A Real Bill Gates Rant

lou ibmix XI submitted an email written by Bill Gates a few years ago and turned over to the feds as part of the government's antitrust case. Great quotes like 'Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?' and 'The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind.' We like to think of him as an abstract, but I think this is interesting stuff. Also, this might seem familiar. Oops.

Re:I don't get it

[QCompson]

I don't understand all the hate for Bill.

Stay off my lawn.

Re:Massive Dupe

[Sockatume]

No, no, this is deliberate. After posting a story which wasn't really news for nerds, they decided to post a story which is for nerds, but isn't actually news. They're giving up errors for lent and are trying to get them all out of their system first.

it's actually a fantasy game!

[Dekortage]

FTA: "In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations."

Finally, someone at Microsoft admits that you have to use magic to make Windows work right... I would comment more, but I am on my way to my daily Ballmer goat and bull sacrifice.

Carter Pewterschmidt

[Red4man]

"Hey Bill, can you help me program my Zune? Ha ha ha, I'm kiiding, I have an iPod like the rest of the planet."

Re:it's actually a fantasy game!

[Scrameustache]

FTA: I would comment more, but I am on my way to my daily Ballmer goat and bull sacrifice.

Ah yes, where you let a live goat or bull into the Ballmer enclosure at feeding time.
Because Ballmer doesn't want to be fed... he wants to hunt!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:gust?

[PenguSven]

You don't vote huh? Sounds too much like hard work huh? Besides, why bother, the last guy you cunts elected has REALLY been great for the world. Spell check is intended to pick up mistakes. Unfortunately it can't deal with the mistake in your case, because YOU are the mistake.

Re:thanks but I need more than a lower case j

[xerxesVII]

Oh, great. So you're reproducing.

Thanks.

Re:Carter Pewterschmidt

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you are just too highbrow to spot the Family Guy quote.

Re:Abstract

[eln]

You know, composed of a lot of straight lines and sharp angles, both eyes on the same side of his head, lots of colors everywhere, that sort of thing.

Re:I don't get it

[aero6dof]

The vision at Microsoft has always been to try and reduce complexity.

Surely you jest.

Re:Abstract

[Skim123]

From Microsoft's website:

The abstract modifier indicates that the thing being modified has a missing or incomplete implementation. The abstract modifier can be used with classes, methods, properties, indexers, and events. Use the abstract modifier in a class declaration to indicate that a class is intended only to be a base class of other classes. Members marked as abstract, or included in an abstract class, must be implemented by classes that derive from the abstract class.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sf985hc5.aspx [microsoft.com]

Re:I don't get it

[chdig]

Unfortunately some things are inherently complex, and as you try to wrap them behind simplistic abstractions...

Does anyone else see the irony in a poster reducing a company like Microsoft's approach to one of "simplicity", while he himself reduces the complex discussion down to a "simplistic abstraction"?

--
even worse, he's dead wrong.
Rather, the poster porkchop's argument that Microsoft chose flexibility is bang on.

Re:I don't get it

[UnknowingFool]

Microsoft's modus operandi has been more features = more sales. You see this in why Vista had so many issues with the new driver model. For years they neglected to work on security and stability over features. When it became obvious that XP was/is a major target of malware, then they worked on it. But by that time years of bad programming practices by MS and 3rd parties led to many drivers breaking in Vista.

Re:it's actually a fantasy game!

[Bryansix]

Does he hunt with a chair?

Re:Download page to download? No way!

[ben0207]

No, this is MS in a nutshell:

"Help help, I'm trapped in a giant nutshell. What kind of a nut has a shell like this?!"

Re:I don't get it

[theaceoffire]

The vision at Microsoft has always been to try and reduce complexity.

Surely you jest.

I am quite serious, and stop calling me Shirley.

Re:Glass houses and stones...

[spacefiddle]

"Grammer" is not an English word I have ever encountered.

She's married to Gramper.

Re:Massive Dupe

[cayenne8]

"They're giving up errors for lent and are trying to get them all out of their system first."

Hmm...well, this year for lent, I'm either going to stop giving up things...

Or...I'm going to quit not drinking.

Will worry about that later, tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, and NOLA is a wonderful place to live this time of year!! I feel so sorry for all my friends around the country, that not only will they not have a cold drink in their hand by 6am...but, will be actually going to work?!?!

Hmm, now, what to drink for morning beverage? Bloody Mary?...Screwdriver?...Beer?.....Bucket of Everclear?

Re:Massive Dupe

[1hurcoman]

I love NOLA as well. Had a client schedule a meeting for 10:30 tomorrow. Told him "I'm going to be drunk by then".

Re:Massive Dupe

[hardburn]

Connecting to the SMTP port directly and writing ASCII in base 13 is better than Outlook.

Re:I know it's a dupe, but...

[fastest fascist]

It is said that realizing there is an issue is the first step to resolving it :)

It is also the first step to ignoring it.

Re:Massive Dupe

[Weaselmancer]

Using the stripped ends of two wires hooked to an RS232 port to enter it in binary manually. With your tongue.

Re:I don't get it

[AliasMarlowe]

The vision at Microsoft has always been to try and reduce complexity.

Alas, their hallucination has morphed into a very bad trip indeed.

The quote about "we didn't realise people would try and download it from the downloads page" is a classic example.

Who the hell mixed PCP into their acid?

Low bar to cross

[mkcmkc]

Git is a better source code control system than Visual Source Safe. cp is a better source code control system than Visual Source Safe. Heck, rm is a better source code control system than Visual Source Safe.