On Jul 16, 11:00 pm, "Ezekiel" <y...@xxxxx> wrote:
> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:e13865ba-ce25-48d7-ac83-74b4a99c3138@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > On Jul 15, 9:24 pm, "Ezekiel" <y...@xxxxx> wrote:
> >> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >>news:5d670465-7653-45e9-97e5-ddb82930f907@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> > On Jul 15, 7:50 pm, chrisv <chr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> >> Homer wrote:
> >> >> >To repeat an analogy I used recently: A chef with a knife is simply a
> >> >> >man chopping carrots, but a psychopath with a knife is a dangerous
> >> >> >murderer.
>
> >> >> A psychopath with a PC is a Wintroll. 8)
>
> >> > Bill Gates, with only a floppy was able to hijack a jet airliner.
> >> > (he told the people at the gate that unless he installed a patch on
> >> > the floppy, the plane would crash when it landed).
>
> >> Any proof of this such as a link or are people simply supposed to believe
> >> every lie and fairy tale that you dream up?
>
> > The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, which was based on interviews
> > conducted with Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and
> > Steve Wozniac, did a great job of reenacting many of the more famous
>
> Translation - It's something that you saw in a "made for television movie"
> and therefore it's got to be true. Are you kidding me?
>
> There is tons of crap on television that is "based on a true story" or
> "inspired by actual events" but because select bits and pieces are "based"
> on a true story doesn't make everything in that show/movie true.
>
Except that I had read many of the interviews in and news articles on
which the story was based and they remained remarkably accurate. I
realize that most of you are too young to even know what a Microfiche
or Microfilm is, but if you go to a major public library (that's
right, you might be too young to remember what that is), you can look
at computer magazines from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and you will
find lots of stories about the antics and quotes of Bill Gates. Some
of them seem almost absurd today, like when Bill Gates was insisting
that the Internet was just a fad, a toy ,and would never amount to
anything.
Even more fun were the number of times Bill would say in one issue "We
will never do X" and the next issue, "Bill Gates announced the release
of X". This included "Basic in Rom (Commodore PET)", "Consumer
friendly computer (TRS-80)", "Disk Operating System (MS-DOS)", "poach
the application market (Word)", "can't compete with Lotus(Multiplan)",
"OS/2 is our new strategic Operating System (Windows 3.1)", "Unix is
dead(NT will be a better Unix than Unix)", "We'll honor the Mosaic
License (IE with ActiveX), "We'll support the full TCP/IP stack(except
NFS, RARP, and anything that competes with NetBIOS)", We've fixed all
the security problems in Windows(3.1,WFW,95,NT4, 98, ME, XP, Vista),
this new version will repel hackers effectively"
> >> > Bill Gates, with only a cell phone, was able to extort $250 million
> >> > from Prudential Insurance. He told them that if he made a phone
> >> > call, within 30 minutes, every computer owned by Prudential would stop
> >> > working.
>
> >> Any proof of this such as a link or are people simply supposed to believe
> >> every lie and fairy tale that you dream up?
>
> > Again, it's only hearsay. I'm sure that Gates was very careful not to
> > have too many people in the room (I heard the story from the VP for
> > corporate architecture, who may have been the only person in the
> > room)
>
> Only "hearsay" pretty much sums this up doesn't it?
Hearsay needs to be backed up by corroborating evidence.
In 1998, Prudential did sign a contract in which they agreed to pay an
additional $250 million to Microsoft based on CALs being used.
An executive from the Corporate IT department was flown to Seattle
Washington about a week before that deal was signed.
Over the objections of numerous IT managers and corporate officers,
the budgets were reallocated to cover the payments (Microsoft
financed).
The executives involved were not fired, but their departments were cut
by 80% to fund the cost.
Those could be verified by the CFO (assuming he keeps records from
10-11 years ago.
One of the executives involved in the transaction, including the
flight to Redmond, was the one who told me about the "One call and
your computers stop working" threat.
I don't have the management list with me (I'm out of the country at
the moment).
> ** Posted fromhttp://www.teranews.com**
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