>MS only invested 1 million dollars in Apple which at the time
Actually, it was $150 million. Here's the press release from back then. It was at MacWorld in August 1997 -- I'll never forget Bill Gates suddenly appearing on the huge projection screen, suspiciously like the guy in the '1984' commercial.
After booting up for the first time, the ASCI White immediately declared that it had to think about the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything and immediately shut itself off.
In related news, a few dozen large yellowish alien spaceships began hovering over the world's major cities today, floating in the air precisely like bricks don't.
In related news, Microsoft announced today it was purchasing Sega, Atari, and the rights to Intellivision cartridges. This move was seen as an effort to bolster Microsoft's "Sky.net" project -- sending a single Terminator back in time to execute the makers of any video games other than Bungie's.
A quick summary:
You can't spell worth a crap. You have the Olsen Twins site for your homepage. You have no idea what you're talking about. Read up on it and try again, grasshopper.
In other news today, the Internet has been declared a "mathematical abstraction with no bearing on how the real world works." All servers are to be shut down at midnight EST tonight.
Unfortunately, with the artificial "20" cut-off, they missed a few of the more well-known ways we might kick off:
21) SKYNET
SkyNet makes its move, directing Russia's missile system to launch at the US, which of course triggers our response. This wipes out humanity, allowing the machines to take over. Our only hope? John Connor.
22) THE COMPANY'S ALIEN RESEARCH
The Company finally gets rid of Ripley and is free to pursue its Alien research. Inevitably, facehuggers escape the lab and begin taking over humans left and right.
23) THIS STATION IS FULLY OPERATIONAL
Earth is wiped out by the Death Star, which (even though it appeared to be far from completion) was actually fully operational, much to the chagrin of the Rebellion. And us. Especially us.
24) GENESIS PROJECT
A rogue Klingon gets hold of the Genesis Device and converts our Solar System into one big Oort Cloud.
25) DALEKS
Dr. Who suffocates when he rolls over, dozing with his scarf wrapped around his throat. Poor us.
26) NEO TAKES THE WRONG PILL
(Corollary to #20)
Neo fails to do the right thing and takes the wrong pill from Morpheus. We never find out The Truth.
27) SPEAKING OF "THE TRUTH"...
In the final season of X-Files, Agent Scully and Robert Patrick's character immediately fall in love and give up on Mulder's whole "truth" trip. The US and indeed the whole world are left defenseless. The aliens fulfill their plans, leaving what few survivors there are enslaved.
28) EINSTEIN WAS WRONG
Turns out, E=MC^3 instead. First room-temp fusion reactor turns the Earth into a lifeless Oreo-cookie of a lump of slag.
29) VONNEGUT WAS RIGHT
Ice-9 really does exist. Unfortunately, Bokononism doesn't. We never "do, doodley do, doodley do, doodley do..."
30) BIG BROTHER STOPS WATCHING
The Two Minute Hate gets out of hand. Oceania has actually been both friend and enemy (at different times) of both Eastasia *and* Eurasia. War is not peace. Freedom isn't slavery. Pandemonium reigns.
Only 100Mhz, eh? Well that means it must be slower than an Intel chip, since they're already up to 1Ghz, right? I mean, clock speed is the right way to measure how fast my computer is, right?
You can't convince me that there isn't already a version of the QT player with an Xwindows GUI compiled and floating around inside Apple; The absence of a UNIX player in that kind of development environment just doesn't make sense.
There is a QuickTime player with OS X server, and there will of course be a "UNIX-based" player in the consumer release, but the more important question is what Apple gets out of open-sourcing QuickTime. This technology is quite possibly the most important to Apple short of the OS itself -- just go to the Apple site and take a look at the tabs at the very top. It's bi-platform at the moment because Apple can make money off the upgraded players and having free advertising on the Win side.
But what does Apple get out of open-sourcing QuickTime?
The first iteration was awesome, and I can't wait for this sequel. Too bad the site was apparently slashdotted.
I happened to meet a few of the Bungie folks up in SF a couple of months ago, and they're great people to hang out with till all hours playing Myth II with a bunch of other geeks and making bad jokes. Look for their upcoming Oni and Halo as well.
BTW, I still get Marathon flashbacks all these years later.:)
I've been reading/aware of Katz for several years now, first at the gloriously ludicrous MediaRant forums on HotWired (back in the day). Amusingly, his articles had a similar effect on the conversations in those forums as he has on these. Very different people responding, of course.
Whether you agree with him or not, I think you'll agree that Katz excels at two things:
Instigation
Interface
As evidenced in these fair forums, Katz has the uncanny (and I believe unconscious) ability to get under the collective skin of techies, geeks, hackers, and anyone of a more than cursory technical bent. Why is this? I think because he gets just enough of the technology right to be wrong with anyone who knows better. Sort of like the new AD&D player who has rolled up his first character, outfitted him, knows the difference between a platinum piece and a gold piece, then gets killed charging into his first battle. Or more precisely, derided when he walks into the veterans' favorite tavern and says "Hi, guys!"
Katz's Interface component is of more importance, I think. He also has an uncanny (conscious this time) ability to translate technology for the average (or above-average) person to grasp what it means to love this brave new world we're inventing.
Having said all that, I have to laugh at all the Sturm und Drang produced here at the very mention of Katz. I wrote him a couple of emails a few years back, and he always wrote back -- he was kind, civilized, and not at all the pariah he's sometimes made out to be.
I'm thinking you take a few of the machine-gun guy's LEGO Toy Canyons, one of his guns, and this six-legged walker... pick a battlefield, and go forth and conquer.:)
Which brings up the question: is there a way to get some Crusoe chips into these, set up TCP/IP, and have the battles remotely via webcams?
In reading the article, it seems as if there's little difference between this and what Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator do upon installation. Perhaps there's more to it, or perhaps there's an M$ plant for the story, but really... just click no.:)
You just know some of those celebrities making 3D body map scans of themselves are going to be really interested in licensing their likenesses to something like this. "Have Natalie Portman read you the hockey scores every morning! Snoop Dogg raps you the weather."
If CBS hadn't altered the NBC advert during the broadcast, then this discussion would be regarding how thoughtlessly the producers acted. Or more precisely ex-producers -- common sense suggests they certainly wouldn't have lasted long overlooking those sorts of enormous details.
Having said that, it seems that re-composing the shot would have been a much more reasonable solution, either moving Dan "What's the Frequency" Rather in front of the sign, or simply changing the angles. This would have avoided the tinge of impropriety altogether.
In reading the related Yahoo articles, I find NBC's (as well as the FAIR representative's) inflammatory declarations quite amusing -- as if Dan and his crew were neo-Stalinists erasing party members from old photographs. "CBS has always been at war with Oceania. We have never been at war with ABC." C'mon, newsy folks, your producers would have done exactly the same thing, and for the same reasons.
I think what's more at stake here (and what's more saddening) is not some "threat" to journalistic integrity due to the digital revolution, but more how much corporate folks love to whine for the microphones. It's like a preschool playground, and Dan wouldn't play fair.
Unfortunately, the likelihood of corporate America "growing up" any time soon is... well, about as probable as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw singing "Auld Lang Syne" together on the next Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve.
Slashdot Mirror
>MS only invested 1 million dollars in Apple which at the time
Actually, it was $150 million. Here's the press release from back then. It was at MacWorld in August 1997 -- I'll never forget Bill Gates suddenly appearing on the huge projection screen, suspiciously like the guy in the '1984' commercial.
Check out the latest stats on Oz's bandwidth via the Internet Traffic Report at this address
Oh my dear God in heaven, that is quite possible the coolest thing that's happened since my copy of Mac OS X Public Beta arrived. :)
I would like to take credit for making that happen, but I really can't...well maybe...
Ahem.... [throat clearing]
PHEAR MY L33T SK1LLZ!!!
Thank you.
After booting up for the first time, the ASCI White immediately declared that it had to think about the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything and immediately shut itself off.
In related news, a few dozen large yellowish alien spaceships began hovering over the world's major cities today, floating in the air precisely like bricks don't.
In related news, Microsoft announced today it was purchasing Sega, Atari, and the rights to Intellivision cartridges. This move was seen as an effort to bolster Microsoft's "Sky.net" project -- sending a single Terminator back in time to execute the makers of any video games other than Bungie's.
There's a reason they picked the apple for their logo, you know. Remember Eve in Eden?
A quick summary: You can't spell worth a crap. You have the Olsen Twins site for your homepage. You have no idea what you're talking about. Read up on it and try again, grasshopper.
In other news today, the Internet has been declared a "mathematical abstraction with no bearing on how the real world works." All servers are to be shut down at midnight EST tonight.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ ap0 01026.html
I see 'Lolita' -- but where, as a friend of mine pointed out, is 'Humbert Humbert'? :)
--
"I think the GIMP's rendering..."
"Well I guess you'll just have to go wake him up now won't you."
--
1) Doesn't crash.
2) Shares memory like a high school reunion.
3) Runs everything except Windows.
4) Infinitely customizable.
5) Infinitely flexible.
6) Did I mention it pretty much doesn't crash?
Naw, can't be an OS.
--
21) SKYNET
SkyNet makes its move, directing Russia's missile system to launch at the US, which of course triggers our response. This wipes out humanity, allowing the machines to take over. Our only hope? John Connor.
22) THE COMPANY'S ALIEN RESEARCH
The Company finally gets rid of Ripley and is free to pursue its Alien research. Inevitably, facehuggers escape the lab and begin taking over humans left and right.
23) THIS STATION IS FULLY OPERATIONAL
Earth is wiped out by the Death Star, which (even though it appeared to be far from completion) was actually fully operational, much to the chagrin of the Rebellion. And us. Especially us.
24) GENESIS PROJECT
A rogue Klingon gets hold of the Genesis Device and converts our Solar System into one big Oort Cloud.
25) DALEKS
Dr. Who suffocates when he rolls over, dozing with his scarf wrapped around his throat. Poor us.
26) NEO TAKES THE WRONG PILL
(Corollary to #20)
Neo fails to do the right thing and takes the wrong pill from Morpheus. We never find out The Truth.
27) SPEAKING OF "THE TRUTH"...
In the final season of X-Files, Agent Scully and Robert Patrick's character immediately fall in love and give up on Mulder's whole "truth" trip. The US and indeed the whole world are left defenseless. The aliens fulfill their plans, leaving what few survivors there are enslaved.
28) EINSTEIN WAS WRONG
Turns out, E=MC^3 instead. First room-temp fusion reactor turns the Earth into a lifeless Oreo-cookie of a lump of slag.
29) VONNEGUT WAS RIGHT
Ice-9 really does exist. Unfortunately, Bokononism doesn't. We never "do, doodley do, doodley do, doodley do..."
30) BIG BROTHER STOPS WATCHING
The Two Minute Hate gets out of hand. Oceania has actually been both friend and enemy (at different times) of both Eastasia *and* Eurasia. War is not peace. Freedom isn't slavery. Pandemonium reigns.
--
--
But what does Apple get out of open-sourcing QuickTime?
--
I happened to meet a few of the Bungie folks up in SF a couple of months ago, and they're great people to hang out with till all hours playing Myth II with a bunch of other geeks and making bad jokes. Look for their upcoming Oni and Halo as well.
BTW, I still get Marathon flashbacks all these years later.
--
Whether you agree with him or not, I think you'll agree that Katz excels at two things:
- Instigation
- Interface
As evidenced in these fair forums, Katz has the uncanny (and I believe unconscious) ability to get under the collective skin of techies, geeks, hackers, and anyone of a more than cursory technical bent. Why is this? I think because he gets just enough of the technology right to be wrong with anyone who knows better. Sort of like the new AD&D player who has rolled up his first character, outfitted him, knows the difference between a platinum piece and a gold piece, then gets killed charging into his first battle. Or more precisely, derided when he walks into the veterans' favorite tavern and says "Hi, guys!"Katz's Interface component is of more importance, I think. He also has an uncanny (conscious this time) ability to translate technology for the average (or above-average) person to grasp what it means to love this brave new world we're inventing.
Having said all that, I have to laugh at all the Sturm und Drang produced here at the very mention of Katz. I wrote him a couple of emails a few years back, and he always wrote back -- he was kind, civilized, and not at all the pariah he's sometimes made out to be.
Whether he's wrong or not is another matter. :)
--
I'm thinking you take a few of the machine-gun guy's LEGO Toy Canyons, one of his guns, and this six-legged walker ... pick a battlefield, and go forth and conquer. :)
Which brings up the question: is there a way to get some Crusoe chips into these, set up TCP/IP, and have the battles remotely via webcams?
--
In reading the article, it seems as if there's little difference between this and what Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator do upon installation. Perhaps there's more to it, or perhaps there's an M$ plant for the story, but really... just click no. :)
Excuse me while I go copyright this idea... ;-)
Having said that, it seems that re-composing the shot would have been a much more reasonable solution, either moving Dan "What's the Frequency" Rather in front of the sign, or simply changing the angles. This would have avoided the tinge of impropriety altogether.
In reading the related Yahoo articles, I find NBC's (as well as the FAIR representative's) inflammatory declarations quite amusing -- as if Dan and his crew were neo-Stalinists erasing party members from old photographs. "CBS has always been at war with Oceania. We have never been at war with ABC." C'mon, newsy folks, your producers would have done exactly the same thing, and for the same reasons.
I think what's more at stake here (and what's more saddening) is not some "threat" to journalistic integrity due to the digital revolution, but more how much corporate folks love to whine for the microphones. It's like a preschool playground, and Dan wouldn't play fair.
Unfortunately, the likelihood of corporate America "growing up" any time soon is ... well, about as probable as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw singing "Auld Lang Syne" together on the next Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve.