Topic awaiting preservation: General Motors versus Microsoft!

Now for anyone wanting to bitch about quote tags or copyright, I'll use the tags but I received the following in an e-mail from a family member, therefore, I don't know who the original writer of this little blurb is.

quote:

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For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon".

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

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[This message has been edited by Morgan Ramsay (edited 02-17-2003).]

This was very funny the first, second and third time I read it - which was about 10 years ago.

"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." - A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

talking about companies getting back at M$

Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7814

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Opera turns MSN into a bunch of muppets


MSN DIRTY TRICKS have led browser company Opera to produce a new version of its latest software. A few weeks ago MSN, a Microsoft division, was hauled up in the press for deliberately ruining its output to Opera's web browsers. Now Opera has hit back in style.
Opera has released a version of its latest web browser that works properly on every site but one. Visit MSN using the special version of the browser and you'll find all the words are turned into the language of the Swedish chef from The Muppet Show.

The new version, called the Bork edition, is available for download from the Opera site. Mary Lambert of Opera said: "This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages. The Bork edition illustrates how browsers could also distort content."

She continued. "The real point here is that the success of the Web depends on software and Web site developers behaving well and rising above corporate rivalry." According to Opera, after the press furore, MSN now works with Opera 7 but is still ruining the pages output to earlier versions.

If you fancy a bit of a laugh, the modified browser is available for download here along with all of the details of the story. Go have fun with it if you want to see MSN as a bunch of muppets.

I'm going to have to try that!

Mark Pilgrim posted this on his blog last week. I think I found the ensuing comments more interesting than the story itself.

Well I am using Opera 7 and I can confirm that Microsoft France website NEVER worked correctly under Opera. Maybe they fixed it now but I doubt about it.

Silence is another speech. -Me

[This message has been edited by Moon Shadow (edited 02-17-2003).]

When Opera 7 was released, I read a lot about how compatible now it had become (finally). I downloaded the software, installed it, tried it only in my own site and... it didn't work fine. Same problems as before. I know that you guys are going to tell that the problem is not Opera, but my site, but the fact that my site works fine in IE and in Mozilla makes me really lazy to try to find out how to make Opera work fine with it. So, I still dislike this browser.

What is the url of your website viol ? It is not that I do not trust you, but if you don't mind, I would like to check it. Thanks

[edit]Ooops I have just seen that I can see it with your profile. Sorry.[/edit]

Silence is another speech. -Me

[This message has been edited by Moon Shadow (edited 02-17-2003).]

I use a third-party menu system in my pages. The guy that codes the menu system advices to use the script tag inside the head section (because of Opera). Because my pages can change style, I had to use one of the two script tags that the menu system uses, outside the header. So, the menu system doesn't work. Also, I use a javascript to load the pictures, so the page that shows the bigger version of the screenshots are all built dinamically. This script doesn't work also in Opera. I don't have the time and specially the patience to make my script work in Opera. If it works fine in IE and Mozilla (and Netscape, as a consequence), I say: sorry Opera users, but you're out of my plans. I know you now know the URL but just in case, it's www.viol.net/mohaa (the whole viol.net domain is my site but I'm talking about the mohaa section of it). The website of the guy that codes that smart menu system can be found in the External Links/Off-topic & Others sub-menu, if you're interested; it's a very nice menu system.

Ok I must admit that you are right on this point.

Silence is another speech. -Me