 1920's in most rural areas, and they have proven incapable of keeping a T1 up and going anywhere outside of metropolitan areas (don't even talk about ISDN or DSL -- they'd have to upgrade their 60's-era electronic switches out there, and they aren't about to do that).
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
It was microsoft's fault, so they have to fix it. Did they pay NYPD for this, or did the people of New York pay for this..
Even if M$ did pay NYPD for this.. how could they? Could anyone, with sufficient money, pay the police to go twiddle in their business for them... make them their little pet band? If so, how can we allow this? This is pathetic! They have jobs to fulfill; they're supposed to serve and protect, but I didn't think that "serve" was extended to going and fixing someone else's booboo like that. That's a private matter that should have served as just punishment to Microsoft for being so careless. Idiots!
Then again, we all make mistakes. Poor thing, I feel sorry for the bloke who did it.
Insert mind here.
This is a much MUCH better version of the story. And is much closer to the truth.
g .webtv/index.html
http://cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/20/missin
You're all up in arms about this!?
Microsoft I suppose? Everything that has to do about Microsoft is evil agian huh? So this is the intelligence of your everyday average Slashdot poster?
I suppose that if the company in this story is Redhat, all of you would be saying how helpful and efficient the NYPD is...
*sigh* Moderating this down would only amplify the hypocracy...
Before we go railing against Microsoft and the NYPD, do we have independent verification that this incident actually happened? It sounds like a story that someone could hear on a rumor, slightly embellished, and re-post. Lord knows, if it has to do with Microsoft, it'll get plenty of air time.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
I don't think the fact that the NYPD was called is such a big deal. About 3 months ago I read a story in the paper. Famous chellist Yo-Yo Ma left her 3000000 stradivarius chello in the back of a cab and the NYPD were called to help track it down. I think the value of the object lost/misplaced means the police can get involved.
I always thought if you were sent something in error that you did not order, you could keep it free of charge. I'll bet that the police were called in to intimidate this guy because they knew they didn't have a legal leg to stand on.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
A few months ago I made a post on Slashdot that was critical of Microsoft Windows NT. I made the post non-anonymously, using my regular Slashdot user account. I had some not-so-good things to say about NT's reliability and the way that it makes you reboot for every little configuration change, no matter how minor. These were, I thought, reasonable objections, and I was well within my rights to point them out in a forum like Slashdot.
.. I could definitely hear them breathing on the other end, but they wouldn't say anything. Okay, I thought, somebody's just f*cking with me. So I would utter a few choice obscenities into the phone each time that it happened, and then I would hang up.
.. his voice was the same.
.. and my brakes are out. Panicking, I reached for the emergency brake, but that had been tampered with as well. "Shit!" I yelled as I roared through the red light and narrowly avoided being broadsided by a Wal-Mart truck. I threw the car into first gear in order to slow myself down, but that didn't stop me. At the end of the street, I wanted to take a hard left, but a group of nuns was crossing the street and I was forced to crash headlong into a Starbucks across the street. I plowed about twenty yards into the coffee shop before I finally came to a stop. Thankfully nobody was hurt.
.. and I had no choice, because he was holding his gun out and pointing it at me.
.. all at the scene of the crime. Say what? I've never been to Washington State! I don't even know where the hell is is!
.. you'll get yours.
Or was I?
The trouble started just a couple of days later. I started getting phone calls, both at home and at work. The phone would ring, I'd pick it up and say "hello", and there'd be nobody there. Only there was somebody there
Well, it wasn't more than a couple of days later that I came home to find that my picture window in my living room was shattered. Right in the middle of the living room was a brick, and wrapped around the brick with a rubber band was a piece of paper that said, in colorful letters, "Who Do You Think You're F*cking Around With Today?" I immediately called the police, and they said they'd send somebody right over. Strangely enough, nobody came. Two hours later, I called again, and again received a promise that they would send somebody. Nobody showed up. I called again. The guy on the other end pretended he didn't even know anything about my previous calls, only I know that it was the same guy
Okay, so now I was more than a little bit puzzled and pissed off. I took the brick, put it in a plastic bag, and decided that I would drive the damn thing down to the police station myself. They couldn't avoid me if I was standing right in front of them, could they?
Well, I'm driving down the street and coming up on a red light. I go to apply my brakes
Well, I ended up in jail. The police did not listen to my pleas for them to check the brakes and verify that they had been tampered with. I was charged with drunken driving, even though I hadn't touched a drop of alcohol all day. They escorted me to a cold, hard cell and locked me up. They didn't even give me a phone call, for Christ's sake. I banged on the bars and shouted that I had rights, that I was being abused, that what they were doing was illegal. But my shouting was to no avail, because nobody paid attention.
After a long, cold night in the cell, I was awakened by the sound of a guard banging his night stick on the bars. "Wake up, dickhead," he said, He slid a bowl of moldy Cheerios under the bars and said "Now eat your breakfast." Choking, I managed to get them down
A couple of hours the police chief stopped by my cell and told me that my house had burned down overnight. He told me that it had been struck by lightning (this was in the middle of winter, for crying out loud!) and that there was nothing left. He then told me that I would be making my court appearance today, and that I should get ready.
Get ready? Hmmmph. How? I didn't have anything except the clothes on my back. I couldn't shower, I couldn't brush my teeth, I couldn't do anything. I was being deprived of my basic human rights, and this guy had the audacity to tell me to "get ready." Riiiiiight.
Anyway, we went before the judge that afternoon. I was put in one of those orange prison jumpsuits and shackled up with enough chains to hold back a 747. I was paraded in front of a seemingly endless line of reporters and television cameras. "And they are now bringing the worst mass murderer in Chicago history to his court appearance," I heard a reporter say.
What the f*ck? Mass murderer?
After a joke of a trial that only took three days, I was convicted of the murder of seventy Girl Scouts who had been found dead after their Jamboree in Washington State. They claimed to have my fingerprints, my DNA, and my car
For my crimes I was sentenced to death, and am currently awaiting execution. I have some solace in knowing that I get Internet access here in the big house, but my execution is scheduled for tomorrow night so soon I shall shuffle off this mortal coil and head on to bigger and better things. I'm trying to decide between New York Strip and prime rib; my taste buds want the prime rib, but my heart is yearning for the steak.
So goodbye, you all. And you'll get yours, Bill Gates. Oh yes
(Posting anonymous for obvious reasons.)
Except it was Microsponge and the bought 51% of the municipalities of the world, hence having controlling interest of the world. And Bill Gates was a robot controlled by a gerbil. I wish they still had this on as a show.
And that was like a year and a half ago. Of course, now the Simpsons even comments on Microsoft.
This is offtopic up to now, but one company would not be allowed unless it had more than software. You would have to control industrial production and the banks. So sorry.
Also, this was in the forum, and there is no person to contact it seems to ask how to corroborate this.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - F. Voltaire.