Sorry the small text is hard to read, it was printed that way. This was put in my letterbox one day about 10 years ago, I think it's a work of comic genius.
PS2s in PAL regions come with a demo disk that has, in addition to the playable and rollong demos, a port of YABASIC (Yet Another BASIC). Apparently this was because of a tax dodge in the UK, where computers are taxed at a lower rate than games consoles, but in order to classify the PS2 as a computer SCEE had to include a programming language with it.
I think the reviewer meant to compare KSpread with Excel. Good old VisiCalc eh? Man I can remember Lotus 1-2-3 but VisiCalc? - before my time I'm afraid.
SUBJ: Microsoft Acquires Rights to the '@' character
By Jeffrey W Comer, jwc0@erols.com ("jwc-zero")
For immediate release
In a startling move, software giant Microsoft, Inc. of Redmond, WA,
announced today that it had acquired in perpetuity rights to the
"at-sign," the @ character. The at-sign, more properly known as an
"attathorp," is the Holy Grail of Symbology. It is used almost
universally in electronic mail messages, and its frequency of usage is
estimated at well over 20 million instances per day.
Hard on the heels of the Microsoft acquisition of the trademark symbol
(formerly TM) and the service mark symbol (formerly SM), Microsoft
spokesperson Kathy Senna said the move solidified the firm's hold on
printing and communications technology well in to the 21st century.
"We felt Microsoft had strong 'logo disuse case' with the attathorp,"
said Ms Senna. "We examined case law concerning the symbol and our
attorneys developed a line of argument whereby it was established the
original rights owners to the attathorp had long since given up its
use. We simply stepped in and took over maintenance for it."
Indeed, prior to the 1980's, the attathorp was an almost entirely
unused symbol taking up space on typewriter and teletype keyboards.
The advent of the Internet, with its ubiquitous "@" naming convention,
thrust the demure mark into the limelight, making it an almost
singular paean to the Information Age.
Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft acquires in perpetuity all
exclusive use rights to the attathorp. Effective immediately, all
users of the @-sign must include in their work "(c) Microsoft, Inc.
1997, 1998." In July 1998, the appearance of the symbol itself will
change. The familiar 'a' inside the circle will be replaced by a tiny
pairing of the letters "ms" in small caps. All users will still be
required to include copyright notices.
Beginning in 1999, all users of the attathorp -- to be renamed the
microthorp -- will be required to license use of the symbol. Microsoft
has yet to work out details of that arrangement, but spokesperson
Senna indicated that the company would offer several levels of
licensing. "We are projecting a single-use package for the occasional
user, a 1000-use package for writers who use the Internet daily, and a
ten-thousand use package for small business needs."
For users with greater needs, Microsoft will license a microthorp
bonus pack, which also includes rights to other minor symbols, such as
the caret (^), the paragraph marker, and the doomeyflosh (also known
as the lozenge).
The move caught Wall Street investors by surprise. By noon, the bulls
were running rampant, and the trading price had surged up 15 points.
To subscribe to the "HumourNet" mailing list, send the following
command to :
subscribe HumourNet your_name, your_city, your_state or country
I made the conscious decision a couple of years ago to refuse to pay anybody for the privilege of renting out the surface area of my body as advertising space. No Logo would have been a good slogan to put on my aparrel to make this statement clear. But that would be just another brand wouldn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
http://slark1.blogspot.com/2008/03/by-my-side.html
Peed My Pants if it looks really good...
Sorry the small text is hard to read, it was printed that way. This was put in my letterbox one day about 10 years ago, I think it's a work of comic genius.
http://users.tpg.com.au/slark/jesus_666.jpg
PS2s in PAL regions come with a demo disk that has, in addition to the playable and rollong demos, a port of YABASIC (Yet Another BASIC). Apparently this was because of a tax dodge in the UK, where computers are taxed at a lower rate than games consoles, but in order to classify the PS2 as a computer SCEE had to include a programming language with it.
I still refer to any device that runs PalmOS as a Palm Pilot. So there.
I think the reviewer meant to compare KSpread with Excel. Good old VisiCalc eh? Man I can remember Lotus 1-2-3 but VisiCalc? - before my time I'm afraid.
Collage 376 H u m o u r N e t 13 Nov 1997
SUBJ: Microsoft Acquires Rights to the '@' character
By Jeffrey W Comer, jwc0@erols.com ("jwc-zero")
For immediate release
In a startling move, software giant Microsoft, Inc. of Redmond, WA,
announced today that it had acquired in perpetuity rights to the
"at-sign," the @ character. The at-sign, more properly known as an
"attathorp," is the Holy Grail of Symbology. It is used almost
universally in electronic mail messages, and its frequency of usage is
estimated at well over 20 million instances per day.
Hard on the heels of the Microsoft acquisition of the trademark symbol
(formerly TM) and the service mark symbol (formerly SM), Microsoft
spokesperson Kathy Senna said the move solidified the firm's hold on
printing and communications technology well in to the 21st century.
"We felt Microsoft had strong 'logo disuse case' with the attathorp,"
said Ms Senna. "We examined case law concerning the symbol and our
attorneys developed a line of argument whereby it was established the
original rights owners to the attathorp had long since given up its
use. We simply stepped in and took over maintenance for it."
Indeed, prior to the 1980's, the attathorp was an almost entirely
unused symbol taking up space on typewriter and teletype keyboards.
The advent of the Internet, with its ubiquitous "@" naming convention,
thrust the demure mark into the limelight, making it an almost
singular paean to the Information Age.
Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft acquires in perpetuity all
exclusive use rights to the attathorp. Effective immediately, all
users of the @-sign must include in their work "(c) Microsoft, Inc.
1997, 1998." In July 1998, the appearance of the symbol itself will
change. The familiar 'a' inside the circle will be replaced by a tiny
pairing of the letters "ms" in small caps. All users will still be
required to include copyright notices.
Beginning in 1999, all users of the attathorp -- to be renamed the
microthorp -- will be required to license use of the symbol. Microsoft
has yet to work out details of that arrangement, but spokesperson
Senna indicated that the company would offer several levels of
licensing. "We are projecting a single-use package for the occasional
user, a 1000-use package for writers who use the Internet daily, and a
ten-thousand use package for small business needs."
For users with greater needs, Microsoft will license a microthorp
bonus pack, which also includes rights to other minor symbols, such as
the caret (^), the paragraph marker, and the doomeyflosh (also known
as the lozenge).
The move caught Wall Street investors by surprise. By noon, the bulls
were running rampant, and the trading price had surged up 15 points.
To subscribe to the "HumourNet" mailing list, send the following
command to :
subscribe HumourNet your_name, your_city, your_state or country
I made the conscious decision a couple of years ago to refuse to pay anybody for the privilege of renting out the surface area of my body as advertising space. No Logo would have been a good slogan to put on my aparrel to make this statement clear. But that would be just another brand wouldn't it?