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Bill Gates vs. General Motors

LoKyBuckeye

I give up. This board is too hard to understand.
Bill Gates vs. 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, 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. 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.


:oh: :io:
 
Very humorous! I think that I had seen this a couple of years ago, but I never tire of reading the list. BTW, didn't Bill Gates say sometime ago (late 80's early 90's) that there would be no reason why anyone would ever need more than 512k RAM. (I can't remember his exact quote, but it was along those lines.)
 
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buckiprof: Actually, it was the early '80s when he said that no computer would ever need more that 128k of RAM. Can't remember if it was before, or in response to, Apple's release of its Fat Mac (512kb) machine in late 1983.
 
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You got admit though that a lot of computers are overbuilt for what they are used for.

I mean do you really need all of what is on a computer to do what the average user does like access the web, word processing, managing recipes or a money managing program?

It's the power users and gaming industry that have really driven the systems to the great levels they are at. I can't wait to see where they are in a couple of more years....
 
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Mili: Thanks for the clarification. My memory is a little off today. I do think his comment was in response to the Fat Mac which is where I may have been remembering the 512k. If not, I need a few more Michelobs and just write today off.
 
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