Uh...the free tanks are hard to use.
dwyatt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: [newbie] Microsoft and George W. Bush
> Yes, but what happens as more people notice the free tanks? Slowly their
> numbers gather and they become easier and easier to notice. Not seeing
> them would be like being next door to Woodstock and not noticing anything
> out of the ordinary. As each person comes to get their free tank they tell
> their friends and their friends are interested and want to try a free tank
> too. The numbers grow exponetially. Eventually only a few crackpots are
> still going to the station wagon and sedan dealers. A few may look at the
> batmobiles but then someone decides to make their tank look like a
> batmobile and suddenly everyone who wants a batmobile just takes their
> free tank and presses a newly installed shiny little button and their tank
> turns into a batmobile. Woo.
>
> *^*^*^*
> Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sungod robes
> on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little
> pickles at you? -- Real Genius
>
> On Thu, 28 Sep 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > This is the entire article in its entirety =) enjoy!! (I
appologize
> > for the formatting) comments?
> >
> > MGBs, TANKS, AND BATMOBILES
> >
> > Around the time that Jobs, Wozniak, Gates, and Allen were dreaming up
these
> > unlikely schemes, I was a teenager living in Ames, Iowa. One of my
friends'
> > dads had an old MGB sports car rusting away in his garage. Sometimes he
> > would actually manage to get it running and then he would take us for a
> > spin around the block, with a memorable look of wild youthful
exhilaration
> > on his face; to his worried passengers, he was a madman, stalling and
> > backfiring around Ames, Iowa and eating the dust of rusty Gremlins and
> > Pintos, but in his own mind he was Dustin Hoffman tooling across the Bay
> > Bridge with the wind in his hair.
> >
> > In retrospect, this was telling me two things about people's
relationship
> > to technology. One was that romance and image go a long way towards
shaping
> > their opinions. If you doubt it (and if you have a lot of spare time on
> > your hands) just ask anyone who owns a Macintosh and who, on those
grounds,
> > imagines him- or herself to be a member of an oppressed minority group.
> >
> > The other, somewhat subtler point, was that interface is very important.
> > Sure, the MGB was a lousy car in almost every way that counted: balky,
> > unreliable, and underpowered. But it was fun to drive. It was
responsive.
> > Every pebble on the road was felt in the bones, every nuance in the
> > pavement transmitted instantly to the driver's hands. He could listen to
> > the engine and tell what was wrong with it. The steering responded
> > immediately to commands from his hands. To us passengers it was a
pointless
> > exercise in going nowhere--about as interesting as peering over
someone's
> > shoulder while he punches numbers into a spreadsheet. But to the driver
it
> > was an experience. For a short time he was extending his body and his
> > senses into a larger realm, and doing things that he couldn't do
> > unassisted.
> >
> > The analogy between cars and operating systems is not half bad, and so
let
> > me run with it for a moment, as a way of giving an executive summary of
our
> > situation today.
> > Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated.
> > One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started
> > out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not
> > perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.
> >
> >
> > There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day
> > began selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively styled cars
> > with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was
> > something of a mystery.
> > The big dealership responded by rushing a moped upgrade kit (the
original
> > Windows) onto the market. This was a Rube Goldberg contraption that,
when
> > bolted onto a three-speed bicycle, enabled it to keep up, just barely,
with
> > Apple-cars. The users had to wear goggles and were always picking bugs
out
> > of their teeth while Apple owners sped along in hermetically sealed
> > comfort, sneering out the windows. But the Micro-mopeds were cheap, and
> > easy to fix compared with the Apple-cars, and their market share waxed.
> >
> >
> > Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a
colossal
> > station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet
> > worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an
> > enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking
> > off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no
> > more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.
> > Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has
> > changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled
sedans
> > and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns.
> >
> > They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for
so
> > long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps
making
> > bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.
> > On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along
more
> > recently.
> > One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the
BeOS).
> > They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better
> > designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as
> > anything else on the market--and yet cheaper than the others.
> >
> > With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which
is
> > not a business at all. It's a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic
> > domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live
> > there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet
> > tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of
space-age
> > materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the
> > other. But they are better than Army tanks. They've been modified in
such a
> > way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough
to
> > use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car.
These
> > tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast
> > number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the
> > ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away
for
> > free.
> >
> > Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety
percent
> > of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or
> > off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.
> > Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan,
pausing
> > only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station
> > wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of
the
> > road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these
customers
> > deride them cranks and half-wits.
> > The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who
> > wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to
accept,
> > at least for now, that it's a fringe player.
> >
> > The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is
staffed
> > by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with
bullhorns,
> > trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A
typical
> > conversation goes something like this:
> > Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It
is
> > invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an
hour
> > while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"
> > Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is
> > true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"
> > Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"
> > Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes
wrong
> > with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay
> > them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening
to
> > elevator music."
> > Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send
volunteers
> > to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"
> > Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"
> > Bullhorn: "But..."
> > Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
> >
> >
>
>
