I just had to share this

Eric Best · Post by **Eric Best** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:26 am

Subject: General Motors

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 (and I just love this
part):

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. Overtime 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.

Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate -their
computer

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 7:09 am

Love it Eric - I just bought (and returned the next day) a Sony Vaio desktop computer from Costco - worked fine in store, worked fine at home, til I connected it to the phone lines and tried to install Earthlink software - software went in fine, til it tried to call for a connect # - told me it couldn't get a dial tone. Checked everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING), called Sony tech support, had already tried almost all the things they suggested, tried the rest and finally took the machine back the next day. Got Costco to take ANOTHER same machine over to Optical and connect it to THEIR phone line - guess what? No dial tone (on a line that we just disconnected a working phone from) - Costco is now trying to figure out if ALL the machines hate phone lines, or??!?

Your story is much more fun though, I didn't have to drive to town and back twice to read it...

Steve

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 10:43 pm

LOL. I like that one GM Kicked his tail. LOL

Motown Rules. (Uh don't throw pumpkins.

)

Bryan Giles

Post by **John Sayers** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 6:13 am

Nice story Eric - but it's not only microsoft - I understand that Steinberg released it's Nuendo 2 and then put up a site noting the bugs and when they would be fixed.

What price did they have on the sony laptop Steve?? I'm loking at getting one but everyone says to wait till I get to the states where they are much cheaper.

cheers
john

rod gervais · Post by **rod gervais** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:27 am

Eric,

That was a riot - and well deserved of Gates.......

John, when are you planing on coming to visit us here in the States?

Hi Steve..................

Rod

Post by **John Sayers** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:43 am

Not sure at this stage Rod but probably next month

cheers
John

rod gervais · Post by **rod gervais** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:33 pm

Nice home you have here John,

If you guys don't mind i think I'd like to hang around a bit....

Rod

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 2:02 pm

Got my vote Rod - you'll find it's easier to post pix here without a separate place to put 'em too - that's kinda nice...

John, the Vaio desktop (I ended up going and re-buying it after

I discovered I'd forgotten to check the little cheesy 3:1 telephone adapter

Anyway, it's a 2.8 gHz P4 with Hyper Thread, 512 mB ram, 120 gig WD 7200 rpm 2 meg cache drive, dvd-rom and dvd-rw separate drives, floppy, 6 USB 2.0, 2 firewire (1 firewire and 2 USB in front), built-in 10/100 NIC, built-in 56k modem, parallel, DVI and Analog video, optical SP/DIF out, comes with 17" Flat Screen, Keyboard, wheel mouse, cheesy speakers and pre-loaded XP Home - just over $1600 USD. It's nearly quiet enough to put in a studio (it is, if you have a separate CR) and has a little hole in the rear for a small padlock if you suffer from "tweaker infestations"... For what I wanted at the time (not having to build it) it's not a bad deal

Buuuut, the REALLY, REALLY, cool deal: My tel co. finally got their "cranius rectumus" under control, and I'm now on DSL (roughly 500k download, 250 k upload) took about 14 minutes the other day to dnl about 28 MB of Micro-Slop's "Security Spackle" for XP, instead of 2-1/2 HOURS... at least ONE area of life just got a little less frustrating. I'm so far out in the boonies (not like you, though) that Cable TV isn't even an option - people have satellites around me. Thing is, 2-way satellite for "puter is available, if you feel like paying $100 a month plus about $800 install - wasn't quite THAT frustrated.

Oops, just pick up you thought that Sony was a laptop - 'bout 3 months ago I bought a Toshiba Satellite 2455 (2.4 Gig P4, DVD-rw, 60 gig drive, 512 meg DDR, 533 fsb - one of only two models I found that had stereo line IN as well as Out and firewire (two criteria I had for a mobile acoustic test station) That one was around $2300 USD direct from Toshiba. Laptops still aren't as cheap as desktops - I'm considering an upgrade to one of the Hitachi 7200 rpm mobile drives if I end up using this one for music as a "porta-studio" deal - not sure yet.

If those prices sound a bit high after conversion, it's cause I don't go cheap on things that are important to me - depending on the use, I'm sure there are quite a bit better deals around. We can discuss it in SF among other things... Steve

Eric Best · Post by **Eric Best** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:56 am

Hey Rod, great to have you here.

Eric

rod gervais · Post by **rod gervais** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 1:57 am

Thanks Guys.......

Rod

cadesignr · Post by **cadesignr** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:11 pm

Love it. Mine just TOTALLY locked up. There should be a law......The Bill Gates law....DOH! There is one. Windows.

Howdy all, Soooooo.... this is where you guys "hideaway"? A WOMBAT hole! Now why didn't I think of this. Wow, the wifey will never find me here.

And all this time I've been hangin at....well, lets not go there.
Mind if I HANG too? Promise I'll be cool. Alright? Hey, cool, no recording stuff Ha!

Hey, did you hear the one about Bill Gates PC? There isn't one. He uses a Mac. (dumb joke drum slap) Yea, I know it was dumb but how else do I break the ice? Hi guys, name is Rick. I'm the one with lots of netfact under my belt. Wanna hear some? How bout this?

"If you wanna soundproof your pc, unplug it." Cool huh?

hey?......wheres everyone goin?....sheeeeze..you'd think I need a shower or sumpthin? hmmm, maybe the YMCA will let me use one real quick...waitaminute.. I'm 59. Crap. hmmm.......guess I'll go home.

" hi honey, I'm home, gotta shower and head out on business...." hmmm, wonder if they'll let me in now.

Hey, anyone here?(cathedral verb sound) ........ Steve?.......John?......anybody? I've got Aussie beer? .....peanuts? tickets to the Santana concert? DOH! they already played you moron .......(sigh)
.....guess I'll hafta go back to the other place:(

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 7:27 am

Hey Rick, missed this one but thanks for the reminder over at HR - This place doesn't get a lot of activity, too many serious questions I guess - anyway, it's all good - kinda fun playin' tag across multiple continents, huh??!?

Anyway, good to see you here as always... Steve