Click the photo to see its source.
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Tag: Funny
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Hitler’s Nightly Build Fails
I sometimes refer to people who are incredibility dogmatic about their particular Agile or Extreme Programming methodology as “Agile Nazis”. But what if Agile Nazis literally existed? I think their project meetings would go something like this YouTube remix titled Hitler’s Nightly Build Fails…
(Thanks to Jodi Showers for the link!)
Even though it’s been almost four months since I’ve joined Microsoft, I’m still asked the question “Joey, why did you join the Dark Side?”
There are many reasons for joining the Dark Side. One of them is that the Rebels are sick, sick puppies:
Card courtesy of Ben Congdon.
Happy Valentine’s Day. my fellow nerds!
Categories
The “Star Trek” Plotline Flowchart
If you watch the Star Trek original series, you’ve probably already internalized what’s in this flowchart created by Stephanie Fox for the sci-fi blog io9.com:
Click the chart to see it at full size.
TechCrunch points to a news report from San Francisco-based TV station KRON that dates all the way back to 1981, when home computers were 8-bit wonders like the era of the Apple ///, TRS-80 and Atari 400 and 800. The piece on how some people are reading their newspapers by logging into Compuserve, and how someday, we’ll all be reading our newspapers and magazines on our computers:
Back then, a computer in the home was very unusual, hence their underscoring of this interviewee’s name with “owns home computer”. It seems quaint now, but back then, that was pretty 1337:
The TechCrunch article points out a couple of lines in the piece that stand out given our 2009 perspective. The first is from the San Francisco Examiner’s David Cole:
This is an experiment. We’re trying to figure out what it’s going to mean to us, as editors and reporters and what it means to the home user. And we’re not in it to make money, we’re probably not going to lose a lot but we aren’t going to make much either.
The other memorable line is from the reporter:
This is only the first step in newspapers by computers. Engineers now predict the day will come when we get all our newspapers and magazines by home computer, but that’s a few years off.
This is Joey deVilla, signing off from one of those Dynabook-style computers.
Categories
Credibility Gap
I know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but this promotion doesn’t exactly inspire confidence:
Categories
Winning the Gnu
The CUSEC convention’s last keynote speech was Richard Stallman’s presentation titled Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks. It’s similar to the one he gave at the University of Toronto in the summer of 2007; you can see my detailed notes on that presentation here.
At the end of his keynote, he declared an auction, the proceeds of which would go to the Free Software Foundation (I heard a couple of people say “Yeah, right” behind me). The first item up for auction was a hardcover copy of his book Free Software, Free Society. I already own an autographed edition, so I wasn’t interested in bidding.
He started the bidding at CAD$40. In response, someone from the audience yelled out “we’re students!”. Oblivious to the remark, he went on with the bidding. The book ended up selling for somewhere close to a hundred dollars.
With the book sold, he showed the audience the next item for auction: a plush gnu, the mascot of the Free Software Foundation:
“You should totally bid for that!” someone behind me said. I’d been thinking the same thing.
As with the book, the bidding started at student-unfriendly 40 dollars. I waited until the price hit $60, after which the room fell quiet. That’s when I threw my hat in the ring.
“Sixty-five!”
The room burst out in laughter. They’d seen my presentation yesterday and knew I worked for Microsoft, long a major figure in the Free Software Foundation’s demonology.
“You should know that he’s with Microsoft!” someone in the audience said to Stallman.
“There are anti-animal cruelty laws,” said Stallman, facing in my direction.
“You have The Empire’s assurance that no harm will come to him,” I replied.
The bids continued. For every bid that came in, I immediately countered with one that was $5 higher.
“Seventy!”
“Seventy-five!”
“Eighty!”
“Eighty-five!”
By this point, the room was really getting into the bidding war. Would the Microsoftie actually win the auction for the symbol of the organization that views it as The Great Satan?
And up the bids went until I said “One hundred.” Just to underscore my intent on getting that gnu, I bid again. “One hundred five.”
“Going once…” said Stallman, “…twice…SOLD! For one hundred and five dollars.”
I walked up to the stage to thunderous applause.
Stallman seemed a tiny bit confused as to why someone from Microsoft would even want a gnu, never mind pay that much money for one.
“You do promise to obey anti-animal cruelty laws?” he asked again, as if it were a real flesh-and-blood gnu.
“I won’t harm a hair on its head. I do come from the Free Software world,” I replied, being careful not to call it the “Open Source” world. I didn’t want to give him any reason to cancel the sale.
I pulled out my Microsoft corporate credit card. I held it up and asked the audience: “Would it be all right if I paid with this?”
That got a good laugh from the audience.
Using my best Darth Vader impression, I extended my hand out to Stallman and said “Join me, Stallman, and together we shall bring order to the galaxy!”, which got a good laugh.
At the end of the conference, I walked up to Stallman, who was selling Free Software Foundation paraphernalia at the registration table. I asked him for his autograph, which he gladly provided on the plush gnu’s tag. “Happy hacking! Richard Stallman,” it read.
I did it all in the name of fun and also to show that Microsoft people have a sense of humour. I was also more than happy to hand over some money to the Free Software Foundation as a way of saying thanks for all the things they’ve done for developers – myself included – over the years.
As for the gnu, I plan to take it out from time to time, posing it for photographs just as the travelling garden gnome is.
