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Thread: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

  1. #1
    RZ Chamber of Commerce Unassisted's Avatar
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    Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    As one of RedsZone's token Mac users, this is one of my favorite kinds of stories to pass along. :rotflmao:
    http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/6159
    Gate's (sic) Computer Crashes at CES

    Steve Mallett

    Jan. 06, 2005 05:26 AM

    URL:*http://www.canada.com/news/story.htm...354-ff4a1ef5d3...


    Bill Gate's 'puter crashed during a presentaion at CES. While I admit to loving to hate Microsoft this is too rich an irony to pass up passing along.

    Despite suffering through an embarrassing computer crash that prompted jokes and guffaws, Bill Gates promised that Microsoft Corp. would help consumers stay plugged into technology, during a keynote speech Wednesday.

    ...while promoting what he calls the "digital lifestyle," Gates showed how vulnerable all consumers - even the world's richest man - are to hardware and software bugs.

    During a demonstration of digital photography with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera, a Windows Media Center PC froze and wouldn't respond to Gates' pushing of the remote control.

    Later in the 90-minute presentation, a product manager demonstrated the ostensible user-friendliness of a video game expected to hit retail stores in April, Forza Motor Sport. But instead of configuring a custom-designed race car, the computer monitor displayed the dreaded "blue screen of death" and warned, "out of system memory."
    /r/reds


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  3. #2
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Beautiful.
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I was wrong
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right

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    Member Red Heeler's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Don't blame Bill. Blame Steve Jobs :dflynn: . It's his fault Microsoft is on the cusp of world domination.

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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Red Heeler
    Don't blame Bill. Blame Steve Jobs :dflynn: . It's his fault Microsoft is on the cusp of world domination.
    IBM can share the blame with Steve Jobs as well.

  6. #5
    The Lineups stink. KronoRed's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Jobs saw IBM as the enemy, now they are partners..ironic

    On topic..

    I love a good Bill Gates looks bad article
    Go Gators!

  7. #6
    Member Cedric's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Linux. Use Linux.
    This is the time. The real Reds organization is back.

  8. #7
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    I feel for whoever did the support for the demo.

    I've had my s/w demo'ed by CEO-level guys before and its no picnic. You pray to Lord God Above that it all goes well because you sure as shootin' don't want the Big Guys to look bad in front of thousands. And you spend weeks going back over things (and back and back) to make sure it all goes well. And when the demo occurs, you hold your breath for 15 minutes.

    And yeah, use Linux. It's a more stable platform. Windows (in all of its incarnations) can get pretty goofy.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  9. #8
    Member Red Heeler's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Roy Tucker
    And yeah, use Linux. It's a more stable platform. Windows (in all of its incarnations) can get pretty goofy.
    That is what I don't get. Microsoft has more resources than any company in the world. Yet, they cannot manage to make their cornerstone product work as well as either of its major competitors' did 15 years ago.

    Macintosh was a far more user friendly product than DOS, obviously. However, due to the fact that Jobs stubbornly refused to licensed the OS, DOS retained and built a market in business apps. Had Jobs licensed Mac before Windows ever came out, nobody would have ever heard of Bill Gates. Even if he had waited until Windows came out to grant licenses, he still stood a pretty good chance of beating Microsoft due to the fact that his product was, and still is, far superior.

  10. #9
    Pagan/Asatru Ravenlord's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    just remember, the computers at Microsoft's HQ don't use Windows.
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  11. #10
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Ravenlord
    just remember, the computers at Microsoft's HQ don't use Windows.
    Really? I've been up to Redmond quite a bit and I've never seen anything except Windows boxes abounding. If its not Windows, what do they use?

    You have a web pointer to anything on that?
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  12. #11
    Pagan/Asatru Ravenlord's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    they might now use Windows, but i remember hearing and reading a few years ago (i think 2000) in CNN and USA Today that most of R&D guys, support group, and engineers used Linux.
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  13. #12
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Red Heeler
    That is what I don't get. Microsoft has more resources than any company in the world. Yet, they cannot manage to make their cornerstone product work as well as either of its major competitors' did 15 years ago.
    Customers vote with their wallets. And people buy Microsoft.

    It's always a tradeoff between functionality and stability. It's hard to sell to the big guys "well, our next release will be completely bug fixes". The big guys say "why is that, didn't you do your job right the first time through?". Customers start screaming, sales guys then start screaming, and next thing you know, there is a list a mile long of new features for the next release.

    I'm OS-agnostic. I used to be a Unix bigot, but I've adopted the attitude of "whatever the customer wants". And if its MS, Mac, Linux, or OS/390, then that's what we use. I got tired of fighting the wars.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  14. #13
    Pagan/Asatru Ravenlord's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    http://computercops.biz/article2811.html

    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10413

    funny...most of the sites that came up in my google search come up as a 404 Error or Forbidden. including the CNN link which i get a big ol' 'Forbidden' on.
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  15. #14
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Ravenlord
    http://computercops.biz/article2811.html

    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10413

    funny...most of the sites that came up in my google search come up as a 404 Error or Forbidden. including the CNN link which i get a big ol' 'Forbidden' on.
    Well now, that is very interesting. Thanks for the links.

    What is looks like was Linux boxes were being used to serve up content at www.microsoft.com (via a 3rd party). Also, some of MS's lab sites (London in the article) were using Linux for firewall purposes.

    Doing a http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/....microsoft.com, it looks like they've plugged all those holes. I'm sure that came from on high.

    MS *hates* anything Unix and particularly Linux. That's why I was so incredulous MS would use Linux. Looks like it snuck in under the radar by some engineers and IT guys. I'm sure some knuckles got rapped.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  16. #15
    RZ Chamber of Commerce Unassisted's Avatar
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    Re: Windows crashes during Bill Gates' presentation

    Quote Originally Posted by Roy Tucker
    I feel for whoever did the support for the demo.

    I've had my s/w demo'ed by CEO-level guys before and its no picnic. You pray to Lord God Above that it all goes well because you sure as shootin' don't want the Big Guys to look bad in front of thousands. And you spend weeks going back over things (and back and back) to make sure it all goes well. And when the demo occurs, you hold your breath for 15 minutes.
    I used to have a boss's boss who kept an overhead projector and transparencies of all of his slides at the ready, every single time he presented. Seems like Mr. Gates and his minions should have been savvy enough to know the odds that a crash would occur and had a second computer backstage ready to hot-swap.
    /r/reds


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