Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 23:12:14 -0800 From: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: jgrosch@mooseriver.com, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>, Drew Baxter <netmonger@genesis.ispace.com>, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: This just in: Microsoft/Sears Merger Message-ID: <199812210712.XAA52009@rah.star-gate.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 20 Dec 1998 23:56:02 MST." <4.1.19981220234034.06bac090@mail.lariat.org>
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I think I read your article well and it doesn't surprise me if Microsoft tries to make the jump to acquire a company such as Sears . Why not? The old days electronic shopping was catalog shopping and it does not take a a lot of imagination that if you want to setup shop on the internet you have to have something to sell. I don't think that Microsoft is in the business of selling other companies products including the computer. Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft keyboard, Microsoft TV/computer, Microsoft / NBC, Microsoft Phone and the little side issue they own the desktop or should I say sales entry point 8) It would be nice if Microsoft forgets about trying to sell a computer althought I do suspect that they are selling a reference Windows CE computer .... Amancio > At 10:38 PM 12/20/98 -0800, Amancio Hasty wrote: > > >I guess the modern parents are not reading enough bed times stories to > >their children 8) > > Maybe not -- or folks aren't reading enough corporate press releases. > In order to look realistic, a corporate press release must be long-winded, > include quotes from executives, and be at least a page long. The > quote from Sears' CEO, is accurate, by the way; it's straight from > their corporate report. The Microsoft quotes are satirical, but > are (ironically) VERY close to things that Microsoft execs have > said. > > That's part of the fun of these parodies. You start off looking absolutely > legit, with REAL QUOTES from the people who are supposedly involved. You > then try to engender a VERY gradual, creeping suspicion that something isn't > right. > > When readers see the remark about Gates wanting a royalty from every > grocery order, they're supposed to think, "Yeah, that's in character, but > I'm surprised he's admitting it." When they get to the bit about your fridge > tattling on your diet to your insurance company, they're probably thinking, > "That's outrageous, but it's typical of what Microsoft's internal memos > reveal about its power-hungry, unscrupulous executives." The next paragraph > goes farther over the top, and the one after that goes farther still. > Somewhere along the way, the reader is supposed to smell a rat. > > At least that's the way I *try* to write these things. > > The big problem is that there are always a few people who swallow the first > paragraph hook, line, and sinker and don't read farther. My April Fool's > Day message claiming that the EFF had agreed to censorship of the Internet > engendered some angry flames from people who didn't read it all the > way through. > > And that was even though the dateline said UPI (a dead giveaway). > > --Brett > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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